This story is another collaboration with Scribes1015!

"Fire them."

The board members, Lindsey included, traded looks across the large mahogany table. If Angelus kept up this attitude they wouldn't have any employees left, already they were preparing for an influx of new interns come the start of the week. Their recent turn around rate was unprecedented in the history of the firm, they had long ago fallen from Forbes list of greatest places to work.

Wesley cleared his throat, "Perhaps a lesser punishment would be more beneficial, after all each of them have barely completed the ninety days probationary period. Letting them go now would only cost the firm more in the long run."

"Fine," Angelus tossed the files back on the desk, "But you're responsible for them, next time one of them screws up it's on you."

Rolling his chair back, Angelus locked up his briefcase before grabbing it, silently signaling to the room that this meeting was over. The rest of the room stood as he made his exit, nodding their head, each of them began to utter some form of pleasantries that he didn't care to hear. His head was pounding, he hadn't even left the office until nearly midnight, exhausted he'd collapsed in bed with hopes of a good night's rest, but he knew better, that was too much to ask for. It wasn't even two am before the all too familiar nightmares had him shooting up in bed, heart pounding he clenched the damp sheets, confused it had taken him a moment to realize it was from the sweat pouring out of him.

Finally safe in the confines of his own office, he wasted no time slamming his hand against the button on the wall which was designed to lower the shutters. He'd barely made it to the plush leather chair behind his desk when he heard the door behind him open once again.

"You know, you keep up with this whole fire first ask questions later business, we're going to be running the whole damn place by ourselves."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he groaned, at least it was Lindsey intruding, he wasn't so sure he could handle Harmony's yammering right now. "Well maybe if we weren't surrounded by a bunch of incompetent morons, I wouldn't be so apt to fire them."

Lindsey grinned, "Rough night," he asked, making himself at home, tossing his own briefcase to the side as he took a seat across from his childhood friend. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Not particularly," Angelus sighed, crossing his ankles as he propped them against the edge of his desk.

Lindsey nodded, unlike every other poor soul employed at this firm, he was fortunate enough to be blessed with the ability to know what Angelus was thinking without having to ask. A knack that he knew pissed the elders off around here, but what could he say, it was one of the many benefits of putting up with the asshole for nearly his entire life.

"Look Angel," Lindsey chuckled at his friend's attempt to glare, everyone else may know him by Angelus, but no matter what the asshole said he would always be Angel to him, plus he knew how much it annoyed him, and that was an opportunity he would never pass up on. "I've said it before and I'll say it again, why don't you take some time off? Get away from here for a while, go remember what it's like to be Angel again, it's been over five years…"

"Four and half," Angel corrected.

"Okay," Lindsey drawled, "Four and half. My point is you need a break, you need a chance to focus on something outside these walls, hell outside of this damn city. You're killing yourself here, and honestly I'm tired of sitting by and watching it happen."

"So leave," Angel groaned, his head falling back against the soft padding of the chair. They only had this conversation two hundred and forty-three times a year, and frankly he was sick of hearing it. He knew Linds was just trying to look out for him, but what Lindsey didn't understand was no matter where he was, this damn office or Tahiti, it didn't change things, and nothing ever would again. This place was all he had left of a family he would never see again, he didn't have time for fancy vacations,or extravagant nights out. Hell he barely found the time to eat most of the time, any type of personal life was just out of the question, he'd accepted long ago that part of life just wasn't in the cards for him, not anymore anyway.

Lindsey being Lindsey wasn't so easily deterred, but eventually after a few more rounds of back and forth he gave up. Angel didn't even bother looking his way, but he heard him muttering something about him being a miserable jackass as the heavy door to his private sanctuary slammed so hard the walls rattled.

Wincing, he searched through his desk for the bottle of pain relievers he kept stashed away. He hated taking the damn things, they never failed to churn his stomach, but there was no way he could make it through the rest of the day in this state. Flipping the top off the bottle, he tossed a couple tablets back straight from the container.

With any luck he'd be feeling better by lunch, Darla was supposed to be coming by his place later tonight, and he had a feeling that if he canceled on her again it would take more than some new bag to get back in her good graces. It wasn't that they were serious, hell he wasn't even particularly fond of the woman, but she was a good lay and more importantly she knew how to keep her damn mouth shut.

In his life discretion was key, the last thing he needed was his name or even worse his face plastered across some damn tabloid. He'd made that mistake in the past and needless to say he'd learned that lesson the hard way. Darla may be batshit crazy, but she was good at what she did and they had an agreement, she wouldn't press him for more as far as a relationship went and he wouldn't sleep around.

He was far from ignorant, and eventually he knew their little arrangement was sure to blow up one way or another, but that was both a headache and a problem for another day.

The pain in his head easing, he let out a sigh of relief as he dared to open his eyes. Glancing at his watch he figured he had a solid two hours before the medication started to wear off and the nausea kicked in, though he would cross that bridge when he got to it. In the meantime he propped open his laptop to get started on the plethora of emails he knew were sure to be awaiting him.

With any luck he would be able to knock them out, and sneak out of here before someone else requested his input on how to do their damn job. He knew the things people said about him, more than once he'd caught wind of some of the more outlandish theories about himself, about the happenings in his personal life, about his "supposed" real role around here at the company, and quite frankly anything else under the sun but at this point, and not for a long time now in fact, he really couldn't care less. If anything, the stories helped keep at least some of these damn fools in line and forced others to simply leave him the hell alone.

Hell, with a few of the rumors over the years he began to wonder how much truth there was in them anymore. He was far from the young man once so carefree that he had been before the hell that led him here, more like the demonic shell of a man just about everyone claimed him to be since his entire life had fallen apart around him. All of that had died in tragedy, his wants, how he had planned his life, his future to go no longer mattered to much of anything anymore.

Rubbing a large hand over his tired face, he started replying to one e-mail after another until his eyes felt as though they were starting to cross and gave up. The rest would always be there to deal with later he told himself as he set the laptop off to the side and wondered what else he could bother himself with next.

OoOoO

Dealing with the aftermath of the meeting earlier in the day, first with Angel and then with the rest of the team who'd been there, Lindsey had taken a later lunch than usual. He wound up walking back in after his return just as his latest assistant, Sheila, came rushing right past him in a crying blur, red faced and shaking, moving as quickly as she could. He held up a hand as his body turned toward her but words died on his tongue... he didn't really have to ask what had happened and he'd been here and done this enough times to know it would do no good anyway to try and go after her.

He'd been here and done this song and dance enough times.

Sighing, he contemplated dumping the extra bag of food he had brought back for Angel, Lord knew the asshole wouldn't remember to eat half the time unless it was forced at him, into the trash... but he tightened his grip instead and continued toward the elevator bank.

He was just starting to let himself wonder what sort of situation he'd been walking into, or what had even happened, when the flood of text messages came. Shaking his head, he started going through them, even as he arrived on the right floor.

OoOoO

Sometimes Lindsey wondered why he even bothered with trying to talk any reason into his best friend, he was sure he'd have better luck holding a conversation with a brick wall than him. And it never mattered what the topic was... it could be about him needing to take a break from this place like earlier, a better way to go about a project, easing off of the people around here, explaining that everyone was bound to make a mistake now and again and expecting everyone to be on top of their game and at some heightened perfection was unreasonable, and everything beyond and inbetween and it would always be the same cycle.

And yet, here he was, explaining how this little blow up of his not only was fucking up his day but its Domino effect. He had a big meeting planned for later this week that he had really needed Sheila for, she had been the first assistant since his sister - who he had managed to pawn off to Angelus because he was about ready to strangle her - to actually last long enough to prove to be of any use.

Angelus of course cared not. She screwed up, and he didn't stand for that. He didn't have time for cleaning up everyone else's mistakes. Blah, blah, blah.

Nor did he care too much about the fact that again he was explaining that they were running out of damn bodies to even get in here. Once upon a time people all over the country would fight to get a spot here but those days had quietened down, now it felt like he was begging temp agencies more than anything else just to get some help. Most of them were pissed off at the whole company these days, too.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he wondered if he had any favors left around town he could try to chip in to make this whole mess he was now stuck with go forward.

OoOoO

Lilah Morgan rolled her eyes as she sat herself down at her desk, listening to Lindsey and his little sob story. She had been telling him that company was a sinking ship since Angelus stepped up to take control of everything and it was only getting worse by the day from all the stories she heard. She was glad she got out of there when she had. Of course she didn't have some bromance situation with Angelus either so she had no trouble cutting ties and moving on to bigger and better projects like he did.

"Linds, quite frankly I don't even know what you think I can do," she told him once he took a pause. "It's not like I can just drop everything here and run across town to help you for the next few days. Even if I wanted to."

He chuckled a bit at that, telling her he knew that much but circled around to wondering if she had anyone or a group of anyone's under her who might fit the bill in a pinch for what he needed that he could possibly borrow.

"It's bad enough you run off all your own interns and employees, now you want to traumatize mine, too?" she half joked. "Well, I'll see what I can come up with. I guess it couldn't hurt," she mumbled.

OoOoO

Buffy Summers had been really excited when Lilah came into their little office and told the team she had an unusual, surprise project for them. She hadn't been here long but so far had enjoyed the new experience. They had impressed the pretty, bossy brunette enough to be moved up to a corner office on her floor already and while it wasn't exactly the most impressive by any means... it was at least something. She felt proud enough about it.

She and the others had sat at their little desks as Lilah proposed the idea but once she mentioned who exactly this little favor job was for, she couldn't help but pale at the idea. Thankfully, she wasn't the only one who seemed to have reservations about working with an associate of that particular firm, two of the others raising their own questions and concerns as soon as they had a chance.

Lilah nodded her head and did her best to be sympathetic, knowing first hand how everything was over there, but promising they would have limited contact beyond this Lindsey character and it was only for the next few months, just long enough to get through the holidays and find someone permanent. All in all it didn't sound so bad, not the way Lilah was presenting it anyhow, and the added bonus each week would definitely have its perks, that is if you could manage to not get fired.

Everyone in the business either knew of Liam Angelus or heard the rumors. She'd never met the man, but she knew a handful of people who had been signed onto his firm only to be let go by the end of the week. She had to admit she was a bit curious about the man though, she liked to believe there was good in even the worst of people, you just had to figure out how to find it.

OoOoO

Her first day wasn't starting out as great as she would have liked, she'd slept through her alarm waking up with barely enough time to even grab a coffee, then some jerk ran smack into her which caused her to spill said coffee all down her new coat. The traffic had been a nightmare, and now she found herself with less than four minutes to spare before she needed to be up twelve stories behind some desk that she wasn't even sure where it was.

Dashing towards the elevator she only hoped she quickly prayed for at least one thing to go her way. There were a few people standing around but they didn't seem to be in much of a rush to get on even though she could see that the doors were in fact open. Slipping past one of them she got inside just as the heavy metal doors began to close.

"Twelve please," she quickly murmured to the man staring strangely at her. Smoothing her hair hoping that it wasn't sticking up or something, she started to give him a quick smile but it instead turned into a look of shock when she had a second to finally take him in.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," she muttered dropping all sense of formality. "I guess it shouldn't surprise me that you work for Angelus Enterprises, I mean from what I hear the whole place is ran by an asshole just like you."

Normally she would never be so frank with someone she didn't even know, but this man, whoever he was, wasn't exactly a stranger either. He was the reason she'd had to forego her coat even though it was damn near freezing outside. "Hello," she waved when the man did little other than raise an eyebrow towards her. "Coffee House, roughly an hour ago, you," she pointed, "Ran into me," she emphasized pointing back to herself. "Causing me to spill my coffee, on my very new, very expensive blazer I might add, then you just stormed off like I was the one who had gotten in the way…"

Sensing this conversation was going nowhere she shook her head, "You know what, just forget it." She let out a long sigh, "Will told me this place was cursed, suppose I shouldn't expect any less on my first day."

At first he hadn't known what to think when the small blonde stepped into his private elevator. Of course he assumed she was new, there was no one, well other than Lindsey, brave enough to try such a feat. He had been just about to open his mouth to speak, to let the young woman know about the mistake she'd made when he saw that glimmer of recognition in her eye. He assumed she had realized her mistake, but then she opened her mouth and surprisingly it hadn't been to apologize. Then it hit him, she didn't have a clue who he was.

Letting his eyes rake over her, he quickly came to a decision. Sooner or later the poor girl was going to figure out who he was, he didn't see any harm in having a bit of fun in the meantime. After all what she said was true, he had bumped into her this morning, albeit unintentionally.

Mimicking her stance, he let himself relax against the steel wall. "Look for what it's worth, I'm sorry. This morning I thought you were just some dumb kid, I was in a hurry and I wasn't paying attention."

"A kid?"

He nodded, she was such a tiny little thing even in the boots she was wearing he wouldn't put her past five two. "In case you haven't noticed you are kind of small."

"Well I don't know if that's supposed to make me feel better or worse about you."

He couldn't help but chuckle, she was feisty he had to give her that. "Why do you say that?"

"Because on one hand yes you're apologizing but on the other you're basically telling me that you're only apologizing because I'm not some dumb kid. I'll have you know that girls no matter what age have feelings mister, a simple sorry goes a long way."

He grimaced, "I thought I already said that?"

"What?"

"I'm sorry."

"Oh you did. I was just pointing out that it was weak."

"Weak?"

"Mmhmm."

His head was spinning, in sixty seconds this woman had stood up to him in ways most of the men in this building wouldn't believe. "What's your name?"

She continued to eye him skeptically for a moment, silently wondering why all the hot guys had to either be gay or complete assholes, it just wasn't fair. "Buffy," she finally managed just as the elevator dinged, lighting up the number twelve with a bright white light. "Well thanks for the apology," she grinned, "But for the record you should keep practicing."

OoOoO

All morning Angel couldn't seem to get the blonde of his mind, and honestly it was starting to annoy him. He should have never let her get off that damn elevator without telling her who he was. He still wasn't really sure why he hadn't, for one there hadn't been a lot of time, especially not with the way she kept yammering on, but more than that he found it… entertaining.

As soon as he got to his office he had pulled up the employee files on his computer but he couldn't find anything, it didn't surprise him too much with it being her first day, not with the crack staff he seemed to have anyhow. Figuring he was bound to bump into her at some point, he let it go, or at least he tried too, though his damn head didn't seem to want to listen. He knew if it came down to it he could always ask Lindsey, he was usually the one in charge of the new hires, but going to him just meant that he would be inviting a whole new host of problems his way.

Linds seemed to constantly stay on his ass about lightening up or getting out with someone that wasn't Darla. No, if he heard about this morning he would run so far with that information, he'd probably still be bringing her up next year. She was cute though, she was younger yes, but there was just something about her that made him feel more alive in the brief elevator trip up than he probably had in the past several years. He couldn't quite put a finger on why or how, maybe it was the simple shock of how she spoke to him or the refreshing thought of someone not even knowing who he was in these walls in the first place, but whatever it was something about her was haunting him since they'd parted ways and he really didn't know what to do with that.

Any free time he had the rest of the morning seemed to either be trying to spot her somewhere or replaying every single one of their brief moments together over in his head on loop.

OoOoO

Thankfully Buffy found her day turning around a bit by the time she found where it was she was supposed to be, surrounded by a couple familiar faces, and when she realized she wasn't the latest member of their team to arrive, and as things got started. She found she liked the gig so far, this Lindsey guy was actually pretty damn cute and she had probably swooned once or twice over the sound of his voice during his long lectures so far, and she found him to be a lot nicer than she'd been imagining, actually everyone other than the man in the elevator had been surprisingly pleasant so far that she'd had any interaction with... not that that was exactly a large number of people.

She had sat and listened while Lindsey explained a little bit about himself and about the company before moving on to talking about what exactly the project at hand was, the meeting they were supposed to be preparing for later this week and if it went well how the next couple of months should go with them seeing this thing through. It wasn't exactly the same as their usual day to day under Lilah but she doubted any one of them would have issue taking this little job on.

Today was bound to be mostly a long string of meetings, getting whatever paperwork still needing to put in, badges and whatever else but she was feeling pretty productive after a few hours had come and gone. Not exactly a lot of progress was being made but she liked knowing more about what in the world they were even doing and had been able to come up with a few ideas already which Lindsey had even put one of them up on a board to discuss when they'd gotten a little more ahead of themselves.

One of the other girls had been brave enough to bring up some of the concerns relating to the reputation of this place and Lindsey had looked a bit sheepish and more than anything seemed to dance around addressing anything head on but at the end of the day Buffy supposed she could only do her best and if something screwed up over here it wasn't going to be the end of the world, Lilah had already pretty much told the whole group to be let go sooner or later and assured them no matter what went down here it wasn't like they couldn't just go back to their normal hustle and bustle back with her.

As their lunch break came around, Buffy grumbled as she stared out the water soaked window, then again as she looked at her phone seeing it was colder out now than it had been when she got here this morning. Their little office they were designated to had its own break room so she lazily pulled up a seat and began looking for close by restaurants to either chance rushing off to, or better, seeing if they might deliver down to the lobby.

OoOoO

"I heard a rumor about you," Lindsey announced upon entering Angelus' office, quickly being cut off by him signaling he was on the phone, then letting his attention go back to the moron on the other end of the line while Lindsey made himself all too comfortable in a seat on the other side of his desk, placing food off to the side, obviously a portion of it Linds having picked up for him.

Once he was finally done with the call, Lindsey quickly picked up where he'd left off at. "Apparently you have yet to yell at anyone all day today. I haven't seen a single person even cry so far."

"Ha, ha," Angel replied, quite unamused. "I've rarely even been out of this room today actually, fucking phone hasn't stopped ringing and Harmony apparently rescheduled a meeting I had been prepared for so I had to clean up yet another one of her messes. Are you sure we can't just give her a toy phone and some crayons and let her just think she's doing something around here before I wind up strangling her off the fly one day?"

Lindsey shrugged. "Hey, well, I'd be a good witness there for you huh, I mean I'm sure she'd have it coming. Sister or not. I can testify to that shit."

Angel made some noise of agreement before taking a look at his little stack of containers Lindsey had put out in front of him earlier. After a couple moments he dared to ask how the new crack team he was borrowing from Lilah Morgan was working out so far, wondering more than a little if that was where this Buffy girl had come from as she filtered across his brain for the countless time.

Lindsey finished chewing then gave a bit of a shrug. "So far I gotta say I'm actually impressed, I might be able to pull this shit off... despite your best efforts to fuck things to hell mind you. And as long as you stay away from the lot of them I don't see how I'd have too many problems getting through this after all," Lindsey finished off with a big smile his friends' way.

Angel half listened as Lindsey rambled on about his morning, only really perking up when he made mention of the blonde by name in passing. Trying not to be too obvious about it, he did ask a couple of questions relating to her and the opening Linds had left there, making a mental note that she was in fact one of the people they were borrowing from Lilah and anything else he'd learned from this little conversation.

OoOoO

Standing up as everyone was starting to gather up their things to get out of here for the day, Buffy leaned a bit over the table as she finished her train of thought in her notes before stretching then placing her own items in a pile. Looking around the room, she quickly discarded a few pieces of trash the others had left just laying about and straightened the room back up with their books, papers and random supplies they'd all gotten out throughout the day.

Lindsey waited at the door to make sure he told each one of them one last thank you for even coming in to do any of this, smiling as he followed her out into the hall. He always kept things strictly professional when it came to work, he had learned the hard way a long time ago to never mix business with pleasure, still though a fine piece of ass like her sure did make it hard to concentrate sometimes.

After bidding Lindsey farewell for the evening Buffy made her way down to the parking garage. 'At least it's covered,' she thought as she stepped off. It was absolutely frigid at barely forty degrees, she was from here, and saying that she wasn't used to this kind of weather was the freaking understatement of the year.

OoOoO

He had to do a double take when he saw her just steps in front of him as his elevator doors opened. He knew that he should just act like he hadn't seen her and keep walking, but she looked like she was freezing and he knew it was his own damn fault. Quickly shrugging off his coat he took a few quick steps to catch up to her, "Here," he sighed, raising his voice over the splatter of the rain outside.

She'd nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of his voice, everything in the garage seemed to echo she hadn't even heard another elevator arrive behind her. Heck she hadn't even heard him or known he was there until she felt the warmth of his coat surrounding her. "Oh, hey," she smiled, "This really isn't necessary," she tried but even as the words left her mouth she felt her hands pulling the leather more snuggly around her.

Angel waved her off, "I'm pretty sure it's the least I could." Then he watched, entranced as her teeth raked over bottom lip.

"Well thank you," the smallest blush tinted her cheeks, "And I promise to return it tomorrow."

Not quite trusting the thoughts swirling around inside his head he simply nodded then turned to walk away, pausing when he heard her ask his name.

Turning around slowly he smirked just barely fighting back the grin threatening to overtake him. "Angel."

"Angel," she repeated in a way that seemed like she was testing how the words felt. "Kinda ironic don't ya think?"

That actually got him to laugh, if only just a little . "I see you survived the day, was it as bad as you thought?"

She groaned a little as she fell in step along side of him. "It had its moments but overall it definitely turned out better than I planned."

"And that boss of yours, how was he?"

She smiled, "Oh Lindsey was great, he actually seems really nice surprisingly enough. I still haven't met the big boss yet, but I'm not really holding my breath on that one either. Apparently his office is on the floor above us and according to the gossip he hardly ever ventures down to where us commoners gather. I mean I'm sure I'll meet him at some point this week but the longer I can push that off the better."

She paused as they came up to her car, "Well this is me," she gestured towards the old Honda. "Here," she went to shrug off his jacket but he stopped her by shaking his head, "Keep it, 'till tomorrow at least."

"Are you sure?"

He just nodded, "Oh and Buffy?"

She turned back around,"Hmm?"

"Liam's not so bad, whenever you do meet him just try to keep an open mind."