Southern Comfort (17/?)

Author- Midnight Faith

Spoilers- none

Distribution- FF.net, AOH anyone else just ask :)

Pairing- Lilah/Lindsey, Lilah/Gunn, minor Fred/Gunn

Rating- R

Summary- Lilah and Gunn go on patrol…

Disclaimer- not mine… yadda, yadda

"I'm sorry it's such a lousy night," Gunn said as he and Lilah sheltered in an alleyway against the sudden July showers that were pouring down torrentially around them.

When they'd left the Hyperion they'd heading west towards the western most corner of Hollywood where Gunn knew a vampire cult operated from. With only two of them they knew they wouldn't be able to take out the whole of the cult. But they at least hoped to eliminate a few stragglers so they could come back later in the week with some of Gunn's former gang and take out as many of the cult if they could.

"It's OK…" Lilah said, the frustration evident in her voice, "Just not our night."

She shivered against the iciness of the driving rain. When they'd left the hotel an hour before the night had been almost as warm as the humid July day. Now it seemed colder than it was in Vermont.

Now they were sheltering between two dumpsters in a desolate, dirty alleyway, shivering and anxious. Lilah had sworn she heard a rat scuttle across the opposite side of the path only minutes earlier and was still willing her heart rate to return to normal.

Her vermilion vest top clung to her making her skin impossibly more saturated.

"Come here," Gunn said.

She trusted him enough to pull her to him, enveloping her to his virile chest, wrapping his denim jacket around them both.

Despite the materiel being completely drenched the heat of his skin against hers made her inevitably warmer.

"Are you OK?" he asked her.

She nodded.

"We should head back," she said, "Before we both die of exposure or something,"

"Yeah it doesn't look like the storm will break tonight," he said.

The alley was dark. So dusky that they could barely make out each other's features set in faces now looking at each other, straining their eyes to see if they could look beyond. Like they never had allowed themselves to do before.

Gunn's kiss was nothing like she expected it to be, more like the feral embraces she had received back in her days helping to pave the road to hell at Wolfram and Hart. Out of passion, her lips tempestuously met his, the intensity bruising, constricting their mouths so tightly they could barely breathe. He took her breath away in a technique she'd hardly dared to imagine, so much so that it frightened her.

When he broke the kiss and pushed her away from him, his eyes searched hers, pursuing in the cloudy light cast down the centre of the alley. He saw such candid desire burning there. He pressed her back against the opposite wall, kissing her again, so drunk on lust he could barely hold his thoughts together.

Their kiss continued until long after the rain had stopped…

*****

"Better?" Lindsey asked her.

She nodded from beneath the covers of his bed,

"Better," she repeated.

Once Lilah and Gunn had returned home in mortified silence Lindsey had taken Lilah's shivering form in his arms and drew her to him.

Fred had been there too, fidgeting over a nasty cut on Gunn's lower lip still bleeding from when they had left the alley.

"They outnumbered us pretty bad," Gunn lied, skilfully avoiding everyone's eyes, "We were kinda lucky to escape."

"Did you get hurt?" Lindsey tenderly asked Lilah.

She shook her head.

"I don't think so," she told him.

Lindsey peeled Gunn's damp jacket from her shoulders.

"Yeah you did, can you not feel these cuts?" he asked, running his fingers gently along the scratches, mid way down her shoulder blades, "How did you get these when you had Gunn's jacket on?"

"She didn't have my jacket on the entire time," Gunn cut in.

"I only put it on to walk home in," she added quickly.

"There looks like there's something in these cuts," Lindsey said leaning in closer, "It's weird. They look like friction marks… like rope burn or something. And brick dust inside them."

"We got chased into an alley," Gunn told Lindsey.

"Yeah, I got pinned up against the wall by a vamp," Lilah notified him.

"Are you OK?" Lindsey asked her.

"I'm fine… really I am…" Lilah told him.

"Can I go run you a bath?" he asked her.

"OK," she nodded following him up the stairs.

Now, an hour later, he'd wrapped her in his warm, red, terrycloth robe and laid her in his bed, pulling his green comforter up around her.

"Do you need anything?" he asked her, "Painkillers… TCP… a hot water bottle."

"Do you even own a hot water bottle?"

"No… but I'll find one if you need it."

"I don't, thankyou."

"It's fine."

He crawled into bed moving on his side, next to her.

"Does your back hurt?" he asked her.

"She turned over so she faced him.

"Not any more it doesn't," she said, as his hand snaked across her waist.

"Lindsey?" her tentative voice reached his ears.

"Hmmm?"

She looked into his eyes.

"I love you," she told him, tears clinging to her eyes.

He pulled her into a tight hug and carefully squeezed her waist as tears ran down her cheeks.

"It's OK…" he told her soothingly, "Tonight really shook you up huh?"

She nodded as she looked into his eyes.

"I thought… I was going to lose you," she told him.

"It'll *never* happen," he said, "Never. I love you too much to let you go."

"I'm sorry," she told him, "All I've ever actually done in this relationship is get hurt and cried."

"That's not true. When I'm with you… you make me feel like no-one else ever has."

"I know…" she said, "You too."

His kiss was light against her lips, bringing back fierce memories of the night's events, making fresh tears spring to her eyes.

He didn't let go of her until the first fingers of dawn filtered across the room early the next morning…