One Year To Die (Flip Zimmerman x Reader Fic)

Chapter 8 - The Missing Missing-Person Case

Detective Flip Zimmerman yawned into his palm as rose from his cluttered desk. Shaking himself free of the grip of exhaustion, he grabbed his oversized empty coffee mug from his cluttered desk and lugged his tired trunk of a body through the empty halls of the Colorado Police Department. Scrunching his tired eyes, he made it to the break room, immediately gravitating towards the coffee machine.

Zimmerman waited patiently as his mug filled up with his umpteenth cup of coffee of the day, trying his best to stifle another yawn as he looked at the watch on his wrist:

2130.

This is not how Flip wanted to be spending his Saturday night.

But unfortunately, late nights and early mornings -the culprits of his perpetual exhaustion - had become the new norm.

The days had begun blending into one as the year of 1979 was completely kicking his ass.

He was absolutely shattered, both mentally and physically, every day of the week. His work was consuming his life, the investigation into the clan plaguing his waking thoughts...the only respite was the limited time he got to spend with you.

You were all he could think about all week, the flirtatious levity of your constant phone calls being what he was looking forward to in the mania of his working life.

But he found himself worrying about you in the moments he pried his brain away from his work. He hadn't seen you since you Monday when he kissed you on your doorstep, but that kiss haunted his mind, the feeling of your lips a tingling feeling that ghosted his.

Flip couldn't help but acknowledge the aching in his chest as he pulled away from you that night. Despite the slice on your face and the bruise brewing on your jaw, you were transcendent in the moonlight, your beauty shining like a beacon through the ugliness of his life.

Things were getting serious now...with the investigation into the clan.

Both he and the real Ron knew that it would all come to an end soon, and they needed to gather as much intel as they could before that time came. They were close- so close to infiltrating hate. It set Flip on edge, knowing how important the entire investigation was.

That made his time with you all the more important. You were the only thing tethering him to normality, to a life void of the investigation that risked him getting shot in the face if they ever learned the truth.

So Flip didn't need to think twice about surprising you with a date.

He needed to feel normal again, to feel human and not like a pawn in this game he'd volunteered himself for. He needed to feel needed.

But it had been so long since he'd even considered taking someone on a date.

And after seeing you bleeding on the street and taking to you in Billy's office, he knew that you weren't the type of girl that he could just fuck and then forget. With barely a word spoken to you at the turn of the year, you had already captured his attention.

So Flip wanted to try and make this special. Not only for himself, but for you. You deserved it after the awful week of constant pain you'd endured. Not that you let on during your phone conversations. You were unfortunately stubborn like that.

Before he knew it, Flip had left his work early and was knocking on your door, sweet whisky and white roses in hand as he waited patiently at your front step. He didn't really pin you as being a 'flower girl', but if you were any flower at all you'd certainly be a rose: sweet and beautiful, but with a sharp side.

But the longer Flip stood alone on your doorstep, the more his mind began to overthink the entire situation. What if you weren't home? He should've just called ahead. What if you didn't like the sentiment of his surprise? The bottle in his hand was beginning to look more appealing to quell his own nerves rather than as a gift for you.