3rd Person's POV

A pair of hands hook over the top of a perimeter wall at the cemetery. Buffy pulls herself up as she coughs. She pulls her legs over then jumps down the other side. When she hits the ground she can't keep her balance, and has to use her hands to keep from toppling over. She breathes heavily through her mouth because her nose is stuffed up. Every now and then she sniffles.

Pulling a stake out of her jacket, she then puts her hand on her forehead and moans as she stands up. Slowly she starts to make her way across the graveyard.

She walks still sniffling and rubbing her nose. She senses something and tries to concentrate while she slowly approaches a small mausoleum. She raises her stake and jumps around the corner, swinging it to strike at whatever's there. Xander screams and reflexively jumps back, holding on tightly to his own stake. Cordelia lets out a high-pitched scream behind him. Willow is there, too, and the girls both reflexively hold up crosses at Buffy.

"Non-vampire. Plus two." Buffy mumbles while looking at the trio.

Willow stands sternly as she puts her cross away, "Hi."

They all step out into the open.

Xander glances over at Willow, "Man, Buffy! My whole life just flashed before my eyes! I gotta get me a life!"

Buffy smiles slightly then frowns giving them a stern look, "What are you doing here?"

Willow frowns, "What are you doing here?"

Buffy shrugs nonchalantly, "Well, I'm patrolling!"

Willow stares concerned, "Buffy, you're sick."

"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 crosses her arms over her chest, "Half the school's out with this flu. It's a serious deal, Buffy. We're all concerned about how gross you look."

Buffy chuckles with a hint of sarcasm, "I'm touched. Really. But I have work to do."

"Buffy, come on, one night of rest is not gonna kill you."

"No, but it might kill somebody else."

Xander points at her with his stake, "You mean Angel might."

Buffy turns away.

"Buffy, this is not the time to challenge Angel for the ultimate fighting championship." Xander gestures with his stake, "He's at full strength, you're only half a Slayer."

"Yeah, but I'm still the Slayer. And as long as I am, Angel's not gonna hurt or kill anybody else."

Angelus smirks from behind her, "Aw, c'mon."

Mentally cursing, she turns to face him.

"Just one more."

He attacks, and the girls scream. He runs right past Buffy straight for Cordelia and tackles her to the ground. Buffy grabs him by the back of his coat and pulls him off of her. She turns him around, takes him by the coat collar and swings at him with her stake. He blocks her with his arm, grabs hers and makes her drop the stake.

Angelus chuckles, "Not feeling well, lover?"

Buffy looks up at him and punches him in the jaw. He glares back at her and tries to kick her, but she grabs his foot and shoves his leg up, making him fall hard onto his back.

"That helps."

Angelus scrambles to all fours. She comes at him from behind and tries to kick him, but he kicks out with his leg into her chest, and she staggers back a ways until she regains her balance. He gets up and comes toward her. She takes a couple of swings at him, but he evades them easily. He blocks a third, grabs her arm and takes her by the throat.

Angelus frowns, "You know, you being off your game's kinda takin' the fun out of all this."

He punches her in the face, and she stumbles backward again.

"Nope, still fun!"

He punches her in the gut, then grabs her by the neck and shoves her around and into a corner column of the small mausoleum. She is dazed and tries to regain her balance, but doesn't get a chance because Angelus wastes no time punching her in the face and knocking her flat on her back. He gets on top of her and pins her arms down.

"Uh-oh. This does not look good for our heroine."

He starts to bend down to bite her, but just then Willow throws Xander's jacket over Angelus' head. As she backs away, Xander grabs his head under the jacket, punches him and knees him twice in the face. Angelus falls over onto his back. Willow and Cordelia pull out their crosses and hold them out at him as he gets up, and he has to back off.

Xander glares, "Take a walk, overbite."

Buffy gets to her feet. Angelus slowly backs away.

Angelus smiles, "We'll have to do this again sometime... wait a second I just noticed you're down one. How is she?"

Nobody says anything.

Angelus holds his hands up while backing away slowly, "Tough crowd. Let me know when she's awake, then we can try this little debacle again. At least then one of you will actually give me a challenge."

He turns and walks off. Buffy just watches him go.

"Buffy, are you okay?"

Buffy puts her hand to her forehead as she turns to Xander, "I told you guys to leave, I..." She pauses as she begins to get dizzy, "I... Oh..."

She falls to the ground unconscious.

"Buffy!"

Willow and Cordelia turn to look.

"Buffy?"

Xander kneels next to her and looks at the fallen Slayer.

...

The Sunnydale Hospital Emergency Room is empty except for a gurney past the admissions desk near the entrance.

Xander rushes in with Buffy in his arms. Willow and Cordelia are right behind him.

"We need help!"

"Somebody, please, now!"

An intern approaches them, "What happened?"

They all speak at once.

Xander, "She fell."

Willow, "The flu."

Cordelia, "She fainted."

A nurse brings over the gurney.

Xander nods with a light shrug, "The flu, fainted and fell. She's sick, make it better!"

The intern pulls the gurney up, "It's gonna be okay. Let's get her up."

Xander lays Buffy out on the gurney. The intern takes out his pocket light and checks Buffy's eyes for a response. The nurse takes notes while he speaks as they start to wheel her into the emergency room. They all follow.

"Patient's unconscious... Pupils are unequal and unresponsive."

Cordelia frowns, "What does that mean?"

Willow pouts scared, "Is she gonna be okay?"

"Please, you gotta give us some room."

Dr. Wilkinson arrives, "What do we have?"

"High-grade fever, possible fractures."

"Get her into Trauma 1, give her a CBC, Chem 7, type and screen."

The Intern and nurse take her through the doors to the emergency room beyond. They all try to follow, but Dr. Wilkinson blocks their way.

"I'm sorry, you can't go any further."

She backs in and closes the door in their faces. They look through windows for a couple of seconds. Willow reacts first.

"I'll call Giles, tell him what happened." She turns to Cordelia, "You call Buffy's mom, tell her, n-not what happened, just get her here."

The two of them go to find the phones. Xander keeps looking in through the emergency room door, where he can see the doctor and intern still working on Buffy. He looks away as they wheel Buffy into Trauma 1.

...

After Cordelia calls Buffy's mom, she then sneaks past Willow and Xander. She walks down the hall to a quiet room and sniffles as she looks at Laney on the hospital bed. The girl looked like a truck ran her over.

Sighing, Cordelia reaches into her purse and pulls out a hair brush and lip balm. She walks over to Laney and rubs the ball over her lips being very careful not to hit the tube that had been in her mouth. Then she carefully brushed Laney's revealed hair so it wouldn't tangle.

A throat clears making Cordelia jump in fright.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't meant to frighten you."

Cordelia peeks over her shoulder and nods as Giles walks into the room.

"That's okay. I just came to check on her."

"I see... why the hairbrush?"

Cordelia smiles looking down at Laney, "If there is one thing Laney hates most in the world it's tangled hair. When she was little, a kid in our class got gum stuck in her hair and she tried to get it out but it just kept tangling. She had to get a haircut and was depressed for like a month."

Giles smiles patting Cordelia's shoulder, "She's very lucky to have you to care for her when she isn't able to."

"Thanks... really I'm the lucky one." Cordelia frowns sitting down in a chair beside the bed, "I miss her a lot..."

Giles sighs with a light nod, "As do I. But she's here... she's alright. And when she wakes we will make sure this never happens again."

Cordelia smiles sadly, "How? He's obsessed with her. He didn't hospitalize Drusilla... what does he want with Laney?"

Giles frowns, "I don't know..."

...

Later, Cordelia, Xander and Willow are sitting on a row of chairs in the waiting room with worried looks on their faces. Giles stands waiting nervously while cleaning his glasses. The elevator door opens and Joyce comes rushing out. She sees the group sitting there and hurries over.

"Where is she?"

They all get up. Giles comes over also.

"She's still in the emergency room."

"I wanna see her." Joyce starts out of the waiting room.

"They won't let us in there."

Joyce stops and looks back at her. Just then Dr. Wilkinson comes to the door.

"Mrs. Summers?"

Joyce faces her, "Yes?"

"I'm Dr. Wilkinson."

"Is Buffy okay?"

"We were able to stabilize and..."

Joyce interrupts insistently, "Is she okay?"

Dr. Wilkinson smiles reassuringly, "She's going to be fine."

Joyce sighs with relief while putting her hand to her face, "Thank you."

Xander rubs his hands together, "Good. Good. That's good."

"I wanna keep her here a few days, though. She still has some healing to do."

Giles and Joyce look at her anxiously.

...

They all wait in Buffy's assigned hospital room for her to be brought up. When they see her coming they all approach the bed. She has an IV in her right hand. Her left forearm is wrapped in an elastic bandage.

"Buffy?" Joyce reaches the bed, "Hi, sweetheart."

They all accompany her toward her room.

Xander smiles, "Hey, Buffy, we're all here."

Buffy looks around groggy while trying to get up, "Hey. Here we are. It's all of we. Are we taking me home?"

Dr. Wilkinson pushes her back to lay down, "No. Buffy, you need to lie down, honey."

"Yeah? Lie at home. My bed is better than any bed that's... not my bed."

Dr. Wilkinson looks at Joyce, "She's still a little out of it."

Joyce nods back.

Buffy turns to Xander, "Shhh! Hospital zone. No singing."

"She'll feel better after she's been here a while."

"No!" Buffy tries to get up again, "Lemme go. Look, I wanna go."

The orderly pushing the bed, two nurses and Dr. Wilkinson struggle to get her to lie back down. Buffy puts up a fight.

Willow frowns, "Buffy, what's wrong?"

"No! No! Let me go!"

Cordelia huffs sadly, "I think she wants to go."

They manage to get her pushed back down on the bed.

"No, don't do that! Stop it!"

Dr. Wilkinson orders the other nurse, "Hold her steady!"

Buffy looks at the group delirious, "Giles, tell them! The vampires! I need to kill the vampires!"

"This'll help you relax."

Dr Wilkinson puts a needle against Buffy's inside elbow and injects her with a sedative. Xander throws Giles a concerned look. Cordelia cringes and looks away.

"Ow!" Buffy winces in pain, "No!"

When the doctor pulls the needle back out she lies back and breathes heavily.

"It's gotta be the fever." Xander replies nervously.

Willow adds in grimacing, "Yeah, it made her delusional."

Buffy looks to Giles insistently, "They're out there!"

Giles nods smiling reassuringly, "Yes, uh, well, we'll, uh, we'll get those, uh, vampires later."

He laughs lightly, looks at Joyce.

"I hear it's best t-to play along."

...

She stirs in her bed groaning. The clock on the nightstand changes to read 2:27am. The LED on the heart monitor blinks steadily next to the IV which drips slowly. She takes a deep breath as she wakes up hastily. Gasping awake, she blinks her eyes several times before looking over at the door.

It's standing open, and a young boy is there just silently staring in at her. A few moments later he starts away down the hall. She continues to look out the door, and a man in a black suit and hat walks by.

He glances into her room as he walks by. She sees his face. It's all disfigured, his nose is long and bent down to a point, his teeth are all long fangs, and his fingers are grossly elongated. He looks back after the boy and continues to follow him out of view. She frowns as she tries to raise her head in disbelief. Slowly looking down at her body she sees a cast on her arm and cute and bruises all over her skin. Bringing her cast free hand to her face, she pushes her hair back and slowly sits up. She gets out of bed and steadies herself to a stand.

Bringing her hand to her head she frowns and feels a bandage wrapped around it.

"Ugh I feel like shit..."

Frowning at her raspy voice she holds her throat before staring down at her bed in horror. She looks down at her hands as she holds them out in front of her. Her eyes begin to tear up as she realizes she had been less real looking. She was very confused and vet scared. Backing away slowly, Laney stares at herself in the hospital bed.

"How the... what's going on?"

Bringing her hands out once more, she sees her body looking somewhat transparent and cloudy, like a ghost. Gulping, Laney ties her robe closed as she walks out of the room.

Down the hall, Buffy stirs and wakes from her dream. Her door is open, but there's no one there. She pushes her hair back with her bandaged hand and slowly sits up. She feels the IV in the back of her right hand and looks at it. She pulls the tape off and the needle out. She covers her face with both hands, draws them back through her hair and starts to get out of bed.

Holding her robe closed with her hands, she walks down the hallway. It's deserted except for the janitor mopping the floor behind her. She hears coughing coming from a room and looks in. A woman is tucking in an old man and comforting him.

"You'll be fine. Is that better?"

She continues down the hall and passes another doorway then walks past a camera. A security guard looks out from the doorway and watches her go.

She nears the children's ward as two orderlies wheel a child covered with a sheet out of the ward.

"Man, I hate it when you lose the young ones."

They go down the hall past Buffy. She looks at the gurney as they go by. She turns back to the children's ward door and slowly approaches it. She can hear Dr. Wilkinson and Dr. Backer arguing inside in hushed tones, so she doesn't go in.

Dr. Wilkinson, "I'm just saying, step back on the dosage until we can analyze the results."

"There isn't time. I should think that would be clear to you by now."

Buffy peeks into the room and sees them arguing.

"The normal course of treatment..."

Dr. Backer interrupts, "They aren't responding to the normal course of treatment." He gestures to the kids, "Look, they're getting worse."

"Raising their temperatures is poten-"

"Dr. Wilkinson! I have the consent of the parents."

"They're desperate! They don't understand what you're-"

"You know what, if-if you have a problem with my methods, just take it up with the board."

"I have!"

Buffy has heard enough, and turns away to go. There in front of her is the little boy she saw in her dream and a little girl. She stops and they look at each other.

The boy, Ryan, frowns as he look up at Buffy, "He comes at night. The grownups don't see him. He was with Tina."

The girl nods, "He'll come back for us."

Buffy frowns looking down at the kids, "Who?"

"Death."

Buffy looks behind her in disbelief.

"Laney?"

Laney slowly walks into the room and frowns looking around, "Am I dreaming?... am I dead?"

Buffy gapes while slowly walking over to Laney, "You're awake?"

Laney shakes her head, "Something weird is going on..."

Buffy goes to touch Laney but feels her hand float through Laney's ghostly figure. Laney raises an eyebrow and looks down as Buffy's hand moves past her.

"Creepy..."

Buffy nods, "Not the only thing creepy. Doctor Backer is doing something weird with the kids that have the flu. And-"

"And there's a scary supernatural nightmarish boogeyman like creature that is targeting all the sick kids... yeah I saw him."

Buffy frowns, "You saw him?"

Laney nods for Buffy to follow as she walks away from the kids corner of the hospital building, "Yeah. Look down the hall closely... I don't think the adults can see him."

Buffy stares into the dark hallway with squinted eyes. She stares intensely trying to make out a figure then gasp slowly as a dark shadow begins to form into a body. She looks startled at the boogeyman like face as he walks through a wall. Turning back to Laney, the two look at all the kids and frown.

"We gotta do something..."

"And quick..."

What did we think about this chapter? I kind of just did this one so you guys could get Laney without it being too soon. She does need to heal a bit before we get back to the chaos with Angelus Spike and Drusilla.

Thoughts... This episode was so creepy.

Next chapter honestly I think I'm just gonna do a quick ending of this episode then skip back into the action

Do we like the new banner above?

How do we feel about Angelus? What is he planning?

It's almost time for Colby to come back 😳

Also Cordy is the best pal literally. She such a sweetheart when she wants to be 🤍

Future predictions?

Any special requests...