My One and Only

4. You Made Your Mark On Me

Tim Bradford was reassigned to the role of day shift Watch Commander, thankfully. He had used this opportunity to check in with Nyla whenever he saw her.

He skipped the pleasantries when he strode over to Angela and Nyla's desks. "How is she?"

"Good morning, Tim. I'm doing great. Thanks for asking," Angela offered sarcastically.

He gave her an aggravated look, and then his eyes flicked back to Nyla.

"She's been working on cars nonstop. I'm meeting her for an in-person check-in at a store," Nyla reported.

"An in-person check-in? Isn't that risky?" Tim asked protectively.

"I call the shots, and I think it's worth doing."

"Can you elaborate?"

Nyla exchanged a look with her partner and then back at Tim. "Are you asking as the Watch Commander or as Tim?"

"What difference does that make?"

"Lucy is my girl, so Tim doesn't get to know what's going on with her. The Watch Commander can definitely hear about his officer's well-being."

"Well-being? Is her life being threatened?"

"No, a lieutenant asked her out, and she's interested in using any means necessary to get more information on Pavlov's operation," Nyla raised an eyebrow in suggestion.

"You can't let her do that."

"That sounds like Tim being Tim about Lucy and not the Watch Commander..."

"When's the date?" He cut her off.

"Tomorrow, and she's got nothing to wear, so we're going shopping."

"Is anyone going to be surveilling the date?"

"Let me guess, you're volunteering."

"Yes."

"Not a chance."

"Harper!"

"Okay," Angela huffed and grabbed Tim by the wrist to guide him down the empty hallway. When they were far enough away from anyone who might be able to eavesdrop, she stopped in the middle of the corridor and insisted, "You gotta give it a rest."

"Excuse me?"

"Lucy's been undercover for 10 days, and aside from updating her case file based on the check-in texts from Lucy, Nyla has been dealing with you incessantly bothering her."

"I'm not incessantly bothering her."

"You are, and she's trying to be nice, because she feels bad for you, but..."

"Feels bad for me? Did you tell her?"

"We're detectives. I didn't have to."

"Great. Just announce it to the station."

"No one would be surprised," Angela jested.

Utterly speechless, he checked both ends of the hallway to be sure no one could hear their conversation.

"Look, you're worried about her. That's sweet, but she needs her head on straight for this op, and I think that lately all you've been doing is making things worse."

"Worse?"

"When she came in and said she was taking the UC op, she looked like she'd been crying. I have a feeling you're the reason for that."

If his stomach wasn't already in knots from worrying about her, it would definitely be jumbled from hearing that he got her upset...again. He had pushed her away selfishly in the hopes that she would stop talking to him for the sake of his heart. There had been too many nights of missing her and hating their situation that he wanted to be done with all of those emotions, but Lucy feels everything so deeply, and he had not accounted for that when addressing her with such a cold, rude demeanor...or maybe subconsciously he had? If she hated him, at least she would stay away from him.