Like Fire And Ice
by Boogee and Silver
Chapter 2:
Spike was sitting behind his desk, elbows propped, head buried in his hands. He was currently trying to will his headache away, caused by Dru's another uncontrollable behavior. He was getting those every time he heard her whining, and was seriously considering moving out this time. Enough is enough, he thought as he slowly rubbed his aching temples, letting out a quiet sigh. His head jerked up when a familiar English accent came over the intercom of his phone.
"Spike, could you come into my office please?"
It was his boss, Rupert Giles. Spike and Giles have been close friends ever since he was a little lad. His father was also a police officer who happened to be Giles' partner many years ago. They both were best buds for years, and Spike got to love Giles like a second father. After an unfortunate accident which left him and his only sister, Valerie, orphans, Giles took them under his wings. Spike was only 13 years old then, but he knew from that moment on that he wanted to be like his father. He wanted to help people and he swore to himself that he will be the best at it. Now, almost 15 years later he was just that. In every little detail - starting on the father-like features, which made him almost irresistible to the female part of the population, to the stubbornness and wits his father was so respected for.
Spike shook his head pushing the still painful memories of his father to the far corner of his mind and reached out to the intercom.
"On my way, give me a sec."
He answered as he pushed the button on the phone panel. He took in a couple of deep breaths to clear his mind of Dru, then pulled himself up and casually stroke out of his office, letting the long black duster - the only precious thing left after his father - flow after him.
After a brief knock on the door followed by a quite 'come in', Spike entered the room and caught site of a blonde woman sitting with her back to him in the chair across from Giles. He furrowed his brow at Giles who at this moment chose to look at him and motioned to Spike to close the door and come in, sending him a big grin.
"Ah. William," In front of clients they call each other by their respected names, "Come in, please. I want you to meet Mrs. Elizabeth Nelson," he held out his hand toward the woman, "She is going to be the new case assigned to you. Mrs. Nelson, this is our best man - William Whirlington."
The said woman turned around to face him for the first time and he momentarily thought her very young and extremely beautiful. She was no more than 22... 23 years old and judging by the outfit she wore, very, very wealthy. Her golden blond locks were loosely pinned on top of her head and she wore a gold pin in her hair to keep them from falling on her young, almost childish-like face.
"Nice to meet you...Mrs. Nelson is it?" Spike flashed her one of his trade mark grins and held out his and to her.
The look she gave him at that moment could kill any good conversation. She was obviously not satisfied with his appearance and the way he was looking at her made her shudder. She felt like she was some kind of an exhibit in a museum. The way he was dressed to work was simply outrageous to her and at this moment she highly doubted that he was really as good as Mr. Giles told her. He obviously was rude, had no manners whatsoever and was probably a typical male who had no respect for females. However Mr. Giles has told her that Detective William Whats-His-Name was the best in his agency and she was really scared and needed help. So, she just went as far as giving him a cold glare and slightly raised eyebrows, then sighed and shook his hand.
"How do you do, Mr. Whirlington."
She answered shortly, then withdrew her hand and proceeded to wipe it in a handkerchief she just fished out of her leather purse. Spike raised an eyebrow at that and looked at Giles who just shrugged.
Giles spoke up. "William, Mrs. Nelson's father is missing and presumed dead. I want you to help her find him. Take her into your office and see what you can do, alright?" Then he turned to Elizabeth, who was still sitting in her chair. "Mrs. Nelson, I am living you in good hands. William is our best detective. He will do anything to help you with your problem. Please, tell him anything he needs to know and trust us. We will find your father."
She stood up gathered her purse.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Giles. I very much appreciate it. And I hope you will be able to find my daddy. After all, I am paying you a ridicules amount of money. Good day."
Having said that she walked to the door, leaving both men stunned and too shocked to speak. She stopped shortly and loudly cleared her throat indicating that she would like to leave the office.
Spike shoot Giles an evil glare that said 'I'm going to get you for this, old man' and walked to the door, opening it for her.
"After you, my lady." He said bowing deeply and she rolled her eyes to heavens sighing loudly, and walking out.
Spike was right behind her and pointed to the door to his office where she immediately turned to, and followed, once again opening the door for her and motioning to 'please come in'. When she walked in leaving him behind, he managed to roll his eyes to the passing Harmony and then walked in closing the door behind him.
She stepped into the room and looked around. What a mess, she thought to herself. Not only was his way of dressing leaving a lot to be wished for, but his office is in total disarray. The case files were covering half of his desk, which, by the way was made out of some cheap kind of wood, she noticed. She didn't even recognized the type, it must have been one of those really cheap ones. The ones she was not interested with. To the right was a bookcase filled with different kind of well read books, judging by the look and the way the binds were almost broken in half. To the left stood a lonely ficus plant which was dusty and probably not watered for at least 2 weeks. The office itself was way too small for her likes and the window was situated on the wrong wall. She also hated the wallpaper, the rug on the floor and the awful creamy blinds which were covering the whole wall behind her, cutting them off from the curious looks of the other employees.
Spike startled her out of her thought. "Have a seat pet, and tell me how can I help you?" He pointed to the chair.
She gave him a hard glare. "You can start by not calling me 'pet'. " She answered coldly. "My name is Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Summers-Nelson, but if your English mind can't remember that much, you can call me Mrs. Nelson. And I would appreciate if you put that down." She pointed to the cigarette he was about to light. "I hate the smell of smoke. It's disgusting and it ruins the health. Thank you."
Spike merely raised an eyebrow at that, but complied. At least to the smoking part. If she was being such an uptight bitch then he will show her how bloody fun he could be. She would be cursing the day she walked into his office and order him around. He would not be ordered. Especially by a woman. He smirked to himself. This would be so much fun.
"Can I offer you a cookie Buffy...you don't mind if I call you Buffy do you? It's just that you look more like a Buffy than an Elizabeth to me, luv."
He made sure to accent the last word and almost burst out laughing when he saw her shocked expression. That's what he expected. A prissy, spoiled uptight bitch.
She was outraged. "Excuse me?!"
He laughed under his breath, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. That was really, really rude of me." He lied through his smiling teeth. "What can I help you with?"
She decided to let it go for the simple fact that the nice older man, Mr. Giles or something, had told her that William was the best at what he did, and she needed his help.
"Well, like Mr. Giles told you, my daddy is missing. He's been missing for about a year and a half now, nobody has heard from him since then. He just disappeared one day and never came back. We were searching and searching, but the police couldn't find anything. I miss him so much sometimes." She sighed and reached out for her ever-present white silk handkerchief to wipe her running nose with. " I am sorry, Mr. Whirlingtron. I didn't mean to cry like that." She sniffed. "God, that's so embarrassing."
Spike watched her closely piecing bits of information she was giving him. Missing father? He would need to contact Valerie at her office. Maybe she would pull out a case file for him. He scrabbled a mental note to call his sister, and when Buffy finally stopped sniffing, he motioned for her to continue.
"Anyway, about 4 months ago I started finding some of his personal belongings around my house. Things that were very dear to him and were currently locked in the storage in his beach house in Miami. Things, that only I have a key to."
Spike cocked his head at that. "What kind of things? If I may ask?"
Buffy opened her purse and pulled out some items.
"I brought some of them with me. Here is his gold pocket watch his father gave him." She laid it on the desk and Spike took it and examined it. "And here is a picture of the both of us when I was a little girl."
"Are you sure you put these things in storage pet? He asked her. "You couldn't have left them lying about and don't remember?"
"Are you accusing me of lying?" She raised her voice at that.
"Sorry sweetcheeks," he laughed under his breath. "but these are routine questions I have to ask in order to get the situation as clear as possible. Don't be offended by it."
She sighed, "I also think someone is following me too."
He raised his eyebrow to that.
"What do you mean following you, and where?"
"Around town, anywhere I go. I have this dreadful feeling that someone's following me. But every time I look around there's no one there. As soon as I turn back the feeling comes back. It's almost... haunting..." She said that last word with an absent look in her eyes, as if she was trying to remember how it felt.
"Do you have any ideas on who you think it is?" He asked her.
She looked at him, not really sure she should tell him who she thinks it is, then finaly deciding that it would be better if he knew.
"I think it's my father."
Spike's eyes widened and started to laugh at her.
"What? Didn't you just tell me he was missing?" He leaned over the desk to get closer to her and whispered to her: "He can't be missing if he's out following you around, pet."
"You don't get it do you? All his personal items just appearing in my house out of nowhere?" She indicated the objects Spike carelessly thrown on the desk. Then she looked at him so intensively he had to back up to his chair. "He's missing and probably dead, and I think it is his spirit that is following me."
He saw that she was dead serious and his brows furrowed.
"Look pet. I don't think the police is where you need to be coming for help on this matter. Maybe you need a psychic or something, if you believe in that sorta crap." He told her casually.
She gave him the evil eye.
"Believe me, this is the last place I wanted to be, here with you. I've been to those other places, they just don't have the resources that you people have, to be able to find someone. I just want to know what happened to my daddy. Is he still alive or dead. I want a peace of mind. I want..." She stopped, dabbing her watery eyes again.
"You're right, I'm sorry. We'll do everything we can to help you." He stated calming her down a bit.
"Now again, don't be offended luv, but are you married?" He new he made the mistake as soon as he looked at her eyes.
"Were you raised by wolves or something!?" She was fuming. "I told you to call me Mrs. Nelson, and yes I am happily married to a wonderful man. His name is Angel, we've been married for 3 years now, he's older than me, I meet him through my father. Is that enough information for you?! Or maybe you would like to know about our sexual life too?"
She blushed a bit at that. What on earth made her say that?! Must be his presence. The man would bring out the devil in Pope himself.
'Angel, what the hell kind of bloody poofter name is that', he thought to himself. Well, it couldn't get any worse so...
"What kind of name is Angel, I mean is it his nickname or something? I have to get these names straight if I'm going to interview everybody."
That did it. Elizabeth stood up violently and stalked to the door. She turned back before she opened it though.
"Good. Day. Mister. Whirlington." She grit through her teeth. "I will be back tomorrow to see what you have found, if anything at all."
And with that, she walked out the door, slamming it behind her.
Spike propped his legs on the desk, and leaned back in his chair, grinning like a mad man as he congratulated himself on a job well done. The uptight bint was sharp as a knife and definitely a challenging one, and he buried himself in thoughts of her tiny cute ass, as he planned his next move. He was so engrossed in his thoughts he didn't hear Harmony walk in and he crashed to the floor with the chair, when she startled him with her squeaking voice.
"Bloody hell, HARMONY !!!!"
*********
Giles was shuffling through the mass of papers Spike deposited on his desk the day before, trying to figure out the beginning and the end of the 35- page report on the previous case, when heard the knock on his door.
"Ah, yes. Come in."
The door opened with Spike standing there with one hand leaning on the outside wall and his head cocked to the other side.
"You gave me a loony, you know that don't you?"
He pushed himself off the wall, walked in and sat in the chair throwing his feet on Giles' desk nd pushing himself back a little.
"Bleeding cuckoo!!" He tapped his head with a finger.
Giles couldn't help but chuckle.
"That bad huh? Funny she didn't seem" He tapped his temple. "cuckoo to me. And get your feet off of the desk before someone sees you." He pointed out.
Spike let out a loud sigh, dropped his feet to the floor and ran a hand through his platinum white hair.
"Pops, she said she is seeing ghosts!"
He jumped up out of the chair scaring Giles in the process and started pacing around the room. "She told me she thinks someone is following her, and get this..." he stopped in front of the desk and leaned over to Giles. "...she thinks it's her father!"
Giles took off his glasses and laid them on the desk.
"Interesting, very interesting." He murmured, then pulled out a handkerchief and started cleaning them. "Well, what did you tell her?" He said as he put his glasses back on.
"I laughed at her," He folded his arms in front if him. "Told her she needed a bloody psychic and I'm sure that a nice expensive therapy would do miracles."
Giles looked at him in disbelief.
"You know Spike, I love you like a son, but sometimes I don't understand the way you think." Spike grinned at that.
"I love you too Giles. And don't worry I told her we would help her. See I'm not all that bad."
He smirked and wriggled his eyebrow at him. Then walked over to him and gave him a little pat on the back.
"See you at dinner, pops." He threw in and walked out, his ever-present duster blowing behind him.
TBC
Comments? Send feedback to Silver ( silverflakez@earthlink.net ) and Boogee ( vdw@nuvox.net )
Chapter 2:
Spike was sitting behind his desk, elbows propped, head buried in his hands. He was currently trying to will his headache away, caused by Dru's another uncontrollable behavior. He was getting those every time he heard her whining, and was seriously considering moving out this time. Enough is enough, he thought as he slowly rubbed his aching temples, letting out a quiet sigh. His head jerked up when a familiar English accent came over the intercom of his phone.
"Spike, could you come into my office please?"
It was his boss, Rupert Giles. Spike and Giles have been close friends ever since he was a little lad. His father was also a police officer who happened to be Giles' partner many years ago. They both were best buds for years, and Spike got to love Giles like a second father. After an unfortunate accident which left him and his only sister, Valerie, orphans, Giles took them under his wings. Spike was only 13 years old then, but he knew from that moment on that he wanted to be like his father. He wanted to help people and he swore to himself that he will be the best at it. Now, almost 15 years later he was just that. In every little detail - starting on the father-like features, which made him almost irresistible to the female part of the population, to the stubbornness and wits his father was so respected for.
Spike shook his head pushing the still painful memories of his father to the far corner of his mind and reached out to the intercom.
"On my way, give me a sec."
He answered as he pushed the button on the phone panel. He took in a couple of deep breaths to clear his mind of Dru, then pulled himself up and casually stroke out of his office, letting the long black duster - the only precious thing left after his father - flow after him.
After a brief knock on the door followed by a quite 'come in', Spike entered the room and caught site of a blonde woman sitting with her back to him in the chair across from Giles. He furrowed his brow at Giles who at this moment chose to look at him and motioned to Spike to close the door and come in, sending him a big grin.
"Ah. William," In front of clients they call each other by their respected names, "Come in, please. I want you to meet Mrs. Elizabeth Nelson," he held out his hand toward the woman, "She is going to be the new case assigned to you. Mrs. Nelson, this is our best man - William Whirlington."
The said woman turned around to face him for the first time and he momentarily thought her very young and extremely beautiful. She was no more than 22... 23 years old and judging by the outfit she wore, very, very wealthy. Her golden blond locks were loosely pinned on top of her head and she wore a gold pin in her hair to keep them from falling on her young, almost childish-like face.
"Nice to meet you...Mrs. Nelson is it?" Spike flashed her one of his trade mark grins and held out his and to her.
The look she gave him at that moment could kill any good conversation. She was obviously not satisfied with his appearance and the way he was looking at her made her shudder. She felt like she was some kind of an exhibit in a museum. The way he was dressed to work was simply outrageous to her and at this moment she highly doubted that he was really as good as Mr. Giles told her. He obviously was rude, had no manners whatsoever and was probably a typical male who had no respect for females. However Mr. Giles has told her that Detective William Whats-His-Name was the best in his agency and she was really scared and needed help. So, she just went as far as giving him a cold glare and slightly raised eyebrows, then sighed and shook his hand.
"How do you do, Mr. Whirlington."
She answered shortly, then withdrew her hand and proceeded to wipe it in a handkerchief she just fished out of her leather purse. Spike raised an eyebrow at that and looked at Giles who just shrugged.
Giles spoke up. "William, Mrs. Nelson's father is missing and presumed dead. I want you to help her find him. Take her into your office and see what you can do, alright?" Then he turned to Elizabeth, who was still sitting in her chair. "Mrs. Nelson, I am living you in good hands. William is our best detective. He will do anything to help you with your problem. Please, tell him anything he needs to know and trust us. We will find your father."
She stood up gathered her purse.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Giles. I very much appreciate it. And I hope you will be able to find my daddy. After all, I am paying you a ridicules amount of money. Good day."
Having said that she walked to the door, leaving both men stunned and too shocked to speak. She stopped shortly and loudly cleared her throat indicating that she would like to leave the office.
Spike shoot Giles an evil glare that said 'I'm going to get you for this, old man' and walked to the door, opening it for her.
"After you, my lady." He said bowing deeply and she rolled her eyes to heavens sighing loudly, and walking out.
Spike was right behind her and pointed to the door to his office where she immediately turned to, and followed, once again opening the door for her and motioning to 'please come in'. When she walked in leaving him behind, he managed to roll his eyes to the passing Harmony and then walked in closing the door behind him.
She stepped into the room and looked around. What a mess, she thought to herself. Not only was his way of dressing leaving a lot to be wished for, but his office is in total disarray. The case files were covering half of his desk, which, by the way was made out of some cheap kind of wood, she noticed. She didn't even recognized the type, it must have been one of those really cheap ones. The ones she was not interested with. To the right was a bookcase filled with different kind of well read books, judging by the look and the way the binds were almost broken in half. To the left stood a lonely ficus plant which was dusty and probably not watered for at least 2 weeks. The office itself was way too small for her likes and the window was situated on the wrong wall. She also hated the wallpaper, the rug on the floor and the awful creamy blinds which were covering the whole wall behind her, cutting them off from the curious looks of the other employees.
Spike startled her out of her thought. "Have a seat pet, and tell me how can I help you?" He pointed to the chair.
She gave him a hard glare. "You can start by not calling me 'pet'. " She answered coldly. "My name is Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Summers-Nelson, but if your English mind can't remember that much, you can call me Mrs. Nelson. And I would appreciate if you put that down." She pointed to the cigarette he was about to light. "I hate the smell of smoke. It's disgusting and it ruins the health. Thank you."
Spike merely raised an eyebrow at that, but complied. At least to the smoking part. If she was being such an uptight bitch then he will show her how bloody fun he could be. She would be cursing the day she walked into his office and order him around. He would not be ordered. Especially by a woman. He smirked to himself. This would be so much fun.
"Can I offer you a cookie Buffy...you don't mind if I call you Buffy do you? It's just that you look more like a Buffy than an Elizabeth to me, luv."
He made sure to accent the last word and almost burst out laughing when he saw her shocked expression. That's what he expected. A prissy, spoiled uptight bitch.
She was outraged. "Excuse me?!"
He laughed under his breath, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. That was really, really rude of me." He lied through his smiling teeth. "What can I help you with?"
She decided to let it go for the simple fact that the nice older man, Mr. Giles or something, had told her that William was the best at what he did, and she needed his help.
"Well, like Mr. Giles told you, my daddy is missing. He's been missing for about a year and a half now, nobody has heard from him since then. He just disappeared one day and never came back. We were searching and searching, but the police couldn't find anything. I miss him so much sometimes." She sighed and reached out for her ever-present white silk handkerchief to wipe her running nose with. " I am sorry, Mr. Whirlingtron. I didn't mean to cry like that." She sniffed. "God, that's so embarrassing."
Spike watched her closely piecing bits of information she was giving him. Missing father? He would need to contact Valerie at her office. Maybe she would pull out a case file for him. He scrabbled a mental note to call his sister, and when Buffy finally stopped sniffing, he motioned for her to continue.
"Anyway, about 4 months ago I started finding some of his personal belongings around my house. Things that were very dear to him and were currently locked in the storage in his beach house in Miami. Things, that only I have a key to."
Spike cocked his head at that. "What kind of things? If I may ask?"
Buffy opened her purse and pulled out some items.
"I brought some of them with me. Here is his gold pocket watch his father gave him." She laid it on the desk and Spike took it and examined it. "And here is a picture of the both of us when I was a little girl."
"Are you sure you put these things in storage pet? He asked her. "You couldn't have left them lying about and don't remember?"
"Are you accusing me of lying?" She raised her voice at that.
"Sorry sweetcheeks," he laughed under his breath. "but these are routine questions I have to ask in order to get the situation as clear as possible. Don't be offended by it."
She sighed, "I also think someone is following me too."
He raised his eyebrow to that.
"What do you mean following you, and where?"
"Around town, anywhere I go. I have this dreadful feeling that someone's following me. But every time I look around there's no one there. As soon as I turn back the feeling comes back. It's almost... haunting..." She said that last word with an absent look in her eyes, as if she was trying to remember how it felt.
"Do you have any ideas on who you think it is?" He asked her.
She looked at him, not really sure she should tell him who she thinks it is, then finaly deciding that it would be better if he knew.
"I think it's my father."
Spike's eyes widened and started to laugh at her.
"What? Didn't you just tell me he was missing?" He leaned over the desk to get closer to her and whispered to her: "He can't be missing if he's out following you around, pet."
"You don't get it do you? All his personal items just appearing in my house out of nowhere?" She indicated the objects Spike carelessly thrown on the desk. Then she looked at him so intensively he had to back up to his chair. "He's missing and probably dead, and I think it is his spirit that is following me."
He saw that she was dead serious and his brows furrowed.
"Look pet. I don't think the police is where you need to be coming for help on this matter. Maybe you need a psychic or something, if you believe in that sorta crap." He told her casually.
She gave him the evil eye.
"Believe me, this is the last place I wanted to be, here with you. I've been to those other places, they just don't have the resources that you people have, to be able to find someone. I just want to know what happened to my daddy. Is he still alive or dead. I want a peace of mind. I want..." She stopped, dabbing her watery eyes again.
"You're right, I'm sorry. We'll do everything we can to help you." He stated calming her down a bit.
"Now again, don't be offended luv, but are you married?" He new he made the mistake as soon as he looked at her eyes.
"Were you raised by wolves or something!?" She was fuming. "I told you to call me Mrs. Nelson, and yes I am happily married to a wonderful man. His name is Angel, we've been married for 3 years now, he's older than me, I meet him through my father. Is that enough information for you?! Or maybe you would like to know about our sexual life too?"
She blushed a bit at that. What on earth made her say that?! Must be his presence. The man would bring out the devil in Pope himself.
'Angel, what the hell kind of bloody poofter name is that', he thought to himself. Well, it couldn't get any worse so...
"What kind of name is Angel, I mean is it his nickname or something? I have to get these names straight if I'm going to interview everybody."
That did it. Elizabeth stood up violently and stalked to the door. She turned back before she opened it though.
"Good. Day. Mister. Whirlington." She grit through her teeth. "I will be back tomorrow to see what you have found, if anything at all."
And with that, she walked out the door, slamming it behind her.
Spike propped his legs on the desk, and leaned back in his chair, grinning like a mad man as he congratulated himself on a job well done. The uptight bint was sharp as a knife and definitely a challenging one, and he buried himself in thoughts of her tiny cute ass, as he planned his next move. He was so engrossed in his thoughts he didn't hear Harmony walk in and he crashed to the floor with the chair, when she startled him with her squeaking voice.
"Bloody hell, HARMONY !!!!"
*********
Giles was shuffling through the mass of papers Spike deposited on his desk the day before, trying to figure out the beginning and the end of the 35- page report on the previous case, when heard the knock on his door.
"Ah, yes. Come in."
The door opened with Spike standing there with one hand leaning on the outside wall and his head cocked to the other side.
"You gave me a loony, you know that don't you?"
He pushed himself off the wall, walked in and sat in the chair throwing his feet on Giles' desk nd pushing himself back a little.
"Bleeding cuckoo!!" He tapped his head with a finger.
Giles couldn't help but chuckle.
"That bad huh? Funny she didn't seem" He tapped his temple. "cuckoo to me. And get your feet off of the desk before someone sees you." He pointed out.
Spike let out a loud sigh, dropped his feet to the floor and ran a hand through his platinum white hair.
"Pops, she said she is seeing ghosts!"
He jumped up out of the chair scaring Giles in the process and started pacing around the room. "She told me she thinks someone is following her, and get this..." he stopped in front of the desk and leaned over to Giles. "...she thinks it's her father!"
Giles took off his glasses and laid them on the desk.
"Interesting, very interesting." He murmured, then pulled out a handkerchief and started cleaning them. "Well, what did you tell her?" He said as he put his glasses back on.
"I laughed at her," He folded his arms in front if him. "Told her she needed a bloody psychic and I'm sure that a nice expensive therapy would do miracles."
Giles looked at him in disbelief.
"You know Spike, I love you like a son, but sometimes I don't understand the way you think." Spike grinned at that.
"I love you too Giles. And don't worry I told her we would help her. See I'm not all that bad."
He smirked and wriggled his eyebrow at him. Then walked over to him and gave him a little pat on the back.
"See you at dinner, pops." He threw in and walked out, his ever-present duster blowing behind him.
TBC
Comments? Send feedback to Silver ( silverflakez@earthlink.net ) and Boogee ( vdw@nuvox.net )