Fred walked Gunn and Buffy to the door, thanking them for their time. The two agents had yet to discuss the events in the house. They had been brought to the living room, thanked for their time, and told that Mr. Grace had a busy day ahead of him but he looked forward to hearing from them both. They quickly climbed into the truck and drove off, waiting a respectable three blocks before they let out simultaneous sighs of relief.
“You are quite the charmer,” Gunn laughed. “Grace was seriously drooling all over you, I think you had him won over before you even touched a computer.”
“My feminine wiles are quite effective,” she giggled, choosing to forget that his masculine wiles had almost worked on her too. “And you! I’m so tough, I’m so bad, you don’t take my woman without me around.”
“So I’m assuming he offered you a job too,” Gunn said as they calmed down after the initial rush of adrenaline.
“Oh yes, after a rather intimidating speech about how once I work for him, I can never, ever leave.”
“I got that speech too, although since mine came from the mouth of a Southern belle I wasn’t all that intimidated.”
“And she told you about us having to live there?” Gunn nodded. “Wonder what Giles will think about that,” Buffy mused, whipping out her cell phone to text their boss that they were heading to the meeting point.
“I can tell you exactly what he’ll think,” Gunn said, affecting an awful British accent. “This is just completely—“
“Appalling!” Giles fretted. “How will we maintain contact if you’re living in the home of the subject of the investigation? You will have to be without weapons, without notes, without any way of contacting me without arousing suspicion.”
“I know, Giles,” Buffy sighed, flopping down on the couch of the apartment they had intended to live in. “But that’s the deal. So instead of whining about it, why don’t we just figure out how to deal with it?”
“I did not…whine,” Giles huffed. “I merely pointed out the severe problems this new situation could cause.”
“But it could also help,” Gunn pointed out. “If we’re living with all these other people working for Grace, some of them are bound to talk. It could actually work out for the better.”
“I suppose,” the older man mused, removing his glasses and cleaning them as he mulled over the problem. “Well, as there really is nothing to be done, I propose that you both commit as much of these files to memory as you can. You’ll have to go in without weapons, but I’m sure you’ll be provided with one, Charles. And Buffy, how will you keep the information you gather in order?”
She frowned. “I can memorize most of it, obviously, but it would be easier for me if I could write it down at least once a week or so? Maybe I’ll leave the compound for weekly pedicures or something? I’ll figure out how we can meet, Giles, don’t worry.”
That night she and Gunn settled in to reread the files they’d been studying for months, but this time committing them to memory as if preparing for a final exam. The amount of information was daunting. There were pages and pages on the history of William Grace, Liam Angelus, and higher up member of their staffs, along with detailed accounts of each crime that could be connected to the organization over the last ten years.
By the end of the evening, Buffy considered herself to be an expert on the personal history of Spike Grace.
As she tried to sleep, she ran over the information once more in her head.
Born in London, England. Moved to New York when he was twelve. Father was a hit-man for Nathaniel Angelus, Parents killed in a suspicious car accident when he was fifteen, moved in with the Angelus family, Nathaniel, his wife Darla, and their son Liam, eight years older than William.. Started working for the family as Liam Angelus’s assistant when he was seventeen. The nickname “Spike” began being used around this time. Went to college at Columbia, still working for the family. Nathaniel Angelus murdered, control of the organization fell to his son. The specific details of the story got a little hazy around this time, when William was 24. Something about a woman and a fight with Angel, then William moved to California and seemed to be starting a legitimate life, only to reenter the crime world three years later. Now 36, he was a crucial cog in the Angelus machine, the key to keeping their many business look legal at first glance, the brains behind much of the operation. He was the key to taking it down.
And Buffy was going to be the one to do it.
As oblivion finally beckoned to her, the names and dates and facts about the crimes he’d helped to commit faded away, replaced by just the image of his smile.
Spike had no idea what was going on with him.
He’d been distracted all of yesterday afternoon, and had almost forgotten a crucial phone call with one of his associates in Chicago. He had tossed and turned all night, ultimately heading down to the gym at three AM to work off steam. This morning, he found himself pacing his office, alternately staring out the window at the pool below or glancing at the clock.
When Buffy called Fred around noon when they were eating lunch, all the tension immediately rushed out of his body. He mentally berated himself when he realized that he had just been waiting to hear from her.
“Wanker,” he mumbled to himself as he waited for Fred to get off the phone and come back in from the patio.
“Well, they accepted,” she smiled as she came inside, eliciting a sigh of relief from Spike. “I told them to come around tonight at eight and we’d get them all settled in.
Spike nodded, affecting a disinterested air, attempting to suppress his own anticipation at seeing the girl again. She was just…something. She was clearly brilliant, and any woman who was smarter than him instantly caught his attention, since he generally surrounded himself with the exact opposite. There had been something in her eyes, something deeper than the casual, witty, confident person she seemed to be. Spike knew when someone had a secret, and he was aching in more ways than one to find out hers.
After a day of preparing, packing, and telling Giles, really, it was going to be fine, Buffy and Gunn were heading back to the mansion. Buffy was feeling less nervous and more excited about the prospect of starting the investigation, and had fully managed to convince herself that any eagerness had nothing to do with seeing her new boss again.
Fred was waiting for them outside. “Good you see you two again!” She grinned, far less professional now that they were officially part of the team. She was chattering excitedly as she led them into the kitchen and down a flight of stairs to the bottom floor of the mansion, as lavishly decorated as the rest of it. “It’s a little like summer camp sometimes,” Fred laughed as she showed them the common room and the kitchen. “I live down here along with Xander, who you’ll meet in a bit, and Lorne, don’t know where he’s off to.”
“It’s like an entire other house down here!” Buffy said as Fred pointed out their room.
“Yep. You’re not restricted to this area of course,” she said. “The only place you can’t go is upstairs, that’s Spike’s—Mr. Grace’s---personal space. The pool, the gym, all that is open to you whenever you want.”
She led them into their room, a decent sized suite with a view of the pool, and its own private bath. Gunn let out a low whistle. “Nicer than the hellhole we were going rent, right baby?”
Buffy nodded and tossed her purse on the bed.
“Gunn, why don’t you come with me and we’ll get Xander to help us get your bags from the car, and I can show you where to park. Buffy, you’re welcome to come or just relax down here, we’ll be right back.”
Buffy chose to go upstairs with them, not wanting to be left alone just yet. “Xander?” Fred called out as they made their way upstairs. An attractive, slightly awkward man emerged from the kitchen, taking a huge bite of a sandwich.
He waved, swallowed quickly, and introduced himself to Gunn and Buffy. The two men went out to grab the bags from the car, and then Fred went with Gunn to move the car.
Xander came back inside and began staring at Buffy intently. “You look so familiar,” he said, wracking his brain and trying to think of where he may have seen her before, aside from the one blurry photograph in the file he’d put together.
Buffy shrugged, her excellent memory telling her that she’d never met this man before in her life. “I look like a lot of people, I guess.”
“I’d disagree with that,” Spike said from behind her, causing her to jump.
“Bell, neck,” Buffy said when she regained her composure. “Look into it.”
“Come with a nice leather collar, does it?” he retorted before he could stop himself. At the sweet blush that tinted her cheeks, he smiled.
“Well! I’m gonna go,” Xander said loudly, wandering off to leave the two alone, recognizing the signs of his boss having a thing for a girl.
“So are you settling in alright?” Spike asked.
“Yeah! Yeah, the downstairs is nice,” she nodded enthusiastically.
“Don’t need to stay down there all the time, though,” he said, and just as she was about to respond, Fred and Gunn’s voices could be heard heading up to the door.
“I’m up to my rooms. Night, pet,” he said quickly, reaching out, gently brushing her arm, and vanishing before she could even register he was leaving. His slight touch burned her for the rest of the night.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
As always, I don't own the rights to the Buffyverse characters, I'm just having some fun with them.