Silver Cloud, Bitter Lining (18/?)

Author- Midnight Faith

Spoilers- none

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

Pairing- Lilah/Lindsey, Lilah/Gunn

Rating- R

Summary- Crescendo

Disclaimer- not mine… yadda, yadda

Warning- again, this part of the story deals with mature issues that include mild BDSM

"You need to slow down…" Buffy told Lindsey, "You're going to get us a ticket at this rate."

"Or wrap us around a lamppost," Cordy pointed out.

They'd piled into Wesley's car. Buffy sat in the front seat next to Lindsey with Willow and Cordelia crammed nervously into the back seat both tensely chewing on their fingernails.

The weather had turned and the rain feel in thick sheets as the car began its ascent up the hill that housed the warehouse and the view of the mountains in the distance.

"I haven't chewed my nails since the second grade…" Cordy told Willow quietly.

"I've only just become a nail biter," Willow said back.

Buffy turned to Lindsey in the front seat.

"We'll find them," she reassured him.

"We have to…" Lindsey told Buffy, "I need her."

"Yeah and Dawn will be with her and we can all go home and have milk and cookies…" Willow said with an optimistic pep to her voice.

"I'm all for the power of positive thinking…" Cordy began, "But I'm hyped to fight."

"First fight situation?" Buffy asked Cordy.

"I'm tagged along on patrols and stuff a few times… but I'm more of a Skinner than a Scully… I mostly just watched…"

"If you know how to use a stake you're useful…" Buffy told her, "And speaking of staking… what about Gunn? What if he's got them?"

"We don't have a choice…" Cordy said, "We'll have to kill him just… I can't… he was my friend and… I just can't."

"If I have to… I'll stake him…" Willow said fearfully.

"You said it yourself Cordy, we don't have a choice…" Buffy told her gently.

"I know…" Cordy said painfully, "I know it's not Gunn…"

"It's right up here on the left…" Buffy told Lindsey in relation to the location of the warehouse, "Right guys… are we ready?"

*****

Lilah couldn't help but kiss Gunn back feeling completely powerless against him.

So far he'd only taken off her shirt and he'd been kissing his way teasingly from her lips, to her neck and stomach than retracing his trail back up her body, his hands resting tantalisingly on the waistband of her jeans.

"Gunn…" she moaned in frustration, tearing her lips away from his, breathing in ragged gasps.

"What are you going to do about it evil girl?" He breathed unnecessarily between nipping kisses on her neck, grazing the skin lightly with his teeth.

"I'm not evil," she told him, despite herself, arching her neck against his mouth giving him more control.

He kissed the skin over her pulse point hard.

"There," she said, kissing his neck, "Keep doing that…"

Part of her wished her hands were free so there was a balance of power somehow, so she could touch him and feel his cold skin beneath her hands. He could kill her in an instant this way just as sure as she was that he wouldn't.

Suddenly from behind Gunn the door burst open.

Buffy, Willow, Cordelia and Lindsey rushed in, brandishing stakes, crosses and bottles of holy water, freezing almost instantaneously at the scene that greeted them.

Without thinking for a moment, Willow lunged forward and stabbed the stake she was holding straight into Gunn's back over the point where she knew his unbeating heart lay.

Everything happened in slow motion then for Lilah.

She closed her eyes tightly so she wouldn't have to watch Gunn turning to dust before her as his ashes clung to her skin, forming a thin, dusty, broken layer.

When she opened her eyes the only person she could see was Lindsey and his eyes and all the sorrow and betrayal that lay there.

He turned away seemingly calm, tears gleaming in his eyes. Lilah felt she should call out to him, say something, tell him Gunn meant nothing and that everything else was meaningless. But she knew she would just be lying to him further. They were just empty words. Gunn had meant something…

It hit her then, like a tidal wave. Lindsey could never be all that she wanted. They'd never be happy together. They'd never even just be together again.

For the first time in her life Lilah cried with the agony of losing someone she truly loved…