I'll Check in Tomorrow if I Don't Wake Up Dead

The next thing Lily was aware of was a pair of hands gently and carefully shaking her awake and groaning lowly in protest tried to turn away from them.

"C'mon Lily, it's almost ten-thirty."

"Go 'way." She mumbled and tried to press the pillow over her head. It was then that the blankets were tugged off her rather rudely and narrowing her eyes the woman sat up, pushing her wayward brunette hair out of her eyes. The cop's shape at first was blurry but once her eyes adjusted her small hands gripped the pillow ready to hurl it at him for waking him up.

"Wait, wait! In my defense your mom told me to wake you up. I believe, and I'm loosely quoting here, that she wouldn't try to wake you up with a ten foot pole." Amusement was clearly written on the young cop's face.

"Typical of the woman Sending her henchman to do her dirty work. You can tell her I am not normally woken up until noon-thirty" Lily grumbled as she climbed out of bed shivering a little from the sudden loss of her blankets; which at some point during the night had tugged a good majority away from Gerard.

Winter in Ireland was never her favorite, and the drafty house wasn't making it easy. His eyebrows raised at the use of the word "noon-thirty" but the cop otherwise held his silence. "Are we doing anything today?" Gerard nodded while throwing the covers of the bed back down; making it neatly as opposed to the haphazard way Lily usually made her bed.

"Yeah, we're meeting Leigh for breakfast later then she'll come back spend the day. Or we can go out, up to you but we should stay around her either way." Anxiety bit at Lily while she thought. Either way she'd be with Leigh, perhaps it'd be a bit more bearable if they went out and did something.

"Why don't we drive to Dublin? Or visit the Blarney Stone? That's a... Touristy thing to do." The brunette suggested while walking to the wardrobe shuffling through the clothes she packed. "You know, buying clothes never hurt anyone."

"How much of your paycheck do you spend on clothes?" There was amusement and a bit of disbelief coloring Gerard's smooth voice.

"Ehh... I never had the heart to count it out." She chuckled and picked out a simple pair of jeans and a button up. Those were her favorite things to wear after all. "Entertain Kara would you? And or Stephen, if you're really good."

"What, are you ditching me already?" This sort of playfulness felt bearable to Lily and she shot him a horrified look.

"You don't expect me to go downstairs with my hair all gross and sleep tousled do you?" Gerard shrugged and made a point of looking at her rather frizzy hair.

"Well, I don't think it looks too terrible, but I suppose I couldn't make you." Throwing the cop a last sort of amicable smile, Lily took her clothes and

walked into the bathroom. Unlike last night she figured that she didn't have the luxury of taking a half-hour shower and when the water was hot she jumped in and began to quickly scrub her skin. Ever since that night she'd witnessed the shooting, and she felt the need to scrub herself until her skin was pink. Shivering and forcing her mind to other matters Lily furiously scrubbed at the shampoo that clung in her thick hair; making it hard to fully wash it out and still be quick.

While Lily hadn't intended to take thirty minutes in the shower, she failed miserably and trudged downstairs thirty-three minutes later to find the room empty, and hearing voices downstairs Lily dried her hair rushing a bit and hurried down the stairs.

"I know I'm late, I'm sorry!" Three pairs of eyes flicked up to her as she clumped down the stairs- before Stephen jumped all over her.

"Lily! Where's my cell phone? Have you seen it?" She held up her hand as if to silence him and shook her head. She assumed Frankie had something to do with missing cellphone, but obviously she'd keep that thought to herself.

"Jeez, no need to jump down my throat. To answer your question, I haven't. It's missing?" Stephen rolled his eyes.

"Obviously Lily." When he was being sarcastic, Lily could really see the resemblance they bore to each other and their Kara.

"No need to bite my head off, are we going now?" Gerard nodded and looked to Stephen.

"I'll help you look once we get back, but we should probably go. Leigh's already waiting." Stephen threw a rather dirty look towards Gerard and Lily came under the impression the two did not get along.

"I already forgot my laptop." Stephen muttered sulkily and walking to her younger brother Lily stood on tiptoe and threw a comforting arm around his shoulder.

"C'mon Stephen it'll be fun, when's the last time that you and I have been together in Ireland? Huh? We'll find something to do." His green gaze flicked to Gerard and his frown deepened a bit. Though he nodded quietly and uttered a soft and nearly undetectable "Fine." At this Frank cut in with his overly happy-go-lucky voice.

"Great! Well lets get going then." Kara nodded put a bright smile on her face before looking over at Lily.

"You look nice today Hon." She said absentmindedly and Lily nearly did a double take.

"Huh?" Was all that came from the brilliant daughter's mouth.

"I said you look nice today, now hurry up before we're any later." Nodding Lily fell into step besides Frankie and glanced up at him.

"Did something happen between Stephen and Gerard that I'm not aware of?" He glanced down at her with surprise and shrugged.

"Not that I'm aware of. I mean I don't really think he trusts Gerard; you're his big sister. He's just trying to look out for you I guess. I mean he didn't say that outright but it's a brother thing."

"I'm twenty-six. I don't need to be watched out for." At this Frankie threw her a grin that looked like the Cheshire Cat himself.

"Aren't we here because we're watching out for you? I think you're actually quite the trouble-maker." Sticking her tongue out she fired back at him quickly.

"Irrelevant! Two different kinds of trouble." Smirking Frankie bumped her shoulder with his.

"Either way, you're a trouble-maker." Lily just laughed and shook her head. The woman liked Frankie, he was charismatic and able to make her laugh; which was pretty good for the situation they were in.

"So what did you guys do last night?" At this Frankie's smile dropped.

"Your mother drinks like a champ." Disbelief shot through the woman

"You guys went /drinking?!/" He flinched obviously unprepared for her reaction.

"Well... When in Rome and all that jazz, right?" Lily shook her head and squinted her eyes staring up at him.

"You're not hungover?" At this a small smile tugged at Frank's lips.

"Not even a little bit. Alright that's a lie, but don't worry about me. That's my job." The small man affirmed before a throat being cleared was heard. Turning around Lily noticed Gerard standing there with his arms crossed and his sunglasses on so she couldn't decipher his expression.

"We're leaving, are you two coming?" Frank nodded and quickly walked towards the door, grabbing his jacket off the hook that was placed there.

"They went drinking last night, unbelievable. My mother's like... Fifty!" The brunette informed Gerard as she walked towards him, pulling her jacket on with a bit of difficulty.

"And she out drank Frank from what I heard." He stated quietly, watching as the woman struggled into her jacket. Once she was done Gerard opened the door for her and walked with her to the van that Leigh was so graciously letting them borrow.

"That thing is still an eyesore." Lily muttered as she hopped up front with Gerard. As they pulled down the long, curved road Lily's stomach growled rather loudly and Kara chuckled.

"Geez, Are you hungry or something Lily?" Turning in her seat so Lily could face Kara she joked in an innocent voice

"Are you still drunk Mum?" At this there was a tense pause before the car burst into laughter, including Kara.

"Watch your tongue kiddo!" Lily's mother scolded half-heartedly, though a little smile was etched discreetly onto her face. Turning back around Lily began to fiddle around with the radio, keeping herself occupied while she thought about Leigh. Maybe the female cop just had a bad day; after all watching after the family could be considered babysitting, something Leigh probably hadn't wanted to do in the first place.

If Lily just kept her manners and was kind; then Leigh would probably follow suit. Or at the very least, be civil to the family and Lily in particular. The ride down was much too short for Lily's liking and when they pulled up to a small local diner the group climbed out of the van, to see Leigh waiting outside on a bench thumbing through a newspaper.

Taking a deep breath Lily put on a smile and instinctively reached out for Gerard's hand, holding onto it with a bit more force than she intended. He winced and the woman quickly loosened her grip. Leigh looked up, and kept her face impassive as they approached. It was Kara who spoke up first and beamed cheerfully, further convincing Lily she was still a bit drunk.

"Hello sweetie! It's lovely to see you again, how've you been?" Leigh blinked with surprise and answered in a guarded voice which peaked Lily's curiosity. It wasn't as if Kara had been prying, which she was known to do, but Leigh seemed to be cautious of what she said.

"I've been fine, Kara is it?" The woman in question nodded and looked at the small diner.

"That's right, now let's eat hmm? I'm sure England could of heard Lily's stomach grumbling." Leigh snorted and raised an eyebrow looking over Lily.

"Nice to see you again Lily." The words were spoken cordially enough but Lily couldn't help but feel that she was only being nice cause she had to.

"You as well." The women answered in her friendliest voice, usually reserved for overbearing clients. Leigh glanced over at Gerard greeted him in a much more genuine voice.

"C'mon then, lets eat. You and I can discuss the comic later Gerard." He nodded his agreement and still holding Lily's hand led them into the diner. The people were pretty hospitable and let them sit wherever, and the waitress was pretty quick with getting them a menu.

"So Lily, what do you do for work?" The brunette's head jerked up, clearly shocked that Leigh had struck up conversation with her.

"I work in photography. Nothing big really, just parents around the holidays or who have just had kids. About once or twice a year I'll get booked to do something bigger, maybe a shoot for a magazine. Wh- never mind. Obviously you're in comics." Lily smiled, though Leigh didn't return it, just studied her as if she were analyzing some unknown species.

"Yes, what do you do for hobbies?" The woman wondered why Leigh was so curious all of the sudden, though answered with ease.

"I don't get a lot of free time, but when I do I love to volunteer at the local animal shelter. My building doesn't really allow cats." At this Gerard cut in.

"I prefer dogs, I think cats are kind of stuck up." Lily gasped, faking offence.

"Dogs are large slobbery animals that are desperate for attention. You gotta work for a cat's affection." Leigh piped up with a small shrug studying the menu. "It's more gratification to have a dog because they openly depend on you. Your cat could take off and most likely be fine, it's a more independent animal." She paused and glanced up and looked around with an air of oblivious. "In my opinion anyway."

"I never understood the whole dog vs cat debate. Why can't you like both? I do, normally. Fenrir doesn't count because he wanted to maul me." Frankie snorted.

"Fenrir's a big scaredy cat. Don't let him fool you; his bark is so much worse than his bite." Lily closed her eyes remembering her rude awakening with Fenrir drooling on her.

"I think his drool's the worse." This brought a genuine smile to Gerard's face, but he sighed and looked down at the table.

"I hope he's not giving Viktor a hard time. The last time I left him alone he chewed up Vik's rugs." Lily looked over at him and bit her lip trying to conceal a grin that threatened to break out on her face. Gerard reminded her of a father leaving his child on a sleep-over for the first time.

"I'm sure Vik would call if he couldn't handle the mutt." Frank piped up, as the waitress came back and asked in her bright voice what they'd like to eat. Kara went first, cutting off Frankie and Stephen who had also tried to order, and from there the ordering went counter-clockwise ending with Lily.

"Um, well if it's alright I'd just like scrambled eggs with bacon." She asked, shyly and stared down at her menu. Ordering food or buying things had never been Lily's strong suit which is why she preferred to online shop.

"'Coruse it's alright Pet. Your food will be ready soon." The waitress assured before disappearing back to the kitchen.

"Gerard, has Lily ever told you any stories of when she was growing up?" Kara asked suddenly and Lily groaned wanting to disappear.

"Don't you dare Mum!" The petite woman snapped, narrowing her eyes. Unfortunately this did nothing to intimidate Kara, or Gerard for that matter.

"No, she hasn't! She never tells me, why?" Kara laughed and looked over at Lily briefly.

"You know he's going to find out when you throw the wedding cause I'll be crying and telling them to everyone." Humiliation stabbed Lily as she grumbled "I swear, I'm not inviting you to the wedding." Kara pointedly ignored that.

"Well one time Lily must of been... God I don't know, two? Anyway she was about two and it was around Christmas so we were putting up the lights. Mind you Lily got into everything, she could climb at nine months, over gates, never slept, nearly died when I brought Stephen home from the hospital because she ate a whole package of Sudafed, broke her arm, just a little devil-child. My little trouble-maker I would call her, well it was Christmas and I was exhausted because Lily's father had dragged the tree in and done nothing else. I close my eyes, for two seconds, two seconds Gerard! And I open them to the strangest noise, it sounds like someone is crunching glass. 'Robert!' I says 'Go see what Lily's doing.' Did he no? So a few minutes later I get up and walk to the kitchen where Lily is stowed away under the table eating a glass ornament." At this Lily groaned and covered her eyes; ignoring Gerard and Frankie's little chuffs of laughter.

"Yeah, I'm not kidding she was eating glass like it was candy. This child ate anything and everything, makeup, glass, medicine, well anything she wasn't supposed to eat. Right, well I rush over and pick her up, she starts bawling because she cut her hands on the glass she was holding, and I try to wash her mouth off before whisking her to the hospital. Christmas that year was spent with Lily getting stitches and refusing to open any presents because her mouth hurt." Even Leigh began giggling and the brunette was pretty sure her mom had it out for her.

"It's not funny! I was like, two! I've done worse." She stated, then realized her mistake as Kara began cackling.

"She has. One time after a basketball game she went to with Connor she locked herself out of her own car and walked six miles home because she was too embarrassed to ask for anyone's help. I was sleeping and so was Stephen so do you think she woke us up to ask who to call? No. She got a baseball bat, walked all the way back and smashed the window of her car, brushed the glass out, got in and drove home."

Lily did recall this; there were other reasons she didn't call Kara to pick her up, like the fact they'd gone to the basketball game for about twenty minutes. They had then gone to a party and gotten completely trashed. That was day, well night really, that Lily had lost her virginity to Connor. This wasn't really something she felt like sharing and kept it to herself staring down sulkily at her hands. Gerard seemed to notice her mood change and spoke up quickly.

"Oh, don't be embarrassed Lily. I've done some pretty terrible things to my little brother. One time my mom was working late and I was supposed to be watching my little brother who usually isn't a lot of trouble. One time though he was being a pain so I told him that if he didn't stop that the boogey man under his bed would get him and drag him to hell like he did to all the bad little boys that didn't listen to their older brothers. He didn't stop, in fact he got worse. Like tantruming and stuff so that night I snuck under his bed when he was sleeping. When he got up to go to the bathroom or whatever I grabbed his ankle and pulled him down making growling noises. Mikey was so terrified he pissed himself, and began sobbing and begging me not to hurt him before breaking my nose and knocking me out with a baseball bat. Needless to say we agreed not to say anything." Lily's eyes widened at Gerard's tale and so did Kara. Frankie however was laughing loudly and covered his mouth with his hand.

"No wonder Mikes never comes out of his room. You probably traumatized the poor kid" Gerard smiled and shook his head.

"Stephen did Lily ever do anything like that to you?" Stephen glanced up and nodded.

"Yeah, one time Lily and I got into an argument and she broke I think it was two of my fingers. It was an accident but it still hurt." The woman pointed an accusatory finger at her brother.

"No! That's not all that happened. Stephen though it'd be really funny to put his stupid pet tarantula on my foot and was shocked that I kicked it off. I also happened to catch him in the hand and snapped back two of his fingers. Which I felt absolutely terrible about by the way, I didn't do it for laughs. I fixed his fingers up and brought him for ice-cream down the street for like, a month, so he wouldn't say anything." Stephen chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah we made a pact not to tell mom. At least not while we could get into trouble. Although you killed my spider." Lily shuddered and glanced at Kara.

"I don't know why you let him get that thing."

"Because he begged and begged and begged. I /told/ him he had to keep it in his room and in the cage. Not on his sister.This by the way, is the first time I'm hearing about this." She shot the pair of siblings a stern look and muttered "Oh if I could ground you, you'd two be so grounded." Frank shook his head and giggled.

"Good god you guys make me glad I'm an only child, how about you Leigh? Any horror stories of siblings?" She shook her head, looking a bit happier than before, she still refused to so much as look in Lily's direction still.

"No. I'm an only child. I had a cousin though that tied me to a rope and dropped me out of a near two-story window. I broke my arm." Gerard winced as did Lily.

"See Frankie, I never did that with Mikey. I never broke anything of his, bone-wise." Frank nodded and movement caught Lily's eye. Their waitress was coming back with food and Lily's stomach grumbled again, to her embarrassment. No one commented to her relief and soon her steaming food was placed in front of her along with a large cup of coffee. Soon the group fell into silence as they began to eat their respective orders and Lily had to admit, the food was pretty good. About to lower her fork to her plate, she collided with another fork, which belonged to Gerard.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked, cocking an eyebrow at the cop, who smiled guiltily back.

"I was going to steal some eggs, they look really good. Do you want some of my breakfast?" Her green eyes flicked to his bowl, which held nothing spectacular, just some sort of breakfast soup.

"Mmmm... Sure." She decided and watched as Gerard forked a good amount of eggs onto his fork before taking a matching, large bite. "Don't choke." Lily chided with a dry voice, and took a sip of her coffee which was near full.

"Alright, open up." Gerard commanded, scooping up some of the whiteish looking soup.

"I can do it myself." She argued feeling more than a little embarrassed aware that everyone was watching them. He however wasn't relenting.

"Lily it's gonna fall and I'm going to get third degree burns all over my leg because you won't take a bite." He whined playfully, and she frowned.
Sometimes it was hard to believe this man was thirty.

"Fine." She snapped, clearly surprising Gerard and leaning forward he offered the spoon. "God this is embarrassing." she thought and quickly took a bite, before leaning far away from him.

"Good?" The raven haired cop asked, watching her reaction through his beautiful hazel orbs, though seemed a bit taken aback.

"Yeah, thanks." His hand was suddenly on her face, and his thumb swiped over the corner of her lip a couple times.

"No problem Sugar, you just had something there." She sat there, completely frozen with shock and decided she should probably thank him.Grunting in a rather unattractive manner her "thanks" Lily turned back to her own food and thoughts. Sometimes Gerard did things like that, which took her by surprise and she wasn't sure how to react. Yes he was only doing it because she begged him to come up with a story that wouldn't involve telling her family what had truly happened; but it still wasn't a facade that Lily was completely comfortable with.

When his thumb lingered on the edge of her lip it brought back thoughts of last night and how he held her even though he didn't have to. Lily who was blushing tried to push those thoughts away, they would do her no good. After all once this was over they'd most likely never see each other again. All he was was the cop that had been assigned to make sure she didn't die before she could testify against some mobster. That was all she was to him, a case. They weren't friends, hell they were hardly acquaintances! Lily was snapped back to reality by Gerard speaking with Leigh in a friendly manner.

"Well, Leigh I was thinking we'd all go up to Dublin today, what do you think? Wanna come? I'm sure we'll get some work done there." An awkward sort of tension had fallen between Lily and Gerard, well at least to Lily. She suspected that Gerard thought something was up as he wouldn't look at her anymore; which was for the better.

"Uh... Sure I guess." She agreed with hints of reluctance. "I can follow you guys in my car." That's when Kara piped up, her voice slightly muffled as she wiped her mouth of crumbs from her toast.

"Why don't Lily and Leigh go together. I'd go but I can direct Gerard to Dublin. Then when we meet up we can all go shopping." Dread poked at Lily as she looked over at Leigh, then Gerard. It really came down to who she thought there'd be less awkwardness with. Maybe Leigh would just leave her alone, and she nodded before any of the cops could protest.

"Sounds good to me." With that she turned her wide-eyed green gaze towards Leigh who shifted in her seat and mumbled "Why not?" Frankie nodded his slow consent and Gerard nodded once rather stiffly.

"Well I'm done, so should we head out?" Kara asked, and when she went to pull out her wallet, Leigh beat her to the punch and threw down a few bills before getting to her feet.

"C'mon Lily." The order was barked at her and she noticed her mother watching her expectantly.

"I'll see you guys soon." She called, and turned to Gerard, this time taking him by surprise by wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him, and deciding that she may as well try to keep up the fiancee facade; kissed his cheek.

"Alright. See you soon be safe." He said, his face now a stoic mask. Her mother smiled and turned to the boys.

"Well I'll drive, I know this country best after all." Gerard nodded mutely and followed them out the door, where Leigh was waiting impatiently for Lily. Feeling as if she were walking the green mile Lily dragged her feet over towards the blonde haired cop and silently got into the passenger's side. Leigh followed suit and once the keys had turned the ignition, the car peeled out of the parking lot and onto the road where it slowed down. Perhaps this had been a poor choice on Lily's end, after all at least Kara would break the silence in the van with her pointless chatter.

About ten minutes went by with Lily just sitting there, staring out the window which was fine by her. At least she could pretend to busy and not look at Leigh, instead the scenery that Ireland had to offer. They went like this for a majority of the way until it was Leigh who spoke up, her voice laden with anger.

"I don't understand you." This caused Lily to flinch and was about to retort back that she could say the same, though Leigh cut her off. "You act as if Gerard's done some huge injustice to you. He didn't force you to witness a crime in fact he protected you and came with you to make sure you were safe. I read his file, he's one of the best, if not the best, cop in his precinct." Lily was quiet, shocked that this is what Leigh was upset about. She didn't get a chance to explain herself though as Leigh continued ranting.

"He went with your ridiculous request to please act as if nothing was wrong for your family; even though he's probably going to get shit for it when he gets back to New York. When he touches you, you make this face like he's made of acid or something. Do you know what it's like to be taken off the case that you were so close to breaking; the one that took your actual fiancee from you?" Leigh's eyes were now switching from the road to Lily's face rapidly, and she sat quietly now that things had been put into perspective for her.

She understood that while she'd been kind, she had not been aware of the fact that she'd been so obviously alarmed at the fact he'd touched her. Lily could agree though, she had been a bit cold when he tried to share his breakfast with her; but that was her personality. She didn't like being treated as if she were helpless, plus she was in front of her mother. That was embarrassing in and of itself, and Leigh hadn't been around very often so she really had no room to judge.

"So it's ok for you to show up here and treat me like I'm some criminal and that I've done something wrong? You exactly haven't been very kind and welcoming either Leigh." "Excuse me? I've been professional Lily. If you have a problem we can go down to the station and get an opinion from everyone on what they think." Leigh's voice was a perfect blend of venom, sarcasm, and hardly disguised anger.

"All I'm saying is I don't know you very well. This is really the first day that you're hanging around my family, so you have no room to judge me. If /Gerard/ thinks there's a problem, he'll let me know. I'm sorry that you got stuck babysitting us but you don't have to take it out on us, more specifically me, Leigh." Lily growled, eyes flashing in her own anger. Leigh didn't answer just stared at the road ahead, her knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel so tightly.

"I'm just saying you should be a hell of a lot more grateful than you have been. He could of just told your mother and brother what was going on and kept you three locked up in that safe house. Instead he's taking you out to do things and trying to make this as pleasant as he can and your attitude with him isn't helping. I bet you haven't thanked him yet, I doubt you will because you're too absorbed in your own life and how this affects you. Which is a pity because this could be a nice getaway for you if you'd let it." Leigh fired back in a sulky manner.

Lily sat in her seat as she mulled this new information over, she had made a vow last night with Gerard to "start over" but the second he touched her Lily had reverted back to her snappy self when she had first met the man.

"You're right." Lily spoke softly and Leigh glanced over at her, her almond colored eyes looked suspicious.

"I know. I wouldn't of said anything otherwise, we're nearly there by the way and I suggest you go thank Gerard; plus you two shopping together will be more acceptable by your mother and brother as opposed to hanging out with the group."

She replied with a rather smug and holier-than-thou voice, while tucking a strand of dirty blonde hair behind her ear. Leigh still rubbed Lily the wrong way, but the woman had a point and once they got to Dublin, she'd be sure to let Gerard know as well. Now that Lily thought about it, she hadn't really thanked him for doing this for her.

After that the two women fell into silence, until they reached Dublin; which true to Leigh's word hadn't been that much longer, only five minutes. Kara had managed to stay behind them for the majority of the way so once they found parking the group got out. Frank stumbled out of the car first, then Stephen; Kara and Gerard took a bit longer, but once they did Lily quickly walked over and looked up at the raven haired man.

"Lets go shopping together." It was an abrupt if not impulsive request and Lily wondered if she should of brought it up more gently. He looked a bit surprised, and after a moment he glanced at Kara as if to get her permission.

"That's fine by me, the rest of us will go explore together." Kara agreed good-naturedly before turning to what she dubbed "her" group. "Alright, let's go, there are some shops here that I love!" Before she practically began dragging Frankie and Leigh with her and Stephen looked torn of who to go with but once Lily leaned against Gerard he scampered off to meet up with Kara.

"She's... Energetic." Gerard observed, throwing her a curious look.

"Yeah, she's always been like that, even when I was growing up. I mean it makes sense she had to be a mom and dad to us." The words were spoken absentmindedly, as she pulled away from him and the two began to meander down the crowded streets.

"I'm sorry about that." Lily glanced up a bit startled and shook her head.

"You shouldn't be, it's not as if you did anything to break them up. Besides they taught me an important lesson."

"Lily, I don't have to be the reason you're upset to be sorry. What lesson?" His words caught her off-guard, and clearing her throat she glanced at her feet.

"It proves that 'love' just doesn't last. I mean one second you think that someone is the most beautiful person on the planet, and the next thing you know that person you think you love with all your heart is... They turn ugly, they're not who you fell in love with. I don't know, you just wake up and realize you're in a dead end life and that wasn't how it was supposed to go so you leave your kids and wife for a woman twenty years your junior." Lily sighed, a tone of remorse in her voice.

"Or they're taken from you, and your forced to keep living your life choking on regret and depression." Gerard agreed quietly, and looking up at him Lily was surprised to see a look of vulnerability had crawled into his features. She assumed he was talking about the mysterious Karen, and a sense of curiosity took residence in her brain.

"Are you talking about Karen?" He just nodded and his eyes held this faraway look that they always got when she was brought up; or he saw or heard something that reminded him of this Karen woman. "What happened to her? I get that she died, but how?" His hazel eyes closed for a moment as if to speak on it would be too painful and Lily was about to apologize for overstepping some sort of unspoken boundary between them when his voice, quiet and agony filled barely reached her ears over the din of the city known as Dublin.

"I'll tell you, but can we sit down first?"

"Of course, whatever you want, and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to! I mean if I've overstepped some boundary don't-" Gerard cut her off, firmly but kindly.

"No. I don't mind, maybe you should know." Lily nodded and followed him to a nearby little hole in the wall cafe. They walked in and were seated rather quickly, and Gerard, with a heavy sigh he sat down, beckoning her to join him. Complying she sat and gave him her full attention. Even as he drew in breaths to speak his handsome face looked haggard, older somehow like a face that's lost too much in this world. His eyes however were what alarmed Lily; they looked positively tortured, tired and drained. "Just... Try not to interrupt alright?"

"Of course. I'll be quiet." Pantomiming zipping her lips shut, this drew a muscle twitch near his lip that Lily assumed was supposed to be a smile.

"Alright, it began on a rainy night six years ago."