Disclaimer: Anything Buffy the Vampire Slater related belongs to Joss Whedon and anything NCIS LA related belongs to Shane Brennan. The story idea comes from my own fevered imagination.
I know this is all NCIS LA, don't worry Buffy coming up soon.
Chapter Two
"What do you mean Nell's disappeared!" Everyone was clamoring for attention. Hetty held up her hands and people quietened down.
"I went to the hospital, got an update on Nell's condition from the nurse on duty then when I went to her room it was empty. Quizzing the staff, they told me that Miss Jones was still in a coma and couldn't have left under her own volition and no one had seen her moved out of her room." Callen took control.
"Eric Fatima, any kind of camera activity around and in the hospital today to tell us what happened. Security cameras, traffic cameras, hell, social media. Anything that shows what's been happening since Nell was admitted." Fatima left the laptop and joined Eric as they trawled through internet feeds looking for clues.
Callen and Sam returned from a fruitless search of Nell's car which had been delivered to the boat shed. As they entered the corridor leading to the main part of the building, they saw a figure lurking in the passage leading to the burn room. Quietly approaching the figure, they realised it was Fatima talking on her cell phone.
"Buffy, we have to tell them. They are going crazy trying to find her." Grabbing the phone out of her hand Callen almost screamed into it.
"Who are you? What have you done with Nell?" Realising that the connection had gone dead Callen span around to face Fatima who was being held by Sam. "Who were you talking to?" he demanded.
"No one." Fatima responded keeping her head bowed.
"Who's Buffy?" Callen insisted, grabbing Fatima's shoulders and shaking her. Looking up Fatima saw the anger on Callen's face and bowed her head again.
"I can't tell you." She replied in a shaky voice. Callen span around and headed for Ops with Sam following almost dragging Fatima. On entering the Ops centre Callen marched straight across to Eric.
"I want to know the last number used by this phone, who it is and where they are?" he told the tech nerd. Everyone was surprised to see Sam enter with Fatima being held with her hands behind her back. Sam pushed the young girl into a chair.
"Sit there and don't move and keep quiet." He said as Fatima began to speak. Realising that she wouldn't get a response from Callen who was angrily watching over Eric's shoulder as the technical operator worked on the phone, Hetty crossed over to Sam.
"What's going on Sam?" she asked the burly agent.
"We just caught her on her phone and it sounded like it had something to do with Nell." Sam answered. Everyone attention was suddenly drawn to the other end of the room as Callen almost screamed,
"What! It can't be! She was talking to someone not two minutes since!"
"I'm telling you Callen, the last time this phone was used was to take the call from Hetty this morning." Eric replied calmly. Crossing the room Callen grabbed the arms of the chair Fatima was sitting in and thrust his face into hers.
"Who were you talking to? Who is Buffy? Where is Nell?" he demanded.
"Mr Callen, stand down!" Hetty ordered. After a moment glaring at Fatima, Callen stood up viciously pushing the chair away. Everyone was watching Callen fighting to regain his temper when Deeks chimed in
"Lookee lookee what I found." Every eye turned to the detective who held Fatima's purse in one hand and a small leather wallet in the other. Deeks flipped the wallet open and everyone saw Fatima's picture inside.
"That's the same as the one we found at Nell's." Kensi stated. Hetty approached with her hand out and studied the wallet Deeks gave her.
"I wonder?" she mused to herself as she took one of the cards out and dialled a number on the conference call phone in the middle of the table.
"International Watchers Council how may I help you?" A young man answered the phone.
"I'm trying to reach Rupert Giles. I'm an old friend." Hetty answered.
"I'm afraid Mr Giles is not in the country at the moment." The young man responded.
"Is there any way I can contact him; I have some news about a friend?" Hetty asked.
"If you give me the message, I'll see that it reaches Mr Giles." the man seemed to be trying to be helpful.
"I'd prefer to deliver the message myself; it is rather sensitive." Hetty replied.
"Just a moment." The man answered and put Hetty on hold. After a few minutes he was back on the line. "May I ask who's calling please?" he asked. "Henrietta Lange." Hetty replied and was put on hold again. This time the wait was longer until an older, well-modulated, English voice came on the line.
"Rupert Giles." The voice announced.
"Ah Rupert. It has been a long time; I take it you remember me?"
"Yes." The response sounded guarded.
"What the hell's going on?" Hetty demanded.
"What do you mean?" Giles queried.
"One of my agents has been attacked and then disappeared from her hospital room, then I discover that she and another of my agents are secretly working for your organisation." Hetty sounded almost ready to drag this Giles person down the phone line.
"I… I… I… know nothing about this." Giles stammered out. "Give me half an hour and someone will be in touch." "Half an hour and then I'd better here something good or else Scotland Yard might receive some information regarding some old unsolved murders." Hetty sounded like the cat with the cream as she ended the call.
"What was all that about?" asked a frustrated Callen.
"I knew a Rupert Giles in England many years ago. He was a wild one." Hetty gave a small smile. "There was some trouble and I heard that he'd cleaned his act up, gone back to university and joined this organisation, the Watchers Council. I never knew what it did but I heard a few years ago that it had disbanded when their headquarters in London were blown up and the senior members were all killed but it looks as though my information was incorrect or a new version of the Watchers Council has been established. Now unless Miss Namazi has something to tell us." Hetty looked quizzically at Fatima.
"I can't Hetty, not without permission." Fatima hung her head.
"Well, I suggest we spend the next 30 minutes digging out any information we can." Eric turned to his keyboard while Kensi and Deeks began once more searching through the pile of personal belongings on the table. Hetty turned to Callen and Sam. "Do you think Arkady Kolchek might be of some help?" she asked. Callen thought for a minute.
"He might be depending on what this Council did or does but I don't think we can find him in 30 minutes and he doesn't deal with things like this over the phone."
"Well, we'll leave him for the moment and see if we need him later. See if you can think of anything we haven't done but I want you here in 30 minutes when we are contacted."
"What about her?" Sam nodded towards Fatima.
"It sounds as though she might talk given the proper permission but unless you feel like water boarding her, I think we'll leave her until we have more information." Hetty replied.
"I'd like to rip her arms and legs off but we'll follow your lead." Callen stated crossing over to Eric.
"I think I've found something." Eric called out. Everyone gave their attention to the big screen as Eric threw up the video on his monitor. "This is from the cc camera in the corridor outside Nell's room, it's facing towards the waiting area. This was 7:30 yesterday morning. See the two women and the young girl at the end of the row." They did indeed see a couple of twenty somethings with a young blonde girl who might have been about fifteen sitting in the waiting area. "Keep watching them." Eric fast forwarded then resumed normal speed as a man walked through the waiting area and continued towards the camera. The young blonde got up and followed the man until they both passed out of view of the camera then the young girl returned with a soda and resumed her seat. Once again Eric fast forwarded the video and then returned to normal speed. This time it was a woman who walked into the corridor with the young blonde tagging behind, this time returning with a packet of chips. The routine was repeated several times with the young girl following the adult then returning with some form of nourishment either for her or her friends. The team noticed that when a member of hospital staff walked down the corridor all three girls watched until the person had passed Nell's room when they relaxed.
"Well, that's suspicious." Chimed up Kensi, "do you have any information on them?" "Facial recognition identified them as June Worth and Janis James. They're both twenty and attend Caltech. The young blonde is Ann McKenna, she's sixteen and still at high school. Anyone want to bet which high school they all attended? It was the "Jenny Calendar" School for gifted pupils which just happens to be the flagship school of the International Watchers Council and is situated in L.A." Eric sat back in his chair with a smug look on his face. Hetty glanced across at Fatima who was trying to make her face as blank as possible then turning back to Eric she asked,
"What about Miss Jones and Miss Namazi. Where did they go to school?" Eric tapped a few keys then turned to Hetty.
"They are also ex alumni of the Jenny Calendar School." Hetty nodded to herself then they all gathered round the table as the phone rang.