Chapter 3

"You know maybe I'm just destined to be alone forever," Lucy said near the end of their shift. It wasn't really towards him, but more of a outloud thought.

"Why would you say that, boot?" Tim questioned, briefly looking over at her, although she didn't see this because she was too busy looking outside.

"I don't know, it just seems like everytime I go on a date or think I like someone they turn out to be awful. You know Josh stood me up, then blamed me for being "pathetic". I'm not pathetic, am I?" She asked, as she finally turned to look at him.

This aggravated Tim. In his mind Lucy was anything but pathetic, she was brave, smart, and even though he would never tell her this, she was one of the best boots he ever trained. She was his boot and he hated how some horrible man made her doubt her worth, but he'd never tell her that.

"Look Chen," Tim started as he pulled the car over, "you are not pathetic. Does it really matter what some guy thinks about you?"

"I mean not really, but…" Lucy started, but was shortly after interrupted by Tim.

"Exactly, so why are you still letting this bother you? Look, Lucy you went through a horrible thing, that nobody ever should go through. And you know what? You survived, and you came out stronger. So many people would have quit the job, but not you Lucy. You stayed strong. So look me in the eyes and tell me, do you think you're pathetic?"

"I-" Lucy was going to say something, but she didn't know what to say. She didn't realize that Tim thought of her that way. Tim was never really one to express feelings, so for him to say something like that meant a lot to her.

Tim didn't say anything for the rest of their shift, and neither did she. Lucy spent most of the time just thinking about what he said. The words "stronger" and "survived". These words were now much louder and took up more space in her head than "pathetic."

When they arrived at the station Lucy went to grab the bags from the back, but Tim offered to take them, he then wished her good night, and walked off. Little did Lucy know that he was also replaying their early conversation.

The second Jackson returned with Lopez, Lucy immediately went to talk to him about the conversation that the two had just shared.

"Ok, what's going on with you two?" Jackson said after he took a sip of his drink. Jackson had driven Lucy home from the station, and the two were now sitting on the sofa in the living room.

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked cluelessly.

"Seriously? Let's see, there was that time when it took you two forever to get down from your apartment, then the next day you and Tim came in and the same time together, I'm pretty sure you spent the night,because you didn't come home. Then what you said about today? Oh my goodness, you really do love him, don't you?"

"I mean maybe?" Lucy responded with uncertainty.

"Look I've seen the way he's looked at you when he thinks nobody sees. He doesn't have his usual 'Tim scowl."

"Tim doesn't have a scowl!" Lucy retorted as she threw one of the pillows at Jackson.

"Ok first off, ow, and second off he does. You just haven't noticed 'cause you're too busy making goo-goo eyes at him," Jackson said as he threw the pillow back at Lucy.

"I don't make goo-goo eyes at him! Look there is nothing-" Lucy was saying before she got interrupted by a phone call.

"Uh-huh. Let me guess, ten dollars says it's him."

Lucy checked the caller id, and said nothing as she slid Jackson a ten dollar bill.

"I'm gonna answer this outside," Lucy said as she stood up, giving Jackson a look. Jackson just laughed and took another sip of his drink, watching Lucy walk out the door.

"You there, boot?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, I am," Lucy said as she closed the door to her apartment and sat in the hallway.

"Sorry, I was just making sure you got home safe," Tim said, scolding himself for how stupid he sounded, "I just had this bad feeling that something happened to you."

"Other than getting questioned by Jackson? Nothing bad has happened to me," Lucy said and quickly reached up to softly knock on the wood of the door frame.

"Well, that's all. I'll see you tomorrow, boot," Tim said as he was about to hang up, but what Lucy said next made him glad he didn't.

"You know what you were saying earlier?" Lucy said as she picked at the fray of her jeans. Just last week she had fallen while carrying in groceries, causing her jeans to tear at the knee. She had been meaning to fix the hole, but hadn't gotten around to it.

"Yeah, what about it?" Lucy heard Tim answer. Lucy noted the sound of his voice, and noticed how whenever he was tired it sounded different, not bad, just different. She didn't know if she liked it, but she knew she didn't hate it.

"Well I just wanted to say, it meant a lot what you said," Lucy quickly said.

"I meant it boot. Every word of it,"

"You did?" Lucy asked.

"Of course, boot. You know you were talking about how you were "destined" to be alone?"

"Yeah," Lucy said, her mood quickly changing.

"Well, I was reading that book you were talking about…" Tim started before Lucy interrupted him.

"You read it?"

"Yeah, boot, it was surprisingly good. Who knew you had such good taste?" Tim said and Lucy could just tell that he was smiling. Just something about the way he had said it.

"I still can't believe you read it," Lucy said, more to herself than to him, though.

"Well anyways, after you mentioned about you were destined to be alone I remembered this quote that was in it, I don't remember exactly how it was, but it went something along the lines of, sometimes the right person has been there all along, but you didn't see it because the wrong one was blocking your sight. And with everything you've gone through I feel like that kinda describes your scenario," Tim said.

Lucy was about to say something in response, but Tim muttered out a quick "goodbye" and "don't tell anybody I said this or I'll put you with Smitty for the rest of your time as boot."

Lucy sat there thinking about what Tim said for a while, until she headed back inside. Of course, Jackson was nosy, but she just said that Tim was checking up on her, and then said she was headed to bed.

That night she couldn't sleep. She stayed awake staring at the ceiling thinking about what Tim had said.

Who is the right person for her?

AN:

Honestly just a filler chapter.

So I know I told y'all I would get a chapter out sooner than next year, sorry about the delay. I've been super busy with school and honestly haven't had the time to write. I actually started writing things like this because it's like reading, it's a form of escape for me. I started this book right before covid, and then continued throughout covid because I was online and honestly didn't really have anybody to talk to. By writing this I could be in a world where Covid wasn't there and I could pretend for a moment that my life and others' weren't altered by Covid.. With Covid it messed up so much stuff for me, I left my school that I had been going to for most of life, and with that I left all but one of my friends. I tried to hold onto my friendship with them for as long as I could, but after realizing that I was always the one who started conversations, I just gave up. Yeah, it's been hard, I have this picture of me and my friends, and every time I look at it I miss her more than anything. I don't know if it's really her I miss or maybe the life I had with her. I went from talking to people in every class every day, to not talking to anybody. For the longest time I just walked through my school, not really talking to anybody, just counting down the days till the weekend. There were times when I'd be in the library and I'd just look up for a second, and see all the people smiling and talking to their friends, and it really hit me that I didn't have anybody at that school. But near the end of last semester I sat near this nice girl in my Spanish class, who I now talk to on a daily basis. Kinda from there I started making new friends, there are still times when I walk in the hallways by myself, but I don't go the day without talking to people anymore. Yeah I still get hit with random moments where I miss my old friends and life, but not as frequently. What I'm trying to say is writing was my way of escaping, and I really needed that, during Covid I wrote some other things, but since I'm back in person and talking to people, I didn't really need that escape as much. So that's kinda why I've been MIA the past couple months, but I'm back (for now, I don't know how long though).

May or may not have written the ending to the story while listening to Spotify! Is it happy? Maybe maybe not.