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Officer Tim Bradford was sitting at a bar, drinking a beer. It had been a long shift, and after much needling and convincing by his former rookie, Officer Lucy Chen, he’d finally agreed to meet her and some of their colleagues after shift for a drink. Tim glanced at his colleague and best friend, Detective Angela Lopez. “You sure you’re ok?” Angela smiled and nodded at him. “I’m fine...we’re fine.” Angela gently stroked her pregnant belly as she sipped her water. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting to get into a gun battle at my OBGYN appointment, but, what can you do?” Tim sighed and nodded as he glanced at Angela’s husband Wesley, who was talking on his cell phone. Wesley disconnected the call and smiled at everyone. “That was Nolan. Henry came through the surgery with flying colors.” Everyone sighed with relief...they’d all been terrified for their colleague, Officer John Nolan, after his son had been rushed to the hospital earlier that day. Detective Nyla Harper raised her drink. “Well, we have a lot to celebrate...Henry’s going to be fine, and Lucy’s got her first big undercover case!” Everyone smiled and raised their drinks...everyone but Tim. His eyes found Lucy’s and he glared at her while she winced at him. Tim guzzled his beer and set the bottle on the bar. He the slapped some bills onto the bar. “Well, I’m out. Need to get home and walk Kojo; see you guys tomorrow.” Tim knew it was petty, but he simply couldn’t help himself. He glanced at the troubled faces before his eyes landed on Lucy. “Well... I guess I won’t see you tomorrow, Chen. Good luck.” Tim stalked away and out of the bar as Nyla winced at Lucy. “I’m sorry...that was my fault. I thought you’d told him already.” Lucy shook her head as her partner, colleague, and best friend, Officer Jackson West, sipped his drink. “You better go fix that, Lucy. Like now.” Lucy rolled her eyes...she wished she knew why Tim had such a problem with her going undercover. Lucy nodded, guzzled the rest of her drink, and hurried after Tim.
Lucy practically ran out of the bar, glancing in all directions, before she spotted Tim, who was almost to his truck, which he’d parked down the street. “Tim! Tim, wait!” Lucy dashed down the sidewalk and crashed into three drunk guys who had just stumbled out of another bar. Lucy grabbed the nearest arms to steady herself. She quickly looked at the three drunk, bleary eyed, middle aged men and stepped back. “Sorry... I was just trying to catch up to my friend.” Lucy started to walk past them and saw Tim hurrying towards her; he’d turned at the sound of her voice and had rolled his eyes but immediately went into warrior mode when he saw Lucy crash into the men. Tim reached her and slung an arm around her shoulders. “You ok?” Lucy nodded as she and Tim turned to walk back to his truck. They’d only taken a few steps when they heard a beer bottle break behind them, and they both whirled. The guy that had caught Lucy in his arms leered at her. “Where you going, honey? I didn’t say you could leave with him.” Lucy rolled her eyes at the man’s slurred speech as Tim’s arm dropped from her shoulders. “What the hell did you just say to her?” Lucy grabbed Tim’s arm. “Tim...let it go.” The drunk guy who had thrown the beer bottle smirked at Lucy. “You’ll have more fun with me honey.” Tim rolled his eyes as he fished his wallet out of back pocket. As he handed it to Lucy, it slipped open and the men saw his badge. Tim then handed Lucy his off duty weapon, not taking his eyes off of the guy who had thrown the bottle and who was currently leering at Lucy. Lucy rolled her eyes. “Tim! It’s not a big deal.” Tim shrugged his shoulders. “Uh huh.” Lucy shook her head as Tim stalked up to the drunk men and got right in the face of the man who had thrown the bottle. “You need to learn some respect. Stay the hell away from her.” The guy rolled his eyes. “I don’t hit cops, man. I hit you, I go to jail. So fuck you.” Tim raised his eyebrows and threw down the challenge. “Do you see a badge on me?” The guy moved, fast as lightning, and took a swing at Tim, but Tim was faster. He ducked, and punched the guy in the stomach. As the guy doubled over, Tim punched him again and the guy went down... and stayed down. Tim glanced at the other two men, who were quickly backing away. “Anybody else?” The guy on the ground was moaning as Tim looked down at him. Then to everyone’s shock, Tim extended his arm and helped the guy to his feet, before glaring at him. “Stop harassing women. Just because you drank too much doesn’t give you the right to be an asshole.” The three men took off as Tim shook his head. He then walked back to Lucy who grinned at him. She handed him back his wallet and gun. “My hero.” She thought he’d laugh but she was met with a scowl instead. “Get in the damn truck, Lucy.”
40 minutes later, Tim and Lucy were sitting at Tim’s favorite spot on Sunset Beach. Twilight had begun and the moon and stars were beginning to make their appearances. Tim helplessly stared out at the calm waters of the Pacific as Lucy frowned in concern at him. He needed to clear his head; and he needed to fix things with Lucy before she left. Just the thought of her leaving sent him into a panic. “Tim...what are we doing here?” Tim sighed as he turned to look at her. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you lie to me?” Now it was Lucy’s turn to glare at him in spite of the hurt written all over Tim’s face. “I’ve never lied to you! Tim, you were the first person I told about wanting to be a UC. I just didn’t get a chance to tell you it was happening. I’m sorry, ok? I didn’t know Nyla was going to just blurt it out like that.” Tim shook his head as Lucy sighed. “Tim...talk to me, please. Why does it upset you so much that I want to be a UC?” Tim sighed deeply...he absolutely didn’t want to talk about any of it. But he knew he owed it to Lucy to tell her the truth...all of it.
Lucy sighed as she reached for his hand. “Tim...please don’t shut me out. Is it because of Isabel?” Tim sighed and shook his head. “No...at least not totally.” Tim suddenly had a death grip on Lucy’s hand, and she knew he needed her strength and support to tell her whatever it was. She squeezed his hand back and waited. Tim was silent for a long time before he finally spoke. “Do you remember a news story about five years ago of that LAPD detective that went missing?” Lucy shook her head as Tim sighed and nodded. “Ok...well, five years ago there were two detectives deep undercover in a motorcycle gang; the gang was running weapons and drugs; Detective Alex King and Detective Dana Valdez were the UC’s in that case. Alex was one of my best friends.” Tim sighed as Lucy scooted closer to him. “They went to this party that the gang was hosting; birthday party I think. There was a lot of drinking, and drugs. The leader of the gang, Brody Jameson, attacked Dana, and tried to rape her at the party.” Lucy winced and sighed as Tim shuddered. “It wasn’t because their covers were blown, they weren’t, it was because Jameson is a sexual predator and sadist. Anyway, Alex intervened and saved Dana. The last time anyone saw Alex, he was driving Jameson away from that party to cool off.” Tim sadly looked at Lucy then. “Jameson showed up at the gang’s favorite bar the next morning. But Alex wasn’t with him. Alex disappeared after that party. We have an idea of what happened to him, but no one’s been able to prove it. But he’s gone.” Lucy tilted her head into Tim’s shoulder...now things were starting to make sense. “I’m so sorry Tim. What happened to Dana?” Tim heavily sighed. “She’s currently in her 4th stint in rehab. She felt guilty for what happened to Alex, and started drinking...constantly. She was eventually fired for drinking on shift.”
Lucy sighed as Tim squeezed her hand. “It hurt like hell, losing Alex. Then everything with Isabel...” Tim trailed off as he sighed deeply. Well, Lucy had asked him not to shut her out...he figured it was time to go big or go home. Tim slowly looked over at Lucy. He sighed deeply as he breathed her name. “Lucy...if anything like that ever happened to you...I’m not sure I could handle it.” Lucy stared at Tim as he brought her palm to his mouth and softly kissed it. “It would ruin my damn life if anything like that ever happened to you.” Lucy stared at Tim in shock. She’d been pining away for Tim for what seemed like forever; she had no idea until now that he’d been doing the same thing for her. Lucy tenderly smiled at him. “It’s a chance we take every shift, Tim. Why do you think I haunt the break room so much on shift? I go there to look for you...to see with my own eyes that you’re ok.” Tim and Lucy stared at each other as the truth of how they felt about each other finally came to the surface. They slowly leaned towards each other and shared a soft, sweet, almost shy kiss. Tim shook his head and sighed as he rested his forehead against hers. “I swore I was never going down this road again...and then you came along and here I am.” Lucy softly chuckled at him. “Do you want to leave?” Tim whispered to her as he took her in his arms. “Hell no.” Lucy smiled as she brought his mouth closer to hers. “That’s good...because I really, really, really want you to kiss me again.” Tim swiftly brought Lucy into his lap, and crushed his mouth to hers as she straddled him. She took his face in her hands as he wrapped his arms around her waist. They moaned desperately for each other as their tongues tangled together. They kissed and kissed and kissed, like their lives depended on it. Lucy felt a stray tear roll down her cheek as an epiphany hit her. One big reason she wanted to be a UC was all this time she thought she had nothing but reasons to leave...and now it seemed she had a reason to stay...a big one. Lucy rolled her hips against Tim and he groaned. He finally tore his mouth away from hers. He smiled at her, noting the way the moonlight shimmered in her hair. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.” Lucy laughed her way into another steamy kiss as she pushed a grinning Tim backwards onto the sand. “Me too.”