Title: No Bones About It
Author: Christy
Rating: FR 14
Fandom/Theme: Buffy/Highlander/Bones
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters featured here. They belong to their respective creators and production companies, though the concept of Alissa is something I came up with.
Distribution: and TtH
Spoilers: Takes place during the break between Season 6 and 7 of Bones; you also should *really* read the previous House-centric story to understand what's going on with all this
Chapter: 3/7
Summary: Alissa has to help an old friend when Duncan is charged by the FBI over an old death.
In the end, everyone came to the agreement that they'd keep Angel under wraps for the time being, and wait until they needed to explain the supernatural side of things to Booth. As Cordelia had put it, "There's just too much of it tied to this case to NOT have the supernatural rear its ugly head at some point. And let's not forget how absolutely peacefulthat side of the world can be!"
All of that decided, Alissa was now currently in the conference room at the FBI building. She was discussing the relevance of finding out where the tip had come from and what information, exactly, said tip expressed that currently had her friend cooling his heels in jail with Caroline Julian. The federal prosecutor, however, was still visibly irritated when she'd found out that Charles worked for Wolfram and Hart. Alissa could tell without even bothering to read Caroline that the lawyers of the Wolfram and Hart DC office had already cut a path of chaos and lost convictions and she was just getting the backlash for asking for his help on her case.
Deciding to take the bull by the horns, she glanced over at Gunn before leaning toward Julian. "I understand that you don't particularly care for my co-counsel's place of employment, buT I guarantee that if you call the FBI office in LA, you'll find the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart is under separate and utterly different management then the rest of the company since Mr. Liam Chase took over over a decade ago. I wouldn't have had one of their best trial lawyers fly across the country if I trusted the methods of ANYONE here in the local Wolfram and Hart office."
Mildly mollified by her vehement statement, Caroline nodded to herself and passed over a folder with printouts of the email and its accompanying photograph. Alissa read through it, then passed it off to Gunn who also read it carefully:
How well do you know your friends and coworkers? This man has helped spread chaos and blood on two continents, but there's a way to catch him right now.
Lips pursed from irritation, Alissa looked up at the prosecutor. "How did you go from an email and photo to charging Ma-my client?"
"Our facial recognition expert aged the man in the photo from 5-20 years older and put the results into the national recognition database and Mr. MacLeod's face popped up almost immediately. Then, when agents went to his house, he gave them unsatisfactory answers to their questions. They brought him here for more detailed questioning, at which time he apparently called you."
Alissa mentally breathed a sigh of relief- questioned, but not charged yet. "Have you had your techs try tracking the I.P. Address of the email yet?" she asked, eyes narrowing as her own question triggered the nagging suspicion she'd seen something similar before and asked the same thing to be done.
"We didn't feel the need at the time, considering Mr. MacLeod was merely a person of interest when we initially questioned him," Caroline declared.
A shark's grin on her face, Alissa leaned forward again. "Well then, I would like to have my technical staff examining everything about this email as soon as possible, because it would be a shame if there was fraud involved in this accusation against my client."
Caroline gave them the information on Dr. Hodgins and called ahead to let the staff at the Jeffersonian know Mr. MacLeod's lawyers were coming by.
Alissa couldn't help but wince in sympathy when first introduced to Dr. Temperance Brennan, since she knew how uncomfortable the second trimester of pregnancy could be. She was cordial when introduced to Angela Hodgins, although Angela's husband seemed understandably on edge. Jack had already made grumbles about the need for verification when Alissa had arrived with two techs from her computer division. Once they got into the mainframe, they'd told the boss that it should take no more than an hour or so to process it back to the source. So, Alissa had decided to kill some of that time finding out what Angela's baby that she raved on was all about. Remembering similar conversations with Dr. Epps when he and Amita had mentioned to Alissa that they were having a baby, she mentioned Charlie's name to Angela, who mentioned that he'd visited when they'd upgraded the facial recognition software at the Jeffersonian. Angela even loaded up a recent picture of Alissa into the computer and made the Immortal grin at what she should look like in ten years.
Thank you, Charlie, for clearing me out of the database!she thought with a sigh of relief. They were both busy comparing notes on the difference between raising boys and girls when one of her techs came into the room, results printout in hand. She thanked him absently as she began scanning through the information provided.
Angela noticed her spine stiffen for a moment before turning around and thanking the young mother for her hospitality.
Walking steadily over to the rest of the scientists she did the same thing, while simultaneously whipping out her cell and pressing a speed dial. Hodgins just shook his head at her whirlwind entrance and exit. Glancing down at the Jeffersonian's copy, he glanced back up at the rest of the team. "Why would the email coming from DC be such a big surprise?"
The moment she was back in her car, Alissa switched the call she'd been on over to Bluetooth. "Rupert, how the fuck did this happen? I just found out the IP address responsible for the email that has Mac in holding came from the Council headquarters here in DC! I'm not trying to pull rank on you of all people, but could you please have all the wards checked immediately? I really would like to know who the hell it was, how the hell they got in and how the fuck they got a hold of Mac's diaries. I know I'm merely an adviser right now but-" she started before Giles cut her off.
"Alissa, you have nothing to apologize for- this is a good friend of yours and someone who has helped out both Councils on a number of occasions. We'll get right on it- not to worry."
Alissa sighed as she took the roundabout towards Anacostia. "Who would be this cruel? I mean, I know and have seen how evil some people can get, but to deliberately out an Immortal? That's a special kind of sadism. Would you like me to swing by and help?"
Giles waved that idea away while also directing one of the mid-level mages to start checking the perimeter wards. "Go home and relax with your family. I'll ring you when we're done."
