Always You || A Chenford AU

Chapter 8

Tim's POV:

Lucy really is the best present giver in the world. After she helped me pick out an airplane to give her, she should've been there to see Rachel's reaction. Who would've thought that someone who is part of my past help me with someone in my future.

So I guess I only can return the favor? I met Caleb  Calrb Wright with a W, I decided to give her his phone number after taking it from him when he wanted to give it to Lucy. He seemed legit. A manager to a medicine supply company. An instagram that has been running for ages. Usually seems like a good sign.

So I told her to go out with Caleb. It was a long day. Having to work with a serial killer, Rosalind, to find one of her murders, then finding a newer body which couldn't have been from that said killer. It would've been a long day, today. But I'm sure it isn't now.

I told her to go out Caleb, to focus on something else and to relax. Not knowing he would be Rosalind's acomplice. That he would kidnap Lucy.

It's my fault. I told her to go out with him. I should've realised he was trouble. I'm a cop. His real name isn't even Caleb. Out of everyone, he took Lucy.

"Hey Angela, thanks for coming. Wesley."

"Ofcourse, Grey's got you on tiplines?"

"Nothing says,'We got squat' like listening to the public."

There isn't coming anything from the tipline. Apart from people thinking she was abducted by mole people.

This is useless. I should be out on the streets looking for her. Kicking doors down until I find her. I can't just sit here and let her get killed. I can't she means too much to me.

Nothing hurts more than almost having the kidnapper of your best friend, who you loved 10 years ago, and then loosing him. And lossing another officer as well while trying to get him.

Now they're both gone and all we have is a photo of Lucy in a barrel. Until everyone finds out that Caleb or whatever his real name is, has a house in Kern, right where Rosalind's family has a farm. They have to be there.

"LAPD unit on site. We cannot wait for SWAT. We're going in." I heard Nolan say over my radio. Almost there at the farm. "This is Officer John Nolan. I need a Code 3 ambulance sent to 757 Old Farm Road. I have a gunshot wound victim, male in his 30s, conscious and breathing."

No, no, no. This couldn't be happening. God it's all my fault for getting Lucy to go to the bar.

Nolan's running from the house screaming that Caleb's dead and that Lucy is somewhere burried on site. But we don't fucking know where. On the live video from the barrel you can't rven see if she's still breathing.

If Caleb were a smart guy, he wouldn't bury her close to the house, would he. West searches on the left side of a field while I do on the right side.

We have to find her, we just have to. I can't lose her. Not again, not when I have just found her again after then years.

There it was. Her moonstone ring. Glinstering in the field. Underneath the dirt is a metal piece. It's a barrel.

"I've got her! I've got her!! Right there."

Oh shit. As we found her, she stopped breathing. No, I can't do it. I won't loose her. Not like I lost my mother. Let's just hope it's not too late for cpr.

And there it is. A cry. Thank god, she's alive. I can't go through that again. I won't. I want to protect her. It doesn't matter if it costs me everything. I don't want to have to miss her, my best friend.

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Lucy's POV:

Nothing's scarier than having your day of death tattooed on your rib. Well apart from being burried alive anyway. But I knew they would find me. I knew Tim would find me. I just did.

And now I'm alive. Caleb's dead, Rosalind is behind bars. And Tim, he's by my side. Looks like he has been all night. Everyone is coming and going while I'm awake. Giving me gifts etc. But all I want is Tim's company, and only his.

Guess I'm not going on a date, ever again. Nolan, Jackson and Tim support me. Lucky me. Never dating again. Ever.

"Hey, you hungry?" Tim asked.

"Yeah. I'm starving. You know what I really want to eat right now?"

"Oh, veggie burger and fries, extra pickles?" He knows me too well.

I think I might have a soft spot for him...

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It's been a few weeks since my day of death wasn't the day I died. But here I am, putting concealer over the stupid tattoo until I can have it removed. Which will be in four weeks, two days and nine hours.

It's my first day back at the station and I am not looking forward to the applause in roll call, because I don't want their respect for surviving a serial killer.

I just want to see Tim again and pretend like it's any normal day.

Guess who got the applause and didn't get to pretend like it was a normal day?

Tim traded me with Nyla. When all I wanted was him. My best friend. Oh and a time machine, obviously.

Now a day later, which was half normal. But still with Harper. I realised maybe some boxing would let my anger go. And then my best friend walked in.

"Hey"

"Hey"

"You got no quit in you, do you, Boot?"

"No, I get that from you."

"I don't think so. You walked in the door this way. It's what makes you so aggravating."

"I'm taking that as a compliment."

Apparently it was meant as one too. I thought our conversation was over. But hr changed his mind when he looked at my ribcage.

"You know I got half a dozen scars. Bullet wounds, knife wounds, broken bottle. Then there's the ones you can't see Isabel's addiction, my dad, the death of my mother. And whether I like it or not, they're a part of me."

"I-I know what you're trying to do, and I appreciate it, but this is different. I was tattooed by a sadist who etched my day of death into my skin."

"Okay, but you didn't die. Okay? You lived. And now he's the one in the ground. But I'm not trying to tell you what to do with it. Okay? Burn it off, keep it, whatever gives you peace. All I'm trying to do, is give you some hard-won perspective. You can choose to see that tattoo as your greatest failure. But I see it as proof that you're a survivor. It wasn't your day of death, Lucy. It was the first day, of the rest of your life. And no one can take that away from you." He did have a point there.

"Thanks."

"Yeah, you're welcome."

The Tim she knew years ago, was back with a way more mature side. She knew some of the stuff he went through. Then there was other stuff. Just like she had secrets he didn't know. How she loved Tim 10 years ago and how she still loves him, maybe in a different way than then. But maybe one day she'll love him in a romantic way again...