Chapter Text
A glimmer of hope flickered in Lucy's mind after he said those words, but the glimmer was soon replaced with sadness, as she realised how hard it would be for her to ever fully trust him again. He had completely shattered her heart in the parking lot of the station, and gave no valid reason as to why. She exited the elevator and walked slowly to her car, filled with confusion and sorrow. Her new roomie, Celina, quickly snapped her out of this trance as she appeared from around the corner, as if out of thin air.
"Hey girl! Mind if I catch a ride with you back home? My car had to go in for repairs this afternoon, and the auto shop still has it."
"Oh, of course, jump in!"
Lucy was secretly glad Celina was riding home with her, as it meant she had a distraction from the lonely and sadness-filled drive home on her own she had anticipated. Her body ached from the physical tribulations of the day, most notably jumping out of a moving car from the window into the back of that pickup truck on the freeway, to save Tim from being stabbed. Crazy what love makes you do, huh.
Celina was her usual bubbly and chirpy self, even after her 10-8. She still had the same amount of energy as she did before her shift, which Lucy could never quite understand. But, honestly, she was a positive presence Lucy could count on to make her feel uplifted, and she was so grateful for that, especially at this current moment with everything going on with Tim. They walked into the apartment together, chatting about Celina's newest theory regarding why Smitty is the way he is: this time, it was that he is actually a government agent undercover, watching over the LAPD and keeping tabs on them, and the reason he avoids proper police work claiming laziness, is because he's not actually qualified to do the job. Lucy chuckled at the sheer ridiculousness of Celina's suggestion and set her work bag down on the counter.
"I'm going for a shower, you need anything before I do?" Lucy asked.
"No I'm all good girl, go get yourself clean!" Celina responded.
Lucy stepped into the bathroom and got undressed, turned the shower on and got in, just to see Tim's half-empty bottle of shower gel staring her in the face. She stopped in her tracks, unable to process for a moment, then sighed, tried to ignore it and started her shower. However, she couldn't let it go - everything somehow reminded her of him. Today, she had spent the most time with him she had since the breakup; she had managed to keep her cool all day, but couldn't deny that she felt a certain type of way. The shower itself brought back so many memories of them in here together, the scent of his shower gel and cologne that lingered, the bathroom candle in her favourite scent Tim had bought her as a present when she was feeling down about a month ago; there was a million other things around her which meant there was no way she would ever be able to forget him. I mean, that was impossible anyway, as they still worked at the same station, but she had hoped she might be able to forget his existence outside of work. This had already been proved wrong. All the emotions of the day and last few weeks Lucy had been suppressing, suddenly came rushing to the surface. She started to cry, her breath hitched in her throat and she found herself hyperventilating and sobbing in the shower with the warm water cascading down her face. She sat down in the shower tray, knees up, and let all her emotions out. She must have been in there at least half an hour, as she felt the skin on her fingers and toes start to crinkle up. She wiped her tears and turned the water off, quietly stepped out and wrapped the towel around her. The towel smelled of strong herbs which overpowered the scent of Tim's shower gel which was still in there; Celina had saged the entire apartment the day before, as she claimed 'bad energy' was everywhere. Lucy was actually quite grateful for that as it gave her something else to focus on. Once dry and changed into her signature oversized sweater and little shorts, she emerged from the bathroom, to find Celina had gone to the store, cooked Lucy's favourite dinner (Vietnamese food) and cleaned the apartment until it sparkled. She had heard Lucy's muffled sobs over the sound of the shower and felt incredibly sorry for her new friend, so decided to do something nice for her. When Lucy noticed all the effort Celina had gone to for her, she started to get misty-eyed again.
"Hey, hey! No more crying miss, we are going to eat this food, watch a show and take your mind off things, no thinking about You-Know-Who tonight! But don't think it's just you who feels upset about this whole thing, he looked just as sad as you when he was walking to his truck after work. Okay now I'm done, no more Tim talk whatsoever! Deal?"
"Deal..." Lucy responded quietly, with a soft smile..
She really appreciated Celina being there for her; she felt utterly lost after her breakup with Tim, and then Tamara moving out shortly after. Celina's presence certainly made up for it and got her (mostly) out of her rut. They devoured Celina's perfectly prepared Bún chà, Phó and Vietnamese spring rolls, while chatting about their work day spent apart (obviously not mentioning the obvious part of Lucy's day they had agreed not to talk about). When they were done, they washed the dishes together and sat down to watch a new true crime documentary that had just come out. About 15 minutes in, Lucy was fast asleep on the couch, due to her sheer exhaustion from not sleeping well and all the emotional stress she was under. Celina smiled at her friend, covered her with a blanket and set her work alarm for her so she wouldn't oversleep. She then had a quick shower and went to bed herself, prepared for the next day of madness she would face at the LAPD.