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Quality Time
Genny Bradford knew something was going on between her brother and Lucy Chen. Well okay, there’d always been something going on between Lucy and her brother. Anyone with eyes would be able to see that. It is not often that your friend from work comes to help you renovate the childhood house that you hated and was filled with your worst memories.
So yeah, Genny had known something was going on between Tim and Lucy for a while, but this was different from that, and this was also different from when she’d rushed to the hospital because her big brother was having spinal surgery, and had found Lucy asleep in a hospital chair next to his bed.
Both of those times had been about supporting Tim or something dramatic happening. This however was different, as she watched Lucy walk up to Tim and begin to call out to a group of pre-teen boys about baseball.
Tim and Lucy were close friends, there was never any question about that. But recently it seemed like they were spending all their time together. Not that Tim was admitting this to her. Instead he was just being late to her house, or having plans he couldn’t explain to her, beyond “nothing”.
Her big brother was good at many many things (not that she’d tell him that) but lying was absolutely not one of them.
So yeah, clearly something new was going on between Lucy and Tim. Even if you could convince her that “friends from work” would come help with coaching little league (okay Lucy actually would but that wasn’t the point), there was absolutely no way they’d be standing that close to Tim, or would be looking at him with what could only be described as heart eyes.
They were clearly together, or dating, or whatever, officially. And Genny was very happy for them. But she was also confused, because it’s not like it needed to be a secret . Well at least not from her. It was the happiest she’d seen her brother in a while and she really liked Lucy. So there was no point in keeping it a secret from her . Also they were really bad at hiding it. Hopefully they didn’t act like this at work.
Anyway, Genny was 89% sure they were dating, and honestly it was cute that Lucy had basically signed up to coach Little League baseball for the rest of the season, especially since she was related to none of the kids.
“So,” Genny sidled up to her brother as he checked that all the baseball equipment was secure in the bed of his truck, “We’re going to be spending a lot of time with Lucy.”
“Yeah,” and Genny watched a grin form on his face, “She might be a better coach than me.”
“Like I said, you’re better as a team,” Genny continued, “She must really love spending time with you.”
Tim snorted.
“More like she likes watching me look ridiculous,” he grumbled, though Genny could hear the fondness in his voice.
“Ugh Tiiiiiim,” Genny whined as she rolled her eyes at him, “Just admit it.”
“Admit what?” Tim said, raising an eyebrow at her. Which, okay, was an improvement on his usual skill at lying but not by much.
“You once told me no self respecting cop would give up their day off to spend more time with their coworkers, so just admit it.”
“Admit what Gennifer?”
“That you two are dating! That you basically spend every minute with each other! No one else would do this for ‘just a friend.’”
Tim looked at her for a long moment before rolling his eyes and giving into a long suffering sigh.
“Yes, we’re dating,” Genny watched as her normally taciturn brother’s eyes fucking sparkled, “We were trying to keep it quiet until we figured it all out so if you could just not say anything to anyone.”
“My lips are sealed,” Genny mimed zipping her lips, “Though you two spend so much time together, I have no idea how anyone else is buying this.”
Tim rolled his eyes again and started to walk to the driver’s side of his truck, ignoring her as she laughed into the night.
Acts Of Service
“Timothy Bradford,” Angela said as she sat across from Tim as he sat down for lunch at one of the food trucks outside the station.
“Angela Lopez,” Tim shot back, raising an eyebrow at his best friend. He’d been expecting an ambush from her ever since the email had gone out saying he’d switched over to Court Liaison Sergeant. He knew what she wanted to talk about. That didn’t mean he was going to make it easy for her.
“You’re Court Liaison Sergeant, Bradford,” Angela continued as she reached over to steal some of his fries.
“And you’re a detective,” he countered, looking back at her. If she wanted him to talk about it she’d have to actually ask.
Angela looked back at him, clearly unimpressed with his attitude. He offered a small shrug. He loved Angela like a younger sister, which meant she’d have to work for it. Plus, maybe he wanted to pay her back for at least some of the teasing he’d endured.
“Lucy broke up with Chris a couple weeks ago,” Angela started again, “Wesley said he was pretty broken up about it.”
“Lucy mentioned,” Tim shrugged at her. He wasn’t happy Sanford was miserable, but he’d also watched the man ignore Lucy’s clear distress for an entire day. His loss had been Tim’s gain.
“You know who didn’t seem that upset about it?” Angela continued, stealing yet another one of his fries, “Lucy.”
Tim shrugged once again. What did she want him to say? Breaking up with Sanford had made Lucy feel guilty, sure, but she hadn’t been sad about it. Once they’d decided to take the leap, Lucy had been so sure about them. Unconsciously a soft smile formed on his lips as he remembered her coming to the station as soon as she’d broken up with Chris.
“Cut to the chase, Lopez,” he said, meeting the eyes of his smirking best friend. He suddenly didn’t want to draw this out. He wanted the one person who’d seen this coming before either of them to know she’d been right about what she’d seen.
Angela rolled her eyes.
“Fine, fine, ruin my fun. You two are dating now right? And it’s serious, and has been for a while. Which means I was right about Vegas and the kiss.”
“Kisses,” Tim couldn’t help but correct, because while the kiss in Lucy’s apartment had clued him into his feelings, the airplane kiss had solidified for him that she was it for him.
“Kisses?? I’m sorry Timothy you’re telling me you kissed her again and still didn’t think anything was going on???” Angela asked, looking at him with a familiar look of exasperation and fondness.
“No, I knew after that. I just…didn’t think she felt like that…about me,” he continued, “She was with Chris, I was with Ashley. It felt impossible.”
“Well clearly you were wrong,” Angela said, moving the conversation away from what she knew had been a painful time. Not that he’d told her. Instead he’d just moped at her house on weekends.
“Clearly,” Tim smiled, “It started a couple of weeks ago. Officially anyway. Our first date was that restaurant fight.”
Angela snorted, “I owe Wesley twenty bucks. I could’ve sworn it was after the collar case.”
Tim rolled his eyes at Angela, he supposed he couldn’t be shocked they were betting on his personal life.
“So you’re good with this whole court liaison thing?” Angela said, this time seriously, “It’s a pretty grand gesture.”
Tim nodded, thinking about being able to see Lucy every day, and he smiled.
“She’s worth it.”
Words of Affirmation
Nyla didn’t spend a lot of time contemplating the personal life of one Tim Bradford. If she wanted to be mean she could say that it was because there was nothing to contemplate. Listen, she loved Tim, he’d become part of her extended Mid-Wilshire family, but the man’s off time was boring.
Nyla spent more time thinking about Lucy’s personal life. From having taken the younger woman under her wing both professionally and just being her friend outside of work, Nyla did actually think about Lucy’s personal life. But generally that was when she was actively hanging out with Lucy and having a conversation with her. Nyla did none of her personal life contemplation during work hours. She was fucking busy.
But what she was currently witnessing was happening in front of her at her desk as she tried to do paperwork for Carradine. Tim and Lucy had been walking towards the patrol room, and had for some reason stopped in front of the detective bullpen, and more specifically in front of Nyla’s desk. Which left her extremely privy to their…conversation? Argument? Honestly it could be either when it came to the two of them.
“I don’t understand why you can’t just take the compliment,” Lucy was saying as she frowned at Tim.
“Because it was your call, you did that all by yourself, Lucy,” Tim argued, “I was not involved in it.”
Lucy rolled her eyes.
“If I recall correctly you’re the one who trained me, you can take some of the credit when I literally called you for advice.”
“Lucy, I literally gave you two minutes of information because I so happened to be at your place,” Tim shook his head, “It was your idea, you’re the great cop.”
“I know!” Lucy said, almost pouting, “Just admit, you helped. You’re great too!”
Tim sighed.
“Fine. It was a team effort. Are you happy?”
Nyla watched as Lucy’s pout broke into a smug smile, and she began to walk towards the patrol room.
“I am. We’re a great team.”
Tim shook his head, but Nyla watched him smile fondly and follow after Lucy.
Nyla raised her eyebrows as they both walked away. Most of that conversation she could’ve chalked up to being their normal levels of…them. But Nyla was a detective and she’d caught ‘so happened to be at your place.’
Turns out next time she was contemplating Lucy Chen’s personal life, she was sure Tim Bradford would be featuring quite prominently.
Gifts
It was not often that Aaron Thorsen saw Tim Bradford looking unsure. Honestly he could probably count on one hand how many times the other man had looked unsure. Which is why when he saw Tim staring off into space in the parking garage looking unsure, Aaron couldn’t help it.
“Everything okay, sir?” Aaron said, already expecting the gruff ‘none of your business.’
“What?” Tim said, “Oh it’s nothing… just thinking.”
“Maybe I can help?” Tim hadn’t bitten his head off yet, “Sometimes I give good advice.”
Tim narrowed his eyes at him.
“Okay Thorsen, what’s a good gift?”
Aaron’s eyebrow shot up. He hadn’t known what he was expecting, not really, but honestly it was probably anything but this.
“If you’d asked me three years ago-”
“I didn’t,” Tim cut in, annoyed.
“I would’ve said something expensive,” Aaron continued ignoring the interjection, “but now? Something personal, something personal that they’d never get for themselves.”
Tim nodded, looking pensive instead of uncertain.
“Can I ask who this is for?” Aaron asked tentatively. He had an idea but he wanted to be sure.
“No,” Tim said shortly before making his way faster to his truck, “Thanks Thorsen.”
And then he walked away. Leaving Aaron alone with his thoughts, and his guesses.
The next week Aaron ran into Lucy before shift, waving as he fell into step beside her. That’s when he noticed a new watch adorning her wrist. It was antique looking, made of bright silver, and seemed to have some sort of moonstone inlay.
“Nice watch,” Aarson said, “Is it new?”
“Yeah!” Lucy said excitedly, “It’s an antique that I’ve been eyeing for a while and Ti- I mean I just finally decided to take the plunge.”
Aaron studiously decided to ignore Lucy stumbling over her words, and instead smiled thinking back to his conversation with Tim last week. Finally.
“It’s a great gift,” Aaron said smiling, “Really shows care.”
Lucy looked at him, raising an eyebrow before smiling softly.
“Yeah, it really is.”
Physical Touch
John Nolan wouldn’t call himself unobservant. He wasn’t. He usually had an excellent sense for the people around him. So listen, he really should have noticed before this.
And okay, maybe Lucy showing up to his house and demanding a double tequila just so they could figure out how to fix Tim’s current position as Court Liaison should have been a bright neon sign to let him know something was going on. In his defense, Lucy would’ve done this for Tim even if they hadn’t been dating. But listen, John hadn’t noticed, and that was on him.
He was definitely noticing now. Ever since Tim had shown up ostensibly to watch the game, he’d been basically attached at the hip to Lucy. He’d sat on the armrest of the chair she’d been sitting on. Tim had grabbed Lucy’s hand and pressed it to his lips. John had even watched him put his arms around Lucy’s waist when she’d gotten up to get a drink. So yes clearly they were dating now, this wasn’t exactly shocking.
The shocking part was the fact that no one was saying anything about it. Tim Bradford had come into his house, kissed Lucy Chen, and no one had said a thing. Nyla and Angela were talking about a case, James and Wesley were discussing the community center. Lucy and Tim seemed to be having an argument about the game that was playing on his TV. Everyone was acting… normal.
John couldn’t take it anymore.
“Are we not going to talk about this???” He said finally gesturing at where Lucy was basically sitting in Tim’s lap.
“Talk about what, Nolan?” Tim grumped, as Lucy smiled and rolled her eyes fondly.
“You two?” John continued “You’re dating? When did that happen? Why is no one else freaking out?”
“We’ve known for weeks,” Angela said, indicating herself and Wesley.
“You two really shouldn’t have personal arguments in front of my desk,” Nyla added.
James shrugged while Bailey said, “We didn’t realize it was a big deal, honey.”
“Aaron knows too. He saw my watch,” Lucy playfully shoved at Tim’s shoulder before sheepishly turning to John, “Sorry, I honestly thought you knew…everyone else guessed…”
John shook his head at his friend, happy to see her finally so happy, taking in Tim’s arm around Lucy’s waist and her hands holding Tim’s. He could see the joy and love with every touch.
What did it matter that everyone had guessed before him? He could see it now in every touch, and that’s what mattered.