Walk Your Line

McCarran Airport – Las Vegas, Nevada

3:50 PM


"Yeah…yeah…okay…right…248 got it….yeah…."

Lily and Carter looked from one another to Shane, confused and rolling their eyes with laughter.

"Cactus Road…yeah…a huh…alright…yeah…"

She felt Carter lean down and whisper into her ear jokingly, "Pay attention Hanson, this is how the professional killers communicate."

She smiled up at him crookedly as Shane hung up.

"Jack says Tuzla's got guys set up in four different hotels on the strip."

"Where's Tuzla?" Carter asked.

"They think he's hiding out at Treasure Island. He's been known to hang around that one before when he's out here."

"What an idiot."

"Yeah," Lily agreed, "Why would he go there again? It's like he wants to get caught."

Shane smiled and grabbed her bag from the ground as they turned toward the car rental desk.

"I assume it's because he owns it."

"What doesn't he own…?"

Lily heard Jeff's deep growl behind her and she reached for his hand to guide him.

"Well he doesn't own the Cactus Road Motel, which is where intelligence says he's bound to end up when he realizes we're here."

"Cactus Road Motel…that's the one that--"

"Yeah." Shane answered Sands fast. "It is."

Confused, Lily looked between them as they made it to the car rental counter.

"It's what?"

Neither of them wanted to say anything. But while Shane and Andy dealt with getting the transportation, Jeff took her aside.

"What's the big deal about this motel?"

"It's not something you need to know."

"I don't care. I want you to tell me," she demanded of him softly in the crowds of people.

"Jesus," he growled, throwing his head back, "You really are a masochist aren't you?"

"Maybe, but tell me."

Jeff reached out and took hold of her upper arms, trying to quiet the conversation for safety.

"I'm only going to tell you if you swear to God you won't go crazy on us. There's too much at risk out here."

"I won't. I swear."

"Alright listen," he sighed and tried to step a little further off to the side where he didn't hear anyone. "When Tommy and I were running surveillance on Tuzla years ago, he pulled this same stunt on us and left Boston for Vegas when he sensed we were getting close to catching up with him."

"Did you guys come to Vegas too?"

The fear in her voice struck him, "Yeah, we had to follow him. We had to…"

Jeff paused in dark thought and Lily held his arm tight.

"What is it?"

He sighed, "It was a kidnapping. Do you remember the girl your brother was with before we took the case, the one he met before he left Jump Street?"

Lily gulped, "Ginny?"

"Yeah. Ginny."

"What about her? Did Tuzla…" she gasped with a hand over her mouth as Jeff tried to soothe her with his palm on her cheek, "…did he take her? Is that why we never heard anything from her?"

He nodded and she felt the tears well in her eyes.

"What did he…" she couldn't finish the statement and didn't have to.

"The Cactus Road Motel is where we found her, with five or six other girls."

"Found her? What do you mean, dead?"

"No, no. But, close to it."

Lily let the tears roll down her cheeks and burn her. She'd known Ginny well in the time her brother had been with her, almost two years. She was so sweet, so down to earth and would never hurt anyone. But apparently someone was willing to hurt her to warn her brother and Jeff.

"She was bruised really bad and bleeding from blade cuts. She had been raped quite a few times."

Sands had to swallow oxygen just to keep from vomiting at the revival of the memory in his mind. He heard Lily's deep sobbing and he pulled her into his arms, rocking her back and forth in the noisy airport.

"I never wanted to tell you any of that. Your brother was never the same after it though. Tommy's head was in the wrong place to finish the case out, he was too angry. He wasn't worried about protecting himself anymore; he just wanted to get Tuzla back for what he did to Ginny."

She clung to his shirt and breathed heavily before looking up and whispering.

"Is that why you were so mad when Shane got shot?"

"Yeah. She's trying too hard to avenge Tommy and not worrying about the danger of it all. Same with you," he stoked her hair and kissed the top of her head, "I don't want you going into this thing with a death wish for vengeance. 'Cause Tuzla won't think twice about putting a bullet through you too. Especially now that he knows who you are."

"Well how do I keep him from killing me first then, if he knows I'm Tommy's sister?"

She leaned back in his arms as he stroked small circles on her back. He was thinking hard about what could be done, what could protect her when they finally did run into the riff of madness. An interruption cut through though when Shane and the guys came over to announce the rental trucks waiting for them outside.

"Come on, we're staying at the Venetian across from Tuzla's."

Carter insisted that Lily and Sands ride with him and they agreed before following him out of the automatic doors of the airport.

The heat hit her face like a hundred knives and she sucked in the last bit of good air she could before she felt the heat of something even more determined on her neck and in her ear, as Jeff leaned down and murmured, "I've got an idea to keep you safe."

Lily jumped in the backseat of the new SUV and Sands managed to get in the front with Carter. And as they pulled away from the curb of the airport and onto the strip, Sands asked with a quirky smirk, "Danny, think you can find us a costume shop?"


Boston College – Hardey House Costume Party

April 11th, 1994


They barely made it out of the doorway of her room without ripping each other's clothes off. It had been another week come and gone with Jeff busy with training and Lily focused on getting her psychology thesis completed. And they couldn't help but take advantage of being together.

"Say something sexy and native and shit…"

She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck as he blew at the green feather on her headband.

"How about we go back inside my wigwam and you show me the dagger you're hiding in those tights white man?"

"Oh god, I am all for that…" he moved his mouth down hard against hers and she tore away his green hat as he reached for the knob on the door of her room again. He had almost opened it and gotten her inside, when a laughing voice interrupted them from down the hall.

"Hey it's Sands, man!"

A crowd of people turned with cheering and raised red solo cups and he waved to them.

"Lily you didn't tell us he was coming."

She just smiled and replied, "Surprise."

Her friend Sam from down the hall, resident hippie, came tumbling toward them dressed like Lenny Kravitz and chuckled drunkenly as he smacked Jeff on the back.

"Man, you must be Sacajawea, Lily…and Sands you're…Robin Hood?"

They laughed at Sam and shook their heads.

"We're Tiger Lilly and Peter Pan, Sammy." Lily replied as she took his beer and drank at it herself.

"Oh yeah, yeah I see it now. Nice…"

Jeff reached down to squeeze Lily's bare ass underneath her beaded loin cloth and smirked as Sam went on.

"So are you guys just gonna give us a show in the hall or are you coming downstairs to the real party?"

"We're coming…" Jeff replied as he nibbled the skin at Lily's neck and pushed Sam away.

"Are you coming…or coming?"

Lily rolled her eyes and Jeff mumbled against her skin.

"We're taking care of one at a time, Sam."

Sam laughed out loud and took his beer back from Lily before turning with a howl.

"Oh yeah…he's the man!"

And proving the point, Jeff ripped open the door to her room and shoved his little Indian princess inside.

"Alright, time for me to find that 'second star to the right'…"

Lily fell down to her bed with a tipsy head and wild smile and he covered her completely, both of the tearing away at unnecessary fabrics and feathers alike.

"Where's the gold and hookah at you little savage?!"

He growled in her ear as she laughed out and pulled his hard flesh from inside of the green tights he wore. She let his cock rest between her thighs as she reached for his hand on her hip and drew it across and placed it against the moist heat at her throbbing center, the one that always throbbed for him.

"It's right here."

"Aha…" he chuckled and tickled at her wet folds with his fingers before inching his hips closer to her, "Any last wishes?"

"Yeah." She sighed and dug her nails into his back rougher, more animalistic as he let the tip of him slid where his fingers still were toying through the soft hairs. "Make it so we never have to grow up."

Jeff fell down to her mouth and took full control of her senses, tasting every bit of the strawberry gloss from her lips and letting his tongue wet inch by inch of her neck and jaw.

"I can do that."

He said forcefully as he drove deep within her, making her cry out his name. Little did either of them realize or care though, the commotion that her own agonizing, dominating screech had led to outside of the room. The hall became madness as hoards of drunk dorm room groupies in costume stood idly outside listening in, with Sam at the head of the crazed audience.

"I knew he was the man…didn't I say he was the man?!" He screamed out to his cheering posse.

Jeff and Lily could hear the noise but didn't think it was for them, and they preoccupation with one another felt too good to worry about it. She held onto him as tight as she could as he lifted her body from the mattress and ground roughly inside and out of her soaked, sweetened folds. Her wild mess of curls stuck to her chest and his with the sweat that was quickly dewing up between them, and she held fistfuls of his black hair to match the insanity as he thrust long and hard onto her most pleading spot.

And in the rush and passion of the odd moment, she found herself screaming out something of irregularity.

"Yes…oh, Peter Pan…yes!"

Sands slowed his movement at the call and looked down at her in the darkness of the room and bed, laughing madly. And it was in the short silence of their lovemaking that they could then hear the chanting more clearly from outside of the door, as the hall echoed with dozens of nosy drunks.

"Peter Pan…Peter Pan …Peter Pan …Pan…Pan…Pan…"

Lily giggled under him and wrapped her legs firmer around him.

"I do believe you're the official hero of Hardey House, Mr. Pan."

"I like being the hero of hard things."

She leaned up on her elbows and captured her lips in his as he slowly began to move inside of her again. They broke the kiss and he whispered in a deep growl against her neck as he thrust hard between her legs with the intense will power of the chanting popularity outside, "I love you, my little Tiger Lilly."


"Let's see it, come out."

Lily looked herself over in the mirror of the changing room a third and fourth time, biting her lip at the image she saw.

"I don't know…I think it's too much."

Sands sat patiently playing with one of the wings that Carter had chosen for her.

"What the hell did you give her to put on, Danny?"

"I gave her--"

She interrupted them as she stormed through the curtain. "I look like a 1970's hooker."

Sands laughed and tried to picture it as he held his hand out for her.

"Come here."

Carter couldn't stop laughing and she gave him a crude glare before taking Jeff's hand where he sat and stepping between his thighs as he let his hands rove her body. He could feel sequins and a short leather skirt, and when he stood up to meet her height, he could feel a feathery top that was barely there at all, a bob wig and hoards of chunky jewelry.

"Yeah you sure feel like you'd fit in down on the strip come sunset."

Lily hit him in the chest and he coughed back with a chuckle.

"Neither of you are funny. This is serious."

They tried to stop from laughing as she stormed away to the dressing room again. Jeff hobbled on his bad knee and grabbed a bunch of the stuff Carter had pulled from the shelves before chasing the sound of her pattering prostitute boots back through the curtain.

"Okay, you're right. It's serious, let me help you."

"Oh right, you can't even see what you're holding."

She rolled her eyes at him and fell in a slump to the bench of the dressing room, tearing off the leather boots one by one.

"I resent the trust you have for my other four senses, you know."

"What, are you going to sniff out the right disguise for me? Pick one by taste?"

They were silent for a long moment as Lily looked up at him and Jeff listened to the sound of her breath. And then when they couldn't commit to not doing it, they laughed out loud together.

Sands knelt down in front of where she was sitting and dropped the pile of costume wear to the floor.

"How do you want to be disguised?"

"I don't know."

"Well…" he rifled in the mountain of wigs and hats, "…why don't you go the easy route and dress up like everyone else out here. That way you don't stand out in a crowd."

"Okay." She agreed quietly and took the cowgirl hat and a blond, curly wig he was holding and placed them on top of her head. "Go western."

Sands smirked at her and tried to imagine the hat on her, "Yeah, fulfill one of my fantasies."

"Oh as if you've never slept with a cowgirl before."

She reached down and grabbed a pair of aviator glasses from the pile.

"Maybe so, but my fantasy is to sleep with one that has an ass like yours."

Sands leaned closer as he squeezed her thigh and handed her what felt like some sort of a seventies leather vest with tassels. He laughed when she groaned hesitantly.

"What the hell is it? A vest?"

"It's a leather halter top with threads, and there's no way…"

"Oh come on." He brushed his mouth hotly over hers. "Indulge me instead of tugging on the ole' short and curlies."

Lily rolled her eyes, ripped the top from him and stood up to put in on in place of all the sequins. Sands took a seat on the bench and listened to her sigh and giggle a little at what she saw. He bit his lip anxiously when she finally turned towards him and placed her hands on his shoulders.

"Well? Do I get another pat down from the officer in charge?"

"No need to ask, sweets. Come here."

Lily stepped between his legs again as he reached up and around her body, touching the waistband of her jeans and the worn leather belt attached, the feathery dreads that hung down against her taut, warm stomach, and then up to grab her breasts where they spilled out of the hippy top.

"I like this part a lot."

She placed her hands on his over her breasts and moved them up to her hat and wig instead.

"How about the hair?"

"Brunette, red-head or blonde?"

"Playboy bunny blonde."

He chuckled darkly with a tease, "Aw, for me?"

"Sure."

"How nice of you."

He held her cheeks in his hands where the tiny golden ringlets twisted on his fingers, just smiling at what he couldn't see, but what he could wildly picture from feeling it.

"So do you think it will work?"

"Definitely."

Sands kissed her quick on the corner of her mouth, the on her nose and finally on her lips under the brim of her cowgirl hat. And when he pulled away again she thanked him and grabbed her own stuff before skipping out of the curtain without him.

"I'm gonna go pay for all this."

He had to rub away the insistent hardness in his jeans before he could leave the room, and when he did he managed to stumble to where he heard Lily and Carter laughing at the front register of the store. He wondered if she was purposefully doing this to him now, leaving without assistance all the time, to see if he could handle and hack it on his own, as well as he claimed he could. He was slowly beginning to tire of it and wished he could have her hand or arm instead of using his own as makeshift sea-urchin feelers to find everything.

Sands tripped toward the counter and leaned on it beside her.

"Is that all today, ma'am?"

Lily was going to say yes and hand the man her credit card when she noticed a small plastic bucket of furry objects on the counter and reached out to dig through it, laughing. They were mustaches, of all shapes and sizes and colors. She grabbed one she liked and turned to Jeff quietly, pressing it under his nose and above his lip as he jerked from the unexpected sensation.

"What the hell?"

"One to add to your collection. From me."

When her hand moved away his replaced it, and he stroked the furry friend under his nose with a laugh.

Carter nodded in approval, "She picked a good one, man. You look like Jeff Foxworthy."

The western store owner chuckled as he rang up the mustache, "$65.81 little lady."

Lily handed him her card and then looked back at Sands as she stroked the mustache with a smile.

"No, you look cool, like Waylon Jennings…"

"Yeah if Waylon was a porn star." Carter added with a belt of infectious laughter.

"Okay, now that I like the sound of."

He took Lily's hand from where it was on his new mustache and pressed her palm to his lips, kissing the tender skin lightly with a twisted 'thank you' smirk. It was the first she'd gotten and she was thoroughly grateful for it, with or without the words to follow suit. She just needed to know she was inching her way closer to his heart and trust again.

Carter tried to ignore the closeness he still saw between them and offered to help Lily with her bags back to the truck. But this time, Sands and her rode in the backseat together, like two classic Vegas country stars gone completely bad. They were on their way to the hotel to meet with Shane and Andy when he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her deep into him, whispering.

"Did I ever tell you I was glad you got on that plane back in Washington?"

Lily rested her head on his shoulder and rolled her eyes.

"No, I'm pretty sure you chastised me for it."

"Oh, well that was stupid…" he kissed her temple where he felt the blonde curls meet her straw hat.

Lily patted his cheek, "Whether you like it or not…I'm walking this line with you, Johnny."

"I think that's sexy as hell, June."