Chenford Story

22

Lucy's POV

I woke up to the sun setting. Tim was next to me. Immediately I noticed the time. 8pm. Great. I would wake up tomorrow to go live with my parents in that hell. I needed to escape.

I softly grabbed Tim's hand.
"Hey baby, I'm awake"
Tim scrambled to my bedside.
"Hey baby how are you feeling?"
"Like I got shot"
I chuckle slightly but it hurts my wound.
I have an idea.
"Hey, Tim you just be so tired. You can go back and get some rest at your apartment."
Tim looked unsure.
"Are you sure Luce, I don't want to leave you alone?"
"Yeah Tim I'll be fine, anyway by the time you get back tomorrow I'll still be asleep"
"If your sure?"
Tim started packing the few things he brought.
"Bye baby, I love you"
"I love you too, see you tomorrow"
Saying that broke me inside. Knowing that I  would never see him again.

I had been thinking through my plan for the last week. I would leave, rent a car and just drive as far away from all of it as a wallet full of cash will get me. I don't feel like I did last time I wanted to leave.
This time I have Tim. I don't want to die. I stash a bottle of whiskey and some pills just incase worst come to worst and my parents find me. I will do anything to avoid going back to them. Anything.

I'm not going to quit this time. Grey knows something's up if I quit. I'll just disappear.
Eventually they will get over it. Think I died and my body was just never found. Something. I just couldn't tell anyone. And I couldn't do anything about it alone.

I rip out my IV. A small drop of blood appears. I quickly change out of my hospital gown and into some actual clothes. I quickly sign my discharge papers.
Then I get a bus back to my apartment. I only need a few things.

I have to enter through the window, they can't look and see that I was in the door camera. I grab a few different outfits and a first aid kit. I empty the safe of my emergency funds and stuff them into my purse. I grab my documents and phone. The printer finishes printing out the Polaroids I send to take. I need memories at least. Then I grab a spare radio and credit card that no one knows I have. I start slipping backwards out the window, I move my arm to catch myself and I feel my stitches have undone. Shit.

I pack everything neatly into a single rucksack and I walk to the the nearby shops.
A few minutes later and I'm done.
Spare bandages, a bottle of whiskey, new phone and a rental car under one of my undercover names. I was now Clare Thompson.

Normally I wouldn't condone theft, or forgery or anything illegal. But I needed to escape. Clare had a different passport, driver's licence, everything a normal person has.

She had been my undercover identity for three months back when I started undercover work. Now Lucy Chen was the cover, someone to be left in the past.

I just drove. And continued driving. Then I opened the whiskey. I only drank a shot. Just enough to start numbing the realisation that Lucy Chen no longer existed.
I aimed to leave the country. Canada was nice this time of year. I had a nice apartment rented just outside Vancouver. 19 hour drive straight there. More like 24 given traffic. But I was making some stops across the country before then. I wanted to start with Phoenix Arizona. Then I would see where life took me.
I sighed. This was going to be a long night.

I turned on the satnav and police radio. It was a six hour drive at this time of night. I would find a motel when I got there. Hopefully before dawn.

My shoulder was aching. Clearly I wasn't driving well dealing with the pain. An officer pulled me over. A rookie. This would be fine.
"Hello mam are you ok?"
"Hello officer, I'm fine thank you"
"Can I have licence and registration please mam"
I really didn't want to do this.
"Oh but Officer, I haven't done anything wrong. Please don't give me a ticket handsome." I brushed my hand up his arm. Please let this work.
It felt so wrong flirting with anyone but Tim but it had to be done. Anyway I was putting my UC skills to good use. He seemed flustered.
"Of course mam, have a good night"
Yes!
As much as I had a licence and registration for the car and Clare, I didn't want to test it and risk being found unnecessarily.

4 am I finally made it to Phoenix. The motel wasn't the best. But it was for one maybe two days. It didn't need to be good, only cheap. And it was certainly cheap.

I got in the room and immediately threw up in the toilet. Then I collapsed on the bed and finally started sleeping.

Tim's POV

I drove to the hospital quickly. I had missed Lucy being next to me all night. I walked into her room. Empty? I went back to the reception, assuming they had moved her overnight.
"Excuse me?"
The receptionist looked up, she seemed exhausted but was very polite. "Yes sir?"
"What room did you move Lucy Chen to?"
The receptionist looked down and searched through the conputer, then she seemed confused.
"We don't have a patent named Lucy Chen?  She discharged herself last night"
What? Shit?! Where was Lucy then?!
I called Angela before I had a panic attack.
"Angela Lucy's gone"
She seemed to have just woken up.
"What Tim, no Lucy's at the hospital remember?"
"No, I'm at the hospital, Lucy's gone. She discharged herself yesterday"
Angela instantly seemed to wake up.
"Give me five minutes I'm coming"

Within 10 minutes Angela came to the hospital, Wesley and Jack in tow.
"She's not at her apartment either, we checked on the way here"
"Lucy's not answering her phone."
I showed Angela the call log, over ten missed calls on the time since I had called her.

Then Mr and Mrs Chen came in. They seemed overly excited and were dressed head to toe in expensive designer clothes and accessories. They stood out like sore thumbs in the waiting room full of people dying, with broken bones and bloodied clothes. Their outfits alone probably cost more than a house. Apparently being therapists payed a lot. Noted.
Why were they here though?

"Lucy Chens room please" Mes Chen spoke curtly, again the receptionist tried to explain that Lucy wasn't here.
"What do you mean my daughter isn't here? Where the hell is she?" Her face was turning red. She was the type of appalled where she wouldn't sound mad until she had you in a literal choke hold. I could see her eyelids start to flutter with pure rage.
"She was meant to love in with us today, where the hell is she?"
The shouting attracted attention from the rest of the room. Wait move in?!