full 3/4 1/2   skin light dark       
 
Eve of Destruction by slaymesoftly
 
Three
 
<<     >>
 
Chapter Three

At the Wolfram and Hart building the following afternoon, the regular employees were preparing to leave for the evening. With so many of their customers being demons and vampires, the law offices ran two shifts – one predominantly human during regular business hours, and a second, mixed human/vampire/demon group that didn’t report to work until the afternoon and stayed on until almost midnight.

Harmony was just sipping her mug of warm blood and trying to decide if she needed to change her nail polish to go with her dress, when Eve strolled up and leaned on the desk.

“Hi!”

“Good morning, Eve. Angel’s in a meeting right now.”

“You do know it’s afternoon, don’t you Harmony?” Even Eve had difficulty containing her irritation at the ditzy blonde assistant to the boss.

“To you, maybe. To me and everybody else like me, it’s morning. So, good morning. What can I do for you?”

“Oh, nothing, really. I just thought we’d…chat a bit. I like that shade of polish, by the way.”

“Oh this? Well, thank you. I was just trying to decide which goes best with this dress – the one I have on, or this one.” Harmony held up a bottle of almost identical polish and frowned intently.

Swallowing hard, Eve fixed a smile on her face and asked, “Which do you think Spike would like best?”

“Blondie Bear? Well…I…I mean he doesn’t really care—Do you think I should ask him?”

“Oh, absolutely, I do. He has excellent taste in things like that, don’t you think?”

Harmony scrunched up her face, trying to recall if Spike had ever mentioned or complimented her on anything about her wardrobe, but all she could remember from their time together was his referring to her as a “great piece of arse”.

“I don’t kno-“ she began uncertainly, only to be interrupted by Eve.

“I’m sure he would want to help you out with something that important to you. Why don’t you go ask him now?”

“Well…he has been nicer to me lately…”

“There, you see? He’ll probably be happy to have an excuse to see you. What with Angel and that slayer being all over each other…”

“She’s such a slut!” Harmony’s eyes flashed amber at the reminder of which Sunnydale blonde Spike had fallen in love with. “My poor Blondie Bear!”

With a determined look on her face, she marched off to find the blond vampire, leaving a very content-looking woman sitting behind her desk and promising to watch the phones for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buffy’s arrival a few minutes later could not have been timed any better. She had told Angel that she would go out to dinner with him so that he could explain in person what was going to happen and she waited impatiently for him to get out of his meeting. Catching a glimpse of blond hair through an open office door, she walked over and peered in curiously, telling herself that she was not really looking for Spike, but wouldn’t mind bumping into him.

(It’s not like I can’t handle it that he’s seeing someone else. Even if it is Harmony. I mean, I’ve had dates – lots of dates. I had a boyfriend, even- for a while. Arrogant prick! Telling me he wouldn’t play second fiddle to a ghost that didn’t have enough sense to stay dead. Hmmm – guess I should have picked up on that clue, huh? That means Morty knew…oh, I am so going to test that “immortal” thing when I get back to Europe!)

While her thoughts rambled randomly, Buffy was pushing open the door only to find Harmony holding one hand against her thigh, while with the other she held a small bottle of nail polish to her ample bosom. Spike was leaning close to her, his gaze going back and forth between the tightly stretched fabric on her thigh and that across her breasts.

“I dunno, pet,” he was saying. “It’s hard to say which I like best. Isn’t this something you ought to be asking another wom—“

He glanced up when he felt Buffy’s presence, and was temporarily rendered speechless by the look on her face. A look that she quickly masked as she blurted, “I’m sorry. I was looking for Angel. I guess I got the wrong office.”

“I guess you did,” Spike growled, standing up straight and glaring at her. “The great Poof’s office would be the one with the double doors – you know, the one you had no trouble finding yesterday?”

For just a second he thought he saw something in her eyes that made his stomach clench. Not since the night that she’d been kicked out of her own home, had he seen that look of despair and resignation.

(I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not letting her go into a battle with the senior partners with that attitude.)

Before either of them could follow up on their roiling emotions, Angel appeared behind Buffy, glancing curiously at Spike and Harmony before shrugging and asking, “Are you ready to go, Buffy? I don’t have a lot of time to spare tonight.”

“Right then. You’d best be off, Slayer. You don’t want to keep the love of your life waiting. He’s a busy vamp, you know.”

With a final glare at Harmony, a look that had the other blonde vampire cringing behind Spike as she remembered just what a Slayer’s job is, Buffy drew herself up and met Spike’s eyes firmly.

“The love of my life is dead,” she said clearly before whirling and brushing past Angel, putting as much distance as she could between herself and the two blond vampires.

“We’re both dead, you stupid bint!” Spike shouted after her.

“I know that!” she threw back over her shoulder as she punched the button for the elevator.

As the doors slid closed, Eve could hear Angel’s plaintive voice asking, “Buffy? What did you mean by that?” and she smiled widely. Her smile turned into outright laughter as Spike charged out of the office, Harmony close on his heels, her plaintive “Blondie Bear? Where are you going?” falling on deaf ears as he hit the door to the stairs. She stopped when she reached her desk, glaring at the woman laughing quietly.

“What’s so funny?” Harmony’s lip trembled as she realized that she had been tricked into thinking that Spike was interested in her again.

“All of you,” Eve said, her laughter trailing off to leave a satisfied smile. “You’re all so easy. It’s pathetic, really.”

“Get out.” The tremor was gone from Harmony’s voice as she remembered that Eve, despite her connection to the Senior Partners, was just an ordinary human. And one no one would miss if she disappeared. Staring hungrily at the pulse pounding in Eve’s neck, Harmony slipped into game face as she repeated, “Get out. And stay away from me.”

“Ah, ah.” Eve waved her finger disapprovingly as she quickly got out of the angry vampire’s chair. “Don’t take out your jealousy on me. I’m not the one trying to take your boyfriend.”

“Spike’s not my boyfriend.” Harmony spoke with sad realization. “He’s just my ex, who is nice to me sometimes because he has a soul now. I think you’re just trying to cause trouble between Spike and Angel.”

“Wow! You totally found me out.” Eve’s sarcasm was lost on the vampire as Harmony sat in her chair and tried to accept the fact that she had contributed to creating trouble between the three champions.

(Well, it’s not like I have a soul,) she grumbled to herself. (I don’t owe them anything. I work for Wolfram and Hart – not Angel. Or Spike. And I definitely don’t work for the Slayer.)

Satisfied that she had not done anything more or less than any reasonably evil vampire would have, she settled back into her chair and waited for the phone to ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~

In a dimly lit restaurant Angel waited impatiently for Buffy to finish her food and let him get back to Wolfram and Hart. He’d given her as much information as he felt she needed about the evening’s planned activities.

“So, you’re saying that after everyone takes down their assigned target tonight, that the Senior Partners are going to be coming after you?”

“And anyone standing with me,” he emphasized. “If you want to take your girls and leave, we-I’ll understand.”

Buffy cocked her head at him in a gesture far too similar to his grandchilde’s to suit him. “Do you really think I would do that, Angel? Leave you and Spike to fight this battle alone?”

“Me and Spike,” he repeated. “So, if it was just me you’d what? Be happy to buzz off?”

She clenched her jaw as she spoke slowly and clearly. “I haven’t missed an apocalypse since I became the Slayer, Angel. And I don’t intend to let an overdose of testosterone poisoning make me miss this one. I’m here. I’m staying here until this is over. You and Spike will just have to deal.”

“I’m perfectly capable of ‘dealing’, but I don’t know what makes you think Spike can. I know how he is. He’s probably out there right now getting himself pummeled into a useless pile of dust – just to prove…well, whatever it is he always thinks he has to prove.”

“He doesn’t have to prove anything to me,” she said quietly. “I just wish I could get him to understand that.”

There was nothing left for Angel to say; the wistful truth in her voice reaching a place he thought he’d protected.

“Buffy…” He steeled himself for what he was about to say. “Spike still loves you. I know it. He knows it. Hell, the whole damn building knows it. “

“Except Harmony, apparently,” she growled under her breath.

“Especially Harmony,” he disagreed. “I don’t know what you think you saw today, but it wasn’t what you think. He tries to be nice to her. I think the soul makes him feel guilty for how he’s treated her in the past. But there is nothing going on between them.”

“Really?” The hope on her face was painful to see and his own soul twinged when he thought about all the times he’d hurt her. “He…they…never…?”

“Well, not after that one time – and she bit him then, screaming at him about thinking about you while he was…um….” His voice trailed off as the hope on her face was replaced with fury.

“So. Eve was telling the truth.”

“Not likely,” Angel scoffed. “And when did you have time to meet Eve?”

“She came to the hotel last night and introduced herself. She came to tell me about Spike and Harmony.”

“And it didn’t occur to you that someone who works for the Senior Partners might be trying to drive a wedge between us? All of us?” he added, remembering Eve’s pointed remarks about how Buffy looked at Spike.

“I don’t even know what a ‘Senior Partner’ is,” Buffy grumbled. “Let alone who works for them. All I know is that she said Spike and Harmony had sex – and now you’re telling me she was right.”

Angel sighed and stood up. “As entertaining as it might be to speculate on why Spike would have done…what he did, I know it had nothing to do with how he feels about you. It’s Spike, Buffy. He doesn’t always have reasons – he just…does stuff.”

“Well, why didn’t he want to come to Rome and do…stuff…with me? Can you tell me that, huh?” She grumbled to herself as she followed him out the door. “Huh? Can you?”

“Maybe because you were too busy screwing the Immortal at the time! How the hell do I know?” The old vampire had clearly reached the end of his patience. “This is not a conversation I want to be having. If you want to know why Spike does anything – ask him. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I’ve got a big night ahead of me. All my people have important and dangerous tasks to accomplish tonight - including Spike. Your temper tantrum over something he may or may not have done with Harmony several months ago will just have to wait.”

Without another word, he strode off down the street in the direction of the Wolfram and Hart Building, leaving a speechless slayer staring after him, her mouth open and her eyes wide.

(He can’t…Angel doesn’t talk to me like that. Who does he think he is? And what does he mean ‘all his people’. They’re his people? I am so going to kick his ass when this is all over…)

As Buffy’s thoughts caught up to what Angel had been saying, the slayer in her kicked the embarrassed ex-girlfriend out of the diriver’s seat and she began running towards the old Hotel.

(Tonight. He said tonight. It’s going down tonight. We’ve got to be ready for whatever happens.)





 
<<     >>