Chapter Text
Smitty tried to hijack the DJ approximately twenty-three minutes into the reception.
Tim took Lucy’s hand and helped her step out of the car, her using one hand to lift the skirt of her dress.
They heard a ‘hey!’ from inside, and glanced at each other, Tim rolling his eyes.
“Smitty,” he groaned.
Lucy giggled, and Tim smiled in response.
“Lighten up, babe,” she whispered close to his ear.
Tim quirked an eyebrow, pressing a kiss to Lucy’s cheek before leading her inside.
Cheers erupted as they walked in, and Lucy held up their joined hands, smiling at Tim as they walked in. Tim slid his arm around Lucy’s waist as she leaned into him, placing her hand on his chest.
It was then that they saw Smitty creating chaos with the DJ.
“Please man, I’ve got a great playlist, I promise. I’m really good at DJ’ing, I promise. We have a turntable at Shangri-La.”
Tim rolled his eyes and looked to the side, where Angela was standing. Tim nodded to Smitty. “Lopez, can you—“
She nodded, “Yeah. I got you.”
Within two minutes, Lucy and Tim were being ushered onto the floor for their first dance.
“Alright, we’ve got our first dance as a married couple for our lovebirds!” Angela called into the microphone.
Tim pulled Lucy into his chest, wrapping his arms around her waist while she reached up to put her arms around his neck, carding her fingers through his short hair.
“Warm With You” by Hayden Calnin began playing.
Lucy looked at Tim and Tim looked at Lucy and everything else disappeared. He whispered jokes and ‘I love you’s into her ear as they danced, and she smiled that smile that made him fall in love with her from the very first day that they met.
“Hi, Mrs. Bradford,” he murmured, just to her, as they swayed.
Her smile widened.
“Hi Mr. Bradford,” she responded brightly.
He kissed her again, squeezing her tighter to him.
Their friends watched them with massive smiles, Angela leaning into Wesley, Genny pulling her mom into a hug, and Grey pressing a kiss to Luna’s cheek in that way that weddings made people do.
As the song’s closing notes played, Tim dipped his head and kissed Lucy, dipping her backwards again (it was his favourite thing to do with his wife.)
When he’d pulled her upright, her cheeks flushed and eyes a little dazed, he released her, spinning her around before pulling her into him, both of them laughing as he did so.
Angela grabbed the microphone again, calling out that everyone would now sit down for dinner.
Tim led Lucy to her seat, pulling out her chair, and gesturing for her to sit down, pressing a kiss to the side of her head as she did so.
After they ate, Angela took the microphone once again.
“Firstly,” she began. “Thank you all for coming. If you’ve been invited here, you likely all know just how frustrating it was to get these two here.”
Everyone laughed, and Lucy leaned into Tim, slotting her head in the crook of his shoulder.
“I met Tim when we were rookies together. He was just as annoying as he is now.”
Tim rolled his eyes, glaring at Lopez. It didn’t deter her.
“I’ve dreamed of standing up in front of all of Tim’s family and friends for years to tell them about all the embarrassing things he did as a rookie. Lucy, take notes.”
Lucy giggled as Angela winked at her.
“Tim hasn’t exactly had it easy. When I met him, he was as closed off as they come. He was still fighting a war in Afghanistan, even though he’d left the Army a year prior. He had to work pretty hard to get out of that.”
Tim’s eyes dropped, and he drew circles on Lucy’s knuckle with the hand that held hers.
“He’s always been rigid. Hard to break. There was a lot of stuff he didn’t tell me for years. And before he met Lucy, I was worried he wasn’t ever going to dig himself out of the hole he was in.”
Angela made a sympathetic face. Tim avoided her eyes.
“But then, lo and behold, he’s assigned this incredibly annoying rookie, who asks him question after question, who doesn’t put up with his bullshit, and who wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Tim smiled, twisting his head as much as he could to look at Lucy.
“He complained about her for probably…a month? At most. Then, he’d make exasperated comments, but he was always smiling when he did it. And for the first time in a long time, I saw the light come back into his eyes.”
Lucy leaned up and kissed Tim’s cheek.
“Lucy was what he needed. She’s always made him better, ever since they met. She has slowly convinced him over the years that having feelings is not an infectious disease, which the rest of us failed at miserably. There was something between them long before either of them were willing to admit it, let alone do anything about it.”
The audience smiled, waiting for Angela to continue.
“Tim’s always been an incredible TO, and Lucy’s been, for the most part, a good rule-follower. So nothing would ever have happened between them. But that didn’t stop the constant, and I do mean, constant, flirting.”
Everyone laughed.
“When they got to the end of Lucy’s rookie year, we all knew it was only a matter of time. So, then-Sergeant Grey, Nyla and myself, started a watching party.”
Lucy and Tim exchanged confused glances.
“For those of you who aren’t cops, we have to wear body cams at all times. They record all interactions on stops, but also, a lot of the time, everything else.”
Lucy bit her lip, mildly mortified.
“My god, did we need popcorn to watch Lucy and Tim’s body cam footage.”
Everyone laughed again.
“The teasing. The bets. The flirting. It was golden. I considered showing some tonight, but I like Lucy too much for that.”
The crowd booed.
“Okay, okay,” said Angela, laughing. “I’ll just show you one. This was from when Lucy was Tim’s rookie.” She clicks play, and a compilation of Tim and Lucy’s body cams pop up on the screen.
“I think I can help.” Lucy’s voice was clear.
“With what?”
“Listen. I know how hard it is to meet people in LA. It’s what keeps them in business.” She gestured behind her.
“Wait.” Tim set down his pen and turned to her. “You wanna set me up?”
Lucy nodded.
“Huh,” Tim scoffed. “Even if this wasn’t your dumbest idea yet, there’s no way you’d be able to pick someone right for me.”
Lucy looked at him with a challenge in her eyes. “I’m serious. If I can fix you up on one good date, just one—“ She held up a finger, “I…” she paused for a moment, contemplating, before looking him up and down. “I get to wear short sleeves.”
He paused, glanced behind him. Looked back at her. Clicked his tongue. “Okay. Okay. But you’re paying.”
Lucy shrugged, failing to contain her grin. “Whatever.”
“And if you lose, you get to do 50 pushups after every call we take.”
Her smile dropped slightly, and turned back to the paperwork in front of her.
“And that, ladies and gentlemen, was not even the beginning of the flirting. That was six months in.”
Everyone laughed. Tim and Lucy were both hiding their faces.
“Little did either of them know, Lucy couldn’t pick someone that was right for Tim. Because she was right for him this whole time.”
The audience aww’d, and Lucy looked up at Tim.
“This footage goes on for hours. It got worse, after Lucy graduated and Tim became a sergeant. We thought, maybe, maybe, they might take their chance. But nope! They remained blind as ever. They continued to deny that they actually liked spending time with each other, let alone admitting that they actually liked each other.”
Everyone was in stitches by now.
“They spent a year dancing around each other. Pretending they didn’t feel something. Pretending they weren’t bothered when they both started dating other people. And those other people pretended they weren’t bothered by how absolutely insufferable these two are together.”
Tim squeezed Lucy’s hand.
“It took them practice kissing to actually admit there was something there, and even then, they both just denied, denied, denied.”
Angela sighed dramatically.
“I remember the day that Tim came to work and told me he’d kissed Lucy. For work, he claimed. For work, my ass, Timothy.”
Tim wrapped his arm around Lucy, squeezing her gently as they both laughed, unable to help it.
“I asked him if he had feeling for Lucy. He said ‘no’ at a pitch I’ve only ever heard from my daughter when she was two years old and screamed at the highest pitch she could.”
People were wiping away tears with how hard they were laughing now.
“After they came back from that UC mission, which we thought for sure would get them together, because how many times did you kiss, Tim and Lucy?” Angela turned to them pointedly.
“Three times,” Lucy called.
“And how many of those were uncalled for?”
Lucy bit her lip, trying not to laugh.
Angela turned back to the crowd. “They got back, and they weren’t together. It was a desperate time, you guys. We had a betting pool going. The betting pool was nearly going to Smitty. We were determined to not let that happen.”
Smitty made a mock horror face.
“Weeks passed. We were getting desperate. And then finally, finally. They got together. Well, sort of. They got together a week after Tim asked Lucy out. Their first date was on the 18th of May, 2021.”
“How—?” Tim called.
“-do I know that?” She shook her head. “I’m a detective, Timothy. Also, you guys are as subtle as a jackhammer.”
Everyone burst out laughing.
“You claimed that you were there investigating a tip. That drugs were coming out of the kitchen. Soft undercover infiltration. Lying liars who lie.”
Tim and Lucy exchanged sheepish looks.
“Which, by the way, is a saying that Lucy stole from Tim.”
Angela let the laughter die down.
“But seriously, you morons, I’m happy for both of you. This day has been a long time coming, and you deserve some happiness. Your love is something that the rest of us can only hope to experience at some point in our lives. Your trust, your love and your undying commitment to pissing the rest of us off with your flirting is enduring. I love you both, and please dear god, don’t be more obnoxious now that you’re married. I can’t handle it.”
Everyone laughed, and Angela bowed dramatically, passing the microphone to Celina and Tamara, who had just stepped up.
Tamara spoke first. “I’m not Lucy’s maid of honour, but I wanted to say something quickly because these two… yeah, they’ve… they’ve done a lot for me over the years. They are my family.”
She took a deep breath, and looked at Lucy, her eyes shining. “I met Lucy when I stole her car. I was 17, homeless, and jaded. She didn’t have to help me, in fact, Tim mercilessly teased her for helping me, but she decided giving me her car was the way to go.”
Lucy laughed wetly.
“I knew there was something between these two the day I met them. That was late in Lucy’s rookie year. I was genuinely surprised when Lucy told me they weren’t together.”
She looked down for a moment, before looking up.
“Lucy took me into her home. Made sure I ate enough, had a place to sleep, had everything I needed for school, helped me get a job, and eventually, helped me save enough money to move out. She did all of that without ever asking for anything in return. She stuck by me no matter how many times I shut her out or lashed out. She was more of a mother than I ever had, but she never tried to step into anything official like that. She just… she just showed up. No matter what.”
Tamara swallowed. “And Tim did too, even in the beginning. He checked in on me, at first via Lucy and then himself. When they started dating, he invited me to every movie night they had. When Lucy went undercover, he’d stay over and keep me company, make sure I was safe. He cared, even if he refused to admit it.”
She looked up at Tim and Lucy, who were both looking at her with proud-parent expressions.
“I watched both of them become better people over the time that I’ve known them. I’ve watched them grow and fall in love and become what I hope my future relationship looks like. They taught me what a healthy, safe relationship looks like, and they taught me that I don’t need to settle for less. I love you both, so much, and I’m so grateful to have been in your lives.”
Lucy was crying now, and she laughed through her tears as she carefully wiped her face. She and Tim both stood up and enveloped Tamara in a hug as she walked toward them.
Celina stepped up next.
Her speech was shorter, and she talked about how long she’d known Lucy, how Tim and Lucy had started dating very shortly after she’d started as a rookie. She talked about how she’d looked up to Lucy and how kind she was, and how Tim and her complemented each other, and that she used to be scared of Tim, but wasn’t anymore because Lucy had softened him so much.
Lucy hugged Celina as she stepped down.
Joy stepped up next.
“I know we’ve had a few speeches, and you probably don’t want to hear any more, so I’ll keep it short, but when lovely Angela asked me if I wanted to speak, I couldn’t not.”
She turned and looked directly at Tim and Lucy.
“I’ve never seen my son happier than when he is with Lucy. He’s been through a lot - they both have - but the way that they trust each other to carry the other through a hard time, and the way that they love coming home to each other every single day - it…it’s everything I’ve ever wanted for my son. For both of them.”
She took a breath.
“It is my pleasure to welcome Lucy officially into the Bradford family. But sweetheart,” she looked directly at Lucy, a hand on her heart. “You’ve been family for a long time before today. It is my honour and my privilege to call you my daughter.”
Lucy leaned into Tim, a hand on her chest mirroring Joy’s, tears streaming down her face, and he helped her gently press a napkin underneath her eyes to prevent her makeup smudging, her hands shaking too badly.
Joy walked out to them, and she pulled Lucy into a long hug, squeezing her tightly. “I love you, Lucy,” she whispered. “I’m so glad that you’re officially a Bradford.”
Tim wrapped them both in his arms, kissing Lucy’s head, and then gently guiding her back to her seat.
After the speeches were done, everyone retreated out to the dance floor, all slightly tipsy on champagne and the atmosphere. Tim and Lucy danced together for hours, and after a few songs he helped her pull her shoes off so she was comfortable.
As ‘Landslide’ by The Chicks came on, a familiar presence appeared beside both of them. Grey reached his hand out to Lucy, nodding at Tim.
“May I?” he asked.
“Of course,” she took his hand, and he danced with her as the song continued, as Tim stepped away.
They stayed silent for a few minutes, unsure what to say.
“You know,” Grey said quietly. “Your dad is missing one hell of a woman.”
Lucy looked down, blushing. “Thank you, sir.”
Grey laughed. “I’m at your wedding, Lucy. You can call me Wade.”
Lucy bit her lip, considering. After a moment, she shook her head vehemently. “Nope. Can’t do it.”
Grey chuckled, bowing his head, fair enough.
He took a breath before he spoke again.
“Lucy?” he said softly.
She looked up. “Yeah?”
“You’ve become one of the finest officers I’ve ever worked with,” he began. “But you’ve also become one of the strongest people I know.”
He flicked a glance over at Tim.
“More importantly, you’ve made grumpy cop over there happier than I’ve seen him in the last eighteen years.”
Lucy looked up at him, her eyes glossy with tears.
“Thank you,” she replied softly. “Thank you for everything. For being a father figure for both Tim and I. We wouldn’t… neither of us would be here without you.”
Grey nodded once as the song came to a close, and Tim was there once again, kissing her cheek, and pulling her to dance as one of her favourite songs came on.
Grey stepped to the side, letting them have their moment.
Lucy glanced over once, smiling at him.
He lifted his champagne glass to her slightly, and she nodded once, before looking back at her new husband.
She didn’t feel the emptiness she’d expected to feel, the feeling that something was missing.
Maybe she should have.
But as Tim spun her around on the dance floor, she didn’t see the people who hadn’t attended. She only saw those who had.
She felt nothing but full, right here in her husband’s arms, surrounded by all the people who decided that she - that both of them - were worth showing up for.
And that was all that mattered.