Want You to Stay || Chenford / The Rookie

Part 6

Lucy narrows her eyes at him and looks, once again, like she wants to say something. Then she just presses her lips together into a thin line and turns back toward the map.

"You, ah, have Eagle Rock and Highland Park mixed up," he clarifies after a moment, when he's certain his voice will sound steady.

"I don't," she says, without turning around again.

"You do."

Lucy lets out a huff of annoyance, leaving the flags in question exactly where they are while she continues to work through placing the other neighborhoods in their proper spots. She places the last flag in the map and waits expectantly for the green light on the wall to flash. When nothing happens, Tim can't help but chuckle smugly.

"I told you."

"I thought you said this was stupid," Lucy grumbles as she switches the Eagle Rock and Highland Park flags, and the green light on the wall immediately flashes.

"Just because you're wrong doesn't mean it's stupid," Tim tuts triumphantly, echoing her earlier quip back at her. He expects Lucy to roll her eyes and smirk at his prickish teasing like she usually does. But when she turns toward him, the unabashed annoyance in her expression catches him off guard. She stalks past him toward the next puzzle without a word. He makes a move to follow her, then stops short.

"Are you seriously mad because I solved one?" he asks, his own irritation rising.

"I'm not mad because you solved one, Tim." She's busy unknotting a series of thin ropes hanging off the wall, tugging on them with such force that he wonders if they'll survive to see another escape attempt. But she's got them all untied before he can even respond, and she's already turning toward the next puzzle, which is located on a small table right next to him.

A box on the table had popped open as soon as Lucy finished the knot challenge, revealing some kind of metal cipher disk. Lucy reaches her hand out to grab it, but Tim is already pulling it out of the box. Their fingers brush together — the first time they have actually touched since the other night — and he reflexively pulls his hand away, dropping the cipher on the floor in the process.

"Jesus Christ Tim, stop acting like I'm going to jump your bones every time I get close to you!" Lucy bursts out suddenly, throwing her hands up into the air.

"What? I'm not —" he protests, taken aback.

"Yes, you are." Her eyes are flashing with exasperation. "And earlier with Grey, you tried to get out of doing this with me. In front of everyone."

"I didn't —"

"Yes. You did. And it was embarrassing." She bends down to snatch up the cipher and turns away from him.

He blinks at her back for a second. "Oh, I'm sorry," he spits out sarcastically, circling around to the other side of the table to face her. "Did you want to be locked in a room together after —?"

"No." Lucy's fumbling with the cipher, twisting it around agitatedly as she keeps her eyes trained on the code on top of the table that they're meant to solve. "But I can separate my personal life from my professional life and follow an order from my commanding officer."

Tim puts both of his hands on the table and leans in toward her, trying to keep his aggravation in check but also feeling strangely relieved to finally be talking about the thing they've been trying so hard not to talk about. "Lucy," he says slowly. "Look, I feel really bad about what happened —"

Her eyebrows shoot up and she finally meets his gaze. "You think I don't? You know how I feel about cheating —"

Tim bristles. "That's not what —"

Lucy cuts him off before he can say anything else, her tone firm. "We don't need to talk about that. That's — that's none of my business." She finally twists the cipher into a position that somehow makes sense to her and starts punching letters and numbers into the keypad on the table with short, pointed jabs. Another green light flashes. Over Lucy's shoulder, Tim sees a series of gears shift to life on the main escape room door, opening slowly to reveal an oddly-shaped keyhole.

"But the way you act around me at work is my business," she says curtly after a moment, bringing her eyes up to meet his again. Then she turns away from him without another word and moves toward the main door.

Tim stands upright and runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. Because yeah, she's not wrong. "This is exactly why we should talk about you not being my aide anymore."

Lucy recoils immediately, whirling back around to gape at him. "What? No. I already told you that we don't need to do that."

"We do," he insists, his jaw set in a grim line. This part of the mess they've made is the only thing that's truly clear to him. "It's the right thing to do."

"For who?"

"Lucy, even you have to see that I can't be your boss anymore after what happened."

"Even me? What the hell does that mean?"

"Look, I know you've only been on the job two years, but I'm your superior officer —"

She scoffs. "Don't do that, Tim. Don't you dare talk to me like I'm still your rookie and you're my TO." Then she starts to move around the room, her fingers frantically running along the walls and underneath ledges as she searches for the key that may finally let them out of this god-awful room.

"This is a dangerous job. If either one of us is distracted out in the field —"

Lucy lets out a high-pitched laugh, throwing open every drawer and panel she can find with increasing impatience. "You're telling me this job is dangerous? I was buried alive by a serial killer, Tim. I took down one of the city's top drug dealers during my very first undercover op. But sure, one night with you is enough to throw me off my game."

He flinches at the harshness of her words — and at the fact that she's even fighting him on this when it's so obviously the right thing to do. He stares at Lucy, searching for some way to make her understand, but she speaks first.

"Tim, I get that this is a terrible position for you — that this isn't a line you would have wanted to cross. But what about the position this puts me in?" she says, shaking her head. "If you request another aide, everyone is going to wonder why. And they aren't going to wonder what you did wrong, they're going to wonder what I did wrong."

"That's not my intention," he argues, feeling defensive and backed into a corner and utterly furious with himself for putting them both in this situation.

"I don't care what your intentions are. I'm telling you how it's going to look." She storms past him and grabs a twisted piece of metal from off the wall. It had looked like part of some kind of ugly art piece when they first walked in, but when she turns back around to face him, Tim can see that it's actually a misshapen key.

Tim opens his mouth to protest, but Lucy is barrelling on, anger radiating off of her. "And I don't deserve that. Because I'm a great cop. You're lucky to be riding with me. And you're lucky I'm here right now because —" She shoves the key into the lock and gives it a firm twist. The final green light flashes to life as the escape room door swings open with a swift bang. "Otherwise you'd still be trapped in here."