The Boot: A Tim Bradford love story

Chapter 10 - I'm Sorry

Tim had left Elsie's apartment once he knew she was sober enough to be left alone. He hung out with Remy while Elsie went and fixed her bed from the vacation it got while she was asleep in her tub. Elsie didn't know why Tim stayed when he did. Especially when he went right back to treating her like a rookie the next day.

Elsie was scared to go to work. She was scared to have to deal with the mess she created with Anderson, who had likely involved Gray. Scared to confront Lucy and her friends. Elsie didn't cry when Tim left, she knew what he had told her was correct. She also knew that he didn't fully understand what she was going through but she knew it did his best to help her last night and she was grateful. Elsie also managed to get herself a hair appointment before her shift. It wasn't a drastic change but there was atleast an inch of hair taken off. Elsie kind of liked having less hair. It suits her better.

As Elsie was walking into the briefing room John called her over. "Hey Elsie, can we talk?" He called as he jogged over to her. "About what?" Elsie agreed as she Held the door for another cop who was walking into roll call. "I just want you to know that me and Jackson tried to convince Lucy to wait, to give you more time but she wasn't listening. I'm sorry"

Elsie thanked John for his words as she walked into roll call and sat farthest from Lucy. She knew she would have to talk to her about it eventually but wanted to put it off for as long as she could. Elsie payed attention as best as she could during roll call, but she could feel Tim's eyes burning into her back every second during their morning meeting.

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"So do you want to talk about it?" Tim asked keeping his eyes on the road.

"Not really" Elsie sighed as she cupped her face in her palms and shook her head as she gave a soft chuckle

"You know, mental illness isn't as scary as you think it is" Tim croaked as he made a turn around a corner

"Well obviously sir you've never been a girl with bipolar her whole life only to just be diagnosed after everyone thinks you're crazy and having your best friend rat you out" She said as she looked down into her lap starting to invisibly cry

"Well yeah but" he paused "I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to say is that you will get past whatever this is" he let out as sigh and turned his head over to Elsie and doing a double take after seeing she was crying.

"You okay?" He asked, his voice back to his regular, judgmental yet always sounding certain tone

"You know what sucks more than anything?" She said as she collected herself but you could tell she was crying by her voice

"Tell me" Tim asked in the same tone

"She's my friend" Elsie said as she placed her head against the back of her seat

Tim just shrugged his shoulders and said "Eh, friends are overrated anyway. I maybe have two total"

Elsie slowly turned her head giving him the most judgement look before saying "Is that why your such a loner?"

"Okay" Tim scoffed as he rolled his eyes and continued to drive
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Elsie and Tim and been on their lunch break sitting alone and different tables. Elsie honestly just wanted to be alone for a bit. She appreciated Tim and how nice he was being for once but she new it was just his pity for her.

Elsie felt the table she was sitting at shift. Looking up, she was met with Lucy sitting across from her with a soft smile. "Hey" she said softly as she unwrapped her recently bought lunch, hoping Elsie would act like nothing happened.

"Hey" Elsie said coldly as she got up and threw away her food before walking to the shop to wait for Tim to finish his lunch.

Elsie got to the shop and leaned again it, facing the road before she started to cry just a bit. Her favorite friendship as ruined and she didn't know hot to fix it. It hurt.
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"What was that about?" Brooks asked, as he nodded towards the table where his rookie and Elsie had once sat but now only sat Lucy, picking at her food with her fork.