Chapter 9: Ties, Territories, and Terriers
A/N: Please see my note at the end for timeline issues.

"So you're saying that the doctor actually cut his foot off?" Mark asked, walking over to his couch with a bowl of popcorn.

"Yeah," Lily said, stretching out on the couch. "Amanda dropped him off somewhere out of town and bailed, so we don't know if he's alive or not." She sat up so Mark had room to sit down, "What did you end up doing for Detective Tapp? Did he survive the gunshot and me tripping over him?"

"Apparently so," Mark said, "John had another game set up for him and all I needed to do was drop him off at the old asylum."

"The one that closed down years ago and every year kids break in there for dares?"

"Yes, that one." Lily started giggling at that, causing Mark to give her a weird look.

"What? Of course I went in there at one point! There's a video somewhere of me and Sara singing 'Lady Marmalade' with piñata heads on in the surgical theater."

"That explains a lot. By the way when, during all of this, did you decide to dye your hair?"

"I got bored of hearing the same things over and over again during the game. Although I might add that so far no one has a clue about you, me, or Amanda's involvement."

"Well that's good, on the other hand you're not allowed to be bored anymore." Mark put the popcorn bowl down and wrapped his arms around Lily, "But I've gotta say you still look beautiful."

Sometime during the movie, Mark's doorbell rang. He opened the door to find Amanda standing there, smiling.

"Hi Mark," she said, "John sent me here, may I come in?" Without waiting for an answer she walked inside.

"What does John want?"

"He wanted me to give you marching orders for the next game. Apparently this one is going to take longer to prepare than any other one we've done and you and I are gonna have to work together to get a lot of it done and…" Amanda trailed off as Lily walked over to them and subtly snaked an arm around mark's waist.

"Hey Amanda, glad to see you're doing okay. Did my dad give you my marching orders as well?" Lily asked, staring Amanda down, an unspoken argument going on between the two women.

"No, but we're all getting a copy of everyone's part to play. I didn't know where you lived otherwise I would've dropped yours off too."

"I see, well can we have the packet of orders?" Lily held out her other hand. Amanda handed the packet to her, nodded in understanding, and hurriedly left. Lily walked back to the couch, sat down, and started looking at the pages in the file. Mark was still standing by the door, trying to hide a smile. "What's so funny Mark?"

"Nothing, just didn't know you had such sharp claws, meow!"

"I was just letting her know the score," Mark walked back over to the couch, "If my dad wanted you to have that information tonight, he would've called to tell you, or just summoned you to the warehouse and you know that. Plus who shows up wearing something like that if they're not going out looking for attention? I was just letting her know what's up." Lily said as she thumbed through the packet.

Mark chuckled as he leaned over the top of the couch. "Y'know you're pretty sexy when you're territorial." He kissed her along her neck, taking the packet of papers out of her hands, "why don't we go over these in the morning?"

Lily turned around and started to undo his tie, "Now that sounds like a good idea." Mark picked her up and headed straight for his bedroom.

The next day

"…but I can't help but feel a bit territorial when she comes around to visit, and I keep thinking that I'm still being paranoid, but I feel like I can't trust her." Lily was sprawled out on her therapist's couch the next day.

"Lily, that's to be expected. Yes you and Amanda have a special bond being the only two Jigsaw survivors, but it's perfectly natural to feel a bit insecure. It doesn't mean you can't trust her, it just means you're a normal woman with normal insecurities."

"I guess."

"How is your dad doing? You've been awfully quiet about him this session."

"See that's the strange part, the cancer's getting worse, but my dad's acting the same. His oncologist disappeared a few days ago, no one's heard anything from him and my dad hasn't even bothered to find a new doctor to check in with. It's like he doesn't care about his health anymore. And sometimes I feel like I'm more worried than he is; and it's just…frustrating. I know I can't force him to get treatment at least to alleviate some pain but I wish I could."

"Lily your father is a grown man, and I know you want what's best for him, but you have to save some worry for yourself. How's the drinking problem? You sounded distressed in your message."

"Well as you know Mark and I got into a fight about it, I hadn't had a drink before that in a few days but I just lost self-control. After the argument though I haven't had any alcohol."

"Have you considered going to AA?"

"I don't really know Doc, I guess I still can't accept that it could be a problem. I mean I know that was one of the main reasons I was 'tested' but I just don't know."

"Have you considered getting some kind of pet? Caring for a pet could take your mind off of your worries and give you something constructive to focus on besides work."

"I guess that could be a good idea, maybe a dog. I've always loved dogs."

"I see, well we're out of time for this week, so does same time next week work for you?"

"Yeah, thanks Dr. Fengar."

"And Lily, I really want you to work on being a little selfish. Stop worrying so much about Mark, and your dad, and Amanda, and just focus on your needs for a while. Okay?"

"Okay."

As Lily rode her motorcycle home, she felt bad about lying to her therapist. Sure she was being honest about her insecurities about Amanda and her worry about her dad's health; but she knew that she couldn't mention anything about her part in the Jigsaw games. And it was starting to get hard to resist going down that old path of drinking.

When Lily got home, she saw that she had a message waiting for her.

"Hey Lils, it's Sara." Lily could hear sniffles and cries coming from the background. "So apparently Eric's been married this whole time and his wife found out and is divorcing him. So now he's broken things off with me, and he said that if I told anyone he'd make me pay but I knew I could tell you 'cause you're dating his friend but I'm just torn up and I didn't even know he was married! I guess call me back when you get some time."

Lily picked up the phone to call her back.

"Hey, I just got your message, I know what will cheer you up."

A couple hours later, Lily and Sara were at the park with Lily's new dog.

"Isn't he just the most adorable thing ever?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, but I still don't see why you didn't want a brand new puppy."

"Sara, puppies and kittens go the fastest, it's the adult dogs and cats that get forgotten about. But not anymore, isn't that right Winston?"

Winston, a 4 year old Australian Terrier, barked in response.
"Anyway Sara, how did you find out about Eric?"
"His wife, well I guess now ex-wife, called me and royally ripped me a new one. I tried to explain to her that I had no clue he was married, but she didn't believe me so she started calling me all these horrible names." Sara broke off to take another bite of ice cream.
"Aw sweetie I'm sorry." Lily gave her friend a hug, "Listen why don't we just have a girls' night at my place? We'll rent shitty movies and eat junk food and play with Winston. Sound good?" Sara nodded.
"All right, let's go hit up Blockbuster. Come on Winston!"

A/N: Yes I am putting my dearly departed dog in the story; we had to put him to sleep back in January after 14 wonderful years. Also here is the important note about the timeline: I have decided that this will remain canon to SAWs I-VI, and to a couple bits of information that have been released about VII for now. There are two possibilities for the final bits: if the final bits are done before VII is released, then I will stick to that; if they're not done by then, I will rework it to account for what I choose of VII. But as you can tell, there is a while to go before that happens.