The Prey

By Jessa

Spoilers: Through Mind Hunters (or something like that - I'm not good with ep names).

Disclaimer: The characters are not mine; I'm just letting them have some fun. Or not so much fun.

Pairing: Lilly/Scotty (consider yourself warned)

Part One

Scotty Valens noticed the envelope lying on his partner's desk as he walked past. It was a typical card envelop and he berated himself as he sat down, wondering how he could have forgotten her birthday. He stared at the calendar before him, as if he expected it to give him some answers. It did - sort of. It was the middle of May. He was certain her birthday was in the summer. Although he couldn't pinpoint when, he was convinced that it had been terribly hot that day the previous summer when Lilly had been miserably grumpy for no reason and only explained herself at a late dinner after she'd had three glasses of wine.

He decided the card was for something else. He'd never understood why people sent cards for the myriad of reasons the card stores suggested. Birthdays, Christmas, the occasional Valentine - that was enough for him. He shook his head and turned his attention back to his work. He'd been letting the paperwork pile up again and he needed to get it finished before someone, like Lilly, caught him.

When Lilly returned to her desk, she spotted the card immediately and looked at Scotty. "Is this from you?"

He shook his head and went back to reading. Curious as to why she didn't know what it was for, he watched surreptitiously as she examined it. She held it in her hand and he knew she was studying the handwriting, trying to recognize it. She turned it over and checked the back for a return address, finding none.

"Did you see where it came from?" She looked around suspiciously and Scotty nearly laughed. He thought maybe he ought to buy her a card - she obviously wasn't used to getting them.

He smiled. "It has a stamp on it, Lil. My guess is the mail."

She looked embarrassed as she sat down in her chair, still holding the envelope in front of her. Scotty went back to reading. He wanted to tell her to open it if she wanted to see who it was from so badly, but he was fairly certain that she was enjoying the suspense. She didn't have a lot of friends, certainly none that Scotty could name who were sentimental enough to send cards. He smiled to himself as he realized he was actually seeing his tough, fearless partner delighting in such a girlish moment.

He tried to respect her privacy when he saw her finally slide her finger under the flap. He heard her slide the card out of the envelope. He saw the envelope drop down on the desk out of the corner of his eye. It seemed an impossibly long time as he waited for some kind of a reaction from her. He peeked up to find her staring intently at the inside of the card. He could see the front, displaying a bright yellow background with multicolored flowers and the cheerful sentiment 'thinking of you' stamped across the top. He dared to look up further and found her eyes moving back and forth across the words inside. An unexpected twinge of jealousy surged through him as he assumed the card was from Kite.

Lieutenant Stillman's voice interrupted his thoughts a moment later. He was summoning the team into his office; all but Lilly responded. Stillman raised his eyebrows at Scotty, questioning Lilly's inattentiveness. Scotty tapped the back of her chair as he walked past, grinning at her startled expression.

"Don't worry about Lilly, Lieutenant. She's just reading her love letter." Scotty's remark called Vera's and Jeffries' attention. They spoke in unison, both mentioning only Kite's name before starting to laugh. Scotty laughed with them as they moved into the lieutenant's office. It was only after they assembled in the boss' office that Scotty realized Lilly wasn't with them.

He leaned out of the office door. "Lil, you coming?" She nodded sheepishly and joined them after she tucked the card under some papers on her desk.

Out of sight, out of mind. Scotty forgot entirely about the card for the rest of the day. Lilly seemed to have forgotten it as well because although she was quieter than normal, she once again participated in conversations.

Most of the other detectives were gone long before Scotty even thought about leaving. He and Lilly were trading theories back and forth, talking in circles and never getting any closer to an answer. Lilly stopped in mid-sentence and Scotty noticed her eyes had dropped from his - she usually looked at him when they were discussing a case. Her gaze was clearly directed at her desk and, when he looked, Scotty saw a corner of the card jutting out from the stack of papers. He gave her a moment to collect her thoughts and start talking again, but she didn't.

He had to ask. "So, who's it from?" He wanted to suggest Kite, but he didn't. She'd said the relationship was over and he didn't want to question her truthfulness.

She looked at him; her eyes betraying the fear she felt. "Oh, it's nothing."

"So why won't you say who sent it?" He was trying to joke about it, but it burned him that she didn't trust him.

"It's from Chris, if you must know."

Scotty grinned, smelling a chance to tease her about her new boyfriend. "Chris who?"

Lilly offered a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. "Chris Rush. Christina. My sister."

"Oh." He was disappointed. Not only couldn't he tease her, he also knew he would never get any more information about what had her so upset. If there was one thing he knew about Lilly, it was that she didn't talk about Chris. "Sorry."

"I'm going to get some coffee. Want some?"

He shook his head, wondering at the abrupt change of subject. He watched as she walked away. The moment she turned the corner, he reached across the desk and snagged the card. She'd kill him if she caught him, but he was determined to help her - even if she didn't want his help.

The inside of the card looked innocuous. The message poetic message inside repeated the words from the front, stringing together relatively meaningless rhyming lines as most greeting cards do. It was the neatly written message signed across the bottom that made his blood run cold: See you soon, George.