Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

1

Tim Bradford has always taken great comfort in numbers, ever since he was just a child. There were thirteen steps in his house to go up, he had to walk fifty-eight steps from the garage to his front door to get in, four floors in his living room, ten pairs of forks and spoons, twelve knives and he could go on all night, but most important it had been almost five hundred twenty-five thousand and six hundred minutes since Lucy vanished from the planet earth. He wasn't sure what had happened, one day she was just gone. No one knew where she was and they had searched everywhere.

And God… did he miss her.

Everything was going so well, fantastic, if someone asks Tim. Him and Lucy were finally starting to figure out what they wanted their relationship to be, he'd taken her in a couple of dates, they usually went on hikes together and even some nights he would stay over at her place and vice versa. That had been the case the day she left. Lucy had stayed over at his place that night after spending a big fraction of the afternoon cuddled on his couch and eating pizza to the brunette's request.

That hadn't been the original plan, no, it hadn't. Their original plan had been taking Kojo (King of all canines) on a hike after their respective shifts but to their luck, it had been raining since the morning. So obviously, their plan of going on a walk had been canceled so they decided or actually Lucy decided to just lay on the couch and procrastinate all noon and forcé him to cuddle her, not that he was going to complain, and in addition drag the mutt with them to the couch, not really minding much attention to Tim's complaints (the woman was going to ruin all of the boy's progress by spoiling him, always, and it is not an exaggeration when Tim says always, bringing him either snacks or blankets or toys everytime she came to his house with was constantly).

They had watched "Little Women" to her request and then "Xanadu" to Tim's and at some point they fell asleep, woke up, well, at least Tim did and realized it's was too late for Lucy to drive home so he didn't even bother to wake her up so he just limited to carry her to his bed and they went to sleep.

Later that night when he woke up for a moment to roll over and pull Lucy closer to him, you can imagine his surprise when he felt her side of the bed cold, at first he thought she was probably in the bathroom but the light was off and then he thought she might just went back to her apartment, but every time she did that, Lucy made sure to leave a note or text to let him know she had gone back to her apartment. But the next morning he met with no text nor note, he tried not to panic, the day before had been esñecially hard. So when she went home she was probably just too sleepy and forgot to let him know.

He went to take a shower, had breakfast and went to the station. Tim couldn't help but start panicking when he also didn't see her there. He tried to not think of Caleb and Isabel. Lucy was nothing like Isabel, she wouldn't just leave with no explanation and Lucy and him shared the same friends and she would have told him if she had met someone new, so it was a little weird. Before going into full panic mode he went and ask Harper if Lucy was sent to an UC emergency mission but she looked at him as if he had grown a second head and shook her head, he took a deep breath and hoped Lucy was just running late or would call in sick, after all they had gotten wet the day before and took too long on changing their clothes. To his disgrace, Grey hadn't heard about the brunette either. 

During lunch break, he called her. No answer. Then, he texted her. No answer. He asked Nolan if he knew anything about the petite woman. Nope. He texted Tamara to know if she had heard anything about his girlfriend not girlfriend and again the answer was no, Tamara was in an internship program in San Diego so he didn't want to worry her. 

Later that day he and Lopez went to Lucy's apartment to see if she was there and as you can imagine, she wasn't there. Tim was heartbroken and scared.

Where was Lucy?

A day later the search began. No leads, no place to start and Tim couldn't help but begin and think about Isabel. They looked in the camaras, both Lucy's and his but there was nothing, the only thing shown was the brunette getting in her car, started driving to then turn left and then she just disappeared. But without any leads once again, there was nowhere to start from. No matter how hard Nolan, Tim, Nyla, Angela and Grey worked, it was all in vain. And soon the case was closed, concluding that Lucy Chen had escaped without leaving any trace.

Tim didn't want to admit to himself she just left, but he also didn't want to think she had been taken. But after so many comments and denying there was no way Lucy had been taken… it was obvious what had actually happened. She had left just like Isabel did. She abandoned him. What was so wrong with him? All of his girlfriends went away at some point.

That was four thousand eight hundred and eighteen thousand five hundred and twenty-eight minutes ago or eleven months, whatever you wanted to see it like.

At the minute one thousand seven hundred fifty-two thousand one hundred ninety-two (fourth months) Lucy was replaced and Tim had no other option but to accept that Lucy was gone.

Jessica Parker. Tall, tan skin, slim body and strong features; a decent cop, she would do everything he would tell her to without a peep.

So different to his Lucy.

She would argue and bite back and question every little thing he said. And sass him and tease him and prank him without a break. The shop would never be quiet, there would always be something to talk about and if there wasn't something new, Lucy would just talk about random things, even if she knew he didn't care or she would go against his rules, turn on the radio and sing. He liked listening to her voice. Jessica was just so… quiet, she never talked in the shop even though he tried to make up a conversation after a quiet day because it was just so boring.. And it was just not the same as it was, patrol, the shifts, lunch. Nothing was the same! They even gave Jessica Lucy's locker. It made him realize how much he missed Lucy. He still couldn't believe Lucy left him just like that, when she promised to not do what Isabel did.

To not think about his misery, Tim started working even more hours. Extra shifts in the day and at night, only going home for Kojo's sake. He hated being home, heck, it didn't feel like home any longer, it all reminded him of Lucy; the plants he has to water everyday were a gift from Lucy, and the random pins and hair ties he randomly found were hers too and the toys on the thirteen steps of the house were he almost falls every night were the ones Lucy bought for Kojo or the extra fluffy pillows that rested on his bed.

It all screamed Lucy.

At this rate he was going to have to move house to see if he could get over her.

Life kept going, although the station was not the same without Officer Chen. Not even Nyla and Angela were the same, the place, the environment just felt… off. Until that minute; the minute five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred. It was unexpected, Tim had just returned from his night shift and was exhausted when he got a call from Angela.

"What do you want? It's 1 a.m. Angela!" He snapped as soon as he accepted the call, little did he know, it would change his life.

"Tim… it's Lucy. She's back." He heard the voice on the other line whisper.

Tim was sure he blacked out for a second.