Safe // Luke AU Fic

Chapter 2

As he opened the door to the checkpoint house, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

Gamma: A3-13-O

Impressive timing, Luke acknowledged, walking down the unlit corridor.

He found Griffin in a meeting room, pacing quickly back and forth. Luke stood in the doorway and knocked out of respect.

Griffin snapped his vision up, dark eyes boring into Luke’s.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Griffin hissed, walking right up to Luke, the two now standing face-to-face.

Luke furrowed his eyebrows, confused. “I’m not following.”

“Tell me what this is,” Griffin ordered, showing Luke a photo on his phone.

Luke glanced down at the screen and responded, “That is site 14, the backlot of the Hills Athletic Club.”

“Correct. And can you tell me what this is?” Griffin then showed Luke another photo. In this one, there was a black light shining down onto the pavement, and he could just make out one tiny spatter of neon. He then knew he had messed up.

“Well?” Griffin barked. When Luke remained silent, Griffin delivered a punch to his stomach, sending Luke doubling over in pain.

“You’re lucky I checked over your site afterwards because your careless mistake almost put our entire project in jeopardy,” Griffin jabbed a finger into Luke’s bent over back.

“I didn’t have my UV light on me,” Luke said through clenched teeth, clutching his abdomen.

“So you just decided not to call for me or Vic, and risk leaving the scene with evidence? Smart move,” he turned around and started pacing again. “And I thought you were supposed to be the one with the brains in this group.”

“It was a mistake. It won’t happen again,” Luke promised as he straightened back up.

“Oh, I know it won’t,” Griffin said casually. “Because if it does, a punch isn’t the only thing you’re getting. You’re dismissed.”

Luke left without another word. He hated how Griffin carried himself with an air of superiority, like everything was completely underneath him, but he couldn’t do anything about it. After all, Griffin was ranked above him.

“Wait,” he heard Griffin say from the room. “Come back here.”

“Yes?”

“What happened to your hand?”

Luke looked down at the wrapped bandages around his palm. “I got my hand cut dealing with 14.”

“You know that’s not what I’m asking. That’s not our technique for gauze wraps. Who did that for you?”

“Someone at a diner,” Luke said stoically.

“Oh and you went to a diner, perfect. You do know that we’re supposed to limit outside interaction, don’t you?” Griffin sighed, rubbing his forehead as if Luke gave him a headache.

“Yes,” he responded, cringing inwardly. What was I supposed to do? The girl didn’t even give me a chance to reject her offer.

“Your rep just keeps getting worse, huh? This will be reported to the boss. Leave now.”

The whole way to the hotel, Luke felt like punching something. I should’ve mentioned the slip-up he made with site 9. Who the hell forgets to clean up gun shells? Especially when he used four bullets for one person. He’s supposed to be the most coordinated one.

As he rounded the corner to get to the hotel building, he bumped into something – or rather, someone – provoking the person to yell angrily, “Watch where you’re going, asshole.”

“Sorry,” he called behind him. He twisted around to see who he in fact ran into, when he crashed into someone else, knocking them flat on their bottom.

“My apologies,” he mumbled, taking the person’s hand and lifting them up without much effort.

“It’s fine,” the person, a female by the sound of it, said, brushing herself off. “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

She looked up, and the recognition flashed across her face. “Hey, it’s you again.”

Luke’s heart leapt into his chest. You’ve got to be joking. I’m not supposed to interact with people…I shouldn’t be talking to people. Especially not her again.

“Yeah, hi,” Luke said, wanting to get out of the situation as quickly as possible.

She gave him a kind smile. “How’s your hand doing?”

“Oh, it’s fine, thanks. Thank you again, for wrapping it,” Luke said. Even though I didn’t want you to.

“About that…” Carson started, shifting her weight onto one foot. “Could I ask a small favor? Like, in return?”

Shit. “Um,” Luke looked away, rubbing the back of his neck.

“It’s totally okay if you’re busy or something, I don’t want to push you,” Carson said quickly.

The voice in the back of Luke’s mind compelled him to agree. The voice that’s always there. “What’s the favor?”

“I have this meeting I need to attend and I’m really supposed to bring a person with me,” she explained. “Not in as a date or anything, but like, a partner, sort of.” Luke could tell she was struggling to get the words out right.

“Not a big deal, I’ll accompany you,” Luke nodded. But only as a return favor. If Griffin catches me again, I might as well be dead.

“Really?” Carson asked, eyes lighting up. “For a stranger, you’re quite nice to people.”

Luke shrugged, “It makes up for other things.”

When Carson looked at him questioningly, Luke cleared his throat and said, “Why don’t we start walking then?”

***

Upon stepping into the building, he received a message.

Alpha: A1-15-U

Griffin was out on the next assignment already? He just finished his last one two days ago, Luke thought to himself.

“Luke?”

“Sorry, repeat that?”

Carson motioned towards a table, “We gotta take our seats.”

Luke followed her to the table, heart beating fast with all the people in the room.

As soon as they took their seats, the lights in the building suddenly went out. The room erupted in panicked chatter, wondering what was going on. Luke held out his hands in front of him. Nope, couldn’t see a thing. He looked out a side window – the rest of the town’s lights are fine…could it be a faulty generator in the building?

When the lights came back on, he was disoriented for a little bit before focusing his eyes.

“Weird,” he commented. After not getting a response, he turned around to face Carson.

Her seat was empty.

***

A/N: Ooh, plot twist. Bleh, sorry this chapter was so crap and boring. But, I’ve got a bunch of ideas for this fic, and I’m gonna try to update as much as I can. And of course, feedback is always appreciated!