#respondsfirst

lucy needed at least three to five business days to process the breakup. it was so unexpected. she knew tim was in a dark place. she knew that he was withdrawing from her, hiding from her, keeping things from her. but she knew they could work through whatever bullshit life threw at them. it came so suddenly that lucy was still trying to work through their conversation in her mind when bradford showed up at her door. and if she was confused before, she was definitely confused now. "tim," she started, but she didn't know what to say. the last thing she said to him was don't do this. why are you doing this? then he kissed her forehead, apologized and walked away. like it was that easy. like his heart wasn't left broken in that parking lot next to all of the shattered pieces of hers.

hi,  thank  you  for  asking.  he's  always  ready  to  spill  the  menu.  two  things  went  into  consideration  for  tonight's  dinner:

the  fact  that  buck  only  got  maybe  five  hours  of  sleep  last  night

his  half  day  at  work,  the  twenty-four  he's  heading  into  tomorrow  afternoon,  &  the  fact  that  he'll  be  cooking  for  the  entire  station  the  next  day.

&  even  with  all  that  taken  into  consideration  he  still  somehow  manages  to  be  extra  with  it.  tonight  the  buck-halstead  family  is  having:

two  cheese  &  apple  flatbread  w/candied  walnuts.

fried  chicken  w/cordon  bleu  sauce, mashed  potatoes,  &  garlic  broccoli.

rage    is    red    hot    like    the    swell    of    embers  ,    defeat    is    harsh    like    collision    of    palm    to    cheek  .    you    are    a    little    girl    again    :    staring    down    the    wrath    of    kinship  .    only    this    time  ,    reflection    displays    only    you  .    palms    of    overworked    hands    settle    upon    porcelain    after    discarding    towel    in    waste    bin  .      you    were    wrong .         and    now  ,    another    person    has    died    because    of    that    mistake  .    because    of    gut    instinct    breeding    failure  .

❛  ❛          this    is    my    fault  .    if    that's    what    you    came    here    to    say    —    i    already    know  .     ❜  ❜              presence    of    fellow    detective    lingers    behind  ,    silhouette    visible    from    the    corner    of    her    eye  ,    blurry    within    mirror    opposite  .    brows    pull  ,    confusion    settling  .          ❛  ❛          then    what    are    you    doing    here  ?      ❜  ❜          gaze    elevates  ,    inspecting    brunette    in    glass  .      pity    also    unwelcome  .

maggie barely flinched when she heard movement behind her,  the quiet creak of a floorboard betraying that she wasn’t alone.  she kept her focus on the open fridge,  one hand braced against the door,  the other swiping a cold bottle of water from the shelf.  the dim morning light caught on the bare stretch of her legs,  their shirt hanging loose off one shoulder,  an afterthought of modesty.  she cracked the bottle open with a flick of her wrist,  taking a long sip before tilting her head just enough to glance over her shoulder. 

some people might see it as a step down, and career wise, it was. she had climbed to be the head of the emergency department at new amsterdam, but it was slowly killing her. her addiction, rehab, getting injured, the surgery . . . the people at new amsterdam helped her through it. lauren and max made sure she came out the other end, but that place was a reminder of everything bad aswell. so she moved. she got a job at a different hospital, in a different town. found her AA meeting spots, found an apartment, found her favorite spot to buy coffee. this was her new start. gotten her badge and access information earlier today, and she'd made sure to be a little early to her first night shift. to meet people, figure out what kind of place this was. gaze slowly shift across the ER and it's different, but there is a sense of belonging. a sense of familiarity.

ruzek and burgess were the only two left in intelligence that morning. atwater and upton were undercover, halstead and lindsay took mouse to follow up on a lead, decotis was on breakfast duty for platt, the dawsons were . . . well, adam didn't really know what those two were doing. the urge to makeout with his fiancé was strong, but he had too much respect for the intelligence unit for that. so he placed his hand on kim's knee instead. "hey," he said, pulling her out of that pretty little head of hers with a kiss on the cheek. "as soon as al gets here, we'll head out."