Protecting Sunshine

14. A New Position

All Tim had to do was flash a smile while saying "hey", and the monitor Lucy was connected to betrayed her by chiming with the way her heart LITERALLY skipped a beat at the sight of him. "Hi," she managed to say in a small voice and shifted to sit up in her hospital bed.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like some guys took me at gun point, tied me to a chair, and drugged me," she answered wryly.

"You must have been so scared." Tim took a few steps to stand at the edge of the bed right next to her feet. It wasn't nearly as close as he wanted to be, though. Tim was given the chance to hold her in his arms as he carried her away from the warehouse where she had been held captive, and since he had to lower her onto the ambulance's stretcher, his hands were desperately itching to pull her close once more. Especially after her life had been in danger, all Tim wanted was to keep Lucy safely encircled by him forever. But, he was not allowed to do that. He was not her boyfriend. He was no longer even a Secret Service Agent. He had no right to protect her or be around her anymore.

"I knew you would find me. I wasn't scared."

"Really?" He asked, somewhat amused.

She nodded smugly. "You're the best Secret Service Agent we've got, and even after everything that's happened between us, I knew you would still do your job and get to me as fast as possible." Lucy thought about the conversation they had hours ago when they were dancing, and he so casually said:

"I didn't want to keep being around you."

"When I came to get you, I wasn't doing my job, Lucy."

"What does that mean?"

"Clearly, I keep screwing up and not saying the right thing," he winced, "before you were taken, I messed up. I was trying to say that I didn't want to go back to protecting you while you were with that other guy."

"You know his name. You ran a background check on him," she pointed out.

"Whatever," he rolled his eyes, unwilling to utter the name of Lucy's inadequate boyfriend. "I just can't see you with him. I'm so sorry for lying to you, Lucy, I didn't want to keep my identity from you. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I didn't, and I know I should have. Because I didn't come clean, I know we can't be together anymore, but please understand that I can't have a front row seat to see you moving on with someone else. I love you too much to watch that happen."

The stupid heart monitor sounded when her heart skipped a beat AGAIN when he said he loves her. She yanked the leads off of her chest and tried to stand, despite how dizzy she felt. Tim seemed to reach out reflexively to help stabilize her, so she took the opportunity to put her hands in his- a grounding sensation she had desperately missed. Lucy looked up to meet his eyes and took a step closer as she swallowed to collect her swirling thoughts.

Behind them, they vaguely heard the hospital room door swing open, but neither broke eye contact until Vanessa's unmistakable voice rang through the space, "What are YOU doing here? You need to leave! Now!"

"Mom?" Lucy questioned aggravtedly.

Tim finally wrenched his gaze away from Lucy to look at Vanessa, "Actually, Ma'am, can I have just another minute with your daughter?"

"Excuse me?" The President scoffed.

"Yeah, mom, I need to talk to Tim."

"Someone just abducted you, Lucy. We need to get you secured. I can't believe HE'S in her room, Grey." She said with acid dripping in her voice as she looked to her Head of Security.

"Tim, you need to leave," Grey tried to say as compassionately as possible.

Emboldened by the fact that he had been fired, Tim looked over at the President and Grey with his hands still firmly gripping Lucy's, "I'm the reason she's alive and safe right now. I think I can stay."