My first fanfic posted here. My twist on "Graduation Day, Part 2", and the third chapter of "Operation Volcano". A prequel to an AU story called "Slayer Lost" in which Buffy didn't return from LA after Becoming 2. If you recognize the name or situation, it belongs to someone else, and I'm just borrowing! Don't sue me - as all you'll get is a bunch of spoiled cats! :D
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Dragon Rumbles
Julie walked slowly down the side hall, head down, eyes on her lace less Nikes. I should have just gone barefoot, she thought absently. Except I need a pedicure bad, and they won't let me have clippers. And no matter how nice the nurses are when I ask them for something, I'd feel like a baby if one of them had to clip them for me. Need to remember to ask Mom when she comes today. She pulled a stringy lock of hair around in front of her face, rubbing it between her long fingers. Get her to help me shampoo, too, she thought ruefully. Do something with this mess before rats start nesting. So not liking the "Girl, Interrupted" look here!
She sighed softly to herself. I really shouldn't mind, considering, but it just sucks that I'm not even allowed to bathe without someone watching me now.
She rounded the corner at the end of the hall and entered the shorter hall that led to the reception area. She glanced out the windows that lined this hall on one wall, noticing the first pink glow of dawn lighting the east. She stopped a moment, leaning her forehead against the cool glass, letting her eyes drink in the sight of the trees on the hill behind the building. There was a little ground mist around them, starting at the edge of the lawn and wreathing each dark trunk. She loved the way it swirled slightly in the gentle breeze, its colors changing in the growing light.
"Beautiful, isn't it, hon?"
Julie straightened up and glanced over her shoulder at Marie, the duty nurse. She wasn't surprised to see her there. All the night nurses knew she liked to wander the halls early in the morning. They kept an eye out for her, on her doctor's orders.
"Yeah, Marie. Sure wish I could go out and watch the sunrise from the lawn."
Marie smiled gently down at the tiny girl. She knew her confinement to indoors was what irked her most about her stay here. "I know, dear. It won't be much longer, I'm sure. You've been doing much better this past week." She nervously fingered the cross on the chain around her neck. "But you'd have to wait until the sun was up a little more, anyway." She put a warm, encouraging hand on Julie's shoulder. "How'd you sleep last night?"
Julie sighed, again, not as softly, making Marie grin. The girl had expected the question. She heard it all the time.
"I slept four hours, woke up half an hour ago, couldn't get back to sleep, decided to walk," she reported in a teen-petulant, monotone mumble.
"Any more dreams?" Marie asked, cringing inwardly a little as the girl shrugged her hand off her shoulder at the question and turned to stare up at her defiantly, fists clenched at her sides.
"I always dream, you know that!" she half shouted. "But if you mean was I fighting monsters in my sleep and getting burned alive again, the answer's no!"
Julie squeezed her eyes shut, taking a deep breath, visibly willing herself to be calm. Marie didn't deserve this. And she had to learn to control these sudden rages or she'd never get out of here, period, much less be allowed to go outside on the grounds any time soon.
"Sorry," she mumbled, hands unclenching and coming up to rub her face. "Don't know why I'm being such a bitch this morning."
Marie relaxed, just a little, as the girl got hold of herself. She might be tiny, and still somewhat malnourished from the long hyper manic episode that had brought her here to the hospital, but Marie would never forget that it had taken three orderlies, big men all, to subdue this sixteen year old girl less than a week before, when she'd had what she had taken to calling her dragon dream. And one of them was still off work with two broken fingers and some cracked ribs.
"Come on, Julie. There's fresh coffee in the day room, and I'll even sneak a cigarette with you, if you want. We can watch the sunrise from the smoking room."
"Sure, Marie, I'd like that." The two turned and started down the hall. "But I'll have to bum a smoke from you, if that's OK… I'm out and Mom won't bring me more than a pack a day." The teen grinned ruefully, almost shuffling her feet on the carpet. "She wants me to quit again. Been sorta nagging me about it."
"Well, you should quit, hon. We all should. Smoking's a nasty habit. But all at once, with everything else happening now? Not a good idea, I'm thinking, dear. But don't you dare tell the doctors I told you that! Or your mom!" She mock-glared at the younger woman.
Julie giggled and traced an x over her heart with one finger. "Scout's honor!"
As they reached the unit's central area, Julie continued to the brightly lit day room and the coffee pot as Marie went to the open counter along the near wall that served as the nurses' station to fetch her cigarettes. Suddenly, one of four red lights on a panel high on the far wall opposite the station started flashing, accompanied by a soft, but strident, electronic chime.
Startled, Marie glanced up. "Shit! The kid's unit!" She grabbed her key ring instead of her cigarettes and trotted to the door. "Help yourself, Julie! Gotta run!" she yelled across to the teen, who had been pouring her coffee, but was now looking around, puzzled. The nurse unlocked the re-enforced glass outside door, letting herself out, and then ran down the sidewalk out of sight.
Julie sighed again, then walked over to the nurses' station, found Marie's cigarettes and lighter and took them with her to the smoking room, an elevated wooden deck off the day room, open but for a decorative steel lattice and a peaked roof with a large exhaust fan. Can't have any crazies offing themselves by a three story jump, can they? She sat down in one of the wrought iron patio chairs, then fumbled out one of Marie's cigarettes and lit it with slightly shaking hands.
Damn, she thought as she took a calming drag on her cigarette. I was ready for some company, now I'm stuck here alone in my head again. And I like Marie, she tells me straight out what I need to hear. Doesn't dress it up in platitudes, doesn't talk down to me, like those pricks in group do. She blew out a cloud and watched it being drawn up to the fan, even though it wasn't on. Then she leaned back to watch the sunrise over the trees around the hospital.
Been here, what, nine days now? Not even sure of that. Fuckin' drugs got your head so messed up, probably a good thing they don't let you go outside, girl! You'd get lost in a minute and be dead meat for the next perv or vamp that happened by! She ran one hand through her oily, lank hair again, slouching lower in the chair. With the ick factor you got going, you'd probably be safe from either, though!
Funny thing, she thought. Two weeks ago, if I'd have told people I was dreaming about killing vampires, I'd have been locked up here anyway. Now every kid, and most adults, in the world are having nightmares about them, not just me. Suddenly, every kid's monster under the bed is on CNN, live and in color.
She blew another cloud of smoke towards the fan.
Too weird. Hate to even watch TV any more, even if that's about all I can do. They just keep repeating the same shit, over and over. When're they going to find out something new? When's the new Slayer, or whatever the hell they call her, going to come forward. That girl Faith is gone…toasted like in my dream. Took the bastard demon with her, though.
Her hand gripped the edge of the wrought iron table in front of her. She didn't even notice as the metal bent beneath her fingers.