Where Do the Children Play: Part Six
by Alex Queirolo


Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy & Co. Joss Whedon and the WB do. No copyright infringement intended.
Author’s Note: This takes place in the second season after “When She Was Bad” but before “Reptile Boy”. It also splits off here from Buffy’s brief drinking incident in that ep.




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Part Six

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How she managed to make it through the rest of the school day without having a complete break-down was a mystery even to her. How she managed to avoid her friends who were feverishly searching for her was not so puzzling. She'd purposely avoided them at every turn and damn was it hard.

But she couldn't face them. She didn't know what was happening to herself or why it was suddenly becoming impossible to keep her emotions in check but it was starting to really scare her. And hitting Giles..

That had been wild. For a few moments there, all of her anger and pain had spun together and it had felt good..at least momentarily, to let it all explode. Unfortunately that had meant attacking Giles.

A shiver worked it's way through her body as she suddenly felt very small and alone. She knew they were looking for her but they probably just wanted to tell her that she was out of control and that she needed help.

Buffy straightened herself up, her lips drawn together in a thin line of anger. What did they know about control? She was the Slayer. She was the one who had to hold it all together day in and day out. She hadn't been exaggerating when she'd told Cordelia that she'd been trying to mesh three worlds together but in truth it was more like four. There was the home life with mom who was some damn oblivious to everything that sometimes it was too much to bear. There was her school life which was difficult enough with Trig and all but having Snyder peering over her shoulder was really starting to piss her off. And to make it that much worse, he seemed certain that her recent hospitalization proved that she was a deviant that needed to be watched every minute. That had several times made escaping those in search of her a lot closer than it should have been. And then of course, there was her social life both in and out of school. Of course that had badly fallen apart as of late. No thanks to the fact that fate had chosen her to be the Slayer. In any case, what right did they have to talk to her about control?

She pushed herself off of the bench near the gym and brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes. There was no use sticking around school now that the day was over. She really had no burning desire to go see Giles and she knew that if she hung around campus much longer, either the others would finally locate her and drag her back to the Library or else she'd kill Snyder. While the latter of the two ideas held some appeal, neither was exactly lucrative so she decided to leave.


* * *
Angel placed his fingers against his forehead, shook his head in frustration and then looked up at the others. "Nothing. I've searched this entire town over. She's hiding."

"Well," Giles said with a hint of sadness, "If anyone can do it effectively, it would be her."

"Assuming she's not drunk." Xander reminded him.

"Maybe her last stay in the hospital cured her of that. I mean, she hasn't had anything to drink since." Willow insisted.

"That might have something to do with this being the first time she's been alone since she was released," Giles replied. "The second time..when she went with you to the beach, how did she get the liquor?" He looked over at Cordelia who was leaning against the wall.

"I don't know..she had it in a duffel bag 'til we got to the beach." Cordelia replied in a distracted tone.

"Buffy has a fake ID," Xander cried out. He looked up at them, "Will, she and I got them so that when we went down to Los Angeles last Spring Break, we could go to the clubs there."

Giles gave the boy his best "I'm disappointed" look and then sighed and shook his head,"God knows then..alright...well it's safe to say that her violent outburst this morning is not likely to be an isolated event.."

"Safe and violent in the same sentence,,funky,crazy, weird," Xander murmured.

"Yes, quite. In any case, I think she has reached a breaking point at which she has become more than simply a danger to herself.."

"She could hurt someone else," Willow shouted. She looked at the others. "She won't ever recover from that..ever.."


* * *
Buffy cupped her hands over her mouth and blew into it and then rubbed her hands together. She huddled tighter into her leather jacket and leaned back against the stone wall.

"What's a pretty girl like you doing outside on a cold night like this?" A voice asked.

"Maybe I'm not so much of a girl and maybe I just stepped outside for a smoke." Buffy replied, glancing over and into the yellow-lit entry-way of the Smokey Duck.

"So where's the cigarette?"

"Guess I'm out," she replied softly.

The man moved in front of her and offered her a Marlboro. She looked up at him and then murmured a thank you and took it from him. He lit it for her. "So I'm Jason Cash. People call me Jay."

She nodded, "Buffy."

"So Buffy, how old are you..if you're not so much of a girl that is." Cash asked, moving closer to her.

"I'm old enough for you to buy me a drink," Buffy said. She slid over to him and put on her most charming smile.

"Would you like that?" Cash asked, obviously taken with the girl moving closer to him.

She put her hand flat on his chest, "Would I ever."


* * *
Jennifer Calendar sighed dramatically, "Come on, Bishop..why are you so nervous."

The tall dark man with the twitching eyebrows looked around and then back at her, "I could have been followed."

"You weren't," Calendar replied dryly. Sometimes she thought she was the only sane one left in the technopagan circle she co-existed in. Bishop was definitely a card. The man was paranoid and at times psychotic. Definitely not someone she had a burning desire to surround herself with on a long term basis.

"Okay.." Bishop leaned forward and produced an envelope from under his overcoat. Lightly touching the envelope he whispered, "In here.."

"Oh no.."

Bishop's head shot up and his dark eyes got a wild look to them, "What? Was I followed?"

Calendar shushed him and pushed herself up from the table. She looked over the shoulder of a tall man who was obstructing her view of the bar. She blinked to ensure that what she was seeing was not her mind at work. "Buffy."

Sure enough, sitting at the bar next to a very large and burly man was the young Slayer. The man had his arm around Buffy's back and with his other hand was offering her a glass of clear liquid. She took it from him, murmured something and then drank it. Buffy smiled and then leaned forward and whispered into Cash's ear, her hand straying onto his thigh.

Calendar turned back to Bishop,"Hey, I need to take care of something real quick. Hang tight, okay?"

"What..I.."

"Hang tight, I'll be right back."

She walked over to the bar and moved in back of Buffy hoping that her sheer presence would make Buffy think twice about what she was doing. Of course that would have required the Slayer actually noticing her. Instead, Buffy continued flirting with the burly man and taking large gulps from her glass which had already been refreshed once.

"Buffy," Calendar said sharply.

The girl looked up at her, blinked and then looked away. "So, Jay, you were saying that you're in construction, right?"

"Buffy, I'm talking to you."

Cash glared up at Calendar, "Do you know this babe, Buffy?"

"Never met her," Buffy replied easily, picking up the chaser of beer. "She must have heard us talking and got my name that way."

Calendar considered grabbing her arm and making the girl face her but common sense stepped in. Buffy was the Slayer and because of that, she had the ability to cause a lot of pain. She'd already knocked Rupert flat on his back earlier in the day which proved that Buffy obviously wasn't thinking clearly. No, in this case, sole intervention would be a very bad and potentially painful idea. Reinforcements would be necessary. Which then meant that the next big question was, how long would it take for them to arrive and how drunk would the Slayer be by that time?

Calendar stepped away and over to the phone located next to the bathroom. As she dialed the library's number, she glanced over at the table where she and Bishop had been sitting. "Damn." Not surprisingly, he had disappeared.

"Hello?" A strongly accented voice asked over the line. For a moment Calendar was startled and then she remembered the phone.

"Rupert, it's me, Jenny. You have got to get over to the Smokey Duck now."

"It's not a good time..Buffy's still missing..."

"She's here."

"She's what?"

"Buffy is here and she's with a guy and they are both getting drunk fast. She's not even acknowledging me."

"Alright, we'll be there in five minutes. Just..just keep an eye on her, will you please?"

"No problem."

"Good. Um, bye." He hung up. Calendar shook her head and set the phone back on the cook. She stepped over to a table that gave her a better view of the bar and sat down to watch.

In the five minutes before the calvary arrived, she watched as the casual flirting that Buffy was doing to convince the man to buy her drink after drink turned very quickly into full on coming on to him. It was sad and it was scary because it was becoming alarmingly obvious just how out of control Buffy was. And it sure didn't help that the man sitting next to the young Slayer had no problem with her hitting on him.

"Jenny!" Giles rushed through the door with Angel, Xander, Willow and Cordelia behind him.

"Giles, the children.."

"Have ID's much like Buffy's. Where is she?"

"Over there," Calendar replied, recovering from the shock of having an entire handful of kids she knew carrying around illegal ID cards.

"With that big man that..just slipped his hand up her shirt!" Xander yelped taking two long strides towards Buffy. Angel caught him by the back of his shirt.

"Hold up there.."

Xander turned sharply on him, "I thought she was your girlfriend."

"We're not going out."

"So you don't mind if some other guy is feeling her up. And don't tell me that her's decision..look at her, man..she's tanked."

"I agree completely, however, I'm thinking the best course of action is not to walk over there and pull her away from that pervert."

"And what is the best course of action?" Willow asked, "Because right now I'm wanting to break his arm." The others all looked at her in astonishment. The young hacker turned a bright shade of red and said softly, "Sorry."

"I say we all go," Angel growled. Giles and Calendar exchanged worried looks but it was Angel who said what they were thinking, "And hold on because this could get ugly."

"Oh dear," Giles murmured.

Angel and Xander moved over to where Buffy was sitting. "Buffy, it's time to go."

She looked up at him, "Angel..hi, Angel. I don't want to go right now."

"Buffy.."

"She said she didn't want to go," Cash said, taking out his hand from under her shirt and standing up to face Angel. "So I think that means you need to leave, pretty boy."

"We're not leaving without Buffy." Giles said, pushing his way forward. "So I would suggest allowing us to take her with us and that way no one will be sorry."

"Oh someone's gonna be sorry, pal. What are you, her old man?" Cash laughed.

"In a manner of speaking. Now we'll be leaving now with Buffy."

Cash turned to Buffy, "Do you wanna go with them, girl? Or stay with me?"

Buffy giggled, "What do you think?"

"Well it's looks like Buffy's made her decision. I think you should leave now."

"Buffy is drunk and incapable of making a decision." Giles replied. He looked at Cash hoping to find some reason but all he saw was aggression. Straightening himself up and reminding himself that it was his duty to protect the Slayer especially when she was incapable of protecting herself, he said flatly, "We're not leaving without her."

Cash turned away from Giles, laughing. He looked at Buffy, "You believe this guy?" Then he spun back around and punched Giles across the jaw. "Sorry, pops, the girl stays with me."

Both Buffy and Calendar screamed at the same time. Buffy fell off of her stool and collided with the ground where she lay half-dazed as Angel moved forward and decked Cash. A moment later a full brawl broke out. Buffy tried to crawl out of the center of it but found that with every moment, the world swam even further out of focus. A foot slammed into her stomach and she cried out. Curling herself into a ball, she tried to tuck her head under her arm.

"Willow, get Buffy!" Giles called out as he ducked another right hook by a trucker. Damn, these boys just liked to fight. Over on the other side of the bar, Angel and Xander were standing back to back fending off multiple attackers while Cordelia and Calendar were making good use of just about anything they could hold in their hands.

"I'm on it," Willow called back as she scurried to find her friend. She saw Buffy lying on the ground, curled up, near the bar. "Buffy, I got you." She went to her knees and pulled Buffy into her arms. "I'm going to take you outside."

"The hell you are," Cash said, suddenly appearing above her. He grabbed Willow by the arm and tossed her against the bar.

"Willow!" Xander screamed, taking an instinctive step towards her. Angel grabbed his arm.

"Hold your ground..and duck."

Xander did as he was told and just managed to miss getting nailed in the head by a flying chair. He looked back over at Willow desperately and what astonished at what he saw.

Willow was standing a few feet from where Buffy was crouched. She was screaming the Slayers' name, begging her to stop. Begging her to stop hitting Cash.

Both Angel and Xander cleared through the guys they were fighting and rushed over to Buffy and Willow. Xander wrapped his arms protectively around Will as Angel grabbed Buffy and pulled her forcefully off of Cash. "Enough! Enough."

She looked up at him desperately. Tears began to fall from her startled blue eyes. Fear crept into every crease of her face and she began to breathe hard. "No..I..I didn't mean..I didn't mean..God help me..." She shoved Angel away and pushed towards the door.

"Buffy..no!" Angel screamed, reaching out for her. In the distance sirens wailed.

"We have to get the hell out of here. These kids are under-aged." Calendar screamed. Giles nodded and grabbed both Willow and Xander by their shirts and pushed them through the door. Angel moved over to the bar and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a wad of cash and threw it at the startled bar-tender. "This should more then cover the damage." And with that he turned and left.

Once outside he looked around frantically. "Where is she? Where is she!"

Giles felt a coldness seep through him, "She's gone again."


* * *
It was more than three hours that they looked for her before returning to the library. They all looked weary and depressed and most of them were showing the physical signs of having been in a bar brawl.

"Now what?" Xander asked. "Somehow or another she keeps slipping past us." He pressed an ice pack to his head and groaned softly. Giles came out of the office and handed the boy a tall glass of water and two pills with the words: Tylenol PM on them. He took them and thanked Giles.

"She's on the run," Angel said, hand over his eyes. "She's scared and hurt and she's running."

"Buffy!" Willow cried out suddenly.

"Yes, Buffy." Giles replied in irritation. He looked up to glance over at Willow but his eyes locked on the trembling figure standing in the doorway. "Buffy..Oh God.."

She held out her hand towards them, "Please don't walk away from me..please..I don't know what to do..I'm so scared..please..I'm sorry.."

The others all exchanged worried gazes. It was a stupid question and Angel knew it the moment the words flew from his lips but he couldn't help it. "Are you okay?"

The girl tried to speak but nothing came out. She shook her head frantically. Both Willow and Angel stepped towards her and it was then that she collapsed to the floor. Willow managed to grab her arm and keep her from slamming forcefully into the ground. Buffy looked up at the people around here and they saw tears flowing down her cheeks as she stammered, "No, I'm not okay." She grabbed Willow's arm and pulled the girl down to eye level, "Please..I know you have every right to hate me..I deserve it but please..I need you..I can't..I don't want to hurt...anyone.. help me."

Willow wrapped her arms tightly around Buffy and squeezed. Words were un-necessary. The other all watched in numbed silence as the Slayer cried hysterically into her friends' embrace.


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