"Oh!" Fred's eyes got big and she blushed again. "Of course, sure, clothes, I can, that's not a problem, I mean." She took a deep breath and held it for a minute. "Just, just give me a minute, okay?"

"Sure, love, it's not like I'm cold or anything."

"No, I can see that you're not." He looked startled and then grinned, and when Fred realized what she'd said her eyes got even wider. Why had she said? But, well, it was true, but. Oh, this wasn't going well, not at all. She went to her desk in the corner and hit the speaker button on the phone. She didn't like touching it anymore, not since that last thing with the demon and the phone wires. She still hadn't gotten that done. Something about turning a telephone line into a portal….really, there was just too much to do. She was so caught up in those thoughts that she had a hard time remembering why she wanted to talk to her assistant, but, she remembered without too much flustering, really, the idea, have to be something in the energy, maybe peak calling times?

"So, did they get out all right?"

"Who?" She turned away from the phone. She hoped she'd guessed right. He looked somewhere around Wesley's size. At least, he was sitting right there, naked! Her mind offered, yes, um, sitting right there and hadn't complained about her size guesses, and her assistant seemed rather dauntingly cheerful about getting some men's clothes for her. Strange.

"Buff. The girls. Did they all get out?"

"Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. I can't believe I didn't. Really, there's just no excuse." She looked around wildly for something, and then whipped off her lab coat. "You can wear this." She hesitated before stepping close enough to hand it to him. She looked like she wanted to put it on him. "No."

He looked up from squeezing into her coat. Obviously it was too big for her, but not quite too big enough. "No?"

"No. They didn't all make it out." Fred's eyes were so intense she looked as if she were going to try to crawl into his head, physically. She reminded him of Dru, for some reason, all there, but a little scrambled, and pretty in a different sort of way.

"Who?" He asked jerkily. He turned his head away and his jaw worked. "Buffy?"

"She made it. She's okay. For someone whose whole life and town and everything just, just disappeared. She's surprisingly perky."

"She's here? No," he shook his head, "never mind, it doesn't matter."

"She's not here." Fred rushed, breathlessly to reassure him, or, something. She frowned. Last thing Angel had said was that she smelled like Spike, so, really. No, not that it was any of Fred's business. Spike looked back at her with one eyebrow raised. She really liked how mobile that eyebrow was. It had a personality all its own. "Buffy's not here. She left. We don't, actually know where she is. Oh, someone in Wolfram and Hart may know, but they're not telling us, which is, really, what you get when you make a partnership with an evil entity, but, really, we did, though I'm still not sure why. Of course, I like the lab a lot, and I get all the best equipment, and it's really…really… nice…here." She stopped, not sure how to go on.

"Dawn?"

"Dawn's okay." Fred smiled, glad to be able to give him good news. "Not a scratch on her. She's actually gone to live with Giles in England. At least, I think, though she could be with Willow, who was also going to England, but might have stopped in New England with that Kennedy girl." Damn. Fred bit her lip. Why couldn't she just shut up? She just, it was so nice to see his eyes get sparkly when she could tell him something good.

"So the witch's okay." He nodded. "That's good. The other girls?"

"I don't know. I mean, I know Anya died because Xander, well, no, Xander didn't tell me because he couldn't really talk about, but Andrew told me, all of us, really." Fred's face took on an expressive scowl. "She must have been amazingly strong to hold ten Turok-Han off at once. I wonder if that had anything to do with being a demon?"

"More with being the heroine, I'd think." Spike snorted, a quiet, laughing sound. Fred wanted to hear it again.

"Andrew told some really amazing tales."

"Oh, the boy's good at that, right enough." Spike looked down, pensive. "Giles okay then? And the principal?"

"Sure, yeah, they're okay. I think a couple of the girls bought it." Fred slapped her hand to her mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry. That wasn't the right way to say that at all. I don't know what made me."

Spike smiled again. "It's okay, love. I think we all pretty much thought of them as "the girls."

Fred smiled back. He had a lovely smile. A knock on the door interrupted her train of thought, again. She turned and whipped the door open with a scowl. "What? I thought I told you not to knock!"

The unassuming young man flinched and Fred looked down at her hand. Damn. The taser was back. If they'd just stop knocking!

"I didn't think you wanted to be, to be, to be." The boy stopped, flushing a deep red.

"To be what?"

He shoved a bag at her and backed away. "To be interrupted, Ma'am. I'm really, very sorry."

She smiled at him, taking the bag in her left hand and putting her taser hand behind her back. "Thank you. Really. I hope it was no trouble."

"No, no trouble ma'am. It's what I do, gopher guy, you know."

She didn't, but she just smiled absently at him and shut the door in his face. When she turned around Spike was right behind her.

"Oh." She smiled up at him, just as absently. "Do you think you being here scared him?"

He grinned. "I think it was more likely the taser there." She looked down and away. The coat really didn't cover much, uh, much of anything, especially since he didn't have it closed. Spike peeled the taser out of her unresisting hand.

"So, right." Her eyes darted back, and away again. If she could just keep her eyes on his face, but it was, I mean, there was so much, and really, no, average wasn't going to be good enough anymore. She shook her head regretfully.

"Is that for me?"

"What?" She looked up into his eyes, dazed.

"That." She didn't respond, so he took the bag out of her hand and turned around to dump it on the table. Trousers, socks, boots, a decent shirt, a light jacket, not too poncy. It'd do. "Thanks love."

"Oh, sure." She stood there while he dropped the coat, until he cast a look over his bare shoulder. "You like to watch?"

"Huh?" She flinched. "Oh! No, really, and I have a lot of work to do. I'll just, just." She stopped and tried to gather her thoughts. "I'll just go over here."

He dressed to the sound of her muttering something about curves and angles and muscle reaction. He could have sworn he heard her muttering something about average as well.

"Love?"

"Huh?" She looked up from the floor where she'd dropped to write on the very bottom near the floor. It was the only space left.

"I should go."

"Oh, no!"

"No?"

"Really, no. I, I can't just let you.." She waved her hands, trying to find the words.

"Am I prisoner then?"

He looked almost as good dressed as he did naked. She bit her lip and tried not to look at the button fly of his jeans. "What?"

"Prisoner? Got chains? Angel gonna bust in here any minute and tell me I can't be trusted out on the loose?"

"Oh! No!" She blushed, again! Really, this was ridiculous. "I just thought, well." She looked him in the eye. "Would you like to go for some coffee? Or, pancakes? Or, or something?"

He laughed. "Sure, coffee. Or something. Let's go." He reached around and shut off the lights as they walked out the door. "You know, you remind me of someone."

"Really?" Fred replied. "Who might that be?"

Oh, Deena, loving it so.

"This is a new one on me. Am I Frankenstein?"

Frankenstein's Monster, to be accurate. And I think that Spike would be.

A guard, really the numbers, the ideas. They'd let anyone, and she was losing it, but, she stopped, smoothed her features. Really, there was no sense, but he'd ruined, still.

Can't quite make sense of this bit.

Deena, it's stunning. Really. Wonderful Fred - I love how crazed she is and how much the minions fear her.

Wonderful, Deena--great Fred voice, and Spike dialogue.

I'm not quite sure I could make sense of that bit, and you're right about the monster. Going back to fix.

Very nice Deena.

Deena, I loved it!

Yay! Thank you all. It was fun to write.