Chapter Text
Dawn came to Shaw Memorial with Lucy sleeping by his bedside. Well, technically, she was still sitting in her chair, only half her body leaning onto his mattress, using her elbows as a pillow.
There was no proper description for how confused, defenseless, and… content he felt at the sight of her.
At the same time, how guilty. She should be resting properly, she had a very long day yesterday fulfilling sergeant's duties and she was going out on patrol today, she shouldn't be here, worrying about his health. Guilty, because the idea that she was here out of more than a platonic affection for him shouldn't please him. It's one thing for him to have questionable feelings for her, but her? It would ruin her career.
Still, there was nothing to stop him from reaching out, stretching his hand just enough to stroke her silky, warm-brown hair, as it fell in a halo around her head. Her face was turned away from him, so it made it all that much easier to touch her, without worrying she might wake up and catch him in the act.
He couldn't help a slight smile—a soft twitch on his lips, there and then gone—as his fingers parted through her waves, vaguely reminding him of another time, another setting, a couple of months ago. It was the first time he had held her into his arms—well, the second really, the first one being when he saved her from the barrel. Still it was that second hug, in his apartment, that he believed had triggered the first inklings. He had just been too much in denial to pay them attention at the time.
Do you want to come in?
It really had to come to this, for him to realize. Her inviting him inside her place, with all the implication in her eyes about what it meant.
He sighed, smoothed a lock of hers between his fingers and thumb.
He thought he'd lost her. After the events that had occurred during the undercover mission, he thought they'd never be the same again. He hadn't just lost a romantic opportunity with her, but her , his best friend, the only person in the world that knew him for who he really was. He'd missed her terribly. But yesterday, his heart, though still aching for her in a million different ways, felt as though it had been stitched back together. She had come back to him.
Ashley's voice came from the hall outside. His hand flew to his side like a spring set loose. Once again, he wanted to kick himself in the gut for being so foolish.
A sharp breath came from his bedside. Lucy groaned as she rose from the mattress, the sudden commotion from Ashley's heels and voice waking her up. He wished Ashley would be quieter.
Lucy's eyes briefly met his, sleepy and tired and beautiful—always beautiful—just as his girlfriend walked into the room. Ashley's steps came to a stop, her broad smile faltering.
"Oh, Lucy," she uttered.
The woman in question sprang from her chair and spun around in a single move, her hands turning into fists at her side. The truth was, they hadn't done anything inappropriate, this was miles away from what they were about to do when they had found Chris bleeding out. Still, it felt like cheating, letting himself be in Lucy's proximity after all that had come to pass between them.
"Hey, Ashley," Lucy said, her voice hoarse from sleep. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep here."
She turned to him briefly, gave him an inspecting look, as though to make sure he didn't need her. He nodded, giving her a warm smile. It was a relief to be able to do so. God, how he'd missed the easiness of their friendship.
She glanced at her watch. "My shift starts in an hour. I have to go," she said, before rushing out of the room. Just like yesterday, his eyes lingered behind her.
Ashley took Lucy's spot next to him and he tried to suppress the disappointment he felt. She smiled broadly, started talking about potential plans and date nights after he was released from the hospital.
This was what he liked about Ashley—she didn't question him or give him any hard time whatsoever, she was confident and free of troubles and whole in herself. Ashley felt safe. Ashley felt like a morning stroll in a sunny park.
Lucy felt like sailing through fog on the stormy ocean.
He realized Ashley had gone silent, her eyes expectant, as though she was waiting for an answer to a question he hadn't heard.
"I'm sorry, what?" he asked.
Again, Ashley didn't try to pry into his thoughts, she simply repeated the question.
"I said, my friend, Helena, and her boyfriend, Paul, are in an experimenting stage of their relationship and they asked me to join them in a couple's escape room. Now I know how much you enjoyed treasure hunting with my dad, so I am sure this is going to put you right in your element. What do you think?"
This should have been the first sign. The experimenting stage part, but Tim didn't pay it the appropriate attention at the time. His mind had been drifting to another time again.
Why don't we race each other in an escape room?
He shook his head. He couldn't keep on linking every situation back to her.
"A couple's escape room?" he asked his girlfriend.
"Yes, basically couples race each other to find clues and escape."
He smiled at her. Her suggestion sounded exactly like the kind of fun he would need to take his mind off things.
"Sounds fun. Sign me up."
If only he'd known then, how he'd come to regret those words.
Paul and Helena canceled on the escape room almost a day before, claiming they had managed to finally get on the list of a limited-membership private club, which they'd been after for almost a year.
That should have been his second sign. But again, Tim was oblivious.
Ashley was disappointed and for once, he shared her disposition. He needed the escape, literally and figuratively.
Especially because just this morning he'd caught Sanford flirting with Lucy in the police station parking lot and the jealousy had struck him like a thousand-tons truck. It was his first day back on the job, too. The thought of having to endure that every day made him want to take a couple more days of rest. Hell, a month even.
But Tim Bradford wasn't a quitter. That, and he already knew first-hand that putting a distance between him and his former rookie only worked towards fueling the fire, rather than dissipating it. Being distant for a month had only made him fonder of her, had given him time to rethink their interactions the past year, how his feelings had been there even when he didn't know them. It was plain torture.
And then Sanford overheard him talking to Aaron, asking whether he had a date he could bring along, and of course, Chris had to interfere.
"An escape room?" he said, stepping closer to where he and Thorsen were standing. "What a coincidence, Lucy and I were considering doing the same this weekend."
Tim tried hard not to roll his eyes. "Really?" he said, feigning casualness. "Well, I am afraid I've already given the invitation to my friend, Aaron, here."
"It's alright," Thorsen cut in. "I was about to tell you I am single."
Tim gave his colleague a murdering stare, then smiled at Sanford. "Then, of course, you can join us, if Chen agrees."
But Tim had a feeling Lucy would agree. Lucy wasn't as affected by him as he was by her.
Thorsen looked at him with fear in his eyes, once Sanford had walked away.
"Did I do something wrong?" asked the young cop.
Tim shook his head in disapproval, then turned his back to him and headed for their shop.
There went his escape.
"Tim asked us to join them? You mean, by his own volition? Are you sure?" Lucy asked, incredulous. Chris had met her right outside the locker room to share the news with her, and now she was trying to keep a steady, normal pace next to him, her gaze secretly searching for a sight of Tim throughout their way out of the station.
Chris glanced at her as though questioning her sanity. "Well, he was asking Thorsen at the time, but I might have overheard them and mentioned we had similar plans."
She sighed, blinking slowly. "Chris, you shouldn't have done that…" she said, before she could help herself.
Chris squinted. "Why not? Are you and Tim fighting or something?"
She realized her mistake then. Of course, there was no valid reason why she wouldn't want to hang out with Tim and his girlfriend. How the hell would she explain her reaction now?
"No, it's not that," she started. "Well, you remember how that first double date went. Tim and I are inevitably going to start talking about work again and it'll ruin our time together. He probably asked you out of courtesy, but I bet his girlfriend, too, isn't going to enjoy us hanging out with them."
She half-expected Chris to call her out on her lies, that's how awful her excuses sounded to her, but her boyfriend only smiled, his expression trying to comfort her of all things.
"Baby, it's an escape room, how could you start talking about work while on a clock to find clues and solve riddles?"
She pressed her own lips into a forced smile. "I guess you're right."
Chris kissed her forehead for goodnight and then she was left alone in the parking lot.
Tim's jeep was already gone. She let out a sigh. How ironic that she would get her wish to race her former training officer in an escape room, only with his incredibly gorgeous girlfriend tagging along. Lucy wanted to call in sick and cancel the entire date. But at the same time, she couldn't help that tiny bead of hope sprouting in her chest.
She missed her best friend. Visiting him in the hospital that night had felt like a piece of herself returning to her. But things were still awkward between them on a certain level. Maybe this would be the chance to set them right.
"See you on the other side," Ashley called out, disappearing with Chris, Lucy's boyfriend, into a room, while a crew member was prodding Lucy and Tim together into another.
Tim and her had barely exchanged any words from the moment they'd met at the parking lot outside the escape room. She tried to be cheerful, even challenged him about who was going to get to the end of it first. That was until their guide announced that they wouldn't be placed with their respective partners, but instead separately, the premise being to find each other and then escape. And because it would be too much of a cliché to make it a race between men and women, she and Tim were placed together.
Right before letting them in, their guide gave each of them a shot of a colorful liquid to drink.
Tim eyed it with suspicion.
"I'm not drinking that," he said, his face full of grumpiness.
Lucy smiled, as the other guy tried to convince the man she knew to be more stubborn than a goat.
"Sir, I promise it's completely safe to drink. You might not be able to advance through the escape room if you refuse it."
Tim glanced at her then, frowned upon seeing her smug, entertained expression and took the shot glass from the guy's hands.
"Fine, but if I end up in hospital, you'll pay my bill," he said, before downing the content.
Lucy swallowed hers, immediately pursing her lips at the sour taste, while Tim commented, "Hmm, feels heavy. Is this alkaline water or something?"
She squinted. Being a fan of chemistry, her curiosity sparked at the peculiar detail—they had given her and Tim liquids of different acidity.
But she didn't have enough time to ponder over that, because they were led into the first room then, the doors closing behind them with a metallic finality. And now she was alone with him in a narrow space that looked like the office of a chemist.
At first, the room caught her interest, a welcoming distraction from her present company. Its walls were covered with bookshelves, no door in sight aside from the one they had gotten in through. She guessed they would find the exit behind one of the tall furniture. They just had to find which one. There was a desk at the center with a peculiar chemical structure, consisting of vials, containers and a small heater. Behind the desk sat a skeleton, its hands bound to the chair with metal shackles, a rusty knife embedded into its skull.
"Hmm," Tim commented. "Seems to be exactly your thing."
"Oh, this is already exciting," she chanted, passing her hand over one of the vials.
"Be my guest," Tim said, extending his arm.
He was playing it cool, but she could sense the subtle nervousness in the air between them. This was a chance to fix things, she reminded herself.
"So," she started, pretending to study the structure, "Ashley was okay with us joining you?"
Tim shrugged. "Why wouldn't she be?"
"You know, after how that last date…" her voice faltered. The date where they had spent more time talking to each other than their respective dates? She realized this wasn't exactly a safe, neutral subject to build their friendship upon. She raised her gaze at him, looking for an understanding there, but Tim tilted his head questionably.
"Nevermind," she said, before focusing on the desk again. After a while, she huffed, giving up. "I really have no idea what I am supposed to do with this."
"Did you really not notice the book lying wide open on the front of the desk, with a phrase clearly marked out in red?" Tim said, his arms folded, his voice full of taunting.
She looked at the book, then at him, her lips betraying her into a smile. This felt like her being his rookie all over again.
"Why didn't you say something?" she said, giving him a little shove on the chest. Tim smiled with her now.
"Frankly, I was waiting for you to notice."
She shook her head, then rounded the desk to read the phrase on the book.
"Mendeleev hid the secret entrance to his lab and wrote the guidelines to finding it in ink that only his saliva could reveal."
"Well that's not disgusting at all."
"Are you going to actively take part in finding a way out of here or are you just here to provide commentary?" Lucy confronted him.
Tim rolled his eyes, then rounded the desk as well, coming to stand right next to her. She tried to ignore how her heart started beating in a frenzy in her chest. Tim leaned around her, holding her gaze. She forgot how to breathe for a moment. Then he pulled his hand to the front of her, a paper folded in his palm.
"It was in the skeleton's hand," he explained with the same taunt in his voice.
She snatched it, rolling her eyes, and opened it up. Another clue was written on it.
Two possibilities, only one certain solution.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tim wondered aloud, growing impatient. "You know what, I suggest we simply start pulling all the books from their bookshelves until one of them triggers a door open."
"You don't even know if that's the right type of trigger," she pointed out.
"It is always the right type of trigger, like in every movie that's ever come out."
"Which is exactly why maybe they would use one that isn't so obvious."
"Okay then, you're the one that's good with riddles, how would you interpret this one?"
Lucy gave it some thought. Two possibilities… What had their guide said to Tim? If he didn't take the shot, he might not be able to advance. So that meant Tim was one possibility. Which made her the second. The book said only saliva could reveal the ink. Only the right kind of saliva, she realized.
"Oh no, it can't be," she muttered to herself.
"What?" Tim questioned.
"Did Ashley tell you what kind of escape room this is?"
"She said a couple's escape room."
"Just that? She didn't mention any other… attributes?"
"Lucy, what are you getting at?"
She cleared her throat. "Well, the guide gave us liquids with different pH to drink. Mine was acidic, yours alkaline. And according to the marked phrase in the book, the next clue can only be revealed with saliva. This paper says two possibilities, so I'm guessing either you or me have the right pH to lick the paper in order to reveal the invisible ink… But there's also one certain solution. A neutral pH."
She looked at him, hoping he would understand now. Tim's expression was as clueless as it was when she mentioned they should be hooking up in that airplane bathroom.
"You know some of us don't double in chemistry," he pointed out.
"Ugh, Tim! Means we have to kiss!"
This finally brought some awareness into his eyes. Awareness which soon turned into confusion and then finally, panic. He covered his eyes under his palm.
"Paul and Helena…" he muttered.
"Who's Paul and Helena?" Lucy questioned.
"Paul and Helena are the couple we were initially coming to the escape room with. Ashley said they were in an experimenting stage of their relationship. And then, they canceled because they finally got listed to a private club they were aiming for a long time. I can't believe I was such an idiot."
Lucy pressed her lips, swallowing the sudden urge to laugh. Her prolonged silence made Tim uncover his eyes and look at her.
"What? Think this is funny?" he demanded.
And that was it for her. She laughed until her chest started to ache.
"Your girlfriend lured you into a game meant for polyamorous couples? Does she even know you? Oh my God."
Tim threw his hands in the air, which triggered a second round of laughter in her.
"You know what? I am sticking to my initial plan. One of these books has got to be the way out of here," he said, then started to pull out random books from their bookshelves.
"Wait, Tim, wait," she called out, once her chest was finally calm.
"What?" he demanded, turning around to face her.
She could see that he was clearly upset now, so any mood for fun that she had left died out.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but remember the last time, what you said at dinner? You insulted Ashley's preferences and she stood up from the table. I think refusing to kiss me at this point would be more disappointing to her than actually kissing me, because it would yet again show her that you are rejecting a part of her. And besides, this is simple chemistry. It shouldn't mean anything—"
"No, enough," Tim cut her off, his tone firm. She stared into his eyes, bewildered from the angry yet vulnerable expression there. "I can't keep doing this as though it's no big deal," he said. "And I can't believe it's simple chemistry or biology or whatever you want to call it for you either. Kiss me, forget, repeat? Is that how it's gonna be, Lucy?"
She fumbled with words for a moment, random sounds coming out of her mouth instead. And then, she was angry as well.
"What do you want me to say? That I have feelings for you? You have some nerve asking me to come clean to you when you yourself haven't given me a single clue about how you feel."
"That's different."
"Really? What's so different between me telling you I'm in love with you and—"
But she couldn't finish, because Tim was suddenly kissing her. Kissing her hard and desperate, as though she was the oxygen he needed to breathe. It felt like an awakening of her heart, that was how powerful his lips were on her. And he had used them to bring her back to life once.
She almost lost her balance, then snatched his collar for support, while he also steadied her by the waist. She kissed him back with a hunger she didn't know she was capable of. She had missed him, oh how she had missed him. She didn't know how many times she'd dreamt of this. His gentle touch, radiating hidden strength, the way his lips molded with hers, the way he was always in control, except for when he was kissing her.
They always stopped around the third kiss before, now they went for a fourth and a fifth and she knew that the chemicals should be sufficiently mixed in their mouth cavities by now, but they kept going regardless, until she lost awareness of where one kiss ended and where the next started.
He lifted her up, placed her on the desk, a commotion of vials and containers shattering to pieces. She wrapped her feet around his waist, drew apart his shirt, her hands roaming on the well-shaped muscles of his chest. He grabbed her gently from the hair on the back of her head, eased her to a reclined position, and, holding her firmly in his embrace, he kissed her deeply, his mouth covering hers entirely.
He thrust his bottom lip into her mouth and she grazed it slightly with her teeth, producing a soft groan deep within his throat. That was when he stopped, and she knew it was for the better, because they were about to get completely carried away, but still she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.
Tim rested his forehead on hers, still holding her under him, his breath coming out in gushes.
"You want to know how I feel?" he whispered.
She nodded, staring directly into his eyes.
"I feel like I'm drowning."
She stroked his cheek. "I know what you mean."
"Lucy…" he said, closing his eyes, his brows wrinkled in pain. "I won't risk ruining your future and promising career by acting on selfish feelings."
But she already knew that. She knew he was too noble to let his badge smear her reputation. But she still needed to hear it.
"And what would those feelings be?"
Tim sighed, smoothed her hair gently behind her ear, his eyes full of regret.
"What good would it be if I told you?"