Something Beautiful
Chapter Four: Lady Killer

There was a screech of laughter that Harmony immediately identified as belonging to Louise Kinley, Wesley's PA. When Harmony opened her eyes - the laughter having echoed out of her sensitive ears - she found that the person on the other end of the line had slammed the phone down.

"Well, excuse me!" she huffed indignantly.

Now that she no longer had to try and explain to her caller that the Ritual Sacrifices department no longer existed, Harmony could return to more important matters. She had scrawled a list on a lemon yellow post-it. So far she had Fred, Eve and the girl from Files and Records. Fred had three lines under her name and a heart at the side of it. Harmony had decided it was her duty to find Wes a girlfriend and, because she knew exactly how Wes felt about Fred, that's who was at the top of her list.

But Harmony had heard of Wes's relationship with Lilah and knew of his fondness for evil, well-dressed, intelligent, lawyer types. So, because a girl should always have a back up plan, Eve was on her list, though the girl always made her shudder for some reason. But Harmony had no complaints about her dress sense.

And, in case she was really unlucky and neither Fred nor Eve worked out, the girl from Files and Records looked like she would scrub up all right.

There was a clatter of heels and Louise entered the lobby, her red hair pulled back in an elegant chignon, attired in a silk shirt, with a black skirt and jacket, teetering on black heels. Harmony glanced down at her ruffled lilac skirt with matching top, then self consciously touched her hair, which was pinned back with a glittery, butterfly shaped slide. She felt a flash of envy as she compared her own colourful tastes to that of the effortlessly put together Louise.

Then she curled her lip, shaking her head, no one would notice Louise in that. She blended in too well in that outfit.

At least Harmony was noticed.

Even as she thought it, Wes walked into the lobby, wandered over to her desk, but his eyes followed Louise towards the elevators.

Well, maybe Harmony had been wrong about the noticeable thing.

"Ow!" Wes grabbed his stomach and rubbed it where he had banged into Harmony's desk.

"Earth to Wesley," Harmony said. "See what happens when you don't pay attention?"

"I was paying attention!" he protested.

"Not to where you were going, you weren't."

Wes shifted uncomfortably and blushed. Harmony rolled her eyes and stood up, looking forward to a couple of mugs of blood and a conversation with Wesley.

"I'm ashamed of you," she sighed. "You really are just a guy."

"Afraid I can't argue with that," he replied. "Anyway, I should get going. Louise should be back in a while with the file she went to get."

"Uh-huh."

Harmony shrugged, pretended she hadn't stood to go to lunch with him by reaching across her desk to grab a pile of papers. He frowned at her sudden coolness, but didn't say anything and Harmony sat down with a thump as she watched him return to his office.

Harmony glanced down and noted with a wondering frown that she hadn't thought to put Louise on the list.

"… You didn't?"

"Well, of course, it wasn't funny at the time…"

"But you actually came on to them? Knowing they could burn you alive?"

"To be fair, the attraction was created by them. It was an other dimensional demon thing."

Harmony glanced up, unnoticed, and listened to the tail end of one of Wesley's stories. Stories that Harmony practically had to pry from between the ex-Watcher's tightly pursed lips.

"What's this?" Harmony asked, raising her voice over their laughter.

Louise patted Wes's arm and smiled at Harmony. Harmony didn't like that smile one bit, it was deeply condescending and she knew what Louise was going to say before she even said it.

"Oh, nothing," Louise replied casually. "Wes was just telling me about when he worked for Angel Investigations."

Not knowing how to answer that, Harmony remained silent.

"Well, I ought to get going," Louise said after a moment. "I thought we could go for a drink," she smiled flirtatiously, but from where Harmony was sitting, it looked like a smirk. "Tomorrow night? I'd ask you out tonight, but I know you're busy."

"Yes, a drink sounds wonderful. I'll see you tomorrow morning, Louise."

She nodded and sauntered away. Wes watched her, seemingly transfixed, until Harmony coughed.

"I thought we were going for a drink tomorrow?" she asked, trying to sound cold instead of hurt.

"Were we?" Wes frowned, trying to remember. "Oh, God! Yes, we were. I'm sorry, Harmony, but I'm sure Louise wouldn't mind if you…" he tailed off as Harmony shook her head. He gave her a tentative smile. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Mind?" Harmony repeated in a shrill voice. "No, of course not. It's about time you had a date."

"Date?" Wes said, then smiled cockily. "Yes, I suppose it is. I'll see you later, Harmony, I'm working late."

Harmony nodded and watched him walk away.

"He's humming!" she hissed incredulously. "All right, Louise Kinley. You're going down."

Harmony peered subtly through the glass walls of Wesley's office and found that only Louise was in there, on the phone, smiling and leaning back in Wesley's chair. Harmony felt a rush of fury and rapped hard on the door. Louise quickly ended her conversation and opened the door, gave Harmony an odd look before fixing a wide, entirely false smile, on her face.

"Harmony, hi. What can I do for you?"

"I had to talk to you, while the Boss man was out the way," Harmony slipped past Louise, wringing her fingers and nibbling her lip.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"It's just that… Well, since I heard about you and Wes going for a drink, I decided I just had to tell you. I mean, I never thought he would do this with an employee. Not again anyway."

"Do what? Harmony! Will you tell me what you're talking about!"

"What, you've not heard?" Harmony batted her eyelashes innocently. Louise shook her head and Harmony suppressed a triumphant smirk. "Oh, no. You poor, poor thing."

Harmony sank down onto the couch and Louise followed her slowly, staring at her nervously. Harmony took a deep breath, waited and then continued.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, Louise, because I can tell you really like Wesley. Believe me, so do I. He's a good friend. But I have to tell you this, girls together, right? Wesley is a… womaniser."

Louise blinked, her mouth twitched and then she burst into loud peals of laughter.

"Oh, Harmony, you are funny!"

"I'm serious! I'm trying to save you from being yet another of Wesley Wyndham-Pryce's conquests. Believe me, it's not a nice feeling."

"You mean, you two…?"

"Alas," Harmony sniffled, covered her mouth, and indicated that she needed a minute. She took another deep breath. "We're ok now, Wes and I. We're good friends, but, if I'm honest," she allowed her voice to crack slightly. "He broke my heart. I don't want the same for you. Trust me, he can't have F-" she stopped, that was going a little too far. "Now he can't have the woman he loves, he's looking for anyone. He's had Lilah Morgan, me, Mr Gunn's PA, the, um, girl from Files and Records, and I think he was after Eve too. Then you came along."

"I don't…" Louise looked stunned. "I really like him, I thought he was a gentleman. I thought he liked me."

"Oh, he does," Harmony said, patting Louise's hand gently. "That's why he's into you. But once you've, well… that'll be it. He'll have moved on."

Louise pursed her lips, eyes blazing furiously.

"He was going to use me?" she hissed. "Why didn't you warn me before?"

"After me," Harmony said, making it up as she went along. "He said he wouldn't try it with any other woman from work. I believed him. I know he's a great guy to work with and I thought you'd enjoy working with him."

"I did," Louise stood up, pacing up and down. "But that's it, I'm handing in my resignation."

"I'm sorry to have had to tell you this, Louise."

"No. Thank you for telling me, Harmony."

With a smile, Harmony left the office, banging straight into Gunn.

"Oh, sorry," he muttered, starting to carry on down the hall, before he looked back at her. "Harmony?"

"Yeah?" she asked hesitantly, remembering vaguely that she ought to be avoiding him, but she couldn't think why.

"You haven't heard any… rumours about me, have you?" he asked, looking embarrassed.

She wondered what he was talking about, when suddenly she remembered replacing Wesley with Gunn in that gay rumour mill.

"What? Oh, those," she waved her hand. "I wouldn't worry about them, they change every week."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes," she nodded empathically, making a mental note to try and damp down the rumours as she watched Gunn walk away.

Then she glanced back at Wes's office, where Louise was striding angrily in and out of view, gathering her things.

Mission accomplished. Goodbye, Louise.

Harmony watched as Louise crossed the lobby furiously, taking the elevator back to her old floor. Wes followed five minutes later, looking slightly lost and dazed. Harmony bent over her work, glancing up to watch his slow progress toward her desk.

"What happened?" she asked finally, looking up as he placed his hands on the desk top, blinking as though in a bright light.

"Louise just walked out on me," he said slowly. "She said there was no way she would continue working with a male, chauvinist pig such as myself who sees women as nothing more than meat. She said she was too good to be used by an arrogant, clumsy, pretty boy like me. What on earth does that mean?"

"That she quits?" Harmony offered helpfully.

"But where on earth did she get all this stuff about me being a womaniser from?" he asked, almost whining.

"Oh, you know what the rumour mill is like in this place," she said. "People have even been saying that Gunn's gay. I wouldn't worry. I'll do some stuff for you, if you want. Like last time."

"I suppose," he looked morose, hands in his pockets; head bowed and bottom lip protruding ever so slightly.

"Hey," Harmony said gently. "You wanna go for a drink?"

He perked up slightly.

"Yeah, why not?"

Harmony smiled and shut down her computer. He offered her his arm and she tucked her hand through it as they wandered toward the staff bar.

Life, Harmony decided, was a whole lot more fun without interfering Personal Assistants.

Not that she had been jealous or anything.