Title: Secrets of Love Authors: Vampmistress76/Buffybot76 Nurseygirl Rating: PG Disclaimer: We own none of the characters in this fic. They are the property of their creators and no money is being made from this work.
Spoilers: Set after season 7 of Buffy. For NCIS somewhere between season 3 and 7 Author's Note: This is the prize one shot awarded to Animalluver1985 who won the February challenge on Sunnydale-Crossing. Hope you like it, dear!
The Powers-That-Be had a funny sense of humor.
No really, they did.
Buffy Summers had spent her life trying to save the world and she was never rewarded for her actions. Though a Slayer shouldn't ask for a reward for doing their job, a little help every now and then shouldn't be to much to ask for, could it? For over a decade Buffy and her friends had protected the world on a daily basis.
A big grin spread over Buffy's face as her cell phone rang. She looked down at the little screen and just about jumped with joy - which would have looked very weird since she was in the middle of a Council meeting. On the screen was the name of the man she'd been longing to see: Anthony DiNnozo. Looking back up at Giles as he talked to the room full of Slayers and Watchers-To-Be, she figured she could miss a few minutes.
She got up and walked out into the hallway, not noticing the odd looks she was receiving from the rest of the room, save one person. She flipped open the phone and put it to her ear.
"Hi there, my studly agent." she purred into the phone. She was met with a slight chuckle and a resigned sigh
"Summers, I need your help."
Buffy snapped to attention. Tony never called her Summers unless he was in trouble. She looked down at her left hand, to her ring finger and the missing wedding band that graced it so very little. The ring that was tucked away in a safe deposit box, under an alias.
"What is it?" she asked, rubbing her eyes, suddenly tired and feeling well past her twenty-five years.
She knew he must have stumbled onto something big, or else he wouldn't be calling right now. Buffy's eyes shot open at what he said next.
"We've got a case that falls into your area of expertise."
"Too much for you?" she asked, knowing full well that he could handle some supernatural cases.
"Very. It's more like we're playing Men in Black without knowing what we're dealing with. Bring as much help as you can and a little witch's presence wouldn't hurt."
"When?" She inquired, already knowing what his answer would be.
"ASAP."
"Okay. See you soon." she said and began to hang up.
"Oh, hey," the sound of his voice taking on a happier tone stopped her. "Yeah?" she replied.
"Happy anniversary," She could hear the smile in his voice, his words warming her heart. Tears slipped down her cheeks but she couldn't help grinning.
"Happy anniversary," she echoed.
"10-18-2000." he said just before hanging up.
She knew he must have had someone around him or else he would have said the words 'I love you' instead of using their secret code. She wiped away the tears as she hung up the phone. Feeing a hand on her shoulder, she turned to see her best friend, Willow, standing beside her with a look of concern on her pixie-ish face.
"Tony?" the red head asked.
The blond hung her head and sighed, then looked back up after she'd composed herself. She was happy to have Willow as a friend. Actually, to be honest, she was more of a sister, which was the reason the red head knew about Tony. Sisters told each other everything.
"They got a case that has some major supernatural roots. Got to head out as soon as possible." Buffy said as she rested her head against the wall. She looked up as the door to the room opened and everyone filed out. She saw Xander walk up to them, and smiled at him. Behind him, Giles appeared.
"Buffy, what was so important that you had to leave my lecture? I understand that you have heard all of my speeches before, but you are to be these girls' role model, their leader, and it looks very unprofessional when you leave in the middle of my speech." Giles rambled, a bit upset that she had walked out while he was talking.
"Sorry, Giles, your son-in-law needed to talk to me." she said as she grabbed Willow's hand and the two of them headed down the hall to pack for the trip.
"My what?" Giles' baffled voice followed them down the hall.
Ex-Boston Detective and current NCIS Special Agent Anthony (Tony) DiNozzo, sat at his desk, ignoring the glares he was getting from his boss. Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a man who did not like to be kept in the dark about things. He liked it even less when it was his own team that was keeping him in the dark. Tony looked over the case file while he waited for the phone to ring. He still couldn't quite believe it. Someone had raised a demon on a Naval base and it had eaten two Petty officers and an on-base nurse before anyone could so much as pull a gun out and shoot it. Though there were a few people who thought the witnesses were all crazy, Tony knew differently. He knew as soon as they'd gotten the call that the agents would be in over their heads. So he made the decision to make the call that he swore he would never make.
"DiNozzo! Answer your phone!" Gibbs snapped at him.
Tony was snapped back to attention and grabbed the phone off the cradle. He held it up to his ear.
"DiNozzo."
"There's a Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg..." was all the receptionist was able to get out as Tony cut them off.
"Send them up."
"O-okay..." was the uneasy answer from the other end.
As he hung up the phone, Tony saw that Ducky, Palmer and Abby had joined them in the bull pen. He looked over and saw the tech Special Agent Timothy McGee and grinned. He had a feeling that McGee and Willow would get along very well. Oh, he had heard all about Buffy's best friend. From the way she had been described she was a non-Gothic redheaded version of their peppy Forensic Scientist - something he imagined Gibbs would like. His eyes traveled to the Gothic woman who was happily hanging over Gibbs shoulder. A small smile formed as he watched Abby playfully jab her boss and scold him for yelling at him. He adored Abby like the little sister he never had.
"Avert those eyes, Anthony." a familiar voice sounded from the left of him.
He turned and there she was, walking toward him, her blond hair longer then it was the last time he'd seen her. He drank her in. The way her blue t-shirt rode up as she walked. The way her legs looked clad in a pair of washed out blue jeans, hugging her curves in just the right way.. He spotted a red head walking beside her and knew that it was Willow, just as he knew the young man and older gentleman wearing glasses not far behind them were Xander Harris and Rupert Giles. He had never met any of the three but had heard about them in great detail from Buffy.
"Buffy!" he exclaimed as he bounded around the side of his desk. She leapt into his arms and he crushed her to him in a big bear hug. He didn't dare do more than that right now since the entire office was now watching them. He let her go, taking small pleasure in the way her body slid sensuously down his and backed away. He looked back at the team of NCIS agents and the Mossad officer that watched them.
"So, what's this about a case that falls into our area?" Buffy asked as she looked up at him. Without so much as a second thought he picked up the case file and handed it over to the new group. Buffy looked over the papers.
"Tony."
"It's alright Boss, they can help. It's their specialty," Tony assured Gibbs, who had stood up from his desk as he watched in disapproval as Buffy showed the file to her friends.
"OH! That's one of Zepar's minions," Willow supplied as she held up the sketch of the demon.
"Zepar? Oh, I've read about him! He's a demon that disguises himself as a soilder. He commands, like, 26 leigons or something. He is a nasty fella." Abby jumped in. When Gibbs turned to stare at her, she shrugged. "What? It was an interesting book."
"Abs." Gibbs said with a warning in his voice as he gave her a look, which, as usual, had little affect. She just smiled at him.
"Well, fine, tell me where we can find this Zepar so I can shoot it." Ziva, the brunette Israeli assassin commanded.
"Oh, well, that won't work. You see, much like most mythalogical demons, Zepar and his minions are invulnerable to bullets." Willow rattled off from beside Xander.
"Then how do we go about getting rid of it?" Tony asked, taking the sketch and looking at it.
Willow thought for a second, then replied: "A transportation spell should work. I mean that's how it got here in the first place, right? They summonded it?" Willow looked at the - in her opinion - really cute agent in front of her.
"Um.. yeah. Well, that's what we were told. Not that we believe everything we're told, because if we did then we would be really bad at our jobs." the man stopped himself before his reply turned into a ramble.
Willow smiled while Xander threw his arm around her and pointed at the flustered guy. "Just so you know, that is exactly what you sound like when you babble. Well, except you're a girl." Xander snatched his arm from around Willow when she shot him an icy glare for his comment.
"Nice going, McMouth. Buffy, maybe we should do introductions." Tony said.
"Yeah, we should," Buffy nodded in agreement and then began with her group, pointing them out in turn as she named them off. "This is Xander, this is Giles and this is Willow."
The dark haired young woman who had, up until this point, been keeping Tony's boss at bay, bounded up and grabbed Buffy's hand, shaking it enthusiastically as she stated: "Hi! I'm Abby Scuito. That's McGee," she threw a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of - according to Xander - the male version of a babbling Willow. "Ziva," A nod in the direction of the other dark haired woman in the office."The spectecal brigade over there are Ducky and Palmer. And the man standing directly behind me, glaring a hole in the back of my head is Gibbs. He's our boss."
Buffy chanced a look over Abby's shoulder and sure enough Gibbs was glaring at Abby as if he had laser beams in his eyes. It kind of reminded her of Willow's resolve face.
"A pleasure," Giles took this time to speak up. "Now, Buffy, what was that about my son in law?" He asked, bringing the attention back to the topic that she had been avoiding since that morning.
"All in due time, Giles," Buffy evaded yet again. "Now, how about we fire up those Wiccan powers of yours, Wills, and see if we can't get rid of Zelda." she said, turning to Willow.
"Zepar." Giles corrected.
Tony laughed as he pointed at Ziva, then Buffy. He was used to correcting both women, but it was much more entertaining to watch it.
"That's what I said," Buffy retorted just before hitting Tony in the shoulder.
"Ow!"
"Serves you right. Don't you know not to laugh at your wife," she challenged.
"What?" Gibbs issued a soft, yet angry demand as he glared first at Tony, then Ziva, then back at Tony before stalking forward. "DiNozzo, if you and Ziva broke rule twelve I will slap you so hard, you'll wish to God you hadn't."
Buffy intercepted the irate NCIS leader by stepping between the silver haired man and Tony, arms folded. She leveled him with a glare of her own and calmly stated: "Look, I don't know you, but if you so much as THINK about touching my husband, I will feed you to a nest of vamps. Got it?"
"OH, MY!"
"OH, DEAR LORD!"
The NCIS members looked over at their forensic medical examiner, who's eyes seemed to have doubled in size behind his wire-rimmed glasses while the Scoobies turned to their own bespectacled member.
"Buffy! You made Giles go ODL on you." Willow said.
"The Buffster say what?" Xander said before turning to his best friend when what she'd said registered through his bewilderment. "Hey! You knew about this, Wills? How come I wasn't in the know?" he demanded.
"Don't yell at me, I can turn you into a llama, buddy," Willow threatened, "Besides, with the way you've dealt with our past relationships, I think it was safer for Tony."
Abby was practically grinning from ear to ear, entertained by all of this and fully intended to talk with Willow about her craft at the earliest convenience. Tony had gently pulled Buffy away from Gibbs.
"Honey, can you please not anger the man I work for, who also just happens to have been a sniper in Desert Storm?" He gave Buffy a look and reluctantly she backed down.
Gibbs' jaw was clenched tight, his hand itching to give the back of Tony's head the infamous Gibbs-slap. He stared at his agent with an expression that clearly said, 'Explain yourself, DiNozzo.'
Tony scratched his head and looked at his boss. His eyes traveled from an irate Gibbs to an antsy Abby who was starting to bounce from foot to foot with a look on her face that was 30% shock and 60% excitement. Then he turned his attention to McGee who was grinning from ear to ear. Lastly, he turned to Ziva who was silent, yet stealthily, studying Buffy. He didn't like the look that his partner was sending his wife. He wasn't sure which one would win in a fight. Ziva was a trained killer but Buffy was born to be one.
A weak attempt at a good-natured laugh emerged before he cleared his throat to speak. "Boss, I can explain. Really."
Gibbs crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his body into a stance Tony recognized. It was Gibbs' 'I'm waiting.' stance.
"Well, uh, it's like Romeo and Juliet, but without the family fueds... and the deaths. Well, that and she could kick any taker's butt like she was in Fight Club."
"We don't talk about Fight Club." Abby and Xander quiped in unison, then gave each other a grin.
"DiNozzo! Enough with the movie references. Start explaining."
Tony jumped, swallowed hard and nodded.
"It's like this. I met her when I was in Boston. She saved me from an attack, and no, I am not ashamed to admit she saved me." He looked pointedly at Ziva who's mouth was slightly opened as if she were going to say something. The Mossad agent's mouth promptly snapped shut. "Anyway," Tony continued, "We met, I kinda stalked her, I finally won her over and we had a drunken romp in the sack and woke up married the next day. I ended up getting her targeted by a family of mafia wannabes, and well, to keep her safe, we went our separate ways and on paper it said that the marriage was annuled, but we are married. So, to sum it all up, everybody, meet my wife, Buffy Ann Summers-DiNozzo."
There was a moment of stunned silence.
"Are you a cop?" Giles' voice was serene as he looked at Tony.
"Yes," Tony replied, totally unprepared for what happened next.
"Too bad." the British man retorted just before a blow to his jaw sent Tony to the floor holding his jaw in pain.
"Tony!" Abby shouted in alarm as she rushed forward.
Gibbs grabbed Abby and pulled her back against him, not wanting her to get in the way - and inadvertantly getting hurt - should the elder of the new group throw another punch. He wrapped an arm around her waist when she wiggled in protest and squeezed gently. With a pout, Abby stopped her squirming and slumped back against him.
Meanwhile, Buffy had pushed Giles back slightly. Once again she found herself coming between her husband and an irate older man. She grabbed Tony's hand and pulled him up off the floor before turning back to Giles and folding her arms over her chest. Willow had moved around them to look at the damage that Giles had caused while Xander was now standing next to Ziva.
"Ooh, that's gonna leave a mark." Willow murmured to McGee, who nodded in agreement. Tony was rubbing his jaw, which was even now red and beginning to swell.
Buffy glared at Giles until she felt he was properly chastised, then turned to study Tony's face. She gently pulled away the agent's hand which was cradling his injured jaw. None of Tony's co-workers looked like they wanted to be near her or Giles, which was lucky, because before anyone could blink the blonde had brought her leg up in a round house kick that landed Giles flat on the floor. The Watcher looked up at her through askew glasses, completely flabbergasted.
"That was completely uncalled for," Buffy chided. "I'll just give you the same warning I gave his boss. Giles, you're my Watcher and I love you, but I'm in love with Tony. So leave my husband alone."
"Well, I hate to break up this lovers fest, but I think we need to work on the case." Ziva said, trying to get all their minds back on the task at hand and hopefully keep her partner in tact.
"Love fest." McGee corrected automatically.
"No, it could be lovers fest, too." Xander quiped.
"I agree! Not with the lover/love thing. I mean we should get back to the case. Let's talk portals. Where should we send our not-so-friendly killer demon?" Willow spoke up, gearing up to dig through her bag.
"The world without shrimp?" Buffy suggested.
"The world where there wouldn't be any food for it?" Xander supplied.
"Spice World?" Palmer threw in, receiving odd looks from the both groups for his efforts.
"A world where the Spice Girls rule?" Willow cocked her head to the side. "That would be worse then death. I like it. Lets do that!" she exclaimed, then started going through her bag for the proper supplies.
By this time, Gibbs had released his hold on Abby, who immediately made a B-line for Willow.
"You're a witch? That is just so awesome. Can I help? I can't do magic or anything but I'm really great at finding hidden bits of information. Though I'll need to get some more CafPow, 'cause believe me, I work best with caffine in my system. So how long have you been a practicing witch? Or should I say Wiccan? Which one do you prefer? Can you teach me some spells? I've always found the occult fascinating,"
Once again, Gibbs took Abby by the forearms and reigned her in. "Down, Abs."
Xander, who was standing beside a grinning Ziva, turned toward her and pointed at Abby then at Willow.
"Word of advice. Unless you want two caffinated chatterboxes running wild around here, don't let Willow have any of that CafPow stuff."
"Chiuda in su." Willow said as she smacked Xander on the arm.
"Wills, you know I don't speak any other languages. What did you just say?" Buffy whined, turning to watch her two best friends.
"Shut up." three voices replied in unison, Ziva, Tony and Willow all exchanged looks.
"Don't tell me to... oh, nevermind." Buffy responded before deflating against Tony's chest. She let out a sigh and turned to Willow. "Wills, what do you need for the portal?"
Willow looked through the book that she had dug out of her bag and read the pages at a rapid speed. Xander grabbed a pen and paper from the bag that sat at Willow's feet and as she started naming off things she needed to stock up on for the spell he wrote them down.
"Alright, so I'm ingredient-getting guy again." Xander said.
"Okay. Willow what about you?"
"I need to get online and do a few translations for the spell, but I should be done by the time Xan gets back. Oh, and Xander, try not to eat the ingredients."
"One time and I never live it down. It's not my fault the mustard seeds looked so good."
"No it's just your fault that they found themselves into your digestive system." Buffy quipped.
"Maybe I should go get it?" Willow said, looking worriedly at Buffy.
"No, you need to work on the translations, I can go." the blond said, grimacing slightly when she had to step away from her husband.
"No. You stay and spend some time with the hubby. Plus, you can stock up on the weapons." Willow argued.
"Not exactly how I always hoped the two of you would fight over me, but I'll take what I can get," Xander piped up, earning himself a glare from Tony. Holding up his hands, Xander stepped behind Ziva.
"Okay, enough. Xander, take Harry Potter over there with you." Buffy ordered, rubbing her eyes. She was tired.
"Palmer," Jimmy started to correct her on his name but was stopped when he saw Tony and Xander shaking their heads and he remembered what she'd done to that Giles guy. "But, uh, you can call me whatever you like." he finished hastily.
Tony nodded his head in approval as Jimmy shut up. Ducky chuckled under his breath as he shook his head in amusement.
"Ziva, help Tony help his wife with the weapons. Abs, McGee, help with the translations. Palmer try not to get lost." Gibbs orderd his agents into action.
Ducky saw Giles stand to the side with an uncertain look on his face and stepped forward.
"Rupert? Would you care to join me in autopsy? Perhaps for a bit of a chat?"
"Why yes, I do believe I will." Giles replied and followed the Scottish man out of the room.
Xander and Jimmy walked toward the elavators leaving, Abby, Tim, Tony, Ziva and Gibbs with the two other Scoobie memebers. Tony sashed over (I think that is how you would define his walk) to Buffy and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"So uh, where would I be able to do my translations at?" Willow spoke up looking from the married couple to the rest of the room.
Abby jumped up and reached for her hand and yanked the other girl toward the elavators that led to the basement where the lab was. Tim quickly followed the two after reciveing a glare from his boss.
Ziva and Tony wasted no time after Tim left in taking Buffy toward the armory. Gibbs sighed then rubbed his eyes tiredly as he headed toward autopsy to join the other two elder men who were probley haveing a nice glass of Scotch.
Xander let out a small groan as they once again turned down the wrong road. Apparently that Gibbs guy wasn't kidding when he told Palmer not to get lost. The other guy had driven down the same road three times already.
"So," Palmer started to say but stopped.
"Maybe I should drive? I mean I'm not from around here but I can't do any worse then you right?" Xander replied as they almost went the wrong way on a one-way street.
McGee shook his head as he watched the two young women who were currently huddled around Abby's laptop as they researched the spell they would need to get rid of their demonic problem. Apparently, Willow had a slew of bookmarked sites dedicated to witchcraft and those types of things. Abby was currently busy scribbling down url addresses and paying close attention to anything and everything the young witch said.
'Oh, the Boss is definitely NOT going to like this,' McGee thought to himself.
Abby had been asking the redhead question after question, her next qestion had Tim's eyes widening in alert.
"Have you ever tried a love spell? What would I need to try one?" the gothic woman asked.
Tim's eyes widened then in fear of just what the Abby would be able to accomplish if she to expand her fearlessness into the foray of witchcraft, not to mention just who it was that she wanted to put the spell on. Luckily Willow's answer derailed the thought of such spells in a heartbeat.
"Oh, no those are way too dangerous."
"Well, how about truth spells?" the pigtailed woman asked with pure fascination in her voice.
"Those are even worse! I did one similar and Giles went blind because of it."
Abby smirked at the other woman.
"You made him go blind?" Tim asked in disbelief.
"Not on purpose!" Willow defended. "I mean, it's not like I wanted him to lose his eyesight, or for Xander to become a demon magnet." McGee's face paled as he mouthed 'Demon magnet?' to Abby as Willow continued to babble. "Oh, and the whole Buffy wanting to marry Spike thing; better off not telling Tony about that."
"Telling DiNozzo about what?" McGee snapped to attention as Gibbs, accompanied by Giles, swept into the room. In his hand, he carried a 32 oz. red and white plastic cup with the words "CafPow" emblazoned on the side.
"Hi, Gibbs!" Abby greeted cheerily as the man handed her the cup, placing a kiss on her cheek as he did so.
Willow's eyes left the screen in front of her as she turned to look toward the door. She smiled at Giles and nodded her head to Gibbs. Abby was happily sipping her CafPow while Tim had the 'deer in the headlights' look. Willow giggled at that.
"Tell DiNozzo what?" Gibbs repeated with a slight tint of impatience laced in his voice.
"Nothing boss just listning to some interesting stories from Willow." Tim informed his boss.
Willow watched the two NCIS workers with thier boss and smiled it seemd the group was on a pretty tight lesh with the older man. Willow glanced back to the screen as Giles stepped up beside her.
"How are the translations comeing along Willow?" Giles asked as he turned his own attention to the screen.
Abby bounced up, while standing next to Gibbs who was giving the gotic woman a small smile.
"Oh I think we are almost there, then again I only speak a few languages and Ziva probley would have been the better choice for it but we have so of the best software around."
Willow threw a grin over her should at Abby before turning back to the computer screen and clicking on a link. Looking over the spell, she perked up. "Oh, hey! I think I found one that'll work!"
"You think?" Gibbs asked. "Better be pretty damned sure. I don't want my team in harms way if this whole operation goes South."
Willow's head snapped toward Giles, who's eyebrows rose of their own accord at the man's words, her green eyes widened in shock. Abby, however, came to the redhead's defense.
Gibbs!" Abby chastised the man beside her with a swat on the shoulder. "Be nice. And don't curse at Willow. She's an outsider, remember? She's not used to your ways.
"Thanks, Abby!"
Gibbs growled what almost sounded like an apology at Willow. The red head once again turned back to the screen. "Okay, after reading over the entire thing, I'm now positive that it'll work. Now we just need Xander and that Palmer guy to get back with the supplies."
"She speaks and it happends." Xanders voice boomed as he and Palmer walked into the lab.
"Wow, that was really good timing Xan." Willow said as she reached for the bag that he held out to her.
Palmer waved to the group and rushed off saying he was going to talk to Ducky.
Willow rummaged through the bag, nodding her head as she inspected each item. "Great job, Xan! You managed to get everything and avoid ingesting any possible hazzardous materials." She jerked her head up to stare at her friend. "You didn't, right?"
"Geez, Wills. Have a little faith in the Xan-Man, will ya?"
Both Abby and McGee stifled giggles.
"Well lets go find our fearless married leader and see about putting this big bad in to a hell dimension."
"You're not going to get off the married thing for a while are you?" Willow asked as the group started toward the door.
"Nope. Not a chance, secret keeper."
Meanwhile, in the armory, Tony watched his partner and his wife as the two women compared knives, though he knew that his wife would rather weild a sword. Ziva was checking the sharpness of her stash of knives as Buffy was testing their weight.
"So the two of you have been married since before Tony joined NCIS?" the Isreali native asked.
"Yep." Buffy replied.
Tony saw the look that Ziva sent him. He knew what was going through his partner's mind. His undercover job that had him romancing a woman for the job.
"She knows, Ziva. I've always told her the truth." Tony told her.
"Everything?" Ziva asked sceptically.
"Everything, Mrs. Smith." Buffy's voice interrupted from a few feet away.
Buffy looked over and saw that Ziva was giving her a very confused look. The blond then looked to Tony who was grinning and shaking his head at the same time.
"Mr. and Mrs. Smith? You know, married assassins? Oh, come on, you mean to tell me in all the time you've worked with my movie obsessed husband he never once made that reference?" Buffy exclaimed in surprise.
Ziva shook her own head.
At that moment, the doors opened and in walked both the NCIS group and the Scoobies. Gibbs and Giles entered last as Willow and Abby were the first to come into the room as the two elder men had held the doors open for them.
Abby bounced over to Tony and hugged him while Willow walked over to stand beside Buffy, who was looking over her temporary weapons.
"We've got everything, the red head informed the blonde. "Just need to make sure you're ready to fight when we do this."
Buffy looked over at her and smiled. "I was born to be ready."
"So, not born to be wild then?" Xander quipped up.
"Did he eat any of the ingredients this time?" Buffy asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Unfortunately that is all Xander," Willow shrugged. "Hey, it could be worse."
"How?"
"Andrew could have been here." Willow said, grinning.
"I take offense to that as a fellow sci-fi nerd," Xander whined, folding his arms over his chest.
"Hey! Enough with the comedy act! Let's finish this." Gibbs commanded.
"Again with the yelling. You know people could get a complex and have self-esteem issues from too much yelling," Willow ranted. "Just ask Xander. His dad was always big with the verbal abuse, and physical. Remind me to turn Tony, Xander's dad not your husband Tony, into a frog when we get done here."
"You hate frogs," four voices chimed in unison.
Giles and Xander looked from Willow to Buffy.
"You told your husband about Willow's frog fear? Buff, that's a group thing!" Xander scolded.
"Yes and as my husband he is part of the group so get over it." Buffy retorted.
Xander threw his hands up in surrender. "Got it, Boss."
McGee looked over at Tony and grinned. "Gee, that sounds familiar."
Tony's response was to smack the probie - Gibb's style.
McGee smacked Tony back much like he did when they were in the sexual harassment meeting. Instantly, Buffy's eyes narrowed at the tech agent, but luckily, Willow intervened, grabbing her best friend by the arm and pulling her from the room.
The rest of the group followed.
The group of eight exited the elevator. The office workers all looked up as four of their most prominant co-workers walked in all covered in some sort of blue goo. The four visitors behind them were in a similar state.
Abby, Ducky and Palmer were all waiting in the bull pen when they arrived. Abby slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide in shock. Ducky was attempting to hold back a chuckle but lost it when Gibbs shot him a glare that was usually reserved for Tony. Palmer, wisely, did not react.
"What happend? I thought it was supposed to be a simple spell?" Abby asked, cocking her head to the side, her pigtail dangling over her shoulder.
The NCIS agents all lifted their hands and pointed at Willow who was pulling chunks of blue goo out of her own hair.
"Turns out one of the ingredients and the demons skin make each other combust." she replied a bit too cheerly for the likes of Gibbs.
"You don't have to sound so happy about it. We could have gotten killed." the silver haird man muttered.
"Oh, would you relax? We had it under control. Besides, I recall telling you and your agents here to not get too close to the demon." Buffy said.
"Hey, in my defense, I saw my wife in trouble so I reacted. What was I suppose to do let that thing eat you like it did those three other unfortunate souls?" Tony replied.
Xander rolled his eyes. "I'm all for being a hero but you should know that these two are not you're average damsels in distress. They beat the crap of distress and then send it to the world without shrimp."
"No argument from me." Tim spoke up, grabbing a towel from his desk.
Buffy walked up to Tony, smiling at him. She reached up and wiped some of the blue substance off of his face, then grinned mischeviously. "I think this color looks good on you," she informed her husband slyly.
Tony threw his head back and laughed as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He then looked over at his boss. Gibbs was standing there swatting lightly at Abby's hands. The woman was trying to wipe the blue goo out of his hair. Xander was on dangerous grounds as he was taking the blue icky stuff off of his own head and rubbing it in Ziva's hair. Willow had walked over to Tim, who handed her an extra towl from his drawer. Tony brought his gaze back to Buffy who was now smirking at her friends.
"I've made a decision, boss." Tony announced.
Gibbs looked over at the two after capturing Abby's arms in his hands and hugging her to him, effectively covering her black shirt and pants in the blue goo. "What's that DiNozzo?" he replied, as Abby squealed in mock protest.
Tony responded by grabbing Buffy's face and bringing his mouth to hers. Buffy responded in kind and kissed back. They stayed like that for about thirty seconds until the cat calls started. Tony released her mouth but kept her in his arms.
"I've waited far too long to do that."
The End