A/N OK, first off: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR 7x01 Secondly, this is a post-ep for that episode. We'll just say it's wishful thinking, with a semi-established Lilly/Scotty lovefest goin' on...I really am concerned with the amount of FanFiction I'm writing. You'd think I'd have other things to do, right? :S Anyway, I really like this story, so I hope you do too! Title comes from the Maroon 5 song of the same name! :)
Disclaimer: If only. There would be none of (looks around to see who is listening) those pictures...
Scotty lets himself in with the spare key she gave him a few months ago. The house is in darkness, but from the streetlight outside, he can see her sitting with her legs folded. She looks up as he enters, and for a moment he thinks she'll tell him to leave.
There are tear tracks shining on her cheeks.
"I worked my ass off to make this justice system work," Lilly says softly. Scotty moves to sit beside her, kicking off his shoes and laying his jacket across the back of the sofa.
"I promised you I'd get him, Lil, an' I will."
She is silent for a while, his quiet conviction washing over her like a reassuring blanket. He rolls up the sleeves of his shirt, and Lilly watches the muscles in his forearms, sees them flex as he pulls the white cotton out of his pants. She realizes, and not for the first time, that her partner is a very attractive man.
She wonders what he sees when he looks at her.
But they can't start thinking about each other like that, because she's spent years pretending he means nothing to her.
"What are you doing here, Scotty?"
"I heard you say 'hey'," he replies. Lilly nods, and he slowly moves along the sofa towards her, tentatively wrapping an arm around her.
The touching is still new for them.
It's just another part of them that they're still trying to work out.
He has a key to her house. She turns up at all hours of the night just because she knows he'll let her in.
But there's never been any touching before. Physical contact makes it clear that they are both lying when they tell themselves they are nothing more than friends.
Lilly thinks they passed friends months ago. Scotty doesn't know how far she'll let him go, and he doesn't know how far he'll push it.
"What you said to Grace," he begins, "about takin' things into your own hands."
Lilly turns her head to face him, uncertainty flashing in her eyes.
"Don't," he finishes simply. Her head falls onto his shoulder, and Scotty stares at the face now resting so close to his.
"I nearly killed him, Scotty," she says, her eyes closing at the realization of what she did or didn't do.
On its own, his hand traces a path up and down her arm, because if he can't comfort her like he wants to, he'll take the next best thing.
Lilly continues, and he feels her small body shake in the crook of his arm.
"I followed him to a bar. Sat outside, waited for him. He came out, and I turned my headlights on full beam."
"Like he did to you," Scotty says, and she nods. She's never told him exactly what happened, but he's read the report and has gleaned enough from the few times he's caught her in the middle of a nightmare.
"I was this close to driving after him. To running him off the road. But I couldn't."
He's surprised at the wrong part of her admission. He had known that she would try. He just hadn't expected her to back out.
"Why?"
"What kind of police officer does that make me if I become just like them?"
Her use of 'them' doesn't escape him, but Scotty lets it drop, because fighting every single one of her demons wasn't on his list of things to do tonight.
"You ever stop bein' a police officer?"
The look she gives him says no. He shrugs, pulls her back into him and breathes in the smell of her shampoo. Strawberry, if he's not mistaken.
"Then maybe that's what you gotta do. Just be Lilly Rush."
She can feel his fingers drifting up into her hair and then back to her arm, and Lilly can't think of a reason to tell him to stop.
"Do you think I was wrong?"
When he replies, his voice is soft, his breath dancing around the shell of her ear and sending shivers down her spine.
"I think you're lookin' at it like you ain't gonna make it out the other side. Like you're outta options."
"What if I am? What if I don't make it out the other side?"
"I ain't lettin' that happen. Ever."
Lilly doesn't say anything, and Scotty knows that he'll be leaving soon. Maybe ten minutes pass, but they're still sitting there in silence.
"It's late," he says after a while. She jumps, like his voice came as an unexpected interruption. Her eyes flick to the clock on the wall, reluctantly peeling her body away from his.
"You should go."
"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow?"
He phrases it as a question, because there's no telling what the night will mean for her, and it wouldn't be the first time she stayed in bed all day.
Lilly thinks for a moment. It's a hard choice.
"I think so," she says eventually, and Scotty smiles at the reluctance in her voice.
"I'm glad," he replies, because work without Lilly is really no fun at all.
But suddenly he can't leave. Gets to the door, hand on the handle and hesitates.
"You know, I can stay if you want," he says slowly. There's a tiny smile that comes and goes.
"Yeah, OK," Lilly replies, and they both pretend not to notice how it seems like that is what she has wanted all along.
Scotty kicks off his shoes, lays his jacket along the back of the sofa. He sits down beside her, and before he can move, Lilly is curling into him, her head fitting neatly under his chin.
Somehow his lips are touching her skin, so it's not really his fault when he kisses her forehead. Lilly hugs him tightly, and Scotty is willing to stay like that forever if she feels safe. He reaches for the remote, shifting his legs up onto the sofa so that his partner is comfortable.
"What are we watchin'?" he asks. Lilly shrugs. It's a pointless question, because give it ten minutes and she'll be asleep on top of him.
"This is fine," she says.
A documentary about wolves. Ironic, he thinks, that it should be wolves. It obviously hasn't escaped Lilly's attention either, because he feels her laugh softly, but then she's huddling further into him and everything else fades away.
Scotty will stay like that all night, her legs stretched out along his, her arms curled around him and her cheek resting on his chest.
He'll ignore the numbness when his leg goes to sleep, because Lilly looks more peaceful than she has since the last time they did this, and then it'll be morning.
But he won't move, even though it's not so much the night time she fears, but the darkness.
Maybe tomorrow will be the day when they admit defeat, acknowledge what everybody else has known for years.
Maybe it won't be tomorrow, maybe the day after that, but Scotty knows that for now he's happy just being her number two. Her wing man, her support. Her guy.
Lilly shifts, her soft hair rubbing against his chin and bringing him back to the present.
"Are you still here?" she murmurs, tightening her hold on him. Scotty rubs a hand over her back, one of his legs tangling around hers.
"Yeah, Lil," he whispers back, "I'm still here."
Don't tell anyone, but you may have noticed that I'm actually a hopeless romantic...LOL, please leave a review if you have a moment! :)