Southern Comfort (22/?)

Author- Midnight Faith

Spoilers- none

Distribution- FF.net, AOH anyone else just ask :)

Pairing- Lilah/Lindsey

Rating- R

Summary- Lilah and Lindsey deal…

Disclaimer- not mine… yadda, yadda

"So that's all he said?" Lilah asked.

"That's all he said. Make sure she wears something nice. That and I'll be back by seven." Cordy confirmed, zipping up the back on Lilah's red shift dress.

"Do you think this is 'nice?'" Lilah asked Cordy, smoothing down the front of the scarlet, silk material, "Not too… daring?"

"You look good…" Cordy told her, "Very 'nice.' The colour suits you."

Lilah swung open the door on the wardrobe to look into the full-length mirror that hung there.

"You don't think it's too tight?" Lilah asked anxiously.

Cordy sighed exasperatedly and got up to slam shut the wardrobe door.

"Lilah you won't gain weight for months yet…" Cordy told her.

"But I just keep thinking what if everybody knows?"

"What if they do?"

"If the whole world knows, Wolfram and Hart are usually two steps ahead," Lilah explained to Cordy.

"They won't find out…" Cordy told her, "You think maybe they'll want to take your baby… like they did with Connor?" Cordy asked.

Lilah nodded fearfully.

"Connor was part of a prophecy…" Cordy reminded her, "And surely they wouldn't do that to you…"

"Were the first people they do it to… betrayal. Not high on their checklist of things to look for in a good employee." Lilah told her.

"So we'll protect you…" Cordy said, "I think I can use a flame thrower."

Lilah gave her a weak smile.

"You're not alone in all this…" Cordy told her.

Lilah crossed over to the window to and looked down at the bustling traffic and millions of car lights snaking along in a slow, systematic string beneath her.

"Do you think he's ever coming back?" Lilah asked apprehensively.

"Of course Lindsey will show up…" Cordy reassured her.

"What makes you so certain?"

"Because… he left all of his clothes… and why would he tell me to wake you up to wear something nice and above all things he loves you…" Cordy told her.

"You really think so?" Lilah asked Cordy, crossing over to the dressing table, picking up some hair ties and a barrette.

"I really think so," Cordy told her, moving to stand beside the stool of the dressing table where Lilah sat. "God, I remember in high school where it was all about the hair… it was the most important thing in the world…" Cordy mused.

"Not for me it wasn't," Lilah told her, beginning to brush her hair through, "Wolfram and Hart recruited me when I was fourteen… I worked every weekend ever since…"

"But it's over now…" Cordy said supportively, "You're young, you're free, you have a promising career in the exciting world of private investigation and you have a baby on the way… you still didn't tell me how he took it…"

"OK," Lilah told her openly.

"OK?"

"Just OK…"

"So what did he actually say?" Cordy asked, as Lilah twisted her hair back into a ponytail, securing it with a hair tie.

"At first he was shocked… he didn't really say anything… but the moment I asked him what he wanted me to do he just said 'keep it' instantly."

"And how do you feel?"

"Really scared," Lilah told her honestly.

"Odds in your favour," Cordy reminded her, "You and Gunn… only once…"

Lilah twisted her hair up and through the barrette, securing it in place.

"I know… but I just keep thinking 'what if?'" Lilah informed her.

"But how do you really feel about keeping this baby?"

"Terrified," Lilah admitted. "I just haven't even contemplated the idea of there being a baby at the end of this. I mean me and Lindsey were supposed to be a casual thing, I pictured us going to bars, staying up all night… not staying in every night and getting up to feed a baby at three a.m. Lindsey's so confident and so sure but I'm just…"

"Not?" Cordy finished for her. "Lilah… cliché or not this is your body and it's your choice… don't let yourself get tied down to something you don't want to be doing…"

Faintly in the distance, they heard the front door of the hotel open downstairs.

Lilah instantly glanced down at her watch.

"Six fifty five," she told Cordy, "That'll be him."

Wordlessly Lilah followed Cordelia down the stairs to see Lindsey standing at the depths of the staircase clutching a bunch of white gardenias tightly.

Lilah paused on the second to last step, suddenly feeling tense, her eyes locking with Lindsey's.

"OK…" Cordy said, "I'm just going to…" she scuttled off into the kitchen.

"I didn't know what colour your dress would be… so I brought white…" he told awkwardly, handing the bunch of flowers to her.

"Thankyou, they're beautiful," she told him, "But it doesn't matter what colour they are, this isn't a high school prom I never got to go to, all that means something is that you came back…"

"Of course I did…"

"Lindsey you're so…"

"Don’t," he told her, "Let's not talk here. I booked us into a good restaurant and figured maybe you'd want to talk… but if you don't that's fine too…"

"No… I want to…" she told him.

He smiled.

"Good. Because I'm ready to talk too…"

*****

"Are you OK?" Lindsey asked Lilah, as they slid into the velvet booth at the restaurant, "You were kinda quiet on the ride over here."

"Yeah, I'm fine," she told him with a weak smile, "God I feel like we stepped back in time or something… when was the last time we were here? That signing deal… with Western Pacific power."

"It seems light years ago," he told her, "I just like it here. The way you can sit next to each other rather than across… I like that…"

He trailed off as the waiter brought them some fabric napkins folded into the shapes of swans.

"Can I get you guys anything to drink?" the waiter asked chirpily.

"No… I'm driving… we're good with water thanks." Lindsey replied, gesturing to the complementary jug of water at the centre of the table.

The waiter left and there was an uncomfortable moment of silence.

"Sorry, did you want some water?" Lindsey asked her.

"No… it's OK…" she told him.

"Me either…" he said.

"We can't afford all this…" she told him.

"I know… but I figured you were pretty much worth it," he half teased.

"So you… what? Hired a BMW and booked us into the classiest restaurant in Beverley Hills? Where'd you get the money? Rob a bank?"

"Close… I sold my truck…"

"What? Are you serious? You love that truck…"

"I know… but I have to prioritise now. A vintage and highly impractical truck is not high on the list right now… you and our baby are. So I did something for us… and I did something for the baby too…"

"What?"

"I went to the bank and set up a savings account- and put the rest of the money into there…" he explained.

Her face visibly softened.

"Oh Lindsey…" she said, her arms encircling his shoulders, touching him for the first time that night. He clung to her tightly, tracing swirls over her shoulders and back with his fingers.

"I just wanted to show you I was serious… about you and about our baby…" he told her.

"You don't have to prove anything to me…"

"I know I'm just…"

"Frightened?" she finished for him.

He nodded.

"Not more so than me…" she told him, leaning her head against his shoulder in comfort.

"But you're so natural… so great with Connor… and I just feel so cut off…"

"You're not cut off… this is your baby too… I feel like maybe this isn't really happening. Then I realise it is and it terrifies me… the whole situation…"

"I thought maybe I'd ask Lorne for a job… singing maybe, one night a week at Caritas or something… or working behind the bar or giving out flyers… anything just to get some money… and I thought maybe we could pick up some escrows… things that'll never get to court… uninteresting I know but whatever it takes right?"

"Right… I mean I can do cases… and possibly serve drinks…"

"Lilah… I don't want you getting completely worn out… I want you at home where people can look after you…"

"I don't need looking after… and I still have arms. I can serve drinks I'm not completely helpless… we'll get money OK?"

"I know we will… I just feel like I should be all protective and responsible but all I can think is 'I live in a pistachio green room in an abandoned hotel.'"

"I'm kinda hoping that Angel will let us stay though… I like it there… and we can paint the room again or move back to our old one…"

"You seem to have everything planned out…"

"I really don't I'm just… rationalising. In a perfect world that's how it goes…"

"What about in our imperfect world?"

"I don't know… still a lot to think about… money, employment, practicalities like that… and how we're going to tell our friends and families…"

"I can't even contemplate telling my family right now…" he told her, "Sex before marriage where I come from is the worst thing ever. Which is why I want us to be married when we tell them…"

"What?" she asked him, in stunned disbelief.

"I took some of the money from the truck and bought you this…" he told her, reaching into his top jacket pocket and producing a black velvet jewellery box.

He handed to her and she opened it to reveal a band of silver, carved into the shape of a wishbone, clutching a single, tiny diamond.

"Will you marry me?" he asked her.

"Lindsey… is this just because of your family?"

"I just want us to be together… to be a proper family…" he told her.

She drew a long, shaky breath.

"OK…" she told him.

"Yes?"

"Yes…"

A broad smile broke out across his face as he gently slid the ring onto her left ring finger.

He kissed her gently.

"I love you," he told her, holding her tightly, "I know we can make this work…"

Lilah sighed deeply.

There was no backing out now…