Title: Happily Ever After
Author: Cindy Ryan
Notes and summary: Sequel to Something Worthwhile. When Tim is hurt and the clues lead back to an
arrest Lucy made. A murderer's revenge threatens their future.

The Saturday after Tim proposed Lucy received the engagement ring. It'd been early that morning; before dawn. Lucy had woken briefly snuggled back against Tim. She hadn't thought he was awake until Lucy felt him move. Something metal was slipped onto the third finger of her left hand. Lucy turned in Tim's arms. Reaching behind Tim turned in the light.

"Do you like it?"Tim inquired huskily.

Placing her left hand on Tim's chest Lucy got her real first look at the ring. It was breathtaking in it's simplicity. A simple rose gold band held a princess cut diamond flanked by two smaller diamonds. Lucy felt tears start and she blinked then away.

"Oh Tim, I love it!"Lucy exclaimed as she leaned up and kissed him."It's perfect."

"Good."Tim murmured as his lips captured hers.

They didn't get out of bed until nearly noon. Lucy would've been content to stay there all day, but real life had to resume at some point. Tim had picked up a late shift that day and went into work. Lucy spent the remainder of the day doing errands and laundry. Even with the routine, mundane tasks Lucy found she was ridiculously, insanely, over the moon happy.

It was well after midnight by the time Tim finished his paperwork and was able to go to the lockerroom. He changed and grabbed his duffel bag. The parking lot he'd normally had parked in had been full so he'd parked across in the parking lot of a laundry service that was for sale. There'd been a few cars there when he'd arrived at work but the lot was empty now. There was no moon that night with a thick cloud cover.

Tim clicked the fob and unlocked his pickup. The truck beeped and Tim rested his hand on the door handle. He was about to open the door and toss the bag in when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Tim pulled out his weapon and whirled around. He never got a shot off. Something hard and heavy slammed down on his wrist causing Tim to drop the gun. Dimly his mind registered it as a baton.

The parking lot had one lamppost but it was towards the building about twenty feet from where he'd parked. In the dim light Tim was able to make out three shadows. Three large shadows. The keys were still in his left hand Tim hit the alarm and the truck began to blare with noise. It didn't matter to his assailants. They were on him in a heartbeat.

With a curse Tim hit the ground hard on his left shoulder. He swung his feet and took the legs out from under one of his attackers. Tim heard the other man hit the ground. He used the precious seconds to bounce to his feet. As soon as Tim got to his feet a fist connected with Tim's jaw on the right side. Then another fist hit him on the left side of the forehead. The double hit had his vision tunneling and briefly seeing 'stars'.

"What do you want?"Tim demanded through clenched teeth.

The only response was a fist to Tim's left ribs. He doubled over but managed to hit his nearest attacker with a right hook. For that Tim received another hit to the left side of his head. As he teetered on his feet Tim heard a swoosh of air. Tim tried to move out of the way. Tried to ram his shoulder into his assailants. He was too slow. The baton came down on the back of Tim's skull and all he knew was blackness.

Lucy rushed into the ER. It was nearly two am. She'd received the call from Sgt. Grey nearly forty minutes before. Tim had been found beaten and unconscious by his truck. Keys were still with him along with his wallet and the truck was not damaged. Grey didn't go into much detail over the phone but Lucy knew such a brazen attack across the street from a police station wasn't an attempted robbery.

Finding her commanding officer and several colleagues in a nearby waiting room Lucy tried to calm down. She mostly succeeded, mostly. Her heart was only going a thousand mile an hour instead of a million and her breathing had calmed to short gasps. Her fingers nervously twisted her engagement ring. Grey gripped her gently by the shoulders and took her to a private corner near the window.

"How is he? What happened?"Lucy demanded worriedly.

"There was some internal bleeding; he's in surgery."Grey explained quietly.

"Oh my God."Lucy breathed feeling her face pale.

"Tim did some damage to his attackers there was blood so their may be finger prints and other dna evidence."Grey continued softly.

Lucy nodded numbly.

"He was smart, Lucy."Grey stated. "He hit the alarm on his truck. We were able to get to him quickly."

"I'm grateful for that."Lucy said her voice barely above a whisper. "But why did this happen? Why would someone hurt him?"

"I don't know."Grey admitted. "But we've started checking recently released prisoners...Lucy there's something you need to know."

"What?"Lucy asked fear inching up her spine.

"Rodeny Acker escaped two days ago."Grey said grimly. "Regardless if Tim's attacker was connected to Acker we'll post guards on Tim's room and your townhouse."

"You think who did this isn't finished?"Lucy whispered.

"Maybe, maybe not just taking precautions."Grey stated quietly.

"I can't believe this."Lucy said anxiously as she hopped to her feet and went to the window.

Lucy wrapped her arms around her torso as she stared out at the night. Tim was in surgery because of an arrest she made. She'd put a murderer away. Someone who had abused his dog and killed his neighbor with her hedge clippers. That kind of mind; that kind of person was out on the streets. A violent shudder went through Lucy from head to toe.

"Tim will be alright."Grey soothed as he stood. "Docs said the internal bleeding was minimal."

"This time."Lucy responded grimly. "If it is Acker this was a message to me."

"Let's not put the carriage before the horse."Grey commented. "There's already an active manhunt for Acker. I've notified the person in charge of that manhunt. Until the evidence tells us more that's all we can do."

Lucy sank back down onto the sofa and put her face in her hands. They'd been so happy less than twenty-four hours before. She just wanted to go back there, but that wasn't how life worked. All Lucy could do now was wait and pray. Wait, pray and hope that this was the end of bad things for awhile.