Chapter 17

Barbara Thomas was on duty at the Hyperion's front desk when the man in the blue suit showed up, a clipboard held across his chest. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Mr. Liam Angelus. Is he available?"

Barb blinked, thinking for a second about how to answer. "Well, technically he doesn't exist anymore, however I can contact the being that took over his corporeal form and ask if he's willing to speak to you about prior business."

The man in the suit was completely unbothered. "Yes, that sounds perfect, thank you so much for your efforts."

"Please wait over there." She gestured to the round couches in the center of the lobby and dialed up to Liam's suite. "Hi," she said when he answered. "There's a gentleman down here in a blue suit looking to speak to Mr. Liam Angelus. I told him no such person exists anymore, but that I would try to locate the being who took over his form and send him down. Do you think you could help with that?"

Liam blinked at the phone in his hand, wondering what the heck was going on. "Wait, so someone is here for Angelus, but they're okay with talking to someone else? I don't get it."

Barbara tried not to wince or roll her eyes. "Can you come down anyway, please?" She snapped and hung up the phone. Honestly, sometimes it just didn't pay to be subtle, some people needed a sledgehammer over the head. She grabbed her mobile phone and quickly texted Wesley and Jezebel with the same message: "Man suit, here 4 angelus, ok w/out vamp. May b w&H related." She hoped that was clear enough. Jezebel and Wes seemed smarter than Liam.

After checking for the accessibility of the weapons stash under the front desk, Barb tried to relax and look harmless while holding a short sword loosely across her lap. She was pretty proud of herself for managing to slide it out of the rack soundlessly.

With a cheerful 'ding', the elevator opened in the lobby a few minutes later, revealing Wesley and Liam. Barb took a deep breath and tried not to look too relieved, flexing her hand on the sword.

The man in the blue suit didn't stand, but did focus his attention on the two men emerging from the elevator. "Mr. Angelus?" He asked.

Liam stepped close. "I'm Liam O'Connor, can I help you with something?"

The other man checked the clipboard he was holding. "Did you previously, for a period of over two centuries, answer to the name or names 'Angelus Aurelius, Liam Angelus, and/or Angelus, the angel faced one'?"

Liam stood still and calm, but he was obviously looking pale. "Err, yes, that is correct."

The man nodded and extracted a pen from his breast pocket. "Sign here, please." He tapped the pen on the clipboard.

Liam took the pen and ran his eyes over the clipboard. It seemed to be nothing but a list of names, none of them in blood, so he took a chance and signed his name 'Liam O'Connor' above the line that said 'Liam Angelus'. "What's this about?" He asked.

The other man glanced at the signature to make sure it was on the right line, then nodding, he reached into his briefcase and handed Liam a gigantic envelope. "You're being served. Have a nice day, sir." With a small, rather malicious smile the man turned on his heel and was gone as quickly as he'd come.

Barb snorted. "Ugh, really, I was all freaked out about a process server? Sheesh." She reached under the desk and fitted the sword back into the rack, being a lot less careful about noise this time.

"What now?" Liam blinked at Barb, then at the envelope.

"Oh dear, let me see that," Wesley said, reaching for the envelope. Liam was only too happy to hand it over, though he followed Wes to one of the couches. He held his breath and looked over the Englishman's shoulder, trying to make heads or tails of the documents, but not succeeding at much. There was a lot of text, and it was very small. "Oh, bloody hell!" Wes muttered, flipping another page.

"Well, that doesn't sound good." Liam gasped, "What is it, Wes?"

"If I'm understanding this correctly, a group of former Wolfram & Hart clients have joined together in a class action lawsuit against you, as the former CEO of Wolfram & Hart Los Angeles."

"They're suing me! What for?" Liam blinked at the documents, then at Wesley. "Is that even legal?"

"I'm not sure." Wes murmured, continuing to flip through the pages. "Although it certainly does seem that they may satisfy the criteria of a class, in this case the class of Wolfram & Hart clients who were victimized by the 'complete inability of the firm's CEO to provide them with the legal resources they had hired the firm to provide'. They're saying that due to your unwillingness to represent their interests in a manner consistent with standard legal practices, they lost out on financial compensation, were disadvantaged in negotiations, and otherwise had their businesses negatively impacted."

"And they can do that?" Liam really didn't like the sound of any of that.

Wesley flipped through the papers some more, and eventually turned to face Liam. "Let's see what Gunn can make of all this, shall we?"

"Well, some judge has allowed them to file the suit, which means at least one person thinks their case has merit." Gunn flipped through the document. "Of course, we could theoretically get it dismissed before it goes any further, but we're gonna have to find a really good lawyer. I don't have the skills anymore, obviously; maybe I could fake my way through a test in a contract law class at this point, but even if I still had the credentials I don't have the savvy for something like this. Class action suits rise and fall on incredibly technical use of language, the definition of the word 'employee' could maybe sink this thing."

"Damnit." Wes muttered, running his hands through his hair.

"And no one has tried to serve any of the rest of you with documents?" Jezzy asked, running her eyes over the assembled former employees of Angel Investigations and Wolfram & Hart.

Lorne shrugged. "I spent half of today at the club site, monitoring the construction work. It's not widely known since it won't be open for a couple of months, but I am listed as the proprietor with the buildings department, so if anyone was looking for me that would probably be the place. And no one came by."

"Nothing at my apartment, and I was here when they served Liam." Wes said.

Gunn also shook his head. "Nope. I'm generally kind of off the grid, but a process server would be able to find me if they wanted me, I think. I'm still technically on the Board at the shelter, and I have a mailing address here."

Jezzie groaned. "What a damn time for Tom to be out of the country." She slouched back into her chair, boneless for a moment. Then she drew herself up tall and started giving orders. "Okay, so I guess the first thing we need to do is find a lawyer, right? I'll call my parents and get a recommendation, then call Tommy and…"

"I'll take care of talking to Tom, Bella." Lorne cut in. "I can call a couple of the Wolfram & Hart clients I kept good relationships with, while I'm at it."

Jezebel looked like she was going to object for a moment, but finally nodded in agreement. "Right, so…Umm, Gunn, can you keep going through the complaint, and see if there's any evidence we can help you guys gather? Or something we can do to help, gather statements or something."

"I just can't believe that someone thought it was okay to do this." Liam shook his head. "I mean, a company isn't just one person, why blame only me for the things that went wrong for them?"

"Probably because they weren't having any problems with the representation they were receiving until you took over?" Jezzy quipped, frowning at him. "That's the kind of thing that ends up with an executive getting fired, or sued for negligence; a change in direction that doesn't benefit the customers, in this case your law firm's clients."

Wesley cleared his throat. "I wonder if we can get Lindsay and Eve to help with this? Lindsay is an Attorney, after all, and Eve worked directly for the Senior Partners…"

"And you did get them out of LA before the final battle, that's gotta count for something." Jezzy cut in. "Great idea, Wes, give them a call."

"Lindsay's not going to want to help me." Liam said.

"Maybe, maybe not. It doesn't hurt to ask, you know. Especially if someone else asks." Jezebel smiled. "You know, someone who can remind them that they're trying to reform without tempting them to give up on the whole thing and pop you one."

"Gee, I can't imagine why you didn't get Called, if that's how you treat innocent people." Liam sniffed.

"Innocent people?" Jezzy laughed. "You're forgetting that I'm a vampire expert. I almost certainly know more about you than anyone in this room, Liam O'Connor. You weren't innocent 250 years ago, you're significantly less so now." She stood. "Despite that, I do understand that you're one of our people now, and therefore I'm going to try to help you. I'll just go make these phone calls in my office." Turning on her heel, Jezebel stalked out of the room, leaving a deep silence behind her.

Wes shifted in his chair, trying to overcome his discomfort. He wondered if he'd ever be ready to speak with Liam about their past. He was just starting to be comfortable talking to Jezzie again. "Yes, well, I suppose I should also make some phone calls. Excuse me."

When Wesley stood, Lorne did as well, nodding in Liam's direction as he left the room. Finally all that was left was Gunn and Liam and a pile of papers. The two men remained in their own worlds; Liam contemplating ways to get himself out of being sued and wondering if such a thing was even possible, while Gunn absorbed the text of the document and searched his brain for the remaining scraps of implanted knowledge, trying to figure out how he could help and what they would need to do.

They'd been sitting in silence for several minutes, the only sounds those coming from the turning of pages and the scratching of a pen, when Merry entered the room. The petite Slayer was dressed casually, and carrying an orange cat cradled in her arms. "Hey, guys. What's up? You guys look too serious for dinner time on a Tuesday." She scratched the cat's head, and it joined her in staring at them, blinking meditatively at the men.

"Is it dinner time already?" Gunn made a face and sat back in his chair.

Merry shrugged, and the cat made a noise as it was raised and lowered. "Yeah, but you still have an hour to get down there, no worries."

Gunn stood, nudging Liam as he moved. "I need some food to help me focus, let's go get some grub, man."

Liam stood with a sigh, not wanting to deal with other people. He knew Gunn would work better if he was happy, though, so it was time for dinner if that's what he wanted. He tried to make conversation as the three headed for the cafeteria. "What's with the cat? You don't usually carry them around like a Bond villain or whatever."

"Blofeld, or Dr. Evil?" Gunn snickered.

"You two are hilarious." Merry rolled her eyes. "For your information, Bilbo is depressed, so I'm keeping him company to cheer him up."

"Your cat's depressed?" Liam could feel himself sneering. "Seriously?"

Merry shrugged and buried her face in the cat's fur. "He hasn't eaten since William left, and when I came home from class I found him on Will's bed, howling. Bilbo misses him. Which is ridiculous, because I heard nothing the whole time he was incapacitated except how I'd better keep my 'damn evil orange cat' out of his room."

"Huh." Liam blinked. "It's like Harmony in cat form."

"Harsh, man." Gunn smacked Liam across the shoulder that wasn't still undergoing physical therapy. "That is all kinds of wrong."

Liam shrugged. "I call 'em like I see 'em."

"Who's Harmony?" Meredith asked.

"Spike's ex-girlfriend. The vampire he dated between Drusilla and Buffy." Gunn explained. "To hear him tell it, they met when he was drinking too much after he and Drusilla split, and he kept her around for far too long because he was lonely, even though he knew he didn't love her and she annoyed the crap out of him. She made it clear when she was working with us at Wolfram and Hart that she was willing to take him back. He wasn't into it."

"Huh." Meredith stroked the cat meditatively as they walked the rest of the way to the cafeteria. "I'll save you guys some seats?"

"Yeah, thanks." Gunn headed for the food line, and Liam started to follow, then stopped and turned back to Merry.

"Are you sure it's not a female cat? Sometimes women get attached to Spike, you know? It has something to do with him being decorative and non-threatening."

Merry bit her lip. "Definitely a male cat. Although that doesn't mean he's not crushing on Will, I suppose." She wondered if she should say anything, and figured it wouldn't hurt anything. "Also, you're wrong about why. Why people are attracted to Will, I mean."

"Oh, I'm wrong, am I?" Liam glowered at her, and part of Merry wanted to flinch, despite knowing that she was probably stronger than him. "Care to enlighten me then, oh wise one?"

"It has nothing to do with dangerous or threatening or not." Merry smiled and ran her fingers through the cat's fur. "Being interested in people and willing to help them, maybe even sacrifice for them, that's the thing. William's good at learning about people because he wants to know them. He appreciates people's talents, and he's willing to offer his. Things like loyalty, honesty; those are as appealing as his eyes or his butt or whatever."

"You're a good friend to say that, but I guarantee you that Harmony wasn't trying to get Spike back into bed because he's honest." Liam snarked, turning to head for the food table.

Merry shrugged and took herself off to find a table, wondering on what planet William the Bloody, the Slayer of Slayers was considered non-threatening. How deluded was Angelus, actually?