- Three hours before the missile alarm –
Lucy frowned as she threw away the invitation-card she had found in her mailbox that morning. Her first day back and this is what was expecting her? She was not in the mood for that. Getting invited to your ex-boyfriend's wedding was low, but when said ex-boyfriend was getting married to her ex-best-friend, it was simply devastating.
She left the changing rooms, already dreading the air conditioning she knew she wouldn't have any more when they got out on patrol and was more than happy that Bradford finally let her wear the short-sleeved-uniform. At roll call, sighing in relief when no one stood up and clapped, they were briefed about the upcoming shift regarding citizens and their reactions to the heat outside while Nolan was mentally preparing himself for his upcoming court hearing after being brought off-guard by their training officers.
They were being called to a convenience store about money-theft. With the description and the surveillance-footage it should be easy to track the suspect down and Lucy was quick to pull a BOLO on this evidence-base.
"You should've gloved up. What if we had to pull prints?" Bradford looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Oh right, sorry." Lucy sighed but then stopped in her tracks. Normally, Tim would've called out her mistake immediately when he noticed it. Now he had waited until they were alone – he was nicer than usual. "Why are you being so nice to me today?"
Lucy noticed a shift in his expression. "Oh my god, Rachel talked to you about the wedding invitation." She finally put two and two together. "Look, I'm over him and I don't need any special treatment from you" she explained but regretted it immediately when Tim took over the shop. "Then I'm driving." He took over the wheel and started the car again, lips pressed together. While Rachel had indeed told him about the wedding invitation, he hadn't told Lucy yet that they broke up due to Rachel leaving for a job in New York and apparently, she hadn't told her best friend either.
They were driving ahead in silence, but Tim could feel her stares on him, and he could practically hear the thoughts that were eating her up from the inside. "What?" Lucy sighed and looked down at her lap. "You think I'm being stupid, letting that invitation bother me so much."
She knew that he didn't really want to talk about things like these, but for her own sake she had to discuss the situation with someone and right now, that someone was Tim. "No but really, why would they even invite me? To further humiliate me?" Tim shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe they wanted to make amends?" Lucy was about to answer when Tim spotted their wanted suspect in front of them and cut him off with the shop.
It was a normal arrest following a BOLO. It was, really, until both of their cellphones rang off in a deafening alarm.
EMERGENCY ALERT
BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT
INBOUND TO LOS ANGELES
IMPACT IN 29 MINUTES
SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER
THIS IS NOT A DRILL
Lucy's eyes widened as she read the message popping up on her phone and she looked at Tim, terrified. "What about Hailee? The school may have been trained for a school shooting, but there's no bomb shelter!"
She felt her pulse quickening and Tim walked over to grab her by her shoulders. "Chen. Chen. Lucy!" She looked up at him in panic while he motions their suspect to walk off. "We have to get back to the station and see what Grey needs us to do. It's the best we can do right now, especially for Hailee." But Lucy wasn't to be calmed down by this. Not now, not in this situation. "You don't understand!" She felt tears well up in her eyes as she turned away from him, trying to catch a breath.
"Look, Lucy. Our job is to protect the citizens. Hailee is being brought over to the bigger public school – this one does have a bomb shelter – and she'll be safe there. We have to help the others." Lucy was mad and sad and furious all at the same time. She knew she had no right to be mad at Tim – hell, he didn't even know why she was so upset about this – but she also knew that he was right. She had ignored the commands coming from the radio and Tim was currently busy answering the ones coming through a second time.
"Dispatch needs us back at the convenience store from this morning." Tim explained and they got back in the car. Arriving at the scene, utter chaos awaited them. A couple of looters trying to take some stuff and the owner fending them off with a shotgun. Lucy followed Tim, her mind constantly wandering off to Hailee while he consoled the store owner and got her to head for a shelter. Now it was up to them to protect the store from the missile.
Lucy checked her phone. "Three minutes left..." she mumbled and dropped down at the counter as Tim got the wounded citizen to safety. Suddenly, she heard him opening one of the whiskey bottles from the shelf. "Just enough time." He knew that if the missile was real, they would not make it out alive. Tim took a sip before offering it to her, but instead she took the first bottle of Tequila she could make out, opened it, and took a big sip. "Not a whiskey girl."
For a few seconds, they enjoyed each other's company, drinking their chosen liquor in silence while the world around seemed to come crashing down on them. Lucy didn't know if it was the alcohol running through her body or if it's the fact that they had only a minute left on this world, but she got up and looked him dead in the eye.
"Tim." Her expression had turned monotone, serious. She had put down her bottle on the counter and her brown eyes drew him in so much, he didn't dare break off the eye contact. "I have to tell you something." A quick glance at her watch informed her about the 20 seconds she had left to come clean to him.
"I said you didn't understand when I was so worried about Hailee earlier. While you probably still think that you could've understood me – you're wrong. Not once have you known the panic of wondering if your child is okay. But the thing is, you could have."
Lucy swallowed down a lump in her throat. Here goes nothing – either they die in ten seconds, and they take this secret to the grave, or it was a false alarm and she'd have to deal with the aftermath of him knowing the truth.
"What are you implying there?" Tim looked at her with glassy eyes. She could see that the whiskey had started to affect his body and she grabbed his hands, just in time for the countdown to run out.
"Because you're the father. Hailee is your daughter."
YOU ARE READING
Secrets (Never to be Told)
FanfictionLucy and Tim met each other at a bar ten years ago. They were drunk and he was desperate, leading to her coming home with him and having a one-night stand. Shortly after she found out she was pregnant, but she never got his name, nor did she see him...
