Giles picked up the phone on the second ring, without taking his eyes from the rapport in front of him.
“Rupert Giles speaking.”
“Mister Giles, there is someone called 'special agent Gibbs' on line two for you. He says he's NCIS. Shall I put him through?”
Giles frowned at first, searching his mind for information on why someone from the National Crops Insurance Service would be wanting to talk to him, but when his brain finally caught up with him his eyes snapped up from the paper he was reading. It was not the National Crops Insurance Service, it was the Naval Criminal Investigative Service! This phone call probably had something to do with that staking mission Spike botched up a couple of days ago.
He sighed, and asked his assistant to put the call through.
“This is Rupert Giles. How may I help you?”
“This is Special Agent Gibbs from NCIS. I'm calling about the murder victim your organization stole from my crime-scene three days ago.” The man's voice was terse, and he was obviously annoyed. Straight to the point without any pleasantries. Giles mouth twisted in an involuntary smirk. This phone call might turn out to be interesting.
“Agent Gibbs. I must say I am quite surprised to hear form you. As I understand it there were no problems with the paperwork in that case, and everything seemed to have been in order. May I ask why you are calling now?”
On the other side of the line, Gibbs bristled at the condescending tone from the distinguished Englishman. “I am calling, mister Giles, because I generally don't just take it in stride when mysterious organizations just breezes in and steal a corpse from one of my murder cases!”
“Ah, but there is were I fear our wires have been crossed somewhat. It is, in fact, not your murder case. It's ours. The... 'victim' had ties to the Watchers Council, and thus the case fell out of your jurisdiction. Had the body of someone connected to the Navy been found I understand that the matter would have been different, but as it is now, the only thing connecting NCIS to this particular case is the location in which the body was located. Am I correct?” He did not add that the body of the unfortunate naval lieutenant had in fact been found and then promptly staked by Spike. The dust was probably fertilizing the front lawn of her house right now.
Gibbs was not about to give up that easily, and he had been expecting something like that.”My people were the first ones on the scene, and the call came in to us. This is my case and my crime scene!”
The debate went on like that for approximately fifteen minutes before Giles had had enough. Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was one of the most obnoxious and stubborn people he'd ever had the displeasure of dealing with, and he'd worked for Quentin Travers for twenty years and he was currently employing William the Bloody.
William the Bloody...
An evil smile grazed his lips. Spike may be the answer to his problem. Oh God, that was a sentence he'd never thought he would think...
***
The fierce battle had been raging for over twenty minutes, and neither of the combatants had yet to show any indication that they were tired or ready to yield. A flurry of kicks and punches were traded back and forth, but they all missed or just grazed their goals, failing to do any harm.
Then, finally, he saw an opening, and with a feint punch to the left that she easily avoided he kicked low and before she knew what happened she was on her back with his fangs grazing her throat.
There was the sound of applauds.
“Well done you two. That was quite entertaining.”
Seeing her opponent was temporarily distracted, the girl took this opportunity plant her feet on the floor and buck under her captor, flexing the strong muscles in her legs so that she managed to flip them over and land her on top. She locked his wrists in a strong grip over his head and smirked down at him.
“You're dust, Buster!”
He laughed out lout at that. “Oh yeah kitten, you won fair and square this time. But you'd better thank Rupes for that victory. If he hadn't interrupted you'd have been on my dinner menu tonight.”
She smiled and bent down so her lips were only inches from his ear. “I thought I already was.”
He shuddered, her husky voice doing very interesting things to his body, but before their intimate position on the floor could go any further, Giles cleared his throat behind them and they were forced to separate.
“Well yes, that was, um... quite an interesting demonstration, Buffy. Spike, may I have a quick word with you?”
Spike arched an eyebrow and looked at the watcher questioningly. Giles could barely stand being in the same room as him most of the time, and for the two of them to have an actual conversation... well, that just didn't happen.
Buffy looked back and forth between the two men. “Do you want me to leave?” she asked. In truth she was wary of leaving them alone together.
“Oh, no, that won't be necessary. You might want to hear this as well.” He took of his glasses and started cleaning them, out of old habit. “I just got an interesting phone call. A special agent Gibbs from NCIS called, wanting to talk about the missing ”murder victim” that a mister Harris collected a couple of days ago.” He put his glasses back on and looked at Spike. “That would be you.”
Spike snorted at that, and Buffy smirked. “Yeah, that was an slap 'n tickle. I'm just glad you got me out of there before I woke up on the autopsy table and scared the poor Doc to death.”
Even Giles had to smile at that image. “Yes, well, agent Gibbs wasn't too happy about the events. I believe he feels like we stepped on his toes a bit. In fact, I think he might present a problem down the road, if we don't deal with his... inquisitive nature as soon as possible.”
“An' how do you propose we do that?”
“How would you feel about a field trip, Spike?”
A full fledged smile appeared on Spikes face. This sounded like it might be fun!
***
After much cursing Xander finally found his cellphone under the coffee-table and was able to answer it.
“Xandman speaking!”
“Xander, this is Giles. I have a job for you.”
***
The Monday At NCIS headquarters in the Washington Navy Yard started like any other, but with Ziva, Tony and McGee treading on eggshells so not to worsen their boss' already crappy mood. Ever since the 'case-that-wasn't', he'd been almost impossible to please. Well, even more than usual. And it didn't help that the day's since then had been unusually quiet. They hadn't gotten a single new case to distract Gibbs with.
Suddenly the phone on Tony's desk rang, and he eagerly answered it. Maybe this was the brake they'd been waiting for?
“Dinozzo here.” Silence. “What?” More silence. “Uh, sure. I'll get Gibbs”. He hung up. Ziva and McGee was staring at him.
“Who was that, Dinozzo?” Tony jumped in his chair. His boss had sidled up silently behind him. Again.
“That was security boss. Two guys are asking to come in and meet with you. Says they're from the Watchers Council.”
Ziva and McGee perked up. Maybe this was their answer to their prayers?
Gibbs' face was emotionless, but there was an unmistakeable twinkle in his eyes. “Tell security to escort them up. And give Ducky a call and tell him to get up here.”
“Yes boss.” Tony lifted the phone. Gibbs, Ziva and McGee went over to stand in front of the elevator doors.
The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened. The first person to come out was the man with the eye-patch they all remembered from the crime-scene. He smiled at them and stuck his hand out. “Special Agent Gibbs, it's a pleasure meeting you again.”
Gibbs shook his hand.“Mister Harris.”
Xander smiled at him. “May I present my colleague?” He indicated the shorter bleached blond man standing behind him in the elevator. “This is Spike.”
“'lo all!” The corpse they all remembered from the crime scene directed a feral grin at them. “Nice to meet you. Again.”
There was complete and utter silence.
Author's Chapter Notes:
The dreaded phone call...