To celebrate the end of Tamara Collins' finals, Lucy Chen cooked her roommate her favorite lasagna for dinner.
As they ate, Lucy was surprised to hear Tamara's plans for the evening. "You just spent weeks studying and worked your ass off to ace your finals. I think you've earned the chance to blow off steam instead of staying in like you do most nights."
Tamara shrugged. "I don't know. I was thinking of just hanging out on the couch with you and some ice cream." Movie nights with Lucy had become a simple pleasure for her; it was a great way to spend time with the woman who had become an older sister to her.
"We can do that any night. Go celebrate with your friends, and if you need me to pick you up, I'm a call away."
"You know you're not supposed to drink and drive. We'll pick you up if you need a ride," Tim said seriously.
Lucy smiled at her boyfriend and squeezed his hand. His protectiveness is always appreciated.
Tamara rolled her eyes at him before replying, "I know. I know." She did not need the reminder for something she is very well aware of. After thinking for a moment, she nodded. "I'll text Kira and ask her about the party she said she's going to," then Tamara added pointedly, "and I swear I'll be careful and order a rideshare to get home. I don't need old people to come pick me up from a party."
"Old people? Don't lump me in with Tim. He's the only old one here," Lucy joked and pointed at her boyfriend.
"Excuse me?" Tim scoffed.
"You two are ridiculous," Tamara smirked around another forkful of lasagna.
Soon enough, dinner ended, and Lucy and Tim waved goodbye to Tamara with the hope that she would have fun blowing off some steam with her friends.
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At 3AM, Lucy was so restless she started pacing the floor. "Something doesn't feel right," she said to her boyfriend and pressed a hand to her chest to feel her heart racing. Her intuition sharpened by years as a cop signaled that Tamara was not safe somehow.
Tim trusted her gut, so he rose from the bed and went to the dresser for a change of clothes.
"What are you doing?" She questioned.
"Going with you. I know you want to go to that party, and you're not going alone."
Lucy smiled appreciatively at him. Sleeping next to the best backup really is quite special. Because they track each other, she was able to use Tamara's cell phone's location to find the apartment where the party was taking place. "Don't flash your badge unless we have to," Lucy advised her boyfriend.
"Not like we'll blend since we're 'old'," Tim joked.
"Nope. Just you," she chided and opened the apartment door. The booming music that had leaked out into the hallway was even louder once inside the space. Among the throng of college students at varying levels of inebriation dancing around, Lucy's scan did not yield any sign of Tamara. She eyed Tim who was across the room from her, and he solemnly shook his head 'no' to communicate that he could not see Tamara either.
Something caught Lucy's eye on the ground near the door. Tamara's purse. Well, it was actually Lucy's purse that Tamara had borrowed and never returned. She bent down to inspect the bag and sure enough, Tamara's keys and phone were in there but no sign of HER.
Tim put a hand on Lucy's back in an attempt to calm her. "We don't know anything yet."
She bit her lip. "She wouldn't go anywhere without her phone. She's attached to the thing. Something's wrong." As possible scenarios started to flash through her mind, Lucy gasped and looked at Tim, "What if she was taken?"
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With a blinding headache, Tamara woke up. It took a moment for her eyes to focus and take in the space- a dark small room, metal walls, nothing else. Then, she tried to stand and was met with resistance. She looked down to see that her hands were bound to the arms of a wooden chair, and her ankles were tied to the legs of the chair.
"Tamara? Tamara? Are you awake?" Kira asked when she felt her friend stir. Since their chairs were back to back, she was not facing Tamara and could only rely on listening for her friend.
"W-What happened?" She asked with a tight throat.
"As far as I can tell, we were drugged and taken somewhere. I don't remember much of the party. I don't know how we got here or who brought us here, but...but..." Kira's voice trembled. "I don't know what we're supposed to do."
"First thing's first. Let's try not to panic, okay? Have you heard any sounds? Any idea of where we could be?"
"No."
"Okay, let's just both be quiet for a few seconds and try to listen. Figure out where we were taken, alright?" Tamara tried to sound as calm as she could manage despite her own panic.
Between the boat horns blaring in the distance, corrugated walls surrounding the tightly enclosed space, and the lack of lighting, Tamara deduced where they were. "Kira, I think we're in a shipping container at one of the docks near the ocean."
"A shipping container? Does that mean we're being taken to another country or something?" Kira wondered, her worry coloring her voice.
"I have no idea, but we just need to stay calm."
"CALM? HOW CAN WE STAY CALM WHEN..."
"Shhhh," Tamara shushed. "If we stay quiet, then maybe the person who took us won't come in here. I just don't want anyone to hurt us."
"Tam," Kira whispered harshly and started to hyperventilate.
"Hey, hey, Kira, listen, I know we're tied up, and we're stuck, but we're gonna be okay."
"I don't think we'll be that lucky."
"We don't need luck. We've got Lucy and Tim. I've told you about them, right? They're my family, and they love me, but more than that, they're badasses. They're looking for me right now. I know they are, and soon enough, they'll come in here and rescue us. I promise," Tamara guaranteed, and she truly did believe her words as much as she also wanted to comfort Kira.
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It was eerie to watch the footage, but Lucy could not resist playing and replaying the video taken off of ClipTalk that was zoomed in to focus on the background where a limp, possibly drugged, Tamara and Kira were dragged into a car.
Tim found his girlfriend at a desk worrying at her lip and hunched over a computer. When he saw the video of Tamara being taken on the screen, he put a hand on her shoulder. "Stop watching that."
"I can't help it. We're outta leads, and I don't even know...I can't even be sure if Tamara is still alive."
"We have to believe she is." He saw the tears welling in her eyes and pulled her up by her wrists before encircling her in his arms. Stroking her hair and gripping her tight, Tim softly said, "She's a tough girl. She's messy, and sassy, and loves to cause trouble, but more than that, Tamara is strong. She's gonna hold on until we can get to her, because we will. We've got the entire station looking for her."
"If we don't find her in time..." Lucy swallowed the rest of the words, since they were too difficult to say aloud.
He stepped back to look into her eyes and cradle her face, "We will, baby. We'll find her in time, and by tonight, we'll all be on the couch watching some cheesy movie and eating ice cream. You have to believe that."
A sob tore out of her throat as if she could not keep the tears at bay any longer. "We-we would've been doing that last night if it weren't me. This is all my fault."
"None of this is your fault."
"Yes, it is. You were there at dinner. You heard me tell her to go out and celebrate with friends, but she wanted to stay in with us. She wanted to spend last night watching a cheesy movie and eating ice cream, but I gave her bad advice, and now we don't know where she is or if she's even alive, and it's all my fault." The thought had consumed her mind from the second she found Tamara's purse discarded on the floor of the apartment where the party was taking place, but saying it aloud hurt more than she could bear, and Lucy started swaying on her feet as the guilt seemed to be physically crushing her.
An intense feeling of deja vu consumed him. Tim swallowed hard and wiped a few tears away before he told her, "When you went missing, I blamed myself. I was so sick to my stomach with guilt even after I got you back safely. I couldn't even sleep thinking about the fact that I was the reason that you were abducted." He paused when he felt her press a hand over his heart to soothe him; even when she was so overcome with emotions, in her infinite empathy, Lucy still tried to console him. "Do you remember what you told me after I finally told you that it was all my fault? You said that it wasn't. You said that Caleb is the only one to blame for you getting kidnapped. If I'm not allowed to blame myself for what happened to you and how you ended up in that barrel, then you're not allowed to feel guilty for Tamara being taken now. Do you hear me?"
Lucy shook her head. She knew Tim was making sense, but the weight of her guilt still put a strain on her heart that made every beat taxing and uneven.
Tim could see the thoughts warring in her mind. "What do you need right now?"
"Tamara. I need her back safe."
"She's gonna be okay and back to teasing us about our age and how obsessed I am with you in no time, alright?" He saw her slight nod and offered, "Wanna come with me to Grey's office? Maybe he has a lead."
The hand on Tim's chest gathered some of his shirt into a fist to keep him in place. "In a minute, but..." Lucy hated to ask the question, still, she felt like she needed to know. "How did you manage? When I was gone, and you didn't know where I was, how did you deal with that?"
He smiled bitterly, "Not well. I was a mess. I roughed up a guy we needed information from, and I almost cried."
"You WHAT?" Lucy was not sure what she was more surprised to learn about- his rough treatment of a suspect or the tears.
"It was my worst day on the job, and I thought it was gonna be my last day as a cop."
"You thought you were gonna die?"
"I was pretty sure I was gonna get fired. I couldn't think straight. I was on edge, and I knew that in the right situation, I would've killed someone to get to you. I slammed a guy's head into his steering wheel, because I needed to find you."
"I had no idea," Lucy was practically speechless.
"The difference this time is that neither of us are alone right now. You have me, and I have you, and we're gonna get through this together."
"Together," Lucy repeated.
Tim did not care that they were in the middle of the station, he bent down to kiss her sweetly.
"We have a lead," Angela announced to her friends, ignoring the fact that they were kissing in front of everyone.
Lucy took Tim's hand and together they followed Angela into Grey's office to find their Watch Commander speaking with Agent Laura Stensen.
"We got a lead on Tamara's abduction," Grey explained then nodded to Agent Stensen to provide the details.
"Tamara was abducted along with Kira Griffin. She's the wealthy heiress of Griffin Hotels. The abductors contacted the Griffin family with a ransom demand, then the family approached the FBI for help. We helped the Griffins facilitate the ransom payment for their daughter, but the kidnappers must've had a change of heart and didn't give the location of the girls to us. We have agents combing the city looking for them now," Laura briefed the group.
"Wait, so you've had a solid lead on Tamara for a while, and you're only looping us in NOW?" Lucy asked angrily.
"The Feds didn't know the identity of the other woman that was taken with Kira. The ransom demand only claimed it was Kira and an unnamed friend," Grey tried to defend the federal agents.
"Brendan and I have been looking into who the other abductee was, and when we found the BOLO in the LAPD database, we put it together and came right over to talk to you guys," Laura added.
"We wanna help look for Tamara. What can we do?" Tim inquired.
"If you can spare some uniforms, we could use some help with the grid search. We've got a lot of ground to cover, and we don't know what state the women are in right now," Laura hated to admit it, but she was always honest with fellow law enforcement.
"We're going," Lucy volunteered on behalf of her and her boyfriend.
"Me and Nyla are in, too," Angela chimed in.
"Take as many officers as you need, Stensen. We want to get these ladies back home safely," Grey said and looked at the matching worried expressions on Tim and Lucy's faces. "Gear up to go with Stensen," he regarded his officers. Then, he gave Angela a look to silently request her to stay in his office for a moment once Laura, Tim, and Lucy walked away. "Keep an eye on Chen and Bradford. They're both a little close to this, and as much as I would like to bench them..."
"Nothing could keep them from finding Tamara," Angela finished his sentence.
Grey nodded.
"I'll watch out for them," Angela promised.
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It seemed to happen in a blur. Lucy and Tim drove together towards the shipping dock that was within their area of the grid to search.
She could not hear anything other than Tim's footsteps and everything was out of focus except for him by her side as they looked around.
Tim did not know how long they had spent moving side by side in search of Tamara.
Neither of them spoke about how with each square foot they cleared, their hope of finding Tamara alive waned. She had to be found. Alive. Anything else was unacceptable.
Lucy reached out to stop Tim from moving. "Do you hear that?" She whispered.
He could not hear anything for a moment, but then a faint sound pierced through the silence.
"TAMARA?" Lucy called and a clank was heard in reply.
Together, they ran towards the shipping container where they thought the sound could be coming from. Tim opened the door before Lucy elbowed through.
It was as if she was finally able to breathe for the first time in 12 hours when Lucy locked eyes on Tamara. She dropped down on her knees in front of Tamara to pull the tape off of her mouth and untie her.
Catching her breath, Tamara launched herself into Lucy's arms with a slowly forming smile. "I told that jerk the cops would be here any minute, and he put tape on our mouths to shut me up."
"That's my girl," Lucy grinned and watched as Tim finished untying Kira.
When Tim made sure that Kira was okay, he lunged for where Lucy and Tamara were still holding each other so he could envelop both of them in a hug. "We're so glad you're okay," he sighed in relief.
"Are you kidding? I wasn't worried. I knew'd you find us," Tamara mumbled from where her face was buried in Lucy's neck. Just because she knew she would be rescued, Tamara was still relieved that it finally happened.
"It's true. She kept me calm and told me Tim and Lucy would be coming. I'm assuming that's who you two are?" Kira asked the members of the group hug.
Tim nodded. "Guilty."
"Okay, guys, you're crushing me," Tamara said half jokingly.
"One more second," Lucy responded and kept her grip on her friend.
They stayed huddled together for a moment longer until Angela entered the shipping container.
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Hours later, Lucy ushered Tamara into their apartment with Tim behind them.
"Okay, I need to take a shower, and then just this once, I think I'm allowed ice cream for dinner," Tamara said. She turned to look at the sullen look on Lucy's face. "Are you really gonna give me grief about vegetables after I was held hostage? Come on, Tim, back me up."
Tim could tell from the look in his girlfriend's eye that Tamara's dinner request was not the problem. "I'll let you two talk," he said and kissed Lucy's head before going into his girlfriend's bedroom to give the women some privacy.
Lucy held onto Tamara's wrist to guide her to the couch. She sank down heavily beside her roommate and blew out a breath before speaking as evenly as possible, "I'm really sorry that I put you in danger."
"Put me in danger? What are you talking about?" Tamara wondered.
"It's my fault you were taken. I was the one who suggested you go out partying when you wanted to stay in. I am SO sorry, Tamara."
Tamara shook her head and squeezed Lucy's hand. "I don't blame you for some unhinged dudes who took my bestie for a ransom payout. You couldn't have known something like that would happen to me, and honestly, I'm glad I was with her to keep her calm."
"Guess meditation has been doing you good if you stayed calm during something so scary."
"If the same thing happened to me when I was living on the streets, I would've been scared, because I would be sure that Kira and I were gonna die, but now I have you. You're not the reason I was hurt. You're the reason I was saved. And before you could get to me, you're the reason I had hope."
Lucy felt emotion threaten to close her throat. "Nothing was gonna stop Tim and I from finding you."
"I know that."
"But, I hate that you were in that situation in the first place."
"Stuff happens. You know that as well as I do, but I'm home now. I'm safe. That's what matters."
"Whenever you wanna talk about it as you process this, you know Tim and I are here for you," Lucy assured.
Tamara leaned in for another hug. "I know. You guys are my favorite old people."
Lucy chuckled as she kept Tamara encircled in her arms. She was willing receive endless teasing from the woman who had become like her little sister as long as Tamara was safe and healthy. "I love you."
"I love you, too." Tamara squeezed tightly for another minute, and then said, "Okay, I think that's enough hugging for one day."
"There's no such thing as enough hugs," Lucy replied but let her friend go.
"I'm gonna go shower, and then we can watch a movie."
"Are you sure you don't want to sleep?"
"No, even though I'm good on hugs for the day, I could use a movie night."
"Whatever you want," Lucy nodded.
Tamara left the living room to go into the bathroom while Tim joined Lucy in the living room. "I tried not to eavesdrop," he started to say.
"These walls aren't that thick. I'm sure you heard everything."
"You okay?" Tim asked and sat down next to Lucy.
She threw her legs across his lap and scooted in close to him. "I will be. I was just so..." She could not find the right word; "scared" did not seem to be a strong enough descriptor for the emotions that consumed her throughout the time Tamara had been missing.
"Me, too," Tim replied. He felt Lucy drop her head to his shoulder. "She's okay, baby, and the next time Tamara needs us, we'll be there for her then, too."
He was right; neither of them would ever allow Tamara to feel alone. Another thought surprised Lucy, and she smiled at the realization. "You know what? I don't know when it happened, but Tamara became your puppy, too. After you said not to take one and that you can't save puppies, you now love and protect her."
Tim rolled his eyes. He hated being wrong, but on this occasion, he was willing to admit, "I care about Tamara, but that doesn't make her my puppy, okay? She's YOUR puppy. I just happen to be friends with her."
"That's what you're going with? Are you THAT stubborn that you can't admit that I'm right?"
"You're not right. Tamara is not my puppy. Kojo is my only puppy. Tamara is yours."
Lucy squinted, "Kojo's sorta my puppy, too."
"Since when?"
"Since he loves me more."
"No, he doesn't. He loves the guy who cooks him breakfast and takes him on walks every morning."
"He loves the woman who gives him the best bully rubs and extra treats, and that's me. I'm his favorite."
Tim groaned in frustration, because he knew he had just started an argument that he was likely to lose.
When Tamara emerged from the bathroom to find Tim and Lucy bickering, she observed them for a moment with a big smile. They may be idiots, but they're her favorite idiots. She sat down on the couch, and then Lucy got up so that Tamara would be sandwiched between her and her boyfriend.
"Come here," she murmured and flung her arms around Tamara.
"Are you gonna hold onto me for the entire movie?" She asked.
"Absolutely," Lucy answered.
Tamara eyed Tim. "You're not gonna get in on this, too, are you?" She questioned.
Tim selected Tamara's favorite movie, "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days", then threw his arms around the woman, too. "Yup."
Even though Tamara rolled her eyes to keep up appearances, she was silently grateful to be loved and cared for by Tim and Lucy, because after being alone for so long, she never expected to find two amazing, protective people to call family. Even if they hugged her a little too often.