Silver Cloud, bitter lining (1/?)

Author- Midnight Faith

Spoilers- none

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

Pairing- Lilah/Lindsey

Rating- R

Summary- Cordy and Lilah go to Sunnydale…

Disclaimer- not mine… yadda, yadda

Notes- sequel to 'Southern Comfort.' You'll probably want to read that first…

"Let me come with you…" Lindsey asked Cordy pleadingly as she began to throw the entire contents of her wardrobe into her grey, plastic suitcase.

"It's not a good idea, Lindsey," she told him exasperatedly.

"Why not?"

She stopped folding the blue tank top she was holding and turned to look at him.

"Lilah's only been gone a week," she told him, "And you need to give her time to heal. If you don’t you'll scare her off forever…" she told him gently but firmly.

"I just… I'm going crazy without her…" Lindsey told Cordy.

"I know…" she told him, "We all are. I miss her too."

"I can’t sleep without her by my side," he told her honestly.

Cordy, not knowing how to reply only gave him a sympathetic smile instead.

"Have you spoken to her?" Lindsey asked her.

She shook her head.

"No, I haven’t heard from her since she split… she left a message on my voicemail when she got there… but that was a week ago."

"Well do you think I could call her… when you get to Sunnydale?" he asked Cordy.

"Lindsey… Just give her a little time," she advised, "She'll come round."

"And what if she doesn't?" Lindsey asked, a little fearfully.

"You have to keep telling yourself she will…" Cordy told him.

"What about a letter? Or some flowers?" Lindsey asked in desperation.

Cordy continued to look at him vacantly.

"Well at least give her a message from me?" Lindsey said, as a last resort.

"I guess that would be OK…" Cordy told him.

"Will you tell her, I love her. I'm sorry and I didn’t mean what I said." He asked her.

"Do you want to elaborate on that?" Cordy asked him suspiciously.

"She'll know what I mean…" Lindsey told her elusively…

*****

The large, black limo went unusually unnoticed pulling up at the rear entrance of 'The Bronze,' Sunnydale's only night club.

It was just before dusk and the streets were uncommonly deserted. Even demons and vampires apprehended these people. The ebony car seemed to seep evil even they feared.

Lilah felt strange. Sneakers in a limo? Through the vodka-related haze, two empty bottles littering the limo floor, she was barely able to form a rational thought.

"You didn’t tell me about Mystic…" Gavin trailed off, swirling scotch in hand, so the ice cubes jangled against the side of the glass.

"Nothing to tell…" she said, her voice unnaturally emotionless, despite the alcohol.

"And…" he said, "I have a right to know. Everything."

"Nothing to tell…" she repeated, snatching the scotch from his hand.

"Did you kill it?" he asked her shortly and glacial.

Luckily in the dusk, he didn’t notice the slight flinch in her features.

"No," she told him. A single syllable bled of emotion.

"Why not?" he asked her.

"Why shell out the money?" she said heartlessly, staring at the empty vodka bottles.

"Tick tock Lilah," he said tapping his watch. Then as an afterthought added, "You know you'll have to be quick now."

She sighed.

"Don’t you know a good shaman or something?" she snapped at him.

"Hormones?" he quipped, before explaining, "The senior partners think it will be a valuable life experience if you go through this the human way."

"Really?" she asked him, "Does everyone back at the office know everything?"

He shrugged.

"Pretty much."

"Everything?" she asked him.

"There was a memo," Gavin told her with a slight malicious smile, "Why didn't you just kill it in Nevada?"

"The clinic didn’t have a space," she told him dryly, drinking down the rest of the scotch in the glass in one gulp.

"Stop playing games, Lilah," he told her dangerously, "The senior partners won’t wait forever."

"I know."

"LA's two hours away," he said with mock neutrality, "I could just send you to my doctor."

"Thanks awfully, Gavin, but I'm not five years old. I can look after myself."

"Just trying to look out for you that's all…"

"I bet you are…"

"I was actually being sincere. I can’t wait to have you back on my team… really my team this time."

"Thanks for rubbing it in,"

"My pleasure," he told her, leaning across in a scotch-induced haze to kiss her on the cheek.

She recoiled in loathing.

"No kissing," she told him sharply, "any amount of touching is fine. No kissing."

"*Any* amount of any touching?" he asked her.

"Why not?" she shrugged.

"Look forward to seeing you in a week…" he told her.

"Whatever…" she told him, allowing the driver to open the door for her.

"Have fun…" he said after her with false brightness.

"I will…" she reassured him, equally as deceitful.

The driver shut the door handing her, her bag.

She suppressed the urge to say thankyou assuring herself the 'nice' Lilah that Lindsey had brought out was long gone. She scowled at the memory of him.

'I don’t miss him,' she reassured herself as she watched the limo drive away, 'I don’t miss him at all…'