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“What the hell Tim?” Lucy yelled,
“What do you mean?” Tim looks confused at his girlfriend.
“ You could’ve-“ Lucy says. Tim cuts her off.
“That’s part of the job,” Tim explains “Do you not think that every morning you leave a part of me worries that you’re not coming home.”
“ I know that, but you had a gun held to your head,” Lucy tries to explain without tears.
“Look I know things weren’t ideal, but Harper got the shot.” Tim says walking towards Lucy, “And I’m here and he’s the one in the body bag.” Lucy raises her hands to stop him from coming closer.
“That doesn’t help the image of a gun pointed at your head,” Lucy explains.
“I know,” Tim voices, “ come here.” Tim tries to close the space between them.
“ no,” Lucy replied, “ I just need some space.” Tim’s face drops.
“Okay,” Tim backs up, “I guess I’ll go to my place.” Tim grabs his backpack and starts out the door. He turns around and looks at Lucy, she’s facing the large window clearly trying to hold back tears.
Once Lucy heard the door shut, she walks into her bathroom and bathes herself. Tamara only hears the door slam shit, she stalls out of her room. She has only experienced Lucy and Tim fighting one other time, but he stayed and they talked it through. Tamara knows she should check on both Tim and Lucy. She decides to check on Lucy first. The young adult raises her hand to knock on the door, the water stops but the music continues to play.
“Hey?” Tamara yells, “Are you okay?” Lucy opens her door, she clearly has been crying.
“Yeah,” Lucy lies, “ just a difficult case”
“Where’s Tim?” Tamara questioned
“ oh, Genny called him asking if he could come by and see if he could help find Laniey’s stuffed penguin.” Lucy lied again.
“ Okay, I was going to go to Morgan’s,” Tamara started to say, “But I could-”
“ go have fun, I’ll be fine alone,” Lucy cuts Tamara off.
“Okay,” Tamara responded.
Tamara walks out of Lucy’s bedroom. She grabs her phone out of her back pocket and texts Tim.
__ __ __ __ __
After Tim walked to his truck before he headed home, he ran his fingers through his hair. This was the first fight that they had that one of them needed space. Tim hated the idea that he caused her so much pain for her to need space. But he couldn’t have controlled that the suspect pointed a gun at his head, or that Lucy was the lead of the case.
He was contemplating whether to allow Lucy her space or stay there to duke it out with her. But he was afraid that if he stayed and went back he would cause more damage than he could fix. So he drove home, other than nights that it was unreasonable for him to go home and then back to Lucy’s apartment. This is the first night that he spent alone in his house since Lucy and him got together. He walked into the house and the room flooded the emptiness. So, Tim sat his backpack down and went to his refrigerator. Luckily, there were some beers in there with a frozen pizza. Tim grabs a beer and the frozen pizza from the freezer and heads over to the stove. Tim knew that something was up with Lucy. As he cooked the pizza, he sat down at the island and looked through the shared calendar that he and Lucy had. That’s when the text from Tamara popped up.
From Tamara to Bradford
Hey is everything okay between you and Lucy?
Tim swipes down and quickly replies.
From Tim Bradford to Tamara
Yeah, Genny called asking for some help.
From Tamara to Bradford
👍
He swipes the message away and again looks at the calendar. Then it hits him why Lucy is so stressed. She has court tomorrow. The oven beeps and he pulls out the pizza, and goes over to his couch turns on ESPEN, and watches the highlights from the week.
__ __ __ __ __
Once Lucy got dressed, she walked out to the kitchen poured herself a glass of wine, and sat at the island reviewing her case notes for court tomorrow to say she was nervous, would be an understatement. This is her first case that has gone to trial as a detective. She had Nyla there as her partner because Angela was on maternity leave. But she still wants it to go perfectly. Once she finishes her glass of wine, she sends Tim a text. Even if they are frustrated with each other, they will text each other goodnight and I love you if they are not sleeping next to each other or one is working late.
__ __ __ __ __
From Lucy Chen to Tim Bradford
Goodnight I love you...
Tim quickly replied to her text.
From Tim Bradford to Lucy Chen
Goodnight babe, I love you too
Tim got up from his couch and walked into his bed, he already knew he was going to have a hard falling asleep. He lay in his bed tossing and turning, thinking about what he could’ve done differently, but ultimately he knew that he just had to accept that he messed up.
Lucy walked into her room and lay down, staring at the spot that is usually taken up by Tim. She knew that yelling at him for something out of control was the irresponsible thing to do, but the image of someone pointing a gun at his head was the scariest thing that has happen to her on the job since she and Tim started to date. She shuts her eyes and starts to drift off to sleep.
The Next Moring
Lucy woke up to her alarms and carried herself out of her bed. She got her court outfit on and headed to work. Tim stirred in his bed all night, he knew that this will all blow over when he and Lucy finds the time to talk about it.
Once Lucy got to the station, she headed straight to her desk. Tim walked in about thirty minutes behind her. He looked for Lucy before he could find her. Celinawalked up to Tim.
“Hey is Lucy okay?”Celina asked
“Yeah, I think so.” Tim replied, “Why?”
“ I don’t something is off with her vibe today,” Celina said. To say that Celina didn’t get on his nerves about the auras and vibes she sees would be an understatement. However, she has proven that it can be helpful to her as an officer.
“Weird, I have to go,” Tim told the younger officer and walked off.
Lucy heads to court. She walks in and no other than her ex-boyfriend is the prosecutor for her case. It was initially supposed to be Wesley, but since Emileé was born he’s been on paternity leave. So Chris took the case over.
“Lucy,” Chris said calling her attention, “Are you ready?”
“Yeah,” Lucy replied and gave a half smile.
“Great,” Chris said as soon as the judge entered the door.
The bailiff yelled all rise. Everyone in the courtroom stood up.
“Okay, let’s get our first witness up on the stand,” Judge Mysinger said.
“The state calls Detective Lucy Chen up to the stand,” Chris spoke to the judge and jury. Lucy got up from her seat and was led to her to the stand.
“Will you raise your left hand and place your right on the book,” asked the bailiff.
“Yes, sir,” Lucy replied.
“Detective Chen, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god.” Judge Mysinger asked Lucy
“I do,” Lucy responded
“You may be seated,” Judge Mysinger told Lucy.
Chris moves over to the podium.
“Will you please state your name, position, and badge number for the record and Jury?” Chris asked.
“Detective Lucy Chen, badge number 33719,” Lucy told the jury.
“Thank you,” Chris said, “Will you tell the jury where you are currently stationed at?”
“Yes, I currently work in the major crime unit at Mid-Wilshire,” Lucy answered.
“Thank you,” Chris added, “How long have you been at Mid-Wilshire?”
“I’ve been working at Mid-Wilshire for five years,” Lucy replied.
“How long have you been a cop?” Chris asked.
“Five years,” Lucy answered.
“Thank you,” Chris said, “Now, let’s talk about the reason why you are here today. You and Detective Harper were the first ones to respond to ?”
“Yes,” Lucy answered.
“When you got to the crime scene what did you see?” Chris asked
“We saw the victim Beth, laying on the floor in a pool of her own blood,” Lucy explains.
“When you and Detective Harper arrived at the scene was there any indication of foul play?” Chris questioned
“Yes, the door was open and when we walked in the house and cleared the house, we found Ms.Miller on the floor. Detective Harper bent down and check the pulse. The body was cold and pale,” Lucy explained, “upon an overview, there were two bullet holes and a pool of blood.”
“What happened next,” Chris asked.
“We collected evidence, and the M.E took the body to the morgue.” Lucy explained, “Detective Harper had asked Officer Nolan and Officer Dutton to notify the next of kin. Once, we got back to the station, Detective Harper and I started to look into Ms.Miller. To get a sense of who Ms. Miller was.”
“At this point in the investigation, did you have any suspects in mind?” Chris asked.
“No, we were waiting on the cause of death to be finalized by the Medical Examiner,” Lucy told the jury.
“What did you find?” Chris asked.
“Ms. Miller was a beloved fiancé, friend, daughter, and teacher.” Lucy starts to explain.
“What grade did Ms.Miller teach?” Chris asked.
“She was a fourth-grade teacher, at Wadsworth Ave Elementary,” Lucy explained.
“What else did you learn about Ms.Miller?” Chris asked.
“She was engaged to be married to Mr. Moss, they’ve been together for seven years,” Lucy explains
“Did she have any enemies?” Chris asked.
“Not that we found right away,” Lucy answered.
“What do you mean by that?” Chris asked
“Well, we asked around at her school, gym, and church. She was loved by everyone, never had a negative thing to say about anything.” Lucy explained, “That was until we looked at her work email.”
“Please elaborate on that,” Chris ordered
“Well, we talked to the Principal of Wadsworth and he gave us access to her work email,” Lucy told the jury.
“What did you find?” Chris said
“Other than the normal can you raise my grade, meeting here, and parent contact? There wasn’t anything out of the norm.” Lucy said, “Until we saw an email from Mr.Wheeler?”
The prosecution continues to ask Lucy about the case. Once it was the defense turn things went downhill.
“Detective Chen, is it right that you asked for Metro to assist on the raid to arrest my client?” Monica asked.
“Yes, I asked Sergent Bradford to provide assistance,” Lucy answered.
“Aren’t you and Sergent Bradford in a romantic relationship?” Monica asked
“We are, but I don’t see where this has to play with arresting Mr.Wheeler,” Lucy said bluntly.
“Is it true that Sergent Bradford only got the job in Metro, because Officer Fujii retire based on your recommendation?” Monica asked, Lucy didn’t answer the question.
“Please answer yes or no,” Monica asked.
“No,” Lucy answers
“Objection, relevance?” Chris finally yelled out.
“Mrs.Bishop, please stay on this case.” Judge Mysinger reminded her.
“Yes, your honor,” Monica said, “I have nothing further.”
“Okay, we will reconvene at nine tomorrow morning,” Judge Mysinger hit his gavel.
The entire courtroom stood up and he left his bench, once he left Lucy got down from the stand. Lucy walked out of the courtroom, and Chris followed her.
“Lucy,” Chris yelled out. Lucy turned around.
“Yeah?” Lucy questioned
“So, you and Bradford huh?” Chris said.
“Yeah,” Lucy said
“How long after we broke up?” Chris asked, knowing he didn’t really want to know the answer.
“We made the plan to go out for dinner before we broke up. But I told-” Lucy said.
“ Did you cheat on me with him?” Chris questioned.
“No, I said I had to break up with you before,” Lucy answered.
“You know, I’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong,” Chris starts to explain, “Did you love me?”
“No, you were too safe,” Lucy starts explaining, “We never fought, we liked the same things and I wasn’t ready to move in with you.”
“So just because I was safe,” Chris said, “ You would rather be with a guy that has pushed you to your limit, basically told you to go out with a serial killer, and is your superior officer.”
“First off, Tim pushed me to become a better version of myself. Secondly, we both didn’t know that Caleb was an apprentice of Rosilan and third, he sacrificed his own happiness to let me stay at Mid-Wilshire and to pursue undercover.”Lucy explained.
“Wow, I knew that you were smart, and caring, but I never thought of you as naïve,” Chris snapped back.
“Bye, Chris.” Lucy stormed off. Those words rang in her ears. It was near the end of the shift, she hasn’t talked with Tim since last night. Tim had a very uneventful day. So once the clock stroke six pm, he was about to change out and go. He didn’t know whether go to Lucy’s or go to his house. Lucy got in her car and texted Tim.
From Lucy Chen to Tim Bradford.
Please come by
From Tim Bradford to Lucy Chen
I have to let Kojo out.
Tim knew that if they were going to get over whatever argument they had last night, he needed to show up. Lucy’s heart dropped when he didn’t respond quickly. She knew that she shouldn’t have pushed him away, but she was frustrated and stressed. Lucy place her phone in the holder, and she drove home. She parked her car and headed up to the apartment, once she turned down her hall. Lucy saw Tim standing there scrolling through his phone.
“Hey,” Lucy’s voice cracked.
“Hi,” Tim replied
“You came,” Lucy muttered.
“You asked me too,” Tim replied. He unlocked her door and held it open for her.
“Thank you,” Lucy replied, Tim followed her into the apartment, “Tim.”
“Yeah,” Tim replied
“Am I naïve?” Lucy asked,
“What,” Tim asked, “No, you are probably the least naïve person I know. Who called you naïve?”
“Chris,” Lucy said, “He asked me about us, and I told him the truth. For some reason, he questioned why I was with you.” Tim knitted his eyebrows.
“What,” Tim questioned, “What did he mean?”
“I guess he wondered why I was someone that pushed every button, who pushed me to go out with Calebe., and who was my superior.”Lucy replied, “I told him that I need to be pushed to the limit or I would’ve washed out of the program. ,” Lucy pauses and studies Tim’s face, “ I don’t and will never blame you for Caleb.”
“I know,” Tim said. However, Lucy doesn’t believe that he fully believes the statement, “You’re not naïve.”
“I’m truly sorry for last night,” Lucy apologized, “It’s just the thought of someone pointing a gun at your head-” Lucy can’t even finish the thought, “I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”
“I am too,” Tim leads them to the couch, “I’ve always been the one to worry. I never had someone worry.”
“What do you mean?” Lucy asked
“With Isabel, when she was away she had to be focused on the operation,” Tim explains, “When she got back and we would catch up, but she never was concerned when I came home late without texting, or when I would get injured can come home with a little scratch. Also, we never really crossed paths as much as we do, so she never saw me in action. Except for when we were rookies,” Lucy thinks back to when she told Tim that she was taking the detective’s exam, “Then with Rachel, I was obviously the one in more danger than her. So, I didn’t really discuss the calls we went on. I didn’t want to be a burden.”
“Babe,” Lucy grabs his bicep and squeezes, “You’re not a burden,” Tim sighs.
“Then with again with Ashley,” Tim ran his hand through his hair, “I didn’t want to be a burden,”
“Well, tell me everything and I’ll do the same,” Lucy squeezes his bicep again, “I need you to promise me one thing.” Lucy looks up into Tim’s eyes. She notices that their rimmed with tears. He noticed the same.
“What?” Tim questioned
“I need you to promise that you try to make it home,” Lucy pleaded, “I don’t think I would survive not having you in my life. ,”
“I know,” Tim cups Lucy’s cheek, “ I need you to make the same promise.”
“ I promise,” Lucy said then she kissed his palm.
“I promise too,” Tim leans down and kisses Lucy.
~ The End ~