Chapter Text
Angela invites (forces) Tim to come over after a long shift. Her best friend has become a bit of a recluse since blowing up the greatest thing to ever happen to him, and she knew a little socialization would be good for him.
The moment Tim arrives at her house, she plops the baby in his arms and leaves him to some much needed baby snuggles while she grabs them both a drink.
“Tim,” Angela calls, pulling the fridge door open, “do you want a beer or something stronger?”
She waits a moment for his answer, but when a solid thirty seconds passed, she turns her body back to the living room.
Tim was standing there stiffly, clutching her daughter close to his chest, and clearly struggling to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill over.
“Tim-“ she starts
A sob escapes from Tim’s mouth, “Lucy used to call me that,” he cries, unable to hold back his emotions anymore.
“Yeah,” Angela nods slowly, “that’s because it’s your name.”
Tim sniffles instead of replying, and uses the hand that wasn’t supporting the baby to wipe at his eyes.
“Give me back my baby,” Angela scoffs, pulling the tiny girl from Tim’s arms before any tears could drip on her, “I don’t want her infected with your fucked up way of handling emotions.”
***
Halloween had been chaotic, but even that had not prepared Miles for the chaos that was Christmas Eve. The morning had been full of breaking up fights over the last toys on the shelf, DUIs from too much eggnog, and Santas stuck in chimneys.
Currently, he was chasing a man who had decided to mug Santa at the Christmas Village. He was trailing behind Tim in the pursuit, his TO much more adept at dodging the carolers, mulled wine drinkers, and unsupervised children that crowded the grounds of the festival. Miles was mentally preparing himself for the reprimand he’d receive for being so slow, when suddenly the suspect dove to the right in an attempt to evade them.
Suddenly chestnuts were flying everywhere, the suspect was splayed across the pavement, and his TO was…crying?
“D-don’t just stand there Penn,” Tim chokes out, “cuff him.”
Snapping out of his stupor, Miles made quick work of cuffing the Santa mugger and reading him his rights. All while pointedly ignoring the way Tim tries to subtly wipe at his eye while mumbling something about chestnut colored hair, long waves, and Lucy.
His, seemingly, tough as nails TO has been reduced to tears because a chestnut stand reminding him of the color of his ex-girlfriend's hair.
“Is he okay?” The suspect asks as he and Miles both awkwardly watch Tim try and act like he wasn’t crying at a crime scene.
“I’m fine.” Tim snaps, grabbing the suspect’s arm and beginning the trek through the village and back to the shop, “let’s go Penn!”
Once they finally got back to their shop, and had the suspect tucked into the backseat, Tim had seemingly pulled himself together. Or at least he had recovered enough to shoot Miles a glare that he knew meant “say a word about this and there’s a blue page with your name on it”.
Miles held his hands up in surrender as he slid into the passenger seat of the shop. He’s heard rumors about Tim never letting his Rookies wear short sleeves, and he fully intends to hold this little episode close to his chest until after he passes his six month exam.
***
Even though he was fully on Lucy’s side of the breakup, Aaron still made a point of meeting up with Tim at least once a month.
This time, they’d agreed to meet up at a bar half way between Mid Wilshire and Aaron’s new station. The younger officer had been careful to suggest somewhere new, Angela had warned him about Tim’s new teary habit when things reminded him of Lucy.
Tim was halfway through telling Aaron about Smitty’s latest moment of chaos, when Aaron flags down the bartender and orders some tequila to sip on.
He turns for a moment to accept the drink, when a loud wail interrupts his thank you to the bartender. He looks over to see Tim face down on the bar, crying.
“Lucy used to order tequila,” the older man sobs, lifting his head briefly to gesture at the drink in Aaron’s hand.
Aaron curses to himself, and sets the drink down out of Tim’s sight line. Unsure of what else to do, he awkwardly pats his friend on the back in an attempt to console him.
Tim’s sobs only became louder, as he begins to list off all the different brands of tequila Lucy liked to use in different drinks and for different reasons. By now, the entire bar was staring at them, but the attention did nothing to quell Tim’s spiral.
“Listen,” the bartender approaches, “your friend has clearly had too much, and is cut off. You need to get him out of here. Now.”
Aaron nods his head, threw two hundred dollar bills on the bar, and pulls Tim out of the bar behind him.
Tim’s first, and only, glass of whiskey remained entirely untouched on the bar.
***
Nyla isn’t sure how she ended up unlucky enough to be stuck riding with Tim today, but here she is. She glares at Tim until he hands her the keys. If she’s going to be stuck with Sergeant Grumpy all day, she’s at least going to be the one behind the wheel.
So far the day has been largely uneventful, the pair following up on some leads for a robbery case Nyla is working on.
They’re heading to the next lead, when they drive past a small petting zoo.
“I’m thinking of having Leah’s birthday party there,” Nyla says, pointing out the zoo in an attempt to make conversation.
“She’d love that,” Tim replies, his voice tight.
The tone of Tim’s reply has Nyla glancing over at him. he’s wordlessly staring at one of the animals within the fence, tears welling in his eyes.
“S-sorry,” Tim whispers, wiping furiously at his eyes, “it’s just that there’s a goat and goats always make me think of Lucy”
“Tim,” Nyla’s voice is deadly quiet, “We are on the job, pull yourself together. Besides, that is a lamb.”
Tim takes a shaky breath, and turns to stare mournfully out the window, taking in Nyla’s words.
Suddenly she slams on the brakes.
“Get out.” She snaps, unlocking the doors.
“W-what?” Tim sniffles
“You heard me. I said get out, I’m not listening to you cry over a goat that isn’t even a goat for the next 6 hours. Get out”
When Tim made no movement to get out, Nyla raised a single eyebrow in challenge, and he finally nodded and climbed out of the shop.
He barely closed the door before she shifted back into drive and sped off. Looking back in the rearview, she saw a defeated Tim Bradford standing on the side of the road with his shoulders slumped, kicking at the gravel around him.
She’d radio dispatch in a few minutes and let them know that a mopey officer needed transportation back to the station.
Maybe.
***
With Nolan out sick for the day and Miles on desk duty with a sprained ankle, Celina finds herself riding with Tim for the day.
They’re not even a full hour into their shift, when her phone pings. She quickly pulls it out of her pocket, just to make sure it’s nothing important. When she sees it’s a notification from the Co-star app, she sneaks a glance at Tim and decides he’s focused enough on the road that she can get away with checking her horoscope.
“No personal use of phones Juarez,” Tim snaps, startling Celina into dropping her phone, “that includes astrology apps. Put it away.”
“Sorry sir,” Celina quickly picks up her phone and clears the notification before putting her phone on do not disturb.
As she sets her phone back down, she catches Tim’s glassy eyes in the rearview mirror.
“How, uh, how did you know it was an astrology app sir?” She dares to ask, her self preservation instincts as weak as ever.
Tim hesitates for a moment, and Celina watches as a single tear slips down his cheek.
“Lucy, uh, used to check it first thing in the morning. Always tried to convince me to download it.”
Celina nods in understanding, and turns forward, for once knowing it’s probably best not to say anything else. They ride in silence for a while and she catches a few more tears slipping down Tim’s cheeks.
“If it’s any consolation, Sergeant Bradford, sir,” Celina nervously pipes up later when Tim’s tears seem to have stopped, “Officer Chen’s horoscope for today said ‘be open to the reconciliations that may be coming.”
Tim gives her a curt nod in acknowledgment, but she also catches the way his lips twitch up in the tiniest of smiles.