9

"How the hell do you know Lucy?" Spike asked as Angel hurried up to them.

Angel ignored Spike and stared at Lucy with a huge goofy smile plastered to his face. He looked like a little kid meeting Santa Claus. He was almost bouncing up onto his toes with excitement as he stood in front of her and tried to speak with her.

"I just can't believe I'm meeting you. I'm a huge fan, you have no idea." Angel gushed suddenly and grabbed Lucy's hand, pumping it up and down maniacally.

"Seriously Angel, how in the hell do you know my girlfriend?" Spike asked louder this time.

"I think Angel is a ballet fan." Lucy said to Spike while she patiently had her hand shaken so hard that Spike was a little afraid her shoulder would dislocate.

"Don't you know who this is Spike?" Angel asked finally without taking his eyes off of Lucy. "This is Lucy Valentine."

"Yeah I know her name, I'm the one that introduced her to you remember?" Spike sneered, becoming frustrated that his questions weren't being answered. "What the hell does Angel liking ballet have to do with anything? Other than the fact that he's a giant poof."

"Spike, Lucy is the prima ballerina for the Moscow Ballet, she's probably the best dancer in the world. I've seen you dance like ten times. Oh man you were amazing in Romeo and Juliet, seriously I cried." Angel babbled, sounding like a moron to Spike.

"You're a dancer?" Spike asked Lucy with surprise, he hadn't seen anything in her apartment to indicate she was a world famous ballerina.

"Not anymore." Lucy replied, Spike noticed her voice quiver slightly.

Spike pulled Lucy closer him and put his arm around her shoulders. Angel was still shaking Lucy's hand and grinning like an insane puppy.

"It's nice to meet you Angel. I'm glad you liked my dancing." Lucy said stiffly and tried to extract her hand from the iron grip Angel had it in.

"Hey Angel, maybe you want to let go of Lucy's hand now." Spike urged and pried his hand away from Lucy's.

"Oh sorry, um, I'm just so excited to meet you. Do you think maybe you would sign a program for me? I have one in my desk from when you were in The Firebird." Angel asked and hurried over to his desk and began to dig through a drawer.

He hurried back over with a glossy program and a marker. Spike was shocked to see Lucy on the cover of the program and he grabbed it from Angel's hand to study it closer. The picture showed Lucy wearing a gauzy red and orange dress with bright red toe shoes on her feet. She was standing on the point of one foot with her other leg raised straight above her head in an impossible looking split. Her long red hair was curled into long ringlets and her face was painted with glittery makeup, the entire ensemble made her look like a fairy prince to Spike. But it was seeing her eyes that made spike feel as if he'd been kicked in the gut. Her eyes were a bright beautiful green that complimented her hair perfectly and they were totally normal. Spike wasn't sure why, but he'd just assumed Lucy had always been blind. Seeing a picture of her whole, without any disability, made it seem much more tragic.

"So would you mind signing this?" Angel asked again and pulled the program away from Spike.

"Um, well I guess, but I don't know how neat my signature will be since I can't see what I'm doing." Lucy replied uncomfortably.

Angel suddenly seemed to take in Lucy's dark glasses and the white cane in her hand and finally thought about the fact that she couldn't see.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't think… Never mind." Angel replied and quickly put the program and marker away.

The three of them stood in an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds. Lucy was gripping Spike's hand tightly, but Spike could still feel it shaking in his grasp.

"So Angel was thinking maybe you could work in the research department with Wesley. I mean you like to read and all so we thought maybe you'd like reading all day for a living. Course those books are all old and boring, but…" Spike trailed off, trying hard to break the uncomfortable silence.

"How would I read those books? I'm sure they don't come in Braille." Lucy asked.

"I thought of that. But Wesley has these magic books, you just tell them what you want and poof they fill in on their own. So I was thinking you could just tell the book to translate it into Braille and it'll do it." Spike replied, obviously proud of his quick thinking.

Angel gave Spike a look that was a mix of surprise and admiration. "That's true, we could get any of the books in Braille, so it shouldn't be a problem. Do you think you could handle reading ancient tomes all day? They can be really dry and boring, I'm warning you now so you don't try throwing yourself out a window later."

Lucy giggled and nodded enthusiastically. "That sounds amazing. I'd love the chance to read all those old books.

"Ok well since that's settled, we need to get you an apartment. This building has living spaces up on the twelfth floor and luckily one of them is empty. You're welcome to it." Angel offered.

"That's really generous of you, but you're doing so much giving me a job. I can find a place to live on my own." Lucy argued.

"It's really no problem Lucy, besides isn't it Spike's fault you lost your other apartment anyway? We kind of owe you a place to live. Plus if I give you the apartment I can stop thinking of excuse for not giving it to the head of accounting. He's a Kathalack demon, nice guy, but man he stinks like dead fish. I really didn't want him living up there." Angel replied.

Lucy bit her lip and looked uncertain for a few seconds. "Ok I'll take it if you're sure it won't be any trouble." She finally relented.

Angel nodded and shook Lucy's hand one more time, this time for a more sane amount of time. "Ok Spike why don't you help Lucy get settled in and then you can check in with Wesley and find out when he wants you to start. Maybe sometime we could sit down and talk about ballet, if you'd feel like it. I'd love to hear about working with Alexander Prontsky, he's a great dancer."

Lucy nodded and gave Angel another wide smile. "Sure we could do that sometime." She replied, although Spike could still hear a twinge of sadness in her voice.

Spike led Lucy back towards the office door, but turned slightly and mouthed the words Thank you to Angel before walking through the door.

Once they had been given directions and a key to Lucy's new apartment from Harmony, the new couple headed upstairs in the elevator.

"So you were a ballet dancer huh?" Spike finally asked breaking the silence.

"I was until I lost my eye sight." Lucy muttered.

Spike wanted to ask her more, like how she'd lost her sight for one, but he could tell that she hated talking about herself more than anything. He didn't want to make her angry or hurt her by pressing her to talk before she was ready so he simply chose to be patient and wait until she volunteered more information.

The apartment was large and decorated very modernly, with very few pieces of furniture. It had a kind of sparse look to it, but Spike realized it would be good having a nice open floor plan without obstacles for Lucy to trip over.

"So this is the place." Spike said as they stood next to the front door, it sounded like a stupid statement even in his own head.

"You want me to leave for awhile so you can get settled?" Spike asked, he wanted to give Lucy her space, but it was driving him crazy how quiet she was being.

"I think I'm going to need some help getting around actually, before I can be alone." Lucy pointed out.

"Oh yeah, didn't think about that. So um what do you want me to do?" Spike asked.

"Can you just walk around with me and show me where all the furniture and the doors and things are?" Lucy asked quietly. Spike could see that she was blushing with embarrassment again and wondered how long it would take before it would stop bothering her to ask for his help.

Spike moved so that he was standing behind Lucy and put his right arm over hers. He then helped her feel where the table was that sat next to the front door. From there he moved with her slowly through all of the rooms, pointing out furniture, closets, and doorways. Spike could hear Lucy counting quietly under her breath and realized that she was memorizing the numbers of footsteps that lay between the different objects. He was once again entranced with her long delicate fingers as they skimmed lightly over the surfaces of things, memorizing their feel, so that she would know them again later.

He finished their tour in the bedroom and watched as Lucy walked the room by herself once he was finished directing her. Her hand trailed along the top of the bed as she walked around it.

"It's a big bed." She pointed out. "Way bigger than the one at my old apartment." She added slyly and then pulled her shirt off and unbuttoned her pants.

Spike swallowed convulsively and quickly began stripping off his own clothing.

"I think maybe we should break it in don't you?" Lucy asked with mock innocence as she finished removing the last of her clothes.

Spike's only answer was a lusty growl as he picked up Lucy and threw both of them onto the large bed.

A/N- Wow so two chapters in one day, I'm so proud of myself. I've already got the beginning of the next chapter down and just to give you all a little teaser, it starts off with a very steamy sex scene, so make sure to tune in for that! Thanks for reading!