Who: Lindsey McDonald What:An undeniable need to piss everyone off Causing problems for Angel Investigations Where: Wolfram and Hart When: 1 a.m., 9 a.m. Rating: PG Status: Complete; narrative
It'd been an effort just to make it up to the penthouse and through the shower. Once the words had started swaying idly on the page like cornstalks in a breeze, Lindsey had known it was time to give up for the night, get his requisite three to four hours of sleep, and attack the mess his desk had remained for months by that point. Most of it was menial work and continued to sit on his desk until he found someone else to do it or the point that he wasn't going to do it was taken and the file in question would disappear. Just to keep him occupied and when it came to the higher ups, out of causing them trouble.
Lindsey finished brushing his teeth and reached out to switch off the light as he exited the bathroom, his mind already racing ahead to the few hours of (hopefully) unconscious bliss. Be a nice night for the nightmares to just... "Get the hell out of here."
The bed his mind had been on only brief seconds before was now blocked by a smug man in a well tailored suit. Bernard, child of the Senior Partners, had been a liason to the CEO of the Wolfram and Hart branch in New York City until Lindsey's resurrection, when he'd arrived in Los Angeles to guide (read, keep him in line) him in his newly acquired duties. The man was also a foot taller than him, weighed about 80 pounds of muscle more, couldn't be knocked down, and seemed to enjoy being a royal pain in Lindsey's ass. Tonight looked to be the same song in dance if that smirk was any indication.
"Good evening to you as well, Mr. McDonald."
"It's morning. What do you want?" He was unable to keep the exhausted slur out of his words.
"The Senior Partners have been reviewing your progress with Angel Investigations and have some concerns about the inactivity in the past few weeks. Seeing how they are very relevant in upcoming events, they felt that maybe it was time that your focus should be...redirected."
"Couldn't this have waited until morning? Or at least be left as a message on my desk?" Lindsey tossed his clothes down in the nearby chair and gave the liason a dark look. "I've got some ideas that I can put into motion in the morning." When the man began to open his mouth to throw Lindsey's earlier words back at him, the lawyer's glower darkened as he replied, "Later morning." He politely left off the asshole.
"Excellent." Bernard flashed him a smile as he headed for the doorway that led into the next room and out of the penthouse. If he said anything else, it was lost on Lindsey. He'd already sprawled out on the bed and begun the descent into the deep sleep of the exhausted damned.
-------
And it lasted all of two hours. By three a.m., Lindsey was up again and moving around his office with a mug of freshly brewed coffee in one hand, a stack of papers in the other, and still wearing what he'd gone to bed in. The contents of the Angel Investigations files were spread from the desk to the windows to the door and the opposite wall as he put together the pieces, brain working at a rate impressive for the ungodly hour.
By the time people began filing onto the floor, the lawyer had a legal pad full of notes and an idea ready to be set into action. He doubted it was a big one like the Partners would have approved of but Lindsey was proud of it nonetheless. All it had taken was a lot of digging, finding a lack of paperwork in certain areas, and once the other office opened, a phone call.
Sinking down into his chair, Lindsey picked up the phone and dialed in the number. Two rings later, the phone was picked up on the other end and an emotionless voice declared, "Immigration Services. How may I help you?"
Lindsey leaned forward, gaze roaming over the first page of notes. "I'd like to talk to someone about a possible illegal immigrant named Katherine McAvera. The poor kid seems to have been dumped off at a hotel and I was wondering if something could be done to help her out."
"Please hold."
------------
Nearly an hour later, Immigration Services had a new case file and Lindsey McDonald had executed his plan.