Previously on Grey Lines:

Buffy still hasn’t told Dawn about Spike’s death. Xander has completely recovered from his vampire encounter but is playing it sick. His boss calls and tells him to get his butt to work, which he says he will do – the next morning. Buffy grieves for Spike by going to his crypt. Xander goes to work, and guess what, he’s working on the site where the Foris Caliga exploded. He goes down the hole and finds Spike. 

Author’s Note: I sincerely hope that this new chapter of Grey Lines reaches all of you guys. Because of FF recent change of policy (which I won’t even discuss here, it just makes me super mad!!!! Grrrr) some of the people who used to read this fiction on their site will probably lose track of where they can find it and I’m really sorry. Just want you guys to know that you can always find this fic, and all my other fics, on my site Echidna’s Pen – https://www.angelfire.com/80s/echidna/index.htm .

Hope you enjoy the new chapter. There are probably only two more on the way and then it will be the end. Buuuuaaaaa… ;)

Chapter XXI – Ghost

Xander stared blindly as if confronted by a real ghost. Confused by the young man’s astonishment, Spike tilted his head before speaking:

“You just gonna stand there while I bleed to death, again?”

The strong British accent seemed to seep into Xander’s clouded mind and he stuttered as he clumsily stumbled to his feet:

“Sp-Spike, you-you’re alive!” Unable to contain the impulse, the young man threw his arms around the vampire’s fragile form, successfully crushing him beneath his weight.

“Hey, hey, hey! Broken bones and serious internal bleeding here! Get off!!!” Spike managed to let out a muffled scream.

Instantly, as if burnt, Xander backed away, stumbling as he backtracked and falling flat on his ass.

“Spike! You’re alive!” he shouted gingerly pointing at the pain stricken vampire.

“Huh, I think the right term is undead, but glad to see you’re IQ has remained intact since the last time we saw each other.” Spike replied with his usual sarcastic tone, but this instantly changed as he continued: “Of course I’m alive, you wanker! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re alive!!” was all Xander could say, repeating it to exhaustion as he came closer and prepared for another painful hug.

Spike immediately tried to back away, but in his condition it wasn’t easy. His body refused to obey him, but that didn’t mean his tongue did:

“Oi! You’re not going to hug me again, are you?”

Xander stopped dead in his tracks, arms wide open and a foolish grin about to crumble.

“Of course not!” he tried to deny, his arms dropping immediately to his side and finding their way into the pockets of his worn out jeans.

“Good! Always wondered about you. Always thought you were… well, always got this kind of… pillow biter vibe from you, but I thought you’d keep it to yourself, you know? Cause you’d be very disappointed to know that I only mingle with the ladies.” Spike forced an evil grin over his sore lips.

“You’re a pig, Spike!” was Xander’s feeble rebuttal.

“That’s it, back in the closet. Keep that sassy diva in you just locked in there and away from me.”

“You don’t shut up right now I’ll leave, let them burry you in here and they’ll never know you’re alive.” Xander threatened him.

“They think I’m dead… huh… deader? Dust? Poof?” Spike asked confused.

“Well, duh!”

**************************************************************************************

Dawn stumbled out of bed, her eyes still half closed as she made her way into the bathroom and washed up. Sluggishly, she went through the daily routine and eventually she ended up downstairs, in the kitchen, working on her bowl of cereals.

She glanced over her shoulder and found a note on the counter:

“Had to leave early! Have a really important exam today. Wish me luck.

Love, Willow

PS: sorry about the mess in the kitchen sink, I’ll clean it up as soon as I can.”

Dawn smiled as she looked at the lavatory to find it piled up with two dishes, three frying pans and a world of spatulas and forks.

“I’ve never seen anyone have so much trouble over an omelette, especially on exam day.” Dawn said to herself. Sighing, she shoved a spoon full of cereal into her small mouth and shouted: “Buffy! Wake up!”

Getting no answer, she yelled again. After a bit more shouting, her vocal cords began to protest and she decided it was time for her legs to do the work, climbing up the stairs and walking into her sister’s bedroom. To her astonishment, she found it empty and a perfect, untouched bed staring back at her.

“Buffy woke up early and made her bed?” Dawn said to herself.

She wandered around the room to find any evidence of her sister’s whereabouts. Finding none and realising she was late, she jogged down the stairs and headed for school.

**************************************************************************************

“I’m really worried about Buffy, I’ve been phoning her forever and there’s no answer.” Willow wondered.

“Maybe she decided to go for a walk.” Giles offered pouring the witch another cup of tea.

“I don’t know. She was really shaken up the other night. I mean, you should have seen her. She was completely out of it, I thought she was gonna go all comatose on us again. It was really scary for a second. I never realised how much he meant to her.” A shadow fell over Willow’s pale face as she remembered the reason for Buffy’s grief. She would certainly miss him. Miss being called Red. She smiled as the memory came to her. He had a thing for nicknames, didn’t he?

She stared blindly at her cup as she held it tightly with both hands. If she had been aware of her surrounding, she would have found Giles in a very similar state of mind as he wordlessly cleaned his glasses.

**************************************************************************************

“Will you just quit poncing around and get me out of here?” Spike protested.

“Gladly! But in case you don’t remember it’s daytime, you are stuck in a hole, you can barely walk and there are no sewer tunnels around these parts.” Xander summed it up.

“So what are we going to do?” Spike frowned. “I’ve been here for almost two bloody days now and the scenery is really starting to bore me and God do I need a fag…” he sighed.

“Who’s the pillow biter now, hum?”

“What?” Spike asked confused, while his mind backtracked and tried to find the origin of his remark. “FAG, a cigarette, not a fagot, you plonker.”

“Hey! I resent that!”

“You resent-You don’t even know what it means.”

“Well, no but-“

“Oh, just shut up and get me the hell out of here.” Spike protested.

“And what do you suggest I do. Call the guys to get you out of here and see you burst into flames the moment the sun hits you?” Xander asked sarcastically.

“You could say I’m photosensitive and have them carry me out covered in blankets.” Spike suggested.

“It’s Sunnydale. We play dumb, doesn’t mean we are.”

“Well, I have my doubts about some of you lot.” Spike snapped.

“That’s it! You’re staying here till the sun comes down and-and… and that’s it!” Xander ordered, turning on his heels and tying the safety cord around his waist.

“Oi!” Spike called out, but the young man pretended not to hear. “Hey, mate, pal, amigo, buddy! Harris!” At the last word Xander responded by turning to face the vampire. “Bring me a fag, please. I’m dying for one. Just one.”

Xander couldn’t believe it, but Spike was actually begging him. He made sure his mind recorded every single sound and image of that moment so he could replay it over and over again in the future.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

***********************************************************************************************

A thud was heard in the hall as Willow dropped her handbag on the floor upon entering the Summers’ residence.

“Dawn?” the witch called out as she hung up her coat.

“Hey!” the young teenager greeted hopping down the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. “Where’s Buffy?”

“What do you mean ‘Where’s Buffy?’?” Willow asked confused.

“I mean: ‘Where is my irresponsible sister who has completely forgotten about her little sister and whom I thought was with you’.”

“I thought she was here, with you.” Willow explained as she poured herself a glass of orange juice.

“Well, she isn’t. I haven’t seen her all day. When I woke up she was already gone.” A little worry started to seep into Dawn’s mind as she noticed the doubt and a hint of fear in the redhead’s eyes. “Is everything ok?”

Willow paused for a second as she stared into nothingness. Her mind racing.

“Willow?”

Dawn’s frail voice echoed in Willow’s ears and it seemed to snap her out of her daze:

“What? Ah, yes… hum, I forgot. Buffy called me, she said she was going over to Giles later today.” Willow lied.

“Well, it’s pretty late.” Dawn replied, looking up at the kitchen clock. It read 21h40m.

“Yeah, well I better call Giles just to check.” Willow quickly made her way to the kitchen phone, picking it up and dialling the familiar number while Dawn sat on the counter, watching and waiting.

“Hello, Giles? Yeah, it’s Willow. Oh, nothing, just wanted to check if Buffy is still there with you.”

“Buffy? No, she’s not here.” The voice on the other side of the line answered.

“Ok, then. Just tell her to come back home as soon as possible.”

“Willow? What are you talking about? I just told you she’s not here.”

“Oh, you’re going through fighting techniques. Ok, just don’t be late.” Willow tried to ignore the confused man speaking in her ear.

“Willow, is everything ok?”

“No, everything’s fine. It’s just that Dawn and I haven’t seen Buffy all day and we were kind of worried about… what she might be doing.” The young redhead tried really hard to hide the fear in her voice and apparently it seemed to work. At least on Dawn.

“I’m coming over here right now.”

“No!” Willow almost shouted. Seeing the frown settling over Dawn’s face she added in a calmer tone: “She doesn’t have to come over right now. I-I mean… y-you can talk about Slayer stuff as long as you like. You know, for an hour or two. In the meantime, Dawn and I are going to bed. To sleep.”

“I’ll be over there in an hour.”

“Ok. Good night then.” Willow hung up the phone and turned to meet a confused Dawn.

“What was that whole: ‘for as long as you like’, ‘an hour or two’? Are you ok, Will?”

“I-I’m fine. Just a bit tired from the exam and all.” The witch forced a smile to mask her nervousness.

**************************************************************************************

“For a second there I thought you were never coming back down here.” Spike grumbled as he saw the young man free himself from the safety cord.

“You’re standing!” Xander noted amazed.

“Yeah, and I can walk too, isn’t that neat?” the words came out dripping with sarcasm. “Special healing powers? Comes free with the whole vampire package?”

“It’s just that… Not used to it.” Xander explained. “Well, can you climb up this rope?”

“I can try.”

Spike stumbled his way toward the rope that hung in the middle of the dark cavern and whirled it around his left arm. As he slowly made his way up, his heavy breathing, though unnecessary, along with his muffled cries, testified to the pain that the seemingly easy task caused him. As he finally reached the top, he let out a shallow pant while his bloodied hands grasped the muddy ground and he whorled his body out the dark cavern.

Now it was Xander’s turn. With much greater easy, he pulled his body up the cord. He shuddered at the feel of a moist, slippery rope between his fingers, accompanied by the familiar metallic scent of blood. When he finally reached the top, he found Spike, laying motionless, belly up, eyes closed, arms spread out like an eagle on the muddied asphalt. A foolish grin on his face greeted the almost full moon that gleamed down on his tired body.

“We-we better go.” Xander hesitated at first, not wanting to intrude on what seemed like a sacred ritual. “The others still don’t know you’re ok.”

******************************************************************************************

“What happened? Where is she?” were Giles’ first words as he walked into the house.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her all day. Neither has Dawn.” Willow quickly explained as she followed Giles into the kitchen area.

“D-Does she know yet?” Giles stuttered as he entered sensitive territory.

“No.” Willow breathed, head bowed. “I thought Buffy was going to tell her today, but…You don’t think she…” the redhead refused to finish her sentence.

“No! Buffy would never do that. She’s been through worst and she has survived.” Giles tried to block out the idea. “Do you think she might have left? Like when Angel…”

“Well, her clothes are still here. All of them.” Willow explained. “That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t know.” Giles mumbled as he paced around, the back of his hand nervously rubbing against his marred forehead.

“What do we do now?”

“We better call the others and start looking for her.”

Giles was still in mid sentence and Willow had already picked up the phone and dialled Xander’s number.

“No one’s answering.” The witch explained as she hung up.

They remained in silence for a moment, staring at each other, desperation reflecting from each other’s eyes.

“I-I can try to do a locating spell.” Willow offered.

Giles gave her a weak smile before replying: “You’re still worn out from the other night. I don’t want you to risk it. We have to look for her on our own.”

“What about Dawn? Should we tell her?” Willow asked.

“Tell me what?” Dawn feeble voice came from the kitchen door.

Willow and Giles turned to stare at the young teenager and having no answer she repeated:

“Tell me what?” she paused for a second, getting no reply she added in an increasingly angered tone: What are you hiding from me? I’m not a kid anymore. Something’s been wrong since the other night and you guys don’t want to tell me. I know something’s off. Buffy says that everything’s fine, but she keeps crying around the house.” She took a long needed breath and added calmly: “What happen to Spike? And where is my sister?”

“Dawn…” Willow trailed off as the tears began to flood her eyes. She slowly made her way toward the young girl. With feather-like touch she placed her hand over Dawn’s cotton covered shoulder before speaking: “Something did happen the other night. Buffy didn’t want to upset you, she wanted to tell you later, when everything had calmed down.” Her voice was smooth, even though the knot in her throat threatened to stop the even flow of reassuring words. “When we were fighting, we managed to thrown Ethan into the Foris Caliga. Un-“ she cleared her throat, swallowing hard before continuing: “Unfortunately, when it was destroyed, it exploded and somebody was caught in it.” Willow looked deep into Dawn’s glassy blue eyes, begging her not to make her say it. She saw the young girl’s gaze drift away from hers; saw her stare into an unknown spot behind her. “That someone-“

“Spike!” Dawn eyes suddenly lit up.

“Yes, it was Spike.” Willow’s head bowed down as she finally said it.

“Spike!” Dawn repeated and all of a sudden she was running. Towards the back door.

“Dawn!” Willow called out. “Don’t do anything- Spike??” the redhead’s eyes widened as she saw the peroxide blond standing at the door. Dawn ran towards him, throwing her arm around him, causing him to stumble back as a result of the impact.

“Watch it, Nibblet! Still got a little healing to do.” Spike gasped as Dawn released him from her deadly embrace.

“You’re alive!” She breathed, with a huge smile on her face.

“Surprise!” Spike gave her one of his trademark smirks as he spread out his arms.

“They were saying that… You know…” Dawn’s racing mind refused to give her any words to work with, but she didn’t care.

“Well, you can’t trust these Watcher types. Always get their info’s messed up.” Spike said, looking at the librarian out of the corner of his eye.

“Glad to see you.” Giles finally spoke; honesty being the dominate feature in his voice.

“You’re not gonna try and hug me too. Cause the whelp here already tried to cop a feel down in the hole. It was too scary.“ Spike mocked.

“No, I think a handshake will do.” Giles replied outstretching his hand.

“Good.”

“Are you sure I can’t kill him? Buffy doesn’t know yet, she’ll just think he died back in the Foris thingamajig.” Xander growled as he finally entered the kitchen closely followed by Anya.

Ignoring the young man standing next to him, Spike tilted his head to look over Giles’ shoulder and find a frozen Willow staring at him with tear-filled eyes. Her small hands covered her mouth, as if trying to keep her heart from leaping out.

“Hey, Red.” His head still slightly leaning to the side, his voice was a mere whisper.

In a blink of an eye, Willow’s arms were around him, squeezing the unlife out of him. Suddenly, she pulled back, staring wide-eyed at him. A painfully apologetic look on her face.

“Oh, I-I’m sorry, I-I forgot about t-the…” she pointed erratically at his entire body.

“The broken bones and open wounds, right?” Spike completed her sentence. Her gaze immediately dropped to the kitchen floor at her feet and he added reassuringly. “Don’t worry I’m starting to get used to that reaction by now. I’m passed the point of no return; don’t think I can feel a thing anymore.”

“What are these clothes?” Dawn finally noticed the white shirt and baggy white jeans.

“Xander’s. Mine got kinda, destroyed in the white, fiery cloud. No Hawaiian shirts this time. Thank God!” Spike sighed in relief.

“You look strange in white.” Dawn frowned. “Wait till Buffy sees this.”

“Yeah, where is the Buffster? I want to show her my good deed of the millennium.” Xander quipped with a smile, but it soon vanished as he saw the reaction in the room.

“She…” Willow tried to talk, but failed, as the knot in her throat seemed to finally close up.

“We don’t know where she is.” Giles stepped in.

“What do you mean you don’t know where she is?” Spike asked confused.

“We haven’t seen her all day. The last person to see her was Dawn, yesterday morning, before leaving for school.” Giles continued.

“You mean you haven’t seen her for almost two days and no one does anything?” outrage replaced the initial confusion in Spike’s voice.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” Xander asked.

“Because you’re idiot boss doesn’t let you take or make calls while you’re working.” Anya finally spoke.

“S-She was really upset about…” Willow paused, looking at the vampire standing in front of her. “…you and we’re afraid she… We just don’t know where she is.” As she finished, her gaze immediately fell to the floor again.

“Well, we have to start looking for her. We don’t have much time.” Xander stepped in. “We need to form groups and spread out. Me and Anya, Willow and Giles, Spike…” Xander looked over his shoulder and failed to find the familiar peroxide vampire. “Spike? Where’s Spike?”

************************************************************************************************

He took a long, unneeded breath as he pushed the heavy door open and walked into the large, damp room. He moved quickly in the dark, knowing every corner of that place. His hands soon found the trap door at his feet, pulling it up and sliding his tired body through the opening. Taking one step at a time, he came down the stairs into an even darker room. To the untrained human eye, there was nothing but blackness surrounding him, but his powerful vampire sight could easily notice the clear outlining of the objects that filled the room. The one that caught his attention the most was a large bed, in the middle of the room, the familiar form of a curled up human body laying motionless on it.

He stood still for what seemed like an eternity, just staring at the simple beauty of it. Taking one single step towards the bed he breathed:

“Buffy?”

Next