Lost and Found

Chapter Ten

Wu's POV

I told Hank and Nick I would take care of everything. I had a stack of paperwork that I was finishing for them from the kidnapping/murder case. Trubel's case.

I looked at the pile of papers and everything just seemed so pointless. I didn't know Trubel like they did, and I still felt so lost. It's hard to even comprehend that someone so important and young and lively could stop showing up at the precinct, or at cases, or dinner parties. I couldn't even imagine how Nick and Hank were still standing. I felt lucky not having to deliver the news to everyone like Hank volunteered to do. I don't think I could take it.

I felt empty. Sometimes my life felt like one big joke that I could laugh at while everyone else looked at me like I was crazy. I used my underappreciated humor and sarcasm to get through rough times, but right now I felt like nothing could lift the sadness that weighed me down. This feeling wasn't a joke.

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Hank's POV

I was kicking myself for telling Nick I would let everyone know what happened as I held the door handle of the Spice Shop door. I had been standing like this for a solid five minutes. I think I might have driven away a few customers; I saw a few people walking purposefully down the street, look up at me, and turn around and head the other way.

I couldn't keep standing here like this. I took a deep breath and twisted the handle as I moved forward to walk into the shop.

Rosalee and Monroe were laughing.

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Rosalee's POV

Monroe was helping me in the shop again, today. He wasn't getting many calls for clock repairs, or if he was, he wasn't telling me about them. I wondered if he was putting off work to help me with mine. He was so overprotective of me now that I was pregnant; it was actually kind of cute. I wouldn't be able to reach something and Monroe would run to me from the other end of the room before I could even take the first step on my ladder that I had set up against the shelf. Everything I mixed, Monroe would ask me if it was dangerous or something that could hurt the babies even though I always told him that it wouldn't. Monroe wouldn't even let me bend down to pick anything up. I wasn't even showing, yet, and Monroe was acting like I was dying. It made me laugh.

I was stacking jars. I set the last one on the shelf. Suddenly, I felt arms wrap around me. I was surprised and jumped. The arms released me, and I turned around to see Monroe. I laughed at him and said, "You scared me!"

"Sorry," he said, smiling blissfully. I stood on my toes and kissed him. I loved him so much. Monroe was terrified, but I knew he would be as great of a father as he was a husband.

"I love you," he told me.

"How much?" I asked.

"More than I love clocks," he told me.

That was a lot! We were laughing when the bell above the door rang. Monroe and I, still laughing, looked over to see Hank coming through the door.

"Hank," I said happily.

Then, I noticed that he looked like he had seen a ghost. My stomach dropped. Something wasn't right.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Hank shut the door behind him more carefully than he needed to. He was stalling. Eventually, he pulled it completely closed, locked the door, and flipped the sign to, "Closed."

Hank turned to us. "You guys should sit down for this," he said.

"Hank, just tell us what's happening," I said calmly. I looked at Monroe; he was watching me nervously.