Fanfiction

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Previously on Grey Lines:

Buffy and Spike have a very awkward moment as they see each other for the first time since he left town. They decide to play it cool and pretend they haven't missed each other. They start a conversation about Clem, the demon walks in, Buffy realises Spike's a demon but never got called. She wants him to go to the Magic Box, he refuses. At the Shop, Buffy lets everyone know Spike's back. Giles goes to speak to Spike, who ignores him and lies saying nothing out of the ordinary happen to him while he was away from Sunnydale. Later Buffy decides to come back to the crypt only to find out Spike left...

Chapter 6 - Foris Caliga

Buffy stood in shock. "He left again…" was the mantra in her mind as she felt her heart violently spasm against the walls of her chest. Slowly, she gained a grip on reality and let the words bleed out of her mouth.

"What? When did he leave?"

"Just after you and the watcher left." Clem explained munching greedily on a hand full of chips.

She paused for a while, trying to take in the information.

"Um… well you better get you’re stuff then." Buffy motioned toward the lower level of the crypt.

"Why?" Clem asked confused.

"Well, you can’t be here alone. We don’t know when you’ll be called." Buffy sighed coming closer to the demon.

"Oh. That’s not a problem." Clem said with a huge grin.

"What do you mean?" Buffy questioned, but soon got her answer when she heard the jiggle of metal shackles as Clem lifted his arm to reveal that he was chained to the foot of the armchair. "Spike left you like that?"

"Yep. He had to go out, so he had no choice." Clem replied with a mouth full of chips.

"He had to go out? You mean he didn’t leave town?" the hope in her voice was clear.

"No. Who told you that?" Clem questioned confused once more.

"You did. Just now."

"No, I didn’t. I said he’d gone out." Clem denied.

"You said he left." Buffy disagreed. Her heart once again pounding at a frightening pace, this time, out of a strange combination of joy and anger towards the demon sitting in front of her.

"Yeah, he left because he had to do something, but I didn’t say he left town." Clem finally clarified.

"So he didn’t leave town?"

"No." Clem repeated already getting a little bit annoyed. "Are you ok?"

"Fine." Buffy answered with a huge grin on her face as she made her way to the door in long strides.

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

"Hey, Spike! Sorry I took so long." Dawn excused herself as she slid the lid of the sewer entrance back into place.

"No problem, little bit." Spike spoke as he lit a cigarette.

"So, Buffy knows you’re in town, huh?" Dawn started the conversation as she jumped to avoid the small string of water that ran along the sewer.

"Yep. Caught me in the crypt. I knew I shouldn’t have moved back in there with Clem." Spike mumbled taking a drag.

"I’m sorry I couldn’t warn you."

"No you’re not. You were dying for you’re sis to find out." Spike said matter-of-factly.

Dawn smiled and shrugged: "She had the right to know. She’s missed you."

"Didn’t seem that way to me." Spike grumbled.

"So, what are you planning on doing now?"

"I dunno. I have to stick around and babysit Clem till we figure this thing out." Spike replied, throwing away the burnt out cigarette.

"Good." Dawn blurted out with a slick smirk.

"Good, huh?" Spike looked at her from the corner of his eyes, but her gaze remained on the cement beneath her feet. "You’re amazing, you know that?"

"I know." She said matter-of-factly, finally looking at him and giving him a full smile.

"I bet you do." Spike stopped and pointed to the sewer entrance over their heads. "We’re here."

She moved up the ladder and as she reached the lid she turned and asked: "You wanna come in?"

"I don’t think you’re sis would like that."

"She’s out patrolling." She explained.

"In the middle of the afternoon?"

"What can I say? She was probably pissed at you, needed to work out the anger." Dawn offered her hand. "Come on."

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

"I can’t stay for long don’t want you big sis-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Dawn mumbled her way into the living room.

Spike slumped down on the couch and turned on the TV.

"Ah, coloured tellie. This is the life." Spike joked.

"You want some popcorn?" Dawn shouted back as she walked into the kitchen.

"Sure."

A few minutes passed before she came back with a bowl filled with popcorn.

"Here you go." She offered dropping the bowl on his lap.

"Thanks, Nibblet."

They sat around for a few minutes, just watching TV and munching on popcorn.

"I don’t like Pacey and Audrey together." Spike protested.

"You don’t? I don’t mind, but Buffy hates them. She says he should be with Joey."

"Bloody right, he should! I don’t like this Audrey, she’s too… peppy." He sat for a while before he clapped his hands together and prepared to get up. "Well, I better go, Nibblet."

"So soon?" Dawn protested standing up and following him.

"Soon? It’s already dark outside. She’ll be home any second and I don’t want her to know I’ve been coming to see-" Spike trailed off as he saw Buffy’s stunned face staring at him.

Silence fell around them and the tension was so thick you could cut through it.

"You knew he was in town and you didn’t tell me." Buffy finally spoke staring at her sister.

"Buffy, I-"

"You knew? And… He’s been coming here? For how long?"

"Slayer, don’t-"

"Shut up, Spike. Dawn, go up to your room, we’ll talk later." Buffy ordered, her eyes never leaving Spike’s.

"Buff-"

"NOW!"

With her head bowed, the young teenager made her way up the stairs.

"It’s nice to see you’re still treating her like a three year old." Spike ridiculed.

"I do not treat her like a three year old."

"Right…" Spike sighed walking past her and into the kitchen.

"Don’t you walk away from me!" she shouted after him. "Since when have you been coming here, behind my back?"

"That is none of your business." He shouted back in her face.

"Oh, yes it is. This is my house and she’s my sister."

"And she’s old enough to choose who she hangs out with."

"She should have told me." She yelled.

"Why?" Spike asked.

"What do you mean why?" Buffy questioned confused.

"Why do you think she should have told you?"

"Because… Because…" she searched her mind for the answer but came up with nothing. "Because you’re a vampire and I’m the Slayer."

"Oh, give me a break will you?" Spike rolled his eyes in frustration.

"How dare you sneak your way into my house and not tell me? When were you here?" suddenly it dawn on her: "You were here last night, weren’t you?" she asked accusingly.

"What? No!" he answered awkwardly.

"You were! You were skulking around here. You…" instinctively the finger tips of her right hand came to rest on her lips.

They stared at each other in silence. Suddenly, Spike turned around and tried to open the backdoor, but Buffy quickly slammed it shut.

"Oh, no! You’re not getting away that easily." She warned him as her hand kept the door firmly shut. "You can’t do this! You come back and don’t tell me, you-you follow me around and…" her right hand came to rest on her chest as the words tumbled out of her trembling lips "and I can *feel* you and I think I’m going out of my mind. And…"

Suddenly the phone rang. Buffy wondered what to do, but eventually she realised she had no choice but to move away from the door so she could answer the ringing.

"Hello?" Buffy’s voice was filled with anger.

"Hello, Buffy! It’s Giles. Could you please come over to the Magic Box, I think we’ve discovered what’s behind this… calling."

"Sure, I’ll be there in a few minutes." And she hung up turning to face the vampire. Without a word she made her way to the stairs and shouted:

"Dawn! Get dressed, we’re going to the Magic Box."

"What happen?" Spike asked.

"I thought you didn’t’ care." Buffy spoke haughtily.

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

"What is he doing here?" Xander immediately snapped as he saw the vampire walk in after Dawn and Buffy.

"He can help." Buffy answered.

Xander was about to protest but Anya cut him off: "Shut up, Xander!"

Spike and Anya exchanged a look and the vampire nodded in thanks.

"You’re welcome." She mouthed.

"Spike, glad to see you’ve changed your mind." Giles said.

Out of the corner of the Magic Box, Willow gave the vampire a huge grin and he answered by giving her his trademark smirk.

"Giles, you said you found something?" Buffy went straight to the point.

"Ye-Yes I think I did. Not just me, Willow helped."

"Hey!" Xander protested.

"And Xander, of course." Giles added as he moved towards the table to retrieve a book. "We found a passage that speaks about a…" he put on his glasses and quoted from the tome: "Foris caliga."

"English would be good." Buffy mocked.

"Basically it’s a… it’s like a… What can I call it?" Giles asked himself out loud.

"A black hole?" Willow offered.

"Well, yes you could say that. But instead of attracting matter, it attracts all that is purely demon, without a human soul." Giles explained.

"But we already knew that, right?" Buffy said impatiently.

"Yes, we did." Giles sighed. "But what we didn’t know is that this Foris caliga destroys the demons it attracts and condenses their powers."

"Ok. So what does it look like and how do I kill it?" Buffy stood up and pulled up her sleeves.

"You can’t kill it. It’s not a living creature. It’s not even a natural phenomenon like the black hole. It’s created by a powerful spell. Whoever cast it wants to have the power of all the demons in Sunnydale, maybe even more." Giles explained with a worried furrow over his forehead.

"So the only thing we can do is wait until Anya gets called again?" Dawn finally spoke.

"I guess so." Willow answered.

"Wait, wait a minute there. I don’t understand. You said this thing, this… Foris whatever only sucks in the pure demons, the ones with no human soul, right?" Xander began and when Giles nodded, he continued his reasoning: "Well, then why didn’t mister Big Bad Vampire over here get called?"

"That’s the one thing I can’t explain." Giles admitted.

Everyone stared at the vampire, as if expecting and answer. Spike’s mind raced as he pondered over telling them the truth, eventually he decided not to.

"Hey! Don’t look at me. Beats me if I know why I wasn’t called." He lied. "No need to tell them. We find the one who’s behind this thing, kill it and that’s it. Over and don’t with."

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