Chapter 7: Trust

Luke was taken to the hospital to be monitored overnight and have his injuries tended to. When he was asked what happened by the police that found him soon after the crash all he told them was that it was a simple car accident, a hit and run by some joyriding teenagers. He knew that the sooner the Captain found out that this was a targeted attack the sooner he would be put into protective custody and taken off any active cases. The problem was, his uncle wasn't an idiot and when his family is involved, he doesn't take any chances so when he walked into Luke's hospital room the Detective wasn't surprised by the look on the Captain's face.

The man walked into the room and rested his hands on his hips, "A simple car accident, was it?" the Captain interrogated.

Luke gave his uncle a tired look as he laid on the bed, "You found out faster than I thought you would," He sighed

"Two days!" David said with a raised voice as he motioned two fingers in the air, "It took you two days to find yourself in trouble."

Luke sat up from his bed and purposefully kept his gaze away from his both angry and worried uncle. "Come on, out of everyone, you know the risk of working this job. I'm bound to piss off the kinds of people who do this," he replied.

The Captain took some steps forward and gripped the rail at the end of the bed, "They poured gasoline over you!" he shouted, "Fucking Gasoline!"

Luke looked at the opposite side of the room from his uncle, he turned his attention to the curtain that covered the one window. David sighed and took a seat at the end of the bed and wiped one of his hands down his face in stress, "Do you know who did this?" he questioned.

Luke shook his head in defeat.

"Listen, I'm not an idiot Luke. I'm just trying to protect you," The Captain sighed.

The Detective finally turned his head and saw the man at the end of the bed looking at his hands placed on his lap. One of the hands moved to wipe a tear running down his cheek.

"I know you are, but I don't need your special treatment," Luke replied, "I know you promised my mother but you have to realize that I'm a cop, just like you and everyone else in the precinct."

The Captain nodded along with what Luke was saying, he realized that this is the kind of stuff his nephew had signed up for, this is what happens when you carry a badge. He was sure that even early in his career his parents were terrified for him, it's no different for Luke.

"Uncle, don't side-line me," the detective asked with sincerity, "you know what this job means to me."

"Fine," David replied after brief hesitation, "But I want you checking in with me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I want daily reports."

"So you're babysitting me?" Luke asked.

"Babysitting?" David snapped, "I'm helping you."

The Detective smiled, "So does that mean you'll help with that arson case?"

David sighed and shook his head, "Don't act like your attack wasn't to do with that obsession of yours. I find it almost insulting that you seriously think I don't realize that this is all connected."

"Of course you do," Luke chuckled, "which is why you'll give my case the attention it deserves," he smugly smiled.

David gave a light chuckle that cut the tension and gave Luke a side-eye look, "Wipe that smile off your face. I'll spare what resources I can, but I can't promise any more than that."

Luke reached his hand across the bed for his uncle to shake, "Thank you Uncle."

David stood up from the bed and walked over towards his Nephew and pulled him into a hug, "If you scare me like that again you're off the force," he whispered.

After Luke had been screened, tested, and made sure that he had no lingering damage he was deemed in a healthy enough state for him to leave the hospital. As he was getting dressed into the clothing his uncle had left him, he heard a light knock on the hospital door. After Luke gave them permission to enter, he was met with none other than Joe West and Nora Ognats.

The rookie detective met them with a smile, "Oh, hey! Why are you two here?" he asked with curiosity

Before he knew it, Nora had closed the gap from the doorway towards the bed and had wrapped her arms around him, "I'm so glad you're okay!" she mumbled against his chest, he could feel the vibration of her voice against him. Luke gave a confused look towards Joe who smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"I didn't know you cared so much," Luke joked as he hugged the woman lightly.

Nora pulled back and looked at him with her wide eyes, "I should have been there with you. I'm so sorry…" she apologized. Luke looked into her eyes and was stunned for a moment, he probably looked stupid because Joe interrupted the gaze between his granddaughter and partner.

"Captain Singh asked us to pick you up because we were heading this way, and I think Nora has something to tell you, I think you should listen," Joe hinted as Nora watched him talk. The young speedster jolted in excitement, "Oh, yeah!" but then realized that the news she was about to deliver wasn't one that goes with excitement. "I actually have a lead on this case…" she hesitated.

The young detective's eyes widened, "You do?! How?" he quickly questioned.

Nora looked towards Joe who nodded in returned, "I think you two will need to be alone for this, I'll be outside, in the hallway."

Nora twiddled her fingers together in anxiousness. "Okay, Captain Singh passed the report of your attack to me and I saw that you mentioned that it was a man with burned flesh," Nora revealed much to her friend's confusion.

"What does that have to do with anything? The dude sets things on fire, he's probably just trying to be edgy and did it himself," the clueless detective replied.

Nora paced past Luke and groaned, "You can be so slow sometimes."

"I've been told. So what's the lead you actually found?" Luke asked as Nora took a seat on the bed.

The CSI hesitated and looked at the ground. She had gone over this conversation in her head hundreds of times and planned out what to say and how to say it but right now her mind was going blank.

"This is gonna sound insane, but weirder things have happened in this city," she hesitated, "but I went through the details of the first fire you encountered… I think your attacker is your ex-partner. The one who died that night." She revealed.

There was a moment of cold silence.

"No." Luke replied.

"No?" Nora questioned.

Luke nodded, "Yep, Nope."

"I know I sound crazy, but I genuinely think it's him!" Nora attempted to convince, "why else would this arsonist be targeting you specifically? He was the one who got trapped, not you!"

Luke raised a hand out to hush his friend, "Nora, I don't want to argue. You don't want to know what happened that night. So just stop talking about him. I'm getting targeted because I'm the only one who is investigating him."

"Okay…" Nora sighed with a quiver of her lip, "But do you trust me?"

Luke took hold of the bag that the nurse had placed his torn clothes in from the bed, looked at Nora and smiled to her, "You're my friend, of course I do," he replied, "But Sam is dead. We buried what was left of him, so don't remind me of it."

The speedster wiped a tear from her face before it dropped and then stood up, "Okay," she whispered, "just know that I'm here for you, with whatever you need. If you do ever need to talk about what happened…"

"I know," Luke interrupted as he walked towards his friend and wrapped and arm round her to guide her towards the exit of the room, "but what I need right now, is a drink."

Nora wasn't much of a drinker, for obvious speedster reasons, and she never really enjoyed the taste of much of it either. But she wasn't one to not be there for a friend so if she must go to a bar then she'll go. Luke and Nora decided to just walk to the nearest one from the hospital, Joe declined the offer from Luke to join them because quite frankly, he didn't want to third-wheel his granddaughter. That's just not Joe's style.

At first there was this awkward tension in the air between them because of their small dispute but after a short period of time, both of them had gotten fed up with it and decided to change the atmosphere. Once they reached the bar and ordered their drinks, they sat down with an eagerness to talk to each other.

"Okay," Luke began, "Favorite book."

Nora chuckled, "Are we seriously starting like this?"

Luke grinned as he took a sip of his pint.

Nora blushed a little, "You're going to thing this is so lame…"

Luke gave a light laugh, "I don't think I can talk, especially with those cheesy cop shows."

"You really can't!" Nora burst into laughter and Luke joined her. "Okay okay," Nora began with hesitation, "My favorite book is called Uncaged Desire…"

Luke almost spat out his drink but managed to hold it in and swallow it. "That new one from Rebecca Silver? The one everyone is reading?" He asked.

Nora's face lit up, "You've read it?!" she was so ready to discuss the book with him. She had been desperate for someone she knows to read it, but Iris and Caitlin refused to give it even the smallest chance, they both said it wasn't their type of thing.

Luke smiled at Nora's excitement but felt bad that he hasn't read the book, "I haven't I'm afraid… My Uncle has though."

The speedster covered her mouth to hide her laughter, "Captain Singh?" she said with a muffled voice. Luke simply nodded and began to laugh.

The night continued with the two of them laughing, joking, drinking, and telling stories of funny things that had happened to them. After a few drinks though, Luke's tongue was getting pretty loose with what he wanted to discuss.

"Have you ever lost someone Nora?" he asked with a slight slur to which Nora replied with a saddened look. "I've lost a few people, yeah."

"Well, me too…" Luke sighed, "You know about Sam."

The sober woman gave a knowing nod, "I do, and you don't want to talk about it. You're just drunk is all and I think it's time I took you home." She said responsibly.

As Nora began to stand up from her side of the booth Luke reached his hand over and placed it onto one of hers. "I trust you," he said to her, "I don't believe Sam is alive, but I think it might be related to him too…" he revealed.

Nora slowly sat back down and held Luke's hand that covered hers on the sticky table. "You do?" she replied with a warm tone, "why?"

"If I tell you why, I'll have to tell you what happened with Sam," he hesitated, "So bear with me?" he whispered with a worried tone as if he were scared she was going to leave.

Nora placed her other hand open onto the table for Luke to hold, she had to give him her wide-eyed look for him to move his remaining hand onto hers.

"I'm here for you." Nora smiled a warm smile.

A/N: Sorry for the delay on this chapter and just a quick heads-up, I'm going to be pretty busy around this time but I'll try and get the next chapter out when I can!

Thank you for all the support this story is getting, I appreciate it so much! ~FarmingPirate