Disclaimer: None of this stuff belongs to me.
3—Home Sweet Home
"Lil, would you hurry it up a little?" called out Scotty from the end of the hallway. He had offered to pick her up early for work, but now they were twenty minutes behind. Several more minutes passed before Lilly finally made her way into the living room.
"Happy now?" she asked as they walked out her apartment. "I just spent the last twenty minutes puking my guts out for you."
Scotty rolled his eyes as they got into the car. "Sure, makes me feel special."
"It should considering the fact that I'm carrying your child."
"Yeah yeah. The boss called me this morning."
Lilly grimaced. "Is there a break in the case?"
"Well—yeah, that Jake Wilson fella's back in town. But that's not why the boss called. Seems the Mayor is sitting in his office waiting for us."
"The Mayor? Of Philly?" Lilly turned in her seat to glance at Scotty.
"That's what the boss said. Something along the lines of the Mayor and his wife have some kind of a surprise waiting for us," replied Scotty not daring to look at Lilly in case she was making a face. They had met the Mayor's wife in their last major cold case, and the lady was something of a hardcore romantic. There was no telling what kind of surprise she and her husband had concocted for Lilly and Scotty.
Once they reached the police department, the pair of detectives practically dragged their feet up the stairs towards homicide.
"Play nice, huh?" murmured Scotty as he ushered Lilly by the crook of her elbow towards Stillman's office.
"I'm pregnant, Scotty. Playing nice isn't possible anymore. Especially when it comes to the Mayor. He's the reason we're in this mess, remember?" hissed Lilly. Scotty gave her a warning look before pushing the office door open. Sitting across from Stillman was a stout man with dark brown hair and bright green eyes. His face crinkled into wrinkles upon seeing Lilly and Scotty.
"Aw, Detective Valens, and Detective Rush, how wonderful the two of you look!" exclaimed the Mayor jumping up from his seat and eagerly shaking hands with the detectives. Lilly plastered a smile on her face and allowed the Mayor to seat her in the chair he had just been sitting in. Beside her sat Tina Williams, the Mayor's wife. Judging by the woman's smile she was still the same cheerful, plump woman dressed to the nines that Lilly had meant only a couple of months before.
Tina grinned at Lilly and gave a girlish giggle. "Gosh, but you don't look pregnant, Detective Rush. Still as thin as a stick. Is the baby moving yet?"
"No, not yet," said Lilly truthfully. "Just the morning sickness and bladder problems for now."
Scotty hung his head in amusement as the Mayor and Tina burst into laughter at the one-sided joke. Stillman shook his head, hiding his smile from Lilly who didn't seem to find the joke funny.
"Well," gasped the Mayor wiping tears from his eyes. "You must be wondering what Tina and I are doing here."
"The thought did cross my mind," answered Scotty raising his head to hear what the Mayor had in mind.
Tina took up the tale. "Well, Bobby and I felt that we simply had to do something for you two, seeing as how this child is being brought into this world because of our meddling."
"Yes—" Lilly was quickly cut off by Scotty bending down to kiss her on the forehead.
"And we can't thank you enough," he finished winking at Lilly conspiratorially. Lilly narrowed her eyes but wisely kept quiet. It probably wouldn't be such a good idea to try and throttle the Mayor in the middle of the homicide department.
The Mayor guffawed loudly and patted Scotty on the back, nearly knocking the younger man to the ground. "Too good, too good. Young love is hard to find these days. Anyway, with all the tabloid coverage going around, it was bound to come out that I ordered the two of you together for the sake of Detective Rush here. Well, with that much coverage it wasn't hard for the public to realize that you two weren't married…and that you lived apart. So, Tina and I put our heads together and brainstormed for almost a month on how to rectify the situation."
"Rectify?" questioned Lilly placing a hand on her stomach, feeling the queasiness from earlier returning full throttle.
"Yes, of course. We can't have your child born in such a manner, now can we? It wouldn't look right if Bobby was only Cupid the Sperm matcher, rather than the love doctor, you know what I mean, sweetie-pie?" Tina took one of Lilly's hands in her own and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
"So Tina and I got the city council together and took the leftover money from my campaign and—"
"We bought you two a house!" squealed Tina. Lilly widened her eyes and looked up at Scotty in shock.
"A-a h-house?" stammered Scotty sinking onto the arm of Lilly's chair.
"Yessiree!" replied the Mayor with a snap of his fingers.
Lilly turned back to Tina who was eagerly awaiting her reaction. "How big?"
"Two story, five bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom, dining room and kitchen, two car garage, a large den, a fenced in backyard, set in a safe neighborhood only a fifteen minute drive from here." Tina checked off her fingers as she rambled on about the house.
"That-that must cost a-a fortune," croaked Scotty loosening his tie with a finger.
"Don't you worry about a thing, first three years are already paid for," said the Mayor. "Courtesy of Philadelphia."
"That's…that's incredible," murmured Lilly running a hand through her hair. "Cat friendly?"
"Naturally," whispered Tina. "It's the perfect place to raise a family, have barbecues…hold a wedding."
Stillman wisely cleared his throat. "That's a wonderful gesture, Mayor Williams. I think this will solve a lot of problems for Lilly and Scotty in the future."
The Mayor nodded and shook Stillman's hands firmly. "Well, Tina, give Detective Valens the key and address so they can check out their home later. I'm sure we're intruding on a very important case." The Mayor shook the hands of Scotty and Lilly one last time before heading out of the office with Stillman.
Tina handed a silver key and address to Scotty before giving Lilly a quick hug good-bye. "I'm looking forward to a wedding invitation one of these days," she whispered.
Lilly and Scotty were silent for a few minutes. Finally, Scotty spoke up. "I guess we're going to be moving in together after all, huh?"
"All I have to say is that I get to pick all the furniture," muttered Lilly. Scotty glanced down at the blonde with a curious expression.
"What, you mean you're okay with this?"
Lilly shrugged uncomfortably. "I'd hate for the Mayor to lock us up for refusing a house. And besides, it's cat friendly. I win."
Scotty frowned just as Stillman walked in chuckling. "Got to hand it to Robert, he's one helluva Mayor."
"Sure," said Scotty getting to his feet. "So I hear our boy Jeff Wilson is back in town."
Stillman nodded. "Yeah, he just got in yesterday. You and Vera can hunt him down at his mansion."
"What about me?" asked Lilly.
"You can start calling a moving service and get your stuff in order. I've got a feeling it's going to be a five man job moving you and those cats to this new house of yours."
The Other Side of Town:
Scotty and Vera followed a maid down a garden path leading away from the Wilson Estate. It seemed that their boy Jeff was playing tennis with a friend from college.
"You should have asked the Mayor for one of these babies," murmured Vera with a chuckle jerking his head back at the mansion.
"Sure, and the next thing you know Lilly would be adopting every stray cat in town." Scotty shook his head at the thought and turned his attention to a tall, slender blonde haired, blue eyed man. "You Jeff Wilson?"
The man grinned and wiped some sweat off his brow. "Yes, yes I am. And you must be the detectives who have been so patient for the last month. Please, have a seat."
Vera and Scotty each sat down in a chair beneath a small Ramada. Jeff sat across from them and waved to his pal to follow the maid back to the mansion. "So what can I do for you gentlemen?"
"Abigail Martin," replied Vera swiftly. Jeff made a face.
"I take it you've made some sort of a break in the case; otherwise I'm fairly sure you wouldn't be here."
"You could say that," said Scotty. "I guess some people would think it strange that you're dating your dead girlfriend's identical twin sister."
"And then asking her to marry you only three years later," added Vera darkly. "I dunno about you, kid. Miss Abby so much you had to replace her with the one girl in the world who looks exactly like her?"
"I know how it looks, but that's not why I asked Anna to marry me. I love her. She's nothing like Abby. After Abby was killed—I didn't know what to do. I was lost, and so was Annabelle. We started to hang out some more after that, you know? We were friends finding solace in each other…and then it turned into love. True love. I've never felt this way about anyone, not even Abby—and I was with her for almost four years." Jake ran a hand through his hair nervously.
Scotty rolled his eyes. "Spare me the dramatics, Jake. Annabelle says you had a nice little reputation in high school."
Vera snorted. "Oh please, she said you were a drug dealer. Care to expand on that little tidbit, Jakey boy?"
"What? That's a bunch of bullshit! I-I don't know why Anna would say such a thing," protested Jake.
"You sure about that?" asked Scotty leaning forward across the table. Jake blew out a deep breath before speaking again.
"Abby and I were having some problems right before she was killed. We had been together since the summer before our freshman year in high school. Senior year was stressful—college applications, Abby and her AP courses, Abby and her giving back to the community crap, and me with basketball. She was head cheerleader and school president! Abby had all these clubs and organizations going on that she didn't have any time left for me. It was getting to the point that I couldn't handle having an invisible girlfriend."
"So what," muttered Vera, "you got rid of her just like that?"
"No. Abby and I decided to take a break from each other. See other people for awhile; I didn't think we were going to get back together. The break-up kind of got to her, so she started spending all her free time down at the YMCA. She connected with some of the kids there, the ones who really needed a friend like her."
"But Annabelle says Abby was with you the night she died," pointed out Scott warily.
Jeff shrugged. "Abby didn't want her mom or sister to know about the break-up. I promised to keep quiet and pretend things were fine with us. Abby didn't tell Anna everything, you know. They weren't that close. Because if they were, Anna would have known about 'Max'."
"'Max'?" snapped Vera irritably.
"He was a druggie. He was in real deep before he got help. At the YMCA he met Abby and she became his salvation. After her, he wanted to go clean, but the guys he had worked for didn't like that. The night Abby died she was with 'Max', helping him out. He'd give her a call out of the blue, telling her he needed a friend to lean on. It usually meant he was on the verge of a relapse. That night was no different."
"How do you know all this?" questioned Scotty studying the young man in front of him.
Jeff sighed. "I couldn't live without Abby. The night she died I asked her to marry me. She said she'd give me an answer after she dealt with 'Max'."
Vera ran a hand over his face, trying to keep calm. "There a reason we keep using 'Max' instead of a real name?"
"His past is all screwed up. Parents were into drugs, he's been on and off the stuff since he could walk. I don't think anyone knows his true identity anymore, not even him. Abby always called him 'Max'. She said it reminded her of a The Goofy Movie. She had a real thing for Disney movies; she was always finding some way to connect them to real life.
"Look, after Abby died, I started working at the YMCA for her. I became 'Max's' other solid rock in the world. The only reason he's in rehab now is because I'm footing the bill. I do it for Abby, because she saw something in him that no one else did."
"Like what?" demanded Vera. "A killer? Because if 'Max' there was still in trouble with his drug buddies then he could be the reason she's dead."
"Yeah," agreed Jeff offhandedly, "but if Abby hadn't died, I would never have found my soul mate in Anna, now would I?"
A/N—Oh my god! I feel so so so horrible! I can't believe how long this took me to write and post! I totally got caught up in school with midterms and papers due…I guess I just lost track of time, all the free minutes I had I used to sleep. I sincerely apologize that this one took so long. I'll try to do better next time around.