Title: We Stand Alone Together (3/?)
Author: TardisAngel 21
Rating: PG for now.
Word Count: 1,659
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction and in no way is to be disrespectful to the actual men of the P.I.R. 101st Airbourne Easy Company. This is based on the actor's portrayals in the HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers."
Spoilers: Buffy Season 7, Band of Brothers Mini-Series, and the movie Office Space.
Pairings: Winters/Nixon/"Gibbons", Buffy/Spike, Dawn/Malarkey, Dawn/Guarnere, Faith/Speirs
Three Months ago:
Aldbourne, England: Slayer Central:
"We found him Buffy!" Willow said excitedly as she came rushing into Buffy's office at Slayer Central.
"That's great Willow. Was it difficult?" Buffy asked.
"It was extremely difficult! Someone or something did NOT want him found. It took seven of the most powerful witches in the world including myself to find his magical signature and even then it was in flux. We believe he's in the Los Angeles area."
Buffy picked up her phone and dialed.
"Hey Faith, its Buffy. I have a mission for you" she said with a smile.
"What's up B?"
"Could you come to the Main Office when you're done with your sweep?"
"Sure thing, be there in a click."
Buffy hung up and sitting back started thinking of how to reunite Lewis Nixon back with the men of Easy Company.
0-0-0-0
Present Day:
Downtown Los Angeles:
Faith sat down in the Manager's office at "Caritas" during her break tapping her fingers rhythmically to the bass vibrating through the ceiling from the bar upstairs. She hoped Lorne would come back at some point and take over but for the interim she and Ronald was handling it fairly well. The two of them made a great team and were running the bar like a well-oiled machine. Also didn't hurt that Ronald was very easy on the eyes. Although Faith knew she had a zero chance with him.
She knew Lorne needed time to process killing a man in cold blood per Angel's orders. She shivered knowing how hard it must have been on the Empathic Demon. Looking up from her paperwork she noticed the message light on the phone was blinking and on a whim punched the message button.
"You have 17 new messages." The phone chirped happily at her. Inwardly groaning she took some paper and a pen and started writing down messages.
Message after message was someone looking for work, and almost groveling to be given a change.
"Damn this economy" she thought angrily, when a message came on that made her sit up straight.
"Hi, this is Peter Gibbons. I'm interested in your job posting. I'm tired of my job at Initech and looking for something new. You can reach me at…"
"No fuckin' way!" she muttered as she hastily wrote down the phone number and taking out her cell phone hit speed dial.
"Come on, Come on…pick up the phone Xander…"
She took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She sighed in relief when the phone picked up on the third ring.
"Hey Faith, what's up?"
Faith took a deep breath and repeated the phrase he told her to repeat if they had any contact with Peter Gibbons.
She pulled out the folder she kept in her desk of the surveillance they had gathered so far and read the sticky note on the inside of the folder.
"Red Leader, This is Green Leader, I've had contact with Skywalker."
"Tell me what you know."
Faith told him how she had received a message about her job opening.
"Ok, we'll work out the details on our end Faith and I'll be sending a member of Easy Company to your location" he replied.
"Understood, I'll await for their arrival. Thanks Xan!"
"You're welcome and thank you Faith." he replied before hanging up.
Faith listened to the dial tone and steeled herself as she dialed Peter Gibbon's phone number.
"Hello Peter! This is Faith from Carnitas. I got your message, would you be interested in coming in for an interview?"
0-0-0-0
Across Town:
"Why do you need another job Peter?" Michael asked giving Peter a side glance as they walked in the front door of Initech.
"It's not that I need another job Michael, but do you ever feel this job is too easy and you need a challenge?" Peter responded as he opened the door.
"Who doesn't? I mean a trained chimpanzee could do the coding I do for eight hours a day. Don't get me started on those damn TPS reports!" Michael replied.
"I just need a change of scenery that isn't made up of gray carpeted walls." Peter replied as he walked into his cubicle.
"I hear ya, and that isn't in the shape of a box." Michael said with a laugh as he settled in his cubicle to start another day of work.
Sitting down, Peter felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. That was until a familiar ominous shadow fell over him. Looking up he felt his anger start to rise.
"Yes?" he asked in a chipped tone.
"Mmm…yeah, did you get a chance to look at the TPS report Peter?"
"Not yet" Peter replied suppressing the urge to roll his eyes.
"Do we need to have a chat about the importance of the TPS report?" Lumbergh asked before taking a long drink of coffee.
"No sir. I'll get right on those reports."
"Good. I'd hate to have to write you up for that." Lumbergh said with a bland smile as he turned on heel and walked away to bother some other poor soul.
"Why can't that man be like Dike and just disappear for hours on end" he thought silently, and then he thought "Who's Dike?"
0-0-0-0
Arriving home after a day of dealing with Lumbergh and his cronies, Peter walked to his kitchen got a beer from the fridge. Noticing his message light on his phone was blinking he hit play.
"Hello Peter! This is Faith from Carnitas. I got your message, would you be interested in coming in for an interview?"
Peter grabbed a pen and frantically wrote down Faith's information. Grabbing a beer he sat down and started flipping through the channels. When he heard his neighbor Lawerence call out "Hey man, turn it to the History Channel there's a cool show on about the Battle of the Bulge."
Peter flipped to the channel and sat there watching the German's advancing on the front line.
"Man those German's are sure some tough sons of bitches!"
"You have no idea…" Peter muttered.
"What was that man?"
Peter shivered and standing up turned up the heating in his apartment.
"Nothing Lawerence…"
"Okay man, cheers!"
Peter sat down and proceeded to watch the show and every so often a voice in his mind would interrupt his viewing with "that's not correct the German's attacked from the Northwest" or "those trees didn't explode like that…"
After a while, Peter got up and turned off the television in frustration.
"Man I hate snow…" he grumbled as he headed off to bed.
Aldbourne, England Slayer Central:
Xander walked into the officer's quarters and ran straight into Harry Welsh.
"Any news on Nixon's whereabouts?"
"We may have located him but I need to speak to Major Winters" Xander replied as he headed toward the stairs.
"Keep me up to date, if you need anything Xander let me know."
Xander stopped on the third stair and composing himself replied as he turned toward Harry, "Could you get the men to stop calling my Cyclops? I was protecting Buffy and the others when this evil guy attacked me."
Harry nodded, "You got it."
"Thanks Harry, you're the best."
"Don't tell the others, don't want to ruin my reputation" Harry replied with a wink as he sauntered off.
Xander smiled and headed up toward the Officer's Quarters. He found Major Winters office.
He knocked and waited to let in.
The door opened and Major Winters waved for Xander to come in.
Xander closed the door behind him with a soft "click."
Major Winters sat down behind his desk and Xander sat in one of the chairs.
"Any news?" Winters asked.
"Yes sir. Our Magical team has located a person we believe is Lewis Nixon in the Los Angeles area. He's going by the name Peter Gibbons. He has the same magical signature as the rest of the 'll be sending you to meet up with our tactical team Faith Lehane and Ron Speirs. They'll be able to fill you in on Peter and what we've learned."
"Good. The sooner we have Nixon back the sooner Easy Company will feel whole again."
"What was he like if you don't mind me asking?"
"Lewis was my exact opposite. Looking at us you'd never believe we were friends. Somehow we just 'clicked'."
"I hope I get to meet him."
Before Winters could respond, Xander's phone went off the sound of the Imperial March from Star Wars filled the air.
Xander pulled his phone out and flipping it open answered in a clipped voice.
"This is Xander"
Dick could see whatever was being said was serious because Xander kept leaning forward.
"Are you sure?...Okay I'll ask him. Keep me posted Giles."
"What's going on?" Winters asked.
"We think we know who brought you to this dimension….does the name Herbert Sobel ring any bells?"
Xander was surprised to see the friendly demeanor of Major Winters be replaced by a cold steel gaze.
"Yes. How did he pull it off?"
"Dark Spell…"
"Fill me in…."
TBC.
