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“You’re in early,” a voice calls out as Lucy Chen makes her way across the bullpen. She recognizes the voice immediately: Tim Bradford.
“Yeah, Grey called me in early,” Lucy explains, “What about you?”
“Same reason.” Tim furrows his brow. Why were they being called in together?
“Maybe he wants to personally congratulate me for winning the bet,” Lucy suggests playfully with a stride in her step.
“Ummm… Last time I checked, Miles and I were lightyears ahead of you,” her coworker shakes his head.
“Hey! We’ve had 27 arrests in the last 2 weeks!” Lucy announces proudly.
Tim chuckles, shaking his head in pity. “27 is… well, it’s rooke numbers. Miles and I are at 31.”
“Damn it!”
The past few months hadn’t been easy for Lucy and Tim: they had grown so comfortable with each other’s constant presence, and being apart was truly whiplash for them. Riding together was no longer safe and comfortable; rather, it was tense and awkward for a long while.
But when Lucy was appointed as a temporary T.O., everything magically changed. This newfound responsibility flipped a switch into Lucy; she no longer had time for longing stares and flashes of anger (though, the despair had a way of creeping in at times). Now, her main focus was training Seth, and to do that, she undoubtedly needed the help of her own past T.O.
Slowly, things returned to a semi-normal state between the ex-partners. Lucy and Tim had constant bets and wagers, and overall were spending more time together on the job. Time, that thankfully wasn’t full of long pauses and scary silence.
Once they approach Grey’s office, Tim opens the door for her, like he always has, and trails behind her.
“Bradford, Chen,” Grey calls out to them, “thanks for coming in early.”
“Of course sir, what can we do for you?” Lucy asks, though she’s a little scared of his answer. While she likes to boast about Seth’s successes, he’s having a bit more trouble on the job then she’d like to admit. His reaction times are mediocre at best , and he still hasn’t quite conquered the fear of injury. Being a cop is a tough job, and he isn’t quite there yet.
“The Hollywood Police Department has asked us to assist on a sting operation today. They’re short on qualified officers, and this has been a bust they’ve been after for quite some time,” Grey explains. “Now, I think that this would be a great learning opportunity for your rookies, but they’ve barely been out on the street. I’m leaving the decision of your participation up to you.”
“We’ll do it,” Lucy decides right away, because that’s Lucy. She has never been one to back down from a challenge, no matter the difficulty.
“Officer Chen, are you sure that’s a great idea?” Tim asks hesitantly, though.
Truth be told, Lucy had confided in Tim about Seth’s difficulties out on the street. Regardless of their past, she knew that Tim would undoubtedly give her the most accurate advice, which he did. And his tips and tricks were working, but not as well as any of them had hoped.
Unfortunately, Lucy takes Tim’s hesitance personally. “Yes, I think I know what my rookie is capable of, thank you very much!”
“Okay,” Tim takes a deep breath and turns back to Grey. “We’ll go too.”
“Alright. If any of you change your mind, let me know,” Grey instructs. Both training officers nod their heads and thank them before heading out.
“Lucy,” Tim huffs.
“I already know what you’re going to say, and you can save it,” the younger officer stomps, her cheeks flushing red.
“I know that you’re perfectly capable of handling this…” Tim begins, attempting to reason with her pride.
But Lucy doesn’t take this very well, and her quick movements come to a sudden halt, jolting Tim. “Yes, I am perfectly capable! If I recall correctly, I saved you after you got shot on my first as your rookie.”
“Yeah, this is a normal day at work for you, but it’s not for Seth,” Tim tells her gently. “He doesn’t have the quick decision-making capabilities he needs for an operation like this. Maybe we should sit this one out.”
Tim sees the wheels turning in Lucy’s mind, a glint of rationality in her eyes. But, it lasts for a mere second.
“Well, you aren’t Seth’s T.O., so you can’t make that call. It’s up to me, and I know that he can do it.” She’s confident, and Tim knows that it’s no use fighting her.
“Okay, if you believe in him, then so do I,” he concedes, though he isn’t the least bit convinced. He’s glad that Lucy stands up for herself, he really is. But he wishes that she weighed his opinion equally. He lost that respect from her when he ended their relationship, which he deserved, but it sucked nonetheless.
“Thank you,” she tells him, though rather harshly. It’s going to be a long day.
_________________
A pit forms in Lucy’s stomach as she and Seth make their way to North Hollywood, en route for the sting operation. She won’t admit it out loud, but she’s pretty nervous about Seth’s performance in a high-pressure situation.
Miles is only a rookie on a technicality; he has been a police officer for 2 years, so it makes sense to push him forward. But Seth… well, he wasn’t Miles. Seth was sweet, and a hard worker. But is timid when he shouldn’t be, and that scares Lucy. A lot.
“Look, Seth,” she pauses and bites her lip, “this operation is undoubtedly going to be the hardest thing you’ve experienced on the job. If- if you don’t feel ready, you should tell me beforehand. This is a high-level case, and there’s no shame if we need to back out on this one.”
She really wants her rookie to throw in the towel and tell her to turn around. But he doesn’t, because he’s being trained by a pretty tough officer, one who has no quit in her.
“Officer Chen, I want to do this,” Seth tells his T.O. “I think I can do this.”
“See, right there. There is no ‘i think’ on the job. You have to know,” she tells him sternly.
“ I know I can do this,” the young officer repeats confidently, and Lucy really hopes that he’s right.
_________________
Once they reach North Hollywood, Lucy and Tim get the details squared away and coordinate with Officer Elise Campbell, the head officer on the case.
“Officer Bradford, you and your rookie will cover Officer Chen and her rookie as they approach the target,” Episode instructs.
Tim shoots Lucy a look, one that she knows is full of worry and disapproval. And while she agrees that she should be the one to cover, she cannot say anything. It’ll just kill Seth’s confidence, and won’t make them look great in general. There was nothing she could do besides pushing her fear down and praying.
So, they both suck in their stomachs and nod, getting into position before their target arrives.
It takes 7 extremely long minutes, but Hudson Bell, a runaway arsonist, emerges from the department store, as expected. It doesn’t take him long to spot the dozen cops surrounding the area, and he doesn’t hesitate to pull out his gun and start shooting.
“Ready?” Lucy mutters under her breath, her heart beating out of her chest.
“On my count… 3, 2 1!”
All 4 LAPD officers immediately charge out, firing at their wanted felon. Well, almost all four.
“Seth, cover me!” Lucy instructs, a plan already formulated in her head. If Seth is able to hold the shooter off while she gets closer, she’ll have perfect aim to injure him just enough for capture.
“Seth,” she calls again after he fails to answer. “Seth do you hear-”
She turns to her left, horrified to find a frozen Seth. He isn’t firing his gun, let alone moving at all. Does this kid have a death wish?
“Seth! Fire your gun!” she yells, completely throwing her plan out the door. She can’t rely on her rookie, and her new priority is to come out of this with an alive rookie.
“Officer-” she calls out one last time, but she doesn’t finish her sentence. Instead, her body is thrown backwards as a bullet pierces her gut.
Lucy’s been shot.
She tries to stand up, to continue to fight. But she can’t. It only takes a few seconds for her world to go black.
_________________
“Lucy!” Tim immediately yells. He wants to jump on the ground and grab her, hold her and carry her to the nearest hospital in his bare arms.
But, he’s been on the job long enough to know that it’ll do no good if he joins her with a bullet in her body.
“Miles, cover me,” he instructs, and his rookie does so. Tim swiftly approaches the suspect from the back, and is able to fire his own gun just seconds before Bell does.
Tim doesn’t wait for the all clear; he doesn’t even wait for Bell’s body to hit the ground. He’s running to Lucy before he realizes it, scooping her limp body up into him.
Miles calls for an RA over the radio; Tim isn’t sure how long it takes them to arrive, but it’s too long. Luckily, Bailey wastes no time jumping out of the ambulance and stabilizes Lucy rather quickly.
“She’s losing a lot of blood!” one of the EMT’s calls out as an oxygen mask is placed over Lucy’s mouth.
Everything is a blur; Tim has no idea what’s going on, other than the fact that he’s about to kill a rookie with his bare hands.
_________________
Tim’s investigation with IA is long and boring; he desperately wants to get back to the hospital. Every moment he spent away from Lucy’s side was another moment of anxiety and fear filling up his mind.
It takes an excruciating 4 hours to get through interviews, paperwork, and more annoying formalities, but he’s eventually free. His only goal is to get out the door and to Shaw Memorial. That is, until he spots Seth in the bullpen.
Without thinking, he angrily storms towards Lucy’s rookie, his fists balled up at his sides.
“Sir, I’m really sorr-” the young rookie begins, but Tim wastes no time listening to pointless apologies. He isn’t the one who deserves it, anyway.
“I don’t want to hear it!” he yells for the entire station to hear, and without any shame. “You’ve been on the job for 3 months, how could you possibly freeze up during a shootout!? You almost got your T.O. killed! Your T.O. who I trained myself, who took a bullet for you, while you just stood there! ”
“I don’t know, it all sort of-” Seth tries to defend, though he is widely unsuccessful.
“There are no excuses for what happened out there. If you think for even one second that you will ever step on the street as a police officer again… you’re mistaken.”
Tim is too angry to sit by and watch Seth stare at him blankly, so he simply leaves, because Lucy is his priority.
_________________
Lucy’s eyes flutter open slowly, adjusting to the fluorescent lighting and painfully white walls around her.
“Hey, hey,” a voice says softly, and it takes her a minute to register who it is. She tries to sit up, but a piercing pain in her stomach halts her.
“Relax, don’t try to get up,” the person next to her, who she’s deduced is undoubtedly Timothy Bradford, instructs.
“W- what happened?” she groans, rubbing her eyes with her heavy hand, which is hooked up to a number of IV’s and lines.
“You were shot, and they had to rush you into surgery,” he tells her. “Luckily, not much damage was done, and you’ll make a full recovery. With time, of course.”
“Oh my god,” she sighs. Finally, she musters the strength to adjust herself enough to where Tim is in her full view. She immediately notices the prominent bags under his eyes and lines on his forehead.
“W- wait, how long have you been here?” she asks, swallowing a lump of guilt down her scratchy throat.
“Not long…” he attempts to lie, but the furrow of Lucy’s brow tells Tim that she sees right through him. She always does.
“2 days,” he admits, “but I went home for a little bit!”
“Tim!” she yelps. “That is… so unnecessary! Shouldn’t you be at work?”
“Actually…” Tim trails off. “I’m under IA investigation. I fired a fatal shot at Hudson Bell.”
“Oh no,” Lucy sighs. The last time Tim killed someone on the job, he took it pretty rough.
“But they’ve pretty much cleared me, so I'm not worried. I did what had to be done, and while it’s unfortunate, it was probably going to happen one way or another. He was dangerously armed and seemed to have no problem shooting at us.”
Lucy shakes her head in agreement; she doesn’t remember much of the moment, but she sure does remember the assault weapon in the suspect’s hands. One that was hard for a commoner to come by, if she remembers correctly.
“I- is anyone else injured?” she asks him.
“No, we all got by okay, aside from a couple of scapes,” Tim chuckles, pointing to the stitched gas along his eyebrow.
“That’s good,” she laughs with him. “I’m just glad that Seth is okay. I was a little worried about him but…”
“Wait… Lucy, do you remember how you got shot?” Tim asks carefully. It was normal for the last moments before a serious injury to be a blur to the victim, so he isn’t surprised by this.
“N- no, not really. What happened?”
“Seth froze on the job. You asked him to cover you, but he didn’t. You tried to snap him out of it, and got shot in the process,” he tells her straight out. “He, um… well, they had to wash him out of the program. I’m really sorry, Lucy.”
“Oh.” She knew that this would be a hard operation for Seth, but she had no idea that it would cause him to wash out of the program. This might make the list of her top failures on the job.
“I guess now is when you say ‘i told you so,’ huh,” she jokes half-heartedly, a sense of defeat lining her tone.
“No, I-” Tim takes a deep breath. “Look, you did what any one of us would have done: believed in your rookie when no one else did. You prepared Seth for moments like this. You can only do so much for your rookie. At some point, they make the decision of success vs. failure for himself. You just got the runt of the litter.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Lucy agrees, albeit sadly. “He was making so much progress, though.”
Tim’s heart aches at her disappointment, which he knows she feels towards herself, more than Seth. He’s had rookies wash out before, and it stings.
“I know, and you did an amazing job with him,” her former T.O. reassures. “But Seth isn’t yours to worry about anymore, okay? Just focus on getting better and back on the streets. Your next rookie is waiting for you.”
“God no,” Lucy laughs dryly. “It was fun while it lasted, but I think I need a long break from being a full-time T.O. I desperately need formal training for this job; I learned that lesson the hard way.”
“I guess so,” Tim agrees, motioning to the bandages wrapped around her stomach.
Silence fills the room as Lucy looks around, observing the medications hung above her and dozens of flowers set on the table across. But her eyes trail over to Tim, whose gaze is full of worry and care.
An eerie feeling creeps into her stomach, one very similar to when she was kidnapped. Since her first day as a police officer, Tim has been by her side, whether that be as her T.O., sergeant, partner, lover. No matter where they were in life, he was always there.
“Thank you,” she tells him, though it doesn’t feel like enough. No words could possibly convey the amount of gratitude she felt towards the man sitting next to her.
“You’re welcome,” Tim smiles warmly, though he has no idea how much his former rookie is thanking him for.