Chenford: One Shot to the Heart

Nightmares to Dreams becoming Reality

Concept: Lucy, Tim, and the DOD video. (separate from the Chris incident)

(Tim) It wasn't often that she could be stricken into silence. He had come to learn that if she wasn't talking about something, then something was wrong. He could sense the difference between her own common sense in backing off if he was irritated and when she had something on her mind. She had scared him today. She had that look on her face but she was still talking. Clearly, she didn't want to. But, he figured, she had anticipated his noticing her silence. HE would be the one pushing until he figured out what was wrong with her. Her trying to cover it up meant that it was going to be one of the worst things they'd dealt with together. Hands down. 

"-oke. So she superglued it and I had no idea. Then I broke it and I was telling her about it and any way that's how I found out that-"

"Lucy."

Her head swiveled towards him so quickly that he was surprised it didn't pop off completely.

He was always so careful. She was "Chen" or "Officer Chen" when he was pissed, which now, wasn't often. She was rarely "Lucy" on the clock. He waited for her to speak. He needed her to open the conversation with him.

"Uh, yes?"

"What's going on with you?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

If he weren't actively driving, he might have slumped forward and pressed his forehead to the steering wheel. "Lucy, please, don't do this. Don't make this conversation any more difficult than it's going to be."

She inhaled sharply. "Oh. So that's what this is about. Listen, Tim, I-I'm not even sure-"

"Woah!" he interrupted, "Lucy, slow down before you'll say something you'll regret. Listen, I don't know anything. What I do know is that you've been pretending since the moment we locked into the shop. So just, breathe. But then tell me. And don't even try to say it's nothing or lie your way out of it."

She inhaled for five, exhaled, and repeated that cycle a few times before hitting him with a softly-spoken sentence that shattered him: "I watched the video."

No words were necessary to expound upon what she had said. 

~~perspective shift~~(Lucy)

She watched as the blood drained from his face, his knuckles turned white from gripping the wheel, and his breath became shallow and quick. 

His eyes glassed over, growing distant. Minutes passed before he could manage to get one word out. "Why?"

"I-I"

"Lucy," he struggled to contain the tremor of his voice, "why?"

"I thought I could handle it. And-and I thought I needed to. To prove that it didn't affect me anymore. But also to remind me that I was able to be standing there, alive, and watching it. I thought that because death wasn't the ultimate outcome, it would somehow prove to me how strong I was. Clearly, that was a mistake."

"But, why? Why would you even be thinking that you needed proof?" He was growing frustrated, driven by the adrenaline of the returning emotions of the ordeal. 

She sighed, "This job. It's tough, you know that. And I know, I know taking this position as your aid would make things even more so. I should know better than to let gossip get to me. But it's not even me living in your shadow or riding on your success. It's all about how I'm able to slack because I'm riding with you. Because you do the work of 2 or 3 cops easily. All I do is ride beside you and watch it happen."