Thank you to Sue for betaing!


Chapter 19: Resolution.


Lindsey whistled a tune in an attempt to amuse himself having been left alone in his cell of sorts since Wesley had exited. He figured that the former watcher was probably conferring with his ‘boss’, a term Lindsey scoffed at. He still couldn’t believe the Senior Partners—the very architects of evil on earth—had handed over the keys to one of their offices to Angel. Specifically this office that dealt with a number of clients—both human and demon alike—who would be key players in the apocalypse.

A noise sounded at the door and Lindsey leaned himself further into his seat, feet still perched upon the table as a cocky self assured expression crossed his face. That expression dissipated in a matter of seconds when a female shaped object was flung in through the narrowly opened door before it was immediately closed again. “Eve?” he gasped in shock as he rose to his feet.

“Lindsey!” Eve cried, her relief evident in her voice as she lifted herself to her feet and threw herself at Lindsey, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” Lindsey hooked a finger under her chin and raised her face to meet his, the audible gasp he elicited drowning out her quiet sobs. “What happened?” he demanded.

Eve’s face was decorated with a pretty purple and pink bruise down one cheek, the crimson stain of blood discoloring her lips and chin. Her lip was split and on further inspection he discovered that the bruise on her cheek had brothers all over her upper arms, the imprints of fingers sullying her pale skin. Eve whimpered against Lindsey’s chest as her fingers clutched at his shirt, the material balled in her closed fists. “V-vampire.”

“ANGEL!” Lindsey bellowed, gently removing Eve from his embrace and seating her on the low wooden stool. No response was forthcoming which served only to further fuel Lindsey’s rage. “ANGEL!” he roared a second time. “I WANT SOME ANSWERS!”

The sound of locks being worked filled the room and moments later the door Eve had been thrown through opened again.

Lindsey charged blindly, gaining only a few feet before a bolt of electric blue light shot in from the entryway and struck him in the chest, sending him flying against the wall behind him. A startled cry escaped Eve’s lips as she flew to her lover’s side, cradling his head in her lap when she joined him on the floor.

“I see we have your attention.”

A little groggy from the blast Lindsey struggled to lift his head properly. He needn’t have bothered, the voice was familiar if not expected. “Wesley,” he grunted. “What did you do to me?”

“I thought that would be apparent. We tasered you.” The Englishman stepped into the room flanked by two uniformed personnel carrying weapons—including a taser—and a vampire.

“Harmony, secure Eve,” Wesley instructed.

Harmony’s expression was gleeful as she slowly stalked towards the pair.

“No! Please!” Eve begged, wanting to remain as far away from the source of her bruises for as long as possible. Eve may be Immortal, but she wasn’t impervious to harm. She did bleed and she did feel pain. And she’d felt her quota for the century if she had anything to say about it. “Lindsey, just listen to them.”

“Or… what?” Lindsey drawled, a chuckle that turned into a cough following the fearless response.

“Or I get to play some more with your girlfriend,” Harmony supplied as she stopped a few feet away from the pair. The blonde vampire lifted her right hand to her lips, her tongue slowly extending from her mouth to swirl around the crimson liquid staining her fingers.

“Blood,” Lindsey identified, a moment later catching on completely. “Eve’s blood?”

“She’s quite tasty,” Harmony smirked. “I haven’t had blood this good since…”

“You—you can’t do that!” Lindsey spluttered. His focus turned to Wesley, his tone incredulous as he continued. “You’re the good guys!”

“We run Wolfram and Hart now,” Wesley reminded. “Isn’t it surprising how the threat of violence will make almost anyone talk? We learned that from you Lindsey.”

“Threat?” Lindsey shouted. He had managed to pull himself into a seated position now and he reached out for Eve, pushing the hair off her face to expose her bruised flesh. “You call that a threat?”

“Harmony may have been a little eager in the intimidation phase of our interrogation,” Wesley surmised with a cursory glance in the vampire’s direction. Nodding once in her direction Harmony rolled her eyes and huffily backed away, leaning up against the wall near the entrance.

“I want to speak to Angel,” Lindsey demanded.

Wesley turned to mirrored glass, nodding once before returning his attention to the couple. Moments later the door opened again revealing Angel.

“Angel,” Lindsey growled. “What the hell are you playing at?”

“Funny that, I was about to ask you the same thing,” Angel drawled sarcastically. His penetrating gaze turned on Eve. “What was with the proposition, Eve?”

Lindsey started, sitting up a little straighter and looking at his girl in confusion.

“He didn’t mean proposition in that way,” Eve quickly covered with a negative shake of her head, the double entendre filling her with enough annoyance to slightly bolster her confidence. She turned to Angel, her expression hateful as she looked up into the smug face of the vampire. “He means the proposition regarding Cordelia Chase.”

Angel’s jaw ticked, his hands balling into fists by his side. “Why? Why Cordy?”

At that Eve laughed. “Why do you think, silly? She’s a weakness. If there’s one thing you should have learned by now from running this branch of Wolfram and Hart, is that we always go for the jugular.”

“This wasn’t sanctioned by any of the Wolfram and Hart offices. Or the Senior Partners for that matter,” Wesley pointed out. “What’s your agenda?”

“You’ve been doing your research,” Eve complimented, feeling more and more like her old self now that Harmony had been instructed to back off. Weeks, even days ago if someone had informed her that Harmony was a threat Eve would have scoffed at them. After experiencing first hand the female’s obvious lack of remorse in inflicting physical pain and her obvious glee in causing harm Eve didn’t think so little of the vampire anymore.

“Well then, who?” Angel persisted even though he had a hunch he knew exactly who was behind all of this.

With a bright if not slightly pained smile, Lindsey announced himself. “You’re looking at him.”

“Why?” Wesley inquired. “No, I get why. You wanted to take away all of his hope, so that he could be manipulated at your will.”

Everyone in the room blinked in surprise at Wesley’s insight, Lindsey and Eve nodding slowly.

“With Angel out of the picture, Lindsey could take his rightful place at the head of Wolfram and Hart,” Eve explained. “Handing a despondent and indifferent ‘Champion of the people’ on a platter to the Senior Partners would have been more than enough for them to absolve Lindsey’s past indiscretions.”

“That I understand,” Wesley nodded. “The vampire will play an important role in the apocalypse, for which side it is unknown. What I don’t understand is why you took an interest in Spike.”

“Plan B, Wesley,” Lindsey chuckled half-heartedly. “If Angel couldn’t be convinced to sign away his Shanshu then we were going to fix the results. Spike is a vampire with a soul. A vampire who gave his life to save the world and --”

“We don’t need a re-cap on Spike’s newly turned leaf,” Angel interrupted impatiently. “What about Cordelia? If the Shanshu isn’t linked in anyway to bringing her back, if there can’t be a trade then what had you planned? So long as there is a chance Cordelia could wake up, there is no way that I would ever gi--”

“I thought that was clear big guy,” Lindsey laughed. “We would have dealt with her.”

Nostrils flared and fists balled Angel took a threatening step towards Lindsey only to be cut off by Wesley stepping in front of him. The watcher gave a look that was begging Angel to back off, and he knew that in the long run beating the crap out of Lindsey would get them nowhere, no matter how much fun it would be.

“Dealt with her?” Harmony frowned, a moment later realization sinking in. “Dealt with her? You mean kill Cordelia?”

At Lindsey’s nonchalant shrug Harmony leapt forward and grabbed Eve by the throat, pinning her against the wall with her feet dangling in the air.

“LET HER GO!” Lindsey yelled as he struggled to his feet, latching an arm onto Harmony’s and trying to pull her off his girlfriend. His weakened state, courtesy of the taser, wasn’t helping.

“Or what?” Harmony taunted, her face shifting into its vampiric form. “You were going to kill Cordy.”

“Angel!?” Lindsey pleaded when Eve began gasping for air, her fingers scratching at the hand pinned around her neck as she tried to break free. “You’re the good guys!” he repeated his earlier statement.

“I know,” Angel nodded.

“I’m not,” Harmony pointed out.

“I’ll do anything, just don’t hurt her!” Lindsey begged.

Harmony swung a backhanded punch that effectively knocked Eve out. The vampire released her hold on the woman’s neck, Eve’s unconscious form sliding to the floor. Lindsey instantly dropped to his knees, cradling her in his arms.

“We want all the information you have on the Senior Partners and their plans regarding Angel,” Wesley instructed.

“Done,” Lindsey agreed with a nod not bothering to look up from Eve. “I want asylum, for both of us,” Lindsey stipulated. “And you keep your bloodsucker away from Eve.”

“Done,” Wesley agreed.

Satisfied that everything was going to work out, Angel turned and left the interrogation. He had a friend to go visit in the hospital…

~~~

Buffy rolled over in bed, a contented smile stretching broadly across her face. Whoever first said that make-up sex was a good thing, was very, very right. A sigh escaped her lips as she curled her sated form around Spike, thankful for the fact that his undead state meant a cool body to curl up to.

“You’re like a leech,” Buffy commented happily.

“Wanna run that by me again, love? For a second there it sounded like you called me a leech,” Spike frowned.

“I did,” Buffy nodded.

“But I… there was no bloodsucking, I kept me teeth to myself!” he pointed out indignantly.

Buffy giggled. “I meant in the way that your body is stealing away the heat from mine. It’s nice, having my own special temperature regulator that’s fun to snuggle up with.”

Spike’s frown faded to be replaced with a proud smile. “Happy to be of service, m’lady.”

Buffy giggled again but it quickly died on her lips.

“Buffy, love, what’s wrong?” Spike asked with concern as worry once more began to work its way through his system. He knew something was on her mind; he could practical feel the tension rolling off her, tension that hadn’t been there moments ago. “Buffy… if you’ve changed your mind about --”

“No!” Buffy cried adamantly. “I haven’t changed my mind about you, about us.”

That bought him some relief but he knew something was up. “Well, are you going to tell me or keep a man guessin’?”

Buffy took several slow deep breaths before finally blurting out what was on her mind as quickly as she could. “I-have-to-go-back-to-England.”

Spike’s confidence shattered. So she was going, just like he’d thought she would. “Oh,” he responded, unable to think of anything more intelligible to say. Buffy’s home was in England now and her return had been inevitable. Spike just hadn’t thought it would be so soon.

“Oh? That’s all you have to say?” Buffy asked hesitantly.

“How did you expect me to respond? Thanks for the shag, we’ll catch up next time you’re in town?” he blunted stated.

“Spike!”

Spike sighed. He knew he shouldn’t have said that but it was how he felt. He’d gotten Buffy back in his arms—again—and now she was going to leave—again. “I’ll miss you,” he mumbled quietly.

“You’ll what?” Buffy probed, needing him to repeat the sentiment to bolster her confidence.

“I said,” Spike announced a little louder, before sighing and continuing, “I’ll miss you.”

“What if I told you that you wouldn’t have to?” Buffy asked.

Spike frowned. “Buffy, you know I don’t like messin’ around with all that hocus pocus and --”

Buffy sighed loudly with irritation. “Not magic, ya big dope.” At Spike’s wounded expression she quickly continued, taking one last deep breath before making her proposition. “Come with me.”

Spike blinked once. Then twice. Then his eyes glazed over as those three little words repeated over and over in his mind. Buffy was asking him to go with her. Buffy wanted him to go with her. They wouldn’t have to be separated. This wasn’t the end. They weren’t over. She wants me to go with her… Spike was in complete and utter shock. She isn’t running…

When Spike didn’t respond the way Buffy envisaged she shook him gently then waved a hand in front of his eyes. “Earth to space cadet. Spike, did you hear me?”

“Huh, wha?” Spike blinked again, his eyes focusing a moment later as he looked to his side and into the concerned hazel eyes of his beloved.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Figured as much. A girl asks the guy she loves to move across the ocean and to a different country with her and he doesn’t even hear a word she says.”

Again, Spike blinked slowly. Moments later the brightest smile crept its way across his face.

“What?” Buffy frowned in confusion.

“You said ‘the guy she loves’,” he pointed out as his smile stretched even further.

Now it was Buffy’s turn to blink. “I-I did?”

Spike nodded eagerly. “Yes.”

Buffy looked nervously up into Spike’s eyes. Even though his delight at her unconscious admission was obvious, she was still afraid of his response. The last time she had told him that she loved him—the only other time—he had rejected her declaration.

“Why so nervous, love?” Spike asked when he felt a shiver roll through her. He could practically smell her anxiety.

“Last time I said that, you…” she trailed off. She was being silly she knew that. He had denied her love in Sunnydale because if he had accepted it she would not have left that cavern alive. Spike denied her so that she could live. But there was no life or death circumstance this time and if he didn’t accept her words now she didn’t know what she would do.

She looked down at their joined hands—her left and his right—their matching scars molding together as one. Once more she was reminded of all he had sacrificed for her and just how right they were together. They, just, fit. Hand, heart, body and soul they were matched.

“Buffy, love. In Sunnydale I--”

Spike was silenced by the finger Buffy pressed to his lips; her eyes finding his as she snuggled even closer, making sure he kept her eye contact for this.

“I love you, Spike,” she said softly.

Spike gasped at the intensity of emotion in her eyes. There was no denying that she loved him, he could see the truth, the affection reflected in her eyes. Buffy loved him. She loves me…

A whoop of delight broke from Spike’s lips as his mouth swooped down to hers in a searing kiss, washing all of her concerns away. The kiss was passionate yet gentle, desperate yet assured. It was love, lust, trust, pride and happiness, all rolled into one. “And I love you Buffy,” Spike responded tenderly when he finally broke the kiss.



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A/N: Only one more chapter to go guys! Hope you liked, please let me know you're thoughts.