Chapter 21:
Lucy threw herself on her fiancé as soon as he was within arms-reach. As Tom and the other team-members looked on in bemusement, the sexy alien girl kissed her man thoroughly, leaving no doubt about how much she loved him. Tom felt a moment's jealousy towards the older man. Lucy was an angel, and she was his age too. But she was devoted to Mike and everybody knew it. At the same time, the young officer knew he had made a friend. He'd never forget Lucy or the things she'd taught him. In the now, it was time to clean things up.
"I'll take charge of things here," announced the pretty blonde. She knew the Commissioner and Mayor were waiting on the news. "You sure, babe," asked Mike? Grinning, Lucy replied, "I got this, honey. Besides... The sooner you take care of business, the sooner we get to see each other at home." Wagging her eyebrows, Lucy added, "no bruises in the way now..." Mike blushed and grinned at the same time. "See you at home," agreed Mike. With a quick kiss, Lucy sent her man on his way. Then she turned to the task of cleanup.
The task went for more than an hour in the cold, with the Alphas hauling machines and equipment out of the warehouse while NYPD SWAT stood watch and kept the curious at bay. Six trucks hauled the thugs, young and old alike, out of there. Lucy and Molly were right there with scanners searching for their sludge-puppy mole. She hadn't been seen since Mike chased her out of the IA division offices. Still, as they got down to the bottom of the pile, it was becoming clear that she'd flown the coop. With the last of the gangsters loaded up and the frogs all accounted for, the job turned to recovering every scrap of information they could.
Nick and Helen were in the lead as the team policed-up evidence by the crate, separating it all into neat piles. As they worked, Lucy and Molly watched with bemused detachment as the two bantered like old friends. "Has he asked her out yet," asked Lucy? Molly chuckled. There was definitely chemistry there. With Helen finally moving on from Manny, it was a good time for another interested man to make a move. "Not yet," admitted Molly. "But I've seen her with her head bare more times the last few weeks than the last two years..." She'd even seen Helen wearing lipstick and eye-liner again and actually behaving like she gave a damn about her appearance!
As they watched, Helen's personal phone rang. Signaling Nick that she needed to take the call, Helen stepped away. "That's bad news," muttered Molly. Nearly everybody who would have called Helen on her personal phone was already standing on that pier. Lucy's hackles went up as she realized who was calling her friend. Minutes flashed by as Helen chatted with the man who had dumped her. Then, while Molly and Lucy watched, Helen finished her conversation and came zipping up to them. "Manny wants to work it out," squealed the wired wonder-girl! "That's great," declared Lucy, but the only person who didn't notice her lack of enthusiasm was Helen. Helen went zipping back to Nick Luchini to share her news. She didn't even see the disappointment on his face. He bore it well, congratulating her before returning to work.
As the clock struck 1 AM, they had most everything wrapped up. As the last truckload of evidence rolled off the pier, Lucy checked in with the SWAT team lead. "It's secure, detective," the older man reported. "I've got men manning checkpoints at the end of the pier and a boat patrolling the river around it. Nobody's getting in or out until we're done." He'd even gotten them rifles in .308 caliber just in case they ran into killer frogs. "Thanks," said Lucy. "We'll be back in the morning for the rest." With that, she headed for Tom's shiny yellow Mustang.
Tom popped the lock, and Lucy climbed into the passenger seat. Lucy said, "I'm looking forward to getting a good night's sleep." Yawning, Tom replied, "you and me both." He put the Mustang in gear, and the hotrod rolled down the pier, taking a right as they reached the end. Tom couldn't help a glance over at the beautiful woman in the passenger seat. Just now she was looking at her phone, and he imagined she was checking for messages from Mike. The older man was a lucky bastard, no denying. "Well, your life'll get back to normal," announced the pretty blonde. Tom nodded absently as he took the next corner, headed for the exit.
The truck came out of nowhere, ramming Tom's car and sending the Mustang careening into the water. The sports car landed with a tremendous splash, and almost immediately began to sink. Surprised and panicked, the two occupants fought with the doors, finding that the water-pressure kept the doors shut as the car sank to the bottom of the East River.
Icy water flooded in from every gap, crack, and joint, filling the car up to the shoulders in just moments, and it looked to Lucy very much like she was about to go down with the ship. Her mind was on Mike and his family and the might-have-beens. This wasn't the way she'd always envisioned going out. She'd always just assumed it would be on an undercover mission gone bad with the bad-guys whacking her after her cover got blown. She never thought it would be a traffic accident.
Calmer, Tom carefully timed the moment where he opened his door to the moment when the car was nearly full. Taking a deep breath from the air-bubble near the roof, he opened the door and swam out. It was only a moment later that he realized Lucy wasn't behind him. Swimming around to the passenger side of the car, he opened the door only to find Lucy strapped tightly into the seat. Fighting panic and the need to fill his lungs with air, Tom fumbled out his tactical knife and sawed his way through the seatbelt, praying that he would be fast enough. Lucy's struggles were getting weaker, and, as he finally freed her from the restraints, they ceased altogether. Grabbing the alien woman by the scruff of the neck, Tom began to kick, swimming for his life.
Reaching the surface, he scanned the icy darkness for any sign of a boat or someone who could help them. Of the truck that had hit them there was no sign. Spotting a rickety ladder, the rookie cop swam hard as he could with limbs that were frozen, dragging his unconscious burden with him. It wasn't going to end like this! He'd promised to repay the debt he owed her, and he wasn't going to give up until he had.
Reaching the rickety ladder, Tom pulled Lucy's limp body onto his shoulder and began to climb. It took all his strength, and there were moments where he feared that wouldn't be enough. Reaching the top of the ladder, he heaved Lucy's body over the top and onto the pier. Climbing up after, he assessed her condition, finding that, just as he'd feared, she wasn't breathing. Leaning over her, he began chest-compressions and resuscitation, hoping that would work on her alien anatomy. He was rewarded with her coughing and thrashing, as her eyes popped open once again.
Coughing and wheezing, the alien cop sat bolt upright, spraying water from her nose and mouth. Tom held her down, making her get her breath before she tried anything else. Then he began assessing her. "What's your name," he asked? "Lucy Mann," wheezed the Plumber. "Where are you," asked Tom? "On the docks," gasped Lucy. "What the hell happened?" "Hit and run," replied Tom. "Someone knocked us off the pier." "Our rogue," coughed Lucy. With a frown, Tom asked, "how do you figure that?" "It's what I'd do in her shoes," said Lucy. "I'm the one person everyone expects to be a Lenopan. If she murders me, that gets her an identity to use to get out of town." She was probably on her way to the Stack household as they spoke, which didn't leave them a lot of time. Mike would be on his way there, and their sludge-puppy spy might be waiting on him.
Mike was exhausted but elated as he walked into his mother's house after the crazy evening they'd just experienced. With experienced NYPD officers on guard through the night, they would have the scene preserved until he and his team could get back to it in the morning. After that, they could start to wrap things up here. He and Lucy could get home, and maybe, just maybe enjoy the vacation they'd missed. Val was up and sitting on the couch reading when Mike came through the door, which wasn't unusual but was a bit of a surprise. He'd been expecting his brother to be sitting there drunk out of his mind, staring at the TV. Instead he got Val.
The youngest Stack sibling gave her brother a smirk as he tottered through the door, looking like he'd run an all-day marathon. As Mike shut the door, she said, "I hope you didn't spend all that energy on the bad-guys, big brother..." Mike responded to that with a frown of puzzlement. Grinning, Val explained, "Lucy's taking a hot shower, and I think she's got something special planned for you." Mike's face went red hot. From a binge of getting sex whenever and wherever they felt like it, the two of them had dropped down to nothing the last week or so–really since Lucy's run in with the NYPD in the park. Mike had gotten the impression that his lady was just as frustrated as he was. Now it looked like they would get the release they both wanted. At the same time, he was a little embarrassed by the idea of having sex where his mother could hear them. Seeming to sense where his mind was going, Val remarked, "ma's out with her friends painting the town. She won't be back until morning."
Blushing, Mike headed for his old bedroom, wondering what he was going to find there. As embarrassed as he was about the idea, he was excited too, and he looked forward to intimate contact with his girlfriend. After a week of ups and downs and honestly not treating each other like they should, Mike wanted to reconnect with the woman he loved and to show her just how he felt about her. Dropping his badge, gun, and other gear in the bedroom, he slipped into his mother's bathroom to freshen up a little, splashing a little water on himself so he wasn't so sweaty and gamey. Then, slipping back into his own room, he headed over to the bed to get undressed.
On the way there, he found Lucy's suitcase, looking ransacked and kicked over–which wasn't like her at all. Lucy was organized to a fault. She had to be with the double-life she led. It looked a lot like somebody had torn through it, looking for something. Glancing over to the nightstand, he found Lucy's Passport sitting there. Frowning, Mike took a good look around the room, and he found a discarded dress there in the corner, laying across the back of the chair. He wondered then. He really wondered. Lucy had been wearing slacks and a pullover. They'd been on a case, and Lucy wore working attire when she was in the field, saving the sexy black dresses and the other stuff he liked for when they were out on the town. Take it easy, Mike, thought the cop. He knew Lucy had packed a nice dress to go to Val's graduation. She hadn't been able to wear it because they'd gotten side-tracked with the investigation. She might well have thrown the dress on the back of the chair while she was rooting around in her suitcase.
The more he thought about it, the more he was worried. They hadn't found their shapechanger. She was still out there somewhere, and Mike knew it was easy for a female to impersonate another female. It was doing men that Lucy always found difficult. So what should he do? Did he dare scan her? It was a necessary evil in the work they did that they had had themselves implanted with identifying technology, but it would sure spoil the moment! At the same time, laying in bed with someone who meant him harm wasn't a very arousing prospect either. Think, Mike, he thought. You need a plan to stay alive, and you need a plan not to wreck the night with Lucy.
The beautiful alien girl came out of the bathroom humming a popular tune, which in itself was nothing new. What was odd was that it was one of the brash new-age pop songs that Lady Gaga put out. Lucy, being from a backwater town in Wyoming, preferred music from the eighties and nineties. Her taste in music was slowly growing, but she still hadn't advanced to the current day. Though Mike often kept the radio in his car on popular stations, Lucy as often as not was focused on other things. Where would she have gotten to liking that song?
His eyes drifted from her beautiful face–and those heart-stopping eyes–to her bountiful, bulging boobies encased in a teddy in hot-pink silk. It was one of his favorite numbers, and she wore it whenever she really wanted to get him worked up. Underneath she was wearing a pair of nearly transparent panties held on by the tiniest of strings tied at her broad hips. Hips wiggle-waggling like a two-dollar whore, the lady came strolling across to him. "Hey, baby," she breathed. The voice sounded just right, and the note of sexual hunger in it had his gentleman standing proud, making a tent out of the bedsheets. Lucy licked her lips in hunger at the sight of that.
"What do you want tonight, handsome," cooed his girl? Mike frowned in puzzlement a moment. She'd had her hands behind her back, and now she brought out a magazine. Maxim. With one of the hottest new models on the cover in all her scantily clad glory. "I picked this up," said she. "I thought you might like it." Mike's mind went back to his conversation with Tim–and the many conversations he'd had with Lucy over the last year. That was what decided him. Slipping his hand under the pillow, he came up with a large-frame Glock that Ben had breathed on using one of his alien personas. The ammo didn't come cheap, so he'd never had much use for it in his regular police work, but when he'd gotten the call from the Old Man to take on this job as a favor, Mike had had Molly go collect the pistol from his digs in Bellwood. Now he leveled the pistol on the woman in front of him.
She didn't even try to pretend. Instead, she calmly asked, "what gave me away?" "There was a lot of small-stuff," Mike admitted. "Luce never throws her stuff around like that, and you left her passport out where I could see it. Biggest thing though was the magazine. I never ask Lucy to be anybody but Lucy." There was a moment where a strange emotion seemed to pass across his adversary's face. Softly, she said, "damn. She does have a nice life... You're the first guy I ever met who'd turn it down..." Mike shrugged, "I love her just like she is, whichever way she looks." There was real regret in her eyes as she realized just who's life she'd tried to steal. Everything the other woman had said was all true. She had a fantastic guy, and she was living the life. Mike slipped the handcuffs out and tossed them on the floor. "I'm not going," rumbled the alien girl. "I'm not fucking going to the null-void..." "You've only got a fifty-fifty shot at surviving this. I don't want to kill you," said Mike. The alien retorted, "but if I surrender, after committing murder, I'm going into the null-void forever." "You're in New York," replied Mike. "Technically, you're on NYPD territory. You could plea and get life in the New York state pen." "Just as bad, and I know that nasty old man won't go for it," growled the alien.
She was building herself up, and Mike knew it. They were at the crux. Just as he expected, the fake Lucy grew to tremendous size there in the room, and he knew she'd be compressing her organs and moving pieces around to make herself a harder kill. Her hand formed a sharpened spike of razor-sharp bone, meant to pierce his skull at the weakest point, so she could get his memories. After, she'd use his shape to slip away and disappear. Mike was calm in the face of that. Unlike nearly every human on the face of the Earth, he'd faced this down before. He'd faced it down a number of times, and he'd even been in the Plumbers' version of a shoot-house, testing himself against extra-terrestrial threats. Now, as that lance of bone neared his face, he took careful aim just below her head and let fly.
The report was thunderous in the confines of his old bedroom. Even with the borrowed tech implanted in his skull, his ears were still ringing. The alien stopped immediately, and those sinous limbs went completely lip. The mud-creature let forth a hideous wailing, as she collapsed to the floor. Mike slipped out of bed and moved to her side, standing over her with his pistol aimed at her head. She was dead already though. He'd severed her spine just below the neck. It was the revelation that Lucy gave him that was his clue. She did have ribs and bones under her very malleable skin. She could disjoint those limbs. She could displace the bones, using them as literal shields for her organs. She could double the size of her body. Still, somewhere in that gelatinous mass was a spine and a spinal-cord. He'd had a hunch that a Lenopan wouldn't think to move the spinal-cord around–that maybe they couldn't. Now his hunch was confirmed.
"You could have had a good life," sighed Mike, as he watched the light leave her eyes. Just then his brother, Bill Jr. burst in the door, looking like he'd just been scared sober by the sound of a gunshot in his home. He had his service-pistol in his hands and a look of shock and horror on his face. "Put the gun down," shouted Billy Stack! "Goddamit, put the gun down!" Mike knew what this looked like, and he knew he didn't have the time or space to argue right now. He put the Glock on the floor, and his brother kicked it away.
Billy backed him up against the wall. "Mikey," sobbed Billy. "What did you do? Why'd you do this? She was a sweet girl, Mikey... I know I was an asshole, but God, Mikey..." "Wasn't her," Mike tried to explain. "Mikey," sobbed Billy, "you killed that girl..." He was drunk and a little irrational. It was hard enough for a cop to manage being rational in the face of cold-blooded murder, but with Bill drunk and Mike standing over a dead body that had been wearing Lucy's face, he knew it was going to be a hard sell. All he could do was hang on and not double his tragedy. He wanted to go out and find Lucy. He was praying that she was alright. He feared this bitch had killed his girl, but he wouldn't get to go looking if he did something dumb and got shot by Billy.
Val appeared in the door, and Mike could see the horror on her face. Billy growled, "call 911, Val!" Val hesitated. "Now," shouted Billy! Val scooted out of there. The older man stepped back. Indicating the cuffs on the floor, he said, "put 'em on, Mikey." Mike edged forward and picked up the cuffs. Under his brother's watchful eye, Mike Stack put his own handcuffs on. Then the waiting began. Minutes stretched into eternity as they waited on patrol to arrive.
As he stood there crying, Billy began to curse himself. He was balling his eyes out and muttering curses, and the things he said left Mike speechless. "I was jealous," howled the older man! "You had it together! You had everything, Mikey! You had that nice girl! She was so into you, man! She didn't care that you were a cop! I threw away my life drinkin', Mikey, and I was so jealous that you were happy! I wished you would end up just like me... a fucking burnout! I wanted her to dump you! I'm so sorry, Mikey..."
While Billy babbled, a pair of cruisers came roaring up to the house as Val stood watch in a state of shock. She'd come to love Lucy. She loved her sister-in-law, and she was disturbed and devastated to think her brother could do something like this. She didn't know what she was going to tell Ma. How could she explain this to Ma? Everything had been going so well. They were all talking about going out to Wyoming together–to go see Lucy's parents and spend some time together as a family. Now this.
As the devastated young woman stood there staring into the darkness, wearing her housecoat and shivering on the porch, an unlikely figure got out of one of the squad cars. It was Lucy, and she was wearing a blanket and looking like she'd just gone for a dip in the Hudson. Running up the stairs to the house, she said, "Val! Is everything alright?!" Val stared at her in shock. And then Val crumpled, passing out on the spot. Rolling her eyes, Lucy moved to step over her sister-in-law, but the cop who'd picked her and Tom up stopped her. "If you're right," said the cop, "your nasty friend's in there. We need to clear the house. Stay put..." "Here," said Lucy. "Take my badge. If my fiance's in there, it will glow when you're near him." "Thanks," said the cop. Then he and his partner grimly stepped into the house, announcing, "police! Come out with your hands up!" "Back here," shouted Billy! "We're back here! I've got him covered!"
As Lucy sat there on the porch, cradling her sister-in-law, she heard the commotion as the cops grabbed both men and hauled them out. They weren't sure just what was going on, but they had a corpse on the floor and two guys standing over it. Moments later, as the two brothers were brought into the living room–Billy repeating over and over again 'he shot her. He just shot her.' Lucy propped Val against the railing and entered the house, announcing, "Mike?! Mike, are you alright?!" Grimly, Mike replied, "I could ask you the same thing." Billy's eyes bugged out! He'd seen the corpse on the floor! Mildly, Mike explained, "wadn't her. Was the mole who'd infiltrated the department." To Lucy, he said, "I'm guessing she got your face from the interview."
The two beat-cops were confused as anything. Lucy made the explanations, "the body in the room is an alien shape-changer. Apparently she thought she'd drown me and come here and steal my life." Billy and the two beat-cops gawped at her. "I've got it from here," said Lucy. "Thanks guys. I really appreciate the help." The two cops were kind enough to bring Val inside and lay her on the couch. "Why are you soaking wet," asked Mike? "And how is it you're alive," asked Billy? "First thing's first," replied Lucy. Holding up her badge, she scanned it across her shoulder so Mike could indeed see that it really was her.
"Tom and I headed out after we got the scene cleaned up," explained Lucy. "Halfway down the pier, a garbage-truck came out of nowhere and slammed into the car. Knocked us into the East River. Tom's car sank like a stone, and I nearly drowned. Tom's quick thinking got us out of there..." Blushing, she admitted, "Tom gave me mouth-to-mouth. Hope you don't mind." Mildly Mike replied, "I'd like to bronze his lips." "I'm guessing," said Lucy, "she figured she'd kill me and take over my life." Then, after a puzzled frown, Lucy said, "judging by the fact that you're half-naked, I'm guessing she almost succeeded.
"Wasn't as close as you think," laughed Mike. "Val told me that you were waiting up on me and looking frisky. I wasn't sure it wasn't you, and after weeks of nothing, I didn't want to spoil the mood." So he'd gone along with the plan for a while until he had proof that it wasn't Lucy. Frowning, his bride asked, "if you didn't scan her, what gave her away?" Mike shrugged, "she handed me a Maxim and asked me what I wanted..." Lucy blushed to her hair. She'd asked if he wanted that, and he'd flat told her that he would never ask her to do that. He looked at it as violating her, and she'd had to agree. They'd never talked about it again.
Lucy went to hug her lover, but Billy got there first. He grabbed the beautiful girl and hugged the stuffing out of her, even stroking her long blond hair for good measure. It was a surprising turn of events after one hell of a night. Just then, Val woke up. She almost fainted again at the sight of Bill Jr. hugging Lucy. "I-I...," stammered Val! "Mikey shot you!" "Mike shot an impostor," grumped Lucy. "She tried to drown me in the East River and steal my life." Val grumbled, "that explains a lot..." At Lucy's puzzled frown, Val explained, "she said she lost her key, but we never gave you a key. She didn't even know where Mike's room was." She'd bluffed her way past Val. Stepping towards Val, Lucy hugged her sister-in-law and said, "I'm just glad that you didn't get hurt, sweetie. That's twice now you've been sucked into my world." She wasn't happy about that.
Blushing, Val admitted, "it was kind of exciting..." It still was. "Molly will be here soon to gather up the body," sighed Lucy. After that, I'm afraid this house may get invaded by CSI. You guys should gather up what you can for clothing. Mike and I may have to put you up in a hotel. At least until we can get the Commissioner to void the investigation." "Shit," groaned Bill Jr. If she was on the force, we'll be out of the house for weeks!" Grinning, Val announced, "we can go shopping!"