"...we elected Bush...?"

"To you."

"Um - " 

- it's not really like she can get anywhere without cooperating with - whoever this person is. Probably.

"Uh - I moved in with my sister, sister had a baby, we started a... business thing, sister died, I took out a loan to keep the business going, business went under anyway, I failed to evade vampire debt collectors, was offered legal counsel and protection and a job by - this place. Which, you know, will also kill me, but pays enough to feed the kids in the mean time, so - really gotta get back to my desk."

"Okay. I don't think you've forgotten me, actually, I think you're from a parallel universe. 

In my universe Karen was the vampire slayer and a hero and saved lots of people and at least one world before she died."

" - oh."

As if she didn't hate herself enough already.

"But like, you know, I'm sure the bad guys -" sigh. 

"Can you come upstairs with me, please?"

She looks around for other exits. 

" - you're sure this place isn't spatially connected to the Wolfram & Hart offices?"

There's a back door that leads outside. 

"I've been here for a year and haven't seen anything consistent with that. And this place isn't evil, so."

"Oh. Well. It's just - upstairs is where the CEO lives. Exists. I guess he's not alive." At this point she'd probably only be able to get back to her desk in a timely manner if she found an axe or something and tunneled through the supply closet walls, and they just repainted everything from the zombie attack, and anyway destroying the property would probably get her in lots more trouble than not having the paperwork in time, so -

" - but yeah. If - yeah. Sure."

"We're just going to where my family's staying. They're all alive. We're not going to kill you. I'm not going to pretend meeting Karen's mildly evil alternate universe version is the best thing that happened all week but - I'm sure it's complicated, right? And even if it's actually not complicated and you just really like trafficking baby demons and bribing juries to let off child molesters I don't believe in letting people go to Hell."

- she does not really like doing those things but she's not feeling like getting into her personal moral convictions or lack thereof is going to go super well for her here. It doesn't usually.

"OK. If you think it'll - sure."

It's three flights of stairs. He knocks on a door. Another person - same species, this one dressed as a Catholic priest - opens it.

"Karen -"

"Nope! Well, yep, that's still her name but this is an alternate universe Karen. Works for Wolfram and Hart. Someone needs to go downstairs and cover for me -"

"On it."

"Wolfram and Hart?"

"What do you suppose is the evillest thing you've done in any universe?"

"She's pretty skittish, nobody act menacing. I don't actually - know what we're supposed to do here but I couldn't let her walk back into Wolfram and Hart."

He nods and steps back from the door.

The suite of rooms contains five people of this species, some books, some computers, two beds that are not being used, eight desks that are all being used well past their capacity, with papers spilling off the sides, and some magical experiments.

"You should get her another room, those could be dangerous," someone says without looking up.

"I can't have her alone with me! She's terrified of me!"

"Is that better with six of us -"

"Lúthien thought -"

"Go downstairs and get her pizza and ice cream and some DVDs and then step through to our side and call Azalea and tell her to bring Wishbone."