Chapter Text
Tim Bradford had just finished a takedown when he saw a missed call and a text from Wade Grey from just a few minutes ago.
Grey: Call me
Obeying the message’s request, Tim dialed the Watch Commander.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s Lucy,” Grey sighed.
Tim’s heart dropped at the tone of voice the other man used.
“She’ll be okay, but they’re wheeling her into an ambulance right now,” Grey reported.
“Where is she?”
Panicking despite Wade’s assessment, Tim raced towards the crime scene where Lucy was. She was close enough it only took a few minutes to drive over, but it felt like an eternity. Lucy was hurt. He needed to see for himself how bad the damage was.
He barely parked the car and almost tripped over himself as he stumbled into the back of the ambulance.
“Hey, baby,” he breathed as his eyes studied her body. A few scrapes on her hands, a cut on her forearm, a split lip, and bleeding in her hairline, but her eyes were open. She was awake, and the second his eyes locked on hers, Tim felt somewhat relieved.
One paramedic was treating the wound on her hand while Tim tucked some hair behind her ear and finally smiled at her.
“Who are you?” Lucy asked, her voice sounded small and uneven in her own ears as she looked at the man leaning over her with love radiating from his eyes.
“What?” He asked.
Sure, he was handsome and clearly sweet by the way he held her hand. But, still, she did not think she had ever met him before. “Am I supposed to know who you are?”
“Lucy, this isn’t funny.”
“I’m not joking,” she insisted and pulled her hand away from the strange man.
Tim bashfully looked over at the paramedic to explain, “She knows who I am. This is all a misunderstanding. I’m her fiancée.”
“Did you say fiancée?” Lucy almost laughed. Her boyfriend is NOT this guy, and she did not see herself getting engaged to who she is currently seeing. He’s good company, but nothing more. Still, HE should be notified that she is in an ambulance. “Where’s John?” She asked.
“John? John Nolan?” He questioned to clarify.
“Yeah, he’s my boyfriend. You can’t be my fiancée.”
Tim almost swallowed his tongue, because what alternate universe had he just entered?
The ambulance parked in front of St. Stephens Hospital, and she was whisked away to be evaluated by a doctor while Tim just stood there wondering what Lucy was talking about. How hard had she hit her head?
❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎
Lucy’s head was throbbing after all of the doctors shined lights in her eyes, made her sit still inside machines, drew her blood, tested her reflexes, quizzed her memory with flashcards, and more tests that absolutely drained her energy.
She was wheeled back into her hospital room where that man who said he was her fiancée was pacing the floor.
“Hi,” he greeted her happily.
The stranger looked so thrilled to see her, and she felt guilty that she had no idea who he is. “I’m sorry, I…what’s your name?” His eyes were downcast for a moment as his jaw tightened, and her heart stuttered at the clear pain he was trying to hide.
“I’m Tim. I’m your fiancée,” he said gently and tried to help her out of the wheelchair one of the orderlies had transported her in.
She refused his hand and stood on her own to settle into the hospital bed. “This doesn’t make any sense to me. At all. I can’t be your fiancée. Can I see John, please? And, my best friend, Jackson. I want him here…oh, but don’t call my parents. They didn’t come to my graduation and refuse to speak to me, so I don’t want them to come to the hospital and find out I must’ve gotten hurt on my first day on the job. A first day that I can’t even remember,” Lucy scratched her head and watched Tim’s eyes widen as she spoke. “What?”
“Luce, you’re not making any sense. What graduation? What first day?”
“My graduation from the Police Academy was a few days ago. Today was my first day as a cop. You clearly don’t know me at all,” she scoffed.
“I know you better than anyone else. I’m your best friend. I’m your damn fiancée! I know your favorite music and that you have a guilty pleasure playlist of 2000s boy band songs that you know all the lyrics to and listen to when you’re in the car alone. I know that you love daisies. I know all the veggies you like to put on your pizza. I know…”
“Stop! I want to talk to Jackson and John! So, can you just go and get them?” She crossed her arms over her chest, feeling so exposed to an absolute stranger.
Jackson. In this state, Lucy has no idea about him. “I’ll text Nolan, but Jackson is…away.” She seemed anxious and confused enough that breaking the news of the loss of their friend might be unbearable. He sent a message to his fellow officer and eyed Lucy curiously.
“You can’t seriously be my fiancée,” she said plainly.
“Why is that?”
“Something tells me you’re not my type.”
He smirked. “You’re not my type either, but we grew to love each other. We were so different when we met, but we’ve both changed a lot. You changed me. You made me better.”
“Really?” Lucy perked up. “Okay, well, you can’t convince we’re together because of what you know about me, but maybe I would believe you if you told me our story.”
“Our story?” Tim raised an eyebrow at her.
“Yeah, the story of us. How we met, how we grew to love each other, where we went on our first date, who said ‘I love you’ first, how you proposed…that kind of stuff.”
He blew out a breath and plopped into the chair beside her bed. “Alright. It’s sort of a long story, but I’ll tell you. For starters, we met on your actual first day as a rookie, which wasn’t today. It was a few years ago. I was your Training Officer…”
“Wait! A few years ago? I’m having trouble remembering YEARS?”
“I guess, but I’m sure you’ll remember everything. I’m sure you’ll remember us.”
“I don’t know if I want to remember falling in love with my superior! I would never be so reckless.”
“I wasn’t your Training Officer when we got together. We just became friends when we rode together during your rookie year. We were really good partners on shift together. We sorta developed this short hand, and I swear I’ve never worked with anyone else like you, but I’m glad I get to have that partnership all the time with you and not just when we’re at work.”
“That sounds nice,” she grinned, because it DID. Lucy never considered a person she had ever dated as a true partner the way Tim described it.
“It is nice. We understand each other, and that makes everything easier,” he smiled.
“Okay, so at the end of my rookie year, you asked me out?”
“No,” he scoffed. “I didn’t realize back then that I have feelings for you. Now I know I did, but I guess I wasn’t ready to face that fact.”
“When did I start having feelings for you?”
“I actually don’t know. I have my theories, but I never asked. It never seemed to matter. Once you and I got together, everything just sorta fell into place. It’s natural.”
“Hmm…it sounds like you fell for me first, then.”
“Maybe I did,” Tim smiled. “I don’t care either way.”
He was SWOONING. Lucy had never experienced a man truly swooning over her. The sight made her heart flutter.“Okay, Mr. Loverboy, so where did you take me on our first date?”
“We had 2 first dates, actually. The first one was at this romantic restaurant I knew you’d love. It was sorta awkward, since I think we were both nervous to finally be out together after so much time keeping things platonic…well, trying to, at least. Anyways, our date got cut short when there was an altercation, and we stepped in, and some of our cop friends came to take statements and whatever. Sorta ruined the mood. But the next day, we ate at one of our favorite food trucks. It wasn’t anything special, but still one of the best dates I’ve ever been on. We went back there a few months ago, and that’s where I proposed.”
Lucy sighed, “That sounds romantic.”
“It was. Simple but very true to us.”
She gazed into his eyes and wanted to believe him. She WANTED the kind of love story he described, but it seemed so unlikely for her to get so lucky when Lucy had always been so unlucky in love.
“You don’t believe me,” Tim pointed out.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. I know you. I know what every one of your little facial expressions mean. What’s so unbelievable?”
“First of all, you look like a Greek god. I’ve never dated someone so…HOT. Plus, our relationship sounds perfect. It sounds like everything I’ve ever wanted, and I’ve never been that fortunate.”
“When you put your mind to something, you always get it, babe. That’s how you got me my job on Metro and your promotion to detective.”
“I’m a detective now?”
“The best one in the entire station,” Tim said proudly.
Her cheeks flushed and her heart threatened to burst at the genuine compliment. She was about to press him for more details about this dream world scenario when John walked in. “Hey,” she smiled at him. Lucy realized that where heat had radiated in her cheeks and her chest seconds ago when looking at Tim, it all completely dissipated the second she looked at Nolan. Her BOYFRIEND as far as she was concerned. “Can I talk to John alone?”
Tim nodded and left but stayed close by, trying not to eavesdrop.
“How are you feeling?” Nolan asked.
“Confused. That man out there is messing with me.”
“That man? You mean Tim?”
“He’s been telling me this fairytale about him and I, but it can’t be true.”
“Fairytale?” Nolan wondered and scratched his scalp.
Her eye caught on the wedding band on his hand. “Holy crap! Are we married?”
“What?”
She simply pointed to his ring since her lungs stopped working.
“Bailey and I got married months ago. You don’t remember?”
“Bailey? Whose that?”
“Lucy, if you’re messing with me, it’s not funny.”
“John, I swear the last thing I remember is how we graduated the Police Academy, and my parents didn’t come, and we made plans to hang out the weekend before we started our rookie year. Just the 2 of us.”
His eyes practically jolted out of their sockets. “Lucy, that was 5 years ago. A lot has happened since. For one, we broke up. Amicably. It was for the sake of the job, but it was for the best. We became P2s, I’m a Training Officer now. I met and married Bailey. You’re a detective, and this weekend, you’re marrying Tim.”
Pretty much every word surprised Lucy, but… “This weekend? I’m supposed to get married to a man I don’t recognize in a few days?”
“You don’t recognize Tim? At all?”
“Not at all. Seriously, I’m marrying HIM?”
“You could do a lot worse. Your ex, Chris, wasn’t exactly my favorite person.”
“Chris?”
“He’s an ADA. It doesn’t matter. He’s irrelevant,” John waved his hand dismissively.
“John, this all seems insane. I can’t remember the last 5 years of my life. I’m getting married to a man I don’t really know. Apparently, I’m a detective now, but in my head, I haven’t even started being a rookie, and…this…I don’t even know what to do.”
“Take it a step at a time. Your brain is clearly playing tricks on you since you bumped your head. Just know that you can trust Tim, okay?”
“Okay, thanks,” Lucy lifted the corner of her lip in the beginning of a smile. “Congratulations, by the way…on marrying someone who clearly makes you happy.”
“Thanks.”
“Am I…does Tim…”
“Very happy. I’ve never seen you happier than when you’re with him,” Nolan guaranteed, understanding what she was trying to ask. He watched her smile widen and her shoulders relax. “I’m going to send him back in here. Let you two talk. Guess there’s a lot for you to catch up on.”
Lucy snickered. “Thanks, John. It seems like it all worked out in the end for us.”
“Yeah, I don’t regret us, but I’m glad we found the right people.”
“Me, too,” Lucy agreed. Tim was apparently the right person, someone who makes her happy, and the guy she wants to marry in a few days. The idea did not seem as unsettling as the first time the strange man called himself her fiancée in the ambulance. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad marrying the Greek god she has a fairytale love story with?
“Are you okay?” Tim asked as he walked in, noticing the cute little pout on her face reserved for deep thoughts.
“We’re getting married this weekend?”
“In 5 days. Well, that was the original plan, baby, but what’s more important is that you start feeling better. Let’s focus on your recovery and getting your memories back.”
She nodded in agreement.
“So, you and Nolan? You never told me you two used to date,” Tim winced. Of ALL people Lucy could have previously been in a relationship with, he really did NOT like the idea of NOLAN kissing HIS girl.
“Yeah, since the academy, but apparently, we ended things because of work. John says it worked out for the best.”
Tim covered one of her hands with one his and smiled. “I’d like to think so.”
“This is so weird. I don’t even know your last name or anything about you. What should I know about you?”
“My last name, and the one you were going to take this weekend, is Bradford.”
“Tim Bradford,” she tried saying the name and watched as he smiled. “Okay, Tim Bradford, what else?”
“I have a dog, well, we share the dog. His name is Kojo, and he loves you more than me.”
“I’ve always wanted a dog,” she grinned. “Can I see a picture?”
He unlocked his phone, which Lucy noticed had a picture of her with Tim as the lock screen. “This is from a hike about a month ago,” he explained and showed her a photo her and her fiancée kneeling next to an adorable pit bull mix posing for a selfie. “He’s cute.”
“And a LOT of trouble,” Tim chuckled.
“What else should I know about you?”
“That I love you. More than anyone or anything else in the world. If you really can’t remember anything else, remember that.”
Her pulse quickened at his words. The way he said he loves her with such INTENSITY and vulnerability made relax even more. “I get the feeling I’m a lucky girl.”
“No, I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you, but I do whatever I can every single day to be good enough for you.”
She beamed at him and the sheer sweetness. Lucy could not believe she found someone like HIM.
He brushed his thumb along the edge of the cut on her head and then traced her jaw. “Why don’t you get some sleep, baby. If you still don’t remember everything in the morning, I’ll tell you anything else you want to know. Okay?”
“Okay,” Lucy agreed easily. Her eyelids felt heavy as the strain of the day finally caught up with her. She had been scared and on high alert since being wheeled into that ambulance, but now Tim made her feel safe and loved. She pressed herself back into the bed more comfortably while he wrapped the blanket around her tightly. Then, he dropped a kiss on her forehead.
“Good night, baby. I love you,” he murmured into her skin.
The words and his warm breath made the butterflies in her stomach flutter. “Good night,” she whispered. Within seconds, she drifted to sleep.
❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎
Tim was unable to tear his eyes away from a sleeping Lucy. He barely noticed in his periphery that her doctor, Dr. Hamlin, entered to check on his patient.
“Hey, doc.”
“Glad she’s getting some sleep. It should help with the concussion,” Dr. Hamlin said as he watched Lucy sleep.
“Is that what happened to her?”
“Your fiancée experienced some head trauma that caused a high grade concussion. We need to keep her at least over night to observe how the trauma has impacted her.”
“She doesn’t remember anything from the last 5 years. Something’s wrong with her,” Tim wrung his hands as he insisted.
“Lucy passed the cognitive tests, and a CT shows her brain is operating normally. Perhaps it was confusion from being concussed?”
“I hope so…she’s only ever looked at me like that once…like I’m some stranger she’s trying to size up. It was weird.”
“After some rest tonight, I’m sure she’ll be back to her normal self.”
Tim nodded solemnly, still haunted by Lucy’s scrutinizing gaze when he had grown accustomed to love shining in her eyes just for him. He looked down at her peaceful face and begged the universe that she would be okay.
❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎ ♾️ ❤︎
Lucy’s head pounded painfully when she opened her eyes to find herself in a hospital room.
“Good morning, baby,” a voice said softly.
Her eyes snapped over to the form sitting in the chair next to her bed. She blinked to focus on him and noticed his little smile.
“Who are you?” She asked.
