Over the next few days, Street drops by Chris's place multiple times. Every time he checks if her truck is in the lot, and still no one opens the door for him. He'd swear he heard her move to the door more than once. He even tried calling her, but she must've been screening her calls. He only ever got Chris's voicemail.
"Please, call me back. Talk to me. Let me help!" he pleads with her through text but never receives a message in return.
At the end of their shift block, Tan corners him into going for a beer. "I think we both need to get out of our heads for once," his friend tells him while nodding his head to Chris's locker.
"Maybe I am just worried about her. She hasn't returned any of my calls or texts," he sighs, defeated. "But let's try to focus on something else," Street tries to also get out of his dark thoughts. "How is the wedding planning going? Did you find a solution?"
Tan laughs. "Well, that's definitely a topic for some drinks,"
It feels good to hear Tan and Bonnie at least haven't given up on getting married, even if the dream party might be only possible at a later time.
At the end of their night, they settle their tab and are about to head out when Tan taps Street's arm and points to one of the booths in the back.
"Is that who I think it is?"
Street squints. He knows this bar, and in the back usually are only the seediest of lowlifes and their flavor of the night. He wants to say no way, but in that moment, the guy turns her around, and from the profile, he can recognize Chris clear as day.
Street has to swallow. She is wearing even less material than when he found her at that traffic stop. And seeing that guy's hands move across her body, he wants to vomit.
Tan taps his arm again. "Should we maybe go and rescue her," he motions to the second guy at the table, who notably seems to be working over some sort of white powder with a credit card. Street's stomach drops again, but he nods and walks over with his friend. He is almost sure Chris saw them, and he'd swear she held eye contact with him for a second before turning back to the guy she was draped all over and kissing him.
"Hey," Tan steps over to her after probably seeing the exact same exchange right now that stops Street dead in his tracks. He positions himself at the edge of the booth so he can keep an eye on the other men in their vicinity.
Chris smiles droopily at Tan while the asshole lets his hands rest on her ass. Street balls his fists, trying to contain his anger at the obvious way that guy is taking advantage of a clearly fully drunk, almost out-of-it woman. He can't bring himself to think of her as Chris right now, or he will lose it for sure.
"Don't you think you had enough?" Tan asks Chris. "I can take care of myself," Chris replies and stands up. She is swaying dangerously; this time, Street can't hold back and takes two steps to stabilize her. Chris still has some fight in her and pushes against his chest. "Get your hands off me,"
Street swallows and catches Tan's confused stare. His friend immediately refocuses, though, and looks at Chris again. Deep worry evident on his face.
"Come on, doll, let's go. These two have killed my buzz," the guy pulls on Chris's hand, and she stumbles against him. His hand, again, rests against her ass. Tan steps to his side and places a hand on Chris's shoulder.
"Chris, this is enough. You're coming with us," he says, but she vehemently shakes her head. "I am going nowhere with him."
"You heard the lady," the idiot grins.
"You're lucky she's in a good mood. The last guy who had his hands where yours are now found himself on the floor, yelping in pain. She is staying with me," Tan squares his shoulders, and by now, Chris actually leans on him.
"And how are you going to do that?" another man from the group now towers next to his buddy, but Street's brain kicks in quickly, even if he is still in shock after hearing Tan's words. He pulls out the shield from his pocket, and the whole group has cleared out in what seems like a flash.
Chris clings to Tan, so Street pulls out his phone to order an Uber. After a little discussion, they get Chris to get into the car with them, and she quickly falls asleep.
"We can't just drop her off at her apartment," Tan looks at him pointedly and then back to the sleeping woman sprawled across his lap. Street frowns. He had been trying to figure this one out, too.
"The ideal solution would be one of us staying with her, or better yet, since I don't actually want to know where she has her key, take her to your place, "Tan continues, but the way he put emphasis on your Street knows even Tan has figured out that something is seriously wrong between them right now.
"Listen, you have until we are at your place to explain why that's not a good idea," Tan continues, "I just have a bad feeling leaving her alone, and I am sure you'd prefer not to explain to Bonnie why that idea wasn't chosen."
Street swallows. His friend is making a good point. If Tan takes Chris with him or stays with her, this will get blown way more out of proportion than it already was.
"She is just too angry with me right now. I think she blamed her suspension on me, but I had no choice. Hicks and Hondo already had most of the answers,"
Tan furrows his brow at hearing his frustration. "What exactly happened?"
"Tony ran a traffic stop. And called me to come to pick her up. She was driving and well, hopefully with a lot less in her system, but nonetheless…" he trails off, seeing Tan's shocked expression.
"Oh God," Tan breathes out. "I didn't realize it was this bad…" he trails off, and the two share a pointed look.
By the time Tan had filled Street in on the blender incident, the car had pulled up outside Luca's place. They paid the driver and decided to bring Chris in together.
"We can put her in Luca's room. The bed is freshly made up," Street explains, pushing the door open. He quickly also pulls out some sweats, a T-shirt from his closet to put on the nightstand, a bottle of water, and some aspirin.
When he walks back out to the living room, Tan has taken a seat on the sofa.
"You still haven't explained to me why Chris didn't call you that night. Either night, actually."
"What did she tell you?" Street deflects and plops down onto the sofa.
"Nothing really, just that you had enough on your plate, and she didn't want to bother you with picking her up, after the bartender confiscated her keys," Tan explains softly and then looks at his watch.
"Listen, I gotta go. But if there is anything…" he trails off with a look down the hallway.
Street nods, and just moments later, the front door is closed again. He wipes his hands over his face. Putting all of this together. Knowing Chris would rather call up Tan than him to be picked up. That she probably had been driving drunk for a while.
His heart shatters into a million pieces, but at the same time, he is so thankful nothing bad happened. Yet.
His mind goes back to the moment Tan pointed her out in that skimpy outfit, surrounded by guys, alcohol, and drugs. His insides contract painfully. His hand lands on his chest. The spot Chris had hit to get out of his grasp after he caught her.
Street presses his eyes closed to keep the darkness that is threatening to come in out. His childhood memories.
He heads to the bathroom and splashes his face with water before checking if Chris is still okay, asleep and breathing, and then heading to bed himself. Jim knows he won't be sleeping much, but he needs to be at least a bit rested if he has to deal with Chris's wrath in the morning.