The Pain Within (Sequel To 'Trapped Without You')

Never Again (End)

The sun rose, a new day, bright and beautiful. Lucy smiled as she became conscious, she felt soft hair between the fingers of her right hand, long fingers tangled in her hair as well and another hand on her back. Bodies pressed close together, arms holding each other close.

If only we could be this way forever.

A camera went off.

"Oh no, we've woke Lucy! Abort!!" George yelled running out of the room, Mary took another picture of the flustered Lucy and snoozing Lockwood before slipping off waving the camera in the air triumphantly.

Lucy's face was red already, she could tell that the day held lots of embarrassment in store for Lockwood and her, but Lockwood was good with handling embarrassment so Lucy wasn't worried about him. She crawled over Lockwood and grabbed clean clothes from her room then took a shower.

Lockwood awoke soon after confused, he was sure he had gone to bed with his beautiful Lucy. He wandered downstairs to find George and Mary, who had all her things gathered by a wall in the kitchen, bent over the table giggling over a couple of photos.

"What have you got there?" Lockwood rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the sleeve of his pajama top.

"We're deciding which photo we should submit to a magazine." George laughed as Lucy tiptoed into the kitchen.

"The headlines will read 'Scandal at the small agency! What happens when two agents become romanticly involved?' Imagine the publicity!" Mary squealed. Lucy stood in the corner blushing bright red, Lockwood gracefully made his way to the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea.

"London isn't interested in our personal lives." Lockwood breathed out. He walked to the table and also blushed seeing the intimate pictures of him and Lucy.

"Don't lie, Lockwood, you would love any reason to have more publicity, more interviews, more attention," George remarked as Mary picked up one of the four pictures they had laid out on the table.

"I think I'll take this one home with me. All my and Lucy's sisters will be so pleased to know Lucy finally has a boyfriend." Mary tucked the photo into her pocket.

"And I'll take the rest of these." Lockwood snatched the last three away and hid them in his pocket. "In the future please refrain from going into my room and taking pictures of me while I sleep, George."

"No one said Lockwood and I were officially dating," Lucy muttered, still clinging to that wall like it was the last bit of her dignity left.

Everyone's head turned to her, it was quiet for a second.

"You slept in my bed with me last night! I have proof and we all know it." Lockwood stated flatly.

"If you guys aren't dating you're just a whore Lucy."

"George!!"

"Yeah, we're dating, don't even try to deny it." Lockwood went to Lucy and kissed her forehead sweetly. "It's cute how embarrassed you get."

"I hope to god all you did was sleep. If I find you even looked at her suggestively I swear I'll rip your te-"

"Please don't finish that sentence. All we did was sleep, it was like one in the morning or something, we both passed out very quickly." Lockwood reassured Mary.

"Good, and you better never do anything to my innocent little sister. Now let's eat a quick breakfast before I have to leave." Mary complained as she began placing plates of food on the table.

They ate breakfast and it was awkward as ever, Lockwood purposely being overly lovey-dovey to Lucy and Lucy ignoring her burning face and pounding heart as best she could. They all went with Mary to the train station and there were tears in Mary and Lucy's eyes during the goodbye.

"So how's this going to work?" The group, now of only three, hurriedly straightened up the house, for a new client who would be arriving within the hour.

"What was that now George?" Lockwood asked as he smiled watching Lucy struggle to put a bag of snacks back on their shelf.

"Am I going to need to accompany you and Lucy on every case just to keep you off of each other?"

"What do you mean off each other. We've kissed, what? Two times!?" Lucy questioned angrily. George took off his glasses and rubbed them on his shirt.

"You may not have done much but my god the sexual tension between you two is and always has been almost unbearable for the others in the room." Lucy blew her pink cheeks out. "Don't deny it either, even Flo can sense the tension and she's almost as dense as Lucy."

"Well, that being said-"

"Don't forget that time you literally pinned Lucy against the couch!"

"Oh come now, George! Don't you trust us to be professional, at least when on a case and when you're around."

"Excuse me but we'll always be professional." Lucy said with shaky hands. Kissing Lockwood was a roller coaster of emotions, dopamine, and adrenaline in and of itself, the idea of doing anything more. What even more could be done!?

"Uh.." Lockwood's posture stiffened. Did he seem almost..disappointed? "Yeah. We'll always be professional because that's the way we are. Professional." Lockwood busied himself with his cleaning. George rolled his eyes.

"Oh come off it Luce, you know you'd love to rumple Lockwood's sheets with him. We're all teens here, let's be honest, we're all." George cleared his throat. "Well, horny as rabbits and the second you two are left alone you're going to go at it."

Lockwood's face went red and Lucy began choking on air, both obviously taken back by what George had said.

"What is wrong with you!" Lucy began to scold George, but the doorbell rang and their client had arrived. Soon they were all awkwardly in the sitting room discussing their clients' situation.

All was as it once was, George stuffing his face with cake, Lucy giving George a death glare, and Lockwood calmly holding the two at bay. Sure there were some differences, Lucy was never quite right after the incident. In the end, she did have to take antidepressants for awhile but with Lockwood's support, she didn't feel so weak.

Of course, there was always the physical reminders, the scar on Lockwood's left eyebrow, the many (but fading) scars all over Lucy. George's sudden and permanent drop in weight from all the times he felt too guilty to eat while Lucy was missing. Then there was the fact that Lockwood and Lucy were so much closer now than before, and George and Lockwood grew closer as friends too.

Lucy and Lockwood began visiting his families grave site together, and when one of them had a nightmare the other was there for comfort. Lockwood began to open up a bit more and more to George every day and soon George knew more than he could remember about his best friend. Lucy and George, though they still had their fights here and there, became closer too. At one point Lucy was almost as good a cook as George and through their bonding, they got a much better understanding of each other and had new found respect for each other.

Lockwood & Co became a glorious and unstoppable team, and nothing would tear them apart ever again.