This is the epilogue you guys. We're jumping ahead two years and don't be worried about the beginning, would I really take away all their happiness now? No way. So yeah, here we are. Update coming soon on No One Has To Know, don't worry. I hope you guys like this.
Again, this is TWO YEAR LATER.
Disclaimer: Hmm, last disclaimer, might as well go off with a bang huh? If you sued me, the people who owned Cold Case. You'll probably get my little house and some simple possessions, most valuable of which is my laptop. Not worth it.
Epilogue: The Rest Of Our Lives Together
Scotty Valens rode up the elevator toward the Homicide level of the PPD, willing the doors to ding open sooner. When they finally did, he hugged a two year old Elizabeth tighter in his arms and dashed into the bullpen, glancing around him furtively. He spotted his colleagues, gathered around someone's desk and made a beeline toward them.
"Run." He told them urgently. "Lil's on the warpath, so run now if you feel like keepin' your limbs."
Without another word, he disappeared into Interview Room A, and another silent second later, the other detectives knew why. Quickly approaching them from the elevator was Lilly Rush. Make that angry, 7 months pregnant Lilly Rush, sporting a healthy baby bump and red glow in her cheeks.
"Where the hell is he?" She demanded, slamming her hands down on the desk. No one dared lie to her, and Nick, who valued his limbs, thank you very much, pointed silently toward to the interview room. She nodded her thanks and stomped after Scotty.
When she'd disappeared into the room, Will blew out a deep breath, putting down the file in his hands. "Wouldn't want to be Valens right now." He remarked casually.
Nick nodded fervently in agreement while John said, "Anyone know what's going on?" He asked the room in general.
"No idea." Kat shook her head, "But maybe we should go… observe?" She looked around for agreement. "I mean Lil's pregnant and God know what that does to your head. I wanted to kill people sometimes… Valens could be in danger." She reasoned brightly.
Immediately seeing where this was going, Nick agreed. "Oh yeah. It's for his own safety."
"We do owe it to our colleague to make sure nothing bad comes to him." Will finished brightly, leading the way to the observation room, Kat and Nick quick on his heels. With a roll of his eyes, Lieutenant Stillman followed reluctantly. He would've called them out on their blatant attempt to eavesdrop if not for his own burning curiosity.
Scotty retreated to the back corner of the interview room, realizing too late that he'd effectively backed himself into a corner. He should've just asked her… when he bought it all those months ago he should've just asked her right away, he mused with panic. That way she wouldn't have found it, and chased him, and … yeah. He definitely should've just asked her.
The door banged open and Lilly heaved her belly into the door with some difficulty. Her hair was disheveled, her breathing was quick, and her cheeks were pink. Damn it, no one told me it'd be this hard to move quickly. She shut the door sharply behind her and fixed Scotty with a glare.
"Put the kid down Scotty." She ordered. If this came down to violence, she didn't want Elizabeth getting in the way.
Scotty studied her wearily. In the past 7 months, he'd learned that hormones could make a person, namely Lilly, do anything. If using his daughter as a shield made him a lesser man, well so be it. "No way, Lil. Uh-uh. Not 'til you lose the homicidal look."
Lilly huffed and gestured to Elizabeth. "C'mere sweetie." She called, putting on a smile. She frowned when Scotty held the girl tighter. Time to play the trump card. "Uncle Nicky's got doughnuts." She teased in a sing songy voice.
With a shriek of pleasure, Elizabeth jumped out of Scotty's arms. As much as a two year old girl could, she ran toward the door. Before she could reach up for the door knob, Lilly gave her a reassuring smile and ruffled her dark blond locks. Lilly helped her open the door, surprised to find Nick waiting just outside the door, a smile on his face.
"Could you…" She began needlessly.
"Yeah." He agreed. "C'mere, Bug." Nick teased, scooping the little girl into his arm easily and blowing a raspberry into her neck. Satisfied, Lilly turned around and shut the door behind her.
When she turned back to Scotty, all traces of laughter were gone from her features.
"Lil." He implored. "Lemme explain."
"Don't talk Valens." Lilly snapped. Scotty fell silent, the last name was never a good sign, he'd learned in the two years they'd been dating and living together. "I'm talking now."
"Okay." Scotty agreed, wearily putting the table between them.
Lilly reached into the pocket of her maternity pants, fumbling around for the object that had spurned all this… near car chase, bolt up to the bullpen thing. "Explain this." She demanded, slamming a small velvet box onto the table between them.
"It's-It's-" Scotty faltered slightly. How the hell was he supposed to explain the fact that he'd been practically sitting on this for the past year, too scared to…
"I know damn well what it is." Lilly burst out. "What I'm wondering is when you got it."
Scotty sighed, running a hand through his hair and leaning against the back wall, as far away from the blazing blonde as he could be. Did she really want to know how long it'd been? Would it help matters? Probably not, but Scotty figured she deserved the truth. "A-about a year ago?" He ventured nervously.
Lilly gawked at him. "A year?" She repeated disbelievingly. Sighing in frustration, she leaned her hands against the table between them, the way she used to before they decided she was too pregnant to be facing possible doers. "What the hell am I missing here?"
"Missing?" Scotty paced around the small room with slight agitation. "What do you mean?"
"Sit down." Lilly admonished, pointing harshly toward the chair. "You're making me dizzy."
Scotty saw no choice but to comply, sitting down uncomfortably in the chair usually reserved for suspects. Which, thinking logically, is what he was in this moment. Lilly sighed with satisfaction and stood up, placing a hand over her swollen belly. "Let me get this straight. You've had the ring for a year."
Scotty nodded.
"When were you planning on letting me know?" Lilly asked sarcastically. "Maybe in the form of a proposal?"
Scotty shrugged helplessly. "I wanted… I was gonna wait…"
"Until we both got old?" Lilly supplied.
"No." Scotty protested.
"Or were you never going to ask, planning a quick departure. You got a life I don't know about, Valens?" Lilly asked as she narrowed her eyes.
"No!" Scotty insisted loudly. "God, Lil. I love you."
"Well you have a funny way of showing it. Here I was, thinking I've been crazy. That even though we've been dating for two years, have one kid, and another on the way, you still didn't want me." Lilly had dropped the detective façade and Scotty could hear the slight hurt bleeding into hervoice. Maybe he was being temporarily released from the suspect role.
"Lil," Scotty whispered, rising from his seat and approaching her. Lilly crossed her arms and turned away from him. Ignoring her defensive demeanor, Scotty wrapped his arms around her and buried his face into her neck. "I love you more than you could ever believe…"
"You're daddy's a really stupid man, you know that?" Kat whispered to Elizabeth, who was sitting in a chair in the back of the observation room. She earned a doughnut filled mumble from the two year old, who hadn't yet started to speak many coherent words. Internally, she was completely sympathetic to Lilly's plight. Now Rush was normally a pretty guarded person, and any relationship stuff she kept to herself… but ever since Scotty had stepped into her life, Kat had listened to more worried tirades than she could count. Especially regarding the marriage thing.
"Don't use that kind of language near the kid." Will admonished. C'mon Valens… He rooted for him inside his head. Lilly and Scotty were a match made in heaven, so to speak, there was no way Scotty couldn't make this right with a bit of begging and a lot of apologizing.
"Look at you, all concerned." Kat teased.
"I don't get it." Nick complained, his head practically pressed to the one way glass. "So the man didn't ask her to marry him in time. So what? We're allowed to take our time with this sorta stuff aren't we?" Nick just didn't understand what the big deal was. And even if it was worth a slap or two, it definitely didn't warrant them bursting into the precinct at this time of night.
Kat snorted. "Says the man who never got up the nerve to propose, had to make his girl do it instead."
"Hey I woulda done it if she gave me the chance. That's what I'm sayin' here." Nick protested valiantly, on behalf of all men who hadn't proposed the second they got the ring.
"A girl's gotta have reassurances." Kat said with a roll of her eyes, as though it was the simplest thing she could imagine. "Especially when she's huge, pregnant, cranky, and sore. And Lil's all of those things." She reminded them of the joys of pregnancy, picking up Elizabeth and joining the rest of them up against the glass.
"This isn't right." Their boss reasoned with a degree of guilt. "We shouldn't be spying on them. Obviously Lilly isn't going to hurt anybody…" He gestured toward the blonde, who had sat down on the edge of the table in defeat.
"Wasn't she screaming at him a moment ago?" Nick asked.
"He definitely wasn't doing that a moment ago." Will remarked, as they watched Scotty wrap his arms around her and speak into her neck. "Maybe we should get the Bug out of here."
"Nah. Valens ain't gonna do anything." Kat confirmed. "No way Lil lets him until he pops the question."
Scotty searched for the right words to explain why he had stalled so long, ultimately resulting in Lilly finding the ring in the pocket of his pants, and starting this whole… whatever this was. Now that she no longer looked like she wanted to kill him, maybe it would be safe to start explaining.
"I wanted to." He started. "You got no idea how bad I wanted to just ask you, Lil."
"So why didn't you?" Lilly whined, leaning back into his chest. Despite how much she wanted to be mad at him, it was hard carrying a baby around in her, and his presence meant welcome relief for her aching feet.
"I just wanted, I dunno I guess I wanted it to be special." He said softly. That the best you can come up with? Great, Valens. Perfect.
Lilly seemed to agree. "Damn it, Scotty." She proclaimed softly. "I thought…" She trailed off.
"Thought what?" Scotty asked.
Lilly paused for a second. Might as well lay it all on the table, especially now that she'd chased him down here and forced him into this conversation. "Remember Elizabeth's first birthday?" She asked suddenly.
"Yeah." Scotty lapsed into happy visualizations. "The Pudding Party."
Lilly nodded. "We wanted a huge gathering of every single person we loved for our daughter turning one. Sent out invitations, the whole nine yards. It took you a month to talk me into it."
"We wanted it to be special." Scotty concluded softly. He thought he could see where she was going with this, maybe.
"And then in the end the power went off in the whole city." Lilly said softly. "We had 40 people in our little place, and no food 'cause… well no electricity, no food."
"Only thing we could eat was chocolate pudding," Scotty continued for her. "'Cause Lissa loved it so damn much we had a cupboard full. And it was special."
"I was all worried, and you said that it was still special just because of the people all around us, and how much we love each other, and how much we love her." Lilly let out a shaky breath. "So, then why is this different?"
Scotty sighed. Truth time. The whole, bare, God honest, truth. The type of truth that only comes out when you're drunk off your ass or being questioned by the love of your life, who also happens to be Philly's sharpest murder cop, even 7 months pregnant. "I was scared you'd say no."
Lilly turned in his arms and gave him an incredulous, disbelieving, are-you-really-so-stupid, look. "Say no?" She repeated. "What the hell gave you that idea?"
Scotty opened his mouth to argue, to say that just the fact that she was Lilly Rush Goddamnit, meant she was a complete mystery to him; that she could possibly say no, but nothing came out. His mind fixated on one thing. "You mean, you'd say yes?" He asked.
"No shit, Valens." She rolled her eyes, but the teasing tone of her voice told him that it was just that, teasing.
"Okay." He agreed haltingly. "We'll go home, light candles, I'll… think up some romantic speech an' all. We'll do it right, Lil."
Before he finished his offer, she started shaking her head. "Just ask me, Scotty." She implored.
Here? Now? What the-? Shut up and ask her, you coward.
Scotty fumbled for the black velvet box long forgotten by both of them. "Should I get down on one knee?" He asked.
Lilly laughed. "If you do that, you probably won't be able to see my face over the baby bump."
He chuckled, more out of nervousness than amusement, and all of a sudden Lilly was feeling the same fluttering in her chest. This was really it. The rest of their lives that they'd dreamed about for the last two years. It could start today with one short question and an even shorter answer.
"Lil." Scotty began quietly. "When I met you almost ten years ago, I thought you were such a ball bustin' pain in the ass." Just let me finish. He thought frantically as Lilly frowned at him.
"I had no idea that you would become who you are to me now. I had no idea that I'd fall so hard for you, that you'd give me a family, that you'd make me crazy wantin' you all the time." He continued, doing, in Lilly's opinion, much better than his opening offer.
"An' so." Scotty drew in a deep breath. "Seems kinda fittin' that we're standing almost in the exact position we first met, only we're completely different people."
"Who am I now?" Lilly couldn't help but ask, the tears beginning to cloud her vision.
Scotty grinned. He had an answer for this one. "Life. You are my entire damn life Lilly Rush, an' you got no idea how happy it'd make me if you'd be my wife." He popped open the little black box, revealing the beautiful diamond solitaire he'd picked out months ago.
Lilly stared at the ring, completely mesmerized by the way it caught the light in the room and refracted it all over the place. She'd been so livid about the fact that he had the ring, and decided to let her stew in her insecurities for a year, that she hadn't actually seen it before.
"Lil?" Lilly's eyes snapped back up to his face. Shit Rush. She realized that she hadn't answered the question she'd been practically begging him to ask.
"Yeah." She whispered. "God Yes. Scotty. Yes. Yes. Yes, I wanna marry you."
Scotty grinned, and then he couldn't help but get down on his knee to slip the ring onto her delicate finger. Lilly ran a hand through his dark hair, deciding right then that she couldn't spend another second not staring into his eyes. With some difficulty, she shifted her weight and lowered herself down on her knees across from him. She leaned in, fully prepared to kiss him as much as she could without passing out, but before they lips could meet, a delighted, gurgling laugh interrupted them.
Lilly laughed, letting her head drop to his shoulder. "I'm gonna kill them." She said, waving at their reflection in the mirror, knowing that all their colleagues were watching on the other side.
"You'd think if those idiots were gonna spy, they'd know enough to keep Elizabeth quiet." Scotty chuckled.
The door opened then, just a crack, and their daughter toddled into the room. Lilly caught a glimpse of a large, white hand giving her a slight push, and then the door snapped shut. "Yeah, he better run." She muttered to Scotty. "C'mere Bug."
Elizabeth flashed them both a smile and then the three of them, or make that four of them, as Scotty placed a hand on Lilly's growing belly, were caught in a hug, limbs entangling and cheeks pressed together.
"I love you." Scotty said, kissing Elizabeth's forehead and tangling his fingers in Lilly's hair.
Lilly smiled, hugged her daughter closer and rested her forehead on Scotty's. From the other side, she felt Scotty put an arm around both of them. It was a three way hug, Scotty and Lilly on their knees, Elizabeth's height. "I love you too." She whispered, to her family.
"Wuv…" Elizabeth chanted, her small hand splayed on her chest. "You." Her sticky finger found Lilly's nose. "You." Now Scotty's. " An' you." Lilly's baby bump. She giggled in delight.
): I'm sad it's really over now. I had so much fun with this, even though it didn't turn out exactly the way I planned. Wait, nevermind I didn't have a plan. So I guess it's okay then! If you read this story, now would be a great time to leave me a review (or some criticism). If you have left me a review in a previous chapter, give yourself a BIG hug, and then go leave another one. :D
*Feel free to ignore what's written below*
This has nothing to do with the story and my imploring you to review, but writing has become such a big part of my life that I thought I'd share... I'm gonna have a baby! Yep, me and my lovely, albeit quite clumsy, husband are expecting our firstborn in April. I'm completely excited, and a little nervous, and since I'm lacking a gender for the baby, I've affectionately nicknamed him or her 'Bug', for now anyways. :D
Til next time,
Jess AKA DreaminDaze.