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“Hey Lucy, you’re planning on going to the gala right?” Celina sits down at the kitchen island, Lucy preparing something on the stove.
“I’ll be flying solo, but I’ll be there.” She answers quickly before turning back to her eggs, hoping Celina drops it. She wishes she was going with Tim, but they weren’t exactly in that place… yet.
“You can of course tag along with Scott and I,” she says casually.
“Thank you,” Lucy says quietly before changing the subject.
•••
On the day of the Gala, which happened to be Valentines Day, Tim and Lucy had actually been assigned to ride together. At first it was a little awkward but they quickly fell into their old habits and obviously were perfect partners.
“How you feeling about this gala tonight?” Tim looks over to her.
“I think it’ll be fun to see everyone outside of this environment.”
“Are you umm going with anyone?” Lucy is surprised by his question, surprised that he even would care.
“Oh, no I’m not. Just going to tag along with Celina and her date.”
“Oh that will be nice. I’m bringing someone,” he says dryly turning his attention back to the road.
“That’s nice,” she says back with a fake smile hoping he won’t see the tears starting to form in her eyes.
She really thought they were getting somewhere. She thought he was still interested in her. Guess not.
After getting back to the station, Lucy quickly gets out of the shop and heads to the locker room to change without saying another word to Tim. At this point, she doesn’t even want to go tonight.
Walking out to her car, Celina catches up to her.
“Hey, Scott’s coming over about 5:30 and you can ride with us.”
“Thanks. But I’m not sure I’m going to go. Tim has a date and I don’t know why but it hurts worse than it should. I think I’m just going to get cozy and go to bed.”
“Don’t say that. Maybe you misunderstood him. He’s still crazy about you. Everyone knows it.”
“I don’t know about that,” Lucy says playing with her keys in her hand as they’re walking.
“Let’s forget about him for tonight and just have fun?” Celina nudges her trying to get a smile, in which she doesn’t.
After some thinking, Lucy decides she’s not going to let him ruin her night. She’s excited to have fun with all of her friends and hopefully she can manage to avoid him and his date.
•••
“Hey Lucy, you almost ready?” Celina knocks and yells into her room. She was third wheeling with Celina and Scott for the night.
“Yeah, just about.” All she needs is to put a necklace on and some perfume and she’s ready to go.
As she’s going through her jewelry box, she sees the necklace Tim had given her last Valentine’s Day. She wishes she could go back to that day and do so many things different.
After some consideration, and a hint of jealously shining through, she decides that’s what she’s going to wear tonight. She doesn’t know who Tim’s date is, but she wants to make it clear Tim is hers. Even if he isn’t… yet.
•••
Arriving at the gala, Lucy could definitely say nervous was an understatement. Everyone else had a date and she would be having a great time with their significant others. She was thankful Celina and Scott were nice enough to let her tag along, but their relationship was new enough she didn’t want to intrude too much.
Walking in and scanning the room, she immediately spotted Tim talking to a woman with her back to her. She didn’t recognize her from the station and wondered where Tim had met her. He didn’t have much of a social life outside of work, or at least so she thought.
She saw Wade and Luna walk up to them giving handshakes and hugs. When Lucy caught a glimpse of the woman’s face, she couldn’t help but feel her whole body relax. He didn’t bring a date, he brought his sister.
“What’s wrong?” Celina asks, immediately catching on to Lucy’s change in emotion.
“Nothing. That’s Tim’s sister,” she breaths out a sigh of relief.
“See, I told you that you had nothing to worry about. That man is still crazy for you.”
“He’s not,” Lucy rolls her eyes.
“Says you. Everyone else has seen his heart eyes for you all around the station.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Celina playfully hits her.
Thankfully, that conversation ended when Nyla and James walked up to them. They conversed for a few minutes before the couple walked away to head to their seats.
Genny caught a glimpse of Lucy and nudged Tim before they made their way over to her.
“Hi. You look amazing.” Lucy says to Genny as she embraces her in a hug.
“So do you,” Genny gives her a squeeze.
“She always does,” Tim says looking at Lucy. Of course now Lucy was blushing.
Before any of them could say anything else, they were told it was time to take their seats as the night was about to begin.
•••
As the night went on, they kept catching each other steal glances at each other but whenever they’d make eye contact the other would look away. Finally, after the awards were done people started getting up to mingle some more and head to the bar.
Lucy stayed in her seat while she noticed Tim get up and go get a drink. She turned her attention to Luna who was sitting next to her, they were talking about a case Luna was on last week.
All of a sudden, they heard people arguing. The women look over to the bar area to see two men fighting and Tim right in the middle trying to break it up. Wade stands up first with Lucy not far behind him.
By the time they get over there, the men are already restrained and separated. Tim notices almost instantly that he’s bleeding so he quickly takes off, Lucy deciding to take a chance and follow him.
Once she catches up to him, she puts a hand on the back of his arm. He turns around with a confused look on his face.
“What are you doing here?”
“Making sure you’re okay.”
“I’m good Lucy. Just a little cut.”
“Tim, stop. It’s okay to let people help you.” He knows she isn’t just talking about getting hurt tonight.
“Okay, let’s go upstairs. I got a room tonight and have a first aid kit.” She quickly nods before following him.
After they got inside the room, he took his blood stained shirt off while she went to grab a bandaid. She came out of the bathroom only a few seconds later and he couldn’t help but stare at her. Stare at how beautiful she is. The woman he walked away from, the woman who still has his whole heart.
“Hold still. Let me put this on.” She goes to the back of his neck and carefully places the bandaid on the small cut, shivers are sent down his spine at her touch.
“Thank you,” he says as he turns around to face her.
“You’re welcome,” she answers with a blush, still holding the wrapper.
They stand facing each other both just staring into each other’s eyes. All that tension that had been building up has now come to the surface and neither can resist anymore.
It doesn’t even matter whose lips were on who’s first but they can’t seem to stop kissing each other. It’s like they were trying to make up for all the kisses they’ve missed since being apart.
Finally, Lucy is the first one to pull away. She looks at Tim for a second before throwing her hand up, almost to stop him.
“We shouldn’t,” she still can’t take her eyes off of him.
“I know.” He says truthfully, knowing he needs to respect her boundaries. But man did it feel good to kiss her again.
“Listen, Lucy. I know I hurt you. I know I hurt you bad. I should’ve told you this sooner but please know it never had anything to do with you or me not loving you. In fact, it was the very opposite. I love and care about you so much I wanted to protect you from me, from the monster I thought I was becoming.”
“I appreciate you telling me Tim, but I don’t want to talk tonight. I just want you.” She knows she might regret this, but they can and will talk later.
She leans in to give him another kiss, then a few more before he’s the one to pull away this time.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything,” she says truthfully.
“Why did you wear the necklace tonight?”
“Truthfully? When you told me you were bringing a date, I got jealous. I thought if you saw me wearing it, I thought maybe I could win you back.” She tries to look away nervously, until he stops her.
“Lucy, I only told you I was bringing someone because I selfishly wanted to go with you and when you told me you were going with Celina, I panicked. I was planning on bringing Genny anyways, but should’ve just told you that. I’m sorry.”
“You’re forgiven as long as you shut up and kiss me,” she jokes. Of course, Tim certainly wasn’t going to argue with that.