Fic: The Voice of Reason
Title: New Dawn: Year Stamps: Voice of Reason (2012)
Author: hellbells101
Fandoms: Buffy, Stargate SG1, Atlantis and West Wing
Pairing: Buffy Summers / Jack O’Neill
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy, any of the Stargate Franchise or West Wing - All rights belong to the respective owners.
Word Count: 1,452
Beta: As always a huge thanks to ConstanceTruggle/jaded_angel8 for reading through this for me!
Authors note: This is a first of several shorts planned in August that tell the stories only hinted at in last year’s short A New Dawn.
Summary: In all his years, Jack had never considered himself to be a voice of reason. Now, if he could just get his lover, and her best friend, to not drop Mary Marsh in a hell dimension, then life would be sweet.
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2012: The voice of reason
Buffy had stormed into his office, slammed the paper down, and looked him dead in the eye. He had never seen his lover this mad. The last week had been stressful for both of them. It was a complete fluke and both of them had cursed the advent of Youtube more than once since last Friday.
Still, the damage was done, and the video of the alien and the vampire being dealt with had gone viral. That was the trouble with the internet; it was simply too vast to police. The papers and the public had gone wild. There had been outrage at the secrets kept. Buffy and the other slayers had snorted because more than one of them had seen the Sunnydale syndrome at work.
Buffy was okay with that; slaying was a sacred duty. One that none of them had ever expected to be thanked for, but this was beyond the pale. This woman, Mary Marsh, had crossed a line in Buffy's mind. She may be human, but revenge was called for, and she'd learnt as a teenager that death was too quick for revenge.
"We have to do something." It was not a request; it was a statement of fact.
Jack smiled, and never had he loved her more than he did in that moment. "Agreed, which is why I've called the others."
As they were alone, he pulled her in for a hug and a kiss. Buffy loved kissing Jack; it had nothing to do with experience. It was that whenever he kissed her; it was perfect, like now, soft and tender. It did not calm her down, she was too mad - the woman had to be dealt with.
Into his office piled the biggest players in Earth’s supernatural and extra-terrestrial defense filed into the room; Col Sheppard, Col Mitchell, Dr Jackson, Col Carter, Faith, Willow, Xander and Dr Giles. The combined brain power should be able to come up with a) a suitable revenge and b) a way to bring the public around.
Xander looked at his friend, and he could see the thirst for revenge in the Queen Slayer's eyes. It wasn't often that he saw such a thing these days, but someone questioning the sacrifice of the girls was a sure fire way to do so. Buffy was mad and vengeful; he might almost feel sorry for Mary Marsh.
Well that thought lasted as long as it took to remember exactly why Buffy wanted Marsh's head. Now, he just wanted to egg them along; he'd stop short at murder, but as far as he was concerned - everything else was fair game.
John was just as angry. The article had suggested that the soldiers who had died in service of the SGC had got what was coming as well. John tried to be nice - really he did - but this woman was going down.
John drawled, "So how do we kill her? Well that part is easy, but I haven't figured out how not to let suspicion fall on us."
Mitchell snorted, "You, the black ops badass, can't do it?"
John smirked, "I could before my face was known on every TV. You should understand; they showed you shopping with Amy the other day."
Cam grimaced, it was a point of much amusement around the SGC. John and Cam, being two of the prettier senior officers, had been pushed into doing the TV spots. It was a sad day of modern society. They were accomplished soldiers with a list of medals longer than their years of service, but that did not matter. Nope, not one bit. In fact, Faith and John had made People magazine's top ten Beautiful Couples list. They were probably the deadliest, too; at least until Buffy and Jack got their act together. Willow was clearly taking it well; her hair was going black - never a good sign. This seemed to appeal to Buffy's blood thirsty nature, though she was usually the most leery of just such a situation
Willow looked up. Xander was relieved to see that her eyes and skin were still normal. "I could send them to a hell dimension," she offered, like it is a totally normal, sensible option.
Buffy grinned, and it was not a nice smile. None of the usual warmth was present.
Jack decided to be the voice of reason, "We cannot drop the woman in a hell dimension."
"Why not?" Jack was absolutely ruing the day Mitchell had learned to use his Midwest charm; he blamed Faith. He didn't even bother looking to his Atlantis Commander; he was just glad the nukes were locked up.
Buffy looked at her lover; she gave him a secretive smile. The type of smile that made Jack glad he was behind a desk. Her lashes were fluttering, a little too much to pull off innocent, "Why can't we drop her in the hell dimension? It's not like we'd actually be the ones to kill her." She’d picked up the splitting hairs thing from him; he was not sure whether to be proud or frustrated.
Jack sighed, and wondered how this was his life; George would definitely be laughing at him right about now. He cut through the chatter, "There will be no dropping politicians - or commentators - into hell dimensions.... If I can't do it to Kinsey, then you can't do it to Mary Marsh."
Buffy pouted, but accepted that he was being logical. "Okay but we have to do something."
The answer came to Xander, it was staring him in the face. The two people in front of him could use words just as easily as they could use weapons. They had the type of personalities that led soldiers, and slayers, to follow them into hell - literally in some cases.
Xander snickered, just the potential scenario was amusing him, "You face her on TV. Let’s see if she's so brave when faced with Buffy and Jack."
Giles liked the idea, but was cautious "Someone will have to check both of you for weapons."
Jack did not like this plan - at all. For Buffy though, the thought had taken a hold and it did appeal to her. Cameron and John were wholly supportive of the idea, mainly because they were not required to be in front of the TV screen.
Willow grinned, and given the fact her hair was red, she liked the idea as well.
Buffy sort her adoptive fathers opinion, "What do you think?"
Giles looked directly at her, and Jack, someone he'd come to accept into the family. “You represent both sides, and you're together in every sense of the word,” his smile sharpened. It was spooky, it was an echo of his 'ripper' alter ego, "besides, you've learnt how to wield words as effectively as any other weapon."
John didn't want to be on TV, but he would be damned if anyone would dare question the sacrifice of his soldiers. "We finish with a roll call of the dead. Let's see how she counters putting name to faces."
Buffy would do it, okay, so it wasn't a traditional way of solving a problem - No staking, beheading or general violence; it was definitely a novel experience. Still, she would do it; she led from the front, and this required a special touch.
"Okay I'm in, but if she's not in tears by the end then we haven't done it right."
Jack snickered at his lovers, delightfully twisted sense of humour. "Okay, okay, we'll set the kids a good example, but first I think it’s time to let our teen geeks have fun."
Buffy rolled her eyes, it wasn't the first time that she and Jack, had been called mom and dad. Giles was never any help in these situations; he just looked mock stern, and would ask since when was he a granddad.
Buffy, with mischief in her eyes, "Okay but we need to set rules; no permanent death, nothing that can be traced back to us, and nothing that will stop her being on TV against us."
Jack nodded his head solemnly, "I will add only one more rule. We insist that the kids gain as much video evidence as possible."
Faith laughed, "We'll set a date and watch it with popcorn."
John, who out of all them, had dealt with geeks the most knew exactly who to call to set that ball rolling, "I'll let McKay know, he's king geek."
Xander sensed that the meeting was breaking up so timed his smart arse comment to perfection. "You know what I think the scariest part is? Jack was the voice of reason."
Smartly, he ducked and ran.