Chapter 12

The man stood behind the giant palm tree, sheltering himself not only from the hot sun, but from the view of the Slayer and her Watcher as they left the comfort of their secluded hotel room and entered the bustling sidewalk. The two only had eyes for each other, so it was easy for the man to watch them cross the street, and enter the offices of Wolfram and Hart, undetected.

Slayer senses radiate out and take notice of demons and vampires and monsters, but evil within the human form is just as difficult for a Slayer to sense as it is for anyone else. And evil comes in all shapes and forms.

The young man withdrew from behind the tree, and then entered his own hotel room, number 45, directly to the left of Buffy and Giles' love nest. He sneered as he remembered the noises of their lovemaking. The laughter had turned his insides. He had jumped up once and puked up his dinner into the toilet. The rest of the night he shook in his rage, until blissful silence finally ascended sometime in the early morning. He had then only been able to snag a couple of hours of sleep before the telephone call had alerted him that there was a visitor next door. He had quickly changed, and then took his place behind the tree.

This wasn't the plan. By now, Buffy should have been his. The first motions had been set into play without a hitch. Spike had been returned, and anchored within Wolfram and Hart. Of course, Buffy had come running, and the first wedge between her and Angel had been placed. He knew that she would be conflicted between the two vampires, each with a soul, but that was just the beginning of a much wider scope of conflict he had engineered.

It had been sheer luck that when his Fyarl demon had nabbed the books, and Wesley, that Mr. Giles had been there as well. As soon as he had been alerted to the "second man", he had cheered on and congratulated the troubled Fyarl demon. He told the demon to proceed with the plan, and to use the prophecy books to set the next stage into motion. But then Angel and Buffy and Spike had ruined everything. He glanced at the old warehouse, and spit the bile out of his stomach onto the sidewalk, nearly missing the feet of an elderly woman as she passed by. She sneered at the young man. "That's disgusting, boy!" He just glared at her, and she flinched as she saw the darkness in him. He was not a "boy" to be crossed. She bowed her head and hustled down the walk as fast as her gnarled feet would take her.

He had thought the fact that Mr. Giles had been there at the exact moment when the Fyarl demon was put into play, that it had all been a sign that he would be triumphant in the end. Now things couldn't be worse. Instead of Buffy being alone and broken, she had her Watcher to not only protect her, but to obviously love and be loved by her. The two vampires had obviously played a much more minor part in the Slayer's heart than he had thought. He had underestimated her feelings for Mr. Giles, but he wouldn't be so stupid again.

It was time he took things into his own hands. He snatched the cell phone out of his pocket, and dialed the first number in his phone's memory.

* * *

Giles held a chair out for Buffy, and then handed her one of the jelly donuts and a napkin before sitting himself. Buffy smiled at him, "How chivalrous of you!" He blushed and then took a huge bite of his own jelly donut, conscience of the looks eyeing him and Buffy from around the room.

When it was obvious that Buffy was just going to sit there and lick her fingers around her donut, Giles blushed even deeper, and then swallowed the huge bite of pastry, then cleared his voice. "Sorry to keep you all waiting. Angel, you needed us?"

Angel nodded to Gunn, and the young new lawyer stood and opened up a screen on the wall. Angel flicked on the VCR, and the security tape began to play. It illustrated the Fyarl demon's entrance into the office, a huge pack on his back. Wesley's secretary was not at her desk when the Fyarl demon entered the office. From the angle of the security tape, there was no struggle shown. The secretary then came into the picture, but before she could even sit behind her desk, the Fyarl demon emerged with a Watcher under each arm, and the pack now full on his back.

Buffy cringed and a slight moan escaped her tightly gripped lips as she saw Giles unconscious on the tape. He looked like a little rag doll within the demon's grasp. Her eyes were riveted on the screen, so she didn't see the look of concern and wonder on Giles' face as he glanced at her. He was concerned that she had to see him like that, but was in awe of the fact that her feelings for him so obviously were showing one her face now as she watched the tape. He marveled at her emotions for him. His heart was bursting for her, and to know that she even felt half for him what he felt for her, well, it made him complete. He didn't want to be here in this stuffy office with this group of people. He hardly cared about this newest conflict or apocalypse or whatever it turned out to be. Even that intrigued him. Usually a good mystery and some research made him a happy man, but all that had changed when he saw the light in Buffy's eyes, a light that was shining there for him. All he wanted in his arms now was her, and damn all the books.

The tape ended as the Fyarl demon made its messy exit.

"Security has studied this tape over and over again, not just scrutinizing the demon, but the people in the lobby as well. They've come up with nothing, but perhaps one of you will see something they have missed." Gunn looked around at the group with a hopeful expression, but he frowned as he saw that they all looked blankly at him.

Angel rewound the tape, and played it back again. After a moment, Buffy rose, and approached the screen. "Rewind it a second, Angel."

"What is it, Buffy?" Giles asked her.

"I'm not sure. Wait, right there, that man. He looks sort of familiar."

"Which man?" Angel asked, approaching Buffy from the left, as Giles joined her on the right.

"That one, behind the big potted plant in the corner by the door."

The image was of a man, wearing all black. His face was partially hidden behind the trunk of the potted plant. He also wore a black baseball cap.

"He looks like he's hiding, alright." Gunn said. "Can we blow up this image, make his face easier to see? It's all a blur as it is."

Angel nodded and snatched up his phone. "Harmony, can you get me Lorne? Thanks." After a beat, Angel was connected to Lorne's line. "Lorne, can your visual guys blow up an image on a tape for us? How long will it take? Okay, good. I'll bring it right down."

Angel hung up. Buffy was still riveted to the screen as she asked, "What'd he say? Can he do it?"

"Yes, but he said it would take a couple of hours." Angel stopped the paused tape, and ejected it from the player. "I'll run it right down."

He hurriedly left his office, leaving the group behind. They all looked at each other, tentative smiles all around. Then Buffy turned towards Giles. "Why don't we have Fred show you the lab?" Giles nodded, and Fred jumped up, happy to have something to do. "You'll call us as soon as you hear anything?" Giles asked Gunn. The young lawyer nodded. "Of course."

Fred led Buffy and Giles out the door and towards the stairs. She was chattering about this and that in the lab, but neither Giles nor Buffy was really paying any attention. When Fred was stopped by another associate asking a question, Buffy turned her face up towards Giles and said, "We need to talk still."

He looked at her curiously. "About what?"

Buffy smiled at him, resting one of her hands on his arm. Giles could feel the heat of her touch from her fingertips through his shirt, and his heart fluttered as he waited for her answer. "About going home to Europe, soon." He grinned down at her, and ran his fingers through her long blonde hair, letting it flow over the pads of his fingertips. "Home?" he whispered.

"Yes, home, together. And we should probably figure out what to tell the gang."

"Tell the gang? Um…what do you mean?" He looked stricken for a moment. Did Buffy want to hide their relationship? Buffy hurried to reassure him. "This, us, its of the good, silly. I mean, yes, we'll have to tell them about us, but what I meant was, what we are all going to do? We were there on vacation, Giles. But vacation time is over. I'm not sure they'll want to stay there. We should all talk about it."

He frowned. He hadn't really thought that far ahead. Before, he had assumed that in time, after she was rested, that Buffy might want to go to Cleveland and help Faith and Wood train the new slayers, as well as work to put an end to that city's Hellmouth.

"What do you want to do, Buffy? What do you want?" But before she could answer, Fred started to usher them down the hall towards the lab, apologizing for the interruption. She grabbed his hand however, and whispered, "All I want is you, Mister. But that will have to wait until later too." She giggled as his ears turned red, and he narrowly missed a table protruding into the hall.

Giles and Buffy were surprised to find Spike in the lab, especially when it appeared as if he and another young man were playing cards.

"Knox! What are you doing?" Fred scolded the young man, but he just frowned and proceeded to draw two cards. "Losing a game of poker to Spike, unfortunately!" Buffy laughed, and asked. "Poker? Where are your cats, Spike?" Fred and Knox and Giles all looked at her with confusion. She shrugged as she told them, "Spike plays poker with these weird fellows that bet with cats. Don't you remember Shark man Giles?" Giles just shook his head.

"Don't think your Watcher was privy to Shark man. He was too busy running from you then."

Giles frowned, but Buffy stepped closer to him, putting an arm around his waist. Then Giles eyebrows shot up. "Ah, Randy Giles, yes, I now remember." The bleached blonde glared at the Watcher. Giles just chuckled, and put his arm around Buffy's shoulders, holding her close. Having her by his side was all he needed to combat Spike's venomous words.

Knox and Fred looked at the three expectantly, but after a moment it was obvious that they were not going to be enlightened by the Sunnydale natives' past.

Suddenly, Buffy realized that Spike was wearing another black leather duster. It wasn't as old and fitted and worn as his old one had been. "Where'd you get the new threads, Spike?"

"Around." He said, without looking up from his cards. "Call. Three of a kind." Knox scowled and threw his cards down. "A pair of threes all ya got? Looks like I win again, mate." Spike smiled, and scooped up the wad of money sitting in the center of the lab table."

"Uh, guys? Can we possibly get some work done now?" Spike was already shoving the money down into his jacket pockets. Knox stood up, throwing the cards into a drawer. "What's up, Fred?"

Fred instructed Knox to give Giles the grand tour. They began with the equipment cabinet, and ended at the examining table holding a charred box. It was the box that had been addressed to Spike, returning him to corporeal form.

"We haven't found one clue on it. No fingerprints, place of origin, nothing. It's quite perplexing." Fred explained. Spike picked the box up, shaking it as if he was a child on Christmas morning. "Spike, don't do that!" Fred admonished him, pulling it out of his hands. He smiled at her, then shrugged, putting his hands deep into his pockets. "What's the big deal? Not going to find anything, anyway."

"You don't know that. We'll find something, won't we Knox? Knox?"

Knox was gone.

Chapter 13