Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lucy Preston is angry. Actually, that is an understatement. She has never felt more jerked around than she has by the University’s current administration. She is so, so close to completing her PhD in history and now they tell her she needs one more elective. The administration feels PhD students should be the most “well rounded” with enrichment in other subjects here and there. They feel she needs to take one last science course. “Lovely,” she thinks to herself. They did mention that it could be an undergraduate class and that should be easy, at least.

She clicks through the online course catalog looking at her options. Biology? No thank you. Chemistry? You’re kidding, right? Lucy hates math, never cared much for science but never really disliked it either. She always managed to get by well enough in her science classes. She scrolls across an option “Introduction to Earth Science, GSC 201” and pauses. “Earth Science… like rocks and plate tectonics…?” she says to herself. She considers how it could possibly be useful to know the geographic landscape in the places she has studied in history and decides this class may be the least waste of her time. She enrolls in the course and picks the first class with a Monday, Wednesday, Friday class time and lab once per week on Thursdays. She barely glances at the professor’s name. She doesn’t really care and doesn’t bother looking up “Dr. Garcia Flynn” on RateMyProfessor.

Day 1 of the semester is a Monday. She walks into her Earth Science class and groans internally. The room seats roughly 50 and she sees a sea of 18, 19, 20-year-old faces staring back at her. She still doesn’t consider herself old, but it’s been quite some time since she has sat in an undergraduate class. It is one minute until lecture is scheduled to begin and the professor still isn’t there. “Great,” she thinks. “An undergrad professor that doesn’t care and will be late every day.” She was proven wrong almost as quickly as the thought crossed her mind. Dr. Garcia Flynn walks through the door exactly on time and Lucy almost chokes on the water she brought with her to class. Dr. Flynn was …… something.

She guessed he was about 6’4” and looked like he fell out of a higher end men’s clothing catalog. The clothes weren’t flashy, but practical and stylish. He looked very well put together. The rest of him made Lucy pinch herself to make sure she was really on a college campus and not a movie set. He was tall, dark and most certainly handsome. She thought to herself “THIS is who should have been playing Langdon in Angels and Demons.” Sure, she liked Tom Hanks just as much as the next person, but as far as attractive, that is not who her mind’s eye pictured when she read the books. Dr. Flynn was more her cup of tea. His mysterious European accent was really the cherry on top.

Suddenly, Lucy became aware that the entire class including Flynn was staring directly at her, apparently waiting for her. Mortified, she snapped herself out of it and decided honesty was the best policy and looked directly back at Flynn.

“I’m so sorry, I think I was in my own little world. What was the question?” She smiled and so did Flynn.

“We were going around the room introducing ourselves. What’s something you would like to share or that we should know about you?” Flynn replied.

Lucy perked up, “Oh! I’m Lucy Preston, I am from this area, lived here all of my life and almost finished with my PhD in History.” She sat back down and tried not to make eye contact with anyone around her but snuck a glance at Flynn. He had an impressed or surprised (one of them?) grin on his face.

“Welcome to Intro to Earth Science, Lucy” Flynn said warmly then signaled to the next student to carry on with introductions.

The lecture time was 50 minutes, and after talk of the syllabus, expectations, office hours, and other basic start of class topics, the class was dismissed. Lucy took her time packing up. She hated the stampede that followed every class dismissal. She didn’t intend for that to leave her and Flynn alone in the room together. He was strolling over to her as she slung her jacket over her shoulders but awkwardly couldn’t get her arm in the sleeve on the left side. He simply said “Here” and held the side out for her to slide her arm in. She hoped to God above that she was wearing enough makeup to conceal the blush. He spoke again.

“Soon to be Dr. Preston, what brings you to GSC 201?”

Lucy sighed, she physically felt all of the anger she had for having to take this class melt away in an instant. Instead she told him about how the administration changed the requirements at the last minute before the semester started and she needed one last science elective.

“I was hoping this would be the least painful science elective for me. And you know, rocks are cool I guess.”

Flynn leaned his head back and let out a genuine laugh. “Rocks are cool indeed. The last thing I want to do is disappoint you, but Geology is actually the last rotation we do this semester.”

She said “hey, that’s okay. I’m along for the ride.”

His full smile had a devastating effect on her. He said “well good” as he rubbed his hands together.

She mustered all of the “cool girl, calm, collected grace” she possibly could and walked toward the exit leaving him standing there. She turned back over her shoulder to look at him and said “I’ll see you Wednesday, then” with a big smile and left the room. Looking around the empty room, he rubbed his hand over his face and thought this might be an interesting semester after all.

As Lucy trekked through the unfamiliar science building, she finally found an exit to the outside world. She walked down the mall through campus going over the details of the conversation she had just had in her mind.

Was he interested?

Was he just being really friendly?

Shit, did he have a ring on?

She was entirely too distracted to remember to look. Wednesday then. She kept walking.

Chapter Text

Lucy found herself dragging through Tuesday. It seemed to go on forever and that is when she realized how much she was looking forward to going back to Earth science on Wednesday. The morning of, she got up a little earlier, spent a little more time on her hair and makeup. She spent too much time in her closet but she just couldn’t decide what to wear. She scolded herself for doing this as she had never picked her class outfits based on a man, yet clearly was today. Finally, she chose a nice, casual top with a keyhole neckline. She thought it said “business casual with a dash of sexy.” When she reached her front door, she felt ridiculous and almost decided to change. She ultimately talked herself out of it, walked to her car and drove herself to campus.

She arrived to the lecture room about 15 minutes early that day and was surprised to see Flynn already there and looking as handsome and stylish as ever. He was busy setting up the Astronomy projection slides and computer programs, so she couldn’t see his left hand. He spent most of the lecture talking and pointing to slides with his right hand as well. He spoke with his hands a lot and Lucy thought it was pretty cute how passionate he got about the topic he was explaining. He finally walked to the center of the lecture platform and raised both hands to convey a point and she caught it. His left hand, ring finger was ring free. She let out a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding and leaned back in her seat relieved. Flynn noticed this motion out of the corner of his eye and addressed her directly.

“Were you thinking of adding thoughts to that Lucy?” He asked with a smile.

She smiled back and assured him “no, no, no, just listening!”

He kept smiling and turned back to the rest of the class to give a homework assignment.

“Be sure to read chapter 6 and complete the summary questions at the end for next class! And don’t forget, there is a meteor shower tonight that I know you Intro Astronomers won’t want to miss!”

He chuckles to himself knowing that maybe 1-2 students actually care. He turns his attention to Lucy packing her things at her desk. He is trying not to be obvious but he desperately wants to see her left hand. He kicked himself Monday for not looking first, lest he develop a crush that could go nowhere except to a dead end. Finally, she puts her left hand down to the desk to balance herself as she lifts her heavy tote bag from the floor up to the chair and he sees it. Her left hand, ring finger is also ring-free. Just like Lucy, Flynn lets out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding and walks over to her relieved.

He arrives at her desk, lifts the jacket off the back of her chair and holds it out for her to slide her arms into it. She once again prays to the makeup gods that her foundation truly is full coverage. He leans casually against the next desk and decides to go for broke.

“I’m sure you probably get this a lot, but I was wondering if you have plans this evening?” Flynn hoped he looked cool and not at all like he was staking everything on the answer she provided. Lucy felt the blush spread from her face to her entire body as she considered what kind of answer to give. She thought to herself “whatever plans I might have had would get cancelled for you, sir.” Instead, the answer she went with was a slow no, she did not have plans that evening. Did he have something in mind?

Flynn smiled brightly, “I actually do have an idea in mind. Do you want to meet me here about 9PM? If so, you should dress warmly…”

Meet him here, in this classroom at 9 PM? Lucy told herself that she had gone temporarily insane when she started picturing Flynn shoving everything off of his desk to sit Lucy on top of it and do some scientific exploring. Lucy realized too late that her mouth was still hanging open and she quickly said “oh, okay sure!”

She had no idea what she was dressing warmly for only to meet at the science building, however she smiled and left the room. Her mind was racing as she walked across campus to her car. She got back to her apartment and tried to focus on her studies but found it increasingly difficult the closer time got to nine. She spent the full hour between seven and eight picking out an outfit that was both warm and cute. She went with dark skinny jeans, boots, a longer tunic and her favorite peacoat that tied in the middle. After a makeup and hair update, she felt like this was as good as it was going to get. She ventured over to the science building and saw just a few cars in the parking lot that is normally packed through the day. She felt her stomach doing flips as she got out and walked up to the door. “Be cool about this,” she kept telling herself.

Flynn was at the desk typing something when she leaned against the door frame and knocked quietly. He looked up at her and a broad smile spread across his face. She said “You don’t look so warmly dressed, professor.”

He laughed and said “please, you can call me Garcia. Or a lot of people call me Flynn, it works just the same.” He shut down the computer and stood up, beckoning her to follow him as he turned the lights off and locked the room as they stepped outside into the hall. Her being ravaged on the desk theory is a no-go then, she thought rather disappointingly. She walked shoulder to shoulder with him down the hall and around a few corners. She noticed they reached an office suite with his name officially printed on one of the plaques. He unlocked his office and stepped in to grab his coat off of his chair. She looked around the office and was impressed by the different photos she saw framed from obviously exotic and faraway places. She was making notes in her mind to ask him about some of his adventures sometime soon.

They exited the office and he looked at his watch. “About 10 more minutes” he said more to himself than to anyone else. He looked at her and motioned “ladies first” into the elevator nearby. Lucy was thoroughly confused for a minute until she realized he had selected the top floor and she started to put the puzzle pieces together. When they reached the roof, she had a moment of stunned silence as she saw all of the astronomy equipment the college clearly keeps up here but she had no idea about. There were official looking telescopes, and other things she didn’t have any idea what they were named. She stepped out of the elevator slowly as she watched Flynn scurry around pulling cushions out of a storage shed over to the side. He laid them down in the middle of the roof and asked her to join him. He told her to lay back flat and look directly up into the sky, focusing on one spot. They laid there side by side for a few minutes until she finally saw one. Gone as quickly as it came, a meteor streaked across the sky near the spot she was focusing on. “I saw one!” she exclaimed delighted. Before she could say something else, another flew by in the same spectacular fashion and she pointed up again. She looked over at Flynn and found he was watching her smiling as she was enjoying nature’s show.

“It’s never too late to take up the sciences, you know.” he joked with her. She laughed out loud and said “yeah, nobody wants that. I’d be the world’s worst scientist. I’ll stick to history and let you handle the Earth.”

She felt a hot spring of daring energy well up inside her as she rolled onto her side and looked directly at him. “You know, your class is going to be the only one I have ever failed.”

He looked genuinely surprised to hear that, as if that wasn’t what he was expecting her to say. He propped himself up on his elbow and frowned slightly “And why do you think you’re going to fail? This is class day two.” He couldn’t help but chuckle but still felt concerned. Still riding the fearless wave, she said “because I can’t pay attention to anything you say looking like that.” Now it was Flynn’s turn to be stunned into silence. He considered her words and decided she was most certainly flirting with him. Too many thoughts went through his mind in a split second.

What am I even doing?

When was the last time I took someone out on a date?

What if this is a terrible idea, sure, PhD but she’s technically still my student?

Where could this even go? Just a fling?

What do I want, something serious?

What is she looking for? Will she be moving far away after graduation?

Finally, he had to close his eyes to shut the thoughts down and reopened them to smile at her. “I’m terribly sorry, what can I do to make my appearance less distracting?

“Unfortunately, I don’t think there is anything you can do. I’ll have to just accept the F.”

“Lucy, you’re not getting an F. You’d have to spell your own name wrong to score that low. Or just not show up to class again for the rest of the semester. And I have to say, I hope that doesn’t happen…”

Lucy sighed, “I’ve never skipped a class in my life. Only ran late to one once when I left the sunroof open in my car at night and then we had a thunderstorm. I had to take the poor car to get all of the water vacuumed out.”

Flynn tried mightily to hold in his laughter at that sad little story but he couldn’t. She yelled “hey!” jokingly and nudged him backward so he fell off of his elbow and rolled onto his back still laughing. She laid back down beside him and stared back up at the sky watching meteors fly by here and there. She looked over at him and saw his fingers laced together sitting on top of his stomach. She reached out for his arm, extended it out behind her head and around her and then used it as a pillow. He laughed again at this completely unexpected turn of events and sarcastically asked her “is there anything else I can do to make your stay more comfortable, Ms. Preston?”

She just grinned back at him and didn’t say anything else. They stayed like that just talking about another half hour before he moved his other arm and his smartwatch lit up revealing that it was 12:02 AM. He sighed, having no idea that it had gotten that late and that this comfortable evening would have to end. He announced the time to Lucy and she groaned before sitting upright again. She helped him pack up the cushions and put them back in the shed and they stepped into the excruciatingly bright fluorescent elevator.

Lucy spoke first, stepping in front of him and looking up, “This was so nice, I’ve never done anything like that or taken time to actually watch a meteor shower.”

Flynn replied “I figured I should at least attempt to give you a greater appreciation for Astronomy.” Lucy wondered out loud if she was going to gain a greater appreciation for all of the topics in his science class. He more coughed than laughed, once again taken aback by the flirting. The thought crossed his mind to lean down and kiss her when the elevator door opened and a frantic stressed undergrad carrying multiple books rushed in. He put an arm on Lucy’s back and walked them out of the elevator and into the hall.

“Where did you park? I’ll walk you out since it’s so late” Flynn inquired.

Lucy replied “Since it was after business hours, I parked right up front.”

“You know they claim they write tickets all hours of the day…” He grimaced while giving the bad news.

“Yeah, but after all of these years, I have a few friends in the public safety office. Sometimes my tickets magically disappear” and she winked at him.

When they arrived at her car, they stood there awkwardly for a moment while both were trying to decide what to do. Lucy ended up finding the courage first, leaned on her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for this, really. I’ll see you Friday.” He smiled and closed the door behind her as she got in and started the car. She waived as she put the car in reverse and pulled out and away. As soon as her car was out of sight he felt a tug on his heart. He was already missing spending that time with her. She got to her apartment and sat in the car in the driveway for a few minutes. She realized she already missed spending that time with him.

Chapter Text

Thursday is Lucy’s first Earth science lab. It is in a different building, with a different professor. Not even a professor, a teaching assistant, and the lab is an exercise out of a workbook. She is not impressed. At all. She actually decides to go tell him that, if he’s in his office that is. She makes it across campus to the other science building and tries to remember to take all of the same turns to his office suite from the night before. She comes up on the open door and sees his name on the plaque. She walks in and to the right toward his door. It’s also open so she quietly walks up and leans against the door frame. He looks up and smiles when he sees her. 

“Hello Lucy.” Lucy takes note of how he says her name with that accent. Its been keeping her up at night if she’s being honest with herself. It sounds more like a croon “Loo-cy.”

“Hello Dr. Flynn.” 
“Please, just Garcia.” 
“Okay, hello Garcia.” She immediately liked that more. 
“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit from you today?” Garcia leans back in his chair and motions for her to sit.

Watching him smile at her has once again effectively boiled any anger or annoyance she had right out of her. “I just finished my first Earth science lab and it just wasn’t at all what I expected.” 
“Ah, yes,” he starts. “I’ve asked to drop the lab requirement from this class for years but as you see, it still exists. And it’s still required. You’ll get to work with rocks at the end though.” He chuckles thinking about her “rocks are cool” comment.

She laughs “ha, ha, rocks are cool. You’ll never let me live that one down, huh?” 
Garcia says nothing but grins and shakes his head leaning back in his chair.

He starts again, “you know, I’m glad you stopped by. I was beginning to think I wouldn’t be able to wait until Friday to speak to you again. There is always the phone or texting…but I don’t have your phone number.”

She thinks it was very fortunate she decided to stop by as well as she tells him to unlock his phone and puts her number in it. She hands it back and says “lucky, that’s something so easily fixed.” 
He looks at the phone screen and sends his name in a text message to her so she could add his information in her phone too. He looks up at her “How long do you have?” 
She thinks about her meticulously planned schedule of assignments, readings, writings, and replies “I’m free all afternoon.”

Ten minutes later, Garcia and Lucy have snuck over to the music building and snagged a coveted table with an umbrella in the Zen garden. She decides to learn more about the man. “So Garcia, where are you from?”

He rubs his hand over his face as if to wordlessly say “where to begin.” He starts by saying he was born and raised in Croatia, but traveled extensively with his family who were scientists as well. Seeing so much of the world sparked the interest in him too. He studied a mixture of places and completed his PhD in the states and settled in here. She asked about some of the photos she saw in his office and he described happily some of his favorite trips he’s taken and scientific wonders he has experienced. Not wanting to talk all about himself, he asked Lucy a variety of questions as well as they continued to talk freely and comfortably.

After a while, a woman coming out of the music building saw and approached them. She had a distinct British accent. “Garcia, have you taken up music now?”

Garcia laughed and stated “yes, I have decided to give it all up and start a band.” 
Lucy shifted in her seat looking down, thinking about the time she had been extremely close to doing exactly that.

Garcia raised a hand toward Lucy and introduced the two women. Elizabeth, this is Lucy, a PhD student in History, and Lucy this is Elizabeth, she is Dean of the College of Fine Arts. They politely greet each other and Lucy thinks for a split second that she sensed some buried hostility when Elizabeth tells Garcia that she must be going but it was nice to meet her. Lucy watches her walk away and then turns back to Garcia who is clearly waiting for the question.

“You and her?”

“A long, long, time ago. We’ve managed to stay friends and colleagues.”
“Do you want to talk about what happened?” She wondered to herself if she should have just let that question go. 
He paused for a moment and decided to oblige. “She couldn’t understand why I didn’t want a more important position. Why I wasn’t going for Dean or department chair positions, working my way up. It’s a proven fact that the longer your academic title gets, the more paperwork, red tape and bureaucracy you get dragged through. I don’t want to do that and that’s not why I wanted to teach.” 
Lucy was still overwhelmed by all of those words said to her in that sexy accent but she did understand his position and pushed further. “Why did you want to teach?”

“I wanted to help students get their feet wet with Earth science, give them a little experience with all of it in hopes that maybe one might decide to pursue the subject further. Many have, that’s the rewarding part for me. Plus, the subject matter isn’t heavy, my days and hours are typically consistent, and I can take sabbaticals fairly often. I have no desire to be responsible for a whole department or college of science. Not back then when I was 27, not now at 40 and not ever.”

Lucy looked down in silence, his words were entirely true. The higher up in academia she goes, the more red tape and responsibility and general unpleasantness comes along with the position and power. She thought about how her mother had literally mapped out her career plans for her when she stated she was going to follow in her footsteps with history. It consisted of all stepping stones and ladders to infinity and beyond. Garcia looked at her and sensed he had probably said too much.

“I’m sorry, that probably sounded really jaded and you won’t be like that. I’m sure you would do very well as a department chair or Dean.”

Lucy shook her head, “no you’re right, I have a lot of things I still need to think about as far as what I’m going to do with this career track in the future and after graduation.” 
Garcia’s breath caught for a moment. This was an opportunity to get one of his internal questions answered. “Do… you think you’ll stay around this area or possibly go more abroad?”

Lucy shook her head again, “I hope or plan to stay around here. This is home.”
He must have shown his relief physically on his face because she smiled and said “were you thinking you were just going to be rid of me after graduation?”

He just smiled, looking down at his hands he was rubbing together. 
She considered her next question carefully but decided to push the topics into a more personal range. “Garcia, have you ever been married? Do you have kids?”

He let out a sort of involuntary “Ha” and rubbed his face again. He looked at Lucy and used his thumb to point over his shoulder in the direction Elizabeth had walked off in earlier.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh. Lucy understood that buried hostility she thought she sensed immediately. Got it, won’t discuss again, she thought to herself. 
“No kids, no,” he finished the original questions.

He smiled to try and lighten the mood once again. “How about you, Lucy?” 
She laughed, the thought of getting married and having kids at this point in her life seemed utterly preposterous as she hadn’t so much as had a date in the last year. Well, besides whatever last night was.

“No marriage, no kids. Just me, cheap wine and history books most nights,” she tried to sound nonchalant, and looked off into the distance, anywhere but directly at him. She was afraid she might see pity. 

The sun was getting lower in the sky and she figured she had one more question to ask before he went back to his office and she to her apartment and neglected assignments. 
“Garcia, do you believe in love at first sight?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

Chapter Text

In five days, Garcia and Lucy had gone from complete strangers to having dinner at his townhouse for the first time Friday night. He pulled out all of the stops; homemade dinner, expensive wine, even a candle. She thought about her last date who thought he should be congratulated for taking her to TGI Fridays. She said internally, “my, this is different.” She has never felt this type of attraction with anyone else before. She’s never felt like she’s been struck by lightning looking into another person’s smile like this. Looking around at his home, she thinks about how comfortable it feels to her, and how comfortable it feels to be around him. To talk to him. Frankly, she’s never experienced any of this before. She has admitted to herself before that she has never been truly in love. She wonders if this is it.

Garcia is having a hard time justifying to himself how fast things are moving with Lucy. He considers himself old fashioned and still thinks proper courtship should take time. He’s completely at a loss for this new experience with Lucy and how in five days they have gotten to the point where she’s having dinner with him at his home. He’s conflicted because on one hand, he remembers taking things slow with Elizabeth. Six weeks of dates before the first kiss, six months before the first sleepover, a year and a half before his proposal. With Lucy, he doesn’t even know if he’ll get through the night without kissing her if she wanted to. He knows a part of him did love Elizabeth. But he wondered all of the time after their divorce if he ever felt truly in love with her. He looks at Lucy and wonders if this is it.

Chapter Text

The first three weeks of the semester have flown by. Lucy is actually starting to wish she could throw the brakes on time so she had longer to think about what she wants to do. She knows she’s backed into a corner and has no choice but to finish her PhD in history. The alternative would be throwing absolutely everything she’s worked for away with nothing to show for it. She’s always known that some of what she was striving toward wasn’t her own choice, but her mothers. Earning her approval was always a goal for Lucy and she hadn’t asked herself why. Why is making her mother happy so important to her? Sure, every child wants their parents to be happy with them but this? Lucy has been looking back over her major life choices and career track decisions and this… is just control. Her mother reached the top levels of academia and experienced all the prestige and success that comes with it firsthand. She’s won awards, chairs committees, speaks at conferences, and published many works. If a stranger were to look from the outside, they could safely conclude that her mother had it all. So why is she pushing Lucy to do the exact same thing? It’s not enough to live it once? She wants to live vicariously through her once more? Lucy is stressed, indecisive, and starting to panic. What she never expected from this last semester was to meet a man who challenged her to do things that she wanted for once.

***

Garcia wakes up to the alarm on Lucy’s phone. He figures she will turn it off in the next couple of seconds but when it continues to wail, he rolls over and realizes she isn’t even there. He grabs the noisy rectangle and realizes she had snoozed it when she got up, instead of turning it completely off. He wants to be annoyed but he can’t. She’s too cute walking back into the room with two cups of coffee and hands him one. He sits upright in the bed and sips it. 

“Thank you, almost makes waking up to “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse twice,forgivable” Garcia says with feigned annoyance. He has no idea why that particular song is her alarm and he keeps forgetting to ask. 

She grimaces, “I’m so sorry, that is my bad, I thought I turned it off.” She knows he’ll get over it though when she crawls up the bed to sit beside him and kisses him light as a feather. He gives her that earth shattering full smile and pulls her back to kiss her again.

His class starts an hour and a half from now and he knows he has to get up and get moving. He pads down the small hallway to Lucy’s bathroom to start his morning process. She has a 1 bed, 1 bath apartment in the area of town everyone calls “OneBedroomLand.” She had made the decision to live alone going into her PhD. She was so tired of roommates and her close friends had finished their various degrees and moved away already. She was not going through another random roommate situation again. She felt she had earned that right by now. Her mother had insisted on paying the rent for her solo apartment. She didn’t want Lucy having to take a job or anything that would take time away from her studies. Lucy and Garcia had decided to alternate staying at each other’s places out of fairness. They were still taking things slow, nothing had physically happened further than some highly passionate make out sessions. However, both had agreed that they were tired of the feeling they got when one of them had to leave to go home, so now they stayed. After his shower, Garcia went to grab his toothbrush from the holder and realized he never gets tired of seeing his next to hers. He shakes his head, rubs his face and looks at himself in the mirror “I’ve got it bad, don’t I?”

Lucy squeezes into the bathroom behind him and steps into the shower with her clothes still on. He keeps brushing his teeth as a t-shirt flies over the top of the shower curtain and down to the floor, followed by pj shorts and undies. He rinses his mouth and grins looking toward the shower now with water running. “One day,” he thinks. He opens his mouth to make a flirty shower joke but decides not to. His jokes don’t always go well and its too early in the morning for that. He scoops up her clothes and drops them in the laundry hamper on his way out. She is out of the shower, wrapped in a towel and heading to the kitchen for a bottle of water and sees him packing the last of his stuff for the day. His school bag is a perfect blend of a briefcase and a messenger bag. Leather, rigid sides, has handles but also a shoulder strap and pockets. She thinks it’s a perfect expression of him as a person. A briefcase would be too serious, and a messenger bag would be too chill. He falls comfortably right in the middle.

“I hope you’re not late to your own first class!” she teases him. 
“Oh I won’t be. Perks of having that blue faculty tag- close parking,” he laughs and grabs his stuff. Before he leaves, he walks over, cups her face with his hand and kisses her again. 
He pulls away slowly to break the kiss, “I’ll see you at 10:30” he says smiling. She watches him walk out and thinks “I’ll never get tired of this.”

His first class goes pretty smoothly, despite it being a Friday “test day” as they’ve reached the end of the Astronomy module of the course. He fielded questions for nearly 20 minutes before turning them loose on the exam. “Five minutes left,” he calls out to the few remaining students still flipping through exam pages. One decides to give up entirely at this point and gets up to hand it in. At last, all of the exams have been handed in and his next class attendees are mostly there in the hall waiting to enter the room. He steps out into the hall and tells everyone they can go on in. He walks over to stand with Lucy as the rest of the class files through the door.

“You look beautiful,” he says low with that accent she can’t get enough of. When he had last seen her, she’d been wearing nothing but a towel. They have agreed not to show any PDA right now since she is in his class and they don’t want any rumors of preferential treatment. 
“Thank you, I don’t think beauty is going to help me with this Astronomy test though.” She winks at him and walks on inside. When all the exams have been handed in, he locks the empty room and heads to his office to grade them. He pulls Lucy’s out of the stack and looks at it first. The first two pages are all correct, on the third page she misses two. “92, not bad Ms. Preston,” he says out loud to himself.

It’s become a Friday night tradition that dinner is at Garcia’s place. He walks two glasses of wine over to the table where Lucy is siting already and announces, “on Monday, you’ll find out you scored a 92 on your Astronomy exam.” She lets out an excited “whoop” and says “hey, that’s an A, I’ll take it!” 
He grins at her, “you were never actually worried about failing, you just wanted an excuse to tell me I’m pretty.” 
She tries to put a very serious face on when she says, “you caught me.” 
She wants to do something. She wants to go out, to take him out. She wants to blow off steam, unwind and maybe even dance. “Do you want to go out? Like to a bar or something?” She asks cautiously. This is not at all something she normally cares about doing. The drinks are overpriced, the buildings are crowded and loud, and drunk people are obnoxious but for once she wants to be one of them. He thinks to himself, I’d rather have my foot run over by the campus police golf cart, but he would never tell her that. “I thought no PDA right now. Showing up at a bar together…” 
“We don’t have to walk in together,” she states. “We can go in separately, meet up inside and play pool or something, who knows.” He knows he is not going to tell her no. He also gets the impression that something might be wrong that she hasn’t yet told him about. She has shown absolutely no interest in bar-hopping previously so this feels weird and out of left field.

He lets her out at the door so she can make an entrance separately and he goes to park the car off a little ways. He’s within 20 feet of the door when he hears his name. He looks around and sees two girls from his 9:30 class getting out of their car and walking toward him. He waves and tries to keep walking but they catch up to him before he reaches the door. So much for keeping secrets, he thinks to himself. They will surely see him with Lucy and even though they are not in the same class, its still not unlikely for something to be said about it one way or another.

“Hi Dr. Flynn!” the first girl mused. 
“Hi Mallory,” he replied politely. 
“We had to come out, after putting us through that stressful Astronomy test today, the least you could do is buy us a drink!” Mallory held nothing back, full scale flirting. Garcia never went to bars like these for this reason. He hated running into students like this, and he was absolutely not purchasing alcohol for them. Last year, he had become sickeningly aware of an undergraduate professor in the math department that made it a routine to hit on students, and according to what he had heard, sexually harassed at least one.

He had been sitting at a table in the dining room on campus around lunch time with music playing in his earbuds as he typed lesson plans for class. Three undergraduate aged girls, each pretty in their own way, sat down in the booth ahead of his and were already deep in conversation. Garcia hadn’t noticed that his playlist had run out and he was just typing to dull background noise around him and their conversation. A phrase caught his attention, “She told me if I needed a passing grade in math, that I needed to take his class. He won’t fail girls as long as they wear low cut stuff.” He sat there stunned, not sure if he had just heard correctly. He took the earbuds out, knowing it was eavesdropping but as a faculty member, he needed to hear this. The girls continued their conversation for roughly 30 minutes. They referred to other friends of theirs who had taken this professors class previously and what had happened. They described a story of how a mutual friend of theirs had worn a push-up bra and low-cut shirt to one of the math exams.  She raised her hand with a question, he would come over, lean down to look down her shirt, and whisper the answer into her ear. Garcia was sure his face was red at this point. Part of him wanted them to say the professors name so he could go over and shake this guy. He knew this type of thing had to be handled in certain ways though. He wanted to go to these girls and beg them to turn in formal complaints but he knew he wasn’t supposed to have heard this. As he was packing his computer away, he heard it. One of the girls asked the other how to spell the professors name so they could look up the class next semester because she claimed she was terrible at math. The girl replied, “Wes Allensen.”  That day, Garcia did nothing. Two days later, he went to the same dining room, at the same time, and sat in the same booth. As he suspected, the same three girls must have had a standing lunch date at this time of day and they filed into their booth once again. He listened as one of them described the latest run-in she’d had with Allensen. Apparently, he was a faculty advisor for one of the fraternities and made it a habit to attend their parties at the house. The girl speaking described running into him in the room where they had set up the keg. He tried to talk to her while she was having her cup filled and followed her out when she walked away. He ran his hand down her arm, told her she was gorgeous and that if she went upstairs with him, she wouldn’t have to worry about her grade in math the rest of the semester. 
Garcia had heard enough. He packed his things and walked to the end of campus to alert Human Resources of Allensen’s alleged behavior. He said it was based on anonymous tips. They said they would take note of this and see what could be done. He didn’t have any confidence that they would take action but he had done what he could through official channels to try and get a ball rolling. He went back to his office and pulled up Allensen’s faculty profile and studied his profile picture. If he ever ran into this guy, he wanted to make sure he’d recognize him.

Garcia looked at Mallory and tried everything he could to still sound polite, “I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as you think. Maybe some other time, I’m sorry, running late to meet someone.” He gave a half smile and waived as an exit. He walked briskly ahead of them to the door. There were two sets of glass doors leading into the building and one side of the bar was directly ahead of them. When he looked up through the second set of glass doors, he saw Lucy trying to retreat from a man whose back was to him, leaning in much too close talking to her.  Lucy saw Garcia coming through the doors and decided the fastest way to get away from this creep was just to blow their cover and go directly to him. As Lucy left her seat at the bar, the man turned around to follow her and he was now facing the front doors. Garcia recognized Wes Allensen right away.

Chapter Text

Garcia locks eyes with Allensen as Lucy walks directly into his outstretched right arm. He figures he probably has half a foot in height and at least 25 lbs. on the man if Allensen really wanted to push his luck. Garcia had never been the type to start a fight but in his extensive adventuring, he’d picked up a few martial arts skills and had been known to finish a few. No, he’s no blackbelt, but his hand-to-hand could drop this guy if he wanted or needed to. After surveying him, Allensen clearly decided his time was better spent elsewhere and went back to the bar, spying two new arrivals, being Mallory and her friend.

Garcia groaned at this but let it go for now. He followed Lucy through the doorway into the side room of the bar with different dart games, pool tables and other things set up. He took both of their coats and hung them up on the rack before grabbing two pool sticks and headed back over to her. She could tell right away that he was not thrilled to be there.
“If you didn’t want to come, why didn’t you just say so?” she asked.
“Lucy, I think you know that I’m going wherever you want me to at this point,” he replied with just a tad too much edge and regretted it immediately.
As her eyes opened wider taking that statement in, he quickly followed up with an apology. He was on edge for no less than three different reasons at the moment but knew he wasn’t going to take it out on her.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that to be pointed. Come here.” He leaned on the edge of the pool table and pulled her closer into a hug. She returned it and pulled back to look up at him.

“No, I’m sorry, this was a stupid idea,” she started. Garcia opened his mouth to object but she kept on. “I FaceTimed with my mother yesterday and it was terrible. I told her I was having second thoughts about my career plans, thinking I would get support and guidance from her but she completely freaked.” Lucy looked almost on the verge of tears but she fought them back. “She thinks I’m distracted, meaning you. And she went as far as to say I should stay single through the end of the semester to keep my focus on my studies.”

Garcia looked genuinely shocked to hear this. He’d never met her mother but some of the side-comments Lucy had made over the last few weeks had made him wonder if there wasn’t more strain on the relationship than she let on. This was his answer, and he didn’t like it at all.

“And what do you think, Lucy?”

“I told her she was wrong. That it was my life, my decision, and my happiness….she threatened to cut off my rent. Technically she pays it so I don’t have to divide my study time with a job. I just wanted to do something stupid tonight, like a big FU to all her crap.” Garcia hugged her again, his eyes lost focus deep in thought staring over her head at the wall. That was a lot to take in.

Was she going to have to move out of her apartment?

Was it too soon to suggest she move in with him?

Would her mother show up in town to talk to her about this in person?

Was he about to meet Carol Preston?

Lucy pulled back from him, grabbed one of the pool sticks and kissed him on the cheek. “C’mon, show me what you got,” she jabbed. He picked up the other stick and placed the setup on the table and the cue ball. Before he could ask if she wanted to go first and break, she cut him off.

“Now, why are you upset?”
He looked at her trying to decide if he was going to unload the full story, Cliff Notes version or just say all was fine. He rubbed his hand over his face and thought to Hell with it. “Well, two of my 9:30 students hit on me outside the door before I could get in here. Wanted me to buy them a drink.” Garcia literally snorts. “The guy that was talking to you when I came in, he’s a math professor and he sexually harasses his students. I found out about it a year ago overhearing an undergraduate conversation on accident. He’s a svinja, a pig. And now that he’s not talking to you, he’s talking to my students and I’m not even sure what can be done about that.”

Lucy stood there for a second blinking while that sunk in. She put the pool stick down, “you know what, let’s just go. I’m serious, that’s not good,” Lucy walked over to grab their coats. They got back to the game-room doorway when he saw both of his students literally in a corner still talking to Allensen. The sleazy grin on his face made Garcia sick. Lucy tried to keep walking but Garcia caught her arm and whispered down “I can’t just leave them?” He was chewing the inside of his cheek and Lucy made a mental note to tell him how sweet and caring of a man he is later. Lucy could handle this one for him.

She walked over to the girls and in her best typical drunk girl fashion, practically yelled “oh my gosh, hey you two!” as she gathered both of them into an awkward hug. While in the hug, she whispered into the closest ear, “I’m rescuing you.”
Allensen just stared at Lucy, startled and confused by this interruption.
Pulling away from the hug but with one hand on each of their arms, “So great to see you! We gotta catch up, come stand in this bathroom line with me!” The girls were skeptical but followed directions and walked away toward the bathroom with her. When they were at least 30 feet from Allensen she killed the fake drunk act and looked directly at them. “You don’t want anything to do with that guy. He’s a sleazy teacher that tries to hook up with his students. You’ve been warned.” She gives a small smile to both like good luck, and turns on her heel to go back to Garcia standing near the door. He exhales, clearly relieved and holds both sets of doors open for her. They head off toward the car together with his arm securely around her.

In bed later that night, he watched her sleep for a while. She looked so peaceful, a stark contrast from how he felt seeing her fending Allensen off, and then later about to cry talking about the fight she’d had with her mother. He finally had to admit to himself that he was madly in love with her. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder and rolled onto his back. He really hoped she felt the same.

***

The next Friday, she had been to Garcia’s class already and instead of going straight to her apartment, had decided to set up camp in the library to change her scenery. Her table was covered in scattered books and papers and she was typing away on her laptop when she noticed a figure walking up to her. She looked up from the screen and froze when she saw Allensen standing in front of her table. He had the same sleazy grin and reached down to spin one of her papers around toward him and read her name printed on the top right corner.
“Hi Lucy, isn’t it?”
Lucy said nothing and continued to stare back at him. He seemed un-phased and kept pushing. “I know we spoke at the bar the other night but I didn’t get your name then. I never forget a lovely face though.” He was leaning slightly over the table at this point and Lucy realized she was subconsciously already leaning back.
“Lucy, I’d love to take you out,” he schmoozed.
She had to give him credit for his audacity. She still returned his gaze and said slowly “Actually, I have a boyfriend that I’m pretty happy with. Thanks for the offer, however I must decline.” She placed earbuds in her ears while smiling at him as a clear indication that this conversation was over and went back to typing on her laptop. His face fell slightly, he strummed his fingers on the table for a few more seconds before turning around and walking away.

When she saw him leave the library and pass the front window outside, she let out her breath and felt deeply unnerved. She packed her stuff and walked briskly back down the mall toward Garcia’s classroom. His last class would be letting out in the next 2 minutes and she needed to see him. She reached the hallway just as students were starting to file out of the room. She stood outside the door waiting for all of them to clear out. As Garcia got to the door with the keys to lock the room, he jumped when he saw Lucy. She pushed him back into the room and closed the door behind them.
She was visibly panicked “Allensen just came up to me at the library, tried to ask me out and he got my name off one of my papers! What is with this guy?” Garcia looked worried, but no words came to him. He shoved off the desk he was leaning on and gave her a quick hug. “There’s another class in here in 10, we need to go to my office.”

They had barely sunk into their chairs in his office when a distinguished looking woman knocked on his door. He told her to come in and introduced her to Lucy as Donna Rollins the Vice President of Student Affairs.

“I’m sorry to interrupt Garcia, but I need to know if you have considered the position I emailed you yesterday,” Donna stated.
Garcia let out a deep breath as if he expected that question. Lucy looked at him confused as he hadn’t mentioned any kind of position being offered to him.
“Ah, Donna, I have read the information you sent me and I honestly think it would be better suited for someone else,” Garcia stated. “In fact, wouldn’t someone younger and a little more in touch with what it’s like to be a student today be more helpful as the Undergraduate Liaison than me?”

Before Donna could answer, Garcia extended his arm toward Lucy and continued. “Have you met Ms. Preston before? She is completing her PhD in history this May. She could be great for that role. What if you potentially try it out now part time and see how it goes.”

Lucy’s mouth was open at the events unfolding before her. Donna turned to her, “Ms. Preston, do you plan to teach after graduation?”
“Yes, I do believe so, I’m also from this area and hoped to stay near,” Lucy replied.
Donna smiled, considering her. She looked at Garcia and then back at Lucy. “Okay, can you come by my office at 3 PM tomorrow? We can discuss the position in detail and see if this is going to work out.” Lucy agreed and Donna waived with a “see you then,” as she left the office.

Lucy whirled around in her chair to face Garcia again. “Did you just get me a job!? Did you know that was going to happen? You didn’t even ask me!” She couldn’t decide if she was grateful or upset. She had never been one to ask for referrals or take something she didn’t feel like she earned. That was her mother. He leaned forward with his elbows on his desk, fingers laced together, “I knew I wasn’t taking that position. I didn’t know you’d be in my office today, or that she would be stopping by, so no, I didn’t know. Seems like it might be fate on that one.”
He leaned back in his chair and looked at her, unsure of what she was going to say next. She looked back at him and smiled. The more she thought about this, the more potential she saw for things falling into place.

Chapter Text

Lucy still couldn’t believe how well things had worked out in the last week. Donna Rollins had decided to give her the Undergraduate Liaison position on a part time basis and so far, it had been awesome. She felt like she was still getting to do what she loves and wants to do in academia, but has found a way to make it seem more meaningful and helpful to students at the same time. As far as things with Garcia, she had been starting to forget what life was like before him.  She hasn’t been kicked out of her apartment so far, and she hadn’t told her mother about the job. The best part about the job, is it gets her foot in the door to a teaching position upon graduation with a built in additional role. She thinks the future looks bright.

She had been thinking about those happy thoughts all day and couldn’t stop smiling as she got back to her apartment and parked in the driveway. She noticed a piece of paper stuck to her door but couldn’t read it that far away. She got out of the car and slowly walked toward the door. She had heard of scams like this with notes on car windshields and didn’t know what this could be. As she got closer, she felt blood start draining from her face. She walked up to a normal piece of copy paper taped to her front door with a single handwritten word on it: “Bitch”

She snatched the paper off the front door so hard the tape pulled some of the paint off with it. She flipped the page over, looking at all parts of it to make sure there was nothing else there to identify the sender. She had a clear idea of who it could be. She only recalled pissing off one person lately and that was Wes Allensen. So….what? He used his position to creep through private University records for my student address? She hadn’t given this guy much thought before but she was beginning to think he had larger issues. She was starting to get obsession vibes from it and didn’t know what to do. She looked around the neighborhood and decided not to go in. She left to go get Garcia and have him go back with her instead.

When she got back to his place, he was confused to see her coming back through the door (that she now had a key to). She held out the note in front of him and watched his facial expression change. She had never seen him legitimately angry like this. 
“Where did this come from?” he demanded. 
Lucy leaned against the wall in the foyer, “it was taped to my front door when I got home. I didn’t go in, I just came back here.” 
Garcia rubbed his fingers over his temples and tried to clear his thoughts enough to form a plan of action. 
Lucy continued, “I am pretty sure we both know who would have left this. He’d have to use the University records to get my address.” 
Garcia was leaning down looking at the floor with one hand bracing against the wall when he looked back up at her. 
“Okay… I don’t think you should stay there anymore. It’s not the romantic gesture I had planned but I want you to move in here… with me.” Garcia left it light enough that it wasn’t a demand but he felt a deep pit in his stomach. What if Allensen had been inside waiting for her? He was making mental notes to add hotel style locks to the front and back doors and call ADT to install a security system.

Lucy couldn’t help but grin at him. She was ready to make the move too. It sucked that it was basically out of necessity but it was the end result that mattered the most. 
“Honestly, I’d love to,” she replied shoving off the wall and walking toward him. She leaned up and kissed him hard, like laying a claim. She pulled her fingers through the belt loops of his jeans and pulled him forward until she made him pin her against the wall. The kiss carried on, deeper, breathless until she moved to plant rough kisses under his jaw and down his neck while her fingers worked up his back under his shirt. He pulled her leg up and partially around his waist to completely center himself in front of her. 
They had messed around in a physical manner plenty in the last few weeks but still hadn’t crossed the final threshold. He never expected small Lucy to like things adventurous, but then again, she had always exceeded his expectations. It had almost become an inside joke between them. If something wasn’t unrealistically perfect like some of the worst cheesy scenes in movies, they would say “not now” followed by whatever bull reason like not enough candles, or the wind is blowing too loud outside.
When she reached for the button on his jeans he put his hand on hers. He pulled back frustratingly slow and smiled at her. “Not now….not to mention, not like this. We have too much to do.” He let her leg drop and hustled around the bannister to head up the stairs for his keys and wallet. 
She walked around in front of the stairs and yelled up them “Garcia Flynn, you’re a damn tease!” She heard him laughing all the way up there.

Lucy waits in the car while Garcia goes in the apartment and clears it first. Then they go in together and start packing the essentials. Garcia thought his Grand Cherokee could haul a lot, but he grossly underestimated the amount of clothes she had. They manage to load basically everything from the bathroom, all of her clothes from the closets, several pieces of luggage crammed with everything from her chest of drawers, necessary books, pillows and blankets. Looking at the stuffed SUV he starts laughing and she turns to him, “I know, are you sure you know what you’ve done?” 
He pulls her in with one arm around her shoulders as he closes the back hatch. 
Looking down at her, “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” and he winks.

The townhouse is a mess as they unload the Jeep and bring everything inside. They work for the next few hours on finding homes for everything. “Garcia, this wasn’t even all of it. I can put my bedroom set and the few other big things I want in storage, but think of everything else. It will have to be sold or donated,” she stressed. 
He walks over to the couch and collapses on it, pulling her down with him. She tucks herself into his side and tosses one of her newly relocated blankets over them. She beats him to the remote and flips the channel to the latest episode of Real Housewives. He thinks it’s a good thing I love her. He doesn’t address the channel choice but is still thinking about the logistics of finishing the move. 
“Your lease has been month to month since January, yes? So you can notify your landlord tomorrow and you’ll have 30 days for us to square everything else away. It will all be fine,” he says as he strokes her hair. She hums in agreement and they both drift off into a much needed nap.

When she awoke a few hours later, she checked her new official email and saw an invitation from Donna for her to speak at the 3^rd annual Undergraduate Academia Forum. Lucy had been asked to represent the history department and speak on her experience toward becoming a professor. 
“Congratulations, Ms. Preston, your first public gig,” Garcia grins. “I have gone to that each year, and typically bribe my students with bonus points too.” 
Lucy tosses a throw pillow at him, “oh thanks, that’s reassuring!”

***

The day of the forum arrives and Lucy is nervous but confident. She has rehearsed what she plans to say 100 times to either herself, a mirror, or an aggravated Garcia who can now recite it back to her as well. There are four seats on the stage and there will be two 30 minute rounds where representatives from various departments will speak. She is supposed to be in the group with Fine Arts, English Literature, and STEM. She didn’t recognize any of the names on the panel from the official flyer that had been released. She figured this would be a good networking event for her too if she was going to hopefully secure a position at the university.

Garcia had come through back stage to see Lucy and wish her luck. He was plagued by various professors extending hands and greetings before he could get over to her. He finally reached her and gave her a quick kiss. They had relaxed a bit on their PDA rules. 
“You will do great, I’ll see you after, okay?” Garcia reassured her and headed toward the side exit that would take him to the auditorium floor. He chose a seat in the second row on an end.

Barely a minute after Garcia had walked out front, Lucy felt a hand slide up the back of her thigh and grab her ass. She flew around, saw Allensen inches from her face and she slapped him with more force than she’d ever used in her life. He stumbled backward bumping against the table that was loaded with refreshments. Between the sound of her open palm colliding with his face, and the rumble from him bumping the table, nearly all of the other professors’ backstage had turned to look at them. Lucy felt anger spreading through every inch of her body, felt angry tears welling in her eyes. Before she had time to process anything that just happened, she heard the announcer begin to address the audience. The other three professors in her group lined up including Allensen sporting a rapidly deepening red right side of the face. Lucy tried to remain calm and walked to the front and cut in line to not be seated next to him. She was fighting the tears away still as she walked on stage and the announcer introduced her.

Garcia had been clapping along until he saw Lucy’s face as she walked out in front of the curtain and took her seat. Something was terribly wrong. The last person to walk out with the group was Allensen. He was not supposed to be there. Where was the other faculty member that had been booked? He didn’t bother waiting for the panel to start. He jumped back up and headed for backstage. When he got back to the holding area, he heard the grumblings of scandal and started to put the pieces together. He saw Rufus Carlin, one of his friends and colleagues in the science building and asked what happened.
“Man….. I’m not sure what happened before but she slapped him hard enough to give him a concussion. He fell back into that table and everything,” Rufus pointed to the refreshments.

Lucy jumping to the front of the line ended up being a great decision as it turned out to mean she would do her presentation first. She placed her note-card on the podium and recited her speech as quickly as possible but trying not to sound rushed. When she had finished, she thanked the audience and instead of returning to her seat, she kept walking straight into the backstage area. Garcia was on her in a second, hands on her shoulders as she let the tears go. She absolutely hated that she was an angry crier. Rufus was still at his side, not sure if he should stay for this but clearly concerned. Garcia helped Lucy over to some chairs and tried to get her to calm down enough to speak.

“Lucy….. shhh it’s okay, Lucy what happened?” Garcia pleaded.

Between coughs, she managed “He grabbed me..” deep breath in and out  “he grabbed my ass before going on stage.”

Garcia looked directly into her eyes with a look that gave her goosebumps down her arms. He said nothing else and sat down in the chair directly beside her and kept rubbing her back silently. Rufus sat down next to him. They had been friends for a long time and Rufus had a feeling this dude might end up with a snapped neck if he didn’t stick around to referee Garcia.

When the announcer asked for final questions, Garcia turned to Rufus, “Can you go with Lucy outside, or to my office, something please?” Rufus protested immediately, “man I’m not leaving you here to go Metal Gear Solid on some clown.”

“Rufus, please.” Garcia held his gaze until Rufus finally looked down and agreed. He reached down to help Lucy up who went willingly and introduced himself as they were walking towards the exit. The other professors had lined up near the stage entrance, others were mingling on the other side of the room, no one was actively watching anymore. Garcia stood up, shed his sport jacket and laid it neatly in the chair. He unbuttoned the cuffs of his sleeves, rolled them up, and walked over to the curtain exit and waited. The first two professors walked through and past him without noticing. Allensen stepped through the curtain and Garcia lowered a death grip on the man’s shoulder propelling him forward to keep him walking.

“You and I need to talk.”

Chapter Text

Garcia keeps his hand on the man’s shoulder but wraps his arm around the other making it look more like a friendly embrace as he steers him through the common room and off toward a hallway on the right. They pass two doors, Garcia opens the third one they come to and all but tosses Allensen into the room. His back hits shelving and Garcia flips the light on. It’s a storage closet, there are shelves on each wall and the standing space is barely enough for the two of them to have more than a few inches distance. Allensen immediately starts trying to talk, worriedly half-shouting denials and empty threats at the much more intimidating man. Garcia grabs a fist full of his shirt and jacket pulling him within a few inches of his face.

“Don’t speak, unless I address you.”
Allensen shut his mouth with a click. Garcia let go of his shirt as he backed up against the shelves again.
“I know what you are, and I know what you do,” Garcia practically hissed at him. “One day, you will pay for every inappropriate comment, touch, and action you’ve ever taken. Men like you disgust me.” Garcia rubbed his face still trying to decide if he was going to punch the man. He decided he valued his career at the university more than he felt like wasting it on a satisfactory few minutes beating this guy down.
“Don’t find yourself within 50 yards of Lucy ever again. Or me for that matter. If you touch her again, I will break your hands.”

Garcia straightens back up to his full height. He opens the door behind him without turning around and steps out to let Allensen by him first. As soon as he’s past Garcia, he splits down the hallway and out a side entrance. Garcia calmly walks back to the chair to retrieve his jacket. He pulls his phone out of the inside pocket and calls Rufus, who doesn’t even bother saying hello. “I hope that guy is still alive, because I swear I’m not going to prison for you,” he jokes. Garcia chuckles, “he’s unharmed, where are you guys now?”

The three of them go to the HR office on campus to file formal complaints against Allensen, then Public Safety to complete an incident report. Lucy thought that was action enough but Garcia insisted they take the incident report and complete the process with a restraining order through the actual city police. In the back of his mind, that is part of the reason he was careful not to physically leave any trace on Allensen, lest he try to claim he was assaulted, etc. Rufus had gone home before the two of them went to the police station. He hadn’t seen a day with this much excitement since a freshman botched a chemical experiment that resulted in a solid foam growing and spreading throughout a classroom and the building had to be evacuated. At the police station, they had met resistance to completing the order. Lucy had almost expected this, which was mostly why she didn’t want to bother.

The police officer asked another irrelevant question when Garcia leaned forward and put his hands on the desk. “He talked to her for 5 minutes at a bar, disturbed her studying at the library and learned her name, is suspected of leaving a harassing note on her apartment door, then sexually harassed her by grabbing her ass backstage at the forum. If that’s not a pattern of escalation, I don’t know what is. Get the damn paper.”  After all of the details and signatures were collected, the restraining order was filed with the court. Allensen was to come no closer than 100 feet, including in publicly shared areas like the library, cafeterias and other campus spots. He would be served with the paperwork by an officer shortly. Lucy really hadn’t liked the idea of involving the police at first, but admitted to herself that she felt slightly better now with the distance.

While in the car, Lucy remembered to ask about Rufus. “Is he a good friend of yours?”
“He is, we’ve always been friends around the building in a more partner in crime kind of way. He specializes in computer science and engineering. Great guy. You should also meet his wife, Jiya,” Garcia confirmed.
“Do I want to know what happened to Allensen after I left?”
Garcia cough-laughed, “nothing that would get me arrested.”

It was getting close to 3 PM when they got to Lucy’s old apartment. They had gotten most everything out, into storage, donated or sold at this point and were just finishing up the landlord’s final cleaning and inspection checklist. There was a spot in the bedroom on the wall missing paint where Lucy had hung a dry erase calendar in a fairly heavy frame with command strips. It held for a few weeks but ultimately let go, falling off of the wall in the middle of the night and taking paint off with it. They had picked up paint and supplies to just re-paint the room and avoid any fees from the landlord. Garcia would be making much faster progress painting if Lucy was doing her portion of the list instead of messing with him. She could not help herself. Every time he raised his arms up to roll paint onto the top part of the wall, she would manage to tickle his sides. The sight was just too funny- this tree of a man ticklish on the sides, squirming and swearing at her in Croatian while she cackled. He finally decided payback was in order. While she was laughing, he dipped his hand palm down in the paint tray like a kindergartner, cupped her face with it, hair and all and kissed her fast then backed away laughing at her fresh sand colored hand-print. “YOU DID NOT!” Lucy shouted at him but she was laughing too. She lunged for a paintbrush at the same time he picked up the roller and they both swiped each other. Garcia received a nice 3” stripe down his jaw and neck, and Lucy a roll of paint straight up her arm. They continued this paint fight until their brushes were no longer covered and Garcia used the last of the wet paint on his hand tucking hair behind her ear and out of her face.

They kissed like they were the only two people left on earth, standing in an empty room with plastic over the carpet floors and nothing but a ladder and paint tray in a corner. Garcia broke the kiss to step back and carefully pull his shirt off of him without wiping more paint on his face. They as well as their clothes, were covered in it. Lucy couldn’t really risk wiping it on something else in the apartment while completing her list until it dried. She stripped off her jeans and t-shirt as well, and Garcia laid everything over two outdoor chairs still on the back patio. They looked absolutely ridiculous; from head to toe, wearing nothing but underwear, paint and a smile. He had every intention of carrying on with painting but when Lucy tickled him again, he picked her up by the waist and she wrapped her legs around him. He backed her up to a part of the wall that hadn’t been painted yet and they kissed again. It was hard and hot and mess of tongues and teeth. He trailed kisses down her neck and to her chest as she ran one hand up his back and the other through his hair up from the back of his neck. They haphazardly shifted out of the remaining clothing they had on and he looked down at her. “Aren’t we supposed to be saying not now? In this empty apartment with paint everywhere?” he joked.  Her answer was to take him in her hand and guide him to the right position. The wall they were up against was a shared wall with the apartment next door so they tried to keep quiet, even as it was getting harder to do that with each of his strokes. The low bar her past lovers had set was being reset higher and higher until she felt close to the edge.

He was kissing her again when the doorbell rang and he nearly dropped her out of surprise. She had told him to ignore it and keep going when the doorbell rang again. She let out a frustrated growl as they untangled. He pulled his boxer shorts back up quickly and retrieved their clothing from the outside patio chairs. He shrugged his jeans back on and noticed his shirt wasn’t in the pile, as Lucy was already wearing it. His shirt was bigger and long enough to be a shirt-dress on her. Now the doorbell rang a third time and there was knocking on the front door.
“Really?” he motioned at his bare chest, “answer the door like this?”
“Yes really, stop whining,” she joked. “It’s probably just the landlord and he’s not going to care.”
Garcia walked to the front door and opened it as a blonde woman in her early 60’s had her hand raised to knock again. He was at the door in jeans, bare feet, bare chest, hair sticking up and sweat from their physical activity had caused some of the paint to run down from his neck. They stared at each other in complete, surprise for several seconds until the woman spoke. “I’m looking for Lucy Preston…” The woman looked him up and down disapprovingly. 

Lucy heard the voice and froze in horror. Oh no.
Garcia turned around from the door to look at her and she decided to meet this head-on. She walked to the door in nothing but Garcia’s shirt and paint on various parts of her hair/body and made eye contact with her mother.

“Hi, Mom.”

Chapter Text

Of course, this is the moment her mother turns up, Garcia thinks to himself. He wants to crawl out of his skin which funny enough, is currently on display. Carol grabs Lucy’s arm and pushes her way past Garcia and into the empty apartment. She looks around and waves her hands around gesturing at the empty room.

“What is going on here, Lucy? Your landlord mailed next month’s rent check back. I called to find out why and they told me you were moving out. What are you doing?” The color of Carol’s face was turning a scarier shade of red each passing minute. She wasn’t yelling, but Carol never yelled. Her weapon of choice was a calm demeanor while verbally ripping Lucy’s ideas to shreds and running them over with a Hummer.

Garcia didn’t like her tone but was also afraid to move from the spot he was rooted in since closing the front door. Lucy shot him a warning glance, Carol noticed it and pounced.

“So you’re moving out of this apartment to what…. move in with him? I guess you’re to thank for this,” Carol spat now turning around toward Garcia. “I knew you would be a problem. I thought I raised my daughter to put her herself and her studies above some foreign accent with good bone structure but here you are. Half-dressed to boot!”  He looked back at her but said nothing. He couldn’t decide if he was angry, or thought it was comical he was being scolded like a horny teenager caught sneaking through a window when he just turned 40.

“Mom, I-“

“No! Lucy this is a mistake,” Carol steamrolled over her. “I spoke with the landlord and they haven’t rented the apartment to anyone else yet. I can have a moving company pack your things and bring them back here. It can all be done by tomorrow and won’t present any further distraction.” Garcia, still silent at the front door, rubbed his face and kept his fist over his mouth lest he be tempted to get in the middle of this. Hateful as she is, this woman gave birth to his Lucy and he would be respectful as this was not his battle.

Carol continued her rant, “I knew letting you come to this school was a mistake. I should have insisted you went to mine where I could have kept a closer eye on your progress. Lucy, you need to get dressed.” She turned her head toward Garcia without looking at him and stated, “that room needs the paint to be finished before everything is moved back in,” as if he had been hired to do that and was just the help. Again, he said nothing. Leaning against the front door, arms crossed, he looked at Lucy waiting for instruction. Carol’s final remark had flipped the switch in Lucy.

“That’s enough. This conversation is over and you should leave.” Lucy stepped forward maintaining eye contact with her. She had taken the controlling and overbearing involvement for her entire life but one look from Garcia filled her with determination to stand up for herself.

“What do you mean leave? The apartment I pay for? Lucy, you’re being ridiculous. I don’t know how you think this is going to work but I want what is best for you and I will make tough decisions in order to protect that. If it means cutting off the expense account then so be it-“ Carol was interrupted when the doorbell rang yet again.

Garcia looked through the peep-hole and audibly choked back a laugh. The timing could not have been worse in any possible way. He opened the door to a uniformed police officer.

“Is this the residence of Ms. Lucy Preston?” the officer looked shirtless, paint covered Garcia up and down as well, unsure of what to think. Lucy stepped around Carol and went to the door again. “That’s me.” Carol’s mouth was hanging open in utter disbelief.
“Ms. Preston, here is a copy of your report from today as well as the restraining order that has been approved by the court. I wanted to let you know it has been served to the restrained party,” the officer stated robotically. “If you have any questions, the department phone number is at the bottom as well as my contact number.” Lucy told the officer thank you, shook his hand and he left.

Now Lucy was standing at the front door with Garcia behind her, his hand on her lower back for support.
Carol raged “Restraining order! What on Earth? Lu-“

“No,” Lucy said with her finger pointed at Carol. “That situation is handled, thanks to him. You can cut off whatever money you want because I don’t need it considering I have a job now. I moved in with him weeks ago and there’s nothing to move back. I donated or sold most of the stuff in here.” Lucy continued, “by the way, this is my boyfriend-Garcia Flynn, professor of geologic sciences. We really must be getting back to preparing this apartment for turnover, so if you don’t mind leaving us to it. If you decide to accept decisions I have made for myself, absolutely give me a call and we can go out for a nice lunch or something.”

Carol’s mouth was once again hanging open at the fact that Lucy was serving hard truths back to her. She started to say something but Lucy overruled it again. “You can leave and let us get back to work or we can come back at a later time to finish up after you’re gone.” To add dramatic effect while taking this cue, Garcia opened the door and looked down at Lucy and then directly at Carol.

She exhaled slowly and walked toward the door. “This conversation is not over, Lucy,” Carol stated as she passed them and moved to go down the front steps. Garcia didn’t give her any opportunity to turn around or have any last words as he shut the door immediately behind her.

He wrapped his arms around Lucy as she crumbled.

Chapter Text

“I can’t-” Lucy cried into Garcia’s arms. He didn’t have any words for that situation or the conversation, so he looked down and rested his forehead on hers. After a little bit, he gently pulled her chin so she looked up at him with watery eyes. He smiled, and couldn’t help himself, “your mother seems nice.”

Lucy laughed and halfheartedly punched his shoulder. She used Garcia’s shirt to wipe away tears and walked back to the bedroom and picked up a paint roller. He followed her into the room and they got to work finishing the paint so they could leave that apartment once and for all.

A few hours later, they pulled back in drive-way at Garcia’s, no their place- she caught herself thinking. Lucy had dodged several phone calls from her mother until she ultimately put her phone on silent as they walked inside. She had turned in the apartment key to the landlord and her living with Garcia full-time was as official as it would ever be. Graduation was a mere two months away, but she didn’t feel anxious for once. She watched as Garcia strolled down the hallway in front of her toward the laundry room while stripping his paint covered shirt off for a second time that day. She heard the water start in the shower in the bathroom off the side of the laundry room. She smiled to herself as she followed his path and stripped her paint clothes off and dumped them in the laundry room. This living arrangement has serious perks, she thought to herself as she slid into the already inhabited shower.

***

Carol Preston had not attempted to make contact again and it had been several weeks. Lucy still felt a sting deep down, as any child would at the thought of disappointing their parents. But Lucy knew she was making the right decision for her and that’s all she needed at this point. The semester was coming down to the wire and it was just a few short weeks from graduation. Garcia understood when Lucy told him she loved him but would be dating the library full time for the next few weeks. Besides, she couldn’t get anything done at their place… having him around was too distracting.

***

She stayed later than she intended to at the library and started packing all of her things about 8:45PM and it was fully dark outside. She wasn’t parked too far away, just in a lot out and over to the side. As she was walking, she could see her car ahead but noticed movement in her peripheral vision. When she looked, she saw Allensen, visibly drunk walking her direction toward the parking lot as well. There was a closet sized bar across the street from campus. Of course, he had been there, probably hitting on more unsuspecting undergrads, she thought to herself. She picked up the pace walking to her car considerably hoping he wouldn’t recognize her. Before she got to the side of the car she heard him shout her name and the sound of his footsteps pick up. Lucy didn’t turn around and threw the car door open as she got to it. Before she could step into the car, Allensen grabbed her shoulder and pushed her against the car where she was facing him.

“You got me written up, bitch,” he slurred in her face.

Lucy weighed her options remembering her keys were still in her hand. With her head turned, Allensen leaned down to kiss her neck as someone stepped out the back door of the Fine Arts building. Lucy hit the panic button on her key remote and started yelling and hitting him with the keys as the horn blared and lights flashed.

“Get off, get off, get off!” She managed to yell between battering blows to Allensen.

The next moment, the person that had come out of the building was close enough to grab Allensen’s shoulder from behind to distract him. When he turned around, the woman blasted him in the eyes and mouth with pepper spray. He collapsed to the ground in a coughing fit and Lucy finally got a good look at who had come to her aid. It was Elizabeth.

“Are you alright?” Elizabeth exclaimed as she helped move Lucy away from the car and from Allensen on the ground. Both of their eyes were stinging from the strength of the spray and stepped a few feet away. Lucy just nodded and watched as Elizabeth called campus security and the police.

When she hung up, Elizabeth looked at her, “have you called Garcia?”

Lucy could only shake her head no. She was physically unharmed, but shaken considerably by the events as they unfolded. Elizabeth once again put her phone to her ear and Lucy tried to listen but zoned out staring at the man on the ground still coughing and flailing. At one point, he tried to stand up. Elizabeth walked back over and sprayed him again.

“Absolute wanker,” she said with complete disgust.

Campus security arrived first and then the police. Since there was an active restraining order against him, he was handcuffed and arrested. Garcia arrived as they were pushing Allensen into the back of the police car.

He didn’t say anything, just pulled Lucy into a tight hug and then stepped back to look at her, holding her shoulders.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He asked gently.

Lucy finally found words and was able to answer, “No, I’m okay, I’m fine.”

“She’s definitely shaken up a bit,” Elizabeth stated. “I have already given my statement so I’m going to head home. If you guys need anything, please let me know.”

Garcia stepped over and hugged her too. “Thank you, Elizabeth. Thank you.” She smiled up at him and patted his arm as she walked away to her own car. After the police were done, statements given, Lucy and Garcia locked her car and left it in the lot. He drove them home, his free hand never leaving hers.

***

The next day, Lucy and Garcia attended a meeting with the HR department. Essentially, they confirmed Allensen was terminated and banned from campus and all school sanctioned events. Considering complaints had been filed about him previously, the school was just hoping Lucy wasn’t going to sue. After the meeting, they met up with Rufus and Elizabeth at a burger place for lunch across from campus.

“Elizabeth, I hear you’d have a lucrative career in security if you ever get tired of teaching,” Rufus quipped.

“Oh you stop,” she replied, as the dignified head of an entire branch of the college threw a French fry at him.

“It’s been a really wild semester,” Lucy contributed, “but overall a good one.” She looked over at Garcia.

He shook his head and agreed, “that it has,” as he smiled back at her.

A new friend group had been forged in the four of them. On their way home, Lucy mailed her graduation invitations. There were two and a half weeks left to go.

***

“I’m going to be really pissed if I fail this Earth Science final,” Lucy barked at Garcia across the living room.

“How can you fail the final? You’re sleeping with the professor!” He snarked back. This earned him a pillow chucked with expert precision at his head. He settled into the couch beside her and went back to quizzing her about minerals.

Earlier that afternoon, Lucy had spoken with Carol on the phone. She would be attending her graduation. Lucy knew she ultimately would, but was still dreading the next face to face encounter with her.

***

On the day of, Lucy got up early and got ready. Garcia dropped her off with the students in line and went to park the car and get in the faculty line. Next year, we’ll be in this line together, he smiled to himself as he walked up to his other colleagues.

As a doctorate student, Lucy’s was one of the first names to be called in the ceremony. She looked radiant walking across the stage to shake hands with the university president. After the ceremony concluded, she made her way to Garcia on the auditorium floor with the faculty, and they headed up to the top concourse to find her cheering section. He hadn’t told her that his parents had come in for the occasion and to meet her. Lucy saw her mother first. They exchanged a genuine hug and Carol told her she was proud of her achievement. She looked less thrilled to shake Garcia’s hand but managed a civil smile as they met again.

“Lucy, I want to introduce you to my parents,” Garcia said while turning her around as they walked up smiling. “This is Maria and Asher Flynn. Mom, Dad, this is Dr. Lucy Preston,” he stated beaming.

“Oh my gosh, hi!” Lucy exclaimed, hugging them both. They looked to be mid 60’s but she could tell where Garcia got his good looks from. Maria was gorgeous, and Asher may have even been taller than Garcia, she couldn’t quite tell. His parents also exchanged handshakes with Carol and all was civil.

His parents were staying in town for a few days so they made plans to have lunch Sunday afternoon. After a celebratory lunch immediately following the ceremony, and a smaller party at their townhouse, it was finally the two of them in for the night. Lucy noticed Garcia kept watching the clock and finally asked.

“What are you waiting for at almost midnight? Did you order pizza or something?” she joked with him. He smiled back for a bit but his face formed a more serious expression. He looked at his apple watch as the digital display showed 12:00 AM on the dot.

“It’s officially Sunday,” he stated. “What is now yesterday, was your day. It was about you and everything you have accomplished. I am so proud and wanted everything to be perfect. I didn’t want you to have to share that memory with anything else. “

He stood up and walked over to her on the couch and pulled her to stand with him.

“I think I’ve known from the very beginning that I wanted to do this,” he continued. Lucy stared at him with wide eyes as he held both of her hands. “When I’m with you, the entire world feels right, and that’s a feeling I don’t ever want to be without,” he said as he dropped to one knee.

Lucy felt a tear run down her cheek, too happy to contain it as she watched him pull out a ring box.

He opened the box with a beautiful pear shaped diamond ring inside and asked the question he’d been wanting to for months.

“Dr. Lucy Preston, will you marry me?”

“Yes!”