The Harris Files: Book One

Chapter 5

Two weeks later

The young man we have seen here before entered the bar again and hoped that Mr. Harris would appear again this week. Last week he had waited in vain for two hours, before he got a SMS on his mobile telling him that Mr. Harris was on urgent 'business' and wouldn't be able to join him that evening. After that he had left the bar a bit frustrated because he really could have enjoyed the evening better with his girl instead of waiting for nothing in a bar, but the sacrifices you make for a good story…

After he closed the door behind, him he looked around and found the usual table with the 'reserved' sign still empty. OK, he was a bit early, so he would order himself something to eat and wait for a while, this time promising himself he would go if Mr. Harris wasn't there 30 minutes after the agreed time.

He quickly went over to the table and sat down and just a moment later the young woman who worked here as a waitress came over to his table. "Good evening, Sir. Good to see you again. What can I get you today?"

"Hello Sally, something to eat, a nice steak maybe and a bottle of water," he replied.

"Ok John. Are you meeting that good looking guy again this evening?" she asked him.

"I hope so. Sadly, his schedule is always full and often he has to change it on short notice," John replied.

"Ahh, I hope he comes again this evening, I like to watch him," Sally said with a sultry smile.

John grinned and replied, "Sally… You do know he's seeing that dark haired beauty who joined us before?"

Sally looked a bit sad as she nodded. "Yeah I know, but a girl still can dream, can't she?"

John laughed and nodded. "Yes, she can, but right now I'm starving here," he said with a smile as his stomach grumbled loudly.

Sally blushed and then quickly hurried away to fill his order.

A while later after John had finished his steak. He looked around the bar again. He was full for the moment and hoped that Mr. Harris would appear soon. Almost as if that was the magical thought, the door to the bar opened and Mr. Harris entered the bar together with the dark haired beauty he had told Sally about a few minutes ago.

Both looked around the bar for a moment and then strolled over to his table. "Ah John, good to see you again. Sorry about last week, but something worth of a story happened and so I couldn't make it. Can we sit down?" Mr. Harris said.

John stood up and nodded to them in greeting. "Miss Lehane, Mr. Harris, good to see you two again. Please sit down." After both sat down, he sat down himself again as well.

Both quickly ordered something to eat and drink as Sally appeared and as she went of to get their order, Faith growled a bit and looked at Xander. "Did you see how she nearly undressed you with your eyes?"

"No Faith, I didn't. You know I just have eyes for you," Xander answered, which earned him a mind blowing kiss.

John chuckled and simply thought, 'Nice save.'

While both were still kissing, Sally reappeared with their order and watched the two lovebirds with a bit of envy and quickly left again.

John hemmed a bit and then said, "Your meal is here."

And he was totally ignored by the two. He shrugged and then with an evil grin he yelled, "Vampire".

In the blink of an eye Faith was on her feet, with a stake in her hand and looking around. "Where?" she asked.

John grinned and said, "Oops. My mistake."

Faith looked at him and grumbled.

Now that the two were separated, they noticed that their meals were there and both quickly dug into them.

After they finished, John looked at Xander and asked, "So, what do you have for me this week?"

Xander looked at him with a smile and said, "The last time we met, I already told you that our next destination would be Richmond. I heard some strange rumors about people disappearing in a theater from time to time and so Faith and I decided to check that out. After a while on the road we finally reached Richmond, but before we went to check out the theater, we decided to check in into a local motel. We picked the first one we saw that didn't look to shady and so we chose the Commonwealth Park Suites Hotel to stay in. We quickly booked a room and then something to eat sounded good."

(Park Suites Hotel, Richmond)

Xander and Faith entered the restaurant, which belonged to the hotel, and looked around. "Damn Wiz, looks like all the tables are all taken," Faith said.

"Looks like Slay-G, but look over there. Seems like that woman is sitting alone," Xander said while pointing at a young blond woman, who was currently engulfed in something on the screen of the laptop in front of her on the tale. "Maybe we could ask if we can join her," he continued.

"Slay-G?" Faith looked at her companion. "And yes, we can at least try it."

Xander grinned as he replied, "You keep giving me nicknames, and you get a few names back."

Faith grumbled something he couldn't quite hear and so he just smiled and concentrated a bit to rein his magic in. He really didn't want to fry the woman's laptop.

As they reached the table Xander managed to throw a quick glance on the screen and just thought 'Curious.' They stepped around so that they were in the woman's line of sight and then Xander spoke, "Excuse me Miss, we would like to ask if we could join you at your table, since sadly the restaurant is quite full."

The woman looked up from her laptop in surprise, as she hadn't noticed the two people before. She looked at both of them and quickly became curious, since both did look quite attractive in a kind of roguish way. "Sorry, didn't see you coming, and of course you can join me. Give me one second," she said and quickly powered down her laptop and put it into a case beside her chair. "There, that makes some room for you," she said with a grin and pointed at two of the chairs.

"Wicked," Faith said and sat down.

Xander nodded and said, "Thank you, Ms…?"

"Sullivan. I'm Chloe Sullivan, but please just call me Chloe," the woman answered.

"Nice to meet you Chloe. This beautiful creature beside me is Faith Lehane and I'm Alexander Harris, but pl…OUCH…," he suddenly yelled as he felt pain shot through his arm. Faith had hit him playfully on the arm, at least playfully for a Slayer. Of course this shattered his concentration and hold on his magic and promptly several of the lights nearby went dark and the electric scanner of the waiter who just stepped up to their table, began to smoke and sizzle.

Xander looked at Faith and said, "What was that for? That hurt."

Faith looked at him without remorse and replied, "Creature?"

"Oops…," was Xander's reply.

Chloe smiled at the two's playful banter and filed the strange occurrence, that had just happened to occur as Faith hit Alexander, away in her analytic mind and listened as Alexander started to talk again.

Xander quickly brought his magic under control again and then turned back to Chloe. "As I tried to say before I was so roughly interrupted by this dangerous and beautiful young companion of mine, please call me Xander," he managed to say without interruption this time.

At this moment the waiter returned to their table. "Sorry about that, but somehow my scanner burned out. Are you ready to order?"

Chloe noted that Xander looked a bit guilty at the mention of the scanner and then nodded to the waiter.

All three quickly gave their orders and the waiter left again.

"So, are you two on vacation here in Richmond?" she asked.

"Kind of," Faith replied. "Wiz here decided that life in Sunnydale was too boring for him and he needed a little road-trip. Since trouble always finds him, I decided to go with him to keep him out of it."

"Hey...Trouble finding me? I resent that remark," Xander said in an annoyed tone.

"Ahh… Do I need to remind you of what happened in LA and San Fran?" Faith asked with a sheepish grin.

"Uhhmm…Nope?" Xander replied.

"Thought so," Faith stated.

Chloe looked curiously at both of them and said, "Sounds interesting, so what happened?"

"Ahh noting too important," Xander replied. "In LA I wanted to visit my uncle who was sick in a hospital and as I saw a friend of his bring him out of it, I mistook it for a kidnapping attempt and, ahem, punched his friend, but in the end we stayed for a bit and helped my Uncle and his friends out with a few of their cases. In San Fran we met a nice young woman and her sisters and we helped them out with a few people who liked to harass them a bit."

Chloe looked at Xander for a bit and while he may not have lied to her, she guessed there was a bit more to those stories than what he'd told. She shrugged and thought, 'Damn my curious ex-reporter mind."

"So Chloe, I couldn't help but notice, as we approached you, that you're interested in the strange disappearances around the 'Blackwell' cinema?" Xander asked her.