Good news! This fic will now be 5 chapters long! I've already announced that Prompt #24 will be Chapter 4, and now I've added Prompt #31 as Chapter 5.
Timeline-wise, this takes place in late 2016, so Fornell is still loafing around at Gibbs's house after being shot at the end of Season 13. Also, I am unfamiliar with the BtVS comics, so I will only be taking the series into account, but I may draw inspiration from things on the Buffyverse Wiki that are sourced from the comics.
DEDICATION: My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims of the shootings in Portapique, Nova Scotia this past weekend. I personally never knew any of them, but one victim's husband taught at my old high school, and coached my brother on the school's hockey team.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own 'NCIS', 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', or any of the characters therein. However, Isra, Jessica, Morgan, and Cody are my OC's.
WORD COUNT: 844
One could hear them long before one could see them. The first sign was the telltale slap of their shoes pounding the pavement as they half-ran, half-staggered up the sidewalk. The second was the harsh breathing, one sounding much worse than the other as she tried to get air into her lungs while simultaneously crying.
When they finally came into view, once could see that the two women looked even worse than they sounded, especially the redhead. Her hands were bleeding, her face was chalk-white, and if one looked at her closely from behind, one could see more blood running down the back of her neck, exposed by the fact that her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail.
The two of them veered into an alleyway, the woman practically dragging the red-haired teenager along. After setting her down on an overturned milk crate, the woman started trying to calm her companion down. "Hey. Breathe, okay? Just take deep breaths with me." She grabbed one of the girl's hands and, ignoring the blood all over it, pressed it up against her chest. Then she started taking big, slow breaths.
It took several minutes, but the girl's breathing finally evened out. "Sorry," she whispered.
"It's okay. I freaked out very badly after my first near-miss. Now, let's take a look at those hands." She examined the girl's hands, wincing. "Okay, these'll need to be treated. We have a healing salve back at Headquarters, but those splinters will need to be taken out, first. Otherwise, the skin will heal over them. Are you hurt anywhere else?"
"M-my head."
The woman stood up and looked at the back of the girl's head, wincing again. "Alright, we're going straight back to Headquarters. I'll text Isra and Jessica to cover the rest of our patrol. Can you walk?"
"I can try." The girl tried to stand up, but her shaky legs couldn't seem to hold her weight.
Emily's whole body was shaking. Her head was pounding in time with her heart, and she felt like she was going to be sit. She couldn't help but feel like she had to get up, to run, to move, but at the same time, she also felt too exhausted to do any of those things.
Caridad was being very patient with her. When it became clear that Emily wasn't going to be walking anywhere anytime soon, she gave her a few more minutes to collect herself while she called Jessica and Isra – the two Slayers listed as being on patrol back-up tonight, as well as arranging for a car to come and get them, because she didn't think it was a good idea for Emily to be walking back to Headquarters with her injuries. Even if she was able to get herself there, her wounds could still draw undue attention onto her and Caridad.
Speaking of wounds, Emily didn't know how she was going to explain this. She'd been able to hide some of her Slaying-related injuries from her Dad, but mostly because he was still staying at Uncle Gibbs's house, recovering from his own injury since May. But those had been limited to a few scrapes and bruises, and her new Slayer healing had taken care of them quickly. This was worse, and she didn't know how long she would be able to hide it.
The car pulled up about fifteen minutes after Caridad made the call, and Cody Robinson – Morgan's older brother – got out. He'd found out about his little sister's new Calling, and after a lot of arguing, he'd agreed to not rat her out to their barely-present parents, but only if the Council allowed him to help out in any way he could. Since he owned a number of small shops and other properties scattered around the DC area, Cody's main contribution was providing fully-stocked 'safe zones' for Slayers in case of an emergency. They were fully warded by one of the Council's mages, and stocked with weapons and medical supplies, among other things.
Speaking of medical supplies, Cody was cracking open his First Aid kit in front of her before she realised it. Emily was ashamed to admit that she jumped an inch in surprise, her nerves still frayed from before.
She'd almost died. The demon had had her, and she'd just barely managed to save herself. She wondered if this was how her Dad felt every time he had a close call. Or Uncle Gibbs- well, she wasn't sure if anything could rattle Uncle Gibbs. Maybe Tony? From what Dad had told her, he'd had more near-misses than everyone on Dad's floor at the office combined.
Cody gave her a cold, damp rag for the head injury, and between him and Caridad, they were able to get Emily into the backseat of the car. Emily didn't say much; she was too exhausted to do so. And yet, she didn't dare let herself pass out. Every time she shut her eyes, all she could see was the snarling face of the demon that nearly killed her.
Okay, so I've been going through my fanfic plans, and I think the earliest that I can put up the next chapter would be late June, but this is only the earliest possible time. I'm going to try and stick to a consistent posting pattern of only updating this on Tuesdays, but I will be doing the Whumptober posts in order, and Chapter 4 is still only #24. Any other Whumptober posts will also be restricted to a specific day of the week if they're from a TV show. Posts based on movies will be put up as soon as they're finished and all previous posts are up (unless it's a later chapter, in which case it will be the same day of the week as Chapter 1). Also, I am still alternating between Whumptober posts and updating 'Two For The Price Of One', and once that fic is finished, its slot will be filled by updates to 'Reawakening'. Between those two fics and Whumptober, I won't be putting up anything else until July, at least!
The next Whumptober entry will be a new story called 'Giving In', and it is a 'Young Justice: Invasion' oneshot based on the prompt 'Tear-Stained'. It should be coming out next Saturday, May 2nd, so if you're interested, keep an eye out!
Until next time,
Spectre (#NovaScotiaStrong)
