Chapter 8:
"I mean, who the hell does this guy think he is? He comes into my home, and starts asking me all those questions..." Angel was pacing the length of the library, his voice rising with every word he spoke.
"Well, what did you tell him?" A male voice answered from the phone speaker.
"I told him nothing!" Angel yelled in the direction of his desk. "I mean, I told him some shit about the house and Hank... you know. The usual police crap." He stalked to the mini bar and poured himself a generous amount of scotch. "Just because he's some kind of 'detective' doesn't mean I'm gonna tell him the story of my life, you know?" He gulped down his drink and put the glass down with a loud 'clunk'. "Prick." He mumbled more to himself than to the person on the phone. "Actually, William Whirlington is a professional..."
"And get this!" He interrupted the person not even noticing him speaking. "Then he has balls to come up to MY WIFE and comfort her??!!" Angel snarled turning suddenly and stalking towards the phone. "No one comes up to my wife and comforts her! SHE HAS HER HUSBAND TO DO THIS!" He leaned to the speaker. "I AM HER FUCKING HUSBAND!" He yelled right into it.
"Jeez, man. Chill. You need to lay off the booze, 'cause..."
"Don't you fucking tell me what to do, you asshole!" Angel pounded his large fist on the desk causing the phone to jump up. "I'm gonna come there to talk this out with you, and you better have a plan to get this British piece of shit off my back.. no. OUR BACK. You got it?"
"Oh man. You can't come here. You know the rules..."
"Fuck the rules. And fuck you!" Angel yelled to the speaker and punched the 'end' button violently, almost braking it. "Son of a bitch." He started talking to himself loudly. "Telling me I can't come there. Who the fuck he thinks he is?!"
He ran a hand through his thick black hair and sighed loudly. Then he grabbed his car keys and walked out of the library and the house.
He never noticed the blonde figure hiding behind the utility closet doors, listening carefully to his strange conversation.
*****************
Anya walked out of the kitchen into the living room, where Giles was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. She came up to her husband and giving him a loving peck on the forehead.
"Honey, would you please set the table while I go change for dinner?" She asked him, already halfway up the stairs to their bedroom.
"Y-yes of course dear."
Giles folded the paper back in its proper order and stood up and walked to the kitchen. Anya always insisted on using their best china every time Spike and Valerie came over for dinner. Not that Giles was complaining. He was thrilled that her and his 'kids' were getting along so well. They both adored Anya even though her work stories caused nausea and general queasiness and would leave them all freaked out for the next couple of days.
Anya, on the other hand, was telling them without much of an interest, dropping a word about a disfigured body of the week into the conversation like it was nothing special, just 'something that happened at work today', and leaving them all speechless with their jaws dropped open.
That was his Anya. A painfully straightforward woman who happen to be cutting up bodies for a living. And he loved her to no end.
***********
The door to the coroner's office opened and Valerie Whirlington walked out, shuffling through the papers on the autopsy of the dead girl found in the dessert.
"... natural causes??" She was mumbling absently to herself, nose deep in the papers as she was making her way to her office. "What the bloody hell was she doing out there?"
Coming out of a corner she didn't notice a large dark haired man approaching her rather quickly and before she could react they collided, scattering the autopsy papers all over the place.
"Oh bloody hell, why don't you watch where you are going." She told the man as she bent down to pick up the papers she had dropped.
"Sorry about that ma'am, I guess I wasn't... watching." The man apologized to her bending down to help her with the paperwork.
"Yeah. I noticed." She replied coldly and grabbed the remaining of the papers from his large hand.
"May I ask you... what is such a beautiful woman doing in a place like that?" He cocked his brow to her and sent her one of his 'sexy' smirks, which to Val looked more constipated than sexy, and she had to stifle a snort when he puffed his chest at her. Anytime now she suspected he would start making weird high pitched noises and start his mating ritual dance. God, he was ridicules, she thought.
"Um... I read it once in the encyclopedia.. I think it's called 'WORKING'. " She answered him and almost rolled her eyes when he unsuccessfully tried to slip his wedding band off his finger without her noticing it.
"Listen, I gotta go. I have lots of work to do. It was nice to umm... well... I gotta go. Bye now." She passed him and started walking away.
"Hey! Would you like to go out for a cup of coffee maybe?" He called out to her retreating form and she stopped sighing loudly.
"Are you coming on to me?" She asked straightforward turning to face him and giving him the 'you-are-the-most-boring-person-on-earth-I-wish-you- would-just-go-and-die' look.
"Well, yes. Is it working?" He asked as he walked up to her, crowding her and she had to step back.
She snorted very unladylike and then erupted into a full laugh. "Yeah right. Dream on. To tell you the truth... you're way too gay for me, mate."
The look on his face was priceless and she allowed herself one more laugh before she just walked away, shaking her head in disbelief at his pathetic attempts.
The man was standing there with his jaw wide open for a while, trying to catch on to what had just happened, then he shrugged it all off and started walking in the other direction. He pulled his ring back out of his pocket and placed it on his finger. "Your loss sweetcheeks." He mumbled to himself already forgetting about the incident.
He watched as another woman walked toward him, so he again took off his wedding band and placed it in his pocket. As the woman got closer he stepped forward to her.
"Hey there darling. Boy, you must be real tired because you've been running through my mind all day." He said to her.
The woman rolled her eyes at him and continued to walk. "Not even if you were the last male on earth and the future of the whole human race depended on our copulation. I wouldn't even touch you with a ten foot pole." She flatly stated and walked away shaking her head.
He had embarrassed himself once again and put his hand in his pocket. "Ok...maybe some other time then." He yelled out to her, trying to preserve what dignity he had left.
*********************
Giles finished setting the table after a while and went back to the living room to finish the paper when there was a knock at the door.
"Spike, good to see you." Giles welcomed his 'son' when he opened the door and gave him a fatherly hug before letting him into the apartment.
"Pops. Good to be seen." He answered walking in and hanging his duster in the closet. Giles noticed his worried expression and furrowed his brow a little.
"Um.. Is everything..."
"I've been a good boy, pops." Spike quickly interrupted. "No need to worry your already balding head about it. We don't want you to loose any more hair now, do we?" He grinned devilishly as he ducked a hand that was making its way to his head to swat him for his comment.
"No, we don't. Not that I have anything against a bald man, I'm sure Rupert would look dead handsome even if he was a red head." Anya walked down the stairs already dressed up. "Besides I read in this magazine that bald men are better in bed and they perform longer... which would work out pretty good then, because I would get twice as much sex... so, please, worry him quickly so that he looses his hair and I can have lots of orgasms." She walked up to Spike and gave him a hug. "Spike. Good to see you again. Dinner is almost ready, just give me another 5 minutes." She said and walked out into the kitchen leaving both men gaping at her with their jaws wide open. "Honey, why don't you open a bottle of wine, please?" She yelled from the kitchen, matter of fact.
"Ehh.. Right. Of course, dear." Giles shook his head and walked up to the wine rack, and busied himself with picking a wine for the dinner.
"Is Val here yet? I have something I want to talk to her about." Spike asked making himself comfortable on the black leather sofa.
"Oh good lord Spike, can't we just go one night without talking about work?" Giles scolded his 'son' and turned to him with a winning bottle of fine red liquid. He picked out two long glasses and pouring the wine into both he gave one to Spike.
"Can't help it pops, it's in my blood." He wriggled his eyebrows at him and dipped his lips into the fine rich red liquid tasting it on his tongue for a moment before swallowing.
********************
Val was sitting at her desk, head buried in her hands, gentle fingers massaging her aching temples. Today was not a good day. She still didn't have a lead on her latest baddie. To top it all, another skinless female body was found, and all clues pointed to the same psycho who had been keeping her awake at night for the past 4 weeks.
She sighed loudly and looked at the clock, red, blinking numbers reminding her of a family dinner she was supposed to be at. Hurrying to get to Giles' house on time she grabbed her things and sprinted out of her office, shutting the doors behind her.
She walked into the elevator, pushed the button and waited patiently for the doors to close when out of the corner of her eye she saw something familiar.
She turned her head in the direction of the rising voice and saw the same man who was coming on to her today, walking out of Xander Harris' office. He was gesturing wildly and yelling something.
"I don't care! I want you to clean it up, understand?! YOU fucked it up, YOU clean it up!..." was the last thing she heard before the elevator closed its doors with a silent swoosh.
Val shook her head in confusion. So much was going on in this building nowadays and if she decided to care about everything her head would explode. Putting the whole weird, one-sided conversation she sort of witnessed behind her, she slumped against the steel wall of the elevator and closed her eyes briefly.
"I don't care." She repeated to herself loudly. "I just want to eat." Walking up to the control panel she started pushing the button furiously. "Come on, you wanker. Hurry it up! I want to go home!" She whined to the metal box.
Yep. Spike and her were definitely alike.
***********
"So, did you catch the game Monday night?" Spike asked Giles who was sitting on the couch reading the front page of the newspaper.
Giles looked up from the paper, "You know I don't watch that silliness. All those men running around with the helmets and shoulder pads. Why don't they play a real mans' game?"
Spike raised an eyebrow at him urging him to tell exactly what he considered a 'real man's game'. Giles rolled his eyes and dropped his paper into his lap,
"Rugby!" He returned the paper in front of his face.
Spike burst out laughing and slapped his leg. "Yeah, I know...it's no rugby, but I still wouldn't mind making that kind of money. And why do they make so much money anyway? They don't do anything I couldn't do. I mean, any idiot can run with a ball toward a big goal." He stared at Giles waiting for an answer.
Giles slowly lowered the paper down to his nose and looked at Spike with crazy eyes and started to laugh at him for thinking such nonsense. Spike started to laugh at him self also, and was going to say something else when there was a knock on the door.
"I'll get it!" Anya yelled as she came running down the steps to the door. She opened it, reveling Val. "Valerie!" She stepped out to give her a hug and dragged her in the house. "It's about time you got here, I was getting tired of hearing them talk about their stupid man games." Anya flatly stated.
"Yes, I'm finally here. I had some trouble down at the office." She told them as she let Spike remove her coat and hung it up in the coat closet.
"Nothing you can't handle sis, I'm sure." Spike said to her as he stepped in front of her and gave her a big brotherly hug.
"You know me brother...always the big mouth." She answered. "Hey, papi." She turned to Giles hugging him tightly.
Spike snickered and walked away to pour her a glass of wine while she made herself comfortable on the oversized chair.
"Dinners ready. Lets eat." Anya's voice came from the dinning room a while later, and they all walked in getting ready for another family meal.
************
The food Anya prepared was delicious. Roasted duck in orange sauce, potatoes, various vegetables and fruit platter. Everyone was enjoying it, lightly conversing while munching on the finger licking goodies.
"We had a funeral today. It was that guy you found in the river last week." Anya looked at Val and told her. "We had to keep the casket closed because the body was so decomposed and stuff." Everyone stopped and looked up from their plates to her.
"Um, Anya dear," Giles lightly touched her hand, "I thought we agreed not to discuss work at the dinner table."
"No Rupert, you agreed not to talk about it, I just listened to you talk." Anya tightly squeezed his hand. Giles stared at her with wide eyes.
Spike and Val were looking at the spectacle in front of them, grinning like two children watching their parents argue.
Valerie was the first one to break this friendly dispute. "You won't believe what happened to ME at work today." She started.
"Did you find another skinless body?" Anya piped in cheerfully.
"Umm... yeah.. but that's not quite what I was going to talk about." She gave the visibly disappointed Anya an apologizing look before she continued. "This... large... unbelievably boring bloke tried to come on to me while I was heading to my office. God. I never met anyone so boring in my whole life. I swear. I barely swapped two words with him and I was ready to pop my brains out if only that would shut him up." She finished rolling her eyes at the dreadful experience earlier at work.
Spike snorted at his sister. She was a real firecracker, that one.
"Oh. Was it that bad?" Giles asked wanting to hear more.
"Bad? No.. It was horrifying. So bloody horrifying it was almost funny, but not quite. And get this: He was married!"
"Are you serious?" That came from Spike.
"Damn right I am. I saw him taking his wedding band off before me. He wasn't very stealthy, I tell you that." She sighed loudly and started picking on her food. "And then I saw him coming out of Xand's office all pissed off and yelling... something about cleaning up the mess... I don't like Xander. I don't think he's good news." She finished that more to herself than to the others.
"Really? Cleaning up the mess?" Spike's interest piped in. "What exactly did he say, Val?"
She put away her fork and thought for a bit. "Umm... I think it was something along the lines of..."I don't care... I want you to clean it up... umm... You fucked it up, you clean it up... Sorry for the 'f' word, papi." She sent Giles a wide grin before turning to Spike. "Why you ask?"
By this time dinner was the last thing on Spike's mind. He sat straight and looked intensively at his sister.
"Val, pet. I want you to tell me what exactly did he look like, OK? Please, it's important."
"Spike, what's going on?" Giles asked carefully, sensing a dramatical change in his son the minute Val mentioned the conversation.
Spike ignored him completely, concentrating on Val. "Was he about six feet tall... dark hair... lots of gel...?"
Val was looking from Giles to Spike, confusion visibly painted on her face. "... brown eyes... very large... yeah. That's him... Who is he Spike?"
"Spike?" Giles asked his son worriedly.
"Bloody Hell..." He sighed, then looked at everyone. "Angel. Angel Nelson."
"A...Angel?? Buffy's Angel? THE Angel??" Val started babbling all of a sudden.
"Pillock has something to hide, I knew it!" He stood up and started walking to the coat closet. "Bloody Hell.. why didn't I see it before?"
All of them were after him in an instant.
"Where are you going?"
"Spike, don't do anything stupid."
"You're missing my desert. I made a chocolate mousse!"
They started asking, but he was already out of the door.
*******************
It was already getting dark when a very drunk and a very pissed off Angel walked into his house, swaying from one side to the other.
His earlier visit at Harris' office did not bring anything new. He managed to scare the boy and almost made him cry, but he couldn't really tell if he accomplished anything by it.
"Fucking bitch. 'sall her fault." He slurred to himself as he was making his way up the stairs. "Time to teach'er a lesson... we'll see how the birdie will sing in the morning..." He dragged himself up to the second floor and proceeded to Buffy's bedroom.
"ELIZABETH!" He yelled to the almost empty house. "Where the hell are you, you little piece of nothing?!"
_______
TBC... don't worry kiddies... next chapy is almost ready... ;) now, don't be party poopers and review OK???
"I mean, who the hell does this guy think he is? He comes into my home, and starts asking me all those questions..." Angel was pacing the length of the library, his voice rising with every word he spoke.
"Well, what did you tell him?" A male voice answered from the phone speaker.
"I told him nothing!" Angel yelled in the direction of his desk. "I mean, I told him some shit about the house and Hank... you know. The usual police crap." He stalked to the mini bar and poured himself a generous amount of scotch. "Just because he's some kind of 'detective' doesn't mean I'm gonna tell him the story of my life, you know?" He gulped down his drink and put the glass down with a loud 'clunk'. "Prick." He mumbled more to himself than to the person on the phone. "Actually, William Whirlington is a professional..."
"And get this!" He interrupted the person not even noticing him speaking. "Then he has balls to come up to MY WIFE and comfort her??!!" Angel snarled turning suddenly and stalking towards the phone. "No one comes up to my wife and comforts her! SHE HAS HER HUSBAND TO DO THIS!" He leaned to the speaker. "I AM HER FUCKING HUSBAND!" He yelled right into it.
"Jeez, man. Chill. You need to lay off the booze, 'cause..."
"Don't you fucking tell me what to do, you asshole!" Angel pounded his large fist on the desk causing the phone to jump up. "I'm gonna come there to talk this out with you, and you better have a plan to get this British piece of shit off my back.. no. OUR BACK. You got it?"
"Oh man. You can't come here. You know the rules..."
"Fuck the rules. And fuck you!" Angel yelled to the speaker and punched the 'end' button violently, almost braking it. "Son of a bitch." He started talking to himself loudly. "Telling me I can't come there. Who the fuck he thinks he is?!"
He ran a hand through his thick black hair and sighed loudly. Then he grabbed his car keys and walked out of the library and the house.
He never noticed the blonde figure hiding behind the utility closet doors, listening carefully to his strange conversation.
*****************
Anya walked out of the kitchen into the living room, where Giles was sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. She came up to her husband and giving him a loving peck on the forehead.
"Honey, would you please set the table while I go change for dinner?" She asked him, already halfway up the stairs to their bedroom.
"Y-yes of course dear."
Giles folded the paper back in its proper order and stood up and walked to the kitchen. Anya always insisted on using their best china every time Spike and Valerie came over for dinner. Not that Giles was complaining. He was thrilled that her and his 'kids' were getting along so well. They both adored Anya even though her work stories caused nausea and general queasiness and would leave them all freaked out for the next couple of days.
Anya, on the other hand, was telling them without much of an interest, dropping a word about a disfigured body of the week into the conversation like it was nothing special, just 'something that happened at work today', and leaving them all speechless with their jaws dropped open.
That was his Anya. A painfully straightforward woman who happen to be cutting up bodies for a living. And he loved her to no end.
***********
The door to the coroner's office opened and Valerie Whirlington walked out, shuffling through the papers on the autopsy of the dead girl found in the dessert.
"... natural causes??" She was mumbling absently to herself, nose deep in the papers as she was making her way to her office. "What the bloody hell was she doing out there?"
Coming out of a corner she didn't notice a large dark haired man approaching her rather quickly and before she could react they collided, scattering the autopsy papers all over the place.
"Oh bloody hell, why don't you watch where you are going." She told the man as she bent down to pick up the papers she had dropped.
"Sorry about that ma'am, I guess I wasn't... watching." The man apologized to her bending down to help her with the paperwork.
"Yeah. I noticed." She replied coldly and grabbed the remaining of the papers from his large hand.
"May I ask you... what is such a beautiful woman doing in a place like that?" He cocked his brow to her and sent her one of his 'sexy' smirks, which to Val looked more constipated than sexy, and she had to stifle a snort when he puffed his chest at her. Anytime now she suspected he would start making weird high pitched noises and start his mating ritual dance. God, he was ridicules, she thought.
"Um... I read it once in the encyclopedia.. I think it's called 'WORKING'. " She answered him and almost rolled her eyes when he unsuccessfully tried to slip his wedding band off his finger without her noticing it.
"Listen, I gotta go. I have lots of work to do. It was nice to umm... well... I gotta go. Bye now." She passed him and started walking away.
"Hey! Would you like to go out for a cup of coffee maybe?" He called out to her retreating form and she stopped sighing loudly.
"Are you coming on to me?" She asked straightforward turning to face him and giving him the 'you-are-the-most-boring-person-on-earth-I-wish-you- would-just-go-and-die' look.
"Well, yes. Is it working?" He asked as he walked up to her, crowding her and she had to step back.
She snorted very unladylike and then erupted into a full laugh. "Yeah right. Dream on. To tell you the truth... you're way too gay for me, mate."
The look on his face was priceless and she allowed herself one more laugh before she just walked away, shaking her head in disbelief at his pathetic attempts.
The man was standing there with his jaw wide open for a while, trying to catch on to what had just happened, then he shrugged it all off and started walking in the other direction. He pulled his ring back out of his pocket and placed it on his finger. "Your loss sweetcheeks." He mumbled to himself already forgetting about the incident.
He watched as another woman walked toward him, so he again took off his wedding band and placed it in his pocket. As the woman got closer he stepped forward to her.
"Hey there darling. Boy, you must be real tired because you've been running through my mind all day." He said to her.
The woman rolled her eyes at him and continued to walk. "Not even if you were the last male on earth and the future of the whole human race depended on our copulation. I wouldn't even touch you with a ten foot pole." She flatly stated and walked away shaking her head.
He had embarrassed himself once again and put his hand in his pocket. "Ok...maybe some other time then." He yelled out to her, trying to preserve what dignity he had left.
*********************
Giles finished setting the table after a while and went back to the living room to finish the paper when there was a knock at the door.
"Spike, good to see you." Giles welcomed his 'son' when he opened the door and gave him a fatherly hug before letting him into the apartment.
"Pops. Good to be seen." He answered walking in and hanging his duster in the closet. Giles noticed his worried expression and furrowed his brow a little.
"Um.. Is everything..."
"I've been a good boy, pops." Spike quickly interrupted. "No need to worry your already balding head about it. We don't want you to loose any more hair now, do we?" He grinned devilishly as he ducked a hand that was making its way to his head to swat him for his comment.
"No, we don't. Not that I have anything against a bald man, I'm sure Rupert would look dead handsome even if he was a red head." Anya walked down the stairs already dressed up. "Besides I read in this magazine that bald men are better in bed and they perform longer... which would work out pretty good then, because I would get twice as much sex... so, please, worry him quickly so that he looses his hair and I can have lots of orgasms." She walked up to Spike and gave him a hug. "Spike. Good to see you again. Dinner is almost ready, just give me another 5 minutes." She said and walked out into the kitchen leaving both men gaping at her with their jaws wide open. "Honey, why don't you open a bottle of wine, please?" She yelled from the kitchen, matter of fact.
"Ehh.. Right. Of course, dear." Giles shook his head and walked up to the wine rack, and busied himself with picking a wine for the dinner.
"Is Val here yet? I have something I want to talk to her about." Spike asked making himself comfortable on the black leather sofa.
"Oh good lord Spike, can't we just go one night without talking about work?" Giles scolded his 'son' and turned to him with a winning bottle of fine red liquid. He picked out two long glasses and pouring the wine into both he gave one to Spike.
"Can't help it pops, it's in my blood." He wriggled his eyebrows at him and dipped his lips into the fine rich red liquid tasting it on his tongue for a moment before swallowing.
********************
Val was sitting at her desk, head buried in her hands, gentle fingers massaging her aching temples. Today was not a good day. She still didn't have a lead on her latest baddie. To top it all, another skinless female body was found, and all clues pointed to the same psycho who had been keeping her awake at night for the past 4 weeks.
She sighed loudly and looked at the clock, red, blinking numbers reminding her of a family dinner she was supposed to be at. Hurrying to get to Giles' house on time she grabbed her things and sprinted out of her office, shutting the doors behind her.
She walked into the elevator, pushed the button and waited patiently for the doors to close when out of the corner of her eye she saw something familiar.
She turned her head in the direction of the rising voice and saw the same man who was coming on to her today, walking out of Xander Harris' office. He was gesturing wildly and yelling something.
"I don't care! I want you to clean it up, understand?! YOU fucked it up, YOU clean it up!..." was the last thing she heard before the elevator closed its doors with a silent swoosh.
Val shook her head in confusion. So much was going on in this building nowadays and if she decided to care about everything her head would explode. Putting the whole weird, one-sided conversation she sort of witnessed behind her, she slumped against the steel wall of the elevator and closed her eyes briefly.
"I don't care." She repeated to herself loudly. "I just want to eat." Walking up to the control panel she started pushing the button furiously. "Come on, you wanker. Hurry it up! I want to go home!" She whined to the metal box.
Yep. Spike and her were definitely alike.
***********
"So, did you catch the game Monday night?" Spike asked Giles who was sitting on the couch reading the front page of the newspaper.
Giles looked up from the paper, "You know I don't watch that silliness. All those men running around with the helmets and shoulder pads. Why don't they play a real mans' game?"
Spike raised an eyebrow at him urging him to tell exactly what he considered a 'real man's game'. Giles rolled his eyes and dropped his paper into his lap,
"Rugby!" He returned the paper in front of his face.
Spike burst out laughing and slapped his leg. "Yeah, I know...it's no rugby, but I still wouldn't mind making that kind of money. And why do they make so much money anyway? They don't do anything I couldn't do. I mean, any idiot can run with a ball toward a big goal." He stared at Giles waiting for an answer.
Giles slowly lowered the paper down to his nose and looked at Spike with crazy eyes and started to laugh at him for thinking such nonsense. Spike started to laugh at him self also, and was going to say something else when there was a knock on the door.
"I'll get it!" Anya yelled as she came running down the steps to the door. She opened it, reveling Val. "Valerie!" She stepped out to give her a hug and dragged her in the house. "It's about time you got here, I was getting tired of hearing them talk about their stupid man games." Anya flatly stated.
"Yes, I'm finally here. I had some trouble down at the office." She told them as she let Spike remove her coat and hung it up in the coat closet.
"Nothing you can't handle sis, I'm sure." Spike said to her as he stepped in front of her and gave her a big brotherly hug.
"You know me brother...always the big mouth." She answered. "Hey, papi." She turned to Giles hugging him tightly.
Spike snickered and walked away to pour her a glass of wine while she made herself comfortable on the oversized chair.
"Dinners ready. Lets eat." Anya's voice came from the dinning room a while later, and they all walked in getting ready for another family meal.
************
The food Anya prepared was delicious. Roasted duck in orange sauce, potatoes, various vegetables and fruit platter. Everyone was enjoying it, lightly conversing while munching on the finger licking goodies.
"We had a funeral today. It was that guy you found in the river last week." Anya looked at Val and told her. "We had to keep the casket closed because the body was so decomposed and stuff." Everyone stopped and looked up from their plates to her.
"Um, Anya dear," Giles lightly touched her hand, "I thought we agreed not to discuss work at the dinner table."
"No Rupert, you agreed not to talk about it, I just listened to you talk." Anya tightly squeezed his hand. Giles stared at her with wide eyes.
Spike and Val were looking at the spectacle in front of them, grinning like two children watching their parents argue.
Valerie was the first one to break this friendly dispute. "You won't believe what happened to ME at work today." She started.
"Did you find another skinless body?" Anya piped in cheerfully.
"Umm... yeah.. but that's not quite what I was going to talk about." She gave the visibly disappointed Anya an apologizing look before she continued. "This... large... unbelievably boring bloke tried to come on to me while I was heading to my office. God. I never met anyone so boring in my whole life. I swear. I barely swapped two words with him and I was ready to pop my brains out if only that would shut him up." She finished rolling her eyes at the dreadful experience earlier at work.
Spike snorted at his sister. She was a real firecracker, that one.
"Oh. Was it that bad?" Giles asked wanting to hear more.
"Bad? No.. It was horrifying. So bloody horrifying it was almost funny, but not quite. And get this: He was married!"
"Are you serious?" That came from Spike.
"Damn right I am. I saw him taking his wedding band off before me. He wasn't very stealthy, I tell you that." She sighed loudly and started picking on her food. "And then I saw him coming out of Xand's office all pissed off and yelling... something about cleaning up the mess... I don't like Xander. I don't think he's good news." She finished that more to herself than to the others.
"Really? Cleaning up the mess?" Spike's interest piped in. "What exactly did he say, Val?"
She put away her fork and thought for a bit. "Umm... I think it was something along the lines of..."I don't care... I want you to clean it up... umm... You fucked it up, you clean it up... Sorry for the 'f' word, papi." She sent Giles a wide grin before turning to Spike. "Why you ask?"
By this time dinner was the last thing on Spike's mind. He sat straight and looked intensively at his sister.
"Val, pet. I want you to tell me what exactly did he look like, OK? Please, it's important."
"Spike, what's going on?" Giles asked carefully, sensing a dramatical change in his son the minute Val mentioned the conversation.
Spike ignored him completely, concentrating on Val. "Was he about six feet tall... dark hair... lots of gel...?"
Val was looking from Giles to Spike, confusion visibly painted on her face. "... brown eyes... very large... yeah. That's him... Who is he Spike?"
"Spike?" Giles asked his son worriedly.
"Bloody Hell..." He sighed, then looked at everyone. "Angel. Angel Nelson."
"A...Angel?? Buffy's Angel? THE Angel??" Val started babbling all of a sudden.
"Pillock has something to hide, I knew it!" He stood up and started walking to the coat closet. "Bloody Hell.. why didn't I see it before?"
All of them were after him in an instant.
"Where are you going?"
"Spike, don't do anything stupid."
"You're missing my desert. I made a chocolate mousse!"
They started asking, but he was already out of the door.
*******************
It was already getting dark when a very drunk and a very pissed off Angel walked into his house, swaying from one side to the other.
His earlier visit at Harris' office did not bring anything new. He managed to scare the boy and almost made him cry, but he couldn't really tell if he accomplished anything by it.
"Fucking bitch. 'sall her fault." He slurred to himself as he was making his way up the stairs. "Time to teach'er a lesson... we'll see how the birdie will sing in the morning..." He dragged himself up to the second floor and proceeded to Buffy's bedroom.
"ELIZABETH!" He yelled to the almost empty house. "Where the hell are you, you little piece of nothing?!"
_______
TBC... don't worry kiddies... next chapy is almost ready... ;) now, don't be party poopers and review OK???