The next morning, he woke suddenly, his eyes flitting to the phone. It hadn't breached his sleep, his dreams of Lilly in the snow, standing in front of a trash can, hair smelling like vanilla and lips soft beneath his.
He wandered out to the machine, checked it. Nothing new. He replayed Lilly's last message as he waited for his toast. She still sounded sad, drunk, lonely. He buttered his toast, listened to the message again, debated about calling her. After a few moments of hovering his finger over the talk button, he put the phone down without making the connection. He'd wait her out for a day.
Kite replayed the message one more time before he finished his toast and started getting ready for work.
Lilly had noticed the blinking light on the machine when she got home. Even as a child, she wasn't the type of person to pick up Christmas presents to feel them and suppose what was inside. Not that there were many Christmas presents at the Rush household, but the few that had been there had always been touched by Chris, shaken until their mother had yelled at her to leave them alone. Lilly didn't live her life on a knife edge of expectation. Her curiosity wasn't overdeveloped, and it was because of this that she tripped past the blinking light without pressing the play button, kicking her shoes off as she went. It did briefly occur to her that it might have been Kite, but whatever he said, whatever words of pity he offered, she couldn't stomach them along with the noodles and booze.
The next morning, it was still blinking. Lilly paused as she poured her coffee, looked over it as she put out dry biscuits for the cats and finally reached over to let the machine tell her just how much of a fool she'd made of herself. She'd taken two Panadol before she went to sleep, but could still feel the faint threadings of a headache tingling along her skull.
His voice still sounded familiar, and she shut her eyes as she listened to the message, trying to gauge his emotions through the impersonally digitised sound.
"Lilly, it's Kite. Give me a call when you get this. I'm… I'm here on my own, too. I'll be up most of tonight… 'Night." She opened her eyes when the tape clicked off, furrowed her eyebrows. He sounded as if he might actually care, as if he might want her to call him back rather than leaving the opening out of politeness.
I'm… I'm here on my own too. She took that to mean that he was lonely too.
"Must be between girlfriends. Between the Julie's of the world." Lil reached down to address Olivia, scratched her head. She left the message on the machine; she'd call him back tonight, if she remembered.
When Kite got home, his answering machine still held only her two saved messages. He replayed them both, hoping she'd call in the meantime. That he'd pick up and they'd talk. He'd find the words to tell her he was an idiot, and that he was considering a job back in Philly. She'd tell him she was glad he was coming back and that she missed him. They'd live happily ever after.
The phone didn't ring while he was entertaining thoughts of walking her home every night, being able to permanently hang his coat next to hers. Letting himself in with his own key, and being able to stare her cats down because he had a place in her life, and her house as well. Sighing, Kite decided to call her; after he had a shower. He needed time to run through the conversation several times in his head. Lilly wasn't the type of person to address unprepared.
Lilly reached up over her head, felt her back crack, slender backbone realigning. She ran a hand through her hair on the way down, felt the length of it. She needed a trim, but she hadn't found the time. Work, as always, was hectic. She knew it didn't have to be this busy, but it wasn't like she had anything else to fill her time with. Besides, work was safe. It didn't leave itself open to drunken phone calls or emotional attachment.
"Lil, want a ride home?" Scotty was swinging his jacket from the back of his chair, making sure he had his car keys. Lil briefly shut her eyes, considered the nine block walk home, nodded.
"Sure, Scotty." She loosely wrapped her scarf, shut the files on her desk. It was late, and they were the only two left in the room. The air conditioning unit was clicking on and off, and their footsteps fell into time with it as they walked to the lift.
"Tomorrow, you want to try inputting the last of the files into the computer?" They'd just wrapped up a case, and nothing new had come in. Somehow they'd cleared the backlog, and were now digitising all evidence and other data from the old cases into the current computer system, seeing if any similar hits came up, or whether there were any DNA matches to current perps.
"Sure. Hopefully we'll get a hit on something." The last fifty or so cases they'd input hadn't gleaned anything; no MO matches, no DNA matches. If no info came through from outside, and no new hits came up they'd be twiddling their thumbs by the end of the week.
Lilly's cell rang just as Scotty started the car. She dug it out, looked at the display.
"Crap." She held it in her lap, concentrating on the screen, ready to turn it off when it stopped ringing. At Scotty's sideways glance, Lil shrugged a little, put the silent phone back in her bag. Sometimes, he was a little too nosy. She could still remember him looking past him when she was talking to Ray in Interview 1; as if they'd been getting it on in there. Ray had told her, too, that he'd surreptitiously tried to get info out of him about what happened after the Harley ride. He was her partner, and she didn't shut him out completely, but there were things he didn't need to know. Like the fact that she'd called Kite after downing too many straight drinks. And that, for some unknown reason, he'd been persistent in calling her back.
"Think Vera's still living at the motel?" Scotty changed the subject after a long silence, and Lilly shrugged again. She knew for a fact Vera was at the motel; he'd called her from there to interpret a letter Julie had sent him, figuring that, as he put it, 'a girl's perspective might get this to make some kinda sense.'
"Thanks for the ride." With a small sigh of relief that question hour was over, Lil gathered her bag, slid out of the car, waved as Scotty drove off. The streetlight near her apartment still wasn't working, despite the fact that she'd called the council days ago. Her tax dollars, working hard.
The phone was ringing as she was unlocking the door, and she let it go to the machine as she struggled to get the key out of the lock. It had been sticking in there, and she'd been meaning to call a locksmith but, like her hair, it had been neglected.
"Rush, it's Kite. Listen,… I just need you to call me back. Let me know you're okay. Talk to me…" There was an exhalation, as if he was building up to saying something. Lilly dropped her bag on the counter, leaned over the machine.
"Miss you, Lil. Call me." He hung up quickly after the quickly uttered last sentence. Not that Lilly had any intention of picking up; eventually he would stop calling. She knew his persistence had a point where it would wear thin, break. It had broken already, but he must have built up another layer since they'd parted. She wondered if it was as weak as the last one.
She did wonder at the name he used for her, though. He always called her Rush, or, on rare occasion, Lilly. Even though her colleagues all called her Lil, he would only shorten her name when they were in bed; caress it in a moan that sent shivers through her.
Lil kept the machine on and checked the cats had food before she went to shower. She gave Lindsay a quick call before she went to bed; they'd been trying to organise a girls' night out around both of their busy schedules, and so far they figured they could squeeze in a Friday night in a month's time. Unexpected emergencies permitting, of course.
Making a mental note to call the locksmith on Saturday, and to see if her hairdresser was willing to make a Sunday appointment, Lilly crawled into bed. She rolled onto her side and looked out the window. Hopefully, tomorrow would be a good day; possibility of a new case, more time for Kite to get over her mistake of a phone call, and a chance to relax at tomorrow night's first Thursday.
So I realise this didn't advance the plot a whole bunch. Yes. I know. Really. But I wanted to start bringing Lilly and Kite together before… Well, I don't want to give it away, but next chapter will (hopefully) have plot advancement. Don't lose interest just yet! As always, please review!