Holding the greasy bag of used paper napkins, empty disposable coffee cups and the Styrofoam containers containing the remnants of two MacDonald breakfasts, Mandy struggled to lift the heavy lid of the dumpster at the end of the deserted parking lot. 'Yes,' she decided after Ryan's attempt to woe her back by his idea of a romantic, no expense spared, well maybe not quite the no expense spared he had promised, sunrise breakfast by the ocean. 'This time their marriage would work.'

Humming softly to herself, she glanced back across the nearly empty beach and smiled. He had promised her that he was a reformed man and that all of his affairs were now a thing of the past. He told her that he realized that she was the only one he had ever wanted, and the rest had been terrible mistakes. They had meant nothing to him.

Holding the large, heavy lid of the dumpster open with one hand, she began to drop the rubbish into it. "This time it will be for..." she whispered before her whisper died away and a scream of disbelieving horror tore from her throat as she found herself staring stared at the bruised, swollen face of a lifeless looking man who had been tossed away like a piece of unwanted trash. Shocked by the sight, her eyes travelled down to the blood-smeared LAPD police badge pinned to man's torn, dark colored shirt and the name on the bloodied nametag, barely visible beneath the rubbish covering him, - 'Bradford'.

"Oh God, Ryan!" she screamed, stepping back as the lid dropped back down with a loud clang that reverberated around the parking lot. Backing further away, trying to put as much distance between herself and the body she had just discovered in the dumpster, she slapped her hand to her mouth in a futile attempt to stop her breakfast from making a reappearance.

oxoxoxo

Groaning as she rolled over, Lucy reached across and fumbled for her ringing cell phone on the bedside table. Opening her eyes and blinking against the bright sunlight that was streaming through her window, she sighed as her finger swept across the accept symbol on the phone. Today was her precious one day off and she had planned to sleep most of the day away. Resting her arm across her eyes to try and block out some of the bright sunlight, she placed the phone sleepily against her ear and murmured, "Chen."

"Lucy, it's John."

There was something in John's voice that warned her that this was not just a social call. Her grip tightened on the phone as she removed her arm and sat up. Bracing herself for what she suspected was going to be bad news, her heart began to race as she asked, "John, h-has something happened?"

She thought she heard John swallow hard before he answered gently, "It's Tim Bradford, Luc, he- umm, he's been admitted to Shore Memorial Emergency Department."

"What happened?" Lucy demanded as she leapt out of bed, all thoughts of sleeping in now banished as she tucked her phone between her shoulder and her ear as she grabbed a pair of jeans from the floor, tugging them on. "H-how bad?' she managed to whisper as she picked up the shirt laying on the end of the bed and began to awkwardly shrug into it, grabbing the phone and holding it with one hand as she wriggled her arm into one sleeve before changing hands and forcing her other arm into the other sleeve before buttoning up the shirt with one hand.

"I don't have all the details. All I know is he was found this morning almost beaten to death after going missing while on duty last night." John answered softly as he looked around at the small, crowded waiting room that was quickly filling up with on duty and off duty cops, all anxiously waiting for an update on their friend's condition.

Lucy froze in confusion, uncertain if she had heard John correctly. "What do you mean Tim went missing on duty last night? We were rostered off last night and today …"

Returning his attention back to the phone in his hand, "I don't know why he was on duty," John answered honestly before adding gently, "All I know at the moment, Lucy, is I think you better get here fast."

The urgency in her friend's voice snapped Lucy out of her momentary confusion. Snatching up her car keys and purse, she turned and ran towards the door as she reassured John breathlessly, "I'm on my way!"