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While Rose and Wesley's preparations for summoning the demon had taken some time, not to mention the time they spent actually engaged in the pursuit, it was still quite early in the day when Rose, against her protests, had been put to bed. She had slept, however, the physical and emotional strain had taken their toll. Spike, as was becoming his habit, laid on the bed beside her. In his current state, he didn't really require sleep, but he found that laying there, listening to the regular sounds of her breathing was very relaxing. And after the sights he had witnessed that day, he felt in serious need of some relaxation.

The problem with going to sleep so early, Rose reflected upon waking, was that one woke up extraordinarily early as well. Through the window she could see that it was still full dark outside. Spike lay still, eyes closed, and she thought that as long as she gave no sign of wakefulness, he would probably stay that way. She repressed a sigh. It was so incredibly frustrating! To have been so close to her goal and then to have it all fall through. Well, at least now, she could read the rest of the Chronicles without fear of something untoward happening. She hoped. She rolled over on her side to face Spike, hoping that he would take the movement to be one natural to sleep and continue with his own rest. She just wanted to look at him.

As soon as Rose moved, though, Spike's eyes snapped open. "What's the matter, luv? Can't sleep?" He turned to face her as well, and they lay there, almost nose to nose.

"No," she answered. "Or rather, yes. I slept most of the day away. I think I'm all slept out." She stretched without changing position much, arching her back like a cat's. "I'm all wide awake now, and practically the whole world seems to be asleep."

"You think so?" Spike rose from the bed and went over to stand by the window. "Come here a minute, sweetheart." Rose joined him. "Look down there at the city, Rose. All sorts up and about at all hours. But the really smart ones are tucked up safe and sound. Lots of dangerous things lurking out there in the night."

She saw what he was getting at. Points of light from the headlights of cars moved about the landscape, little dots like a horde of frantic fireflies. "The city itself seems like a living thing," she marveled. "Never either fully awake or asleep."

"Some cities are like that," Spike agreed. "Have a life all their own. Usually stuck to the larger cities, till the last few. Easier hunting, and harder to be detected."

"Do you miss it?" Rose asked softly. "The hunting, the feeding off humans? I know that as a vampire, it's in your nature."

Spike shrugged. "I still like a good fight, but there's plenty of things that need fighting without preying on innocent people. As far as feeding, blood is blood. Some better than others, but it's all good." He gave her a quizzical look. "Why are you coming over all curious about this now, babe? You've known what I am, or at least, what I was, almost from the get go."

Rose looked up at him. In the half light, he looked a little odd, since the light didn't reflect off him normally. He was still heart-breakingly handsome. She knew that his appearance was as it had been before he had gone up in flames, and there were hard planes to his face that suggested that hard things had happened to him. Not the lines of age, since he was immune to that, but rather the marks of experience. She didn't realize how long she had been looking and thinking until he spoke again.

"Something wrong, pet?" he asked. "Are you still brooding over the thing with the demon? Take my advice, leave the brooding to my grandsire. He's got it down to an art form."

"Nothing's wrong," Rose assured him. "I was just admiring the view." A grin tugged at the corners of her mouth.

He answered her grin with one of his own. "There are prettier sights to see here than me," he murmured, gazing down at her. "You're so lovely, babe. I guess I can't really blame that demon for wanting you." He reflected for a moment. "If I hadn't been there, would you have taken him up on his offer?"

"It was a little tempting," she confessed. "Not because I wanted to be with him, he made my flesh crawl. But if I had thought I could trust him to keep his word..,"

"You might have done it for me," Spike finished for her. "I don't want you making that kind of sacrifice for me, luv. Not ever. And whether or not I'll ever be able to be with you, or if it's someone else, I hope it will be with someone who loves you." He laughed humorlessly. "I still keep hoping against all odds that it will be me."

"I hope so too," she answered. "Because I don't want it to be anyone else. I can't imagine being in love with anyone but you."

"We're a pair to draw to, aren't we?" Spike smiled down at her. "I don't know which of us is the worst hopeless romantic."

"I thought we agreed that we were even," Rose reminded him. She cocked her head at him. "I wish you wouldn't say it was hopeless, though. There's tons of information that I haven't even touched yet. And, there may be.., other possibilities."

"Are you still going on about the sodding Powers?" he asked. "I hate to burst your bubble, precious, but I think the chances on that one are slim and none. And slim left town."

"You're awfully gloomy," she observed. "I think you've been hanging around Angel too much."

&&&&&&&

Wesley was in the office early, but he still found that Rose had gotten there before him.

"You're up bright and early," he observed. "No ill effects from yesterday, I trust?"

She smiled at him. "Nothing except for getting up in the middle of the night because I slept all day. How are you doing, Wesley?"

He shrugged. "It wasn't that bad, for me. But then, I wasn't the one who got sick, either."

"Even if I thought he'd keep his word," Rose muttered. "Even for Spike, I don't think I could have gone through with it. I started feeling nauseous the moment he touched me."

"Trust your instincts, Rose," Wesley instructed her. "I did some more reading after you turned in yesterday. Ahmed Al-Shere had reasons other than lust for trying to get you to sleep with him. From what I could gather, there was a spell in his possession that would have granted him almost unlimited power if an innocent gave herself to him willingly. That was why he was so insistent on hearing the answer from you."

"I guess that it's a good thing that I didn't..," Rose faltered. "Could we not talk about this any more, Wesley? I think I'm starting to feel queasy again."

"Are you giving up on the Chronicles then?" the ex-Watcher queried. "There's quite a lot of material there, Rose, and I think it might be a mistake to dismiss it out of hand."

"I suppose that I ought to finish what I began," she hesitated. "But it does present a certain amount of conflict for me."

"What sort of conflict?" he asked.

"Between taking care of myself properly, which I promised Spike I'd do," Rose explained. "And not eating so I can read that mad demon's ravings without becoming ill."

"Would you like me to take that one over?" Wesley inquired. "I don't have quite the associations with it that you do."

"But this is my own project," she protested. "And you have a department to run. Why would you do this? For me? Or for Spike?"

"I've been checking here and there ever since Spike arrived," he admitted. "But not with the amount of dedication that you have. But as long as there's nothing really pressing going on at the moment, I suggest that we split the material down the middle. Leave the translations for the time being. We'll concentrate on helping Spike." He looked at her wan features. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

&&&&&&

Rose was busily slogging away, when about mid-morning, she had a completely unexpected visitor. Harmony.

"Hello, Harmony." She greeted the vampire. "What brings you here?"

Harmony eyed Rose speculatively. "Is it true that what they're saying? About you and that demon?"

Rose's eyes went wide. "I don't know, Harmony. I suppose it depends on what they are saying. I had no idea that news of it had gotten around."

Harm shook her head. "You just keep your face stuck in a book or that computer terminal, don't you? You don't have the first idea of what is going on." She glanced around the office. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

"Go ahead." Rose indicated the chair. "It's kind of refreshing to have someone in here who would rather sit in the chair than on my desk."

"I think it's a guy thing," Harmony said vaguely. "So, why don't you tell me about that demon?"

"I don't mean to be impolite, Harmony," Rose remarked. "But why are you even here? Since I began work here you've acted like I was an interloper. If you want to be friends, I don't have a problem with it. I just don't understand."

Harmony looked embarrassed, and a little ashamed. "I had a little talk with Bl.., with Spike the other day," she confessed. "And after I'd had some time to think about what he said, I wanted to meet the woman who made so much of a change in him."

"Do you miss him?" Rose asked softly.

"Well, the sex was pretty fabulous," Harmony said. "But, you know, most of the rest of the time he just acted like I was the most incredible pest. I don't know why I thought he was in love with me." She shrugged. "But that's old news. I'd really like to hear all about that demon. The ops guy I'm dating didn't really have very many details."

"I'll try to keep my breakfast down and tell you about the demon if you'll answer one question for me, Harmony," Rose replied. "I understand that Spike treated you pretty badly when the two of you were together, but do you think he really deserves to go to hell forever? And don't say what you think I want to hear," she added. "Say what you think, I promised you a story for an answer, not a story for the right, or wrong answer."

"Spike could be a real creep sometimes," Harmony admitted. "But there were other times when he was so sweet. I was pretty mad at him for a long time, but I don't think I could ever be mad enough to want him to go to hell." She sat up straighter with a little bounce. "There's your silly answer. Now, I want my story."

&&&&&&

Spike popped into Rose's office at about the time she usually took her lunch break, just in time to see a familiar backside disappearing out the door.

"Was that Harm?" he asked. "She been bugging you again, luv?"

Rose looked thoughtful. "Actually, I think Harmony and I have come to terms with each other. She's a very unusual person," she mused. "Almost like a child in a woman's body, I think. But she can be quite nice when she wants to be."

"She can also be a royal pain in the ass," Spike remarked, sitting on the desk. "You sure she wasn't giving you a hard time now? You're looking a little peaked, pet."

"Harmony wanted to hear about the encounter with Ahmed Al-Shere in all it's gory glory," Rose said with a grimace. "She's dating one of the men in the ops team that was with Angel, that's how she knew anything about it at all. But giving her all the details nearly made me lose my breakfast. I'm just glad Wesley took over researching the Chronicles, it..,"

"He what?" Hearing that Wesley had taken over part of Rose's private research was even more of a revelation than a kinder, gentler Harmony.

"He said that there's nothing really pressing going on right now," she explained. "So, he's going to help me with my research, and that's all I'm going to be doing until further notice."

"Why would Percy give a rat's ass about whether or not I get a body?" Spike asked suspiciously. "Has he been hitting on you?"

"Wesley wouldn't harm me," Rose said in shock. "What made you say that?"

Spike couldn't suppress a grin. A common enough phrase, and yet it went right over her head. "I meant that he was coming on to you, luv." Her expression didn't become any more enlightened. "Making overtures?"

He had finally hit on one that she understood. "Don't be silly, Spike. Why would he want to do that? Besides, he was doing a little research on the subject on his own since you arrived here. He just didn't put much time into it."

"It's a bloody marvel," Spike mused. "You get Harm's feathers unruffled, no easy task, I can tell you, and then you get the Watcher to help try to get my body back. I still haven't got you figured out, precious. Who exactly are you?"

"Someone who loves you," she replied, and he had to be satisfied with the answer.

&&&&&&

Rose climbed into bed. Her own bed in her own apartment. Since the danger from the cursed book had been abated, even Angel had to concede that she was as safe on her own as she had ever been. He had, however, extended her invitation to stay with him for as long as she liked. She had thanked him sweetly and genuinely, and moved out anyway. She liked Angel, but she didn't want to spend all her time under his watchful eye. From the look of relief that Spike had displayed at her answer, she figured that he had felt pretty much the same way.

As she settled down on her pillow, Spike climbed in with her as was becoming his habit. "You don't mind me stopping along all night, do you, pet?"

"No," she responded. "I kind of like it, really." She giggled briefly. "It does look a little incongruous, though, with you being fully dressed and wearing that jacket."

"That can be easily taken care of," Spike remarked. "Should have thought of it myself." A brief shimmer, and he was wearing silky black pajama pants. And nothing else. "Never was much of a one for wearing anything to bed." He gave her a naughty grin. "But I figured this would be about all that your maidenly modesty could take at this point."

Rose started feeling a little dizzy, until she remembered to breathe. "Is that really how you look?"

The smirk was out in full force. "It was," he replied. "Like what you're looking at?" he asked, knowing full well from the expression on her face that she did.

"I was just wondering if this was how you felt when you look at me," she said softly. "Sort of all tingly and warm?" She didn't seem to be able to take her eyes off him.

"Something like that." He refrained from reminding her that he didn't have any physical sensations at his beck and call at the moment. Then, practicality reasserted itself. "You can't get any sleep with your eyes wide open like that, luv. So why don't you turn out the light and shut them?"

"Maybe I'd just like to stay awake and look." She felt an almost uncontrollable urge to reach out and touch him, to see if he felt as good as he looked. Only the sure knowledge of what would happen if she tried, prevented her.

"You'll just make yourself crazy, sweetheart, trust me." Spike was beginning to think he had made a mistake in his change of attire.

"Maybe I already am." Rose reached over and flicked off the light.