Ana stays awake that night, something just feels off. Lucy and Ana promised to always text each other once they got home if they were going out. It was just a way for the two girls to keep each other safe. But Lucy never called.
Ana rolls over in bed, around 1 am, and looks at her phone again only to see nothing from Lucy. Ana sighs, debating what to do in her head before getting out of bed. When she walks into the bar with pajamas on, she gets a lot of looks, she gets even more when she pulls out her badge.
"Hi, have you see a 5'4'' twenty nine year old Asian woman around? her name's Lucy?" Ana asks the bartender.
"yeah, she was here with some white guy... um... Caleb, I think" The bartender shrugs.
"and where did they go?" Ana asks.
"home. I think your friend is getting lucky tonight" The bartender says.
Ana huffs, nodding. She sneaks all throughout the bar, checking every nook and cranny before leaving the bar.
"you're just overthinking things... again." Ana tells herself as she drives home and goes to bed. But she can't shake the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. So the next morning, she gets dressed early and rushes to Jackson and Lucy's apartment.
"what's up, Ana?" Jackson yawns, answering the door.
"is Lucy home?" Ana asks, softly and urgently.
"no, her date went very well last night" Jackson replies.
"okay..." Ana sighs.
"what's up?" Jackson asks.
"I just-... she never texted me, she always texts me to let me know where she is at night, just like I do the same for her" Ana explains, softly. "and I went to the bar but the bartender said that she left with Caleb so maybe I'm just overthinking this entire thing... I don't know."
"well, it's Lucy, she'll show up for work, so let's go ahead and go, get our anxieties relieved as soon as possible" Jackson decides.
[Timeskip]
"Lucy?" Ana calls through the girls locker room, looking in every stall and shower.
"what are you doing, runt?" Harper asks.
"Lucy isn't here" Ana responds, softly. "she went out with Caleb last night and she always texts me where she is at night as a safety thing but she didn't and I asked the bartender but he just said that they left together, I don't know, maybe she's just not at the station yet, but I just... something is wrong, I know it"
"come on" Harper decides, grabbing Ana by the arm and walking her over to the Sergeant who is talking with Tim. "tell him what you told me."
"Lucy didn't come home last night and she's not responding to any texts or calls" Ana explains, softly. "she always texts me where she is at night but she didn't last night"
"Okay. Did she go out with that guy? The one she met at a bar. Caleb Wright. With a "W."" Tim asks.
"yeah, she did" Ana says, softly.
"Could've ended up at his place, overslept." Grey shrugs.
"No" all of the rookies say at once.
"Lucy wouldn't just disappear like that, she knows we would worry about her" Ana starts first.
"she doesn't do one-night stands" Nolan continues.
"and she's never late" Jackson finishes.
"what do you know about this Caleb guy?" Grey asks.
"she's known him for a couple days, I know she was stalking his Insta but I don't know anything else" Ana replies, softly.
"Yeah, he, uh he said that he worked for a medical supply company. I saw a video of him playing with a puppy." Tim adds.
[Timeskip]
"All right, take West, run a background check. I want to know everything you can find on Caleb before we knock on his door. And find Armstrong." Grey orders.
"Right" Tim nods before turning to Jackson "Come on."
"I'll run a trace on Lucy's phone, get her into MUPS and NaMus systems." Nolan volunteers.
"Everyone, listen up! Officer Lucy Chen has not been seen for approximately 13 hours. Given the circumstance, we cannot rule out abduction. So stop whatever you're doing. I want everyone on this until she's located. Notify S. O., see if they can shag calls for service." Grey calls into the bullpen.
"Phone company says GPS is disabled. Last tower ping was on Sixth and LaBrea at 9:07 last night." Harper says.
"it's not far from the bar she went with Caleb to - Las Torres.
"Control, I need a shop to swing by Las Torres looking for a missing officer, Lucy Chen. Code 3." Grey says over the radio.
"no need, I went there at about one am, searched the entire place top to bottom, bartender said that she left with Caleb" Ana says, softly.
Grey nods, cancelling the shop.
"So, what do we do now?" Ana asks, softly..
"Go to the hospital. Talk to the victim we saved, see if she has any insight to help us find this guy." Grey answers.
"If anything's happened to Lucy -" Ana starts as she and Harper head to the hospital.
"Don't go there. If she is in trouble, the only way you are good to her is if you are focused solely on saving her, not playing worst-case scenarios." Harper says.
[Timeskip]
"Ms. Valdez?" Ana asks, softly, biting her lip and entering her hospital room.
"You saved me." Nora breathes.
"Yeah." Harper nods.
"Thanking you seems inadequate." Nora says.
"It's perfectly fine, we're just glad you're okay. do you think you could help us save someone else?" Ana asks, softly.
"Oh, no." Nora gasps.
"I'm afraid so. Uh, a friend of ours might have been taken. Anything that you can remember about your experience would really help us." Harper replies.
"I never saw his face. He wore that horrible mask." Nora shakes her head.
"How long after he took you did he give you the tattoo?" Harper asks.
"At least 12 hours. I was leaving work when he grabbed me. Around 8:00 or 9:00." Nora replies.
"that's the same timeline as Lucy" Ana murmurs, turning to Harper.
"Did he say or do anything that stood out to you?" Harper questions.
"Yeah. He was so happy. He kept saying that she was going to be impressed by him. I didn't know who he was talking about." Nora answers.
"We do. Did he mention any other place, aside from the old zoo? Somewhere he might go?" Nolan asks.
"No. I'm sorry. That's all I can remember." Nora replies.
[Timeskip]
"How long would it take to suffocate in an oil barrel?" Harper asks Sawyer on their way out.
"It depends. If the lid is sealed in place, only 21% of the air inside that barrel is oxygen. So every time she breathes in, she's absorbing some of that oxygen, and every time she breathes out, she's adding carbon dioxide to the air. So if she can stay calm and breathe shallowly, she can last for several hours. But not longer than that." Sawyer says, making Ana's breath hitch.
"Thanks." Ana exhales, shakily.
[Timeskip]
"Nora was abducted two nights ago. We found her 18 hours later, already tattooed and about to be put into a barrel to be suffocated. This makes Caleb's timeline from abduction to death approximately 24 hours." Harper announces.
"So we have less than 10 hours to find Lucy." Jackson realizes.
"Unless we're wrong and she's dead already." Armstrong replies.
"No. She's not dead. She's a fighter and a survivor. She's going to do everything she can to stay live until we save her" Ana insists.
[Timeskip]
Ana and Harper walk into Grey's office and hear the two arguing. Once Armstrong storms out, Ana pipes up.
"Sir, if talking to Rosalind could give us anything, it's worth it" Ana says, softly.
"I agree. But she is uniquely focused on punishing Armstrong. He was never gonna get anything out of her." Grey shakes his head, looking at Ana.
"But you think I might?" Ana asks, softly.
"you were her first capture and her first fail, she has some weird connection to you" Harper says.
"okay" Ana says, softly.
"Are you up for the challenge?" Grey asks.
"Sir, Lucy is my best friend, I'd do anything for her." Ana insists, softly.
"Good. I'll call Sergeant Hernandez at the prison. I expect regular updates." Sergeant Grey decides.
"Yes, sir." Harper nods.
[Timeskip]
"So, what's your plan?" Harper asks as they walk through the prison.
"she likes me, in some twisted way, if I-... she likes to hear me suffer" Ana starts, softly.
"if I talk about what happened those two weeks... she'll give me something in return, she's sick like that" Ana says, softly.
"what did happen during those two weeks?" Harper asks.
"I'm just glad that Rosalind wasn't the one who kidnapped Lucy" Ana says, softly, not saying anything more on the subject.
They arrive at Rosalind's cell and Hernandez starts the process.
"Rosalind, visitors. You know the drill. Step away from the door." Hernandez calls.
"Took you long enough." Rosalind smirks.
"Step back. On your knees." Hernandez says. Harper gives her a pat on the back before her and Hernandez leaves the room.
"No Armstrong?" Rosalind asks.
"He's working another case." Ana lies, pathetically.
"Let's not start with lies. He found the letter I hid, which means he found the package I arranged for him. Tell me everything. Did he cry? I know most women find it a turn-off, but I love it when a man cries."
"we're not here to talk about Armstrong" Ana sighs, softly. "you said yesterday, that if I described what you did to me in Montana... that you would tell me more about Caleb"
Rosalind just smirks.
{Warning! The next bit discusses rape and sexual content. If you will be triggered by this, please don't read!}
"On the first night, you undressed me bit by bit" Ana starts, softly. "you were so slow, intent on staring at every inch of skin that you revealed."
"On the second night, you started with my toes, first licking them and then... riding my foot" Ana breaks off.
"On the third night, you humped my thigh" Ana continues, starting to cry but remembering Lucy.
"On the fourth night..." Ana gasps and Rosalind has a twisted grin on her face. "y-you..."
Ana can't continue, she just can't.
"please, tell me anything about where Lucy is, please" Ana pleads.
"oh, I'm sorry my pup, but you'll have to do a lot better than that to get information out of me" Rosalind says.
Ana stands up, wiping her sleeves and leaving the cell.
{Rape and Sexual Content discussion is over}
"hey" Harper says, hugging Ana.
"she didn't tell me anything" Ana whispers, before turning to Hernandez. "s-she had a box of chocolates in her cell, i-it didn't look like they were prison commissary."
"No. They're not. Black market items make it everywhere inside this place, even death row." Hernandez explains.
"That's how Rosalind has been communicating with Caleb. Notes hidden inside contraband." Harper realizes.
"if we find who's running the contraband... we might be able to find Caleb" Ana sniffles.
"It sounds good, but ID'ing the source of a major criminal enterprise is gonna take time. Time we don't have." Harper says.
"Wesley" Ana realizes, her eyes widening.
[Timeskip]
"Hey. Tim and Jackson struck out with the smuggler. So it's on you, to get her to give us something that'll lead us to Lucy's kidnapping. You can do this. For Lucy, remember" Harper says.
"okay" Ana whispers, entering Rosalind's cell again.
It's hard, really hard to describe the worst two weeks of her life to the woman who made them the worst. Ana is a mess by the end of it but Rosalind does tell her something.
"The third grave was never the end game." Rosalind says.
"Then what was?"
"Not what. Who." Rosalind replies.
[Timeskip]
"it's Armstrong" Ana whispers to Harper, leaving the cell.
[Timeskip]
Harper drives to the house, speeding there. Ana gets out, while Harper runs into the house. Ana looks around the area. It's a mountainous desert area, where everything looks like everything else.
Ana knows that Caleb has already buried Lucy, so she starts looking, frantically. She's soon joined by the rest of the team, because Caleb died.
Ana is walking on top of a little cliff when she spots a glimmer of metal. Ana drops to the ground, picking up the star ring that is Lucy's part of their friendship rings.
"Tim! Tim!" Ana calls.
She only needs to show him the ring and he's trying to find where the barrel is buried. Ana gasps when she hears the dull sound of metal. Ana and Tim start digging, revealing the top of the barrel. Others rush over and help Ana and Tim open the top of the barrel and pull Lucy out. There's a stab wound in her chest, the knife still lodged in her lower abdomen. Ana puts pressure on the wound while Tim performs mouth to mouth.
"no, you have to keep going" Ana whispers, when Armstrong says that she's dead.
Tim is on the same page as her and Lucy gasps awake. She curls into Ana's side, her head resting in Ana's lap. Tim puts pressure back on the wound and bends over to help hold Lucy like Ana is doing. The two whisper words of assurances to her while Lucy cries.
[Timeskip]
"Mm. What are you reading, Teen Rebel?" Lucy asks, waking up in a hospital bed.
"They actually have some really insightful political articles." Tim replies.
"Mm-hmm. Oh. Which BTS Member Is Your Soul Mate?" It's gotta be Suga, right?" Lucy teases.
"Totally. What's a BTS?" Tim asks.
"Oh, God. Have you been here all night?" Lucy giggles.
"No. Mnh-mnh. No." Tim shakes his head.
"Mm-hmm." Lucy smiles. "where's Ana?"
"she's recovering from surgery" Tim replies.
"surgery? what happened to her?" Lucy asks, starting to sit up.
"Hey, sit your ass back down. you were stabbed in the liver, so Ana donated part of her liver to you" Tim explains.
"oh" Lucy whispers. "is she okay?"
"she's worried about you but otherwise she's fine, had a hell of a conversation with Rosalind to try and track you down" Tim sighs.
"so not fine?" Lucy asks.
"not exactly" Tim replies.
"I had to literally handcuff her to her hospital bed or else she would hurt herself coming to check on you" Tim continues.
"she's the best" Lucy smiles.
"she is" Tim agrees with a smile.