Wow, thanks so much for all your feedback. Here's the next chapter. I know there isn't much dialogue, but I needed some time to just have both of them come to their senses. If you have any suggestions for the storyline, PM me, or leave a comment, because I totally don't know where I'm going with this, only that Scotty and Lilly will be going together. Oh, and I realized I forgot to put a disclaimer on the first on, so hopefully this makes up for it.
Disclaimer: If I owned Cold Case, not only would it still be on the air, it would be in its Sunday 9pm time slot.
Chapter 2: Realize
As she stepped out of the crowded bar, Lilly was grateful for the cool night air on her burning cheeks. Her eyes were wide with panic, confusion, and she stared around, not entirely sure which way to walk or where to go. Silently wishing she'd paid more attention on the way here, Lilly settled for turning left and walking down a well lit avenue. God knows she needed the time to think anyways.
What exactly had happened back there? She didn't know. Where was she going now? She didn't know either. One minute she was sitting at the bar with Scotty, doused in companionable silence, and the next minute, he had his hand on her back, gently, caressingly, and he was looking at her as though there was something he couldn't bring himself to say. Sighing heavily, Lilly decided that the beginning was a good place to start processing her thoughts.
She and the team had solved another case, but instead of being satisfied like the rest of them, she'd immediately been – worried. Worried that, without a puzzling case to keep her busy, she'd have nothing to distract her from … from what? The nightmares? The loud noises? Her thoughts? The dark? Probably a combination of all of the above. Even so, she'd been fully intending to go home, cuddle up with her cats, and maybe watch a bad cop show on TV.
But then … Scotty Valens had smiled at her with that lopsided grin of his, and easily convinced her to accompany the team to Joe's. How had she agreed without putting up a fight? Maybe it was the sparkling twinkle in his eyes, still so full of optimism, even after the shooting. Or the way he always wore his heart on his sleeve, and one glance at him told her he wanted her there at the bar. Or perhaps, the way his sleeves were rolled up just enough to let her see his toned forearms …
Whoa. Where did that come from? How did she get from, from harmless television, to her partner – who was unbelievably attractive and so caring and…
Lilly shook her head and forced the – ill advised – thoughts of her partner out of her head. I've gone off the deep end, she thought. Looking up from the pavement that she'd been staring at for the past half hour as she walked, Lilly took in her surroundings. She was in an unfamiliar neighborhood, and the sun had now completely disappeared below the horizon. Shivering slightly and hailing a cab, Lilly pulled her coat closer around herself and tried to steer her thoughts in a more appropriate direction.
But as the taxi brought her back into familiar territory, the only thing that remained on her mind was Scotty. She'd noticed him the moment they met, she couldn't deny that, but he'd always been just her partner, her friend. And then there was the Christina calamity and he wasn't even that. And now … now he was the person she trusted more than any other. Lilly couldn't help but hope that having his arms around her would chase away the nightmares that'd been a constant in her sleeping hours since … since Ed Marteson.
But Lilly was so used to dealing with her problems by herself, that possibly having Scotty by her side, as wonderful as it would be, as wonderful as he was, hadn't even crossed her mind. But he was wonderful. Over the past 4 years, Lilly had seen Scotty almost every single day. Including the weekends and late nights they'd worked together, due to their mutual lack of outside lives in general, Scotty, and the team, was the one constant in her life.
And lately, she'd started noticing, moments, between her and Scotty. Times where there just seemed to be something deeper than partnership between them. Thinking back two years ago, to the day she'd been forced to spill her worse secret to George Marks, of all people, she knew that even then Scotty had held a place in her heart. She'd heard what he'd done for her. How he threatened to murder Marks if he hurt her. And beyond a shadow of a doubt, she knew he meant it and Lilly also knew how difficult that was for him. Because as much as she herself was closed off, reserved, guarded, Scotty was too.
Oh sure, when it came to anger, frustration, and just plain annoyance, Scotty was an open book. When Valens was chewing on something, the whole team knew, and he'd been called on the carpet more than once for his short fuse. But fear? That was another demon altogether. And Lilly knew that Scotty was scared that night. Scared that she would come out of that attic in pieces. Why? Because he cares about you, damn it. He – loves – you. And just the fact that you're thinking about him should tell you that you feel the same way, if you weren't so damn blind. Not wanting to explore any further, Lilly silenced the nagging voice in her head and focused instead on the case they'd solved today, and not the, frankly quite alarming, realization, that she might just be in love with none other than Scotty Valens.
Still deeply lost in thought, Lilly didn't notice that the taxi had pulled up on the driveway of her quaint little row house. "Excuse me, ma'am?"
"Yeah." Lilly replied absentmindedly. She then tossed a few bills up to the driver and told him to keep the change as she hurried out the door.
Back at the bar, Scotty was still nursing a scotch and thinking about the events of that night. There had been a moment, or so he thought … maybe. Damn it, there was definitely a moment, he rephrased. Their eyes had met, and just below the surface he'd seen thousands of words they never shared, despite years of working together.
Scotty sighed in frustration as he realized tonight was one of many nights he'd felt some sort of connection with Lilly, and not been able to do anything about it. Against his will, the night of the shooting came to mind and Scotty felt the bar fading away as another memory of him and Lilly took over. It was time she'd needed him.
Scotty and Kat had returned to the precinct and found it surrounded with flashing lights and scurrying personnel. Then Kat had swooped and ambushed a security officer, given him an infamous, piercing stare and demanded he explain what the hell was happening. That was when they'd found out.
Ed Marteson had returned, with a gun and a temper, and was fully prepared to take it out on the room of homicide detectives. Scotty's immediate reaction had been one of shock, but that was quickly followed, and overwhelmed, by anger. What the hell were these people doing? Walking around and talking on their damn walkie talkies, when his friends, his boss, and the woman he – cared deeply about – were stuck with a maniac. Why the hell wasn't anyone doing anything?
When the first shot rang out, Scotty's head had snapped up from his arms where he'd buried it. Panic. Complete, soul filling panic had consumed him and in that moment, if the building had been on fire he'd have charged in there the same way he did that night.
Upon reaching the squad room, a panting mess, he'd seen the blood spreading from Stillman's shirt and noticed that Lilly was nowhere to be found. Someone, Vera or Jeffries, he couldn't remember who, had answered his unasked question. She's in there. The next thing Scotty remembered was his phone ringing and Lilly small voice on the other side. Thank god, she's still alive. Scotty remembered thinking.
He registered her cryptic warnings about where they were, but nothing made sense to him until her last word. Hey. And that's when he knew he was going in there and that it was what she wanted. Drawing his gun, he'd charged into the interrogation room and listened to the frightening exchange on the other side, hoping against hope that Ed Marteson wasn't facing his direction. And then Lilly's voice, laced with fear and determination, had shocked him back into the moment. You wanna shoot me? Shoot me now! He remembered wondering what the hell she was doing, until he understood, straightened up and fired two shots, the first shattering the glass and the second killing Ed Marteson.
Charging through the door, Scotty kicked aside the gun that lay abandoned on the floor once its owner was no longer alive. Still completely focused on Marteson, he hadn't noticed Lilly until … he got me.
From then on, he remembered yelling for paramedics, catching her as she slid down toward the floor, bright crimson blood smearing on the gray wall. He knew someone had pushed his hands, stained with her blood from where he'd been applying pressure the best he could in his frantic state, away and affixed an oxygen mask on Lilly's expressionless face.
Snapping back to reality, Scotty downed the rest of his scotch and ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. Thinking about those things only served to remind him of how close he'd come to losing her – and how much it terrified him. And, of course, of how powerless he was from preventing it from happening again – because that was exactly where he stands in this moment.
He'd seen her the first day she came back to work. Hugged her, even, which was something they'd never done before. And then, out of the corner of his eye, he'd seen her jump when someone dropped an evidence box on the floor. At that point, his heart sank because he knew the tough front she was putting on was simply an act. Oh, he suspected as much, but actually seeing the fragile person inside her, that had ignited in him such a feeling – like wanting to pull her back into his embrace and just, be, Scotty and Lilly, until all the fear, and all the pain, just disappeared.
That feeling that started when she first came back to work, just never really left, Scotty found himself musing. Over the next month, he'd found himself constantly tiptoeing around her. Their usual friendly banter, sometimes going too far and ending in him apologizing, had all but completely disappeared. Because, and Scotty was surprised at this, because he was scared that by saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing, he'd break her even more. The last time he'd felt like this, he realized, was with Elisa.
For the second time that night, Scotty had to remind himself, Lil ain't like Elisa. She isn't sick. She isn't exuberant one day and depressed the other. She isn't weak. But she means just as much to me. And when it finally hit Scotty, he wanted to smack himself on the forehead. He'd been careful around her and worried about her, simply because he managed to – somehow, idiotically, inexplicably, and unbelievably – fall in love with her.
Talking aloud to himself, he said "You drunk or stupid Valens? Or both?" Mentally touching his finger to his nose, Scotty confirmed that he was, indeed, still in a reasonably sober mindset and after leaving some money on the counter and walking out the door, he wondered what he should do next.
Ah, finally. They both made some progress. Well, please leave me some feedback, it really makes my day and encourages me to keep writing. Like I said, this is my first story so constructive criticism is welcome.
