Author's Note: So I also had this as a one-shot, but the writing itch wouldn't quite let me leave it at that. Hence the extra chapters, though I wanted to leave the one-shot I had already posted as such (so that people who don't want to see M content can still read some of the work in peace).

"There's nothing like a bottle of wine and a couple of teenie chasers to get me talking nonsense."

It's necessary, she tried to tell herself. If she didn't quash whatever notions she may have awakened with her all-too-candid words she remembered all-too-well, then…
What? What are you so afraid of? She had a job and a family to protect, and yet she was already risking them, she knew—had already damaged them, as the bandage on Dylan's fingers and the stain on Theo's tie had shown, as she had never let happen before—and yet she still hadn't stopped. Didn't intend to stop.
"I'll go check us out."
She stood, feeling Lip's soft eyes on her as she walked away, relieved he was willing to let her have her facade of control back.

She fought to keep her voice from breaking—because even drunk and alternating between hunched over the toilet and slumped against the bathroom wall, the idea of intentionally letting herself be vulnerable was foreign to her. But god, god, she didn't want to think about him happily married to a girl his age, didn't want to end up "the older woman" from his past, to be relegated to a box of "happy mistakes" and stored in his attic somewhere.
He smiled, huffed a quiet laugh as she mentioned bidets, and she wanted to kiss him, but she knew nobody wants to kiss someone in the middle of periodically emptying their stomach contents.

They had come in her car—Indianapolis wasn't that far from Chicago, only about a three or four-hour drive—and the trip back began in silence.

He pulled out one of his textbooks, flipped through it, read a little, and stared out the window, though she didn't miss his surreptitious glances at her.

"Is something wrong?" She felt herself slowly slipping back into her own, and so her tone wasn't as sharp as it might otherwise have been.

He turned his head towards her. "Y'know, most people I know get more honest when they're drunk."

"Well, I would certainly hope I'm not like most people you know."

He huffed his quiet laugh, even if it wasn't very mirthful, and turned towards the window again, shaking his head. "Ah, no. No, you're not."

She nodded, set the turn signal, and pulled into the next rest stop.
"Is there a reason we're-?"

Helene silenced him with a kiss even before she reached to turn the motor off, stroking her tongue against his, telling him in the language they were both familiar with that yes, she did want him in her life, yes, she did care about him. It was a language of love and a language of lust, a language which gave her security in its ambiguity, even though she hoped that he knew what she meant.

Author's Note: I really have to thank CuriosityComplex for her exhortation for Lip & Helene fans to take up their pens, as well as for their work "The Morning After" which inspired the first chapter of this fic (and hence a little all subsequent chapters). You can find it on AO3.

In addition, I admit that since I have not been following the show for long (and mostly watch for Sasha Alexander) I do not feel qualified to write about Lip in detail, even though he's the character out of the pair that most fans care more about. I hope I am able to keep him as well as all the other characters in-character.

I will be trying to keep the fic relatively close to canon, at least until the show ends this story arc and removes Helene from the show's lineup, so updates may be sparse and/or spread out.