Previously on Grey Lines:

The ritual seems to be proceeding normally as Giles meets up with Buffy, They talk for a while and after much hesitation the librarian confesses that if Spike goes through with the plan he might die. Buffy starts running towards the clearing as the vampire begins to outstretch his hand to the Foris Caliga, when, all of a sudden it disappears. Apparently, the demons that are already in Ethan allowed him to smell Spike’s soul. Ethan proceeds with pummelling the vampire. Buffy tells Giles to get an unconscious Clem to Xander’s and she goes off to help Spike. In the middle of the fight Ethan suddenly clutches his head and howls in pain. Buffy sees her opportunity and drags Spike through the woods in the middle of a storm. They end up taking shelter in an old abandoned mine.

Chapter 13 - Pouring Rain

“Giles!” Dawn’s high pitch voice was heard as she ran down the stairs.

“What happen?” Willow asked closing the door behind the soaked ex-watcher.

“Get your stuff we’re going to Xander’s.” he ordered picking up the speaker of the white phone without any further explanation.

“Giles-“

Dawn was cut short by a deadly tone:

“Dawn, now.” Seeing the worry on her juvenile face he was about to add something but a hoarse voice coming from the other side of the line caught his attention. “Xander, Willow, Dawn, Clem and I are coming over.” He paused as he listened for a reply. “I can’t explain now.” And with that he hung up.

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Buffy hugged her knees trying desperately to keep warm. Her eyes wandered over the irregular, soggy and stony walls that surrounded her. Eventually her gaze fell over the marred body of the vampire who lay on his back at her feet. She had tried as best as she could to tend to his wounds, but without any resources there wasn’t much she could do.

She looked to her right, at the entrance of the damp cave. It was the only source of light, but after about four hours her eyes had already adjusted to the darkness and she could see reasonably well.

A strange chill ran down her spine as the soft air current blew pass her. She closed her eyes, trying to get some rest, but every time she did, all she could see was the figure of that mad man clutching his head in agony. The screeching, inhuman howls still rang in her ears and she brought her hand to cover them, but it was no use, the sound came from inside of her. She shook her head as she slowly rocked herself to sleep.

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They sat silently around the table. Giles rubbed the bridge of his nose, Willow nervously pressed her hand together while Dawn bit her lip as her gaze drifted blindly over the two motionless bodies on the couch. Xander’s head hung over Anya’s lap as his fingers innocently played with the hem of her long skirt. It was her favourite, the light brown one, with large yellow flowers stamped on it. He had bought it for her after one of their numerous fights. What had they argued over? He couldn’t remember.

“So now what?” Willow finally managed to ask.

“All we can do is wait. We have to wait for Buffy and Spike to get here.” Giles explained putting on his glasses.

Dawn hesitated, nervously looking towards Xander before she asked the question that had been haunting her ever since Giles had finished acquaint them with the events of the night.

“What if he…” her gaze abandoned her friend’s face as he looked up from Anya’s lap “if Ethan leaves and doesn’t come back?”

Seeing the desperation in Xander’s eyes Giles immediately tried to reassure him.

“He won’t. He knows I’m…” he corrected himself “we’re behind Spike being there to destroy the Foris Caliga. He’ll want revenge.”

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He stirred as consciousness assaulted his senses and the second it did he cursed to all the gods imaginable. His entire body screamed as the excruciating pain coursed through every inch of him.

“Bloody Hell!” he protested as he forced his eyelids to open.

Initially, everything was black and he searched his mind to find out where he was. Slowly, he was able to see light shades of brown and grey, but everything was still very blurry. He turned his head and wasn’t able to keep from howling as the pain lacerated its way through his neck down his back.

Buffy jumped up at the scream. She looked around confused and it took a while to realise where exactly she was.

“You’re up.” She said with a sleepy voice.

“Buffy?” he questioned as his eyes adjusted and his sight focused on the small curled figure to his right.

“For a second there I thought you weren’t going to wake up.” She breathed, pulling a long blond strand behind her ear.

“Ah.” He wailed as he tried to get up.

“You shouldn’t move. He beat you up pretty bad.” She started making small talk.

“As I recall he was the one howling in pain at the end.”

“What happen to him?” she asked confused.

“He got into contact with the sharp end of my tongue.” As he spoke his tongue rolled over his teeth teasingly. Well, at least there is one muscle in my body that isn’t killing me. He thought to himself.

Buffy felt her cheeks begin to redden as the blood rushed to her face.

“What did you do?” she tried to ignore her flushed face and her racing heartbeat.

“My tongue… ah!” he faltered as he sat up “is a powerful weapon.” He gave her his trademark smirk and her heart jumped a beat.

“Stop joking around.” She ordered slapping him lightly on the arm.

Instantly, the vampire retracted, holding onto his arm and howling in pain. Buffy jumped up concerned and in a second she was sitting next to him trying to get a look at his face.

“Are-Are you ok? I-I’m sorry, I-“ before she could end her apology she found herself on the ground, on her back with a smirking vampire hovering over her.

“Got ya!” he singsonged trying to ignore the pain than ran down his arched back.

Their closeness suddenly dawned on them both. Buffy stared up at the now dark blue eyes that gazed down on her, her heart slammed wildly against her rapidly rising and falling chest and her warm breath came in short, suffocating pants. Unwittingly, Spike’s mouth glided towards hers as he lowered his head.

Buffy’s eyes drifted shut, her lips parting as she prepared to be kissed. She gasped in shock and her eyelids flung open as she felt his weight shift over her and pull away. Spike sat up next to her, his eyes glued to the wall, refusing to look at her.

She pushed herself up and stared at the vampire:

“Spike…” she began but he cut her off.

“It was because of all the demons.” All his efforts went into trying to hide the nervousness and discomfort in his voice.

Buffy frowned in confusion.

“The demons inside of him were struggling for dominance. That’s why he was howling in pain. It’s already tough with one, I can imagine what it’s like with a few hundreds.”

“Spike, I-“

“How long till sundown?” the vampire ignored her attempt to discuss the subject.

She paused for a second and decided to humour him. Fine, he wants to ignore it, I’ll ignore it. She thought to herself as she looked at her watch.

“About an hour.” She answered.

“Good.” He grumbled.

They sat silently for the hour and the moment the light coming from the exit dimmed Spike stumbled to his feet. He moaned a little, leaning on the walls for support as he walked.

“What are you doing?” she asked following him.

“Going home.” He spat dryly.

“Like that?” she pointed at him as a thin eyebrow shot up.

“Yep.” He pressed his lips together to avoid screaming as the pain coursed through his legs.

“Well, I hate to point out the obvious but you can’t walk, Spike.”

As he reached the entrance of the cave, he abandoned the support of the wall, wobbling a little but eventually he was able to stand up right and even take a few steps.

“Spike, don’t be ridiculous. It’s raining out there.” She shouted as he stepped out of the cave into the storm. “Spike!”

He continued walking, ignoring her as the drops of salty water streamed down his face and soaked his clothes. She sighed loudly and milled her teeth together as she walked into the rain after him.

“Spike!” she shouted finally stepping in his way.

“What?” he squinted as the raindrops hit his eyes.

“Stop being an idiot and come out from the rain.” She ordered him with her hand over her hips.

“You know what, Slayer? You have this annoying habit of acting like I’m your trained little puppy. I’ve told you, it’s over.” He shouted over the thunder.

“You’re being pig headed about this. We can’t walk back home in the middle of this storm.” She yelled back at him, the raindrops ricocheting off her mouth.

“We have to meet up with Giles. We have to figure a way to find this guy and help Anya, remember?” Spike said walking around her and stumbling away.

She felt the anger begin to boil up inside of her as she caught up with him and stood in his way.

“Stop trying to make me jealous.” She shouted.

He raised his gaze from the muddy ground and looked at her with a frozen grin.

“I’m trying to make you jealous?” She nodded. “Aren’t you full of yourself? Why would I want to do that?” he paused for a second, but before she could answer he spat out: “I’m. Not. In love. With. You.” He saw her face crumble at his words.

Her lips articulated the word what, but her voice refused to leave her mouth.

“Actually I don’t think I ever did. I’ve got a soul now, Slayer, I realised that I never really loved you, it was just… an itch… an obsession.” He regretted the words as he saw the painful look in her bloodshot eyes.

They stood in silence, the rain pouring down on them, making their heavy clothes stick to their bodies. She looked up at him, her wet hair framing her face and she swallowed hard before speaking:

“We have to go back in. We’ll walk back into town when it stops raining.” Her voice faltered and she looked down before she added: “Please.”

She gave him one quick look before she began walking back to the cave. At the sight of her leaving, Spike felt as if someone was reaching into his chest and was twisting his insides out. He tried to run after her, but the pain in his legs prevented him.

“Buffy!” he called out. She stopped and turned around to find him standing in front of her. “Look, I didn’t mean to…”

“Forget it.” She raised her hand in the air trying to keep the distance between them. “You were right. It’s none of my business.”

“Ah, come on don’t start with the whole I’m very mature routine.” Spike spoke with annoyance in his voice.

“What do you want me to say, Spike?” she suddenly yelled, letting the cool and calm façade slide away. “I mean, you come back all strange and distant and-and all of a sudden I find out - *you* have a soul. Yuppie!” she waved her hands in the air and forced a huge Pepsodent smile on her face as she spoke. “Oh but no, now you have to nobly give it up to save a demon I thought you didn’t even care for, but apparently you do.” As she shouted the words at him her arms moved wildly trying to emphasize every angry word that shot out of her mouth. “Apparently, now that you’ve got a soul you’ve discovered that you’re in love with a vengeance demon void of a social filter. Well, congratulations!” she drew a long, sharp breath as she ended her speech.

“Oh, for Christ sake woman, I’m not in love with Anya!” He growled at her under the bucketing rain.

“Then why the Hell are you doing this? Why are you willing to lose your soul for her?” she yelled over the roaring thunder.

“Because of you!” he blurted out as he walked pass her toward the cavern.

Buffy stood in shock, huge eyes still staring at the spot where he had been standing a second ago. A flash of lightning snapped her out of her momentary daze.

“What do you mean, because of me?” she shouted after him.

Spike stopped in his tracks, taking a deep breath and grounding his teeth together before turning to face a soaking Slayer.

“God, *when* will you get it?” he hissed. “Everything… Everything *single* thing I do is because of you.” He paused for a second before continuing: “You got me running around helping you keep the demon world in check, getting the crap kicked out of me by a God with a permanent bad hair day, getting my heart ripped out when I saw you jump from…” his voice faltered, but he swallowed hard and proceeded: “spending a whole summer with your Scoobies, helping them out even though every time a saw Dawn it broke my heart because it just reminded me of you and my stupid promise. And then you came back and… seeing you again after so long. Suddenly, everything was back to normal and my biggest worry was whether the little bit did her homework so the Social Services wouldn’t take her away from you, and-”

A roaring thunder crashed through the woods and when Spike was about to continue his painful rambling he found it impossible as Buffy’s rain wet lips kissed him into silence.

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