Chapter 3
It took only four hours for Xander to receive clearance to 'officially' be told about Stargate Command and the Atlantis Expedition, and they had clearance to know about him. He'd known his little group had earned some clout with the whole Initiative thing but he'd had no idea that the new Council had it as well.
Apparently the President liked them because they were quiet, efficient, and he didn't have to fund them.
Two hours later, however, Xander wanted to beat his head against the wall. Never had he met a man so willing to disbelieve something in his life… and be smart enough to scientifically 'prove' it.
Xander looked to the half awake Lieutenant Colonel next to him. Waving at McKay, who'd been ranting for twenty minutes about the impossibility of a literal Hell dimension, he asked, "How do you stand it?"
"He grows on you," John drawled.
"Like a malignant tumor maybe," Xander said.
"Hey!"
Luckily a knock at the door stopped Rodney's comeback and a shell-shocked looking Jim went to answer the door – apparently the one-eyed carpenter wasn't the only one whose mind was blown by McKay's verbal skills.
"Faith!" Xander jumped to his feet, quickly sidestepping Jim's bulk and hugging the brunette slayer.
"Boy toy," she laughed, squeezing and lifting him into the air.
"Faith," he wheezed, "can't breathe!"
She set him down, "Well remember that next time you run off for two years and don't visit or call."
Faith looked truly upset – though you'd have to know her to see it and Xander was suddenly very ashamed.
He hadn't dealt well with Sunnydale's end – he'd lost everything; his entire living family, his lover, his home… everything.
Buffy had only lived in Sunnydale a handful of years and Willow's parents had been away when the town imploded. They'd had family and somewhere to go.
He hadn't had anything – or so he'd felt at the time. He'd run with Giles' mission to Africa and hid there; mourning what he'd lost, he'd never thought about what he had still had.
He embraced the brunette again, softly this time, and whispered, "I'm so sorry Faith."
She sniffed in his neck and them shoved him away, "Damn right you are."
And everything was okay.
It was then that Xander spied the figure behind the Slayer, "Dawn Patrol!"
The younger Summers rolled her eyes before smiling wide and embracing him.
"Hey Xan."
John watched Xander embrace the two women and wondered at the tickle of something like jealousy in his gut. Of course that was ridiculous, he had no claim on the man and he certainly didn't swing that way.
Still…
The slinky brunette, Faith, prowled further into the room, clearly assessing everyone. She moved so smoothly that it was only the soft metallic grinding that pulled his eyes from her scantily clad top down to her longer than sin legs and the black nylon and steel knee brace there.
Xander turned from the younger girl to face Faith who seemed to be subtly circling Ronin, "So what are you guys do- oh my god Faith, what happened to your leg?"
Both women winced but Faith, otherwise, looked unaffected. Her eyes darted around the room again before focusing on Xander. "The PC version, or the official version," she asked, quirking a brow.
"The real version," Xander grit out. "They know, they just haven't seen yet."
She shrugged, "A couple of month's back an adult Mo-Lar demon got dropped in a London subway tunnel. We got there and the Watcher in our group messed up. I got my leg bitten off and the Watcher got eaten. Took half the Devon Coven to send it home."
"Jesus Faith."
"Yeah."
"That's ridiculous," Rodney sputtered, "You can't just reattach a severed leg and be back up in 'a few months'. You'd have years of physical therapy and surgeries, if they could reattach it at all-"
"Who are you again," Faith interrupted.
"Doctor Rodney McKay-"
"And you know what about Slayer physiology?"
"Nothing, but since it's not real-"
Faith sighed loudly. "Dawn?"
Dawn rolled her eyes but dutifully dug through the duffle on her shoulder. After a minute she pulled out a two foot long solid steel rod and tossed it to Faith. Faith, in turn, handed it to Rodney.
"Bend that," she said.
"What," Rodney squeaked, gingerly taking the rod.
"Bend it."
"This is stupid, there's no way anyone can do that-"
"Bend it!"
Rodney tried to bend it and after a few grunting attempts Faith snatched it away and bent it into a perfect pretzel shape.
Handing the rod to the gaping physicist she asked again, "You know what about Slayer physiology?"
"B-but…"
Dawn broke in and finished the explanation, "One of the baby slayers just taped it back on – she just wanted to stop the bleeding and keep the leg from getting lost in the fight. She didn't think – none of us thought it would heal that way. By the time they got her back to headquarters the bones had fused. It's possible she wouldn't even need the brace if the leg had been aligned properly."
"And I'd rather have the brace than have them hack my leg off again to try to realign in right," Faith added with a wince.
"Can't say I blame you there," Sheppard drawled.
Faith winked at him," Besides, being mostly retired has its perks and I still get the most senior active watcher. Freedom, friends and a council credit card – what more does a girl need?"
"And that brings us back to why you're here," Xander pointed out.
"We're here to make sure the SGC abides by the President's 'hand's off' policy in regards to any member of the International Watcher's Council, or any party associated thereof," Dawn supplied.
"We weren't told anyth-," John started only to be interrupted by his cell phone ringing.
A few 'Yes, General's and 'Understood Sir's later, John looked a little shell-shocked and McKay looked frustrated. He hadn't heard both sides of the conversation but he had figured out the gist of it.
"Look," the scientist said, throwing his hands out and pointing at the silent Jim and Blair, "You're a Sentinel and Blair's your Guide, right?" Jim opened his mouth but Rodney interrupted, "I'm one of the smartest people on this planet and I've just been told vampires are real – do me the courtesy of not lying, okay?"
Jim nodded.
"So Sentinel and Guide, right?"
Jim nodded again.
"And the thesis is real?"
Blair nodded this time, eyes wide.
"You probably discredited yourself to protect you both?"
Another nod.
"But now it looks like John might be a Sentinel and from the way Xander was able to help him, he's probably a Guide. So if we're supposed to be all 'hands off' with you people then where does that leave us?"
No one had an answer to that and silence filled the room.
Finally Dawn gave a disgusted snort and dropped the duffle bag to the floor. Keeping her lap top bag she headed for the kitchen bar and set up the machine. "Blair, Doctor McKay, let's sit down and talk. John, go back to sleep and the rest of you do something quiet – like watch TV."
"But," McKay said.
"I need some information here McKay, so you will all do as I say – Now!"
"Yes Ma'am."
