Oooh, connie's fic and Karl. My night's looking up.

You at work, beautiful?

I am, handsome stranger.

Soon time for lunch, methinks. Tummy's a bit grumbly.

I'm gonna grab a bite for late dinner, methinks. But I'll be back to play later.

eta: Gah! Someone else who uses `methinks.' I didn't even see it. How very ... auspicious.

Karl, you must come to Montreal for the next F2F. It'll be a crime against me if you don't.

[link]

And more carnage at the convent. Elena, you need to catch up. Off to bed t evil chuckle

connie, I very much do.

Last of it.

---

"I don't understand."

Olivia watched him in the darkness of the Lexus. Giles' voice was shaking; his soul was shaking. He couldn't seem to stop, any more than he could comprehend why it was happening.

"Celet." He was trying to read her, gauge her, provoke her into explaining, but in the corner of the limo's back seat, Olivia's dark skin was part of the night itself. "Celet. Let it be hidden. That's not a spell, is it? It's a part of one, but it's not a spell. It's that damned bracelet, you did something to me with that bracelet."

She sighed, a soft mournful sound. "Rupert -"

"What were you telling to hide, Olivia? My lies to myself about Buffy? My failure? I failed her. Didn't I?" His eyes were grainy with the weight of unshed tears. "Over and over and over. I've been so proud of her, and I had no right to be proud. All I did was let her down, every step of the way. I never even -"

She leaned forward, snaking both hands behind his head. She put her lips against his, not to kiss, but rather to speak, the soft lips forming a word, in English this time.

"Return," she whispered, and she snapped the final charm from the bracelet.

It was fire, and thunder, all of his history screaming through him like a hot wind. Every moment, every scene, Buffy walking into the Master's lair, facedown in water, falling from Glory's tower, murdering her lover because her Watcher told her it was her duty, he saw the disgust and finality in her face when she understood his betrayal over Spike, he saw her drugged and weakened and endangered at the hand of the one she trusted most because the Council of Watchers had ordered it, every mistake, every wrong word, every snap and snarl and expression of impatience, every betrayal

oh God NO

and the orgasm was death, his own death, searing through body and brain and spirit and he was down the dark stairs into nothing at all and

"Rupert." Olivia, soft against him, stroking his cheek, calm and sane. "It's all right. You're back."

He wept into her arms. Slowly, almost casually, the Lexus made its way back to Wolfram and Hart.

• * *

"I don't understand."

"You're not supposed to." Fred sat back against the leather upholstery. "Or, you weren't supposed to. You're almost there now, though. Understanding, I mean."

"Faith...." His voice fell away, fragmented into nothing. He was rigid with memory that danced on he edge of his awareness, but what wasn't he remembering? "She and I - there's something -"

"Do the math," Fred told him gently. "It isn't only about Faith."

"Isn't it?"

"Of course not. There's that whole little Lilah thing." She tucked her legs up and twisted to face him. "Those memories, those - moments. They went through me, remember? I felt them all as you were feeling them, only a lot more complete, because I took it all, Wes. Oh, and by the way, that French chick? Dayum, honey."

He was quiet for a few moments. "Then what happened tonight? What kind of spell did you bring along from Wolfram and Hart, and why?"

"You've been gone awhile," she said obliquely. "Distant, vacant, kind of missing, somehow. Been through too much. You and Giles both. Angel felt you needed to come on back."

"But-"

"Sssh." She slid into his lap, her hands twisting together, the soft glow of the ring lighting up the Lexus as it slipped quietly through Los Angeles, wrapped in a cocoon of sorcery. "Return."

• * *

"There was no contest?"

"Oh, for - of course not. Not for you, anyway." Angel had been gazing out over the city, his back to the room. He came to his desk and sat on the edge. "We needed you back. Both of you were - let's face it, you were muffled, buried, distant, completely out of touch with who you were and what you were doing. Too much went on for both of you and you both retreated. We can't have it that way - we need you both and we need you here and we need you now. You're a pair of mules and you're both too smart for my peace of mind. So I talked to some honcho experts at the head office and they hooked me up with a seer, and, well, jewels and girls and scary revelations at the Bevery Center."

"And the sex," Lorne told them, before either could ask. "The sex, I know, way mucho over the top, but both of you? Honestly, boys, you've been doing the I'm so misunderstood thing and there's nothing a little of the sweet bumpy stuff to make sure you can't whine about your mama-confessor not understanding you afterward. And they do, really." He waved an affectionate green hand at the two women. "Don't you, ladies?"

"Oh yeah. The hard way." Olivia nodded at Fred. "But we pulled it off and everyone gets a prize, you know? Even though there was no real contest? Angel gets his Big Brainy Boys functional again without all the River in Egypt shite. Our Watchers got rather a lot of lovely swag. And we get an hour tomorrow with the Titanium card, to buy whatever we want."

Fred slipped her hand into Olivia's, giggled suddenly, and kissed her. "My very best shopping buddy!"

• *

Very nice Deb, as always.

Ah, Deb, sorry to have to tell you this, but - now you need to write Olivia and Fred's shopping trip. Sorry, I only make the rules.