60

Time passed pleasantly, for the most part. Rose happily slogged through Wesley's research during working hours, then pursued her own line of inquiries in her free time. Thanks to Angel's access codes, the amount of information available to her was not to be believed. If she hadn't been able to narrow down the search, it would have taken her several human lifetimes to winnow through the lot of it.

And she did actually enjoy doing the work, it was immensely interesting. It was her own efforts that disappointed, because on failing to find what she wanted, Rose felt that she was failing Spike.

Around the middle of the week, she was starting to feel a little stressed. She stared with a total lack of interest at her dinner.

Spike was seated opposite her, as usual. He hung around most of the time she wasn't working, sometimes helping with the research, others just talking with her, or even just being around.

"You know that's never gonna heal if you keep picking at it," Spike observed mildly. When Rose looked up at him with a puzzled visage, he rolled his eyes. "Your food. It's a joke, luv." His expression became concerned. "What's wrong, Rose?"

"It's just so frustrating," she burst out.

"It certainly is," Spike agreed, winking at her.

She started at him in incredulity for a moment, then giggled. "That wasn't what I was talking about," she replied. Then, an impish gleam lit up her eyes and she added, "Blondie Bear."

"Oh bugger," Spike muttered in disgust. Now that he had Rose, insomuch as he did have her, he really didn't want to be reminded of his time with Harmony. Then the light bulb lit up. "When were you talking to Harm?"

"I had to go see Angel one morning," Rose explained. "And Harmony felt compelled to give me a piece of her mind."

Spike gave a snort of laughter. "That couldn't of taken long," he observed. "Harm gave you a hard time, did she?"

"It wasn't that bad," Rose answered in soothing tones. Then, she grinned. "When were you going to get around to telling me about you and Harmony?"

"Never," Spike said flatly. "I'm not exactly proud of myself where Harmony is concerned." He saw that she was still smiling broadly. "And what's so bloody amusing?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'm sorry, love," Rose apologized. "It's just that the thought of you and Harmony..," She let out one brief giggle, then suppressed it, but her eyes were still twinkling with laughter.

Spike started to look picked upon, until something she said filtered through. "You called me love, luv," he observed in awed tones. "That's almost enough to make my whole non-existence worth while."

Rose blushed. "I may not be able to do anything for you, William," she said softly, not realizing she'd slipped up. "But I can tell you that I love you."

"Don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing that," Spike remarked. "When did you find out my name was William?"

"I've known for a while now," Rose hedged. Well, that wasn't really a lie, but it was still deceiving. Then another half-truth. "You are mentioned in quite a bit of the literature."

"Mmm-hmm." Spike could tell by how fidgety she got that his lady wasn't telling him the whole truth, but decided to let it pass on this occasion. Probably something Angel let slip, and Rose, being Rose, was trying to cover for the pouf. "S'all right, pet. Be the woman of mystery if you must," he remarked, not knowing how accurate the observation was. "And stop beating yourself up for not finding a way to bring me back. To be brutally honest, I doubt that you're going to hit lucky on that score."

"I won't know until I've explored all the possibilities," Rose said, getting a stubborn set to her features.

"I know that, pet," Spike murmured. "I just don't want you to get your hopes up is all, 'cause I think you're bound to be disappointed if you do." He glanced at her still mostly untouched meal. "Now be a good girl and eat up," he ordered. "I happen to know you haven't had anything to eat all day. Don't want you keeling over from malnutrition."

"Nag, nag, nag," Rose grumbled softly. But there was a twinkle in her eye, and a hint of a smile on her face. She picked up her fork and started eating.

&&&&&&&

Angel entered his office the next day to find Spike there waiting for him

"You're here awfully early," Angel remarked. "I thought you'd be pestering Rose or something."

"I don't 'pester' Rose," Spike said evenly. "Happens the lady enjoys my company. But she wanted to get in early today to continue her quest for her personal Holy Grail."

"You don't think she's going to find anything, do you?" Angel queried.

Spike shook his head. "Warned her against gettin' her hopes up too," he remarked. "Afraid it didn't take, though. I swear she almost wants it as bad as I do."

You have no idea, Spike, Angel thought, but kept it to himself. "Spike some of us have a busy day ahead," he hinted.

Spike, as usual, refused to take a hint. "You busy tomorrow night?" he asked.

Angel had been more than half expecting this, and didn't fell really comfortable saying either yes or no. He decided on delaying tactics. "Why, this is so sudden," he cooed in syrupy tones, gazing into Spike's eyes.

Spike was thoroughly disgusted. "Push off, you big pouf," he growled. "Always did think you leaned that way. And you know damned well why I asked and it has nothing to do with a desire for your company."

Angel laughed, but there was a tense edge to his laughter. Then, he conceded defeat. Both Spike and Rose were going to get hurt, and get hurt badly. Might as well let them enjoy such time as they had together. He sat down heavily. "I hope you know that I'm doing this mostly for Rose," he mumbled, the tone of his voice announcing his concession more clearly than his words. "I don't give a rat's ass if your feelings get hurt."

"Back at you." Spike flipped him off. "You might find it difficult to credit, but I'm doing this mostly for Rose, too."

&&&&&&&

"Hi, Rose." Fred breezed into her office. "Wesley said you had that sourcebook I needed?"

"Yes, he called me and told me you'd be by for it," Rose replied. She reached across her desk and picked up the volume in question and handed it to her. "Here you are, Fred. Was there anything else you needed?" Rose really hated giving Fred that book just now, it was one she was doing some of her own questing in, and she wasn't done with it yet. Still, company business first, and besides, she had a lot of other sources to check out. She just hated jumping from one to another, being of a very methodical bent.

"Are you busy tomorrow night?" Fred asked out of the blue. "I know it's short notice and all, but you seem really nice, and I thought maybe the two of us could have a girl's night out and get acquainted."

Rose thought hard and fast. True, Spike hadn't actually announced any plans for tomorrow night, but if he sprang it on her now, she'd hate to have a previous engagement. "Could I get back to you later, Fred?" she asked. "I'm kind of seeing someone, and even though we don't have any solid plans for tomorrow night yet, I'd hate to have to tell him I'm doing something else if I find he's already made arrangements." Seeing Fred's face fall a bit, she added, "I'd like to spend some time with you, Fred, you seem really nice too, but I don't want to hurt..," Before she could get Spike's name out, he appeared.

"I know, I know," he said , holding his hands up in surrender. "I promised I wouldn't bother you during working hours. I just wanted to make sure some other bloke didn't beat my time and tie you up for tomorrow night." He noticed the room's other occupant. "Hello, Fred."

"And what would I be doing going out with someone else?" Rose asked. "Consider your message delivered, Spike. Now, do you mind? Fred and I were having a little girl talk."

"And you have the nerve to complain that I waste your time?" Spike grumbled, then disappeared.

Fred had listened to the whole exchange with an open mouth. "I'd heard that you and Spike were seeing each other," she mumbled. "But I guess I didn't really believe it till now." She grinned suddenly. "Well, since tomorrow night's out, how about Saturday?"

"I don't think there'll be any problem there," Rose agreed. "I hope you have a car, Fred, because I can't drive."

"Not to worry," Fred assured her. "I'll pick you up. Give me your address and I'll see you, say around seven?"

Rose scribbled out her address and handed it to Fred. "I'll be waiting."

&&&&&&

When Rose finally stopped for her lunch break, she could feel a ghostly presence, even though she couldn't see Spike. He was obviously 'being good'. "It's all right, Spike," she said, turning away from her desk. "I'm taking my lunch break now, so it's not technically working hours."

Spike immediately appeared. "How do you do that?" he asked. "No one else can tell I'm there if I'm not visible."

Rose shrugged, she really didn't know herself. "I just get the feeling I'm being watched," she replied. "And since I only know one invisible person who's the least bit interested in watching me..,"

Spike laughed. "And it's pretty interesting watching sometimes too, luv. So, what's the deal with you and little Miss Science?"

"We're going to have a girl's night out on Saturday," Rose said. "You know, since I've been here, I haven't actually made any female friends." Seeing Spike's face fall, she added, "I thought you wanted me to get out more."

Spike sat down in the room's only other chair. "I did, I did," he admitted. "And I shouldn't bitch about it now that you've finally taken my advice." He shook his head. "I just don't like sharing you, that's all."

"If it's that important to you, I'll cancel with Fred," Rose offered. "I think she'd understand."

"No," Spike said. "You do need other friends, luv, I know that. Even know that sometimes a woman needs another woman to talk to." He gave her a stern look. "Just you see that you don't let any other guy pick you up, understand? You're my bird, pet."

"I don't want another guy," Rose answered, letting herself drift in the intense gaze from his beautiful blue eyes. "Just you."

"As long as we've got that all sorted out." Spike smiled at her. "Consider yourself well and thoroughly kissed, luv." He vanished.

&&&&&&

Spike drifted around the building, wondering what to do to fill his time before Rose got off work. He was glad Rose was making other friends, it was good, it was healthy, it was what she needed. But it also bummed him out considerably that she was spending a weekend night with someone else. He thought of going to aggravate Angel, but having wrung yet another favor out of him decided that it might not be in his best interests to do so. He had reached the reception area when he had made the decision, and was about to leave, when he spotted Harmony at her desk, doing her nails. He thought he'd just have a friendly little chat with Harm.

"'Lo, Harm." Harmony startled at seeing Spike suddenly appear on her desk, smeared nail polish half-way up one finger.

"Darn it," she fussed. She made quick repairs, before the polish had a chance to dry. "So, have you finally decided to come crawling back to me, Blondie Bear? Because if you have, you're wasting your time."

"Stow it, Harm," Spike said, feeling the aggravation she could always bring out in him starting to rise. "I just wanted to talk to you, old friends and all that."

"Yeah, right," Harmony scoffed. "You didn't even talk to me when we were sleeping together, so why start now." Finally, an idea slowly seeped into her head. "This is because of her, isn't it?" Spike had yet to hear his ex mention Rose by name.

"What have you got against Rose, Harmony?" Spike didn't even bother trying to deny it, since it was true. "I know for a fact that she's never done anything to you, but you, on the other hand seem to have had it in for her since day one."

"I just don't like her," Harmony pouted. "Everyone's so nice to her, and they hardly even seem to know that I exist."

Aha, that explained a lot. Harm had taken a direct hit to the ego, and it rankled. "And what? You have to be a bitch to her just because you're jealous, Harm?" Spike had tried to sound teasing, joking around, but he was too serious to pull it off. "I thought you might have grown up a little more than that."

"You're a fine one to talk, Blondie Bear," Harmony hissed. "I suppose that you thought it was incredibly mature to be screwing me when you were thinking about someone else the whole time."

"I won't deny that I treated you like dirt," Spike admitted. "I won't even try to defend myself by saying that I didn't have a soul at the time. But for what little it's worth, Harm, I am sorry."

"You're just saying that to get me to back off from your girlfriend," Harmony said, but there was a hint of doubt in her eyes. "She's so.., sweet, that it reeks. How could you, Blondie Bear? Soul or not?"

"Could you quit calling me that?" Spike asked. "And could we please let bygones be bygones?" He got off of her desk. "I don't believe that either one of us would want to pick up where we left off, but could we please, not be enemies?" Spike had meant to say friends, but hadn't been able to manage it. He didn't really want to be friends with Harmony, he just wanted her to leave Rose alone.

"No promises," Harmony warned. "But I'm not going looking for trouble. You keep your girlfriend out of my face, and I'll leave her alone."

"Not quite good enough, Harm," Spike answered. "Rose works here too. And sometimes she even has to see your boss. And to do that she has to get by you." He couldn't actually threaten Harmony, and moreover, didn't want to, but he thought of Rose, first and foremost. "You might try getting to know her, Harm. Might surprise yourself and find that you like her."

"That'll be the day." Harmony finished putting the final touches on her nails. "Listen, Spike. I'll go as far as to say that I'll be polite to her, here in the office, but that's it. If I see her outside of Wolfram and Hart..," she trailed off, having talked faster than her brain could work.

"It's a start, I suppose," Spike conceded. "Thanks, Harm. I do appreciate it." He disappeared.

"What does he see in her?" Harmony wondered aloud. Then she shrugged and went back to work.