Secrets (Never to be Told)

Chapter Five

*authors note for the beggining: I added a couple changes to the previous chapter. nothing plot changing, just a few details. enjoy this next chapter, the one following is when Tim (and the others) find out about Hailee!*

The weeks following took a toll out of Lucy. Caring for her daughter while working her shifts and overtime to pay for the new apartment she was forced to move into after being evicted from her old one. She had dark circles forming under her eyes and she'd always have two cups of coffee before entering their shop.

Bradford noticed. He had noticed every little shift in her behavior these past weeks. Her coming in just before she was too late, downing coffee in record time and not even trying to cover up these circles with makeup anymore.

"Lucy, are you alright?" He looked over to her as she looked miserable. "I'm fine. I just have to manage a lot of things at once right now after moving into a new apartment." She sighed and looked out of the window of their shop.

Tim was about to say something else when Grey's voice rustled over the radio. "All units fall back to the station, I need you here for the transfer of Rosalind Dyer to Mild-Wilshire Station."

Lucy looked surprised. "Rosalind Dyer? The one who buried multiple people alive, and no one knows where?" Tim nodded. "That's the one." "God, I was in college when they'd found the first victims. How could a woman be so barbaric?" Tim scoffed and nodded. "Yeah, I worked one of the scenes – fourth victim, Lisa Cruz – I was warned to not look at the body, should've listened to them."

Chen and Bradford arrived back at the station. As they walked through the front door, they were stopped by a man. "Oh, Lucy!" the man waved to them, and Lucy raised an eyebrow. "I'm Caleb, from the bar?" He tried to jog her memory and her facial expression softened. Right, the guy who she was talking to right before arresting a thief for stealing from the bar.

"I hope this isn't weird, but you left before I got a chance to ask for your number." He held out a yellow sticky note to her, but before she could take it Bradford grabbed it in a swift motion. "You got a last name there?" Tim looked at him, brows furrowed. "Yes sir, Wright with a 'W'"

Lucy watched as Tim continued to question him about his job and his judgy look when he watched Caleb walk away. It was kind of funny seeing him in protective mode.

"Tim" she said, reaching out her hand. Maybe she had a chance for a date this week. "What?" he was annoyed and sighed as she looked at the sticky note. "Here".

Minutes later they were briefed about the Rosalind Situation, why she would be transferred and the deal at hand to give closure to the victims' families.

Rosalind arrived and was searched again. Then she was prepped to head for the burial side at Griffith Park.

It didn't take long to get there, but the time they spent up there was awful in the summer heat of Los Angeles. Rosalind mentally traced her footsteps, smiling when she'd remembered a burial spot and the officers dug up another body, watching her own hard work.

Their search was interrupted as they were being shot at during a break. The shooter wanted revenge for Rosalind killing his wife and failed, now being arrested himself.

Finding Rosalind's victims went well for a while, until they dug up a body that was buried there while Rosalind served time in jail.

Back at the station, while Rosalind was locked up in holding, the officers had come together in the briefing room. It was now afternoon and Chen had left to pick up Hailee from school.

"Hailee sweetie," she started as she drove towards their new apartment. "What do you want to eat for lunch? We're getting takeout, mommy has to go back to work soon." She explained and looked at her daughter for a second. The little girl smiled, but it wasn't her usual bright smile. Lucy furrowed her brows, "Baby, is something wrong?"

Hailee grew quiet in her seat and shook her head. "How about we grab lunch first, and then, if you want to talk to me, you can tell me?" Hailee nodded and then looked up at her mother. "Can we go to that pizza place?" Lucy chuckled. "Sure baby."

Lucy parked the car at the restaurant and ordered a pizza for them to share. When she felt Hailee's blue eyes on her, she knew she wanted to tell her something.

"Can you tell me something about my dad?" This took Lucy by surprise, and she reached out for her daughter's small hand. "Your Dad is a nice man. He likes sports." Lucy tried to think of something that would not indicate seeing Tim every day.

"Why did he leave us?" Hailee's eyes dropped a little and Lucy felt a crack in her heart. "Oh baby, he didn't leave us. I didn't know how to contact him and we just fell out of touch."

Lucy sighed and looked at the calendar on the wall absently. Then, as she scanned the date, she finally figured out why Hailee was suddenly so sad. "Hailee, honey. Is this about father's day?" the little girl nodded as she munched on a piece of pizza. "At school, everyone is talking about what they made for their dad. Then they look at me and ask me what I'm gifting when they know I have no one to give it to." Hailee sniffled and Lucy wiped away the tears with a napkin. "I'm sure they didn't mean it like that. Ask them about it and when they keep being mean to you, ask your teacher to call me, okay?" Hailee nodded and finished the piece.

After lunch, Lucy dropped Hailee off at home and rushed back to the station, where Tim was already waiting for her. "What took you so long? Come on, we have to go to the pathologist and ID the newest victim."

They arrived there and looked at the corpse that was falling apart in front of them. While examining it, they found signs of the victim screaming for hours before dying, busted fingernails and a tattoo on her torso. "The numbers could be a date, so January ninth, 2019. That would be six months ago tomorrow, but DOD, what does that mean?" Lucy asked as she looked closer at the tattoo. Bradford felt uneasiness wash over his body. "Day of Death."

They quickly radioed their findings and then found out about another victim whose Day-of-Death dates back exactly three months ago. "Someone's getting killed today." Lucy breathed out as Grey told them the details.

While Lucy and Bradford were busy figuring out Rosalind's code at the prison library and being played, Nolan and Harper rescued the third victim who was about to be killed at the abandoned Zoo. They did not find the suspect who supposedly abducted Nora Valdez, but there was a hunt out for them. "Go home. This woman's alive because each and every one of you gave their all these past 36 hours. You've earned it, we'll continue on this tomorrow."

Lucy sighed and nodded and headed towards the locker rooms. She could spend some time with Hailee tonight. "Hey Chen." Bradford had followed her. "You should do something fun tonight. Take your mind off this whole situation. Go out." He smiled. He had hated to see her this distraught and overworked. "I'm sorry for the snarky comments I made about Caleb the whole day. He seems like a good guy." Lucy smiled and looked to her feet. "Yeah maybe, but I think I should go home, get some rest." Bradford nodded, understanding. "Sure, do that and rest up. Tomorrow will be a better day. See you tomorrow, Lucy." "See you tomorrow."

As much as she wanted to spend her evening with Hailee cuddled up in her arms and watching a movie, she couldn't get Tim's words out of her head. He was right, she should treat herself to a little date and Caleb was interested in grabbing a drink together.

"Hailee, honey?" She called for her daughter who was watching a cartoon series in the living room. "Mommy is going out tonight, but I will be back soon. If you need help, call me. If you think anything's wrong, call me. And you know what to do when something's absolutely wrong, right?" Hailee nodded. "Call 911."

Lucy ruffled her hair. "Good girl."

Lucy grabbed her keys and made her way to the bar where she'd agreed to meet Caleb. They had a great time together and he had bought her a drink, but after a few sips, she noticed something was wrong. Her vision became blurry, and her head was pounding. As she looked at Caleb and saw his smile, she knew something was wrong. "You...you put something in my drink."