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Surprisingly, it was a normal sunny day. Despite years on the job, pointing cartels against each other and orchestrating drug busts, to Lucy, it was still out of place to see criminals conducting life altering operations midday.
Albeit she was still tired despite the thrum of being back on the day shift pulsing through her. The call for another Sergeant for this op had rung at 10 and despite just having completed a shift, she called in. She missed seeing her family, and besides, they could use the extra help.
Inching the strap of her vest down, tightening it against her chest, Angela approached her slowly, as if sensing her dreamlike state.
"You sure you're good?" She asked, mindlessly adjusting a vest of her own.
"Yeah I'm good," Lucy replied in the blink of an eye, by default. She hoped Angela didn't notice but like always, the detective did.
"You ever need to pull the plug just signal," she replied as the rest of SWAT rolled up, gravel crunching slightly under the tires.
"Yes ma'am," she replied on instinct, readjusting the grip on her gun - it was different to the one she used out on the streets - and glanced over to Angela, hands unsurprising comfortable in the grip.
"You know I'm the one who should be yes ma'aming you," she joked, sidling up against a tower of shipping containers.
"It feels so weird to have everyone call me Sergeant," she sighed watching SWAT divide into teams, scattering out into their positions.
"Eh, you'll get used to it."
It went silent after that, not from awkwardness or something else catching their eyes but from the hammering real of the situation.
Lucy's mind was running through the plans over and over again, like a straight line pulling through her brain. They'd gone over this multiple times during the briefing but she'd always liked writing the notions into her bones and she wouldn't stop now.
Now, with all teams in positions, the pair broached, ready to attack from the west, Tim and Celina coming from the east and the rest of SWAT coming from behind.
This op had the extra sting to it though, they were meant to be arresting weapons traffickers. Which meant that this had to play out right because if it didn't… the terrorists would have all the ammo and weapons necessary to take them down.
"All units go," Grey's voice crackled from the radios around them, a herd of feet slipping around the first container, entering the maze.
She could hear her heart beating in her ears, eyes laster focused on the path ahead, her memorisation coming in handy as they set down, ready to engage.
"W in position," she commented into the mic as she and Angela peered past the container, eyes assessing the scene in front of them.
Tim's voice followed not a moment later, "East in position."
"Hold until I give the signal."
Lucy took that moment to glance over at Angela, wondering if she'd just made the same assumption that Lucy had.
"We need you in the air," Lucy said, even thought it was more of a command.
Angela's face twisted in thought, but logistically, the detective knew she was right. They already had one sniper, but having Angela significantly boosted their odds.
"As much as I hate to admit it, I agree," she glanced over, a whole range of emotions flooding through her eyes.
Lucy just took in a breath and announced, "La Adelita is a go."
It was an easy process as they'd already prearranged this as a possibility so Angela fled with 3 from SWAT, storming to a higher location after it was confirmed by Grey.
Lucy glanced back at the three members she was left with, one woman and two men, braced and ready to go under her command. It was a waiting game now, they just needed to confirm the contents of the crates.
Elevator music begun to sound in the corners of her mind as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Her cop eyes continued to scan the scene as they slowly begun unloading the crates from the storage containers.
Her eyes caught Tim's in the fray, a sliver of his face visible from the other side of the yard, and that one look, translated every possible thing he'd wanted to say.
Stay safe out there.
You're down half your team without Angela, don't go playing hero.
You know what to do, trust yourself.
They hadn't really had time to talk before this whole ordeal, with her being practically paged at the last minute but the brief window of eye contact was all she needed to steady herself, to remember to trust her instincts.
"SWAT move in and teams W & E move in after 10 counts," Grey's voice filtered through and imperceptibly, if you were really listening, you could hear the sound of 20 agents creeping slowly behind the terrorists, unaware that the guns they were now brandishing had been their doom.
She counted down slowly in her mind before cocking her fingers to signal the agents behind her to move ahead.
Her body moved after them before her brain had time to catch up, gun pointed to the ground and body replicating perfect form after years of training.
As SWAT moved in from behind some of the dealers scatters one in clad black gear fleding east and two heading west with the remainder already in the grasp of the agents.
Her team split into two, each going after one of the member that headed in their direction. Her eyes narrows like a hawk, positioning her gun towards the mans mans legs but he disappeared into the layout before she could get a shot.
The pair reacted instantly pacing forwards, a blur entering and exiting their vision.
They cornered the man all the way to the west, he wasn't giving up without a fight.
It wasn't until the suspect had stilled that they split out, Lucy going around to the other side of the container but before she knew it bullets were flying in her direction, completely unguarded and unprepared.
What the?
She didn't have time before all her thoughts rushed in at once but the Sergeant in her blocked all the Lucy thoughts out.
She stepped back around, trying to escape the line of fire and before she knew it, darkness swallowed her. From where, she didn't know.
The sounds reverberated off the walls and the person they had been after slammed the door shut with a groan, trapping her.
It was so dark.
Lucy's eyes fizzled, stinging slightly, hand clenched on her gun as if it were her lifeline.
She heard someone yelling her name, out in the distance, but she was probably hearing things. Everything sounded like rounds of bullets anyway.
We're the walls caving in or was it just her?
Heaving breaths in and out the air felt hotter, sharper, harder, everything felt tactile.
And everything smelt familiar.
A familiar that she had never wanted to return to, not that it didn't haunt her anyways.
Lucy tried to clear her head, clearing out all the thoughts she had that made her feel like she was back in that barrel. She'd never gotten over it, not really, she didn't believe in 'getting over' but she believed in acceptance.
Lucy jolted as her back hit the wall, a myriad of feeling hitting her at the same time. Did people know she'd been buried? No, shut in? Would they know where she was? Would Tim know where she was?
Before she knew it her knees hit the floor, sliding down against the metal wall biting into her skin.
That tattoo on her ribs started to burn.
Then she heard it, clearer than before, in the lull between shots.
"LUCY!"
Her head snapped up at his voice, like she'd finally breathed after being underwater for too long. Tim.
"Tim?" she whispered through her tears, not nearly loud enough, but she knew that.
But she had to preserve energy and air like last time and she'd seen, imagined, so many things in the barrel, that she couldn't trust what she'd heard.
For all she knew her mind could've made it up. Of course her stupid mind would magic up his voice.
"LUCY!"
There it was again, closer this time. Her legs moved forward on instinct, in whatever capacity they could tangled together on the floor.
"Tim?" She asked again a little bit louder, hand tapping on the wall, that had to be him.
She wouldn't forgive herself if it wasn't.
When they'd finally gotten the shipping container lock open, everyone stepped back to let Tim enter first.
"Lucy?" Tim softened his voice; the voice he only reserved for her, he didn't know what version of Lucy he'd find inside.
He shone a light inside and his heart dropped.
Despite the shipping container being approximately the size of her room, he couldn't help but notice she was curled up in the back right corner, as if she were still in a barrel. Her hands were slung out in front of her, gripping her gun to protect her from whatever nightmares plagued her.
Angela shone her torch in after him but remained at the entrance.
He said her name again, and her head jerked up like she'd only just heard him.
"Tim?"
He knelt down slowly in front of her, taking the gun from her grasp.
"Yeah, it's me, Tim, let's get you out of here," he said, lifting her up gently, being careful not to touch her wrists.
When the pair reemergerd into the light all the surrounding officers scattered like flies.
She looked stable. But Tim knew her thoughts were clattering around on the inside.
He guided her away from the door so they could seal it off and dragged her tighter into his arms, whispering all the things he thought she needed to hear.
I'm here, you're here alive.
You're safe, you're not going back there and you never will.
He knows that this must've been bad the way her breath hitched slightly against him.
Juarez was being pulled into a conversation with Lopez, he hadn't known the extent of her knowledge on Caleb, that was Lucy's information to share.
"Do you want to stay with me tonight?" he whispered against her hair.
She pulled back but her hand still gripped his vest, "Yeah."
She wasn't in a position to argue.
"Take her home, Bradford," Grey ordered.
Their heads turned to the Lieutenant making their way towards them.
"I was planning on it," he replied, noticing the corner of Lucy's lips twitching upwards.
He felt a tug at his vest and his attention zeroed in on her, pulling him away, so they could go home.
Now he was the one who wasn't in a position to argue, basically being walked like a dog as he fussed over he in the small ways she would allow.