SR1 inspired by a prompt ('Trouble Lurking'). This was coming, but it didn't make it any easier to get done.

"I don't know what to tell you, man." Troy tapped his cigarette on the small ashtray in front of him and shrugged. "It's been a busy couple of weeks. You read the update I sent, it's all there."

"Busy's right. Just wanted to hear it from you since it's been months now. Besides, there's nothing like trading tales and bad coffee, right?"

"Nope. Nothing like it."

"Still, Hector Lopez, one mean son-of-a-bitch, dead. Never thought the day would come and Angelo's already crumbling." Tim, his handler, took another cup of coffee when the waitress offered it, and continued once she was on the other side of the diner. "Any word on the Colombians?"

"They're unimpressed. Pretty much cut the link before Hector's body was cold. Orejuela's also apparently been fucking around with Angelo's woman, so that relationship's been on the rocks for a while now. If one doesn't shoot the other before long, I wouldn't be surprised."

"Good. Maybe that'll save us the trouble."

Troy held his coffee cup up, but didn't drink any. "Trouble? I'm thinking of the paperwork."

"Nothing'll ever save us from that shit. Give it up. Anything new with those Westside punks?"

"They're feeling it too. They need their cars to function just as much as the Carnales need their drugs, and we've crippled them bad. Hell, it's all our plant's doing. They're taking them apart."

"They?"

The coffee was burnt, but Troy was desperate enough for caffeine to ignore it. "Old habit. Remember Lin? I've given you the works on this at least twice."

Tim waved him off. "Yeah, yeah. You've written a book on this by now. They could write a book on you."

His grip tightened on his cigarette, but Tim didn't notice. "Make one of those shitty True Crime movies?"

"By the end of this you could. Anyway, back to the Rollerz. That's running good?"

"Yeah, the only thing that's dragging is the shit with the VK's and I've already said my piece on that to you and the Chief."

Tim didn't take the dismissal for what it was, a cue to drop it, but Troy didn't think he would. "Gat's still throwing his weight around. Nothing you can do on that end?"

"No."

The firm response made him raise an eyebrow. "No?"

"He's too high profile. You want to take out Johnny Gat, you need to plan for it. Now's not the time with things starting to swing in our favor, and don't you try to fucking push it."

The whistle that came from Tim was high pitched, and Troy realized he was holding his cup too tight. "It's my job to ask. Remember that."

He forced himself to relax. "Yeah, man, I get it. It's just the long haul to end all long hauls. Things are picking up ,and I'm trying to stay careful."

"Good, because we can only do so much for you. Dig deep, but not too deep. I don't need to go over the same shit you've learned to recite in your sleep, do I?"

Troy took another drink of his coffee and began to enjoy the way the bitter stuff went down. "Nope."

"Great. Now why don't we order some damn food already? Fucking breakfast at night, man. You can't go wrong with that."

The coffee was about all he could stand, and by the time he left Troy wondered how he'd managed to go from relaxed to tense in record time.

But he'd been wound up from the moment Tim had called to get him out here, and when no part of the conversation revealed any changes to his current angle or routine it pissed him off more. It was a risk to meet up, even in neutral areas like this, and that was only done if something critical had come up, he'd failed to update, or he was being pulled.

All they did was shoot the shit in an old diner for a couple of hours, and the blatant waste of his time irritated him even if the two of them were on friendly terms.

He turned on his car and puffed away at his cigarette as he tried to get to the nearest Brown Baggers. Could still salvage the evening with a drink. "And maybe wash the taste of that damn coffee out," he muttered.

The green light in front of him had just turned yellow when his phone started going off. He yanked it out as he slid to a stop and spotted V's number. The clock was pushing eleven, which was strange, but he'd had calls from her late before. This wasn't too out of bounds.

"Hey." He could hear the phone shuffling and being moved around, almost roughly. No one answered, however. "V? Are you there?"

It wasn't obvious at first, but he could hear breathing. Uneven, heavy breathing. "Hey there. This is bad."

Her chuckle turned into a cough, the sound wet and harsh. It made his hair stand on end. "W-what's bad?"

"I'm bleeding all over the place, man," she said, her voice coming in and out. "Lin's worse. Sharp knew."

Both facts hit him at once and he needed to get to them. "Where are you?"

"Lin's still trapped. I got out, but couldn't-" The phone shuffled and her words were even more unclear. "-river. Shot us and dumped us in the fucking bay. Prick. Fucking prick put us in her car."

He jerked the wheel in the direction of the river and cut across a car that was dragging its wheels. "Hey, relax. I've got you. I'm on my way over and I want you to stay put. I'll send someone for Lin, but I need you to get some pressure on your wound." Static cut in and he felt his heart jump. "V?"

It faded to nothing and the call dropped. That kicked his nerves into overdrive.

He immediately jumped to the next number on his list and tried not to miss a beat. He didn't have time to. "I need someone out to the bay to check for a blue Voxel. There's someone trapped inside and they need medical attention now."

"Can I get your name, Officer-"

"It's Bradshaw, and I don't have the time or luxury to rattle off my badge number. Get over there and get them out before they drown, for fuck's sake!"

He hung up and thought fast. Did he need to call Tim? The line he called should've covered it, but he didn't know. His mental checklist frayed and he pushed it back into order as he skidded closer to his destination.

The hell are you, V? Please be close, please be...

His eyes widened at the sight of a junky car stuck on a piece of debris, and he pulled up beside it, his fingers slipping on the seatbelt. It finally came loose and he jumped out to run over to the driver's side.

He got the door open and V stared up at him, her head slumped on the wheel. "...Boy, you sure know how to drag your feet, Troy."

She started to push herself up and his arms shot out to help her. Every inch of her was soaked, even her damn hat, and her teeth were trying not to chatter. The purple hoodie wrapped around her midsection was a shade of red she never touched, and when her hands floated up to brush him away he could see that they were bleeding too.

"Easy, easy. Thought I told you to get some pressure on that wound there?"

"Sharp. He's out there still."

He leaned her back so that she could rest on the seat and placed a gentle pressure on the area he suspected the gunshot was. "We'll get the fucker, but I need you with me here, V. Help's coming for Lin, and everything will be okay."

Her eyes were dark and ready to believe anything. "Okay?"

"Close enough to okay," he replied, feeling his voice waver.

"I'll take it. ...You've got some pretty eyes, you know that? There's a thing they do when light hits them...brown to green, or some shit," she mumbled, her head tilted to get a better look at him. "Can't get enough of it."

Her eyelids were drooping, and he cupped the side of her face as he tried to get his mind in line. "Are you trying to come on to me, because you're picking a fucking strange time, V."

"I would have shit timing. You're not bad at all, chief."

"Christ." Her skin was cool and wasn't getting any warmer. "You're fucking gorgeous."

The smile that comment got was small, and made his stomach twist as it faded. The pressure he was placing on the wound wasn't going to cut it. He needed to get her out of here now, and before that he needed to move her.

"V? Please don't fall asleep on me now, because I need you talking to me. Singing, rambling, complaining, anything." Her eyes fluttered, but didn't focus on much as he pulled her arm around the back of his neck. "Got to move you too. Quick and fast, okay?"

His other arm curled under her knees and he lifted her as carefully as possible. The action made her wince as he rushed her over to the passenger seat of his car, and when he set her down he pressed her hands down over the temporary dressing.

"Hold that down for me. Can you do that?" She nodded, pale, but present and he smiled as he buckled her seatbelt. Then he threw himself behind the wheel and twisted the key. "Okay, I want you to start counting to one hundred."

"C-counting?"

They took off, and he tried not to stare over at her. "Or you can start rattling off every insult in your book. Whichever you're more comfortable with."

"...I'm not looking great, am I?"

"You're a million bucks," he replied, nailing a corner without jostling her too much. His blood ran in his ears and he was starting to have trouble hearing her over it. "Hey, let's get the radio on. Want to bet it'll be the usual?"

He flicked it on and she tried to laugh. "Fuck. Old and angry just the way I like it."

"Our station always delivers, eh?"

"Y-yeah."

The hospital was too far off and he wished it was anyone else behind the wheel. He wasn't fast enough or precise enough to push his luck. "Know this one by heart enough to sing?"

She nodded out of the corner of his eye and he took another turn way too fast. The cops in the area were going to tag him at this rate, and he'd let them chase him all the way to the emergency room.

"I'm shit at the first verse, but the chorus is easy. You don't mind back up, right?"

Nothing came from his right and his knuckles were white on the wheel. "V?"

Her hand's grip was loosening on the cloth over her side, and her eyes were focused on a blank spot in front of her. No response. Everything went cold, and he wasn't ready to accept that yet.

"V? Wake up. Wake the fuck up, because this isn't it! We're not done here, and I'm not doing this on my own! You got that?"

Something unintelligible came out of her mouth and he nearly swiped the car by him as he passed it. When he screeched into the hospital's parking lot he wasn't hearing anything from her anymore, and he ran her in on instinct alone. Said anything and everything to anyone who'd respond and found himself watching helplessly as they wheeled her off and refused to let him follow.

His badge wasn't anywhere near his person, but it was the only thing he could think of as he ran through the procedure that came with ID-ing a body at a crime scene. He still hadn't heard back from the people heading to the spot where Lin should've been, and listened intently for anything. Confirmations, denials, anything.

Would this end the same? No word at all as she bled out on the operating table?

He didn't even know her name.

Bile rose in his throat as he marched over to the nearest bathroom to try and scrub himself clean. Blood was still on his hands as they gripped the sides of the sink, and he choked down a breath as he told himself to inhale. Then exhale. Then inhale.

Each one stuttered just enough to make him clench his jaw, and he couldn't stand it.

He didn't know. He didn't know a damn thing and could do even less.

"What happened?"

Troy didn't move his eyes from her as Johnny stood by her bedside. The need for a cigarette was eating at him now, and would continue to do so until he was able to go outside. "It was a trap. Somehow Lin was made, and they got her to call V. Sharp must've figured he could kill two birds with one stone."

Julius followed his eyes, and Troy had never seen the other man appear so severe. "Almost did. If he'd been a better shot we'd be doing more than mourning Lin."

"That shouldn't have happened."

"What? Lin?" Troy's mouth was set in a thin line as Julius held himself up straighter. "We needed the information, and she did exactly what was expected of her. Went beyond that. …Then pushed too far. She was a smart girl, but they played it smarter."

And safer. Undercover work was a balance. A tightrope thin under your feet. Lin made waves, and he knew she would. He had to know.

The amount of indifference coming off of Julius in that moment made his skin crawl. He expected some distance due to the fact that they were losing people every day, but this was Lin. One of their top few. Lin, the Chinatown racer that didn't give a shit what anyone thought of her. She was gone and Julius was acting like there'd barely been a change in the weather.

"Was it worth it?"

Julius met his eyes and didn't give an inch. "It will be."

He cracked the door open and went inside, leaving Troy alone and shaken. That didn't last long, however, as Johnny made his exit and slammed the door behind him.

"Sharp's a dead man."

"Whoa," Troy said, grabbing his arm as he went right by him. "Hang on a second!"

Gat spun on him fast. "What? You got something to say?"

Impulse had made him stop him, but now that he had, he did have something to share. "You want Sharp?"

He raised his chin. "Yeah."

"Well, he made a big fucking mistake. I can have people on him in a couple of hours. Give me a few more than that, and I'll give you every place he's ever stopped to take a goddamn coffee break."

"And you'll serve him up?"

"On a fucking platter."

Johnny tilted his head to the side, assessing him, then grinned. "Getting your hands dirty for once? That's not like you."

All Troy did in return was cross his arms. "No, it's not."

"Should do it more often," he said, heading down the hall.

He watched as the hands on his watch made slow revolutions after that. Julius hadn't left V alone yet, and he didn't know if he'd be allowed in there. Ten minutes passed while he considered this, until he went ahead and knocked anyway.

Julius looked up and he cracked the door open. V laid in her bed, shock plastered across her face, and Julius stopped him before he could get any closer.

"We need her out. The berries aren't going to be busy for long, and they're going to come here."

Troy rubbed his eyes and glanced over at her. "I can hold them off for a bit, but yeah. I'll get her out, Jules."

"Dex is checking into a few other things with Sharp and Price. Get in touch with him once you're both far from this place."

V was watching them now with mild interest, but squeezed her eyes shut after a few seconds. Her bandaged hands went to her face shortly after Julius left, and when he reached her he could tell she was crying.

Did he-did he actually...?

He touched her arm lightly, withdrawing it after, unsure if any contact would be welcome. "Hey, it's okay. You're okay."

"No. No, no, no."

Lin. He could hear her talk about Lin, and she pried one of her hands away from her face to take his. Then she tried to grab his arm, and he wrapped one around her as she continued to shake.

He wasn't going anywhere. Not if he could help it.