Angel Introduction

Ding! The Elevator doors opened onto the executive lobby of Wolfram and Hart.

"I see," Wesley was saying, adjusting the shoulder strap of his leather attache` case and holding the elevator door open so that a pair of attorneys could take our place in the cab, "So Spike came to you with this plan."

"More or less," I replied, stepping out of the Elevator into the lobby and holding my hand out to Harmony - my new secretary... I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around that one - as we walked towards the reception desk. "Once he learned Hainsley used himself as a conduit for body transfers, our trap fell in place."

"A bit reckless." Wesley chided, as Harmony handed me a dark blue folder full of paperwork, followed by a mug of warm blood, "If Spike's going to be sticking around, it'd be prudent of him to share his plans with the rest of us in the future."

I raised my eyebrows for a moment and chuckled as I looked over the paperwork, sparing Wes a brief look, "Yeah, well, sharing's not something Spike does very well."

"Preaching to the Horse's mouth," Harmony sighed, busy with more paperwork on her desk. Wes and I glanced up at her in surprise, then at each other, and Wes gave his eyebrows a significant lift.

"Well," I said, gesturing over my shoulder at my office with the blue folder in my right hand, "I should probably-"

"Yes- to work," Wesley's smile was sardonic, and it mirrored my mood exactly.

"Right. Staff meeting at eleven thirty?"

"Yes. I'll pass that on to the rest of the team." Wes slid his hands into his pocket, gave me a brief nod and turned towards his office. I watched him go, puffing out my cheeks with a sigh of resignation, and took a drink from the warm blood. Mmm... Otter. Why have I been drinking pig's blood all this time?While turning and walking towards my own office, I spared Harmony a brief glance as I passed her desk. "Harmony, bring me a copy of my schedule for the week when you're done there?" The blonde vampire pasted on a vapid grin and threw me a jaunty salute. "You got it, boss!"

I shook my head, stepped into my office, and closed the doors behind me. I spared at glance for the lavishly expensive furnishings, the picturesque view of the city beneath my feet, and shook my head again, wondering at the strange turn of events that brought me and my team to Wolfram and Hart. Moving around behind my desk, I tossed the dark folder onto the hard wood surface in front of me and leaned over the back of my luxurious - and yet, strangely uncomfortable - new desk chair and sipped more blood out of my mug, flipping the folder open and leafing through the pages inside.

"Wolfram and Hart's Employee Files: Current Employees, Alphabetized by Last Name - R through U."

Of course, Lorne was going to read all of these people individually over the next few weeks, but in the papers I had requested from Harmony were the pictures and short personal and psychological evaluations of all the employees in the Los Angeles Branch, and ... I had to do something. Less than two days ago, Wolfram and Hart was the main office of Evil Incorporated, and I wasn't going to be comfortable here until... well, who was I kidding, I was never going to be comfortable here, but I wasn't even going to be able to stop worrying about every moment Fred, Lorne, Wes, and Gunn spent out of my sight here until I had gone over the employee roster personally.

... Ramsey, Daniel... Raston, Michelle... Rat, A...

The list was exhaustive. There were thousands of employees in the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram and Hart, and going through each and every personnelle file took some time, even in such a compact form. A couple of psych profiles and personal biographies leapt out at me immediately, but most of what I read was boring, meaningless drivvel - Lawyers, Research Scientists, Security Personnelle, Accountants (actually, it seemed as though more of the Accounts leapt out at me for personal follow-up interviews than did the Lawyers, which was a hefty shock in its own right. The Lawyers were weasels, sure, but that's what Lawyers are everywhere. But some of these accountants, well... Dark Alchemy? Blood Money? Two Decades of Tax Evasion? Sheesh.)

... Samuels, Robin... Samson, Rake... Sanja Hajim...

I finished my mug of blood and set it aside, pressing an intercomm button on my desk to call Harmony - my secretary. "Harmony, I'd like a mug of regular coffee - black, no lighten--"

And that was when I froze. Harmony was still on the intercom, asking me in that annoyingly nasal voice if I was 'still there?' Well, of course I was still there, she could see me through the glass, but I was frozen, my eyes fixed on the Employee file before me, my mind at war with what my eyes were seeing, telling me that no matter what I was reading on the paper in front of me, no matter who was in that picture I was looking at, there was just no way that what I was seeing could be true.

Summers, Dawn.

The information in front of me stubbornly refused to change, no matter how many times I shook my head or blinked my eyes.

"...Harmony," I said in a throaty, hoarse voice over the intercom, cutting through her repeat attempts to get me to respond to her, "Get security down to the steno pool. Have Wesley join you. Tell Wesley that I would like to see Dawn Summers in my office. Now."

"Yes, sir, boss." Harmony almost clicked off the intercom, but then she hesitated, "Uh, Angel? Do you still want that cof--"

"Harmony, go!"

"Alright, alright, I'm going! Geez." The intercom clicked off. I stared at the personelle file in front of me for a few minutes longer, then closed the dark blue folder and pushed it aside. Pulling out my desk chair, I settled into it with a sigh and turned to stare out of the necro-tempered glass.

Dawn. Here.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and rubbed my eyes, feeling suddenly exhausted where a few moments before I had been relaxed - almost at ease.

Dawn. Here. ...Buffy'll kill her.