Reversed (NEW CHAPTER!)

Chapter 25: Beautiful & Barf-Worthy Break-Ins

*Luke's POV*

 "Oh, sugar honey iced tea," I swore under my breath, my eyes going wide at the sight before me. Ducking down behind a bush, I brought my hands up to my eyes and tried to rub the visual out of my memory. Scrunching my face in distaste I repeated, "No, no, no, no, no," over and over again. "Oh my God, I'm never going to be able to unsee that." When they said "if looks could kill" I'm not sure this is what they had in mind, but I had to wonder. Why, why on God's green Earth would anyone ever... I shuttered. I thought the bastard was married and now he's in there fucking (if you could even call it that) one of the history teachers!? The asshole must've caught a second wind because there's no way Hendricks has been up doing... that until three, four, or whatever time it was in the goddamn morning.

I groaned, clutching my stomach. I felt worse than the time the power went out and I ate everything perishable in the fridge so it wouldn't go to waste. Admittedly I probably jumped the gun a little bit... considering the power came back on only five hours later. But like hell if I wouldn't do it all over again... Even just to see the look on North's face when he found me in a supine position on the kitchen floor afterwards.

Deciding that my job was more than over with for the night, and seriously considering the worth of the favors we were promised for taking this case, I jogged the three blocks back to my car and prepared myself for a night of candy-binging and crying myself to sleep. Screw the abstinence only speech. Wanna stop kids from having sex? Show them the image that would now be haunting my nightmares for years to come.

My mission tonight was casing out Hendricks' house in case we needed to get into it in the future. I had a basic layout of the property in my mind based on the exterior and what I'd gathered from peeking through windows, something I would not be doing again anytime soon if I could help it, but I didn't get a chance to get inside. I just hoped the woman Hendricks was inside was getting a raise because she certainly wasn't getting anything else out of the deal. I chuckled darkly to myself. My sense of humor could get a little twisted when I was this tired... or this traumatised. I was just happy to be heading home.

Shaking it off I put the pedal to the medal and blasted one of the latest catchy pop songs until my phone, connected to the car via bluetooth, started ringing through the speakers. Turning the sound down I answered the call.

"Luke?" came Phil's worried voice through the speakers. Phil? Worried? That's a sound I never thought I'd hear.

"What's up, Buttercup?" I responded, despite my instincts immediately going on high alert.

"It's my daughter," he breathed.

Racking my brain, I tried to recall a time he ever mentioned a daughter, but came up short. Suddenly a million questions flew through my mind. I wonder what she looks like? How old she is? Does she take more after Phil or his wife? Does she know about the Academy? I settled on the most obvious one, "You have a daughter?"

"Yes, Luke, but let's discuss this shocking revelation some other time, shall we?" he practically growled, snapping me out of my daydreaming. I've known Phil since I was a kid, and I've never heard him sound like this. Sarcasm was not a good color on him... Although a part of me wished he would use it more often. Not on me though -- on North. North would do, I thought smugly. I'd have to figure out a way to make that happen.

"Of course. What do you need?" Business tone, Luke. Business.

"I need you to get your ass to the address I texted you and make sure my girl is okay." Woah. Someone's a grumpy Gus. "She's not answering her phone, and when I checked the cameras her apartment was dark. All I could make out was a man going through drawers." Well that explains it. The poor guy sounded out of breath.