Work Text:
“Do you… think we were drugged?” Lucy Chen asks through a hum. She leans backwards into her chair, letting her head back as Tim Bradford tugs on the elastic of her messy braid. She cannot recall when the braid was released from its neat, slicked bun, but she’s not complaining.
“The wet walls,” Tim groans, letting go of the woman’s soft hair. “We touched them.”
“Dammit,” Lucy shakes her head, though she’s giggling. “Just our luck!”
“God, I hate making mistakes in front of you,” he sighs disappointedly, closing his eyes.
“Wow,” Lucy’s eyes widen, “You’ve never admitted that to me.”
“We should just keep quiet for now,” Tim suggests immediately, in lieu of his confession.
“No, no,” Lucy insists, holding her hand out. “This is fun. What was your most embarrassing memory?”
Tim tells his ex-girlfriend about his mischief as a child; she barely believes him, though he wishes he were joking. She provides him with stories too, admitting that she wasn’t exactly the easiest child to raise. It started out as a funny story-telling ordeal, but the conversation finds its way into a deep, darker space.
“Without my dad around, I felt like… like I had to punish myself. And I did it in the worst way I could think of,” Tim explains, his voice so steady that one wouldn’t believe there were hallucinogenic drugs in his system.
“But you didn’t punish just yourself,” Lucy reminds him.
“I know, I know.” Tim throws his hands around the chair, which he is sitting in backward, and leans forward. “Look, if you never forgive me, I’ll understand.”
Lucy’s somber face cracks a smile. “Wha- I’ve already forgiven you! That’s not even-” she stops herself, turning her neck to the side. “Woah, when did that happen?”
Tim watches as she thinks to herself for a moment; in some weird way, she seems more confused than him. He had his suspicions; recently, things had been so easy with her. He felt her iron walls soften in the slightest, with each time she recklessly slept in his bed despite the fact that they were broken up. And then April fools came around and that was… well, Tim wasn’t complaining, but he definitely had some questions.
“S- so wait,” he begins, holding his hand out as he tries to make sense of things. “You’ve forgiven me?”
“Hm,” the woman shrugs casually, as if she didn’t just turn this man's life upside down. “I guess I have.”
“And what does that mean?” Tim inquires. Only half-conscious himself, he doubts a straight answer from her. But he’s still curious, nonetheless.
“I’m not sure,” Lucy admits. Though, she doesn’t spend time trying to figure it out. “Do you think we’re ever going to tell our kids about this?”
Our kids. Tim is stunned at her sudden switch of mentality. He doesn’t fight it. “Not a chance.”
“Oh, come on,” Lucy slaps her hand across his shoulder. “It would be so funny!”
“Maybe when they’re a little older,” he softens at her touch.
“What, uh… what should our kids' names be?” she asks, rocking back and forth in the frail plastic chair.
“Hm,” Tim purses his lips, “I haven’t really thought about it.”
“You’re such a liar!” Lucy accuses loudly, her voice echoing between the dingy walls.
“Okay, okay,” Tim places his hand atop hers, settling her down. “I want our kids to have meaningful names. After something, or someone, important to us.”
“I agree,” Lucy nods. She begins to itch the top of her head, where her hair sits in a ponytail, which is barely hanging on by a thread.
“Here, let me,” Tim waves his hand as she scrunches her nose. Without objection, she spins her chair around, scoots it backwards, and leans back into it.
“You know,” she hums as Tim’s hands pull out her hair tie, relieving her of the stiff up-do, “our daughters are going to be really lucky to have you.”
“Daughters, huh?” he chuckles. “You’ve already decided on girls?”
“Oh, yeah,” she scoffs confidently. “You’re a total girl-dad.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean… look! You’re literally sitting here, high on hallucinogens, braiding my hair. God would never waste this on a boy.”
“Tell me more about our daughters,” Tim pushes her playfully.
“Our first daughter is going to be… strong. It’ll be a real learning experience for us, and we’ll make a lot of mistakes, but we will shower her with so much love that it’ll cover it all up. I always imagined we’d name her after Jackson, somehow. And our second… well, she’s gonna be just like you. She’ll have your dirty blond hair and beautiful eyes. She’ll be a complainer, for sure. But you’ll spoil her, because she’s the baby.”
“Wow, you’ve really thought about it, haven’t you?” Tim says in complete awe. Sure, they had talked about their future together quite often, but it was never in depth.
“Mhm,” she nods, leaning back into Tim’s hands as he continues to massage her head. “Our first girl, she’s gonna be more like me. She’ll have my eyes, and dark curly hair, maybe. I want to name her after Captain Anderson. Give Jackson the middle name.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Tim agrees.
“I knew you would.”
“To be fair, I think that any idea of yours is a good idea,” Tim reveals.
“You let me get away with everything,” Lucy notes. “You always let me pick the movie, or the cuisine for dinner. If I wasn’t in the mood for something, no matter how much you wanted it, you never brought it up.”
“Of course not,” he scoffs, as if this was common behavior.
“That’s why you’re going to make such a great dad. Though, you’ll be a little bit of a pushover.”
“Hey!” he exclaims jokingly.
“Sorry,” Lucy shrugs, albeit unapologetically. “But it’s true. If you can’t say no to me, there is no way you’ll be able to say no to two adorable little girls.”
“You’re right,” Tim chuckles.
After a few seconds of quiet, Lucy asks, “is it crazy that I’ve thought about this so much? I mean… we haven’t been together for almost a year.”
“No, no,” Tim assures her. “Every moment that we were apart, I thought about you. I thought about what our life could have been like, if I didn’t…”
“Me too.” She doesn’t make him finish.
“I would have proposed by now,” Tim says, taking over Lucy’s rambling. “Hell, you may have even been pregnant with one of these girls you keep talking about.”
“Maybe…” the woman taps her gentle finger against her chin. “Or maybe not.”
“Or maybe not,” Tim repeats.
Lucy hums for a few moments. It’s soft, and utterly melodic. Tim is entranced as if she is a siren calling out to him, drawing him to her horror.
“Andie West,” she eventually blurts out.
“Huh?” Tim asks, shaking his head to break himself out of the daze she so carefully placed him in.
“That’s what we should name our first daughter. Andie, after Captain Anderson. And West, after…”
“Jackson,” Tim finishes her sentence for her.
“Yeah.”
“Andie West Bradford. I like it.” The words sound almost unreal as they escape his lips.
“Your turn. What’s the little one’s name?” Lucy asks.
“Ivie Angelina,” he says with no hesitation, almost surprising himself.
“Wow, that’s… beautiful,” Lucy gasps. “Where did you pull that out of?”
“It’s the drugs, I swear,” Tim throws his hands up in the air.
“Hey! Why’d you stop!” Lucy whines, throwing her head backwards.
Tim chuckles as she gently slides his fingers back under her hair. “And I’m the complainer, huh?”
“In my defense, I’ve been so cruelly deprived of you,” she notes.
“True.”
“So… why Ivie Angelina?”
“I think I saw ‘Ivie’ online somewhere, and I liked it. It rhymes with your name. And Andie’s too, I guess,” he explains.
“It does,” Lucy nods.
“And Angelina… well, I’ve always liked the concept of a long middle name. When Jack was little, he thought Angela’s name was ‘Angelina’ for some reason. And it just kind of stuck for me, I guess.”
“That’s so…” Lucy begins.
“Stupid? I know,” Tim scoffs.
“Actually, I was going to say it was perfect. Andie West and Ivie Angelina Bradford. I’m kind of attached now.”
“Guess you’re just going to have to ace that Sergeant’s Exam so that we can be together,” Tim jokes.
“Guess so,” she agrees. “Good thing I have a great study buddy.”
“Of course you do.”