August 15, 2014 - Phy Ed
August 15, 2014 - Phy Ed
Alt Title: Day 15 - Phy Ed Professor Ellison
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: **For the 2014 LiveJournal’s Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge. An accidental meeting created by fate.
Chapter Crossover: Highlander; The Sentinel; Leverage
Rating: FR-13.
Word count: 2001
Challenge: for the livejournal 2014 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.
Timeline Reminder: this is at the end of the first Voldemort War (although in my ‘verse, it’s the only Voldemort War); towards the end of The Sentinel; pre-series for Leverage.
Warning: possibly unrealistic accident rescue
A/N: Longest chapter yet; don’t expect this again.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Highlander characters belong to Davis-Panzer Productions. The Sentinel characters belong to UPN, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. Leverage characters belong to John Rogers, Chris Downey, and TNT. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Washington State
As they drove down the quiet country road, Methos apologized to Buffy, “I’m sorry Duncan turned you down. Guess he figures he can do more good out in the world.”
She gave a half-shrug. “At least he promised to be a guest lecturer. Between some of his stories and a practical demonstration of his sword fighting…I think there’ll be some seriously impressed students and staff.”
They discussed other possible Immortals to help out while they traveled. With most of them, Methos figured they would respond like the Highlander: they’d be happy to come occasionally, but wouldn’t want to stay there indefinitely.
As they took a particularly sharp curve, Buffy had to slam on the brakes to avoid the wreck in front of them. She jumped out and yelled back at Methos, “Grab the road kit from the trunk and set up the warning beacons before the curve!”
She took the ever-present first aid kit from the backseat and ran towards the accident. The truck was on its side with the driver dangling from his seatbelt, unconscious. The front end of the truck was smushed, making it difficult to enter through the windshield. So she used the emergency car tool to break the driver’s side window completely.
Inverting herself to get a better look at his potential injuries, Buffy saw a nice goose egg on his forehead - which probably accounted for him being knocked out. “Can you hear me?” she asked. No response. She carefully felt around his neck area for damage to the spine, but didn’t feel anything. Then she ran her hand down his back for as far she could reach. Nothing obvious, but she wasn’t sure.
She pulled herself out and went to check the other vehicle. This guy probably could wait…hopefully.
They were in a Jeep that was still upright, but oddly looked like it sustained more damage. Both the driver and his passenger were semi-conscious. Buffy forced the driver’s door open and cut the seatbelt off the guy using her tool again (Thank you, Faith, for suggesting they carry those all the time!)
“Can you move?” she asked him.
“Yes,” he said after a minute. “I’ll probably need some help, though.”
Buffy gently eased him out and handed him off to Methos, who had just arrive after he moved the rental car back around the curve, set out the warning signs, then attempted to call emergency services. Unfortunately, they were in a cellular dead zone, so they’d have to get out of this area before they could try again. That would wait until they cared for the accident victims and made sure none of them were in danger of bleeding out.
Speaking of blood, the passenger had a nasty gash on his upper arm that was gushing the red stuff. Buffy pulled out the necessary items from her first aid kit so she could stop the bleeding long enough to pull the guy out. Unfortunately, his door was crushed against the guardrail, so she’d have to drag him across the center of the Jeep…not a fun thing for either of them.
Buffy and Methos managed to get the pair back to the rental and made sure they were comfortable before going to the truck to check on the first guy again. They were walking back when Buffy stopped suddenly. “Do you smell that?” she asked.
“What?” Methos replied.
She took another big whiff, then coughed a little at the smell. “It’s gas…and it’s leaking pretty good based on how strong it’s getting.”
Methos sniffed, too, and nodded. “I can smell it now. We’d better pull the other guy out before a fire starts.”
Buffy eased her way down into the cab of the truck so she could grab the guy while Methos cut his seatbelt. For better or worse, he was still unconscious as they worked. Methos grabbed the guy’s shirt until Buffy lifted the guy enough for him to get his arms hooked under the victim’s. Then he shimmied back along the truck so he could lay the man down flat on top of a blanket they had in their kit. After Buffy lifted herself out of the cab, they eased him down using the makeshift hammock to keep from jostling him too much.
As luck would have it, a sheriff’s car pulled up just as they reached the rental car. He called dispatch using his radio, then got Buffy and Methos’ description of what they knew. He carefully moved around the curve to look at the accident site, making sure to set up warning signs on the other side so people from the opposite direction wouldn’t get too close.
Hospital
If anyone had asked why they stuck around, neither Buffy nor Methos could have explained it. Normally leaving right away was their first instinct. Of course, maybe the sheriff’s presence influenced them. If they took off, it might appear suspicious to the man. Since they didn’t do anything wrong - and didn’t have any strange items in their possession - there was no reason to be concerned about a closer look at their car or their identities.
As expected, the two guys in the Jeep were the first ones to give their statements to the sheriff. Something had slicked up the road just before they took the curve, which caused them to veer out of control into the truck. Once they were done talking to him, they asked to see the people who helped them, if possible.
“I’m Jim Ellison, and this is my friend, Blair Sandburg,” the military-looking one said. “Thanks for helping us.” His eyes narrowed a bit when he got a closer look at the pair in front of him. It was the couple from the vision he had just before they left Cascade. Why would he have a vision about them?
“You get visions?” Buffy asked, making Jim realize that he asked his question out loud. “I wonder how many people that happens to,” she remarked to Methos.
“You don’t think that’s odd?” Blair asked from his bed.
Buffy started giggling, and even Methos grinned a little. “You’d have to try a lot harder to find something we’d consider odd,” she answered through her giggles. “On a scale of 1 to 10, that’s a 1…maybe.”
“I think they might be the answer to our problem, Jim,” Blair said to his friend. “That’s probably why you had a vision about them.”
“Problem?” Methos inquired warily. Sometimes he felt life would be less stressful with the Highlander. Buffy and her people had the hero complex down to a science and with so many of them, they were constantly finding people to help. Granted, he was one of those people, so he really shouldn’t complain.
Jim seemed reluctant to answer, but after a couple pointed looks from Blair, he explained, “I was fired from my previous job as a detective of the Cascade police department. Even though I caught a lot of criminals, the way I did it made it difficult to prosecute them sometimes.”
“You bent or broke the law?” Buffy guessed.
“No,” Jim sighed. “I have certain…abilities that I use, but since they are so unusual, I can’t be upfront about them. That means the lawyers routinely say that what I found out was impossible with normal methods.”
Thinking about some of the things she did over the years, Buffy could definitely sympathize with him. Good thing most of her baddies didn’t have to be prosecuted in a court of law. She gave him a once-over and smiled at what she saw. “Ever consider teaching physical education to a group of specially-abled students?” she asked.
“The handicapped?” Jim asked.
“Nooo,” she drawled. “They also have certain abilities that can’t be dealt with in a normal school setting.”
Other hospital room
Buffy left Methos to discuss the school with Jim and Blair in general terms while she went to look in on the other guy. As she approached his room, she saw two guys who made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. They made her very uneasy.
She grabbed a dinner tray from a nearby cart and walked into the room, announcing herself in a cheery way, “Who’s ready for some yummy Jell-o?”
The way the two men jumped away from the hospital bed confirmed her impression they weren’t here to wish the guy a speedy recovery.
Smiling brightly at them, she said, “Sorry, but you’ll have to leave until after dinner hours are done.”
It looked as if they wanted to argue with her, but then a nurse walked in, and they decided that discretion was more important.
“How’s he doing?” Buffy asked the nurse.
Thinking that Buffy was the patient’s girlfriend, the nurse answered, “He has a slight concussion, but no other serious injuries. You’ll have to check him every couple hours for the next day, but he’ll be able to leave tonight if you want.”
“Cool. Would you mind asking the doctor to come talk to us about his outpatient care, please?” Buffy requested politely. When dealing with people who could make your life hell while trying to help you, politeness went a long way towards getting them on your side.
After the nurse left, Buffy shook the guy to wake him up.
“What?” he growled groggily.
“I think you might be in danger if you stay in the hospital, so I’m pretending to be your girlfriend or sister - whichever you’d prefer. Hopefully you aren’t a bad guy, but even if you are, I don’t think the two guys I chased out of here a few minutes ago are good guys, so I’ll still help you,” she babbled.
He took a couple deep breaths while he made sense of her words. “Girlfriend; we don’t look like siblings,” he decided. “My name’s Eliot Spencer.”
“Buffy Summers,” she introduced herself. “So should we seal this with a kiss?” she teased.
“Maybe later, darling,” he retorted in the same way.
Hotel room, couple towns away
That evening, Buffy got Eliot settled into the bed while she made herself comfortable in a nearby chair. She and Methos planned to take turns checking on him through the night. His only reaction to her surprise guest was, “Three strays in one trip? Is that a record for you?”
“I managed to get a couple pictures of your visitors while Adam got you out of your room. Do you recognize them?” Buffy asked, holding up her cell phone for him to study.
“They’re Moreau’s men,” Eliot said. “Guess he didn’t accept my decision to leave very well.”
“Moreau’s a bad guy?” Buffy guessed. “Were you his employee, lover or prisoner?”
“Mostly the first one, a little of the third, not at all the second,” he answered with a smirk. “I did some nasty stuff for him for a while. The last job was too much for me, so I got out in order to save what little humanity I might have left.”
It wasn’t the answer she was hoping for, but Buffy didn’t feel totally horrible for saving him, so it was a good start.
Throughout the night, Buffy would talk to Eliot when he was awake, then go back to her paperwork when he needed to rest. It was dawn before she realized that she never asked Methos to take over for her. She’d let him handle the day checks so he could make his own determination about Eliot’s character.
As it was, she was leaning towards finding a spot for Eliot at the school, but she didn’t want to risk letting a dangerous guy have access to her students just because he was able to bullshit her. Methos would be harder to bullshit, so if he agreed, she’d create a Home Ec class and have Eliot teach the kids to cook the Muggle way.
He agreed and less than a week later, five people were flying to Heathrow in England before heading to Diagon Alley for supplies and appropriate Wizarding clothes.
A/N: Gonna say right now that I have no clue if that’s the correct way to get people out of vehicles; if anyone is a first responder and has a complaint, feel free to tell me the proper way and I’ll change it.
Tomorrow…That’s for me to know and for you to guess.
Alt Title: Day 15 - Phy Ed Professor Ellison
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: **For the 2014 LiveJournal’s Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge. An accidental meeting created by fate.
Chapter Crossover: Highlander; The Sentinel; Leverage
Rating: FR-13.
Word count: 2001
Challenge: for the livejournal 2014 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.
Timeline Reminder: this is at the end of the first Voldemort War (although in my ‘verse, it’s the only Voldemort War); towards the end of The Sentinel; pre-series for Leverage.
Warning: possibly unrealistic accident rescue
A/N: Longest chapter yet; don’t expect this again.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Highlander characters belong to Davis-Panzer Productions. The Sentinel characters belong to UPN, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. Leverage characters belong to John Rogers, Chris Downey, and TNT. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Washington State
As they drove down the quiet country road, Methos apologized to Buffy, “I’m sorry Duncan turned you down. Guess he figures he can do more good out in the world.”
She gave a half-shrug. “At least he promised to be a guest lecturer. Between some of his stories and a practical demonstration of his sword fighting…I think there’ll be some seriously impressed students and staff.”
They discussed other possible Immortals to help out while they traveled. With most of them, Methos figured they would respond like the Highlander: they’d be happy to come occasionally, but wouldn’t want to stay there indefinitely.
As they took a particularly sharp curve, Buffy had to slam on the brakes to avoid the wreck in front of them. She jumped out and yelled back at Methos, “Grab the road kit from the trunk and set up the warning beacons before the curve!”
She took the ever-present first aid kit from the backseat and ran towards the accident. The truck was on its side with the driver dangling from his seatbelt, unconscious. The front end of the truck was smushed, making it difficult to enter through the windshield. So she used the emergency car tool to break the driver’s side window completely.
Inverting herself to get a better look at his potential injuries, Buffy saw a nice goose egg on his forehead - which probably accounted for him being knocked out. “Can you hear me?” she asked. No response. She carefully felt around his neck area for damage to the spine, but didn’t feel anything. Then she ran her hand down his back for as far she could reach. Nothing obvious, but she wasn’t sure.
She pulled herself out and went to check the other vehicle. This guy probably could wait…hopefully.
They were in a Jeep that was still upright, but oddly looked like it sustained more damage. Both the driver and his passenger were semi-conscious. Buffy forced the driver’s door open and cut the seatbelt off the guy using her tool again (Thank you, Faith, for suggesting they carry those all the time!)
“Can you move?” she asked him.
“Yes,” he said after a minute. “I’ll probably need some help, though.”
Buffy gently eased him out and handed him off to Methos, who had just arrive after he moved the rental car back around the curve, set out the warning signs, then attempted to call emergency services. Unfortunately, they were in a cellular dead zone, so they’d have to get out of this area before they could try again. That would wait until they cared for the accident victims and made sure none of them were in danger of bleeding out.
Speaking of blood, the passenger had a nasty gash on his upper arm that was gushing the red stuff. Buffy pulled out the necessary items from her first aid kit so she could stop the bleeding long enough to pull the guy out. Unfortunately, his door was crushed against the guardrail, so she’d have to drag him across the center of the Jeep…not a fun thing for either of them.
Buffy and Methos managed to get the pair back to the rental and made sure they were comfortable before going to the truck to check on the first guy again. They were walking back when Buffy stopped suddenly. “Do you smell that?” she asked.
“What?” Methos replied.
She took another big whiff, then coughed a little at the smell. “It’s gas…and it’s leaking pretty good based on how strong it’s getting.”
Methos sniffed, too, and nodded. “I can smell it now. We’d better pull the other guy out before a fire starts.”
Buffy eased her way down into the cab of the truck so she could grab the guy while Methos cut his seatbelt. For better or worse, he was still unconscious as they worked. Methos grabbed the guy’s shirt until Buffy lifted the guy enough for him to get his arms hooked under the victim’s. Then he shimmied back along the truck so he could lay the man down flat on top of a blanket they had in their kit. After Buffy lifted herself out of the cab, they eased him down using the makeshift hammock to keep from jostling him too much.
As luck would have it, a sheriff’s car pulled up just as they reached the rental car. He called dispatch using his radio, then got Buffy and Methos’ description of what they knew. He carefully moved around the curve to look at the accident site, making sure to set up warning signs on the other side so people from the opposite direction wouldn’t get too close.
Hospital
If anyone had asked why they stuck around, neither Buffy nor Methos could have explained it. Normally leaving right away was their first instinct. Of course, maybe the sheriff’s presence influenced them. If they took off, it might appear suspicious to the man. Since they didn’t do anything wrong - and didn’t have any strange items in their possession - there was no reason to be concerned about a closer look at their car or their identities.
As expected, the two guys in the Jeep were the first ones to give their statements to the sheriff. Something had slicked up the road just before they took the curve, which caused them to veer out of control into the truck. Once they were done talking to him, they asked to see the people who helped them, if possible.
“I’m Jim Ellison, and this is my friend, Blair Sandburg,” the military-looking one said. “Thanks for helping us.” His eyes narrowed a bit when he got a closer look at the pair in front of him. It was the couple from the vision he had just before they left Cascade. Why would he have a vision about them?
“You get visions?” Buffy asked, making Jim realize that he asked his question out loud. “I wonder how many people that happens to,” she remarked to Methos.
“You don’t think that’s odd?” Blair asked from his bed.
Buffy started giggling, and even Methos grinned a little. “You’d have to try a lot harder to find something we’d consider odd,” she answered through her giggles. “On a scale of 1 to 10, that’s a 1…maybe.”
“I think they might be the answer to our problem, Jim,” Blair said to his friend. “That’s probably why you had a vision about them.”
“Problem?” Methos inquired warily. Sometimes he felt life would be less stressful with the Highlander. Buffy and her people had the hero complex down to a science and with so many of them, they were constantly finding people to help. Granted, he was one of those people, so he really shouldn’t complain.
Jim seemed reluctant to answer, but after a couple pointed looks from Blair, he explained, “I was fired from my previous job as a detective of the Cascade police department. Even though I caught a lot of criminals, the way I did it made it difficult to prosecute them sometimes.”
“You bent or broke the law?” Buffy guessed.
“No,” Jim sighed. “I have certain…abilities that I use, but since they are so unusual, I can’t be upfront about them. That means the lawyers routinely say that what I found out was impossible with normal methods.”
Thinking about some of the things she did over the years, Buffy could definitely sympathize with him. Good thing most of her baddies didn’t have to be prosecuted in a court of law. She gave him a once-over and smiled at what she saw. “Ever consider teaching physical education to a group of specially-abled students?” she asked.
“The handicapped?” Jim asked.
“Nooo,” she drawled. “They also have certain abilities that can’t be dealt with in a normal school setting.”
Other hospital room
Buffy left Methos to discuss the school with Jim and Blair in general terms while she went to look in on the other guy. As she approached his room, she saw two guys who made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. They made her very uneasy.
She grabbed a dinner tray from a nearby cart and walked into the room, announcing herself in a cheery way, “Who’s ready for some yummy Jell-o?”
The way the two men jumped away from the hospital bed confirmed her impression they weren’t here to wish the guy a speedy recovery.
Smiling brightly at them, she said, “Sorry, but you’ll have to leave until after dinner hours are done.”
It looked as if they wanted to argue with her, but then a nurse walked in, and they decided that discretion was more important.
“How’s he doing?” Buffy asked the nurse.
Thinking that Buffy was the patient’s girlfriend, the nurse answered, “He has a slight concussion, but no other serious injuries. You’ll have to check him every couple hours for the next day, but he’ll be able to leave tonight if you want.”
“Cool. Would you mind asking the doctor to come talk to us about his outpatient care, please?” Buffy requested politely. When dealing with people who could make your life hell while trying to help you, politeness went a long way towards getting them on your side.
After the nurse left, Buffy shook the guy to wake him up.
“What?” he growled groggily.
“I think you might be in danger if you stay in the hospital, so I’m pretending to be your girlfriend or sister - whichever you’d prefer. Hopefully you aren’t a bad guy, but even if you are, I don’t think the two guys I chased out of here a few minutes ago are good guys, so I’ll still help you,” she babbled.
He took a couple deep breaths while he made sense of her words. “Girlfriend; we don’t look like siblings,” he decided. “My name’s Eliot Spencer.”
“Buffy Summers,” she introduced herself. “So should we seal this with a kiss?” she teased.
“Maybe later, darling,” he retorted in the same way.
Hotel room, couple towns away
That evening, Buffy got Eliot settled into the bed while she made herself comfortable in a nearby chair. She and Methos planned to take turns checking on him through the night. His only reaction to her surprise guest was, “Three strays in one trip? Is that a record for you?”
“I managed to get a couple pictures of your visitors while Adam got you out of your room. Do you recognize them?” Buffy asked, holding up her cell phone for him to study.
“They’re Moreau’s men,” Eliot said. “Guess he didn’t accept my decision to leave very well.”
“Moreau’s a bad guy?” Buffy guessed. “Were you his employee, lover or prisoner?”
“Mostly the first one, a little of the third, not at all the second,” he answered with a smirk. “I did some nasty stuff for him for a while. The last job was too much for me, so I got out in order to save what little humanity I might have left.”
It wasn’t the answer she was hoping for, but Buffy didn’t feel totally horrible for saving him, so it was a good start.
Throughout the night, Buffy would talk to Eliot when he was awake, then go back to her paperwork when he needed to rest. It was dawn before she realized that she never asked Methos to take over for her. She’d let him handle the day checks so he could make his own determination about Eliot’s character.
As it was, she was leaning towards finding a spot for Eliot at the school, but she didn’t want to risk letting a dangerous guy have access to her students just because he was able to bullshit her. Methos would be harder to bullshit, so if he agreed, she’d create a Home Ec class and have Eliot teach the kids to cook the Muggle way.
He agreed and less than a week later, five people were flying to Heathrow in England before heading to Diagon Alley for supplies and appropriate Wizarding clothes.
A/N: Gonna say right now that I have no clue if that’s the correct way to get people out of vehicles; if anyone is a first responder and has a complaint, feel free to tell me the proper way and I’ll change it.
Tomorrow…That’s for me to know and for you to guess.