Dixon Bainbridge was a persuasive man. He prided himself on his ability to get whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. If his charm and charisma couldn't get it, his money could. How he'd lost Lilly Emerson, he'd never know.

Lilly was the most universally trusting person Dixon had ever met. She hadn't even bothered to make sure he was a real vet before going out on a date with him. He had to admit, she was pretty. But that was the least of his worries. He was more interested in making money than he was in women. He just had to make sure she'd follow him as Bob Fossil once had. With complete and utter blind trust.

But he'd missed the mark when he'd chosen Lilly. Somewhere, below the low IQ and anti-social nature, there was a spirit of adventure and a good knowledge of right and wrong. But Bainbridge had promised himself that he would inject her with that drug, one way or another, and he didn't break his promises.


Lilly was napping on Howard's bed. Howard had carried her in there himself after she'd fallen asleep on Vince. Vince had thrown a fit when he realized she was asleep. He was afraid she'd drool on his scarf.

"It cost seven hundred euros, Howard! Is she worth seven hundred euros?!"

Howard had just glared at Vince and carried her into his bedroom. He laid her down gently and covered her with the chocolate colored duvet. He was tempted to sit down on the edge of the bed and watch her for a while. He liked the way her eyelashes fluttered while she slept. But sitting on the edge of the bed and staring at her would only scare her if she happened to wake up. So Howard took one last long look and left her in peace.

"What are we going to do, Howard?" Vince was in the kitchen, fishing around in the cupboard – probably looking for biscuits.

Howard grabbed the box of biscuits off the counter on the other side of the kitchen and handed them to Vince, "I don't know, little man."

Vince stuffed a biscuit in his mouth and tried to talk around it, "I'm a nervous eater. If this gets any more stressful, I'm going to balloon out like an angry puffer fish."

Howard chuckled and looked down at his watch, "It's getting late, Vince. Better get to sleep."

"What?!" Vince put the box on the counter and turned to face Howard, "How can we sleep with Bainbridge on the loose! We have to do something!"

Howard shook his head, "It's midnight, Vince. We can't do anything tonight." He reached over and grabbed the teapot – still full of cold tea – and poured it down the sink, rinsing it and putting it back in its place.

"But –"

Howard shooed Vince out of the kitchen and towards the bedrooms, "Off to bed!"

Vince dejectedly walked to his bedroom door. He was looking forward to some action. Before opening his door, he turned to look at Howard.

"Goodnight, Howard."

Howard smiled, "Goodnight, Vince."

Vince turned and walked into his neon nightmare of a bedroom, shutting the door behind him. He'd wanted to say something else to Howard. He wanted to tell him not to get tangled up in this business. He wanted to tell him that Lilly wasn't worth him risking it with Bainbridge. He wanted to tell him that he loved him. But how could he? Howard loved Lilly and that was that.

He knelt down by the Jagger shrine that he hardly ever acknowledged anymore and prayed. He prayed that Howard would be okay and that everything would work out. But Vince wasn't a child anymore – no matter how much he acted like one – and he knew that things hardly ever worked out the way a person wanted them to. He just had to make due with what he could.


Lilly woke up in an unfamiliar room with a mouth full of cotton. At least, that's how it felt. She rolled over, groaning, and buried her face in the pillow. The smell was distinctly Howard. She couldn't exactly describe what the smell was, some sort of mixture of the outdoors and generic soap. She liked it though. It was simple and that was comforting.

There was a quiet knock on the door and a muffled voice. Lilly cracked open an eye and trained it on the door. It opened a crack and a brown eye looked back at her.

"Lilly?"

Lilly groaned and sat up, ruffling her hair to make sure that – if it didn't look bad enough before – it definitely looked slept on, "Come in, Howard."

Howard opened the door fully, to reveal a curious Vince – still in pajamas and with bed head that could rival Lilly's – behind him. Howard took a step in the room, Vince tried to follow but he was cut off by the door in his face. He grumbled about being shut out and turned to make himself a bowl of cereal.

"Sleep well?" Howard stood awkwardly at the door, not quite knowing what to do and inherently aware of the fact that he'd just shut himself and the object of his affection into his bedroom.

Lilly shrugged and threw her legs over the side of the bed, "Better than you did, I'm sure. Where did you sleep, anyway?"

"Couch." Howard had gotten maybe three hours of sleep on that collection of boards and fabric that they called a couch. But, looking back, he thought it was worth it.

Lilly stood and stretched, "Well thanks for…" she gestured around the room, "…you know."

Howard smiled halfheartedly, "You're welcome."

"Well, I'll let you have your room back. I'll just go –"

Lilly had made it to the door – she even had her hand on the knob – when Howard kissed her. She guessed he'd done it on a whim as their noses crashed together, but she'd tilted her head and suddenly everything fit perfectly. One of his hands came up to tentatively stroke her cheek, sending shivers down her spine. After all those awkward signals he'd been sending her, she hadn't expected him to be so good at this.

Their lips broke apart but their bodies stayed connected. Lilly ducked her head down in embarrassment and Howard – whose hand was still on her cheek – tilted it up again.

"Was that wrong?" He was honestly worried that he'd done the wrong thing. After all, he had no idea what he was doing, really.

Lilly shook her head and tried to smile, "No. You did everything right."

Howard still looked confused, so Lilly added, "Morning breath."

At that, Howard laughed out loud. Lilly gave him a shocked look and he smiled down at her, "That's the least of my worries."