A/N The der Kinderstadt episodes is one of those episodes where just I want to slap Giles. His insistence on allowing Buffy to decide how to handle the situation just because she's Slayer result's in Buffy making horribly stupid choices. Ones she doesn't even understand how bad they are, but Giles as an educated adult and hopefully trained Watcher should have known were bad decisions.

In the der Kinderstadt episode Buffy decides that since she can see der Kinderstadt when she has a fever, then she needs to be in a fever state again and she doesn't take the time to consider alternatives even when Willow, who has a better idea of how bad this decision is, tries to convince her to try something else. She's so weakened by deliberately making herself sick that Xander has to carry her to the battle and while it's impressive that she still manages to defeat the demon, she nearly kills herself to do it. And if Giles had just stepped up and been an adult the demon could have been defeated any number of other ways.

He really makes me want to shake him sometimes.

######

"Buffy's out sick with the flu too." Willow reported to Johnathan and Ana the next day. "Her mom called me last night and asked me to watch Dawn for her while she went with Buffy to the hospital. Buffy's fever got so high she was unresponsive for a while. Dawn was freaked and worried and I can't blame her, I was pretty worried myself when I heard."

"Can we visit her?" Johnathan asked, concerned for his friend.

"After school, yes, Mrs. Summers said we can. Her fever's come down and she's awake so we should be able to."

"Half the class has come down with it." Ana stated as three friends walked to their classes. "Before," meaning before she was locked up for five centuries by her people as a living sacrifice to their god, "an illness could sweep through a village or city and kill many. Now medicine has come so far that while people still get sick, far more don't die than do. She is strong, she will be alright and we will remind her that even illness she does not have to fight alone."

"Maybe we should let Giles know she's in the hospital." Johnathan suggested. "Mrs. Summers probably doesn't want him there, but if he doesn't know, he'll wonder why she's not reporting on patrol or something."

"I can do that during my free period." Willow offered. "Right now we need to get to class ourselves, I'll make sure I pick up her homework too."

After school the three headed off to the hospital together to see their friend and found her arguing with her mother.

"Buffy, I know you don't like being in the hospital, but until the Doctors say you're ready to go home, you're going to have to stay here."

"Fine, I just don't like it here."

"I'm going to go pick up Dawn from school, please try to relax, Buffy, you'll get better faster if you do."

Joyce left the hospital room her daughter was in and saw the three friends awkwardly standing outside the door.

"We didn't mean to eavesdrop, Mrs. Summers." Willow told her. "We just wanted to see if Buffy was alright."

"It's alright and she's getting better, she'll be able to go home tomorrow, she just has a phobia about hospitals and I can't blame her for that. About ten years ago her cousin Celia died in the hospital, unfortunately Buffy was in the room with her when it happened. But, like I said she should be fine tomorrow and able to go home then. Thank you for coming to see her."

"I brought her homework." Willow informed her.

"And we wish her to know she is not alone." Ana told her.

"You're good friends and I appreciate that. Dawn and I'll come back after supper to see her." Joyce headed out to her car and the three teens entered Buffy's hospital room. They found her studying a picture.

"What's that?" Johnathan asked.

"A boy here in the hospital drew it. He said it's killing kids." She showed it to the others.

"A sick kid?" Willow asked. "Afraid of death, makes sense."

"Kids are dying here, Willow." Buffy told her. "I heard some of the doctors talking, the doctors think it's the flu killing them. But last night, I saw something myself."

"Buffy, you had a pretty high fever last night." Willow point out. "So high your mom couldn't wake you up."

"Doesn't mean she didn't see something." Ana speculated. "Priests of various religions use drugs to alter their vision so they can see things. Just because science hasn't yet proven whether they're seeing anything real or not, doesn't mean there isn't something to see."

Johnathan looked at the picture. "A demon kids can see, but adults can't. There might be something in Giles books, we should talk to him about it, he is our go to guy on demons after all."

"So you don't just think I'm imagining things?" Buffy asked.

"This is Sunnydale, Buffy." Willow reminded her. "Even with everything Mr. Chase is doing to make things safer, vampires still come here, why not other demons? We've dealt with a few after all, the Brotherhood of Seven that Sid was after for example. It's better to err on the side of caution in Sunnydale, it can and will save lives."

They cut their visit short and taking the picture with them, returned to the school to see Giles who was sceptical but agreed to help them research and went with them to the locked classroom. The three teens and one adult began combing through the books comparing descriptions to the picture, hopeful of finding something.