Lucy Chen waited patiently for Josh to arrive at her door. They had already gone on four dates, if you count the first one with Tim. Lucy glanced at the clock and realized that it was already 6:30, her date was forty minutes late. When she heard a knock on her door she raced towards it, thinking that it was Josh, but it was only West and Nolan.

"Hey Lucy," Jackson said, "is Josh not here yet?"

"No…. he isn't." She responded with a doubtful voice.

"Oh, well a couple of us back at the station are going to that new restaurant off Rodeo Drive. Would you like to come?" Nolan asked.

"Sure. I'll go, just let me go change." She responded.

"Great. Bradford, Lopez, and Harper are waiting outside." Jackson said.

"B-bradford?" She asked nervously.

"Yeah. You know your T.O.? About yay high." Nolan responded while holding up his hand to where Bradford's height was.

"Yeah…" She responded nervously. Lucy went back to her room and changed into a more casual outfit, jeans and a sweater.

"I'm ready!" Lucy said walking out.

"Great. Is it ok if you ride with Bradford?" Nolan asked.

"I guess that's fine." Lucy said.

"Great! Let's go." Nolan responded as he started walking out. Lucy followed after him and locked the door behind her. When she saw Bradford she thought she saw a smile, but it was quickly gone and replaced with his usual scowl.

"Don't you have a date to go to?" Tim asked.

"Yeah. He never showed up though…" Lucy responded looking sad.

"Oh. Well he is missing out." Tim added before he started to walk away. Lucy quickly ran to catch up with him.

"So I'm riding with you." She told him.

"Cool." He said as he continued to walk faster.

"Is everything ok? You seem… different."

"I don't wanna talk about it, boot." He responded.

"Ok I understand, but there have been studies that if you keep your emotions all bottled up then you will be more stressed…" Lucy said.

"Ok fine. Rachel and I are done… Happy?" He shouted at her.

"I-i'm sorry. I didn't know." She said looking down at her feet feeling embarrassed.

"It's fine. It was my idea, we just didn't click anymore." He said approaching the elevator, and pushed the down button. When the elevator finally got there it was already mostly full.

"You two can get it, we'll wait for the next elevator." Jackson said, looking at Lucy and giving her that look. The look you give someone when they know something that they shouldn't. Lucy thought to herself that she should have never told Jackson about what she felt towards Tim.

"Thanks Jackson." Lucy said as she and Tim walked into the elevator. When the doors shut she regretted it immediately. Not only was it a small area, but it was crowded with other people. Her thoughts went back to the hours that she had spent inside the barrel.

"You gonna be ok, boot? We can get out at the next stop if you want?" Tim asked, looking concerned. Her apartment was on the twentieth floor, and the lobby was about twenty one floors down.

"I think I'll be fine." She lied. She already felt like the walls were closing in, and felt the signs of a panic attack. Her breath came out shallow and quickly, she felt dizzy and weak. She closed her eyes and breathed in and then out, trying to stop the panic attack from coming, but it did not help.

Tim noticed her freaking out and pushed the button for the 19th floor. He could tell it was getting worse though. She had started sweating a lot, and her breathes were more like gasps for air. When the elevator finally stopped at the floor Tim grabbed her arm and pulled her out, gently.

"You ok?" He asked her. He knew she wasn't, but he didn't know what to say.

"I'm gonna be ok." She said between gasps of breath. Tim approached her, and put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm here for you. Do you wanna sit down?" He asked her.

"Yeah." Lucy said as she realized her breathing had started to normalize. She sat down on the floor, and Tim sat next to her.

After five minutes Lucy's breathing had returned to normal and she knew it was over. She started to stand up, and so did Tim as he reached out his hand to help her up.

"All better, boot?" He asked.

"Yeah… but can you not tell anybody?" She asked.

"'Course boot." He said as they started to walk towards the stairs. On the way down, they were both quiet, and when they reached the parking lot she saw Jackson pacing back and forth.

"There you are," he said running up to hug Lucy, "I thought something had happened to you two."

"Nothing happened, West. Now come on, boot." Tim said as he walked away. Jackson looked at Lucy with a suspicious look, but walked away anyway.

Tim drove an old pickup truck that took quite a long time to start up. By the time it had started up the others had already left the parking garage. Tim pulled out of the lot and turned down Mill Creek Road. LA traffic, usually horrendous, was nowhere to be seen.

"How odd…" Lucy mumbled to herself.

"What's odd, Chen."

"Nothing," She said, more to herself than to Tim.

Tim glanced over at Lucy and saw that she was looking at her phone.

"Who's that?" He asked her, as he returned his gaze back to the street.

"It's Josh…" she said. Tim, not usually interested in other peoples romantic life, looked at her phone and saw that Josh was standing with some girl.

"

It's probably just his sister or some friend…" Tim said, trying to reassure her.

"He has his hands on her… she's kissing him…" Lucy said in shock. She had thought she had finally found a decent person, but it turned out she was wrong. Again.

"Lucy… just forget about him. Just try to have a fun night, OK?"

Lucy, not used to her TO being this friendly, was shocked. She decided to take his advice and put her phone away. After another twenty minutes they arrived at the bar. She saw Harper andopez outside waiting for them and gave them a quick wave.

" What took you so long?" West said as he came up to them.

"Well we weren't speeding like some people." Lucy said jokingly. West laughed at her remark and the group went inside.

Everything was doing fine until he walked in. Nobody noticed him until he walked over to the group and put his hands on Lucy's shoulder. Before this would not have startled her, but after her kidnapping she was shocked and scared at every little touch. Lucy jumped and nearly punched him, however when she saw who it was she put on a fake smile.

"Hi, Luce," Josh said trying, to hug her.

"Josh, can you look at something for me?" She said, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Of course, Luce." He said, completely oblivious to what was going on.

Lucy smiled at him and pulled him away from the group and pulled out her phone, showing him the picture. When Josh saw it he looked scared then started trying to apologize.

"Lucy I'm sorry… It's not what it looks like."

"Oh good. You know for a second I thought some girl was kissing you but I'm glad that's not what it is." Lucy said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"OK can you blame me!" He yelled. This took her in shock. "You're broken, scared of everything! It's pathetic!" He yelled at her. Lucy, who was never one who liked this sort of confrontation, started shrinking back. She had never seen this side of him.

"I-I'm sorry…" She mumbled. She could feel the tears well up in the back of her eyes, but forced herself not to cry. Not in front of him or her friends.

"Yeah you should be. How could you expect me to turn up the chance to date someone like that girl! She has a normal job, while you're over there doing a boy job!" He yelled at her.

This broke Lucy and the tears rolled down her face.

"See Lucy! You're pathetic!" he screamed at her. It felt like he had slapped her, in fact she had wished he had slapped her. Slapping pain goes away but this… this pain would not.

Lucy thought of running away at that point but before she could Tim came running at Josh. She has seen Tim mad before, like when she had forgotten to lock the shop up, but never had she seen him this mad.

"You don't get to talk to her like that. You have no idea what she went through." Tim said, standing in between her and Josh.

"What are you gonna do, huh?" He asked laughing. What happened next shocked everybody. Tim punched Josh in the face. He was about to go in for another punch but Josh beat him to it. Tim laughed and punched him again. This time Josh stumbled backward but regained his balance as he put his hands up.

"You want to fight? Let's fight then!" He said. Josh went to hit Tim, but Tim sidestepped out of the way. This went on for maybe 5 minutes, until Josh just stormed out. Tim looked around and found Lucy standing there. Seeing her like this, so broken and hurt, well it hurt Tim. She had started to tear down the walls that he had worked so hard to put up. He always tried to push everybody away but Lucy, his boot, had found a way in.

"Lucy… are you OK?" He asked as he wrapped her in a hug. Lucy nodded and closed her eyes. Tim made her feel safe, and protected. At first she had thought Tim would be impossible to have as a TO, but now she realized that he wasn't that bad.

After the incident they decided it would be best if they went home. Tim drove Lucy, planning on taking her home, but she had fallen asleep. Tim thought about how fragile she looked when she slept, but he knew that she wasn't as fragile as she seemed. Tim made a decision to take her to his apartment. Tim kept on glancing over at her and smiling to himself. When he saw his apartment building in view he tried to wake Lucy up, but she didn't. She must be tired, he thought to himself. Tim got out of his truck and went to pick Lucy up. He carried her, the same way he had carried her when he found her, up the stairs and into the apartment. Tim put her in his bed and slipped her shoes off. He sighed to himself and walked away into the living room to sleep.

Lucy woke up in an unfamiliar place and her first thought was that she had been taken. But then she saw Tim walking out of what she assumed was the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. Lucy quickly looked away, but not after she had seen him. Lucy tried to remember what happened last night and then remembered what Josh had said… and what Tim had done in return.

"Oh you're awake, go shower we have to leave soon." He said walking away. Lucy got up and quickly showered and put on some jeans and a Shirt. When she walked out she saw Tim eating cereal.

"Finally you're awake." He said in between bites of cereal.

"Yeah… I am." Lucy said.

"Great well let's go." Tim said, walking out the door. Tim drove to the station not saying a word to her. Lucy didn't mind it though, because it gave her a chance to think.

Why had Tim acted that way?

Was it just because she was his boot, someone he swore to protect…

Or was it something else?

AN:

Sorry. Sorry it has taken so long to publish the 2nd chapter. Thing is, I've had this written for a while, I don't know why I'm just now uploading it. But thank you to all of you wonderful people who have followed the story or left a review, even though it's been more than a year. I love all of y'all, and I'll try to have another chapter out sooner than next year. I do have ideas for this book, but i just need to take the time and write them.