A/N: To the rude Guest reviewer who said, "Don't tell me it ends there. Where's the rest of it?", the full story was published a decade ago if you're really that impatient. Otherwise, thanks for reading! /s

To my other readers, thanks for sticking with me - I hope this chapter is worth the wait!

The movie had ended, the final credits a blur to his tired eyes. The couch creaked as he shifted.

"You want a drink or somethin', Lil?" When he got no response, he rubbed a hand over his face, and looked down. Her head on his arm, blonde bangs brushing long eyelashes, Lilly slept peacefully. The blanket he'd grabbed earlier was tangled in her fist, long slim fingers holding it tight against her chest.

Shifting her head to the back of the sofa, he stood, then, once again, lifted her into his arms. He carried her to his room, setting her on the mattress, and pulling the sheets over her legs.

"Stay," she mumbled, and when he looked down, a warm sliver of blue peered up at him through the haze of sleep. He reached out to brush her hair from her face, smiling slightly.

"My bed," he replied in a low voice. Not quite awake enough to understand, Lilly frowned, and he chuckled, "'S'okay, Lil. You sleep."

She attempted a nod, but her face had already softened into unconsciousness once again. Scotty bent, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek, then stood. He traded his jeans for Philly PD sweatpants, switched his t-shirt for the least stained vest he could find, and for the first time, threw his socks straight into the laundry basket in the corner. He grinned. Mom would be so proud.

Lilly stirred, rolling to her side and letting out a small but satisfied sigh. Scotty slid back onto the bed, careful not to disturb her. He was just as careful to make sure there was plenty of space between them, having already settled on top of the sheet with only the blanket over him.

As he let his head drop onto the pillow, Scotty thought that falling asleep to the sight of his partner in his bed wasn't such a bad way to end his birthday.

Sometime during the night, Lilly had closed the space between them. When Scotty opened his eyes the next morning, the mop of blonde hair spread haphazardly across his arm and chest made him smile.

Wanting to give her as long as possible to sleep, Scotty lay still, savoring the feel of Lilly beside him, even as the arm trapped beneath his partner protested at the lack of movement. To get the blood flowing, Scotty absently traced circles on her back, his fingertips barely brushing the soft cotton of her t-shirt.

He felt the minute she crept back into consciousness. He stiffened, expecting her reaction to their current situation to leave him cold and lonely in the bed.

"Scotty."

"Mornin', Lil."

Lilly shifted against him, her eyes opening lazily, just enough to show him a glimpse of hazy blue before they closed again. Much to his surprise, instead of pulling away, his partner only sighed, shuffling further down the bed and pressing her face into his side. His arm, now free, protested as blood returned.

"What time is it?" she asked, her voice muffled by the fabric of his vest. Scotty glanced to the clock on his nightstand.

"5:23. Early."

Lilly sighed again.

"Sorry," she murmured, "Didn't mean to fall asleep."

"I ain't complainin'," he replied softly, and she heard the grin in his voice. Scotty let his hand drop to her face, sweeping his thumb over her forehead and sliding a stray strand of hair behind her ear. The touch was soft enough for her eyes to slide open again, a pink flush spreading over her skin.

"Too early," she said. Scotty's low laugh was a deep rumble in her ear.

"I have to go home," Lilly muttered then, and he chuckled when instead of moving out of the bed, she pulled the sheet over her head, "Why are you laughing?"

"Thought you were a mornin' person?"

"I hate mornings."

"Go back to sleep, Lil. I'll wake you up."

Lilly thought both of those things sounded delightful. His hand had been resting on her head, fingers scraping lightly through her hair, making her scalp tingle and her body sink further into the mattress. Scotty let her doze for a while, just watching the lines of her body relax against him.

The next time Lilly's eyes opened, there was only a warm space where her partner had been. She stretched, pushing at the sheets as her ears picked up the sounds of the shower. Deciding that it might be too much, to see him fresh out of the shower, Lilly headed for the kitchen. It was surprisingly tidy, the candle she'd admired the night before resting peacefully on the counter.

When Scotty eventually walked into the kitchen, Lilly had a cup of coffee and was flipping through an old magazine. She looked up, feeling her face heat at the memory of how his chest felt under her cheek, how he'd smelled like soap powder and aftershave.

"Thanks for last night," she said with a smile. Scotty shrugged, grinning lightly.

"Thanks for a great birthday."

He tossed his tie around his neck, his eyes narrowing in focus as he tried to tie the knot. Perhaps it was the cornflower blue gaze with its spark of amusement that was throwing him off, but his fingers just wouldn't cooperate. A frustrated growl rumbled low in his throat, and having watched him struggle, Lilly stood.

As she moved to help him, Scotty rolled his eyes and swatted her hands away. Lilly narrowed her eyes in warning, and reluctantly, he dropped his hands back to his sides. Scotty thought she took her time, longer than necessary, but couldn't really complain, not when she was standing so close.

Especially not when every couple of seconds, her eyes would dart to his, then down to his lips, then away.

Lilly drew the perfect knot up to his neck. Her hands lingered, smoothing the lapels of his shirt and sliding down his shoulders.

"There," she said eventually. Scotty swallowed hard.

"Lilly…"

She looked away. "I should get going. Wouldn't want to be late."

He nodded reluctantly, and followed her to the front door.

"Look, Lil, this thing we got goin' on…"

His partner turned towards him. "The case isn't over."

"You don't think we're past that, Lil? This is happenin' now."

Lilly pressed the button for the elevator, nodding slowly. Scotty sighed, not wanting to ruin what was, so far, an exceptional morning.

"I'll stop for fancy coffee," he said instead, "You want somethin'?"

Lilly wanted a lot of things, but coffee seemed like the most reasonable option. She granted him a smile, finally meeting his eyes.

"Coffee would be great. Thanks."

Scotty nodded. "Alright. See you at work."

There were a thousand things that Lilly wanted to say, but none of them involved coffee or work, and all the words were piling up on her tongue.

"Scotty," she said suddenly, catching the closing elevator door.

"Yeah?"

Lilly hesitated, then pressed on.

"I meant it, you know. When I said I like you. With feelings."

So she did remember. He hadn't been sure - fevers could mess you up like that. He laughed.

"I like you too, Lil," he replied, grinning, "With feelings."

Nick Vera quite often pretended to be more oblivious than he actually was. Scotty Valens, in Vera's professional opinion, was in deep, messy, heart-eyes-and-roses, capital L love.

Vera had finally managed to get his friend alone. The downside, he thought in mild disgust, was that the only place they could talk privately was the men's room. He leant back against the door as Scotty washed his hands.

"So you got a girlfriend."

Scotty arched an eyebrow, looking at his colleague in the mirror, "Look, man, you left me to deal wit' Miller alone, so I ain't tellin' you shit."

Vera grinned apologetically, "Sorry."

"You ain't," Scotty replied with a shake of his head, his lips curving, "But I'll take it."

"Does Lil know?"

Vera's question, spoken in a surprisingly serious tone, made Scotty turn, facing his friend. He studied the burly detective, looking for some sign of a trap, but seeing none, shrugged.

"Why would Lil need to know?"

Vera narrowed his eyes. "You know how women are. Blow volcano-hot one minute, frigid the next. And after the whole sister thing… Besides, you an' Lil are tight now, right?"

More than you know, Scotty thought. But realizing Vera was only looking out for them, he nodded.

"Yeah, Lil knows. Everythin' is good."

Seemingly satisfied, Vera left it alone, much to Scotty's relief. His partner, on the other hand, was just getting started.

The clock was just about to hit midday, and Miller's detective sense was working overtime. Full alarm bells and red alerts. For the last hour, she had been casting surreptitious glances between Detectives Rush and Valens, because they had barely spoken a word to each other all morning, but instead of the layers of ugly acidic tension that normally accompanied such a situation, today there was tension of a different kind. The kind, Miller thought with a smirk, that normally led to naked wrestling.

But Scotty was seeing someone, as much as he tried to deny it. And Lil…who knew?

What had been a niggling suspicion for the past few months was now worthy of a full blown investigation. And investigating was something she excelled at. So, Miller did what she knew how to do - she interrogated.

"So Valens," she said, deciding that he was the weaker target, "How was your birthday evening?"

A lesser detective would have missed the slight stiffening of Rush's shoulders. Scotty grinned.

"It was…nice. Amazin', in fact."

Well, now Lilly wasn't even trying, Kat thought in disgust. Her colleagues cheeks were lit up like Christmas lights. Time to rope in reinforcements.

"Hey, Nicky," Kat said suddenly, "First one to the break room gets the last jelly donut."

She let him win, but only because she needed his attention for more than thirty seconds.

"This about Valens and Rush?" he asked to her surprise, spraying crumbs as he spoke. Annoyed that he'd stolen her thunder, Miller crossed her arms and scowled at him.

"What do you know about it?"

Vera shrugged. "Nothin', but I ain't blind."

Miller huffed. "So what are we going to do?"

His brow furrowed in confusion. "Uh…why are we doin' anythin'?"

Miller rolled her eyes, then stepped closer. "Let me explain it for you. Valens has a secret. Lilly…well, Lilly is a secret. They think they're being sneaky. What kind of detectives are we if we don't figure it out?"

Vera groaned. "You ain't gonna let this go, are you?"

"Look, if it is Lil, then of course I want to know. If it isn't Lil, well, then I just want to head off any Ice Queen frostbite that may or may not strike up when Scotty's new 'friend' comes around." Miller snatched the half-eaten donut from his hand, "So you do you, dumbass, I'll do the detecting."

As it turned out, Stillman provided the perfect opportunity when he sent Vera, Valens, and Jeffries to follow up on another reported sighting of their perp. As a result, Miller had what she thought of as an open net. And Lilly has no idea…

"So," she began, and hid a grin as suspicion darkened her colleague's eye to navy, "Valens has a girlfriend."

"Apparently," Lilly replied.

"I'm happy for him," Miller went on, "She must be something special. Valens is already half-way in love."

It was a carefully placed dart, one that Miller had decided was guaranteed to get a reaction. Indeed, Lilly's head shot up, eyes wide.

"What? He is not."

Her friend arched an eyebrow.

"If he's not there yet, he's sure heading that way. That much is obvious. What I'm trying to figure out is why that idea bugs you."

Lilly took a deep breath, then let it go as if steeling herself.

"It doesn't bug me," Lilly said evenly. When Miller just looked at her with a mixture of pity and skepticism, she sighed heavily.

"Scotty deserves someone to love. After everything. And whoever she is…" Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head. "Scotty deserves somebody who is kind, and open. This woman…I hope she's good enough."

And there, Miller thought, was the crux of the problem.

You better be careful, Lil. Seems like you're fallin' just as fast.

Scotty would never get tired of seeing her on the balcony, breath rising in small puffs, the icy breeze pushing strands of fine blonde hair around her face. Seeing him, Lilly waved slightly, then pointed to the phone at her ear. He nodded, moving towards her.

"Alright. Thanks, Lindsey, I appreciate it. Okay. Bye."

"Child Services Lindsey?" Scotty asked as she slid the phone back into her pocket. She shivered in the night air, hugging her arms to her chest.

"I wanted to call and follow up on Kaysha Murphy."

"Any news?"

Lilly shook her head. "They're working on it. But, as always, she's just one of many. I mean, she'll get what she needs eventually, right? Even if it takes some time."

"It ain't right. It needs to happen now."

She looked at him then, hearing a shadow in his voice that hadn't been there before.

"What's wrong?"

"Lil…" He cleared his throat, resting his elbows on the railing beside her, "I jus' wanted to say, this mornin', I didn't meant to rush you. Make you feel uncomfortable, or anythin'."

"Scotty…" Lilly sighed.

"I like you, Lil. With feelings." That earned him a small smile. "An' they're pretty big feelings. But I gotta know you're in this wit' me. So I can be patient."

Lilly's heart stuttered. Scotty, loyal, kind, notoriously impatient Scotty, was offering to set aside the part of his character that she truly lo…admired, and he was doing it for her. A sign of her gratitude wouldn't hurt, she reasoned. She could step into him, lift her lips to dust a quick kiss over his cheek, step back, tell him how grateful she was, and everything would be fine. She'd done it a few nights ago, after all. She'd even spent the night in his bed and it hadn't been a disaster. She could kiss his cheek, and everything would be fine.

And it would have been fine, if she wasn't cold and off-balance. But she was, and the damn near familial kiss that should have landed on his cheek was suddenly not on his cheek, but right at the corner of his mouth.

Lilly froze.

The corner of his mouth. Half of his lips. Scotty's lips.

As the realization of what had just happened made the cold night air spin around her, Lilly took half a step back. All of the words Scotty had spoken about patience, about waiting, floated carelessly out of his mind.

"Lil," he said roughly, and the way his eyes had darkened reignited the heat she had barely managed to suppress. She swallowed hard.

"I should..."

A firm hand at the small of her back halted any further distance she would have put between them, and Lilly was left helpless as Scotty pulled her back to him so that his lips landed on hers. The hand at her back spread, fingers pressing and searching, gentle and demanding at the same time. She was sure he'd feel her heart pounding, because her whole body seemed to come alive with each passing second.

But suddenly it wasn't enough. Her mind screaming, Lilly's hands found their way to his waist, felt his body jump as she rested them there. The fingers of his free hand slid backwards through her hair, his thumb grazing her cheek.

This was their first kiss, but Scotty had already decided that he would die before he let it be their last. The way Lilly's fingers tightened in the fabric of his shirt, how her body seemed to be fighting an impossible battle between retreat and surrender.

Making the decision for her, Scotty walked her backwards until the wall pushed her even closer to him. The movement forced a sound from Lilly's throat, halfway between a gasp and a whimper. His lips pressed a little harder against hers. His tongue swept the line of her mouth, and when it opened to him, the hand he held in her hair tightened.

Her arms slid low around him, pulling him into her, and his answering groan was lost somewhere between them. The hand that had been in her hair moved, sliding down her neck, tracing the line of her collar bone, then lower, cupping the curve of her breast and earning a soft whimper in return.

"Hey, Valens, are you...oh shit! I knew it!"

At Miller's voice, Scotty had managed to pull his lips away, but his hands hadn't yet got the message. Neither had Lilly's, from the way they were still holding onto him.

No, no, no, no... Her mind was screaming. Her hands dropped back to her sides, shaking. She wanted to run, far away, so that didn't have to look at him and see all the things she knew would be written on his face. She also wanted to yell at Miller to leave, to have more of his everything on hers and to forget everything else.

But then she remembered. She remembered that he was her partner. Her friend. The only person she could depend on, unfailingly. And she had just...

Miller awkwardly cleared her throat, wondering what to do in what was obviously a groundbreaking moment. Lilly could sympathize.

"I have to go," she said suddenly, her voice wavering.

"Lil, wait..."

She pushed past him, avoiding his eyes. Darting past Miller without so much as a sideways glance, the door shut behind her with an audible thud. Scotty dropped his head to the railing, his uttered curse word loud in the still night.

Miller stopped next to him, shivering slightly.

"Out of interest, was that the 'not' or the 'exactly' part of 'not exactly seeing someone'?"

Scotty shot her a dark look. After a moment, she chuckled.

"So, plantin' one on Lil at work. Either stupid or brave," she began, a smile in her voice. He shrugged, failing to see the humor.

"More stupid, right? She ran away, Miller," Scotty said bitterly, "After a kiss. Ain't sure why I expected anythin' else."

She shot him a disbelieving look.

"First of all, that wasn't just a kiss. That was 'I'm about to let you take me here on this balcony and consequences be damned'."

Scotty couldn't help but smile, and Miller continued.

"Second, didn't seem to me like she was runnin'. She wasn't pushing you away or anything. Pulling you closer, that I could see. Refer back to point one. My fault she bugged out, anyway. Nothin' you did, lover boy."

The teasing wiggle of her eyebrows made him laugh.

"Shut up."

Miller sighed. "Look. Rush is...well, Rush is Rush. She runs from things that mean something. Always has, from what I've seen."

Scotty wasn't sure how that was helpful, so he simply said, "Yeah."

Miller nudged him with her elbow, and he glanced at her.

"Nothing to say you can't run after her," she said quietly. Scotty nodded slowly. Sure, he thought. But what happens if she never stops?

As it turned out, Scotty didn't have to do much chasing at all.

He rushed to open the front door before the persistent hammering woke his neighbors. Caught mid-swing, Lilly almost fell forward as he threw it open, but caught herself on the door frame. The scowl on his face cleared, and he blinked in confusion.

"Hi," she said simply, her eyes searching his face for the anger she was certain she'd find.

"Hi," he replied slowly.

"You kissed me. Then Miller…you really kissed me. I wasn't ready."

Scotty sighed, hearing the accusatory note in her voice. "Look, Lil…"

Lilly shook her head, her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides.

"Don't talk," she said, then took his face in her hands and pressed her lips to his. The push of her mouth was slightly frantic, matched by the tremble of her fingers against his cheeks.

Of all the things he'd expected when he'd opened the front door, this certainly hadn't been one of them, so it took his mind a second to catch up. When it did, and Lilly was still kissing him, his blood came alive. He pulled her closer, his arms wrapping around her, then spun them both, kicking the door closed.

For the second time in a handful of hours, Lilly found her back against a hard surface with Scotty pressed up at her front. His mouth was hot and hard, the bite of his lips edged in desperate need. Her hands, which had stayed at his face, thumbs sweeping his cheekbones, dropped to his waist, clutching and scrabbling for purchase.

Scotty was just about to slide his hands lower, lift her into his arms, and see how many of her neatly fastened buttons she'd let him undo, but before he could, Lilly had ripped her lips away and was pushing on his chest.

"What?" he demanded, frustrated that he could no longer reach her. She could feel how much it cost him to step back, the price of his desire pressing insistently into her hip. A hot flash of urgent want set her blood to boil again, but Lilly swallowed hard.

She smiled slightly, her heart racing, and Scotty stifled a groan at the curve of her pink and swollen lips.

"I have to go," she said apologetically, because he was warm and deliciously rumpled and maybe a little annoyed, and it was tempting. Very tempting. But Lilly couldn't be hasty; she'd been hasty with Ray, with Kite, with Joseph. Not this time.

"Stay," he replied, his hands dropping lower on her back as he caught her lips in a slow, intoxicating kiss. Lilly let herself sink into him, but when he slid his fingers beneath the waistband of her slacks, she groaned and leaned back.

"Scotty."

Seeing the resolve on her face, Scotty sighed, dropping his face to her shoulder. He knew she was making the sensible decision, but his brain was struggling to overrule a more insistent body part. He took a deep breath.

"With feelings," he muttered, his voice muffled, then lifted his head. The corner of his lips curled up in a smirk, and Lilly laughed softly. She kissed him again, lightly, then slipped out of his arms.

"With feelings."