Chapter 5
“Mmmhmm” Robert mumbled as he stuck his fork in his plate and raised it to his mouth again, enjoying the food.
Lucas stared at his friend “Did you hear me, Sully?” He asked trying to hide the surprise in his voice.
“Yea yea sure.” Robert waved his fork around dismissively “Um, Rip, when you started started dating Hughes were you worried about the consequences. Your job etc? Was there anything that told you it was a totally bad idea?”
Lucas stared at his friend in disbelief his mouth open. Clearly Sullivan hadn’t been listening to him and had other things on his mind. He swallowed the lump in his throat.
“Who is she?” He asked his voice sounded hoarse from the nerves of having to tell his best friend his wife was alive but his friend had completely missed the hint, clearly preoccupied by something…someone else.
Robert chuckled nervously, shaking his head.” Do I have the same tells as well?” Lucas smiled remembering when he’d figured out that he and Vic were involved.
“Yea, I guess you do.”
“Well nothings happened yet but I’m interested and she asked me out for a drink and I’m thinking of saying yes.” He looked up with a hopeful expression and Lucas realised he was asking for approval.
“Are you asking as your friend or as your boss?” He took a bite of his steak. He couldn’t taste it. His mind was whirling around trying to work out what to do. He had to tell him about Claire.
“Both.”
“As your boss, you’d have to submit official paperwork declaring your relationship or intention to start one and your boss will evaluate it.” He shrugged. “I can’t give you more info then that as long as it’s not inappropriate or you outrank her by a million ranks. Declaring it up front is the best option.”
“So why didn’t you declare yours?”
Lucas blinked. How had they gone so far off topic. “I-er. I didn’t realise how serious we’d gotten until it was too late. I was..it felt like I’d got caught up in this crazy whirlwind and felt like I was just floating and then I blinked and it was 6 months later and I was totally in love with her. Heck, I was probably in love with her before I even kissed her for the first time.” He paused seeing the look on his friends face. “What?”
Robert was looking at him funny and smiling. “Look at you. You’re like a love struck puppy. The way you talk about Hughes. That’s what I want. I’ve missed being close to someone and think it’s time to get back out there again.”
Now! Tell him now!
“Um, Sully, there’s something I need to tell you…” his sentence was cut off by his phone ringing “shit!” He muttered. He couldn’t ignore it. He answered and as he suspected he was being called in.
Sometimes being the chief sucked. “I have to go.” He wiped his mouth and stood up. “Thanks for the steaks.”
“Hey you didn’t answer as a friend.” Robert smiled with the same hopeful expression he had earlier. Lucas stroked his beard, a habit he couldn’t shake.
“As a friend I’d say don’t rush into anything.” He smiled wearily ignoring the look of surprise on his friends face. He walked out of his friends apartment, mentally kicking himself for not being more direct. He should have just told him directly.
Now he’d been called to a 2 alarm fire which looked like it was escalating to a 3 alarm on the other side of Seattle. He still hadn’t even spoken to Vic today. She’s probably pissed at him for running out on her and not getting back to her and now he probably wouldn’t make it home till late so wouldn’t get time to call her.
He typed a quick text to her saying he was going to a 2/3 alarm across town so he’d be tied up for the next several hours. God, he just wished they were both off. He’d pushed his meetings back for the day as he was dealing with the whole Claire situation and now he’d be out all night so unlikely to make it into the office until late tomorrow so he’d at least get a lay in with her in the morning.
Vic opened the door to Lucas’s house the next morning. She was glad to be home. She was so tired. They’d been called to an old peoples home in the middle of the night and it had turned into a couple of hours as they’d tried to stop one of the care workers from jumping off the roof.
She hoped Lucas was still in bed waiting for her. She hung up her jacket and started making her way up the stairs pulling off her tshirt. She couldn’t wait to crawl into bed with him and snuggle up to his warm firm chest. She was just about to unbutton her jeans as she reached the top of the stairs when she came face to face with a stranger coming out of the bathroom. She screamed and covered her chest. He looked terrified at the half naked woman screaming in front of him.
Lucas came running out of the bedroom to find out what the commotion was.
“Vic!? Vic, this is Justin. I told you he was staying with us.” He looked at his girlfriend. “Why is your top off?” He asked puzzled.
Vic glared at him
“Because I wanted to just climb into bed with you.” She said through gritted teeth. “I forgot you said we had a visitor. Sorry Justin. Nice to meet you. I’d shake your hand but…” she shrugged looking down at her arms covering her chest.
Justin nodded looking embarrassed.
Vic blushed. “Excuse me.” She scurried into the bedroom hearing Lucas apologising before following her. She sat on the bed and buried her face in her hands. She could feel him smirking at her.
“You could have sent a reminder message. You know how forgetful I am.” He chuckled sitting next to her, pulling her into a hug and giving her a kiss on her temple
“I love how forgetful you are. It’s cute.”
“You…” He cut off what she was about to say by covering her mouth with his in a kiss that went all the way down to her toes. She sighed dreamily when he pulled away and they both climbed into bed and cuddled.
“I missed you.”
“Not as much as I missed you.”
“Well I didn’t pull a disappearing act.” She looked up at him when he didn’t answer. He looked worried, the lines in his face seeming deeper. “What is it?”
“Claire’s alive.” He said quietly. He explained everything to her including how he tried to tell Sullivan the night before.
“Wow! Wow, this is unbelievable.”
“Yep!” Lucas said letting the p pop.
She looked at him and could see how worried he was about telling Sullivan “I think you have to try again. Especially if he has his sights on someone new.”
Lucas look at her curiously. “You know something.”
“Wh-what? Me? No nooo. I don’t know anything about anybody. Nope. No. not me.”
He loved it when she rambled. He chuckled.”No?”
“Nope.”
“Okay.” He smiled giving her a kiss.
He knew she knew something but he didn’t want to think about it right now. He just wanted to hold her and inhale her sweet scent, for a couple of hours at least before he had to call his friend and get him to meet him at grey Sloan.
He was going to rip the band aid off this time.