Celeste waved at her from the dining room and Lilly made her way over, her mouth watering at the sight of the very delicious-looking table; Celeste guided her to sit down next to Scotty, poured her a glass of water.
"All right, now eat. Is Christina sleeping?"
"Yeah, Lizzie too." She leaned against her partner for a moment; he had a rather full plate in front of him, was emptying it with great enjoyment and she chuckled. "You seem happy, Valens."
"Definitely; this is incredible." He chuckled, swallowing his mouthful, his lips brushing her forehead tenderly. "How are you doin'? Did you two… sort things?"
"Somewhat. A long way to go still, but I'm okay." She straightened, reached for some colourful salad, succulent chicken, and pasta that was clearly homemade; Celeste gave her a smile, handed over a basket of bread.
"We've been getting to know Scotty a little bit; even though I just met him today, I think you've definitely got a good one there, Lilly."
"I know." She sighed, pressing her face against the side of his and giving him a few more quick pecks, just needing to do so; he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, the closeness calming and soothing for her after some bad memories had again been brought to the surface by her conversation with Christina.
"So much PDA going on here; I thought you were supposed to be this cool and reserved super-cop, Lil, never showing any emotion." Finn laughed, ducking as Lilly tossed a freshly baked roll towards his head; he grasped it from the air and promptly sank his teeth into it. She gazed at him fondly, remembering how she'd felt a deep connection with him immediately before even knowing who he was, when he had been hanging out at the precinct after taking in a good dose of liquid courage, not quite brave enough to come talk to her. It was still quite astonishing and absolutely amazing that she had a little brother now, as well as another younger sister; Lilly hadn't been there to see them grow up, had missed out on a lot, and after finally approaching her father she had been filled with way too much anger and resentment to let him or his new family into her life until a lot later. That was something she was still working on, opening up little by little, getting to know these people that shared her blood and heritage; sometimes she still felt saddened, wondering how different life might have been if she had tried to find her father earlier, but at the same time she knew there wasn't much point to it. This was her path, the road she had been meant to take, even when there had sometimes been far more twists and turns on it than she cared to remember.
"Behave, Finn." Paul gave his son a slightly exasperated glance, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards in a smile. "Scotty's told us about some things you've been through together on the job, Lil; it sounds like you've got a really good team over there."
"Oh. Well, we do." She swallowed heavily, worried Scotty might have mentioned the shooting; she still hadn't managed to gather enough courage to tell her family about it. He shook his head at the silent question that was probably clear on her face, reached to give her hand a reassuring squeeze; Paul and Celeste were observing them, her father's brow furrowing slightly and Lilly sighed, clearing her throat, deciding she might as well do this now.
"Um… there was an incident at the station three years ago. I… uh… got shot."
Celeste gasped, Paul's hand holding his glass of water freezing mid-air; both of them looked horrified and she scrambled for something to ease the situation.
"Just on my shoulder; it wasn't that serious or anything."
"It was serious, Lil," Scotty muttered, giving her a dark sideways glance. "You were in surgery for six hours, lost a lot of blood."
She poked at a piece of pasta with her fork. "Well, yeah, okay, but… I'm fine now."
She could feel the waves of distress coming off from the man next to her, gave him a quick, fiery glare. "Seriously? Do you remember at all what I told you last night? About blaming yourself?"
He was silent, staring at his plate mutinously and Lilly glanced at her father, rubbing a hand over her forehead. "It was this guy, he… he took the precinct hostage, he shot our boss too, on the arm. I was with him in the observation room, and Scotty saved my life by shooting him through the mirror, from the room next door. The only problem is that he seems convinced it was his fault the guy had just enough time to pull the trigger and hit me on the shoulder, no matter how much I try to tell him otherwise."
There was a moment's silence again; Finn was staring at Scotty in awe, Paul and Celeste exchanging a look.
"All right, that's it." Celeste slammed down her fork, making everyone startle, turned to her son. "That is the end of your dreams of becoming a police officer, young man. I don't need to be living in fear for any more family members; it's enough I have to worry about Lilly and Scotty getting injured in the line of duty, or worse."
Scotty looked quite astounded to be referred to as a family member, then just deeply touched; Finn rolled his eyes, tossing an annoyed look towards the older woman.
"You're my mother; you'd be living in fear even if I was an accountant or something."
Scotty started to laugh and Lilly could feel a smile spreading onto her face too, as hearing that was just quite infectious, incredible. Celeste arched a questioning eyebrow and he shook his head, reaching for his glass of water.
"I'm sorry; it's just that my brother is an accountant, and… well, Finn's got a point there. My mum seems convinced that some day one of Mike's clients will get so pissed over finances that he will end up bein' seriously hurt."
Finn grinned, clearly happy to have been sided with against his mother; Paul gave a solemn smile, reached over the table to place a hand onto Scotty's arm.
"Well, from the sound of things, my daughter could have been injured much worse if you hadn't done what you did that day, so… from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for saving her. And please, don't blame yourself for anything; there was probably nothing you could have done to stop it from happening, at least not without getting in danger yourself."
Scotty blinked, his eyes welling up slightly, a muscle twitching on his jaw; Lilly leaned against him again, pressing her hand onto his cheek and turning his face towards her.
"Dad's got a damn good point; is that enough to convince you, finally? I know you said you're still processing now that things are different between us, and I get that, I really do, but if you had tried to do something else to stop things, you could have ended up getting shot yourself. And that's something I really don't want to even think about."
After a moment of staring at her, he finally gave a tiny nod, brushed an errant tear from the corner of his eye; she kissed his cheek, wrapped her arms around him and held him until he had calmed, then finally properly attacked her lunch. The conversation around the table returned to more lighthearted matters, Finn continuing to tease his mother about his future career choices and her being way overprotective, and Lilly smiled softly to herself.
A little before three thirty, Paul and Celeste loaded Christina and a few bags into their car; Lilly hugged her sister gently, promising again to come see Lizzie as often as possible and also to visit Christina in rehab as soon as it was allowed. Scotty gave her a slightly reserved nod, quietly wishing her good luck and Christina offered a brief smile, sighing and settling herself onto the back seat. They remained behind with Finn and the baby, Lizzie at least for now content on her aunt's arms; the afternoon was warm and sunny still, the sounds of laughter and the neighborhood's kids playing and chasing each other drifting in the air.
Her brother was bouncing a football, grinning at Scotty and nodding towards the beautiful, green park that spread out behind the house's back garden. "Fancy a little game?"
"Absolutely." He smiled, reached to drop a kiss on both Lilly and Lizzie's foreheads. "You hang out with your amazin' auntie, okay, cutie pie?"
The baby babbled something with a sunny smile and Lilly chuckled. "He'll be right there, Finn; I just need to talk to him quickly about something first."
Finn nodded, headed to the park whistling and tossing the ball into the air; Scotty turned towards her with a questioning expression on his face. "What's up, Lil?"
She kissed the baby's soft hair, cleared her throat. "Christina… today when I was talking to her, she asked if we'd be Lizzie's godparents."
"Oh." He looked surprised, nodding slowly. "What did you say?"
"That it would be an honor for me; she knows that you and I talked about Patrick and that you don't like her very much right now, but she hoped that you would still be there for the baby, despite that." She smiled at Lizzie, looked into his brown eyes. "She wants to have good role models for her, and I honestly can't think of anyone better than you, Scotty."
"I can," he said quietly, pressed a little kiss onto her lips. "You."
Lilly flushed slightly, her eyes prickling; he wrapped his arms around her, pulling them both close for a tender hug. "She will learn so much from her incredible aunt, so much about love an' forgiveness, determination an' how to always see the best in everyone, how to stay strong even when life isn't always just sunshine an' roses. An' if I can do anythin' to support an' guide her for my part…"
He took a deep breath, touched Lizzie's cheek. "What do you think, sweetheart? Will you have me as your godfather?"
Lizzie's face broke into a wide smile, a very happy babble emerging from her and Lilly chuckled, wiping tears from her cheeks. "If that's not a yes, then I don't know what is."
He grinned, kissed the baby's forehead tenderly. "Then it would truly be an honor for me too."
He dropped a quick kiss onto her lips, turned and jogged to Finn; Lilly smiled, taking a seat on the edge of the garden and entertaining Lizzie with some toys while watching the playful game. It seemed her little brother was giving Scotty a run for his money, and she was very happy to see them getting along so well; she was quite sure that hanging out with her partner would just strengthen Finn's aspirations to become an cop, as he was already clearly very impressed by Scotty, especially by his role as a savior in her shooting, but it would also give him someone to talk to. That was perhaps something he hadn't had lately, the sudden arrival of two new sisters and a niece having rocked his world; Lilly wondered how Maggie was handling it all, she was older, a sophomore at Cornell and already more independent, but the recent events had to have affected her too.
Paul and Celeste were back a little over an hour later, telling her Christina had seemed to settle in nicely; she hugged them both tightly, then Finn, dropping kisses onto Lizzie's face, reluctant to leave her but they needed to return to Philadelphia. Scotty followed her to the car after having said his own goodbyes, which had taken a long while as the baby had clearly sensed he was leaving and had burst into tears, calming down only after he'd taken her onto his arms, soothingly talking to her in Spanish; Lizzie was clearly just as addicted to that as her aunt was, listening quietly, staring at him with huge blue eyes. The sight had been absolutely adorable again, making Lilly tear up too; she flopped onto the passenger seat, perfectly happy to let him drive them back, waving at her family as he headed out of the neighborhood.
"That was fun."
"It was." Scotty smiled, heading towards the highway. "Thank you for askin' me to come with you, Lil; I know I had some… worries about it, but I really enjoyed today."
She nodded, rubbing his arm softly. "Even though you had to miss your mum's traditional Sunday dinner? You could still make it if you wanted."
"It's okay; she was fine with it, although very curious about where I was goin' instead. I haven't told 'em anythin' about us yet; of course they know about you as my partner at work, but… not as anythin' else." He joined the highway, making a face at the amount of traffic; it seemed like everyone was returning to Philadelphia now after a weekend away, and the thirty-minute drive back to her house took them twice as long.
Olivia and Tripod greeted them with hungry meows, stretching and immediately making their way to the kitchen, giving Lilly reproachful glares that clearly signaled they hadn't been fed in forever and she laughed, shook her head and headed to fetch a can of cat food. "Yeah, yeah, I know you two are starved and bored to death since we weren't here to entertain you. I'm sorry, girls."
Scotty chuckled, retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge, moving her blonde hair aside to one shoulder and tenderly kissing the back of her neck. "Can't blame 'em for missin' you, bella. Not for a single moment."
She shivered, having to put all her concentration into getting the food divided equally, lowering the bowls in front of the cats; they started to enjoy their dinner and she turned around, watched him take a deep sip from the bottle, a fiery arrow of desire shooting into her belly from the way his strong arm tensed and relaxed, the way his eyes turned so dark and hot as they met hers. He leaned past her to place the bottle onto the counter, stepped closer and she moaned softly as he pressed her against the fridge door, his lips finding hers in a deep, lustful, incredible kiss.
"Been wantin' to do that all afternoon," he muttered, his hands falling onto her hips and pulling her tightly against his body; she tried to tell him she agreed, but couldn't at the moment form any coherent words. She could feel him against her, was completely dizzy and lightheaded, trembling as he nibbled at her upper lip gently, then soothed it with another kiss; her head fell back, his mouth burning a trail along the skin of her neck. God, the things this man did to her… Lilly Rush, who had indeed always been cool and reserved like her brother had suspected, was now nothing but a gasping, shivering mess, filled with need and lust, every cell of her on fire.
"Upstairs," he whispered, lifting her onto his arms with such ease and heading to the stairs; before her head even caught up, he was already lowering her onto the bed, opening and pushing off her denim shirt, leaving her in jeans and a white tank top. The top was quickly gone too, and Scotty pressed kisses along the lace rim of her bra, effortlessly opening her jeans and assisting her in getting them off.
"God, you're beautiful," he groaned against her belly, hooking his fingers into the waistband of her panties, sliding them down. "So damn beautiful, Lil."
She moaned, moving restlessly and unbuttoning his shirt, forcing herself to remove it without tearing, breathing his incredible scent deeply and stripping his upper body bare, hungrily taking in the sight that was so familiar by now, but definitely something she'd never get enough of. She pressed kisses onto him, exploring the strong abs in delight for a long moment before tugging his jeans open, slipping her hand into his boxers; Scotty choked out her name, chewing on his bottom lip, his eyes closing and the sight was so sexy that she wondered whether she might actually catch on fire for real soon.
He snapped her bra off and Lilly made quick work of his jeans and boxers, whimpering as his hot mouth tortured her nipples, the delicious burn of his slight stubble reddening her light skin but only feeling so, so good. She pressed her nails into his back, arching beneath him, her legs falling open in a way that left no doubt of what she wanted, right now, yearning for that blissful moment when he entered her, filled her, became a part of her. He kissed her deeply, intensely, exploring the soft insides of her mouth for a while before lifting his head, finding her eyes, his gaze such fiery obsidian, full of liquid fire and she got stuck to it, frowning at his expression that she couldn't even begin to read.
"Scotty…" she whined, arching her hips again, trying everything possible to get him inside her; still, he refrained, brushing his lips against hers with such tenderness and love that her heart was just about ready to explode. "Is… something wrong?"
He shook his head, biting his lip once more and she moaned from another wave of lust, moving one hand to his cheek, becoming a little worried now; her thumb brushed against his lips and his breath caught, a kiss getting pressed onto her finger before he crushed his mouth onto hers in another deep, deep contact.
"I want to marry you, ángel," he growled against her, breaking the kiss and meeting her eyes, blue and brown melting, intertwining, holding.
"Lil… marry me."
