Chapter 7: August 7, 2015 – Killers
Chapter Summary: Buffy has an interesting conversation with Gibbs.
Warning: mild swearing
Challenge: for the livejournal 2015 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Timeline: Storywise – about a month after Gibbs comes to the school, but before it's renovated and before Giles takes over the Watchers' Council
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. NCIS characters belong to Donald Bellisario, Don McGill and CBS Paramount Television.I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Side of Black Lake
Gibbs sat down near Buffy, and watched as she whittled a piece of wood into a…stake? Well, if magic and werewolves were real, why couldn't vampires be real, too? Setting that issue aside for the moment, he asked a question that had been bothering him for several days, "Is there a reason you hired the people you did?"
"Hi to you, too, Gibbs," Buffy snarked. "You mean besides the fact they had the job skills I was looking for? What are you really asking?"
"Why do you have a bunch of killers on staff of a school?" he half-asked/half-demanded.
"I'll admit some of them have…interesting pasts," she allowed.
"Not counting the cops like Goren, Ellison and Gideon – who may have had to kill in the line of duty – I get the distinct 'killer' feel from Cole Turner, Eliot Spencer, Jason Bourne, Lee Stetson, John Black, Balthazar Blake and Worf," he listed.
"Don't forget Jon O'Neill," Buffy added helpfully. "I know he's only 17, but he has some of the oldest eyes I've seen on a teenager who didn't live on a Hellmouth."
Gibbs nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean. Sometimes I'll be talking to him and I'll feel like I'm talking to an old war buddy from Desert Storm. Can you answer my question now?"
"You know that a civil war just ended in this community last fall, right?" she asked rhetorically. "Right now I don't believe that war is fully over yet. Sure, the leader of the other side – Voldemort – is dead, but we both know that doesn't ensure the other side will give up. Hell, sometimes it even makes the rest fight harder.
"I've read about his followers. They called themselves 'Death Eaters' and the stuff they're accused of doing is among the sickest shit I've heard…and I've heard some sick stuff. Rape, murder, torture…putting a mind-whammy on people to make them rape, murder and torture their loved ones. I don't believe anyone it purely good or purely evil, but these bastards are pretty close to it. These are the kind of people that wouldn't hesitate to attack a school of children.
"Now, on the other side of the conflict you had the government and a private force run by Dumbledore. While the Death Eaters were killing during the fights, these other two groups were either stunning or wounding the bad guys. Neither group gave their fighters the right to kill intentionally.
"So let's say that one of Voldemort's former minions decides that he wants to go for the prize himself and thinks that holding the nation's children hostage will get him what he wants. If that happened, would you rather have people who hesitate before firing back, or people who won't lose any sleep over killing any threat to the students they're bond to protect?" Buffy asked, daring him to object to her choices now that he knew her reasoning.
Then she smiled and said, "Don't worry, you aren't the first to ask me this. Half of the people you mentioned have asked me the same question…as has the Director of the DMLE. I have a bet with Cole and Walter who will be next. Cole won with you."
A/N: Sorry, I'm really tired today. I may come back and edit this later, but wanted to get this posted in time.