A/N: Bare with me folks, more will come later on this evening. But for now, I'll leave you with Chap 5. Enjoy! Dialogue from "Damage."



Chapter Five – Show Time

(At Wolfram & Hart)

Angel, Gunn, Lorne, and Fred were vehemently discussing what was to be done about Eve. Just as the conversation reached a crescendo, the object of the conversation calmly entered the room.

“Talking about little ol’ me? I’m flattered. But you know, you can’t fire me or do anything else you might have planned, boys & girl. I don’t really work for you,” Eve said, examining her fingernails.

“Eve, get out of my office,” Angel growled out.

“No can do, Angel. I’m here on the Senior Partners’ behalf. They are very disturbed about some events that have happened this evening,” Eve replied. She was the epitome of cool.

“And that’s a bad thing?” Angel remarked.

Eve approached his desk, brushing Fred to the side. Leaning over she looked Angel in the eye and said, “Yes, it is. It’s business, Angel. Remember what your position is and what’s riding on your cooperation.”

Angel grabbed Eve by her necklace and said, “Never threaten me, Eve. You won’t like what I do.”

“Maybe I will, Angel.”

Lorne and Fred looked confused over Eve’s threat and silently wondered what hold Eve had over their boss. Gunn privately was racking his brain for any reference to any potential blackmail that the Senior Partners would have on Angel, but much to his consternation, he couldn’t find anything.

“So what has the Senior Partners all upset, then?”

“Someone assisted a girl escaped from her psychiatric ward this evening. Her doctor, Doctor Rabinaw is a client of ours,” Eve supplied.

“Of course, he is,” Angel responded.

“Well, he’s unlike lots of our clients in that he is human and is doing good for the mentally ill,” Eve coolly said.

“Sure, I believe that. Do you believe that, guys?” Angel sarcastically asked Lorne, Fred, and Gunn.

Fred spoke up. “Who is the girl? Who helped her escape? Is she dangerous?”

“Short answer. Dana. That’s your job to find out. Uncertain, but likely,” Eve answered. “So get to it, team. The Senior Partners are highly interested in the return of our client’s patient.”

Eve strode out of the room, her shoes barely making marks in the carpet.

*****************

(Some warehouse near the docks)

Buffy had started having some serious misgivings as she listened to Dana wail and whimper and speak in different languages. She’d kept the number of guards to a minimum and made sure that at all times she was within eyesight of the girl. She had seen how the girl had been traumatized as a child, but what Doctor Rabinaw had been doing to her was equally as monstrous.

If Dana had received the proper care, nurturing and attention she had desperately needed all those years ago, Dana would probably have been recovered by now. Instead, she’d been subjected to experiments and forms of mental torture. Buffy knew that she and Spike were going to be the best caretakers for her now. Dana would get help, and they would support her completely.

However, Buffy knew that how Dana and Spike would meet had to be handled gently. Senaya and Tara had showed her why – the path of what was supposed to be and the murkiness of what could be. She witnessed with horror the events as they would have played out had they not intervened and how Spike would have been damaged from Dana’s confusion and mania. With a mixture of shame and disgust, she watched how Andrew of all people took part in the aftermath.

In order to save both Dana’s innocent soul and Spike from all that horror, she had to succeed. Failure was not an option. Like she’d told Robin Wood that fateful night in that shed with all the crosses, ‘The mission is what matters.’ Tonight, her mission was all about saving the man that held her heart and the sister Slayer who needed her most.

A flash of light in the window indicated that Spike had arrived at the warehouse. In preparation of his arrival and in order to mask her scent, Buffy had doused herself with what seemed like tons of some brew Clem gave her. If Spike somehow sniffed her under all that, more power to his vampyrific senses.

Dana had been positioned in front of the enormous window, with a clear view of Buffy hiding behind a stack of crates. Buffy had told Dana that she was playing Hide-and-Go-Seek and to not give her away. Dana had responded in a foreign tongue, and Bruce, another of Clem’s associates, translated it for her.

“She said that Slayers do not hide from vampires.”

“What language was that this time?” Buffy asked.

“Chinese,” Bruce answered.

Buffy had surmised in the vision that Dana had projected the first Slayer that Spike had killed during the Boxer Rebellion. Buffy shook her head. As much as it worried her, they needed Dana to be that Slayer for the time being. “Not normally. We don’t,” Buffy told her in English.

Dana grunted and then her eyes became highly aware. Buffy sensed him too. Her vampire. Her Spike. She growled low in her throat, in an ancient language. Dana bowed her head in subservience to Buffy. Dana understood. No harm.

“Likin’ the view, are we? What say we have a nice, quiet chat…about mistreating little girls…demon to demon,” Spike announced, his melodic voice filling the room.

Buffy rolled her eyes. What in the hell had he been told about Dana? Did he think she was possessed? I love him, but sometimes he can be a little dense.

Dana grinned dangerously at Spike. She knew not to hurt the pretty vampire. He was for her Sister, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have fun.

“What are you grinnin’ at?” Spike asked.

Without warning, Dana flew into her attack. “Aaaieahh! Mmhh!” Unfortunately for her, Spike flung her across the room.

Buffy stifled a chuckle as Spike tried taunting the supposedly possessed girl. “Oh, yeah. Look at the big, bad demon hidin’ inside the helpless little girl. Why don’t you come on out of there, and let’s have a proper go, mate?

Like a Weeble that wobbles but won’t fall down, Dana popped right back up and picked up a shard of wood. She looked briefly at Buffy; the barest of nods reassured Buffy that Dana didn’t mean any harm still. Although, the spirit of the Chinese Slayer was highly irate about that.

“Or you could do that,” Spike responded to no one but himself.

Dana started swearing at him in Chinese.

Spike obviously recognized its origin, but had not a clue as to what she said. “Sorry, luv. I don’t speak Chinese.”

Buffy knew then that she had to make her presence known. Dana’s eyes had flared with remembrance of those same words Spike had told a fallen Slayer all those decades ago. Before Dana could fling Spike out the huge window, Buffy stepped out from behind the crates and growled.

Dana immediately dropped Spike onto the floor and backed away. At first, Spike was too busy trying to get up to notice what had happened. He looked toward Dana with confusion. Then he followed the direction of Dana’s eyes and discovered to his shock…

“Buffy?”

Buffy smiled and said, “Hello cutie.”