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It’s not everyday that the apartment wide alarm goes off, it’s not everyday that there’s a possibility of being blown up in your own building. But did it have to be right now? Lucy thought.
She had been in the shower, just seconds away from hitting that sweet spot on the faucet that didn’t leave her body cold and her head melting off when she ducked under the spray to rinse off products.
The alarm went off, then the landlord was running up and down the halls screaming for people to get out, then she grabbed the first thing warm enough for the late evening cool over her recently discarded track shorts. And so here she was, trying to help people to the curb across the street, making sure everyone is sticking around to give a statement, trying not to be embarrassed as cops that know of her, a few from her rookie class have the possibility of staring at her ass. It’s not hanging out of her shorts, but it’s not the most covering either, she didn’t exactly waste time putting her panties on. It makes her nervous, even Jackson gave her a side eye at first. He was already in plaid pajamas and isn’t giving anyone an eye full of anything, the lucky bastard. He had called dibs on the first shower after their run that evening.
It’s when Tim and John end up coming over to help with crowd control that it really gets interesting.
“Hey you two, you guys alright?” John popped over to relieve them from involuntary overtime.
“Oh yeah, it’s great to hear that there was a threat to your apartment just as you’re hopping in the shower!” Lucy grumbled in a very Tim way, “I feel gross and grumpy, and I just want to be in bed. I promised Nyla I was gonna go in early to help prepare a little presentation for Lila’s class she’s giving for career day.”
“Oh yeah, she mentioned that.”
“Won’t shut up about it.” Tim cut in.
“No one left, they’re all waiting for their turn around the corner for questioning. No one’s really talking like they know anything though.” Jackson reported, sounding a little more tired than his usual gumption.
“Alright, you two should sit down and rest. The threat seems to be fake but it’ll be a while and you both need sleep for the amount of inter-department paperwork you’ll have to do.”
Tim’s eyes lowered from Lucy’s face as she turned more fully to him going for a thanks when his breath came out fast, with words mixed in.
“Is that my shirt?”
Lucy looked down. She sees an upside down mascot for the Rams football team. She’s not the biggest football fan, baseball is more her cup of tea. It is his.
“Oh! Yeah, I guess it is.”
And it's just her luck on top of the whole thing that three other cops hear it all.
She doesn’t register they know it right away, cops are good at poker faces most of the time and she’s not exactly high on their priority lists right now.
But when one of the older cops with a dad mustache slaps Tim on the back after thanking him and Nolan for the support and says, “Ram’s for the win, huh?” with a cheeky smile.
And the interviewer asks Tim to the other end of the civilian round up when she goes to talk, like he knew was a little more than a colleague. Tim was, but there was no other reason for her to think so, except the sweat shirt.
She had planned to give it back to Tim the next day after work, it was in her bag ready to be handed over when they went to their cars together.
The universe had different plans apparently, because she ended up getting a drunks puke on her first uniform from the beating he took in the bar fight and a muddy mess from a ticket turned car chase on her second just as her shift was ending. Her tank top and leggings were not going to hold out on the torrential downpour that was gracing LA right now. Tim had put her in the pull over sweater when she had a panic attack at the Lopez-Evers BarBQue a couple months ago and she thought this was an appropriate excuse to keep it a little longer.
“If I knew you were this much of a Rams fan I would have talked much more in the shop your first year. Could have made so many analogies.” Tim slides up against her pace from the women’s locker room to the parking garage.
Lucy turned her torso against the direction they were walking to face him directly, “Well if they didn’t insist on punting as much as they do I might be more interested in the sport.”
After Tim’s curious head tilt she continues, “I like the running aspect of sports the most, how fast and how close it is when it all comes down to a few steps. So Baseball, track, half of football.”
“Half of football?” Tim inquires exasperated.
“Yeah, not the line up punting, scrimmage thing in the middle. I just find it a little boring.”
Tim shrugged a shoulder and angled his head.
“It’s actually not their strong suit. The Rams strategy is based around their speed and their precise throws.”
“Well, Rams for the win huh?” Lucy nudges his shoulder.
“They’ve got a game tonight if you want to avoid your newly dating roommate?”
Lucy stopped walking altogether, “What? Jackson has been kinda seeing that horse officer or whatever for a couple dates. How did you know it turned serious before me?”
“Someone tried throwing rocks at the horses legs cause he didn’t arrest someone just hanging out on some restaurants patio and he called Jackson for a drive back to his car so he could stay at the vets, horse go cut up pretty bad. They were pretty intense when I saw them an hour ago.”
“Well shit. I’m so not getting in the middle of their comfort fest. I learned my lesson with Sterling. And I guess I’d loke to see my four-legged baby too.”
“Come on Chen, he’s a dog not a baby!”
“He’s my baby, I love him. I’m just not ready to be a mom yet, is all.”
“We’ll pick up the fixings for that lasagna thing you made me that time I got shot and I’ll teach you why the Rams are the best strategists on the field every time.”
Lucy does end up teaching Tim how she layers the lasagna around manicotti noodles and Tim does explain the strategy of the lack of punting unless strictly necessary in the Rams.
His sweatshirt got tossed in the washer and moved to the dryer through the evening to deal with the rain-smell, but Lucy ended up curled in it again. Her hands in the arms instead of pushing them up, even to her wrists. She flops the sleeves around Kojo and leaves them swinging. Tim tries to be sneaky as he takes a picture.
The sweater is the last thing to go before they end up in bed that night, and the sweatshirt Lucy is wearing when they sign the paperwork for their house together, and what she’s wearing when Tim can’t wait a second longer to propose. It’s her favourite sweater all throughout her pregnancies, no matter how hot it gets, and their newborns clutch onto it almost as much as their actual baby blankets.
By the time their tenth anniversary is coming around it is the most threadbare thing they own together.
Lucy cuts out the decal on the front and sews the back in squares to baby blankets and keepsakes.
Time watches her put the decal in the middle of their big multi-picture frame that includes their wedding and full family portraits with Tamara holding the toddler while each parent holds a newborn twin.
“Rams for the win huh?”
Lucy still only likes half of football, but the Rams are always the best.
“Rams for the win.”