Ty Solomon (![]() ![]() @ 2018-05-26 16:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | #october 2017, ty |
Who: Mads and Ty
When: Tuesday, Oct 24, late evening
Where: the station, Dino's
Status: Complete
It had been another long, exhausting, fruitless day. Ty felt like he’d been over every acre of woods in a five mile radius of the whole town about five times. That was probably an exaggeration, but fuck, he was worn out. And they still hadn’t found a single sign of the Lucas girl. Even the cadaver dogs on loan from the state hadn’t turned up anything. In his professional opinion, Ty didn’t think the girl was still alive, unless some sicko was holding her in his basement or something. That was always a possibility, but they’d done all they could do on that front, knocking on every door in town.
Still, they were all exhausting themselves to try and find her. Her mother kept calling the station, in turns demanding to speak to Grady and sobbing on the phone with anybody who’d deal with it for a few minutes. Ty’s heart went out to the family, he knew it was a hellish situation, but ... Olivia Lucas was a little off her rocker. They’d all known that going in, all of them having responded to too many calls of domestic disturbance at the Lucas house. Olivia would never press charges, but she sure liked to bitch to somebody. Ty might have suspected Olivia or Gavin of doing something to Amelia, but they both seemed so gutted, and they’d let the PPPD search their houses top to bottom and found nothing.
Ty was feeling pretty hollowed out and tired when he got back to the station. He walked in, intending to just get his personal effects from his locker and go home, but he spotted Mads still at her desk. “Hey, Pierce,” he said as he approached her, unbuckling his gun belt to pull it off. “Thought you got sent home a while ago.”
“Hey.” Mads glanced up from the papers strewn across her desk, offering him a tired smile. “Yeah, but I wanted to stay for a bit longer. Look over some reports.” The disappearance of Amelia Lucas didn’t settle well with her, more so than a typical missing child situation did. Not because of anything specific about the case itself but because of similar past events. Child disappearances weren’t uncommon in Point Pleasant especially back when she was younger. There was also the unique occurrence of missing children suddenly appearing again after months or even years. Those kind of cases dwindled after the early 2000s, though no one was never quite sure why. Some people had their theories but overall people were just glad to see a decline in such cases.
Mads had to wonder if there was any connection to those past cases and Amelia’s. Were there going to be an onslaught of disappearing children again? She hoped not, and it seemed unlikely, but she had to wonder. It was why she was looking at old case files of previous missing children. She hoped that maybe it could give them a little more insight to help with their search. Maybe they could check out the places were some of those missing children reappeared? What about the areas they were generally last seen? Would there be a correlation? “You headed home?”
Ty had perched his ass on the edge of Mads’ desk, glancing down at all the old case files she had spread out. They were all missing persons, kids from what he could tell just from a brief look. It made perfect sense, but she looked wiped out. The kind of wiped out that was still bright-eyed, because there was so much going on upstairs. Ty nibbled on his bottom lip as his eyes ticked to her face again. They could all be workaholics sometimes, it was just that kind of dedicated department, and he thought that was why they needed to watch each others’ backs even more. “Nah,” he decided, giving her a wan smile. “I’m gonna take you to get some food and a beer with me.” Ty stood up again and nudged her shoulder. “C’mon, I can hear your gears grinding from here. You need a break. Lets go get some fuel.”
Her brow furrowed, not sure how she felt about the suggestion. Deep down Mads knew she needed to take a break, but at the same time she knew that every minute counted when it came to a missing persons case. If there was any information she could garner from these files it would be better to get it as soon as possible. “I don’t know,” she began, obviously reluctant. “I have so much here to look over. There has to be something in here that can help with finding the Lucas girl. I know there is; I can feel it. I just have to find it.” She was getting hungry though and food would probably help her fading energy. “Okay,” she conceded with a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “But only a quick break.”
The moment of stubbornness didn’t surprise Ty. He knew Mads well enough to expect that. If it took some gentle -- or not so gentle -- pushing to get her out of this station for a while, that was what he would do. While he actually had her pried away from her desk, Ty could work on convincing her to go home and sleep for a while. He understood where she was coming from, he knew time was of the essence, but it was already Tuesday, and they couldn’t help Amelia Lucas if they were all zombies. “All right,” he said, more out of victory than agreement. “Let’s hit up Dino’s, my treat. I need some wings in my life.” They served beer there too, unlike Moxie’s, and Ty also needed a couple of drinks. He started to lead the way toward the exit, still carrying his gun belt. They were never really off duty during times like these, who knew when he might need it.
Mads let out another sigh. She wasn’t particularly happy about this but it was too late to back out. Well, not really. She could easily decline his offer but her stomach was beginning to growl at the mention of wings and likely wouldn’t shut up until it was satisfied. A grumbly stomach was high up on the list of ‘Most Distracting Things’ so better to deal with it than try to work through it. She stood up from her desk and followed Ty toward the exit. “We can take my truck,” she told him as they walked out of the station. There was a reason she was suggesting her vehicle and it wasn’t to save him the extra gas or anything so sweet. It was specifically so she could go back to the station after their outing. Having Ty in control of the transportation gave him a better chance of deterring her from coming back.
Ty was pretty sharp and he knew that trick, but he also knew Mads well enough to see that she was really reluctant to actually go. Once he got her away from work and got some food in her, he was hoping she could be reasoned with more. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about the case or the little girl, he just knew that running on an empty tank of energy didn’t help anyone. If she didn’t get some rest, Mads wouldn’t be able to help anybody. So he relented on the vehicle choice, just so she wouldn’t balk completely. “Aight,” he drawled and walked around to the passenger side of Mads’ truck. Ty climbed in when she unlocked it and got settled, stuffing his gun belt up under the seat. He pulled the tails of his uniform shirt out of his pants and gave a little sigh. “Has anything in there caught your eye yet?” he asked Mads once she was inside, looking over at her.
“Other than how little the cases had in common, no,” she admitted with a sigh as she started the car and headed to their destination. Mads had been looking for a connection, something that could lead her to a more concrete area to search, but nothing was sticking out. Everything was terribly random - the location they were last seen, where the ones who returned appeared, and how long they had been missing - that it was hard to pinpoint anything. “There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the disappearances and it’s frustrating as shit.” It must have been torture for the officers that had been involved in those cases. No wonder so many of them got annoyed at her when she tried to help the couple times it happened while she was visiting.
“I was hoping there would be something that could help.” She sighed again. It was going to be a sighing kinda night. “I don’t know, maybe there isn’t. These are old cases; why would they have anything to offer when it came to helping with Amelia’s disappearance? Seems a bit silly when I really think about it.” She gave a little shrug, looking a bit defeated.
Ty listened, though he pretty much already knew that. He of course hadn’t been around yet when the rash of kids went missing in the 90s, but he’d read plenty of the case files. The strangest ones were about the kids who came back, not remembering where they’d been. That had pretty much stopped, but Ty was kind of hoping it would happen again in this case. By all accounts, Amelia Lucas had been a great kid. Still was a great kid, he reminded himself. They didn’t know yet if she was dead. “It don’t seem silly,” he told Mads, shaking his head a little. “It seems like good police work. You’re looking for connections, that’s what we’re supposed to do. Don’t beat yourself up if they’re hard to find, or if they’re not there. We gotta cover all the bases, just in case.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she replied with another shrug. It was nice of him to encourage her actions even if they did seem pointless when she really thought about it. Though that probably own sense of disappointment making her feel like she was wasting time. As a cold case nut, she knew that they had the potential to help with current cases. There was no reason these cases couldn’t help at all. She was just feeling discouraged. Yeah. “Thanks for the encouragement.” Mads offered him a little smile.
“That’s what I’m here for,” Ty told her with a little smile. He could tell that she didn’t really feel better, but there was only so much he could do about that. This wasn’t really a situation where many of them could easily feel better about anything. Ty reached over to give Mads’ arm a pat. “You’re a great cop and you’re doing good work. We’re doing everything we can.” It was difficult in cases like this, when a child was endangered, but they had to remember that they weren’t superhuman, and when there was no evidence to go on, they were just blindly feeling around. Sometimes that worked, sometimes not. Ty wished he could confidently say they would find the Lucas girl, but he wasn’t confident of it, so he didn’t try to bullshit her. “I’ll take a look with you tomorrow if you want,” he added.
“I know we are, but part of me can’t help thinking it won’t be enough.” Regret crossed over her face for a brief moment. She shouldn’t have said that aloud. It just gave the thought added weight; they really didn’t need to be weighed down by those doubts and negativity. “I won’t turn away extra help. A fresh pair of eyes might help,” she quickly added.
It wasn’t a long ride to Dino’s and they were soon in the parking lot. Mads moved a hand over the top of her hair and pulled the hair tie out, shaking her head to let the brown locks fall around her shoulders. “So… ready for wings?”
Even if Ty didn’t really think looking over cold cases would help them much, he would do it. His instincts had been wrong plenty of times before, and maybe Mads was on to something. It would be better than hunting through the woods for the hundredth time, at least. He sat up straighter as they pulled into the parking lot, and gave Mads a little smile. “So ready,” he declared. Ty left his gun under the seat and climbed out of the truck to walk with her to the restaurant door. He opened it for her and soon enough they were settling into a booth. Ty already knew what he wanted, so he didn’t bother with the menu. “So tell me about something else,” he suggested. “How are you settling in? How’s Fin?”
Mads didn’t bother with the menu either, knowing she was going to get the same thing he was having. Wings were mentioned and her stomach would not accept any other kind of sustenance. “I’m settling in fine,” she replied, fiddling with the edge of her menu to give her hands something to do. “House still looks like it’s barely lived in but at least I don’t have boxes everywhere.” She smiled somewhat, chuckling. “And Fin is good. He’s got a new house. Officially moving in some time with week. Bit of a fixer-upper but isn’t so bad. I made sure of that.”
Ty was glad to hear that. He hadn’t gone back to talk to Fin in a while, and shitty as it was, that was kind of by design. It had been anxiety-inducing at first, with him still in the closet ... but now he was out and had a boyfriend. He’d come out for somebody, and while he knew Fin probably hadn’t expected any of that when they’d randomly hooked up ... still. It was sad, but a lot of this was still new territory to Ty. He was glad to hear the man was moving on somewhat though, people who were suicidal didn’t usually buy new houses. “Good to hear,” he murmured with a nod, then tilted a little smile at Mads. “And your new boyfriend? How’s that going?”
The house was a good step for Fin. To be truthful, though, Mads initially thought the decision was a bit rash, but she came to realize it was good for him. Focusing on finding the house and then making plans to fix up the house were doing a great job of distracting him. At least that’s what she was seeing. She tilted her head a little in response to his question, quirking a brow. “Boyfriend?” A slight blush came to her cheeks despite herself. “Ah, you mean Nick. We’re not really…” She didn’t even bother to finish her statement. Ty knew full well they weren’t dating; he was just being a tease. Though Mads would be lying if she said she didn’t like the idea of Nick being considered her boyfriend. “It’s going well, I think. Had a lot of fun at the festival.” She reached for the cup of Coke the waiter brought by. “And after,” she added, a little smile on her face as she sipped through the straw.
The look on Mads’ face said a lot even before she answered him verbally, and Ty couldn’t help but grin at her. He murmured his thanks to the waiter as he dropped off their drinks, pulling his water closer so he could squeeze the lemon into it. He knew they weren’t really dating -- at least Mads hadn’t said they were yet, and the guy was still a tourist -- but neither were he and Jared at first. Things changed, and who knew. He grinned wider and made an intrigued ‘ooh’ sound at the last part, cocking an eyebrow at her. “I’m gonna need some details,” Ty said. It was as much for his own friend-nosiness as it was to get her thinking about something else besides the Lucas girl. Something more pleasant that was hers. They all had to be a little selfish with their energy sometimes, or they’d lose their minds. “I’m pouty I haven’t seen him yet, I need to accidentally-on-purpose run into you guys or something.”
Mads laughed. “Please don’t. You’ll just embarrass me, I know it.” She stuck out her tongue, then seemed a bit thoughtful. “Or, you know what? Yeah. Do that. That way I can kick you if you try.” She lightly tapped his leg with her foot for added effect, grinning. “As for details…,” she trailed off, dropping her gaze with a shy smile while she idly moved her straw around. “We just went back to my place. Nothing crazy.” A pause. “He’s amazing, Ty. Gorgeous and attentive and just… oh man.” She covered her face with in her hands in embarrassment, knowing full well the color in her cheeks was deepening. “I feel like some silly little school girl. God, so embarrassing.” She quickly looked up and pointed a finger at him, looking only mildly serious. “You tell anyone about this and I’ll smack you so hard, I swear.”
Laughing softly -- and lovingly, because she was just acting adorable -- Ty leaned back and spread his hands. “That was, what? Two threats of violence in the space of a minute?” he teased, grinning. “You must really be into this dude. Gorgeous and attentive are good signs.” He nudged her leg back gently with the toe of his boot. Now that he was in a relationship that made him feel giddy and stupid and like a schoolgirl, he found it incredibly cute in other people. “I swear not to tell anyone how fucking adorable you are. And not to embarrass you if I happen to see you guys out and about. If it gets to where you wanna introduce me? I’ll be happy to meet him, and I promise not to check out his ass or anything. How’s that sound?” He grinned at her.
Her gaze moved to the restaurant around them, attempting to hide her blush in a more discreet way than having her hands slapped on her face. Mads pursed her lips. "I don't know what you're talking about. I threaten physical violence all the time." She couldn't help a small smile at the blatant lie.
She was about to open up and be maybe a little serious about her feelings, but then he had to call her adorable. Her brow furrowed. "I'm not adorable," she pouted and crossed her arms, acting very much the opposite of her assertion. "I'm a gruff, fierce ball of not adorable."
She tilted her head slightly when he agreed not to embarrass her, eyeing him suspiciously. “Promise?”
Of course she had to make herself even more adorable. Ty respected her, without question, and he would never belittle her in a professional sense, but they were also friends, so he had to give her some affectionate shit sometimes. And Mads being so obviously smitten with a new man was cute to him. Ty lifted two fingers. “Gay Scout’s honor,” he swore with a grin. He’d never actually been a Scout, but hey. The waiter came back to take their order, and once that was done and wings and loaded fries were on their way, Ty slouched back in his seat again. “Really though, I’m glad you found somebody to be distracting, at least. It helps, it really does.”
Gay Scout’s honor. She let out a laugh, unreasonably amused by the gesture. It was because she was tired; stupid things were always more amusing when she was running on empty. She suddenly turned a bit somber, settling back into her seat while Ty ordered for them. Acknowledging she was running on empty brought her right back to thoughts of the missing child and with it a pang of regret. Mads pushed those thoughts aside as best she could; she couldn’t have her every waking thought be focused on this case or it’d break her. She had nearly forgotten how much self care mattered during these times - thank god for Ty.
“I’m glad I found someone too,” she smiled some, still trying to fight off that lingering feeling of guilt. “I’ll admit, almost forgot how nice it was.” It had been a long time since she had someone that could give her a distraction - a positive one. The last few years of her marriage at been filled with negative distractions and just enough positive to keep from giving up on it. Mads was glad it was over. “Speaking of, how are you and Jared doing?”
It was good to make her laugh, however briefly. Ty had always had fun with Mads, and he hated to see her face fall again, even if he understood it. This job could get a person down even on good days, and a lot of fucked up, awful things happened in Point Pleasant. He’d been through few different theories on why over the years, and Ty was hesitant to call himself a Believer or anything, but it was undeniable that the place attracted a lot of weirdness. The sad, dark kind. He smiled gently back at her when she rallied some, completely understanding where she was coming from with the ‘almost-forgot’ part. He’d almost forgotten too. Or maybe he’d never really known.
The very mention of Jared’s name made Ty smile brighter than he had so far, and he huffed a little laugh, aware of what a sap he looked like all the time now. “We’re great, actually,” he told her. “Really, really good. Which is weird for me, but in an awesome way.” Ty pressed his lips together to keep more gushing at bay, fiddling with the edge of his napkin. He felt a pang of that same guilt for being so happy about something when a little girl was missing, but Ty couldn’t help it. “You should hang out with us sometime. Bring your new man, maybe we can all play cards or something.”
“Glad to hear it.” Mads smile grew. He always acted so adorable when Jared was mentioned that she couldn’t help smiling. It was both sweet and amusing. Was this how she was acting when talking about Nick? Oh god, it was. And she wasn’t even in a relationship with him, not really. Not like Ty and Jared’s at least. She wouldn’t mind if she was. Sheesh, it was almost embarrassing how smitten she was with the writer. It was the time she spent with him that past weekend that had her acting so silly. Everything just seemed to click. For her, at least. She didn’t know how Nick felt and, at the moment, she was reluctant to ask. For many reasons. “That could be fun, yeah. I’ll have to ask Nick, see if he’d be interested.” Mads took out her phone and typed a quick text to the man in question. Despite how it probably looked, it didn’t mention the idea of hanging out with Ty and Jared at all; it was just a friendly check-in. She didn’t expect a quick reply. “Not sure when any of us will find time but, when we do, let’s do it.”
Ty watched her send off a text, wondering if she was asking him now, but he wasn’t going to get nosy about it. However Mads handled her own relationship -- or budding relationship, as the case may be -- was her business. It seemed nice in his head, just four people getting together to have a friendly adult evening, maybe have a few beers, play some cards, chit-chat. He already knew that Jared and Mads got along well enough, and he was curious about this guy she was seeing, especially now. Examining the new boyfriend was always easier in a group setting, less obvious. And if he was cool? All the better. As long as he wasn’t some raging homophobe or something, Ty was sure they would all get on fine. “We’ll figure it out,” he said with an amiable grin. He didn’t know when that would be either, unless Amelia Lucas came strolling back into town, but who knew. “Anything else going on? How was the Witch Fest? I didn’t even walk around it this year.”
"It was fun. Nick and I wandered around for a few hours checking out the offerings." Her thoughts wandered back to their encounter with Madam Bacci and her "readings." Secrets. It all centered around secrets. Saying she should be wary of friends with them and then declaring Nick a man of them. What a bunch of hogwash meant to shake them up. Well, joke's on you, Madam Bacci. "Did a palm reading for the hell of it that sucked. Trying to cause trouble. The food was pretty amazing though." She smiled, remembering the overpriced but still delicious food. "Oh, and I got you and Jared gifts. Don't have them on me but I'll bring them by tomorrow."
He laughed a bit at the palm reading sucking, because that didn’t really surprise him. Ty might reluctantly believe in some strange things, but he knew most of those ‘fortune tellers’ were full of bullshit. “Yeah, that’s how they sucker you into paying for more,” he said, then smiled brighter. “Aw, you didn’t have to do that. Not that I’m gonna turn down gifts.” Speaking of food, their wings and fries and drink refills arrived right about then, and Ty straightened up with hunger in his eyes. He didn’t waste any time picking up a piece of chicken and digging in. Ty was starving, and a little girl being missing didn’t change that.
“It was all ‘Ooo secrets beware’-” She moved her hands like one would when imitating a ghost - “And junk like that,” Mads said with a bit of a laugh. “Whole thing was weird more than amusing like I’d hoped. Lesson learned.” Reaching over, she grabbed one of the loaded fries, using her other hand to keep from any possible mess falling onto the table. “Don’t worry, they weren’t anything too big or expensive so don’t go feeling too special.” She flashed him a playful grin and a wink before stuffing the fry into her mouth. “Mmm so good.”
Glad that she seemed to be cheering up a bit, Ty snickered at her description while he chewed. Good food always made people feel better. “Promise I’ll only feel like ... medium-level special,” he said with a grin once his mouth was clear. “Semi-special. Quasi-special.” He hadn’t expected anything from her at all and never did, so the fact that she’d gotten him something in the first place was super sweet. Him and Jared. Ty demolished the wing and then grabbed a couple of fries to follow it. “Sounds like she could tell you were a new couple and wanted to push some buttons. ... or he’s like, an assassin for the CIA or something.” Ty bounced his eyebrows at her with teasing intrigue.
Mads let out a laugh, glad that she wasn’t in the middle of drinking her coke. The idea of Nick being anything so crazy was comical. Yeah, he had an amazing body, especially for a writer, but honestly. Of course, she knew Ty was joking around; no one suggested something so outlandish and actually meant it. “An assassin, huh?” She leaned forward, chin resting on her hand. “Sounds dangerous. And kinda hot. In a weird way.” She laughed again, leaning back and shaking her head. “But nah, you’re right. Just trying to push some buttons. I took him home that night so can’t say it worked. Joke’s on her.”
Ty chuckled as he ate some more. It did sound kind of sexy, in a purely movie-fantasy way. “I dunno who he would be here to assassinate anyway,” he agreed with a shrug. Nobody famous or important ever came to Point Pleasant, and Ty was honestly okay with that. They had enough problems without some high-profile murder going down in their jurisdiction. He flashed her a grin at the last part. “Good on you. Get yours, girl.” She’d already gushed about how wonderful the guy was, so he’d obviously been a good lay too. That was a good thing, Mads deserved to have that in her life. And more. “What’s he do again? Besides murdering people for the government.” That was going to be a running joke now, he could feel it.
“A writer,” she answered, picking up a wing and taking a big bite out of it. Mads had the courtesy to chew and mostly swallow before she continued. “Perfect guise for a government agent. No one would ever suspect.” Ah yes, this was definitely going to be a running joke between them. A few bites later and her wing was just a couple bones. “He writes books on the paranormal,” she elaborated, tossing the bare wing into the discard container between them. “More of a researcher than some strange investigator though. I finished one of his books recently. Pretty interesting actually. And not just because I like the guy.”
Ty hummed an ‘ahh’ sort of noise, all of that clicking into place. No wonder the guy was in Point Pleasant. There was plenty to write about if that was his genre, whether the bulk of it was true or not. This town was chock-full of horrible, scary stories. “Well at least he’s good, right?” he offered after he’d down some more fries. “Can’t have you dating some hack. Only the best for my Mads.” He grinned at her and lifted a fresh wing to tap against the one in Mads’s fingers in a toast. “Has he like, been grilling you about old cases or anything yet?”
Mads chuckled. “Rightright. Only the best.” It was always amusing hearing that phrased used in reference to her. Most of the time it was her saying it, usually when talking about Fin and Brad. She’d add Ty in there every so often as well because, really, all of her guy friends were her boys. She was the big protective mama bear. “Not really,” she replied after a moment of consideration. “We’ve talked a little about some, mostly the ones I’m interested in looking into when I have the time.” Though that would likely change. Truth be told, she didn’t even think about the fact Nick would start asking for details into cases for his book. It made sense though and she had to wonder why it didn’t cross her mind sooner. Or maybe it had and she just chose to ignore it because, honestly, it wasn’t that big a deal. “If he starts, though, he’s going to have to do more than wine and dine me to get information.” She smirked. “I’m a tough nut to crack. Have to pull out all the stuff he learned at secret agent school.”
Ty was maybe a little cynical, wondering what angle people had, what their motivations were for doing things. It was his cop nature, he supposed. He didn’t really suspect Mads’s new boyfriend guy of anything, not really, but you never knew, right? He knew her instincts were good too, though, so he trusted that she knew what she was doing, and her alarm bells would appropriately go off if she sensed anything hinky with him. It might just end up being some passing fancy sort of affair anyway. Who knew how long the guy would be sticking around. He laughed at her words, not eager to dwell on paranoid possibilities and bring them back down. Mads was smiling and joking around now, they had good food, why ruin it? “Well I got your back, girl,” he told her. “If it starts seeming like you’ve been brainwashed or somethin’, I’ll step in and karate chop the dude into next Tuesday.” Ty made karate hands and waved them around with a few ‘waaaa’ noises, then grinned. “Plus you got Jared on your side too, and he’s a giant.”
Usually Mads was more wary of others’ motivations, especially new people, but there was something to be said about love being blind. Or whatever it was she was feeling toward Nick. Love was much too strong a word and one she didn't use lightly. Whatever it was, it was getting her to let her guard down for the moment, but make no mistake - if he started acting oddly she'd be right on it. "HA!" It was a short, hearty laugh that was probably a bit louder than it should have been. "Jared might have to work to take him down. He's massive. Almost a good foot taller than me."
Ty was never above acting like an idiot to cheer his people up, and Mads was his people. He grinned at the laugh she gave, glad that it was so unselfconscious. His immediate impulse was to assure her that Jared could beat up her new boyfriend -- he was also massive, and had an actually physical job -- but that would probably be immature, so he bit it back. “We’ll size them up together when we hang out,” he said instead, flashing her a bright grin. “Make ‘em arm wrestle.” They wouldn’t really, but it was honestly kind of funny and hot to think about. Ty plucked up another wing to demolish.
“With their shirts off,” she added with a laugh. Because if you were going to force your boyfriends - well sorta boyfriend maybe - to arm wrestle, you might as well make it as hot as possible. “With a nice oiling to make it really interesting.” Mads winked, grin mischievous. She went quiet long enough to scarf down a wing and a couple messy fries. “Thanks. For this. I didn’t know how much I needed it.”
He laughed as much as he could with his mouth full without choking, grabbing his drink to wash it down. Ty gave her a suggestive and amused look, because he could very well picture that -- even without knowing what Nick looked like -- and it was pretty nice. His expression softened into a warmer smile at the last bit and he gave her a nod. “I did, so ... I’m here for you,” he told her. “Anytime.” Now, whether Ty could convince her to go home and rest instead of going back to work at the station remained to be seen, but he would give it a go. At least if he failed, he would know that he gave her something of a break and got food into her. Sometimes that was all you could do.