Disclaimer: All characters seen or mentioned on COLD CASE belong to CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer and are used without permission. Sueing me would be a waste of time, since there's nothing you'd get out of this.

If you don't like the idea of Scotty/Lilly, you should definitely leave. No sex, and no romance in this part ... we'll get to that later.

ORPHEUS AND EURYDIKE
No. 1: To Hyperborea
by Dare

Pens – a blue and a black one. Some sheets with doodles on them – witnesses to Stillman's boring conferences. A ticket for driving to fast and a small figurine of a cat, cut out of green stone. Jade maybe, but possibly some replica badly made in Japan. The cat had been inside his desk when he first occupied it and Scotty Valens intended to leave it there when he left.

He examined the small statue and noticed a small crack on it's chest and one of the ears eyes was missing. Sighing, he put it back into the drawer and closed it.

A carton contained all the stuff he called his own when he actually cleared his desk. Looking around the office, he noticed everyone was gone. Almost two years he had worked here. On one table he discovered the remnants of the cake Vera had brought to Scotty's goodbye-party. The cleaning lady would get rid of the rest.

Scotty Valens closed the carton, looked back at the office for one last time, then he started to leave. He just arrived at the door, when a voice called out for him:

"Not coming back this time?"

He turned, re-adjusted the carton in his hands and looked over to the frame of the interrogation room.

"I didn't know you were still here," he stated.

Lilly Rush smiled a smile so typical for her: A little bit sad and full of warmth and friendliness. After the little episode with Christina, Lilly Rush's sister, Scotty had seen that smile several times – but it had never been reserved for him.

Somehow he was grateful that she actually awarded him with this particular kind of gesture, but on the other hand: he would never see it again, since he was moving to ...

"Seattle is a beautiful city," she said.

"If you like rain." He rolled his eyes. "If you are the foggy and cloudy type."

Lilly smiled. "You'll get used to it. If you get there, you could do some sightseeing and send us pictures: Scotty and the Space Needle. Scotty and the Smith Tower. Scotty and the Bank of America Tower."

"Haha, very funny." Valens tried to look stern, but his eyes twinkled. "I will show those guys over there how this job it is done." A moment of hesitation and then: "I guess I will miss it."

"It?" Rush echoed. She left the interrogation door frame and came over until only one desk – Scotty's desk – was between them.

"Well, Vera's way to kick people's," Lilly raised an eyebrow at the word beginning with an "a" that was to follow. "Behinds, to begin with," Valens concluded.

If things had been different; if things had been ... without Christina, Scotty Valens, who was just staring at his blonde partner now, would have enjoyed their friendly banter and the temporary closeness that came with it – and he would have attempted to hug her.

But considering the current situation, considering the rift that had opened between them in the past few months, his desk between them was a large wall he could not pass.

The silence grew uncomfortable, at least for Scotty: he shifted from one feet to the other, while Lilly's amusement about his uneasiness grew.

"Well," he started.

"Well," she answered, cocking her head.

Scotty shook his head, managed to hold his carton with one hand and extended the other. "It's been a pleasure working with you, Detective Rush. Wasn't always easy, but a pleasure."

She took the hand and shook it firmly. "Same here,Detective Valens." When they let go of each other, there was a small moment of what-if – it filled the room just for a second, but it's mere presence made Scotty ache inside.

Lilly walked her former partner to his car, while opening all the doors for him he couldn't have opened with the carton he was carrying. He placed the carton next to the driver's seat, went over and opened the door on the driver's side.

"When you are in Seattle, be sure to drop in," he advised her.

Lilly smiled. "I will. Take care, Scotty."

"I will," he repeated her earlier sentence. "You too, Lil."

Then everything happened quickly: he got into his car, waved and drove away. He watched Lilly in the mirror and when she disappeared, something small whispered in the back of his head.

Something small he could not quite identify. And soon, it faded away and was gone.

Next day: Airport

Scotty Valens had already taken care of his luggage, when he showed his ticket to the nice lady behind the counter. The name tag said Stacy Miller and she smiled a white toothpaste smile.

She directed him to his plane and about forty minutes later, he was already in the air with more space between him and Earth than he wanted to think about.

Next to him was a overweighted guy who was constantly hungry and behind him some children screamed in a way that made him appreciate the earplugs he had brought.

A friendly stewardess brought him lunch and then, he just earplugged the world away and fell asleep.

Hours later, he awoke on the other side of the continent, far away from his past, from his family, from things he did not want to talk about – and for the first time in his life, he was actually happy to find a completely empty, a blank appartement.

He had a desk, a bed and some shelves and lots of filled cartons – everything he needed right now.

He phoned with his new department and a quirky secretary named "Tess" answered, telling him they were all expecting him tomorrow.

Then he installed his laptop, plugged in his internet connection and wrote a short mail:

To: L. Rush
From: S. Valens
Subject: Arrived

Hello, Lil,
I made it in one piece. Tell the others I said hi.
Regards, Scotty.

He stared at the mail, wondering if it was too personal.

'Too personal?' he cursed. 'Hello Lil? Too personal? Get a grip.'

He moved his cursor to the send-button and clicked once. The mail raced through the world wide web into someone else's mailbox.

Then he leant back, crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the monitor, the only light source in his dark, new appartement, in his dark, new life.

End of part #1

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