Lilly was beyond glad to get back into work the next day. She had spent the entirety of the day and night before alternating between a wide range of emotions with very little rhyme or reason. She did feel, however, that they were all a result of her overactive mind over-processing what had happened. Which was really nothing at all! So they slept together. That's just it—they slept. So what? So he sleep talks. So what if he was dreaming about her. And yes, she loved him, but it was friend love, brother love, partner love. The kind of love normal people didn't think twice about saying out loud, when they said goodbye to each other, when things were tough, when they felt it. It wasn't love love. Clearly. It couldn't be. This was Scotty. Right?

Her brain couldn't handle any more of this. Caffeine probably wasn't the best idea, but she headed to the kitchenette anyway, hoping beyond hope that someone would be there to take her mind off of what her mind was currently on.

She walked in to find Vera, who she never thought she'd be so happy to see, but right next to him, turning from the fridge to face her, was Scotty. Of course. How had it completely escaped her that he'd be here too? With Vera there, she had to play it cool. Be normal.

"Hey."

"Hey, Lil."

"Whoa, what happened?" Leave it to the two of them to have their first moment back together be in front of the most vocal member of the squad.

"What are you talkin' about, Vera?" Scotty put up a good front, but it was useless. Vera may not have been the quickest guy around, but he was a detective, and their friend. Besides, even the most clueless person of the street would have picked up on the weird vibe.

Vera, unsurprisingly, did not back down. He continued with his interrogation, squinting and pointing for emphasis. "What's with you two?"

Lilly looked at Scotty. He was just as lost as she was. "Well, uh…"

Only Kat's entrance saved them. She shot Vera a dirty look as she strode to the coffee pot. "Lay off, Nick."

Immediately on the defensive, he threw up his hands like a 9-year-old caught making his brother cry. "What? I didn't do anything!"

Kat rolled her eyes. "Whatever you were doing, just leave them alone, would you?"

Vera changed tactics, hoping to get his partner in on the intrigue. "Somethin's goin' on with them."

Kat, thankfully for Lilly and Scotty, was having none of it. "Look, you try an all-nighter with me and a serial killer, and see how we do." Her stare told Vera everything he needed to know. He wasn't going to get anywhere. At least not with Kat around.

"Alright, fine. Sheesh. What happens when you try asking detectives questions..." Vera headed back out to the bullpen.

As he left, Lilly glanced over at Kat who nodded reassuringly and followed her partner out.

The team may not have known what had happened the night before, but they were definitely picking up the changes. Of course they were. It was their job. At least with Kat laying off, they had some cover. Lilly knew that if someone could find the truth, it would be Kat. Vera and Jeffries she could probably convince that she was just in one of her hard-core ice queen phases, for whatever reason. The resulting assumption that Scotty had done something to upset her would be fine by her. It was certainly better than the truth. And it meant they would leave it alone—they wouldn't want to turn her wrath onto them.

But how long did they have? Lilly certainly didn't want to talk to him about it. She didn't want to talk to him about anything, at least until she knew how she was feeling. Or knew how to control it. She generally prided herself on her ability to keep her secrets exactly that, but Scotty…he just knew her, somehow. And if she were alone with him with no work to distract them, he'd know that her stomach suddenly was topsy-turvy when he was around. And that couldn't possibly be helpful in trying to make everything less awkward.

She realized that exactly what she didn't want to happen was happening. She had been left alone with Scotty in the break room. She summoned her last shred of sanity and managed to throw him a smile as she rushed back to her desk.

Scotty watched her intently. She was so beautiful. Even when she first woke up. He loved that he knew that, but oh, did he hate how he knew that. Here he was, staring at his partner, a woman he had worked with, trusted his life to, for years, a woman who he now loved in a tragic sort of way, knowing he could never be with her, and all he could think about was her perfect face on the pillow next to his. In fact, it was all he could think about even when she was nowhere around, like the night before when he had tossed and turned searching for the comfort he had when she was in his arms.

But he couldn't. He couldn't keep doing this. He loved her, but she didn't love him, at least like that. And he needed to keep being a partner. Because as much as it would hurt to live like this, it would kill him if he couldn't see her every day. So he needed to tune in to what was actually happening around the coffee pot this morning and start doing some damage control because he knew there was no way they could just be normal. Especially after the vibe that had happened when she first walked in.

Unfortunately, by the time Scotty came back up to the surface, Kat had just gone and Lilly glanced at him for a split second before following suit.

This was different. She wasn't mad at him. If she were mad at him, she wouldn't have smiled. A smile that was serving some purpose, yes, but for a smile to be a part of Lilly's defenses…well, that was new. Maybe she was feeling something she couldn't—or didn't—want to hide under the ice.

Scotty scolded himself for hoping. She couldn't ever love him. And even if somehow she did, they couldn't be together.

It was his turn to buck up, plaster on a smile, and head out into the bullpen.

Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the delay! Thank you for still reading, and I promise to do better in the future!