Lesser Evils: Falling Asleep On Duty
by MattK
Buffy had never been to the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity house before. She’d stopped for directions twice trying to get there. At first, she figured that was why she was having a bit of difficulty finding her way to Lowell House. After a few minutes, though, she had to admit that she was just plain lost.

*How did that happen?*

UC Sunnydale wasn’t that big. There shouldn’t be that much lost to get on campus. Besides, even before she’d been the Slayer, Buffy had possessed a pretty decent sense of direction. Finding her way *back* to someplace should have been easy enough.

She was disoriented. That was the problem. It felt like there was sand in the gears in her head. Probably because she was so tired…

Wait.

*Eleven o’clock is like *early evening* to me. Why the hell would I be tired?*

Whether it made sense or not, she was exhausted. Her body felt heavy and slow, and she could barely keep her head up and her eyelids open, even as she stood.

*Maybe it was the drink—alcohol *is* a depressant. But I only had one! What the hell was in it?*

The unfamiliar territory was starting to look downright threatening. Buffy didn’t like a lot of things about the layout of the UC Sunnydale campus. There were all those thick trees and high hedges and secluded courtyards, plus all of those surrounding woods. There were too few street lamps to begin with, and they had a tendency to get vandalized every weekend. Only about one in five of the blue-light security phones worked. Add the fact that the Security Department made the Sunnydale PD look like the FBI, and it seemed like somebody deliberately designed the place as a vampire buffet.

Case in point. Up ahead, the path she was walking on intersected another. Two girls had just hurried past the intersection and continued on—perhaps to the Phi Kap party? Trailing behind them, in the shadows that the lamps didn’t reach, was a male vampire in a black trench coat.

Buffy got her stake out of her purse. This shouldn’t take long. It *had* to be a fledgling. First of all, he was in vamp face. Hunting in vamp face is kinda like showing up at your first day of Spring Training in a limo—a real rookie stunt. If the Prey spots you before Chow Time, it scares ‘em off. Second, he was doing a sneak-up-and-snatch. On *two* people no less. A lot of screaming, a lot of struggling, poor control of the situation, and a witness left behind. Any vamp worth its fangs preferred seduction or ambush tactics—the better to trick or drag someone where no one will hear the screams.

She stepped out of her side path and into the vampire’s way, cutting him off. "When I saw you in that trench coat, at first I thought you were a flasher," she said. This was untrue, but only because she could sense vampires. If she’d been going on appearances alone…"I was going to call campus security. But then I realized that you’re a vampire," she set her face and brandished her stake, and her voice dropped into grim menace. "So I decided to deal with you myself."

"I’ll be just as glad to eat you as them," the vamp snarled.

"Okay, but I warn you, I’m liable to be a lot harder on your teeth," she retorted.

Something was wrong from the moment the fight began. Buffy had thought that a tussle would wake her up, shake her out of her lethargy. It always had before.

Not this time.

Something was wrong.

Punches that should have knocked the fledgling to the ground barely staggered him. A spin-kick missed entirely and she came back down off-balance.

Something was very, very wrong.

Her blows had no strength and she was an instant slow and getting slower and she had no quips or taunts because she couldn’t *think*. She was needing to concentrate on things that had long since become muscle memory and there was *sand* in the gears in her head and she couldn’t *think*!

And through her mounting terror, she just kept getting sleepier. She was getting slower and weaker and more confused, and she could barely keep her eyes open. Her body felt so heavy.

Suddenly, pain erupted on the side of her head and fireworks exploded behind her eyes, and she found herself on the ground with no real idea how she’d gotten there, the vampire standing over her.

"Well," the vampire, apparently still in the habit of breathing, panted. "That was certainly good for the appetite. Thanks." He started to kneel down and bend toward her when he exploded into ash.

"Don’t worry, miss," a familiar voice said. "You’re…Buffy?"

It seemed that her worries about Riley had been unfounded.

"I still know who I am," she quipped weakly. "He didn’t hit my head *that* hard."

*

Buffy felt much better by the time they reached Stephenson Hall. Riley had carried her for the first part of the journey, but by the time they arrived she was leaning on him as she walked.

"So what happened?" Riley asked as they slowly climbed the stairs. "Was he some kind of vampire bad-ass? Did I just get really lucky here?"

"No, that’s just it," She frowned. "He was a newbie, I’m sure of it. Something was wrong with *me*. I was sick or something. I think I might have passed out even if he hadn’t been there."

"I didn’t know you could get sick," Riley said.

"Not often, but when I do, it can get nasty. I once had a case of the flu that put me in the hospital." She fell silent for a moment. It still hurt to think of that time in her life. "But that doesn’t make any sense," she continued after the moment had passed. "How could it come and go so quickly?" Her expression grew worried. "I hope it’s not anything Hellmouthy."

Riley’s face had gone grim. "Did you have anything to drink?"

"A cup of punch," Buffy answered. "Why?"

"That’s not good."

Buffy looked affronted. "I wasn’t drunk," she protested.

"I know, I—"

"I know what drunk feels like," she continued, acting as if she hadn’t heard him. "And this isn’t drunk."

"I believe you, it’s just—"

"I’ll have you know that I can drink like a man three times my size."

"Buffy! I believe you. You weren’t drunk."

"Where were you, anyway?" Buffy sulked.

Riley sighed. Maybe she wasn’t drunk, but she definitely was not in her right mind. Fortunately, he interpreted her question correctly: she still felt accused, and she was blaming him for not showing up on time. It never would have happened if you’d been there.

"Bagging and tagging," he answered. "We ran into a couple weird ones."

"Hey, that’s right," Buffy said. "Shouldn’t you have bagged and tagged *my* vampire, instead of dusting him?"

Riley shook his head. "I can’t carry my taser around with me."

"But you *do* carry a stake?"

Riley quirked a wry grin at her. "On this campus, a lot more useful for self-defense than mace."

Buffy chuckled as they approached her door.

"So why did you want to know if I’d had anything to drink?" she asked as she fished around in her pockets for her key.

"I’ll tell you in the morning," Riley said, grim-faced once more. "Right now, you need some sleep."

"Okay," Buffy agreed, turning the key in the lock. "Could you go over to Phi Kap and tell Willow what happened?" She asked as she swung the door open. She had to look over her shoulder to say this—Riley had stopped in the doorway, staring straight ahead.

"I don’t think that’ll be necessary," he said.

Confused, Buffy followed his gaze across the room, to where she saw something that blew the lethargy out of her system at last and made her eyes fly wide open.

Parker Abrams tucking Willow into bed, then turning to face them.


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