Chapter 26 – Tell me about it

Three weeks had passed and Lily was at her law firm doing some paperwork. She'd reorganized her schedule after being accepted on the NYPD and was working there for two or three hours after her shift every day. Her partners had agreed with her new working hours as long as she stayed involved with the firm and so far she'd kept her promise. She was, after all, the boss and therefore had a lot of responsibilities.

A man in his mid-forties entered suddenly, firing a shot at the ceiling and telling everyone to stay still. Lily rushed to the reception area and so did James Walsh, one of her partners. I would reword this. It seems disjointed during this part of the story. Maybe something like this: Keeping to her promise, she was working late one afternoon, only slightly tired after working a ten hour patrol shift, when she heard a gunshot out in the reception area. Her instincts rushed forward as she practically ran from her office, on the heels of James Walsh, one of the partners. What they found was a man in his mid-forties standing in front of the receptionist, gun in hand, telling everyone to stay still.

'What's going on here?' asked James with a powerful voice.

'Nobody moves until I get the divorce cancelled,' the gunman stated.

Lily thought quickly. She knew that she might be able to talk her way out of the situation. 'If you tell me your name we can do something about it,' she said.

'Jack Holden. My wife's Patty Holden.'

James ordered one of the secretaries to find the divorce papers on their records. There were some tense couple of minutes while the secretary complied with his request. When she did, he read the file.

'I'm very sorry Mr. Holden but,' he swallowed, 'the divorce is already finished. You signed the papers …'

'No, there must be something you can do. You sneaky lawyers can always find something,' he shouted as he pointed the gun at James.

Lily decided to intervene. 'Sir, I can count al least ten criminal charges that can be dropped on you after the last ten minutes, don't make it worse,' Lily tried to convince him.

She thought she saw a flicker of doubt in his mind, a softening of his resolve and she sighed internally in relief as she saw the gun begin to lower. Unfortunately, the door opened behind him and Billy, a sophomore at NYU who delivered documents for the firm, completely unaware of the hostage situation, entered.

The gunman turned around after hearing the door open and thinking it was a police officer, fired. He hit Billy on the chest, eliciting screams and cries from his co-workers.

'Billy!' Lily screamed and ran to the boy, not caring about the man pointing a gun at her. She used her jacket to try to stop the bleeding but it wasn't really working. Where the hell are the cops? She cursed mentally. Did anyone call them?

Jack Holden looked shocked at what had just happened. 'I didn't mean to – thought he was a cop.'

'We have to call the paramedics,' James made an attempt to grab the phone.

'No!' Holden yelled as he pointed the gun back at James.

'Don't make it worse, don't let him die …' he pleaded.

'You let Billy die, I'll make it my personal mission to stick as many charges on you as I can, I'll even try to get you capital punishment,' Lily growled as she pressed her jacket harder into the wound.

'You don't want her doing that,' said James. 'She's the best.'

Blood stopped gushing from Billy's wound and Lily didn't need to check his pulse to know he'd died. She stood and walked to the gunman.

'Don't move,' the gun was pointed at her heart.

'Are you gonna kill me too?' she made a motion as if she was going to step back but instead grabbed the gun and took it from Holden. He froze and the rest of the people witnessing it sighed. It was over.

'On your knees,' she commanded but he didn't move. 'Get on your knees, dammit!'

Holden slowly got to the floor, a smirk on his face. 'Kill me, I know you want to.'

'I'd love to. But the pleasure of seeing you rot in jail will be even better.'

First responders entered, guns drawn and took charge of the situation. When Flack walked in ten minutes later, he was afraid of what he might find. The suspect already taken to be booked and he let out a breath after seeing his girlfriend talking to one of her colleagues.

'Lil, what happened, babe?' his voice was soft as he enveloped her in a hug. She didn't answer but motioned him to do his work and find out.

Some minutes later, after getting some statements from witnesses and talking to first on scene he had a pretty good idea of what had happened and wasn't too pleased about it.

'Do you have a death wish? Or do you just disarm gunmen as a hobby?' his tone was hard.

'Oh, so I should have waited to see how many of my employees he was gonna kill?' she was still upset.

'You can't keep risking your life like that.'

'These are my people, Don! It's my job to protect them, not get them killed.'

'I know you feel like that but you're just a lawyer, not a superhero.'

Lily bit her lip, knowing that her secret was going to come out once he found out about her reactions, but her temper flared. 'I'm responsible for them. If taking care of my people is being a superhero then I guess I should find a good costume,' she was furious.

'Flower! What the hell were you thinking?!' a man in his late twenties walked to the couple, completely enraged.

'Steve, please not now,' Lily pleaded.

Flack was curious as to the identity of this man.

'Sir, this is a crime scene, you can't be here,' the detective moved in front of his girlfriend, protection-mode activated.

'I'm a cop,' he showed the silver badge and continued his rant against Lily. 'Are you outta your mind?! You wanna get yourself killed?'

'Please not you too!'

'You thought I wouldn't get mad when I knew about it? I couldn't believe my ears when I heard it on the radio.'

'Steve, c'mon! You would have done the same!' she answered back.

'Without a vest, a gun or back up? You wanna die that much?' his voice could be heard all the way to Brooklyn.

Flack still didn't know who this man was but he liked him already. They were on the same page.

'See? I'm not the only one who thinks you're crazy,' Flack gave her a pointed look.

'You're one lucky bitch, Flower!' the officer grunted and hugged Lily.

'He was just a boy, Steve,' she said softly as tears started rolling down her cheeks.

When the hug finished Flack took her in his arms.

'I'm officer Steve Craig,' he extended his hand, remembering he'd been too angry to introduce himself.

'Detective Don Flack,' he shook his hand.

'So you're Flower's boyfriend? Nice to finally meet you.'

'Sorry I can't say the same, Lily's never mentioned you. How did you two meet?' he was a bit apprehensive.

'I'm her training officer.'

'Training officer?' Flack's eyes went wide as he looked at his girlfriend.

'You said he knew,' Steve was surprised too.

'I'm working as a cop, Don.'

'If you don't mind Steve, we'll talk about it at home. Nice meeting you,' he took her girlfriend out of the building and to his car.

'Were you never gonna tell me?' he asked, hurt evident in his voice.

'I didn't know how to. Didn't want you to react like this, I'm sorry.'

'No, no. You gotta stop apologizing and start being honest.'

'I've been working as a patrol cop in the 10th precinct for three weeks. That's what I talked about with Sergeant Lucas that time they arrested me.'

'I can't believe it!' he shook his head. 'What if something happened to you? I would have found out after you got hurt.'

'I know and I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to get mad.'

'Well, I'm really pissed off right now!'

'I'm sorry,' she whispered.

'Can't you be honest with me for a change?'

'If I didn't tell you it was because I didn't want you to hate me. I knew it'd make you angry.'

'Any more secrets I should know? You got a kid or something?'

'No, that's all,' she smiled. 'But you could help me create a kid.'

'You know practice makes perfect so: practice with me and make it with someone else,' he grinned.

'Then I'd rather practice forever!' Lily kissed him.

'A'right, but not here,' he said and she kissed him again, hotter this time. 'I have to get back to work. Mind if I swing by your place to talk after my shift?'

'I'll be waiting,' she kissed him for the third time and left the car.

Some hours later Flack knocked on her door.

'Sorry for screaming at you earlier. I know you were upset for the kid's death and I shouldn't have …' he sat on the couch, loosening his tie.

'It's okay, I deserved it.'

'I don't want you working as a uniform,' he stated.

'Why not?'

'Why? 'Cause it's too dangerous.'

'Living is dangerous, Don. I could get hit by a bus on my way to the store.'

'But this is an extra risk,' he bit his lip before confessing. 'If it was up to me, I'd put you in a bubble where nothing and no one could hurt you; not even me. I don't want to see you suffer.'

'Aww, that's sweet. But you can't protect me from the world,' she caressed his cheek. 'I appreciate it.'

'I know what it's like to be on the streets and it's not something I want you to experience. There's too much at risk, too much to lose. I just couldn't bear to get that phone call, you know?'

'I get exactly what you mean. That's how I feel too.'

'You do?' they had never talked about it so Flack was somewhat surprised.

'A knot in the stomach, praying that you'll come home after your shift, hoping you don't get hurt; yeah, I worry a lot about you.'

'Is this revenge? You want me to suffer too?'

'Never. It's just something I need to do.'

He sighed and kissed her.

'So we are okay?' asked Lily.

'Almost.'

'What can I do to fix that?'

'I can think of a few things,' he said in her ear before kissing her neck.

Lily straddled Flack and kissed him a couple of times. One of his hands was fondling her butt while the other one was under her sweater, caressing Lily's back. That's when they were interrupted by his cell phone ringing. He groaned as she moved over.

'You have to go back?' she asked disappointedly.

'Sorry, Lil,' he kissed her and left.

Maybe Flack was right. One in the couple being a cop was crazy enough, the two of them was probably too much. But she really needed to do this, she just had to. There were a few couples with both people in the force and they worked perfectly well. The fact that two of the women were on desk duty ever since getting married was neither here nor there. They were happy and that was all that counted, right? She and Flack had gone through a lot of things already so this didn't have to be a major problem. It's gonna be alright. Yeah, we're gonna be okay.

Pretty intense chapter, gotta thank sparkyCSI for helping with the action scenes; you're amazing!

Also, a huge, enormous thanks to BlueEyedAuthor. Your support is fantastic, really appreciate it and hope you don't get disappointed.