Work Text:
“Hey Tim?” Lucy asks one night while they are settling into bed. She turns to face him settling on her side and slotting her leg into between his. He pulls her closer before he answers, and presses a kiss to the top of her head.
“Hmm.”
“I know this random but um.” She pauses and Tim gives her a curious look. She swallows and she doesn’t know why she’s asking this but she’s curious.
“Why didn’t you ask Ashley to come with you to your childhood home?” She asks. Tim freezes and then he puts his hand on her thigh pulling her closer. She can feel his heartbeat against her chest.
He takes a deep breath and then blows it out. “Ashley didn’t really know about my dad or anything like that. I never opened up to her the way I opened up to you.” He says and Lucy blinks at him.
“But she was your girlfriend. Didn’t you want that support from her?” Lucy asks. Tim sighs and traces her his fingers across her lips.
“She didn’t understand any of the emotional stuff. She never went through anything. She had a good dad. She had a good childhood.” He says shrugging. “I didn’t want to burden her with it.”
Lucy nods in understanding because she gets it, she didn’t have a physical abusive dad like Tim did but she had the emotional abuse from her parents.
She was a disappointment.
She was a failure.
She wasn’t good enough.
She had never been with someone who actually got all that. Chris certainly never did and he treated her trauma like it was nothing.
“But you wanted me there?” She asks. Tim kisses her forehead again and cups her cheeks.
“I did.” He admits. “Maybe not at first but I was working through my… issues. And you being there made it a little better.”
Lucy swallows and remembers that day, remembers how tense and frustrated and angry Tim was. She didn’t blame him, his father was a piece of work. He protected his mistress before he protected his own family.
“I’m glad I was there.” Lucy says reaching out to pull herself closer to Tim. It didn’t matter how close they were. She always wanted to be closer. “I’m sorry you went through all that. I know it wasn’t easy for you.”
“It wasn’t but—” He pauses and kisses her. “I’m glad you pushed me to face it head on. My father was a terrible person and a monster but—”
“You survived.” She says. He looks at her and there’s a vulnerable look in his eyes that she doesn’t see all the time. The one look that Tim tries to hide from people.
“I guess.” He says. Lucy shifts again and cups his face in her hands. She pulls him closer so they are chest to chest.
“You did.” She says. “You got out of your father’s clutches and you became your own person. Everything that happened made you stronger Tim.”
Tim leans in and kisses her and when he pulls back, his eyes are wet with tears Lucy smiles softly and wipes a stray tear away. “You are stronger than you think Tim.” She says. “Believe me. It doesn’t all go away but—”
“I know.” He says. And there’s a brief silence but it’s comfortable and then Tim speaks again. His voice softer, more vulnerable this time “Thank you.”
Lucy tilts her head at him, seemingly confused. “For what Tim?” She asks. He kisses her once and then again.
“For always seeing the good in me when no one else would.” Tim says and it’s so sincere, so vulnerable it almost makes her want to cry. She kisses him and her own tears are flowing now, they get mixed in with the kiss.
“Of course.” She says. And she’s grateful that Tim let her in that day no matter how much it hurt him to do so. “I’m happy I was there.”
“Me too.” Tim replies. There’s another silence and Lucy takes the opportunity to curl up into him and lay her head on his chest. She’s grateful she gets to be this open with Tim, for him to see all over her and for her to see all of him.
“Hey Tim?” Lucy says. He turns to look at her his eyebrows raised as if he’s expecting another random question.
“Yes?”
“I love you.” She says and it’s not the first time they have said it but it always brings a smile to Tim’s face when he hears those words like she’s the best thing that has ever happened to him.
“I love you too Lucy.” He says and then he rolls over so he’s hovering above her. Ex girlfriends, crappy dads and bad childhoods forgotten immediately.
And she’s forever grateful she gets to this life with Tim.