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“Hey.” Someone comes up behind Tim, and taps him on his shoulder. He spins around to find Lucy looking at him with nothing but concern in her eyes. She reaches for him then grabbing his arm and pulling him towards her.
He had arrived late to the wedding, almost missing the ceremony but he was able to catch the last few minutes of it. He had sat down next to Lucy and she had given him a once over her eyes going to the cut on his head.
But he hadn’t been able to explain what had gone down right then so he just gave her a soft kiss on the side of the head and muttered later.
He looks down at her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “How are you?” He asks because he hadn’t seen her all day, they had planned to get ready together but that hadn’t worked out and it was a crazy day all together.
“I’m worried about you.” She replies. He gives her a smile smiles, one that he knows she won’t buy. She runs her thumb across his face, gently and slowly like she’s me memorizing it. Her eyes dart to the cut again.
“What happened?” She asks. Tim blows out a breath, it’s a long story really too long to tell her at their friends wedding.
“Just got into an altercation with some men that thought they could take metro officers and Grey.” He says. There’s a pause. “I’m okay.” Lucy ghosts her fingers over the cut, and then kisses it just below it.
“I was worried when you didn’t show up.” She says. “I knew something was going on but—”
“I know I meant to text you and tell you I was going to be late.” Tim says and he feels guilty for not telling her, he feels guilty because he hates when she worries. Especially about him. Even though he gets it, he gets worried about her too. Sometimes it consumes him when he doesn’t know where she is after shift or if a call comes in over the radio.
It’s nerve wracking to have someone you love put on the lines. Trying to make this world a better and safer place.
“It’s okay.” Lucy reassures him and Tim suddenly realizes they are swaying slightly. They are so pressed together, he’s not sure where he begins and she ends. It’s like they are one. Together. “I know you would get here or tell me if you couldn’t come.”
Tim nods and Lucy’s hand once again cups his face, just below the cut. She brushes her finger over it and then whispers three little words that have been on the tip of his tongue for weeks. Three little words that he wished he had told her after the fight with masked assailants. Three little words, that he wished he was brave enough to say first.
“I love you.” She whispers. He brings her in and then spins her out. She smiles as he does and he just watches her as he pulls her back in.
He loves her too, there’s no doubt about that. He thinks he has loved her for a long time, longer than he even realized. He never thought he would actually get the pleasure of being loved by Lucy Chen.
But she does love him and it feels so so so good. She stands on her toes and gives him a soft kiss. He closes his eyes and her hand is still cupping his face so delicately and softly and lovingly.
“I love you too.” He whispers. Lucy drops her hand and he misses it immediately. He wants it back, calming him, grounding him.
He pulls her closer and they move more gliding across the floor, Tim doesn’t take his eyes off her face for a minute. And her eyes don’t leave his face, he remembers when he told her to save him a dance at Angela’s not wedding and then they did dance at Nyla’s.
He felt free when he was dancing with her at Nyla’s wedding, like he could do anything because she was in his arms.
But she wasn’t his and he wasn’t hers.
Unlike now when he knows his heart belongs to her fully and completely. And he has her heart too, because she loves him.
“What are you thinking about?” Lucy asks. Tim smiles and spins her out again making her giggle a little, a sweet sound he will have memorized.
“This the second time we have danced together.” He says. Lucy’s eyes twinkle in the low light of the room.
“It better not be the last.” She says softly and she reaches up to cup her face again as if she can’t get enough. It’s like she just wants to touch him.
He smiles back at her as they move and at this point he doesn’t know what song is on or who is on the dance floor with them. All he sees is her, he sees her in her pretty blue dress that she didn’t let him see until earlier today. But she had somehow found a matching jacket for him. He sees her in her own wedding dress, and he’s in a black suit and they are dancing their first dance as husband and wife.
He sees her as they move into their first house, have their kids and watch them grow up. He sees her with grey streaks in her hair but she’s just as pretty and she still looks at him with stars in her eyes.
He snaps back to the present when he feels a poke to his chest. He looks down and sees her staring up at him. He thinks of the ring that he got a few weeks ago, not because he was proposing soon but because he wanted to have it. Just in case the perfect moment popped up.
“This is definitely not our last dance.” He says and she smiles so big he wonders if the same thoughts are going through her mind.
“I’m gonna hold you to that Bradford.” She says. He smiles. Maybe next they dance she would be a Bradford too.
It’s a good thought, an excellent thought, he may have had a rough day but this and Lucy and the future ahead of him makes it so much better and worth it.
He spins her around again and then pulls her to him, just looking at her like she is the sun, the moon and the stars.
He repeats the words they said earlier just because he can and he wants to. And she deserves to hear them for the rest of her life. No matter what.
“I love you.”