Cases like this (1/?)

Author- Midnight Faith

Disclaimer- none of them are mine

Spoilers- none

Rating- PG-ish for now

Pairings- Lilah/Lindsey for now… but expect some Lilah/Gunn stuff later… as part of my experimental phase… :-)

Distribution- fanfiction.net, AOH, Buffysearch… anyone else ask away

Notes- set before Gunn hooked up with Angel 'n' Co…

'Simmer things down.' Holland's words repeated through Lilah's head as she stepped into the elevator.

He's said they were lucky. Her and Lindsey? Lucky? What they both knew was that he's really meant 'lucky they didn't get their throats slit.' Inter-office romances were forbidden… they'd known that. Back in the days when it was 'just sex, no strings' anyway. But then like a monster in the night from a child's closet emotion had crept up on both of them and bitten down… hard.

'I love you' he'd told her just last night when he's got into the cab, bags packed ready to take a two month stint in the Seattle office. Lilah guessed it was the company's way of keeping them apart.

He's told her the same when he's called her early this morning and told her he's charged a plane ticket for her to come and see him that weekend to his gold card and that he'd meet her at the airport *and* call her every hour if she needed him to.

This morning she'd stalked past Holland, eyes like daggers and signed herself up for two weeks holiday in a fortnight's time.

Holland had just smiled a little cynically.

'Got you a great case,' he'd said with mock enthusiasm 'take your mind off things.'

'I can see your concerned' she bit back, snatching the beige case folder from him, opening it and skimming the front page brief quickly.

'Shoplifting?' she asked, 'What is this supposed to be some kind of joke?'

'Client's waiting in your office,' Holland had said with a cold smile, 'We can't have you working with anyone on this case can we? God knows what would happen…'

Her thoughts were interrupted with the sharp ding of the elevator. She stepped out at her floor, crossing the hallway to her office.

She stepped inside shutting the door with a sigh, to look at her 'street trash' client looking out of her window.

"Good morning Mr. Uh… Gunn isn't it?" he turned to her, they shook hands and she gestured to the chair on the other side of her desk. They sat down.

"My friends call me Gunn," he informed her.

"I'm not your friend Mr. Gunn, I'm your attorney," she pointed out a little dryly, "Just for the record none of this will be written down… strictly an informal chat… I don't usually take cases like this," she found herself confessing.

"Yeah, I heard you usually take the big cases… murder, mayhem… with your hotshot, honey of an attorney,"

Lilah felt herself colour slightly.

"How do you know?" she demanded a little angrily

"Heard two of your minions talking about it in the hall,"

"I don't have minions,"

"Whatever."

She was silent for a moment.

"Look if you wanna do this some other time… if you'd rather pine right now," Gunn said lockingh eyes with her, "We can meet up later or something."

Lilah gave him a wry smile.

"I don't normally date clients,"

"And you don't normally take cases like this either,"

She sighed,

"OK but this is strictly business… this is not a date OK?"

"Understood," he told her, "You know Caritas?" she nodded, "I'll see you there at eight…"