Undeniable - Chenford AU

five

The following days were...awkward. To say the least.

Lucy hardly talked to Tim even though he kept insisting that he never stole her clothes.

"I didn't do it, Lucy." he would say.

She would usually respond with a "mhm" or a cold shoulder.

He didn't know what to do to make her believe him. He wasn't even aware that someone had stolen her clothes before the other night.

Beyond the awkwardness, things were normal.

Hardly any customers, awkward meals in the kitchen, and absolutely no movement from Madris.

Except for today. 

It seemed like a normal day. No customers, Lucy was still ignoring Tim, and the room was filled with awkward silence.

Lucy stood behind the register, filing her nails that had begun to snag on the bedsheets. 

"Lunch?" Tim asked, coming in from the hallway.

Lucy shook her head. "Not hungry."

The bell on the front door had rung and Tim and Lucy's eyes had darted to whoever was walking in.

"Hi," Lucy said, putting down the nail file.

The person who walked in was wearing all black and was freakishly tall and muscular.

"How can we help you?" Tim asked, joining Lucy behind the register.

With a swift movement, the person in all black slid an envelope across the counter and ran out the door.

"What the hell?" Tim said, snatching the envelope.

He tore it open to find a piece of paper with an address and a time.

"It's Madris," Lucy said.

"How could you know that?" Tim asked, flipping the paper over to see if anything was on the backside.

"It has to be. We have to call Sergeant Grey,"

"We can't be sure this is Madris," Tim argued.

Lucy scoffed, "I'm calling Sergeant Grey."

She locked the front door to the shop and ran into the bedroom to grab the burner phone.

"Hello?" a voice said on the other line.

"Hi," Lucy said with a shakey breath. "This is Nova Lee."

"Officer Chen," Sergeant Grey said. "This is not our scheduled call time."

"I know," Lucy said, watching Tim as he entered the bedroom. "But we think we just got something from Madris."

"Like what?"

"Some guy...we think, came into our store and placed an envelope on the counter without saying a word. Inside was a piece of paper with a location and time."

"But we aren't sure that it's Madris," Tim chimed in.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked, covering the mic on the phone.

"I'm being honest," Tim shrugged.

"We can't be for sure that this is Madris, but this is our best lead so far," Sergeant Grey finally said.

"So what should we do, sir?" Tim asked.

"We can send backup with you to the meeting," he replied. "When is the expected meet-up?"

"Tomorrow. 3 am." Lucy said.

"We'll send some extra patrol around your shop while you're at the meeting. Harper, Lopez, and I will be your backup tomorrow."

"Sounds good, sir," Lucy says.

"We can talk more at our scheduled call with them tonight," Sergeant Grey said before hanging up the phone.

"What the hell was that?" Lucy asks, looking up at Tim.

"What was what?" Tim asked, folding his arms.

"You undermining me again. In front of Sergeant Grey,"

"I wasn't undermining you, I was being honest,"

"Wow," Lucy scoffed. "You haven't changed one bit since UC school."

"This has nothing to do with UC school,"

"Oh, really? You don't think that you're better than me? You don't think that I'll ever make it as a UC?"

"Of course not," 

Lucy shook her head. "You have sabotaged and made fun of me for too long."

"Sabotaged?" Tim asked.

"That stupid clothes prank, Tim. Do you realize how messed up that was?"

"This is what I've been trying to tell you, Lucy! I didn't take your clothes. And I don't know who did it either."

"And how am I supposed to believe that? Your locker was right next to mine and I had left it open that day."

"For a good cop you're jumping to some pretty shitty accusations," Tim scoffed. "If your locker was open, anyone could've gone in there. Thank God you aren't trying to become a detective."

Lucy sighed, rubbing her forehead. "It really wasn't you?"

"No, of course not," Tim said, taking a step closer to her. "I would've never done that to you."

"Then why were you so mean to me during UC school? You would constantly make everything a competition between me and you only when all I wanted to do was graduate and become a real UC. You would undermine me during classes."

"I know that what I was doing was wrong, but I couldn't help myself. You were my competition and everyone knows that everyone wants to hire whoever was at the top of their class. I just...needed to be the best. Besides, you fed into those competitions too."

"Because I.." Lucy trailed. "My parents never approved of me becoming a cop. I had gotten my degree in psychology and was supposed to become a therapist like them."

"And so...you need to be the best. To prove to them that you chose the right career?"

"I never had any siblings. And my parents never approved of anything. Not my grades, my boyfriends, my extracurriculars. It was never good enough. I guess that...I realized that you were my competition, too."

Tim chuckled. "I guess we both just needed to be the best."

"I guess so," Lucy said. "I'm sorry if I was overly competitive."

Tim shook his head, "It made me work harder. In turn, I probably became a better cop. I'm...uh, sorry if I really did undermine you for all those weeks."

"No," Lucy smiled. "You were right, all of those times that you had corrected me. Even if it was in front of everyone."

"My bad then," Tim smiled.

"I'm still really curious, though. I wish I knew who took my clothes," Lucy sighs.

"Probably some loser who was threatened by you," Tim smirks.

"You think that I'm a good cop?" Lucy blurts.

Tim scoffs, "That was.."

"No no no," Lucy grins. "I believe you said, 'For a good cop, you're jumping to some pretty shitty conclusions,'."

Tim rolled his eyes, "Don't let it get to your head."

Lucy looked at the time on the clock on the wall. "I'll go start making something for an early dinner, maybe? Get a couple of rounds of card games in before we have to call Sergeant Grey?"

"Sure," Tim smiled.