Disclaimer: Please see Part 1 Chapter 1...

SHADOWED SOULS Part 5

Chapter 4

Eventually however, everyone had fully reconnoitred, all the preparations were prepared and everyone settled in for the hard part – waiting.

Buffy fiddled with the various ornaments and knick-knacks situated around Angel's office while he sat at his desk, swivelling the chair slightly from side-to-side. Spike perched on the arm of the couch, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his black-leather duster, or rather Nikki Wood's duster.

Harmony had let slip previously that when anything untoward happened, such as him getting machine gunned in the back while getting Lindsay McDonald out of Wolfram & Hart's penalty box dimension, Spike had had the duster magically restored to pristine condition – an expensive process. Robin Wood's face had darkened at this revelation, but he hadn't pursued the matter. Later on, Angel had broached the subject again, explaining that Spike had never been in the habit of taking trophies from his victims and that the duster therefore had great meaning to Spike. Wood had harshly retorted that his mother had had great meaning to him, a response Angel couldn't top.

At the far end of Angel's office, Willow did her thing with her laptop at the conference table with Kennedy sitting beside her, absently polishing a kind of hooked spear-thing, while in the outer lobby area Wesley and Giles sat conversing quietly, with Andrew silently listening in rapt absorption. Most of the others sat around and fiddled with their weaponry and watched Illyria, whom Fred had asked to come forward for the brutal fight part, with fascination as the hell-demon stood staring into space, apparently deep in thought. Either that or she was in silent conversation with the nearby planter.

"Could Willow…does she know where Oz went…to get his wolf side under control?" Angel asked Buffy quietly as she passed by his desk for the umpteenth time; he knew what she was feeling, their type always did much better smashing hell out of something than sitting around waiting.

"Absolutely." Buffy reassured him. "Glad to help…Nina's really nice."

"Yeah…she is." Angel shifted uncomfortably. "We…we're…she…we…it's good, Buffy. I'm happy." He hesitated, then qualified, "Not blissfully happy of course…"

"I get it." Buffy smiled at him. "I'm glad – truly. It's good, we all needed to move on…" She looked sheepish and defiantly proud at the same time, "When Dawn and I were in Rome for a while, I had a thing with a guy-"

"Yeah, only The Immortal for pity's sake, what is it with you and evil blokes." Spike chimed in, giving lie to the appearance he wasn't listening.

"The Imm- ? How do you two know about that?" Buffy folded her arms across her torso and looked from one to the other as they belatedly refused to meet her gaze.

The Slayer's eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute, you both came to Rome, didn't you? The pair of you came to Rome…to what, to save me? …I don't believe this!"

Unconsciously she placed her hands on her hips and glared at them like an exasperated mother – Joyce Summers reincarnated. "What were you thinking?"

"That you were in danger!" protested Angel defensively. "The Immortal was an enemy of ours, back in the day. We got a phone call saying you were dating him, what did you expect us do?"

"To get on with your lives like I was getting on with mine?" Buffy retorted. "You guys were spying on me in Rome…I didn't see you…?"

"We couldn't track you down. We could only find Watcher wannabe Andrew…" Spike snapped derisively, "Which was when we found out that you were with the big poof voluntarily and didn't want rescuing! What were you thinking?"

"Of enjoying myself!" Buffy declared, before she relaxed her aggressive stance with visible willpower. "Look…it was a summer romance…he was smart and funny and made me feel special…I don't know…he had…something…"

"Yeah, herpes probably," muttered Spike.

Buffy sucked in a harsh breath but there was a tiny sound from the doorway, clearly audible to a Slayer and two vampires with super-hearing.

Nina Ash stood there, looking excruciatingly embarrassed and pink-cheeked. "Just wanted to let you…know...Um…I'll go…be somewhere else."

"Nina…" Angel straightened in his chair but she'd already fled. "Damn. I've got to talk to her…"

"Sit. Stay." ordered Buffy. "Will', can you find me the phone number of those monks Oz –"

"Here." Willow made a gesture and a scrap of paper appeared in mid-air right in front of Buffy so she could snag it. "Go fix Tweedledee and Tweedledum's goof up."

"Hey…" started Spike.

"Do you want to be a toad?" Willow addressed this question to the room in general and both vampires wisely subsided.

Buffy stalked out of Angel's office and without even looking up from the paperwork he'd taken out of his briefcase and had spread on one of the low coffee tables, Xander Harris merely pointed up the staircase on the right with the pen he was holding in one hand. Everyone else continued to evince intense interest in the plotted plants and/or the décor and tactfully pretended they were deaf and blind. One of the problems of an 'open plan' office layout was that sound really carried.

To be continued in Part 5 Chapter 5

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