It's been eight months.
A whole eight months had gone by since they caught the flirtual killer. Eight months since the cyber crimes unit cornered Jake in the middle of the train station… but more importantly,
it had been a whole eight months since she left.
Tommy was more than ready to go and find her. He meant his word when he told her that he would never stop looking for her. She knew that. That's why she messaged him in the first place - she wanted to do this alone. It still didn't stop Tommy from trying though.
He tried to call her. Each and ever time the number went straight to voicemail.
He used his connection with the Cyber Crimes unit to try and track her whereabouts. But she had been off the grid for this entire time.
He even visited George and Sophia in hope they had heard something new about her quest to find Sara, but alike to him, they had been kept out of the dark.
It was like she didn't even exist.
But this was Lindy and if Tommy could only be sure of one thing it would be that Lindy Sampson is a force to be reckoned with, she's beautiful, smart and simply unforgettable… she could never simply just exist. She would always exist.
The first few months were the worst.
He tried to slip back into the life he knew before the flirtual killer case. However that would never be the case again. Every day he was reminded of what he had already lost. Yeager was a great partner but he simply wasn't Ben. Every morning when he'd walk into work he'd notice the absence of his best friend. One empty chair and suddenly memories of that night would flush his mind as if it was only yesterday. One moment that would change everything from then on. He wished he could have savoured their last moments as partners more.
Yeager started dating Sophia.
Tommy remembered the day they were out investigating a lead on a new case. He looked exhausted. When he questioned why he simply smiled and said, "I had a date last night."
"I'm guessing it was a good date," Tommy smirked giving him a knowing look.
"No, it wasn't like that," Yeager started shaking his head in embarrassment, "We kind of just stayed up all night talking."
"You stayed up all night talking?" he accused as he shook his head and laughed, "must be some hell of a girl for you to be staying up at all hours to engage in conversation."
He smiled softly to himself, "It was Sophia."
Tommy wasn't all that surprised. They had a connection during the investigation but Yeager was never going to overstep his boundaries. However now that everything was over they could finally give it a shot.
"How is she anyway?" Tommy quickly inquired. He hadn't spoken to her since she was discharged from the hospital.
Yeager raised an eyebrow realising where he was getting at, "She's made nearly a full recovery, however she hasn't heard from Lindy."
Tommy sighed.
"You know you should visit her sometime. She really misses Lindy and is feeling a lot more lonely these days, just like you-" Yeager started but was cut off by Tommy. "I'm not - I don't-" but even Tommy couldn't finish that sentence because it could never simply be true.
"All I'm saying is that it might be good, for both Sophia and you. For all we know she might never come back. I think you both might need some closure."
Tommy wished that he didn't think so heavy on the idea that she might never come return from then on.
He started seeing Vivian Wells again. It was long day at work and he went to the local bar around the corner from where he lives for a few drinks. There she was sitting at a table chatting to a few of her friends. He wanders over to her, meeting her eye halfway.
"Tommy!"
"Hey Doc," he jokingly calls her when he arrives at the table, "how are you going?"
She stands up to give him a quick hug, "Yeah I'm good. Yourself?"
"Oh you know, work, sleep repeat."
She nods in agreement, "Tell me about it, this is my first night out in ages."
They make small talk that eventually leads into a long winded discussion and before he knew it he was starting to fall into old habits.
"Oh! how's that girl… what's her name again? The one you work with! Yeah, how is she going?" she asks randomly, forgetting her name.
"Lindy? Uh, well she-" and he's so off guard he doesn't know what to say. Vivian looks questionably at him and he nervously laughs it off, "She had some family matters to deal with out of town."
"Well I hope everything is okay. Family is important."
Tommy agreed, "It is."
Vivian nervously bites her lip before working up the courage to ask, "Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to get dinner sometime."
Right at that moment he hears Lindy's voice play in his head "A neurosurgeon and a cop, how did that work out?"
Tommy hesitates but than replies, "Yeah, that would be great."
He decides right then that he's going to visit Sophia tomorrow. Maybe they both could use a bit of closure in their lives.
Sophia and him have struck up an unlikely friendship. They have dinner at least once every few weeks - sometimes with Yeager, he's brought Vivian to a few meals, even Connor has made a recurring appearance. It's become so frequent that Sophia doesn't even hesitate on barging straight into his apartment with Yeager following closely behind carrying a few bags of groceries.
"Sophia, I-" he starts only to realise he's only wearing a towel around his hips, having just come from the shower to answer the door.
"They've cut the power in my apartment because the people downstairs decided it would be a good idea to start a little fire instead of calling a electrician. I mean what kind of people try and fix their own wiring. Like c'mon!" She takes a breath, "So now I have all these groceries, no fridge to keep them in, no lighting, no oven, no nothing and then I just thought why not just make dinner here at yours!" She rattles on whilst Tommy just stares a little dumbfounded.
"A fire… is everyone okay?" he finally asks after processing everything she said.
She waves him off before making her way into the kitchen, "Yes yes, everyone is fine. I just can't believe it could happen today of all days, I mean they could have decided to play electrician tomorrow, but no" she raves on as she starts rummaging through Tommy's kitchen draws, "You have a food processor right?"
Tommy gives Yeager a pleading look. In return he just shrugs his shoulders and mouths the word Sorry.
"I've come bearing wine!" Connor walks straight into the living room holding up a bottle of wine.
"Connor?" He asked confused.
Connor looks Tommy up and down with a suggestive smirk, "Nobody told me we were having a naked dinner party."
Tommy shakes his head, "What are you doing here?"
"Sophia invited me, she texted me with the change of details earlier."
"Connor! There you are, come help me with the prep. I'm so behind schedule right now," Sophia buts in, coming over to drag Connor into the kitchen.
Yeager put the grocery bags on the kitchen counter and Tommy watched as three people, the same three people he seems to call his friends, manoeuvre their selves around his small kitchen space trying to prepare dinner.
"Is Vivian joining us tonight?" Sophia asks as she starts chopping up some vegetables.
Tommy shakes his head, "No she has to work late tonight."
"It's been awhile since we've seen her," Sophia adds raising an eyebrow questionably.
Tommy opens his mouth and than closes it quickly, "I'm going to get changed."
He walks down the hall to his bedroom but not before hearing Connor mumble "So that's a no to a naked dinner party?"
"You're different," Vivian says with a sigh.
"Different, what do you mean?"
"The first time we broke up was because we literally didn't have time for a relationship. But now we have all the time in the world and you are so distant," she tells him exasperated.
Tommy lets out a sharp breath, "I didn't ask you to cut down your hours?"
"I don't know Tommy, I just feel like we keep moving backwards."
"What do you want me to do?" he asked shrugging his shoulders.
She sighs, "I want you to open up. Tell me about Ben and what happened with that girl Lindy. I want you to not push me away."
"I'm not sure I can do that."
"You can't or you won't?" she asks before getting up from my sofa.
I hesitate and we both know my answer before I can even say it.
"You should call her Tommy," she says before bending down and pressing a kiss to my cheek.
I stay sitting at the end of the sofa staring at the wall as she leaves my apartment. The door leaving a satisfying click as the lock sets into place.
I've tried, I think to myself.
The case he is currently working on feels all too familiar.
They want him to go undercover and situate himself into this young woman's life because she is has connections to a major cyber terrorism network. Under most circumstances he would jump at the opportunity to work undercover, but after the events led in the Bubonic case with Lindy, he can't help feeling he's too close to it.
Shaw pulls him aside and into her office, "I offered you this because you are one of our best cops, but given past circumstances I'd understand if you didn't want to participate in this investigation."
He hesitates but knows where he stands, "This is my job. I'll do it."
"Good. We have a briefing tomorrow at 9am."
He stands up from where he's seated and nods at her before leaving the room. A part of him hopes he doesn't screw this up. He needs to do this to redeem himself, but also Ben. It's a second chance.
Cyber Crimes has hired George as a special consultant for some of our investigations. Shaw was impressed with the extra talent Lindy had brought to the unit and after a strong recommendation from both Yeager and myself, Shaw offered him a position. George of course was delighted, he was able to use the computing equipment - we were able to use his expertise.
"George!" Tommy called out as he walked into the precinct.
"Hey Tommy whats up?" he asked casually.
Tommy looked around suspiciously, "Can we talk for a minute?"
Following Tommy's lead he lowered his voice, "Yeah what's going on?"
"I've been wanting to ask you for awhile, but do you think you can track down Lindy's whereabouts? She's been off the radar for too long now and I just want to know if she is-"
"Okay?" George butted in.
Tommy sighed, "Yeah."
"So you want me to use the servers… of the Cyber Crime unit, which you work at, to locate Lindy?" George whispered softly.
Tommy just nodded knowing how desperate he sounded.
George beamed up with a smile and motioned for Tommy to follow him to his work area.
"The minute I started working here I've been tracing Lindy's whereabouts," he said quietly as he started opening up a program on his tablet.
Tommy let out a long breath, "Of course you have been."
"Do I hear judgement? I do remember you asking me to do this exact thing not even a minute ago," George decided to point out.
Tommy just shook his head, "Just show me what you got."
George starts tapping away at the screen until a map of New York pops up, "I won't be able to tell you a precise location but I know that she's-"
"Wait, are you telling me that she is here… in New York again?" he asked completely taken by surprise.
"Not quite," George started, "I'm saying she never left."
Tommy rubbed his hands over his face from that news and took a seat. Lindy never left New York. She's here.
"But that doesn't make sense," he whispered more to himself.
George sighed a look of saddening appearing on his face, "Tell me about it, Lindy is probably my only friend… but I haven't even heard anything from her."
Tommy reached out and gave George a pat on the shoulder, "Don't take it too personal. Lindy loves you… but when it comes to her sister-"
"I know, she'll do anything for her…"
Tommy stood up from where he was still shocked over the revelation that Lindy was in his city. That she had always been here.
"You did good George."
It was the anniversary of Ben's death.
He was packing up and ready to leave work when Shaw walked out of her office and grabbed his attention.
"Good job on the undercover assignment."
Tommy nodded his head in thanks, "I was just doing my job."
"I know…" she said with a small smile, "I also know that Ben would be proud of you. It's one year today, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Tommy's gaze shifted to his feet.
Shaw's mouth lifted at the corners, "Go pay your friend a visit." With that Shaw walked back to her office leaving Tommy to continue upon his business.
Tommy smiled as he gathered the rest of his stuff and headed to his car.
It had been awhile, but he was going to spend some quality time with his friend. He headed straight to Sophia's. He used the spare key she had given him for emergencies and entered her apartment. Opening the fridge and pulling out a six pack of bear Tommy made his way to the rooftop.
Some people visited graves, but Tommy didn't believe that a person belonged to a tomb stone. Rather, a person belongs to where they have been, touched and experienced. As morbid as his finale resting place may be - he was ready to pay his respects in the place he knew Ben took his last breath.
So Tommy walked up the stairs and made his way to the rooftop. Once he opened the door and stepped outside he took a quick breath. He hadn't been here since that night.
"Tommy?"
His attention snapped up to her voice. He had heard it many times before - but hearing it in the flesh, right now was so much better.
"Lindy."
There she stood on the rooftop looking out at the illuminated city. Her hair was a little longer, blowing with the wind. She wore her skinny jeans and her trademark leather jacket. She looked like the girl he had remembered but there was something different about her. It was all in her eyes.
"What are you doing here?" he finally managed to speak.
She gave him the same look she got whenever she spoke about Ben. Guilt.
Lindy shook her head and moved her gaze towards the city once again, "Honestly, I don't know. I told myself I wasn't going to come here… but somehow I found myself here."
Tommy moved on his own accord, walking to join her viewing point.
"It will take just one to show you the way," she whispered softly turning to face him, "That was the last thing he said to me."
"Have you?" I replied softly, watching her reaction.
Her eyebrows furrowed, "Have I what?"
"Found your way."
She sighed, "No, I don't even know where to begin."
"Well you can start by letting the people who care about you in on whats going on," he started, bringing up the elephant in the room.
"Tommy-" she started.
"No listen. I know you think that you are doing us all some justice by dropping off the face of the earth - but you're not."
"So many people died because of me. Sophia got stabbed, because of me."
''None of those deaths were you fault-"
But she interrupted, "Ben. Tommy, Ben's death is on me."
He sighed and turned to full face her. She looked so fragile.
"Lindy, Jake killed Ben."
"I led him here Tommy and that will forever be on me."
Tommy shook is head in frustration. She was stubborn as hell, but the guilt in her eyes struck a chord with him. She literally thought this was her fault.
"I'm sorry I disappeared. I needed to do this on my own," she added, "My sister is alive."
This caught his attention, "Did you find her?"
"No."
Tommy frowned, "Then, how?"
"Jake gave me a tablet with video footage of the night my sister got abducted. There's footage of her running off with her then boyfriend… I haven't been able to find her but I've been tracking him down."
"He's here in New York isn't he?"
She nodded, "My sisters here somewhere. I got on the bus to go to my home town but after I saw the footage I got off at the first stop. It didn't take long for me to track her boyfriends footsteps."
"Why didn't you reach out to us?" he bit the bullet and asked, "You were gone for eight months Lindy, without a single word."
"I had to do this-"
"… alone we got that. But it didn't mean you had to disappear altogether. I mean you were here. All along."
Lindy broke away from me pushing her hair out of her face, "I guess I just didn't think I deserved to bring you guys into any more of my drama."
"Well let me tell you I'd take the drama over not having you around any day."
This caught her attention, "I thought the whole serial killer thing might have been enough for one lifetime."
Tommy laughed for the first time in ages, "Well I'm here to stay."
The corners of her lips lifted up into a small smile, "Okay."
It had been far too long since he'd seen Lindy Sampsons smile and right now he realised it was something he'd never be able to live without.
"Beer?" she asked questionably at the six pack in my hand
I lifted up the carry box, "Yeah, I thought I'd drink to Ben. He deserves a few drinks after everything thats happened."
She nodded in agreement as I held out a bottle, "Want to join me?"
Lindy raised an eyebrow but grabbed the bottle from me, opening it in the process. She held it out in front of her and smiled sadly, "To Ben."
"To Ben," I repeated.
They sat down on the roof and shared a few beers and before long they both started sharing their favourite stories of Ben. Lindy told Tommy about her eight long months. Tommy told her about the undercover case he had worked on. It was as if they were falling into old habits but the difference was it felt new.
"Have you seen Sophia yet?" I asked as we walked down the stairs to Sophia's apartment floor.
"No not yet. I don't really know what to say to her," she shrugged her shoulders.
He moved forward and raised his hand to rest on her cheek. He reached forward, moving her hair behind her ear.
"You could say anything. She just wants to see you."
Tommy took an extra step forward, making the distance between them even smaller. She didn't move, didn't hesitate, she just stood frozen staring at Tommy in a way she hadn't done before.
"Please don't leave again," he whispered softly.
She nodded slowly, "Okay."
He wanted to lean in and kiss her, to let her know why he needed her so much. But today wasn't the right day and Sophia's hallway wasn't the right place… so he did the second best thing. He leaned in slow and wrapped his arms around her small frame. If he couldn't kiss her, he wanted to hug her. So he gathered her up in his arms and held on to the whole eight months that she was gone.
Lindy responded by wrapping her arms around him and leaned into his chest before whispering, "Thank you."
Their hug was short lived as Sophia arrived home and stopped dead in her tracks as she witnessed the return of her best friend, "Lindy?"
Tommy separated himself from Lindy as she turned to face her.
"Hey Sophia."
Sophia ran straight into Lindy's arms, "I'm so glad your back. You're back right?"
Lindy lifted her head to look up at Tommy, still in the midst of Sophia's hug, "Yeah I'm here to stay."
I
t had been eight months, but she was back and everything was going okay. Ben was right when he told her that it only takes one to show you the way. It was always going to be Lindy for him.