Flashback to Now
Chapter 19
"Oh no you didn't!" DK yelled, bending over at putting his hands on his knees. "Oh yeah I did!" Carlos panted back, grabbing the basketball and tossing it over to Jimmy. "Come on DK, it was one lousy basket, I'm sure you'll catch up," he ran around the room and threw the ball over to Walsh, "in your next lifetime!" "Hey, Jimmy, eat my ass, ok?" DK snarled. Walsh laughed, "grab a spoon buddy!"
Liz hadn't been the same since she had went to see her father. Something in her had died. She had basically cut herself off from Kim, and was going through the motions at work. She'd return home, maybe call Ty, but many of their conversations would quickly turn to silence. Sully could see her slipping inside of herself, an effect that her father seemed to always have on her. He was worried about her, worried she was getting depressed again. He knew what happened in her depression. She ran. When she was younger she'd run out of the apartment, run a few blocks before deciding to turn around and go back. When she got older, she drove. She drove too fast, as a cop he told her to slow down, but as a father figure he knew what she was doing. It was like a line straight out of her favorite book, The Bone Collector. When you move, they can't get you. So she moved, she drove the car away, turning the streets of New York into her own personal race track. She had been known to get ragey if the traffic didn't go her way, many times she kept her feelings bottled up inside of her for the day until late at night, when cars were rare, and drove to her heart's content. Sully suddenly wondered if something else had pushed her to go to Pennsylvania, certainly that would qualify as running. He wondered if he would ever find out.
Many people were wondering what was happening with Liz. She had lost that spark, rarely smiled, or at least smiled as though she were really happy. She was down on herself, too, complaining that she wasn't doing things right. Ty wondered what had happened to the woman he had found himself falling for, he suddenly was finding himself falling out of, well, whatever it was he was falling in. He didn't like her like this, not at all.
"Dammit," Jimmy muttered as DK scored on a perfect lay up. DK slapped hands with Lieu as Carlos, Jimmy and Walsh grumbled. The score was tied.
Sully was walking home from his shift. The new apartment wasn't really that far away, and he enjoyed the crisp fall air while it was still relatively warm. He was reflecting on how well he was doing, staying sober and feeling in control finally. "Hey Sullivan, that you?" A voice rang out in the near-darkness. Sully squinted at the familiar face, trying to recognize the man in front of him. Suddenly, it dawned on him, "Larry?" "Yeah man, its me. Wow, its been a long time, I haven't seen you since that little girl fell out the window," Larry said. "Yeah, you quit? You never came back." Larry shook his head, and said, "no, I transferred the very next day. I couldn't take it, something like that. Got a nice solid job now, been going for years." "That's good, that's real good man," Sully said sincerely. "Hey, you wanna grab a drink? Catch up?" Larry asked suddenly. Sully thought for a minute. He had never felt more in control of himself, he was sure he could handle one drink. One drink, that's all he'd have, he told himself. "Sure Larry, that sounds great."
Liz was hungry, she hadn't eaten well over the past three days and her stomach felt like it was trying to gnaw its way out of her body. She stopped quickly into the nearest restaurant for some takeout when she saw something that made her freeze. There was Sully, with some unknown man, with an empty beer bottle by his hand. Sully looked up in time to see her flee out to her car. "Liz!" He yelled, following her. She looked at him long enough to say, "you son of a bitch." Sully knew he had done no wrong by himself, he had limited himself to one drink and he had stuck to it. He was proud, but Liz didn't realize this. He decided to follow her. He heard her engine revving as he quickly hailed a cab. He had just climbed in when he heard the horns blaring, the screeching brakes, and the horrible, sickening crunch of metal.
Jimmy was about to pass the ball over to Carlos when the alarm blared.
