“I want an explanation.” Gibbs stated simply from the front seat of the car. Xander looked over and saw him sipping his coffee and staring at him quietly.
“Just one?” Xander asked with a grin, causing Kate to smile from the back of the car.
“The toy that came with your boxes,” Gibbs supplied, causing Kate to look at Xander questioningly in the mirror. “Why?”
“In the last day you’ve been introduced to vampires, demons and immortals,” Xander smirked. “You’ve seen more strange things in the past two days than you have in the past twenty years.” He let out a bark of laughter as Gibbs nodded along with him. “And the only thing you want to know, is why I received a cuddly toy with the boxes?”
“It’s the one thing I can count on getting an explanation that I can make sense of,” Gibbs explained his choice. “So?”
“It’s from my ex,” Xander smiled. “A boytoy for her boytoy.” Xander grinned, thinking back to how Faith had started this little tease to make him smile. It had started just after she broke up with him, she finished the relationship because she couldn’t handle the funk that he had dropped into after finding out he was immortal. He even had a death wish for a while, going after the most dangerous vampires and demons with no backup, he survived every time, but their relationship didn’t. Faith had already been through the self destructive phase, and come out the end of it stronger. She’d tried to help him, trying to do everything that they had done for her and more, but nothing helped. In the end she just walked out one night and didn’t go back, it was worse seeing someone you cared about going through this, but when they had cut you off completely from their life and you had to just watch them taking stupid risks with their life every day, that made it so much harder. She couldn’t watch him; she took the first flight out to London and went as the Councils operative to England. When she came back he had passed through his ‘phase’, he was a bit darker for it, and a lot more dangerous, and could identify with her in a way that no one else could. It made them closer than they had ever been in a relationship, too close for the relationship to continue. Now they were like brother and sister, able to talk to each other about the darkness within them, safe in the knowledge that the other person knew exactly what they were talking about. “She sends me one every time I go on a mission, kind of a good luck charm and a message to know she’s there if I need her.”
“She’s a slayer.” Gibbs stated simply, causing a raised eyebrow to come from both Xander and Kate.
“Yeah,” Xander turned to stare at him. “How did you know, I never told you about slayers?”
“Ducky did.” Gibbs explained.
“What’s a slayer?” Kate asked what was on both their minds, but she didn’t have to worry about the man’s code of not asking personal questions about an ex.
“A girl, enhanced speed, strength, built in vamp detector.” Xander grinned at his off the cuff description of slayers. “Capable of bending a M40 into a perfect circle.”
Gibbs let out a low whistle while Kate looked really intrigued.
“Always women?” She asked as Xander turned a corner.
“Always girls,” Xander replied darkly. “Between fourteen and twenty three, a nine year gap for their ‘calling’. Any younger and they don’t have the height or focus to get the job done, any older and they’re too set in the world around them to focus on the supernatural.”
“Who calls them?” Gibbs asked, his tone saying what his words didn’t, that women had no place in combat. He couldn’t help it, it was old style marine training to the core, women don’t have any place on the front lines of any war zone.
“Unknown.” Xander replied simply, his tone stating that he agreed with Gibbs perfectly, and if he had the chance to change it from women to men, he would do in a heartbeat. It wasn’t him being chauvinistic, it was just the way he was. If he could save an innocent girls life and take her place on the front lines of this war, he’d do it without a second thought. “I’m bringing in someone to talk with Abby.” He said simply, changing the subject drastically in a way that no one would go back to the old topic.
“Why?” Gibbs asked, curious as to what Abby had done that none of the others had.
“She’s too in love with this world,” Xander explained. “She still thinks vampires are ‘cool’, and demons are all fluffy toys to play with. This is not the world I want her in.”
“Who?” Gibbs stated simply, wanting to know who would be coming to explain about vampires to a member of NCIS. From what he had seen, Harris was pretty much an expert on them, he couldn’t imagine anyone else being able to tell Abby about the dark side of life in any more detail that he could.
“Spike.” Xander said, receiving a raised eyebrow from Gibbs and the same from Kate when he looked in the mirror. “Master vampire, around one hundred and twenty, you’ll like him.” He grinned at Gibbs. “He’s got the same temperament as you, and used to smack me round the head like you do with Tony.”
“You’re bringing in a vampire, to warn Abby off vampires?” Kate asked, her tone stating that she was holding back laughter.
“I trust him,” Xander said simply, earning him a surprised look from both Kate and Gibbs. “He’s fought the good fight for over ten years now, saved the world once and all our lives. He’ll rub you the wrong way every chance he gets, but he’d a good fighter, strong, fast and can take nearly as much damage as me. He’s been fighting and killing for over a hundred years, hand to hand he’s pretty much perfect. Interrogation and ‘torture’,” Xander paused with a grin that was a hell of a lot darker than his usual lop sided one. “He’s second only to Angelus.”
“You trust him?” Gibbs asked, wanting Xander to reiterate the point.
“With my life, he’s been my only backup on dangerous missions more times than I can count. I may not like him, but I respect how many times he’s put his life on the line to save everyone else.” Xander thought back to all the times he had fought side by side with Spike, they had come to a mutual agreement. Spike pissed him off as much as he could, then when they fought in training; he knew that he didn’t have to hold back with him. It had made him a more efficient fighter, and in hand to hand his speed was nearly up to slayer levels now. “I’d have him cover my six before I chose anyone else Gunny.”
Gibbs nodded, filing away the fact that Harris had just called him Gunny. He got the idea that Harris’ trust wasn’t an easy thing to earn, and he used way too many military words not to have had some training, the ‘Gunny’ comment was the final piece that put him in the marines. The fact that he brought up an M40 as an example, a ‘Kate’ as they called it in the corps could just be a coincidence, but he’d bet his boat that Harris’ had marine training, perhaps sniper school under his belt. It would explain his range scores and the way he moved, but he was just too young, then again, being immortal he might have just lied about his true age and had more sniper training than he could remember. It was just another piece of the puzzle to put into place about Agent Harris. He’d get the full picture one day, of that he was sure. “When’s he coming?”
“He’ll be here tonight.” Xander said simply, watching Gibbs run through scenarios and trying to imagine what a hundred year old vampire would be like, for some reason all he could imagine was Lestat from the awful book Abby had made him read, Interview with the Vampire, though now it didn’t seem silly anymore, maybe he’d have to ask to take another look at those books, maybe they weren’t fiction and were just disguised that way for the vampires of the world to get their stories out to the masses. Suddenly this world just got a hell of a lot more complicated, and it was only Wednesday.
“How far?” Kate asked, interrupting the silence as both people in the front of the car watched each other thinking.
“Fifteen minutes.” Gibbs stated, looking at the street sign before the speedometer and calculating the distance remaining. He smiled when he felt the acceleration as Harris added another fifteen to his speed. “Make that ten.”
=/^=
“DiNozzo!” The shout came from above him, causing him to lean back in his chair and crane his neck back to see who was shouting for him. He immediately felt the ball of acid in his stomach start bubbling when he noticed the director of NCIS glaring down at him.
“Sir?” He asked, jumping off the chair to stand up straight and look the director in the eyes.
“Care to explain why I have the director of SWIC on M-TAC, demanding to know why we are looking into Agent Harris background?” The director asked, glancing around the area and noting Gibbs, Harris and Todd weren’t at their desks.
“Gibbs wanted a full background check running on Xander, just a precaution he said.” Tony rattled off the excuse that he had been thinking up, just in case something like this happened.
“Drop it.” The director ordered. “Word is, if you don’t, your computer will meet with a nasty accident.”
“Sir,” Tony smiled up at him before watching him go back into the conference room. “Yeah, right.” He scoffed, moving back to his computer and pulling up Xander’s high school records.
“Blah blah blah,” He read down the screen, jotting things down that stood out for Gibbs to read later. “Regular student until first term of second year, then buckled down, accused of cheating four times, never proven.” He scanned down the rest, respectable GPA after the second year, no ex-cur activities mentioned, more than six warnings per week from a Principal Snyder. “Whoa!” He shouted, jumping back as his monitor flashed a red screen with a pentagram on it before catching on fire. “What the hell?” He shouted, jumping round the corner and pulling the fire extinguisher of the wall, by the time he had got back to his station the fire was out though, and his monitor had been reduced to melted pile of black plastic on his desk. Looking down the exact same thing had happened to his computer under his desk, now it was just a melted pile of slag on the carpet.
“That’s coming out of your paycheck DiNozzo!” The director’s voice shouted from above him before he heard a door slamming shut.
“Ok, mental note, take warnings from SWIC seriously in future,” He shook his head, still not believing what he was seeing, if it had been any other say he would have made some joke about ‘magic’, only it wasn’t a joke anymore, and that red pentagram on the screen before his computer had imploded definitely wasn’t a joke. Just then his phone beeped, pulling it out he looked at the text message he received with a raised eyebrow.
‘No more computers for the rest of the day Special Agent DiNozzo. X.’
He had to laugh, the fact that SWIC had the clout and knowledge to hack into the NCIS and warn the director before nuking his computer, then getting Xander to tell him about it a few seconds later, that was definitely the sort of agency he could grow to like. Xander was definitely his type of person as well, he text back ‘got it’ quickly before putting his phone away and moving off down to see Abby, maybe there was something he could help her out with, as long as he didn’t touch any more computers. He didn’t know whether to take Xander’s warning seriously or not, but he knew if anything happened to Abby’s computers there would be hell to pay, so erring on the side of caution seemed like a good idea.
=/^=
“So what’s the plan?” Gibbs asked as the car pulled to a stop outside of the warehouse.
“We go in.” Xander quipped with a grin, checking his side arm before holstering it and then moving round to the trunk of the car and fetching out his sword, which he fastened to his belt.
“We need a warrant.” Gibbs stated, leaning up against the car and watching Xander carefully load up on weapons before throwing him a belt with several stakes and knives attached.
“Got one,” Xander quipped, pulling out his SWIC ID and clipping it to his belt.
“Let’s go then.” Gibbs smiled, he’d got to admit, someone with that amount of clout behind them didn’t have to wait for a warrant, he had probable cause and enough political clout to ignore most of the normal rules that impeded his normal investigations. Fastening the belt on he noticed Kate doing to same with a modified version of the belt he was wearing, Harris had also clipped on what looked like to be a miniature sword to Kate’s belt, it looked like a Katana, only smaller. “What’s with the sword?” he asked.
“If there are vamps in there, they’ll know me, and my reputation for moving with slayers. Kate’s going to play a slayer to intimidate them while I finish them off.” Xander said simply, checking all the stakes and knives on Kate’s belt were secured tightly, but not too tight that she couldn’t pull them out easily in combat.
“It’s a Wakizashi,” Kate announced, drawing surprised looks from Xander and Gibbs. “The side arm of the Samurai, normally comes as part of a trio, a Wakizashi, Katana and Kodachi.”
“You know your swords Kate,” Xander smiled, genuinely impressed.
“My father was a collector,” Kate smiled, thinking back to her dad and how his large collection of swords had grown over the years. She hadn’t spoken to him in ages, perhaps when this was over she’d have time to head back to New York for a bit to see him.
“Good,” Xander smiled at her, tapping the Wakizashi on the hilt. “It’s a live blade, extremely sharp; use it only as a last resort.” He turned, smiling to Gibbs. “This goes for the stakes and knives as well. Aim for the heart or neck, anything else and it’s your neck on the line.”
“Literally I guess.” Kate quipped, feeling the grip of the Wakizashi with her palm, it was in the perfect place for her to draw quickly and make a swipe at the same time, she’d have to drop her gun first though, but if something had got close enough to her for her to draw the blade, then the gun wasn’t going to be a big help anyway.
“Literally. Up to three vamps inside if this is the right place, Jack may be inside as well, leave him to me.” Xander looked at them all, making sure they understood this simple rule. “Incapacitate with your guns, finish off with stake or sword. Don’t hesitate. If you do, you’re dead.” This was vital, if they hesitated with a vampire in front of them, they’d be the next snack. “Can you do that?”
He watched as they both nodded confidently, Gibbs even more so than Kate.
“Heart or neck, got it.” Gibbs stated, checking the safety was off in his gun and a round was chambered before taking a moment to check the knives and stakes in his belt, everything seemed good so he started making his way to the side door of the warehouse. “Shouldn’t we split up?” He asked, turning as Harris and Kate followed him.
“You want me to leave you two alone against an enemy that you’ve never faced before?” Xander grinned when Gibbs nodded, he obviously hadn’t thought about that. “These aren’t people Gibbs; they’re demons in the body of dead people. They’re worse than any terrorist you’ve faced; they kill for food and pleasure, not for any religious belief of for any cause. They’re in it just for the kill.”
“Sounds like my ex wife,” Gibbs smirked before taking the lead again and edging toward the side of the door. “Bust in or quietly?”
“Just open it; if they’re in there, then they can already hear us talking.” Xander smiled, reaching out and checking the door, it was locked.
“Window? Top floor?” Kate asked, gauging the situation for the easiest way into the building. She was interrupted when Xander just stepped back and kicked the door, sending it crashing inwards as splinters of wood from the door frame exploded around them. “Or just kick down the door.” She muttered, earning a smile from Gibbs.
“Subtlety isn’t one of my strong suits.” Xander quipped, checking around the entrance way from the door first before walking calmly into the building.
“I’m sensing that.” Gibbs smiled; truth was Harris was more like him than he’d like to admit, rough around the edges with a pure determination to get the job done. If he wasn’t already, he’d make a hell of a marine.
In the center of the room was a lone man, leaning over what looked like a laptop. Even from here Gibbs could see that is face was deformed in some way, Ducky would probably have a field day with it. His face looked more like Neanderthal man, but he was clearly modern day with the way he slouched over the laptop and was typing away. He paused in his work for a moment, looking up at them. “I didn’t order take out.” He snarled at them, and then it was that Gibbs saw his eyes. They were glowing yellow and not like any human eyes he had ever seen before, there was no soul in them, just a hollow yellow iris that spoke of violence and death. The report of Harris’ side arm snapped him out of his thoughts when he saw the man’s head snap back before he fell of their chair. “That hurt.” The snarl came from the man.
“It was meant too.” Xander quipped, crossing the distance easily in five strides, one to holster his gun, another to pull out his sword, two to make it round the desk to where the vampire was kneeling on the ground and the last as he brought his sword down, decapitating the vampire in a quick stroke though the neck.
Kate and Gibbs watched as the vampire crumbled to dust in front of their eyes. “That’s new.” Gibbs quipped, glancing at the pile of dust on the floor where the vampire had just been.
“Playing Halo.” Xander quipped, looking at the monitor. “What happened to the respectable vampires who lived in cemeteries or abandoned basements? I swear this gets stranger and stranger ever day.” He slapped the monitor on the laptop down before turning to Gibbs and Kate. “Satisfied they’re not human?” he asked, sheathing his sword and pulling out his side arm again.
“Never doubted you,” Kate announced as Gibbs nodded.
“Work to the left, then right, then we’ll take upstairs.” Xander nodded to the doorways on either side of the main warehouse hall before pointing to the steps on the far wall that led up to the second level.
“Sounds good,” Gibbs nodded, taking point again as the trio headed towards the door on the left of the hall. “Come back for evidence later.”
“Not unless you want it for the game.” Xander grinned, kicking in the door and checking the hall in front of him for activity.
=/^=
“OI! Where’s ‘Arris?” Spike shouted as he strode into NCIS HQ, the female officer behind the desk eying him carefully, ready to press the alarm quickly and have the military guards down here if the visitor tried anything.
“Who sir?” She asked, looking him over for any ID. He was tall, maybe a foot or so taller than most of the marines on base. Bleached blonde hair and a long leather trench coat flowed out behind him as he strode over.
“Agent Harris, whatever, the bloke from SWIC, he told me to get ‘ere as quick as I could, so where is he?” Spike asked for the second time.
“One second sir,” The officer smiled, glancing down at the visitors log to see if anyone from SWIC was on base or where they were working. “Agent Harris is assisting Agent Gibbs with the investigation into the death of Agent McGee.”
“Yeah, that’s the bloke. Told me to come ‘ere and chat to Abby was it?” Spike paused, pulling out his wallet and checking the note that he had written down when Xander was on the phone to him. “Yeah, Abby with some last name I can’t pronounce.”
“Forensics sir,” The officer smiled, nodding to the elevator. “Second floor, lab A. You’ll need a visitors pass.” She smiled as he stopped, mid stride on his way to the elevator.
“Bugger, where’d I put that thing,” He paused, rifling through his pockets for that bloody ID wallet that they all had to carry now. “You mean this?” He asked, holding the black wallet up and flicking it over a few times to show the numerous cards and badges inside.
“Sir,” The officer nodded, saluting him crisply as she noticed the golden shield on the badge.
“Enough of that bollocks, tell Harris I’m on my way up.” Spike stated simply before striding into the open elevators as he pocketed his ID again and pressing the button for the second floor. “Things were much easier when we were bloody vigilantes, none of this bloody ID nonsense or a permit for god knows what.” He smiled as he saw the officer behind the desk pick up the phone before the elevator doors closed. His thumb idly fingering the plain silver ring on his finger, running over the small green gem on the top of it. Such a simple thing that Red had cooked up, but it allowed him to walk in sunlight, such a small thing that everyone took for granted, but it was what separated him from everyone else at the base. He remembered when she’d given it to him, after the fall of LA and Angel’s death at the hands of the Senior Partners; they had retreated back to their own dimension, having taken their vengeance they showed no reason to carry on fighting there. The fight was over in hours, at first he thought they were running away, that they were winning. Then he found the bodies, Angel, Gunn, Illyria, they were all dead. He was the last, so he went back to find Buffy, to see what he could do there. They had welcomed him back with open arms.
It was strange for a while, all the new slayers were edgy around him, but soon accepted him. Strangely enough Harris was the first one to accept him back properly, Buffy avoided him for a bit, as did Faith, but soon enough they were all sparring together and working as a team again. More of a team than Angel had ever shown him while they were at Wolfram and Hart. Red had given him the ring a few months after his return, a ‘specialised Ring of Amara’ she called it with a twinkle in her eye. And he didn’t even have to dig this one up. The doors to the elevator pinged before they slid open, he looked up and noticed he was only on the first floor up, but the elevator said second floor and the sign on the wall said forensics, bloody Americans, always getting things backwards. The first floor was the ground floor for them, when she said second floor she meant the first floor. Shrugging quickly he moved past the officer who was getting into the lift and made his way down the corridor looking for lab A.
He passed Lab B quickly, no one inside just a ton of paperwork scattered around the desk and some more pinned to the wall. “Must be this way then,” He grinned; taking the next corridor round, ignoring the stares he got from a few marines as he passed them on his hunt for Harris.
The area smelt like Red’s lab did, too much electronics and chemicals in the air, no hint of incense here though, just the sound of heavy rock playing from somewhere round the corner. “Lab A.” He grinned, reading the blue sign in front of him before slapping it lightly and walking in through the automatic glass doors. “Harris! You in ‘ere?” He shouted, trying to carry his voice over the loud rock music that was blaring out of a hi-fi in the next room. “Oi! Harris!” He shouted again, moving through the first part of the lab quickly and through some more electronic doors into the second part.
“Who are you?” Abby asked, giving Spike the once over. He looked like one of her ex boyfriends, tall, Goth, with an arrogant smirk on his face.
“Spike, looking for Harris, you seen ‘im?” Spike asked, looking appreciatively at Abby who was dressed in her usual outfit, tight black leather pants with a ‘Hooty and the Blowtorch’ t-shirt on under her white lab coat.
“He’s out with Agent Gibbs at the moment.” A male voice came from behind him. Spinning round Spike saw who the voice belonged to, a man, about his height in a fancy suit, trendy shirt without a tie, his hand resting carefully on the side arm by his waist.
“Don’t,” Spike nodded to the gun. “I’ll make you eat it first.” Turning back to Abby he smiled. “Harris told me to come here, to speak to some bit called Abby.”
“That’s me,” She beamed at him. “Wait, talk to me about what?”
“When did he call you and can I see some ID.” Tony asked from behind him, not letting his hand move away from his gun for a moment.
“This morning, said it was urgent so I dropped everything and got myself ‘ere.” Spike smirked. “‘Bout four hours travel from Cleveland.”
“Cleveland’s six hours away.” Tony said simply as he watched ‘Spike’ reach into his jacket pocket and pull out a black leather ID wallet that looked exactly the same as Xander’s.
“Yeah, well,” Spike shrugged with a smirk as he handed the ID wallet over. “Traffic cops don’t tend to stop you after you threaten to eat the first one.”
“You’re a vampire!” Abby grinned, bouncing a little as she bopped and weaved about, trying to find his reflection in the glass door behind him.
Instantly Tony’s gun had cleared its holster and was pointing at Spike’s head at point blank range. He didn’t even have chance to see Spike’s arm move as it swiped up and snatched the gun away from him, clicking the safety on and ejecting the magazine before his arm had reached his side. He just stood there with a smirk as the magazine hit the floor, the gun following soon after. “Do that again,” Spike smirked at him. “And I WILL make you eat it.”
“What did Xander ask you to talk to me about?” Abby asked, still bouncing with excitement from behind him as he continued to battle Tony is a staring match. “Excuse me, testosterone overload in the lab.” She made a mock chocking noise before coming to stand between the two and picking up the ID wallet that Tony had dropped when he’d cleared his holster. “Check it out; he’s got the same ID as Xander.” She smiled, passing the open ID wallet over to Tony.
“Yeah, officer bint downstairs seemed impressed with all that bollocks as well.” Spike smirked, watching Tony’s eyebrows shoot up as he took in all the ID’s.
“So, you’re a good vampire?” Tony mocked, passing back the ID and bending down carefully to pick up his gun before slowly sliding the magazine back into it and holstering it.
“More grey,” Spike smirked. “I’m not like that poof Angel, but I fight the good fight.” Spike swaggered through the lab, picking up the vials of different coloured liquids and sniffing them before putting them back where he got them from. “Love labs like this,” He grinned. “So many smells, tastes, everything, it’s bloody brilliant.” He grinned, picking up a beaker that looked like black current juice and sniffing it. No distinctive smell so he poked his finger into it and licked it. “What’s this?” He asked, waving the purple stained finger at Abby before wiping it on his shirt.
“Trisodium Nitriloacetate mix with a fifteen percent solution of Sodium Hydroxide and dodecylpropane.” Abby explained, drawing blank faces from Spike and Tony as they just looked at each other.
“English please luv,” Spike smirked at her, taking another sniff of the purple liquid.
“Acidic cleaning fluid, we use it to clean out the insides of lines and tubes, it’ll eat through anything.” Abby smiled cheerfully at him.
“No wonder it tastes like crap.” Spike smirked back, putting the purple liquid jar back where he found it, after Red had started yelling at him when he was in her lab for moving things around, he’d found sciency types to be a bit particular about where things went, especially in their labs. “Where’s the morgue? Fancy a snack before we begin our talk about vampires.”
“You’re here to talk to me about vampires?” Abby grinned, bouncing on her feet.
“Yeah yeah, all excitement and all that,” Spike shook his head at her enthusiasm. “Where’s the morgue then?”
“You really drink blood?” Tony asked, blanching a bit at being this close to a vampire, at least it wasn’t female, thank god for small mercies.
“Yup, with Weetabix or Burma weed if you’ve got any?” He looked hopeful for a minute as Tony gave him a blank face and Abby shook her head at him. “Bugger, but yeah.” He turned back to Tony. “Fancy showing me the morgue then? Then we can have this talk about this thing I call life.”
“This is not my week,” Tony muttered before walking out of the lab with Spike following him closely, leading him back to the elevator before pressing the button to the basement. “So why Spike?” he asked as the elevator doors closed.
=/^=
“God Damnit!” Gibbs shouted as he emptied his clip into the vampire that was staggering towards him. Xander was shooting the opposite way as a second vampire came towards them from the other side of the room.
“Head and heart!” Xander shouted, getting off a few clean shots to the head that dropped the vampire that was approaching him. He quickly ran over, dropping his gun and unsheathing his sword, a quick swipe and they were down to one vampire.
“Down there!” Kate shouted, pointing towards where there was a flash of metal on the walkway below them before someone twirled with a flash of a long coat before disappearing into the back rooms. “I’ve got it.” Kate shouted before running off towards the steps and moving down them before Xander could shout out a warning.
“Kate!” he shouted, spinning to see her disappearing from view down the stairs. Glancing back he saw the vampire was almost on top of Gibbs who was reloading his side arm. “Stake, chest!” He shouted, smiling when he saw Gibbs immediately drop the gun and pull a stake from his belt, effortlessly plunging it into the vampires chest with a lunge forwards. “Good!” He shouted before taking off after Kate, stumbling on the steps slightly as he made his way down, spinning the blade so he could hold it behind his back as he ran down the stairs and into the main hall.
“Wait!” Gibbs shouted, running behind him but stopping to pick up his dropped side arm.
“He’s mine!” Xander shouted back, spinning the sword with a flourish round so he was in a fighting pose as he made his way slowly through to the back rooms. The first room was empty, the door still swinging open as he made his way through. A table in the middle of the room showed an unrolled leather pouch containing glittering surgical tools; a bright scalpel glittered in the center of them, resting on a white cloth that had obviously been used to clean some fresh blood off it. “Bag that for evidence, there’s probably another body around somewhere!” Xander shouted to Gibbs as he made his way into the second room, no sight of Kate or the person she was chasing.
“Like hell,” Gibbs muttered, jogging through the room after Harris had entered the next one. Glancing at the roll of tools he noticed two were missing, Ducky had a set exactly like this at home, nineteenth century set, in perfect condition, if it wasn’t evidence in a murder enquiry he’d probably be tempted to see if he could buy it for his old friend. “Kate!” He yelled out as he passed into the next room, seeing no sign of Harris or Kate other than an open door leading to outside. “Oh no you don’t.” He muttered, jogging quickly through the door, pausing on the other side to see if he could see which way Harris had gone.
“Let her go!” Xander’s cold tone rang through the empty area as he walked towards Jack, who was holding Kate tightly to his chest with one arm and a scalpel to her throat with another.
“She’s not in the game,” Jack sneered at him. “At least not yet.” He pressed the scalpel to her throat, causing a small red droplet to appear on her neck. “And you’re the one who was send to bring me in,” Jack smirked at him, his thin moustache twitching with his lips.
“I said let her go,” Xander shouted again, holding his ground, not wanting to press forward in case Jack slit her throat with the scalpel. “This is between you and me!”
“But alas,” Jack smirked at him, pulling Kate’s body slightly to the side so Xander could see he wasn’t carrying a sword. “I am without a weapon.”
“That’s your fault.” Xander said coldly, edging forwards slowly as Jack started to move backwards, dragging Kate along with him. It was then he noticed a red stain in Jack’s otherwise pristine white shirt, just to the left of the heart, along with a round tear in the fabric. Kate must have shot him, he’d healed by the time she got over to him, checked his pulse then he grabbed her. Sneaky bastard.
“I don’t think so.” Jack shouted back, stopping a foot or so from the edge of the pavement where a sharp fall behind him led to the water’s edge. “Maybe another time, when you’ve explained the rules to...” Jack suddenly jerked backwards and the report of a sidearm echoed behind him. The scalpel fell free from his grip as he fell backwards over the drop into the water.
“He was mine!” Xander shouted, quickly running over, passing Kate to look into the water to see if he could see a body or an escape route that had been planned, nothing, just clean water below.
“Thanks Gibbs.” Kate said, glaring at Xander.
“We’ll call in a dredger to get the body.” Gibbs stated, walking over to where Xander was glaring at the water.
“What for? You won’t find anything, he’s immortal,” Xander snapped at Gibbs, sheathing his sword and snatching his gun back from Gibbs hand. “He’ll die in there, come back and swim to shore somewhere else.” He holstered his gun and continued to glare at Gibbs. “Lie low for a while before finishing what he started.”
“Won’t he move on now that he knows you’re after him?” Kate asked, pressing the bandage to her throat to mop up the blood from where Jack had cut her.
“He doesn’t move on,” Xander stated, turning to look at her and softening his glare. “He always stays in the same area for his kills, doesn’t matter who’s there.” Turning on his heel he started to stride away from Kate and Gibbs, making his way back to the car. “And i’ll be waiting.” He muttered when he was out of earshot.
=/^=
“You’d really kill me?” Abby asked, swallowing dryly as she sat across from Spike. Tony was stood behind her; he’d refused to sit down with a vampire in the room. Ducky hadn’t been in the morgue, so Spike had snatched a few pints of AB from the storage cellar before they made their way back up to her lab, he’d used one of her mugs and heated the blood up first, the smell of it was saturating the lab with the coppery tint in the air.
“In a heartbeat luv,” Spike smirked, finishing off his mug of hot blood. “But I ain’t like that anymore, doesn’t mean others wouldn’t though.”
“Is it painful?” Tony asked his third question, the vampire had unnerved him at first, but now he was using his presence to find out everything he could about vampires.
“Or is it like the Anne Rice books,” Abby smiled again, covering up her nervousness, somehow the thought of being bitten wasn’t as appealing as it used to be for her, now it was on the table and Spike had offered to show her. “You know, orgasmic.”
“Painful and burning,” Spike answered truthfully. “No pleasure there like in those poofy books you read.” He sneered at the mention of the Anne Rice books, he made it a point to kill off any vampire he came across that used the name Louis, Lestat, Armand or Marius, it was just insulting to true vampires. “It burns, drains, then kills. That’s all it does, no fancy tricks or any of that crap.”
Abby and Tony visibly swallowed at this, going a bit pale as Spike vamped out again, tearing into the second packet of blood before pouring it into his mug and moving over to the lab heater he had improvised as a microwave.
“Spike!” Xander shouted, walking into the lab with Gibbs and Kate following soon after. “You’re early.”
“Harris, you got the bastard then?” Spike asked, fetching his mug of blood out of the heater and taking a sip.
“Got away,” Harris said simply. “Gibbs shot him in the head before I could take it.”
“Bugger,” Spike said simply. “Been ‘aving the chat with these two, think they’ve got the idea now.”
Gibbs arched his eyebrow, staring at Tony and Abby who were visibly paler than they normally were; even Abby looked too pale for her normally pale complexion. “You’re a vampire then?” He asked, giving Spike the once over. Spike in return just vamped out with a smirk before taking another mouthful of his blood. “Right, killed one today.”
“You got a vamp boss?” Tony asked, amazed.
“Staked the bastard myself.” Gibbs announced proudly.
“Fledgling, one, maybe two years old,” Xander announced at Spikes questioning look. “Stay here, I need to talk to the director.”
“We ‘eading home then?” Spike asked as Xander walked out of the doors and headed to the elevator without even answering them.
“That’s just rude.” Tony commented, before shouting “Ow!” as he received simultaneous smacks on the head from both Spike and Gibbs.
“Xander was right, you two are alike.” Kate commented with a smile as Tony just glared at her while Spike and Gibbs smirked at each other.
“Are you hanging around for a bit?” Abby asked, briefly wondering if vampires left fingerprints when she looked at the mug he was rolling in his hand.
“Dunno,” Spike smiled. “Up to Harris.”
“He trusts you.” Gibbs pointed out, thinking back to the conversation they had in the car. “More than he trusts us.”
“Harris’ trust isn’t easy to earn,” Spike said, putting the empty mug down where Abby quickly picked it up. “We’ve been on too many missions for ‘im not to trust me.”
“That’s what he said.” Kate said softly.
“Has Harris ever had any marine training?” Gibbs asked, hoping he would get a straight answer that would fill in a few of the missing pieces to the Harris puzzle.
“Nope,” Spike smirked. “If you want to know about him, ask ‘im.”
Gibbs was interrupted from whatever he was going to say in retort when the phone rang on Abby’s desk, she quickly answered it on speaker phone like she always did and the director’s voice came over the speakers. “Gibbs, DiNozzo and Todd, my office now!” The voice didn’t leave any room for explanation as it hung up.
“Boss man?” Spike quipped, earning a glare from Gibbs while Tony nodded at him. “Thought so, no one can came someone shout like that aside from Harris.” He grinned as Tony leaned in close to him.
“You haven’t heard him shout at Gibbs yet.” Tony whispered with a grin.
“I heard that DiNozzo!” Gibbs shouted back as he strode out of the doors.
“Oh, let me!” Spike shouted back before clipping Tony round the head with a grin causing Gibbs to laugh and Tony to glare at both of them.
=/^=
“You’re being reassigned.” The director announced as Gibbs, Kate and Tony entered the deserted briefing room, only Xander and the Director stood at the front of the room with the SWIC logo spinning on the large plasma screen behind them. “ID’s please.” He held out his hand, glaring at Gibbs when he didn’t immediately hand over his ID, he did soon after and Kate and Tony followed suit.
“Duel assignment.” Xander said simply, throwing each of them an ID wallet containing their ID’s that was perfectly matched to his, but with their photos and relevant details on them. “I’m not leaving ‘till Jack is caught, and you’re helping me. So this is a first, NCIS and SWIC working together.” Xander grinned as Spike looked at him in puzzlement. “You too Spike, you’re staying with me.”
“Sir?” Gibbs asked, eying the ID package carefully before looking at the director of NCIS.
“Just a change of title and pay grade,” The director smiled at him. “SWIC has resources we can’t even dream off, they’ll be helping us with back cases and opening their resources to us as long as we do the same. The Joint Chiefs approved this but you still answer to me while on NCIS cases, as does Harris and Spike.” He paused, turning to Harris. “On NCIS cases, Gibbs takes lead, on SWIC cases, you take point.”
“Fair.” Xander nodded.
“Is this right?” Tony asked, flicking through the wallet and coming to the pay details that were jotted down on a scrap of paper at the back.
“Full SWIC package for a special agent, including war zone pay,” Xander explained as Gibbs, Tony and Kate smiled at him. “Means you don’t have to bother with a suit anymore,” Xander smirked as he whispered the last to Gibbs who returned his smile.
“Director Giles just finalized your transfers with Harris’ request before you came in,” The director continued. “I’ll have your desks and equipment moved down to Lab B, that’s where you’ll be housed. The first joint agency task force in NCIS history gentlemen, make me proud.”
“‘Old up,” Spike piped up. “I’m working for the military now?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You’ll like it here Spike, a lot of big tough marines to train against, and Lorne’s new bar is only a few blocks into the city.” Xander explained with a smile as Spike smirked at the thought of getting his daily bout of violence with a few well trained marines.
“You’re a civilian contract on loan of SWIC for special nature cases,” The director explained. “You have traits that can’t be found in any other agent.”
“Lack of a heartbeat, pulse, breathing,” Tony started rattling off the differences.
“Hey, I breathe,” Spike defended himself, earning himself a questioning glance from Gibbs, Kate and the director. “Couldn’t smoke my Morley’s if I didn’t breathe now could I?”
“Welcome to NCIS people,” The director shook Xander’s hand slowly before moving over and doing the same to Spike. “I believe you still have an outstanding case?”
“Marine Corporal Grimms sir, found dead yesterday morning by a group of kids, Ducky should be doing a full autopsy today.” Gibbs slipped quickly back into work mode, pocketing his new ID as did the rest of them.
“Get to it then, I want to know how a marine corporal died off base with a hole through him made by an AT-Missile.” The Director barked his orders with a smile before turning back to the main screens behind him.
“Right, let’s go then.” Gibbs smiled, noticing Tony had backed away from Spike and was stood on the opposite side of Kate to him. “We’ve got a dead marine and not enough answers,” He smiled as he walked out the door, knowing Harris was directly behind him and Spike, Kate and Tony were behind Harris. A five man team, it could work, especially as they all had their specialties. Working with a vampire though, that was going to take some getting used to.
“Means we’ll have to find a place to live round here then,” Xander shouted back to Spike as they made their way down the stairs to see some technicians already moving all of their files and computers from their desks. “And if you make the place smell like bourbon and smokes, i’ll shoot you myself.”
“Whiskey drinker?” Gibbs asked, stopping and turning to Spike.
“Only if it’s a decent Jack,” Spike smirked.
“You ever do any wood work?” Gibbs asked, pondering something strange.
“Yeah, made a few beds and stuff in my time, Harris is the carpenter though.” Spike nodded to Xander who smiled and nodded in return.
“Spike taught me a lot about wood, how to work it,” He smiled thinking back to how Buffy would have screamed if she had found out what they had really been doing all night while Spike was supposed to be locked in his basement flat. “Hate using electrical stuff though, has to be hand crafted.”
“I think we’re going to get on fine,” Gibbs smiled, moving back to stand between Spike and Harris. “You two ever built a boat before?” he smiled as Tony and Kate shared conspiratorial glances, things never changed, they just got stranger.
=/^=
AN: No, that isn’t the end of the story, just the end of the pilot lol
I have a lot more stories to tell in this universe, including a few changes to how the first and second season of NCIS would go with Spike and Xander in the mix.
Hope you all enjoyed it, more to come soon.
M
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.