Work Text:
SSN 2 Ep 17 – Control
Emmett walks away with his boxes of Girls Guide cookies and Lucy feels what might actually be butterflies in her stomach for the first time in a very long time. Just then Tim rounds the corner to collect her.
“He seems nice,” Lucy says smiling at Tim.
“Emmett? Tim asks.
Lucy nods, “do you know him well?”
“We play a little pick-up basketball together,” he says.
Lucy looks up at him wide eyed with a little sparkle and suddenly he can read her mind and he’s absolutely not going to play this game, not again.
“No, no, forget it! Your social life is not my responsibility; I learned that lesson the hard way, if you want to vet Emmett go to somebody else,” he says as the elevator doors close.
Lucy heads to the locker room to get changed and decides to text Sterling so they can gang up on Jackson and not watch The Cardinal again. She loves Jackson but she seriously cannot sit through another episode. She grabs her phone and sends off the message then changes back into her street clothes. On her way out of the station she sees her roommate and tells him her plan for the night.
Lucy suddenly feels like she’s been kicked in the stomach when she realizes the imposition she’s become in Jackson life, and especially his love life. Thankfully Tim rounds the corner and tells her there’s some overtime available and in that moment she’s never been so grateful for the extra hours. She walks back to the locker room and tosses on her uniform. She needs to get her emotions in check and maybe then she can learn something on this DEA OP she’s joining.
She finds Tim once she’s changed and tries to focus on the task at hand.
“Hey you good” he asks when he watches Lucy fidget with her uniform.
“Ya, of course. So what exactly are we doing?” she asks changing the subject.
“We’re joining the DEA’s taskforce that has been looking into Ripper; one of the guys Harper used to run with when she was undercover. Apparently he has more Fentanyl then he knows what to do with,” he explains, “So, we are going to stakeout the area and watch for the bad guys.”
“A stakeout?” Lucy asks with a whiney tone.
“Hey if you don’t want the overtime you can go home to West and your Girl Guide cookies,” he says.
“No! No, that is not an option! This is perfect, I love stakeouts,” she says enthusiastically.
Tim decides to not investigate any further and instead leads them to their shop for the evening.
Tim sits next to Chen as she babbles away on the phone. He knows she’s lying as soon as she tells him that she’s talking to Rachel, because he knows that she had to work late too. He doesn’t know why Chen is having a fake conversation with herself but he’s tired of listening to it. So he pulls out his phone and gets her to admit that she’s not actually talking to Rachel which leads to him hearing something that lifts the massive feeling of guilt in his chest that has been living there for the last few months.
“What happened wasn’t your fault; it wasn’t mine either,” Lucy says a she turns towards him as much as she can while still strapped into her seatbelt.
For a moment they stare at each other without uttering a word but he feels like they’ve just told each other something incredibly important.
Lucy breaks the tension by insinuating he’s jealous of Emmett and his quote ‘hunkiness’ and just like that they are back to Lucy and Tim.
They chase after the SUV in search of Ripper and instead find themselves t-boned and spinning out in the intersection. The shop skids to a stop and neither Tim nor Lucy are aware of what’s happened. Tim wakes up and realizes they’ve been in a crash then looks over at Chen to make sure she’s okay. He’s been in a few work related car accidents over the years but knows this is her first.
They are thankfully both fine enough, all things considered so they unbuckle, get out some flares and pylons to block off the area and wait for the RA to arrive.
Lucy finds herself actually glad to see Emmett when help arrives.
Emmett continues to hold the gauze to her forehead until he’s confident it’s disinfected. He gently places a small Band-Aid on her cut while still maintaining eye contact.
“Thanks,” Lucy says after she’s all cleaned up.
“No problem, now keep that clean and it will heal up quick,” he tells her.
Lucy smiles and starts to walk away to find Tim and make sure they are both cleared to get a ride back to Mid-Wilshire but turns back to Emmett,
“Hey um, I’ll try to uncomplicate things soon,” she tells him with a smile.
“Good,” he says back.
"Boot! Tim calls out as he heads towards her and Emmett, "stop flirting with Lang and let's get back to the station,"
"Oh my God, could you not?" she says as her face turns red.
"It's all good Bradford," Emmett says casually, "I'll see you around Lucy," he says with a wink.
Lucy walks as fast as her legs can carry her towards their fresh shop so they can go back to the station.
"Hey," Tim says trying to get her to slow down, "are you good? Not hurt?" he asks to make sure she's good to leave the scene.
“Ya, Emmett, he um, he fixed me up,” she tells him trying not to blush.
Tim is about to give her shit for acting like some school girl with a crush but decides against it because he's honestly tired of feeling involved in her personal life.
"Are you okay?" she asks him as they buckle up and Tim starts the shop.
"I'm fine, now let’s get out of here boot, you’ve got a lot of paperwork to do,” he says with a smart-ass tone.
“What? Now? Seriously?” she asks appalled at the idea of starting paperwork well past midnight.
“You really think you’re going to be able to fall asleep after that? Also you should probably monitor that head wound anyways,” he says.
“You’re right, fine, let’s go,” she says reluctantly as he puts the shop in drive.
She pulls out her phone that is somehow undamaged from the crash to text Jackson. Even though it’s late she doesn’t want him to panic if he sees she’s not home.
Lucy: Hey, overtime turned into OVERTIME. Be home late. Also I think I met someone!