Lindsey shrugged. "Well, I was a lawyer for the longest time. Contracts are the easiest thing to figure out." He smiled slightly. "Besides, it cuts down the amount of money I have to pay you."

"What happened?" Anya asked, looking up from the book she and Buffy were reading.

"Lindsey looked over the lease and found some illegal charges. He threatened to sue the apartments, and so they cut my rent by a hundred dollars a month." Xander beamed. "So what are the two most beautiful women in Sunnydale doing?"

"Where's...Dawn, right?" Lindsey asked Xander, seeing Dawn out of the corner of his eye watching him.

Xander smiled, knowing what he was doing. "Yeah...can't have the two most beautiful women without the most beautiful girl."

Dawn tripped over the carpet and almost knocked over a bookstand, which Xander managed to catch before it started to fall. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"Dawn..." Buffy said warningly, but Lindsey cut her off.

"Hey, Dawn. I was wondering if you'd like to help me get some things for my room. Xander and I were on our way to get furniture." He smiled at her. "I could always use a woman's touch."

Dawn looked at Buffy. "Can I?"

Buffy nodded. "But stay close to the--to Xander."

Lindsey glanced at Buffy before the three of them walked out the door of the magic shop, a slightly confused look on his face. Anya turned on her the minute the door shut. "What was that all about?"

"We don't know him. We don't know what he's about." Buffy continued to look through the book.

"But he was working with Angel in LA. Doesn't that count for something?"

Buffy thought about it. "Something, but not much. I don't know if he can fight, or how dangerous those people he betrayed are...I don't know anything about him."

"Have you thought about getting to know him?"

Buffy glared at Anya. "You think you're so smart..."

"I'm over 1,100 years older than you so yeah, I think I'm so smart." She pushed Buffy. "There's only one furniture place around here. Go. Get to know our newest ally better. I'll keep looking up the spell."

Buffy grabbed her jacket and headed out the door, bumping into Lindsey. "I was just..." he began. "Dawn said she left her coat."

Buffy grabbed the coat. "I'm going with you."

"Okay," Lindsey said. He turned around and left the shop again.

Buffy caught up with him easily. "Who are you?"

"You know that."

"No, I mean *who* are you? I won't trust you until I get to know you."

Lindsey nodded. "Fair enough. I was born and raised in LA. There were money problems with my family when I was a kid, and since I wasn't any good at science I paved my way in the only other well paying career there is."

"Being a lawyer."

"Defense lawyer, actually. Wolfram & Hart took an interest in me when I was prelaw, but nothing happened until after I got into law school. When I got out, I worked for them." He paused. "And then Angel showed up. We tried to have him killed."

Buffy's jaw set. "And?"

"And then there were these kids," he said softly. "I defended the woman who had to kill them. It made me ill to hear what they planned for her. So I asked Angel to help. He didn't trust me, didn't care if I lived or died. But we saved those kids." He smiled slightly. "I got back to the office and Holland, my old boss, offered me a junior partnership."

"Which you obviously didn't take."

"I walked out. I got some files and I left, and I haven't looked back. About a week after I left, I woke up to smell smoke in my apartment. I opened the bedroom door to find the apartment on fire. I couldn't get out the front door. So I grabbed my briefcase, which had some important stuff in it, threw in a few pictures of family and...well, I tried to go out the window, but it was jammed. So I ended up going out to the living room."

They got to the furniture store, but neither of them made a move to go in. "And?" she asked again, he jaw no longer set, her voice a bit softer.

"I made it out another window, nothing I was holding got burned. It wasn't until I was outside that I felt the burning, and I saw that my shirt had been burned away and my skin was...I felt like my whole body was on fire and the center of that fire was on my shoulder and neck."

He opened the door for her and she walked in, seeing Xander and Dawn lying down on a bed and talking. "Hey, Lindsey!" Dawn said, sitting up. "I think we got the perfect one for you!"

"Really?" he asked, going over to the bed and laying down next to her. "Hmm. You might be right."

And then Buffy got an idea of how Lindsey could help her. And it would be perfect for him.