Walking into the office the next morning you could feel the tension in the air as everyone scrambled around. Lindsey looked like he was about ready to have a coronary when she finally spotted him, silently passing him one of the coffee cups from the little holder she was carrying. "Here," she smiled, "I figured you could probably use this today."

Instead of thanking her he just grumbled something under his breath as he grabbed the warm beverage and kept moving, calling back to her not to be late heading upstairs.

Not sure what that was all about she briefly wondered what she could have done to piss him off, but like everyone else she didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it right then either. Picking up the file off her desk, she balanced it under her arm, as she carried the two remaining coffees towards the elevator she'd just come from. So far she hadn't spotted Angel, though that didn't surprise her too much. Knowing what a busy morning they were all bound to have she made sure to stop and get coffee for the two of them, then thinking of Lindsey last minute she'd grabbed one for him also, something she was starting to regret with his new found attitude.

Smiling to a few passerbys she briefly wondered if any of them were in fact Liam Angelus, but none of them seemed to fit the image she had conjured up in her mind of the myth of a man at least, nor did any of them seem to be being treated like some kind of the castle that she noticed so she just continued on her way. She kept thinking she would just somehow suddenly know him on sight but that was still to be determined.

Stepping off of the elevator, she was about to try and go look for Lindsey... or Angel... but as soon as two of her teammates saw her they yelled over, looking panicked making her groan. This wasn't how she needed this day to start.

OoOoO

After staring at him for too long, Lindsey turned his head slightly to scan over the room, then looked back at Angel. "Why does your face look like that?" he asked, sounding equally curious and annoyed.

Unsure of how he should take that, Angel glared over to his best friend. "And what exactly is wrong with my face?"

Lindsey took a sip of his coffee, smiling to a few suits as they walked by the two of them, then gave Angel another nasty look. "I don't know," Lindsey finally muttered. "You're not over there scowling and scaring people for one. You hate all of these damn people, and you hate having to go to these meetings. Hell, just the other day you had my eyes fixin' to come straight out of my head asking if you even needed to be here. Which, by the way, in case you are thinking about ditching me last minute, that answer is still a very booming yes you do need to be here."

To be honest, the idea of taking off right now was a little tempting... there was a strong mixture of excitement and nerves over today, and none of it had to do with the business side of this little meeting. The unknowing of how a certain blonde would react to learning the truth about who he was hung in the air. Part of him did want to just drag it out longer, to just enjoy this little taste of "normal" in his eyes, then there was worry she would take his misleads the wrong way, and the rest was just kind of fun to think about.

Angel shrugged. "Maybe I'm looking forward to your little adventure," he said and Lindsey scoffed. "Where is your crack team anyway?"

Lindsey then glanced at his watch and muttered that hopefully they were on their way.

OoOoO

After taking care of the paperwork being mixed up disaster as quickly as she could manage, everyone double checked to make sure everything they needed was ready to go, then joined up where they were told to go just as some double doors opened and Lindsey suddenly appeared to pep them up and walk in with.

As everyone was still bustling around with small talk as they got settled, Buffy made her way closer to Angel, presenting him with the coffee. "I do see you already have a cup though."

Angel smiled a little, "Just finished it actually so perfect timing. Thank you." As Angel quietly told her and the others they could go ahead and take a seat down the line beside him, she noticed Lindsey staring over at her with that same strange look he had given her yesterday before he came rushing over to all of them.

Lindsey started to tell the team they were supposed to sit on the other side of the room but Angel waved him off, telling him it was fine. "What are you doing?" she heard Lindsey whisper but Angel just told him it was time to start and again that everything was fine. "I swear to God-"

"Just worry about yourself, Linds."

OoOoO

As the meeting began, Angel sat quietly, taking everyone in. He already knew Lindsey's whole plan, his pitch and the various speeches - probably by heart at this point, so it was easy to tune him out. Instead he enjoyed his coffee, thought about numerous other things he could be doing if this wasn't his life, how the girl sitting on the opposite side of Buffy obviously knew who he was and it was making her incredibly nervous, her leg kept bouncing, fingers twitching, he noticed how Buffy used silent cues with the others as almost a second in command to Lindsey, guiding them up to the floor as needed...

He wouldn't say he was impressed with the little borrowed group from Lilah as not much got held in those regards these days, but so far he didn't have any complaints really either. Yes, they were nervous and there were a couple bumps but more than the usual morons he had to deal with coming in here they seemed to at least have an idea as to what they were doing.

His mind was wandering off into questions of how if some of these people panned out over the course of the next couple of months how wrong it might be to try and lure them to come work here when he heard the tail end of a question addressed to him.

Having heard enough of it to answer, Angel let out a breath and slowly stood up, knowing one question always led to the next and the next. As he moved to stand, he could feel the air shift between him and Buffy, the confusion written all over her face as he moved, and as he began to address the others.

When he finally sat back down, Lindsey was calling her back up to join him, refusing to even look his way as they changed places. She still held it together but looking close enough you could tell she was rattled, just doing a good job of hiding it.

OoOoO

After getting snippy, over the fact he just wanted to find Buffy more than his usual annoyance with people, everyone finally left him alone and he was able to escape the room of those still discussing last minute details with Lindsey.

He knew Lindsey had told them they could take an early lunch so he knew his chances of spotting her were slim to none as it were but still he went racing for the elevator, coming to a stop then back tracing when he caught a glimpse of her at the end of one of the hallways near his office.

That weird bubbling inside of him hit again, the idea that she took no issue in coming to confront him or whatever the case may be making him far happier than it really should.

"I'm sorry," he said from behind her as he got closer. She turned around slowly and he couldn't seem to get a read on her expression, and she just kept looking curiously at him for the longest time. "What are you thinking?" he finally asked.

"Mmm," she finally muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm really not sure what to think, Liam," she stressed his name in a way that made him want to wince.

"Buffy, I am sorry that I didn't tell you who I really was. I didn't mean…"

She cut him off, "You didn't mean to what," she glared. "To lie to me?"

She understood where he must be coming from, she was sure it was refreshing to not just be recognized as the big boss around here, but what he didn't understand was that none of that mattered with her, which she made a point of telling him.

"Buffy," he finally managed when she stopped for a breath, "Can we put a pin in this for just a second, just," he sighed, "Just come into my office."

The curious looks from those around them were not lost on him, and honestly he would just feel a lot more comfortable having this conversation behind closed doors. Besides the last thing he needed for Lindsey to come prancing up, mouthing off about whatever was flittering through his damn head at the moment, or worse have him start throwing a million and one questions their way.

Not wanting to draw anymore attention herself she nodded and let him lead her into the office, but as soon as they were inside the large mahogany doors she stepped out of reach. Taking a second she looked around the space that somehow she could already tell was uniquely him. Walking over by the sofa she carefully examined a portrait he had hung on the wall, it was beautiful, "Did you do this?" she eventually asked, her tone thankfully much softer than it had been before.

Clearing his throat, he forced himself not to move closer, instead he leaned back against his desk. Her question had thrown him, there weren't too many people left on this earth that knew of his ability, his true passion. "It was a long time ago," he finally mumbled, hoping she wouldn't make a big deal about it.

Her eyes finally glanced back his way, "Angel, it's amazing," she smiled and for just a second she'd forgotten just what they were doing in there in the first place, "Liam," she corrected, "I meant Liam."

But his head just shook, "Angel's fine." He wasn't sure why he didn't mind her using his long forgotten childhood name, no one other than Lindsey and Wes on very rare occasions ever dared to call him such, but hearing his true name fall from her lips made it uncomfortable in ways he didn't quite understand or want to figure out.

"Okay," she nodded, then letting out a slow breath she turned around and took a seat on the sofa so she was facing him. "Well now that you've been witness to my little outburst I'm not sure what to say," she admitted.

Pushing off the desk, he slowly made his way beside her on the couch, "Well," he smirked, "You could always say that you're not mad at me?"

"Mmm. I could," she sighed letting her back fall back against the sofa, "But does it matter? I mean at the end of the day the name I call you doesn't matter, not really. You're still you at the end of the day, you still run this place, and most importantly you're still my boss."

"It matters to me," he dared.

"Well that's good to know, I mean there were a few seconds there I thought this had all been some ploy to live up to your name and really humiliate the newcomer."

That made him laugh a little, "Hey I told you I wasn't as bad as everyone out there made me out to be."

"Uhuh," she grinned, "I'm afraid that has yet to be determined, mister."

Just then both their eyes flew to the other side of the room as Lindsey came strutting through the doors only to freeze mid step when he spotted her. Once again his whole demeanor seemed to shift, "Something I should know about?" he asked, directing the question toward Angel.

"As a matter of fact there is," he grumbled, "I have a secretary for a reason."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he drawled, "Was I interrupting something?"

Angel just continued to glare from his relaxed seat next to Buffy, "Aren't you always?"

Lindsey's presence sure didn't seem to phase Angel, but she was feeling more than a little out of place. It was one thing to let loose when Angel was around, these last few days they'd had quite the little adventure, but Lindsey was a totally different story. She hadn't so much as laid eyes on him outside of these walls, and despite his natural tendency to flirt, things had been strictly professional.

She watched as his gaze bounced back and forth between the two of them, clearly he didn't know what to think about this situation either. "You two know each other or something?"

"Or something," Angel answered, earning himself another glare from Buffy.

"Well," she went to stand, "I think I'm going to leave you two boys here to talk about whatever it is you need to discuss." She went to go but Angel's strong fingers quickly wrapped around her wrist.

"You don't have to go Buffy," he laughed, "It's just Lindsey."

Lindsey's jaw went slack, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Angel, a master at tuning his yammering out, just continued. Standing up beside her, he tried to lower his voice if only a little. "Wait for me downstairs?" he asked softly. "The least I could do is take you to lunch after all this."

Behind them Lindsey's eyes about bulged right back out of his head.

She hesitated, "I don't know Angel."

"Please?" he asked, knowing already he was going to catch an ear full from Linds as soon as she was out the door.

She rolled her eyes, "Fine, but I get to pick."

He grinned, "Deal."

OoOoO

After she left Angel's office she headed straight for the closest ladies room. Splashing some cold water on her face she couldn't help but feel like she'd woken up in the damn twilight zone this morning. Even though realizing who exactly Angel was had made her head spin, it was actually making a lot of other things make sense. Like the car he drove, the fact that he hadn't blinked while taking her out to some of the finer department stores yesterday. Hell even the way he had acted at the damn coffee shop made sense now that she knew who he was.

What kept throwing her however was this softer side she kept catching glimpses of, sure he had that cocky arrogance everyone seemed to notice going on this morning in the boardroom, but outside of there he was a completely different person, at least with her it seemed.

Patting her face dry she quickly replaced her lip gloss, and took a deep breath. "It's just Angel," she reminded her reflection. They were just a couple of coworkers going to grab lunch, no big deal, it just wasn't.

OoOoO

Closing the doors to his office, Angel took a deep breath before turning around. Of course Lindsey was sitting there leg bouncing a mile a minute, shit eating grin plastered across his face.

"What?" he growled.

"Angel huh?"

Going over to his desk, he tried to ignore his friend's prying stare as he grabbed his duster from the back of his chair. He shrugged, "It is my name."

"Uh huh."

"Yes. You, yourself, happen to call me it all the time."

"Uh huh," he repeated. "It's your name that I and, I don't know, probably less than five other people left on this planet that see you more often than not happen to use. Hell, Harmony only calls you Mr. Angelus at this point even, and I'm pretty damn sure that Darla or any of your other little flings wouldn't happen to dare-"

"Lindsey," Angel cut him off. "You're making this into an unneeded mountain."

"Sure I am. Do you want me to start telling everyone around here that they should also start referring to you as Angel... or is this a situational thing between you and Miss Summers there?"

Angel let out a slow breath. "I'll let you answer that for yourself."

"And are you planning on dining out with all members of my new team... or just that one?"

Angel was pretty sure if this fool smiled any harder his face was going to be nothing but teeth in a minute. "Speaking of such... as you might have noticed I do have somewhere to be heading off to," he side stepped dignifying that with an answer as well.

Lindsey just continued to stare as Angel finished getting ready to go, gesturing for him to head out as well when he got closer to the door. "Are you sleeping with her?"

"What? No."

"Have you slept with her?"

"Jesus, Lindsey. No."

Lindsey stood, then, "Are you tryin' to sleep with her?"

"For fuck's sake," Angel grumbled. "No. I am not."

"Uh huh," Lindsey let out one last time, finally joining Angel on the other side of the room. "I don't know what's goin' on here and you can act like this isn't some sort of case of the world spinning off its axis all you want to, but we both know better. When you're ready to admit to that you know where to find me. I'll leave you with that."

"Go away, Lindsey."

OoOoO

Buffy still felt a weird anxiousness bubbling inside of her stomach when she saw Angel again, she was pretty sure that she stared at him the entire time they had gone over where to eat, and she reminded herself over and over not to overthink all of this the whole ride there, and then she felt her legs want to turn to near jelly as she started walking from her car to meet back up with him. Sure, he was still essentially the same person that she barely knew in the first place... or so she assumed and hoped... but it was still strange to think of him and "Liam Angelus" as the same person... more so the longer she thought about it.

"What is it?" Angel asked as they waited in the short line to get a table.

Buffy blushed a little, obviously she hadn't been so stealthy about trying to observe him in this new light or how she kept almost asking him why he hadn't just told her in the first place only to think better about it before the words actually slipped off her tongue. "Nothing," she tried to wave him off but he kept insisting until the question was finally out.

"I don't know. You stepped onto the elevator and I just figured you'd realize who I was and then you didn't and were over there ranting at me... and as weird as this may seem it was a nice change to my daily routine."

"Oh, I'm sure people call you an asshole all the time," she said with a smirk his way.

He chuckled at that and shrugged his shoulders. "True, but not quite like that. I was about to yell at you because my morning hadn't exactly been going great either that particular morning then you kept going and it was... I don't know," he repeated. "I liked that you didn't know who I was while standing there in my building and going off on me. It was almost endearing to have an actual reaction from someone there if that makes any sense."

"Mmhmm. Well I suggest you be glad you didn't start mouthing off at me as I would have happily put you in your place about that and this little relationship would be a completely different story, I can guarantee that."

OoOoO

Before he could even glance at the menu placed before him, Buffy snatched it up, earning one hell of a confused look from him.

"Now, listen, I know you're all used to your hoity toity lifestyle and all and probably like going places where they give you seven courses with those tiny little foods as big as my pinky on each plate and whatever... but the food is actually very good here and I don't do breakfast except maybe on Sundays so I like to eat some actual food at my meals... which will be served here. Just fair warning," she told him then finally gave the menu back.

"I'll think I'll manage to survive," he said, fighting back a smile. He said a silent thank you to whatever was out there in the universe that the truth coming out hadn't suddenly turned Buffy into acting like everyone else around him and she still treated him exactly as she had been the past few days since their unexpected meeting. He didn't know what exactly any of this was, a friendship maybe, but whatever the case all he knew was he enjoyed being around her more than anyone he'd crossed paths with for years now and he felt like he was able to be something more than the angry leader of Angelus Enterprises around her. And while there was awkwardness there at first when they joined back up after it all, it was nice to see not too much had managed to change between them just yet.

OoOoO

"You didn't wear your new coat today," he commented, only because she'd mentioned such before they parted ways yesterday.

Buffy gave him another one of those unreadable looks then smiled a little. "I thought about it, you know because of the big meeting and all, but then I figured I needed to save it for something bigger than that. Maybe some movie star asks me out for example."

"You have a history of dating the Hollywood elite?"

"Oh, please... I wish! But if the time ever comes I am prepared now... thanks to you," she laughed.

"Glad to be of service," he drawled before answering when she started asking him what he was planning to order as they waited for the girl taking care of their table to return.

"At some point my wallet and brain are going to get on the same page about not spending so much on eating out during the week... but today is not that day." He reminded her he'd offered to take her here but she shot him an annoyed look from across the booth.

"I am trying to apologize and all... remember..."

"Well, you know it is as simple as saying the words, Angel. You don't have to go around buying people things and spending money on them just to earn their forgiveness."

Leaning forward across the table he threw her one of those dazzling smiles that had been getting him out of trouble since the third grade, "Does that mean I'm forgiven?"

She couldn't help but giggle, "I guess, for now anyways," she added after a second.

"For now? And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh please, it's been days and you've already nearly trampled me," she smiled, "Practically growled at me, and lied to me. Prove me wrong, but I just don't see this streak ending here buddy."

OoOoO

"Uhh," she whined as she shoved the rest of the peach cobbler he'd insisted on sharing back his way. "Ya know I love the idea of taking an early lunch, but it always makes the day seem to drag afterwards."

Truth was he couldn't even remember the last time he'd ordered dessert somewhere, sweets weren't really his thing, but for some reason he just didn't want this to end. He was pretty sure he'd laughed and smiled more in the last hour than he had in all the years since he was forced into taking the damn business over. "Trust me I know the feeling," he grumbled, finally giving up any ideas he had on finishing the treat he tossed a napkin over it.

"You always stay all day?" She had to admit she'd been more than a little curious about just how much time he spent in the office. Knowing now who he was, she was a little surprised realizing they'd been keeping basically the same hours. Everywhere she'd worked in the past you hardly caught sight of anyone in a position like his, especially not someone whose name literally represented the place.

He shrugged, "All day, evenings, more often than not I end up just staying the damn night." Handing the waitress one of his credit cards, he didn't even bother looking at the bill.

"Angel," she whined, "We just talked about this."

"We did," he nodded, "And we both agreed that this was part of that whole apology thing, remember?"

She huffed,"Fine, but next time it's on me."

He just smirked, "I'm just not sure that's something I can agree to Miss Summers."

OoOoO

After making a quick stop at the bathroom they were walking albeit a little lazily back to their respected vehicles when he heard her say his name.

He glanced her way, "Hmm?"

"How do you shower?"

"Uhh," he stumbled for a second, "Is this supposed to be a trick question?" He was quickly learning that there was just not any knowing what might come out of her mouth.

"No silly," she laughed, bumping into his shoulder with her own. "You said you end up crashing at the office some nights."

"Oh, right that," he smirked. "You had me a little worried for a second there. No, back when my Grandpa was running the place he had a whole suite type thing installed. There's not a bed or anything but there's a shower, fridge, television, all that nonsense."

"So the company, it's a family thing?"

Of all the conversations they could stumble upon he wasn't sure how they had ended up here. He swallowed, "Something like that."

"Well they must be proud, you're what the third generation?"

"Actually," he paused, most people knew the story of how he came to be the head of Angelus Enterprises, they used to anyway. Even though most of the old timers were long gone, he would still catch wind of one rumor of another. No one had ever dared bring the matter up to him though, even Lindsey knew better than to press the issue too much. "They're all dead," he eventually managed, not sure why he felt the need to admit that to her, knowing he could have easily avoided it.

She felt like the wind had been knocked out of her, she'd heard rumors about the younger Angelus while she was working under Lilah, but she never paid too much mind to them. Well not enough to believe there was any truth behind him being the last one left. "Angel I'm so sorry, I didn't," she stumbled, "I'm sorry."

Reaching her car he leaned back against the trunk and shrugged, "It's not a big deal Buffy, it was a long time ago."

She wasn't sure if it was because she knew the pain of losing a parent, her mother had passed away pretty suddenly from a brain aneurysm a couple years back, but in that moment her heart positively ached for him. "Doesn't matter," she whispered, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice. "I kinda have some experience there too, not my whole family, but my mom." Pausing for a second to clear her throat, she shook her head in an attempt to keep the unshed tears at bay. "I swear it doesn't matter how old you are when you lose a parent a part of you always feels like an orphan."

He nodded, "That just may be the truest thing I ever heard."

ButImBroken:

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