It had been a hellishly long day, and he knew from experience what was "hellish" and what wasn't. He'd gotten no rest in the past few days, spending night hours doing precious footwork and daylight hours either underground or on the telephone. He was still trying to figure out how, precisely, it was possible for a dead man to have a headache when the phone rang for the hundredth time.
"Angel Investigations," he answered, thinking Someone please come and help the helpless right here. He stifled a yawn and listened to the voice on the other end.
"Someone's summoned the Hub. You told me to let ya know if anything different was goin' on and—" There was a pause on the other end, as though the caller was looking around. "I definitely consider that different. No one ever calls the Hub, man, the price is too high!"
"I know," Angel murmured. "That's definitely different. Where did the Hub get called to?"
"London. Isn't it like, the middle of the night there or somethin'?"
"Or something. Thanks for letting me know, Ylgev." He listened to the young demon talk on for a few more minutes, then excused himself as politely as he could.
Sometimes he missed the days of being completely and inexcusably mannerless.
He picked up the phone again and made one more call, what he hoped was the last of the day. A cup of blood and a nice, long nap were all he wanted at the moment. But after he ended the connection with Giles, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep a wink.
The Hub meant that someone out there was serious about changing something. But to find out who and what, all that was left to do was wait.
~~~
"Nice day, what?" Wesley took a deep breath and looked around the dank alleyway and shifted his weight uneasily. "Don't you agree?" he persisted when it seemed as though Giles hadn't heard him.
They'd told him the younger Watcher had made leaps and bounds of progress beyond the hapless milksop he had been, but Giles was starting to have his doubts. Removing his glasses and cleaning them wearily, he closed his eyes. "I heard you, Wesley, I just have no urge to indulge in small talk at the present moment."
Wesley's face flushed and he cleared his throat, cursing himself. He hadn't acted like such a blathering fool since… well, since Sunnydale. He was starting to think it was just Rupert that made him so nervous. Rupert and his damnably huge reputation and terribly condescending stares. He made a perfectly intelligent Watcher feel like a complete, babbling moron. And now he was even babbling internally. "Bugger it all," he muttered under his breath, cheering himself up with the epithet.
Predictably, Giles ignored him. He forced himself not to check his watch. It was no matter how long ago someone had summoned the Hub. Time was too flexible, and the summoner could come out anywhere, anywhen, anyhow he or she pleased, provided they could pay up.
If it were William, Giles surmised, he'd definitely pay up.
"We'll wait another hour," he told Wesley quietly. "No matter what the time difference, I can't see he'd allow the Hub to waste any time."
Wesley raised an eyebrow and turned his attention back to the wall. "I can't see he's in any position to order the Hub to do anything." Together, they stood in silence and watched a blank wall.
~~~
"It's about a girl," Ramie cut straight to the point. "He was with her, now he's not. He needs your help."
Spike raised an unscarred eyebrow at Laramie's painfully obvious message. Let me do the talking, he may as well have said.
"A girl, a girl," the big man said, steepling his fingers. "Always about a girl. Suppose I'm not connected to a place where she'll have him?"
"You're connected to everything," Ramie said, slapping his hands down on the polished table the man sat at.
He inhaled off a thin, hand-rolled cigarette that Spike longed to swipe from his chubby fingers. "Too true," he said dismissively. "Let me rephrase, cat, suppose there is no such place?"
"It isn't as though she bloody well jilted me, you fat git," Spike snapped. "I died to save the bleedin' world, although with people like you, I can't see why I did—"
It had taken Ramie a few moments to get past the "cat" that had slipped into the Hub's language. Apparently a moment was all Spike had needed to insult the one being who could help him. "I beg your pardon, sir," he said quickly, hip-checking Spike out of the way. "My companion is distraught and wishes to earn his way back to the woman he loves."
"I seem to recall you tried to do that a few months ago, Alain Lewiston." The Hub took a swig from the silver flask on the table and ran his tongue over his teeth. "No matter. Let's start negotiations."
"All right," Spike said excitedly, hunkering down at the man's table. "Now we're talking."
A slow, malevolent grin spread over the man's broad face and he nodded slowly. "Oh, I certainly hope so."
~~~
"He's not coming." Giles stood away from the wall and rubbed the back of his hand over his forehead. "I doubt it was him, anyway."
It was the most Giles had spoken to Wesley in the hour and a half they'd been waiting. After the first twenty minutes, Wesley had begun wishing he were part of the wall. At least that way he wouldn't be able to see Giles's measuring looks. "Well, the odds were overwhelmingly against it," he said, looking forward to… anything away from Giles. "However, it doesn't change the fact that someone has taken that measure." He looked around at the sky and shuddered.
"No, it doesn't." Giles closed his eyes momentarily and thought of Buffy, and how her life would have been had it actually been Spike coming through the Hub. "It's best this way. But we should keep whomever is using the Hub in our thoughts."
"They could be dangerous," Wesley noted by way of agreement.
Giles walked down the sidewalk without looking back at his fellow Watcher. "No," he corrected quietly. "They could be damned."
~~~
"Miss Summers?" He nearly tripped over his own damned feet as he crossed the distance from the back of the classroom to the front where she stood with the cute brunette who kept to herself. Great, he thought. Fall on her, that's sure to make a good impression.
"Paul, hi," Buffy looked up at him and smiled, wanting to pat his head. Only… she couldn't reach it. It had taken her a few moments to remember his name. "What can I do for ya?"
Kelly looked swiftly down at the floor as she saw the college student glance her way. Smooth, Kelly, let him catch you gawking at him while he's asking out the teacher. She wanted to kick herself. If she didn't know she'd break his shin, she'd kick him.
"Well, I was just wonderin', since class got out early tonight, if you'd like to grab a cup of coffee somewhere. I don't have class until the afternoon tomorrow, but—" he trailed off, his Adam's apple bobbing manically as he swallowed. "Yeah," he finished lamely, his face flushing.
Warning bells went off in Buffy's head and she suppressed a groan. Damn it. It was a good thing she hadn't made a bet with Kelly about it or anything. She'd have straight up lost. "You know, that's really nice of you, Paul, but we're not really allowed to date students." Smiling kindly, she shrugged her shoulders in a 'what can you do' mannerism.
"Oh." He stood where he was for a moment while she gathered her things, then tried again. "I'll quit the class," he said, thinking quickly. "I don't really think I'm making any progress, anyway." Not entirely the truth, but come on… some sacrifices had to be made. But before he could gloat over the loophole he'd found, he saw something that made him go completely still and his brain scramble entirely.
She was crying.
She was holding her head down and the tears weren't falling, but he could see the brightness in her eyes and the way she was blinking rapidly to stem their flow. The brunette laid a hand on Buffy's arm and shot him a glare.
What the hell did I do?! "I won't quit, never mind, forget I said that, it was a bad idea. Oh, man," he said nervously, switching his bag from one arm to the other and bending over, way over, to try and meet her eye. "Hey, Miss Summers, just forget I said anything, all right? I didn't mean to make you cry."
Buffy longed to bury her head in his big chest and just cry it out then send him on his way. But to cry it all out, every bit of it, she'd be there for a long while. Days, weeks. Probably years. "You didn't make me cry, Paul," she said, willing back the tears with the skill of long practice and training in self-discipline. "Look, I'll just be cliché and say I'm just coming out of a relationship. I'm way too screwed up for you." She smiled a shaky, sad smile and shook her head. "I'll see you next week," she managed before running outside.
"Oh, man," Paul said again, smacking himself in the forehead. "Now I feel like a heel."
Kelly glanced up at him. "It's not your fault." She looked at the door Buffy had just exited out of and sighed. "I'll tell her you're sorry."
"Yeah," Paul said absently, his gaze also fixed on the door.
How come all the cute girls came with mucho baggage?