I sat in the jail cell of the town of Star City. I had to stay undercover for a series of burglaries we have been investigating that led me to Star City, and I accidentally got caught. It was the middle of the night, and Captain Fuller was not on duty so I could not call him to identify me. I had just finished my one phone call, so I was waiting for him to come through.
On the bench of the cell, I was sandwiched between two big guys who never moved, and barely spoke. They were both six feet tall, covered in gang tattoos, and built like linebackers. I learned their names, and that was enough to teach me not to look them in the eye.
I heard the sound of keys jingling which lifted my head up. I saw Tom walk down the line of cells with an officer by his side and he approached my cell. I could feel my face brighten when I saw him, because I knew I would finally be getting out of there. He looked me up and down and he has the audacity to say to the officer with a straight face, "I've never seen this girl before in my life."
My jaw dropped and I ran to the bars as the officer and Tom were leaving, "Thomas Hanson! Get your ass back here right now! I do not find this amusing! Hanson!"
My night was terrible and I wasn't released until the next morning when I was finally able to prove that I was an undercover cop. I went home and took a much needed shower before I reported to the chapel. I changed into a typical go-to outfit of a band tee-shirt and jeans. I was starving, tired, and just wanted to take a nice, warm nap.
As soon as I got there, I set my coat on the back of my chair and scanned the room for Tom. I glared at him and bellowed, "you son of a bitch!"
"Woah, good morning. What the hell happened to you?" Doug asked from his desk.
I huffed and turned to Tom, who was kicked back in his chair eating grapes casually, with a smug smirk that tugged his lips.
Everyone was on the edge of the seats, ready to listen to my story.
"So, it is two in the morning and I'm sitting in a jail cell between two guys named Bloody Eddie and Derek the Domino, waiting for Hanson to come down and identify me. He goes through all the trouble of coming downtown just to say, "I've never seen this girl before in my life".
Doug started laughing, "that's funny."
I kept my glare on Tom as I said, "I was strip searched, hosed down, and naked in front of grown men."
"I'm sorry, Mick, that's not funny," Doug said, still trying not to laugh.
Tom was beginning to laugh too so I said, "you think you're so funny. Next time you get arrested, I will not bail you out."
"Then I won't waste my one phone call on you," Tom playfully shot back.
"What were you doing there anyway?" Doug asked.
"Forgot my badge while patrolling the house over on Jefferson Street in Star City."
"Star City? That's at least an hour away," Doug said. He turned to Tom and asked, "did you really wake up in the middle of the night, drive an hour to the station just to not identify her? And then drive back?"
Tom paused before he nodded and ate another grape, "yeah."
"How do you sleep at night?" Doug asked with a judgmental squint.
"Not in a jail cell," Tom joked.
"Do you feel bad? Even a little bit?" Doug asked him.
Tom quickly replied with, "I've done worse."
"They thought I was some sort of Peeping-Tom or a stalker so they took me in. They did not believe me when I tried to explain that I was a cop," I stated.
"Sounds like a rough night," Doug said.
The phone in my desk started to ring so I answered it. They asked for the phone number to another jurisdiction, right when Tom started yelling random numbers to mess me up.
"Yes, the phone number is "213–" I began to tell the man on the phone.
"32!" Tom called out.
I paused to make sure I was saying the right number, "555–"
"728," he said loudly.
"2134," I said quickly as Tom shouted out random numbers. I swiftly covered the bottom of the receiver and teasingly scolded him, "I'm on the phone. Do you not have any social skills?"
Tom snickered as I brought my attention back to the caller. I just wanted to hang up before I started laughing and accidentally offend the caller. I drummed my fingers against my desk as the man on the line thanked me.
"Of course, have a great day. Bye." I hung up and playfully glared at Tom. "Are you five? Are you five years old?"
"Yeah," he said and another crisp grape crunched under his teeth. "But I read at a six year old level."
Fuller came out of his office and came up to us, "We've got another assignment. I want.... Hanson and Gregg, you two go over to D.G. Industries. I want you to talk to Mr. Jennings about some security equipment that's been going missing."
"How ironic," I said.
"Just go," Fuller said. He always got tired of our quips really fast.
Hanson and I drove to the building, pushing aside the events of the night before and discussing any possibilities on how the security equipment was getting stolen. Sometimes I forget how professional we can be. The building stood thirty floors up, and we had to check into their front desk before going to the elevator. Tom pressed the button to take us to floor 27, and we talked a little more about the case as the doors closed and we began ascending up.
Our conversation was immediately halted when we heard the sound of metal scratching against metal outside of the elevator box. Then, the elevator chugged and I looked to Tom in both fear and confusion. The elevator dropped suddenly before immediately catching itself. Tom had wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into him. We were trapped around the 20th floor, and Tom started pressing buttons to get the doors to open.
"You're gonna break it!" I said in my panic.
"I'm not gonna break it," he said. Then, we started shouting for someone to hear us.
"Hello! Can someone hear us!" I shouted, cupping my hands to my mouth to amplify my voice.
"We're trapped!" Tom added.
"Fuller! Fuller!" I yelled. I don't even think Fuller is on this side of town, let alone on a particular floor in this building.
"It's no use. We must be between floors," he said in his normal voice. He pressed the alarm button on the elevator, which hopefully signaled to someone that we were stuck.
"Fantastic," I said and slid down the wall to my butt. I leaned my head back against the wall and sighed. My heart was still pounding from the little drop. I hoped it wouldn't do that again.
"Are you okay?" He asked. He was shaken up too, I could hear it in his voice.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Are you?"
"Yeah, I think so. Since we're gonna be in here for a while, how's about a card game?" He asked, sitting down on the floor with crossed legs.
"Tell me you don't have cards—" I looked over and saw that he was pulling out a deck of cards from his coat pocket.
"Of course I have cards," he almost scoffed, like I should have known.
"Why do you have cards?"
"Why wouldn't I have cards? Do you have cards?"
"I don't have cards."
"Why do you not have cards?"
"'Cause I'm normal."
"Do you want to play or not?"
I huffed but scooted closer to him anyway. Since there was only two of us, and nothing to bet, we ended up playing Go-Fish.
I looked at the cards in my hand and asked, "got any threes?"
Tom looked at his. "Go-Fish."
I grabbed a card and put it in my hand.
"Got any sevens?" He asked, peering up at me behind his fanned out cards. I could fall for those dark brown eyes any day.
I sighed as I handed him the seven of clubs I had.
"Any twos?"
"Go-Fish," I said and he grabbed another card.
Eventually, we heard knocking on the metal doors of the elevator and our heads both shot up.
"Guys?" Fuller's voice asked, coming from above us.
Tom and I stood up quickly. "We're in here!"
"We will get you guys out as soon as we can. Hang tight," Fuller said.
We both slumped back down to the floor. I rested my head against the wall, and we mutually gave up playing cards.
We were silent for a moment before Tom said, "listen, I'm sorry I left you in that cell last night. I didn't realize that they were gonna do all that stuff. If I did, I never would have left you. I swear."
I chuckled, "don't be. It was funny. Not in the moment... but looking back. Plus, it makes for a great story."
"Yeah, it does."
"I did wake up with this fat pimple on my forehead though which I don't appreciate," I stated. When I moved my eyebrows, I could feel the pressure from the pimple in my skin
Tom responded with, "you're always gorgeous."
"Thanks, Tom." I smiled. I rolled my head in his direction and asked, "got any food in those magic pockets of yours?"
Tom shook his head, "no. The cards took too much space so I had to let go all the food I packed."
"Shoot," I snapped my fingers jokingly. I hadn't eaten since lunch the day before, so I was starving.
"If it comes to it, and I mean this— I want you to eat me."
"Tom, we talked about this. As I've told you before, I'm not going to eat you," I said. Every time we are in a locked room, or get lost trying to find our destination, he always gives me permission to eat him. Sometimes I can't tell if he's joking.
"Okay, you say that now, but we may not get out of here, and we may have to make some hard decisions," he said in a serious tone.
I laughed at him and rested my head on his shoulder. We kept our conversations light. Every once in a while, Fuller would knock on the doors to tell us what he was planning to get us out. He eventually said that he called the fire department and they were on their way. It must had been about an hour after the elevator stopped.
Tom and I sat in silence, just enjoying each others company. I loved being near him. We frantically got up on our feet when we heard a saw going through the metal doors. This time, they were opening the doors below where the elevator stopped. The firefighters pushed the doors open, were there was a two-foot opening between the bottom of the elevator and the ceiling of the nineteenth floor.
Tom slid through the opening first, landing on his feet. He turned to me and offered his hands. I got down on my hands and knees to slide out the same way that he did, and the elevator dropped just an inch. I gasped and froze, and my heart sunk to my stomach in fear. My eyes bugged as I stared at Tom, more than freaked out by that.
"I'm a little afraid of getting cut in half," I said, looking at him and Fuller and the firefighters that surrounded them.
"You won't," Tom promised.
I trusted him, so I got on my butt with my feet dangling off. He put his hands on my waist and I grabbed ahold of his shoulders, and he lifted me off the elevator and onto the solid ground.
Suddenly, the sound of metal scraping made us all look toward the elevator. It shook slightly before dropping and disappearing down the dark elevator shaft. Tom grabbed ahold of me and pulled me toward him on instinct and we looked down the shaft. We all jumped out of our skin when we heard it crash at the bottom of the building. I've never had a fear of elevators, but I do now.
"You guys all right?" Fuller asked us.
My eyes were wide at the chance that we could have died together in an elevator crash, but I nodded. Then I said, "I'm never going into an elevator again."
"I don't blame you," Fuller agreed. "Why don't you two take it easy today. I'll send Judy and Ioki up there later. I'll advise them to take the stairs."
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Tom said. He seemed just as freaked out as me.
Fuller excused us and Tom and I took the stairs all the way down to the ground floor. The little brush of death opened my eyes to how my last day with Tom could have went. Mostly bickering. Even though we did reconcile, it reminded me that I have not told him that I loved him yet or how much he means to me. I should do that soon, before it's too late.
I'm so excited for the upcoming chapters! Next chapter is a weird but fun one! Don't forget to vote and comment! 😁