SSA Scottley - A collection - S.R.

Kind, strong, loyal

"We have too little to go by." Matt added. "Male, big, strong... That's all good, but that still leaves us too many cases."

"Maybe JJ and Rossi got something else from Eleanor and Shawn." Tara said. "There has to be something else."

"Well, from the video we saw earlier, the unsub used physical violence against Shawn." Matt said. "I mean, he threw a mean punch across his face as a means of torture. Why? Didn't he have access to a gun?"

"I don't think he wanted to kill Shawn." Luke shook his head. "Beat him up, sure, but not kill. Otherwise he would have. And Eleanor... She had a bruised eye when we found her, but nothing else. And Alec was fine. So this is deliberate, thought through."

"It's almost as if the unsub is doing only what he needs to do." Tara said. "Maybe he had been working with Cat, but his grudge is definitely against Lily personally."

"And now he has her..." Garcia cried. "Now he has her and, oh... Oh my God, what if... What if she's already... What if..."

"Don't think like that." Matt said. "She's not dead."

Not yet, he thought. If the unsub went through all this trouble just to get his hands on Lily, he wouldn't kill her in less than a few hours. Torture her, sure, but not kill her. Matt knew all that, and, by the looks on Luke's and Tara's eyes he knew they knew it too, but they didn't dare say anything to Garcia about it. She was too fragile now. So, instead, Matt chose another route.

"She's strong, that one." Matt said, as Garcia nodded. "She'll find a way to survive. She always does."

And Matt meant it. He had seen her strength before first hand, after all, and, every time she had had to rise above, she had done it, with a smile on her lips and light in her eyes.

Matt wasn't sure how she did it, if he was being honest. He knew all she had gone through and he could only imagine all the things she saw with her job, but Lily still managed to be kind and fun to be around. Especially around children. Hers or otherwise, her heart always showed whenever she was with children and Matt would never truly forget that one time, a few years ago when she was still on her maternity leave from having Alec. A case had come around and Kirsty was still in a meeting at the company she worked for, so Matt was in a bit of a situation. His usual nanny wasn't available at the time, so he did the only thing he could think of at the moment: he called Lily. Yes, he had been embarrassed at the time - after all, the maternity leave was meant to give her some time to rest and enjoy her own son, not look after four young hurricanes that weren't even hers to begin with - but Matt hadn't even finished explaining the situation to Lily, she was already on board.

"Yeah, I'll be there in half an hour." She had said.

And, that day, she had entertained the kids alright, playing with them and making sure they ate properly. She had even helped David with his geography homework. When Kirsty got home, all the kids could talk about was how cool auntie Lily was and ask her if she'd ever babysit them again. Matt had laughed when his wife had told him that, but, as soon as the case was over, he had made a point of buying Lily a new book - one he had hoped she hadn't read yet - and head over to her house to give it to her.

"Oh, Matt..." She had said, as soon as he offered her the gift. "You really didn't need to."

"I know." Matt had smiled then. "But the kids loved spending time with you and you were kind enough to help me out, so I wanted to."

"Thank you." She had smiled then, looking over at the cover of the book. "Oh, I was meaning to buy this one to read later. Thank you so much, Matt."

"I'm glad you liked it, Lily." Matt had said. "You know Chloe and Lily can't stop talking about Alec. They loved your baby."

"Oh, they're sweet." Lily had said then. "Energetic alright, but they were so kind to Alec. They wanted to play with him, but Alec is a little more reserved. They understood that quickly, though, and just sat down by him at one point, playing and speaking softly to him to make him smile. They are angels. All of your children, really. You should be proud."