A/N: *Hugs* to Megan for betaing.


Chapter 12: History Laid to Rest.


Spike’s hands were pressed up against the cool tile of the shower stall, the warmth of the water heating his undead flesh. But it was in no way comparable to the feeling of heat that flooded his body when he was with her.

With Buffy…

His eyes blinked open and he turned in the small space, reaching for the taps and shutting off the water. He had woken a little over an hour ago, finding Buffy’s tiny form wrapped around his. And he had lain there watching her in wonder, still finding it surprising that she was here with him. In his bed.

Spike had caressed her face, lovingly brushing an errant lock of hair from her face to be rewarded with a contented little sigh, a ghost of a smile curling her lips. Her heartbeat remained slow and steady and he knew he hadn’t woken her. He didn’t want to part from her—would have been content to lie as they were all day—but he really needed a shower before the sky darkened. He had every intention of accompanying her on patrol tonight. And the next night, and the night after that.

He tried not to let the fact that she would be leaving in a few days trouble him, his strength coming from the belief that she would stay here, with him.

Reaching for a towel, he wrapped it around his waist and walked out of the bathroom. The scent of sex was the first thing that flooded his sense of smell, his eyes involuntarily fluttering shut as he inhaled the aroma of her. He began speaking even before his eyes opened.

“Buffy, love, time to wake up. It’s almost…” His eyes opened lazily, his jaw gaping slightly at the sight of the empty bed. He titled his head to the side as he surveyed the room before striding into the main living space of the apartment, expecting to find her there.

The first thing he realized was that the floor was noticeably absent of her clothing.

She was gone.

~~~

Buffy walked into the lobby of the W&H offices, glaring in Harmony’s direction as she swept past her.

The vampire attempted to make herself look busy, avoiding the Slayer’s deathly stare and letting out a sigh of relief when she disappeared into Angel’s office. News of the punch up between Spike and Angel had spread through the building like wildfire and Harmony had no doubt that Buffy was the catalyst for the fight. She probably even swung a few of those punches herself.

So long as the fury was directed away from her for her little part in the deception, Harmony was going to keep her mouth shut.

~~~

Angel looked up from his paperwork when his office door opened and someone walked in unannounced, blinking in surprise when a very angry Buffy walked in. He lifted himself from the plush chair and moved to lean against the front of his desk, arms folded in front of him. “Buffy, I didn’t expect you in so early. What can I do for you?” he asked as she strode towards his desk.

“How about some honesty?” she suggested sarcastically. “Do you understand the concept?” She came to a stop a few feet away from her former, arms folded across her chest in an unconscious mirror of his stance.

He pursed his lips, refusing to take the bait. “Buffy, I tried to explain my reasons for not telling you about Spike, but you wouldn’t hear me out.”

“Did you really expect that I would? Angel, you lied to me. Why? I want to know.” She was demanding a response, not asking. She was barely controlling the primal urge to beat some expression onto his face.

“You know my feelings about the whole Spike thing. He’s not good enough for you Buffy.”

“Why?”

Angel blinked in surprise. He hadn’t expected that response, vehement denials maybe, but just a simple why? “He’s a vampire, Buffy, he’s killed hundreds—possibly thousands of people and he tried to kill you and you’re friends countless times.”

“Pot, meet kettle,” she said with an eye roll. “Stating the obvious here, but you’re a vampire as well and you did exactly the same things. Next?”

“Next what?”

“Next reason for keeping me in the dark,” Buffy replied simply. “There has to be more than that.”

When Angel fidgeted slightly and seemed to be stumbling for a response, Buffy shook her head in disbelief. “That’s it?”

“I was trying to look out for you, for what was best,” he began, only to be cut off.

“Angel, you weren’t looking out for me or my best interests. You were looking out for yours. I can’t believe this all comes down to petty jealousy.”

“Jealousy?” Angel scoffed, feigning nonchalance even as his ire grew at her sudden insight. “Of Spike?”

“Yes, of Spike,” she repeated with another accentuated eye roll. “Do you want to know why I didn’t show up for patrol last night?”

“I know where you were. I can smell the sex all over you,” Angel retorted as he stepped away from his desk.

Buffy’s fist flew through the air and connected with his nose before he could move any closer. “Then we’re done here,” she said dismissively. “Once I track down Dana, I’ll be returning to England. Don’t try and contact me, I won’t answer your calls.”

Angel’s patting of his nose stilled, brown eyes lifting from the floor to meet her icy hazel ones. “Buffy, you don’t mean that.”

“If you think you can pull a stunt like that and expect me to be okay with it, I do.”

“But things were going well,” he fumbled, taking a step towards her and reaching out with his hand, hoping the contact would help him express what he wanted to say. But she just moved a step backwards. “What about us?”

“Us? US?” Buffy exploded. “Angel wake up and smell the reality. There is no us. Not anymore.”

“Your letters, the phone calls, I thought…” His hand fisted in his hair in frustration. Since the demise of Sunnydale they had kept in contact, and it had only fuelled his hope that one day…

“I never made any promises,” Buffy responded quietly.

“Yes, you did. In Sunnydale, the whole cookie dough speech. You said that maybe, one day,” Angel pointed out.

“That maybe has passed.” Buffy’s eyes flickered to the window, admiring the sinking sun as it set on the horizon.

With a sigh of resignation, Angel leaned back against his desk. “What about Juan?” He rolled his eyes. “Juan? I mean come on, comparing himself to…” He shook his head in disbelief.

Buffy laughed lightly. “Fragile ego. He was very threatened by the two of you. That’s why he went after Darla and Dru.” At Angel’s inquiring brow she nodded. “Yes, he informed me of his conquests. After I…” she trailed off.

“And now he’s added you to that list,” Angel added bitterly.

Buffy shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t here to make Angel feel better about himself. She was here to make a point—she was her own person and she didn’t need or want him making decisions for her. But her history with Angel insisted that she do it in a civil manner. “If it makes you feel any better, he wasn’t as good as the ‘legends’ say.”

“Really?” Angel perked up somewhat.

“Really,” Buffy nodded. “I may have limited experience, but I can tell the difference between great, and average. I’ve been lucky to have had two in the ‘great’ category and he was not one of them.”

Angel took the compliment with a smile, knowing exactly who she was inferring the second to be. “So what’s your plan?”

“Plan? I have to be Plan Girl now? I was just going to head out and hope I would run into her,” she moaned in faux annoyance in reference to tracking Dana.

“I didn’t mean patrol,” Angel pointed out the obvious.

“I know,” Buffy sighed. “The break-up phone call has been scheduled for after patrol, as for Spike… it’s up to him really.”

All that Buffy wanted was for Spike to want to be with her. But after everything that had happened she didn’t know if he would even want that. Especially after her little disappearing act. She mentally kicked herself for running out like that. She did have things to do and she did leave a note, but that’s not the same.

I shouldn’t have just left…

“Up to him?” he frowned. “There’ll be no question; he’ll want to be with you.”

“I’m not staying here, Angel. My home is in England now. And I can’t just ask him to pack up and come with me.”

“Yes, you can. If it were me I would go. In a heartbeat.”

Buffy was a little surprised by the conviction of his statement. A smile tickled at the corners of her mouth. “You don’t have a heartbeat to judge the time by.”

“Metaphorically speaking,” Angel added with a wry smile.

The uneasiness that had been hanging over Buffy on her previous visits to the law firm had somewhat subsided. If she had known that all it would take was to hit Angel a couple of times, she would have done that days ago. “I should probably go. I’ve got a slayer to find.”

Angel nodded slowly as he returned to his desk and an incomplete pile of paperwork. “Did you want backup?” he asked even though he already suspected the answer to be no.

“Nah, that’s alright,” she waved it off. “Goodnight, Angel.”

He watched her walk out of the office, drinking in every movement of her lithe form as she walked away. He wasn’t sure if she would return if she captured Dana tonight. When the doors closed behind her, he finally replied.

“Goodnight, Buffy.”

~~~

Slamming the telephone down and cursing Harmony for dodged answers to his question, Spike walked back into his bedroom to find some clean clothes. He dressed quickly in his uniform black clothing, and slid his docs onto his feet before making his way to the door and exiting in a blur of speed.

There had been no answer at the hotel so he had to assume that she hadn’t returned there. A cursory call to the front desk had confirmed that she was still a guest of the hotel and had not yet checked out, but they would give no answers of whether or not she was in the building.

Next he had called Wolfram and Hart, the only other place he suspected she could be and it was Harmony’s inability to give a straight answer that suggested that he’d found her whereabouts.

So that’s where he was headed now.

The fuel driving him in his search was not just concern for her welfare, but also anger. She had left him. Walked out whilst he was in the shower for god’s sake. Did the last twenty four hours mean nothing to her?

Well he was going to have none of that. She hadn’t spoken those words once, she hadn’t told him that she loved him but he knew that she did. He had seen it in her eyes, felt it in her touch and in the way her body had responded to him. The declaration had been made even if it weren’t verbal. And you didn’t just walk out on the person you loved after sharing a night—and day—that they had shared.

His fears that that was all it had been, a memorable night and day, was running rampant through his mind. His more confident side scoffed at the idea, but his inner William wasn’t so certain. Angel, he wasn’t worried about. Despite the jealousy he felt in regards to his grandsire’s past with Buffy, he knew that it was done with. She had told him as much last night. But the Immortal? They had been bed partners for almost two months.

She couldn’t be thinking of returning to that Ponce… could she?

He was going to find her, and demand answers. And hopefully he’d be able to say his bit without shoving his foot in his mouth.

~~~

Eve walked through the lobby, head held high as always as she walked through the throngs of gofers, lab technicians and lawyers that were beginning to filter towards the lifts. The daytimers were leaving to be replaced by the night shift workers. The Wolfram and Hart office was a living entity; just because the sun set didn’t mean work stopped for the day.

That’s what Eve was here for right now. Work.

But not something the Senior Partners had assigned to her.

Pushing through the doors to Angel’s office, she found the vampire seated at his desk, busily completing paperwork.

“Well aren’t you the busy little beaver,” she commented as she sauntered into the office.

For the second time in an hour, someone had entered his office without announcement. Massaging the bridge of his nose in an effort to work away a little of his frustration with his assistant, he finally looked up to glare at the intruder.

“Eve, I’m kind of busy right now.” He lifted a brow towards the stack of files to the left side of his desk.

“Down boy, no need to bite,” she mocked as she came to a stop at his desk, perching herself on the edge of it. “I have some information from the Senior Partners, something I think you’d be very interested in.”

“Get out,” Angel barked. The last thing he wanted to deal with was the entities pulling the strings in this place. "For all I care the Senior Partners can stick their intel up their…"

“Its about Cordelia,” Eve informed with a Cheshire-like grin. When Angel’s expression blanked, she continued. “Are you sure you want to finish that sentence?”

“I’m listening,” Angel grunted.

“What I am going to tell you is going to blow you away.”



~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing, it means alot. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know your thoughts. More will be up soon.