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Lucy groans, letting her head fall on the cool porcelain of the toilet bowl, relishing in the way it feels against her skin. She was getting ready to head into the station when her stomach had decided to start churning and she’d run towards the bathroom without a second thought.
Much to her chagrin, it was most dry heaving, there wasn’t enough in her stomach to come up.
She stays there, until the feeling passes and slowly heaves herself to her feet. Though she does grab the thermometer from the medicine cabinet to prove that she doesn’t have a fever. She walks the distance back to their bedroom after the thermometer flashes green.
Well that’s good.
She can’t afford a sick day - not today when they’ve been running rampant with a homicide for the past week - having no lead even sticking - having Angela and Lucy running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Thankfully Tim had picked up a major case and was pulled out of bed in the middle of the night, so Lucy didn’t have to contend with him talking her into staying home.
She knew she wouldn’t be able to say no to him if he was.
So Lucy ignores the nauseous churning in her stomach as she continues to get dressed, deciding to just grab a ginger ale from a gas station on her way into the station.
She wasn’t the newest detective in the station anymore; been there for well over two years now, but a part of her still kind of felt like she had something to prove - even if both Angela and Nyla repeatedly told her she was fine.
Maybe it was just a habit she couldn’t break.
“Are you alright?” Angela doesn’t even miss a beat when Lucy walks into the station.
Lucy waves her away. “I’m fine, just had a bit of a morning.”
Angela just arches an eyebrow and leans back in her chair, crossing her arms over her stomach.
Lucy sits her cup on her desk and tosses the pack of crackers along with it. “I don’t think something agreed with me last night,” she settles on saying as she collapses into her chair. “Or maybe the stress of this case is getting to me.”
It was soon after Lucy sat down that Angela got a call that another body had been found; and a part of Lucy was hoping it wasn’t one matching the cases they already had - but she also didn’t want another case on top of it.
The first thing she notices when they get to the crime scene is the smell - usually crime scenes don’t bother her; maybe a rough one in her early rookie days, but it was never anything that gave her a visceral reaction. This time however, she feels her stomach churn and doesn’t hesitate before she runs out of the house.
She runs around the side of the house, towards a bush and hopefully away from prying eyes of some of the uniforms, before emptying the contents of her stomach.
“Okay, what gives?” Angela says, walking up to Lucy with a water bottle, holding it out to her, though the tone of her voice tells Lucy that she’s already come to her own conclusions. “I’ve never seen you this queasy at a crime scene; even one as gruesome as that.”
Lucy just grimaces as she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “I’m fine,” she gets out as she takes the extended water bottle with her free hand.
“Lucy Bradford ,” Angela says pointedly as she crosses her arms across her chest and Lucy rolls her eyes at the use of her married name, even though she specifically still goes by Chen at work.
Lucy just stares at Angela. “What?”
"I’ve been here twice before,” Angela tosses back, leveling her with a very pointed look. “I think I can guess what’s going on here.”
Lucy almost spits out the water she’s drinking. She swallows it and coughs a little. “What?” she repeats, blinking her eyes.
Angela just raises her eyebrow and Lucy balks, her brain finally catching up to the moment. It wasn’t like it wasn’t possible - they weren’t trying exactly; but they also weren’t actively preventing it.
“Are you pregnant?” Angela says, bluntly and lets the question settle between them.
She pulls out her phone, opening her calendar app and thinking back to when her last period was; she was late, definitely late.
But maybe it could still be the stress of the case.
“I don’t know,” Lucy sighs, slipping her phone back into her pocket. “But it’s possible I guess.”
Angela stops at a corner store on their way back to the precinct and Lucy just wordlessly walks inside and buys a pack of three pregnancy tests, stuffs the paper bag between her legs after she slips back inside the car.
There’s no way she’s going to end up taking the tests in the damn precinct bathroom for crying out loud - unless Angela forces her in one; which is pretty much what she almost does as soon as they walk back into the precinct. Angela drags Lucy almost immediately to the locker rooms.
“Angela,” Lucy hisses.
Angela just shrugs. “I’ll gladly keep a watch if you want; unless you want to wait and do it with Tim.”
Lucy considers for just a moment, waiting until they’re alone; but with their caseload and metro’s, they’d be waiting for a while. And Lucy knew she didn’t want to wait that long to know for sure.
“Alright fine,” she relents and shuffles into one of the stalls.
She loses track of how long she was in there, definitely way longer than the three minutes she was supposed to wait for the test to show a result.
She stands here, holding a positive pregnancy test in her hands. She’s not exactly shocked to say that least - well, she is a little - but she’s also a little surprised and so excited at the real possibility of her and Tim growing their family. All their talks and hopes for the future becoming actual.
Holy shit.
They were going to have a baby - a little boy or girl with her curls and Tim’s eyes, a toddler crawling around their living room, stumbling as they try to take their first steps.
A knock on the door and Angela shouting her name pulls her from her daydreams.
She hides the test in her hands as best as she can as she slips from the stall, falling into step besides Angela as they make their way back to their desks. Where Lucy unlocks her bottom drawer and slips the test into her purse before relocking it.
“You good?” Angela asks from across the way. Lucy can see all the questions in the other woman’s eyes and knows that she wants to know; but Lucy also knows that Angela won’t bug her about it right and she appreciates that.
Tim is the first person she has to tell about this. Tamara will be the second and then they can tell Genny and their friends.
Lucy nods. “Yeah, I’m good.”
She sneaks into Tim’s office two days later and leaves behind a pair of tiny boots, she leaves a small belt in his desk drawer, along with one single tiny sock.
Items that Tim definitely texts her about later when she assumes he’s on a break.
‘Lucy, what is this ?’ his text reads, along with a picture of the boots, belt and sock.
‘Looks like someone left you some presents’ is all she texts back; before she and Angela slip out of the precinct to try and pick up their suspect.
She drops the second sock in his office the next day.
“What is this about Tim finding random pieces of baby clothing in his office?” Angela asks when she finally corners Lucy after an interrogation.
Lucy just smirks. “Call it a scavenger hunt.”
“Good one, Chen, good one.”
They finally get somewhere when their suspect confesses and now it’s just up to the lawyers and courts for charges - so aside from paperwork, which can wait, so Lucy is able to slip out of the precinct at a reasonable time on Friday - which means she’s able to get home well before Tim does.
Tim calls her on her drive, informing her that he should be wrapping up at Metro within the next hour or so.
“I know we’ve both had a long week,” she tells him as she turns off the highway. “We can just do something low-key for dinner - take out or something.”
“You’re sure?”
Lucy nods before she remembers that he can’t see her. “Yeah. I think we’re both too damn tired to worry about trying to fix a whole meal.”
“I’ll pick something up on my way home then.”
“Alright, I’ll see you later.”
“Lucy!” She hears him call from the entryway and she knows he sees the trail she’s left. “What on earth? What is this? Where are you?”
She doesn’t respond, just casually leans against the kitchen counter and waits for him to come around the corner. The boots, socks and belt she’s left in his office, in a trail on the floor, leading towards the counter.
He finally makes his way into the kitchen, holding a bag of take-out in one hand, a pair of small pants, a tiny white shirt and navy jacket. His gaze meets hers before settling on the items in front of her; but also the ones that are on the floor at his feet.
Tim returns his gaze to Lucy. “What is going on?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet?” she retorts, biting the inside of her cheek.
Tim settles the bag of take out on the kitchen table, leaving it there to pick up the books, socks and belt. He glances between the items in his hands as he comes up to the counter, sitting them all down.
“This looks like a tiny police uniform.”
She nods, pulling out a gift bag from behind her back, settling in on the counter between them.
“Go ahead and open it.”
Tim reaches inside the gift bag and pulls out a tiny badge and Tim just raises an eyebrow.
Lucy’s grin just keeps growing as she stands there. She leans back on her heels and clasps her hands behind her back. “There’s more.”
Lucy can see the questioning look in his gaze and knows that he wants to just ask; but he humors her and digs around in the bag again - this time pulling out a folded piece of clothing. His breath catches in this throat as he unfolds it.
It’s a onesie. The one she had custom made.
Daddy’s Newest Boot .
“Lucy,” he breathes out. He glances up at her and she can see the tears threatening to spill from the corners of his eyes. “Are you–”
She nods, pulling the test out from behind her back. “We’re having a baby.”
“We’re having a baby,” he repeats as if he can’t really believe it and maybe, a part of him can’t. Lucy knows this was always a dream of us; one he never got because of everything in his first marriage - a dream he’d put on the backburner.
He’s crying as walks around the island, closes the short distance between them and envelops her in his arms. He leans down and captures her lips in a crushing kiss. She tastes salt and she doesn’t know if it’s from his tears of her own that has joined them; but she doesn’t care.
She would bottle this moment if she could - just live in it.
Tim pulls back just enough to lean his forehead against hers. "Are we really having a baby?”
“Yeah,” she whispers. “We are.”
He chuckles. “And you’ve been slowly dropping hints in my office all week.”
“What can I say, I was trained well,” she leans up and quickly presses another kiss to his lips. “And we have a doctor’s appointment next week.”
His hand comes to rest on her still flat stomach; that’s gonna be expanding with their baby in the next few weeks. “Our baby.”