A few weeks passed and Vic was completely healed, it was her first day back at work.
Vic missed her friends. Montgomery visited her almost every day and she was very grateful for that.
She never saw Ripley again after the night in the hospital, honestly she didn't remember much about what happened because of the meds, but she knew she had asked him to stay and he had.
Vic remembered waking up to Ripley sleeping in the hospital chair holding her hand. She found this strange but couldn't stop smiling, he was becoming very important to her in a short time.
Today was the day of the cpr practice along with the police, Vic was surprised to see Ripley next to the aid car, was he here to watch the practice maybe?
Vic was looking at him and then their eyes met, Lucas nodded briefly at her and Vic returned the nod with a small smile.
"Did the chief just wave at you?"Andy asked raising her eyebrows.
"Um…yeah, it's just a nod between friends." She shrugged.
Friends? Was that what they were right? You can be friends with your boss, Vic liked them to be friends, but maybe she wanted them to be something more? She didn't know, she had so many doubts about her feelings, she didn't even know if he felt the same, after all he was the chief. Her chief.
Ripley decided to attend training due to what happened 15 years ago, as soon as he arrived at the station he looked for her, Lucas had never seen her since the day at the hospital and he missed her, he knew he shouldn't but couldn't help it.
He looked at her during the entire workout, the jokes she made to cheer everyone up, her laugh that lit up the room, Lucas loved that sound. The dimples that appeared in her cheeks whenever she smiled and the little eyes that sparkled, she was perfect and Lucas just couldn't stop staring. She was so beautiful.
The afternoon passed and everything was going well, until Sullivan got into a fight with Bishop, Ripley was forced to step in and have a little chat with him.
Lucas left the captain's room and went to the kitchen, he needed to breathe and be alone, he still blamed himself for what happened 15 years ago and he knew that coming back to Seattle hadn't been easy for his friend.
Lucas sighed, propped his elbows on the counter and buried his head in his hands.
Vic saw him and stopped at the door wondering whether or not to go into the kitchen, he looked upset about something and looked like he needed some alone time, but before Vic could make any decision on what to do, Lucas lifted his head and looked straight at her.
He forced a small smile and Vic could see the pain in his eyes.
"Hey…um…I can go back another time.
"No need, it's okay." Lucas sighed, running a hand through his hair.
Vic walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and set Miller's cake on the counter while Lucas watched her.
"I shouldn't have been so hard on him." Vic arched her brows in confusion. "Sullivan".
" Oh".
"Today is hard for him, and it's my fault." Lucas pressed his hands to the edge of the counter until his fingers turned white.
"Do you want to talk about it? Vic asked placing her hand over his in an act of comfort.
"No thanks." Lucas withdrew his hand from under hers.
Vic widened her eyes wondering why he had done this, she tried not to take it personally as he was clearly struggling with something.
Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket and Vic picked it up quickly, reading Gibson's message to take the cake to the roof.
"Um...chief?" We are going to cut Miller's cake on the roof, you should come." Vic asked shyly for fear of being rejected again.
Lucas felt a little bad for pushing her away and he saw that she was hurt by it, so he just nodded and followed her up to the roof.The entire crew was talking and laughing about random topics, Lucas realized they were quite close like a family unlike the other stations, he missed that, a friendship. He had it with Frankel and Sullivan when he was a lieutenant at Station 88.
His mind was focused on just one thing, his subordinate Victoria, she was making everyone laugh, her presence lit up any place without a doubt and her laugh made him feel so much better.
He couldn't look away from her full lips, he wanted so much to kiss them, but he knew well he couldn't.
When everyone had finished their slice of cake, Lucas decided to help Vic clean up, after all he wasn't ready to go home, he didn't want to be alone, being alone implied having unwanted thoughts and Lucas didn't want to think about that day anymore.
"Say something please, you're cleaning without saying anything," Vic said without looking at him.
"I'm sorry, I was just thinking".
"You don't have to help me clean up, I can finish this myself, you must have more things to do." Vic turned to face him.
"It's okay, I have nothing else to do and I don't feel like going home".
"Thank you for staying with me at the hospital when I got hurt, I don't think I thanked you for that". Vic gave a sympathetic smile and turned to continue cleaning.
Lucas looked at the bag in his hand and closed his eyes for a few seconds before continuing.
"15 years ago Sully and I were at the same station when we were called to a car accident, when we got there Sully recognized the car right away, it was his wife's car." Lucas rubbed his facial hair nervously "I started cpr but she didn't have a pulse so we put her in the help car and I gave her amiodarone to buy her some time but she was allergic to iodine I thought I gave her time before we get to Hospital,Victoria." Lucas paused and sighed.
Vic studied him, she noticed his body tense and his eyes glistening with tears ready to fall. She also noticed that he let out an accent, she didn't know he had an accent.
"She didn't make it and it was my fault, my friendship with Sully ended and my second marriage that was already falling apart did too." A few tears streamed down his face.
"I'm sorry" was all Vic could say, she was processing everything he'd said, but she didn't hesitate she took two steps until she was in front of him and hugged him.
Vic ran her hands under his arms and squeezed, at first Lucas didn't react but soon hugged her back. Vic's hair was tickling his nose and she was rubbing his back gently. Lucas felt a lot better.
Lucas pulled out of the hug first, he pulled away standing still in front of her with his hands on her hips looking straight into her brown eyes.
His blue eyes went straight to her lips and Vic blushed, she knew exactly what he was going to do but he was taking too long so Vic took the initiative.
Her hands cupped his cheeks then she closed her eyes and kissed him, their lips came together and Vic realized how soft they were against hers. Vic loved the feel of Lucas' beard stinging her face. It was a short and calm kiss.
Vic opened her eyes and gave a slight smile pulling away from Lucas to find two blue eyes staring back at her.
Lucas was surprised by her attitude, he wanted to kiss her but he knew it was wrong, even so he loved the kiss, he only thought about touching her lips.
"Hum." Vic cleared her throat, "I'll have a drink after shift, are you coming?"
"Sure." Lucas couldn't look away from Vic's lips and she couldn't stop smiling.
