Oop didn't think she'd be back for round 2, did you?

And by she I mean me... hi I'm the author 😂🤍

Super sorry for the long wait on updates but I'm back again and soooooo ready to get through season 2!! If you haven't already definitley check out my other stories 😗 I will be updating those as well. Yesterday I also updated my teen wolf story. Super happy about that one! I love teen wolf!

You guys already know I have issues so I've been slowly putting together another Fanfiction 🙃😂 don't worry I won't put out anything until I'm done with the preface story and probably season 1. But if you didn't know then let me give you a little hint.

I'm kinda excited about it! I'll put out a little sneak peek soon.

Anyways just wanted to say hey and tell y'all to share the love with all my other work 🥹🤍 I always reply to everyone and am super grateful for the support! Alright back to the original program...

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3rd Person's POV

Sunnydale General.

Xander is sitting on a chair outside the waiting room across from the nurses' station that is down the hall from Buffy's room.

There are two police officers talking to a security guard. Nurses and orderlies are going about their tasks.

Angelus comes walking into the waiting room from the a room down the hall bearing some whistling a few bars of 'Ode to Joy' from Beethoven's 9th symphony.

Xander hears him and looks to see who's coming. When he sees Angelus he quickly gets up and faces him down in the hall.

"Visiting hours are over."

Angelus chuckles nodding towards the room he had just left, "Well, I'm pretty much family."

Xander frowns trying hard to stay cool, "Yeah. Why don't you come back during the day? Oh, gee, no, I guess you can't."

Angelus stares threateningly, "I've already seen the little one... now if I decide to walk into Buffy's room, do you think for one microsecond that you could stop me?"

Xander's jaw clenches as he bites down on his teeth, "Maybe not. Maybe that security guard couldn't either. Or those cops... or the orderlies... But I'm kinda curious to find out. You game?"

Angelus pauses before leaning closer and grinning, "Buffy's White Knight. You still love her. It must just eat you up that I got there first."

Xander stares standing firm yet fighting his nervousness, "You're gonna die. And I'm gonna be there."

Angelus chuckles and shakes his head, "Tell her I stopped by... and don't worry I'll be back to check on the one you all seem to forget about."

He gives Xander one final look and then goes through the waiting room to the elevator. Xander shudders, covers his mouth and lets out a breath of relief.

He snaps out of it and hurries down the hall to the room that Angelus had first stepped out of. He sighs as he sees Laney laying on her hospital bed still unconscious.

As he looks around the room for anything out of the ordinary, his eyes stop on a vase by her bed.

A bouquet of white and red roses.

"Shit..."
...

The sun shines through a room making the girl on the bed stir awake. She slowly sits up stretching and looks around before frowning realizing where she was.

Dr. Wilkinson knocks on the door and enters, "Good morning."

Buffy groans rubbing her eyes, "Could've fooled me."

"How are you feeling? Looks like your fever's gone down."

Buffy grins while trying to get out of bed, "Well, good! Thanks for having me. Let's try and keep in touch."

Dr. Wilkinson pushes her back, "Not so fast." She inspects Buffy's bandaged arm, "Hmm..."

"Good 'hmm' or bad 'hmm'?"

"Swelling's... gone! Does this hurt?"

Buffy grins shaking her head, "Nope."

"Amazing." Dr Wilkinson gets the chart out and starts writing as Buffy tries to leave again.

"Well, then I should probably go, right?"

Dr. Wilkinson stops her again, "No. Soon. We have to make sure that fever is gone. That's a strong virus you have. Maybe not as strong as you, but..."

"I-is that the same virus the kids have?"

Before Dr. Wilkinson can answer there's a knock on the door.

"May we come in?" Giles asks while sticking his head through the door.

"Please!" Dr Wilkinson a says while looking at Buffy sternly, "Maybe you can keep our patient from bolting. Rest! Hmm?"

She leaves as the rest of the group comes in behind Giles.

Xander smiles presenting five balloons, "Flowers for milady."

Buffy looks up at them, "I think they call those balloons."

Xander looks up, "Yeah, stick 'em in water, maybe they'll grow."

"Not to be outdone..." Willow sets school books on the bed.

Buffy grimaces, "Homework!"

Willow nods with a grin, "It's my way of saying, 'get well soon'."

"You know, chocolate says that even better."

Willow rolls her eyes, "I did all your assignments. All you have to do is sign your name."

Giles munches on a grape.

Buffy smiles, "Chocolate means nothing to me."

Willow steps back and looks up at Cordelia.

Cordelia frowns looking at Giles, "Nobody told me I was supposed to bring a gift. I was out of the loop on gifts."

"It's, it's tradition among, um... people. Um..." Giles says as he walks up to the bed, "Grapes." He sets down the bag, "Well, did you, uh, pass the night well enough?"

A nurse comes into the room and walks around the bed.

"Not really. Something happened I thought you..."

The nurse checks Buffy's IV.

"You know what? Let's take a walk."

Outside the hospital main entrance, Willow pushing Buffy along in a wheelchair while the others walk alongside.

"Now, this part I could get used to."

"Do you want me to go real fast?" She gets a look from Giles and chuckles nervously, "Not that I would."

Giles nods, "We were discussing, um, stuff."

"Yes, stuff. Um, you know, a girl died here last night."

"How?" Willow frowns.

"Well, the flu..."

Xander stares, "Flu doesn't exactly sound monsterrific."

Buffy nods, "I know. But there's this Dr. Backer, and he's been giving them these experimental treatments."

They stop by a bench and Giles sits.

"I-I'm not sure what he's up to, but he's a little creepy. A-and then there was this kid, Ryan. He said he saw something."

Giles frowns, "Saw what?"

"Death."

Cordelia raises an eyebrow, "Death?"

"The Death? As in, 'it is your time'?" Willow gulps.

"Buffy, a-a-a frightened child..."

Buffy interrupts Giles already knowing how crazy she sounded, "Yeah, but I thought I saw something. I'm not sure, I was really out of it, but..."

"But you do know that you saw death." Cordelia questions.

Willow purses her lips in interest, "Did it have an hourglass?"

Xander jokes, "Ooo, if he asks you to play chess, don't even do it. The guy's, like, a whiz."

Buffy sighs thinking about how she actually didn't see anything by herself but with Laney. But wouldn't that make her seem crazier?

"Maybe it wasn't death. Maybe it was something else."

Cordelia sighs, "So this isn't about you being afraid of hospitals 'cause your friend died and you wanna conjure up a monster that you can fight so you can save everybody and not feel so helpless?"

Giles glances I've at Cordelia and shakes his head, "Cordelia, have you actually ever heard of tact?"

"Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass."

...

After the Scooby Gang talk, they all separate and go on to do secret missions. Of course Xander and Cordelia had been assigned together, however recently they had been going through a rough patch.

As Xander looks through a filing cabinet in the Doctor's Records Room, Cordelia reluctantly goes to the other side of the door where they came in. She opens the cabinet and looks in. Suddenly a security guard appears next to her, and she jumps and gasps.

"What are you doing here?"

She gives him a worried smile and lets out a breath.

With just one playful grin, Cordelia has the guard wrapped around her finger. She smiles sweetly at him and pretends to be interested as he leans against the wall and talks.

"You know, most people think that security guards are just guys that failed the police exam. But that's not me. This is my career."

Cordelia shakes her head pouting, "Stereotypes are so unfair."

The Guard nods, "I did take the fireman's exam, though. I didn't do so good."

"Oh, well, you know, I think that security guards," Cordelia plays with his badge, "are way sexier than firemen. They're all sooty."

"Well, this is where all the action is anyhow. I'm all the time restraining people."

Xander hides behind the other storage cabinets. He's found the file he wants and is waiting and listening for an opportunity to get out.

"Mm, how thrilling. Do you ever get scared?"

"'Fear is for the weak.' That's my motto. Either that, or 'Live in the now.' I haven't decided yet."

"I bet you see a lot of tragedy. You know, like that little girl?" Cordelia frowns.

"Oh, one of Dr. Backer's patients. Dr. Backer's a great man. He understands..."

Xander cringes at what he's hearing and thuds lightly back into the cabinet.

"...the real truth about children."

"What's that?"

The Guard shrugs, "Sometimes they die."

Cordelia closes her eyes. Xander makes another bumping noise, this time loud enough that the security guard hears it.

"What was that?" He draws his baton.

"Uh, you know, I didn't hear anything." Cordelia tries to get his attention, "You know, you have the most... perfect nose I've ever seen."

He turns to face her. She giggles and reaches up her finger to run it over his forehead and down the length of his nose. Behind the guard, Xander steps over to the door, quietly opens it and goes out.

"You must work out."

The Guard gives her a little growl, "Yeah."

Cordelia smiles and nods her head, "Mm-hm..."

Outside the records room, Xander waits around the corner for Cordelia. She walks around it and lets out a surprised gasp when she runs into him there.

"Could you make just a little more with the touchy-gropey?"

Cordelia smirks, "Jealous?"

Xander chuckles shaking his head, "Of Rogaine boy? I don't think so." He hands her the file, "Here, take this to Giles, okay?"

"What about you?"

"I'm gonna stay here."

He didn't want to scare anybody by telling them that Angelus had been in the hospital and seen Laney then tried to see Buffy. So he thought it would be best to keep it to himself.

Cordelia scoffs, "Oh, right. Your obsession with protecting Buffy. Have I told you how attractive that's not?"

Xander frowns, "Cordelia, someone's gotta watch her back."

Cordelia crosses her arms over her chest, "Yeah, well, I've seen you watch her back."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I was using the phrase 'watch her back' as a euphemism for 'looking at her butt.' You know, sort of a pun."

"Oh! Right..." Xander finally gets the insult and frowns, "Hey!"

"Well, you do."

"Jealous?"

Cordelia raises an eyebrow then scoffs once more, "Fine. Watch my back."

She walks past him and down the hall. He turns around and watches her go. He tilts his head to check out her butt, but quickly straightens back up again.

...

Outside the children's ward, Laney comes along and stops by the door. She looks into the room and sees Ryan sitting at a table drawing a picture with crayons.Peeking at both ends of the empty hallway, she then open the door and hurries inside. Closing it behind her she waves at the kids she had seen once again. She tried to make her presence known when she could but mostly she was only able to see them through the window.

Laney smiles taking a seat beside him, "Hey. Remember me?"

Ryan nods looking at her sadly, "You shouldn't be here."

"Why not?"

Ryan shrugs, "Contagious."

Laney sighs resting her chin in her hands, "Nah. I don't think I can catch anything."

Ryan peeks up at her and then back down at his coloring, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine...ish."

"Are you real?"

Laney smiles sadly, "Of course... I just am asleep right now... stuck outside my body. I'm sure that doesn't make sense to you... anyways what are you drawing?"

She sits down by the table. Ryan goes back to drawing his picture. She takes a look at his picture. It's of the monster that he's seen coming after the other kids. Laney briefly flashes back to when she saw it walk past her door.

"He'll come again tonight." Ryan frowns.

Laney sighs before clearing her throat, "Ryan, listen to me. You remember my friend, the blonde girl from the other night? Well Buffy and I... we're not gonna let this thing hurt you. Any of you. Grown-ups don't believe you, right? Well, I do. We both know that there are real monsters. But there's also real heroes that fight monsters. And that's us."

He looks away and goes back to drawing his picture, "Can't fight death."

"Yeah well we can try."

Later during night time, Laney comes back to check on the kids. She waiting behind the other door and closes in on her suspicious face.

In the children's ward, Dr. Backer comes in and looks around at the various beds as he makes his way over to a particularly sick child. The boy is asleep. He checks his watch and looks at the child for a moment.

The boy lets out a labored breath. Dr. Backer raises a syringe, taps it twice to get the air bubbles to the top and depresses the plunger until the fluid starts to squirt out. He takes the IV line and pushes the needle into the drug administration stopper.

Behind him he hears a muffled laugh and turns to look, but sees nothing. He looks back at the boy again. Suddenly he gets hit in the back and spun around by something unseen.

"Uhh!"

He is hit again in the chest and yells out in pain. Ryan sees what's happening from his bed and cowers in fear as Dr. Backer is choked.

Four slashes appear on his lab coat that go deep and draw blood. He grabs his wound, but is bent backward onto the bed, still being choked. On the wall a shadow can be seen swinging its arm for another slice at the doctor. He screams, and blood sprays onto the wall. Ryan cowers further under his covers.

Laney stares in fright with wide eyes at the scene. She goes to slowly approach the door to the ward and just as her hand touches the doorknob, she quickly has to step back out of the way as Dr. Backer comes flying out and onto the floor. He groans, and she bends down to help him, but something pushes her away and throws her back into the wall. She hits it hard and slides down to the floor unconscious before disappearing.

Dr. Backer's arms are lifted by the unseen being, and his body is pulled around and dragged down the hall. Further down the hall he is dragged around a corner and out of sight.

It wasn't Backer.

Backer was clean.

...

Buffy opens the door to Dr. Backer's office and pokes in her head. Seeing that it's empty she opens the door further to let Willow in, checks the hall and closes it behind her. She starts to looks around and checks out the reference volumes on the shelves by the fridge. Willow looks over the printouts on his desk.

"It's weird going through his things."

Buffy opens the fridge and frowns before closing it.

Willow looks at everything else on the desk, "Look, he didn't finish his coffee. Guess he won't..."

Buffy walks over to the desk, "Yep, another person I wasn't in time to save. It's too bad Angel didn't put me in the hospital sooner... There's something I never thought I'd hear myself say."

The two of them keep looking.

"Hey, wait, I think I have something."

Buffy smiles, "Hmm. Sherlock."

"Okay, this makes sense. Dr. Backer was trying to inoculate the kids with a controlled dosage of the same virus they already had." Willow gets a confused look from Buffy, "Oh, raising their temperatures to burn the fever out of them."

"Would that work?"

"According to this it was starting to. So he really was trying to help the kids."

"Till that thing stopped him."

Buffy looks over her shoulder and raises an eyebrow, "Where have you been?"

Willow frowns confused while looking between Buffy and the space or air that she was looking at.

Laney shrugs, "Here and there. Look I came to warn you. You have to hurry and help the kids, Buffy."

Buffy frowns, "Wait you see what happened?"

Laney nods, "It was the thing... the nightmare creature. He killed Backer. I don't think I can do much seeing as I'm pretty much a ghost."

Buffy groans, "Ugh great..."

Willow taps Buffy's shoulder with a sheepsish smile, "Are you feeling okay, Buffy?"

Buffy nods, "I'm fine! Why?"

"Because you're talking to yourself..."

Buffy gapes as she stares at Willow in shock then glances over at Laney who shrugs, "Wait... you don't see...?"

Willow frowns, "Not what. Who."

Clearing her throat, Laney raises a finger gaining Buffy's attention, "We have bigger issues, Buffy."

As Buffy turns back to look at Laney, she stares at the girl in shock as she is slowly fading away, "Wait what's happening? Where are you going?"

"I-I don't know... I'm fading... I think my time is up."

"Time is up?... Can you not be so morbid? Maybe you're waking up?"

"I hope so..." Is the last thing Laney says before she completely vanishes into thin air.

Willow stands still waiting for Buffy to answer as she stares at her friend in slight disbelief and fear.

Buffy slaps her hand over her forehead, "Sorry Willow I forgot you were still there... I was talking to... um maybe it's best to explain it later."

Willow raises an eyebrow then nods slowly, "Oh uh okay..."

Buffy takes a deep breath before turning to the door, "Let's catch this Boogeyman."

...

That night Buffy stops the bad guy and saves the kids before the life was sucked out of them. Finally the kids were given treatment once again and were safe and sound.

Buffy was allowed to go home swing as her fever was gone and she was up and running.

As she lays in her bed, she looks at her two friends and smiles.

"I'm glad that's over."

"I'm kind of bummed I didn't get to see the boogeyman. Was he as ugly as they say?" Xander asks.

Buffy nods, "Uglier."

Joyce knocks on the door and enters once Buffy says come in. She walks into the room holding an envelope.

"Buffy, here. Um, this came in the mail."

Buffy sits up with Willow's help and reads the return address smiling, "It's from Ryan."

She opens it quickly as Joyce peeks at the envelope, "The boy from the hospital?"

Buffy takes out the paper inside and unfolds it. Joyce looks down at it.

Willow smiles, "Oh, he drew you a picture."

The picture is of Buffy standing over the Kindestod Boogeyman creature with her foot up on its chest. The monster's neck is split open and blood is gushing out.

"How... nice." Joyce grimaces.

"Wait what is this?" Willow points to a drawn figure behind Buffy in the picture, "Is that-"

Buffy's head snaps up as she looks at them all in shock, "Laney!"

...

Laney's eyes snap open as she gasps awake. She feels her chest start to beat faster as she realizes there was a tube in her mouth and nose. Her hands slowly move towards all the needles and plugs attached to her hand. She lights taps on them intrigued but knows better than to rip them off.

She looks around the room and feels her body freeze as she sees a shadow in the corner. The figure takes a couple steps out of the darkness and smiles.

"Welcome back, short stack..."

Ahhhhh!!! I gotta end it there!! I'm so freaking excited to finish this season y'all have no idea!! It's a doozy!!

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