Between Love and Hate (Year 2)

Under Your Skin

They're in the hospital, Lillian and himself. Miles winces as Lillian makes herself comfortable in an oversized chair for her treatment. It was going to take a few hours. He looks around at the other patients, nearly all looking tired and sick. His eyes drift back to his sister who looked fine, she looked healthy. His heart picks up pace with fear that this wasn't going to work, that he was going to have watch this vibrant being fade into something she wasn't.

Lillian doesn't belong stuck in chairs or beds for hours, Lillian didn't belong in rooms of white and grey-ish walls... but then again, who did? He swallows and tries not get upset because Lillian seems to have decided that none of this was worth crying about anymore. "Laura isn't going to buy this whole promotion lie for long you know." They should discuss the other issue surrounding her cancer diagnosis; though neither had mentioned the c word aloud.

"Long enough," Lillian says watching as the nurse fusses around her with bags of drugs.

"And when she wants to see you?"

"Leave me to worry about the excuses," Lillian waves off his concerns. "You keep your mouth closed. I'll lie, since I'm better at it, and you go do your job with Laura."

Miles stares at her because her dismissal on all of this, as if it was nothing was something he can't wrap his head around. And besides her getting upset when they discussed this in Monaco, she has seemed nothing but calm and collected. No tears, no fear, just her usual sheer determination. "Can I talk to Molly about this?"

Lillian looks back up at him. "No. Sebastian can't know."

Miles sighs loudly. "She won't say anything if I ask her. And why does it matter if Sebastian knows?"

She ignores his questions. "No. You made a promise. I'm not letting you break it."

He doesn't know how to tell her that he's not sure he can deal with this on his own. She was putting him in an unfair position, but it wasn't his life on the line. The nurse has finished and Lillian pats the chair next to him for him to finally join her, and he shakes his head and moves to sit down.

"Want to talk about baby names?" Lillian asks him; clearly wanting a change of subject.

"Sure," he forces a smile. "What you got?"

* * *

"Antti said you were distracted?"

Sebastian jumps in fright when Molly startles him as he packs for Canada. "Sorry?"

Molly's face is one of concern, like he had proved a point. "You okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" he asks as he begins to carefully put everything in his bag in order – years of doing this had taught him to do it perfectly and how much he could take versus how neatly you packed. He scrunches his face at the tossed in clothes so far. He should be rolling...

"I don't know," she walks over to his suitcase and begins to pull everything out. "This is a mess."

"I'll fix it," he says walking back to the closet to get more clothes, but Molly was already rolling up his underwear. "I'm fine Mol," he watches her as she begins to put everything back in carefully. "Why don't I make you do this for me more often?"

"Because, you don't pay me enough," she grins and he rolls his eyes and hands her two dress shirts. "So... anything new happening? Seeing anyone?"

His hands are buried in his sock drawer when she asks and he freezes, head immediately filled with Laura and he sucks in his breath. He'd gone all morning without thinking of her or her tattoo. Fuck. "Have you seen me with anyone?" he asks, fingers gripping his balled up socks tightly before he shoves them in his luggage that she was neatening.