The Boot - Next Steps (Book 2)

Chapter Nine

LUCY

"Lopez, Thorsen, bring those two out to your shop. Then call for backup, got it?" Tim instructs. There's something in his voice that tells us that he is not to be questioned, challenged, or messed with in any way. Aaron and Angela both stand, pulling the felons up along with them. They lead them outside and then it's quiet.

Tim just looks at me and blinks slowly. His calculated gaze on me makes me feel almost like some sort of specimen under a microscope in some lab.

"Tim, I-"

"Mommy!" a little voice shouts and Mia waddles into the room, holding a paper with a drawing on it. She runs into her mother's arms as Nolan chases after her.

"Wait!" he pants. "Sorry, Lucy. She really wanted to show Emiliana her drawing."

"It's fine," I wave dismissively. At least it's safe for her now. If she had run in here just a few minutes earlier, the situation could have turned out very different.

"Give him to me. I'll take him," Tim says, not making eye contact with me for even a single moment. I move aside to let Tim take the cuffs, and tug the felon to his feet. Tim doesn't acknowledge me at all as he leaves the house with the man.

Is Tim mad at me? Why? What did I do? The raging mess of hormones within me caused me to overthink everything about what just happened and before I knew it, I was crying. Tear after tear streamed uncontrollably down my red, puffy cheeks.

Biting my lip as I just stand there, overthinking and questioning everything, I hardly even notice a gentle tug at my pant leg. I turn around, expecting- well, I don't know, maybe Nolan or Angela, although I suppose that wouldn't make sense because they wouldn't have tugged on my pant leg, they would have tapped my shoulder or simply said my name.

Upon turning around and seeing no one in front of me, I'm about to turn back when I feel another tug. Still gentle, however ever so slightly more... intense, for lack of a better word. I look down and see Emiliana's daughter, Mia, standing by my leg, clutching a bit of the fabric of my pants in her small fist.

I allow myself to detense, just a little, and plaster a warm smile on my face as I crouch down to her eye level. "Hi, Mia. Did you need something?"

She averts her eyes shyly. Emiliana clears her throat. "Sweetie, when we give someone a gift, it's nice to look them in the eyes,"

Mia makes eye contact with me as I process what Emiliana has just said. A gift? For me? I notice her other hand is behind her back, holding onto something. "This... for you..." she says, revealing what she was holding.

It's a picture drawn with crayons. It's not the greatest, but she's not even two, so I can't complain. Besides, it's sweet. "This is beautiful, sweetie."

"Is... you," she points to a specific shape on the paper. I have to squint, but I am able to make out what she drew. There is a blob of blue, which must be my clothes, brown for my hair, and bright pink for my skin. She moves her finger to another, smaller blob of colours. "Me."

I notice that she uses the same three colours throughout the drawing. Initially, I figured that she simply had only wanted to use those three colours. I glance at Emiliana, who frowns. "She has only ever had one set of crayons that I bought her as her first birthday present. It was all that I could afford because I was still getting back on my feet after prison. Hell, even now I'm struggling."

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"Over the past few months, the rest of the crayons either broke--ergo the pieces got lost easier--, ran out, or lost. She only has the three left. I have been wanting to get her a new pack, but I never have enough money to spare. She doesn't necessarily seem to mind, but still."

I return my attention to Mia, flashing her a big smile. "I love it. Thank you so much."

She giggles momentarily before shyly retreating back to her mom and hiding behind her leg.

Backup arrives ten short minutes later to take the felons away as well as secure the crime scene. In that short timeframe, I texted Sebastian.

9:56 am - ME: Hey, can you pick up the biggest pack of crayons you can find?

9:56 am - SEBASTIAN: Sure, but why?

9:56 am - ME: I'll explain later.

9:57 am - SEBASTIAN: Okay.

Emiliana looks worried. "Where am I going to live?"

"I mean, you can't live here, because it's an active crime scene..." I sigh. I honestly don't know what we can do here. It's hard to think at all, the pain from my wrist becoming increasingly more debilitating.

"I can't go back on the streets. That's why I had originally turned to crime in the first place. I don't want to go back to that life again. Especially not now. That's not the kind of life I want Mia to grow up in."

10:02 am - SEBASTIAN: I happened to be near the store.

10:02 am - SEBASTIAN: The biggest one is 152 crayons. It's about twenty dollars.

10:03 am - ME: Buy it. I'll pay you back later. Bring it to this address [redacted]

A/N: If this pricing or anything is wrong my apologies, I don't know where most of you are from but I figured since The Rookie takes place in California, in the United States, I should probably use US currency for story purposes, that having been said, this is what I found on Google

A/N: Sorry for not posting in a few days, I've been really busy with work and school