Revisiting a friend - Chenford

#1 Are you trying to get rid of me?

Lucy's staring at herself in the bathroom mirror as she's getting ready for the day. Her mind starts to wander off to one memory.

Tim and Lucy stopped walking as they reached her apartment door.

"Everything that happened undercover we will just leave behind," Lucy says.

"Yeah, what happens undercover stays undercover," Tim agrees with the biggest grin she's ever seen.

They're standing face-to-face now, and Lucy can only stare into Tim's bright eyes. It's like the world around them fades away with every passing second. She parts her lips a little – to not lose courage.

"Do you wanna come inside?" it was more like a whisper, but she knew by his expression he understood her.

He was yet again shocked by her sudden bold moves toward him. His mind acted first as he said: "I... I shouldn't,". But his mind didn't win this dilemma. The next thing he feels are his feet guiding him into Lucy's apartment.

Once the door closed, they lock eyes. Lucy saw confusion mixed with something else in his eyes, which is exactly what she felt at that moment. They both knew they crossed a line that cannot be uncrossed but neither of them wanted it any other way.

When Lucy looked to her right, she saw Chris bleeding out on her couch. She ran towards him as Tim called for an ambulance. She looks up at Tim, who has now completely transformed back into T.O. Tim barking orders into the radio and telling her what to do next. For a second Lucy feared she might have misread all the signals she thought she saw between both of them.

Lucy's being pulled back to reality because of Chris's voice who's calling her to hurry up otherwise she'll be late for work.

The incident had now been about a month ago. Chris moved into Lucy's apartment as he was still recovering from the attempted murder. Tim was training Thorsen nowadays and Lucy did her shifts either by herself or with Smithy, which didn't make much of a difference.

That morning at road call Bradford asked Lucy to stay behind.

"What can I do for you sergeant?" Lucy said way too formally.

"Recruiters at the Cali UC school have asked about you. They'd like you to enroll in their class for the semester."

By his tone, she could tell he didn't support it fully. Or maybe he was worried or didn't care. She sometimes still felt like she didn't know Tim at all.

"Oh wow! How long is the course?"

"6 weeks"

"6 weeks?! Can I think about this overnight?"

"Not really they want an answer by tonight because classes start in 3 days"

"3 days?! But Chris hasn't fully recovered yet. I can't leave Tamara all by herself when Rosalind's still out. I-"

"It's a great opportunity, Lucy," Tim said in a firm voice that made her heart break a little. She couldn't help but wonder why he was suddenly pushing her towards undercover work when he hated it from the start. It didn't feel right at all. Like someone had talked him into the idea.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Lucy tried to hide her emotions but failed as she could feel tears bubbling behind her eyes.

"No! I'm trying to look out for you. It's a great opportunity." But she could hear sadness slipping through his words. She wanted to object and try to understand where this was coming from, but her voice refused.

They were standing in the empty room. Lucy stared up at Tim.

"And you think some time away would be good?"

"I... I guess, yeah" She could now read confusion off his face as he spoke. As if he didn't agree with it himself.

What Lucy didn't know is that Tim was trying to get her to go because she'd be safe there. Safe from Rosalind, safe from another kidnapping attempt.

"You should go for it, Lucy," he said, as he walked out of the room leaving Lucy alone with her confusing thoughts.