I'll Stand By You

"Buffy?" Willow Rosenberg said softly, "Maybe you should..I mean..take a night off."

Buffy Summers spun quickly and fixed her friend with a frustrated frown,"I'm the Slayer..I'm fine. Would you guys relax already?"

"Uh huh, real fine so the part today where you nearly passed out in the cafeteria..that was just to get attention?" Alexander Harris asked. He was trying to be serious but just the same, a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

She gave him a dirty look and said simply, "The food bit..it made me nauseous." Rupert Giles sighed loudly, "Buffy, even you are not invicible. The world will wait a night."

"Giles..I thought you of all people would back me up," Buffy said impatiently. "I got a little bump on my head and you guys are all of the sudden going hyper-protective on me."

"Look, Buffy..I've got this image in my head..bad guys..you..you dizzy and them well...biting you. Not pleasant." Xander said softly.

She smiled softly and crossed over to him. She squeezed his shoulder. "I promise you, I'm fine. I feel good, strong...ready to go."

"I must insist that you stay indoors tonight," Giles murmured. "Just tonight. B morning you should be fine..."

"I'm just fine now!" Buffy protested loudly. "I mean...what if..what if the vampire community decided that tonight would be a good night for an all-you-can-eat feast and I'm lying in bed at home? What good am I then?"

"Buffy." Giles said sternly. She frowned and glanced up at him. It was obvious that she had every intention of further arguing with the Watcher but his expression silenced her.

She sighed,"Fine..I'll go home."

"And not go out tonight?" Willow asked, lifting an eyebrow. She knew her friend far too well.

She flipped her hand back in acknowledgement. They weren't fooled.

"And not going out tonight, right?" Willow pushed.

"Fine..and not going out tonight." Buffy replied, not making eye contact.

"At all?" Xander asked.

She rolled her eyes, "At all."

"Excellent..er..then it's a promise?" Giles asked sweetly, gazing at his Slayer innocently.

Exasperated she nodded. "Whatever...well if you guys are going to suddenly became Ma and Pa Cleaver, then I'm going home. And to bed. Which means I won't be answering the phone." Still shaking her head she turned and moved towards the library doors.

"You promised," Giles reminded.

"Fine. Sure. Whatever." Buffy replied as she exited, placing a hand on the wall for balance. Once the doors swayed shut, Willow turned to the two men.

"Odds?"

"Of?" Giles asked, picking up a book.

"Oh of her acutually staying in bed tonight and not going out." Xander said.

"She promised," Giles said. Then he stopped and gazed at the book he was holding. With a small almost impercitable shrug he said, "Not like that's ever stopped her."

"Well, she is really tired..maybe she'll lay down and sleep until morning."Willow suggested.

"We can hope," Giles replied, "We can hope."

"Buffy!"

The Slayer looked up frantically and to her horror saw Willow lying flat on her back on the grass of the park. Only she wasn't alone. On top of her was just about the ugliest vampire she'd ever seen.

"Will!" Buffy screamed, rushing towards her friend. She moved with such speed that the shield of resistance she met less than five feet from where the vampire was holding Willow threw her backwards. She landed flat on her back gasping. Wide-eyed she stared up at the invisible shield. "No.."

The vampire looked up at her and a smile spread slowly across his face. "Sorry, Slayer," he hissed, "Guess she's dinner." Opening his mouth and revealing his fangs the vampire moved forward and pressed down against Willow's neck. The frightened hacker thrashed and continued to scream Buffy's name.

"No..."

Buffy woke with a start. Persperation poured down her face and her chest heaved heavily as she gasping attempted to regain her composure. "Will," she murmured. Her eyes hardened. Pushing herself upwards she shoved herself out of bed. Almost immediately a wave of nausea overtook her. Placing a hand against the wall, she steadied herself for a long drawn out moment. After a few deep breaths she let go of the wall and crossed over to her closet.

She stripped off her bed clothes swiftly and re-dressed in jeans and a white v-neck. After a moment of thought she reached up and grabbed Angel's jacket from the hanger and put it on. It hadn't been cold when she'd come home but now could be entirely different. Besides, the truth of the matter was that she felt luckier when she wore the jacket.

She glanced at the clock. 10:30. It was still incredibly early. Her mother was at a show and wouldn't be home until midnight. So an hour and a half of slaying and she'd called it a night. So it wasn't like she was gonna stay out 'til morning so it wasn't really a lie.

"Good, Buffy..argue semantics," she muttered knowing full well that she was going to hear it from Giles in the morning. Well maybe, if she was lucky it'd be an uneventful night and she could just forget to mention to him that she'd gone out slaying.

Sighing, she picked up two stakes on the way out of her room. Within moments she was standing outside of her house. As it was, the jacket was perfect. As always.

"She said she wasn't going to answer," Xander said from the table. He, Willow and Giles were still seated in the library going over texts. Well, more accurately, Willow and Giles were going over them and Xander was contributing conmmentary. "Maybe she's sleeping." Willow suggested hopefully.

Giles nodded and placed the phone back down."Perhaps." He chewed his lip thoughtfully.

"What's the matter?" Willow asked, now concerned.

He shook his head, 'I..I don't know. It's a feeling, I suppose. Quite irrational..probably nothing."

"Ya want me to check on her?" Xander offered. "I mean, I'll breeze by her place.."

Willow shook her head, "She'd kill you."

"Um, yes, she probably would. No, no..we should trust her. Buffy's a smart girl. I'm sure she recognizes her own physical limitations."

Xander frowned,"Sure but does she recognize her mental limitations. She tends to allow herself to be guided by her emotions." He glanced up at his companions who were both staring at him with stunned expressions. Shrugging he said, "What? Can't Research Boy have insight sometimes?"

"Come out, come out wherever you are.." Buffy whispered almost inaudibly as she crept through the park. Every now and then she would stop and stand still long enough for her head to stop pounding. So far, so good. She'd only seen one vampire and he'd been easy to dispatch. Just jab and see ya.

It was almost boring.

Then she heard it. Behind her. A rustling.

The Slayer spun and faced a small female vampire staring up at her. The vampire hissed and began to circle her. Buffy lifted an eyebrow and watched the creature with a bit of amusement.

"Are you done yet?" Buffy asked. "I mean, I'd really like to get this over with. Curfew, ya know?"

The woman opened her mouth wide to reveal her fangs. With a low growl she charged Buffy. The Slayer easily flipped her. The vampire charged again but this time Buffy did a leg sweep and knocked the demon flat on it's back. "Tsk, tsk..bad form. Dismount was pitiful." With that she shoved a stake directly into the creature's heart. It flew apart in a spray of dust and Buffy grinned. "Score one for the good guys," she said almost musically.

"Then I guess you won't mind if we go in to sudden death overtime." A low voice said from behind her. In a fluid motion she grabbed her stake off the ground and spun towards the voice. To her horror, five male vampires stood directly in front of her. All of them looked young and very strong.

"You just had to make this difficult," Buffy sighed. "All right..we can do this the more senselessly violent way but I'm warning you, the death count is going to rise."

Her only reply was a laugh from the tallest and largest of the vampires; presumably the speaker. "It's time to die, Slayer." One of the vampires charged.

She spun around and kicked him directly in the chest with enough momentum to send him flying backwards. With a quick precise motion she sent a stake flying into his heart. "Ew..that's gotta hurt. Too bad. Next." She was about to turn when she felt a pressure against her rib cage. She gasped and tried to spin around in the inhuman arms held her tight. This was weird; she should have been able to break his grip but still he held her.

Not for long however. A moment later she felt herself flying through the air. She barely had time to adjust her body before she slammed into a tree. Only luck alone kept her back from absorbing the full blow. Her head wasn't so lucky. She could feel a sticky line of fluid running down the side of her face. Dizzily she lifted her hand to a place just above her left eye. She brought it away and stared frightened at the blood. "Gotta get up," She murmured, trying to push herself up. Her body ignored her and she slumped back down against the tree, her head spinning.

"Where are your quips now, Slayer?" The lead vampire growled as he straddled her. She tried to kick him off of her but the motion made her nauseous. He reached up and his her sharply across the face. She winced and pushed away. With every bit of energy she has left in her, she pushed herself to her feet and executed a roundhouse. It hit her intended target and gave her the time to send her other stake into the lead vamp's chest.

"Buh-bye," Buffy murmured, just before collapsing to the ground. She could see the darkness at the corners of her vision. "No," she protested weakly, very much aware of the presense of the other three vampires. And they of course were very much aware of the fact that the Slayer was down and barely moving.

They attacked all at once and she screamed. Flailing with her arms and thrashing with her legs she tried to push them away but they were far too strong and she was far too out of it. Tears streamed down her cheeks as the bitter realization of what was about to happen hit her.

One of the vampires hit her directly in the ribs and the seeping darkness rushed towards her. Just before it consumed her she saw one of the vampires moving towards her neck and then the lights went out.

"Giles!"

The Watcher blinked and rubbed his eyes. He stared upwards and searched around for the source of the scream. He glanced over at Xander and Willow who both shrugged.

A minute later the doors to the library flew open and Angel strode through them. His face was pale and he was fighting to keep it human as a host of emotions played across his handsome features.

And then Giles saw.

"No..." In the vampires' arms was none other than the Slayer, Buffy Summers. In a dramatic motion, Angel brushed off a table and laid the unconsious and badly hurt girl on it. "She's hurt," he said needlessly.

Giles just nodded and moved towards her. "Wha..what? Do you know what happened?"

"I got there too late.." Angel said, shaking his head. "I knew something wasn't right tonight..I should have been following her.."

Giles turned and faced him. Attempting to remain calm he repeated his question. It was clearly up to him to maintain control because all three of his companions looked on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

"Uh...she was ambushed in the park. They planned..laid in wait. When I got there she was already unconsious..they didn't bite her though." Angel murmured. Cautiously he reached down and very lightly touched the Slayers' badly bruised face. Even through the blood and swelling he could still very clearly see tear streaks.

"But she's gonna be alright," Xander said, his voice trembling. He looked up at Giles, "Right?"

He didn't have the heart to reply. Slowly he reached down and removed the leather jacket. Gazing down at her he saw that her white shirt was stained with blood. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and prayed for the best. Careful not to touch anything but the shirt he peeled it back and examined the Slayers' broken ribs with a sad expression. Finally he said softly, "This isn't good." He looked at the others, "She's in bad shape."

"Okay..burning question. Been meaning to ask this. I thought hospitals were open domain...why do you have to be invited in?" Xander asked.

"Public domain yes but also a place of healing and people do sleep and eat in a hospital. If it were completely open area my kind would just prey on the people here with broken legs and such. Unfortunately it's still rather easy to get into the hospital but most vampires choose the thrill of the chase and capture over the ease of the hospital which is still more difficult than simply grabbing a jogger in the park."

"However, I doubt they would offer up any qualms about taking out Buffy. She is the Slayer." Giles said gravely.

Xander turned away, "Okay, I get it..Buffy's in danger. What if she can't leave?"

"We'll cross that and the how do we get her out of her bridge when we come to it. Right now..we wait." Giles told the boy softly. His voice was calm but inside the Watcher was shaking. How could he have allowed this to happen to her? He'd known that she would go out. She never listened. It was like, "Hey, Giles said that..I guess we can ignore it." But it was more than that..true enough, the Slayer was a stubborn sixteen year old girl who wasn't exactly fond of being told what to do but she was also a very duty-bound young woman. Ever since Buffy had reluctantly reaccepted her birthright, the literal weight of the world had crashed down onto her shoulders and she'd carried it. She believed that it was her responsibility to safe-guard Sunnydale and he somewhat suspected that she took each murder in the little town personally. Like she should have been able to stop it. And of course that was where her youth and innocence came in. She was too young and naive to grasp the concept that no matter how strong she was, she could never prevent all of the evil. She could never fully realize just how many lives she had touched with every save she had accomplished.

"Quarter for your thoughts?" Xander asked.

"Hm? Huh..um..isn't 'penny for your thoughts'?"

Xander shrugged, "Sure but you looked pretty involved so I figured it was worth more."

"Right..where's Willow?" Giles queried, not wanting to place his burden on Xander. The boy was already hurting enough because of Buffy's injury.

"She went down to the cafeteria," Xander replied. He gazed over at Angel who was talking very softly to the receptionist and said, "And I guess that he's acting like the loving boyfriend."

"Xander.."

"I know, below the belt. I get it." He nodded. Suddenly his face sombered up, "Truth is, he saved Buffy's life and that's enough to at least get my respect."

"I'm glad to hear you say that because I fear that now more than ever, we are truly going to have to work together. Buffy has never been in more mortal danger than she is now and unfortunately she's far from out of the woods."

"He's right," Angel said, walking up behind them. "I was uh, talking to the receptionist." He cleared his throat, "After you get past the tough exterior, she's really quite nice."

Xander and Giles exchanged looks. "Uh, what did you find out?"

"They just finished the surgery."

"Already?" Giles exclaimed in astonishment.

"Already?" Xander repeated, "Giles, we've been here all night..I know you were off in la la land and all but welcome back to our dimension where things still suck."

Giles favored the boy with an irritated glance and then said, "Well?"

"Internal bleeding but they say she'll be alright..after a week in the ICU and then maybe a week more after that." Angel replied.

"Damn," Giles cursed. "And her head injuries?"

"A concussion. She should stay off her feet," Angel said dryly.

"And how do you propose we keep this from her mother?" Xander asked softly.

"Right now her mother is the very least of our concerns. She's not safe here. It's inconceiveable that we could keep a twenty-four watch over her even if we tried..they wouldn't let us anyways." Giles said.

"How safe is it to move her at all?" Willow asked coming up from behind them with a full tray of food and drinks. She set it down on the tabel and then proceded to pass out the cups of coffee and soda. She frowned at Angel and offered him coffee. With a small smile he accepted.

"Probably not wise at all. Acutually Sheila..um..that's the receptionist' name, and I were conversing about that. She said that without proper continuous care Buffy could suffer from infections."

"Couldn't Shawn watch over her?"

"He's a med-student and somehow I don't get the impression that he's too hot on the idea." Angel replied.

"He's my cousin and I could convince him. Look,maybe I went blind but I don't see that we're exactly flowing with ideas here!"

"Xander," Willow said softly, placing a hand on his arm. "Let's find out if first we can have someone go into see her."

Xander cleared his throat,"That should be pa and me."

"Pa?" Giles queried.

"Well you were out of it so Willow and I filled out the paperwork..pa."

Giles shook his head, "Not hearing this. So you're both my children?"

"No...um, Xander is your oldest..at um..23 and Buffy is your youngest and I'm..Xanders' husband..um wife." Willow said blushing. Xander gave her a strange indecipherable look.

Giles sat down, "I'm going to get arrested, sent to jail..."

If not for the seriousness of the situation, the others would have laughed.

"Mr. Giles?" An authortive voice said from his side. Giles looked up and saw a tall dark haired woman in a white coat. Presumably a doctor.

"Um..yes, that's me..what can you tell me about my daughter?"

"She made it through surgery and we've taken her into recovery." The woman took a deep breath. "Your daughter suffered some very serious injuries. She's got some internal bleeding..we stopped that. She also suffered a pretty serious concussion and a couple of broken ribs. There was something I wanted to ask you about."

"Oh?" Giles replied, less than enthusiastically. "Pray tell what is that?"

"Buffy seems to have two bumps on her head..like she suffered one earlier. Can you tell me how she got that?"

"She walked into a drainage pipe," Xander said suddenly. Giles blinked and then turned with the others to gaze at the boy. "Um, I mean..she was with me..and I guess she didn't see it."

The doctos gave him a strange expression but then decided that his story was just too weird to not be true. "Oh...kay."

"Um, when can we take her home?"Angel asked.

"Who are you?"

"I'm her boyfriend."

"Oh..um, well not for..I'd have to estimate maybe a week and a half to two and that's being optimistic. Look, Mr. Giles..your daughter is not in good shape. At all. I would be suprised if she regains any amount of long-term lucidity over the next few days. That was quite a vicious hit she took to the head..may I ask what happened?"

"She was attacked in the park on the way home from a date." Willow said.

The doctor looked at Angel, "A date with you."

"Right. With me."

"Should have walked her home. Weird, that kinda stuff only happens in Sunnydale."

"Sunnydale, right..glad we don't live there, right pa?" Xander said dryly. Giles shot him an annoyed look.

"Um, yes, son. Um..doctor..when would it be possible for me to see my daughter. I'm really quite worried."

"I know..well she's sleeping now...but I really don't see a problem with you going in. I'm going to have insist however that you do so only one at a time. If she does wake up, you need to keep in mind that she's still quite fragile and any amount of physical exertion could reinjure her and break open the stitching."

"Stitching?" Xander asked, puzzled.

Willow smacked his harm, "Yes, honey..the stitching..to stop the internal bleeding."

"Oh, right."

"Well then, I'll be on my way to see her then," Giles said softly. He nodded to the others and took his leave. The doctor walked away from the group and leaned over to the receptionist who was still staring entranced at Angel.

"What a strange family," the doctor said.

Giles stepped cautiously into the room, his mind in violent confict with itself. Part of him wanted to rush like a distraught parent to his unconsious and injured Slayers' still form and cradle her in his arms if only to assure himself that she was still alive. Of course the more sensible and decidely British side of him told him to remain calm and cool. Yes, she was like a daughter to him but it wouldn't do to act like the children would. They would insist upon touching her and talking to her..trying to understand.

Well why the hell not? It wasn't like he understood. Why had the vampires who had attacked her wasted their time beating her. Angel had told him t once they had been away from Xander and Willow that the vamps had been given plenty of opportunity to bite the Slayer and kill her that way but had opted instead for beating her into her present state. Almost as if they were playing with her and forcing her to suffer before they moved in for the kill.

It was sick. Well of course it was and to be honest he wasn't all that suprised. Buffy, even though she looked like a typical teenage push-over, was one hell of a warrior. She had put more than a major crimp in both the Master and the Annointed One's plans for taking over the surface. It wasn't much of a stretch to say that they hated her. And wanted her to suffer. Which she was.

Without realizing it Giles had moved his way across the room and was standing at her bed. He reached a trembling hand up and lightly touched her face. It was so strange seeing her like this; silent and still. He was used to her being up and bouncing about like a teenager looped on caffeine which half the time she was anyways. The girl was so full of life and energy that even the weight of the world resting firmly on her shoulders couldn't keep her down and depressed for long. She was the strangest girl and to be honest, he wouldn't have it any other way. Of course he'd never admit that to her.

"We'll take care of you. I promise you that, "Giles murmured as he brushed his hand across her dark blonde hair. "You'll be okay."

"Giles.." the girl murmured suddenly, her eyes still closed. It was a bizarre sight seeing the Slayer's lips moving even though she looked pale and sickly enough to be dead.

He leaned down closer to her, "I'm here, Buffy.."

Bufy swallowed hard, "Mom..I don't want to go to school today..Giles..Giles.."

The Watcher narrowed his eyes, half in confusion and half in concern. She was rambling and making little sense and it bothered him. He understood that she was drugged and that the concussion had messed up her mind a bit but just the same it disturbed him. That and what if she let it slip that she was the Slayer in her delirium.

Immediately he scolded himself. What did the secrecy of the Slayer matter now? She was hurt and all that mattered was that she be able to get well. That was all that mattered.