TITLE: Life, after slayage
AUTHOR: Methos (ianblyth2005@btinternet.com)
DISCLAIMER: All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon, NCIS and all characters belong to Donald P Bellisario, Highlander and all related mythos belong to Davis-Panzer... nothing is mine, only the extremely twisted idea...
AN: Set after episode twenty of season one titled “Missing” for NCIS, five years after “Chosen” in Buffy (May, 2008). I know this shifts timelines for NCIS forward a few years but go with me on it please... :D
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May 6, 2008. Washington DC, NCIS Headquarters.
Xander was tense, it wasn’t him though, it was the atmosphere in the office he had just walked into. The room felt close, like too many people were anxious about something but no one wanted to say anything in case it set someone off. He’d been to dozens of buildings like this over the past three years, of course none of them had been military bases, he’d been lucky in that respect he supposed, but it had to come to ahead sooner or later.
“Special Agent Gibbs?” He asked the lady that walked past him; she turned and pointed to a booth on the far corner of the room where three people were talking. Special Agent Gibbs was giving directions to the other two; from the brief biographies he had read of Special Agent Gibbs he could picture him as the hard ass marine type, expert sniper scout with nineteen years of service under his belt. The man had presence; he could feel it just watching him. He guessed the other two people he was talking to were Special Agents Anthony DiNozzo and Caitlin Todd, he couldn’t see their faces as their back was to him, but it was a good guess that they would match the photographs in the biographies in the files he was holding under his right hand.
“Thanks.” He muttered to the lady with a smile before moving off towards the group. He stopped, just out of ear shot to allow them to finish their conversation before he moved in, this was the part he’d been dreading. Everything he’d read and been told about Special Agent Gibbs was that he was a maverick, sure he was as good as they came and had almost a hundred percent success rate with his cases, but he liked to play hard and fast with the rules, especially when it came to interagency cooperation.
“Yes?” Xander was broken out of his musings when the man in question had finally noticed him and addressed him.
“Special Agent Gibbs?” He asked, it was just formal, for some reason he always found himself asking someone to confirm their name when they first met, just something he had picked up from the politicians that were now leasing with the Slayers on a day to day basis.
“And you are?” Gibbs asked, his tone merely curious as to Xander’s appearance, it wasn’t every day that someone walked into NCIS without a visitors badge or some sort of ID explaining their presence, and today was a very bad day for anyone to piss off a member of his team, especially with the death of Special Agent McGee hanging over them all.
“Xander Harris.” He intentionally left out the Special Agent bit, even though the group of the council he was in charge of had been given Special Agent status by the president, he still felt edgy using it, especially around seasoned military types. “I’m here to investigate the death of Special Agent McGee.” Now that had an effect, everyone in the room suddenly stopped, it was like time froze and Xander immediately knew that he’d said the wrong thing.
“McGee was one of our own; we’ll be handling the investigation.” Gibbs snapped at him, stepping forward and getting right in his face, even though Xander was a few inches taller it still felt like he was being dressed down by his old principal.
“I’m only here on orders, I came to you first as a courtesy, I’ve got an appointment with the director in ten minutes.” Xander explained, holding his hands up in a sign of peace.
“And what agency are you with, Xander Harris?” Gibbs asked, his tone slightly mocking at the lack of prefix on his name.
“Special Agent Harris.” The voice called from above him, making everyone turn to see who had called his name. Looking up Xander could see an older man, probably the NCIS director he assumed, on the walkway above them, looking down at them with what looked to be an amused expression on his face. “I’ll see you now.”
“Sir,” Xander nodded up to the man as a sign of respect before turning back to Special Agent Gibbs. “Classified.” He said sharply before moving to walk up the stairs to meet the Director of NCIS. For some reason Special Agent Gibbs had got under his skin, something about the way he dressed him down without even knowing the first thing about him, he hated when people made snap decisions about people, it was one of the things he trained his people not to do.
As he walked up the stairs he could feel the entire room’s eyes on him, every movement being watched carefully by everyone in the room. It had been a week since the call had come in from the pentagon, ever since the fall of Sunnydale and the reforming of the Council on American Soil they had been ‘adopted’ by the US government. The spin they put on it was that they didn’t want another SNAFU like the Project Lilac incident, so they funded the Council and gave them Special Agent status, even an official building to use as a headquarters in Cleveland, directly on top of the Hellmouth.
Giles hadn’t taken kindly to it, but when the New Council were accepted by the representatives from around the globe there wasn’t much he could complain about, even though they were now based on American soil they were more an international group that the old Council had ever been, and with the funding that the US Government supplied, they could keep the Slayers in better shape than ever before. With an amazing budget for weaponry and libraries, Giles soon found his list of complaints growing shorter by the day.
The Pentagon used them sparingly, Xander had been asked to head up an investigative team, the first people to go in if a vamp attack was too high profile to send in a group of Slayers to deal with the problem. At first he’d protested, saying that he didn’t want the job of dealing with politicians or having his face splashed around, but Giles and Buffy had soon convinced him that they would rather have someone that they trusted in the job rather than someone who would be assigned there from the Pentagon who they didn’t know and didn’t trust.
So now it was his job, following up on vamp and demon attacks when the higher ups decided it was too ‘high risk’ to expose the Slayers to publicity or to other companies or agencies. This was the first one he’d ever been sent to that was a military command though, vamp attack, nine days ago. The victim was a Special Agent Timothy McGee who was on a routine surveillance assignment when he was attacked. The buzz was that the higher ups wanted this dealt with quickly and out of public view, he was to use any means necessary to clean it up, he’d even been clearance to bring in up to five slayers to get the job done if needed, which was a big deal considering how close they were to Washington DC. He guessed the suits didn’t like the idea of the ‘problem’, as they called it, getting too close to home. So it had ruffled some feathers and he had been pulled out of training the new ‘agents’, or ex-marines as they preferred to be known, to handle the problem personally.
“Director Morrow.” Xander smiled as he reached the top of the stairs and held out his hand.
“This way.” The Director nodded to his office, ignoring the offered hand before walking off with Xander in tow.
“This is going to be a long week.” Xander muttered under his breath as he followed the director into a darkened room before closing the door behind him.
“Is this some sort of joke?” The director asked, not even breaking stride as he moved to the middle of the room and turned to face Xander, the wall behind him was filled with high tech plasma screens that were showing images from around the US.
This was what he’d been dreading, explaining what had happened to the Director of NCIS and trying to make the cover story actually believable to someone who dealt with the FBI, CIA and NSA on a daily basis. “No sir, I’m here under orders from the Joint Chiefs to investigate the suspicious death of Special Agent McGee.”
“I know, I received a memo this morning ordering my complete cooperation extending to the entire NCIS branch as well.” The Director didn’t seem at all happy about this; he was practically fuming as he glared at Xander. “They didn’t even tell me what agency you’re from. We are quite capable of handling this investigation ourselves Special Agent Harris.”
“I’m sure you are,” Xander smiled, trying to smooth things out as best he could. “I don’t like the idea of taking the investigation away from you any more than you do, but I have my orders.” Xander followed the spiel he’d been given, he hated lying to anyone now, especially if he would have to work with them, but he could see how it was a necessary evil in this sort of work.
“Can you at least tell me what agency you are from?” The Director seemed a bit mollified by this, but not much.
“SWIC.” Xander rattled off the initials of the Slayers and Watchers International Council off by heart, he didn’t think it would mean much to the Director as it was such a new and covert agency that even the NSA didn’t know what it stood for, let alone what they actually did.
“Never heard of it,” The Director’s reply didn’t surprise him. “Who do you answer to?”
“The Joint Chiefs and the President,” Xander said with confidence, he’d met them before, the first time he’d met the president he’d babbled like he was in kindergarten again, but now the President was actually aware of what they did, and had actually thanked them for the Sunnydale incident a few years ago it had changed things, even though he hated to admit it, he’d actually become good friends with a few of the Pentagon liaisons that had been sent to help with the running of the SWIC.
The Director raised an eyebrow at this, as Xander knew he would. It wasn’t every agency that reported directly that high on the food chain, hell, not even the NSA reported directly to the Joint Chiefs or the President. “Would you like to speak to them?” Xander bluffed with a grin, fishing out his cell phone and flipping it open. “I’ve got the Presidents private line on speed dial.” He grinned, he didn’t actually, but he had a line directly to the Joint Chiefs in case of anything going drastically wrong that they would need covered up somehow.
“That’s alright,” The Director smiled, a bit nervous at the young man in front of him that could get the President of the United States on the phone with a press of a button. “Tell me what you need and you’ll have it Special Agent Harris.”
“Space to work and cooperation from the team who are currently investigating the death of Special Agent McGee,” Xander smiled, his requests were simple, he had everything he needed in his car out front, the rest he could call in from SWIC as and when needed. “And please, just Xander, i’ll never get used to the Special Agent bit.”
“Well you don’t exactly dress like one.” The Director smiled, finding Xander a bit more personable than he had expected.
“You should have seen the faces of the Joint Chiefs when I went into a meeting in jeans and t-shirt.” Xander grinned as The Director laughed. “I don’t do the ‘suit thing’, makes me feel like I’m trying to be someone I’m not.” He could feel the weight of the gun in its belt attached to his hip, along with the stake in its custom sheath on his left leg. A custom sheath on his right leg held the blessed silver dagger and the familiar weight of the small silver crucifix dangled from his neck, flashing in the light of the monitors in front of him making it stand out sharply from his plain black t-shirt.
“I can understand that, a lot of agents here are ex-marines who still don’t wear suits,” The Director nodded along, thinking of Special Agent Gibbs in particular who to this day never wore a tie; he at least wore a shirt though. “You’ll have what you need Special Agent Harris, but you will be required to show identification at all times when on base.”
Xander nodded, fishing out his ID wallet with his identification card, weapons permits and golden badge inside. The thing actually flipped over three times to show the entire set of ID’s he had in it and was thicker than his actual wallet. Flipping it over so the gold badge was showing he clipped it to his leather belt on the opposite side of his waist to his gun before looking to The Director to make sure it was alright, The Director simply nodded at him before motioning to the door.
“Special Agents Gibbs, DiNozzo and Todd were handling the investigation.” The Director explained as he opened the door.
“Are handling the investigation,” Special Agent Gibbs announced from the other side of the door. “Sir, we can handle this, we don’t need another agency moving in and taking control.”
“Special Agent Harris is now in charge of the investigation into Special Agent McGee’s death.” The Directors tone didn’t allow for any disagreement, it sounded like an order he’d expect to hear from a drill sergeant, it wasn’t the volume of the order, it was the tone that carried with it.
“Yes sir.” Gibbs looked like he was going to argue for a second, but a brief glance at the Directors face stopped that thought immediately.
“You are to show complete cooperation to Special Agent Harris, is that understood?” Again, The Directors voice dared him to argue.
“May I speak to you in private sir?” Gibbs asked, obviously running ideas through his brain how he could get control of this situation back.
“Look, you’re afraid I’m going to come in and take over right?” Xander asked, causing a surprised look from both the Director and Gibbs before Gibbs nodded. “Don’t, I’m not here to take credit or control, I’m not interested in a pissing contest or any of this interagency bull. I’m here to find out what happened to Special Agent McGee and deal with it, if getting your cooperation means sharing the investigation with you, fine.”
Gibbs actually looked shocked at this, The Director didn’t seem to know what to think, he’d obviously decided that Xander wasn’t the usual sort of Special Agent and that his methods were a bit unorthodox, but he’d never met any agency before that would offer a shared investigation when they were holding all the cards.
“But if we do this, we do it my way. In the field you follow what I say, even if it sounds stupid.” Xander continued, he’d figured it would be easier to get their cooperation by offering a joint investigation, that way he knew they were working with him, instead of against him.
“Sounds fair.” Gibbs nodded, he didn’t like it but it had surprised him a bit that it had even been offered.
“Good,” Xander smiled, fishing a few spare crucifixes out of his pocket that had their chains tangled up. Fiddling with the chains for a moment he just handed the ball of tangled metal to Gibbs who took it with a raised eyebrow. “I assume that Special Agents DiNozzo and Todd will be assisting as well?”
Gibbs just nodded mutely, still staring at the crucifixes in his hand.
“You all wear one of those, that’s non-negotiable.” Xander’s tone dropped, he’d already lost three agents because they didn’t have the preparation or training to deal with a vampire, he would lose any more, especially not from another agency. That would bring down too much heat on them. “Anything else we can talk about, that’s a firm rule.”
“That’s it?” Gibbs asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. “Wear a crucifix?”
“Problem with that?” Xander asked, hoping they could at least work together, but if they wouldn’t do this simple thing, then how would they react to being asked to carry stakes?
“Nope.” Gibbs smiled slightly before pulling one of the crucifixes free and draping it round his neck.
“Great, where shall I set up?” Xander grinned at the Director who was just looking at the two of them as if they were insane.
“There’s a spare lab on the second floor by the forensics lab, you can use that.” The Director smiled as Xander nodded.
“Plenty of space to talk and walls to pin stuff up on, sounds good to me.” Xander smiled as he turned to Special Agent Gibbs. “Fancy showing me where?”
“We’ll get Tony and Kate first then show you around.” Gibbs smiled, now he was finding Special Agent Harris actually fun to get around, despite the fact that he was carrying at least one side arm and two other concealed weapons in a military building, which he obviously had permits for from the look of his ID wallet there was something about him, the way he carried himself. Like he was always on edge, waiting for something to happen, but it didn’t look forced or trained, it looked natural, like he had always done it. Special Agent Harris was turning out to be a bit of a puzzle, one he was looking forward to finding the answer to.
“And an Abigail Scu... Sciut...” Xander stumbled over the last name, flipping open the top file he glanced down his jotted notes at the names of the people he needed to talk to before starting his investigation.
“Abby.” Gibbs said simple, glancing at the files Special Agent Harris was holding openly, they looked to contain brief but detailed biographies on all of his team, including his entire military history. That was what puzzled him, most of his military history was classified, as with a lot of the ex-marines that worked here, but the files seemed to have it all. Another piece to the puzzle he mused as the folder was slapped shut.
“Abby, right.” Xander grinned as Special Agent Gibbs walked out the door; smiling and nodding towards the Director he followed Special Agent Gibbs before closing the door behind him. “Oh, don’t suppose you know where to get a decent mug of coffee around here do ya?” Xander grinned at the look he was rewarded with. “Took nearly seven hours to get here, and I haven’t even checked into my hotel yet.”
Gibbs mentally calculated the time he’d spent travelling against the time it was now and figured Special Agent Harris must have left around four am to get here when he did, that put his origin from anywhere from New York though to North Carolina or anywhere in-between. “Tony's the coffee drinker, you can ask him.” Gibbs smiled at him as they made their way down the stairs.
Xander glanced round the room as they made their way down to the main level when Special Agent Gibbs’ team were waiting for them; again he could feel everyone’s eyes on him as he followed Special Agent Gibbs down the stairs and across the floor to where his team were waiting.
“So, what gives?” Special Agent DiNozzo was the first to ask, drawing a long suffering glare from Special Agent Gibbs.
“Later, follow Special Agent Harris to his car and help him bring up anything he needs. Kate, you’re with me, we’ll be in Lab B opposite Forensics.” Gibbs didn’t wait for anyone to ask before he strode off towards the elevator with Special Agent Todd in pursuit.
“Right,” Special Agent DiNozzo looked like he was used to getting this sort of response from his boss, so he just turned back to face Xander and raised his eyebrows. “You going to give me an explanation then?”
“Depends,” Xander countered with a smile. “You tell me where to get a decent coffee and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
“Fair,” Special Agent DiNozzo smiled back. “Tony.” He said by way on introduction, holding his hand out with a friendly smile.
“Xander,” He took the offered hand with a smile. “Don’t bother with the Special Agent crap; I don’t answer to it half the time anyway.”
“Right, so you’re not taking over?” Tony asked, curious about the large amount of ID’s he could see in the ID wallet clipped to Xander’s waist.
“Nope, shared investigation.” Xander smiled back, trying to get a feel for the sort of person ‘Tony’ was, he didn’t feel like military, his first clue was the hair, it was long, a lot longer than any officer would wear it, so he was civilian. That and the way he held himself said he was used to action, but wasn’t formally trained in combat.
“That’s good, Tim was a good friend of a lot of people here, we all want to find out what happened to him.” Tony explained as the two made their way to the elevator.
“That’s why I’m here.” Xander smiled as the doors to the elevator pinged and they slid open. Standing back to let the two people in naval blues out before following Tony in he smiled, it was going to be weird working with the military on this one.
“You seen much action then?” Tony asked, his tone not mocking but merely disbelieving.
“Too much,” Xander said softly. “Way too much.”
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“So, what have we got so far?” Xander quipped as he walked into the room following Tony. The room the Director had offered him to use was large and spacious, with a large table in the middle and a network of high tech computers and video conferencing equipment on the far wall. Special Agents Gibbs and Todd were already pinning photo’s up on one of the spare walls and had a large stack of paperwork spread out on the table in the middle of the room.
“Interviews, witness statements and timelines on the table, we’re just sorting through the crime scene photo’s to bring you up to speed.” Gibbs stated flatly as he jabbed another pin into the wall.
“Good, let me guess and see how close I come to the truth alright?” Xander smiled as the rest of the group looked at him cautiously. “Humour me.”
“Fine.” Gibbs said, setting down his stack of photos and turning to face him.
“The victim had his throat slashed, ear to ear, but also bled out, not a drop of blood was found at the crime scene though none was found in the body.” Xander held up his hand when Gibbs looked like he was going to interrupt. “Questions after,” He paused before continuing. “But this wasn’t the first killing like this, a week ago there was another victim, exactly the same MO, and I’m guessing another cop or something like it.”
“Security guard,” Tony said wearily as he flipped open one of the files on the desk.
“Right, you have a few fingerprints common to both crime scenes that match, but they don’t get a hit in AFIS or any other database you run them through.” Xander waited for them all to nod before he started on again. “I’m guessing your doc said something like the killer had expert medical knowledge, possibly a doctor or some other physician.”
“Ducky thought someone with surgical history from the way the cut was made,” Gibbs offered, for someone who hadn’t seen the files yet, this new Special Agent was getting too close to the truth for his liking.
“Right, good, and I’m guessing there’s no DNA, blood or anything else on the two scenes that doesn’t match the victims.” Again he got nods from all round him so he moved over to the desk and laid out his folders, passing one to Gibbs, one to Tony and another to Kate before flipping one out himself.
“Another killing?” Gibbs asked with a raised eyebrow. He looked for a date but there wasn’t one on the neatly typed out forms.
“Just tell me what you see, then you,” He nodded to Kate, “Then you.” He smiled to Tony who was moving over to the desk to take a seat.
“Same MO, same lack of blood.” He paused for a second, leafing through the papers. “No DNA or blood work done, looks like only bare minimum of forensics. Same for the other six,” Flicking through the file he found six killings in the folder, all with exactly the same MO. They were all nurses aged between twenty five and thirty.
“Special Agent Todd?” Xander asked when he was sure Gibbs was finished.
“Same, six killings, bodies drained of blood and throats slashed with surgical precision.” She paused flicking through the files. “Not even finger printing done here, no forensics just the basic investigation.”
“Six more here,” Tony’s brow furrowed in thought. “No forensics, no blood work, no nothing. Just basic ‘talk to the suspects’ deal, nothing that would indicate anything the link it to anything else aside the MO.”
“Right, now you have eighteen dead, twenty if we count the two victims from the latest cases.” He paused, glancing at some files quickly before holding them out gingerly, pulling them back before Gibbs had chance to take them. “The question is, how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go Special Agent Gibbs?” He smiled when Gibbs reached over and grabbed the file he was about to be handed the quickly flicked through it before something grabbed his attention and he started going through it more carefully.
“This can’t be right.” He muttered.
“Well he’s got it, how about you two?” Xander grinned as he passed the remaining two folders to the two other agents in the room. Watching their reactions as they flicked through the paperwork inside.
“What?” Tony asked, pausing for a moment as he flicked through the file.
“Nurses,” Xander explained, pointing to Gibbs. “Barmen,” he explained again, pointing to Kate. “Chefs,” He nodded at Tony before pointing at the wall. “Police men, or as close as they come to the killer’s standards,” He then walked over to the wall and started pinning documents up on a vacant space away from where the latest photo’s were being displayed. “And the original, prostitutes.”
“Are these dates correct?” Kate asked, her face showing puzzlement.
“What have you got?” Gibbs asked, checking his own.
“First killing in July nineteen sixty eight,” Kate explained, trying to figure out the age of her suspect in her head.
“December nineteen eighty eight,” Gibbs nodded, turning to Tony.
“February nineteen forty eight,” Tony whistled under his breath. “So the guys like over seventy? Nearly eighty?” He felt safe adding ten to twenty years, you had to be a certain physical age to kill like this, it was nothing to do with maturity, it was so you had enough height and physical strength to do what needed to be done. Looking over he saw Xander nodding as he pinned up the last of the files on the wall.
“Mary Nichols,” He paused, pointing to the document on the far left then started to make his way across the board, putting names to all the documents. “Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly,” He stumbled a bit on the last document. “No name, just a Jane Doe even after all these years.” He paused, growling under his breath before shaking it off and getting control of himself.
“Those names ring a bell.” Gibbs started to think, wondering where he’d heard them before.
“As they should Jethro, as they should.” An English voice came from the doorway, pulling everyone’s attention to see who was stood there, even though the NCIS team had already put a name and voice to the face they all turned to find out the explanation. “I heard from Rupert you were coming, how is the old man?”
“Donald,” Xander smiled softly, reaching into his pocket before pulling out a small red ball and throwing it to the doctor in question. “Giles sends his best.”
A shadow of a smile played across the doctor’s features before he walked over and examined the documents on the wall. “He’s back then.”
“That’s what I’m here to find out.” Xander said solemnly.
“No way!” A soft shout came from the doorway, causing everyone to turn again to see Abby in the doorway, wearing her usual black gothic attire, but she wasn’t as cheerful as she used to be, Tim’s death had hit her harder than anyone else. She’d been forced to take some leave but had returned after two days saying that it was harder to do nothing at home than it was to be here and doing something. “Are those real?” She asked, walking over to the files Xander had pinned up on the wall.
“And you are?” Xander asked impatiently.
“Abigail Sciuto, and I see you already know Ducky.” Gibbs filled in. “Now will someone start talking sense around here before I have to shoot someone. Who’s back?”
“Oh you wouldn’t want to turn your gun on Mister Harris; he’d probably make you eat it.” Ducky smiled softly at Xander before turning to Gibbs. “Rumour has it that he actually ate his old principal.” He couldn’t let that one piece of information go; after Rupert had told him about some of the exploits he had been roped into while dealing with the Slayer, that was the one that always stuck in his mind about the young man in front of him.
Xander looked around at the cautious faces that were now all staring at him. “No way, nothing to do with me, I was in the library when that happened.”
“Of course you were my boy, of course you were.” Ducky smiled at him again before moving over to Abby’s side and hugging her softly, turning her away from the pictures on the wall of Tim’s death.
“Who’s back?” Gibbs practically shouted.
“You ate your principal?” Tony asked at the same time, his voice a mixture of amusement and awe.
“That can’t be right.” Kate said from where she had moved over to look at the files that Xander had just pinned on the wall.
“In reverse order,” Xander smiled. “They’re correct.” He nodded, pointing to Kate. “No, I didn’t eat my principal.” He said in a voice that held no room for argument as he pointed to Tony. “And the best for last...” He was cut off before he managed to say the name that caught in his throat.
“Jack.” Ducky said softly.
“Jack?” Gibbs asked, the name more a question than a statement.
“Jack the ripper.” Abby filled in for him, her voice barely a whisper.
Gibbs just looked around the room to make sure no one was playing a practical joke on him, this was not the sort of thing he found funny and to do it with one of the NCIS personnel’s deaths was just... no, no one would dare pull something like this, which meant, no matter how strange, that it had to be on the level. “Why do I have the feeling this is going to be a long day.” He muttered, flipping open his phone and calling the coffee house down the road to get an extra large assortment sent up to him. He briefly paused, wondering if it would be a better idea to order a bottle of bourbon, it might make all this make a little more sense. Slamming the phone shut he turned to Xander, pinning him with a glare. “You’re telling me, that Tim was killed by Jack the ripper, the same Jack the ripper who killed six prostitutes in 1888?”
Xander just nodded mutely.
“I’m probably going to regret asking this, hell, I know I’m going to regret asking this, but how do you explain one of our agents being killed by someone that is over a hundred and thirty years old?” Gibbs voice rose at the end of his question, not quite yelling but enough so that it echoed through the room.
“I hate this part.” Xander said softly, pulling out his knife from his boot. Watching them all carefully as he slowly brought the knife up to his hand. “Watch carefully, because this is the only time you get a demonstration.” He paused as everyone gathered around, Ducky held back, having seen something like this already from Rupert.
Xander smiled at everyone before grimacing slightly as he dragged the knife across his palm, pushing the blade deep against his skin so everyone could see that it wasn’t a trick as the blood started welling up in his hand. “No one moves.” He said, his tone not leaving any room for argument. “Just watch.” Grinding his teeth together he finished the cut before turning and dropping the knife on the table, still holding his hand out for everyone to see.
“Are you crazy?” Gibbs asked, itching to go for his gun or to fetch a doctor, then he realized that Ducky was stood opposite him, watching all of this calmly like he had seen it all before.
“You got some tissue doc?” Xander asked, the pain leaving now.
“What the hell?” Kate was the first to notice, leaning forward so she could get a better look at the lightning played over the cut on his hand, knitting the skin together quickly.
“Of course my boy,” Ducky smiled, handing over a roll of blue lab cleaning paper. “Aren’t there easier ways of explaining that?”
“I could always shoot myself?” Xander grinned back, taking the roll of paper with his right hand and tearing off foot or so. Turning back to the group he looked at them each in turn. “Blood right?” he waited for them all to nod before he started wiping the blood off his hand. “Where from?” He grinned as he cleaned the rest of the blood off his hand, leaving the clean skin below.
“That’s impossible.” Abby whispered, pushing through the group to get a better look at the knife that Xander had used.
“It’s real.” Xander explained softly, balling the used paper up before tossing it across the room into one of the bins.
“How?” Gibbs demanded to know as he continued to watch the hand that had been bleeding a few minutes ago.
“Mister Harris is what is known as an Immortal Jethro, he cannot die.” Ducky smiled, everyone turned to face him in amazement as he explained what he knew.
“Everything dies.” Gibbs said flatly.
“Not the case my boy, I believe Mister Harris,” Ducky was cut off before he had chance to continue.
“Enough with the Mister Harris. No Agent Harris or whatever, just Xander.” Xander grinned as everyone as he retrieved his knife from Abby and wiped the blood onto his jeans before placing it back into its sheath.
“Very well,” Ducky smiled at him. “Xander is an Immortal, they cannot die. They heal any injury within minutes, though I believe it is dependent on how long they have been alive as to how long it actually takes. I had a friend who actually postulated that the advanced age of the subjects actually sped up the healing process, quite believable as well when he showed examples of the same cut on two different subjects, vastly differing in age as well...”
“Enough,” Gibbs shouted, rubbing his brow like a headache was coming on. “You’re immortal?” He asked, pointing at Xander.
Xander nodded with a smile.
“And so is Jack the ripper?” Gibbs asked, putting the pieces together.
“Yup.” Xander nodded again.
“And you knew about this?” Gibbs asked, turning to Ducky.
“I’m afraid so my boy, Xander isn’t the only immortal I’ve met before, in fact I’ve met over six different immortals in my time, three of them were acquaintances of an old friend of mine from the academy.” Ducky smiled, thinking back to when he had first met Joe Dawson when he was in England for his last years training.
“So how old are you?” Tony asked, grasping the concept quite easily. “I mean, if Jack’s over a hundred, and you can’t die...” He left the question open as everyone but Ducky turned to Xander for confirmation of his age.
“Twenty six,” He grinned. “December twenty ninth nineteen eighty one.” He rattled off his birth date.
“Oh yes, Xander here is still within his first lifetime.” Ducky smiled. “Though the oldest I have met was just over six hundred, but there are rumours of one reaching over five thousand.” Ducky thought back to what he had read of the Methos chronicles while he was at the academy. He was quite the researcher back then before he had gone to medical school.
“Five thousand?” Abby breathed out. “Whoa!”
“Quite so, but as I said that is just a rumour, there is no proof that he even existed, or if he still does.” Ducky explained, moving on quickly before they noticed his slip. “But yes, it is all true.”
“You’re immortal,” Gibbs stated, pointing at Xander. “So is Jack the ripper, and you’ve come to hunt him down?”
“That’s ‘bout the gist of it.” Xander grinned.
“You knew about all of this,” Gibbs continued, looking at Ducky who was pulling a face like he was a child who had got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “And no one else knows?” His voice was full of disbelief as he finished off.
“Wait, that still doesn’t explain the blood.” Kate interrupted. “If he just killed them, where did the blood go? I mean, you’re not vampires are you? Are you?” She asked cautiously, stepping back as Xander started to chuckle.
“Nope, not a vampire.” Xander grinned, fingering the crucifix around his neck, causing Gibbs to pull out the ball of tangled crucifixes in his pocket. “They come next.” He grinned at the shocked faces of the room.
“I knew I should have stayed in bed this morning.” Gibbs muttered, dumping the ball of tangled metal on the table before striding out of the room, everyone just watched in silence as he moved through the doors and stepped into the elevator.
“Vampires are real?” Abby asked, her face lighting up in excitement, the first show of real emotion Xander had seen from her since he arrived.
“Is he going to be alright?” Xander asked, nodding to where Gibbs had disappeared to.
“I’m thinking about following him.” Kate answered truthfully. “This is all real?” She asked softly, not really wanting to know the answer.
“Afraid so, and it only gets stranger from here.” Xander said with a reassuring smile.
“It gets worse?” Tony asked in amazement, sitting down and laying his head on the table in disbelief.
“Oh, my friend, you wouldn’t believe what is out there. I believe the quote goes ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’” Ducky smiled as Kate followed suit, sitting down and laying her head on the cool surface of the table.
“This is so cool.” Abby smiled, watching Xander like a hawk for his next revelation.
“How bad does it get?” Tony asked, not even raising his head up from the table. “Vampires?” He shuddered, remembering his old nightmares about vampire seductresses.
“Yup,” Xander nodded even though Tony couldn’t see him.
“And it gets worse from there?” Tony practically whimpered.
“Yup,” Xander nodded again with a grin.
“I hate my life.” Tony muttered, lifting his head up from the table before letting it drop back down with a thud.
“Vampire phobia.” Abby muttered to Xander.
“Gotcha.” He grinned back, pulling one of the crucifix’s free from the tangled ball and dangling it in front of Tony’s head. “Wear one of these at all times,” He smiled as Tony eyed the crucifix before snatching it out of the air and quickly putting it on. Xander moved back to the other crucifix’s before untangling another and handing it to Kate.
“They really work?” She asked, eyeing the crucifix carefully before putting it on.
“Stake, sunlight, fire, holy water, crucifix’s,” That’s about it for Vampires. “Oh, and decapitation.” He smiled a wry grin to Ducky who shared it with him for a moment.
“So, where do vampires come into this?” Gibbs irritated voice came from the doorway where he stood holding a large tray full of coffee.
“You are a god!” Xander shouted, moving over quicker than anyone could see and snatching one of the larger paper mugs.
Ducky smiled at him while the other members of the team just watched Gibbs in awe, they had never seen him spring for coffee, never for the entire team.
“You alright boss?” Tony quipped, fetching the tray off him and placing it on the table. “You not under a spell or something?” He then stopped, turning to Xander before he got slapped round the head by Gibbs. “Hey,” He shouted with a small smile before turning back to Xander. “Magic’s not real right?” He asked, getting that sinking feeling when Xander just grinned at him.
“Yup.” Xander nodded slowly.
“I hate you.” Tony said softly, letting his head bang back on the table. “I really hate you.”
“I love this job.” Xander grinned, taking a mouthful of coffee while everyone was watching Tony continue to bang his head softly on the table.
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AN: you know when you just have one of those plot bunnies that won’t leave you alone, no matter what you do and what you try to work ok? Meet mine lol
Hope you enjoyed it.
M
Author's Chapter Notes:
Xander's been called in to help out when a mysterious death of someone close to the teams shakes NCIS HQ, it's the work of someone that’s killed before, many times before. It's going to take a lot more than a single man to stop this, but more revelations are afoot than expected.
Crossover with BTVS (Future), Angel (Future) and Highlander
Crossover with BTVS (Future), Angel (Future) and Highlander