A/N: Wow! What an amazing response from the last chapter! I'm so glad you're all enjoying this story!
This chapter was actually the first one I wrote. I woke up one morning about a month ago with this scene in my head, and have gradually built the rest of the story around it.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. If I did, I would probably find Vera and Jeffries easier to write.
Chapter Seven—My Strongest Weakness
Will Jeffries strolled up to Nick Vera at the coffee maker as Vera poured himself a refill. Glancing across the room toward his colleagues, who were in the beginning stages of yet another disagreement, Jeffries asked casually, "So what's going on with Scotty and Lil?"
Vera took a sip of coffee and glanced around furtively before answering. "No idea." A spark of recollection flickered in his eyes, and he said, with a smirk, "Remember the last time they were like that?"
Jeffries tried to think. "No," he finally said, clearly intrigued.
"Valens was screwin' Lil's sister."
Jeffries rolled his eyes. "I'd almost managed to forget about that. Thanks for the fond memory," he said drily, heading back to his desk.
Vera took another sip of coffee. "Welcome," he replied cheerfully.
Scotty and Lilly stood beside Lilly's desk, bickering for what seemed like the fourteenth time that day. "The mom knows a lot more than she's letting on," Lilly was saying heatedly, notes from the interview in hand.
Scotty, who had rolled up his sleeves and started to pace back and forth, replied, "But Randall hated that quarterback. Had a ton of talent, but didn't get thrown to enough, never got noticed by the college scouts, never made the NFL, and got stuck in Fishtown makin' cheese steaks. That's a helluva motive."
"But his alibi checks out; he wasn't there that night," Lilly disagreed, her voice beginning to rise. "Puttin' the heat on the mom could shed some light on what she's not telling us."
"Sure, Lil, makin' a mom who's lost a kid relive every last painful memory, when she's obviously in the clear, yeah, that's the best way to go about it," Scotty retorted bitterly, whirling to face her. "Maybe, before you go through this whole damn case like a bull in a china shop, you should stop for one second and let me have a say in this. This ain't your show, Rush! We're partners. You don't get to call all the shots."
"You just won't admit it when you're dead wrong!" Lilly shot back, eyes blazing.
Their arguing was interrupted by the startlingly loud voice of Lieutenant Stillman. "Rush! Valens! My office! Now." He looked from one to the other, his eyes clear that this was an order.
Lilly sighed in defeat and headed into Stillman's office. Scotty waited for her to pass, then followed.
Stillman had had more than his fill of his bickering subordinates. He ushered the two detectives into his office and shut the door, possibly with more force than necessary, before he turned and addressed Scotty and Lilly. "Okay, you two. Out with it. What's going on?"
Lilly feigned innocence while Scotty's mouth went dry and he fumbled for words. Finally, he managed to form a semi-coherent, "Come again, Boss?"
"I don't know what's going on with the two of you, and I'm not sure I wanna know. But when it starts affecting your work, I step in. Whatever it is, you need to hash it out, here and now," Stillman said sternly.
Stealing a glance at his partner, Scotty saw Lilly turn even paler than normal, while he felt a faint blush creep into his own cheeks. "Ain't nothin' the matter, Boss," he muttered feebly. Way to go, Valens. Real convincing.
"Bullshit, Scotty," Stillman retorted. "You two have been fighting like cats and dogs since you got back from Nashville. Now what the hell happened down there?"
"Nothin'," Lilly said evenly, though her heart was pounding so loudly she was sure the boss could hear it from where he stood.
Stillman sighed. "You two need to work this out, and you're going to work it out. Right here. Right now. Do I need to be here, or not?"
Lilly glanced at Scotty, who seemed to have relaxed ever so slightly. She opened her mouth to reply, but he beat her to it. "Maybe it's best if we try it just between us first. That okay, Boss?"
"Sure thing, Scotty. You got thirty minutes. Figure it out," Stillman ordered sternly, shooting them a meaningful glare before exiting his office and closing the door behind him.
As soon as the boss had left the room, Scotty and Lilly glanced briefly at one another before reaching a wordless agreement, their first agreement of any sort back on Pennsylvania soil, to close the office blinds. Lilly quickly moved to close the blinds that directly faced the squad room, managing to avoid the curious eyes of her colleagues, while Scotty got the rest.
With a sigh, he folded his arms across his chest and turned to face his partner. Across the room, Lilly glared daggers in his direction, and he had to go on the defensive immediately. He had no weapon in his arsenal to counter her patented Ice Queen look, and she was fixing him with it right out of the gate. But as she stood there, her sapphire eyes shimmering with anger, Scotty, to his chagrin, once again sensed the familiar burn of lust. Her normally pale cheeks were flushed, and her chest rose and fell as she breathed rapidly through slightly parted lips. He felt a trickle of sweat meander down his back. God, the things he would do to her right here and now.
Finally, the frustration, anger, and hurt of the past week boiled over, and the last remaining thread of Scotty's patience snapped, almost audibly, as he lashed out. "Goddammit, Lil, enough with the fuckin' Ice Queen. Are we ever gonna talk about what happened?"
"What's there to talk about?" Lilly shot back.
"I get it, all right? What happened in Nashville stays in Nashville; you're sendin' that message loud and clear," Scotty pounded Stillman's desk for emphasis.
Lilly flung her arms wide. "Okay, fine. You wanna talk about it? Let's talk. It was a horrible, unbelievably stupid mistake, the worst we've ever made. There! We talked!"
"No, we didn't!" Scotty shouted. "You wanna ignore it, you wanna drop it, but you ain't. I've been gettin' daggers since we got back. There were two of us there that night, you know," he flung bitterly.
She merely ignored him, refused to meet his eyes, and that made his blood boil even more than if she'd called him every name in the book. "Dammit, Lil!" he roared. "You wanna act like what happened didn't happen, that it didn't change anything, but…it changed everything, and I don't know how to go back to the way it was!"
Lilly glowered in his direction, careful to avoid his eyes. "What we did was so…so…mind-bogglingly stupid, that I don't think we can go back," she spat.
Scotty took a deep breath and struggled to speak. "Well, maybe that's our problem, Lil," he finally said in a defeated tone, his voice a mere shadow of what it had been.
Lilly finally allowed herself to meet Scotty's gaze. In a split second, she wished she hadn't, because the glittering intensity in his eyes and the strength that radiated from him as he stood there made her remember, for the millionth time since they'd returned, why she'd slept with him in the first place. She felt the last shaky remnants of her resolve crumble to the ground. Dammit, Rush.
Scotty continued, the words tumbling out in fits and starts. "I dunno 'bout you, but every time we're together, every time I'm even close to you, it's…it's like…lightnin'…or somethin'," he finished lamely. Smooth, Valens."It wasn't like this before…and I know I can't touch you again, that we can't…we--we shouldn't…but that's all I can think about…and it's makin' me crazy, Lil." His voice faltered, and the last words were barely above a whisper. Looking at the floor, he exhaled and raked a shaky hand through his hair.
Oh, God, not the hand through the hair. She was done for. Any resistance she could have offered died right there in Stillman's office, shot through the heart by Scotty's admission. A small sense of what could only be described as girlish glee started to bubble up in her throat.
"Really?" she said, arching a brow, the corners of her mouth lifting toward a slight smile.
"Yeah," Scotty answered, looking up at her in disbelief. She wasn't mocking him. She wasn't denying him. And she wasn't giving him that look. This…this was progress. For the first time since they'd returned to Philadelphia, the tension between them started to melt ever so slightly. He took a step toward Lilly.
She stepped toward him as well, tentatively, and took a deep breath. "Me too…I feel like…I'm…an addict," she began, with a self-conscious smile. "And…I'm tryin' to stay on the wagon…but it's…" she trailed off, shaking her head. As she looked into his eyes, powerless to even try to resist any longer, she felt the mask she'd been hiding behind slip to the floor and shatter into a million pieces.
Surprise, followed quickly by elation, surged through Scotty's veins. That damned Ice Queen routine had just been a ruse. It had all been an act. She didn't hate him…he hadn't screwed things up beyond all possible repair…she wanted him, it seemed, nearly as much as he wanted her. The thought made him almost giddy.
They met in the center of Stillman's office. "Well…" said Scotty, with that trademark flirty grin that made Lilly's heart do a flip every time she saw it, "…maybe we oughta think about fallin' off that wagon." Her pulse raced as he reached for her hand, waited a beat, searched her eyes, then crushed his lips against hers. She moaned softly as their tongues intertwined, and her knees went weak with the flood of passion denied for far too long. Suddenly his hands were everywhere. On her back. Behind her neck. In her hair.
Meanwhile, Scotty's heart hammered inside his chest as he devoured his partner. He thought he'd remembered how sweet Lilly tasted, how wonderful her lips felt against his, but the reality was so much better than his memory, and never had he wanted her more. The room started to spin as her hands cupped the back of his head and he murmured in delight as her fingers threaded through his ebony hair. He knew then and there that if he didn't stop at that moment, that he wouldn't be able to stop. And they couldn't fall off the wagon completely. Not here at work, in their boss's office, for God's sake. With this sobering thought, he forced himself to tear his lips from Lilly's, and gazed into her glittering blue eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, and her breathing was as uneven as his. Slowly, reluctantly, he released her from his arms.
"Good thing we closed the blinds," she said with a smile, and Scotty's heart melted at the sight. God, he would do anything to see that smile more often.
"Lil," he rasped, his voice suddenly unable to work properly. "I think… what happened in Nashville… has found its way to Philly."
"I think so, too," Lilly agreed.
Gaining confidence, Scotty continued. "And I think that…it needs to happen again."
"Well, if it's affecting our work, then…we owe it to ourselves. To the badge," Lilly said with mock seriousness, a twinkle in her eye.
Scotty grinned. "To the badge, and the law itself. Plus, we owe it to those guys out there…they have to work with us."
"And Boss," Lilly added.
"It ain't about us. It's got nothin' to do with us," Scotty finished triumphantly.
"Exactly," Lilly agreed, fixing him with that beautiful smile. She gazed into his eyes, which shone with admiration and pure, unadulterated lust. Her breath caught in her throat as he moved toward her. Good God, did he mean NOW?
"But not here," she said quickly, stepping back, though every fiber of her being was crying out for her to let him bend her over Stillman's desk, consequences be damned, and just take her. God, she really was an addict. Quit acting like a teenager, Rush, she admonished herself. You can make it until you get home.
Scotty sighed. Though his instincts were telling him to do far differently, the voice of his conscience, albeit weakened by his recent activities, insisted that he make the responsible choice. "Well, then, I guess we're gonna have to wait 'til tonight," he said, unable to disguise his reluctance.
"Oh, well…your place, or mine?" Lilly asked, still grinning at him.
"Well, I… kinda got a soft spot for mutant cats," Scotty answered, a teasing smile filling his face.
She socked him playfully in the arm. "You better be nice to my cats. Ten o'clock okay?"
He nodded, still grinning, and she smiled up at him one last time before turning and heading out of the office.
Scotty let out a shaky breath, mesmerized by the gentle sway of Lilly's hips as she walked out, and licked his lips in anticipation of the coming evening. Despite the needs that remained unmet, and despite the fact that they had the entire afternoon ahead of them, that kiss, and the promise it contained, would hold him. Maybe. He hoped.
Unmet physical needs aside, though, Scotty was elated. He and Lilly were back to being…well…he and Lilly again. And then some. With a discernible bounce in his step, he started to open the blinds, and noticed Stillman coming back in. "Everything's cool, Boss," Scotty said with a smile.
"Good," Stillman said. "Because while you two have been in here playing Dr. Phil, Nicky's been digging up another couple of witnesses for you." He slapped a file into Scotty's outstretched hand, and Valens strode out of the office.
"Get your coat, Lil. We gotta take a field trip," he called to his partner, as he poked his arms into his suit jacket.
Lilly tossed him a smile, and Scotty felt his knees go weak. It was going to be a very, very long afternoon.
Vera, Jeffries, and Miller all looked up as their colleagues, enemies mere moments ago, now smiled at one another as they left the office. The three detectives exchanged mystified glances.
"What was that all about?" Jeffries inquired of the group.
"Dunno," Miller shrugged, then glanced back toward the doorway with a puzzled expression on her face.
"Well, looks like he ain't doin' her sister," Vera chuckled.
A/N: I have no idea whether Stillman's office is soundproof on the show, but it is in my story. The other detectives are totally in the dark. This could be fun.
