There's nothing quite like that feeling you get when you've finally built up the courage to tell someone you like them, after waiting for so long to tell, and they tell you they like you back. It's quite possibly the best feeling in the world. The sad thing is, not everyone gets to experience it. Then there are some people who get it, only for it to be yanked away.
For example, Lilah Morgan and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Their relationship had started off different than most. The break up was even stranger. After an apocalypse, during which it rained fire, he seemingly broke up with her because he cared too much for her to be hurt further. Even after saving her from The Beast, the two didn't get back together.
Then Connor and Cordelia's lovechild was born, a beautiful, manipulative woman later called Jasmine. She brought a euphoric sense of world peace, and when Team Angel ended it, they were awarded with the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart. Introducing Eve.
See, Lilah and Eve didn't get along. At all. Lilah thought Eve gave blondes a bad name, and she already wasn't very fond of blondes. Fred was becoming more and more tolerable in comparison.
Maybe a month into Angel running Wolfram and Hart, Wesley was under Eve's spell, and unfortunately, there was no magic involved.
Lilah was fast to be frustrated, especially with Angel being her boss. Being boyfriendless and working for someone she hated was bad enough, but Eve constantly being an annoyance was the straw about to break her back. She preferred the ghost of Spike, who had a habit of popping up at inconvenient times.
In fact, he and Fred seemed to be the only people she moderately got along with. Whenever Lilah was bored, but still had to clock in work hours, she would go to the Science Department to check things out, see if there was something there that could keep her busy. She and Fred were almost friends. That day, when Lilah entered, Fred was at the tail-end of yelling at someone on the phone.
"This is my department, damn it, and I will run it as I please – not you!" Cell phone snapped shut.
"Eve?" Lilah guessed.
Fred jumped, having not known she was there. "Oh! Lilah. You know, you're getting just as bad as Spike. And yes."
"That woman never did know her place," Lilah stated. "Given the chance, she'd probably stake Angel and take over." Now that she'd said that, she didn't hate Angel quite so much.
Fred's eyes widened. "That's not funny."
"I wasn't joking."
Meanwhile, Eve was in Wesley's office. He, of course, was there, too.
"She doesn't seem too appreciative of your concern, Wes. She hung up on me."
"I also told you not to say anything, Eve."
Eve leaned over the desk, showing a considerable amount of cleavage. "Are you mad at me?"
Wesley looked up from his book with a warm smile. "You know I'm not. You are being a distraction, though."
"Yes," Eve agreed. She smirked wickedly. "But you're not working."
Wesley couldn't stop himself from grinning. "You're right."
"Is there a crime adding leisure to leisure time?" she winked suggestively.
"No, I suppose there's not."
Eve pursued to lean over the desk until their lips met.
Of course, because Wesley was already smitten, he made no move to pull away.
It wasn't long before his down time turned into something quite inappropriate for the work place.
An hour or so later, Lilah was sent to Wesley's office to borrow a book for some long grapevine of departments, and halted at the door.
There they were. Wesley and Eve, all over each other on the desk. Immediate tears of hatred, disgust, and hurt pricked at her eyes.
"Tough seeing the one you love with someone else, isn't it?"
Little had she known, Spike had materialized behind her. She jumped at his presence and scowled at his words. "The telecommunications department or whatever can shove it," she growled.
Spike watched as she stalked away.
]::[
"What?" Fred screeched. "That bitch!"
Then Lilah was in a tight hug, and she couldn't play strong anymore.
"We will fix this!" Fred declared. "I promise you."
"How?"
"She's pure evil. There are ways to destroy her."
When Lilah pulled back, her cheeks were flushed red, and tears were streaming down them.
Fred's expression softened from anger at Eve to sympathy for Lilah. If anyone deserved Wesley, it was her. She had been there when all his friends had deserted him. Fred understood Lilah, since working in the same building Lilah had beforehand. Pylea changes a person, so Fred had a dark streak. She could relate to her. "Will you stop looking so damn sad?" She placed a hand to her cheek gently and got the overwhelming feeling that Lilah needed to feel loved, but also needed a meaningless fling. There was a silent moment of mutual understanding before they kissed.
At that moment, Spike popped in at the far side of the room. He blinked in amusement and thought, damn. That's hot. He blinked out of the room shortly after, though, as to give the women privacy.
]::[
"You know, Eve, I had him before you did."
Eve scoffed. "Do you think I care?"
"About anything or anyone? No. Especially not him."
"You are heartless," Fred pitched in. "You keep trying to call all the shots when you're not the one in charge, and never were."
"I was," Lilah stated smugly. "Hear about Linwood? My doing."
"And I'm the heartless one?" Eve asked."
"Yes, you are," Fred answered. "Do you even care about him in the slightest?"
"Presley? Nah. Man just needs to get laid."
That's when Lilah got violent. "Well I love him, you fucking whore!" And it's 'Wesley'," She gave Eve a stiff uppercut. "I would really like to fucking kill you, but since you've made Wes wear the puppy dog eyes, I'll let you live."
While Eve was distracted by Lilah's words and the shock and pain of her attack, Fred moved behind her and yanked her arms tightly behind her back, tying them with rope.
Lilah leaned close and whispered into her ear, "Though by the time I'm done, you'll wish I hadn't." She tazered her in the stomach.
Fred held her firmly upright, so Lilah could proceed with the torture.
Lilah exchanged the tazer for a small knife. She used it to scrape flecks of skin off Eve's face, before simply slicing her shirt open. "Ever wonder what the forbidden fruit tasted like, Eve?" She then cut her bra to pieces, leaving her nearly half naked.
Fred yanked her head back by her hair.
Ever howled in pain, and Lilah used this as an opportunity to quickly cut Eve's tongue out. It dropped to the floor.
"No more of that annoying voice." Lilah grinned. "Or that face. I think I'm starting to like you, now." She grabbed her breast and slowly skinned about half of it before sawing into the area just above the nipple. It took twenty minutes to cut it off.
Tears streamed down Eve's cheeks, but that would earn her no sympathy.
"Bitch, you deserve this!" Fred hissed.
Lilah then popped the sawed off nipple into Eve's mouth, forcing her mouth to clamp shut. Fred placed a strip of masking tape across her mouth.
Ever was in searing pain already, but after that she was nauseas, too. Her own nipple. In her mouth.
"And just so we don't forget…" Lilah carved 'Wes & Lilah' into Eve's forehead.
She then paused, admiring her work. "Yes, I think that is all. Fred, release her."
Fred let go of Eve, letting her crumple to the floor. "Go get your man.
]::[
Lilah burst into Wesley's office.
Wesley, puzzled, looked up at her.
"I love you, damn it! More than that slut ever will. She was just using you."
Wesley's expression fell flat. "I hardly think you know the definition of love, let alone have the ability to experience it."
"The hell I don't! Remember The Beast's attack? I could have not told you that Connor was still in the b-" She stopped herself, remembering the spell Angel had cast, altering everyone's memory – or actually removing their memories of Connor.
"Who?" Wesley's eyebrows knitted together.
"Never mind! The point is, that night, I knew I was in love with you. You could have just let me die and become zombified like everyone else, but you didn't."
"Yes, Lilah, we had a relationship. But you never made me feel…the way Eve does."
Lilah slapped him.
"What the bloody hell was that for?"
"She. Doesn't. Give. A. Shit. About. You!"
Only then did Wesley notice the tears. He had never come anywhere close to seeing her cry before. He immediately felt like an ass. "Lilah?" He reached out to her, but she flinched away. "Lilah, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. It's a lie – I was trying to convince myself."
Lilah glowered at the floor, refusing to look at him.
"Please." He managed to grab her hands. "I'm known for making mistakes, right? You're right. I made a big mistake breaking it off with you, and a bigger one being with Eve. Can you…take me back?"
Lilah threw herself onto him at that, kissing him with passion. "I. Love. You. What do you think?" she murmured.
Wesley wiped her tears away, looking at her with grateful, ashamed eyes. "I'm a stupid man. Forgive me?"
"Done."
]::[
The two laid in Wesley's bed at his apartment the way they used to after sex. That night it had been really, really great sex. They panted lightly. Lilah's head was resting against his chest.
"Wow," she breathed. "It's been quite a while… Keep me?"
"Of course." Wesley kissed the top of her head.
"Even if I brutally tortured Eve?"
"Yes."
"Even if I got Fred to help me torture Eve?"
"Yes."
"Even if I had a lesbian moment with Fred?"
"Yes."
Lilah lifted her head and grinned, looking at him. "You must love me, too."
"I do."