Chapter Text
Lucy wakes up with her head pounding, she's hardly even sure if she can lift it enough to look around. But she has to.
Not to see where she is, she can do that after. But to see Tim.
She has to– “Lucy!” Oh thank God. It's Tim. He sounds rugged and hoarse, but it's Tim. That has to mean they'll be okay, right?
She whips her head around to the direction of his voice, not caring how much pain it's causing her. That's when Lucy sees her boyf…no, fiance, in restraints sitting right next to her. She quickly realizes that's the tightness she's been feeling. Her brain must've blocked it out at first, but now it's nearly all she can think about.
Or not.
Because Tim's wellbeing suddenly overpowers her other thoughts. “Are– are you okay…?” She croaks it out in a broken whisper. Almost like she doesn't want to find out the answer in case it's not what she's hoping for.
She has to know though, she can't not know.
“I think I hit my head when they took us here. Other than… whatever it is they gave us, I'm okay. What about you? You were out longer.”
Lucy knew she wasn't going to get a fully cohesive checklist of what's wrong with Tim, she's at least grateful he's okay enough to talk to her.
That's the other thing, though… Lucy was the first one to get drugged, Tim must've watched it happen…
She doesn't remember it, the last thing she saw was Tim, awake.
It sends chills down her spine to think that the last thing Tim saw was her unconscious body. How did it go so well to this…?
They're supposed to be celebrating. Lucy is supposed to be sending photos to Celina while screaming her excitement from the top of her lungs.
They're– they're supposed to be celebrating not—
“Lucy!” Tim sounds more panicked and Lucy suddenly remembers she was supposed to respond to his question.
She tries her best to analyze her injuries to an extent, but her brain is moving so fast that it's hard to. There's so many things… too many things…
How the hell is she supposed to focus?
She can't—
Her brain is drowning in thoughts and she can't find room for her injuries right now, she has to focus and get her and Tim out, right?
How do they even do that?
She has to escape.
She has to escape, it can't be like last time.
Well… last time she got out.
Last time Tim got her out.
And now Tim is here, the one person she knew in her heart would find her.
Tim is here and they're both trapped.
She's trapped again–
Again–
She's trapped—
Suddenly something grazes her hand. She realizes it's Tim's hand. His hands are littered with bruises and scratches, his bloodied knuckles brush her own.
She can hear a small noise of pain, indicating the amount of effort he had to put in to get his hand to graze hers.
“We're getting out of this. Both of us. Because I'm not allowing for any other option, okay? Take a deep breath, and we're going to make a plan. Together.”
Together.
Together.
Tim says it with such absolution that Lucy can't possibly believe anything else at that moment.
She steadies her breathing as much as she possibly can. Her brain can't recall any breathing exercises, she doesn't have room to remember any, but she does have Tim's hand. And that's enough.
“Okay. Together.” Lucy repeats that last part, likely more for herself than anyone else.
Her thumb gently moves over Tim's battered hand, it's a reminder that they're in this together. And they'll get out together.
After a second, Lucy composes herself enough to start thinking about what they need to do to escape.
“Did you tell anyone you were going to propose? Does anyone expect to hear back from you soon?”
She's really hoping that Tim told someone, and that he was going to text them or something afterwards. The quicker they can search the better.
“Everyone knew I was going to propose but no one knew when. Angela knows the most, I'm supposed to check in with her tomorrow morning.”
Lucy breathes in, taking that information in.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow morning.” Tim repeats it. What time was it before? It was sunset, she remembers that.
She usually always sees Angela at the precinct early.
Though, she has no idea how much time has passed since they've been here, she doesn't know how long either of them were out for.
“Do you have any idea how long we were out for?”
Lucy feels Tim's hand twitch, she watches him as he stands up straighter, clearly trying to analyze.
Staring into her fiance's eyes, she can tell he switched some sort of flip inside him. This isn't Watch Commander Sgt. Bradford, this is someone who's been to war, someone who's been trained for instances specially like this one.
It's a side of her boyf–fiance she hasn't seen all that much, one she got a glimpse of during his darkest moments but nothing more.
But it's still her boyf–fiance, and she'll help him in whatever way she can.
“They felt confident enough that we'd be out long enough for them to go run and do whatever they're doing right now… my guess is a couple of hours.”
Lucy's suspicions of some sort of switch being flipped inside Tim is confirmed by his tone of voice. It's… distant, like he's replying to an order and not talking to his girlf–fiance.
Lucy doesn't know if she can do that. Actually, scratch that, she knows she can't. She wouldn't be fit to have done what Tim did, it requires a level of shutting yourself off that she simply can't do.
Of course, she doesn't blame Tim for going into this headspace, especially if it can help them escape.
Only… she does have to admit she's already a little worried for the repercussions of this once they're out.
One glance at Tim and Lucy can tell there's something else that Tim hasn't said yet. Even in his attempt to shut off his emotions she can see the flickers of fear in him.
She imagines she doesn't look any better, with fear emanating all over her right now, threatening to strangle all the air she has left.
“If they timed it this way then…” Tim clears his throat and pauses. Lucy once again sees the fear wrapping around him. “They know we're awake, and they're coming back.”
Lucy nods, swallowing the lump of fear and dread building up like acid in her throat. She has no idea what's going to happen.
She gives one last soft graze against Tim's hand before they both hear footsteps and she retracts her hand. Her one anchor.
If they see that they're holding hands they could use it against them. They already know they're a couple… if they use Tim against her she doesn't know what she'll do.
The same couple… are they even actually a couple? Appears in front of both her and Tim.
Lucy immediately feels sick.
Their posture is distant, both of them are looking at her and Tim without a care in the world. It's as if they're looking at objects, something not human, like trash they have to take care of.
She doesn't see a glimpse of humanity in their eyes and it truly does make her want to be sick.
“So… who do you want to start with? Or we could give them the couple's special.” The girl turns to the guy. Her voice sounds like she's discussing dinner options, not how to hurt people.
“We're here to do a job, Blake.” The man sounds like he's already annoyed.
A job…?
Someone hired them to kidnap her and Tim. That realization settles deep into her bones. Somebody paid for this to happen. This is nothing more than a job to them. Her and Tim mean nothing to them, they're the job.
Objects.
Not human.
Something to take care of.
“He said we can be creative, as long as we don't kill them.” It feels as though a bombshell was just dropped onto her.
Somehow that doesn't ease her as much as it should. Actually, that doesn't ease her at all. She's been on this job and through enough to know they're far worse things you can do than just kill someone.
“Fine. Let's start with the girl. Make him watch, yeah?”
Survive.
Lucy just has to survive.
All whe has to do is survive long enough so they can find them both.
Long enough so her and Tim make it out of here.
She can do that. She can survive. She has to survive, there isn't another option.
Together.
“You both do realize that you're Heaths bitches right?” Tim suddenly speaks up, catching the pair off guard.
“What did you say?” The man takes a low and dangerous tone. The kind of tone she's seen in far too many people that means nothing good. It's the kind of tone that makes her question what true evil is.
It takes Lucy a second to realize what exactly Tim is doing.
“As soon as you're done with this job he's going to throw you to the trash, like you both are to him. Maybe he'll kill you. Or maybe if he's nice enough you'll both kiss his ass and turn into mindless lackeys.”
Tim is diverting their attention, their anger, onto him. The same thing he had done as a kid for his mom and sister. Lucy sees that scared little kid she swore she'd protect no matter what.
She wants to scream. She wants to scream at him, at the world. What kind of world makes a person do this? To demote themselves to a shield, not a person.
The man suddenly pulls out a metal poker and begins walking toward Tim. Her heart drops and the fear that threatened to strangle her before is definitely wrapping a tighter knot around her neck.
“NO!” Lucy can't contain her scream for what she knows she's about to witness. And she can't stop it, despite her best efforts to wriggle herself free, all she can do is watch in horror.
Blake walks up to her and covers her mouth, Lucy thinks she's still screaming, she can't really tell at this point.
The man hits Tim in the ribs, hard, multiple times. Lucy feels something cold and wet make it's way down her face. She's sobbing. She's sobbing for her fiance who's taking a hit that was meant for her.
Tim doesn't react. He doesn't scream, he doesn't do much of anything other than the occasional groan of pain.
The man stops and pulls out his phone. Lucy feels like she can breathe again, at least he stopped hurting Tim.
“Boss has an errand for us. C'mon Blake.”
The anger he had before washed away, as if with that simple notification he got he was reset back to factory settings. He stops looking at Tim with no indication of what he had just done, once again lamenting that this really only is a job for him.
Blake makes a noise of frustration before kicking Lucy as hard as she could in the stomach and heading toward the stairs.
It knocks the wind out of her, leaving her gasping for air and looking desperately at Tim.
It's getting harder and harder for her to focus on much of anything. If she feels this bad, she knows Tim has to feel worse.
Air is still fleeting, she's trying her best but the shooting pain in her stomach is almost too much.
“Stay awake… we both have to stay awake, yeah?” Tim sounds out of breath and a little delirious. And still, he looks concerned for Lucy.
It breaks her heart.
“Stay awake. We can stay awake.”
Lucy shakily moves her hand towards Tim's. He doesn't move his hand because he likely doesn't have the energy, but that's okay.
Lucy has his hand, and they have to stay awake.
They can do that.