CHAPTER TWO: COLLAPSE
It was an ordinary Tuesday at the gallery. Mr Morrison had left her in charge of the newest set of books to be translated with a team of two other people. The first time they had met Buffy, they had been a little more than dubious about her work ethic and her abilities. Once she had begun instructing the group on what she wanted them to be doing and the time frame in which to do it, they had been dumbstruck to find that not only did she know what she was doing, but she was damn good at it as well.
The two other translators were a man and a woman, making the team an uneven three that Mr Morrison believed to be the best team the museum had ever seen.
Samuel Peters was twenty-eight and had fallen for the tiny blonde girl. His eyes tended to follow her throughout the gallery, a fact that Buffy found a little disturbing at first, but had come to appreciate the attention. She'd told him in no uncertain terms that she was in love with someone else, but this did nothing to deter Samuel's constant flirting. They were lunch buddies, even though Buffy didn't want any more than friendship from him.
Luisa Yabson was twenty-three and had been working at the gallery for Buffy's mom before Joyce had passed away. She always had a kind word about everyone and had taken the young assistant curator under her wing immediately.
And so, it was the three of them against the world, or so they liked to say. An oddly mingled group that worked well together and had learned that first appearances didn't always reflect the person. Buffy had first thought the other two to be stuffy people with nothing better to do that translate ancient texts. She had been proven wrong when she realised that both of them did it for the same reasons she did. The money. After that, they had found that they enjoyed working out what the ancient languages meant. Like some sort of an advanced jigsaw puzzle that needed to be worked out.
"Can you pass me the Luminosa text?" Samuel asked, not bothering to even look up. He merely held out his hand and waited for the book to be given to him. Buffy handed him the text without comment and grinned as her colleague continued working as though he hadn't said anything.
"Did Morrison say when the Archivist book was getting here?" Luisa asked quietly.
"Thursday," came the absent reply from Buffy.
Luisa looked up at her young friend and smiled a little as she saw that Buffy too hadn't had to look up from her work.
They made an odd team. The tiny young blonde girl, the six-foot tall brunette man and the average sized brunette woman seated at a well-lit table in the offices of the museum.
A knock came at the door, the three of them barely noticing. A young intern crept into the room, almost afraid to disturb the solemn air that the room had to it. She touched Buffy's shoulder slightly, making the Slayer jump a little and whirl in her seat, her fist ready to strike.
The intern jumped backwards, her heart in her throat as she saw Buffy ready to pounce into battle. Buffy immediately relaxed her hand as she saw the young woman standing behind her.
"What can we do for you Margaret?" she asked quietly, not wanting to disrupt Samuel and Luisa.
"There's a young woman here to see you," Margaret replied quietly.
Margaret was young, only nineteen, and in her second week, and the young curator scared her tremendously, even though she had no idea why. Possibly the fact that Buffy was so smart, or seemed to be. Buffy smiled and stood up, passing her gaze over her two workmates who had barely looked up. She shook her head, wondering how it was possible that they were all able to get so lost in the worlds of ancient text.
She followed Margaret through the labyrinth of hallways and out into the main foyer. She grinned widely as she saw her red-headed friend standing with her back to the offices, staring at a medieval suit of armour.
"Hey Wills," Buffy greeted, creeping up beside her friend, smiling as she saw Willow jump a little at the sound of Buffy's voice.
Willow grinned and engulfed Buffy in a tight hug. "Hey Buffy. Wanna grab some lunch?"
Buffy quickly checked her watch and nodded, feeling the effects of her hunger now that it had been mentioned.
"I was thinking we could swing by the site, pick up Xander," Willow suggested.
"Sounds good. What about Tara and Anya?" Buffy asked.
Willow scrunched up her nose and shook her head. "Just the core Scoobies today I think. We haven't been just the three of us in a while."
Buffy nodded, somewhat grateful that it would just be the original three. As much as she loved Anya and Tara, she had often felt that it would be nice to not have to be the fifth wheel.
Xander was free and excited about the idea of a core Scooby lunchtime outing. With a quick stop at a Chinese take-away store, they had settled themselves onto a grassy patch in the Sunnydale park, far enough away from the swings that they couldn't hear kids squeals and away from the parents so that if need be, they could slay any demons that decided to crash the picnic.
"So, when's the big day Xand?" Buffy asked. "Have you guys decided yet?"
Xander rolled his eyes as he bit into a spring roll. "Anya still wants to have it on a Wednesday, but I keep telling her that no one will be able to make it unless it's on a weekend. Scept, she doesn't want it on a Sunday, cos it's too religious for her, and she doesn't want it on a Saturday cos the Magic Box always does really well."
"You could have it at night," Willow suggested, not for the first time.
"Try telling that to Anya. She doesn't want it to get crashed by bloodsucking fiends. And yet she invited Spike," Xander said, the disgust evident in his voice.
Buffy rolled her eyes, knowing that as much as Xander protested about his liking Spike, the two of them did get along fairly well. And now that Spike wasn't making any romantic overtures towards Buffy, Spike had seemed to fit into the group a little bit better.
"You guys should just elope."
Xander's eyes lit up at Buffy's idea, but his shoulders slumped down once more. "I already suggested that to her and got yelled at. I remember liking the idea though."
Buffy grinned and suddenly stopped, her hand going to her stomach. Xander and Willow looked at her concerned. Buffy had been extremely cautious lately about guarding her feelings in front of the pair of them, so they weren't used to the suddenly worried look that crossed the Slayer's face.
"You alright Buff?" Xander asked, carefully touching Buffy's forehead. He could feel that she was a little warm, but not overly so.
"Yeah…yeah, I'm okay. Probably just the chicken," she said, pointing at the half empty box of honey chicken that lay in front of her.
Willow and Xander exchanged uncertain looks, but let it drop. Buffy seemed to bounce back from it, and they continued eating.
With their take-out boxes empty and their stomachs full, they stood in unison, Xander and Willow brushing off stray strands of grass and pieces of dirt while Buffy touched her head, wondering why she was dizzy all of a sudden. Her legs buckled and Xander caught her quickly before she could reach the ground. He lowered her gently so that she could kneel on the grass.
"You don't look so good," Willow commented, kneeling beside her friend, checking her temperature much as Xander had done earlier.
Buffy brushed off Willow's hand. "I'm fine guys, I just…maybe I just got up too fast."
"Buffy, you're burning up," Willow commented.
Buffy tried to stand once more, but couldn't make it. Xander caught her as she passed out.
Willow shrieked a little and took in her unconscious friends form.
"This isn't good," she stated quietly.
Xander shifted Buffy so that he could hold her in his arms. "Home or hospital?"
Willow weighed up each option. She could remember how scared Buffy had been the last time she'd been in hospital. And it was possible that she had just eaten something that had disagreed with her.
"Home I think. We…we may need to look into stuff in case it's mystical. I mean…she was fine at the beginning of lunch," Willow said.
Xander nodded and they took off towards the Summer's house quickly, ignoring the strange looks they got from strangers. Most of the people in Sunnydale knew who Buffy was, though most of them didn't really know her name. They knew her as their mysterious saviour, and most, if not all, could recognise her by sight alone, so when their blonde hero was being carried across town, they began to get worried.
Willow opened up the door to the Summers house and ushered Xander inside. He quickly took her up the stairs and into her room, passing Willow and Tara's shared bedroom as he did. Tara looked up when she heard the noise and quickly jumped off the bed as she saw the blonde girl cradled in Xander's arms.
"What h-happened?"
Xander laid the girl on her bed as Willow walked into the room holding a wet wash-cloth.
"She collapsed after we'd had lunch," Xander explained. "She was fine one second and then…bang. Buffy unconscious."
Tara looked at her girlfriend worriedly, silently questioning what could be wrong with the Slayer.
"Magical, do you think?"
Willow looked up at the question, her hand still dobbing Buffy's forehead gently.
"Not sure. It could be, but…I don't know what sort of spell could work that quickly on her. She's the Slayer so…she's got a natural immunity to a lot of things."
Xander's eyes narrowed momentarily, and Willow caught the shadow that passed across his face.
"Xan?"
Xander looked up, his eyes still narrowed dangerously.
"It's her birthday in three days," he said.
"Why is that worrying?" Tara asked.
Willow too looked stricken. "The Council wouldn't have done anything to her. Not again. Besides, how could they get close enough to do it?"
"Maybe they d-don't need to be close to her to do whatever they did. It could be a s-spell," Tara suggested.
She could recall Willow explaining the test that the Council had given to Buffy on her eighteenth birthday. She had been outraged when she had heard that the Council had done something so dangerous to the Slayer. She had been even more shocked when she had heard that it was Giles who had administered the test to her. She couldn't imagine Giles voluntarily putting Buffy in danger.
"Maybe we should call Giles, ask him if he knows anything about a test that the Council does for a Slayer's twenty-first birthday," Xander suggested.
Willow nodded and glanced at her watch. "We may have to wait a while to call him. He's probably gone out, remember? It is a Friday night in England."
Xander scowled a little and nodded. He really wished that Giles had stuck around in Sunnydale. He had hated that Giles had just taken off. The timing of it had been horrible, especially considering that Buffy had finally admitted to why she couldn't stand being around her friends.
"Should we start researching?" Tara asked.
Willow nodded, keeping an eye on Buffy. She was pale and shaking, sweat pouring off her forehead even as her body shivered.
"Start by looking at the Watcher's diaries. Giles left them here in case we needed them, so they're still at the store. Not the originals of course, they're at the Council, but, the copies, we've got a set. Oh…and maybe we should have a look at the codex. And maybe at-"
"Why don't you go Willow," Tara suggested. "I can stay here."
Willow smiled gratefully and handed over the washcloth. "Thank you. You'll call if there's any change?"
Tara nodded and watched as Xander and Willow raced out of the house and towards the Magic Box.
Tara sighed and gently wiped at Buffy's forehead.
"It's never dull around here Buffy," she whispered quietly.