Disclaimer and Continuity Note: I
don't own any of the characters used in this fic, who were created by
Mutant Enemy productions unless otherwise noted. This fic is set
approximately circa October 2001. It is presumed to occur pretty soon
after the S6 episode "Flooded" (marking the return of Giles), PRIOR to
the series finale of the Lone Gunmen (which had to occur pretty soon
before their blue-faced appearance on the last season of the X-Files),
and at a corresponding point early in last season's ER.
The Fallen: Epilogue
*County General Triage Area*
Someone rights a TV, which had fallen to the ground and is scuffed up,
but miraculously has not broken during the mayhem. Pan up to
see... Mark Greene, calmly plug in the TV and flick it on to Sports
Night, on CSC.
Casey: *sportscaster* And in other news, MLB public enemy number one,
Commissioner Bud Selig, suffered a major blow in his quest to contract
the Minnesota Twins franchise, as a court ordered the team to uphold
their lease on the Metrodome for the year. So there's still going
to be baseball in Minnesota, at least unless there's a strike.
Dan: And you know, Casey, I think what's getting overlooked here is the
strong fundamentals of the team. Torii Hunter and the rest of
these kids have got the potential to make a run for it next year, and I
think that come October they'll be showing Bud exactly where to stick
that contraction notice....
Frank: *from the desk* Gotta check the important things, huh Mark?
Dr. Greene: Yeah. Get this place straightened up.
Dr. Carter: *comes in from surgery* Okay, that's the last of our
saviors, all patched up and good as new. Well, except for the
vampire, since he's kinda dead, and the Slayer, since she sorta healed
up before we could get to her, but otherwise all in a day's work.
Abby: More like a week or two. I am so putting in for combat pay
on this one.
Giles: Well, I do thank you for your help. I've had to watch
these kids get banged up far too many times, and it was good to see that
they were in good hands this time around.
Dr. Corday: You know, you really shouldn't be putting kids their age
into the line of fire like this to begin with. I mean, sure
they're here of their own free will but...
Giles: You're right, of course. And you cannot imagine how many
times I've wished I could find the right words to talk them out of it...
but then, the Watcher's Council has always had some trained specialist
adult operatives around, and yet, Buffy has had unparalleled success as
a Slayer, even despite her two deaths, purely because she has her
friends to rely on and turn to when she faces a problem greater than her
own abilities.
Dr. Kovac heads past the group towards the lounge.
Abby: Hey, Luka! Did you check on Willow and Tara in exam 1?
Dr. Kovac: Huh? Oh, yeah, they said they didn't need anything.
Dr. Carter: Wow, girls their age able to resist the great Dr. Kovac.
Think you're slipping.
Giles chuckles, takes off his glasses, and starts laughing
uncontrollably.
Langly: Oh come on, we're not THAT funny a sight....
Everyone looks over to see the Lone Gunmen emerging, bearing casts and
slings and generally the worse for the wear.
Dr. Corday: You boys were very brave. Or very foolish. You
could very easily have been killed.
Jimmy: Well, at least we'll have a great story to report.
Byers: Yeah... except who's going to believe any of this?
Dr. Carter: He's got a point. We just LIVED through it and I'm
not sure I followed it all. Demons and cyborgs and mutant
plagues.... *trails off, as he notices Dr. Greene looking down,
brooding* Any word on the girls?
Dr. Greene: None yet. I'll go check on them....
*Exam room 2*
Dawn and Rachel lie on beds, monitors beeping calmly showing stable
vital signs. Standing silently in the corner, looking on, is
Buffy. The door to the room opens, but she doesn't look towards it
at all.
Xander: I suppose it would be a waste of time to try and talk you out
of here to go eat something.
Buffy: *looks up, surprized that it's him* Hey... yeah... I want to
stay with Dawn....
Xander: Well, you're in luck...*smiles slightly, tosses her something*
Time for a healthy breakfast. Well, alright, it's a candy bar, but
it's from a hospital vending machine, but it must be healthy, right?
Buffy: Don't we all wish. Everyone would come here just for the
snacky goodness....
Dr. Greene: You know, that may be as good an explanation as any....
Xander: Oh... hey. Any news?
Dr. Greene: *shakes head* Nothing solid. Cultures came back from
clinical microbio, and they confirm what Walsh told me... our treatment
should have wiped out the Jekyll plague from their systems.
Buffy: Will she... will they be alright?
Dr. Greene: I... *trails off, everyone knows because the answer is that
he doesn't know*
Xander: It's the Dawnmeister we're talking about here, and from what I
hear Rachel is no quiet one either. I'm sure they'll be alright.
Dr. Greene: Yeah.... *takes a place on the wall next to Buffy, silently
watching the unconscious girls*
*The ER*
Everyone is trying to help straighten the place out, when Dr. Weaver
storms in.
Dr. Weaver: Alright, guys, you can all pack it in.
Abby: Pack it in? Who's going to clean this mess up?
Dr. Weaver: No one. I'm just back from a meeting with the board.
Our emergency funds don't cover anything on this magnitude, and
the city's all tapped out.
Jimmy: But we saved the day, don't that count for something?
Dr. Weaver: From a plague unleashed by YOUR bumbling. We've got
millions of dollars in property damage, a biohazard of unknown threat
level and god knows what else stashed in our basement, and no one's
willing to pick up the tab!
Dr. Carter: What are you saying, Kerry?
Dr. Weaver: Until we get another source of funding, County General is
going to be closed.
There is silence in the room for a few minutes as this knowledge sinks
in.
Anya: Maybe we could sell the rights to the story to Hollywood...
Abby: Yeah, right, who's going to buy it? Your screen-writer
would have to be insane to write this mess up....
Giles: Won't the government step in? We know some people in
the West Wing....
Langly: Yeah, right. The government is RESPONSIBLE for this mess.
If anything, they're probably going to try and cover this whole
place up....
Dr. Kovac: I'm sure no one would consider anything that exotic....
*trails off, staring at the door*
Everyone turns to the door to the ambulance bay where, as if on cue,
two men in black suits, wearing sunglasses and earpieces and clearly
packing weapons under their jackets have walked in.
Dr. Weaver: *nervously* Can I help you gentlemen?
Agent 1: US Secret Service. Who's in charge of this place?
Dr. Weaver: I am, for all the good it's done in keeping bioengineered
monsters out of here....
Jimmy: *pushes her aside, gets up in the agent's face* How can you do
this? These are good people! They work hard to do real good
here, and it wasn't their fault some madwoman on a black ops project
decided to store her demon plague here, and now you're going to shut
this place down? What gives you the right? Who do you think
you ARE?
Man: *walking in the door* They're with me.
Abby: Wait, aren't you....
US Vice President John Hoynes: John Hoynes. Pleased to meet all
of you.
Dr. Carter: *confused* Sir... with all due respect, what's the
President of the United States doing in a leveled ER?
Hoynes: I was in town for a fundraiser, and as soon as we heard that
this was more fallout from the Initiative, the President called me to
instruct me to make sure things get cleaned up here.
Giles: *adjusts glasses* But how did you know it was the work of the
Initiative? I don't believe the media has picked up on the
connection yet.
Hoynes: Exactly why I wanted to be here first. And as to the how,
is there a nurse Abby Lockhart here?
Abby: Uh, yeah, that's me, but...oh... My brother Eric is in the air
force. He called me when he saw County General was in the news
again, and I may have mentioned the Jekyll plague... he's not in trouble
again, is he?
Hoynes: Nothing his commander in chief can't clear up. He tried
to get access to classified databases to find out about the plague.
Fortunately, we had flags set up that let us know when anyone
tried to access that data, and when he said you were here....
Anya: So, are you coming with huge amounts of money? *realizes
everyone is looking at her, shocked* What, everyone said this place
needs money or it'll shut down....
Hoynes: *smiles* I can't say 'huge' amounts of money - Congress
allocated most of the funding from the Stackhouse Initiative Reparations
Act. But I think we'll be able to get your hospital back into
about the shape it was before....
Frohike: What do you know, there are still a few good men in government.
Jimmy: Of course. Otherwise, why would we be willing to fight and
risk our lives to protect this country?
Langly: From the mouths of babes....
Byers: It's a happy ending...
Xander: *coming out of exam 2* Hey guys, they're awake!
*Exam Room 2*
Buffy is kneeling by Dawn's bed.
Buffy: Dawn... are you feeling alright?
Dawn: Like I just had the mother of all colds.
Buffy: *tries to look stern* How many times have I told you not to go
fight evil by yourself?
Dawn: *matter of factly* 53.
The two smile, laugh, and hug.
Rachel: *weakly* What happened, dad?
Dr. Greene: It's a pretty strange story. I'm not sure I believe
it myself.
Rachel: Dad... I was worried... I remember just before I passed out, I
was afraid that when I woke up you weren't going to be here anymore....
Dr. Greene: Rachel... look, I don't know what's in the future.
But I know that I'm here right now, and I'm going to do everything
I can to make that time count, make a difference....
Rachel: You already have, Dad.
Dr. Greene: Thanks, Rachel. *holds her hand as the camera pans
away....*
*The Initiative storeroom in the caves of Sunnydale*
A lone figure takes a last puff of one of the thickest, nastiest cigars
around, before dropping it on the cave floor and wandering into the
storeroom.
Figure: Someone beat me to it. *sniffs the air* A bunch of
girls... figured the government didn't just close this shop on their own
will....
He trails off as he notices a marking on one of the metal storage
containers. He walks over to it and peels back the Initiative
label to reveal behind it the words "Department H" and the logo "Weapon
X".
Figure: Shoulda known no one south of the border would have been crazy
enough to equip this operation. I'd better track those kids down
and find out what the connection is....
He trails off, and sniffs the air again, wheeling around.
Figure: Who's there?!
Vampire 1: For someone that alert, you're pretty dumb to wander into
the caves where us VAMPIRES live alone.
Vampire 2: I don't know, I didn't really want to eat out tonight anyway.
Vampire 3. Looks like a bit of a runt. We're not even all going
to get a decent meal out of him anyway.
Vampire 1: *advancing* Why aren't you afraid of us, little man?
Figure: Cause I'm the best there is at what I do. And what I do
ain't pretty.... bub.
*black screen*
Executive Producer: Green Armadillo
*SNIKT, sounds of vampires dusting in rapid succession*
The Lone Gunmen
Bruce Harwood .... John Fitzgerald Byers
Tom Braidwood .... Melvin Frohike
Dean Haglund .... Richard 'Ringo' Langly
Stephen Snedden .... Jimmy Bond
Zuleikha Robinson .... Yves Adele Harlow
ER
Anthony Edwards .... Dr. Mark Greene
Noah Wyle .... Dr. John Truman Carter, III
Laura Innes .... Dr. Kerry Weaver
Alex Kingston (I) .... Dr. Elizabeth Corday
Paul McCrane .... Dr. Robert 'Rocket' Romano
Goran Visnjic .... Dr. Luka Kovac
Maura Tierney .... Nurse Abigail "Abby" Wyczenski Lockhart
Created By Michael Crichton
Author's Note: You're crossing over WHAT?! Writing this tale has
been worthwhile solely for the reactions I get to the casts involved.
Ironically, though, this tale did not set out to cross over some
of the most unlikely of suspects. My Buffy/WW tale leaves the
dangler that Adam's brain persists in a government computer somewhere,
as a ghost in the machine. That tale was written before the S6
premiere, while Buffy was still six feet under, and when I saw her
return I immediately saw the potential for a story. The trashing
of the city of Sunnydale by demon bikers would surely make some sort of
news recognizable to those looking for it. And the Buffy bot,
declared dead on the scene by the mechanical expert SPIKE, might be
salvageable by someone with more expertise. Who has some knowledge
of computers/robots, a healthy distrust for published media/govt, and a
sufficiently healthy dose of incompetence to unleash a restored
Buffy-bot with Adam in it on the world? The (then recently
cancelled) Lone Gunmen! :)
Then grad school applications interfered, followed by inspiration for a
new Board Fic, Board of the Rings (I usually alternate between board
fics and crossovers so I'll have more time to simmer ideas on the back
burner), and suddenly it was over a year later. And a lot happened
during that year. Chris Carter offed the Gunmen in a senseless
and poorly contrived death trap, no doubt in retribution for their
failure to resurrect his career when placed in the Friday timeslot of
doom Fox sends good shows to die in. But joining them amongst the
ranks of fallen TV characters was someone completely different, Mark
Greene on ER. I never watched ER (except for the month when
George Clooney was leaving and they were teasing that he might die)
until last year (mostly due to a girl who, through an unusual dose of
obliviousness but no particular fault of her own, managed to severely
break my heart), but yet I felt a good deal of resonance with the good
doctor leaving the place that had been his home as I too closed up shop
in my old home at college, did the activities I loved for the last
time, and ultimately moved on to somewhere else. Somehow, despite
a near complete lack of knowledge of ER continuity from earlier than
mid-way through last season, I wanted to pay homage to him.
Adding a medical angle to the plot actually jived with my current work
in the lab - my lab is, among other projects, working on new technology
to make much more rapid diagnosis of what bacterium is causing an
infection, so that Drs. Carter and Kovac would KNOW what the best
treatment is, instead of having to guess what might be the most similar
from symptoms that can vary from person to person. Sometimes what
we think is science fiction is truer than we know. Anyways, I
figured that these additions would make the plot far darker, and more
involved. I underestimated my own nature for light-hearted banter.
Oh well, it was fun at any rate.
Finally, I'd like to end with an actual viewer comment. In
response to Chapter 5 of the tale, our own Ruby2 wrote: "Superheroes
don't need ERs, or at least, I haven't seen any superheroes in my ER, so
I assume that's the case...." Well, much as it pains me to
discredit one of our Hold-out own, Ruby LIES, though she does so to
protect her own secret identity. Superheroes, slayers, and
freelance conspiracy journalists fight fictional demons, conspiracies,
monsters, etc that were created with the stroke of a pen and thus can be
banished by the same due to the efforts of the protagonists. We
enjoy these tales anyway, partially cause we hope they're as well
written as ME stuff, and partially cause sometimes it isn't just about
what's happening, but who it's happening to. Doctors, nurses,
clinical diagnostic lab stuff, and numerous other support personnel
behind the scenes whom you never see (maybe even researchers like
myself :) ) fight real problems that don't go away so easily, they work
insane hours to do it, and ultimately they're the ones on the front
lines saving people's lives. So really, you can't SET FOOT in an
ER without seeing REAL superheroes, and this fic is dedicated to them.
Green Armadillo
December 12th, 2002
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