Chapter Text
Lucy Chen found her shift on patrol to be quiet, but for several weeks as she rode side by side with Tim Bradford, every single shift was quiet; not necessarily due to a lack of calls, but more so because of how time between calls became eerily quiet. A charged quiet. An uncomfortable quiet. A suffocating quiet. A quiet they had never experienced together before THE kiss. The one she told her roommate, Tamara Collins, was meaningless. The one that was for work. The one that re-defined the best kiss she had ever experienced. The one that proved to be completely unnecessary, because Hajek did not call Jake Butler, Tim’s doppelgänger, to engage him in what was meant to be their undercover operation before he got arrested for committing another crime. One kiss and everything Tim and Lucy had built between them toppled over and was replaced by the kind of quiet that was filled with boundless feelings neither had the nerve to express.
Tim, who used to love work, dreaded sitting in a shop next to the person who was once his confidant that turned into the only person he could not discuss something pretty important with. For the millionth time, he thought he had mustered up the courage to broach the topic of what had been unlocked because of their kiss and glanced over at Lucy, then he opened his mouth in the hopes the words would come, but he was interrupted by a dispatcher alerting them to a nearby call via their radios. Lucy gave him their signature almost imperceptible nod they exchanged when presented with a call to confirm that they were going to respond, and then she spoke into the radio to tell the dispatcher their decision. While they were having trouble communicating in every other regard, when they were working, their shorthand or wordless expressions still functioned properly- a small miracle all things considered.
When they arrived at the unassuming Dunne residence where they had been called to, Tim opened the door and Lucy walked in first with quiet feet and guns drawn. The living room was the initial room they entered. At the sight of two bodies, they exchanged a look and searched the rest of the house for who could have hurt the victims, but there was no sign of anyone.
“I didn’t see a kid,” he stated the obvious.
“Kid’s room but no kid means they could be at school,” she theorized, since their exploration of the house did indicate a child lived in the residence but was not, thankfully, present for the attack.
“Or abducted by whoever dropped those bodies.”
“Always such a pessimist,” she teased with a smirk.
He returned her small smile with one of his own. Sometimes, they experienced fragments of the relationship they used to have before their kiss created such a rift between them, and he craved extending those rare seconds for as long as possible, so he did his best not to say or do anything to disrupt her beaming up at him and the way her soft, fond voice flooded his veins. A knock at the front door interrupted their moment, and they snapped back to their high alert on the job demeanors.
She saw a familiar face through the peephole, so Lucy returned her gun to her holster before opening the door. “Hi, Nell.”
“Lucy? What are you doing here? I saw a squad car out front and thought I would see what’s going on,” Nell Forester explained then adjusted her thick black rimmed glasses.
“This house is an active crime scene. I can’t let you in right now. I’m sorry,” she apologized.
“Active crime scene? Are the Dunnes okay?”
“I can’t say,” Lucy responded plainly.
“What am I supposed to do about Fiona?”
A little girl peeked out from where she was hiding behind Nell’s leg. She had to be about three years old based on her size with big bright blue eyes, long brown wavy hair, a green bow in her hair, and a multicolored floral dress. Lucy bent down and gently said, “Hi, I’m Lucy. Are you Fiona?” The child only nodded meekly. “It’s so nice to meet you. I love your bow.” With a tiny curl of her lips, Fiona reverently touched the ribbon in her hair. “It’s green. Is that your favorite color?”
“I don’t know,” Fiona answered and took a step closer to Lucy.
“That’s okay. You can always think about it. My favorite color is yellow.” She felt Tim standing behind her, so she pointed at him and said, “This is my friend, Tim, and his favorite color is blue.”
“I don’t have a favorite color. I’m a grown man,” he pointed out.
“Your favorite color is blue. You wear it all the time.”
“Our uniforms are blue.”
“I meant off duty.”
“Well, I wear it, because it makes my eyes pop.”
“Did you seriously just say that?”
“It’s true.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
Fiona giggled. “You and your friend are funny.”
“He sure likes to think he’s funny,” Lucy joked.
The forensics van arrived, so Nell asked, “Can we take this conversation to my house? I’m right next door.” She did not want the child to see her house fill with unknown police personnel who would be poring over every corner of the building.
“Lucy, you go with Nell, while I coordinate the scene,” Tim directed.
“I can stay,” she offered.
“No, you can take Nell’s statement and make arrangements for the kid.”
She appreciated the chance to spend some more time with Fiona, so she went over to Nell’s house. Fiona climbed up on a chair at the kitchen table and went back to coloring as she had been doing before they left while Nell gestured for Lucy to follow her down the corridor to still watch the little girl from her periphery as they had a private conversation.
“What happened to Mark and Gloria?” Nell asked of the couple that owned the home they had just left.
“They’re gone,” Lucy answered sadly. “Do you know if they have parents or siblings that can take Fiona?”
“No, but it doesn’t matter. Fiona can’t go with them. She’ll go back to Social Services. The Dunnes were fostering Fiona, and it’s only been a couple of months since she was placed with them.”
“Fostering her?”
“Yeah, Fiona has been in the foster system since she was born. Apparently, she was left at a fire station as a baby and has bounced around group homes ever since. The Dunnes were the first family to foster her.”
“So, now that they’re gone, she’s back to endless foster homes,” Lucy presumed and eyed the little girl focusing on her drawing. Her heart ached for such a young child to be without a family.
“It might not be such a bad thing. Mark and Gloria are…I mean were…nice people, but they’re always busy. I feel like I watch Fiona more than they do. I’ve traded for night shifts on dispatch to take her for days at a time.”
“That’s awful.”
“No kidding. Look, I love kids, but Ellroy and I don’t want any of our own. It’s fun to hang out with her during the day, but when she’s sleeping over every night for a week? It’s a little much.”
“Have you reached out to Social Services?”
“I’ve tried, but they’re overwhelmed, so I help out with Fiona when I can. I saw the shop outside, which is why we went over, but I have to leave soon. I picked up a shift at a restaurant. Gotta do something now that I can’t work as many hours as a dispatcher. I might have to quit and find a new full time job, but that’s not the problem. Right now, I’m worried about the fact that that little girl doesn’t have anywhere to go. I have to get to work.”
“Tim and I can call Social Services, and we’ll take her back to the station to watch her until then. Does she have a favorite stuffed animal or a blanket that we can bring with us to make her more comfortable?”
“Not really. She’s been bouncing around a lot of homes, and the Dunnes haven’t gotten her anything she’s formed an attachment with, but Fiona really loves coloring and singing.”
“We can work with that. Thank you.”
Nell went over to Fiona and said, “Hey, Fi, you’re gonna go with my friend, Lucy, okay? She’ll hang out with you for a while.”
“Is the funny one hanging out with us, too?” Fiona wondered.
“He sure will,” Lucy promised then muttered under her breath, “But, I’m not telling him you called him ‘funny’. We are NOT inflating that man’s ego.”
Nell gasped when Fiona took Lucy’s hand as she tended to be shy around strangers, but it was clear the little girl warmed up to her rapidly.
“Wait, Lucy, I haven’t finished my drawing!” Fiona said.
“Let’s take it with us,” Lucy suggested.
Nell handed the piece of paper to the child with a smile. “I hope I can see you soon, kiddo.” She feared that she would never see Fiona again, and that was heartbreaking.
Tim noticed the way Fiona grinned up at Lucy as they walked together hand in hand, and that scene was utterly adorable.
“Fiona is coming with us to the station,” Lucy announced sweetly.
“I’ll let Harper and Lopez take over the scene, and then we can go,” he replied and went into the house to confer with the detectives. By the time he returned to their shop, he watched Lucy and Fiona laughing in the backseat. “What’s going on in here?”
“We’re talking about our favorite animals, and Fiona like bears. I like dogs better, but bears are cute, too,” Lucy shared.
Tim started driving the car while listening to Fiona’s adorable impression of a growling bear that left her and Lucy giggling.
“What’s your favorite animal, mister?” She asked.
“Oh,” Lucy spoke for him, “Tim’s favorite animal is a chicken.”
“It’s NOT!” He shot back.
“You act like one sometimes,” she teased.
Fiona was laughing too hard and pretending to cluck like a chicken to notice the moment. “Tim is silly,” she said between chuckles.
“He sure is. He’s a silly goose! Maybe that should be his favorite animal. What do geese sound like, Fiona?”
In response, Fiona began to quack, and Tim was unable to resist the urge to snigger.
Seeing him happy for the first time in weeks brought some levity to the new normal kind of tension in their shop; a darling little girl had that effect on the strain on their relationship.
“Fiona,” Lucy said, “I hear you like singing. Do you have a favorite song?”
“Not really.”
“Okay, do you want to share my favorite song with me?” The child nodded excitedly, so Lucy began singing “You Are My Sunshine” over and over again until Fiona learned all of the lyrics and sang along.
‧‧‧‧‧‧‧ ✿ ‧ ᰔᩚ ‧ 𐙚 ‧ ᰔᩚ ‧ ✿ ‧‧‧‧‧‧‧
Tim went to the station’s break room where Lucy and Fiona were camped out at a table coloring together. His face showed her he did not have good news after placing a few calls to which Lucy gave him a small frown of understanding then gestured for him to join them.
“Fiona, why don’t you show Tim what you drew,” Lucy suggested.
“This is you and Lucy. You’re in blue, because that’s your favorite color, and that’s Lucy in yellow, because that’s her favorite color,” Fiona explained as she pointed to the figures in her drawing.
“Wow,” he said with a smile. “This is amazing!”
“Doesn’t Lucy look pretty?” Fiona wondered after giving special attention to ensuring she captured her radiant smile.
“She always does,” he replied, pointedly looking over at Lucy.
With three words and his piercing blue eyes, she had a swarm of butterflies wreaking havoc in her stomach. The reason it was difficult to be around him after discovering how he tastes was there was now a level of complexity to their dynamic in that every time he said something sweet, or kind, or complimentary, especially directed at her, Lucy wanted take his face in her hands and kiss him until her last breath. Her fingers itched to do just that as he looked upon her while holding Fiona’s drawing in his hand so carefully as if it was the most precious piece of paper in the world.
Fiona yawned, and he was quick to offer, “Do you want to take a nap?”
“I’m not tired,” she lied and then yawned again.
He pointed to the couch. “I think you should take a nap right there.”
“Will you still be here when I wake up?” She wondered.
“I won’t leave your side for a second,” Lucy promised.
“Tim, too?”
“Sure, kiddo,” he agreed easily, which was apparently enough to convince her to curl up into a tiny ball on the couch and tuck her arm under her head for a nap. He took off his windbreaker and draped it over her.
Lucy had no idea how much she would love watching the usually tough and scowling Tim Bradford soften around a sweet little girl, but if she was not attracted to him before, she sure was after witnessing him interact with Fiona. She stroked Fiona’s soft, thick hair to soothe her enough to sleep, and she realized that the little girl had her hair, his eyes, and a light dusting of freckles just like her; it was a perfect mix of her and Tim in a child. Though Lucy had never allowed herself to fantasize about that kind of future with him before, Fiona was like a physical manifestation that would most certainly fuel her dreams of Tim beyond the delicious fantasies of kissing him over and over again.
“She’s a great kid,” he noted at a whisper as he admired how similar the sleeping child was to Lucy even in that both of them tucked an arm behind their head before going to sleep, which was an odd thing he learned about Lucy, but after riding together as long as they had, he collected countless random facts about her.
“Yeah, she really is,” Lucy agreed lowly. “I hope her social worker can place her with a good family. What did Social Services say when you called them?”
“Her social worker is named Madison Tait, and she’ll come by when she can to take Fiona to another group home,” he shared unhappily.
“Another one? Fiona said she hated the group homes. The reason why she doesn’t have anything special is that everything she’s ever owned has gotten stolen or ruined. You should’ve heard her tell me how she can’t wear bows in a foster home or some other kid will pull her hair or another girl will take them.”
“The poor kid is three and a half and has already had such a tough life. She keeps getting bounced around from foster home to foster home because of overcrowding. The Dunnes were the first family to want to take her.”
“And they weren’t exactly saints. Apparently, they haven’t been the most attentive parents. She deserves so much better.”
“I know, but there’s nothing we can do. The foster system is overrun with kids who don’t deserve the circumstances they’re in.”
“Maybe I can’t change the whole foster system, but I want to help her.”
He took one look at her besotted expression and knew. “Don’t tell me you fell in love with her.”
She mused, “How could I not? Fiona is so precious, and doesn’t she have a beautiful name?”
“Don’t get too attached.”
“Too late.”
He swallowed hard, hating to be the one to tell her, “Lucy, the second she leaves this station, you’ll probably never see her again unless you arrest her like plenty of other foster kids who commit crimes.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Look at Tamara. She was a foster kid that stole your car.”
“Tamara lived a tough life before she came to live with me. I don’t want Fiona to suffer the same fate.”
“What are you gonna do? Have her move in with you?” Tim suggested sarcastically with a scoff. He did a double take when she seemed to be genuinely considering it. “Lucy…”
“Rachel used to work in Social Services in L.A.. She would know if it’s possible.”
“You can’t honestly be considering this. Are you really ready to become a mom? When your mom wanted you to freeze your eggs, you said you didn’t even know if you wanted kids.”
“I didn’t, okay? Some far off future raising a kid that I couldn’t even picture was tough for me to imagine, but Fiona is real. She’s right here with her love of coloring, and bows. She’s got beautiful eyes and loves to sing. She’s adorable, and sweet, and has the cutest laugh. I can’t imagine ever having a better kid than her.”
He saw her point. “I’ll admit, she’s great, and you two get along, but being a mom is a big responsibility.”
“You don’t think I can handle it?”
Tim did not even blink. “I know you’ll be a great mom someday.”
Her heart stuttered due to the compliment. “Thanks. I’m gonna call Rachel and get her take on if it’s even possible. Mind watching Fiona while I step out?”
“Sure.” He gazed upon the small, angelic child and had to admit that he had never been so taken by a kid before, but she was special. Of course Lucy would want that unique little girl to be hers. When she returned to the break room, there was a fierceness in Lucy’s eyes he rarely saw, and he knew that whatever Rachel had said to her had been disappointing; he would have asked for details, but she started speaking before he got the chance to utter a single word.
“Because I’m a cop, Rachel says Social Services would give me Fiona as an emergency placement as soon as today,” Lucy started with.
“Th-that’s great.”
“It would be, but the problem is, that’s only possible if a child is going to a two parent home meaning it would be super hard to foster her or adopt her as a single mom, but if I was married, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“But, you’re not married.”
“Not yet.”
His blood ran cold as he blinked a few times. “You’re going to ask Chris to marry you?”
Lucy’s boyfriend, Chris Sanford, had completely escaped her memory, which was not a good sign, but unimportant in the moment. “No, I’m asking you.”
“Asking me what?”
“I’m asking you to marry me.”
Tim thought he must have misheard her. “What?”
“Do you need me to get down on one knee or something?”
“Y-You can’t ask me to marry you.”
“Why not? It’s just a piece of paper. It wouldn’t have to mean anything. Come on, Tim, it’s the only way I can foster her.”
He was about to absolutely object to such a terrible idea, but her pleading eyes, as always, gave him pause.
“Please,” she begged as she clapped her hands together. “If you won’t do it for me, then do it for Fiona.”
Tim’s eyes flicked over to the little girl then back over to Lucy. How was he supposed to deny both of them? He could barely believe the words coming out of his mouth: “I’ll marry you.” It felt impossible and completely opposite to everything that had passed between them leading to an awkwardness they had never known before, which was why he felt the need to add the caveat, “For Fiona.”
