Right, here's the last chapter, guys. Hope you enjoy. There will be an epilogue in a couple of days. Thank you so much for all your feedback, throughout Breathe Me, especially the anonymous reviews I haven't been able to reply to.

Thirteen

Weeks go by, and Scotty's as good as living in Lilly's house now, with her and Ellie, and they're not quite playing at being a family anymore, they almost are one.

She opens the door that morning, and for a moment she can't breathe. There's a woman standing on her doorstep, blonde curls and sunken eyes, a pale face that's for a second both terrifying and impossible. That's the story of a ruined childhood, right there, all those memories she's pushed away, dealt with a long time ago, resurfacing. She has to bite her tongue for a moment and reassure herself it's Christina, not her mother, standing there. She thinks that should be altogether less terrifying, her childhood isn't back to haunt her, but then she thinks of Ellie and she realises history's about to repeat itself, the face in front of her looks scarily familiar. She loves the little girl too much to throw her blindly into the same childhood she had. She's going to have to do anything to keep her from it. She grits her teeth then, preparing for a battle, at the same time wishing Scotty wasn't at the garage; she could really use him right now. She swallows. She's going to be brave. She needs to be.

Then her sister does the thing she least expects. Holds out some papers, thrusts them into her sister's grasp, forcing a grimace.

"You should adopt her… you should be her mother, not me… you should…" she hisses at Lilly, and she can hear from her tone that she's high on something, but right now she's got someone else to take care of, she's given Christina too many chances, and the papers she's holding in her hands are proper adoption papers, and Christina's signed them, they're all ready to go. All it will take for her to be Ellie's mother is a flick, a twirl of her pen.

"Come in, Chris, we'll sort something out…"

Her sister merely shakes her head. "It's not a job I'll be able to do, Lil… I'll be Mom, and I'll always hate myself for that… hell, you're already better at being Ellie's Mom than I'll ever be…"

"We can talk about this, you need some help…"

Christina laughs then, and Lilly finds it ever so strange… this isn't really a situation that has anything funny about it.

"I don't want help, Lil, I'm beyond that… you've gotta stop trying to help me, it's always gonna be a losing battle… you've got someone to help for the rest of your life now…"

And she's walking away, and Lilly's calling after her, but she can't chase, Ellie's asleep in the kitchen, and her sister hails a cab and is disappearing, as if she'd see her tomorrow, as if she hadn't just handed all the responsibilities for something as important as a daughter.

Lilly stands there for moments, staring aimlessly after her sister, the cab, into thin air, wondering what the hell just happened.

And then Ellie starts crying.

When Scotty gets back, car fixed, he walks into the kitchen and almost immediately stops short, shocked by the sight. Ellie is sleeping in her Moses basket in the corner, Lilly is sat at the breakfast bar, official looking papers on the table in front of her, her head in her hands.

"Lil?"

She looks up at him, looking slightly surprised, as if she hadn't expected him to turn up, and she shrugs, as if she thinks she doesn't know anything anymore.

"They're adoption papers… Christina… Christina turned up and gave them to me… she was high as a kite, Scotty…I can't help her anymore, I just don't have it in me…"

For a moment he stares blankly at the adoption papers, Christina's signature already all over them, all ready for everything to change. Lilly looks up at him, and for the first time, meets his eyes.

"What do I do?" her eyes are full of tears. A thousand completely useless things to say rushing through his head, Scotty swallows all of them, sits down next to her and takes her hand.

"I love her, I love her so much, Scotty, but I'm… I'm not her mother, I…" she's looking at Ellie, as if the whole thing's hopeless, but strangely, it doesn't seem that way to him. Crazy, sure, the wrong order of things, but something about Lilly adopting this little girl seems perfect.

He kisses her. "You're more than she could have ever hoped for in a mother, Lil. You're wonderful for her, she's lucky to have you…"

She shakes her head, "I… this is our whole lives though, mine and hers, together… what if I'm not any good when she's not a baby anymore, what if I can't do it… I can't do this on my own…"

"You won't be on your own, you know that…"

She looks at him with wide blue eyes. Something comes to her then she'd honestly never thought about before, but when it appears in her head she's incredulous it hadn't occurred to her, it seems like the perfect solution, the perfect future.

"This might seem… I think I…" she sighs, "Forget it."

"No… What?" he suddenly needs to know what she was going to say. There's something in her eyes, he supposes, that tells him it's something big, and right now, with the baby in front of her, the tears running down her cheeks, she looks so vulnerable, her wants to do something about that.

"I could… we could see if… If you could be joint guardian with me…"

He turns his head away from her then, for a moment unable to let her see how much that means to him, and she stiffens. "I'm sorry, Scotty, it was a stupid suggestion, forget I mentioned it… we've only been together a few weeks… hell, I don't even know what this is…"

He turns back, and there are tears in his eyes. "You would really be ok with that?"

"I…"

"You would really let me share that with you?"

Lilly smiles, "Sometimes I think she prefers you, anyway…"

He laughs, blinking away the tears. "You will never have any idea how much I love you, Lilly Rush… how much I love both of you..."

She laughs, tears spilling down her face, and pulls him close to kiss. "I love you too. I love you too."

For the last time, I promise the epilogue will be up soon!