Chapter Text
“Another case file coming your way, Luce!”
“Bradford, do you have the paperwork from the special ops?”
“Any chance I can run something by you?”
“There’s a call for you on line 3!”
To say that today was a busy day for the Los Angeles Police Department would be the understatement of the century.
Between Detective cases and Metro operations, Lucy and Tim Bradford haven’t had a second to breathe since they clocked in this morning. They, along with the rest of their coworkers, were running around like chickens without heads.
“Detective Bradford!” A voice calls out from across the station. “I just caught someone on a drug charge, and they say they have valuable information. Are you free for a quick interrogation?”
“I-” Lucy hesitates as Officer Jan stares down at her. “We have a backlog of cases and I just…”
“It’ll just be a second! If you need a minute, the suspect has nowhere to go,” the officer insists, and Lucy concedes.
“Alright, fine. I’ll be up there soon.” Officer Jan nods appreciatively and turns back around, leaving Lucy alone with hundreds of papers scattered around her tiny cubicle.
Just as she returns back to a level of focus, she feels a tap on her right shoulder.
“Ah!” she jumps as she turns around, her pen flying across the room.
“Sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you,” Tim chuckles as he bends down to retrieve her stationary. “Busy day?”
“Busy doesn’t even begin to describe it,” she sighs as she scoops up a couple of case files and organizes them into a pile. “What’s up?”
“Well…” Tim begins.
“Oh no.”
“The girls' school called. The AC broke down, and I guess they can’t legally have kids in the building until it’s fixed,” he explains.
“Oh god. I can call Jenna and see if she can start early.” Lucy pulls out her phone and begins to dial her nanny.
“I already tried,” Tim takes a sharp breath. “Jenna has a family member in the hospital, she asked for the day off. And I tried Tamara as well, but she’s busy at work and I didn’t want to bother her.”
“Lord help me,” Lucy runs her fingers through her hair. “What are we going to do?”
“Can you swing a day off?” Tim asks, but Lucy’s glare at him is a simple answer.
“Oh baby,” Tim smiles. He grabs onto her chair and spins her around before placing his hands on her shoulders, giving her a quick massage to ease the tension.
“I can slip away for a few minutes, I’ll go pick up the girls. We’ll keep trying to find someone, but until then, we can watch them here at the station,” he suggests, and while it's not the most ideal plan, Lucy has no option but to agree with it.
_________
“Yay, no school!” Ivie, the youngest Bradford, celebrates as she skips into the station. The Bradfords do their best to keep their kids away from the station, but when the inevitable occurs, they try to make the best of it.
“This is not a playground, Ives, okay?” Tim sternly tells the tiny troublemaker. Ivie was a generally quiet kid, but when it came to the station, she loved to run around and hide until every officer was on the lookout for her.
“Don’t worry Daddy, I’ll watch her!” Andie, the eldest Bradford reassures. Like a true older sister, Andie had a knack for parenting her little sister. And sometimes, that made Lucy and Tim’s job easier, so they let her boss Ivie around.
“Glad to hear it,” Tim nods.
Holding his daughters hands, he leads them through the bullpen towards Lucy’s desk. Andie spots her mother right away, but Ivie lays her hands on an equally busy Angela Lopez.
“Auntie Angela!” the little one exclaims excitedly, jumping up into the detective’s lap.
“Ivie Angelina Bradford! What are you doing here, cutie?” Angela smiles, hoisting the 5 year-old up onto her comfortably.
“The AC at the girls' school broke down,” Tim explains. “And we couldn’t get a sitter, so they’re stuck with us for the day.”
“What a shame!” Angela smiles as she gently tickles Ivie, who is erupting with laughter. Now that her children are older and on the whole “we don’t need you, mom!” stage, Angela soaks up every moment she can of the Bradford babies.
“Alright Ives, let Auntie Angela do her work,” Tim huffs as he slides his hands under his daughters arms and lifts her up onto his hip.
He brings her over to the rest of his family; Andie is comfortable in Lucy’s lab, quietly observing as her mother sifts through files.
“Care for one more?” Tim asks lightheartedly, pointing to his joyful little girl.
“Nah, I’m good with this one,” she winks as she runs her hands through Andie’s dark, curly pigtails.
Tim bounces Ivie up and down, keeping her content as Lucy returns back to her work. But the calm-before-the-storm soon comes to an end when his Luteinet storms through the bullpen.
“Bradford! Metro got called out, time to bounce!”
“Alright,” Tim sighs as he carefully sets his daughter down. “She’s all yours.”
“I’ll get her a chair,” Andie offers proudly.
“Thanks, baby,” Lucy tells her older daughter, who confidently marches to Nyla Harper's empty desk and drags over a small chair next to it.
Ivie settles into the plastic chair as Andie hops back onto her mother’s lap. The girls sit quietly, twiddling their thumbs and looking around for all of 5 minutes before they’re met with an interruption.
“Shit!” Lucy mutters under her breath as Officer Jan approaches her desk.
“Detective Bradford, I’m so sorry to bother you, but I’m not sure how much longer we can legally keep the suspect here. If you’re busy I’m happy to ask someone else; it’s just that- it’s your case, and I thought you’d want to keep it within,” he explains calmly.
“I- I’m so sorry Officer Jan. I will follow you up there right now,” she tells him. He thanks her and heads back up to interrogation.
“Girls, I-” she pauses, biting her lip. “Can you both be big girls for a few minutes while Mommy goes upstairs?”
“Nonsense,” Angela steps in. “I’ll watch them while you take the statement. I could use the short break anyway, go ahead.”
The older detective brushes her friend off as she rolls her seat up to her partner's desk.
“So girls… What’s been up with you?” Angela asks them, crossing her arms.
“Our school’s broken,” Andie sighs sadly. A complete copy of Lucy, the 7-year-old loved going to school. In fact, she used to cry when her daily routine would shift due to long breaks or days off. It did not get more Type A than Andie West Bradford, that was for sure.
“Auntie Angela,” Ivie begins to whine, “I’m boredddd!”
Angela scratches her head, trying to find a way to entertain two jittery little girls. “How about I tell you a story?”
“Yes!” Both girls exclaim in unison.
“But you have to promise not to tell Mom and Dad I told you this, okay?”
“Deal!”
__________________________________
11 years ago
“Drinks tonight?” Angela suggests as everyone stands in the bullpen, already in their plain clothes.
“Yes please,” Celina Juarez agrees immediately. “You take down four suspects, and they still make you stay OT for some paperwork!”
“Welcome to the LAPD,” Lucy chuckles, shooting the rookie a sympathetic look.
“Drinks sounds like a fantastic idea,” Nolan adds.
“Chen, Bradford?” Nyla glares at the two.
Lucy glances over at Tim; they quickly exchange glances before returning back to the conversation.
“I’ll come,” Lucy smiles.
“Me too,” Tim confirms with a terse nod, and the officers follow each other out and to the food trucks.
“Soooo, Bradford…” Angela begins as she stirs her drink with the straw. “What did you do last night?”
Tim furrows his brow. “Nothing.”
“Nothing? That’s the best you could come up with?” she giggles, wiping her forehead.
“What are you talking about?” he scoffs, rolling his eyes.
“I’m saying that I’m pretty sure you were wearing those same jeans yesterday,” she points out.
“Wha- are you the jean police? It was laundry day, geez!” Tim quickly defends, absolutely gagged.
“Mhm,” Angela hums, a wide grin painted across her mischievous grin. “I am a Detective, you know.”
“What are you implying?”
“What do you think I’m implying?”
Angela squints her eyes as she stares at Tim, though his walls fail to crumble.
“Oh my god,” she rolls her eyes. “I saw the way you and Lucy looked at each other earlier!”
“I didn’t- we didn’t- there was no-” he sputters, though ineffectively.
He looks over at Lucy, who is giggling through a conversation with Aaron a few feet away. Her brown locks cascade down her back, swishing back and forth as her body shakes with laughter.
“You’re doing it right now!” Angela exclaims, pointing her finger at Tim in an accusatory manner.
“I’m not-” he begins, but she’s grown tired of his baseless claims.
“How long?”
“Excuse me?” He crosses his arms and leans back.
“How long have you and Lucy been going out?” she asks confidently, glaring at her best friend.
“Just drop it, Ang,” he tries for the last time, but Angela Lopez is nothing if she’s not relentless.
“Nope, you know I won’t.”
Tim takes a deep breath before leaning forward, making sure she can hear a whisper. “3 weeks.”
“I knew it!” she scoffs excitedly. Tim raises his eyebrows at her.
“Okay, sorry, got a little too excited,” she admits, taking a step back. “But I totally saw this coming.”
“I guess we aren’t as slick as we thought,” Tim shakes his head.
“I mean, I don’t blame you. It’s hard to hide love!”
“Okay, okay, we aren’t getting married tomorrow,” Tim assures his friend. “We’re taking it slow, seeing how things go before we blow up our work lives.”
“And how are things going?”
“They’re…” Tim takes a deep breath, “they’re going really well.”
It’s been years since Angela has seen Tim Bradford like this: less grumpy, loose, happy.
“I’m really happy for you,” she tells him sincerely, her expression softer than before.
“Thanks,” Tim flashes back a quick smile. “So… what gave us away?”
“Well, for starters, I’ve seen Lucy walk into the station wearing your clothes more times than I can count,” she laughs.
“Damn,” Tim shakes his head.
“Oh, and uh… you have a little something right…” the detective swipes her fingers right below her lip, “there.”
Tim brushes his skin and looks to find remnants of Lucy’s pink lipgloss now underneath his nail.
Shit.
__________________________________
“Wait… I’m confused,” Andie scratches her temples as Angela finishes her story. “You didn’t know Mommy and Daddy loved each other?”
“Well,” Angela begins, “it’s complicated. They kept it a secret for a while, and didn’t tell everyone for a few weeks.”
“So they lied?” Ivie chimes in, shocked that her parents would do something so deceitful!
“They didn’t lie,” Angela assures the worried little girl. “Sometimes, it’s good to keep a secret.”
“So it’s good to lie?” Ivie asks.
“No, no!” Angela sputters, regretful that she decided to go with this story. “You’ll understand when you're an adult.”
“My brain hurts,” Andie sighs, swinging her legs back and forth underneath the plastic rolling chair.
Before Angela can dig herself deeper into a hole, Lucy rushes back to her desk.
“Thank you so much for watching them,” she huffs, out of breath.
“Anytime,” Angela waves her partner off.
“Mommy!” Ivie exclaims excitedly, jumping out of her seat. “Auntie Angela told us all about how you and Daddy used to lie!”
“Hey! We had a deal, squirt!” Angela bites, a hand on her hip as she glares down at little Ivie.
“Huh?” Lucy furrows her brow, turning her attention to the older detective. “What did you do?”
“You know, I actually have a lot of work to do,” Angela mutters, pointing to the files along her desk. “I’m just gonna… get back to that.”
Lucy playfully rolls her eyes as Angela returns to her mess of a desk, leaving Lucy alone with her gleeful children once again.
“Just ignore everything Auntie Angela tells you, okay?” she tells them, Angela snickering from a few feet away.
“I heard that!”