Till the End
Chapter 1: Surprise
As the elevator doors slowly moved up to the main lobby of Wolfram and Hart, Buffy Summers looked around as she tried to figure out her game plan in her head. She had just learned from Andrew that Angel showed up in Rome and was chasing her around the city after learning about her and her new boyfriend, The Immortal. The doors finally opened and Buffy stepped into the lobby and just scanned the room. People were just going about their daily routine, reading files, talking on the phone or each other, and going in and out of their offices. "Well not what I would have expected," she told herself. She looked to her right and saw a large desk, which she guessed was the main reception desk, and walked over to it. The woman sitting there was looking down at whatever she was doing and Buffy just leaned over and tried to get her attention. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Angel. Do you know where I can find him?" The woman looked up and Buffy found herself face to face with Harmony. "Harmony?"
Harmony looked at Buffy and shot a confused look at her. "Buffy? What are doing here?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing." Buffy said as she just stared at the blonde vampire. "Are you working here or something?"
"Yeah. I'm Angel's assistant." Harmony said with pride. "I do everything for him. Whatever he needs I'm right there making sure he gets it."
"You're Angel's secretary?" Buffy questioned as she raised her eyebrows. "Well then you'll know. Is he around? I need to talk to him and don't tell him who it is."
"Ok. Well let me check." Harmony picked up her phone and dialed what Buffy guessed was Angel's number. After about a minute, Harmony hung up the phone. "He'll see you. His office is right through those doors."
Buffy followed Harmony's fingers and nodded at her. "Thanks, Harmony." She headed for the doors. She stood there for two seconds and then knocked on the door. She heard Angel's voice and then opened the door. She saw her ex-lover sitting at him desk looking at some paperwork. He didn't even seem to realize that she was in the room with him. Buffy walked up to the desk and just looked down at him. "So is this going to be a usual thing with you? Coming by and following me every time I get a new boyfriend?"
Angel's head shot up at the sound of Buffy's voice and all he could at that moment was just stare at her. He waited a few seconds after her rant before speaking himself. "Buffy? What are you doing here? I didn't expect to see you."
"Yeah, that's the point." Buffy said trying not to be too steamed. "You want to tell me what you were doing in Rome? I would really like to hear the whole story."
"It wasn't about you. Not all of it at least." Angel watched as Buffy sat in the red chair and stared at him. "Gunn said there was going to be a big demon war if we didn't get this head back here. We heard about you and The Immortal and after our experience with him, we thought you were in trouble. That's all it was."
Buffy's expression softened and her tone got quieter. "Angel, I know how to take care of myself. If something is wrong in my life or something happens, I'm able to handle it one my own without…" she stopped for a second and played Angel's words back in her head. "We? Did you say we?"
"Yeah, Both me and…" Angel was stopped in mid-sentence by the sound of the door opening. He looked up and saw Spike walked into the room.
"Hey, big guy. Gunn wanted me to tell you that the…" Spike turned his head and saw someone sitting in the chair in front of Angel's desk. "Oh sorry. I didn't know you had company. I'll stop by later and tell you."
Buffy turned around in the chair and saw Spike standing at the back of the office. Her eyes went wide as she jumped out of the chair and ran after him. "Spike? Is that really you?" She watched as he turned to face her, equally as surprised to see her. "How? When did this happen?"
"Well…you see…it" Spike said slowly. He was to shock to see her that he wasn't sure how to explain it. Mostly because he himself wasn't sure, how it happened.
"The amulet somehow got send here and he came out of it as a ghost." Angel said flatly. "After a few weeks, he got a box in the mail and it made him corporeal again. Look, I got some more work to do here, so Spike, why don't you go and show Buffy around. Maybe she can see it's not as bad as she thinks here."
"Sure. Come on, Buffy." Spike opened the door and the two of them walked out of the office. Angel watched the two and then went back to his work.
Buffy and Spike turned to their right and headed down the hall. "See, this place isn't that bad." Spike said as a lawyer passed them. "It just people doing work."
"It's the center of all evil. What's so great about that?" Buffy asked looking around the hall.
"Well every company needs a slogan." Spike told her as he saw Gunn come up to him. "Hey Charlie Boy, what's going on?"
"Spike, did you tell Angel that the Capo's family came and that everything is alright now?" Gunn asked as he looked over at the woman with the blonde vampire. "Hi. Are you new here? I haven't seen you before."
Buffy smiled and just shook her head. "I'm Buffy Summers. I just came to visit, so to speak."
Gunn gave her a friendly smile and shook her hand. "I'm Charles Gunn. It's nice to finally meet you, Buffy."
"Its nice to meet you too." Buffy took his hand and shook it. "Spike was just showing me around. It's a pretty big place."
"It is, but we are doing good with it." Gunn said. "Well I better go give Angel the heads up. Again it was nice meeting you Buffy." Gunn walked passed them and headed toward Angel's office.
"Well he seemed different than what Angel explained to me. I thought he would be a little more hardcore. I guess working with everyone rather changed that. Hey is Wesley still around? I'm somewhat curious as to what he is like now. Willow said he changed since I last saw him." Buffy said to Spike with a curious look.
"Yeah he's still here. He is probably with Illyria again. His office is this way." Spike lean Buffy over to Wesley's office. They knocked on the door and slowly opened it. Sure enough, Wesley was sitting at his desk with Illyria standing next to it watching him.
Illyria looked up as the door opened and tilted her head as she saw Spike with an unfamiliar girl walk in. "Who are you?" she asked Buffy. "I do not recognize you are all."
"Feelings mutual." Buffy said to the blue demon god. "I'm Buffy Summers and you are?"
"I am Illyria." Illyria said to her. She saw Wesley move out of the corner of her eye and looked over at him.
"Buffy, what are doing here." Wesley asked as he acknowledged them to come in further.
"That seems to be the question of the day." Buffy said as she walked over to his desk. "I just thought I'd come and see that place. I've heard so much about it ever since you all took over it."
"Yes, well things are not as good as we thought lately." Wesley sat back in his chair and looked over at Illyria.
"Yeah, I heard. Spike told me about it on our way here. I'm sorry." Buffy in a way could believe this was the same goofy idiot watcher she learned to despise and turned her back on. He had defiantly changed a lot since they last met in here in LA.
Gunn walked into Angel's office and looked over at his boss. He was just looking out the window. "Angel? You ok?"
Angel just continued to look out the window as he spoke. "Yeah, I just… I can't believe she's actually here. I didn't think I was ever going to see her again."
"It kind of through a lot of us." Gunn told him as he sat on the arm of the red chair. "Are you sure it isn't more than the fact that she is here?"
"What do you mean?" Angel finally turned around and faced him. "You think she showed up for some other reason."
"I don't know. Hopefully we'll be able to find that out." Gunn looked toward Wesley's office and Angel followed his glance.