Scarlett faltered for a moment before regaining her composure, "well, look what the cat dragged in," she said, almost bitterly, "we thought the Earth swallowed you," she added. Angel and Spike exchanged a quick glance, unnoticed to her. Spike lit a cigarette, Angel protested, but the blond vampire simply ignored him, "well, I had things to do," he said. He wanted to have a talk with her, but not with Angel there as audience, but finally asked, "can we talk?"
Angel was about to protest when Scarlett replied, "fine, whatever, we'll talk," she threw Angel a glance that pretty much read 'go'. The elder vampire stood up, snatched the newspaper from her hands and said, "I'll go check that dumpster, see if there's a clue on what sort of demon we are dealing with."
Once Angel was gone, Scarlett crossed her arms, "ok, talk," she said bluntly. "I know you have feelings for me, pet, or had," Spike said without hesitation and noticed her eyes widen in surprise. "What the hell are you talking about?" she asked defensively, and Spike closed the distance between them in two fast strides, "what, you gonna deny it?" he asked, his face close to hers. Scarlett flinched for a split second before moving out of his way, "why do you even care anyways? You couldn't take a 'no' and split in no time, and no, you are wrong, I never had feelings for you," she replied harshly.
Spike scoffed, "is that why you think I left?" he asked and once more stepped in front of her, "and you don't have to pretend, luv, I know for a fact that you did have feelings for me. Oh yeah, I overheard your little conversation in the park with Captain Forehead," he added and noticed her eyes were blazing with fire. Not the passional fire he had seen before, but one close to rage, and before she could snap at him, he added, "you think I ran away, eh? Well, I did, but not for the reasons you think."
Scarlett laughed sarcastically, "oh yeah, gee, let me guess, you forgot your iron plugged and you had to go take care of it, right?" she snapped at him, moving out of his way once more. Spike tilted his head, smiling, "for someone who claims not having feelings, you sure care a lot, pet," he retorted while sitting on a couch, arms resting behind his head, "what you have to say about that, eh?" he finished, a small victory smile on his face. He knew she wouldn't answer so he added, "I left 'cause me being here was hurting you, and in all honesty, pet, don't think you deserve that."
She took a deep breath, the rage in her eyes already fading away, "then why are you back? If you claim to care, you should have stayed gone," she said defensively. Bingo!, Spike thought, trying to contain a smile because she reacted the way he was hoping she would. Spike wouldn't answer her question, not just yet, he knew he was treading on thin ice and any wrong word would make the situation more volatile than already was.
Scarlett sat at her desk and started looking through some papers and casually asked, "so, how long you planning on staying?" Spike shrugged, "Not a buggerin' clue," he answered, looking through the necro-tempered glass he added, "gotta wait for sunset before I look for a bloody place to stay. I'm not staying with the sod again." He didn't mean to, but he realized his comment sounded as if he was asking her for a favor when she said, "well, there's a small room back there, has a small bed, a TV and a fridge with some blood." Spike looked at her questioningly and she added, "we close a couple of hours during the afternoon and sometimes I'm too lazy to go home for a nap, so made myself a little nap room. So yeah, you can stay there."
Spike thanked her, but then he realized there was no way he could continue fishing for answers, it would spark her anger once more and he definitely didn't want that, so he decided instead to go through files and ask what they were about, just to occupy his mind on something else.
Later that night, after some hours at the bar, Spike went back to the office to watch some TV and think about what to do next about the redhead. She had made Angel give Spike his key to the office, to which Angel protested to no end. Spike was glad there was a bathroom with a shower, so he took advantage of it, and then proceeded to grab a blood bag from the fridge. He found it amusing that it was filled with blood bags, and bottles with pig's blood.
He was flipping through channels on the TV when he caught Passions. "Bloody hell! They air it in England!?" he said to himself, then leaned back and rested his head on his arms. He was enjoying his leisure when he heard the faint noise of wood creaking. In one swift move he jumped out of the bed, turned off the TV and flattened himself against the door frame. Hearing no other noise, he turned around to walk out of the room and, startled he found himself almost face to face with Scarlett. He didn't have a chance to ask what was she doing there, she was already kissing him, pushing him into the room and closing the door behind them.