I may be late to this party, but either 33. “You can lie to yourself but don’t lie to me.” or 34. “I wish I couldn’t feel a damn thing.” for XFAU Darecy?
X FIIIIIIIIIIIIIILES YUS
“Lewis, you can’t keep doing this.”
Darcy’s not listening. Her heart’s beating too fast. It’s buzzing like a hummingbird in the skin of his wrists, the office stinking of unwashed hair and sweat and coffee and sunflower seeds. She doesn’t look up from her computer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“This.” He waves his hands at the room. “Sleeping in the office, not eating, not sleeping, spending all your time–”
“I’m fine, Matt.”
“You can lie to yourself, but don’t you dare lie to me.”
“I’m not lying, Jesus–”
“It’s the anniversary in two days,” he says, and Darcy fumbles her pen. She bends to get it, not looking at him. “Of when Jane was taken.”
“That has nothing to do with anything.”
“You have to sleep,” he says. “You have to eat. Jane wouldn’t–”
“You have no idea what Jane would or wouldn’t want, Murdock–”
“But I can’t lose my partner,” he says. I can’t lose you. “So for God’s sake will you just–go home for six hours and sleep.”
Darcy looks at him in silence. Then, very carefully, she rests her pen on the desk again.
“At least come out to get food with me,” he says, and he’s coaxing. He can’t remember ever having to coax anybody in his life, not since his father died. “We can go get burritos. Or shawarma or something.”
She blinks. “Are you bribing me with food cart food?”
“Yes.”
“You hate food cart food.”
“You need to get out of the basement,” he says. “If I can deal with how you smell when you haven’t showered in a week, I can deal with food cart food.”
She flips him off, but when he offers her coat, she takes it. It’s a win in his book.
