Harm Done – Chapter 4

Harmony… felt different. Not different as in not human anymore because duh, vampire; she wasn't retarded. No, it was more like this vampire Harmony was different than the other vampire Harmony she was before. Totally in a good way though, because oh my god had Spike ever looked at her that way before!? It so sucked that she'd been kinda out of it half the time, but that was okay because she was totally going to get that look from him every day for forever, like literally forever.

She sat up in the bed, and wow what an ugly room like ok it beat waking up in a grave maybe but would it have killed Spike to make sure she woke up at Four Seasons Los Angeles and not… wherever this was? Imagine just letting your girlfriend be born in a dump like this. She pouted. Her nose wrinkled. She heard a chuckle from behind her.

"Mess is all yours, pet."

Mess? She looked around, taking an experimental sniff and then honing in and oh gross there was a dead guy literally in bed with them. She heard a growl, and belatedly realize it came from her own throat, her eyes unable to look away from the pool of blood in the not at all comfortable mattress but – ok and she was never going to admit this – it still looked delicious.

Spike sighed in her ear, hands groping her boobs as he pulled her into him... yay! "Gonna be another day or two before you're good for conversation, in'nit?" His voice lowered to a mumble. "Wouldn't wager you'll be much for one even after that," he muttered. She should totally hit him for that! But… the blood really did look good… all that came out of her mouth was a whimper.

Spike let her go and she suddenly felt bereft. Like the first time when she'd dug out the ground and her sire hadn't been there which even though he had looked like a total reject when he'd vampnapped her in the middle of the mayor's ascend thing; hello, ruuuuuude!

But even that wasn't the same – maybe because she had Spike's jeans in her now or whatever, and not that loser's? Her heart stopped. Or you know, would have totally stopped if it hadn't already. She had Spike's jeans. Spike was like, her boyfriend and her Sire. That connection he had had with Drudzilla he now totally had with her instead. Or also, whatever. She had won! Time Travel was amazing.

Ok, ok, no getting ahead of herself. She'd prepared for this. She had found the holy grail of books and was totally prepared with all the knowledge she needed to make sure that she changed things for the better. Everyone might think she was a complete ditz even daddy (well her human daddy not her new sexy vampire daddy although gross if Spike ever thought he was going to call him that, unless he was really good) but nobody was going to beat Harmony Kendall (because she was NOT going to be Harmony the Bloody… well unless Spike brought it up) this time! Because Harmony Kendall had the ultimate weapon.

The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate by Gary someone.

And ok it was written for humans and stuff but just look at it. Hearts were really important to vampires. Like literally life and death important. They had mates. Spike, being an English vampire, had lots of 'mates', but also a Mate capital M. Which was now her.

Harmony understood so much better now how everything had gone wrong. Harmony's "Love Language" was so obviously "receiving gifts" . Spike didn't know this and so when she expressed herself he tended to get confused and angry. Well then Buffy had made things worse but before then. So, what Harmony needed to do was give Spike a gift, and then he would understand her love language was to reciprocate and then they would be off to see the world and Spike would kill girls who were – who thought they were – prettier than Harmony and give Harmony pretty things like the Louis Vuittons she wanted but this season's not last year's like she remembered being forced to wear to prom and ok she was getting ahead of herself. Anyway:

Step 1: Give Spikey the Gem of Amara

Step 2: Get far, far away from Buffy the Vampire Boyfriend Stealer before she could get her gross hands into Spike (or stake into Harmony because she was going to be so jealous)

Step 3: Don't ever ever ever ever ever mention France. At least until Spike understood her love languages.

And after that- whoa Spike was picking her up and holding her like a bride which in a way she now totally was even though she wasn't going to let him cheapskate out of a real wedding but like a traditional one not some creepy Bride of Spikula ripoff and oh he was topless and she was still naked Spike totally wanted to have his wicked vampiric way with her and she would have no choice but to-

-she fell with a thump into the bathtub as she tumbled out of his arms into the ceramic tub. She sputtered as the water fell on her, ok she didn't have to breath but hello how about some manners geez. Another thing she was going to have to work on but later.

"Clean yourself up and then we'll go hunting." Spike sounded bored, which was so not good. "Need to get some more blood inside you and even the nummy treats will figure something's amiss when you look like the monster from soddin' Aliens."

Something dropped into the tub with her. Oh gross – generic hotel shampoo. Yeeech. Spike was so evil but why did he have to direct it at her!

"Get moving luv, I'll come in and get you out myself if you're not ready in five."

God, could her body not hurry up and finish with the vampy thing already, it was getting really annoying being only to respond in grunts and groans like some of the losers she went to High School with. Was going to high school with? Time travel was weird – no wait that didn't matter she was a vamp again and vamps didn't go to school, did they? I mean as an adult she had gone to work but that had been a special case most vamps-

"Tick tock." Spike broke her out of her thoughts, pointing a finger at his wrist and then walking back into the main room, not even closing the door behind him! "Got some girly clothes for you on the chair out here when you're done."

Whatever. She reached for the shampoo. The first thing she was doing after this was getting Spike to get her some proper soaps and cosmetics – being undead was no excuse not to exfoliate and hydrogenate!

She put the tiniest, teensiest droplet of the stuff on her fingertip. "Vanilla" the bottle read, shyeh right. She poked her head…

It felt crusty. Her finger was sticky. And oh my god her finger looked like she'd dipped it in those tomato smoothies she'd tried back in middle school after Cordy called her – oh my god her hair was like a slaughterhouse! With a final growl of frustrations, she ducked under the water, squeezing the entire tub of shampoo and rubbing her scalp as hard as she could. No wonder Spike didn't want to stay and shower with her!

It had taken Harm twice than the threatened five minutes to get ready, but if Spike had a soft spot it was letting women take their time dolling themselves up for a night out, and wasn't like it was any big shake letting the bint scrub herself all nice and shiny, all the more pleasure he'd have at the end of the night ruffling her up again. Still, no sense burning moonlight and all that and when she'd come out all rub-a-dubbed and still looking a bit pink from where her humanity hadn't quite entirely left yet, it took a mo' to remember what he was up to and give her a growl and a shove when she tried to mold herself up against him, rubbing his crotch and giving him a bloody pout when he pointed to Sunday's donation of clothes that he'd requisitioned two nights before.

Silly bitch pouted again when she held them up, like she was sodding checking them for their fashion sense and finding the threads wanting. Gave him a bit of hope that, if she was already showing some human traits of her old life – shallow little trollop though she may have been – then odds were she'd be up for telling him about the Gem sooner rather than later and not just spend the next six months going grrrrrrrr.

Not that that part was entirely bad either. Bint had a cute face if a little long for his tastes but plump little lips like pink ribbons that promised a prezzie inside. An appealing package all around if a bit too well… sodding California for his preferences.

Still he'd growled and she'd put the duds on and they'd do for the night, even if she didn't look too pleased with them. And she was barefoot. Balls. He'd forgotten about that. Only thing of hers that had survived the night were her silly sodding pink heels, which all told were fun to look at when her legs were up in the air but not precisely practical for chasing down dinner, especially as baby fledge like her was a lot less likely to pull off come hither and more fangs out playin chase with the Happy Meal.

"Off we go pet, we'll figure out your footware on the way." Bloody well gave a pathetic little growled at that but stopped when he gave her a look, sidling along beside him and following along all crest fallen. Don't know what made him do it but he'd grabbed her hand and she'd looked up at him, cute little vamp face still in place like he'd just given her the bloody moon, and Christ what a surreal night this was turning into.

He'd plopped her in the Desoto and driven out on the interstate, not particularly far but far enough – he hoped – that there was little chance of the Slayer getting word of his hunts. Wasn't going to rush things with a bloody immortal jingly jangly on the line. Stopped in a gas station long enough to nick a pair of girlish flipflops from the spinning rack at the door, flashed a bit of fang at the kid at the register and that was that. Too many sodding cameras in gas stations to eat the clerk, but least the girl had shoes now, even if she didn't look thrilled about it.

"Chain you up if you don't natter down," he'd said instead, getting himself comfy and giving the steering wheel a tender pat. "Don't think I won't either; had to chain Dru up every now and then in here, so don't think I don't know what I'm doing."

Bitch bloody howled when he said Dru's name.

"Oi! None of that now, not if you want to live long enough to meet our queen. Fifty-fifty she'll treat you like a little pet or throw a strop over you're whole sodding existence, so best bet is you give me a reason to keep you around, yeh.

Harmony shut up at that, so seemed the bint was comprehending him good enough even if the demon hadn't sussed out how to speak the Queen's English yet… as much as any of the Yanks ever managed that.

"Won't be long luv, just want to make sure we don't show up on Sunnydale News and give Miss Stakes-alot a reason to pop off that murderous little mouth of hers." He fumbled with the cassette player and reached into the back, fingers unerringly finding Never Mind the Bollocks among the empty cigarette cartons, bottles of jack, a few blankets, and a bobble head of the pope he'd nicked for a lark in one of those Latin American countries in the squiggly bit south of Mexico. A minute later they were tearing out the parking lot, window down and Spike screaming along to Johnny Rotten in the crisp California night.

What Buffy wouldn't give for some super evil supernatural activity right about now. Why couldn't the hellmouth pop out some apocalypse badness of the extreme variety because really, what with the complete meltdown of her friends over that night she could use some seriously big bad voodoo baddy to show up and rock the joint a little bit. Anything would be better than this.

But nope, almost as if to spite her the Hellmouth was total doldrums. It was the last day of school before Thanksgiving and with nothing to show for it, and the only thing she could maybe point to as supernatural badness was Angel seemed more tense these days, but maybe that was just the still recovering from being in hell for a few hundred years thing, so…

Even Spike, the perpetual bleached pain in her ass, had up and disappeared after showing up from out of nowhere just long enough to watch the Scoobs blow up like an atomic bomb. He hadn't even hung around for the fallout, which maybe just showed that Spike had a braincell rattling around that wanted to stay alive. Probably halfway back to wherever he'd left Hypnoskank to go crawling and crying and Sorry Luv I'll get the Bloody Rotten Slayer for you next time pip pip cheerio. And then Drusilla would be all Oi my Spoike you've been a naughty boy. And okay that was enough thinking about Spike and Drusilla.

"Sorry Giles, you we're uh… saying." She asked, perkily as she could as if she'd not about to picture her two worst enemies doing naughty enemy things.

Giles sighed. "I've reached out to an old friend in Devon. They'll… be sending someone over this week, but given Willow's age and, well, immaturity, I'm not sure what they'll be able to accomplish."

Buffy nodded, but loyally objected. "Willow's not immature. She's super sensible and well…" the steam went out of her defense. "She knows she messed up."

Messed up was a bit trite for it, and Buffy had hardly seen Willow out of class since that night. Xander had shown up to the library in and out, not really saying much but he seemed so lost, like he wasn't sure where to go. She felt bad for him – in a way he was as much as a victim as Cordy and Oz, even if in a not so… ok so they obviously had it worse, but Xander hadn't asked for this either. Willow had admitted that she'd set up the spell behind Xander's back and forced him along at the last minute, which hadn't spared him anything as far as his relationship with Cordy went but it did give him something.

"This sucks," Buffy finished, giving the stake in her hand a half-hearted whittle.

"Quite."

They sat in silence for a bit, Buffy fiddling with her stake and Giles deep in a text about Sumerian something or other. And didn't it just say everything that the only person she could hang with now was Giles. I mean sure he was her watcher and she loved him in a fatherly totally appropriate way but the whole 'Slayer and Watcher only no friends allowed' thing had never really been her schtick, and the library felt vast and hollow without the underlying sounds of Scoobies. Technically Faith was still floating around – somewhere – and hadn't been any part of ground zero but that was another problem, Faith was much a part of anything, just showing up from time to time whenever she wasn't off doing whatever.

"It's not this one," Giles said at last, closing the book. "We're no closer to discovering why… Angel… was let out of hell, but I think I can safely say it wasn't Urric cultists, nor the demon Gilmishag."

Buffy shrugged. She didn't really care, she knew that Angel had a higher purpose and wasn't just the tool of some supernatural bad guys, but it gave Giles something to do and she got it, she did. He needed his books and something to tell him rationally that it was okay for Angel to be back. And like Buffy he just needed something to focus on that wasn't the three thousand pound magic gorilla in the room.

"I guess I better get ready to patrol," Buffy scooted off the table, pressing down her skirt and grabbing her spare stake. "Anything in particular I need to look for tonight?"

"Ah, right," Giles fumbled over his desk for a second and then pulled up some newspaper clippings. "Two teenagers found two nights ago with 'animal bites' on the necks in a ransacked crypt and um… the mortician at Sunnyrest called this morning, asked if you wouldn't mind popping in…"

"On it!" Buffy gave him the brightest smile she could muster. "Anything else?"

"No. Well, not as such." Giles frowned at his desk, peering up at her after a moment over his glasses.

"Out with it, buster!" she replied cheekily.

"Well, two people are missing. No bodies so no indication that they've been turned, but quite high profile. A civil engineer working for the city, and the archivist at the court annex."

Buffy raised a brow. "That's 'high profile'? LA, Sunnydale isn't."

Giles stuttered at that for a minute, which privately was what Buffy had been going for, even if that was a little mean and silly. "Well no, not as such, no. But, well it's a bit odd. Someone who has access to all the records of Sunnydale and someone who knows Sunnydale underground just disappear without a trace. I can't help but think they're connected."

"What so we think they're might be some demonic bank robbery about to go down?"

"Well I wouldn't put it like that… but yes, I suppose that's a possibility. It wouldn't be the first such thing, why back in 1976 at the Louvre, a vampire cult with ties going back to Robespierre of all people a-"

"Got it, Giles. Two vampy teens, a possible third at the mortuary, and a Culty Capering might be afoot." She grinned again, happy to see he gave her a small – if strained – smile in return.

"I'm on it."

"Thank you, Buffy."

And she was off to the races… or would have been if Cordy hadn't come barreling into the library right then.

"Oh, it's you. Good, I need to talk to you."

Buffy raised an eyebrow at the flip-flop there, but kept her mouth shut. Cordy had been through enough to give her a pass. A very select, very limited pass.

"Hey, it's um… been a while."

Cordelia rolled her eyes, flipping her hair back as she did so. "Yeah, guess I needed to take a few days off after your little witchy friend decided to rape me."

Buffy winced. "Willow's really sorry, and she didn't –"

"She forced me to do that with- and hey, without my will." Cordelia stopped, taking a deep breath, eyes closed, chest rising and falling. Her eyes sparked when she looked back at Buffy.

"I am not going to be a victim, especially not to a loser freak like Willow, but don't tell me what she did or didn't do, ok?" Buffy stayed silent. Cordelia deflated ever so slightly. "Anyway, I didn't come here to talk about… I don't want to talk about that right now. I came to tell you Harmony's missing."

Record scratch. "What?"

"Harmony. Girl we go to school with and tried to take my place when I went all Loserville? Yeah, she's missing. Just poof."

Buffy frowned, then shook her head. "I don't think being absent from school for a day really counts as missing. I'm sure she'll be back and making school a rosy place again tomorrow… or you know, after the holidays."

"Um, are you what, blind? She's been missing for over a week. I haven't seen her in school since-" Cordelia broke of. "She's missing. And at first I was like yay, what a perfect time to be sick right when I'm taking my rightful place back from you, little status stealing sheep. But now it's like… yeh, so anyway, you need to find her."

Buffy almost scoffed. Yeah, because finding Harmony was totally in her top ten list of things to do. Or two hundred.

She sighed. "Fine, Giles can we start searching? I'll swing by the hospitals and see if Harmony's there and just hasn't been reported. Will-" but of course, Willow wasn't here and so Willow couldn't do the whole super spy hacking into the police channels to pick up a lead. She swallowed.

"We'll look, I promise. It'll just… take some time." And she totally would, even if Cordelia hadn't asked her too, because Harmony was human and being a giant bitch didn't mean Buffy wanted her dead or anything, even if she hadn't exactly noticed Harmony was missing in the first place. Between not seeing Willow or Oz or much of Xander or hey, Cordelia, it just hadn't been on her mind to notice.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier? That she's been missing."

Cordelia stared at her for a second, face scrunching like she'd bitten into a lemon and a flash of anger blazed in her eyes for a moment.

"I didn't want to talk to you. Any of you. I didn't… whatever, I don't have to explain anything to you. So you'll do it? You'll find Harmony?"

Buffy gave a short nod, not meeting Cordy's eyes.

"Good… and thank you," Cordelia said, giving her a small nod before making a big show of flouncing back the way she had come, library door swinging in her wake.

"It's going to take a while, isn't it?" Buffy turned back to Giles, who had been watching the whole affair silently from his desk.

He took his glasses off at that and gave them a rub. Giles code for 'things are much worse than I'm going to admit'.

"It will take time. Cordelia… well I can't fault her reaction, I suppose."

And on that cheery note, it was time to hopefully slay the demons of the Hellmouth; the demons of the Consequences being a battle she was not, for the moment, able to defeat.