Leap of Faith [NCIS/Buffy; Abby, Ducky, Faith & Gibbs; G]

[velvetfiction]

Fandom: Buffy/NCIS xover
Characters: Abby, Faith, Ducky, Gibbs
Written for shogunsquirrel 's 2009 fandom_stocking


"Abigail!" The cultured British voice had a distinct edge to it, causing the woman in question to jog the remaining steps from her lab to Ducky's autopsy.

"What's up, Ducky?" she asked. "Oo, who's the stiff?"

Ducky finished up the last few stitches on the corpse and then straightened up with a sigh.

"Petty Officer James Dickenson," he replied as he snapped off his gloves. "Found this morning in an alleyway in Georgetown."

Abby peered at the body on the table. Aside from the stitches where the doctor had sewn him back up, there were no obvious signs of trauma. She might not be a field agent like Gibbs, or a doctor like Ducky, but Abby had seen plenty of bodies in her time.

"So whatcha need me for? Blood work? Mysterious substance found up his nose? Occult symbols branded into his behind?"

Ducky chuckled slightly. "Oddly, that last may not be that far off. Tell me, my dear, what do you make of these?" He turned the body's head slightly so that Abby could better see the side of the deceased Petty Officer's neck. Under the bright light of the autopsy, two holes, puncture wounds, were clearly visible.

"Woah, looks like someone went after him with one of those big forks that you use when you carve a turkey!" she exclaimed. "Or maybe a giant spider! Or -"

"And what if I told you," Ducky gently interrupted her speculations, "that this man was drained of all but about a pint of his blood"

Abby's mouth snapped shut and her eyes widened. She glanced down at the body on the table again and then looked back at Ducky. Her eyes narrowed and she placed her hands on her hips.

"And just how to you propose to convince Gibbs of this? I can see it now, 'What do you have, Duck?'" she mimicked in her best Gibbs-voice. "'Oh, just a routine vampire attack, Jethro,'" she continued in a pseudo-British accent. "'Nothing to get excited about.'"

"And that, Abigail, is why I called you in here. You and I both know that this is real. But Jethro will be understandably skeptical. I suppose I could come up with another cause of death - "

"Lie to Gibbs?" Abby interrupted with a snort. "No way. Never going to work."

"No, I'm afraid you're right. Which leaves us in the unenviable position of having to convince Jethro and - to a lesser extent - Anthony and Kaitlyn, that we have not gone off the deep end, as it were."

Both scientists were quiet for a few moments, staring at the corpse that was going to cause them so many problems.

Abby bit her lower lip in thought. "I think I know someone that might help," she said slowly, "but I'd have to bring her here. She'll want to see this for herself. And if it really is a vampire, we're going to need her help to deal with the problem anyway."

**

"What've you got for me, Abs?" Gibbs called as he entered the lab. "And who the hell is that?" he asked when he noticed a second figure bent over a microscope next to his forensic scientist. "And do I need to bring her a Kaff-Pow too?"

"The consultant Ducky told you about," Abby replied with a smile.

The woman looked up from the microscope and gave Gibbs a frank look of appraisal. Her dark hair was pulled back in a loose braid, blood red lipstick highlighted full lips and dark eyeliner outlined wide, bright eyes. The leather pants and tight turtleneck left little to the imagination and Gibbs suddenly had the feeling of being a small animal confronted by a predator. He shook his head slightly and extended his hand.

"Special Agent Gibbs."

The woman smile, suddenly softening her whole appearance, and returned his handshake with a strong one of her own. "I'm Faith, nice to meet you at last. Abby has told me a bunch about you."

The gleam in Faith's eyes made Gibbs wonder what exactly his pseudo-daughter had been saying about him, but he quickly shoved that aside.

"So what do you have for me?" he asked, trying to get back to business.

Abby and Faith exchanged a look and then with a few quick taps on the keyboard, Abby brought up a picture of the dead petty officer's neck.

"I ran an analysis of the skin around these puncture wounds," Abby explained. "There is definitely dried saliva around the holes. And look here," she said, indicating a faint line around the wound. "There is a slight bruising, consistent with suction being applied, like in a hickey." She paused, waiting for Gibbs to connect the dots. It didn't take long.

"You're telling me some wacko killed that petty officer because he thinks he's a vampire?" Gibbs asked incredulously. "So how did he get the blood out of the body?"

Abby and Faith exchanged another glance. "We're pretty sure he drank it," Faith explained. "Hence, the residue around the holes."

Gibbs looked at the two women like they had lost their minds. "Are you serious? The human body has nearly a gallon of blood. There's no way someone could drink that much and not be puking his guts up."

"He could if he really was a vampire," Abby said quietly.

Gibbs simply stood there gaping.

"I think we broke him, Abs," Faith commented wryly.

"Are you two serious?" Gibbs finally spluttered. "A vampire? Next you're going to tell me the tooth fairy is real."

"He is, but he's not the sort you'd want to meet in a dark alley," Faith replied with a slight shudder.

"Just what the hell kind of consultant are you anyway?" Gibbs asked, whirling on her.

"A vampire slayer," she responded with a smile.

Silence reigned for a moment and then a cry of "A WHAT?!" rang off the walls of the lab, followed by feminine laughter.

In his office, Ducky shook his head in amusement and wondered how long he should wait to go rescue his friend.