Chapter Text
"Where's Lucy?"
"She's been isolated inside the building with the bomb squad" Nyla answers him while waiting from the next update from their radio inside the truck
"What?! and no one told me?!"
"We told you we've got a cop trapped in that building. You were in the middle of chasing a murder so yeah we can't tell you it's Lucy. We kinda expected this from you" she gestures to his chaotic state.
When he takes a deep breath, Nyla sits back down and continues speaking, showing him where Lucy is from the monitor "They attached the trigger to her chair. There's nothing we can do to extract her. Not until we stop the timer"
He pinched the bridge of his nose "how long do we have?" trying to get back to his senses and being professional
"Thirty minutes"
and he felt his throat dried out, everything around him suddenly fades into a blurred
—----------
"She's terrified" Tim says after glancing back and forth between the monitor and his watch. Fifteen more minutes
"Of course she is" Her voice might sounds very stable but Tim knows she's also struggling to keep her calm if the way she sits on the edge of her chair is any indication
Tim stands up as he start to losing his mind. He rocks his feet impatiently "I'm going in"
"No you're not"
"I am. That's the least I could do. I want to be there for her"
"She's in a good hand Tim, just wait a few more minutes"
"I can't." He shakes his head, frustation all over his face
"I can't just sit over here and watch her blew out on my watch" there's a drop of tears waiting to fall down from the side of his eyes and Nyla might as well crying with him right there because she's never seen Tim Bradford being as irrational and vulnerable as he is right now
"You could die" she sighs but already look defeated
"I'd die either way" he then left the truck without more words
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Lucy's eyes land on the person coming in from the door, she gasps, her lips quivering and she could feel her heart stop for a beat.
He walks slowly to reach her place after asking for an assurement that he can from the bomb squad
"Tim.."
"Hey"
"What are you doing here?" Her voice barely came out
"I'm keeping you company" he smiles softly at her despite the fact that his whole body telling him to be scared right there and then
"You have to get out from here"
"I know"
"Stop using my words against me" she looks a little furious but couldn't help it when a chuckle escapes her mouth
He smiles as he shakes his head in disbelief, how can they still manage to have this banter during a bomb situation
But he loves this about them
He looks back down to meet her eyes again.
"Are we gonna be okay?" She asks him hesitantly
He gives her a little nod. No one knows whether they will be okay or not but at least the little hope he has right now could help them going through this, together.
She doesn't look very convinced though, so he reach her arms and rub her shoulder gently
"Hey, I'm gonna stay with you, okay? No matter what"
He then sits on the floor and lean on the wall close to her chair "Are you hungry?"
"You. are. unbelievable. I almost cried!"
Tim grins at her, glad he could still have a chance to see her laugh.
He sees tears almost fall down from the side of her eyes but somehow her little smile and the blush on her cheek still radiates the whole room. She is beautiful.
Tim looks back at his watch and gritted his teeth to control his face. Seven more minutes.
They sit there, engulfing each other's presence in comfortable silence
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Four minutes left
Lucy senses his worries heightened when he took the latest glance at his watch and she knows it's getting close. When Tim stands back up, she takes a deep breath before finally speaking
"Have you ever thought about death?"
"We're not going there" he shot her a cold stare
"I thought about it."
"I will not ask you any further questions. So stop." He grasps his watch tightly, looking for an anchor to stay calm
"I always want to die peacefully you know... with no regret"
"Hey guys! What's the stat? Can you do it a little faster please? I'm having a trouble to keep this woman talking about shit over here" he looks half mad when she keeps talking. He hates this.
No answer from those men. He doesn't actually need it anyway, he knows they are in focus mode. He just needs to distract Lucy from going deeper.
"Tim.. hey, look at me."
"No"
"I love you"
She could see from his back that his body is tensing. He burries his face over his palm
Does he cry?
She waits for him to face her
When he finally take his hands off of his face while turning back, she could see how red his eyes is.
He walks closer to her place
"Take it back"
He kneels in front of her and holds her hand very tightly
"I want to be the first person who says those words when we make it out of here."
She nodded as another tears drop to her cheek
Two more minutes
Their eyes never leaves each other. Even when the room is getting way more quite than before. The air is chilling but the warm from Tim's hand help her to breath.
They could hear the timer still ticking in the background. Tim brings her hands up to his lips, kissing the back of her hand. He's not saying a single word, but Lucy knows from his eyes that he just said it. And that's the most beautiful confession she's ever get.
tick.
tick.
tick.
"You should go"
tick.
"No"
tick.
They're holding their breath together
tick.
tick.
tick.
.Clack.
"The timers had been deactivated" one of the man from the squad make a report through the radio