Being Secret-Identity-Girl - August 31st
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 31
Title: Being Secret-Identity-Girl
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Stargate people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Buffy is finally able to tell the whole truth about the Slayer and why she exists.
Notes: Part 8 - Links Page
Seasons: Approximately Season 3 of SG1
Characters: Buffy, Spike, O’Neill, Daniel, Teal’c, Carter
Word Count: 2860
Daniel frowned at a translation he had been working on for longer than he should have been.
“Daniel,” O’Neill shouted, snapping him from his study.
“What, Jack?” he asked.
“Why aren’t you getting ready for a briefing?”
“Buffy called in last night,” Daniel replied. “I was told SG-1 was on stand down. Since we have been out for weeks without more than a night off…. I thought you had arranged it actually.”
“I didn’t,” O’Neill said. “If I had, the first sign would be dragging you out of here.”
“O’Neill, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c greeted. “I was informed we are on stand down.”
“Buffy….” O’Neill frowned. “What exactly did she say?”
Daniel shuffled through his books, looking for the slip an Airman had handed him at two in the morning. He found it in a book of Germanic texts. He glanced at the words and gave it to O’Neill.
“Family emergency.”
“Given that Lieutenant Summers has no contact with her family,” Teal’c said. “Would that suggest she has returned to her previous residence?”
“There you guys are,” Sam said as she walked in, note in hand. “Does anyone else think this message is strange?”
“We were just discussing it, Major Carter,” Teal’c explained.
“What do you think, Carter?” O’Neill asked.
“She had another blind date last night,” Sam considered. “But she would have called one of us if it was just a hangover or a good date. She wouldn’t use ‘family emergency’ without knowing it would get our collective paranoia going. We should check in with her.”
O’Neill nodded. “Yeah, but not over the phone. Let’s get off the base for a bit.” He closed Daniel’s book. “Come on, Danny.”
“Do you really think Buffy’s in trouble?”
“I think this could be a coded message to us,” Sam said.
“And she could have just had a good night,” Daniel reasoned.
His three teammates looked at him.
“No, you’re right,” he agreed as he stood. “Definitely a message.”
88888888
Buffy turned over again. But it was no use. While she had slept in Teal’c’s presence, she trusted him and over time had learned to ignore his Goa’uld. But she did not trust Spike. She was certain he had a soul, but humans with souls did terrible things to each other. So the questions was, who was Spike souled?
Less cocky, had crossed her mind more than once.
Sick of her own thoughts, Buffy got up and showered. She was midway through brushing her teeth. When her senses squirmed. “Damnit!” she spit the minty foam from her mouth.
S he rinsed quickly and jumped for the bathroom door. But she was too slow. The doorbell sounded at nearly the same time as she heard Spike head for the front door.
“For crying out loud,” she muttered, making a beeline for her room. She needed to get dressed quickly. She grabbed what she had laid out and shoved it on.
“Oh, for crying out loud,” O’Neill yelled. “Summers!”
“Can you all pretend to get along for fifteen seconds?” She demanded. “Daniel, please start a pot of coffee.”
“Okay,” came his reply as the front door slammed.
“Slayer!?” Spike’s raised voice made her pray for patience.
“I know, just back away and try to keep calm.”
“Why is there blood in the fridge?” Daniel’s soft question made her forego buttoning any of the buttons on her purple plaid shirt. Her black camisole would have to do.
She ran for the door and yanked it open. Spike nearly fell into her arms, he had been just about leaning against the door.
“What the hell?” Spike asked.
“That’s my question,” O’Neill announced.
“I will answer all questions,” Buffy promised, “just everybody give me a moment.” She pushed both of them into the living room. She gave Teal’c, who stood stoically near the front door, a silent plea for help. He gestured O’Neill towards the couch. Buffy positioned Spike at the dining table. Luckily all her windows had blackout curtains, a side effect of Gate travel was your body being on its own schedule. So she found blacking everything out was a lot easier than trying to work around her current body-clock.
It took a moment before Daniel started taking coffee orders. He got himself and Sam a mug. Teal’c and O’Neill had refused. Buffy reached into the fridge and grabbed a water bottle, tossing it to Teal’c.
“When did you eat last?” Buffy asked Spike.
“I’m good, pet,” Spike promised.
She had mostly just wanted to give herself an extra few minutes. But the time had come. “Team, this is William ‘Spike’…” she frowned.
“Pratt,” Spike provided.
“Spike, this is my team Colonel O’Neill, Major Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and T.”
“Why did you call out with a family emergency?” O’Neill demanded.
“We thought it was code for help,” Sam told her.
Buffy rubbed her face, pacing the space between her front door and the dining table. “I will admit when they needed a reason, I sort of fumbled.”
Teal’c stepped into her path. “It would be simpler to just explain,” he intone quietly.
“Right,” she nodded. “You guys accepted the Slayer thing without ever asking a particular question: why was a Slayer needed? And I encouraged that, because I knew you wouldn’t understand it.”
“Summers,” O’Neill said, his patience at an end.
“Slayers weren’t a science experiment some six thousand years ago. They were created by magic to stop remnants of demons and evil from praying on humanity.” She sighed. “Vampires, werewolves, and monsters exist here on Earth, completely native to this planet, if not this dimension.”
Her team made no reply. The three human members were looking at her like she had lost her mind.
“Vampires…” Sam said slowly, “they’re scientifically impossible.”
Spike snorted.
Buffy gave him a look, then turned back to her team. “So am I, so is T. Hell, so are a few of our friends, including your father, Sam. Until we met them.”
“So you believe in vampires?” Daniel asked, softly.
“Why did you not reveal this when you told us of your warrior status?” Teal’c asked.
She took a deep breath. “The first time I told my parents about vampires, they locked me in a mental institution.” She ran a hand through her short hair. “And the second time she kicked me out. So it’s not something I share unless I have to.”
Daniel frowned. “Is that why…?” He touched his head and made a slight twisting motion.
“Yeah. You could have been schizophrenic and I still wouldn’t have let them lock you up in a place like that.”
“You keep interesting friends, Slayer,” Spike drawled.
“How does he know about that?” O’Neill asked.
“I’ve known Spike since I was sixteen. He’s one of those who helped me in my final battle in Sunnydale.” She grinned. “Though not out of the goodness of his heart.” Then she looked at her team. “Don’t reach for your weapons, just…stay where you are.” She gestured to Spike. “Could you help me out here?”
“Are you sure?”
“You could introduce these people to a god and they’d tried to figure out what technology he uses to be called such.”
Spike nodded and closed his eyes. His face became ridged. Then he opened his eyes. Demon yellow stared at them.
No one really reacted for a moment. Then Teal’c took a step forward and approached Spike. Buffy hovered nearby.
“Are creatures such as this not evil?” Teal’c asked.
“In general, yes. Spike…well…” she stumbled with an answer. Because while his soul was an answer, it was not the thing she wanted to hang her hat on, not again.
“I’m not ruled by my demon as much as some,” he supplied as he let his demon slip away. “Never have been.”
“We have met before,” Sam said suddenly.
Buffy cringed. “Yes. You have.”
“Philadelphia. August 1969,” Sam said.
Spike frowned. “What?”
“Do you happen to remember coming upon a campfire in the woods of Philadelphia. Several hippies? Getting chased away?”
Spike looked at the ceiling. “No. I ate a flower child at Woodstock, everything from the Moon Landing to Christmas is a blur.” He cringed. His soul punishing him for his actions as well as the casual way he discussed it.
“How does…Drusilla know about the Stagate?” Daniel asked, holding the letter in his hand.
“Daniel!” O’Neill snapped.
“She’s a vampire as well. And something of a seer,” Buffy answered.
“A damn powerful seer,” Spike corrected. “If a little…warped by her transformation into a vampire.”
Teal’c took a step closer. Spike shot to his feet. Buffy grabbed Teal’c’s bicep. “Don’t, T. Junior is wigging his senses out.”
“William Pratt can sense as you do?” Teal’c asked.
“Yes. Slayers…we seem to have the some of the same senses as vampires.”
“That’d be because Slayers were made from essence of demon,” Spike answered.
“What?” Buffy turned to him in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“I did some research over the years. Slayers were created by binding the first girl to a rock and shoving demon in her. That’s where your powers come from. It’s why Slayers and vampires can sense each other. You have superior night vision, hearing, and strength that increases each year. Except for needing blood and sun-allergy, Slayers are like their prey.”
“Wait,” O’Neill said, “you didn’t know that?”
“Not her fault, Council of Wankers likes to keep their girls in the dark, it’s how they explain away things that are a bit gray,” Spike said.
“Okay, conversation for another time,” Buffy said. “For right now…” She looked at her team. “This was what I had been trying to figure out how to explain to you.”
“These are the only people who know about you being a Slayer?” Spike asked.
“These four and someone else we bumped into in 1969. That’s it.”
“Finally managed keeping your identity a secret?”
“I’m all about being secret-identity-girl,” she quipped, her gaze still on her team.
“Yeah, deep space radar telemetry,” he muttered.
“Okay.” O’Neill stood. “So I am to accept that he’s a demon and you destroy things like him.”
“Jack…” Daniel said.
“Daniel,” he snapped back. “This is…”
“No less unbelievable than anything else we’ve done in the last two years,” he countered. “And I can understand why she would be hesitant to tell us. I mean, we barely believed her when she said she was the Slayer. This…she had proof.”
“How did you get proof?” Sam asked.
“Spike came to me,” Buffy said. “Apparently I screwed some things up by not going back to Sunnydale…but I’d have to re-read Dru’s letter to try to decipher her meaning.”
Daniel glanced down at the paper. “It sounds like…like the mirror.”
“Infinite Multiverse Theory,” Buffy agreed. Off Spike’s strange look she explained. “It’s the idea that every choice we make creates infinite realities. So there is a reality where you never made it out of the church, and another where you never made a truce with me, and one where I went back to Sunnydale after I ran away.”
His eyes widened slightly as he considered her. “You’re not the same, Slayer.”
Buffy looked away.
He took her hand. “It’s not an insult,” he told her softly.
“How do you know you can trust him?” O’Neill asked.
Buffy glanced at Teal’c and Daniel knowing the only answer she could give had to be in Goa’uld. “How did we trust the Tok’ra when there is no physical difference between them and the Goa’uld: in and out of their hosts?”
“By their actions,” Daniel answered in English.
She nodded, continuing in Goa’uld. “When he was completely evil, he called a truce with his sworn enemy. To save the world. Now, ten years later…he is not the demon I fought. I don’t trust him so much as I am responsible for him.”
Teal’c bowed his head slightly.
“What the hell language is that?” Spike asked.
“A dialect of Ancient Egyptian,” Daniel replied.
“You teach her that?”
“I taught her,” Teal’c said.
“She’s very adept at languages,” Daniel defended.
“I was a California teen when he knew me, I barely managed English properly.” She crossed her arms. “Besides, last I remember you gave up trying to even familiarize me with Latin.” Buffy looked at O’Neill. “I can’t explain it. I should have staked him and called it a day. I’m being cautious but I’m also…curious.”
“So cautious she didn’t sleep,” Spike added. Buffy raised an eyebrow at him. “You tossed and turned, love, it was hard to miss.”
“Creepy bat hearing,” she accused.
“Wait,” Sam said. “How exactly does the vampire thing…work?”
Buffy shook her head.
“What is she?” Spike asked.
“Astrophysicist.”
Spike looked at Teal’c, trying to relax. “I’m guessing by tall, dark, and freaky here, and the lack of reaction from your friends, that you deal with something…weird.”
“Weirder than demons,” Buffy replied.
“And classified,” O’Neill snapped.
“That too,” she agreed. “But it’s just like not telling anyone about you.”
“Do you fear for his safety?” Teal’c asked.
“We’re a leaky sieve,” she reminded them. “We still don’t know how the Touchstone got to Arizona. I imagine he’s just as good test subject material as I am.”
“You do care,” Spike teased.
“No. My team has protected my secret, despite the risk,” she told him seriously. “You are a part of that.”
“Yet, I’m here in the living room and not tied up in the bathtub.”
“So what are you going to do with him?” O’Neill asked.
Buffy rubbed her face, because it had been the single thought that kept her awake all night. While using Spike to be able to completely come clean with her friends was important, there was still a souled vampire in her apartment. His clothes were in the dryer and she had already mentally identified a large mug he could use for blood. She wanted to get to know him, she wanted what he represented - reality. Things they dealt with beyond the Stargate were…strange and unusual and an exhausting array of battles and politics. Her life was devoid of much outside of the program and her team. It was like being a bubble.
A bubble that meant she sometimes forgot that there was more to the world than saving it. She gave a mental chuckle.
“He can stay here,” she replied.
The team made a series of protests. Except for Teal’c, who waited for them all to stop and simply asked. “Is that wise, Lieutenant Summers?”
“Other than O’Neill, how often do the rest of us go home? T lives at base and Daniel practically does. The only things still edible, that I didn’t buy yesterday, was a bag of marshmallows, rice, and frozen peas.” She gestured to the living room. “Someone may as well get some use out of this place.”
“Doesn’t he have to eat?” Sam asked.
“There’s blood in the fridge,” Daniel said. “I’m assuming that’s yours.”
Spike nodded, running a hand through his hair. “Slayer…”
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I’m not kidding, we - none of us - get home much. It’s no big deal.”
He got up, grabbing her elbow so that she would look at him. “You don’t have t-”
“Just say thank you, Spike,” she told him.
He smiled shyly. “Thank you.”
She pulled her arm away, backing up slightly and turning to her team, giving them a smile she did not feel. “T, we need donuts, can you and the Colonel get some?”
Teal’c nodded as O’Neill stood. “We will return.”
Buffy waited until the door closed behind them. She looked at Sam and Daniel. “Okay. I know you two are bursting with questions.” She gestured them to the couch. “Sit down and you have until food gets here.” She pulled Spike to sit in the loveseat across from them. “Just answer their questions.” She then made her way to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee, she sweetened it.
She leaned against the entry to the kitchen watching Daniel and Sam eagerly listening to whatever Spike was telling them. She sipped the hot drink, glad she kept decent coffee on hand and had been taught how to keep it fresh. She made her way to her overstuff chair. It matched nothing else in her living room set, but had been a comfortable find she refused to give up.
“How old are you?” Daniel asked.
“Born is 1850, turned 1880,” Spike replied.
“Victorian England, but your accent…”
Spike shrugged. “Picked it up as I went.”
“What were you - before?”
“A scholar.”
“May I?” Sam asked, gesturing for his hand.
Spike extended his arm across the coffee table. Sam hesitantly took it. “You’re cold.”
Buffy grinned behind her cup.
“No real circulation,” he told her as she placed her fingers over his wrist. “Heart doesn’t beat either.”
“How did you meet Buffy?” Daniel asked.
Spike looked at her and then down, shuttering his eyes.
“He came to Sunnydale to kill me,” she answered. “I tried to do the same. Closest he came was on Halloween, closest I came was when I dropped a church organ on him.” She tilted her head to look at the ceiling. “Ah, memories.”
A/N: A huge thank you to acswatwst, avamclean, and polgara_5 for all their patience with reading and reviewing everything. I cannot believe this is over but I am so glad I could do it.
Title: Being Secret-Identity-Girl
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Stargate people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Buffy is finally able to tell the whole truth about the Slayer and why she exists.
Notes: Part 8 - Links Page
Seasons: Approximately Season 3 of SG1
Characters: Buffy, Spike, O’Neill, Daniel, Teal’c, Carter
Word Count: 2860
Daniel frowned at a translation he had been working on for longer than he should have been.
“Daniel,” O’Neill shouted, snapping him from his study.
“What, Jack?” he asked.
“Why aren’t you getting ready for a briefing?”
“Buffy called in last night,” Daniel replied. “I was told SG-1 was on stand down. Since we have been out for weeks without more than a night off…. I thought you had arranged it actually.”
“I didn’t,” O’Neill said. “If I had, the first sign would be dragging you out of here.”
“O’Neill, Daniel Jackson,” Teal’c greeted. “I was informed we are on stand down.”
“Buffy….” O’Neill frowned. “What exactly did she say?”
Daniel shuffled through his books, looking for the slip an Airman had handed him at two in the morning. He found it in a book of Germanic texts. He glanced at the words and gave it to O’Neill.
“Family emergency.”
“Given that Lieutenant Summers has no contact with her family,” Teal’c said. “Would that suggest she has returned to her previous residence?”
“There you guys are,” Sam said as she walked in, note in hand. “Does anyone else think this message is strange?”
“We were just discussing it, Major Carter,” Teal’c explained.
“What do you think, Carter?” O’Neill asked.
“She had another blind date last night,” Sam considered. “But she would have called one of us if it was just a hangover or a good date. She wouldn’t use ‘family emergency’ without knowing it would get our collective paranoia going. We should check in with her.”
O’Neill nodded. “Yeah, but not over the phone. Let’s get off the base for a bit.” He closed Daniel’s book. “Come on, Danny.”
“Do you really think Buffy’s in trouble?”
“I think this could be a coded message to us,” Sam said.
“And she could have just had a good night,” Daniel reasoned.
His three teammates looked at him.
“No, you’re right,” he agreed as he stood. “Definitely a message.”
88888888
Buffy turned over again. But it was no use. While she had slept in Teal’c’s presence, she trusted him and over time had learned to ignore his Goa’uld. But she did not trust Spike. She was certain he had a soul, but humans with souls did terrible things to each other. So the questions was, who was Spike souled?
Less cocky, had crossed her mind more than once.
Sick of her own thoughts, Buffy got up and showered. She was midway through brushing her teeth. When her senses squirmed. “Damnit!” she spit the minty foam from her mouth.
S he rinsed quickly and jumped for the bathroom door. But she was too slow. The doorbell sounded at nearly the same time as she heard Spike head for the front door.
“For crying out loud,” she muttered, making a beeline for her room. She needed to get dressed quickly. She grabbed what she had laid out and shoved it on.
“Oh, for crying out loud,” O’Neill yelled. “Summers!”
“Can you all pretend to get along for fifteen seconds?” She demanded. “Daniel, please start a pot of coffee.”
“Okay,” came his reply as the front door slammed.
“Slayer!?” Spike’s raised voice made her pray for patience.
“I know, just back away and try to keep calm.”
“Why is there blood in the fridge?” Daniel’s soft question made her forego buttoning any of the buttons on her purple plaid shirt. Her black camisole would have to do.
She ran for the door and yanked it open. Spike nearly fell into her arms, he had been just about leaning against the door.
“What the hell?” Spike asked.
“That’s my question,” O’Neill announced.
“I will answer all questions,” Buffy promised, “just everybody give me a moment.” She pushed both of them into the living room. She gave Teal’c, who stood stoically near the front door, a silent plea for help. He gestured O’Neill towards the couch. Buffy positioned Spike at the dining table. Luckily all her windows had blackout curtains, a side effect of Gate travel was your body being on its own schedule. So she found blacking everything out was a lot easier than trying to work around her current body-clock.
It took a moment before Daniel started taking coffee orders. He got himself and Sam a mug. Teal’c and O’Neill had refused. Buffy reached into the fridge and grabbed a water bottle, tossing it to Teal’c.
“When did you eat last?” Buffy asked Spike.
“I’m good, pet,” Spike promised.
She had mostly just wanted to give herself an extra few minutes. But the time had come. “Team, this is William ‘Spike’…” she frowned.
“Pratt,” Spike provided.
“Spike, this is my team Colonel O’Neill, Major Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and T.”
“Why did you call out with a family emergency?” O’Neill demanded.
“We thought it was code for help,” Sam told her.
Buffy rubbed her face, pacing the space between her front door and the dining table. “I will admit when they needed a reason, I sort of fumbled.”
Teal’c stepped into her path. “It would be simpler to just explain,” he intone quietly.
“Right,” she nodded. “You guys accepted the Slayer thing without ever asking a particular question: why was a Slayer needed? And I encouraged that, because I knew you wouldn’t understand it.”
“Summers,” O’Neill said, his patience at an end.
“Slayers weren’t a science experiment some six thousand years ago. They were created by magic to stop remnants of demons and evil from praying on humanity.” She sighed. “Vampires, werewolves, and monsters exist here on Earth, completely native to this planet, if not this dimension.”
Her team made no reply. The three human members were looking at her like she had lost her mind.
“Vampires…” Sam said slowly, “they’re scientifically impossible.”
Spike snorted.
Buffy gave him a look, then turned back to her team. “So am I, so is T. Hell, so are a few of our friends, including your father, Sam. Until we met them.”
“So you believe in vampires?” Daniel asked, softly.
“Why did you not reveal this when you told us of your warrior status?” Teal’c asked.
She took a deep breath. “The first time I told my parents about vampires, they locked me in a mental institution.” She ran a hand through her short hair. “And the second time she kicked me out. So it’s not something I share unless I have to.”
Daniel frowned. “Is that why…?” He touched his head and made a slight twisting motion.
“Yeah. You could have been schizophrenic and I still wouldn’t have let them lock you up in a place like that.”
“You keep interesting friends, Slayer,” Spike drawled.
“How does he know about that?” O’Neill asked.
“I’ve known Spike since I was sixteen. He’s one of those who helped me in my final battle in Sunnydale.” She grinned. “Though not out of the goodness of his heart.” Then she looked at her team. “Don’t reach for your weapons, just…stay where you are.” She gestured to Spike. “Could you help me out here?”
“Are you sure?”
“You could introduce these people to a god and they’d tried to figure out what technology he uses to be called such.”
Spike nodded and closed his eyes. His face became ridged. Then he opened his eyes. Demon yellow stared at them.
No one really reacted for a moment. Then Teal’c took a step forward and approached Spike. Buffy hovered nearby.
“Are creatures such as this not evil?” Teal’c asked.
“In general, yes. Spike…well…” she stumbled with an answer. Because while his soul was an answer, it was not the thing she wanted to hang her hat on, not again.
“I’m not ruled by my demon as much as some,” he supplied as he let his demon slip away. “Never have been.”
“We have met before,” Sam said suddenly.
Buffy cringed. “Yes. You have.”
“Philadelphia. August 1969,” Sam said.
Spike frowned. “What?”
“Do you happen to remember coming upon a campfire in the woods of Philadelphia. Several hippies? Getting chased away?”
Spike looked at the ceiling. “No. I ate a flower child at Woodstock, everything from the Moon Landing to Christmas is a blur.” He cringed. His soul punishing him for his actions as well as the casual way he discussed it.
“How does…Drusilla know about the Stagate?” Daniel asked, holding the letter in his hand.
“Daniel!” O’Neill snapped.
“She’s a vampire as well. And something of a seer,” Buffy answered.
“A damn powerful seer,” Spike corrected. “If a little…warped by her transformation into a vampire.”
Teal’c took a step closer. Spike shot to his feet. Buffy grabbed Teal’c’s bicep. “Don’t, T. Junior is wigging his senses out.”
“William Pratt can sense as you do?” Teal’c asked.
“Yes. Slayers…we seem to have the some of the same senses as vampires.”
“That’d be because Slayers were made from essence of demon,” Spike answered.
“What?” Buffy turned to him in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“I did some research over the years. Slayers were created by binding the first girl to a rock and shoving demon in her. That’s where your powers come from. It’s why Slayers and vampires can sense each other. You have superior night vision, hearing, and strength that increases each year. Except for needing blood and sun-allergy, Slayers are like their prey.”
“Wait,” O’Neill said, “you didn’t know that?”
“Not her fault, Council of Wankers likes to keep their girls in the dark, it’s how they explain away things that are a bit gray,” Spike said.
“Okay, conversation for another time,” Buffy said. “For right now…” She looked at her team. “This was what I had been trying to figure out how to explain to you.”
“These are the only people who know about you being a Slayer?” Spike asked.
“These four and someone else we bumped into in 1969. That’s it.”
“Finally managed keeping your identity a secret?”
“I’m all about being secret-identity-girl,” she quipped, her gaze still on her team.
“Yeah, deep space radar telemetry,” he muttered.
“Okay.” O’Neill stood. “So I am to accept that he’s a demon and you destroy things like him.”
“Jack…” Daniel said.
“Daniel,” he snapped back. “This is…”
“No less unbelievable than anything else we’ve done in the last two years,” he countered. “And I can understand why she would be hesitant to tell us. I mean, we barely believed her when she said she was the Slayer. This…she had proof.”
“How did you get proof?” Sam asked.
“Spike came to me,” Buffy said. “Apparently I screwed some things up by not going back to Sunnydale…but I’d have to re-read Dru’s letter to try to decipher her meaning.”
Daniel glanced down at the paper. “It sounds like…like the mirror.”
“Infinite Multiverse Theory,” Buffy agreed. Off Spike’s strange look she explained. “It’s the idea that every choice we make creates infinite realities. So there is a reality where you never made it out of the church, and another where you never made a truce with me, and one where I went back to Sunnydale after I ran away.”
His eyes widened slightly as he considered her. “You’re not the same, Slayer.”
Buffy looked away.
He took her hand. “It’s not an insult,” he told her softly.
“How do you know you can trust him?” O’Neill asked.
Buffy glanced at Teal’c and Daniel knowing the only answer she could give had to be in Goa’uld. “How did we trust the Tok’ra when there is no physical difference between them and the Goa’uld: in and out of their hosts?”
“By their actions,” Daniel answered in English.
She nodded, continuing in Goa’uld. “When he was completely evil, he called a truce with his sworn enemy. To save the world. Now, ten years later…he is not the demon I fought. I don’t trust him so much as I am responsible for him.”
Teal’c bowed his head slightly.
“What the hell language is that?” Spike asked.
“A dialect of Ancient Egyptian,” Daniel replied.
“You teach her that?”
“I taught her,” Teal’c said.
“She’s very adept at languages,” Daniel defended.
“I was a California teen when he knew me, I barely managed English properly.” She crossed her arms. “Besides, last I remember you gave up trying to even familiarize me with Latin.” Buffy looked at O’Neill. “I can’t explain it. I should have staked him and called it a day. I’m being cautious but I’m also…curious.”
“So cautious she didn’t sleep,” Spike added. Buffy raised an eyebrow at him. “You tossed and turned, love, it was hard to miss.”
“Creepy bat hearing,” she accused.
“Wait,” Sam said. “How exactly does the vampire thing…work?”
Buffy shook her head.
“What is she?” Spike asked.
“Astrophysicist.”
Spike looked at Teal’c, trying to relax. “I’m guessing by tall, dark, and freaky here, and the lack of reaction from your friends, that you deal with something…weird.”
“Weirder than demons,” Buffy replied.
“And classified,” O’Neill snapped.
“That too,” she agreed. “But it’s just like not telling anyone about you.”
“Do you fear for his safety?” Teal’c asked.
“We’re a leaky sieve,” she reminded them. “We still don’t know how the Touchstone got to Arizona. I imagine he’s just as good test subject material as I am.”
“You do care,” Spike teased.
“No. My team has protected my secret, despite the risk,” she told him seriously. “You are a part of that.”
“Yet, I’m here in the living room and not tied up in the bathtub.”
“So what are you going to do with him?” O’Neill asked.
Buffy rubbed her face, because it had been the single thought that kept her awake all night. While using Spike to be able to completely come clean with her friends was important, there was still a souled vampire in her apartment. His clothes were in the dryer and she had already mentally identified a large mug he could use for blood. She wanted to get to know him, she wanted what he represented - reality. Things they dealt with beyond the Stargate were…strange and unusual and an exhausting array of battles and politics. Her life was devoid of much outside of the program and her team. It was like being a bubble.
A bubble that meant she sometimes forgot that there was more to the world than saving it. She gave a mental chuckle.
“He can stay here,” she replied.
The team made a series of protests. Except for Teal’c, who waited for them all to stop and simply asked. “Is that wise, Lieutenant Summers?”
“Other than O’Neill, how often do the rest of us go home? T lives at base and Daniel practically does. The only things still edible, that I didn’t buy yesterday, was a bag of marshmallows, rice, and frozen peas.” She gestured to the living room. “Someone may as well get some use out of this place.”
“Doesn’t he have to eat?” Sam asked.
“There’s blood in the fridge,” Daniel said. “I’m assuming that’s yours.”
Spike nodded, running a hand through his hair. “Slayer…”
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I’m not kidding, we - none of us - get home much. It’s no big deal.”
He got up, grabbing her elbow so that she would look at him. “You don’t have t-”
“Just say thank you, Spike,” she told him.
He smiled shyly. “Thank you.”
She pulled her arm away, backing up slightly and turning to her team, giving them a smile she did not feel. “T, we need donuts, can you and the Colonel get some?”
Teal’c nodded as O’Neill stood. “We will return.”
Buffy waited until the door closed behind them. She looked at Sam and Daniel. “Okay. I know you two are bursting with questions.” She gestured them to the couch. “Sit down and you have until food gets here.” She pulled Spike to sit in the loveseat across from them. “Just answer their questions.” She then made her way to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee, she sweetened it.
She leaned against the entry to the kitchen watching Daniel and Sam eagerly listening to whatever Spike was telling them. She sipped the hot drink, glad she kept decent coffee on hand and had been taught how to keep it fresh. She made her way to her overstuff chair. It matched nothing else in her living room set, but had been a comfortable find she refused to give up.
“How old are you?” Daniel asked.
“Born is 1850, turned 1880,” Spike replied.
“Victorian England, but your accent…”
Spike shrugged. “Picked it up as I went.”
“What were you - before?”
“A scholar.”
“May I?” Sam asked, gesturing for his hand.
Spike extended his arm across the coffee table. Sam hesitantly took it. “You’re cold.”
Buffy grinned behind her cup.
“No real circulation,” he told her as she placed her fingers over his wrist. “Heart doesn’t beat either.”
“How did you meet Buffy?” Daniel asked.
Spike looked at her and then down, shuttering his eyes.
“He came to Sunnydale to kill me,” she answered. “I tried to do the same. Closest he came was on Halloween, closest I came was when I dropped a church organ on him.” She tilted her head to look at the ceiling. “Ah, memories.”
A/N: A huge thank you to acswatwst, avamclean, and polgara_5 for all their patience with reading and reviewing everything. I cannot believe this is over but I am so glad I could do it.