Part 26 - Happy Birthday?

Friday 8 a.m.

"Happy Birthday!" Willow said to Buffy as she walked into
homeroom. "So, Giles told you, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he told me I'm supposed to do a quick sweep of the cemeteries,
then you guys have something planned. He was pretty vague, all he
said was meet him at his place after patrol and he'd drive me there."

Willow just smiled at her, with an 'I've got a secret' look.

Buffy felt suddenly dizzy, and sat abruptly. At Willow's concerned
look, she said, "I'm feeling a little off. I'm sure it's just a bug,
I'll be fine."

"Oh, Buffy! On your birthday?" Willow frowned. "That's just wrong."

"And that surprises you why?" Buffy asked sarcastically. "Nothing
goes the way it's supposed to anymore."

************
5 p.m.

Xander returned home from work and made a few calls to make sure his
plans were going off as he'd intended. He was still on the phone
checking on the last item when Willow walked downstairs. "Hold on,
Joe," he said to the man. "Hey, Wills. What's up?"

"I'm making one last effort to see if you're going to come to the
party tonight. The party that you arranged," Willow said. "Xander,
I'm going to tell her it was your doing, she deserves to know that."

"I really wish you wouldn't," Xander replied with a sigh. "I told you
what happened with Cordy, I'm surprised you're still talking to me.
If I was there, Buffy wouldn't have any fun."

"That's just not true," Willow said with a frown. "You made a
mistake, Goddess knows you both are guilty of that. Buffy hasn't even
talked to me about it, though, Xander. If she was really upset with
you, she would've done her best to make me angry with you too."

"Maybe she just doesn't want to think about it on her birthday,"
Xander suggested. "I don't want to bring her down on her birthday,
it's better if I'm not there."

"You're so wrong," Willow sighed. "She's already down, anyway. She's
sick."

"What?" Xander looked up in concern. "Hold on." He turned back to the
phone, and finished his conversation quickly. "What d'you mean,
sick?"

"I think she's got the flu, or something," Willow shrugged. "You
should've seen her training at the library this afternoon. It
would've been funny if it hadn't been so deadly. First, she nearly
got Oz with an arrow, by mistake. Then she tried to throw an axe at a
book Giles set on its end on a table, and she almost killed Giles.
Needless to say, Giles cut training short."

"If she's that far off her game, tell me she's not patrolling by
herself," Xander requested.

"I think Giles called Angel. Buffy didn't want to, she insisted she
could handle things by herself. But I think she proved herself to be
wrong on that one."

"Well, then, she doesn't need my help," Xander shrugged.

"Xander, why doesn't it occur to you that you're exactly what Buffy
needs?" Willow questioned.

"Willow, please, if you think any of this is easy for me, you're
crazy. I'm trying to do what I think is best. If I'm wrong, than so
be it."

"Fine, I get it. Your mind is made up," Willow sighed, and left.

************

Xander arrived at Giles' place, he'd been unable to stop the feeling
that something was very wrong about Buffy being sick. He'd never
known her to get sick, in the three years he'd known her. Maybe it
was due to some kind of curse or something, was all he could come up
with. He decided he'd run the idea past Giles, and at the very least
help him do some research on the possibility.

He didn't bother to knock, he'd stopped doing that months ago. He
heard Giles on the phone, so he went to the books himself.

"No, I gave her the injection, as required," Giles said. That got
Xander's attention. He dropped the book and listened, fearing he
wouldn't like what he heard.

"She's completely powerless, after three injections, she's got less
power than a normal mortal ... I'm not ignoring orders, if I were to
give her one more injection, she wouldn't last more than five minutes
against any demon. And I refuse to sign my Slayer's death warrant.
Well, you and the rest of the Council can JUST GO TO HELL, FOR ALL I
CARE!"

Giles slammed the receiver back into place, and walked out to meet
Xander's furious gaze. "Tell me I didn't just hear what I think I
heard," Xander said, barely holding his emotions in check. *This is a
mistake, I just heard wrong. Please God let me have heard wrong!*

"I..." Giles looked away, looking ashamed.

"SON OF A--" He dove at Giles, but Giles side-stepped him, and
tripped him.

"Xander, please, calm down and let me explain," Giles requested,
holding out his hand to help Xander up.

Xander swatted his hand away, and jumped to his feet,
saying, "Explain WHAT?! That you poisoned your own Slayer?! HOW,
GILES, HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN THAT?!"

"What?" Willow was standing in the doorway, looking at both in
confusion. "I heard the yelling. Giles, tell me it's not true," she
said softly.

"I can't," Giles said with a sad sigh. "It's a rite of passage for
all slayers--"

"I can't listen to this. If Buffy dies, it's on you," Xander said,
before running out.

**********

"Oh," Buffy looked in confusion at the stake which had fallen out of
her hand. "That's not good," she said slowly.

"No kidding," Angel said, as he jumped in front of her to protect her
from the Chaos demon which lunged in her direction. "Buffy, go home!"
he yelled, as he started to trade punches with the demon.

"No," she replied stubbornly. "Fine. I'm. She frowned, and tried
again, "I'm. Fine." She nodded as she managed to get the sentence
straight, and watched Angel dispatch the demon with a stake to the
heart.

*Scratch that. Two Angels. Oh, I'm in big trouble. There's no place
like home.* Buffy's legs decided they'd had enough with the standing,
and she dropped to her knees on the ground.

She heard movement behind her, and saw Spike, and several of his
fledglings. Angel growled and dove at Spike, and they started
wrestling on the ground, punching and snapping at each other. Buffy
found her stake and staked the first fledgling who was stupid enough
to pull her to her feet. She managed to stay on her feet, as five
fledglings circled her.

*You're still the slayer, even if you are sick. You can take these
morons* she tried to convince herself. She staked one vampire, but
then felt an arm around her neck, and another arm around her waist,
as one of them pinned her against his body. "GET OFF ME, YOU CREEP!"
Buffy struggled, but it was no use.

Another fledgling approached her and grinned. "Slayer blood. I'm sure
there's enough that we can share."

"NOT HAPPENING, SO KEEP DREAMING!" She screamed, she kicked at the
vampire, succeeding in knocking him to his rear. The force of the
movement knocked the vampire behind her back as well, and she landed
on top of him. She managed to roll off of him, and located Angel.
Spike was still keeping him much too occupied. They were close to an
even match, so Angel wouldn't be able to help her anytime soon.

*I'm managing okay,* she thought. A hand grasped her hair, yanking
her to her feet. She turned to stake the owner of that hand, then
tried to count how many were left. No use, her eyesight was causing
things to swim. There was anywhere between one and ten of them.

One of them turned out be real, as he lunged at her and knocked her
to the ground, pinning her with his body. He sunk his fangs into her
neck, and she screamed.

"BUFFY!" She heard Angel yell in horror, but apparently he wasn't
able to come to her rescue. She tried, but couldn't fight the vamp
off of her. Her arms and legs were so weak, it was as if all her
slayer strength had left her.

To her surprise, the vampire suddenly turned to a cloud of dust, and
when it cleared, Buffy saw Xander. He was punching, kicking and
staking as best he could, staying close to her. He was trying to
protect her, she realized. One of the vampires threw him against a
crypt nearby, then dove after him. She sat up and saw him grab
Xander's head by the hair and slam it against the wall repeatedly.

*He's gonna kill Xan,* Buffy realized in horror as she heard the
crack of his skull. She fought the urge to lose consciousness due to
bloodloss, and crawled toward the vampire. She managed to get to her
feet, and plunge the stake into his back, hitting his heart. She
dropped back to her knees as the vampire crumbled to dust, and saw
Xander slide down the wall to fall unconscious to the ground.

"Please don't die on me," she said, and crawled over to him. She laid
her head on his chest, and heard his heartbeat, it was slow but
steady. Then her world went black.

**************