Chapter Text
The shots continued and she left the weak security of the office and followed Tim’s attackers, sliding through another side door, spotting them dump him in the back of a van and aiming a precise shot into the other leg of the slowest one, aiming just below his knee. He tripped, his two buddies leaving him to eat the fumes from the exhaust as they whisked themselves away, Tim in their clutches.
Fuck.
She squinted to catch the plates of the van and then kicked away the firearm of the fallen suspect just as Angela made her way out.
“Lucy, are you alright?”
“Yeah. Code 4. But he’s going to need an ambulance.”
Angela called for one and then covered for Lucy as she put the cuffs on the mystery man and pulled him to a seated position.
“Where have they taken Tim?” she asked, arms crossed as she towered over him.
He smirked as he looked up at her, “Tim, officer, is going to be lucky to make it to the end of today breathing.”
She knelt down and grabbed the scuff of his collar, her face all up in his, “you better start talking, or I will aim at somewhere more uncomfortable. Where is Tim, and why are you stringing him along?”
“You can ask me all you want, but it won’t change the fact that everything would have been fine if he hadn’t involved you. Now, I think my friends are going to show him what we do to those who threaten our business…”
Lucy was about to carry on, but the ambulance had arrived and had whisked the perp away, another officer offering to go whilst Lucy gave her statement on the shooting.
“Hey, Angela, I caught a partial. Mind sending out a BOLO?”
“You got it.”
*
With Lucy’s second involved officer shooting in the space of a week – she really hoped they’d become less frequent – she’d stayed behind to quickly tick all the bureaucratic boxes, really wishing it was Tim beside her, but Angela was the best person in his absence.
Angela constantly checked her phone for any updates on the BOLO but would shake her head at Lucy every so often.
She should have caught the entire plate.
*
The shift both dragged on and went by in a blink, but by the time she was supposed to leave for end of shift, Lucy felt like they knew even less. ATF had caught wind of their mysterious suspect who still refused to talk and took him away, leaving them with nothing but questions and no assistance in locating Tim.
“You’re not going home, are you?” Angela asked, and Lucy shook her head.
“No, I’m not. I won’t be able to sleep knowing that I might have put him in more danger, Angela.”
“Lucy, you couldn’t have predicted such an outcome. You know our job puts us in peril more often than not. It’s not your fault was Tim was taken, okay. If you’re staying to look for him, so am I.”
“Angela, I couldn’t ask you. You have two kids waiting on you.”
“I do, but Wesley’s got it covered. And you need me more right now. We’re going to find Tim, okay.”
“But where are we going to start. He’s told us nothing, and we haven’t gotten any information from the BOLO.”
“So, we start scouring cameras. Follow the van, see how much we can do ourselves. Go back to basics. We’re going to get him, even if it takes all night, ok.”
“Okay.”
*
Lucy changed into some more comfortable clothing, before realising there was something that she was missing. She grabbed the spare keys to Tim’s office and let herself in, walking to his desk and reaching for the go bag he kept in the office, grabbing the hoodie at the top and wriggling into it.
She needed to keep herself grounded – acting rash would only worsen the situation, and judging from the small number of things they did know, Tim was truly in danger.
How she wished he’d told her about it…
“Hey, Luce, you alright?” Angela had popped in, noticing Lucy just standing in his office, zoning out.
“Yeah, yeah, sorry.”
*
They’d spent the first couple of hours tracking the van around the city, losing it a couple of times before finally tracking it down… to the docks.
Nothing good ever happened there.
She tried to follow the van further, but the cameras were always busted.
What if he was at the bottom of the… no, don’t think that, don’t.
“Come on, I’m driving,” Angela gestured at the young officer and the two of them made their way down to the docks, driving in verbal silence but Angela could feel the worry rubbing off Lucy.
Hell, Lucy hadn’t seen peace in weeks. Angela didn’t know how she managed to stay afloat amongst all of that…
“Right, what’s the plan?”
“Van never left, at least the cameras haven’t caught it leaving, so there is a huge chance it’s still here.”
Hopefully with Tim still inside it.
“We’re going to canvas the entire dock?”
“I have a better idea – going to call in some air support. As soon as they have eyes, we can approach.”
Good. Good.
Lucy was impatient – those seven minutes for Air One to make their way over felt like much too long.
Did Tim even have that long? She’d seen the blood dripping down his chin, but she still wasn’t certain as to what had happened him during the time she’d ducked to reload her mag.
Had they killed him?
Hopefully not. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if the last thing she ever did was asking him why he’d shut her out.
“Detective Lopez, this is Air One.”
“Go for Lopez.”
“Vehicle matching your description has been located. Standby for directions.”
Angela met Lucy’s eyes and even in the dark she could see the officer’s eyes light up with the news.
It was going to be over, soon.
*
Except it wasn’t.
Angela and Lucy had found that van abandoned, but clear signs that a struggle had occurred. Dried blood drops had stained the floor, cut ties discarded near the door, and what Lucy recognised what a torn sleeve from the shirt she’d seen him wear.
He was here.
“Lucy, don’t,” Angela said as she instinctually wanted to reach out for the tattered fabric, “It’s evidence.”
“Angela, I can’t wait for a lab to work out where he is. You’re a detective, and I’ve done the test. So, let’s do some good old fashioned detective work.”
It was past midnight.
*
By two in the morning the two had established that there was a high probability that Tim was still on site, the tools they found in the van as well as the broken lock to one of the outbuildings narrowing down their search to a third of the shipping containers.
That was still hundreds. And if he was indeed locked in, Tim was running out of time. If they didn’t find him soon…
“Hey, Lucy, you still with me?”
“Yes.”
“More officers are coming, but we’re going to start scanning every single container. Here,” Angela said, giving Lucy a radio.
“If any of the officers catch any thermal signatures, we’ll get called in.”
*
By quarter past three, Lucy was rapidly losing the ability to keep her eyes open, the search being worse that fruitful.
If it had been anyone else, Lucy knew that they’d be told that the was a high probability of the worst case scenario.
She couldn’t afford to think like that, no.
“Detective Lopez, come in.”
“This is Lopez.”
“We think we’ve got him.”
Lucy turned on her heels and dashed by Angela’s side as they zigzagged past the coordinates, Air One giving them a helping hand and avoiding the guesswork.
Please let it be him. Please…
Three minutes of borderline sprinting and Angela and Lucy had made it just in time for one of the officers to cut the chain and a group of them to pull the container open.
“Lucy, wait…” Angela said, worried there could be something more to this, but Lucy burst into the container, Angela shining a light into it, spotting a figure curled in the corner, not showing any signs of responding to her mantra of Tim, over and over.
“Tim?” she asked again, crouching down and trying to get him to meet her eyes which were sluggishly moving around, not fixating on anything.
“Hey, Tim?” she asked again, reaching for the knife she’d pocketed earlier and cutting through zip-ties that had dug into his skin, reacting in pain when she placed her hand on his arm. It was the one without the sleeve, and even in the horrible lighting, she could feel that it had been fractured, at the very least.
“Lucy, how’s he looking?” Angela asked, keeping the curious officers at bay.
“He’s alive, Angela, he’s alive. But we need an RA, and we need it now.”
“Tim, talk to me? Are you hurt anywhere?” she turned her attention back to the fact that he still was yet to respond, her hands wandering up and down to see if there was anything else that could quickly turn her joy at finding him alive into utter devastation.
He grabbed her arm suddenly, startling her.
“Tim? Tim, it’s me. Lucy…” after a beat she felt him let go, and she could have sworn he wanted to say something, but instead all she heard was a choked utterance of pain as he tried to push himself up to his feet.
“No, no, don’t move, don’t move at all.”
“Don’t leave… please…” she heard him barely whisper, and she slid down beside him, cradling him, ignoring the commotion on the outside, the sirens getting louder.
“Never.”