I woke up to my phone ringing early in the morning.

"Hello?" I answered half asleep.

"Lily? Can I come over?" Malcolm's voice asked through the phone.

"Of course you can. Are you okay?" I asked.

"I had another night terror." He sighed.

"I'll put on water for cocoa for when you get here." I told him.

"Thank you."

I got up after hanging up with him and pulled on my plush robe before making my way down into the kitchen. I glanced at the clock. 2:55. I sighed and filled the kettle with water to heat.

No more than twenty minutes passed before he knocked on my front door.

"Didn't I give you a key?" I asked opening the door.

"Probably. I don't even think I grabbed my keys." He sighed.

He stood on my doorstep in a thin black long sleeved shirt and sweatpants.

"Come in here. You must be freezing." I reached for his hand and lead him inside.

"It's a little chilly." He joked weakly.

The kettle started whistling from the kitchen.

"Go sit on the couch under a blanket and I'll bring the cocoa in." I instructed.

I took in two travel mugs of cocoa and sat down next to him.

"Do you want to tell me about it or would you rather we just put on some B rated horror movie?" I asked leaning into him.

"Movie first. Talk later." He wrapped his arm around me.

I put on some random Netflix horror movie and we sat together.

"You know, when I had night terrors as a kid Gil would take me out with him on stakeouts and we'd sit in his car and just talk about the most random things. It's where he gave me all of those life lessons. Told me police work is patience, when I asked him why we were doing it. I'm not sure where I was going with that. I was just thinking about it."

"I do know that, hon. With the FBI taking over the Junkyard case it's normal for you to be anxious and impatient." I assured him running my fingertips over his arm.

"What are we going to do?" He asked.

"For now we need to wait. I've only been the Chief of the New York office for a couple weeks. We have to wait to see what Colette does."

"Colette Swanson?" He sighed.

"Yes. Don't worry about it. I'll handle her." I turned to look at him.

"She hates me."

"I heard what happened. I don't think she'll cross me yet. I have to meet with her later today." I told him.

"I didn't know you were meeting with her." He looked down at me.

"Yeah. She called last night and asked to meet. I'm the superior officer here, it makes sense she'd want to meet."

"I forgot about that." He chuckled dryly.

"There was a woman in my apartment. She pulled the katana off the wall and walked over to where I sat in the bed. She grabbed my ankle and pulled me down so I was lying on my back. I couldn't get back up. The katana broke through the mattress first between my legs, then on my left side next to my rib cage, then near my head, and finally through my heart. I woke up gasping for breath and reaching for you. Then I remembered that I'd decided to go home last night like an idiot."

"You're not an idiot." I sighed.

"It's good for us to spend time in our own beds. Gives us a chance to miss each other."

"I miss you the minute you leave." He said.

"I miss you too. All the time, but I think that's good for us."

"Yeah, maybe."

"Maybe we should lay down for a little while?" I asked.

"Try to get a little more sleep?"

He nodded. I turned off the TV and we put the travel mugs in the sink before retiring up to my room. Malcolm laid on his back and I curled up on my side next to him. I slid my hand under the hem of his shirt spreading my fingers across his stomach as he ran his fingers through my hair.

I woke up again when Malcolm climbed back into bed.

"What time is it?" I asked as he cuddled against my chest.

"A little after ten." He muttered.

"I have to meet Colette at two."

"I have a surprise for you."

"Oh yeah? What's that?" I asked.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise." He teased.

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do. Malcolm?"

"Close your eyes." He urged.

I looked into his eyes and found an excitement I hadn't seen since we'd found one another again so I closed my eyes. He lifted me up into his arms and carried me down the stairs.

"What are we doing?" I giggled feeling his heart race through his chest.

I felt my feet hit the carpet of my living room but Malcolm kept his hands on my shoulders turning me slightly to the left.

"Right there. Open your eyes." He whispered in my ear.

When I opened my eyes there stood an easily seven or eight foot Christmas tree in my living room.

"I saw Gabrielle this morning and she suggested that I take some time to try to live normally. When I left her office I started thinking about the way we decorated the tree back in DC and realized that we're actually late getting a tree up." He told me.

"I actually haven't had a Christmas tree since you left. The first year it was hard to want to decorate on my own and the next year Bryce called it a stupid tradition. The year after..." I trailed off.

"Anyway, I want to resurrect this tradition with you." I turned in his arms and looked up into his face.

"I'm glad. I want to try to overwrite those painful memories with new good ones."

"I want that too." I kissed him gently.

Together we made coffee and I put on classic Christmas music as he pulled out the lights for the tree.

Throughout our original five year relationship we spent the day after Thanksgiving the same way every year. We'd get up around ten or eleven in the morning and make coffee together before he decorated the tree while I watched him singing Christmas songs. We were about two weeks late this year but it was still a nice effort.

After his father was arrested I was the only friend he had that would go over to the Whitly's to visit him. Martin Whitly was arrested in the early morning hours of December fifth of 1998 so I spent the twenty days before Christmas sitting next to Malcolm in his living room singing Christmas songs for him.

"You look really good doing that." I told him refilling his coffee.

"Thank you and thank you." He smiled at me as I leaned over to kiss him again.

"Where did you find all this stuff?" I asked.

"Evan said he put all of your decorations in the spare room down here." He motioned to my spare room.

"I never go in there." I mused.

"I noticed. There is so much dust." He feigned horror.

"Oh, quit it." I playfully slapped at him.

He wrapped his arms around me kissing my cheek.

"Will you go out with me tonight?" He asked.

"Of course. Where to?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'll decide before you get home from your meeting." He promised.

"Alright. I'm looking forward to it."

I returned to lounge on the couch while he strung the lights around the tree.

"Are you sure you don't want any help with that?" I teased as he struggled to untangle the rest of the lights.

"Don't you dare." He sighed playfully.

I giggled on the couch running my fingers through my hair.

It took roughly a half an hour just to get the lights up but the rest went up without a hitch. In less than two hours we had a full Christmas tree up and I held the silver glitter star in my hand.

"Are you sure you can still do this?" I teased.

"I carried you down the stairs." He scoffed.

He lifted me up by my waist so I could place the star on the top of the tree.

We stepped back and looked at our (mostly his) creation.

"It looks exactly like the ones we had in DC." I mused smiling.

"One last finishing touch." He turned to look at me.

He took my face in his hands and kissed me. His hands trailed down and gripped my waist pulling me closer to him. I felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

"I'm going to throw that thing out the window." I sighed as he pulled away from me.

"I'm going to let you." He assured me.

"Yeah, Gil." He answered.

"Murder? Sure. I can be there."

I sighed and pouted at him.

"Yeah. I'm with Lily. She can drop me off." He half asked looking at me.

I nodded reluctantly. I left him downstairs to get dressed. I wore a long sleeved white V neck button up blouse and jet black slacks under a black fitted trench coat. I pulled my long brown/blonde hair up into a tight ponytail that flowed over my shoulder.

"You look incredible." Malcolm muttered walking into my bedroom.

"You think about this image while you work that homicide." I teased turning to look at him.

"I'm going to think about how you look right now all day until I see you tonight." He kissed my forehead.

"Are you ready to go?" I asked.

"Absolutely."

"You know you're covered in glitter, right?"

"Absolutely." He smirked at me.

I dropped Malcolm off outside a posh apartment building and watched him walk inside before pulling back into traffic and making my way out to the New York FBI Field Office.

I wasn't much of an office person but I now had an office with the FBI where I waited for Special Agent in Charge Colette Swanson. It was honestly the last place I wanted to be on that particular Friday.

"Dr. Lilian Russell?" Colette asked poking her head into my office as if she didn't know me.

"Come in Agent Swanson." I called and motioned to the chair in front of me.

"I apologize for the accommodations. I'm still moving in so it's not yet furnished for comfort."

"I just came to discuss the Junkyard Killer case. I didn't come for your pleasantries." She shot back at me.

"Don't forget who you're speaking to." I answered her glare.

"I understand that you have a personal relationship with Malcolm Bright."

"That doesn't sound like a question so I'm not going to answer it."

"It isn't. I'm sure you are aware that he was recently fired from the FBI."

"I am the Chief of this office. I am aware, however, I am unsure what that has to do with his work with the NYPD. He is entitled to find new employment."

"He's unpredictable, unconventional, reckless, I don't want him anywhere near this case."

"I think that would be a mistake. Malcolm Bright is one of the best profilers I've ever worked with. He is unconventional but he gets results and he's saved lives. He has insight into this case."

"Perhaps that's the problem. Why does someone in law enforcement have a personal link to a serial killer?"

"His past is not his fault anymore than your past is your fault, Colette. His father was a notorious serial killer that isn't his fault. A serial killer with a confirmed connection to his father contacting him is not his fault." I sighed.

"I'm going to insist that you take his report and preliminary profile into consideration moving forward but I won't attempt to insist that he be allowed to remain on the case. I, however, am insisting that you run all of your findings by me by end of day. I trust in your abilities and am not requiring you to contact me before running down leads as some would." I reminded her of Chief Mitchell's practices.

"I appreciate the leeway but I don't think I need his..."

I cut her off by raising my hand.

"It's nonnegotiable. I will make sure all of the NYPD files are forwarded to you and your team for consideration. Take all the time you need to find the person responsible for this but remember that we have sixteen confirmed victims at this point."

"Yes, ma'am." She nodded solemnly.

"We can't be enemies right now, Colette. People are dying."

"Of course, Dr. Russell. Am I excused?"

"You called this meeting. Are we finished?" I asked.

"Yes, ma'am." She said her brown eyes meeting mine.

"Dismissed."

I watched her leave and sighed. I rested my chin on my hands. This was not going to go well. Colette and Malcolm had never seen eye to eye. She found him to be arrogant and egotistical. To be fair, he could be. He used it as a defense mechanism against his past trauma. He was much less guarded with me but I understood how it could be off-putting to others. She would not have been my first choice for this case but it was Chief Mitchell's final act as Chief.

I glanced down at my ringing phone.

"Hey, baby. How's the case going?" I asked.

"I may or may not have almost joined a sex club." He sighed.

"Of course you did." I chuckled.

"It's not funny, Lily!" He pouted.

"It's a little funny."

"I'm not sure you wouldn't think it's so funny if you'd been there when she was trying to rip off my clothing."

"I'm sure Gil wouldn't let that happen." I teased.

"Yeah, probably not. Are you back home yet?" He asked.

"No. I'm about to leave the office now. I want to get a shower and change into something less office appropriate. Do you want to just meet me there?" I asked.

"Sure. I'll text you the address."

"Okay, babe. I love you."

"I love you too."

I thought for a moment before pulling up another contact on my phone.

"Hey. It's Lily Russell. I'm meeting Malcolm at Amsterdam Billiards in a half hour or so and I was wondering if you'd care to join us.?"

"Is it like a date?" Her voice asked me.

"Kind of but I think we need more friends. We're so closed off to almost everyone around and I think we need to start building real relationships." I explained.

"Well, if you're sure then I'd love to. I know what you mean about being closed off. I've been so wrapped up in work since I got here that I don't have many friends at all." She mused.

"I'll see you there?" I asked.

"Absolutely."

After a quick shower I changed into a pure white deep v neck long sleeved cross wrap top with a waist tie, Alexa skinny jeans and three inch leather ankle boots with silver accents. I did a simple smoky eye with pale pink glossy lip before running out the door to meet Malcolm.

He stood outside the bar waiting for me.

"Hey there." I smiled hugging him.

"Hey. I was starting to worry."

"I'm not that late." I sighed.

"Fair. Come on." He took my hand leading me into the bar.

"Oh hell no." JT muttered.

"Hello to you too, JT." I smiled at him.

"Hi. My wife is..."

"Malcolm Bright?" A woman asked from behind us.

"How do you?" Malcolm started.

"Uh, $10,000 suit. Wild guess. I'm Tally. JT's wife."

"I'm Lily Russell. Malcolm's girlfriend." I smiled extending my hand to her.

"Oh! You are gorgeous. Here, take JT's." She handed me a beer bottle.

"Thank you and thanks." I leaned towards Malcolm.

"Honey?" JT sighed.

"Honey, run back to the bar, would you?" Tally asked him.

"JT told me about the psychic thing that you do. How you, like, get inside the killer's head. How do you do that?" She looked at Malcolm with wonder.

"Uh had a lot of training. At Quantico." He told her as I moved to lean against the pool table.

"Tally, give the man some room. I plan to make some money off his rich ass." JT teased.

I laughed as Malcolm tried to hit the cue ball.

"Uh, next time, we should play squash. I'm very good at squash." He sighed.

"Don't you remember anything I taught you in college?" I laughed again.

I walked over and took his cue stick. I took his hands and positioned them over mine.

"Remember. Feel it and follow it through." I told him.

Together we struck forward and hit the cue ball knocking two separate pool balls into two different sockets.

"Damn." JT said shaking his head.

"Hey! Malcolm. Lily." Eve exclaimed walking up to us.

"Hey. How are you?" I asked excitedly.

"Good. Good. I'm so glad you invited me out." She smiled.

"You did?" Malcolm asked me.

"Yes, love. We need more friends." I told him with a small smile.

I'd taken what he said into great consideration and decided that it would be good to have more friends and Eve could make a good addition to that.

"Hey, shouldn't you have known that? Like, being a profiler and all? Ooh, can you do one of us?" Tally teased.

"It's behavioral science, hon, not a party trick." JT cautioned.

"Do me." Eve offered.

"You don't want me to profile you." Malcolm sighed.

"I think I can handle it." She insisted.

"Eve..." I started.

"How bad can it be, Lily?" She asked.

"Okay, uh you're not from my mother's world, but you blend in effortlessly. But you are equally as comfortable in a lower social strata." Malcolm started.

"Social strata who says that?" Eve teased.

"Uh, this is a clinical analysis." Malcolm insisted.

"Okay." She conceded.

"Or do we not admit to our country's inherent class system?" He challenged.

"Okay."

"You were raised middle class. I'm hearing the Carolinas. You're very smart. Elegant. Social. That didn't drive you to New York. Your work. To end human trafficking. There's a reason for that. An event. Something deeply personal drove you here." Malcolm continued.

"In truth, it was a Saab." She smiled at me.

"The faded heart tattoo on your wrist. Looks like it's over 15 years old. Which means you got it when you were just a teen. Young. An adult would've had to have been with you. Which gives it real significance. But it's not broken. It's split. So, who has the other half? A woman. Mother? Sister?" Malcolm continued.

I reached over and touched his arm as I read her face.

"Bright." JT said his name.

"Right they're gone. Whatever happened to them motivated you to help other women. But no matter how many people you save, you can't save the other half of that heart."

"Malcolm." I said as Eve walked away.

"Eve, wait." He called after her.

"Uh I am so sorry." Tally told him.

"JT's right. It's not a party trick." Malcolm sighed.

"Stay here. I'll talk to her." I sighed walking after her.

"Eve. Eve! Wait up." I called half running to catch up with her at the entrance to the bar.

"Is he always like that?" She asked me spinning to look at me.

"No. He has a hard time shutting off that part of him sometimes but he's a good man. Plus, you did ask him to do it." I reminded her.

"You did warn me, didn't you?" She asked and I nodded.

"Has he ever profiled you?"

"Not out loud, no. I'm sure his mind is always running but I don't pry." I sighed.

She looked at me quizzically.

"Malcolm and I have been friends for the better part of twenty one years. I know how his mind works and when he's analyzing a choice I made or something I've done. I know that if I ask he'll tell me the truth and normally that's something I know I won't be able to handle at the time so I just let him analyze and normally it helps him help me overall." I explained to the best of my abilities.

My friendship and relationship with Malcolm was often hard to explain. We understood each other in ways most people didn't or couldn't and I loved him. That was the bottom line.

"I can see how much you love him." She smiled at me.

"It hasn't been an easy road for us but we're where we belong." I smiled back at her.

"Should we go back?" She asked after a pause.

"If you're alright, then yes."

She nodded and we began to walk back over to the pool tables where Malcolm still stood with JT and Tally.

As we walked passed the bar a firm hand gripped ahold of my arm.

"Excuse me." I hissed firmly as I tried to pull my arm away but the grip tightened.

I turned and looked up into the face of the man grabbing me and froze.

"Remember me?" He asked his dark brown eyes bore into my soul as he spoke.

"Get off me." I said firmly.

His hair, much longer than the last time I'd seen him, pulled up into a tight bun at the base of his skull.

"Now, that's rude, Lilian. Apologize." He hissed gripping my arm tighter and pulling me towards him.

I hissed as pain shot through my arm where he held me.

He raised his hand as if to hit me and out of instinct I shrank back.

I didn't hear Eve call for JT and Malcolm but suddenly they were there. JT held onto his raised forearm while Malcolm held the wrist of the hand holding me.

"I suggest you let her go before I have to break your wrist." Malcolm said evenly looking directly into his face.

"I don't know who you think you are." JT growled ripping him off of me and slamming him into the bar before handcuffing him.

I shook violently staring at the events unfolding. I could feel Malcolm's hands on my shoulders and I could vaguely hear him call my name.

"Lily." He gently shook me.

"Malcolm..." I whispered his name.

"You can't hold me unless she's willing to press charges!" He yelled in my general direction.

I buried my face in Malcolm's chest.

"Is that who I think it is?" He asked me gently.

All I could do was nod.

"JT! Can you get him out of here?" Malcolm called tightening his grip on me.

Malcolm crouched down in front of me as I sat sideways in my driver's seat outside the bar. Eve and Tally stood next to one another next to the car.

Uniformed officers from the NYPD arrived.

"Offender is Bryce Abbott." JT said walking up to us.

"I know." I muttered.

"You know?" He asked.

I looked up at him.

"Bryce and I dated for almost two and a half years."

"You broke up?"

"If you call a coordinated effort by the DC hospital nurses to facilitate my escape after he beat me so badly I miscarried my baby a break up then yes. We broke up." I sighed.

"JT." Gil said his name walking up to us.

JT moved out of the way but Malcolm stayed crouched in front of me.

"Bright. Let me talk to her a minute." He said gently touching his shoulder.

Reluctantly he nodded, stood up and Gil replaced him.

"Lily. Are you okay?" He asked gently taking my hand.

I nodded but didn't look at him.

"I know you haven't seen him since you've been back to New York. I can't imagine how hard that is."

"This isn't me, Gil. I'm stronger than this." I sighed quietly.

"You are strong, Lily. Don't you dare think otherwise. You know exactly how abuse like what you suffered can effect someone." He assured me.

"I'm not just someone, Gil."

"You're being too hard on yourself. I need you to tell me if you want to press charges."

"You're a fucking coward, Lilian. You'll never follow through with it." I heard his voice yelling as the patrol car pulled out of the parking lot.

"Yes." I breathed.

"I want to press charges."

Eve and Tally agreed to drive me home so Malcolm and JT could go with Gil to a new crime scene.

"They don't really need me. I should go home with you." Malcolm insisted while everyone prepared to leave.

"You know they need you. Gil would send you with me if they didn't. Go. Solve the case, then come home to me." I assured him.

"Are you sure?" He pushed.

"I am. I'll take another shower and order in for when you get there. I'm okay, baby."

He nodded and kissed me.

"I love you, Lily."

"I love you too. Be safe, okay?"

He forced a smile and walked over to Gil.

"Come on." Eve said gently leading me over to my passenger seat.

Tally drove my car and Eve drove her own as I gave direction to my home.

"You do not live here." Tally muttered as she parked in my driveway.

I nodded and smiled weakly.

They both followed me up to the front door and into the loft.

"Thank you." I sighed sitting on the couch to remove my boots.

"Of course. You need to be cared for right now." Eve said sitting next to me.

"You guys don't have to stay." I shook my head.

"JT told me when you lost your parents in October. We want to be here for you." Tally said looking up at Eve who nodded.

"I'm not used to being supported." I admitted.

"Malcolm has always known how to be there for me and Gil has helped a lot since we met when I was fifteen but this kind of support... I'm unexperienced with it. It blew me away when the team decided to come with me to my parents' funeral."

"New York isn't known for its supportive citizens but from what Malcolm said Eve is from the Carolinas and I'm from Minnesota, which for the record is the friendliest state in the union." She smiled at me.

"I did hear that." I smiled at her.

Tally ordered the pizza while I took another shower and changed into an oversized long sleeved dark blue cotton lounge shirt and matching plaid pants.

The three of us lounged on my couch eating pizza, watching The Lost Boys, followed by The Sixth Sense, then Jurassic Park while we waited for Malcolm and JT to get there.

"I never understood horror movies until sitting here watching them with you two." Eve mentioned as Jurassic Park ended.

"Oh, honey. These aren't horror movies. Next time you come over we'll watch real horror movies." I teased.

Tally, Eve and I were laughing when Malcolm and JT came in.

"I can't believe you live here." JT smiled at me.

"It's not my most impressive property." I smiled back.

Malcolm and I said our goodbyes to our guests and settled in on the couch again.

"How did it go?" I asked laying with my head in his lap.

"Fine. We got her." He smiled down at me.

"Stop worrying." I sighed reading his face.

"We spent six hours watching movies and eating pizza. The longest I was alone was my twenty minute shower. I'm okay, Malcolm."

"I know. I just can't help but feel like this is my fault."

"How is it...?"

"If I hadn't left he'd never have gotten close to you in the first place."

"Things happened the way they were supposed to. You are not to blame for what happened with me and Bryce. He is to blame and I am to blame. No one else." I told him sitting up.

"You're not..."

"I should have left the first time he hit me, but I didn't. That's on me."

"What can I do to support you, right now?" He asked.

"This is good." I leaned into him.

"I can do this." He wrapped his arms around me.