Title: A Whitelighter's Priority

Author: rachelAbendstern

Summary: Chris whines... :)

Spoilers: Season 6 Charmed; I forgot to mention BtVS last chapter, 'The Gift'

Disclaimer: Neither Buffy nor Charmed is mine, and I don't make any money with it. Lily though belongs to me XP

4. It's getting frustrating!

Wherever you go, I'm going with you

Shouldn't you know I'm bound to follow

Whatever you say, whatever you do

I give you a clue, I'm gonna follow

As Chris orbed in that night, it was to see Spike add cornflakes to his mug of blood. The vampire caught him staring and, smirking, mock-cheered him with his cup before taking a deep swallow, crunching the flakes deliberately loud.

The witch raised one eyebrow then, shaking his head ruefully, stated: „Why don't I pretend I didn't just see that?"

„You sound like the Whelp!" Spike snorted amused. „At least now I know why you take it so easy having a demon around. You being a Whitelighter and all that, I would have imagined you'd be a pain in my ass."

"Yeah, well," Chris replied, still not quite comfortable with the idea that the Hellmouth gang knew about his secrets.

"How are they doing, anyway?" Changing the subject was always a good course...

And he was indeed concerned if there had been any more desperate ideas running through his charge's head or if her friends were trying to convince her to do anything stupid. After all, the Slayer's death had been harsh on all of them. Then again, at least Spike and Tara would have been sensible enough to call him if there had been any other incidents while he had been away.

"Coping I think. About time as well. You did a nice job, suggesting to summon her spirit." Spike wore a curious expression, somewhere between relief and distress.

"You loved her, didn't you?" the witch realized with a start.

"I'm a demon, I'm not able to feel love!" Spike was quick to reply, but even without knowing about his aunt Phoebe and her demonic lover Cole, Chris wouldn't have bought it.

"Yeah, right!"

However, the vampire had no intention on going down that road. Pretending not to have heard Chris, he asked a question of his own instead.

"What about you, witch boy? Have you found anything interesting concerning your future evil sibling?"

"Nooo..." Deciding to drop the subject and answer Spike's question, the brunette youth slumped down on one of the chairs on the opposite side letting his head rest on top of the counter.

He was in the mood to indulge in some whining right now and since he couldn't exactly go to the sisters, Spike would have to bear with him.

"I was in the Underworld and some other demonic gathering points I know of for almost three frigging weeks and I still don't have any lead on who turned Wyatt! It's getting really frustrating, let me tell you that!"

"I imagine. All I picked up on was some rumour that a powerful demon wanted to escape the fires of hell, but as of now, he didn't succeed." Chris could still hear the vampire crunching on his blood-dripping flakes in between sentences. Yuck.

"Barbas," he sighed in agitation, ineffectively trying to block out the irritating noise. "Yeah, I heard that as well. And maybe I ought to keep an eye on that. If he really does get out he could get to be a problem again, but I just don't understand what he would want with Wyatt."

He sat up again, raking his hands through his already tousled hair. "And to make things worse, Leo is stalking me every chance he gets after he caught me with a potions master."

Suddenly angry, he slammed his hands down on the counter. "Stupid Elders!"

"Whoa!" Spike easily caught the glass that suddenly went flying at the witch's outbreak. "Chill, boy!"

A not quite convincing mumbled "Sorry" left Chris' lips as he once again slumped down on the counter. For all that Chris always said he couldn't care less about his father, Leo was the only one able to make his blood boil like that, loathe as he was to admit it.

"Elders in general or Leo in particular?" The vampire asked,curious as to what had caused this little display.

"Elders in general and Leo in particular," the boy replied wryly.

"The Elders were never really fond of Wyatt and me, I guess," he elaborated at Spike's questioning gaze. "After the Titans, they were afraid of too much power in a few hands and although I'm not as powerful as Wyatt, I'm still the son of a Charmed One and an Elder and they let me feel their revulsion."

Chris was getting agitated again, remembering the horrible way the Elders in his time had treated them. When his brother had killed the ones who had had survived the Titans' attack, Chris was actually more upset about his sibling giving in to the desire to kill than the fact that the Elders had been murdered itsself.

But before his powers could leash out again, Spike interrupted his thoughts.

"Have you ever taken into consideration then that it might not have been a demon who turned your brother?" He asked, calmly leaning back against the fridge and crossing his arms over his chest.

Chris looked up at him, considering the idea. "You mean the Elders? Why would they want to tip the balance towards evil? They were afraid enough of him when he was good!"

"Maybe accidentally?"

"Maybe," the young man conceded. "I'll keep it in mind. After those three weeks I'll accept almost any theory! - God!"

Putting his hands over his face, he complained: "You have no idea what it feels like to be someone I am not around them." Chris himself didn't quite know if he meant the sisters, the Elders or the demons.

"I don't?" Something in Spike's tone made him look up again.

He was taken a bit by surprise when he saw the vampire's demon face staring back at him.

"Okay, so maybe you do!" The boy acknowledged with a hint of embarrassment. "But you know I don't care what your face looks like. And I bet you anything that at least Dawn doesn't either."

The blonde vampire smirked, one last time showing off his canines before reverting to his human face.

"Wouldn't want the nibblet to get any ideas, now would we?"

"Oh, don't worry," Chris replied in amusement, "she'll get those all by herself!"

Spike pulled a face at that statement but then changed the subject once more.

"Listen, can you stay in with Dawn tonight? The brats are already hunting and someone has to watch their backs."

"I'm no babysitter, Spike!" Chris objected exasperated.

"Besides, don't you think the girl's old enough to survive one night on her own in her own house. It's not like she's thick enough to invite a stranger in."

"I'm not taking any chances!" Spike snapped harsher than he intended.

Taking an unneeded deep breath, he continued more calmly: "You're only studying your books again anyway, you can do that just as well in here."

Without waiting for his friend's reply the vampire took off, calling a casual "Thanks" over his shoulder before shutting the door from the outside.

Chris just stood there, gaping after the tall blonde openmouthed before shaking his head in resigned annoyance.

"You can come out now." He called to the girl he knew was standing just outside the kitchen in the hallway.

Dawn perked her head in, smiling an impish smile with just a touch of guilty conscience. Chris could easily imagine her being exactly the little troublemaker Lily was when she was his daughter's age.

"Thanks for trying!" She said, coming the whole way in when she realized Chris wasn't mad at her for eavesdropping.

The older youth only grimaced.

"How 'bout dinner? I'm starving!"

666

They were sitting in the living room, the table packed with ancient tomes and volumes about witchcraft and demons, pieces of paper with notes in Chris' neat small handwriting or Dawn's broad elegant letters scattered all over. It was a small wonder in the girl's opinion that the table had yet to break under the weight of it all.

Laying on the floor on her stomach, leafing through yet another heavy book, Dawn thought this whole research-thing would be way easier if they knew what they were actually looking for. The Whitelighter beside her had only instructed her to put down any demons that seemed worth looking into. That didn't really narrowed it down.

Instead of being bored though, the teen found this quite interesting. She had never known just how many magical and mystical creatures existed. And not only demons for that matter...

"Damn..." she heard Chris mutter next to her.

"Yeah," Dawn agreed whole-heartedly, assuming he was as frustrated as she was at not finding anything of importance. "This would be a whole lot easier if we knew what we were looking for."

To her surprise, the young man let out a small laugh. "No, I didn't mean that," he clarified. "Phoebe is calling me. And the gang won't be back for another hour."

"So?" The girl asked, seizing the opportunity to gain a bit more freedom like any other teenager her age. "I can manage on my own for a while."

Again Chris laughed, although Dawn couldn't tell if he was indeed amused or if it was another bout of the Whitelighter's habitual sarcasm.

"I know you can." He looked at her with shining eyes. So it was both amusement and sarcasm, the teen concluded. Sure enough Chris' next words confirmed her observation. "But Spike would gladly skin me alive if I left you alone for ten minutes."

Dawn however was quick to object. "He wouldn't. Even if he could." After all, the vampire and the Whitelighter had gotten rather close these last few months.

"Oh, he could!" At her disbelieving stare the halfbreed patiently explained his statement. "I'm not quite human, you know. My father was – is – a full Whitelighter, which means technically he's dead."

"And that makes you what? Half-dead?" Honestly amused this time, Chris laughed at her confused question.

"It makes me just enough not-quite-human for Spike to be able to fight with me."

An irritated look passed over his face that Dawn wasn't able to explain until she heard him shout exasperatedly with his head turned towards the ceiling: "I'm coming, damnit!"

A sudden mirth lighting up his eyes, he looked back at Dawn. "Fancy a trip to San Francisco?"

tbc

A/N: Told you it would be shorter this time. A lot of talking and not much action here, sorry. But I guess you can imagine what happens next time... Dawn meets the Charmed Ones. (And Spike, too ;) )

Wish me luck for my exams this week ;;

Intro's from 'Stars' by Roxette by the way.

Oh, yeah, mustn't forget the reviewers:

Lonnie: Thanks :)

Leigh1986: Wow, I feel honored. Hope you still like it when I'm done ;)

Phoebe Turner: Well thanks. I'll try

YoshimiWolfspaw: What can I say? Thanks! I couldn't help myself. And I know, the show wouldn't have gone on without Buff, but honestly how thick can you get, to bring back the dead?

phoeeebs: I updated XP . I'll try to once a week. Thank you.

LoganBlackisle: Wow! There are male authors around? ;) No offence. Anyway, thanks for the praise! I totally agree with you about Buff.

So, I think I'll keep doing that, answering the reviews by e-mail if I can (LoganBlackisle: You are an exception here because I only just saw your review) and the rest at the chapter's end.

See ya all next week, I hope :)