Undercover Love

Chapter 24

Tom's POV

Day after day, week after week, Lia's condition only improved. We all kept visiting her as often as our respective schedules granted us to. 

I visited her daily, no matter what. I always managed to make it, either early in the morning before going to work, or at the very end of the day right after leaving the chapel. 

Sometimes even both.

I didn't care about tiredness. I had to make sure she was okay. I had to be there for her.

She transfered to the rehab unit after 10 days spent in ICU. 

Rehab rapidly turned out to be successful. She was making so much progress everyday, it soon became clear for the doctors she would fully recover from the accident. 

It was only a matter of time. 

At the end of the first week, she was able to stand by herself, and by the end of the third, she was taking her first steps. Of course she needed a walker because she wasn't steady enough on her feet, but still. Besides, it only took her two more weeks to finally get rid of the walker anyway. 

And today, after about 8 weeks spent in the hospital, she could finally go home.  Our lives would finally get back to normal. 

Well, for the most part, because Julia obviously wouldn't go back to work just yet. She would be off for about another month, which in my opinion was a good thing. In all honesty I wasn't really eager for her to be on duty again. After all what had happened, a part of me was secretly hoping she wouldn't return at all. I mean, what if she had to face something similar in the future ? Maybe she wouldn't be that lucky this time.

I had been thinking a lot these past two months, and I came to the conclusion I didn't want to do this anymore. 

I had been seriously debating on whether I should quit the force or not ever since I came out from jail, but now I had made up my mind for good. Sooner or later I would quit, and I could only hope Lia would as well and run away with me. We could have a brand new start then. 

But the thing was, I hadn't spoken about it with her yet. I had to wait for the opportune moment.

Fuller had allowed me to get off work earlier today as I was supposed to pick Julia up at about 5 pm, and I had made it in time. 

"Time to go baby",  I motioned for her to follow me.

"I can't wait to find my apartment again", she told me, excitment obvious in her voice.

"Uh...actually baby, I'm not taking you there", I declared, rubbing the back of my neck.

"What ?"

"You're coming with me to MY place. And don't worry, before coming here I went to your apartment to pack all the things you may need. The bags are in the trunk."

The doctors had made it clear that even though she could now leave the hospital, Julia still needed to take it easy. She could go back to a normal life, but gradually. She would have to be attentive to her body, which would let her know what she was capable to do and what she wasn't. I mean, for example taking a walk wasn't forbidden, it all depended on whether she felt like she could do it or not. 

All type of activities was allowed actually, but only if she felt like she could do it.

Anyway as I wanted her to rest as much as possible though, I figured it wouldn't be very wise to let her stay at her own apartment since it meant she would have to cook, clean the house, do the laundry, stuff like that.  Doug, Harry, and Judy all agreed with me when we talked about it. Even the captain said I had a point. 

As nobody except for Doug knew about Lia and I for now, most of our colleagues thought it wouldn't be fair if I was the only one taking care of her during the coming month. According to them, I had no reason to be the only one. 

If only they knew.

Anyway that's why we made a deal : we would all take care of her in turn. Fuller offered to give us all some time off, but not at the same time since he obviously couldn't afford it.

So here was the deal : all four of us would alternatively be given one week off during which the only thing we would do would be taking care of Lia.

I was the one in 'vacation' for this week so that was the reason why I was the one taking Lia to my place tonight. She would stay with me until I had to get back to Jump Street, then she would go to Judy's where she would also stay for a week. Harry would be the one taking her after that, and finally Doug.

Anyway, as I said I was the one in charge today.

Lia was reluctant for the most part of the ride home when I explained to her how we had planned  the next four weeks, but she eventually ended up going along with it.

Not that she really had a choice anyway. She knew perfectly well I wouldn't take no for an answer.