Once again, God and all of his angels were somehow on his side; Scotty left the car, just about remembering to lock it and rushed through the entrance into the small park, his eyes immediately falling onto familiar blonde hair. For a moment he halted, leaned his hands against his knees, closing his eyes and thanking all the powers above, before gathering himself and approaching her carefully; Lilly was sitting on a children's swing, slowly swaying back and forth, one arm wrapped around the plastic-covered chain. She didn't have her coat on and even from a distance he could see her trembling slightly in the rapidly cooling evening; though it was mid-May, a colder front had engulfed Philadelphia over the last couple of days, and while it wasn't raining yet, the low-hanging clouds looked somewhat threatening.

"Lil?"

She startled, as though on reflex wiping her face; he sank down onto the swing next to hers, quickly took off his coat and spread it across her shoulders. "Jesus, Lil, you must be freezin'. I was lookin' for you everywhere; are you okay?"

She scoffed, for a moment remaining motionless, then slowly grasping the sides of his coat and tugging it more securely around herself; Scotty took a deep breath, tried to carefully think of the correct words to use, to avoid upsetting her even more.

"I know you probably saw…"

"Yeah, I did." Her voice was low, rough like she hadn't been using it in a long while; he had heard that voice several times lately, knew it got like that when she had been crying. Her makeup was slightly smudged as well, and he just wanted to burst into tears too as seeing her in pain like this was horrible; he swallowed, really not knowing how to even start climbing out of this hole, in his mind again cursing both himself and Frankie Rafferty who had started it all. Then his phone rang, Will's name on the screen and Scotty sighed, cleared his throat.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's me." Will's deep voice greeted him, somehow managing to reassure him slightly. "Is everything all right? Did you find Lil?"

Scotty wondered how the older man had known to call at just this specific moment, feeling quite amazed; he even took a quick look around to check if the team had followed him or something, but there were no familiar faces anywhere, apart from his fiancée.

"Yeah. We're in Kensington."

Will released a relieved-sounding breath and Scotty heard him quietly relay the news to the others. "Thank God. Can I… let me talk to her quickly, okay?"

He opened his mouth to ask why, then relented, handing the phone to the blonde; she stared at it silently for a moment, worrying him even further, until finally raising a shaky hand to grasp the device.

"Hey, Will."

He watched her face as she listened, tried to gauge her reactions but her expression was unreadable; he didn't know what Will was saying, but after a few moments Lilly muttered a quiet thank you, ended the call. For a little while they sat in silence, until she finally moved a bit, turned her head and pulled in a deep breath, offering him the tiniest of tiny smiles; even than was enough to make hope and relief explode in his heart and Scotty closed his eyes briefly, swallowed.

"God, I'm so, so sorry, Lil. How much do you hate me right now?"

"I don't hate you at all." She gave the phone back to him, pulled his coat even tighter around her shoulders. "And I'm sorry too; I obviously managed to make everyone really worried. I just…"

She sniffled, giving a rueful grin. "This is what I tend to do when it hurts. I run, and I hide to get away from the situation, and I hope that might somehow… make it stop hurting. And seeing Frankie kiss you, it really hurt. I know you didn't do anything; I saw you push her away and Will wanted to tell me the same thing a moment ago, but even still… do you remember what I told you about her?"

"Yes, I do." Scotty took her hand carefully, warmed it between both of his. "An' do you remember what I answered when you told me that?"

Lilly nodded, sighing, a faint blush coloring her cheekbones. "I remember, but… when I saw you two, my rational mind just packed its bags and left the building. All I could think about was that somehow I had managed to… ruin yet another relationship."

"Oh, Lil." He groaned, leaned his forehead against her shoulder. "You gotta stop thinkin' that you're gonna ruin us; I already told you nothin' can do that. I know you're scared, after everythin' you've gone through, but please tell me you're not for one second thinkin' I might leave you for Frankie?"

She said nothing, the blush on her cheeks deepening, giving him an answer better than any words ever could and Scotty swallowed, feeling the burn of tears in the corners of his eyes.

"Why, Lil?" he whispered, holding onto her hand tighter. "Jesus Christ, why? Why can't you trust me? Why isn't that ring on your finger enough to convince you I want to spend the rest of my life wit' you? I've told you what marriage means to me; I know I fucked everythin' up by sleepin' wit' Frankie even after I found out she was married, but believe me, that's somethin' I'm never gonna forgive myself for. After Will was shot, I needed… she was there, she was willin' to help me forget, an' I just… I didn't wanna be alone."

He let go of her and stood, pacing a few steps, his mind spinning with fears and self-blame; behind him, Lilly sniffled and a moment later he felt her behind him, her arms wrapping tightly around his waist.

"You have to forgive yourself, Scotty; that was a horrible night, and if being with her helped you to deal with it, then you shouldn't keep punishing yourself like this."

She leaned against him, her warmth comforting and reassuring him. "And I do trust you, but it's a learning process, probably a pretty long one; so many times I've heard… whenever a relationship ended, they always told me it was my fault. Lilly, you're always at work so I slept with your sister, or Lilly, you're not open enough with me so we're done; after hearing all that, over and over… it's really hard to believe anyone would want to spend any extended period of time with me, let alone the rest of your life."

He turned around and she pulled away slightly, looked at him, her gorgeous blue eyes wide and teary. "But I'm trying, I really am. Can you… try to be patient with me in turn?"

"Of course," he managed to choke out, his heart constricting as he once again realized all the pain she had gone through; he wrapped her into a tight hug, shed a few tears into her silky hair. "Always, Lil. I promise."

"Thank you," she whispered, sighing into his shirt. "I love you so much, and that's why I'm so scared about messing things up; I've never felt like this before, for anyone. Ray was probably the closest, and I think maybe that was the reason why I ended up here; this used to be our spot after we started dating, almost every afternoon for over four years. We'd just sit here and talk, or make out, and I would feel a little better about my life; it gave me strength to go back home and face my mother, and whatever else was waiting for me there."

Scotty nodded, really not wanting to think about the making out part very much, even though he really was grateful to Ray for everything he had done to help Lilly; she chuckled, obviously reading his thoughts again like she very often did.

"Do not even think about giving me grief over that, Valens, not after this afternoon."

"I know. I'm sorry." He pressed a kiss onto her nose. "I love you too, an' we should definitely find a spot of our own, Miss Rush. For talkin' an' makin' out. Especially for makin' out."

She laughed, the beautiful sight and sound of it warming his heart, managing to make him feel better and recharging him like always; he rubbed her neck gently, grimacing upon glancing at his watch. They really needed to start heading back soon and without a doubt they were in almighty trouble with Boss.

"You don't have to deal wit' Frankie, an' I don't really want to either; I think maybe we should… I know we both have vacation days stored up, so after this case is done, how about we take them, have some time off an' just relax before startin' the new jobs? The FBI will be a big change, Lil, an' we need some down time to prepare for it."

He again remembered the many times he'd been thinking about wanting to take her away, and perhaps this would now finally provide the perfect opportunity; her expression told him she found the thought quite tempting too.

"You're probably right." She kissed him softly and hid her face into his neck, sighing deeply. "I never thought I'd say this, being the workaholic that I am, but… a vacation actually sounds good."

He smiled, kept her against him for a little while longer before kissing her forehead and grasping her hand tightly. "Come on, let's get out of here; I don't think this place is the safest when it gets dark, an' I need to call your father to let him know I found you."

Lilly frowned, following him out of the park and to the car. "He knows I was… missing?"

"He does; I thought maybe you'd contacted him or gone over to Haddonfield, so I called him. He an' Lizzie were visitin' Christina." Scotty cleared his throat. "Your sister was actually the one who tipped me off about this park; I had no idea where else to go, so I hoped that maybe she might know, an' luckily she was right."

"Yeah, I often brought her here when we were kids; we would just swing or play in the sandboxes, and they used to have lot more playground stuff here back then too. I tried to keep her from seeing our mom very much when she was… in a bad phase." Lilly sighed, settling onto her seat. "Is Lizzie okay?"

"She's very good; in fact I'm quite sure she tried to talk to me on the phone." He grinned, turned the car on, just wanting to get out of there as soon as possible; the area really didn't feel safe at all, and he couldn't believe Ellen Rush hadn't tried to look for something better for her children, not even after her older daughter had been so savagely attacked at the age of ten.

"I'll call dad if I can borrow your phone," Lilly told him and Scotty nodded, handing the device over; she assured Paul everything was all right, smiling as she got an update on what Lizzie had been up to lately.

"I miss you guys too; we'll come over soon. Yeah, tell Christina hi from me. Oh right, next weekend? We're pretty busy with a big case right now but we'll definitely try. Okay, have a good night."

She lowered the phone, glanced at him. "Maggie's coming home from college next Saturday, so maybe we could try and visit then, or Sunday, if the case doesn't tie us up too much."

"Sounds good." He turned the windshield wipers on, as some droplets of rain were starting to fall now. "I haven't talked to Mike an' Allie about us seein' them yet; I know I suggested a lunch wit' them but I figured we might just end up cancelin' because of the case."

"Yeah." She caressed his arm softly. "Well, if we're leaving the precinct after it's solved, we'll have plenty of time to meet with everyone. Unless we'll be tied up with it for the entire month."

"I hope not." He smiled, slowing the car down at traffic lights; it would probably take them a while to get to the station in the early evening rush, and Scotty bit his lip, hesitating for a moment before curiosity won. "Lil… can I ask you somethin'?"

"Of course." She glanced at him, a little frown moving across her face when he remained quiet, and she touched his hand on the steering wheel. "What is it?"

He started the car moving again, sighed, wondering if she would completely clam up, refuse to talk about this, after all the challenges the day had already brought. "Back when Will was shot… on the day after, someone told me that… that they saw you leave an interrogation room, an' that you'd been cryin'. Was that… did you?"

Lilly was silent for a long moment, her face looking tense when he dared to glance at her quickly; eventually she sighed, rubbed a hand over her face in a quite tired-looking gesture.

"Yeah, I did."

He winced, guilt slamming him again upon getting confirmation, his earlier thoughts about having been such a terrible partner to her flooding back like a tidal wave. "God, Lil."

"Not something anyone expected from me, huh? I tried to make sure no one saw me, but I guess I failed." She chuckled, her head half-turned away from him, her eyes focused on the side of the street. "I just felt like I needed some privacy, so I went in there, and I… all day I'd been having flashbacks to when Ed shot me, hearing the sound of gunshots in my head."

She quietened, pulling in a very shaky inhale and Scotty reached for her hand, his other one squeezing the steering wheel with white knuckles. Lilly cleared her throat, now staring straight ahead.

"I just broke down; everything hit me at once, how we came so close to losing Will, and then the suspect could have shot both you and me when we went to arrest him…" She sniffled, gave him a quick glance. "Earlier, dad came over to the station, he wanted to make sure I was all right and he brought that necklace to give me comfort, without even knowing the same thing had happened to me, and I… well, I wasn't used to anyone in my family caring, really, so that kind of threw me too."

Scotty nodded, remembering her reaction to her father's visit; it had clearly affected her, but in a true Lilly Rush fashion, she had stamped everything down, brushed it under the carpet, made it look like she didn't care either. No wonder everything had gotten too much for her later on, the relief over Will being on the road to recovery giving space for many other things to bubble onto the surface, most of all memories of the trauma she had experienced herself, just a couple of years earlier.

"I'm so sorry, Lil," he whispered, raking his fingers through his hair, frustrated and angry with himself. "I knew it brought everythin' back for you, I could see it; I should have made sure you were all right, taken you for a drink or somethin', an' then I ended up wit' Frankie instead."

"It's okay; I already told you that you need to cut yourself some slack about it." She gave his hand a squeeze. "Besides, do you really think I would have admitted to anything? We both know the old Lilly was fully in charge back then, and that I probably would have just given you the cold shoulder and told you I was fine."

"Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that I should have asked; I really hate the thought of you havin' to deal wit' everythin' alone, cryin' in the interrogation room. An' I didn't do anythin' on the followin' day either, when that guy told me." He decided to take the car to the precinct's underground parking garage since rain was falling quite heavily now, leaned his head back after turning the vehicle off and closed his eyes, releasing a deep sigh. "I was a crap partner to you at that time, an' I'm sorry."

"Stop that; let it go," she whispered, taking his face between her hands. "We were all terrified for Will and just focusing on finding his shooter; did I ask how you were doing either? No, I didn't."

"But I'm not the one who'd gone through the same thing not so long ago." He watched her, the blue eyes, blonde hair framing her features; most of it was on its usual ponytail and he kind of wanted to take it down, to bury his hands into it, to feel its softness against his skin. Lilly smiled, pressed a kiss onto his forehead.

"Will told me something at the hospital, when I went to see him and asked about his connections to Pop's store, and the investigation he'd been carrying out on his own; he said 'Some roads you gotta travel alone'. That stuck with me for some reason; I think dealing with his shooting was one of those roads, and each of us needed to handle it in our own way, come to terms with what happened, and what could have happened but thankfully didn't. And we all made it, we're all okay, so please, Scotty, just let this self-blame go."

He groaned, tears again fiercely burning in his eyes, pulled her close for a deep kiss and Lilly smiled against him, returning the contact just as passionately, her slender fingers caressing his face.

"Careful, Valens," she whispered when they had to break apart for air. "You keep this going, and I might end up doing… indecent things right here in the parking garage. Can you imagine the gossip that would ensue if anyone saw that?"

He laughed a little, slightly terrified by the thought but also very tempted to just keep kissing her and letting it escalate further, no matter where they were; she released a low, sexy chuckle, clearly again guessing his thoughts and kissed him once more. Scotty followed his earlier instinct and gently tugged the elastic band from her hair, the silky soft strands falling down over his fingers; her hair smelled divine too, the familiar scent of vanilla and something faintly exotic, and he pressed his face against it, pulled in a deep breath.

"God, I wanna marry you so damn bad, bella."

She pulled back slightly, a frown on her face, threw a glance towards the ring on her finger. "Yes, I thought you were planning to."

He laughed, kissed her forehead. "I mean right now, Lil. Do you want… do you really want the big do in a church, wit' my thousand relatives an' the whole nine yards, because I'm not fully sure I can wait long enough for us to organize it all?"

"I think I kind of want that, yeah," she said quietly, blushing deeply and lowering her eyes. "Maybe not with absolutely everyone there, perhaps just our nearest relatives and friends if we can trim your side down a bit, but… I know I probably don't seem like the typical traditional princess wedding kind of a girl, but I do think I would like a proper ceremony and not… not just that quick lunchtime appointment at the courthouse."

"Then a proper ceremony is what we will have." Scotty smiled, knowing that despite his earlier words, he was willing to do whatever she wanted; this incredible woman was going to have her dream wedding, no matter what it took. "A church an' groomsmen an' bridesmaids an' a reception, an' your dad givin' you away. With my side trimmed down to, I don't know, maybe twenty or thirty, maximum?"

She looked up at him shyly. "Would they hate us for the rest of our lives though, if we didn't invite everyone?"

"Nah, it's our weddin' an' our decision. It'll be fine." He checked the time again, sighed; they'd been gone for hours now. "Come on. Let's go get yelled at."

To his astonishment, John Stillman didn't yell at them at all, just made sure Lilly was okay and everything was sorted between them, then ordered them to go home to rest. Scotty felt his admiration towards the older man increasing again; they were so lucky to have their Lieutenant, and he would definitely miss the dynamic the whole team had, once he and Lilly departed for the FBI.

"Are you sure, Boss?"

"Yes, I'm sure; I'm sending everyone home soon so it's not just you two getting special treatment, don't worry." Stillman chuckled, organizing some papers. "People are exhausted and we're not going to get anywhere with everyone falling asleep at their desks. The Feds will contact me if anything new and urgent comes up."

"Okay." Lilly hesitated, glancing over to her fiancé, then back to Boss. "Um… we were thinking that we might… take our stored vacation days after this case is over; Scotty made a good point that we should probably have some time off before making the big change to the FBI. Would that...be alright?"

He was quite surprised she ended up being the one to voluntarily bring the subject up, also quite touched as it clearly showed she wanted to have the vacation; he absolutely couldn't wait to have one with her, hopefully somewhere away from Philadelphia, where they could just forget all about work, chill out and enjoy time together.

"Of course," Stillman said quietly, smiling a little, his eyes somewhat emotional and Scotty could tell he was slightly surprised too. "I'm very glad to hear you say that, Lil; you need some proper rest, both of you do. I don't expect the case to take that much longer, as we have the FBI working on it as well; as a matter of fact, Agent Cavanaugh and his new partner will join us here tomorrow to give an update from their end, and after that we'll hopefully have a little clearer picture of where we stand."

Scotty rolled his eyes slightly, immediately receiving a punch onto his arm from the blonde by his side. "What? I didn't say anythin'."

"Yeah, you didn't have to; I can tell what you're thinking, Valens." She arched an eyebrow at him, faced him with the infamous Lilly Rush stare. "And once again, may I remind you that your ex-girlfriend works downstairs and just jumped you today in front of everyone, so don't even start about Ryan."

Boss laughed and Scotty quieted dutifully, feeling a smile tugging at his lips too; damn, Lilly really knew how to put him to his place, and naturally she was, once again, perfectly right.

"Yes, honey."

That earned him another, slightly gentler punch and Stillman shook his head, chuckling. "All right, all right; get out of here, you two, and have a good evening."

They returned the sentiment and made their way out of the room; Lilly headed to her desk and he hesitated for a moment before following her carefully, a little scared to face the rest of the cold cases team. Nick gave him a glare, but she immediately placed her hand on his shoulder, assured him she was all right, and the burly detective softened; Scotty noticed some other officers shooting him wide grins, one of them sticking his thumb up. He frowned, looking around, receiving even more grins.

"What's goin' on?"

Kat scratched her neck, cleared her throat and reached to give Nick's shoulder a shove. "Yeah, about that... everyone kinda knows now who Lil's engaged to; this blabbermouth here made it obvious earlier."

Nick flushed slightly, muttered a quiet apology and Lilly laughed, gave him a hug. "Don't worry about it; it was about time anyway and I'm surprised it took this long, to be honest. I suppose I need to look out for Frankie now though, since she clearly still considers dollface here her personal property."

"Oh God." Scotty buried his face into his hands, just waiting for the inevitable reactions to the nickname; Kat snorted loudly, and then Nick's raucous laughter rang out, making everyone's attention turn to them again.

"Thanks, Lil; I'm never gonna hear the end of this now," he groaned, his face burning; she chuckled, stepped close and slotted her arms around his waist, finding his mouth in an incredible kiss and stunning him completely as this truly was something he would never have expected from her here at the precinct. A big cheer rose from the other officers and he heard Kat giggling, smiled against Lilly, feeling so happy and so amazed by this gorgeous woman; she gave his lower lip a tiny nibble, then pressed her mouth against his ear.

"Just a little payback, baby."

He shook his head, knowing he had most definitely deserved that; Nick was still guffawing, wiping tears of laughter from his face and Scotty rolled his eyes, receiving a pat on the shoulder from his colleague.

"Oh boy; I'm so going to enjoy this, dollface."

"I have no doubt," Scotty muttered, sighing; Lilly gave him a bright smile, her face looking flushed and absolutely adorable, and he grasped her hand, just wanted to go now so he could be alone with her. "Ready to head out, beautiful?"

"Yeah." She reached to take her phone, sighed at the several missed calls on the screen. "Again, I'm really sorry if I worried you guys; I just needed to take some personal time. But everything's okay now, and none of this was Scotty's fault, I promise."

Kat nodded, gave them both hugs. "I'm just glad you're all right. And you, Casanova, I don't want to live through any more episodes of this soap opera during the rest of your time here, so grow a pair and sort things out with Frankie. Clear?"

"I will." He sighed, knowing that as much as he wanted to stay away from his ex, she deserved a conversation and they needed to settle everything, as any animosity might just end up hindering the investigation. "Night, guys. See you tomorrow."

"Night, dollface." Nick gave him a cheery wave and Scotty groaned again, wrapped his arm around Lilly as they made their way towards the elevators.

"How many days do you reckon we've got left here?"

She laughed, kissed his cheek. "I don't know. I'm sorry; let me know if Nick gives you too much grief and I'll tell him to lay off."

"You're my hero." He pressed his lips against the top of her head. "So, Cavanaugh's got a new partner, huh? I wonder who that is."

"Oh my God." Lilly sighed in a mostly pretended exasperation, a grin flashing on her face as she again gave his arm a playful punch. "You are absolutely hopeless, Valens."