Chapter 13

Lilly swung open the door to find Scotty in the lunchroom looking blankly into the freezer. He held a Ziploc bag in one hand that Lilly guessed had contained ice at one point, but now was a bag of cold water. If he had heard the door open he certainly didn't show it. Without a second thought Lilly opened some cupboards and pulled out a couple of new sponges. She soaked them with cold water, put each sponge in a separate plastic bag and put them in the freezer.

"If you can stand to wait for them to freeze, they'd be better icepacks." Lilly explained. "Reusable too. A little trick I learned as a child."

"Oh uh, thanks." Scotty said awkwardly as he shut the freezer door and dumped the ice/water down the drain. "Is there a reason you came in here?"

Lilly tried not to wince as those words hit her harder than she wanted them to. "Yeah, Jeffries and Vera just called from the jail. They said Thomas killed all those people just because he didn't want Victoria to be lonely up there."

Scotty let out a low whistle. "Got to love that logic."

"Yeah, well he said he didn't kill Victoria because he was writing a final exam. An exam that took him three hours."

"And?"

"I did some digging." Scotty opened up the file that was handed to him. Lilly Rush never seemed to stop pulling out the magic, all of Thomas' history for his last year of college education was right in front of his eyes. Thomas' last exam schedule and his last exam which was, coincidently or not, on the exact same day that Victoria had been killed. Looking closer, Scotty realized that the time for the final exam would have overlapped with the murder of Victoria.

"So, what is Lilly Rush saying?" Scotty asked. "Did Thomas Granger skip his final exam and murder Victoria? Or is he innocent because he was writing his exam?"

"The latter." Lilly replied. "Lady Luck was with us today."

"Oh yeah, how so?"

"Professor of the course was a little bit paranoid." Lilly replied. "Take a look."

Scotty flipped over a page and saw a long list of student names.

"Wrote down a list of kids that handed in their test before the time limit was up. Couldn't write down everyone's name when the test was over because there were too many students handing their tests in, but they wrote down the rest of the names when they were marking the exams."

Scotty scanned the short list and didn't find Thomas' name. It wasn't until he scanned the much longer second list that Scotty finally found the name of Granger, Thomas Jefferson. So Thomas had taken the full three hours to write the exam. Victoria had been long gone by then. He wanted to go give a hug or at least a smile for her wonderful detective work, but he couldn't find the strength. All of a sudden he felt so tired. All he could mutter to his partner was a cold thanks.

Lilly spun around on her heels as she watched Scotty walk to the door. "Thanks? That's it?"

He gave a half-hearted shrug. "Yeah, that part of the mystery is solved. Good work." He left the lunchroom before she could reply.

Lilly Rush felt like she might be starting to go insane.

And the worst part of it was, it was not the case files or the victims that were starting to drive her crazy. No, she was meant for this job, she was meant to solve cold cases. She could probably do this for the rest of her life and still be motivated: there was just this satisfaction in knowing you helped someone, some family out there, given them hope when they thought all their hope had disappeared. Given them some small bit of closure.

No, it was a single person that was starting to drive her crazy, drive her insane.

Scotty.

What was it about Scotty?

She didn't know anymore. But Scotty was getting more and more to her head. She didn't know if she liked that or not.

She watched him at a distance, filing out paperwork, making phone calls. The same old Scotty only slightly more agitated and grumpy. He was looking at the clock. She realized. Trying to calculate how much time had passed. Whether the sponge was cold enough to be used as an icepack. He hung up the phone again and sat back in his chair. Lilly saw her opening and walked to his desk.

"I'm sorry." Lilly said.

Scotty sighed. "Did you tell Adam to punch me?"

"What?" Lilly cried. "Of course not!"

"Then you have nothing to be sorry for." Scotty got up walked past Lilly and towards the door of the lunchroom.

"Then will you at least tell me why you're so cold towards me?" Lilly cried again.

Scotty turned around, a seemingly blank expression on his face mixed in with a sneer. "What? Can't handle your own tactics on yourself?"

"So you're being cold to me just because I was cold to you?" Lilly could hardly believe it. "That's being really childish Scotty, you know that."

"What? And being just plain cold to someone for absolutely no reason isn't?" Scotty pointed out. He swung open the door and paused. "Next time, try to think about how the other side is feeling Lilly."

As the door swung closed again Lilly felt her stomach tie into a million separate knots. He had always called her Lil…and now it was Lilly. Not the comfortable shortened name between friends (or those more than friends) but now it was her full first name. It was formal, uptight, and cold.

It was not the way she wanted to interact with Scotty. Not for the rest of her life.

Scotty felt like he had made a fool of himself again but it was as if he just didn't care anymore. Maybe it was Adam's punch that made him take a step back and take everything into perspective. And that perspective made him feel tired and fed up. Yeah so he had gotten involved with Christina and didn't listen to Lilly's warnings. That had been one of the worst mistakes in his life but couldn't Lilly at least try to give him a chance so he can prove to her how much he's changed and would be willing to change? It wasn't as if Lilly hadn't played that card when Ray drove through town last year, she had said a casual goodbye to Scotty then hopped onto the back of that darn motorcycle. Scotty could still remember the way his stomach twisted into knots as he watched her secure her helmet and the way he tried to laugh and convince himself of…well he couldn't remember what he had told himself.

It was almost as if she was taunting him. Look at the bad boy I can ride off into the sunset with…look at all the options I have and can have…

Maybe he could start learning how to ride a bike. Maybe a Harley.

Stop that. A voice told him. Lilly ended up ditching Ray for Joseph. And look how well that turned out. He was starting to think that things might have been different this time, Lilly and Joseph. Until Joseph turned out to be just another guy that stomped all over her heart and she was alone again. After working in the homicide department year after year Scotty himself knew how hard it was to come home to a dark and empty place. Sure you could have cats and dogs and other pets, but there was nobody there you could give a hug to, nobody to keep the other side of your bed warm at night. It would have been enough to drive anyone insane. Someone that you could wake up to in the morning, someone that would smile at you (even if it was a tired smile) and ask you how was your day. Scotty was tired of doing everything alone: tired of renting and watching movies by himself, and tired of cooking for one.

Was it so wrong for Scotty to picture something like that for himself? Was it so wrong for him to picture Lilly in that picture as well? But so many things had happened between the two of them, was it even possible to consider the idea of the two of them...they worked in the same department; they were partners above anything else. This was real life after all. It wasn't a fairytale or a movie where everything magically worked out and you would see "The End" appear on the screen.

Besides, what would Stillman say about the two of them? It would only make sense for him to transfer one of them out, both for the team and for their personal lives. But would he really? He was a good and understanding boss, but he was also a fair one. It was hard to say which way he would swing in situations like these. And if Lilly and Scotty ever broke up, things would be undoubtedly be awkward at work.

But that was ridiculous. Scotty told himself. He was thinking about the break-up even before their relationship started. Maybe a transfer out of homicide wouldn't be so bad…

Stop that. He told himself. He had worked this hard to become a Detective, he couldn't think of leaving that post, not now.

He certainly couldn't imagine not coming to work every day and seeing Lilly's face.

When Vera and Jeffries arrived back at the station Scotty and Lily filled them in on their discoveries. The final exam, the start time, the length of the exam, Thomas' grade, and how likely or unlikely each of the scenarios was.

"That's all fine and dandy, but what I want to know is where we're standing now." Vera finally said.

Lily sighed for the millionth time that day. "Right now? Staring straight at a dead end."

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone that is still reading this story. I had a bit of scare this past month or so, I thought I had lost this chapter when in truth I had forgotten I saved it in a different location. Hopefully you guys didn't think I was dead and gone. Hopefully this chapter is a good "filler" chapter; sorry I know nothing much happens here.

Thank you to my reviewers for the previous chapter, jambled and pushpitake.