Work Text:
Lucy's POV
Taste
It has been a very long day. Between car accidents and chasing murder suspects around the city, the officers at Mid-Wilshire have yet to catch a break. This means it’s well passed lunch and Lucy is starving.
She knows that Metro has been on case after case working since the early hours of the morning, so she’s sure that whatever protein bar or breakfast wrap Tim had was hours ago.
When she is finally on her way back to the station to start on her paperwork for her last arrest of the day, she hits the drive-thru of one of their favourite taco places and orders most of the menu. Through all of the radio communications she knows that the Metro team has returned to the station as well, which means Tim should be in his office. She parks her shop and grabs the large paper bag of food from the passenger seat along with the drink tray and heads inside.
“Woah, got enough food there Chen?” Nyla asks when she sees her with her arms full.
“I hope so, I haven’t eaten all day, and I know that Tim probably hasn’t either,” she says.
“Oh, nothing worse than a hangry Metro Sargent,” Nyla jokes.
“You have no idea,” Lucy says with a smile as she heads towards Tim’s office.
Lucy reaches his office and knocks with one of her available elbows. She hears the sound of Tim’s chair push back from his desk as he gets up to answer the door. He opens it and is pleasantly surprised to see Lucy and then registers all of the food she’s holding.
“God I love you,” he says as he takes the drink tray from her hand.
“Hungry?” she asks.
“Starving,” he says.
“I figured, today has been crazy and breakfast feels like ages ago,” Lucy says as she places their food on the desk where he’s cleared a spot for it.
“I don’t even remember if I ate breakfast,” he admits.
“Well, I guess it’s a really good thing I love you and that I brought tacos.”
Touch
Lucy arrives on the scene and sees Angela is already there. She looks around for Tim and sees him off to the side on the front lawn by himself. She decides to leave him for a moment and check in with Angela first.
“Hey, is everything good here?” Lucy asks.
“Ya, we got the kid he’s safe,” Angela says as she pulls her focus from the house and looks at Lucy, “the dad is the back of Tim’s shop,” she says.
“How bad was it?” Lucy asks.
“Not great. Metro got here first. You know they’ve been watching the dad for a few days,” Angela states knowing Lucy is already aware.
Lucy nods.
Metro had been keeping an eye on the man who was involved with illegal gambling and running drugs. But they didn’t know his son had been with him the whole time, he was supposed to be with his aunt.
“Anyways,” Angela says continuing with what happened, “there was a struggle, but thankfully no one got seriously hurt. Tim arrested him and now he’s just…” she says gesturing to Tim who is just standing on the edge of the front lawn staring off into the distance.
“I’ve got it,” Lucy says softly.
As soon as Lucy had heard the call on the radio she knew she had to check in on him. She didn’t want anyone to know why but she knew that with her being a new detective that it wasn’t out of the norm for her to show up where Angela already was, to watch and learn.
Tim is standing by himself trying to gather his emotions before getting back to the shop. Before having to face the drunken deadbeat abusive man who is just like his father was. So he avoids the situation for as long as he can until he senses someone behind him. He doesn’t turn around in case it’s not Angela; who is the only person on scene right now who he would maybe attempt to explain things to.
Lucy quietly walks towards him but keeps some distance so he can hear her coming. She doesn’t want to startle him. She waits about 30 seconds then comes up beside him and wraps her hands around his bicep. His body instantly relaxes.
After a moment Tim feels a small hand wrap around his arm and he knows without even looking that Lucy Chen is at his side.
Lucy and Tim stand next to each other for a few minutes before either of them speak.
“Hi,” he says quietly looking down at her, “thanks for coming.”
“Anytime,” she says, “you okay?”
“Ya, it just felt all really…familiar,” he tells her.
“I’m sorry, but at least the boy is out of that house, that’s a silver lining,” she reminds him.
Tim lets out a small laugh, “Lucy Chen, always looking on the bright side,” he says with a small smile.
“Well what can I say, I’m pretty good at it,” she says.
“It’s one of my favorite things about you,” he tells her as he nudges his hip with hers and turns them around so they can walk back towards their shops together.
“If you need anything…” she says.
“I’ll be okay, just want to spend tonight with you, maybe order something in,” he suggests.
“That sounds perfect.”
“Thanks again,” he tells her as he gives her hand a small squeeze before they have to part ways.
Smell
Lucy arrives back at the station and before she can even say ‘hi’ to Tim she’s brought into debrief. She’s only been gone a week but to her it doesn’t matter; she missed him.
Tim gets a quick look at her and smiles but also notices her interesting choice of outfit. She is often picked up still in her undercover persona’s clothes which often involve a leather jacket or more revealing pieces, but it looks like she’s wearing a sweatshirt that is at least 2 sizes too big for her.
Tim puts that information in the back of his mind to ask her later and tries to go about his day while he waits her to be done talking with Nyla and Caradine about how everything went.
Lucy got brought in to help out on an auto theft organization that was stealing cars and shipping them off to places like Japan and India. They had a timeline of a week before the vehicles were supposed to be loaded onto container trucks then put on a boat, so they added Lucy to help out the UC from Victorville that had been under for over a month. The hope was to put a stop to it all together or at least get more information about how the operation worked.
As it turns out they were unable to shut the operation down completely but they were able to learn that the smugglers don’t disable all of the GPS tracking devices in the cars because they figure no one will come looking for them once they cross the ocean. So at least now the Feds will be able to find out where some of them end up.
He’s waiting by her desk when she finally comes out of the interrogation room.
“Hey,” he says quietly.
“Hey back,” she says to him as she leans her body into his, “can we go home now?”
“Ya, let’s get out of here,” he says. He takes in the sweatshirt she’s wearing and realizes it has to be one of his but he doesn’t ask about it until they get home. He wants to give her a chance to unwind first.
Once they are home Tim starts running Lucy a bath then sits on the bed with his phone.
“What do you want to eat? Mexican, Indian?” he asks.
Lucy, who is now in one of her robes, pops her head in from the bathroom.
“I’m thinking pasta and French fries! Oh and maybe some of those really good spring rolls,” she says enthusiastically.
“Alright, I can do that,” Tim says, “in the meantime you go soak and I’ll start unpacking your bag, if that’s okay.”
“Yes, please, and thank you,” she says before turning back in to the bathroom.
Tim quickly orders food from three different places then tosses his phone on the bed so he can start emptying Lucy’s bag. He pulls out her cosmetic bag, leggings, clothes that he knows are not her usual choice and then he finds a small bottle of his cologne and one of his Henley’s at the bottom. This reminds him to look for the sweatshirt she was wearing earlier.
He digs around in the laundry basket and pulls out the sweatshirt in question. It’s an old Ram’s one from when they won the Super Bowl back in 2000.
By the time Lucy is done her bath most of the food has arrived and Tim has sorted through her bag leaving things for her to decide if they are laundry or not.
Lucy comes into the bedroom and sees how Tim has sorted things and smiles. She grabs a fresh pair of sweatpants and one of her own LAPD shirts to put on then meets him in the kitchen.
“Question…” he says as he hands her a plate of food with a bit of everything on it.
“Yes…” she says unsure of what he wants to know.
“Why were you wearing my old Rams sweatshirt? And why did you have the same cologne as me and one of my shirts in your bag?”
“The sweatshirt is one of my favourites of yours and it came in handy when during the arrest today I got car grease all over the clothes I was wearing. And honestly, I had the other things because I like having something of yours with me whenever I’m away. I like to smell you, smell like you,” she tells him blushing a little.
“Really?” he asks genuinely.
“Yes, really. I miss you when I’m gone, even if it’s just a week, so I like having things around that remind me of you,” she tells him.
“I like that you do that,” he tells her, “and I miss you when you’re gone too, even if it is just a week.”
Sound
Lucy’s known Tim is a big sports fan for a while. She found out he was a football fan and an ex-player the day he went with Jackson to hang out with some of LA’s youth and player’s from the Rams. She later learned he played basketball when she was dating Emmett. Most recently she learned he played little league and knows a thing or two about baseball. So it’s not surprising that he listens to sports news and games on his phone.
He has the app on when they drive into work in the morning so he can catch up on the scores from the night before. He listens when he’s making dinner for them in her kitchen.
Lucy has gotten used to the voices muttering away about things she doesn’t really know much about. He keeps the volume fairly low because he doesn’t want it to bother her but in truth she likes listening and trying to keep up. She enjoys learning about different players and teams and the stats involved.
Some nights when he’s working late or stays at his own place she’ll open the app (that he doesn’t know she has yet) and will listen to it to help her fall asleep.
One evening he comes back to her place after he’s done for the day and finds her in the kitchen.
“Hey,” he says as he drops his keys in the bowl next to the door, toes off his shoes and drops his bag by the couch.
“Hey back,” she says as she greets him with a kiss before going back to the stove to stir whatever it is she’s making.
“Smells good,” he comments.
“Good, I hope you’re hungry, I always make too much pasta,” she tells him.
Tim then hears voices and realizes they are coming from her phone.
“What are you listening to?” he asks assuming he’s interrupted a murder podcast or something.
Suddenly Lucy looks very embarrassed and grabs her phone off the counter at lighting speed to close out the app.
“What was it?” he asks again with a confused look on his face.
Lucy smiles sheepishly and hands her phone over for him to see.
“Really?” he asks in disbelief.
“Yes really. I listen to it when you’re not around, I’m invested,” she tells him.
“Really? You, Lucy Chen voluntarily listen to sports?” he says still shocked by what he’s learning about his girlfriend.
“Yes, I do Tim Bradford, you have made me a sports fan,” she admits.
Sight
The first time she saw him in a suit was when he had to spend most of the day in court. He’d come back to the station annoyed about it but also annoyed with her for associating with a journalist. To be fair the woman did end up being trouble.
The second time she saw him in a suit she almost forgot how to breathe. She’d seen him just hours before back at the station after arresting La Fierra but she was positive that somehow he’d managed to get a haircut and get more handsome before changing into a suit for Angela’s wedding. He looked absolutely divine and she was pretty sure he didn’t mind the dress she’d picked out for the occasion.
Everything was perfect then, until it wasn’t.
On their first date he didn’t wear a full-on suit but it was close enough to make her drool. He looked incredibly handsome and it took all of her self-control to keep her hands to herself. She’d meant it when she told him she wanted to take things slow, make sure they could operate as a couple emotionally and not just physically. Because whether either of them would admit it or not, Vegas proved that they were on their way to something excellent in the physical department.
So now, seeing Tim in a suit ready for some City of LA smooshing event she still can’t help but admire him. He'd drawn the short straw and was being sent to represent Mid-Wilshire to ensure the City’s council members are made aware of the budgeting issues or what departments need more funding within the LAPD in general.
“Remind me again why I’m not coming with you to this?” Lucy asks as she fixes up Tim’s bowtie.
“Because it’s going to be incredibly boring and I wasn’t given the luxury of a plus one. It’s not date night, it’s work,” he reminds her.
Lucy pouts as he puts on his suit jacket and gets ready to leave.
“But if I came with you it would be date night, and less women would stare at you and flirt with you,” she says as she takes him in.
“No one is going to flirt with me,” he says.
“Pfft, ya right. So many people will flirt with you; I mean have you seen you? You look insanely handsome,” she says with a smile as she holds on to the lapels of his jacket trying to keep him from walking out the door.
“Lucy,” he mummers as he leans down and gives her the kiss she’s waiting for, “You know I won’t even notice if anyone flirts with me, and I plan on staying for the shortest time possible,” he assures her.
“Good, because date night or not, it’s still my responsibility to get you out of that suit,” Lucy says in her flirty tone.
“Absolutely,” agrees Tim.