"Lucy -" Tony blurted, wide-eyed as we entered the hospital room. "You look... different."
Lucy took the not-quite-a-compliment in stride with a raised eyebrow.
"We had to make a small stop on the way. It's not quite the right weather to walk around barefoot. We didn't know if Portland Row was secure," I explained.
Tony nodded seriously. "Yes. Yes, of course."
He hurried to jump down from the hospital bed and put on his own boots. He put his coat back on and struggled a bit to get the bandage through the sleeve.
I couldn't stand watching his pathetic flapping of the garment and went to help him.
"How far did it spread this time?" Lucy asked with her arms crossed in front of her.
Tony bit his lip and his cheeks went a little pink.
He looked at the floor and pointed at a place on his upper arm, almost near the shoulder.
She punched him hard on his good shoulder.
He yelped, "Ow! Lucy!"
"This is why I left," she growled. "You're a reckless idiot and someday, you'll get yourself killed. How are the rest of us supposed to just live with that? Have you even once thought of the consequences? What are the rest of us going to do? Where will we even live? Where will we work? No other agency is willing to take us on anymore. You do realise that I could have gotten to those Sources quicker if you hadn't landed on me, right? A 'watch out' could have sufficed, but instead, you put us all in further danger by jumping out in front of me. As if I don't know how to do my bloody job!" she ranted furiously, getting louder with every sentence.
Tony stood completely frozen, holding his shoulder with a look of utter terror on his face.
"I don't want to leave again, but I swear, if you pull a stunt like that one more time, I'll move back up north and start a bloody bakery!" she yelled.
Tony blinked. "But you don't know how to bake," he commented with a confused nose wrinkle.
I shook my head at his lack of self-preservation skills.
"I'll take George with me," Lucy snarled, and Tony's eyes widened further.
"You can't take George! He was my friend first!" he argued.
"You didn't seem to care much about that when you threw yourself in front of a ghost!"
"That's not fair!"
"I'm going to interrupt you two before this devolves into some sort of bizarre custody battle. We should really get going."
Tony took a deep breath. "Well, I apologise for trying to save you then," he snarked at Lucy who looked ready to punch him again.
I rolled my eyes and slapped the side of his head. "Be happy you don't have a supervisor. You'd have been benched a long time ago. Did you contact Holly and Cubbins?" I asked him, trying to steer this train wreck of a conversation into another direction.
I looked at Lucy, begging her silently to just let it go. She didn't say anything more but resorted to glaring at Tony's head instead.
Tony huffed. "Yes. They'll be at Arif's in two hours," he grumbled.
"Splendid. Clerkenwell first then?"
Lucy gave a single nod and stomped out of the room.
The plan was to go back to my house and gather the essentials and the most valuable objects so I wouldn't have to go without backup. I could go back for the basics during the daytime, but the Orpheus glasses especially couldn't be left behind.
"My espresso machine! Look! Look at what they did to it! Those barbarians!"
My favourite appliance was in pieces. Obviously, someone had been displeased enough with our escape that they felt like punishing the poor Italian apparatus. I nudged the broken water tank with my foot. I'd had it specially imported and everything.
"The blender seems fine," Tony remarked, probably to make me feel better. It didn't work.
Lucy came in the kitchen, holding her boots. "They're full of glass," she grumbled with a nose wrinkle.
"Don't try to clean them out," I warned. "There'll be tiny shards left and they'll cut up your feet."
"I can't just walk around barefoot. My only other alternative is flip-flops and I don't quite feel the season yet," she sulked.
"Just keep the boots you're already wearing."
"They're your mum's," she protested.
I snorted. "If it makes you feel better, I can ask if you can keep them and then she'll say 'yes, of course she can', wouldn't she, Tony?"
He smiled and nodded before looking away. He frowned when he noticed the leftover meal.
Lucy sighed in defeat, but she didn't look too put out. "Fine. I'll keep them. At least for now." She grumbled.
Tony went to the pot of leftover Bolognese and sampled it directly from the wooden spoon.
"You made this?" He asked with his mouth full.
"No, fairies did," I rolled my eyes.
"S'good," he remarked. He took another mouthful and I cringed involuntarily.
"It's also cold. Didn't they feed you at the hospital or what?"
"Soup is a liquid. Doesn't count as food."
I sighed and found some bread. "Please just make a sandwich or something. I can't stand looking at that. I need you to raid my fridge anyway, you may as well get an early start."
"Why?" Lucy asked.
"Well, I'll be staying at my parent's for now. I'll probably take a few bits and bobs, but I'll eat with them. Can't let all this just rot here. Should be enough to last Cubbins maybe half a day."
"Lay off George," Lucy admonished with a small smile.
"Never," I winked at her. "While you sort that out, I'll go collect the things I need,"
With that, I went towards the basement door. The thugs had made a considerable effort in trying to break it down, but luckily, they hadn't managed to get through. I stored a lot of valuables down there so the door was reinforced with steel. I wondered idly if they somehow knew that this was the place to look because the other locked doors didn't show this sort of damage. Then again, they probably didn't have time to go further. They weren't here long after all.
I opened the padlock. The combination made me smile a bit, even if it was a little bittersweet now that Lucy had rejected me definitively.
It had always been a bit fanciful, the idea of us together, but now it was truly dead and buried. She was right. I ought to focus on Tony.
I knew the idiots hadn't managed to get through the door, but I still breathed a sigh of relief when I saw my key to ghost-hunting inside the safe. I wrapped the goggles up in a scarf before putting them in my old rucksack. I emptied the safe entirely. I had accumulated a lot of things in there, jewellery, legal documents, my passport and especially the deed to the house was important. I planned on putting it up for sale already the next day.
I went back up, taking the stairs taking the steps two at a time to join the others.
"Hello?" A timid voice called out from the hall.
"Kitchen!" I replied.
I heard the crunch of boots on glass as the person hesitantly entered.
"Oh! I uh – I didn't realise you had company," Bobby jumped with wide eyes when he noticed Lucy and Tony.
"Hello Bobby," Lucy greeted politely.
"Vernon," Tony nodded.
Bobby eyed them both with suspicion.
"What's happened here?" he asked me lowly, as if the others in the room hadn't noticed that my home had been ransacked.
"Well, it appears to have been an attempted robbery. A bit of damage, but nothing too bad," I shrugged. "Was there something you wanted?"
"No," he smiled. "I was just in the neighbourhood."
I nodded. "The furnaces I take it?"
"Mm? Yes. Yes, the furnaces. Thought I'd stop by to say hello."
"Well, hello then. I'd love to catch up, but unfortunately, I have to finish up here. Maybe we could meet for a cuppa next week?"
"Of course," he smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Through the entire conversation, he never once looked away from Lucy. He was always one to hold a grudge.
I shook my head in exasperation and led him out by the shoulder. "Next week, yes?"
"Sure," he nodded.
I hurried to grab some clothes and toiletries from upstairs and with that, I was finished.
Lucy and Tony had filled their bags with perishables and Lucy was holding a pack of eggs.
And off we were again.
Holly and Cubbins were waiting for us outside Arif's. The front of the small shop hadn't changed at all since I could remember. Even though it was a serious night, and we didn't know if there were enemies close by, I couldn't help but smile as I thought of all the times, we'd gone down here for ice lollies in the summer. How Jess would force Tony to walk between us or even once when we put him on a leash so he wouldn't run away.
I sniggered a bit and got some odd looks from the others, but I kept my mouth shut. It wouldn't do for the little group to imagine their fearless leader jumping around like an overexcited Cocker Spaniel, even if that mental image would have been rather accurate.
I cleared my throat and made sure to look proper serious.
"Right, have you seen any activity at the house?" Tony asked the others.
Holly wrinkled her nose. "I don't think there are many, but the lights are on."
"Did you remember to lock away our papers?" he asked worriedly.
Holly had the audacity to roll her eyes. "Yes, because I have a general habit of leaving things untidy."
I smirked at her and she gave me a small smile in return.
Cubbins shifted a bit. "I've counted two so far, but I don't think they're here to make trouble. They could easily just torch the place –"
Tony paled.
"But so far, they've just been rummaging around. Either they're looking for something or they're waiting for us to come home before calling their friends."
Tony frowned. "What could they be looking for?"
"We took some things from the Institute. Those guns for instance. Maybe that's what they're after? Winkmans and Rotwell were rather close connected after all. Maybe the Rotwell people sent Winkman to do their dirty work again?" Lucy suggested.
"Except now, the Rotwell people are the Fittes people" I reminded her.
"The papers!" Tony exclaimed. "George, where did you put the papers? The ones Quill nicked, the schematics," he asked frantically
"Here," Cubbins lifted his bag a bit to show us, "I always carry them with me. Never know what might happen."
Tony gave him an approving nod. "Excellent. Shall we go greet our guests then?" he rubbed his hands together and smiled in a way that would have been sinister on almost any other face.
I was all for sneaking around the back of the house and surprise the burglars, but alas, I had forgotten that Tony Lockwood didn't do 'subtle'.
The door was cracked open and rather than sneaking inside and getting them in a surprise attack, he kicked the door, so it hit the wall behind it, making one hell of a racket. I suppose the burglars would have been surprised by the idiocy of that though.
"Gentlemen and/or -women!" he bellowed down the hall. "I would like to ask you to please leave this establishment, as we are closed for the evening!"
I rolled my eyes. And Kate dared accusing me of being dramatic.
"If you leave withing the next sixty seconds, you may do so unharmed, if not, expect to be met by five heavily armed and highly experienced Agents!"
I looked at Lucy and the way she stared at the egg carton in confusion and shook my head.
We all stood still for a moment and then the silence was broken by the sound of breaking glass and boots scurrying across the floor. Miraculously the boots seemed to be running away from us rather than towards us.
With Tony in the front, we slowly moved down the hall and ended up in the kitchen where the glass in the kitchen door was broken. The thugs had clearly chosen to flee in that direction.
"What do you know. It worked!" Tony turned around, beaming.
I scoffed. "Probably more due to luck than wit, wouldn't you say?"
"Absolutely not. Lockwood and co. has a formidable reputation these days. Those gentlemen only knew what was good for them and scarpered before they could get in trouble."
I gave him a highly unimpressed look and shook my head.
"I think I need to get going. I need to get back to my parent's. I'll just take a night cab there directly."
"Are you sure you don't want to stay here? There's safety in numbers." Tony pointed out.
I smiled. It was a nice sentiment, but given the tension, we would either end up hugging it out like brothers or killing each other. I didn't feel like taking the risk.
And what was worse? Lucy lived there too. I had felt her against me. I had tasted her twice.
She didn't want me and that was fine, but I didn't think I could keep myself from sitting next to her during meals. Or reaching for her hand. I wouldn't be able to resist seeking her out at every turn and that wouldn't be fair. Not when she had told me not to.
No. Having her that close and not being able to touch her wasn't a test I was ready to go through.
"I appreciate the offer, but I think I'm going to stay with my parents for now. We have excellent security."
Lucy snorted. "Didn't we break in there just a few hours ago?"
My cheeks went a bit red. "No one knows about that way in, other than you and me."
Of course, Jess had known about it too. I thought back to the last time we had climbed that tree together and snuck into my house and suddenly I had a hard time looking at Tony. And Lucy for that matter.
"Regardless, I think I'll find a flat soon enough," I assured them. "Thank you all for helping me,"
Lucy put her arms around me in a hug and I automatically held her close. "Thank you" she whispered.
I smiled when we pulled apart and I saw her new earrings glittering in the light from the lamp above the kitchen table.
"You're welcome," I murmured.
Tony was leaning against the wall with his hands in his pocket, looking a bit uncomfortable and I gave him a small apologetic shrug.
"Be sure to cover the door so you don't get water in, you have wooden floors." I reminded him.
He huffed a small smile and rubbed the back of his neck. "I will. And uh – say hi to your parents for me?"
He posed it as a question and I shook my head in exasperation. "If you want me to, of course I will."
Out of impulse, I pulled him in for a hug too and was quite surprised not to meet any resistance.
"I'd like that, I think." He mumbled.
I patted his back and let him go with a crooked smile.
Then I was off to make my mum cry.
