Aug. 15th: Dandelion, Ch. 4: Not-So-Fake I.D.
Title: Dandelion, Ch. 4: Not-So-Fake I.D.
Author: 3am_moonlight (MirroredIllusions on TtH)
Crossover: BtVS / Criminal Minds / Stargate SG-1
Rating: Gen / Teen
Word Count: 1,281
Timeline: BtVS: Post-The Gift, later seasons for CM, and not decided for SG1.
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse, the CM 'verse, and the Stargate 'verse all belong to people who are not yours truly.
Summary: In which Buffy does Tai Chi, Jack returns a wallet, and Sara makes an effort.
Author's Note: Written for Day 15 of the 2020 August Fic-A-Day.
A/N: This is very rushed, so please excuse any glaring mistakes.
Buffy started the morning with an hour of Tai-Chi, more as an exercise than meditation. It had been nearly a week since she had been able to fight anything and she was getting a little antsy. Four days in the hospital was a lot longer than she normally stayed, mainly because Sunnydale was used to strange people and even stranger demands.
If she'd been at home she could've at least run it off, but there were too many unknowns and too large a risk of someone seeing something they shouldn't. Hence, Tai-chi.
When Jack came out just after 7 am she was doing very, very slow breathing exercises to improve her balance and focus. Normally she would've skipped it and simply done the normal katas, but she needed to use her body and with no one to fight, and no other way to use all of her excess energy, it would have to do.
As she slowly and precisely moved through the last few poses she returned to where she had begun and opened her eyes. As she knew from listening to her environment, Jack was standing off to the side of her improvised dojo and observed her.
"Good morning, Jack. Did you sleep well?" She gave him a relaxed smile. The katas had helped, but it had barely taken the edge off. She needed to use her Slayer powers soon or there would be even more questions she'd rather not answer, especially not when the person most likely to ask was military.
"Yeah. How long have you been doing Tai Chi?"
"A few years, it's relaxing and I haven't been about to do it for a few weeks. I woke up early, so I figured I give it a try." She walked towards him. "Do you practice?"
"No, but I know other people who practice something similar."
Their conversation continued as they walked inside, and they conversed on safe topics all through breakfast with Sara. She excused herself afterward and left to do a few errands. It wasn't until they returned to Jack's room the conversation returned to more serious topics. Attempting to avoid certain things, she began.
"Do you know if they return everything to me at the hospital? Dr. Rees didn't know, and I'm certain I had my wallet on me when I came here."
The guarded look was back in Jack's eyes and he indicated for her to sit down while he went to fetch something from his bag.
"Dave gave me this after we first met at the hospital." He handed her her wallet. "He swiped it from you while you were unconscious. The original intent was to check for confirmation of identification or other evidence, but when he opened it and saw what he thought to be a fake I.D. he withheld it."
Both of Buffy's eyebrows went up. "A Federal agent took evidence and gave it to someone, not in the FBI? Pretty sure that's illegal, too."
"It is," the man confirmed. "But he assumed you'd been kidnapped and the fake I.D. was something you'd been forced to use. But when they checked it, it didn't lead anywhere logical. The social security number leads to someone unrelated to either the Swyler case or Elizabeth's disappearance. Your credit cards lead to other people's accounts. There were no hits on any of the people you have pictures of."
At the last part, she quickly opened the wallet and checked to make sure all the pictures were still there. They were. They were out of order but intact. A folded picture from before her parents divorced, mystically edited to include Dawn. A picture of her and Dawn with their mother, taken shortly before Joyce had died. A lovey-dovey snapshot of her and Angel. And the last one was of her with Willow and Xander from the summer before, celebrating surviving their first year of college.
Once she had made sure her only link to her dimension was still there, she checked her driver's license and other cards along with the other bits and bobs that had ended up in there. A soft smile lingered on her lips as she studied the photographs again. It was all she had now.
"Those people are your family and friends?"
She nodded before giving a verbal reply. "My parents, little sister, and my two best friends."
"You were right, Sara and I look nothing like them." Buffy didn't argue the point, as they both knew it was true.
"Is there some way to have me legally separated from Elizabeth? I am not her, and she isn't me. I won't use her identity."
She heard his heart rate go up, but didn't acknowledge it. This was too important.
"We need more proof that you're not her before we can start that process, especially since there's a DNA test confirming you to be Elizabeth. But yes, it's possible."
"The DNA test results don't make sense. I'm not adopted and I'm not from this dimension, so that shouldn't be possible." Unless the Powers That Be had done something. She frowned, it would be just like them to take advantage of the situation to get her to do something they wanted without asking first.
"Brighter minds than ours will get to the bottom of it when we get to Colorado, but for now we'll have to wait." He changed positions to get more comfortable. "Dave and JJ will be here later to ask you some more questions about, well, anything you know about Swyler and check to see if you remember anything from being Elizabeth."
"That's a no to both. Everyone knows more about Swyler and his victims than I do, and I'm still not Elizabeth. So it's a waste of time for them to come here."
Jack nodded, "I know, but they need to be thorough. I'm a high-ranking officer in a highly-classified program, and they're a part of an elite team of profilers. People would start asking questions if they just let it go, especially since they suspect you to have Stockholm Syndrome or something like it."
Then she rewound the conversation a little, "Who's JJ?" She didn't remember anyone called that, but then, names were not her strongest thing.
"Agent Jennifer Jareau."
"Ah." Buffy liked her when she didn't treat her with pity.
A knock sounded from the door and Jack went to answer it. She already knew who it was, having memorized her steps at the hospital. Soon after Sara stepped into the room looking determined.
They'd had an awkward confrontation the night before, where Buffy had made it crystal clear she was not this woman's daughter, that there was no chance of Buffy pretending to be someone else, and Sara had to stop thinking of Buffy that way. Buffy had also made it obvious that she believed the real Elizabeth to be dead and Sara needed to begin the grieving process. It could've gone much better, but apparently, they were going for round two.
"Hello, El-. I mean, Buffy. I think we should try this again, would you like to go shopping? You can't keep wearing that one outfit."
It wasn't an elegant attempt, but she wasn't about to turn down a shopping expedition. Particularly since Sara was right, she had the outfit she'd arrived in plus a set of left-overs a friendly nurse had given her when she'd been released.
"This is going to go badly, but yes, I'd like to go shopping."
She was given a tentative smile from Sara and some encouragement from Jack, and then they were off.
The reprieve was only for a few hours and then she would have to face the FBI again.
Author: 3am_moonlight (MirroredIllusions on TtH)
Crossover: BtVS / Criminal Minds / Stargate SG-1
Rating: Gen / Teen
Word Count: 1,281
Timeline: BtVS: Post-The Gift, later seasons for CM, and not decided for SG1.
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse, the CM 'verse, and the Stargate 'verse all belong to people who are not yours truly.
Summary: In which Buffy does Tai Chi, Jack returns a wallet, and Sara makes an effort.
Author's Note: Written for Day 15 of the 2020 August Fic-A-Day.
A/N: This is very rushed, so please excuse any glaring mistakes.
Buffy started the morning with an hour of Tai-Chi, more as an exercise than meditation. It had been nearly a week since she had been able to fight anything and she was getting a little antsy. Four days in the hospital was a lot longer than she normally stayed, mainly because Sunnydale was used to strange people and even stranger demands.
If she'd been at home she could've at least run it off, but there were too many unknowns and too large a risk of someone seeing something they shouldn't. Hence, Tai-chi.
When Jack came out just after 7 am she was doing very, very slow breathing exercises to improve her balance and focus. Normally she would've skipped it and simply done the normal katas, but she needed to use her body and with no one to fight, and no other way to use all of her excess energy, it would have to do.
As she slowly and precisely moved through the last few poses she returned to where she had begun and opened her eyes. As she knew from listening to her environment, Jack was standing off to the side of her improvised dojo and observed her.
"Good morning, Jack. Did you sleep well?" She gave him a relaxed smile. The katas had helped, but it had barely taken the edge off. She needed to use her Slayer powers soon or there would be even more questions she'd rather not answer, especially not when the person most likely to ask was military.
"Yeah. How long have you been doing Tai Chi?"
"A few years, it's relaxing and I haven't been about to do it for a few weeks. I woke up early, so I figured I give it a try." She walked towards him. "Do you practice?"
"No, but I know other people who practice something similar."
Their conversation continued as they walked inside, and they conversed on safe topics all through breakfast with Sara. She excused herself afterward and left to do a few errands. It wasn't until they returned to Jack's room the conversation returned to more serious topics. Attempting to avoid certain things, she began.
"Do you know if they return everything to me at the hospital? Dr. Rees didn't know, and I'm certain I had my wallet on me when I came here."
The guarded look was back in Jack's eyes and he indicated for her to sit down while he went to fetch something from his bag.
"Dave gave me this after we first met at the hospital." He handed her her wallet. "He swiped it from you while you were unconscious. The original intent was to check for confirmation of identification or other evidence, but when he opened it and saw what he thought to be a fake I.D. he withheld it."
Both of Buffy's eyebrows went up. "A Federal agent took evidence and gave it to someone, not in the FBI? Pretty sure that's illegal, too."
"It is," the man confirmed. "But he assumed you'd been kidnapped and the fake I.D. was something you'd been forced to use. But when they checked it, it didn't lead anywhere logical. The social security number leads to someone unrelated to either the Swyler case or Elizabeth's disappearance. Your credit cards lead to other people's accounts. There were no hits on any of the people you have pictures of."
At the last part, she quickly opened the wallet and checked to make sure all the pictures were still there. They were. They were out of order but intact. A folded picture from before her parents divorced, mystically edited to include Dawn. A picture of her and Dawn with their mother, taken shortly before Joyce had died. A lovey-dovey snapshot of her and Angel. And the last one was of her with Willow and Xander from the summer before, celebrating surviving their first year of college.
Once she had made sure her only link to her dimension was still there, she checked her driver's license and other cards along with the other bits and bobs that had ended up in there. A soft smile lingered on her lips as she studied the photographs again. It was all she had now.
"Those people are your family and friends?"
She nodded before giving a verbal reply. "My parents, little sister, and my two best friends."
"You were right, Sara and I look nothing like them." Buffy didn't argue the point, as they both knew it was true.
"Is there some way to have me legally separated from Elizabeth? I am not her, and she isn't me. I won't use her identity."
She heard his heart rate go up, but didn't acknowledge it. This was too important.
"We need more proof that you're not her before we can start that process, especially since there's a DNA test confirming you to be Elizabeth. But yes, it's possible."
"The DNA test results don't make sense. I'm not adopted and I'm not from this dimension, so that shouldn't be possible." Unless the Powers That Be had done something. She frowned, it would be just like them to take advantage of the situation to get her to do something they wanted without asking first.
"Brighter minds than ours will get to the bottom of it when we get to Colorado, but for now we'll have to wait." He changed positions to get more comfortable. "Dave and JJ will be here later to ask you some more questions about, well, anything you know about Swyler and check to see if you remember anything from being Elizabeth."
"That's a no to both. Everyone knows more about Swyler and his victims than I do, and I'm still not Elizabeth. So it's a waste of time for them to come here."
Jack nodded, "I know, but they need to be thorough. I'm a high-ranking officer in a highly-classified program, and they're a part of an elite team of profilers. People would start asking questions if they just let it go, especially since they suspect you to have Stockholm Syndrome or something like it."
Then she rewound the conversation a little, "Who's JJ?" She didn't remember anyone called that, but then, names were not her strongest thing.
"Agent Jennifer Jareau."
"Ah." Buffy liked her when she didn't treat her with pity.
A knock sounded from the door and Jack went to answer it. She already knew who it was, having memorized her steps at the hospital. Soon after Sara stepped into the room looking determined.
They'd had an awkward confrontation the night before, where Buffy had made it crystal clear she was not this woman's daughter, that there was no chance of Buffy pretending to be someone else, and Sara had to stop thinking of Buffy that way. Buffy had also made it obvious that she believed the real Elizabeth to be dead and Sara needed to begin the grieving process. It could've gone much better, but apparently, they were going for round two.
"Hello, El-. I mean, Buffy. I think we should try this again, would you like to go shopping? You can't keep wearing that one outfit."
It wasn't an elegant attempt, but she wasn't about to turn down a shopping expedition. Particularly since Sara was right, she had the outfit she'd arrived in plus a set of left-overs a friendly nurse had given her when she'd been released.
"This is going to go badly, but yes, I'd like to go shopping."
She was given a tentative smile from Sara and some encouragement from Jack, and then they were off.
The reprieve was only for a few hours and then she would have to face the FBI again.