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Tim comes to in bits and pieces.
He feels the ground beneath him first. Cold concrete behind his back and under his legs.
His hands are tied behind him. His ankles are bound too. Zipties, if the way the plastic cuts into his wrists is anything to go by.
He feels a sharp pain in his neck. Why does his neck-
Memories of the last 24 hours come rushing back to him.
The beach. Sand and the most beautiful sunset he’d ever seen.
The ring. Golden and sparkling in the remaining rays of sun.
The needle. Shoved into his neck.
Lucy. Eyes filled with tears as she agreed to spend the rest of her life with him.
Oh God, Lucy.
“Lucy!”
Tim’s eyes fly open as her name leaves his lips.
He looks around frantically before he finds her. She's slumped against the wall next to him, ankles and wrists bound together.
“Lucy?”
He tries to rouse her as best he can, leaning his shoulder into her to shake her awake.
Her nose scrunches at the movement, and his shoulders sag with relief. She’s alive.
“What happened?” She asks groggily as she blinks her eyes open and takes in their surroundings.
They're in a small, damp, dark room, with nothing but a door and a tiny window at the top of one of the walls. Small enough that an adult couldn’t crawl through it. Sunlight streams through the smudged glass, indicating its day time.
They’d been out for at least 12 hours, if not more.
He sees the exact moment the realization of what happened hits Lucy.
Her eyes meet his, and the sheer devastation on her face breaks something in him.
How did he let this happen to them? To her?
He scans her for injuries. “Are you okay?”
Lucy nods. He lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.
“Good. Me too.”
“Good.” She echoes.
“It was Everett,” Tim tells her. He should’ve known to take that threat he’d made seriously. Should’ve been more worried about the way he’d looked at them when they’d cuffed him on the boat, not even two days ago.
Lucy's eyebrows pull together in confusion. He can see the gears starting to turn in her head.
“Why would they take us both? Why keep us alive?”
“I don’t know,” Tim answers honestly. He’s been wondering the same thing. He’s trying to piece it together, but it’s not adding up. “Collateral, maybe? If he wanted revenge, he could’ve just killed me then and there.”
“Kidnapping two LAPD sergeants is a ballsy way to bargain your way out of a life sentence.”
Tim hums in agreement. Everett was an entitled man with nothing to lose. If anything, this was child’s play to him.
He replays the moment he arrested him all those months ago again and again in his mind. The choices he’d made that had seemed so insignificant at the time had landed him here. Had landed Lucy here.
The regret hits him so hard he nearly keels over.
“I should’ve let him go, I should’ve-”
He’s so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he doesn’t notice the way Lucy’s shoulders tense beside him.
“Tim.” She whispers.
“This is all my fault, you shouldn’t be here-”
“Tim.” Lucy tries again to cut through his spiraling, but he can’t stop. The guilt is eating him alive.
“If we hadn’t been at the beach-”
He slams his head back against the metal wall. How could he let this happen?
“Tim!”
Lucy’s voice is more urgent now. Like whatever she has to say is about to spill out of her if he doesn’t give her his attention.
He looks over at her finally. Nausea rolls in his stomach at the sight of her curled up next to him.
He did this to her.
“I have to tell you something.”
Her voice is all wrong. His protective instincts take over at the sound of it. Maybe she had been hurt when they were taken and was trying to protect him by not telling him.
“What’s wrong?” He asks carefully, trying his best to quell the panic growing inside him.
She takes a shaky breath, her eyes staring straight ahead at nothing.
“I..”
Her voice cracks, like she’s fighting to get the words out.
The room they’re being held in is silent save for the sound of water dripping somewhere in the distance when she finally speaks.
“I’m pregnant.”
She says it so quietly that he’s sure he must have hallucinated it.
“What?”
Please don’t say it again. His mind screams. Anything but that.
“I’m pregnant.”
Her voice is steadier now, her cop instincts snapping into place, no doubt. Compartmentalizing every emotion that she’s feeling to effectively convey information.
He hates it.
“At least, I think I am.” She finally looks over at him, a tear trailing down her cheek.
He shakes his head in disbelief. “How…”
“I’ve been feeling off this whole week, and I’m late.” She closes her eyes briefly. Maybe trying to wake up from this nightmare. “With the op and everything, I was gonna wait to buy a test on my way home tomorrow.”
Tim’s ears begin to ring as the weight of her confession washes over him. He feels like he’s been drugged again, his vision starts to go fuzzy, and his chest tightens.
This cannot be real. This cannot be happening to them.
Lucy’s pregnant. Or might be.
And they’ve been kidnapped by a psychopath with enough money to make sure no one ever finds them.
He knows Lucy like the back of his hand, her cycles too, and she’s always on time. They’ve had some scares in the past, but back then they’d been more careful.
It was much more likely to be true now.
They were happy and in love. They’d talked about potentially starting a family in the not-so-distant future. So of course, they weren't taking the precautions that they used to.
If he were anywhere else, this would have been the best news he’d ever heard in his life. Right up there with Lucy agreeing to marry him.
But now he wishes she would take the words back. Begs the universe to make it not true.
“Please say something.”
It’s the desperation in her voice that brings him back to the present. He’s still in shock, unsure how to accept the reality that it might not just be the two of them in danger.
“Today was supposed to be the best day of our lives.” Is what he says instead.
A tear escapes the corner of his eye.
Lucy smiles at him sadly. “It still was for me.”
She twists around to show him her left hand, the ring he’d given her still sitting proudly on her finger.
“It’s perfect.” Lucy turns back around and lays her head on his shoulder. “You’re perfect. Everything was perfect.”
Tim’s heart squeezes painfully at her words.
“I’ve never wanted anything more than to marry you, Lucy.”
He hears her breath catch.
“To start a family with-” he can’t even finish the sentence before he’s crying for real.
He feels her press her face into his shoulder. The only form of comfort she can offer him with her hands bound.
“I know.” She murmurs against the fabric of his shirt. “I know. I love you so much.”
He rests his cheek against her still sandy hair. It grounds him. A reminder of before. A reminder of the life that was waiting for them.
“I’m going to get you out of here.”
He hesitates a beat before adding.
“Both of you.”
Lucy’s face crumples. Tears begin to stream down her face in earnest as their reality sinks in.
“I know you will.” She whispers, broken.
She’s going to live. Her and their baby.
He’s going to make sure of it.
Even if it kills him.