Hidden Emotions

Author: heather

Rating: PG13 for this part, R later

Summary: Willow comes to LA looking for a new purpose in life. Mostly a fluffy fic, a little angst and mystery to keep things interesting.

Feedback: The more the merrier.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, Joss does. Good for him. Spoilers: All seasons of Buffy are fair game and Angel Season 5 up to Life of the Party

Notes: This will follow Angel season 5 up until Life of the Party, then I'm going to do my own thing.  So, stuff that happens in the episodes since, doesn't happen in this fic.

Many thanks to Jenni for the betaing services.  :)

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~Part: 1~

A stylish black boot sank heel first into the lush pile carpet as wide green eyes took in the elegant surroundings, finally coming to rest on a well-dressed man behind an expansive polished wooden desk.  The boots, with their black denim clad legs, continued on to the wall of windows while the eyes never left the man.

"Certainly moving up in the world, aren't you Angel?" The corners of the eyes crinkled in a smile as they saw through the new suit and the new hairdo, and recognized their old friend.  When the man smiled back and rose to greet his guest, the eyes moved from him to take in the view of LA in the daylight, the city bathed in sun, though none reached through the window to warm her face through the special coating on the glass that kept her friend from an unpleasant fate.

And now the body felt what the eyes couldn't see. Angel stood behind her, though the window refused to betray him by providing a reflection.  She turned to face him and they embraced, a hug so fierce that a casual observer would perhaps feel a bit uncomfortable and want to clear her throat to remind the two of her presence in the room.  "Ahem!"

Angel released his hold on the woman in the boots with the observant eyes, and turned towards the other in the room.  "Willow, this is Eve, a messenger of the senior partners of Wolfram & Hart.  Eve, this is Willow, an old friend of mine.  We owe our continued existence on the earth to her."  Neither woman moved toward the other, but each stood her ground regarding the other with narrowed eyes full of suspicion.

Angel stood by uncomfortably as the silence dragged on, the only sounds in the room were the two heartbeats thundering in his ears. At last the two women spoke, the same sentence, at the same time.  "I know who you are."  Angel laughed a hysterical little laugh, which echoed painfully in the spacious office and then fell flat, swallowed by the returning quiet.  No one joined in his mirth.

Desperate to diffuse what he sensed as a potentially fatal situation, though for who or why he couldn't say, Angel announced, "Okay, Eve, I think we can probably finish up that discussion tomorrow."  He grinned an idiotic, hopeful grin.

Eve tore her gaze from Willow, gave Angel a look of disgust and flounced out, her short skirt swishing with the fast pace of her steps.  When the heavy door had clicked shut behind her, Angel turned back to Willow.  He motioned her to a chair and then moved to go sit back behind his desk.  Once settled, he asked, "Willow! It's great to see you, but what are you doing here?  And what the hell was that about?"

Willow smiled again, visibly more relaxed in Eve's absence.  "What? Can't I just come to visit an old friend on my vacation from fighting evil?"  Angel raised an eyebrow at her, indicating that she was not a good liar.  "Ok, ok.  I need a job."  She waited for the vampire's response.

"A job?  You need money?  I'm sure I can find you something with Fred, or…"

"No, Angel," she cut him off.  "I don't need money, I need a JOB.  I need something to do.  You know, a purpose in life.  I seem to be lacking one of those at the moment.  The hellmouth is closed, so no more big evils, there's dozens of slayers running around, so no more little evils, U of Sunnydale is toast, and that was the only school with majors in the paranormal, so I'm really kinda out of ideas for something meaningful to do with my life, and that's when I thought of you.  Man with purpose.  Good purpose that could be my purpose. What do you say?"

"Of course Willow, I know I could use someone around here that I can trust.  We still have plenty of evil in all sizes around LA.  I'll get something set up for you.  I know Fred would be glad for your help, or Wolfram and Hart has an extensive computer system, I'm sure we could use help with that.  I wish you had called, I could have been ready for you by now."

Willow frowned and pressed her lips together.  "Actually, I did call.  Didn't your secretary give you the message?"

"Harmony!"

A blonde head poked in the door.  "You bellowed, Angel?  You know, we do have this fancy intercom thingy, where you just push this little button and…"

"Why didn't you tell me Willow was coming?"  Angel asked, his right hand rubbing his forehead vigorously as if to keep ridges from forming there.

Willow leaned forward towards Angel, her eyes never leaving the door.  "Harmony's your secretary," she whispered, "but she's a vampire.  Without a soul.  Or a chip!  Didn't we already go over this a couple of years ago?"

Harmony sighed and rolled her eyes. "I can hear you, you know. Anyway, Angel, I told her not to come, so it's not my fault if she's bothering you."

Angel's grip on his forehead tightened. "Why, exactly, would you tell her not to come?"

"Hello?  You run a big, important law firm now.  We don't have time for the little people anymore."

Angel opened his mouth and then shut it and flapped his hand at the door, which shut quickly, but not before they heard Harmony muttering about how the business was going to hell while Angel entertained his girlfriends.

"Sorry about that, Willow.  I would have been ready for you.  I bet you don't even have a place to stay.  Every hotel for miles is booked.  There's some sort of convention downtown this week.  Some very weird people walking around.  You can stay at my penthouse, if you want.  It's not much, but I have a spare room."

Willow's jaw had gone slack at the word penthouse.  A vampire in a penthouse. Why did that sound funny?  Regaining her composure she said, "Sure Angel, that sounds lovely."

"Why don't you go there now and settle in?  I've got some more business to take care of, and then I'll come by and take you out for dinner.  TO dinner, I mean.  At a restaurant.  Then you can tell me what you have against Eve and answer the million other questions I have for you."

Willow laughed and agreed that sounded fine.  She stood up from her chair and prepared to leave the office, but quickly fell back, clutching her chest in shock when a familiar bleached blond head appeared through the wall, followed by a familiar tall, trim body.

"Ok, who went and pissed off Harmony this time?  And why does she insist on seeking me out to moan about it?  Do I look sympathetic? Just because I can't slap her sorry face doesn't mean I want to listen to the blubbering.  Hey, Red."

"Spike!?"

"In the flesh!  Or not, but yeah, it's me, for better or worse."

"You.  You're.  Um, you walked through the wall.  And you're supposed to be dead.  I mean, dust.  But here you are.  And you walked through the wall.  Oh!  I walked through a wall once!  That's when I was a … ohhh, you're a ghost!"  Then in a small voice she added, "That's good.  Isn't it?"

"No, it's not particularly good, but as afterlives go, it does come with the perk of haunting Angel for eternity.  So, can't complain too much."

"He doesn't get to haunt me for eternity, just until we figure out how to free him from the amulet," Angel added quickly.

Willow was still adjusting to the idea of a vampire ghost, not totally grasping the concept.  "So if you were dust and now you're a ghost and don't have a body, do you still have a soul?  I mean, I guess it wouldn't matter since you can't hurt anyone without a body but, are you an evil ghost?"

Spike smirked at her. "Only to Angel.  Still got my soul in me somehow."

Angel stood and addressed his guest and his ghost.  "Spike, why don't you show Willow to my apartment so that she can rest for awhile.  I know you know where it is since you bother me there every night."

Now it was Willow's turn to smirk, but she did it discreetly and followed Spike out through the door, which she had to open for herself.

On the way, they filled each other in on pertinent details that they had missed.  Spike explained his final moments in demolishing Sunnydale and how he'd wound up with Angel.  Willow explained how they assumed he was dead and that Buffy was touring Europe with Dawn.  At this he became quiet and thoughtful and she was glad he didn't ask about Kennedy.

~Part: 2~

Angel came home to find Willow standing in front of his living room windows, watching the last bit of a brilliant purple sunset over LA.  She had changed out of the black jeans and tight sweater that had so nicely complemented the heeled boots, and now wore a soft ankle length skirt over flat sandals and a matching sleeveless blouse.  He made his foot scrape on the floor so she would hear his entrance.

She turned and smiled at him, a truly happy smile that would have stopped his heart had it still beat.  "Willow, you look beautiful," he said honestly, before he could stop himself.

A pink hue rose in her cheeks and she looked away from him, embarrassed of her embarrassment.  "I didn't know where we were going, so this is my anywhere outfit.  Is it okay?"

"It's perfect," he assured her.

"Where are we going?"

"Oh, just a little French place, it's called L'Orangerie."

"Ooh, sounds expensive.  Do they serve, um, something you can have?"

Angel chuckled lightly. "Don't worry, I'll manage.  Come on, there's a car waiting."

~~~

In the car, which was actually a black Rolls Royce limo, Angel made polite conversation, asking Willow about some of the places she'd been since they last spoke.  There was an unspoken agreement between them to save the more serious talk for later.  Willow found herself fascinated by how much Angel had changed.  He'd taken his new role as CEO to heart, and was the full image of a businessman.  It would be too easy to forget what he really was.

The car pulled up to the curb and the driver got out to open their doors.  Willow glanced up at a white stucco building with a pretty wrought iron door.  When this was opened, her breath caught in her throat as she looked around at a vast garden, complete with cherub statues holding potted plants and lion's head fountains on the walls.  "This is a restaurant?" She asked, bewildered, gazing around at the flowers looming overhead.

Angel took her arm and guided her gently along the path to the inner door leading to the dining room. "Through here."

In no time they were seated at a private table near a tall, thin window, overlooking the garden.  Willow estimated that her place setting cost what her dad earned in a month.  While they were waiting for menus, Willow casually flipped through the wine list and then almost choked seeing that the average price for a bottle was $500 and they listed more than one for over $1000.  Angel relieved her of the list and folded it in front of him.  When the waiter came, he ordered champagne and placed the booklet of wines in the waiter's hand, indicating that he should take it away.  He then took both menus, looked at one quickly and said; "We'll have the Menu Royal."

"An excellent choice, sir.  I'll have your champagne in a moment."

Angel returned his attention to Willow who was regarding him with hot indignation.  "I'm perfectly capable of making up my own mind about what to eat, you know.  Really, you could leave it to someone with working taste buds to choose!"

He leaned across the table slightly and explained, "The menu is in French. I wasn't sure which languages you've studied."  Then he sat back and looked at his hand fiddling with the linen napkin beside his china plate.  "Sorry, I should have just asked."

Willow felt a small smile tug at the corners of her lips watching the contrite vampire pout.  She reached across and put her hand over his fidgety one.  He looked up in surprise, meeting her playful gaze.  "It's ok.  This time.  So, just what is the Menu Royal, anyway?"

Angel brightened immediately.  "Well, it's this eight course meal that starts with eggs and caviar followed by Terrine of Foie Gras with Spiced Pear and Apple Chutney, then…"

Willow held up her other hand to stop him.  "Ok, ok, I'm getting full just listening to all this.  It sounds wonderful, but how did you choose that of all things?"

Just then their Dom Perignon arrived and as they toasted Angel explained.  "It was the best thing they had, so that's what I ordered.  Here's to the finer things in life for those who have seen the truly unpleasant things."

"Here, here," Willow agreed and took a few sips of the bubbly stuff.  At first she made a face at how dry it was, but then it started to taste better.

"Speaking of unpleasant things, why don't you tell me what you have against Eve?"

Willow couldn't help but laugh at how direct he could be.  She set down her glass, carefully, and tried to conjure up the right words for the creepy feeling she got looking at the other woman.  Finally she settled on, "She's bad."

Angel put down his own drink and looked a little startled.  "Bad? As in evil?  Or just illegal bad?"

"Probably, I'd say both.  She's bad news.  You can't trust her."

Concern crossed Angel's face and he asked, "What makes you say that?"

Willow shrugged. "I can just tell.  Don't believe anything she says."

Angel shook his head slowly. "I'm glad you're here, Willow.  I think you're going to be more useful than you know."

The first course came and for a few minutes they were quiet, aside from some delighted exclamations over the caviar.

As they waited for the foie gras, Angel filled her in on how he'd already run into problems with some of the firm's preexisting employees.  He assured her she would see Fred and Wesley the next day and could catch up with them properly.

After another glass of champagne, Angel broached the subject Willow had been perfectly happy to avoid up until now.  "So, what brings you here to LA?"

She gave him a puzzled frown, trying to deny that she knew what he was talking about.  "I already told you Angel, I need something to do."

This time, it was his turn to reach across the table and take her hand.  "You know what I mean.  Why aren't you here with Kennedy? Did something happen?"

Willow sighed and waited for their server to leave before answering.  Though she did not let go of his hand, she chose to stare at her pate instead of Angel.  "Lots of somethings happened. All the wrong somethings and none of the right somethings."

His thumb rubbed across the back of her hand in soothing circles. Suddenly she met his gaze.  "Look at me, Angel."  He did.  "What am I?  What am I known for?"

She could see him thinking about this for a moment, trying to come up with the answer she wanted.  "You're the smart one.  Good with computers.  Good at witchcraft.  Great actually, at everything you do."  He studied her face, trying to gauge her reaction.

She nodded in agreement.  "Right, I'm all about the brains.  Now, what's Kennedy?  A slayer.  All about the strength, the brawn. Opposites don't always attract, you know?  She didn't like the magic, it made her uncomfortable.  That seems to be a recurring theme," she said, bitterness evident in her voice.  "In the end, we just wanted different things and decided to go our separate ways. She went to meet up with some of the other slayers, and just… left."

Angel looked a little uncomfortable now.  He of all people knew about being perfectly wrong for someone.  He'd never met Willow's girlfriend but had heard they made a cute couple.  Now that she explained it, he could see how the situation was similar to his. Still, he was fine now, and she would be too.  He could help her. That was his job, anyway, and what better person to help than an actual friend?  That would feel even better than helping strangers. He watched as she scraped some chutney onto a cracker and chewed it, not seeming to taste anything, a faraway look on her face.  He filled her glass again.

"Here, I think we need to have another toast.  To new beginnings," he said, raising his glass.

Willow toasted with him and went back to her plate which now contained fresh Maine scallops, served with their roe, and a salad. Desperate to keep her talking to him, he asked, "So how about the others?  How are they?  I'm surprised you didn't stay with your friend Xander."  It was not Angel's idea of a good time to talk about Xander, but if that's what it took to cheer up Willow, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

"Oh well, we did hang out for awhile, actually.  I know I talk about it like it just happened, but Kennedy left 3 months ago.  At first I caught up with Buffy and Dawn, but they were doing a sisterly bonding thing and I felt like the third wheel after a couple of weeks.  So yeah, I went to meet Xander in Spain and we had a great time for about a month.  And then," she took a bigger swallow of champagne and speared a scallop with her fork, not finishing her sentence.

"And then?" Angel prompted.

"And then he met another slayer and they hit it off and before you know it, they wanted to go to Paris and voila! I'm the third wheel again!"  Angel made a sympathetic groan.  "Yeah, it was just perfect, too, if you think about it.  Xander has wanted every slayer he ever met, before there was so many of them anyway.  Buffy, Kendra, Faith, well he had her, but not for long.  He's actually the perfect guy for a slayer.  How many other guys would be willing to accept, or even understand, the life of a slayer?  It's not every guy that devotes his life to fighting evil when that's not even his calling."

Angel cleared his throat quietly.  Willow caught on right away.  "Oh well, you of course.  Sure, you'd be the perfect guy for a slayer, too.  Well, except for the vampire thing, which makes you exactly the wrong guy for a slayer, but you know, for some other kind of supernatural girl.  Like a… hmm."  Willow suddenly decided not to finish her thought and was spared by the waiter arriving with roasted Santa Barbara spiny lobster, with garlic.

Angel had a pretty good idea of what she was going to say.  It was an interesting point and he pondered it while gazing at his dinner companion and noting the way the pale blue silk of her blouse set off the slightly flushed skin visible along her scooped neckline so that it seemed to be glowing in the candlelight.  Then he grinned as he watched her have a hell of a struggle with her spiny lobster, which seemed to be winning.  He reached across the table and removed it from her grip, crushing the shell easily enough and passing it back.  "You were saying?"  He asked, hoping she would indeed finish her thought.

Willow eyed him, not entirely sure it was the strength of the cracking tool that had opened her lobster.  But now she had other problems.  She'd almost come right out and said that Angel was obviously the perfect man for someone like her.  That wasn't what she'd meant to say at all.  Ok, it was probably true, but that wasn't why she was here.  She vowed not to have anymore champagne and desperately tried to think of a way to change to subject.

"I was saying, my what strong hands you have!"

Angel rewarded her with a grin and a knowing look in his eye, but he let it drop, for now.  He didn't dare turn the conversation back to her friends or her life of the last few months.  It seemed that either wound up being about one slayer or another and that was clearly a topic she wanted to avoid.  Even asking about Xander was a disaster, though it did get her to make that interesting admission. Still, the future seemed a safer path at the moment.

"After you left today I asked around in a few departments in the firm to see who could use your abilities.  I think there's going to be a war over who gets you. You'll have your pick of any job in the place.  And any office."  He smiled a little half smile, "Well, except mine."

"Thanks Angel.  You've done a lot for me already, and I've only been here for 8 hours!  I promise I'll work really hard and if there's anything else I can do for you, just ask," she told him firmly with a nod of her head.

He looked at her seriously.  "You've done a lot for me too, Willow. You made me a man."  At her look of confusion and not a little shock he added, "The soul.  Putting it back, twice."

Her face cleared and she smiled at him.  "Oh, right.  Yeah well, I gotta say I had a little bit of selfish motivation in that."

"Really?" He asked, shifting forward a little.  "What might that have been?"  This was getting interesting.

"You know, living, not being killed.  Those are pretty big motivators."

"Oh, right," he muttered, sitting back, deflated.

This time it was Angel who was spared a further explanation by the arrival of the chicken dish, complete with vegetables and salad. Willow's eyes widened at the amount of food.  The portions were small, but it was definitely the biggest course yet and she'd already eaten so much.  Still, she picked at it to be polite, knowing it had cost a bundle and she wasn't sure you could ask for a doggie bag in a place like this.  "Didn't we already have salad?" She said, mostly to herself.

They passed the rest of the meal pleasantly, discussing the arrangements for the next few days at the firm, though no mention was made of Willow's future sleeping arrangements.  She wondered how long he'd let her stay at his place.  Although she meant it when she told Angel that she didn't need money, she wasn't sure she could exactly afford an apartment in LA either.

By the time the petits fours were served, the few awkward moments were forgotten and they were laughing comfortably, Angel teasing her about not eating enough, and her teasing him about not eating anything.

On the way back in the car, Willow asked him why he'd taken her to such an exclusive restaurant when any café would have filled her up just fine.  "It was the only place I could think of good enough to take someone like you," he told her.  She had a moment to ponder what someone like her was when he added, "someone who's saved the world."  She smiled, pleased, even if that was not quite what she'd been hoping for.

Soon they were at his apartment and he walked her to the door to her room.  She hugged him again, thanking him for a lovely evening.  He kissed her on the cheek and they parted.  As she undressed and got in bed she wondered why she really had come there.  There were lots of possible reasons, but what was the real one?  She decided that she didn't need to know right at that moment and could start figuring it out tomorrow.

~Part: 3~

Willow opened her eyes and saw nothing. Her head felt fuzzy and a little sore. She wondered if she was really awake and then realized she could hear water running. The events of the last 24 hours slowly returned to her, and she remembered she was in Angel's apartment.

The shower was running. It must have been morning, but it was so dark. Of course, Angel would have very heavy curtains that were obviously closed. She rolled over, intent on regaining the pleasant dream she was having until she remembered two things at once. The person she was so happy with in the dream was not a girl, and she had a new job to start and could not lay in bed all day. She wasn't sure which thought caused her to be out of bed and on her feet in a flash. Her head protested the sudden movement with a dull throb.

Fumbling for a light, Willow decided she'd better get an alarm clock if she was going to be a working woman. It had been easy to fall out of the habit of researching all day and fighting all night. She had become a woman of leisure. A lot of good that did anyone.

The shower went off with a squeak of a knob and Willow peeked out to see if the bathroom was free. She was treated to the sight of Angel shuffling into his room, clad only in a towel around his waist. He was using a second towel to vigorously rub his hair which stood up in all directions. Willow found herself transfixed by little rivulets of water streaming out of his hair and running down his muscular back between his shoulder blades before being absorbed by the towel at his waist. She came to when his bedroom door closed leaving her staring at its wood grain, which was not nearly as interesting.

Shaking her head, realizing she'd been considering making the door transparent, Willow made herself get ready for work. No more naughty thoughts about the boss, she told herself as she picked out her clothes for the day. `Hehe, Angel's my boss. He's gonna give me orders. I'm gonna be under Angel.' Willow gasped at her own thoughts and realized it must be the hangover talking.

By the time she was ready, Angel was waiting for her, fully dressed and not a hair out of place. They talked business on the way down to the office, nothing mentioned of the previous night. He suggested that she go to see Fred first, who would be more than happy to show her around the various departments that might interest her.

Willow had seen the entire building by early afternoon and was suitably impressed by the resources of the firm. Fred made a great tour guide and chatted ceaselessly about the research they were doing and how nice it would be to have someone else to talk to who would understand it. Though she was reluctant to share, Fred agreed that Willow would split her time between helping her in the lab, working with the firm's expert hackers, and assisting the other spell casters.

Having promised to check in with the boss and let him know her progress on finding work, Willow made her way up to Angel's office. Harmony was not at her desk. Willow hesitated, and then noticed the ditzy vampire far down the hall, gesturing angrily at a bored looking Spike who finally strode away through the nearest wall, leaving Harmony to yell at thin air. Instead of returning to her post, Harmony chased after him, opening doors at random in her search.

Willow shrugged and let herself into Angel's office. Her boss was no where to be seen, but Eve was sitting on his couch, legs crossed daintily in such a way that Willow could see all the way up her skirt. "What are you doing here?" Willow asked, immediately suspicious.

"I'm having a meeting," Eve replied, coolly.

Willow scoffed at her. "With yourself?"

"Angel just went to get some client files, since his secretary seems to be missing again. What are you doing here?"

"That's none of your business!" Willow shouted. She didn't know why she should feel so defensive. She had nothing to hide, she was just coming to talk to her boss about business.

"Fine. Do you think you could take care of your business later? You're interrupting."

"What's going on here?" A voice from behind Willow asked. She turned to see Angel come through the door, his arms loaded down with folders bulging with papers.

"Angel! I just came by to talk to you about," she shot Eve a look that made the other woman shudder involuntarily, "never mind, I'll come back." She hurried out of the room leaving the vampire staring after her in wonder.

Willow strode down the hall cursing herself under her breath for letting Eve get to her. She'd find out what that witch was up to if it was the last thing she did. That thought made her stop in her tracks. What if it WAS the last thing she did? And what if Eve was a witch? She definitely radiated a feeling of power that was not human. But it also wasn't the natural energy that came from pure magic. All these private meetings with Angel did not sit well with Willow. The sooner she found out Eve's agenda, the better.

After getting lost four times, Willow found Fred in her lab, her eyes magnified to the size of baseballs behind a pair of gigantic goggles. She dripped minute amounts of a foul smelling sludge into a beaker full of what looked like smoking sand. "Stand back, Willow," she warned without looking away from her work. As the last of the contents of the eye dropper made contact with the stuff in the beaker, the whole thing burst into green flames. Willow jumped back, but Fred kept her cool and plunged the entire apparatus into a waiting bucket of ice water. As it bubbled and steamed, she removed the goggles and turned her attention to Willow. "Well, that's not it," she concluded.

Willow wanted to ask what she was trying to find, but then remembered the real purpose of her visit. "Fred, can I ask you something, just between you and me."

"Sure, Willow. Anything."

"Well, I was just wondering, what do you think of Eve? You know, as a person. And I use that term loosely."

"Oh, Eve? Let's see, she seems really nice. I mean, we don't really know who she is or what she wants or where her loyalties lie, but other than that, you know, she's Eve."

Willow frowned. "But don't you think it's odd? Nobody knows anything about her, but everyone just takes her word for everything. Can't we check her out a little? Find out a few details at least? I don't know, say like, her last name?"

Fred sighed and began trying to scrub the burnt-on mess out of her equipment. "It's complicated. We have to trust her because she's the only thing we have. She's the big link to the senior partners, the only link. Without her, we'd know even less."

Willow tried to be patient. She could always tell when she was dealing with people who'd never lived on a hellmouth. They were far too trusting and not nearly curious enough for their own good. "Look, I understand why we need her. But has anyone even tried to find out anything about her? That's all I'm asking."

Fred paused in her cleaning. "Well, no. Now that you mention it, I wouldn't even know where to begin to look. She's always presented herself as this young thing fresh out of school who landed a great job. The only thing I would think there is to find is her transcripts. Those don't really say much about a person."

"Fred, you've got a lot to learn. I'll start with checking out her transcripts like you said. I'll see if they're in her employee file." As she turned to go, Fred called her back.

"Willow, are you sure you should be doing this? I mean, we really just started working here, I don't know if it's a good idea to stir things up getting on Eve's bad side."

Willow could see her casting loving glances around her multi-million dollar lab and knew exactly what she was thinking. "Don't worry, Fred." She placed a reassuring hand on the other woman's shoulder. "I'm already on Eve's bad side."

~Part: 4~

"I don't get it. I just don't get it."  Willow continued scrolling through Eve's personnel file, muttering under her breath all the while.  "It's all here.  How can that be?"  The records showed that everything Eve had told them about herself was true.  Willow stopped reading and her head shot up.  "Wait.  Just because she wrote it on her job application and it went in the system, doesn't mean anything!  It could all be an elaborate cover, a created identity!"

"Working hard?" An amused male voice asked from just behind her chair.  Willow spun around to find Angel reading over her shoulder with his arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.  "I don't think private investigator was one of the jobs we talked about.  We have enough of those."

"Angel!  I was just… ummm… well, learning about the firm?  What are you doing here? Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to sneak up on people?" She asked, hoping to change the subject.

"You came to see me and I was busy so I thought I'd stop by now that I'm free.  But that doesn't explain why you're checking up on Eve." His tone of voice now suggested that she'd best explain herself in a hurry.

Willow felt herself blush.  How silly of her that she hadn't trusted Angel's judgment of Eve after all of his experience with demons in various forms.  In a small voice she answered honestly, "I thought she was evil."

To her surprise Angel chuckled ruefully.  "Yeah, attractive women often are."

"You think she's attractive?"  Willow demanded, unable to keep the disgust out of her voice.  "I mean, yeah, of course she's attractive," she added, trying for a lighter tone.  "I ought to know."

Angel smiled at her. "Right, you're the expert.  Now why don't you give the demon hunting a rest and try to relax.  Well, as much as you can relax in an evil law firm.  What did you want to talk about?"

Willow just stared at him for a moment, clueless as to what he was talking about.  Then her face lit up.  "Oh, I wanted to tell you about all my new jobs."  While she recited the various tasks she'd lined up for herself, she began plotting how she was going to discover the truth about Eve.  The situation was worse than she thought.  If Angel was thinking of her in terms of "attractive woman" instead of simply, "employee", he was in no position to be an objective judge of her character.

She would have to work alone, that much was clear.  Through her natural female attributes, Eve clearly had every man in the firm eating out of her hand.  None of them would lift a finger against her.  The only woman she knew she could trust was no help either. Fred was so in love with her lab she'd turn a blind eye if the devil himself was walking around giving orders.

When Angel left to see about getting her a private office, Willow turned back to the computer and logged out of Wolfram & Hart's employee tracking system.  Connecting to the Internet, she looked up UC Santa Cruz.  Universities were notoriously lax in their security systems.  She'd have them hacked by dinner.

Willow underestimated her abilities.  She was busily searching through student records at UC Santa Cruz in just under an hour. There was no record of Eve.  `Sloppy, sloppy,' she thought.  She was sure that if they really wanted to, Wolfram & Hart could have a phony student record created with no trouble.  Her interest more piqued than ever, Willow carefully erased all traces of her hacking activities and gathered the papers detailing the legitimate cases she was supposed to be working on.   It was 5 o'clock and Angel had promised she'd have an office by the end of the day.  It seemed wise to wait until she could work somewhere undisturbed to continue her investigation.

Willow stepped out of the elevator onto Angel's floor and went in search of Harmony. The irony was not lost on her that if she'd come across Harmony not 3 days before, she would have staked her, and yet now she wanted to ask her for directions to her office.  To Willow's surprise and relief, Harmony was at her desk, typing a memo with two fingers.  "Hi Harmony," she ventured.

"Willow, how nice to see you!  I'll be right with you."  She made a few more keystrokes and then rose, giving Willow a brilliant smile.  "I'll bet you want to see your new office!"  Willow nodded, her eyes fixed on Harmony, mouth slightly agape.  "Right this way, please."  Harmony made her way down the hall, past several of the doors she'd so brazenly flung open just that morning in search of Spike.

"Here we are!"  Fitting a key in the doorknob, Harmony let them into a spacious office with a beautiful cherry desk and three wall-length windows.  A brand new flat screen monitor was perched on the desk, the hum of the cpu coming from somewhere underneath.  One wall was lined floor to ceiling with bookshelves that were full of various demon texts.  The rug was a forest green which matched the upholstery on the side chairs positioned in front of the desk for her visitors.  Behind the desk was a black leather office chair with numerous levers and knobs to adjust it.  Willow thought she could even see a dial for heat.

Turning to Harmony, Willow asked, "This is my office?  Just mine?"

"Sure is!  It's all yours!  And I'll be right down the hall if you need anything.  Just use the intercom on your desk."  She turned to go, but Willow grabbed her by the arm and dragged her back into the room.

Shutting the door, Willow turned to the startled blonde. "Alright, what's going on here?  The fancy office, the nice vampire routine, what's the deal?"

Harmony rolled her eyes.  "Fine, Eve told me I had to be nice to you, that you were important.  So we got you the big office and here I am being nice.  I don't have to be, you know.  I have every right to be evil if I want."

That brought up another question Willow had been meaning to ask.  "Yeah, what's with that anyway?  Why don't you drink human blood?  It's not like you have a soul."

Harmony looked uncomfortable and wrenched her arm away from Willow.   She tried to leave again but Willow stood in front of the door and crossed her arms, clearly unwilling to let her by until she was satisfied.  "Ok, ok, it's not that I don't want to.  It's just… Promise you won't tell?"  Willow nodded, but didn't budge from the door.  "They're too hard to catch.  People see you vamp out and they run.  It's like they think you're gonna hurt them.  I try to chase them, but I'm not very fast, and once the heel of my shoe broke and I fell and it was so embarrassing.  So, this one time I was really hungry and I couldn't catch anyone, so I tried the pig blood.  It wasn't that bad!  And it's so much easier to get, so I gave up human blood for good.  It's a lot easier to make friends this way too," she concluded.

Without saying a word, Willow moved away from the door.  Harmony left quickly, eyes downcast.  As soon as the door was closed, Willow burst out laughing until she thought her sides would split.  When she recovered she remembered what Harmony said about Eve making her be nice and acting like she was important.  `It's like she wants me to be suspicious of her', Willow thought.

She roamed around her new office, taking everything in.  It was very nice, everything she could have wanted.  Picking out a particularly interesting looking text on deceptive practices of demons, she curled up on the loveseat against the wall opposite the bookshelves and began to read.

It was in this position that Angel found her two hours later, when the sun had set.  At her invitation to his knock, he stuck his head in and asked how she was liking her new accommodations.  When she had thanked him a few dozen times he asked if he could take her to dinner.

"Ok, but nothing fancy tonight.  Is there a good pizza joint in town?"

It turned out there was and over a large pepperoni pie with a pitcher of beer, Willow told Angel all about her first day at work and how she looked forward to the next day.

"That's really some office.  I didn't realize we'd be on the same floor, what with you being the big CEO guy and all, and me being just the new girl."

"Well, we're all new, really.  I thought it would be nice to have you nearby.  We can keep in touch better that way."

Willow thought this sounded a lot like him wanting to keep an eye on her.  "Harmony told me it was Eve's idea to give me that office," she informed him, keeping her tone conversational.

"It was.  She thought it would be a good idea for you to be accessible.  You're going to be one of our most valuable people so she wants you right there with us."

"Uh huh," was all Willow could think of to say.  She thought she'd better drop it for the time being.

Angel had other ideas.  "You know, I bet the two of you could get to be good friends.  You've got to be about the same age, you're going to be working together, you both know about demons.  You have a lot in common."

Willow choked on a bit of pizza and took a larger than necessary chug of beer to wash it down.  "Um, right.  Friends.  That sounds great.  Maybe we'll stay up late and braid each other's hair."

Angel completely missed the sarcasm and said, "Great!  That's the spirit!"

As they walked back to the penthouse in companionable silence, Willow found herself wondering just how interested in Eve Angel really was.  Against her better judgment, she decided to ask him.  "Angel, do you think you and Eve are going to get together?"

"Get together?  Well, sure we have a meeting first thing in the morning and… wait, you mean together together?  No, of course not, why would you even ask?"

"Oh, no reason.  It just seems like a good match.  You know, like we talked about last night with you being the perfect guy for a non- slayer girl with supernatural tendencies."

"You think Eve has supernatural tendencies?"

"Well, she knows about things.  She's not afraid of demons, and you said she was attractive.  So, that's a step in the right direction."

"Willow, when you said that about me being right for that kind of girl, I thought you meant… well never mind.  Um, no, I don't have those kinds of feelings for Eve.  It's not like I end up with feelings for every attractive girl I work with."

Willow looked at him skeptically but only said, "Oh.  Well, that's her loss."  Angel smiled at her and shook his head.

That night Willow slept well, relieved to know her boss was not yet sleeping with the enemy.

~Part: 5~

"Angel! Blood!" Willow called out as the microwave beeped. Angel hurried into the kitchen, already fully dressed, and took the steaming mug from her hands.

"I had your blue suit cleaned. It's hanging up in the bathroom. They charged extra for that yellow goo on the sleeve, but they got it all out. Where's the paper?" He asked her.

"Late again. Kids these days, I tell ya."

Angel rolled his eyes in agreement and took his breakfast to the table where he sat with nothing to read. Two weeks had passed since Willow had come to LA and started work at Wolfram & Hart. She and Angel had developed a morning routine that suited them both and ensured they didn't get in each other's way.

What Angel didn't know, or at least pretended not to, was that part of Willow's routine included watching him walk in his towel from the bathroom to his bedroom after his shower every morning. Once, before she could stop herself, she made the towel fall off. She then felt guilty for two days and told herself she wouldn't watch him anymore, which lasted until the next morning when the shower shut off and she found herself at her door peeking out.

Willow darted off to the bathroom and emerged a few minutes later wearing the freshly cleaned blue suit. Angel checked his watch and announced that he had to leave.

"Where's your meeting this morning?" Willow asked.

"Just a few blocks away. I'll take the sewers," he told her. "I should be in my office by 10. I'll stop by around lunch." Placing one hand on her padded shoulder, he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before disappearing out the door.

A few minutes later, Willow was in the elevator, heading for work too. In addition to her office duties, she'd begun to accompany Angel on his demon fighting missions at night. At first he'd adamantly refused, citing her safety as his primary concern. They'd been in his office when this discussion took place. She had stopped by to see if he was ready to head home and found him preparing for a hunt. Instead of protesting his chauvinistic rationale, she'd simply held up her hand. In the blink of an eye, he'd found himself flung against the window, bound hand and foot by the thick, braided drapery cords. "Now don't you think that's a useful skill to have on your side?" she'd asked him calmly.

Refusing to look at her, Angel had agreed she could come along if she promised never to do that to him in front of anyone else. She promised and let him down, noting to herself that he hadn't made her promise never to tie him up in private.

Their most recent mission had involved a giant slug demon that lived in the sewers and was eating some of Wolfram & Harts sewer-dwelling clients. Apparently it would slither up when they were asleep and drown them in a stream of slime before absorbing the bodies into its porous flesh. It had been an easy kill, but tougher on the clothes than most.

Angel took care of all her dry-cleaning. He had a good rapport with a local shop who's proprietor claimed he could send all three of his sons to college thanks to Angel's business. It was this grateful attitude that kept him from asking uncomfortable questions about the state of the clothing that Angel dropped off every week.

Willow arrived at the lab with some reports for Fred on the previous day's research only to find the scientist already busily at work. When she saw Willow she looked surprised and a little uncomfortable. "Still trying to find a way to help Spike?" Willow asked her with a knowing smile.

"Well, yeah. I just feel bad for him, you know. He got a tough break. Just don't tell Angel, okay? He doesn't like me spending all this time on Spike, even if it means getting rid of him."

"You're secret's safe with me," she promised, handing Fred the reports and leaving her to her latest experiment.

She stood in front of the elevator doors, tapping one foot impatiently as she watched the dial slowly spin towards the floor number indicating her current location. At last a subtle ding sounded and the doors slid open to reveal an empty car. As she stepped in she heard a woman call out, "Hold, it please!"

Willow automatically, pushed the open door button and held it as she looked up to see who was coming. Her stomach fell to her feet as she saw Eve approaching, skirt swishing briskly as she hurried to catch up with Willow. Once she was in, Willow punched the button for the 18th floor a little harder than was necessary to make it light up. She didn't even ask where Eve was headed, automatically assuming that she was going to see Angel, who she'd forgotten wasn't even in yet.

Willow had made no further progress in the last two weeks on figuring out what Eve was up to, though she continued to believe all was not as it appeared. Every one of her leads had dried up. She had even followed Eve one night after a particularly late meeting with Angel. She had left the building, climbed into a perfectly ordinary looking car, and driven up to a perfectly ordinary looking apartment and gone inside. Feeling foolish, she had driven away, not seeing Eve watching her from a third floor window.

Now in the elevator, Eve made no move to push an additional button, only stood silently for a few moments, studying the maroon carpet, or perhaps her shiny black shoes. She gave a small gasp when the elevator lurched to a stop and the emergency alarm began to sound. Willow glared at her for a moment, and then rapidly pressed the red button until the alarm silenced and a male voice came through the speaker in the panel. "What happened up there?" It demanded.

"We appear to be stuck," Willow shot Eve another chilling glance. "We're between the 19th and 20th floors.

"Ok, we'll send someone right up. Might be awhile before it's fixed. Is everyone in there alright?"

"We're fine. For now," Willow assured the concerned voice. Turning to Eve, she took a deep breath in attempt to remain calm and asked, "What's this all about?"

Eyes wide with surprise, Eve replied, "What, the elevator? Why, I'm as startled as you are! You don't think I got us stuck on purpose?"

Willow didn't know what to say. There wasn't much she could do but wait. If Eve tried to attack her, she could defend herself, but otherwise, she felt she didn't know enough about elevators to risk any magic to get them out. After a few minutes, she slouched down on the floor, trying to get comfortable as far away from Eve, who remained standing, as possible.

"Willow, I have been meaning to talk to you about something. Now is as good a time as any, wouldn't you say?" Willow wouldn't say. "Well, anyway, it's actually about a little proposal I have for you. Do you know our associate, Charles?"

Willow frowned and then looked up at her. "Gunn? We've met. Nice guy."

"Yes, Gunn. Did you know he received some special cerebral enhancements, courtesy of Wolfram & Hart, that taught him everything there is to know about demon law in a matter of minutes?"

Willow had heard about this. "What's your point?"

"My point is that there are other enhancements that Wolfram & Hart is capable of providing for it's more important employees."

Willow saw she would have to take the bait to get this conversation over with. "Such as?"

"For instance, for someone like yourself, we could implant the knowledge of every spell known to every Wicca in the world. You'd never need to look at a spell book again. In addition, we could up your power. You could move buildings on a whim. How does that sound?"

"I can already move buildings, if I wanted to," Willow informed her, getting up off the floor to face her adversary.

"Yes, but how many days of migraines and nosebleeds would you suffer afterwards? With our implants, you wouldn't even need a nap after a spell like that."

Willow didn't dare admit how nice that sounded. Surely there was a catch. There was always a catch. Usually a nasty one. "You really think I would let your people poke around in my brain?"

"It's very safe. You could even have someone there in the room that you trust. Fred, perhaps? She would be able to tell if they were doing something wrong. Or Angel even, if you trust him more," she said with a wave of her hand, indicating it was of no consequence who watched the procedure.

"And why would Wolfram & Hart, the big evil law firm, be so generous to me, fighter of evil? What's in it for them? What's in it for you?"

"Like I said, it's simply a perk offered to certain valuable employees. And Willow, you do fall in that category. Just in the short time you've been here, your hacking skills have solved four cases weeks ahead of schedule and your magical abilities have eliminated several demons that were giving our clients trouble. Why wouldn't we want to help you in any way we can?"

Unable to come up with a good dispute for that, Willow muttered, "I'll think about it."

"Great! That's all I ask."

Just then the elevator started again and soon after, the two women parted ways on the 18th floor.

~Part: 6~

Reaching her office, finally, Willow booted up her computer and slumped in her chair, hitting the massage button she'd discovered just the day before.  Closing her eyes for a moment as she waited for the logon screen to appear, she mentally replayed the conversation in the elevator.  So, Wolfram & Hart wanted to tap her magical powers.  That much was clear, but why?  Would they really risk making her more powerful than she was already?  Or was that just a big lie to get her under the knife?  Either way she was excited.  Eve had given her a huge lead into discovering her plans.

Three hours later, Willow was deeply engrossed reading a wide array of reports detailing the activities of the magic users at the firm. Their powers were used for everything from casting spells on weapons, to stealing priceless artifacts, to killing enemies remotely.  She still wasn't sure where she fit in.  What could she do that none of the others could?  It didn't make sense.  Why did they need her?  She pounded the heel of her hand against her forehead, willing her brain to make the connection.

Her thoughts were soon interrupted by a knock at the door.  A moment later, Angel appeared, a cup of coffee and tuna salad on a bagel in his hands.  "Hey, brought you lunch," he said.  Harmony had almost instantly disregarded her order to be nice to Willow and always "forgot" when asked to bring coffee.

"Aww, thanks Angel, that's sweet."

Placing the food on the desk, Angel settled into one of the side chairs and pulled the newspaper out from under his arm.  He unfolded it and extracted the envelope it had concealed.  "I brought you this, too."

Taking it from his hands, Willow slit it open and squealed with delight when she saw the contents.  "My first paycheck!  Oh my god, Angel, it's so much.  It's too much, I can't take this.  I don't deserve it."  She tried to hand it back to him, but he waved it off.

"Willow, it's a very standard amount," he insisted.

"But I don't even have a college degree!  Or any work experience. You can't tell me this is the average starting salary here."

"Well, no," he admitted.  "But Willow, you're smarter than the 10 smartest PhD's we have here put together.  Trust me, you've earned it."

Willow looked down modestly and put the check away in her desk.  "Thank you, Angel.  I do feel like I have a purpose here."

"That's great!  I was hoping you'd say that.  I'm glad this is working out so well for you.  Here, I brought you one more thing." Now he handed her the folded newspaper.  She took it uncertainly and glanced at the section he had opened.  It was the real estate section.  Specifically, the part that listed apartments for rent. Several listings were highlighted.

When she looked back up at him, he said, "I figured since you'll be staying in LA, you'd want your own place, so I took the liberty of picking out a few potentials in your price range.  You should be able to afford something nice with what we're paying you."

Willow was crushed.  Of course she should want her own place.  Who'd want to live with a vampire?  Weird hours, never anything but blood in the fridge, always coming home to various refugees camped out in the living room waiting for Angel to solve their problems.  She was embarrassed  that she'd come to think of the penthouse as home and hadn't even looked for an apartment.  For the first few days she had of course assumed the arrangement was temporary, but when Angel hadn't kicked her out, she'd kind of settled in and had stopped considering that he might not want her there.  She felt so stupid.

Trying to smile, she said, "Oh, of course, I'd love my own place. Sorry I've been underfoot for so long.  I'll look these over now and schedule some appointments."  Looking down and pretending to scan the listings so the vampire wouldn't see the hurt in her eyes, she missed the way his face fell at her apparent enthusiasm for moving out.

"Sure.  Well, take your time.  There's no hurry, I'm not kicking you out.  I just thought you'd like a space of your own, you know, without all the weird vampire stuff.  And your own bathroom, maybe even with a mirror.  I know how girls like their time in the bathroom."  Willow's head shot up and as she stared at him and his now twinkling eyes with her mouth open, she knew that he knew about her spying.  `Stupid, stupid, of course he knew you were there. Hello?  Vampire, remember!' she silently berated herself.

"Sure, Angel, it's a good idea for me to move out.  Be on my own. Leave you to your brooding in peace."  She couldn't make her voice sound quite as cheery about it as before since she found herself wondering how lonely it would be to live all by herself in a strange city.

Angel got up to leave. "See you tonight.  Don't forget to pick a place for dinner."

As she watched him go, Willow speculated whether their nightly meals would carry on after she moved out.  Angel had continued to take her to dinner every night since she'd come to LA.  His rationale was simply that his apartment was not set up for cooking.  He had no plates or pots and pans, and there were often things in the refrigerator that wouldn't be healthy if they came in contact with food.

With a sigh, she picked up the paper again and read through the available apartments with no particular interest in any of them. Finally, she picked up the phone and called three at random, setting up showings for the following day which was Saturday.

That done, she turned back to her computer, remembering her big mission to discover what the firm wanted from her.  Suddenly, it didn't seem very important to her what they wanted.  She wasn't stupid enough to let them play with her mind so what difference did it make what they would do if she did?  When Angel had come into her office she had felt alive with purpose and full of ambition.  Now, not 20 minutes later, she couldn't remember what that purpose had been and she had all the ambition of her tuna salad bagel that she threw away after the first bite, which tasted like shredded cardboard to her moping taste buds.  She took a sip from the paper cup and…

"Bee in your bonnet, Love?"

Willow looked up and sprayed bitter coffee all over the top of her desk and several documents as she caught sight of the ghost of Spike sitting in the chair in front of her desk where Angel had been only minutes ago.  Of course, she had not heard him come in.  Pulling several tissues up from the box beside her phone Willow began to mop up the mess she made, glaring at the intruder.

"Spike, do you think you could knock?  Ok, no you can't knock, so do you think you could just not do that?  I don't know if it's a ghost thing, or a vampire thing, or what, but you really shouldn't just go around sneaking up on people."

"What sneaking?  I walked right in through the door, conspicuous as you please!  Not my fault if you're sitting here having a little self-involved temper tantrum and not paying attention to the outside world," the vampire huffed.

"I was not having a… arg!  Spike, what are you doing here?"

"Just came in to see what you said to Angel that has him in such a snit.  Never seen him so brassed off.  He'd a ripped my head from my neck, if it was really there."

"What are you talking about?  We were having a calm, rational conversation.  He brought me some apartment listings and lunch, then he left.  Whatever he's in a mood about, it's not my fault."

"Oh, right.  His little missus is moving out and it's got nothing to do with that," Spike made a grand gesture of rolling his eyes as if he couldn't believe that humans could possibly get any stupider.

"Spike, I'm going to ask you one more time.  What. Are. You. Talking. About?"

"Please, the two of you are enough to make me vomit, and that takes a lot seeing how I don't have a stomach."  In a high squeaky voice he continued, "Here's your blood honey.  Oh thank you darling, you know just how I like it.  Here's your outfit for today.  Here let's share the paper.  Oh goodnight sweetie, kiss kiss."  Spike shook his head in disgust.  "Honestly, I've never seen anything so revolting. And I've never seen Angel so bloody happy."

"Well if you weren't always skulking around the apartment then you wouldn't have to feel sick, and wait, you think he's all happy and that has something to do with me?"  Willow asked, still disbelieving.

Spike got up and paced the room.  "Of course it has something to do with you.  Do you know he sings in the shower now?  He never did that before."

Willow decided not to ask how Spike knew about Angel's shower habits, not wanting to reveal how much she knew herself.  "So, if he was so happy, why did he come in here and show me apartments?" Willow asked, triumphantly slapping the paper down on the desk facing Spike, as if that settled the matter.

He walked over and glanced down, then made a motion to push the paper away, which resulted in nothing more than his hand passing through the desk.  "Well, that's obvious, isn't it?  He's an idiot. He doesn't want to be happy.  He wants you to be happy.  He's got it in his head that living with him isn't going to do that and some nice little flat with some nice normal neighbors will."

"But I don't want to move out," Willow whined.

"So tell him that," Spike said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I can't.  I already said I wanted my own place.  And what if you're wrong and he thinks I'm just a big mooch?"

"Oh hell, I can't deal with you whiny women," Spike announced before walking back out through the closed door, leaving a distraught Willow staring after him.

She turned her thoughts over and over in her head as she mindlessly tried code after code to break into a rival law firm's database. She looked surprised when one went through and the data she was after popped up on the screen.  Waiting for the printouts to finish on her private HP laser jet, she made up her mind.  She would go to the apartment showings tomorrow.  If Angel really wanted her to stay with him, he would just have to come out and say so.  She was through playing games.

~Part: 7~

"They call this a luxury apartment?  I've seen nicer sewer tunnels," Angel scoffed, striding through the three small, grungy rooms. Willow watched him, arms folded across her chest.

"All it needs is some new paint.  I'm sure it cleans up nice," she tried to reason with him.

"Look at this," he stared down into the kitchen sink.  "Rust stains.  Those don't come out."

"The price is right," Willow countered.

"It's in a bad neighborhood," Angel pointed out.

"Alright fine, let's go see the next one."  Willow turned to leave, muttering under her breath, "Don't know who asked you to come along anyway.  Middle of the day, gotta drive the car right up on the lawn to the door. Must think a woman doesn't know how to pick an apartment, stupid vampire, get with the 21st century.  Sheesh!"

To its credit, the next apartment was considerably nicer.  The bright, airy rooms were of decent size and it was located in a nice middle class neighborhood where children played in front yards. However, Angel was not impressed.  "It's on the first floor.  You can't live on the first floor.  What if someone or something breaks in?  You'd be the easiest target.  This one is definitely out."

Willow took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.  "You know, not everyone can live in a penthouse.  This is a very nice little place.  I think it's perfect."

"Wait!  Listen to that.  I think it's the toilet.  Yes it is, the toilet runs.  You'll never be able to sleep at night with all that noise."

"Angel, I don't hear anything!"

"Look at this door."  He swung the bedroom door back and forth rapidly.  "It's almost coming off the hinges!  This place is falling apart.  We should go."

Willow threw up her hands and stalked off to the car leaving Angel to hurry after her if he didn't want to be left out in the sun.

The third apartment never stood a chance.  "Oh no, no.  There is no WAY you can live here.  Look at what's across the street.  It's a bar!  You'll have drunks coming up to your door at all hours of the night wanting to use your phone or take a piss."

Willow grudgingly admitted that she didn't care to have a bar as a neighbor.

On the drive back to his place, Angel seemed uncharacteristically animated and chatty.  "It's too bad we didn't find a good apartment for you.  I know you were looking forward to moving out.  I guess you'll just have to stay until something better comes along.  You know it might be awhile.  I was thinking we could get a mini fridge, for real food.  This way you could keep a few things around to eat without worrying about what might happen to it in my fridge."

Willow stared at him and her eyes narrowed as realization dawned on her.  Spike was right!  She couldn't believe that thought just entered her head, but it was true.  Angel didn't want her to move out!  Heaven forbid he should just come right out and say so, nope, instead he tags along and finds minuscule things wrong with the apartments she likes.  On top of that, now it seemed he would go out of his way to make his apartment more human friendly.

Angel was still yakking on.  "And a mirror!  We could get one of those oval ones that goes above the bathroom sink.  We can write messages on it when it fogs up."  He turned to grin at her and then suddenly returned to his normal serious expression when he saw the incredulous look on her face.  "Or, we don't have to do any of that stuff, I was just saying, you know, if you wanted to," he finished quietly.

When they arrived back at Angel's place, Willow announced that she was going to take a nap.  The previous night after dinner they had taken out a large nest of vampires and she was exhausted.  Laying down in her room, yes she still thought of it as Her room, she started to contemplate Angel's reaction to her attempt at moving out but fell sound asleep after only a few minutes.  Though she meant to nap for just a half hour or so, she slept away the afternoon and only awoke because of a strange clinking sound coming from somewhere in the apartment.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes, listening carefully.  Unable to identify the sound, she reached under the bed for her crossbow and crept to the door, gently easing it open a crack.  When she saw what was out there, she dropped the crossbow to the floor with an unheard clatter.

The small table was set with two linen placemats.  In the center of one stood a solitary mug.  In the center of the other was a full place setting, which even from her room Willow could tell was made of fine china.  Also on the table was a vase, a real crystal one, full of yellow roses.  The plates and the vase added up to more breakable items than were found in the entire rest of the apartment.  Angel's bad habit of bringing his work home resulted in a very short lifespan for anything fragile.  The last time an angry client had come calling, Willow had lost a bottle of perfume, a glass picture frame with a photo of her and Xander, and a ceramic soap dish.

Needless to say then that the items on the table were a surprise, but that was nothing to what she could see in the kitchen.  The clinking noise was revealed to be Angel stirring the steaming contents of a brand new copper pot with a metal spoon.  As she watched, he put the spoon down, turned and opened a dorm-sized white fridge, with a red bow on top, Willow noted, and pulled out a carrot.  This he quickly chopped and dumped in the pot before resuming his stirring.

Willow walked back to her bed and stared at it for a minute.  It was empty, she wasn't really lying there dreaming this.  She pinched herself to be sure.  It hurt.  Then she took a sniff of the air and could actually smell cooking food.  She sat on the bed.  She got up and then sat down again.  He wanted her to stay.  Either that or he was feeling really guilty about wanting her to leave and was trying to make it up to her.  She got up and went to the door, opening it all the way this time.  Angel looked up and saw her standing there.

"Willow!  You're up!  Great, just in time.  Sit down at the table, dinner's almost ready."  Still not entirely sure she wasn't hallucinating, Willow silently obeyed.

She gently traced the gold-edged rim of the white soup bowl with one finger.  It was set atop a matching plate with a smaller plate set up and to the left.  She leaned forward and inhaled the fragrance of the flowers, closing her eyes in pleasure at the sweet aroma.

A moment later, Angel bustled over and removed her bowl.  When he returned and set in front of her, it was full of a homemade stew.  `I don't believe it.  He made me chicken stew.  How… domestic!' She thought.  She was still staring at the stew when Angel set a basket of rolls and a dish of butter in front of her. That's when she noticed his apron.  It said, "Kiss the Cook".

Next, he cracked open a can of diet Pepsi, her favorite, and filled her wine glass.  That done, he plopped down next to her, swiping the back of his hand across his forehead.  "Well, how is it?" He asked, eagerly.

Willow obligingly picked up her spoon and scooped up a bit of stew, blowing on it carefully.  Angel leaned closer as she lifted it to her mouth, studying her reaction.  It was good!  The vampire could cook!  Willow smiled and made an enthusiastic, "mmmm" sound.  Angel leaned back looking relieved and pleased with himself, finally taking a sip of his own dinner.

After a few more bites, Angel encouraged her to try a roll.  Taking one from the basket, Willow set it on her plate and reached for the butter.

"Oh, wait, let me!"  Angel removed the roll with plate from her flustered grasp, grabbed her knife and swiftly spread the softened butter.  He positioned the plate back in its place and made a little show of dusting crumbs from his hands.

"Um, thanks," Willow said, giving him sideways glances as he watched her nibble at the roll.  She finally put it down and turned to face him.  He met her gaze expectantly.  "Angel, what is all this?"

"Dinner," he replied, lifting his mug to his lips and taking a drink as though to demonstrate his point.

"No, for you, dinner is what's in your mug.  This is food that you cooked for me.  This is china and flowers and a refrigerator and," she squinted at something on the counter that caught her eye, "is that an apple pie?"

"Strawberry rhubarb," he corrected her.  "You told me it was your favorite."

Willow scrunched up her nose in confusion.  "When did I tell you that was my favorite?"

Angel shifted in his seat and looked over at the pie.  "Five years ago."

Willow was speechless.  She took one of his hands in both of hers, making him look back at her.  They sat like that for a minute or more, just looking at each other, studying each other, each wanting to know what the other saw, neither asking.

"Are you hungry, Willow?" Angel asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes," she replied, her voice low, eyes raking over his apron- covered body.

"Then finish your stew, it's getting cold."

Shaken out of her reverie, Willow let go of his hand and picked up her spoon.  The hearty stew reawakened her taste buds and she realized she actually was hungry.  As soon as she finished, Angel cleared her plate and urged her to rest while he washed the dishes. The leftover stew was wrapped up and stored away in her new fridge.

A few minutes later, Angel returned to the table with the pie.  To Willow's surprise, he cut himself a small piece as well.  "I just want to see why you like it so much," was his explanation.  "I like sharing things with you."

At last Willow could hold out no longer.  "Angel, this is all very lovely, but why did you buy all these things?"  She gestured around the table and made a wider motion to include the kitchen.

"I want you to be comfortable while you're here.  It's just a few dishes.  I could have bought them before, but I thought you liked going out to like going out to eat.  It wasn't until you spent so much time looking through the kitchens in those apartments that I realized you might want a meal at home once in a while."

"But Angel, I was already comfortable here.  You didn't have to do all of this.  I love it here, just the way it was.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to say no to a man who cooks and cleans, and I'll admit my own refrigerator is a nice bonus, just don't think you have to buy me things to make me comfortable.  You make me comfortable."

"So then you'll stay?  Here with me?"  Then as if remembering he was a powerful vampire he added, "If you're not bothered by all the blood and violence, that is.  I'd understand if you couldn't handle that."

Willow cleared her throat and raised her hand. "Grew up on a hellmouth, right here, that's me.  Think I can handle the blood and violence.  Now, if YOU can handle living with a witch, and all the incense and chicken feet that go with that, then we have ourselves a deal."

Angel held out his hand.  She shook it.  They smiled at each other and ate pie.

~Part: 8~

"Has anyone seen Spike?"  Harmony stood behind her desk, bouncing on her heels and biting her nails.

Angel, who was just exiting the elevator with Willow, crumpled his face in disgust at the question.  "No, and good thing, too.  Who wants to deal with him first thing on a Monday morning?"  Seeing that his answer was not going to get Harmony out of his way, he added,  "Why don't you go ask Fred?  He's always hanging around her lab, goading her for not fixing him yet."

"But he was just here!" She insisted.  "Then he wasn't, but he didn't walk away, he just disappeared."

"Halleluiah!  About damn time."  Angel stalked off into his office, leaving Harmony and Willow looking at each other uncertainly.

"He's right, you should check with Fred," Willow offered.

Holed up in her own office catching up on email from the weekend and new cases that had come in, Willow soon forgot about Spike and his little disappearing act.  When lunch time came, she went on the Internet and began browsing for a gift to surprise Angel.  He was constantly coming home with things for her or taking her out and she was determined to return the favor for once.  It was hard to shop for a vampire, much less surprise one.

Willow came across a site advertising a pair of black silk boxer shorts that she thought would be stunning on him, and then blushed at the image, quickly clicking a link for a less suggestive item. It was a rare thing for Angel to make Willow blush these days. Three weeks had flown by since they agreed to remain housemates. Their routine remained largely unchanged except that they now ate dinner at home as often as they went out.  They had also become more comfortable around each other.  Angel moved freely about the apartment in his towel in the morning in full view of Willow, who no longer had to spy.  He had progressed to taking care of all of her laundry, instead of just her suits, and was now familiar with most of her undergarments.

Willow finally settled on a couple of Barry Manilow CD's from Amazon, having them shipped to her at the firm so he wouldn't find them in the mail before she had a chance to wrap them up.  She had noticed that it didn't seem to matter where she ordered anything from, when Wolfram & Hart was in the address, things arrived in record time.

In an even shorter time, Willow would have other things on her mind.

By quitting time, Willow was well aware, once again, of Spike's dilemma.  They were all crowded in Fred's lab, watching in awe as the scientist wrote out formula after formula, muttering to herself all the while.

Angel had come into Willow's office about an hour before and confessed, "I'm worried about Spike."  When asked to elaborate, he admitted that Spike had just recently mentioned how he felt he was slipping into hell.  After asking around at his usual haunts, they determined that he hadn't appeared to anyone all day.  The death of the psychic they used to try contacting him had everyone on edge and looking over their shoulders.

Angel and Gunn had just returned from the white room with the tube full of dark liquid and Willow breathed a sigh of relief to see them back safely.  She didn't know what she was more afraid of, the dark spirit, or the conduit.

With the last piece of her plan in place, Fred switched on her machine and waited.  As soon as her scanner started to beep, she yelled for Spike to step inside the circle on the floor.  Willow held her breath, waiting to see what would happen.  It was then that she began to choke.

Her throat constricted painfully as though hands were throttling her neck.  She could see no enemy and flailed her arms uselessly at the air in front of her.  The others saw her distress and ran to her, but were thrown back immediately.  She could hear Angel crying out, "Willow!  No!  Get away from her!  I kill you!  Stop hurting her!"

The room began to darken and her vision became gray around the edges.  She couldn't speak to cast a spell and had no target in sight if she could.  She was helpless, drowning in a sea of darkness.  It washed over her head in waves, suffocating her.

Then, just as the last point of light in her eyes was dimming, the pressure on her windpipe was gone and she took a deep, ragged breath, doubling over, and grabbing her neck.  She sucked in mouthful after mouthful of air, even though every breath was like knives in her throat.  Her vision brightened and she could see Wesley and Gunn kicking a strange man around the floor, while Spike stood over them, telling what he'd seen.

And then Angel was at her side, and she was in his arms, and he was kissing her.  Not on the cheek, but full on the mouth, passionately, as if the world was ending, which for her it nearly had.  As awareness of the situation entered her oxygen-starved brain, she did not pull away, but wrapped her arms around his waist.  Her head tilted toward him and she felt her own lips move in response to his.  Years later, it had to be years, Willow thought, the kiss ended and the two looked around the room as though they'd forgotten it was there.

In spite of the recent ordeal, the occupants of the room broke into applause and above it, Spike could be heard to say, "About bloody time!"

~~

Willow had never been so happy and guilty at the same time.  By saving her life, Spike had given up his own chance for a new life, not to mention that she felt all of Fred's hard work had gone to waste.  None of them would hear of her considering it a waste that she was still alive, but she felt guilty anyway.  In one instant she'd been brought back from the brink of death and been given the gift of Angel's love, finally unveiled.  She couldn't bear to think of what her good fortune had cost her friends.

In their apartment, Willow and Angel sat side-by-side on the couch, holding hands, discussing the night's events.

"When I thought I'd lost you, I felt like I was the one who couldn't breathe," Angel told her.  "Then when I saw that you were free, and still alive, I knew I couldn't go on pretending I didn't have these feelings for you."

"I'm glad I know.  I just wish I'd known before.  I love you, Angel.  I was afraid to admit it because I didn't think you could feel that way about someone like me.  I thought you just liked having me around for company."

"Nah, I was always more of a loner.  Until now."  He looked at her smiling face and kissed her again, softly this time, and not for as long, but still passionately.

When they broke apart she looked at him for a moment, then stared at the floor.  "I'm a little scared you know.  I think we ought to be careful."

Angel placed a hand under her chin and turned her head to face him again.  "Willow, what are you worried about?  I'm not going to leave you, or, oh… him.  Well, we don't have to do that, you know, if you're worried about the soul leaving and Angelus coming back."

She shook her head and then nodded.  "No, it's not that.  Well, not only that.  It's just, last time I cared about someone this much, it didn't turn out so well.  In fact, I'd say that between the murder and apocalypse, it couldn't have turned out much worse.  Last time I told someone I loved them, I ended up evil!"

Angel cleared his throat.  "Hmm, yeah, same here.  What do you think we should do?"

"We need to take this slow," Willow said, resolve face appearing.  "We've both worked too hard to redeem ourselves to let this destroy us.  I don't know if we're soul mates and I don't know if you'll ever be happy enough with me to be in any danger, but I want to know for sure before we, well, you know.  I do know that if anything happened to you this city would be in cinders before my first tear fell.  That's not a good thing."

"Willow…" he tried to calm her, but she was having none of it.

"No, Angel, I mean it.  I want us to be together too, but not at the expense of others.  We'll do research, we'll use all the resources we have to find a way to make this safe, but until then, slow and steady is the way."

He nodded.  "All right.  You know I don't want to hurt you.  I love you, Willow."  She smiled and he kissed her again.  He rose and pulled her from the couch, "We should say goodnight now, it's late."  They walked to her bedroom door and he wrapped her in his arms, placing kiss after kiss on her upturned face.  Their bodies were pressed full against each other and after a few moments, Willow could tell that she'd better make a quick exit.

Ducking out of his embrace, she said, "Goodnight, Angel," and slipped into her room.  For a long time, she lay awake, staring at the ceiling, her body flushed and warm with desire.  This was not going to be easy.  She would at least have to buy him a robe for the mornings.  That towel wasn't going to cut it anymore.  She couldn't bear to see how his skin pulled so tight over the muscles on his back and his chest, skin that she wanted to dig her fingernails into as he…. `ok so not helping,' she scolded her overactive imagination.  She rolled over and squeezed her eyes shut, determined to sleep.

The next morning, she stayed in bed for a few minutes after she heard the shower go off, long enough to give Angel time to dress. When she finally did enter the bathroom, the mirror wasn't foggy, and as she touched one of the knobs in the tub, she quickly pulled her hand away and wondered why it should be freezing like that. Then it came to her.  Angel had taken a cold shower.  Sighing, she reached for the knob again and turned the cold water on for herself, wondering how long they could keep this up.

~Part: 9~

"Is this normal?" Willow asked Angel as they came in through the expansive lobby of Wolfram & Hart together to start what should have been a regular Monday at the office.

He turned to her. "Not since I've been here." Calling out to Lorne, who was passing by, Angel asked, "Why does it look like someone's having a party in here?"

Willow watched in amusement while Lorne explained the tradition of the Halloween party to Angel, whose face became more and more tightly drawn as the story unfolded. Willow thought his lips would be sucked right into his face if he pressed them together any harder.

When the green demon had flitted off to attend to some minor detail, Angel turned back to Willow, rubbing his forehead vigorously. "Being the CEO, you'd think someone would clear these things with me first, but no, not here. I'm always the last to know what's going on."

Willow wisely kept it to herself that she'd know about the party for a week. It was the talk of the building and she had no idea how Angel had missed it. On their way over to the conference room for a staff meeting, he bounced ideas off her about how he might get out of throwing the party.

"Just go with it, Angel. How bad could it be? Who knows, you might even have fun!"

He looked at her as though she had suggested a bath in holy water might be fun. "I don't know how you keep up that positive attitude. What could possibly be fun about a bunch of demons getting drunk and dancing to loud music?"

Willow giggled, picturing a few demons of her personal acquaintance drunk and dancing. "Well, if you want to learn any moves, I'll be your teacher."

He looked at her and raised a sexy eyebrow, a smile tugging on one corner of his mouth.

Willow's face turned serious and she stopped laughing. "Dance moves," she clarified. "I can teach you dance moves, those kind. I'm sure as far as other moves, you have lots more and way more practice and don't need any teacher much less me, she of few moves. In fact, I think mrufhl…"

Angel snaked one arm around her waist and covered her mouth with the opposite hand. He leaned into her ear and whispered, "Willow, you're babbling. I know what you meant, you don't have to get flustered just for me." He released her and she blushed.

Angel watched with a smirk as Willow shuffled over to her seat at the long polished wooden table, blush slowly fading to a pretty pale pink.

With Angel busy worrying about the party, Willow thought this week would be the perfect time to do more research on Eve and her vile plots. She had managed to avoid being alone with Eve since their quality time in the elevator, but she suspected she'd soon want an answer about the enhancements. Hopefully she would also be occupied with the party, buying Willow a little more time.

Back in her office, Willow pulled up Eve's employee profile again, scooting her chair in closer to the monitor and squinting at the text, trying to find any little detail she might have missed. She hated still being on square one with her investigation, but square two just hadn't presented itself.

"Whatcha doing?"

Emitting a high pitched "Eeep!" Willow spun her chair around to see Spike standing behind her, reading over her shoulder.

"Aw, don't get your little heart all aflutter on my account, Love." He gave her innocent puppy dog eyes that did not match the smirk on his lips.

Willing her heartbeat to return to normal, Willow fixed Spike with the glare she reserved just for him. Though she was grateful enough to him for saving her, he was still the same old Spike that knew just how to get under her skin when he wanted to. "Now what do you want?" She demanded. She had learned some time ago that having a private office did not preclude regular visits from the resident ghost. Since Angel had refused to give him an office, he availed himself of everyone else's whenever he so chose. Usually she didn't mind, but today she was feeling defensive at his discovery of her snooping.

"Now, now, let's not get testy. I just came in here to get out of the way. There's so many bodies out there scampering up and down the halls, I keep getting run right through. It's disconcerting is all. So then, why are we reading up on Miss High and Mighty?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You really want to know?"

"Got nothing better to do."

"Promise you won't tell Angel?"

"Oh, keeping secrets from Peaches now, are we? Count me in!" He came around her desk and settled into one of the green upholstery chairs, waiting for her to begin.

Willow spilled the beans on everything from how she suspected Eve was out to seduce Angel, to the feeling she wasn't human, to their conversation in the elevator. She admitted that the only thing she had on her so far was the lack of a student record at UC Santa Cruz, then stopped abruptly, realizing she'd just confessed to her illegal hacking for personal reasons on company time.

Spike took no notice, frowning and sucking on his lower lip, deep in thought. "Well, all I can tell you is that I can hear her heartbeat, so she's not a vampire." Willow didn't find this particularly helpful. "I saw what you did in Sunnydale. Saw all those little girls turn to slayers before my eyes, a scary sight for my kind. It's no big shock they'd want your power, but for what I don't know. You're right about Angel, he's no help."

"Why do you say that?" Willow asked, frowning.

"He's a man! Not that I'm not, mind, but I can see a little deeper than him sometimes. He looks at that Eve and all he sees is a delicate little flower growing in a field of rubbish. Sure, she might rub him the wrong way about the business, but when you take that away, you just have a man looking at a woman. He won't see the threat until it bites him on the ass."

Feeling a bit of jealous bile rise to the back of her throat, Willow swallowed hard and asked, "And what do you see when you look at her?"

"Me? I see a conniving little bitch! So, what are you and me going to do about it?"

Willow was surprised at this offer of assistance. "Well, what do you suggest? I've tried everything I can think of to figure out what she's up to."

"Hmm, I can follow her around for awhile, for starters. She won't see me if I don't want her to. I can see if she does anything unusual, talks to anyone suspicious. I'll report back to you tomorrow."

"Wow, thanks Spike, that would be really nice of you."

"Don't mention it. And I mean that." Then he was gone leaving Willow to wonder why he was so eager to help her. She realized that, not unlike herself, Spike had lately been lacking a purpose and she had just given him one, however small. Pleased with her new ally, Willow shut down the employee system and pulled out a case file to do some real work.

~Part: 10~

Still shivering from yet another cold shower, necessitated by the previous evening's make out session on the couch with Angel, Willow let herself into her office only to find it already occupied.  She quickly shut the door behind her and hurried over to Spike who was pacing in front of her desk, not even noticing as he passed back and forth through the chairs.  "Did you find something?" She whispered.

"You bet I did.  I've been waiting for you all morning, what took you so long?"  He stopped pacing and faced her, arms crossed over his chest.

"Never mind, what did you find out?"  Now it was Willow's turn to look impatient.

"Right, well I followed our precious little lady all damn day and she didn't do a bloody thing out of the ordinary."  He paused for effect.

Willow made a motion for him to go on.  That clearly wasn't what he'd been waiting all morning to tell her.  "So I followed her home.  Nice little flat she's got, but it didn't smell right.  Took me a while to figure out why.  Went in the kitchen, stuck my head in the ice box, and it was empty!  Not a bite to eat in the whole place.  Not so much as a salt shaker."

Willow frowned at this revelation, flopping down on her loveseat to think it over.  "Maybe she just likes to eat out," she ventured.

Spike shook his head. "There's more.  After she turned in, I spied on her for a bit and that's when I realized I couldn't hear her heartbeat anymore.  When I moved in for a closer look, she wasn't breathing either.  But she's not dead," he added.  "I saw her this morning downstairs and she's walking about just as alive as you please, heartbeat and all."

Willow looked at him skeptically. "Are you sure?" She asked.  "Maybe she's just a quiet sleeper."

Spike threw up his hands and started to walk away. "Fine!  Believe what you want.  Vampire ears don't lie."  He stalked off towards the door but Willow called him back.

"I believe you, Spike.  I don't know what to think of all this, but I believe you.  Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

"Never.  It's beyond me what she is.  It's like her heart only beats when I'm expecting it to.  I know being around me has an effect on some girls, but I can't take the credit for this."  He smirked at her a little, and then turned serious again.  "I'll keep an eye on her again today, see if she actually eats.  I don't suppose your years of fighting the nasties of Sunnydale ever turned up a demon with a part-time heartbeat?"

Willow shook her head.  "No, can't say it did.  I'll research it though, for sure.  This is a huge lead, Spike.  I can't tell you what a big help it is to have you on my side in this."

Spike held up a hand to quiet her.  "Hold on, now.  I'm on MY side. If this, whatever she is, is plotting something against Angel, that affect yours truly, too.  So, don't get it in your pretty head that I've suddenly become your personal PI.  Got it?"

"Right Spike, of course.  I just wanted you to know I'm grateful for your help.  Your motives don't matter to me."

"Alright then, so long as we're clear.  Best be getting on with it."  With a sweep of his coat, he was gone through the door, leaving Willow smiling after him.

After spending the entire day immersed in demonology texts, Willow's suspicions were confirmed.  There was no such thing as a demon that didn't breathe or have a heartbeat while sleeping, and never ate. Willow slammed the last book shut in frustration.  If Eve wasn't human, wasn't a demon, and surely wasn't a god, they just weren't that subtle, what did that leave?  Nothing.  That was the answer she kept arriving at.  Eve was nothing.

Over the next few days, Spike's reports only added to the confusion.  He hadn't seen her eat anything at all or use the bathroom, though she frequently entered the ladies room to fix her hair and makeup.  He also discovered that her heartbeat and breathing ceased as soon as she left the office building.  However, they quickly resumed the few times she'd been forced to interact with someone between the office and her apartment, such as a tourist asking for directions.

Willow told Spike to take a break from his sleuthing.  There was nothing more they could do until she made a move.  In spite of all they knew, they were getting nowhere.  Whatever Eve was, she was beyond their comprehension.  Spike was aggravated that there was nothing to do but wait.  With the purpose of his existence put on hold, he resumed his favorite pastime of annoying Angel at all the worst moments.

Angel seemed to have no shortage of worst moments with the Halloween party coming the following evening.  Willow had never seen him in such a short temper and she did her best to stay out of his way. Finding Fred in the lab, she discovered that no one was immune to party fever.  Soon the two women were inhaling as much helium from the giant green tanks as they were using to blow up the balloons that floated lazily around their heads.

Hours later and giddy from the lack of oxygen, Willow took another hit off the tank and declared in a high squeaky voice, "We're the chipmunks!"

Giggling uncontrollably, Fred sucked a breath from a balloon she held pinched between her thumb and forefinger, and responded in an equally high, squeaky voice, "Alvin, Simon, Theodore!"

Willow grinned at Fred and then grabbed another balloon.  Untying it, she inhaled its contents and squeaked out as much of the silly song as she could in one breath.

Fred broke up again and then stopped abruptly, staring wide-eyed at something behind Willow.  Whirling around, Willow found herself facing Angel, who was standing in the doorway, looking at them with one of his unreadable expressions.  "Hi Angel," she said, voice still a few octaves to high.  She cleared her throat and tried again. "Hi Angel."  This time it came out right.

He finally smiled and came towards her, batting a few balloons out of his path.  "I came to see if I could take you to dinner.  You know, to make up for being a little unpleasant today."

Willow bit the insides of her cheeks to keep from laughing at his understatement.  "Sure, that would be great.  See you tomorrow, Fred."  Fred waved goodbye to the couple, not yet trusting her voice.

Settling into a corner booth at their favorite Italian restaurant, Campagnola Trattoria, they ordered a bottle of red wine and started to relax a little.  After staring out the window at the dark street for a few minutes, Angel turned back to Willow and reached across the table to take her hand.

"I'm sorry I've been so cranky lately.  It's just this party.  I can't believe I agreed to entertain half the demon population of LA in my building tomorrow."

"I know, it is kind of scary when you put it like that.  Just try not to think of them as demons.  Tomorrow, they're just like anyone else looking for a good time.  Besides, I've seen the security system you set up.  They'd have to be crazy to start anything."

Angel smiled in spite of himself.  "Well yeah, I guess it is pretty good.  Did you see the poison sniffing demon dogs in the basement? They just came in this afternoon."

Willow just shook her head at him in disbelief.  "Did anyone ever tell you that you have some serious trust issues?"

He shrugged.  "I trust you."

Now Willow smiled.  "Well, that's a start."

"I want you to be able to trust me, too.  That's why I brought you this."  He reached into a pocket of his coat and brought out a small lumpy package, passing it over the table to Willow.

She accepted it gently with both hands and unwrapped it carefully. When she saw what she held, she sucked in her breath.  "An Orb of Thesulah!"

Angel nodded.  "Wesley, Gunn, Fred, and Lorne all have one, too. Put it in a safe place and don't tell me where."

Willow frowned. "Angel, what's this all about?"

"I told you, I want you to be able to trust me.  I want us to be together, but if something goes wrong, we can't risk letting Angelus loose in LA.  Between the five of you, someone should be able to perform the curse before things got out of hand.  But it won't come to that."

"What makes you so sure?  It's happened before, and I like to think that with me, well, never mind.  The point is, it has happened."

Almost under his breath, Angel muttered, "I sang for Lorne."

"You what?  Why?"

"I sang for Lorne and he could see that it's impossible for me now. I can't ever achieve a moment of perfect happiness.  Too much has happened, some stuff you know about and some you don't, but all that matters is that I'm safe now.  Maybe sometime in the distant future I won't be, if time really does heal all wounds, and that's what the orbs are for, but for now, you don't have to worry about Angelus."

"Angel!  That's wonderful!"  She got up and went around to his side of the table to hug him.  He embraced her and kissed her until she pulled away, a concerned look crossing her face.  "Well, wait, no that's not wonderful.  That's terrible!  Your life is really so awful that you can never achieve perfect happiness?  That's so sad, I mean, how can you live with yourself?  What happened?"

"Shh, Willow."  He kissed her again.  "I said that doesn't matter now.  You do make me happy and if there's just one spot in my heart that stays dark, that you can't reach with your light, so much the better for us."  A longer kiss followed, the two of them oblivious to the variety of looks they drew from the restaurant's other patrons, some indulgent, some disgusted.

When they parted Willow looked concerned again.  "I guess that just leaves me.  I want to be with you so much, but I know if we were that close, I would lose myself in you, and if anything happened, well, let's just say Xander is kind of far away to come save the day with a crayon story."

Angel nodded his understanding and Willow returned to her own seat.  "I've been looking into it though.  There's got to be a way to bind my power, some spell.  I just can't find one that makes the binding conditional on another person.  I know I'll find it, I can tell that I'm getting closer."

Smiling at her, though with a hint of wistfulness in his voice, Angel said, "Take your time.  I'm not going anywhere."

Willow finished her pasta, excited to know that there was a real possibility that she could have a romantic relationship with Angel without one of them destroying the world.  She had honestly been more concerned about unleashing Angelus than her own evil.  With that out of the way, it was only a matter of time before she learned of a spell to eliminate the threat of Dark Willow.

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