Well gang, I'm sending out a big apology for not updating for over a week. I've been super sick, and this is the first time I've opened my laptop since my last update. I'm also sorry if anything is severely atrocious, just wanted to get something out there as a thanks to everyone who has reviewed, or put this story on alert.

THANKS J

Still don't own anything. Bleak bleak bleak.

Lilly took in the sights around her, and embraced a quick flourish of something joyful. Everything felt light. Whatever those colorful drinks Kat had been bringing her were, she could only imagine it was magic in a bottle. She grinned at Scotty, who was sitting beside her fixing yet another umbrella from her drink into her ponytail. Something told her she shouldn't feel so carefree with his fingers in her hair, but with the world sparkling all about, that feeling skated to the back of her mind. She started to laugh when Vera's foot clumsily made it's way to her instead of Kat, and Scotty made a grab for her waist and whispered to her.

"I better stop makin' you more beautiful, Lil. All these losers got their eyes on you, and if I don't watch close, they're gonna run off with you."

She leaned closer to him, "Why you so worried? Got plans for me, Valens?"

"Not sure yet, but those umbrellas got me thinkin' about how tropical you could look."

Her cheeks lit rosy and she got up.

"Time for another drink."

The line was impossibly long, but it made good time to roll Scotty's comments over in her mind. Was he being serious or just playing around? Anymore it was so hard to tell with him. And damned if she didn't start thinking about how tropical he could look in a number of situations, too. The barman slapped her glass down on the counter and she replaced it with some extra cash in unknown thanks for saving her from that train of thought.

The could be happy train screeched to a halt when she got back to their table, though. Randii-with two i's for extra annoyance-had taken a seat and now Scotty's arm was thrown carelessly across the back of her chair as they shared whispered exchanges. She wasn't entirely sure where he had found this particular Christina reboot, or how she found her way to their celebration, but Lilly knew trouble when she saw it. Trouble didn't belong here-not tonight, not later. And even though it turned her stomach, she still took her seat by his. She also drank herself to the bottom of every glass that wandered in her way.

So an hour later, when Randii was still ruining Lilly's night, the liquor made a move forward.

Of their own accord, her hands shot out and took hold of his face, physically making him give her attention.

"Scotty, I'm thirsty. Come get a drink with me."

He wrapped his hands around hers, and smiled kindly.

"Lil, I think another drink is the last thing you need."

"One last one for the road! C'mon!"

"Okay. If you promise I get to cut you off after that."

She moved just a little too fast, but thankfully Scotty was already there to catch her.

"You sure I can't just get you a ride home?"

"How about you?"

"You know I would, Lil, but I ain't in no condition to drive, and even if I was, you know I've got Randii waiting."

"She's no good for you, Scotty. You should come home with me instead."

"What are you sayin', Lil?"

"That you should come home with me tonight."

She slid her hand up the front of his work shirt.

"From what you were saying earlier, I was kinda workin' under the impression you might like to come with me too."

At half-past five, Lilly woke up disoriented in the middle of Scotty's bed, wondering what had made her dream about that?.

And when had he moved her?

The last thing she remembered was closing her eyes during a commercial, so she could only guess that he had moved her at some point after that. Her clothes were intact, no sticky puddle of drool, and nothing else in memory she should be embarrassed about since the man himself wasn't around, so she dared to close her eyes once more and try for another hour of sleep. Only fifteen short minutes later, though, he was shaking her leg to wake her.

"Rise and shine, Lil. We got places to be and a long ass time on the road to get there."

She kicked futilely at him.

"We don't have to be at work until eight today. Boss said."

"Boss didn't know how far out in the sticks Blaine lives. Go jump in the shower. I set your overnight bag in there."

Lilly groped blindly for his hand, when she found it she laced her fingers with his, and began with all the sincerity she could muster with her eyes still closed.

"Valens, I still have so much to teach you. See, when people are elderly, they move at a certain speed. That speed is slow. They also enjoy sitting in one place for extended amounts of time. Tommy's gonna be there no matter if we get there at eight or ten. I'm going back to sleep now. Feel free to join me. Goodnight."

Scotty decided to indulge her for a little while, and laid down to study her. Besides, why should she have to suffer because he felt restless?

Looking at her now kind of felt like a miracle to him. At ten years plus as partners, they had done pretty much everything humanly possible to screw up what they had, but here she was sleeping in his bed more like best friends would do. Maybe they were invincible. Each could take a beating, but they would always end up together at a scene, or the office, or even in bed holding hands despite the two feet of space he was careful to put between their bodies.

As nice as it was, suspicion still gnawed at his gut and threatened to ruin it all. He wanted to lift up her shirt and see if he would find bruises, or go through her cell and see if he could find a nasty text message from Jared, call in and find out if somebody else had been hassling her and she didn't tell him. He was glad to have her over, but she wasn't telling him the whole truth and that was eating at him.

Maybe she really believes she's pregnant, but he knows her too well. If she wanted to worry about her figure, or cravings she'd go find Kat because he wasn't exactly Lamaze material and he didn't know a damn thing about maternity clothes. No, she came to him because something's scaring her. Too bad she can't just spit it out.

"Scotty."

She was calling his name again in that plaintive tone he knew didn't belong with a nightmare, so he let her be just as he had the night before. Still, he wondered what she could be dreaming about. Maybe they were having coffee, or a couple of beers on the roof.

That'd be nice, he decided, right before he fell back asleep.

___

Two hours later, after Lilly showered and Scotty changed out of his wrinkly suit, they pulled up outside of the farmhouse where Tommy Blaine now lived.

His home had an eclectic vibe, where chickens roamed in the front yard next to giant wind chime structures, and an American flag flew on a pole next to the Gay Pride flag. Not exactly the décor of most retired detectives.

Scotty turned to smirk at Lilly, but she had found her way over to one of the giant wind chimes. Her face held the wistful amusement of a child as she took in all the intricate metal work. He went over to join her when a voice rang out.

"I call that one Freedom. Do you like it Miss?"

They turned toward the porch where they heard the voice. An older man with a weathered face and thick shock of white hair hung over the porch rail with a grin on his face. He moved down the steps with the ease and carriage of a man much younger than himself.

Scotty made the first step towards him.

"Detective Tommy Blaine?"

The older man stretched out his hand, "Last time I checked son. And you are?"

Lilly stepped away from the structure and extended her own hand.

"Detective Lilly Rush, my partner, Scotty Valens. We're with Philly Homicide."

Tommy took her hand in both of his own, and impossibly, his grin widened.

"A detective, huh? Well isn't that just fine! Fine indeed," he tugged on her hand to pull Lilly towards the porch, "Come, let's have some lemonade inside detectives."

The inside of his home proved just as odd as the outside. Hundreds of pictures were displayed all around of Tommy at various marathons, telethons, and marches. He had delicate Japanese tea settings on a table with folded football jersey. Clearly, Tommy Blaine had lied quite a life in the past fifty years.

Once seated, with the drinks poured, Tommy sat himself down in an old wicker rocker and observed the detectives looking all about. With a wry smile he commented to them, "As you can see, detectives, I've taken an interest in just about every cause where someone is the underdog. I've supported women's rights, integration, civil rights, gay rights-you name it. No one deserves to be the mud on someone else's shoe."

"You're a wild thinker from someone in your generation," Lilly responded with a smile of her own.

"Just logical, my dear, just logical. So are you going to let me know what brings you all the way out here? There hasn't been a murder or missing person in this county for over twenty years."

Scotty decided to jump in, "Our particular squad mostly works with cold cases. We got a visit the other day from Nancy Collins. She gave us some new direction on the murder of Eleanor Collins."

For a moment Tommy's eyes closed and his rocking ceased. It felt like almost everything from chickens to chimes went still with the mention of her name. Finally he let out a quiet sigh and resumed his rocking.

"How can I help you?"

"Why don't you start with telling us a little bit about her, how you met her?" Lilly asked.

"Eleanor Collins was the most wonderful woman I've ever met in my life. One day I was at the market and that was the first time I laid eyes on Ellie and Nancy. Ellie had on these ridiculously fussy gloves, but when we both went for a tomato, I could see the edge of a bruise on her wrist. Things were different then, and cop or no cop, you didn't speak those kinds of concerns out loud, but that didn't stop it from buggin' the hell out of me. We exchanged pleasantries, names, and I started going to the market everyday hoping to run in to her again. I didn't see her for three weeks, then out of the blue she showed up at my doorstep."

Tommy took a pause, then continued.

"Nancy was black up one end and blue down the other. Arty really did a number on that baby. Ellie had left her with him while she ran to the pharmacy, and he had decided Nancy was crying too much. She wanted help getting out, and I gave it to her. Moved herself from Chestnut Hill down to an apartment by the precinct, took on a job as a secretary to make ends meet, and never looked back."

When it seemed like the memory was too much, Lilly placed her hand on top of Tommy's, and murmured, "She sounds like a brave lady."

One corner of his mouth went up when he replied, "Oh she was. You would've liked her a lot Detective, you remind me a bit of her in the face. She was smart, too. If there was such a thing as a lady detective in the fifties, she would've been one. Always huntin' through my notes, pickin' my brain, tellin' me how I had it all wrong."

He sat back and took a long, measured look at Lilly. When she started to squirm under the scrutiny, Scotty interceded.

"She ever say anything to you about The Avenger?"

"The Avenger? She only mentioned him once when I found this creepy figurine on her desk. Made her stop walking around alone, asked Phyllis to pick Nancy up in the car after school, just had a bad feelin' you know? But she never mentioned it again, and it had been months. I figured someone had a crush on her and gave up. You thinkin' this character was the one who killed my Ellie?"

Scotty pulled out the bagged note card and handed it to Tommy.

"This is what Nancy found in her coat pocket. Anything about it familiar?"

Tommy read carefully, then tapped it with a crooked finger, "What it says about the caged bird? That's just like the figurine I saw on her desk."

"Do you know what happened to the figurine?" Lilly asked.

"I just assumed she tossed it. I can't believe she didn't tell me. Trusted the man, not the reaction."

Scotty's head snapped up, "What do you mean by that?"

"I imagine if you're looking into Ellie's murder, you'll be looking in to Arty's? I might as well tell you that the alibi she gave me was just a tale. I swear I didn't kill him, but I was at home alone. Ellie said she believed me, but I think she thought I really had offed him, but I did it for her and Nancy and that was a noble enough reason to lie. 'A woman really loves you if she'll lie for you.' My Pop used to say that all the time."

Lilly took a moment to absorb, then reached into her bag for a card.

"I think we have everything we need, Detective…"

Tommy took the card and stuck it in his pocket before interrupting.

"Tommy. Call me Tommy. I haven't been a detective in quite awhile."

"We'll be in touch, Tommy."

She turned herself to leave, and Scotty followed in suit until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You said you saw Nancy?"

Scotty turned around, and leaned against the doorway.

"Yeah. We saw her. How about you?"

The older man began to worry the frayed edge of his flannel top before he answered.

"Oh I haven't seen her in about fifty years that she knows about. Ellie's parents told me to stay away, and I did for the most part, but when I had the chance, I'd slip in to one of her recitals-I watched her graduate as Valedictorian of her class. She probably doesn't even remember me."

"She mentioned you as her Uncle Tommy. Maybe you should look her up."

With one last look, Scotty made his way out to the car to join Lilly. She started the car wordlessly, and they were fifteen minutes out before he spoke.

"Whatcha make of Tommy?"

Lilly continued to stare out the window, and he almost believed she didn't hear him.

Finally, she answered, "He's different, but I don't make him for a suspect in either murder. What are you thinking'?"

He flipped idly through his notebook for a moment.

"About the same. He's a little intense though, don't ya think?"

"Well, he loved her. Intense by definition."

Lilly turned to him when he said, "So dead end?"

She shot him a quick smile.

"New lead. Let's see what we can drag up about this bird figurine."

He smiled back at her, then tilted his seat back.

"Mind if I catch some shut eye on the way home?"

"Go ahead, but didn't you sleep last night?" she asked.

"Nah, I was thinkin' about the case and couldn't sleep." he said.

Lilly was going to ask another question, but he was already snoring lightly beside her. As she drove down the highway, she asked herself just how she was going to hunt down a fifty year old figurine that was probably long gone.

__

Hmmm…so Lilly's dream…fact or fiction? And is there more to it? ;) Thanks for reading!!