Unknown Factors (Book One)

Ch.96: Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci

  Breathing in deeply, I stretched out and yawned while rolling onto my back as I woke up. I could smell coffee and sat up in the pile of bean bags I had dragged together to form a bed.

  "Morning, Aud. Sleep well?" Wesley asked from his desk with a flat tone.

  "Wonderfully. Which?"

  "I highly doubt I'd drink coffee from a zombie mug." He raised his brows, not bothering to look up from the paperwork in front of him. Standing, I stretched out my arms while walking to the desk to pick up one of the mugs. "Plan on finally finding an apartment today?"

  "Again, I repeat myself, I have no money. Spent it all on the plane ticket and cab. You think I'd be sleeping in your office if I had a choice?"

  "Could have fooled me. You look like the cat that got the canary lounging about and stealing food from the break rooms. People are starting to refer to you as the office's stray." The ex-Watcher told me as I sipped from my mug.

  "Well, I have nowhere else to go. Can't go back to Europe, I'll just fall back into that horrible rut because of Spike being stuck back here." My tail twitched as I sighed. "Find anything on that demon I told you about?"

  "It was a Dracos. Mostly fighters and mercs, but an overall neutrally aligned race." Wesley finally looked up and leaned back in his chair. "Can't tell you about the demon he got the journal from, but I have a feeling I know where it came from, to begin with."

  "A feeling? Where?"

  "There's records of something going missing from the archives around that time. There's also implications that what had gone missing very well may be that journal." I paused as our gazes met, and I didn't like the thought that the journal came from Wolfram & Hart. "I'll keep digging, okay?"

  "Okay." I nodded, dropping my eyes to my mug.

  "How about you get out of the pajamas for once and go see Fred?"

  "I'm not sick, Wesley."

  "And I'm not saying you are. After the loss of the Council, it'd be helpful to have some sort of record of you in case we come across anything similar in the future." He reached over to pick up his coffee, and I turned on my heel.

  "If I'm having to go through some poking and prodding, I'm staying in my pajamas." Waving over my shoulder, I heard him sigh. "I'll tell Fred you said hi."

  "Morning, Aud." I glanced over at Angel's secretary and paused while looking at her grinning face.

  "Morning, Harmony. I see you changed your perfume."

  "Well, it was really gross with you sneezing every time you were near me. Like....extremely gross."

  "Mm." I hummed, raising my mug to my lips. "This one smells better anyway."

  "Really?" She lit up.

  "Yeah."

  "Thank you!"

  "Mm." Humming again, I continued my walk to Fred's lab.

  "Hi, Aud. What brings you in here today?" The brunette woman smiled at me from over a microscope.

  "Wesley says hi, and I'm here for the bloody physical."

  "Oh! We're finally doing that? Okay, just give me a second to get stuff together." She raised her hand and hurried off, leaving me standing there while drinking my coffee.

~

  "....I'm not sure what I walked into, but I'm still debating whether I like it or not." Glancing over, I saw Spike standing there with his hands in his pockets.