Remember, the italicized thoughts are Tara's.

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon created all the settings and characters – except for the Burchells' demons, which are mine.

X X X X X

Tara was startled to see Anya walk out of the women's room only a couple of minutes after she'd gone in. Dr. Leonards had just finished his briefing.

Anya apparently noticed this as she walked up. "How is she?"

"She's going to recover. It's going to take her awhile, but she's going to."

"Good," Anya said. "That's assuming she gets the chance." She looked around. "Would you like to hear something funny?"

Goddess, Anya, not now. "Well –"

"Oh, not that kind of funny. My grasp of social graces may not be the best but I know better than to tell jokes at a time like this. Warren saw I could teleport and sent me back here to spy on you."

Actually, that was kind of funny. "So . . ."

"So I'm going to go back there in a few minutes and I want to know what I should tell them."

"Right. Dawnie's waiting to see Buffy in whatever room they put her in and, and Gunn's out trying to find a weapon, but everyone else should be nearby." Within a minute Xander, Mr. Giles and the Groosalugg were there.

"We have two alternatives as I see it," Mr. Giles said. "We can either tell them that the Slayer is weak and unguarded and that her friends, consumed with grief, would make easy targets – or we can tell them that the injury was less severe that it looked and that even now she's ready to arise from her hospital bed and go after the person who did this to her and Willow."

"I'm going for option two," Xander said. "Less chance of innocent people dying."

"You would pass up the chance for combat?" The Groosalugg said.

"In a heartbeat, pal," came Xander's response. "If it meant protecting the people I care about."

The Groosalugg looked like he was going to respond when Tara said, "Anya. You're the, the only one who's seen this band of demons. If they thought Buffy was waiting to kill them, would they run?"

Anya thought for a second. "They all seem stupid. I don't know if they'd have the sense to be afraid of Buffy at full strength. Or maybe they'd just think at 19-1 they could take her."

"I thought you said there were sixteen demons and vampires, not counting Warren," Giles said, frowning."

"Yes, but they don't know that me, Angel, and Cordelia are on your side," Anya said.

Mr. Giles blinked. "Of course." Then, polishing his glasses, he looked at me. "Tara. What do you think?"

Interesting how they're all looking to me. It's not a position I wanted and not one I'm especially comfortable in. Maybe this is because of my whole "vengeance is mine' attitude.

I remember, vaguely, like a dream, Willow taking charge during the period when Glory had stolen my sanity. From the stories I heard later, she did very well. Willow, what would you do?

Guide me, sweetie.

She took a deep breath. "I think the second way is probably better. Some, some of them will probably come anyway. Probably not a good idea to give them any, any reason to suspect we're as strong as we are."

"If they think Buffy's at or close to full strength, they'll be ready for a battle," Mr. Giles said. "If some will come anyway, it is probably best they be overconfident."

"It, it's also probably not a good idea to meet them inside the hospital. Anya, do you know where they're coming from?"

"Warren said he knew Buffy was in the ER. So probably there. They're not coming through the sewers."

"That answers that, then," Tara said. "Anya, teleport back to them. When they're only a couple of minutes away, we, we need to go outside and wait for them, so, Anya –"

"I'll come back then." She headed back for the ladies' room.

Mr. Giles said, "I also think you, Xander and Dawn should stay here."

"Giles," Xander protested, "They're coming for Buffy. I'm not going to hide." At the Groosalugg's startled look, he said, "Like I said, pal, whatever it takes to protect my friends."

"May I point out that you are weaponless?"

"Don't see you packing a whole lot either, G-Man."

"You aren't weaponless any more," Gunn said. He was holding a piece of rebar in one hand, and he handed what looked like broken mop handles to Giles and Xander. "They ain't much," he said. "But they should be enough to deal with a pesky vamp or two."

"Good going," Xander said.

"You grow up on the streets you make do with what's available," Gunn said. "I'd love me an axe like Groo over there has, but a rebar'll make a handy dent in most demonic critters' skulls." After a second, "So what's the plan?"

They explained it to him.

Tara, meanwhile, moved back and tried to concentrate. I don't know if I could cast a spell right now if I tried. And I might need to try, soon. She did a quick meditation to clear her mind – and it didn't work.

Of course it didn't work. Just because I'm suppressing the grief doesn't mean it's still not there. So what do I do? It's not a good idea to cast spells out of anger and grief.

Will I, to protect Buffy?

I don't know. And I hope I don't have to find out.

X X X X X

Anya blinked back in and made a beeline for Warren. Angel could overhear what she said. "The Slayer's still in a coma," she said. "Her friends aren't ready for anything. There's a man in his '40s, another one in his '20s who looks like he wouldn't know which end of a knife to grab, a little girl, and a witch of middling power. This group," she said, growling, "is overkill."

"Good, good. Better overkill than underkill," he said. "This way the Slayer's death might look like part of a general rampage. Where is she?"

"In the recovery area," Anya said. "Don't know exactly where."

"Good enough." Then Warren moved to the front of the group, next to his robot duplicate, and called for everyone to stop. He had to dive out of the way of a pair of Burchells' who weren't paying attention. Burchells' were zebra-like demons who varied in personality as much as humans did; there were perfectly harmless ones and ones who wanted to rule the world. "Watch it, quagga-face!" Warren said as he stood back up. "Just found out – the Slayer's in the Emergency Room recovery area and they don't know we're coming. This should be a piece of cake."

It took them about fifteen more minutes to get within sight of the hospital. Anya went to Warren and said, "I'm going to go look one more time," then teleported away. Thirty seconds later she was back. "Things are exactly the same."

Warren grinned widely. "Good."

A couple more minutes' walk and they were approaching the ER doors.

Right then, Xander, Giles, Gunn, and the Groosalugg appeared in front of them.

Warren spun and said to Anya, "You said they weren't ready for us!"

Anya turned back into her human form and Warren gasped. "I lied. Idiot." Angel and Cordelia had already quietly dusted one of the vampires, and were working on a second when Warren noticed what was going on.

He yelled "Attack!"

And battle was joined.