Author's Note: Welcome back! I tried to watch some of a more recent episode of HM a little over a week ago, and I finally had to get up and leave. Seeing the once-strong character of Lilly reduced to a pathetic figure who moons around over Oliver no matter how badly he treats her... Well, let's just say it makes me very upset. And angry. Really angry. If Disney is trying to outwardly quash any vibes between Miley and Emily's characters on the show, they're doing one hell of a job. Of course, they're also running off several long-time viewers who actually care about the bond between Lilly and Miley. Thanks, Disney. Let me see if I have any more hopes you can crush while you're at it. At least here we're not afraid to embrace the love between Miley and Lilly, so let's get back to our favorite girls!
Here are my standard disclaimers: I make no claims on any of Disney's, Miley Cyrus', Emily Osment's or Hannah Montana's trademarks or copyrights, and no infringement is intended on them or those of any other artist or publication mentioned. Be forewarned that this story most certainly will contain femslash. If love and affection between two consenting young adults of the same sex bothers you, I suggest you turn right around and find something else to read. Keep any flames to yourself and remember that what our world needs now is more love and acceptance, not more hate. Reviews are always welcomed and appreciated!
We Got Nerve
by Jo K.
Chapter 24: The Thin Ice of My Life
Night after night, day after day, it went on and on
Then came that morning she woke up alone
She spent all night staring down at the lights of L.A.
Wondering if she could ever go home
-Mikayla, covering Bob Seger's "Hollywood Nights"
"Nice job, Mikayla! Why don't you take a break?"
Mikayla nodded to the engineer in the control room as she slipped off her headphones and left them on the seat in the recording booth. Last night's concert duel with Hannah had been painful in several ways, ranging from simply humiliating to soul-crushing. She didn't register the audio engineer's words to her as she passed the control room, but dimly she thought that they were probably meant to be encouraging. Why would anyone want to encourage me? Maybe he's wanting me to sound good because it'll be his name attached to the finished product somewhere. No damn way he just wants to cheer me up. People aren't like that in the real world.
As she stepped out into the hall, she stopped short when she nearly ran into someone heading into the studio as she was heading out. "Oh! Ms. Blaike!" Mikayla said hurriedly, wincing when she saw several drops of her boss's coffee fall to the floor. "I, uh, didn't expect to run into you at..."
"Five in the morning?" Vera Blaike finished for the young singer, fighting off a smile that threatened to spill across her face. "Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't expect to get a call from here telling me that our star artist had called in a recording team in the middle of the night."
Mikayla felt slightly chastised at the older woman's words. "Well, I heard this song on the radio, and it got me thinking—"
"Mikayla," Vera said quickly, making a point to smile enough to communicate that she wasn't angry at all. In fact, she was thrilled that the young woman who had built such a reputation as a troublemaker was finally beginning to show some dedication to her music. "You don't have to apologize for getting an idea for a song and wanting to record it while the inspiration is still fresh. That's what musicians and singers do, young lady. Now, if that phone call had been to tell me that you'd slapped another reporter, then I'd have been royally pissed."
"It was just the one time," Mikayla said quietly, trying hard not to smile at the memory. The bitch had deserved it as far as she was concerned, but now probably wasn't the best time to belabor the point. "And I did apologize." After a pause, "Sort of."
Vera continued to smile at Mikayla, a wistful look firmly in place as she regarded the dark-haired young woman in front of her, so different than the confident but already angry teenager Mikayla had been when Vera had first heard her sing all those years ago.
"Okay, am I getting the silent treatment? Because you're starting to creep me out," Mikayla finally said, startling Vera out of her reverie.
"Come walk with me," said Vera, turning and starting down the empty hallway without bothering to see if Mikayla really was going to follow her.
"I've been following your career for a long time, Mikayla," said Vera softly as they reached her office a minute later. The polished brass plate on the door simply declared Vera Blaike, with no mention of any position or title beyond her name itself.
That little detail troubled Mikayla, who liked to know where she stood when dealing with others. Working from a position of strength was always preferable to a position of weakness, with an uncertain position the worst possible situation in negotiations—and everything in the music industry was negotiations, to some degree.
"Have a seat," Vera said casually, as if it were entirely normal for a major label record company executive and its headlining artist to have a informal sitdown before six on a Saturday morning.
After only a moment's hesitation Mikayla slid into one of the oversized leather chairs in front of the large ash desk. She was caught off guard when Vera sat in the seat next to her rather than behind the large and somewhat imposing desk. She couldn't help but smile at the older woman's unpredictability, a quality that Mikayla was beginning to appreciate. "You know, Margot told me never to talk to you without her present," Mikayla said without preamble, watching Vera's face for any overt reaction.
The only obvious response was a hint of a smile on Vera's lips. "Should we call her and wait for her to get here?" she asked, humor in her voice.
"Nah, fuck her," said Mikayla with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm beginning to think she hasn't exactly given me the best career advice, if you know what I mean."
"What exactly do you mean, Mikayla?" asked Vera after several seconds, and now the smile was gone, replaced by an expression entirely devoid of emotion, hazel eyes peering intently into Mikayla's dark brown. "I'd like to know more about that artist-manager relationship the two of you have, because for the life of me I can't figure out why the hell you still put up with that condescending bitch."
Well. Mikayla's eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline at Vera's blunt words. She considered her options briefly before replying. Vera had stood behind the fiery singer on more than one occasion, frequently in opposition to Margot and Margot's brother Lonnie, and every one of those times Vera had gotten her way, nearly always to Mikayla's advantage. And there was also the simple fact that if Vera possessed that sort of clout at the new Dyseni Records, it could certainly be turned against Mikayla were the singer to alienate Vera Blaike; the results of that turn of events would most certainly end poorly for Mikayla and her recovering career. Well, I really don't have a choice. Fuck. Mikayla sighed, then she said, "Okay. I'll tell you. But first I want to know something."
Vera shrugged slightly. "Ask away," she said pleasantly, as if she were the one sitting in Mikayla's executive office rather than the other way around.
"Why the hell have you been looking out for me since Dyseni signed me? I mean, not just this most recent concert thing, but the whole time I've been here. In fact, I heard a rumor that you were the one who wanted Dyseni to offer me a contract this time around." That particular piece of information had cost Mikayla a blowjob on one of the executive assistants, but he had turned out to be pretty fun in bed, so she didn't really consider it a chore once it was done.
Vera continued to look intensely at Mikayla for nearly a minute, not moving or saying a word. Finally her lips parted, and she carefully said, "You were best friends with my niece Kasey Gomez. Before she died."
As things suddenly clicked into place in her mind, Mikayla felt her head spin slightly. "You were—"
"The aunt no one in the family would talk about, because I was gay," finished Vera softly. "Except Kasey. She called me about once, twice a week, and she kept me filled in on what was going on in the family." Now her eyes glistened as she spoke slowly, gently, and the sadness that Mikayla could detect in Vera's voice was a sadness that she knew far, far too well.
Oh God, all those things I said about Hannah Montana and her wife being lesbians, all those things I did to them... Mikayla felt her stomach toss abruptly, and she momentarily considered whether she was going to throw up in her boss's office. "I... I didn't know," she finally said, swallowing against the bile rising into her throat. "That you were her aunt. That you were gay! I swear it, I didn't know!" she said, her words rising in volume until the last words reached a plaintive wail. All her efforts to succeed, all her willingness to do whatever it took to make it to the top, to make it big for her and Kasey both—what was it worth if she had become someone Kasey would be ashamed of today?
Mikayla abruptly laughed, an angry, bitter tone that rang out even as her stomach churned and hot tears streamed down her face. "God, I've fucked everything up," she said, an eerie calm suffusing her words as she spoke softly. She turned to look at Vera; the only visible sign of emotion on the older woman's face was the reddening of her eyes, hinting at what emotions must be swirling behind her still countenance. "Kasey and I both wanted to be stars since the time we were little kids. It was gonna be my way out, my ticket out of that piece of shit town in Texas, and she felt the same. We had agreed that whichever one of us made it first would take the other with her until her career took off too. I had just started to break out with 'If Cupid Had a Heart' when—"
Vera saw the young woman sitting across from her go silent and drop her head, staring down at the floor as tears dripped from her face onto the steel gray carpet. The proud, strong-willed performer Vera was familiar with had been replaced by an altogether different Mikayla, one weary and battered by the tragedies that haunted her young life. She slowly reached out, hesitantly touching the brunette's hair with her fingers in a gesture of compassion when Mikayla slid out of her chair, crumpling onto the floor as she cried, her entire body convulsing with sobs deep and angry.
How do I fix a life that's this broken? thought Vera as she slid down into the floor beside Mikayla, carefully resting her hand on the back of the young woman whom her niece had loved with all her heart, probably more than Mikayla had ever realized. Kasey's feelings for her best friend had been one of the secrets that the young woman had shared with her Aunt Vera and no one else, not even her best friend—especially not her best friend. She had known all too well how Mikayla would react, so she had kept those feelings securely bottled up inside her.
I have to try, because no one else will, Vera realized, taking a deep breath before she said anything. For this girl in front of me who's never known a stable life, and for you, Kasey, because I know you'd rather die all over again than see her like this. I have to try.
Vera closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, hoping against hope that she could bring some peace to Mikayla's life. And then, maybe one day, she'd find the courage to tell Mikayla just how much her best friend Kasey had truly, secretly loved her. "Mikayla?" Vera asked as the wracking sobs began to ease. "Mikayla? It's Vera, Kasey's aunt."
At the mention of her best friend's name, Mikayla lifted her head, revealing dark eyes heavy with guilt and shame. "Why did you let me do what I did, say the things I said, when you were..." she asked, unable to speak the last word.
"When I was gay myself?" asked Vera knowingly, keeping her expression neutral. "Because I wanted you to find your own way, Mikayla, to become your own person. But that's never going to happen as long as you let that domineering bitch Margot Walters control your life."
Mikayla looked away quickly. "You don't understand," she said, shaking her head. "You don't know everything that's gone on. Everything that she's fixed for me, all the trouble that she's kept me out of."
"Maybe not," replied Vera steadily, "but what I do know is that my company's premier artist is having a breakdown on the floor of my office, and right now I'm not just concerned with her ability to produce and perform, I'm also worried about her health—and her life." After a long pause, Vera carefully said, "I know that you've passed every drug and alcohol test we've given you, Mikayla. I've kept a close eye on all the results, just in case you started using or drinking again. And you've kept all your therapy sessions regularly, even if you haven't been the most pleasant patient."
"I haven't exactly had the most pleasant therapist, either," Mikayla said with a hint of a grin that quickly faded, leaving the dour face from before. "But I guess it's not her job to make me like her," she admitted grudgingly.
Vera was afraid she already knew what the answer to her next question was going to be, but she needed to ask it. "Mikayla, do you have any... friends? Outside of the music industry, I mean? Someone you could talk to who could give you maybe a different perspective on things?"
Mikayla frowned. Me? Friends? Please. Who the hell would— Wait, wait, wait. She looked up into Vera's searching eyes as she felt hope begin to flutter to life inside her heart. "I might have a friend I could talk to," she said as a faint smile began to inch across her face. "Two of them, in fact."
Several miles away, the sun was rising over Malibu, casting the first glowing tendrils of light into the master bedroom of Miley and Lilly Truscott. They had gotten in bed just a few hours ago, following a very late night flight back to California after the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert.
Miley smiled as she happily snuggled closer to the two most important things in her life: her wife Lilly and their daughter Brooke, who was sleeping between her two mommies. Miley pulled the covers up slightly, not even opening her eyes as she lifted her left arm and shook it silently. As the numbness began to recede, she returned it to its place lying over Lilly's hips, pulling her wife's pelvis snug against her own once more as they formed a shape reminiscent of a heart, with Brooke in the open area between them. They both had pajamas on, but Miley could still feel the heat radiating off her best friend's body where only thin fabric separated their skin.
As Miley watched, Lilly smiled in her sleep at the resumption of contact between the two of them. My poor Lilly Bear. You didn't get much sleep last night. Well, neither of us got much sleep.
In fact, Miley had been rather prophetic in predicting Lilly's actions after the concert. It had taken less that ten seconds after the door to the limousine had closed before Lilly had her hand down Miley's skin-tight silver shorts. The limousine had barely left the concert site when Miley had her first orgasm of the night, one hand up Lilly's shirt, the other clenching the door handle so hard that her fingers went numb. The rest of the limousine ride went much the same way, as did the next several hours in their hotel room. It wasn't until nearly two in the morning that Lilly rolled off of Miley and looked at her best friend and wife with the quirky smile that Miley couldn't resist. "I want to sleep in our bed tonight, honey," Lilly had said. "Just you, me, and our baby." And Miley hadn't hesitated a second before agreeing.
For Hannah Montana, getting a private jet chartered in the middle of the night was only a minor chore. Less than ninety minutes later, Miley, Lilly, Brooke, Roxy and Jen were all on their way back to California; with the time zone change, they were all settled in their own beds long before the sunrise.
And so Miley found herself smiling as she laid her own head back down on her pillow, blowing a kiss over their daughter to her wife just inches away from her before drifting back into the pleasure of a deep sleep.
Shortly thereafter, the ringing of the doorbell roused Lilly from her own dreams. "Miles, get the door," she mumbled sleepily, adding, "Please," after a few seconds. When there was no response from her wife, Lilly lifted her head and took in the sight of Miley holding Brooke close to her chest, where the youngest Truscott was nursing in her sleep. "Aw, you two are so cute," Lilly said quietly, lightly smoothing a lock of Brooke's blonde hair back down onto her head. "I'll get the door," she said mostly to herself as she slid out of bed, shedding the sweaty pajamas for a thin white camisole and powder blue pair of panties, grabbing a silk robe from the closet as she hurried out of the bedroom.
Lilly tied the sash around her waist as she hurried down the stairs. "Coming!" she yelled as her toes touched the ground floor, hustling to the door before whoever it was could ring the doorbell again. She opened the lock and turned the latch before her sleepy mind could process exactly which friends she and Miley were expecting today, but as soon as she saw the faces of their friends from back in Tennessee Lilly couldn't help but be excited. "Dee! Amy! Holy cow! What time did you two leave Tennessee?"
"Before the sun came up," said Amy, yawning. "But we slept on the plane, at least."
Lilly waved her friends inside. "Come in, come in! Don't want to give the neighbors anything else to gossip about," she said as she grabbed the two suitcases on the porch, carrying them inside before she turned and closed the door behind Amy and Dee. As she did so, the knot holding her robe closed slipped, letting the sides of the lavender robe drift open.
"Damn, Lilly!" said Amy, her dark brown hair now slightly longer and shot through with streaks of soft red, adding a soft whistle as Lilly turned around to see the two of them looking her up and down rather obviously, if playfully. "You work out all the time or what? I mean, Dee skates all the time, but her legs don't look like that!"
"Hey, thanks!" said the shorter girl with dark blue hair cropped just below her ears. "You weren't complainin' about my legs last night, girl!"
"Aw, Dee honey, I'd never complain about your legs," Amy said as she wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. "Especially not after how you made me feel last night!"
Dee grinned and winked at Lilly, who was regarding her friends with a patient, even understanding look. "Your legs do look hot as hell, Lilly," Dee said, giving a slight nod to Lilly, who returned it immediately. "I bet Miley still can't keep her hands off you, can she?"
"Why on earth would I want to?" came a voice from the top of the stairs. Dee and Amy turned to see Miley carefully coming down the stairs, her long brown hair rather disheveled and wild. She had put on a light gray tank top and a pink pair of pajama shorts, but the brown and pink blanket in her arms and the baby girl inside it had already seized the attention of their visitors from Tennessee.
"Oh shit!" said Amy, who quickly added, "Sorry! About the swearin', I mean."
Dee lightly pushed her girlfriend's shoulder. "You are not sorry, either!" She looked at Lilly and said, "She cusses all the time!"
"Well, you two can watch your mouths while you're around Brooke," said Miley as she reached the ground floor, walking past Amy and Dee to first meet her wife with a kiss. "Mmm, good morning, beautiful," Miley said as Lilly put her arms around her wife and their baby. "Missed you when I got up."
"I had to get the door, or else it might've woken up the beast, here," Lilly said, giving Miley another kiss before gently kissing Brooke's soft forehead.
Amy and Dee both gasped as they peered closely at the baby nestled snugly in Miley's arms. "Is she still asleep?" asked Dee, putting her hands behind her back as if she were afraid to accidentally touch her.
Miley nodded. "You can hold her if you want," she said. "Let's go sit on the couch."
As Lilly watched Miley show their friends how to hold Brooke while still supporting her neck, she found herself newly curious as to what prompted the sudden trip out to California for Amy and Dee. That curiosity, however, was pushed aside by the thoughts of taking Dee down to the large skate park less than half a mile away. She loved having Miley cheering her on, but having someone else to skate with was fun in an entirely different way. Oliver had never been that good skating, and truthfully she had grown apart from her old skating buddies of a few years ago. Having another friend to skate with was already rekindling the love of skating that still flickered deep inside her heart.
"Hey, can we see the ocean?" said Amy suddenly, standing up fast enough to startle Dee; however, the blue-haired girl kept a sure grip on baby Brooke, giving her girlfriend a stern look as she did so.
"Yeah, as long as you don't knock my daughter off the couch!" said Miley with a light shove against Amy's leg.
"Here five minutes and you're already actin' like you own the place, I tell ya."
"I'll hold her, Miles," Lilly said, reaching over to take Brooke away from Dee, who seemed relieved to pass the infant over. "It's okay, Dee," teased Lilly with a smile before she looked back to Miley. "You can take Dee and Amy down to see the ocean."
"Hell yeah!" Dee said. She flinched as Amy popped her on the arm with a crisp smack.
"Now who's got the dirty mouth?" teased Amy, already rubbing Dee's arm before she planted a kiss on it. "That feel better now?"
"Yeah, some," muttered Dee, holding a serious face for several seconds before finally letting her smile creep through.
Miley stopped at the back door, Amy and Dee hot on her heels. "You don't mind if we run down there real quick, baby?"
"Nope," Lilly said, waving for her wife to go on. "I'll get this little doodlebug changed and cleaned up while you three are gone."
"Okay, see you in a sec, Lil," Miley said breezily as she swept out the door, Amy following as Dee closed the door behind her.
Lilly lifted Brooke up, facing the now-awake baby. "So are you gonna be Mommy's little spy and help her find out why our friends flew out here so suddenly?" Brooke's reply was more of a smile and soft grunt than any proper statement, but Lilly grinned and said, "Oooh, you're definitely your Momma's little girl, yes you are! Yes you are!" Brooke continued to smile, even making a short squeal of delight at the faces her mother was making for her. The ringing of the doorbell broke that focus, however, and Brooke blinked twice, her eyes noticeably wider.
"Oooh, that mean old doorbell!" said Lilly playfully, still smiling. She kissed Brooke on the cheeks, left first, then the right, then she turned and walked to the door. "So who on earth could that be so early?" she said to Brooke, who was once again smiling at her mommy's voice. Lilly opened the door and froze when she saw who was standing at the door.
"Hi, Lilly," said Mikayla, her stance not as confident as it had been the last time she had dropped by unexpectedly.
Lilly's eyes narrowed slightly. "You really need to work on this whole calling ahead thing," she said coolly. "That'd make it much easier to be gone when you came by."
Surprisingly, Mikayla didn't sneer or offer any verbal riposte to Lilly's comment. Instead she looked squarely at Lilly, and that allowed Lilly to see the redness rimming the singer's eyes. "I need to talk to you," said Mikayla softly. She looked over her shoulder, checking both her left and then her right. "Can I, uh, come in? I don't think anyone followed me, but I'd prefer not to bring stalker paparazzi to your house. You and Miley wouldn't know what to do with them."
If only you knew, thought Lilly, keeping her face neutral, if a bit frosty. "Sure, come on in," she finally said, stepping aside to let Hannah's nemesis through. She felt a bit dirty, letting someone so openly hostile to Hannah and Lola come into their house and plop down onto their couch, but obviously something was bothering Mikayla, and that could be worth investigating.
Mikayla looked around nervously, her legs drawn together at the knees as she nervously bounced her left leg up and down on the floor. "Is Miley here?" she asked.
"She's down at the beach," Lilly replied automatically, and her words triggered a thought. "Hang on," she said to Mikayla as she grabbed her cell phone. One tap of her speed dial had Miley's phone ringing.
"Hey hon," said Miley's voice.
"Hey," answered Lilly, and even that simple exchange of words made her smile slightly. I just love hearing her voice. "You mind maybe taking Amy and Dee down to Rico's and getting them something for breakfast?"
"Um, yeah, I could do that. You want something from there?"
"Not exactly. Mikayla's here."
After a pause, "You need me to come back there right now?"
"No, she said she wants to talk about something, so I think it'd be best if we didn't have our friends walk in and see her in our house. That might be a little distracting."
Mikayla preened on the couch as she heard Lilly's words, obviously assuming that her celebrity status would certainly overwhelm whomever it was Lilly was talking about.
"Yeah, all that barfing would sorta make it hard to talk."
Lilly snickered as Mikayla continued to bask in the attention she thought she was getting. It did seem to cheer the younger woman up somewhat, but Lilly wasn't sure if she considered that a good thing or a bad thing. "Right," she replied. "Give me a heads up when you three start back, okay?"
"You got it, hon. If you need me, just call, okay? I'll be back there faster'n two shakes of a lamb's tail."
"You realize that's kinda slow, right? That it takes a lamb longer to shake its tail than people realize?"
" ... You wantin' something for breakfast or not, Truscott?"
Now Lilly laughed, and in her heart she could feel Miley's happiness and joy in their loving banter. "Yeah, I want something for breakfast. Surprise me."
"You got it, beautiful."
"Oh, and Miley?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you."
"Love you too, baby."
Lilly smiled as she ended the call, replacing the phone on the end table beside her chair. As her eyes shifted to regard her surprise visitor, she found herself curious more than angry, at least for the moment. Something had obviously rattled Mikayla since the concert—well, other than Hannah wiping the stage with her, Lilly mused—and that was very unexpected. "So what did you want to talk about, Mikayla?" Lilly said, striving to keep her voice calm and not let her dislike of Hannah's rival seep through into her tone.
"I need some advice," replied Mikayla, her eyes guarded but with a hint of hope in them.
Lilly frowned now. "Why would you ask me, then? I think you know exactly how I feel about you."
Mikayla nodded. "Yeah, I know. You hate me, because you're friends with Hannah and Lola and I've gone after them tooth and nail."
"Sounds about right," said Lilly, settling Brooke down in her lap.
"That's exactly why I needed to ask you this, Lilly. Because you don't like me. You're not somebody who's going to tell me what I want to hear just because I'm a celebrity. You're not going to try and be polite or give me a roundabout answer, like Miley would. You're going to tell me the cold, hard truth whether it hurts me or not." She looked out the back doors for a few seconds. "Miley..." She turned back to Lilly, and now there was an unreadable smile on the brunette's face. "I think my relationship with Miley is still complicated. Well, maybe confusing. You know, we were both interested in the same boy at the same time, and I'm not sure if there's still some jealousy there or not."
"There's not," Lilly said firmly, nearly wincing. Trust Mikayla to dredge up memories of the most painful times of mine and Miley's lives. It may be over, but I still hate even thinking about that time she went out with him. "In fact," Lilly added, "dating Jake was one of the worst mistakes Miley ever made. We both suffered because of it, in more ways than one. You can have him."
"I'd as soon rip his head off as look at him," said Mikayla quickly, and there was no disguising the venom in her voice as she spoke. "I hate him. He ruined my life. He took something away from me that I can never get back, not ever." She looked directly in Lilly's eyes and said, "And no, I'm not interested in talking about that."
Lilly sighed. I think I liked her better before that attitude came back. "So what are you here to ask me, Mikayla? You might as well get it over with before Miley and our friends get back here."
Mikayla pulled a lock of her hair forward, running her fingers through it as she played with it without thinking. "I've been pretty vicious with some of the things I've said in the press about Hannah and Lola," she said, looking around the room, her eyes landing on everything but Lilly. "And just today I found out that those things I was saying had hurt someone who's been nothing but good to me, someone whose opinion of me actually matters to me, believe it or not." Mikayla smiled fractionally at that last phrase, and Lilly found herself nearly matching that hint of a smile.
"I'm stopping the smear tactics on Hannah and Lola," Mikayla said slowly. "I expect that my manager will be pissed off beyond belief, but I think it's the right thing to do. At the same time, I can't exactly come out and say, 'Oh, hey, I was just saying all that anti-lesbian bullshit to get people pissed off and sell copies of my new album and songs. I don't mean it now, 'kay?' You see the problem there?"
"That it'd prove to everyone that you're a liar and a hypocrite?" asked Lilly calmly.
"Exactly!" said Mikayla excitedly, the rebuke in Lilly's question either missed or entirely ignored. "So. Do you think you could talk to your friends and see if they'd be willing to meet with me so we can settle this quietly?" Mikayla looked at Lilly for a moment, then she said with a voice near a whisper, "Actually, I'm going to see Hannah in a few weeks, when we compete on American Gladiators. They're bringing the show back or something like that, and somebody thought it'd be good publicity for the two of us to go against each other. You think she might be willing to talk to me then?"
Lilly restrained herself from revealing that not only did she already know about the upcoming reboot of American Gladiators, but she had campaigned long and hard for it to be Lola competing against Mikayla, not Hannah. However, the show's producers saw that the public was fixated on the rivalry between Mikayla and Hannah, and that was the match-up they insisted upon.
Lilly brought her thoughts back to the present. "Before I tell them anything, Mikayla, how do I know that this isn't just some sort of sick game you're playing? You know, maybe trying to make Hannah feel sorry for you before the competition or something?"
Just like that, the openness in Mikayla's eyes disappeared, snapped shut like the jaws of an angry monster. "Hey, I don't need Ms. Thing to feel shit for me, alright?" she said hotly. "I'm stopping the attack on them being gay because some of what I've said hurt one of the few people I care about, like I just told you. If you don't believe me, that's your choice, but it's the truth."
The sapphire blue eyes watching the singer's dark brown ones didn't blink at the increased volume of her words. Instead Lilly replayed Mikayla's words in her mind for a few seconds before carefully asking, "There are actually people you care about?"
"Yeah, there are, hard as that may be for you to believe." Mikayla said smartly. She looked away, and when she returned her gaze to the blonde sitting several feet away, she couldn't help but smile softly as she saw the baby in Lilly's lap was smiling and laughing as her mother tickled her feet. "You're luckier than you know," she whispered in a soft voice not meant to be heard by anyone, but she misjudged how her voice would carry inside the large room.
"What?"
"I said, you're luckier than you know," Mikayla said, returning her face to a neutral expression. "The baby," she said, gesturing to the squirming bundle now latching onto Lilly's fingers. "She's adorable."
"Yeah, she sure is. Her face looks so much like Miley, don't you think?" asked Lilly, turning Brooke so that Mikayla could peer closely at the baby.
"Shit, she does look like her, doesn't she?" muttered Mikayla after a few seconds. "All those cheeks. But where did she get her blonde hair from?"
"Me," said Lilly, wiggling a handful of her blonde hair at Mikayla. "We used the same clinic that Hannah and Lola did, to get pregnant with little Brooke here. I'm her mother just as much as Miley is."
Mikayla cast a wary glance at the blonde. "No shit?" she softly asked. "Like they did with their daughter?"
Lilly smiled and nodded. "She's both of us put together, a dream of ours come to life. For so long we wanted children, but we both refused to carry anyone's child but each other's. Now we've finally got our first baby girl." As the last sentence rolled out of Lilly's mouth, she found the word first echoing through her consciousness, making her smile even more.
"How long were you two together before you were, you know, together?" asked Mikayla slowly.
"About five years," answered Lilly. Four years, two months, and twenty-three days, she thought idly, having long ago memorized the time span between first meeting Miley and the first time they made love.
"And you were best friends?"
Lilly smiled as she briefly thought back to those days where life was so much simpler, boring even. But then a beautiful stranger with long, curly brown hair and her larger-than-life smile walked into Lilly's life, and the prologue of the first ten years of her life gave way to the real life that began only when Miley Stewart smiled at Lilly Truscott for the very first time. "Yeah, we were best friends from the first day I laid eyes on her," she said happily, her thoughts still lingering on those sweet moments from their childhood. She shifted her focus, bringing her vision out of the past and into the present. "What are you getting at, Mikayla? Because I'm not sure where you're going with this."
Mikayla opened her mouth to speak, but no words came forth. She stood abruptly and walked across the floor toward the kitchen, where she stood for long seconds, her back turned to Lilly. Finally she turned to face Lilly, slowly walking back to the seat she had been using, but she stood beside it now rather than sit down. "I had a best friend once, too," she said, eyes looking at Brooke but still avoiding Lilly's gaze. "Her name was Kasey, and we met when I was six. She was seven, and we hit it off immediately. My home life at the time was a total fuck-up, and hers wasn't much better. But we survived, mostly, and when I was twelve Kasey and her mom moved out here to Los Angeles. I hid in the trunk of their car the morning they were leaving, and I was ready to ride all the way from Texas to California back there if I had to. But we hadn't even made it out of the neighborhood before Kasey had her mom stop and check the trunk, just to see if I was there."
"So they took you back home?" asked Lilly, leaning forward slightly as she began to rock Brooke softly back and forth.
Mikayla smiled, her cocky smile that adorned album covers and found its way onto magazine covers back to full strength. "Fuck, no," she said. "Kase told me to get my ass up there with her, because that way I wouldn't have to piss on their clothes when I couldn't hold it anymore!"
Before she realized it was happening, Lilly found herself giggling, and that surprised her. How much is there that we really don't know about Mikayla? And how good a friend was this Kasey, truly, if she helped Mikayla run away from home? "So didn't your mom and dad freak out when they realized you were gone?" Lilly asked, curious.
Hurt flashed across Mikayla's pupils, so fleeting it was gone even before Lilly realized what she had seen, but it was so intense that there was no doubt it had been there. "My mom died when I was really little, and my dad... Well, let's just say that my piece of shit father was the main reason I was running away to begin with. He didn't even bother to report me missing, probably because he was scared of what I'd tell the cops when they found me. Kasey knew what I had been through, and she didn't judge me for what had happened to me. We were both running from things, the kind of things that'll always haunt you and jump up when you least expect them. But we had each other, so we had hope."
Lilly nodded, understanding that much, at least. That was what Miley had given her for so long and continued to give her: hope. Hope for love, hope for a family, hope for an understanding so deep and profound that it couldn't be put into words, hope for, well, pretty much everything. How agonizing would it be to lose that? To lose Miley and everything she meant to Lilly? "So were you two..." she asked slowly before Mikayla interrupted her.
"Were we what?" asked Mikayla sharply, her eyes darting up to stare into Lilly's angrily. "Lesbians? Gay? Fuck no!" But then the anger seemed to drain out of her, and her shoulders slumped as her gaze fell back onto the floor. "I wasn't, at least. But the more I think about Kase, maybe... Maybe she was. Or maybe she was at least in love with me. That'd explain how in the hell she put up with me all those years without suffocating me in my sleep."
Lilly battled her temper, which was still spiking in response to Mikayla's first harsh words, and she just barely managed to maintain her composure. "I wasn't going to ask if you were gay, Mikayla," she said, her words as icy as Mikayla's had been heated. "I was going to ask if you two were really close, closer than even best friends would normally be. Because that's how Miley and I were for years before we ever kissed for real."
"Oh," said Mikayla, seemingly chastised at Lilly's response. "Sorry, I thought you meant—"
"I know what you thought I meant," snapped Lilly. "Your mouth got that across quite well, thanks." Brooke's soft crying made Lilly stand quickly. "I think you probably need to go, Mikayla," Lilly said, her own feelings vacillating between anger and compassion for Mikayla. "I need to feed her, and then she'll be ready for a nap." And I can have some time to think about all of this, and what it means for Hannah and Lola.
Mikayla stood, her face devoid of any expression as she walked to the door, Lilly right behind her. As they reached the door, Mikayla opened it and turned, stopping inside the doorway as she looked at Lilly. "This isn't easy for me to say, Lilly, but... thanks," she said quietly. "Thanks for listening to me, and thanks for being honest with me. There are way too many people around me who'll agree with everything I say, and it's nice to have someone who'll tell me what she really feels."
Lilly found herself smiling without really thinking about it; she really wasn't used to anything but arrogance and sass from Mikayla, but hearing her simple thanks seemed to humanize Hannah's rival even more than the last few minutes had. "You're welcome," Lilly replied. "Try to call ahead next time, though, okay? We've got some friends of ours from Tennessee in this week, and you probably don't want to have a bunch of people around when you're wanting to have a private girl-to-girl talk."
"Good point," said Mikayla, smiling more openly now. "What's your number?" She tapped the numbers into her phone as Lilly told her, hitting the Send button to ring Lilly's phone once. "Okay, now you'll know it's me calling next time. But please don't put my name with that number, just in case you were to lose your phone or something, okay?"
Lilly nodded. "I'll put some horrible name with it, I promise. Like Dandruff Danny."
"Dandruff Danny!" laughed Mikayla. "That's a good one! I'll have to remember that." She stopped laughing and said pleasantly, "I like having you as a friend, Lilly. I mean, I like Miley too, but she and Jake have that, you know, whole history thing, and I think it might be sort of weird for her to try and talk to me without old feelings coming up, you know?"
Lilly smirked as she bounced Brooke up and down twice, stopping her daughter's fussing and making her laugh happily. "Oh, I don't know," Lilly said, still trying not to laugh. "If you don't like him now, then I think all three of us are pretty much on the same page at this point. We'll have to tell you about it sometime." Not.
"Deal," said Mikayla. "Look, I, uh, probably ought to take off before someone figures out I'm here and the paparazzi hit your house like a pack of vultures."
"Good idea," said Lilly with a nod, although she had other reasons for wanting to keep her and Miley's house off the radar of the press. "Talk to you later, Mikayla. Try to be yourself more often, rather than that stuck-up woman the public sees. I think people would like you better this way."
Mikayla stared at the young blonde holding her baby daughter. "I'll think about that," she finally said, "but in my business sometimes being nice is seen as a weakness. See you later, Lilly." She turned and walked to her car, opening the long door and sliding into the leather seat.
Lilly considered waving as she heard the engine roar to life, its power readily evident in the growl that rumbled forth. She watched the long, sleek gray Aston Martin Vanquish slide backwards down the short driveway, turning slowly before Mikayla shifted the automobile into Drive and sent the gunmetal vehicle roaring down the street.
The opening of the back doors drew Lilly's attention back into the house. She closed the front door and turned to see Amy, Dee and Miley all walking back into the house.
"We're back hon!" yelled Miley before she noticed Lilly standing just a few feet away from them. "Oops!" she said quickly, wincing as she saw Brooke's startled reaction, her face moving from surprise to crying. "Oh dang it, Brookie! Momma's sorry! Please don't cry!" She hurried over to her wife and daughter, but not in time to prevent the baby's first sobs.
"Nice job, sexy," said Lilly with a playful grin as she handed their daughter to Miley. "Your mess, you clean it up. I think she's still hungry, too, so that should be an easy job for you."
Miley grinned as she shifted Brooke to hold her securely with one arm. "I have just the right tool for the job," Miley teased, sticking her chest out slightly as she slid past Lilly, making sure to brush her butt against Lilly's hip with just the right amount of pressure.
"Mmm," mumbled Lilly, smiling at the sensual contact between her and her wife. Even in the most mundane of moments, such as dealing with a crying baby, just the slightest touch from Miley was still enough to send her libido into the red. It took quite a bit of self-control for Lilly not to follow Miley up the stairs, but she was determined not to leave their guests alone just yet. They had just gotten here, after all.
"Hey hon?" called Miley's voice from upstairs.
"Yeah, Miles?"
"You mind to come up here and take care of something for me?"
Lilly rolled her eyes and grinned. "Can you two amuse yourselves for a few minutes?" she asked their guests.
"What, like you and Miley are about to do?" said Dee with a knowing smirk.
Lilly smiled. "Don't burn the house down," she said as she hustled across the floor, hitting the stairs two at a time. Sometimes self-control was more than a bit overrated.
As Mikayla drove back toward Los Angeles, her thoughts continued to buzz as the scenery whipped past her. I can't go against Margot directly. Not while she's still got enough on me to ruin me a hundred times over. But that doesn't mean I have to sit on my ass and do nothing. She smiled to herself as the sun glared against her blue mirrored Revo sunglasses. Maybe it's time to turn her game against her. It'll take a while to do it right, but I've got plenty of time. I've had a good teacher on how to be a manipulative bitch, that's for sure.
"You've run the game until now, Margot," Mikayla said to herself, "but I know your weaknesses just like you know mine. Time to start putting them to use." She smiled grimly as she considered where to start first. "And if standing up for myself winds up costing me my career, then I'll sure as hell have a damn good time while I'm on top. Game on, bitch."
Author's Afterword: Okay, I know I said that I'd have this chapter up sooner than last time, but life is still topsy-turvy for me. Between family, work, Christmas shopping, keeping my family healthy and falling in love again, my plate is beyond full. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. No details now, as my stories are about Miley and Lilly, not myself, but I'm both surprised and indescribably happy that sometimes life just seems to work out.
I'll try my best to pick up the pace on the last few chapters of this story, and again I apologize for the interminable delays getting these last two chapters up. Please bear with me, because this story is indeed winding toward its conclusion, and I think you'll love what remains to be told in this particular story! See you soon!
Jo