Work Text:
7:48 PM
Tim
Good luck tonight, Sgt Chen.
Lucy fought the smile that curled over her lips to no avail as she cleared the notification from her screen and placed her phone down on the locker room bench.
She knew the usual night patrol officers during her short stints covering night shift but now she was going to be their boss.
Their sergeant.
Her skin broke out in gooseflesh as the sudden, irrevocable reality of her new life cemented itself in her mind.
“Welcome to night shift, Sergeant.”
Lucy’s cheeks hurt from the force of her smile as she glanced over her shoulder, her eyes searching out Janice before turning back to her locker. “Thanks, Diaz.”
She spun her combo, memorized into her muscles after half a decade spinning it, and pulled the latch up.
“Oh!” She grunted as items began falling from her locker to her feet. “What the—?”
“Sarg already got pranked!”
Lucy’s eyes narrowed as she bent her knees, her finger hooking around laces.
Baby boots.
Lucy affixed her new stripes to her patrol jacket, and did her best to ignore the sting of embarrassment at having to deal with a pile of baby boots in front of her new reports. She was tempted to snap a photo of herself in the mirror to document this moment, but forced herself to leave the locker room and head to roll call.
It was not as busy as the day shift, not as many hold over calls from the previous shift to respond to and for that, Lucy was grateful. She needed a moment to gain her bearings.
Being in charge, officially, was new to her and she’d have to adjust accordingly.
“Hey, Morales. One war bag tonight.” Lucy said as she stepped to the counter, sliding her body cam into the clip.
Officer Morales nodded as he stepped away from the counter as Lucy began filling out the war room paperwork.
“Safe shift, Sargeant.” He said as he passed the gear over.
“Thank you.”
Lucy felt her cheeks flush, still excited at this new stepping stone in her career. She was getting ahead of herself already but she wondered how long it would be til she could make Sergeant II, and eventually Watch Commander.
Maybe her goal post should be Captain.
She tucked the war bag into the back of her shop, brought to the sally port by Motors. Her fingers grazed the door of the shop as she opened the driver’s side door before her face immediately fell.
Her eyes narrowed, her fingers reaching forward and snapping the booties dangling over the steering wheel off by the laces.
“Damnit,” she hissed, throwing them to the footwell.
“7-Lincoln-100, possible 211 at 2533 W Washington Boulevard. Code 3.”
“Copy. Show me responding.”
Lucy pushed her radio back into his dock, an excited wiggle coming over body as she flipped her lights on. She was 7-Lincoln-100, alone. No other officer to answer to and she was excited.
The streets glowed red and blue as she navigated towards her call, the cursor on the box directing her towards where she was needed. It was her first call as sergeant, supervisor requested or not, and while it wasn’t inherently different from answering a call as PII, it felt inexplicably more daunting.
She couldn’t call for a supervisor, she was the supervisor.
She angled the wheel of her shop to the curb and glanced over the street, no pedestrians to be seen on the sidewalk. She unbuckled and stepped out of the shop, a hand on her holstered weapon and the other on her taser as she continued observing the strip of buildings.
There was a gate pulled across the store front and her eyes narrowed at the bulk of the item draped over rusted metal.
Breath exhaled through her nose in a frustrated sight as she leveled to the gate, eyes narrowed, her teeth furiously biting on the inside of her cheek. Her eyes glanced to the sign above the door.
Workboots 4 U.
“Are you kidding me right now?” She hissed, furious, as her fingers ripped the tiny boots from the gate and stomping back to her shop.
“Code 4.” She seethed into the radio before slamming it back into the dock.
“7-Lincoln-100, supervisor requested at 7-Adam13’s 417. Code 2-HIGH. SWAT en route. Details to your box.”
Lucy flipped her lights and sirens immediately, already in the process of making a U-Turn. “Show me responding.”
Lucy was enjoying being a sergeant, even if it was four AM and she was tired and couldn’t wait for shift end, a shower and her bed.
Her lights and sirens went off as she approached the scene, no SWAT truck to be seen yet, and Officers Stein and Wakefield crouched behind the open doors of their shop, returning small bouts of gunfire.
“Two suspects, ma’am!” Wakefield called over his shoulder as Lucy used her own shop door for cover as she moved to the back.
The trunk opened quickly and she immediately reached for her ear bag, ripping the zipper open quickly. Her hands came in contact, not with the tactical gear she was expecting, but another pair of booties laying on top of the tactical vest.
Letting out a tiny scream of frustration, she threw them against the partition with a furious grunt.
“Sergeant! Are you hit?”
“I’m fine! Cover me!”
Lucy found great satisfaction of tossing every single pair of booties she’d acquired over her shift in the lost and found. She’d had an armful by the time she left the locker room, and had decided to ignore the pair that had fallen from her arms as she navigated the bull pen.
“Good first shift, Sergeant Chen?” Grey asked as he began setting up his office for the day shift. “No problems?”
He was being kind, if not obtuse, by ignoring the armful of tiny human shoes. “No problems at all, sir.” She sniffed as she continued walking by him.
Lucy decided to ignore the chuckle that followed her as she walked away.
She was aggressive as she pushed open the door, letting herself into the parking garage. Overall the shift was fine, great even, but she was feeling a little put out at being hazed.
She didn’t think the night shift would play pranks like that—she’d known from experience that Sergeant Lovellete had run a relatively tight ship—and it stung the tiniest bit.
She wanted to be welcomed by her reports.
She rounded around the back of a truck as she made her way to her tiny hybrid before stopping short.
Tim was leaning against the driver’s side of her car, the sole of his shoe resting against the rubber of her back tire, his arms crossed in front of him, and a tiny pair of boots dangling from the fingers tucked under his bicep.
“You!”
Tim’s lips moved quickly, a smirk raising his cheek, his eyes widening with a twinkling glee. “Me?” He asked innocently. He uncrossed his arms, the booties swaying in the air between them.
“It was you! The boots! All night!”
Tim pushed away from her car, his smirk turning into a very cheeky grin. He moved quickly, draping the boots tied together by their laces around her neck. “I had a point to make.”
Lucy’s eyes narrowed, her hand pushing lightly at his chest, but he remained unmoved. “That I’m a boot, again? How original, Sergeant Bradford.”
He shrugged, his grin not moving an inch. “What’s that saying?” He asked, touching his pointer finger to his chin. “Ah, yeah. Paybacks a bitch.”
“Hmph.” She huffed, pulling the boots off of her neck. “I guess it was funny. Kind of.”
He rolled his eyes at her, stepping back so she could put her bag in her backseat. “Kind of? It was hilarious. Do you know how quickly I had to put this together to pull this off?”
She did, obviously, seeing that it had been only about 36 hours since the exam results had been posted. “You’re an idiot.” She laughed, slamming the door shut.
She was surprised when she felt his hand curl around her waist, though it wasn’t unwelcome. “So…”
“So…” she parroted, turning slowly, not letting his hand drop from her body.
“Celebrate later…, Sergeant Chen?”
She pulled her lower lip between her teeth as her eyes roved over his face. He was almost unreadable, but the intention in his eyes, the tension in his jaw, were clear.
“Looking forward to it.” She confirmed, dropping her gaze to his lips before back to his eyes.
Tim smiled, soft, like the smile he’d given her when he’d first asked her to dinner. He was beautiful when he smiled like that for her. “Can’t wait.” He murmured before he dipped his head, catching her lips in a brief kiss.