Chapter Text
“And our final piece of information today involves the Mid-Wilshire Christmas Fair.” Grey announced to the room.
“What’s that sir?” Nolan asked from his place at the back next to Lucy and Tim.
“Well, I’m glad you asked Nolan,” Grey gave him a quick nod and then continued, “The Christmas Fair is a new community outreach event that the captain has tasked us with. Apparently there’s a lack of holiday events in this area and the powers that be want us to fill that void.”
“So who’s planning it?” Tim’s voice boomed out next to Lucy and the rest of the room erupted into a quiet chatter as people asked each other the same questions.
“Well, I’m glad you asked that Sergeant Bradford and no, it’s not definitely not you.” Tim sighed in exaggerated relief as Grey went on, “But it is someone in this precinct.”
Once again the room erupted into chatter and Grey called them back to attention. He looked out at the room and locked eyes with Lucy.
“Officer Chen, you’re the lucky winner. I know our community event will be in good hands with you at the helm.”
Lucy’s mouth fell open as clapping exploded around her and she turned to see Tim staring at her, a surprised look on his face.
“Okay, you guys are dismissed, everyone be safe out there,” Grey signaled the end of the meeting, “Chen, Bradford, I need you two to hang back for a second.”
Lucy tucked a loose hair that escaped her bun behind her ear and got up, nervously approaching Grey.
“Sergeant Grey, I think there’s been some kind of mistake, I mean, I’m only a P2 and this sounds like a huge event.”
Grey looked down at her fondly, “The captain is well aware of that.”
“But, why did they choose me sir?”
“Because,” Tim butted in, “You’re a little ray of sunshine, always so god damn chipper. I’d find it incredibly annoying if I wasn’t so used to it.”
Lucy turned to glare at him and resisted the urge to stick out her tongue because that would be wholly unprofessional so instead she uses one of his favorite comebacks and simply rolls her eyes at him.
He gives her a look back that might be described as a sneer, with his lips curled up and his eyes squinted and she kicks herself for finding it kind of adorable instead of irritating like she should.
“So does this mean I lose my gopher?” He asked Grey, side-eyeing Lucy for her reaction to the unofficial title he liked to bestow on her when he wanted to rile her up.
Grey shook his head, “No, unfortunately I can’t offer Officer Chen much time off, maybe the day before and the day of the event and only a measly event budget and some goodwill with the fact that she’s helping the children of the community.”
Once again Lucy’s mouth dropped open, “Wait, so you mean I have to plan this on my own time? How much time are we talking about here?”
“Two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” She squeaked, turning to Tim, a desperate look on her face.
Two weeks, he mouthed, a glib look on his face.
“And what kind of budget are we talking about?”
“We’ll get that to you later today.”
Lucy worried her bottom lip between her teeth, “I don’t know….maybe I’m not the right person for this.”
Grey gave her a quick pat on the shoulder, “You are exactly the right woman for the job.”
She knew she still looked unconvinced as he took a step closer, a gleam in his eye, “Think of the children, Officer Chen.”
Sighing, she blew a strand of hair out of her face and nodded.
“Sucker.” Tim hissed as Grey dismissed them and they walked out of the room.
“This Christmas fair is going to be easy, right?” She mused in the shop later, mostly to herself, “I mean, kids are easy to please, right? They just want Santa and candy canes, and some crafts.”
“Do you have a Santa?” Tim quipped from the other side of the shop.
“No,” she drew the word out and then whipped out her phone, opening the notes app and furiously typing out a list.
“Or crafts? Or supplies for crafts? Candy? Candy canes? Decorations? Lights? Oh, maybe some fake snow.”
She tried to keep up before she put her phone down in frustration, catching on to what he was doing.
“Stop it!” Sticking an accusatory finger in the air between them, she took a deep breath and let it out, “I’m not going to let you be a dream popper.”
“I’m not a dream popper!” He retorted, “I’m just a realist.”
“You're just waiting for me to fail so you can gloat.”
He drew his head back, letting out an offended scoff, “I would never want you to fail. I just know this is a con job that you got roped into because you’re a goody two shoes who can’t say no.”
Her mouth dropped open in shock as her phone pinged with a text message. She snapped her mouth closed and glanced down at it only to have her mouth drop open again, this time in shock.
“This is the budget?” Her voice came out in such a high pitched squeak that she saw Tim wince from the driver’s seat.
“What is it? More than you thought?” His mouth twisted up in a smarmy smile. She started to turn the phone to him and he put his hand out to stop her, “You know what, I don’t want to know. I’m not getting roped into any part of this. It’s bad enough I have to deal with you planning this and being my gopher.”
She groaned and rolled her eyes, “Aide. And I don’t need your help anyway. You would just get in the way because you’re just a…a…grinch!”
She emphasized the last word and he laughed.
“Yeah, I’m a grinch…a grinch who gets to go home after my shift and watch football with my dog and not have to plan a Christmas fair.”
Lucy dropped her head into her hands, groaning into the coffee table, the papers spread around her ruffling from the air.
“Come on, it’s not that bad.” Tamara straightened out a stack that had gone askew, “I mean, it’s just a fun little event right?”
Opening one eye, Lucy peeked over at her, “I just feel like there’s a lot of expectations with a small amount of support.”
“I feel like some of that is coming from the pressure you put on yourself.” Tamara stated matter of factly, grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bowl between them.
Lucy lowered her hands and stared at her. How was it that her teenage roommate had her so perfectly figured her out? The only other person who knew her that well was…
“What did Tim say?”
Scrunching her eyebrows together, Lucy curled one side of her mouth up in disgust, “He called me a sucker.”
Tamara giggled, “He’s not wrong.”
Lucy sighed again and shuffled through the papers, trying to think about how her plan could fall into place on such a shoestring budget. A hand reached out and slapped down on the papers, covering them up and then dragging them away from her.
“Hey!”
“Look, you’re not going to get anything else productive done tonight. Let’s just put this away and watch the new Lindsey Lohan movie on Netflix. Maybe it will put you more in the Christmas spirit and give you some inspiration for tomorrow.”:
“Fine,” Lucy nodded, shifting up from the floor to lay on the couch, grabbing the popcorn and her glass of wine to settle in for the movie.