Spike woke up first and propped himself up on one elbow, just watching her sleep, as he had so many times before. Almost as if she could sense his gaze, Rose's eyelids fluttered open. "Good morning, love."
"It certainly is," Spike said with a contented sigh, snuggling back down next to her. "It feels so good to be able to hold you again, luv." He nuzzled at her neck. "There were times I thought I'd go crazy, missing the feel of you."
"But it's such a short trip," Rose teased, then pulled his face around for a kiss. She started wriggling out of his embrace.
"Where do you think you're going?" Spike inquired, holding her tighter. He was a bit surprised to get a blush that raised the temperature of her entire body. She didn't say anything, but her eyes flicked towards the bathroom.
"Need to spend a penny, do you?" He released her with a chuckle. "Don't be long."
Rose gave him an odd look before she left. "Sometimes you talk awfully funny."
&&&&&&&
"Boss?" Harmony gently nudged Angel's shoulder. He grumbled something profane without actually waking. "Boss?" she tried again. "Senior staff meeting. Everyone's waiting on you."
Angel opened one eye. Brilliant sunlight streamed non-threateningly through the special windows. "What time is it?" he muttered, still not fully alert.
"It's almost nine-thirty," his assistant informed him. "Have you been here all night?"
"Only since about four," Angel replied, dragging himself upright. "Harmony, do you think you could call everyone and have them meet here instead of the conference room?"
"No problem," she answered. "But why were you sleeping in your office?" Harmony had gone home before things had gotten interesting, and was therefore not up on the latest events.
"The Powers That Be, in their infinite wisdom decided to make Rose corporeal last night," Angel explained, heading to the bathroom to make such repairs to his appearance as he could. "I hope they get the worst of it out of their systems by tonight. I want to sleep in my own bed." He went into the bathroom before Harm could ask more questions.
When he emerged, still feeling groggy and sandy-eyed, his senior staff had assembled. Harmony was still there, too, off to one side, pumping Lorne for information. He motioned everyone to sit down, and Harmony made herself at home also. Not that it mattered, he supposed, Rose's transformation would no doubt soon be bruited about all over the entire law firm. That reminded him of something.
"Harmony, did you find anyone who quit or disappeared in the time frame I asked you about?" Angel figured that if she was going to horn in on a high level meeting, the least she could do was contribute to it.
"Margot Wainwright," Harmony replied. "She was found dead about two blocks away from here three days after Ms. McBride made her visit. The police are keeping a tight lid on it, though. I guess there wasn't a whole lot of her left. They had to identify her by her dental work."
"So if that was the bounty hunter's contact here, does that mean I can bail on the screenings?" Lorne asked, looking a little strained. "If I'm going to keep up with my regular work, and screen everybody, I'm going to be missing even more sleep than I am now. And I'm not getting much as it is."
"Here's something that might help." Gunn handed some papers to the demon. "A list of likely suspects, just in case there was more than one person involved." He got an embarrassed look on his face. "Get some sleep Lorne, please."
Looks were exchanged, and the only reason that Angel didn't close his eyes to try to shut out the memory of what had happened when the Pylean had had his sleep removed, courtesy of Wolfram and Hart, was that if he did close them, he thought he'd fall asleep again.
"Speaking of sleep," Wesley jumped in before Angel could carry on with the business. "You don't look as if you got much last night."
"He was sleeping in the office since four," Harmony chimed in, ignoring the dirty look Angel gave her. She got a devilish gleam in her eyes, and a grin when she finally managed to add everything up. "Spikey always was.., energetic."
Knowing looks and chuckles made the rounds, but no sympathy for Angel. "Do you think we could get some business done?" he asked in aggrieved tones.
&&&&&&
"Don't know about you, pet, but I'm starting to feel a bit peckish." Rose came back into the bedroom to find Spike pulling on a pair of pants.
"If that means hungry," Rose responded. "Then, I am too. And I never was much for breakfast."
"Been using a lot of energy," Spike said with a smirk. He threw her one of his shirts. "Protective custody or not, sweetheart, we're going to have to get the ponce to let us go shopping. You can't get by with the clothes you've got, or what's left of them."
Rose put the shirt on. They were pretty much of a size, so it just covered the essentials, barely. "I suppose so," she replied. "I think I do have a check coming, though, it will probably be in your name."
"Do you want to try explaining that to me?" Spike asked, peeking out the bedroom door to make sure they were alone.
"Angel and Wesley insisted on paying me for helping out in the research department," Rose replied. "But for obvious reasons, they couldn't make out the check to me."
"Pair a gits," Spike remarked. "But still, it will come in handy." He got an impish grin. "Going to let me help you pick stuff out?"
"Can I stop you?" she answered, returning the grin. The grin faded. "I wonder what I'm supposed to do about food?"
The phone rang, and Spike, being nearest, picked it up. "Hello? Obviously, since we have been confining ourselves to the bedroom and I was right here to pick it up. We were just wondering about that. You will? I'm sure she'll appreciate that. Well, duh. She's got what you might call a limited wardrobe at the moment. Yeah, later." He turned to Rose. "He's having something sent up for you to eat right now, pet."
"What was the rest of it about?" Rose inquired.
"Stupid ponce wanted to remind us not to go out anywhere," Spike said in disgust. "Aside from the fact that it's broad daylight out there and I don't much fancy bein' a pile of dust, you don't have anything that's fit to wear in public at the moment."
"But what about what I..?" Rose's voice trailed off. "Oh, I guess it won't. You did get a little.., enthusiastic."
He went to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her shoulder. "Don't recall hearing any complaints, luv."
She leaned back against him, just enjoying the physical closeness, so long denied. "And you're not going to either." She turned her head to him and kissed his cheek.
Before things could go further, there was a discreet tap at the door.
"Out of sight, if you don't mind, pet," Spike said. "If that's your food already, I don't want some low-level flunky seeing you in next to nothing." Rose, grinning, retreated to the bedroom, but kept the door open a crack and peeked out.
It was indeed the meal that Angel had ordered for her, but instead of a faceless menial pushing the cart, it was Harmony.
"Hi Spikey," she said nonchalantly. "I need to see, oh, hi, Rose," she went on, spotting the half-hidden figure. "I need to talk to you a minute."
"Can't it wait a bit, Harm?" Spike asked. "She's not really dressed for company."
"And that's why I'm here," Harmony replied. "Come on out, Rose, I need to get your sizes."
"My sizes?" Rose queried, emerging fully, and tugging futilely at the ends of Spike's shirt, in a vain effort to make it cover more. "Whatever for?"
"Well duh," Harmony said, with a roll of her eyes. "So I can go shopping and get you some new clothes, that's why. I was told to get you a whole new wardrobe." Her eyes were glowing at the thought of the spree she was going on, even if it was on someone else's behalf. Harmony just loved to shop.
"I'm not sure I can afford a whole new wardrobe," Rose protested. "Just a couple of outfits ought to be enough to tide me over until I get paid."
"You're not paying for it," Harmony replied, starting to show traces of impatience. "The whole gang chipped in, including the boss. Kind of a welcome back present."
"But I can't..," Rose started to object again, but Spike interrupted.
"Yes, you can, sweetheart," he said firmly. He turned to Harmony. "Is it to late to make a contribution to the fund?"
"Spike!" Rose yelped.
"Hush," the vampires admonished her.
"Why don't you start in eating without me, pet?" Spike suggested. "I need to have a word with Harmony." He disappeared into the bedroom for a few minutes, then emerged and pressed something into Harmony's hand, and whispered something in her ear that made her giggle, then, Harmony left.
"I thought she wanted my sizes," Rose remarked.
"She's got them," Spike replied. "I know what sizes you wear, precious girl. I've done enough shopping for you myself."
"And what were you whispering to her?" the lady asked suspiciously. "My clothing sizes are hardly a state secret."
"It's a surprise," her honey replied with a smirk. "Eat up, luv. You've been burning up the calories." He stood behind her and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "And if I have any say in it, you'll be burning up some more before long."
&&&&&&&
The bounty hunter was ticked. How had they found the bug on the vampire so quickly? It was so small and unobtrusive, that it shouldn't even have been discovered when he combed his bleached-blond hair. The only way she could think of that someone could have found it was either he was given a very thorough head to toe search as soon as he was rescued, or it had been found the same way she had planted it. She didn't know why, but that just didn't seem right. While the finer emotions were, for the most part, lost on her, she'd never seen someone as patently devoted to someone as Spike was to Rose go screwing around. She shrugged. It hadn't been all that hard to lure him out once. It might take a bit more finesse this time, but she was pretty sure that she could come up with something that could entice him from the security of Wolfram and Hart's imposing offices. Maybe she could plant a listening device on one of the others. No telling what kind of information she could come up with that way. And it wouldn't necessarily have to be on their persons. Merely something delivered to their offices. The more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea. Now, what to send. Something that wouldn't immediately be trashed. She wanted to hear more than a few minutes, or hours of conversation, depending on when the package was delivered, and how often and when the trash was emptied. She briefly regretted the loss of Margot Wainwright. Biddable, suggestible, and eminently able. But she'd been a loose end, and if there was one thing that she couldn't abide was loose ends. Loose ends could be backtracked to the source. Oh well, easy come, easy go. It shouldn't be too difficult to find a new contact at the law firm if she really felt the need for one. And she really wanted to get that vampire and the uppity ghost. It was a matter of pride, now
&&&&&&&
Spike glanced at the time. "Probably ought to get up and stirring, sweetheart. Harm will probably be back soon with your new stuff."
Rose stretched and sighed. "Do I have to? I could go back to sleep now. Are you trying to make up for the last few months in just a matter of hours?"
"Rise and shine, luv," Spike said with an unrepentant grin. "And then, after Harmony has been and gone, you can get some rest. If you really want to."
"I really want to," Rose muttered, snuggling into the pillow, eyes closing.
"Later," Spike repeated, yanking the covers off her. "If you don't get up, I'll tickle."
Her eyes snapped open. "You wouldn't," she said. Then, she saw the look on his face. "You would too. Tell me again why I put up with you?"
"Because you love me, babe." He leaned down and whispered in her ear.
"I guess that must be it," she agreed, eyes starting to close again. Suddenly she let out a yelp and jackknifed upright. "I'm getting up, love, I'm getting up. Stop tickling."
&&&&&&
Harmony was barely visible behind the stacks of boxes and bags. Spike met her at the door and relieved her of a good portion of her burden. "I hope you don't mind, Spikey, but I had the rest of it marked for delivery to your place as soon as you guys can go back there. This was all that I could carry."
Rose's eyes were saucers. "You mean there's more than that?" She started to sit down, then thought better of it. The shirt tended to ride up when she sat down, and there wasn't much farther up it could go without giving a peep show. Instead, she took another drink from the oversized cup of coffee in her hands. She hadn't had it when she'd been human before, and not being acclimated to the caffeine, it was producing a major buzz. Spike figured that it would be several hours before she was ready to go back to sleep. Not that he had a problem with that.
"Spike, why don't you dump that stuff in the bedroom?" Harmony suggested. "Then us girls can go in there and sort stuff out."
"Why do you have to hide out in the bedroom?" Spike asked. "It's not like she's got anything I haven't seen." He gave Rose a wicked grin, just to watch the blood rush to her cheeks.
Harmony rolled her eyes. "I couldn't explain it to you, Spike. You wouldn't understand." She gave Rose a look. "Men." The ladies disappeared into the bedroom.
Spike rolled his eyes. "Women."