7 pm Sunday
Buffy crawled out of bed getting dressed in blue jeans and a sweater. She crawled out of her window bringing along a stake to go do a patrol. She had been slacking lately in some ways and wanted to keep ahead of the vampires. She went into the cemetery quickly finding a vampire and dusted him feeling the world spin but shook it off as he heard voices. Thinking it was a vampire, she turned the corner of the mausoleum sniffling and coughing but trying to be quiet about it. She held her stake at the ready and went to dust whatever was there as Cordelia let out a loud scream as she and Willow held out crosses against Buffy. Buffy stated as she lowered her stake, “Non vampire, plus two.”
Willow put her cross away stating, “Hi.”
Xander looked shocked as he exclaimed, “Man, Buffy, my whole life just flashed before my eyes! I gotta get me a life!”
He glanced towards Willow but no one laughed as Buffy asked, “What are you doing here?”
Willow was upset as she questioned right back, “What are you doing here?”
Buffy gestured with her stake, “Well, I’m patrolling!”
Willow looked greatly concerned as she replied, “Buffy, you’re sick.”
Buffy sniffled but tried to blow it off, “No, I feel fine. I mean, I’m…the world’s spinning a little bit, but I like it. It’s kinda like a ride.”
Cordelia piped up, “Half the school’s out with the flu. It’s a serious deal, Buffy. We’re all concerned about how gross you look.”
Buffy’s voice dripped with sarcasm as she stated, “I’m touched. Really. But I have work to do.”
Willow tried to convince Buffy to go home, “Buffy come on, one night of rest is not gonna kill you.”
Buffy shook her head moving her hair from her face, “No, but it might kill someone else.”
Xander pointed at her with his stake as he decided to speak up, “You mean Angel might.”
Buffy turned away to walk away as Xander continued, “Buffy, this is not the time to challenge Angel for the ultimate fighting championship. He’s at full strength, you’re only half a slayer.”
Buffy frowned, “Yeah, but I’m still the Slayer. And as long as I am, Angel’s not gonna kill anybody else.”
Just then behind her Angelus speaks up, “Aw. C’mon!”
Buffy turned around in shock as Angel appeared to whine, “Just one more!”
He attacked Buffy as the girls started to scream so he ran straight past Buffy and tackled Cordelia to the ground. Buffy grabbed his coat and pulled him off Cordelia and as she turned him around tried to injure him with her stake. He easily blocked her by grabbing her wrist and made her drop the stake the ground. Angelus sneered at Buffy questioning, “Not feeling well, lover?”
Buffy ignored his comment as she swung and landed a punch to his vamped out face. He glared at her and tried to kick her but she grabbed his foot and shoved him back making him fall hard onto his back. Buffy stood back stating, “That helps.”
Angelus managed to scramble up to all fours and she came up behind him to kick him but he kicked out with his leg hitting her in the chest causing her to stagger back as she tried to regain her balance. He got up meanwhile and raced towards her and she took a couple of swings at him but he easily managed to avoid each and every one until by the third hit he grabbed her arm and took her by the throat. Angelus smirked as he exclaimed, “You know, you being off your game’s kinda takin’ the fun out of all this.”
He punched her in the face with a grin and she stumbled back again trying to regain her balance as he stated with a grin, “Nope, still fun!”
Angelus punched her in the gut causing her to stumble even further backwards as he grabbed her by the neck and shoved her into the corner column of the mausoleum. She looked around as the world spun even worse as she tried to regain her balance only to have Angelus punch her again in the face knocking her onto her back. He got on top of her and pinned her down with a grin stating, “Uh oh. This does not look good for our heroine.”
He leaned down to get ready to bite her as Willow threw Xander’s jacket over Angelus’s head and she backed away giving Xander time to punch him and knee him twice in the face. Buffy rolled on the ground coughing and struggling to get up hearing the noises around her but confused as to how they make sense. Angelus fell backwards and both Willow and Cordelia at the same time held up their crosses as Xander stated putting his hands on his hips, “Take a walk, overbite.”
Angelus backed away as he promised, “We’ll have to do this again sometime.”
Buffy finally managed to get up and looked around not feeling well at all. She only wanted to get to Spike who she knows will make her feel better. She whispered Spike as Xander states, “Buffy are you okay?”
She wanted to get her friends to go away so Spike could come around as she quietly replied, “I told you guys to leave…I…”
She held her head as she felt very dizzy before saying, “I need to meet Spike…” as she fell to the ground unconscious.
4 hours later: 11 pm. Sunday
Spike continued to wheel around the cemetery worried about Buffy. He finally had enough and found himself on Buffy’s doorstep banging on the door. No one answered and he was really worried then. He noticed Joyce’s van was not in the doorway so he went to Willow’s house noticing it too was dark so he found himself sniffing out the way to Oz’s place. Oz was home in an apartment with his friends and he banged on the door stating, “I need to find Buffy.”
Oz opened the door, “I was just on my way to the hospital. There’s a message on my machine saying, she’s taken ill and is there. Want a ride?”
Spike nodded and Oz yelled, “Come on!” as Spike stood up folding up his chair and throwing it in the back of Oz’s van and climbed in the front seat. Spike frowned glancing at Oz as he drove, “You say she’s sick?”
Oz nodded, “Xander, Willow and Cordelia were there when she collapsed so Xander carried her to the hospital to get her taken care of. I don’t know anything else as that is all the message said.”
Spike felt himself grow worried as he banged out a beat on the dash. Oz decided to make idle conversation, “So you are doing much better with walking.”
Spike smiled slightly as he nodded, “Yeah, thanks to the healing power of the slayer’s blood I’m doing great. I should be up to fighting power in no time.”
Oz nodded and explained, “I have thought about claiming Willow but I’m not sure she would go for it. Plus at 17/18 it’s tough to know if it’s forever.”
Spike nodded in agreement as he thought about Buffy. Did she know what she wanted? He watched as Oz pulled up in the front of the hospital and he was thankful it was nighttime as he rushed into the hospital. He went up the desk saying, “Buffy. Buffy Summers. She was brought in here unconscious.”
The lady started to reply but by then, she looked up and Spike was gone.
Spike took a deep breath and started running in the direction that he could smell Buffy. He knew she was there and panicked. He raced past the waiting room being spotted by Giles but he didn’t stop running until he found her room. He took a step in and glanced around. On the hospital bed, she looked so pale and small. She was covered in white linen and machines were beeping. Some machines he didn’t even know what they did. He walked up to the side of her bed and heard footsteps behind him but ignored them. He brushed a lock of hair from Buffy’s face whispering, “Buffy luv.”
She opened her eyes and tried to sit up, letting out a soft breathy, “Spike.”
She smiled and replied sounding so weak and vulnerable, “I was waiting for you. I don’t feel good.”
Spike kissed her hot forehead as he tried to tuck the blankets further around her whispering, “You need your rest although I’m not sure how you can get rest with all these bloody machines making so much racket.”
Buffy giggled then coughed as he whispered, “Sorry. Here lay back down and get comfortable.”
She did that ignoring the faces of her friends watching her and Spike’s interaction and rolled over towards Spike to face him. He whispered softly with his voice dripping with compassion, “Close your eyes and just sleep.”
She whispered hoarsely ignoring the doctor who had come in to check her vitals, “Will you stay?”
Spike nodded, “Until they kick me out.”
The doctor glanced down at the hands held and the compassion all over this man’s face and figured it wouldn’t hurt to leave him here as long as he was quiet. Spike rested his head next to hers and she was out within minutes. Giles tapped him on the shoulder and without a sound, Spike released Buffy’s hand and followed him outside. He was expecting to hear an update on her condition but instead a very upset Xander threw him into the waiting room. Xander stood in front of him with both of his fists curled into tight balls stating, “What are you doing here?”
Spike blinked as he replied, “Buffy’s sick. I wanted to see her and make sure she’s ok.”
Xander hissed through his clinched teeth, “What you thought you’d off her in the middle of the hospital when she’s sick and why you are walking?”
Spike frowned as he stared at Giles, “You didn’t tell him?”
Giles shrugged and Spike sat down, “You get 15 minutes of my time then I’m going back to see my girl. First off, I don’t want to off anyone much less Buffy. Well anyone except Angel. I plan to off him. Secondly, Buffy helped to heal me so I’m no longer in a sodding wheelchair. Thirdly, things are different. We have changed. Buffy and I made a deal, I’d off Angel saving her from her fate of being claimed by him for all eternity and in exchange she fed me to help me heal faster. As you can clearly see, we are both keeping up to our end of the bargain so unless you want to be bloody sired by Angelus to be able to challenge him to free Buffy, I suggest you back off.”
His last few statements were said in Xander’s face with his finger up against his chest. Xander swallowed and backed off leaving Spike to return to Buffy. He carefully held her hand again resting his head back on the chair to get comfortable as he sat with her knowing in a few hours, before sunrise and he would have to go.