Case Closed

• Three •

"Suspended?!" Lucy cried when Florence arrived at her house the next morning with the news.

"I'm sorry Lucy. But what he did - achoo! - to you was dangerous. As for that - achoo! - case file, the Commissioner has had it taken away. Seems - achoo! - like no one save him and Al know what was in there."

Lucy only groaned and flung herself face-first onto the sofa. "I need to go see him."

Florence sighed. "I was worried you'd say that..." she muttered. "Look, that's probably the worst idea you've had so far. Give him a few days, then we'll go see him."

"But-"

"No. I'm not letting you put yourself in danger again. He's - he's not acting 'normally' at the minute. Give him some time."

The fear that Lucy had felt when the Prof had lashed out at her was unlike anything she had felt before. It was not like facing a gun or being shot with a lead bullet. This hurt in a different way. She had trusted him, and she thought he had trusted her too. She didn't know whether she could go back, or whether she would see the Prof again.

The next few days she spent sitting at home alone, until Florence turned up carrying a stack of case files.

"Brought you homework," was her only comment as she dropped the folders onto the table. Lucy didn't respond. She hadn't said a word to anyone all day, and had no intention of doing so.

"Lucy! Snap out of it! Al's been - achoo! - suspended, not fired! They'll have him back in a couple of weeks, he's too good for them to lose."

In all honestly though, that wasn't what Lucy was worried about. It was the way he had done it consciously, knowing that he was hurting her but not stopping, not caring for even a second, that upset her. They were supposed to be friends, partners, allies, weren't they? Or more than that, after all the time they had spent together. She trusted both sides of him with her life, and this was how he treated her? She didn't know whether to be angry or distraught.

The following morning her mind was set on angry. Upon waking up, she decided that the best way to get him back was to act like she didn't care about him, like nothing had happened. At the office however, everyone seemed to know that something had happened. Although the fact that word had spread didn't really bother her, the unblinking stares and mutters were a little unnerving. Even more so was the fact that Florence was nowhere to be found despite the fact that Lucy had seen her fine and well less than 12 hours earlier. Putting it down to the frail girl just taking some time off after the drama, Lucy completed 2 more cases during the day.  She knew it was a bad performance, but she couldn't take her mind off the Prof for the whole time, and was consequently not paying enough attention to the cases.

Hilda 'popped in' a few times to check how Lucy was getting on. She didn't mention the Prof at all until she came to tell Lucy that she was heading home for the day. The older women put a hand on Lucy's arm.

"I know how you feel."

"No. You don't."

"Trust me Lucy. This has... happened before. He'll come back sooner or later."

"What?! You mean 'e's attacked someone before?"

"You wonder why he acted weirdly around you at first? He hasn't had an assistant for 8 years. Since it happened.
He couldn't keep anyone in this office for longer than a week; they all got scared when he had one of his moments. The last assistant, well, I don't want to scare you. Let's just say that you got off lightly. Alfendi likes you, Lucy." Hilda smiled slightly, although her eyes were sad.