"I want my own office."
Angel looked up from his seemingly endless stream of paperwork to see Spike giving him a stubborn look from across his desk. Damn it, he wasn't in the mood for this.
"No, Spike."
"And my own secretary."
"You don't do anything Spike, why would you need an office!"
"Don't do anything? I pull more weight around here than half these bloody meat puppets! I think I have sodding well earned an office!"
Just as Angel was really beginning to lose his barely maintained cool, Harmony appeared in the doorway.
"Uhh… Boss?"
"Not now Harmony." He ground out. "No. Office. Spike. You get me?"
"Typical! Typical!" Spike shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Angel. "Never giving me the credit I deserve! Never letting me forget for one second-"
"I'm not giving you an office, Spike!" Angel bellowed, his all-too-fragile grip on the world of calm slipping once and for all.
"Sorry Boss…" Harmony tentatively interjected, "but there seems to be-"
"Not now Harmony!" Angel boomed towards the blonde.
Spike was adamant about not letting this one go. "An office or I walk!"
Angel stood and leaned forward over his desk. "So WALK."
Before Spike had time to reply, a Wolfram and Hart security guard smashed through Angel's office window.
Prying his eyes off the man now dazedly trying to get to his feet amid the shards of broken glass, Angel turned questioning eyes to Harmony.
"I tried to tell you!" the young woman whined. "There's some girl killing people in the lobby!"
But Angel was already swooping past her, with Spike close behind. Harmony scurried to keep up.
"Do we know who she is?" Angel demanded. Keeping his gaze locked in front of him.
"Apparently she walked in demanding to see Holland Manners. The guard at the desk told her that someone else was in charge now and when she was denied entrance to see you, well… that's when she started throwing people…"
"Disgruntled former employee?" Spike offered, still keeping stride with Angel, eager for a fight.
"Whoever she is I don't-" Angel began but trailed off as they came to the top of the stairs descending into the lobby. Amidst the wreckage of shattered glass, broken light fixtures and what appeared to be the remains of the front desk, stood a girl. Surrounded by the unconscious forms of humans and demons alike, she was making quick work of what was once Wolfram and Hart's crack security team.
She was facing away from Spike and Angel, but from what they could make out she was tall, a brunette, muscular, and judging from the way she had just backhanded a three hundred pound security guard across the lobby, she was most definitely a demon. A faded and torn black jacket was draped around her and she wore black pants and a white tank top that had similarly seen better days.
As Angel and Spike made their way down the stairs, Spike couldn't help but frown as a new yet familiar scent caught him off guard. It smelled of blood and age and something he couldn't quite place, but oh, so very familiar. Spike caught Angel's eye as they reached the bottom of the stairs and started across the lobby. Spike could tell Angel smelled it too. Who was this girl?
Spike broke away from Angel and began approaching the woman from her other side, effectively blocking any means for her to escape as Angel strode up behind her just as she snapped the final guard's neck in her pale hands. Angel made to grab her shoulder, yet it seemed she sensed the movement behind her and quick as lighting landed a powerful kick to Angel's chest, sending the vampire sprawling. Finally turning and surveying her newest attacker, the woman grinned as she watched Angel pick himself up, his body turned just enough to obscure his face from her view.
"Listen mate, this is dead entertaining an'all, m'having a ringer of a time, but all I want is to see whoever runs this tip and-"
Before she could finish, Spike rushed her from behind. Yet again anticipating the attack, she threw out an elbow, which Spike easily caught. It was only now that Spike was in full view of her face. They both froze, the woman's arm still in Spike's iron grip, her eyes wide and a look of disbelief flooding her face, one that the blonde vampire knew was mirrored on his own.
"Will?" she whispered. Her all-too familiar green eyes narrowing as she studied his features, as if to find some telltale clue that this indeed, was not the case.
"…Bloody 'ell…" Was all Spike could manage as he shakily released his grip on her arm and took a step back as she turned to face him more fully.
"Someone care on filling me in on what the hell is going-" Angel began from the other side of the lobby, but stopped when the woman turned to see who was speaking. Angel nearly choked.
"R-Rigan!" he managed, his face incredulous and disbelieving.
"Angelus?" she nearly screamed upon recognizing the dark vampire she had moments before kicked across the room.
Her attention flicking back and forth, from Spike to Angel, she felt she had lost all control over her voice, simply reeling silently in the sudden and completely unexpected appearance of two major players from her past as Wesley and Gunn descended into the lobby cautiously, eyeing the destruction and the strange woman in the middle of it.
"Angel?" Gunn questioned warily, stepping over the unconscious form of a security guard as he came to stand beside his boss. "What's going on?"
"I'd like to be filled in as well!" Rigan finally managed, her voice now fully under her control once again.
"Harmony?" Angel called over his shoulder, his eyes never leaving Rigan.
"Yeah Boss?" came the chirpy reply.
"Get someone in here to clean this up… Spike, Rigan… let's do this in my office…"
"Your office?" Rigan asked, silently questioning whether or not any of this would ever make sense but following Angel's lead up the stairs with Spike close in tow.
"…Bloody L.A…" she mumbled to herself, stepping into Angel's office, noting the broken window as Spike shut the door behind her. Pointing to the broken glass now littering the floor, she questioned, guiltily: "That wasn't me, was it?"