Ducky stepped out of the lift, wondering why exactly Jethro had called him upstairs. Usually when someone needed his expertise they came down to him. Maybe he had a live costumer for once? It had happened before that he'd had to patch up live patients upstairs, mainly because most people tended to feel a bit uncomfortable in the morgue.
There was no one by the lift to greet him when it stopped. Not that he'd expected it too be, but still... there were a cluster of people gathered around the other elevator, the one across the room. Apparently someone had come from the outside and demanded everyone's attention.
Suddenly he got a feeling that all that mess with the watchers council had culminated into this...
He had to admit he was curious. As he'd said to young mister Harris a few days ago, he'd had previous experience with the elusive Watchers Council, and he had no desire to relive the experience. But still...
He ambled over to the people gathered around the elevator doors. He could see now that it was Jethro and his team. What he couldn't see though, was what they were all staring at.
“You called for me, Jethro?”
His question broke the silence and the people started a little. They all looked back at him, and when they parted he got a better view of the guests they had apparently been in the process of greeting. He recognised the young man with the eye-patch right away, and the young man beside him...
“Oh dear...” he sighed.
***
They were all gathered in the morgue, a place were it could be certain that they would be granted some privacy. All eyes were on Spike and Xander, the former leaning casually against the wall, his arms crossed and with a smirk on his face, the latter standing beside him, hands in the pockets of his designer pants. His face bore the look of amiable calmness, only marred slightly by the pirate accessory over one eye.
Gibbs had been exceptionally calm, but those who knew him recognised his demeanour as the build-up before the explosion. No one in his team had dared open their mouths, but all of them had variations of the same confused thoughts buzzing around in their heads;
'That guy was dead a few days ago...'
The only one in the room that wasn't overly shocked to see the walking, talking dead man was Ducky. He had already surmised that the body from the crime-scene had to be a vampire, as soon as he's seen the Watcher council insignia on the release papers. What he was confused over though was why the vampire was here now. He'd thought they would have staked it as soon as they were away from the prying eyes of the NCIS. And he also wondered why the vampire in question hadn't attacked anyone yet, not to say he wasn't grateful for that of course.
“I understand you had some questions?” The easy-going smile never left Xander's face when he spoke, and that only served to make Gibbs even angrier. Tony's face paled when he saw the expression on his boss' face.
“Starting with why I'm staring at my missing corpse.” The tone could have thawed an iceberg, and then frozen it solid again.
“It's the florescent lights in here. They make me look dead.” Spike smirked. Ziva had to quell the urge to take cover behind the autopsy table when she noticed Gibbs' body language.
Spike had always had a talent of reading people, and he studied the specimens before him with care. The three goons hiding behind the big man was this lot's equivalent of the Scoobies, the ever helpful background team, ever vigilant of their leaders commands. Well no, not really he corrected himself. Those three was what the Scoobies should have been like.
The doctor, however, confused him a bit. He knew the older man knew what the council was, he'd heard that much from Xander, and so, presumably he knew about Vampires as well. But he looked far to... calm. He had a look on his face of gentle curiosity. Not the reaction he would have expected.
Special agent Gibbs on the other hand followed the script perfectly. He could see the man fuming, simmering under the surface, and now he was eagerly anticipating the explosion.
Spike had underestimated the older agent, however. Gibbs had a tight grip on himself, and he would not fly of the handle that easily. He would not give them the satisfaction. The blonde punk rubbed him the wrong way, and not only because he was supposed to be dead.
Xander intervened before anything could happen. “Look, I know you have been a little... testy because of this,” he began, “and we're sorry if we stepped on your toes.” Spike snorted, and Xander amended; “Well, maybe Spike's not.”
“Right.” Spike said.
Xander continued as if he'd not been interrupted. “We know doctor Mallard have heard of our work before, so if you don't believe us you can look to him for confirmation of what you're about to hear, okay?”
All eyes fell on Ducky, but his eyer were trained on the vampire. So this was the infamous Spike... Now he was even more confused. Why would a quarter of the scourge of Europe play nice with the watchers council?
“Now,” Xander said when he'd regained their attention. “What do you know about vampires?”
Now, Gibbs exploded!
He took a couple of menacing steps forwards until he invaded Xander's personal space. He glared at the man with a thunderous expression on his face. This incarnation of Gibbs could have had the president of the United States quiver in his boots, but to Xanders credit he barely flinched.
“I am not in the mood for jokes, Harris!” he gritted out between clenched teeth.
Xander gave him a rueful smile.“For once, neither am I.”
Gibbs felt someone touch his shoulder. He turned sharply and locked eyes with Ducky. His eyes widened when he saw the expression on the doctors face. He shook his head.
“You can't be serious!”
“I'm afraid this is extremely serious, Jethro.” Ducky said. “You should listen to these two.”
“I have a feeling he would rather listen to you,” Xander spoke up. “Why don't you tell him what you know, and then we'll fill in the blanks.” He glanced over at Spike. “With some... visual aids.”
Ducky cast a wary glance towards Spike as well. “Are you sure about that?” he asked.
“Don't worry doc, I won't bite.” Spike offered him a toothy grin. He was loving this!
That assurance really didn't settle Ducky's nerves much, but he sighed and started talking.
“In my younger,more idealistic days I did some pro bono work in a small clinic in an... obscure part of London. We had to treat a lot of unusual injuries.”
“Let me guess,” Tony suddenly intervened. “They were of the 'I fell in a barbecue-fork' variety?”
Suddenly all eyes were on him. “We had a few of those in Philly and Baltimore. When someone found a body with unidentified neck-trauma that was the usual explanation.” Everyone stared at him, and the two outsiders looked like they had a hard time to keep themselves from laughing out loud. “I never said it was a good explanation” he grumbled.
“Ehrm... yes. Those kind of injuries.” Ducky continued. “and then, one time, we got to a patient too late. He was dead, no pulse, nothing. I and an older colleague had just declared him deceased when he woke up.” He rubbed his forehead tiredly while he tried his best to remember. “His face was distorted, and his eyes were... I swear they were bright yellow! His teeth had elongated, and he grabbed me and yanked me down. He would have bit me, but my colleague acted fast and thrust a piece of wood in his heart. The next thing I knew the... man was gone, and the bed was covered in dust.”
“Vamp-dust.” Xander shook his head. “It's a bitch to get out of the linens.” He shrugged when he saw the looks he got at that. “Please continue, doctor.”
“Right... well, it turned out that my colleague had a brother who was working for the Watchers Council. Apparently it was a bit of a family tradition, since his father had been a watcher too. He told me an amazing story about vampires, watchers and slayers, something I never would have believed f I hadn't seen what I saw that day. And I always worked with a stake in my pocket from then on. I still have it, It's in my desk drawer.”
“What's a slayer?” Tony asked. Xander saw this as his opening.
“Unto every generation a slayer is born. She alone will fight the forces of darkness, yada yada yada. Basically, It was one girl in the world who with the help of super-strength and a very shortened life span fought the vampires, demons and various ooglie-booglies that was hankering to destroy the world. That was until a couple of years ago, when the latest slayer, with the help of her friends, worked some mojo that made all the potential slayers all over the world into full-fledged vampire killers. It's no longer only one, there are thousands around now. And it's our job, as the reformed watchers council, to train and guide them. A rogue slayer can be very dangerous.”
Gibbs had been very quiet for the entire explanation, but now he couldn't hold it in any more.
“Have you all gone completely insane?!”
“An' that's my cue,” Spike said, and morphed into game-face. There was a collective gap, and then the four NCIS-agents drew their guns at him.
“It won't help, unfortunately.” Ducky said calmly. “You can only kill him by staking him in the heart with a piece of wood, decapitation or sunlight. I believe setting him on fire might be proficient as well.”
“Right you are, doc!” Spike beamed at him, and switched back to his human features.”Someone's been doing their homework! But I'd rather you didn't. See, I'm a reformed vamp, nowadays”.
“And his girlfriend would be pissed. Believe me, you don't want an angry slayer after you.” Xander chimed in.
“What were you doing on the crime scene?” McGee spoke up for the first time. He was at the same time scared shitless and extremely intrigued by all this.
Xander tossed Spike a smirk. “Captain peroxide was there on a simple staking mission. We had word that a couple of vamps were gonna set up a nest close by, and we tracked them to that house. Apparently it wasn't as simple as he'd thought it would be, because he managed to get knocked unconscious.”
Spike glared at him. “I'll have you know I got all but one of them.”
Xander shrugged him off. “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, when he didn't come back at the designated time, we had to check out what had happened, and when we got there there the house was crawling with you lot.”
“How come you had the necessary papers to remove him?” Ducky asked.
“Standard procedure. An unconscious vamp is nothing but a corpse, no pulse, no heartbeat, no breath, and a cold body temp. We've had to pick up vamps before, just not one of our own. Well, we really only have one.” He pointed a thumb towards Spike.
“About that,” Ducky frowned. “What is William the Bloody doing working for the Watchers Council?”
Gibbs, Ziva, Tony and McGee started at the rather gory moniker, but Spike just beamed at the older man.
“Heard of me, have you? 'm flattered!” He shrugged. “Simple really. A series of strange circumstances landed me in the hands of the slayer, and before you knew it I was in love. The next thing I knew, I'm in Africa fighting for my soul. Had to be separated from my girl for a while, but now I'm back with her.” His gaze unfocused as he talked, and his smile toned down a bit. “What we do for our women, eh?” He looked almost embarrassed.
No one had yet to lower their guns, but they seemed more perplexed than scared now. Gibbs spoke up.
“So this is your explanation? Vampires?”
“Yeah,” Xander said. “Pretty much.”
Gibbs lowered his weapon, and the others followed him. He studied Xander and Spike intently for a couple of seconds before he spoke again.
“Okay.”
There was a baffled silence. Tony was the first one to react. “Okay? What do you mean, boss?”
Gibbs holstered his gun. “I mean, it's okay. It's like Abby's technology-babble. I don't understand it, and I have no intention of ever learning about it, but it's still there. And there should be experts on all areas, as long as I don't have to deal with it.”
“Wow...” Xander just looked at him. “That was... not the reaction I had anticipated.”
“Neither had I,” Ducky said. “It seems I underestimated you, Jethro.”
“It seems so.” Gibbs said dryly. “Now, if we're done here, I'm sure we all have some real work to get back to.” and with that he left the morgue, leaving his baffled team and the two strangers behind
him.
Tony nudged McGee. “What do you think Abby would have given to hear about this?”
McGee gave him a strange look. “What are the chances that she doesn't already know all about it?”
Tony thought about that for a second. “Probably very slim.” he amended.
FIN
Author's Chapter Notes:
Confrontations and explanations...
Chapter End Notes:
Geez, I hope you can forgive me for this story...