The office was quiet when she came in, and Lilly gave herself a moment to sit at her desk. She had to admit, the night before had been pleasant. Having a man around again was kind of nice; and Ray was familiar. She didn't know anyone else she could get dressed in front of and feel completely unselfconscious. He'd seen her body more times than she dared to remember, and he'd never told her once that she needed to change anything, unlike Kite who had hinted that she could eat more, give him more to hold. She'd always been delicate, and she supposed it was because of bad nutrition and a lack of calories through her childhood as well as the only good genetics that had been passed on.

Lilly pulled out a few files and settled herself in to read.

"Have a good night?" Scotty was the next to come in, already brimming with sarcastic questions, and he interrupted her reading. Lilly chose to ignore his tone, nodded, looked up at him.

"Fine, thanks. Did you notice that the same guy who ran the grocery store put in a report of stolen goods on the Saturday of Lydia's death? And that the paring knife reported stolen was found in the trash nearby with her blood on it?" Lilly was straight onto business, and Scotty came over as she pointed out the fact. He picked up the file on the grocery man and found a list of priors. They were getting up to head out to the grocery store guy's place when Stillman came in. They updated him and left to chase up the lead.

Two hours later, they'd been through an informal interview that had dampened their enthusiasm and confirmed their worst suspicions; the thirty years that had passed were enough to allow Alzheimer's to slowly permeate any memories of the Saturday night or the stolen goods. Another few hours after that, with Vera and Jeffries going on their own fruitless interview with the now-retired police officer who had taken the stolen goods report, they'd found nothing else in the file to suggest any other links they could work on.

"So, unless he has a lucid day soon, this is going to have to go back into storage." Scotty stated the obvious, and everyone nodded. They were sitting dejectedly around the office, flipping through the files again when the phone on Lil's desk rang. She was leaning back in her chair, Vera in her visitor's chair, so he picked it up.

"Mhm. Okay. I'll let her know." She looked expectantly at Vera as he hung up.

"Some guy's downstairs for you." Lilly looked at her watch, swore under her breath. It was barely lunchtime. She'd told him she'd see him tonight.

"Someone about the case?" Vera asked. Lilly shook her head.

"No. Back in a minute." Lil slipped into her jacket and walked through the cage to the elevator. Ray was leaning against the wall when she came down and he snagged her sleeve. Before she could tell him what she thought of his unexpected announcement, he stole her thunder.

"No keys. I'm locked out."

"Oh." Sheepishly, Lil searched her pocket, found her bunch of keys. She sorted through and slipped the house key off the ring. She narrowed her eyes as she handed it over.

"If you decide to go furniture rearranging…" Ray gave her a smile, grabbed the key off her.

"Want to get a coffee?" Lil looked at her watch again, shrugged. She'd told them a minute, but they'd figure it out. It's not like they were getting anywhere anyway. Ray walked beside her easily, his loping stride somehow matching her smaller steps. He paid for the coffee, handed her a triple americano. She took a sip straight away and burnt her tongue.

"Crap." Ray shook his head, led her to a nearby bench.

"Let the steam clear a bit. Stop rushing." It was an admonishment he'd been making to her as far back as she could remember, and she countered it with her usual reply.

"Rush by name, rush by nature." They shared a smile, looked over the street together. His hand rested lightly on her thigh as Lilly crossed her legs. She leant into him, wanting body heat more than anything. Ray was one person she felt comfortable being close to. She didn't know what it was; maybe the amount of time they'd spent together on the bike, but his presence didn't feel like an invasion of her space; it felt secure.

"Did you see your shop?"

"Yeah, it looks good. Real good. Already doing better business than I'd hoped. A few of the workshops guys needed a kick along, but it's going to be great. Sometimes I miss just working on the bikes. Being a grease monkey." She felt his shrug rather than saw it, let the pause lengthen.

"You're not happy?" She asked.

"I think I've let my job become my life. I don't want that anymore. What happens when I sell off the businesses. Then I'll be some old guy with a bit of money and a few bikes."

"I thought that was what you wanted to end up as."

"I did. Maybe not so much anymore. Maybe money and bikes aren't enough anymore." Lilly finished the last of her coffee and stood. Ray looked up at her and she stared back down, finally looking over her shoulder towards PPD.

"I'd better get back." She motioned to the building, started walking. Ray caught up with her before she could get inside, tangling his fingers in hers to pull her up.

"Maybe today, Lil, maybe you can figure out if you want to be a retired cop with a lot of pictures on your wall. Or whether you want something more, like you used to." Lil looked into his eyes. She knew she was heading towards being an old lady with oddball cats and too many pictures of strangers on her wall. On the other hand, one of the few times she'd dared to hope for more had left her with a shattered heart and her relationship with her sister in pieces.

"The things I used to want… They were a long time ago. A lot's changed since then." Lilly paused, biting her lip. "More than you know." She started to walk off again, but his next words pulled her up.

"I got my Harley priced, you know, before you got into the academy. It had too many miles on it… Wasn't enough for the ring I had my eye on." Lilly paused, her back to him. She had nothing to counter with, nothing to keep her walls blocked, her softening reserves up. She nodded, knowing he'd see, and walked to the elevator. She knew there were some decisions to be made today. First, though, she wanted to see if the guys had anything more on Lydia. She'd rather be a lonely old lady with cats than a fourteen year old lying in an alley way with her skirt pulled up, her pants bunched around her ankles, her throat a gaping mess and all hopes of growing up lost.

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