Chapter 19
Harmony sunk low in her desk chair, when Buffy walked up. "Blood?" She asked.
"Where!?" Harmony looked at her clothes.
"That's what I'd like to know. Where's Angel's blood? Harmony, we've got the demon summit today, and you're late, and Angel's cranky and.." Buffy noticed Harmony peering up over her desktop. "What are you doing?"
"Desk crunches. Get fit while you sit. You should see my abs. You wanna? Mug o' blood, coming right up, boss. You want anything?"
"I'm good." Buffy started to move away, but turned back. "Harmony.."
"Huh?"
"I can't afford to have anything go wrong today."
"What could go wrong?"
"Oh, let me count the ways." Buffy sighed, walking into her office.
Angel looked up from his desk. "Hi." Buffy slid onto his lap and laid her head on his shoulder. "You ok?"
"Tired."
"Well, after last night's escapades, I can't imagine why."
"Shut up. You were the one who decided to be athletic."
Angel pulled out a little box from his pocket. "Happy anniversary."
"You got me a gift?" Angel nodded. Buffy smiled and opened it. It was the same silver cross that he had given to her when they had first met. Only this time there was a small silver ring with three pink diamonds shaped like little hearts. "Oh my God." She covered her mouth.
"I had a team go in and dig around where our house used to be. I wanted to try and recover whatever we could from Sunnydale and they found this in the same box it had originally came in. There was nothing wrong with it. It was just the same as the night I gave it to you. Except for that ring."
As Buffy slid it on, she asked, "Did they find anything else?"
Angel reached into a drawer and pulled out an envelope. "There was more, but I had them put it in one of the vaults in the basement."
Buffy pulled a stack of pictures out of the envelope. They were pictures from her days in Sunnydale. The last two pictures made her tear up. One was the picture Willow took of her holding baby Connor in the hospital and Angel at her side, kissing her sweat matted hair. The other was Buffy, Angel, and their grown up Connor together, smiling as they stood on the beach. "I thought everything of Connor was erased."
"Apparently not everything." Angel wiped away her tears. "I thought you should have these."
Harmony walked in and handed Angel his mug of blood. "Is everything ok?"
"It's fine." Buffy said.
"Ooook, but you're all splotchy."
"Thanks."
Harmony turned to go, but stopped and looked back. "By the way, happy anniversary."
"Thank you Harmony." Angel said. Harmony nodded and walked out. He looked back at Buffy. "You gonna be ok?"
"Yeah. I just miss him." Buffy said, wiping away all of her tears.
"I do too."
"I checked in on him about a week ago. Not physically, of course, but I wanted to know what he was doing with his new life." She laughed. "He's playing football for Notre Dame and planning on being a doctor."
Angel laughed. "I won the bet."
"It's redundant! You can't win a bet that was technically never made."
"You still owe me my reward."
"I gave that to you last night. Besides, I got what I wanted too. He's going to be a doctor. So you have to pay up too."
"I did last night."
"Didn't count."
The intercom buzzed on the phone. Angel pressed the button. "Yeah?"
"There's a Detective Griffin for you." Harmony said.
"Put him through." Angel left it on speakerphone so Buffy could hear. "This is Buffy and Angel."
"Yeah, this is Dave Griffin, L.A.P.D. Thought you'd wanna know, we found a body this morning. Vampire attack. Looks like he was.."
"Hold on." Buffy looked out the window. "Harmony! We got it!"
"Oh. Right. Sorry." Harmony said. She hung up.
"Go ahead Mr. Griffin."
"We found a body at the city dump wrapped in a laundry bag. He was a client of yours. He had one your cards on him."
"And you're calling us why?" Angel asked.
"Uh.. You own us."
"We do?"
"Yes sir. We're having the body brought into Ms. Burkle's lab right now."
"Good thank you."
"His name was Toby Dupree."
"Toby Dupree?" Buffy asked. Angel looked up at her. "Thank you Mr. Griffin." She punched a button, cutting the phone off, and stood up, beginning to pace. "Damn it."
"What?"
"Toby Dupree? Ring a bell?"
"Vaguely."
"He's our liaison for the summit!"
"This isn't good."
Buffy punched a button. "Gunn, grab Wesley and get in here." She hung up.
A minute later, the two men were hurrying to the office. "Do you know what this is about?" Gunn asked.
"Perhaps one of the Vinjis set down a teacup improperly." Wesley said.
"Worse." Buffy said, opening the door. "Just got off the phone with the L.A.P.D. They found a body."
"Where? Did he say where?" Harmony asked.
"City dump, wrapped in a laundry bag."
"And the police called you two because..?" Wesley asked.
"Apparently, we own them." Angel said.
"Right. Makes sense." Gunn said.
"Of course." Wesley said.
"Well, that, and they found our card on the victim. It was the liaison between the feuding clans." Buffy said.
"Toby Dupree?" Gunn asked.
"Toby! That was his.." Harmony noticed the others turn their attention to her. "Name. Really? Huh. You don't hear unusual names like that anymore."
"We're gonna have to do some serious damage control." Buffy said.
"You think? Demon rights activist gets munched by a vamp on our watch?" Gunn said.
"No telling how the clans are gonna take this. Superstitious as they are, they may see it as an omen or.." Wesley said.
"So, this cop? He doesn't have any actual real info, right?" Harmony asked.
"It is possible that someone's trying to send a message, derail the summit."
"Ooh! Yeah! That must be it! The derailing thing. That-that makes sense. Right?"
"We need to call the clans." Angel said.
"Let's get on it."
A few minutes later, Buffy and Angel sat at their desk having a conference call on the speakerphone while Gunn and Wesley stood by. The demons spoke their demon language, and Gunn translated.
"The Vinji clan is deeply concerned about this turn of events." Gunn said.
"Perhaps if you say something." Wesley said to Angel.
"Oh, no. I'm not ready." Angel said.
"Look, just tell them that the summit can proceed as planned, and they shouldn't, you know, start skinning each other." Buffy said. Gunn spoke and clicked at the phone and the Vinji leader said something that didn't sound so good. "Tell 'em we're on it."
Gunn spoke and clicked again, then Angel got caught up and said, "Veel mahnkshay." And clicked his tongue. Gunn glanced at him with a not so good look as the Vinji leader went into a rant. He spoke and clicked at the phone and then, irritated, pressed the buttons to end the call. Angel sighed heavily.
"What happened to you not saying anything?" Wesley asked.
"I got caught up. Obviously a mistake." Angel said.
"Forgive and forget, I say! It's the Golden Rule." Harmony said.
Gunn shook his head, leaning on the table. "These guys are not gonna forgive, and they're definitely not gonna forget until we figure out.."
"Who killed Dupree." Buffy finished. "We know. Fred'll be able to tell us some more soon. Dupree's body should be in the lab by now."
"Lab? Our lab?" Harmony turned and left quickly.
"That was fast." Gunn said.
"Shouldn't take long to track down the vampire who did this, set things right." Angel said.
Buffy glanced at her watch. "We have about an hour until the clans get here. I'm going to go freshen up and make sure I don't look disrespectful by looking bad. Wouldn't want to cause any more problems."
"I'm gonna go with." Angel said, standing up and following.
***
The demon tribal leaders were talking to Buffy, Angel, and Gunn in the lobby. The Vinji leader was screeching at them. "What?" Angel asked.
Buffy grabbed Gunn's arm. "What is she saying?"
"That want to walk." Gunn said. He spoke and slicked to the leaders. "I told her.."
"I got the general idea. What do they want?"
The Vinji leader screeched some more and Gunn looked at her. "That ain't good."
"What?" Angel asked.
"Seems it's bad luck to get things going before we cough up a little eye for an eye. Seeing as though we don't have the actual bad guy, they're willing to accept a substitute."
"They want a blood sacrifice? Harmony!"
"A person makes one little mistake.." Harmony said, walking around a corner.
"Find Fred. I want to know what she got off the body."
"Fred? Right. I'm on it." She walked off.
Buffy looked at Gunn. "Let's get them into the conference room, huh? We're making a scene."
A few minutes later, the demon clans were in the conference room speaking in their language. They hissed and clicked angrily at each other spoke with their hands outstretched in clawing motions, their hissing and growling sounds and their body language were getting progressively more aggressive. Buffy, Angel, and Gunn looked on as the demon leaders hissed, growled, screeched, and clicked at one another.
"Funny how that wasn't on the tape." Angel murmured to Buffy.
"They're still demanding a.." Gunn started, but the Vinji leader clicked at him as well as the Sahrvin leader.
Suddenly, Harmony and a girl, Tamika Buffy thought was her name, crashed through the glass wall of the conference room near the head of the table. Harmony picked Tamika up off the floor, threw her onto the table, reared back, and staked her with a chopstick. Tamika vanished into a cloud of dust. The demon leaders looked at Harmony.
"I didn't mean to do that yet." Harmony said. The demon leaders looked at one another, calmer now. They clicked passively at each other. The leaders sat down, smiling, and looked at Buffy and Angel. "I.. can explain?" The demons all turned to face Buffy and Angel, who crossed their arms disapprovingly.
***
Fred, Rudy, and Lorne were sitting in Buffy and Angel's office holding ice packs to their heads. "You should have just come to me or Angel." Buffy said.
"Gee, I wish I would have thought of telling her that." Fred said.
"I'm really, really sorry, you guys." Harmony said. "I totally wouldn't have hit you over the head and put you in the closet if I didn't have a really good reason. It's just.. I was scared, and.. I know you never wanted me as your guys' assistant, and.. Ok, I made some bad choices. I mean, it's not like I have a soul. I have to try a lot harder."
Gunn walked out of the conference room, closing the door behind him. "How's it going in there?" Wesley asked.
"Well, so far, no heads are rolling. How 'bout in here?" Gunn asked.
"Harmony could've handled it better, but she didn't kill anyone." Fred said.
"You'll be clean in 2 days, but I'll be watchin' you." Rudy said, walking out.
"I know." Harmony said. "He won't have to be watching cause.. I'll just pack up my desk." She turned to leave.
"Harmony?" She turned back to Buffy. "Just bring us some coffee."
***
Buffy and Angel walked into their penthouse, ready to collapse onto the bed and go to sleep. When they turned the lights on, everyone jumped out of their hiding places and yelled, "Surprise! Happy anniversary!"
The two looked at their friends, then at each other, and walked into the bedroom closing the door behind them. Dawn looked at the door pitifully. "I bought a cake."
"Ah, don't worry about it." Gunn said. "They're just tired. We'll get em tomorrow."
Buffy and Angel lay curled up together on their bed, peacefully sleeping in their clothes. They were just way too exhausted from all the stress of the past few days to care about anything but falling asleep.
Harmony sunk low in her desk chair, when Buffy walked up. "Blood?" She asked.
"Where!?" Harmony looked at her clothes.
"That's what I'd like to know. Where's Angel's blood? Harmony, we've got the demon summit today, and you're late, and Angel's cranky and.." Buffy noticed Harmony peering up over her desktop. "What are you doing?"
"Desk crunches. Get fit while you sit. You should see my abs. You wanna? Mug o' blood, coming right up, boss. You want anything?"
"I'm good." Buffy started to move away, but turned back. "Harmony.."
"Huh?"
"I can't afford to have anything go wrong today."
"What could go wrong?"
"Oh, let me count the ways." Buffy sighed, walking into her office.
Angel looked up from his desk. "Hi." Buffy slid onto his lap and laid her head on his shoulder. "You ok?"
"Tired."
"Well, after last night's escapades, I can't imagine why."
"Shut up. You were the one who decided to be athletic."
Angel pulled out a little box from his pocket. "Happy anniversary."
"You got me a gift?" Angel nodded. Buffy smiled and opened it. It was the same silver cross that he had given to her when they had first met. Only this time there was a small silver ring with three pink diamonds shaped like little hearts. "Oh my God." She covered her mouth.
"I had a team go in and dig around where our house used to be. I wanted to try and recover whatever we could from Sunnydale and they found this in the same box it had originally came in. There was nothing wrong with it. It was just the same as the night I gave it to you. Except for that ring."
As Buffy slid it on, she asked, "Did they find anything else?"
Angel reached into a drawer and pulled out an envelope. "There was more, but I had them put it in one of the vaults in the basement."
Buffy pulled a stack of pictures out of the envelope. They were pictures from her days in Sunnydale. The last two pictures made her tear up. One was the picture Willow took of her holding baby Connor in the hospital and Angel at her side, kissing her sweat matted hair. The other was Buffy, Angel, and their grown up Connor together, smiling as they stood on the beach. "I thought everything of Connor was erased."
"Apparently not everything." Angel wiped away her tears. "I thought you should have these."
Harmony walked in and handed Angel his mug of blood. "Is everything ok?"
"It's fine." Buffy said.
"Ooook, but you're all splotchy."
"Thanks."
Harmony turned to go, but stopped and looked back. "By the way, happy anniversary."
"Thank you Harmony." Angel said. Harmony nodded and walked out. He looked back at Buffy. "You gonna be ok?"
"Yeah. I just miss him." Buffy said, wiping away all of her tears.
"I do too."
"I checked in on him about a week ago. Not physically, of course, but I wanted to know what he was doing with his new life." She laughed. "He's playing football for Notre Dame and planning on being a doctor."
Angel laughed. "I won the bet."
"It's redundant! You can't win a bet that was technically never made."
"You still owe me my reward."
"I gave that to you last night. Besides, I got what I wanted too. He's going to be a doctor. So you have to pay up too."
"I did last night."
"Didn't count."
The intercom buzzed on the phone. Angel pressed the button. "Yeah?"
"There's a Detective Griffin for you." Harmony said.
"Put him through." Angel left it on speakerphone so Buffy could hear. "This is Buffy and Angel."
"Yeah, this is Dave Griffin, L.A.P.D. Thought you'd wanna know, we found a body this morning. Vampire attack. Looks like he was.."
"Hold on." Buffy looked out the window. "Harmony! We got it!"
"Oh. Right. Sorry." Harmony said. She hung up.
"Go ahead Mr. Griffin."
"We found a body at the city dump wrapped in a laundry bag. He was a client of yours. He had one your cards on him."
"And you're calling us why?" Angel asked.
"Uh.. You own us."
"We do?"
"Yes sir. We're having the body brought into Ms. Burkle's lab right now."
"Good thank you."
"His name was Toby Dupree."
"Toby Dupree?" Buffy asked. Angel looked up at her. "Thank you Mr. Griffin." She punched a button, cutting the phone off, and stood up, beginning to pace. "Damn it."
"What?"
"Toby Dupree? Ring a bell?"
"Vaguely."
"He's our liaison for the summit!"
"This isn't good."
Buffy punched a button. "Gunn, grab Wesley and get in here." She hung up.
A minute later, the two men were hurrying to the office. "Do you know what this is about?" Gunn asked.
"Perhaps one of the Vinjis set down a teacup improperly." Wesley said.
"Worse." Buffy said, opening the door. "Just got off the phone with the L.A.P.D. They found a body."
"Where? Did he say where?" Harmony asked.
"City dump, wrapped in a laundry bag."
"And the police called you two because..?" Wesley asked.
"Apparently, we own them." Angel said.
"Right. Makes sense." Gunn said.
"Of course." Wesley said.
"Well, that, and they found our card on the victim. It was the liaison between the feuding clans." Buffy said.
"Toby Dupree?" Gunn asked.
"Toby! That was his.." Harmony noticed the others turn their attention to her. "Name. Really? Huh. You don't hear unusual names like that anymore."
"We're gonna have to do some serious damage control." Buffy said.
"You think? Demon rights activist gets munched by a vamp on our watch?" Gunn said.
"No telling how the clans are gonna take this. Superstitious as they are, they may see it as an omen or.." Wesley said.
"So, this cop? He doesn't have any actual real info, right?" Harmony asked.
"It is possible that someone's trying to send a message, derail the summit."
"Ooh! Yeah! That must be it! The derailing thing. That-that makes sense. Right?"
"We need to call the clans." Angel said.
"Let's get on it."
A few minutes later, Buffy and Angel sat at their desk having a conference call on the speakerphone while Gunn and Wesley stood by. The demons spoke their demon language, and Gunn translated.
"The Vinji clan is deeply concerned about this turn of events." Gunn said.
"Perhaps if you say something." Wesley said to Angel.
"Oh, no. I'm not ready." Angel said.
"Look, just tell them that the summit can proceed as planned, and they shouldn't, you know, start skinning each other." Buffy said. Gunn spoke and clicked at the phone and the Vinji leader said something that didn't sound so good. "Tell 'em we're on it."
Gunn spoke and clicked again, then Angel got caught up and said, "Veel mahnkshay." And clicked his tongue. Gunn glanced at him with a not so good look as the Vinji leader went into a rant. He spoke and clicked at the phone and then, irritated, pressed the buttons to end the call. Angel sighed heavily.
"What happened to you not saying anything?" Wesley asked.
"I got caught up. Obviously a mistake." Angel said.
"Forgive and forget, I say! It's the Golden Rule." Harmony said.
Gunn shook his head, leaning on the table. "These guys are not gonna forgive, and they're definitely not gonna forget until we figure out.."
"Who killed Dupree." Buffy finished. "We know. Fred'll be able to tell us some more soon. Dupree's body should be in the lab by now."
"Lab? Our lab?" Harmony turned and left quickly.
"That was fast." Gunn said.
"Shouldn't take long to track down the vampire who did this, set things right." Angel said.
Buffy glanced at her watch. "We have about an hour until the clans get here. I'm going to go freshen up and make sure I don't look disrespectful by looking bad. Wouldn't want to cause any more problems."
"I'm gonna go with." Angel said, standing up and following.
***
The demon tribal leaders were talking to Buffy, Angel, and Gunn in the lobby. The Vinji leader was screeching at them. "What?" Angel asked.
Buffy grabbed Gunn's arm. "What is she saying?"
"That want to walk." Gunn said. He spoke and slicked to the leaders. "I told her.."
"I got the general idea. What do they want?"
The Vinji leader screeched some more and Gunn looked at her. "That ain't good."
"What?" Angel asked.
"Seems it's bad luck to get things going before we cough up a little eye for an eye. Seeing as though we don't have the actual bad guy, they're willing to accept a substitute."
"They want a blood sacrifice? Harmony!"
"A person makes one little mistake.." Harmony said, walking around a corner.
"Find Fred. I want to know what she got off the body."
"Fred? Right. I'm on it." She walked off.
Buffy looked at Gunn. "Let's get them into the conference room, huh? We're making a scene."
A few minutes later, the demon clans were in the conference room speaking in their language. They hissed and clicked angrily at each other spoke with their hands outstretched in clawing motions, their hissing and growling sounds and their body language were getting progressively more aggressive. Buffy, Angel, and Gunn looked on as the demon leaders hissed, growled, screeched, and clicked at one another.
"Funny how that wasn't on the tape." Angel murmured to Buffy.
"They're still demanding a.." Gunn started, but the Vinji leader clicked at him as well as the Sahrvin leader.
Suddenly, Harmony and a girl, Tamika Buffy thought was her name, crashed through the glass wall of the conference room near the head of the table. Harmony picked Tamika up off the floor, threw her onto the table, reared back, and staked her with a chopstick. Tamika vanished into a cloud of dust. The demon leaders looked at Harmony.
"I didn't mean to do that yet." Harmony said. The demon leaders looked at one another, calmer now. They clicked passively at each other. The leaders sat down, smiling, and looked at Buffy and Angel. "I.. can explain?" The demons all turned to face Buffy and Angel, who crossed their arms disapprovingly.
***
Fred, Rudy, and Lorne were sitting in Buffy and Angel's office holding ice packs to their heads. "You should have just come to me or Angel." Buffy said.
"Gee, I wish I would have thought of telling her that." Fred said.
"I'm really, really sorry, you guys." Harmony said. "I totally wouldn't have hit you over the head and put you in the closet if I didn't have a really good reason. It's just.. I was scared, and.. I know you never wanted me as your guys' assistant, and.. Ok, I made some bad choices. I mean, it's not like I have a soul. I have to try a lot harder."
Gunn walked out of the conference room, closing the door behind him. "How's it going in there?" Wesley asked.
"Well, so far, no heads are rolling. How 'bout in here?" Gunn asked.
"Harmony could've handled it better, but she didn't kill anyone." Fred said.
"You'll be clean in 2 days, but I'll be watchin' you." Rudy said, walking out.
"I know." Harmony said. "He won't have to be watching cause.. I'll just pack up my desk." She turned to leave.
"Harmony?" She turned back to Buffy. "Just bring us some coffee."
***
Buffy and Angel walked into their penthouse, ready to collapse onto the bed and go to sleep. When they turned the lights on, everyone jumped out of their hiding places and yelled, "Surprise! Happy anniversary!"
The two looked at their friends, then at each other, and walked into the bedroom closing the door behind them. Dawn looked at the door pitifully. "I bought a cake."
"Ah, don't worry about it." Gunn said. "They're just tired. We'll get em tomorrow."
Buffy and Angel lay curled up together on their bed, peacefully sleeping in their clothes. They were just way too exhausted from all the stress of the past few days to care about anything but falling asleep.