The Boot (Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

A/N: You might want to buckle up because you're in for a wild ride these next few chapters

A/N: Also, I know that the timeline has been kind of a mess and I apologize. It's hard to keep track of so many moving pieces. For the sake of the story, let's just say that the time between chapter eighteen and now was about three weeks, so Lucy is twenty-seven weeks along

JOHN

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves, which unfortunately has very little effect in actually doing so. I nervously fold and unfold my hands, bouncing on the balls of my feet. "Oh, for Pete's* sake," Lucy groans. "Just spit it out already."

*A/N: Hehe see what I did there????

Something chimes and Lucy checks her phone. "Damnit."

"What?" I ask.

"I have to go on my stupid walk."

"I don't even know what that means."

"Right, sorry. It's unhealthy for me to spend literally all day in bed, not moving at all. So to help with that, the doctors make me take a walk around the hospital once a day. It's torture! All of the walls, floors, everything. It all looks the same. All of it."

"Well, would it suck a little less if you had a friend there?"

Lucy smiles and nods. "Yes. That would be great."

I help Lucy slowly get out of bed, and she grabs onto her IV stand, which conveniently has wheels.

When we reach the hallway, Sebastian is there playing cards with Tim's dad. But Tim himself is nowhere in sight. "Where did Tim go?" I ask.

"Apparently there is a hostage situation downtown," Sebastian shrugs, drawing a card from the deck.

"But Tim doesn't do hostage situations. That's not his department," Lucy points out.

Sebastian glances from his cards to us, briefly, as Tim's dad lays down a card in the discard pile. Sebastian curses under his breath.

"Sebastian?"

"Hm?"

"Why is Tim there?" Lucy repeats herself.

"Apparently, the roads are an absolute nightmare right now, with lots of traffic pileups, and the normal hostage negotiation team can't get there quickly. It'll take some time..."

I nod in understanding. "But a hostage situation isn't something that can wait until whenever. Especially when whoever is holding them hostage is unpredictable, time isn't an option here."

"Right. They need whatever help they can get as quickly as they can get it," Lucy adds. "But why Tim?"

"He isn't the only officer from a different department that they called in," Sebastian says.

"That's not what I asked, Seb," Lucy sighs.

"They needed whoever they could get. Tim being a Sergeant at Metro, having years of experience in all sorts of situations, was one of the best they could get. The dispatchers were accepting help from any officers in the area who had access to get there quickly despite the traffic, and Tim knew that his training and experience were valuable, and the location was so close by..."

Lucy nods. "I get it. He has a job to do."

"He told me to let you know that he loves you and the triplets,"

"Thank you, Seb."

Sebastian returns his attention to the card game as Lucy and I continue our walk. "So where are we supposed to go on this walk?"