Title: In Memoriam

Author: Jedi Buttercup

Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.

Rating: K+

Summary: Angel/Firefly. Lilah had seen his flavor of desperation many times over the years. Double drabble.

Spoilers: A:tS post-NFA; general Firefly

Prompt: Challenge fic. Originally written January 6, 2008.

Lilah stared across the dark, smoky bar at the young man with fire in his eyes and long-fingered, surgeon's hands. Up and coming doctor, top three percent; obsessed older brother searching for a way to save his sister.

She'd seen his flavor of desperation many times over the years. It was one of the easiest openings for the firm to get their hooks into a human soul; the most intelligent people did the stupidest things when they believed they had no other choice, and Wolfram and Hart were experts at limiting other people's choices.

There was something about Simon Tam, though, that made Lilah want to do something stupid of her own. She fingered the scar on her neck as she watched him, taking in the stiff spine, the educated speech, the conviction with which he moved, and the fact that he was there at all, after she'd carefully arranged his arrest to push him away from direct action and toward murky legal channels.

He reminded her of-- someone. Someone she'd been trying to forget for a long, long time.

She dropped a datachit-- contact information for the legitimate underground movement-- on his table on her way out the door.