Chapter Text
It’s only 2 p.m., and there are still 6 hours left in both Lucy and Tim’s shifts. They haven’t been able to find a babysitter, and Ivie and Andie are getting more restless by the minute.
“Daddy, I wanna go home,” Ivie whines, kicking her feet furiously.
“I know, baby,” Tim bends down and places his hands underneath the little girl's arms, scooping her up and attaching her to his hip. “I know that today has been a long day for everyone, but I promise that we’ll get you out of here soon, okay?”
“Okay,” Ivie sighs sadly. She collapses her head onto her father’s shoulder as he rubs his hand up and down her back.
“Can I go sit with Mommy?” Andie says quietly.
“You know what, I think that’s a great idea!” Lucy had a way with the girls; she knew exactly how to calm them down during tantrums, and put them to bed after nightmares.
He can tell that Ivie and Andie need a change of scenery, so he happily leads through the bullpen to Lucy’s desk.
“Hi, my babies,” she smiles immediately as her daughters run up to her. “What have you all been up to?”
“Well, Celina and Auntie Nyla watched us while Daddy went to work,” the older girl explains.
“And we named a new puppy!” Ivie squeals.
“That’s so great,” Lucy exclaims. She then turns to her husband, “they’ve been good?”
“Yeah, no complaints. Yet.”
“Thank god, because there is no way I can get off early tonight,” she sighs, motioning to the fresh cases in front of her.
“Yeah, me too. North Hollywood just asked for assistance from Metro.”
“Really? Must be serious if they didn’t just as for patrol,” Lucy furrows her brow.
“Yeah, some special ops things, I haven’t gotten a chance to look at the details yet.”
“Go ahead, I’ll watch the girls,” the detective insists.
“Are you sure,” Tim crosses his arms.
“Yes, yes, all I’ve been doing is paperwork. I’ve got them, go!” Lucy assures him. “Be safe out there, love you!”
“I will, love you too!”
Lucy watches Tim jog across the station until he’s out of sight; she takes a sharp breath before turning to her daughters.
“So girls, how are you enjoying your day off?” she asks them cheerily.
“I kind of miss school,” Andie admits, though it’s to no one's surprise. Andie loves school, just as Lucy did when she was younger.
“I don’t,” Ivie giggles. “I wish I could come here everyday!”
“Honey, you would get bored being here every day. Trust me, you should enjoy kindergarten while you have the chance,” Lucy pats her youngest daughter's shoulder.
“But school doesn't have puppies!”
“Ivie, we literally have a dog at home,” Andie rolls her eyes at her younger sister.
“We should get another puppy!” Ivie blurts out excitedly. “I think that Kojo gets sad when we all go to school and work. He could use a friend.”
“You’re right, Kojo can get lonely because we aren’t home all day. But, because we aren’t home, there is no one to watch another dog. Puppies are a lot of work: they need training and constant attention. Maybe when you girls are older, we can talk about adding another Bradford puppy to the mix,” the detective explains kindly.
“Okay,” Ivie sighs sadly; she’s heard this speech about a hundred times, but it never got easier.
“Tell you what, how about we take a little snack break?” Lucy suggests, and both girls jump out of their seats without hesitation.
Lucy grabs onto the girls hands and carefully leads them towards the breakroom.
“Lucy?” a voice calls out from behind. The mother turns around to find Tamara Collins waving from a few paces away.
“Tamara! What are you doing here?”
“I’m here on a case,” the young social worker explains. Once Tamara graduated college, she had chosen a career in social work, with hopes to give kids like her a better life than she had. This brought her to the station quite a bit often, meaning her and Lucy still had a close relationship. And even though Tamara wasn’t a frequent babysitter for the Bradfords, she joined them for dinner quite often, and the girls adored her.
“And what brings you to the station,” Tamara asks the girls playfully.
“Air conditioning broke, and our babysitter couldn’t start early,” Lucy explains. “In fact, she just called in sick for the day, so that’s great?”
“Oh yeah, that must have been why Tim called me, sorry I missed it.”
“No, no, don't worry. We’ve been taking turns pawning them off to everyone here at the station,” Lucy chuckles dryly. “Anyway… how is everything with you?
“It’s definitely busy, but good!” Tamara tells her friend. “You know, I’ll be sitting around here for a little bit, waiting for some records and interviews before I can get going. I’m happy to entertain the girls while I wait!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, of course!” Tamara assures Lucy. “Come on Andie and Ivie, let’s have some fun, like old times!”
The girls cheer as Lucy lets go of their hands, immediately running over to their old babysitter.
“Bye girls, be good!” she reminds them, shaking her head as she skips alongside Tamara.
* * *
“Tamara, when are you going to come over for dinner?” Andie asks as she attempts to tear open a bag of potato chips. She furrows her brows as she tugs, and tugs, and tugs but she can’t seem to pull the bags apart.
“Here, let me,” Tamara insights, gently taking the snack from Ivie. Within a matter of seconds she opens the bag and hands it back to Andie.
“Thank you!”
“Of course,” Tamara smiles. “And… I’ll talk to your parents, but I would love to come over anytime.”
“What about Jake? Will you bring him, too?”
Jake was Tamara’s fiance, they had been dating since before Andie was born and had been engaged for almost 2 years. She brought him over to the Bradfords every once and a while, and the girls got a huge kick from an attractive, young guy at the dinner table.
“You know, um, it might just be me this time,” the young woman laughs.
“Why?” Ivie pouts. She loved Jake, and not just because he brought her a new toy every time he came over. Jake was patient and happily went along with all of Ivie’s antics, including her princess Tea Parties.
“To be honest, Jake is a little scared of your dad,” Tamara explains.
“Afraid of Daddy?” Ivie asks in disbelief. “Why?”
“Well…”
__________________________________
“Luce, you’ve changed the place settings around twenty times,” Tim chuckles. “They looked just fine the first nineteen times.”
“Everything has to look perfect,” Lucy told her husband sternly. “Tamara has never brought a boy over.”
“Oh, come one, it’s nothing to stress over,” he says gently. He reaches over and swiftly places his hand on top of hers just as she’s about to readjust a fork on the dining table.
“If he’s truly a good guy, the angle of the cutlery isn’t going to matter to him,” Tim reminds her.
“Yeah, you’re right,” she sighs. “I just want today to go well.”
“I know,” Tim wraps his arm around her back, holding her shoulder tightly.
“I don’t know how you’re not freaking out.”
“Oh, I ran a background check on the guy,” Tim admits casually.
“What?”
“Did you really think I was going to let a stranger in my house, let alone around Tamara?”
“You can’t run background checks on everyone you interact with!” Lucy exclaims critically. She was slightly appalled, but not very surprised, to be honest. He would never admit it, but Tim was fairly protective of Tamara.
“If it makes you feel better, he came up clean,” Tim claims with a shrug.
“Actually…” Lucy bites her lip, “it actually does. I was kinda nervous… she didn’t always run with the best crowd.”
“He’s an intern at a local accounting firm, no criminal background, seems like nothing to worry about.”
“Good,” Lucy lets out a deep sigh of relief.
Ding!
“I’ll get it!” Lucy yelps, hopping as she runs towards the door. She looks though the peephole to confirm, and slowly swings the door open.
“Tamara!” she exclaims, pulling her friend into a quick hug.
“Hey, Lucy!” Tamara smiles, turning to the boy standing next to her. “This is Jake.”
“Detective Chen, so nice to finally meet you,” the young boy says, clearly nervous.
“Please, call me Lucy,” she assures him kindly. “Come on in.”
Lucy slowly leads the pair through her and Tim’s home into the dining room while Tim is finishing off the dinner.
“Babe, Tamara and Jake are here,” she calls out, and Tim quickly bustles in with a pan of Baked Ziti in his hands.
“Hey, Tim,” Tamara says cheerily as he sets the pan onto the table.
“Hey,” he flashes her a quick smile.
“Hi, sir, it’s nice to meet you,” Jake introduces himself shakily. His hand jitters, as if he was about to hold it out, but ultimately decided not to.
Tim merely nods with pursed lips.
“Thank you both so much for having me,” Jake blurts out in an attempt to diffuse the tension.
“Tamara speaks very highly of you, we couldn’t wait to meet you,” Lucy smiles. “Right, Tim?”
“Mhm,” he grumbles as Lucy nudges his shoulder.
“What?” he mumbles through a whisper as she shoots him a disapproving glance.
Lucy turns to the young couple, “we’re going to grab the drinks from the kitchen, please make yourselves comfortable.”
She grabs her husband by the hand and drags him to the kitchen with an unhappy look on her face.
“Tim…” she sighs, shaking her head. “I thought we agreed to leave #GrumpyCop in the past.”
“You will never let me live that down, will you?” he complains.
“Not if you keep acting like it!”
“Come on, I have to make sure this guy is really worth Tamara’s time,” he argues.
“I thought you said he seemed like a good kid?”
“A background check will only tell you surface level stuff. How do we know that he’s actually right for her?”
“Well, that’s not your decision to make, is it?” Lucy reminds him.
“No,” he concedes, “but-”
“But what?” Lucy interrupts harshly. “Tamara is a grown woman. She’s about to graduate college, and she has a great job lined up. She’s given us no reason not to trust her judgement.”
“You’re right,” Tim agrees, albeit bitterly.
“I always am,” the detective chuckles. “Now, we’re going to go back out there and put a smile on our faces. We’re going to be nice to Jake, and we’re not going to scare him away. Got it?’
“Yes ma’am,” Tim salutes playfully, and Lucy rolls her eyes.
“Come on, tough guy,” she jokes, handing him a couple of glasses of water before they rejoin the young couple.
“So Jake,” Lucy begins, “Tamara tells me that you intern for the accounting firm a couple of streets over.”
“Yeah! I worked there last summer, and they extended my position after I graduated. I’m expecting a full-time salaried position in the next couple of months,” he explains proudly.
“Wow, that’s amazing! Sounds like you have your priorities straight,” she praises before taking a bite of the pasta.
“I love my job,” Jake tells her. “I’ve always had a thing for numbers, and while a lot of people find finance boring, I find the ups and downs of the business really exhilarating.”
“I totally get it!” Lucy exclaims excitedly. “So many people think that our job is to just hand out speeding tickets, but it’s so much more than that.”
“Tamara has told me so many stories about the two of you. Seems like you guys make killer cops.”
“Are you saying that cops are killers?” Tim asks, leaning forward.
“No- no sir,” Jake stumbles. “I meant ‘killer’ as in… ‘amazing!’”
“Tim!” Lucy yelps quickly, kicking her foot gently under the table.
“It’s just the young kids slang,” Tamaea chuckles dryly. Lucy watches as she slips her arm under the table and grabs onto her boyfriends, squeezing some support into him. She had warned him about Tim, but not enough.
“So Jake, what do you hope to achieve in your career?”Lucy asks, trying to reinstate the light-hearted energy she had crafted once before.
“My goal is to become a CPA,” he tells her.
“Oh, that’s a great job.”
“Yeah, Jake works super hard. He stays past his shifts to help out, and the managers love to have him around,” Tamara boasts with a grin.
“So you’re a workaholic?” Tim chimes in once again.
“No, just doing my part to stand out,” Jake explains. No matter what he says, he feels as if Tim will always find something wrong with his answer.
“Mhm,” Tim gruffs.
“You know…” Jake suddenly blurts out, “this has been great, thank you so much for having me. But I don't feel well, so I think that I’m just… going to head home.”
Before anyone can argue, Jake neatly places the utensils back in their respective positions and slides his chair out.
“Wait-” Tamara quickly runs after him, but not before shooting Tim a death glare.
“Timothy Bradford,” Lucy yells, her hands balled up into fists. “What is the matter with you?”
“That kid is clearly not right for Tamara,” the Sergeant scoffs.
“And why is that?”
“People like him will always put their job over their relationship. He’s clearly so focused on himself and he’ll never give Tamara the attention she needs and deserves!” he explains.
“How could you even say that?” Lucy’s face turns red. “You spoke to him for all of 2 minutes before you drove him out the door!”
“Look,” Tim takes a deep breath. “If he couldn’t handle a couple of snide remarks from me, then-”
Lucy cuts him off immediately. “Absolutely not. You are not going to ruin this with some stupid Tim test.”
“Luce-”
“No. You are going to go back out there and apologize profusely,” Lucy instructs angrily. “Now!” she adds.
Tim, albeit begrudgingly, rolls his eyes and stomps out of the kitchen.
“Jake, Tamara,” he calls out just as the pair is about to walk out the front door.
“What?” Tamara huffs.
“I- I came to apologize. I shouldn’t have been so harsh, I’m sorry,” he says softly.
“And…”
“And, I would really appreciate it if you both would stay and finish dinner. Start over.”
Tamara looks over at Jake, who gently nods at her.
“We’d love to stay,” Jake says, and Tim leads them back to the dinner table.
“Tim gets a little protective at times,” Tamara explains with a chuckle.
“I’m not protective,” he argues with a high pitched tone.
“Alright, if that helps you sleep at night…”
The rest of the night goes rather smoothly, no yelling or crude comments come out of anybody’s mouths, and both couples are able to enjoy their meals.
But even though everyone parted with a smile on their faces, Jake was conveniently “sick” the next time he was invited to the Bradford house.
__________________________________
“So the lesson learned,” Tamara tells the girls as she wraps up her story, “wait as long as humanly possible to bring your future boyfriends home.”
“This explains why Archer won’t come over for a playdate,” Andie huffs.
“And why I’m not allowed to go to Austin’s house!” Ivie adds on.
“No, that’s because his dad is in jail,” Andie explains, shaking her head.
“Jail?” Ivie gawks.
“Alright, alright, that’s enough of that,” Tamara giggles. She feels her phone buzz, and pulls it out of her back pocket.
“My case file is ready! Let’s get you back to your mom.” She grabs both girls' hands and takes them back to Lucy’s desk. “Your delivery is here!”
“Aw, thanks so much for taking them off my hands,” Lucy says appreciatively.
“No problem,” the young woman smiles. “Oh, uh- and I’ve been meaning to tell you, Jake wants to have you all over to the apartment before we leave for Mexico.”
“Oh, to be young and adventurous again,” Lucy chuckles. “Text me a date and time, we’ll be there.”
“Are you sure you want Daddy there?” Andie chimes in.
“Of course, why wouldn’t she?” Lucy asks with furrowed brows.
“Well, Tamara told us about how-” the little girl begins, but Tamara interrupts her before she can finish.
“Gotta go, see ya, Lucy!” she calls out before running off.
“I don’t even want to know what she said to you,” Lucy sighs.