Scotty awoke slowly from his deep sleep, savoring the light on his face and the comfort of his body. The room around him was peaceful, quiet but for the faint sounds of city life in the distance and a soft meowing.

Meowing?

On Olivia and Tripod's cue, he remembered—he was at Lilly's, in the bed that smelled like her. In fact, it magically smelled even more like her than it had the night before.

Throwing off the remnants of sleep, he slowly opened his eyes, adjusting to the light only to see beautiful blonde hair splayed across the pillow next to him and his arms possessively holding its owner.

It had to be some kind of good dream. Scotty had practically forgotten what those were like. But this one was incredibly real. Too real. He had to wake up, protect himself from the disappointment of it not being true. He closed his eyes.

C'mon Valens, time to get up.

Slowly, he opened them once again. He still felt her. This was no dream. He was holding Lilly Rush.

My God.

His heart would have won the Indy500.

Could he just pretend to be asleep and keep holding her, savoring each conscious moment, knowing that when she woke whatever had drawn her to him in the night would be completely gone, knowing that he might never get a moment like this again?

The night before, he had been worried about losing the little moments they had so newly gained, and here he was, cradling her, and she wasn't hurt or in danger, she was just there. What with any other woman would have been first date territory for Scotty Valens was now holy ground, something that he had trekked months, years, to reach.

What had happened? Had he somehow taken advantage of her distressed state? He certainly didn't remember asking her to stay. He didn't remember seeing Lilly after she had left him in the room with two words, "thank you," two words that meant more than she would ever know. What was she doing thanking him? He was just doing the only thing he could, being there for her. He was in love with her. He had been even before he had been able to put words to the feeling. It was like thanking the ocean for being wet.

She had probably just come in during the night, but why? It was incredibly unlike Lilly. Or it would be if it had been about her, but if it had been about him… Had he done something to make her detective instinct kick in? Did he accidently knock something over? Roll on to Tripod? Then Scotty remembered how his brother used to tease him about his sleep talking. Maybe she had heard him mumbling. Maybe she had heard more than mumbling. Oh, God. Did he have that dream last night? He couldn't remember, but he also couldn't remember the last time he had slept peacefully until the sun came through the window. He had to have dreamt about Lilly. And Lilly had to have heard it. Now he didn't even want to think about how she got into his arms. There was no way this would end well. As for savoring the moment in the present, he realized his own body would give him away if he stayed as close as he was.

But there was no way he was waking her up. He didn't want to bring on the inevitable awkwardness or worse any sooner than he had to. Plus, she looked so peaceful, for the first time in, well, probably as long as he knew her. She needed this sleep. Months worth of it.

He carefully inched his body away from hers, stopping at even the slightest hint of movement. But still he held her. He couldn't let go. Consequences be damned. Besides, it seemed like Lilly wanted him there. Okay, there was no way to actually know that, but it felt like it. A gut instinct.

Scotty Valens and Lilly Rush fit perfectly.

Lilly felt warm. So pleasantly warm from the inside out and back in again. The sun falling across her face caused her eyelids to flutter open slowly, adjusting to the light. She felt rested, contented.

Wait a second.

Her room didn't have sunlight like this in the morning. Had she actually slept until morning? She wasn't in her room. I'm not in my room.

Oh, God.

All of last night came hurtling back at her. "Always." Scotty in her home. Sleeping in her room. Her dream. His dream. "Stay, Lil." His embrace. "Love you." Love you.

Oh, God.

His arms were still around her. Could she escape before he woke? Maybe it wasn't too late? It was too late. She felt him stirring; she could only freeze.

"Hey…Good morning." Scotty had been thinking of just how to break the ice when she woke up, and as he unwrapped his arms from around her and propped himself up on the pillow, he was pleased with the result. Drowsy and slightly confused. No embarrassment, no longing.

"Good morning." Lilly sat up as quickly as she could to face him, trying to meet his gaze, hoping that her face wasn't already bright red. She soon realized she was in the exact position she had first sat down in last night, but now Scotty was looking straight at her, hair disheveled, bare armed. Her head dropped. Now the warmth was definitely uncomfortable.

Olivia had capitalized on the new space between her human and this man and walked right in between them, curling up in the warm spot that Lilly had just occupied.

Lilly looked at her cat, now enjoying being stroked by Scotty, and for a sliver of a second, she so wished it were her instead. Couldn't they just go back to sleep? Couldn't they just go back a few hours, a few days, so this wouldn't have happened? She had to find a way to get out of this bed without discussing any of it. But she couldn't. She couldn't think of anything to say. She just sat there, praying that if maybe she could endure the awkward silence something would just come up and fix everything.

"So…" Scotty considered his words carefully. "Looks like we got the rest the boss ordered, huh?"

"Yeah," Lilly managed, seizing the opportunity to stop looking at him and look at the clock instead. "10:43?" Lilly was genuinely astonished. "Good thing we had the day off."

Scotty sat up further, equally surprised. "Whoa. No kiddin'."

This was it, this was her chance to get up—why was it harder to think of what to say now than when she was tipsy and sleep deprived?

"Well, I guess you should go try and enjoy what's left of it. I—I'll put on some coffee for your ride home." She stood, willing her legs both not to run and to just keep standing.

"Yeah, sure. That'd be great. Thanks, Lil."

She left. So they weren't going to talk about it. Scotty couldn't decide whether this was for better or worse. The only thing he knew for sure was that underneath the confusion and embarrassment and longing, he felt revived. The sleep had helped his body, sure, but holding Lilly—that helped the most.

After Lilly had left his room, everything happened so fast; it was only a few minutes before Scotty was ready to leave. By the time they had said their "see you tomorrows", the closeness of their night had faded away almost completely, old boundaries resurfacing under the direct daylight and in unhindered brains. But as Lilly showed Scotty out, something at the back of her consciousness kept tugging at her. She had heard him say it, dream or not. Somehow, she knew it was true. It terrified her. But she needed it. Desperately.

Someone loved her. Scotty loved her.

And… she loved him back.

Author's Note: Dear Readers, I need you to know that your reviews consistently make my day, and I hope that I can continue to earn your good will!