Chapter Text
“Can we talk?” Lucy rushes up to Tim the next day, after what was a truly awful night sleep, full of nightmares and panic attacks, which she was honestly expecting after such an emotional day, which she had stupidly hoped that Tim would have realised and reached out to her, but no, nothing.
“Nothing to talk about.” Tim says, “You felt I was trying to undermine you; I told you I wasn’t, end of discussion, and now we move on.”
“Um, that’s not how healthy communication or relationships work Tim”
“Well, that’s just condescending.” Tim sighs “Tell me what else needs to be discussed other than what I just said?”
“That’s not the point Tim; we clearly have some issues”
“Which we’ll deal with if and when they come up, now I need to get to work, have a good shift.” He says literally closing his office door on her…
And that was it, nothing to talk about, go away, you’re too much for me, just like you were last night…I can’t be near you, you’re too much, we’re nothing more than a basic hook-up, we’re nothing, you are nothing…he was willing to burn the world down, break laws, fight everyone for Isabel, but he wasn’t willing to even talk to her, comfort her, be there for her…
She stood staring at the door for longer than she should have, wondering if it was even worth fighting for this, for them, anymore, or if this was just another failed romance in a long list of failed romances…
And then she did what she always did, she tucked it away, in a little box labelled ‘do not disturb’ and headed out on shift, running straight into, well human chaos.
“Officer Lucy Chen!” Randy says quickly “How fortunate we are to find you!”
“Um…fortunate, for who?” Lucy asks, knowing that interactions with him would always lead to drama.
“We have ein winzig problem and need a little help.” Randy says
“How tiny Randy?” Lucy sighs “Actually no, Chastity, you tell me, Randy, you ruhig!”
“Oohhh, German, very sexy Officer Chen.” Randy wags his eyebrows
“I said quiet!” Lucy snaps “Chastity, please, what’s the issue?”
“Randy pawned Bailey’s wedding ring” Chastity offers
“What? I mean Why would you do that?!” Lucy shakes her head “Never mind, I suppose you need me to get it back, under the radar, on my own, because I’m everyone’s fucking work horse.”
“I don’t think we have time to unpack that all.” Chastity says honestly “But you can get it back right?”
“Yes, fine.” Lucy smiles her fake sunshine smile “I’ll sort it out”
“Wow! See, I told you we have come to the right location.” Randy says “Danke Offizier Licht“
Normally she’d go and ask Tim to come with her, but right now part of her felt almost terrified to ask, because either he’d say yes, and then they’d sit in a stilted silence, or argue nonsensically, or worse, he’d say no and she’d have her confirmation that she really didn’t mean anything important to him, well not her, she was hopeful that she still meant something to him, but perhaps their relationship didn‘t.
So instead, she headed off on her own to ask the Hammer for that ring back, her stupid fucking personality already willing to pay out of her own pocket to get it, to keep Randy’s blunder secret, to make sure that John’s wedding went off without a hitch. Wondering if one day, she might have her own wedding, with friends who would do anything to help her…but then she would need a fiancé who would be bothered to have a simple conversation with her…so maybe no weddings in her future, well not hers.
Taking a breath, making sure that her gun and taser were reachable and quickly, before knocking.
“What!?” The giant opens the door
“Um, okay.” Lucy steps back slightly “Just hear me out, because I’m not here to make trouble, just to ask about a ring you bought earlier”
“I paid for it, fair and square! I’m getting married in a month.”
“Oh, well congratulations” Lucy says, yet another person other than her getting married “But, um, the thing is…that ring was stolen and I need to get it back.”
“I paid a thousand bucks for it, I’m not giving it back, not without a fair trade.”
God…Lucy sighed, that would be a big chunk of her savings, and she couldn’t tell Tim, because he would laugh at her, but hopefully Randy would give her some of the money back.
“Okay, um, so I don’t have that type of money on me right now, but I can get it for you.”
“Or…”
“Or?” Lucy says hopefully
“You fight me for it…”
“Fight you?” Lucy frowns “You want me to fight you? That’s not going to go well”
“You can’t use your little tools on your little belt there”
“I assumed as much.” Lucy sighs “Okay fine – I take you down, you give me the ring, and I call my friends to come and arrest your ass, or you let me take the ring now, I give you my card and a down payment, and you can come collect the rest of the money later.”
“Yeah, I’ll take my chances little girl.”
“Right.” Lucy huffs “I can hang my little belt up, right? You know, so you trust I won’t use it.” Lucy starts undoing her duty belt “And you’ve got no health issues I need to worry about?”
“Sorry what?”
“I mean I don’t want to hit your kidney’s or liver too hard if you have issues with them, I have enough drama in my life without needing to get called in about an accidental death.”
“You’re really going to fight me?”
“Yes! Honestly it’ll be good for me, get some frustrations out – sorry, I know you don’t deserve that, but I did offer to pay for the ring, so well, health issues?”
“I’m not fighting you!” the Hammer steps back looking horrified
“Oh please, I might seem small, but I promise it’s a fair fight.”
“Oh no, it’s not.” He says, “My mum didn’t teach me much, but she did teach me that a tiny woman with misplaced anger could beat my ass any day of the week.”
“My anger is not misplaced!” Lucy steps forward “Now, give me the ring, or we fight, because I’m done with this fucking day!”
“Oh love…did your man upset you?”
“Excuse me!?”
“Come on in, you need tea, not a fight.”
“What the fuck is going on right now?”
“I assume you don’t have many people to talk to.” The Hammer says walking into his apartment and putting the kettle on “Otherwise you wouldn’t be jumping at the chance to fight a man ten times your size”
“I can take you.”
“Oh, I have no doubt about that firecracker, but you wouldn’t offer to fight me unless you were really angry, and you’re not angry with me, so I can only assume your fella, or lady has upset you.”
“Tim…” Lucy sighs “He just won’t talk to me, I thought we were more, I held off on…well you know…because I wanted us to be more, but apparently we’re not, and I’m angry about it.”
“Of course, communication is important in a relationship.” Hammer says “Milk? Sugar?”
“Black please, half a sugar.” Lucy replies, barely believing what was happening, but this giant was the first person to try and talk to her about, well anything. “And yes it is! You can’t have a relationship without honest communication and he just refuses, and I’m willing to take blame if I need to, I always have been, but he just wants to sweep it under the rug.”
“And you’d leave him if you didn’t love him so much.” He put’s the tea down on the coffee table “Sit love.”
“I would, if he was anyone other than him…I’d walk away.” Lucy sits “But I thought he was my evermore…fuck I’m so stupid”
“Love isn’t stupid, it can make us act stupidly, but believing in love is never stupid.”
“Except when it’s one sided, when it hurts me.” Lucy admits “I don’t think he loves me; I don’t think that he can…”
“Why not? You’re a beautiful lass, clearly smart and strong, why couldn’t he love you?”
“Because he’s scared to? I don’t know, I wanted us to work, but I don’t think he does, because if he did, he’s fight for us? For me? Right? I mean he fought for her…he broke…never mind…but I said I wasn’t her, and maybe that’s the issue.”
“His ex?”
“Hmm” Lucy nods and sips on the tea “I should just call it quits right? Before it’s too late, before I'm too invested.”
“Except you love him and you are already invested, so don’t you want to fight for him?”
“I’d tear the world apart for him, I’d fight any battle, I’d quit any job, I’d…well I’ve already done more than most, before we were even dating” Lucy admits “I’ve loved him for longer than I ever should have, and maybe that’s the issue, I’ve loved him, I've put him on a pedestal, and I thought that perhaps he’d love me like he loved the others I watched him with, maybe I fell in love with the way he loved other people, and hoped that he could love me the same.”
“I think that’s love, we fall in love with the person, who they are at their core, we fall in love with what we see, when they are at their worst and best.”
“He was supposed to love me like he loved them.” Lucy starts crying softly “And he can’t…and it’s killing me, because he never walked away from anyone else, but he walked away from me.”
“Maybe because he loves you more than them? Because you are worth more, and he didn’t want to upset you?”
“But he did! Because I’ve never walked away from him, not once, not even when I hated him, but the second I got too real, I was too Lucy…the second I let my guard down…he left me alone, with nightmares and screaming and a darkness I couldn’t wake up from, he left me in that barrel.”
“Okay?”
“Sorry, my own trauma, which he knows about, but didn’t think about, not yesterday…not last night…not today.” Lucy says "Maybe he forgot...I mean everyone else has"
“Oh pet.” He takes the cup from her hands “Come on, you need a cuddle.”
“I do, but from him!” Lucy sobs into his arms “Why don’t I deserve that? Why don't I deserve love from him?”
“You do love, you do…but I’ll be here if ever you need one alright, because you're a good lass, but you need to force your fella to talk, tell him everything, use those cuffs on that little belt of yours and make him hear what you have to say, and then you’ll know…”
And then they were interrupted by his door almost being blown off it’s hinges, Hammer wrapping his arms tightly around Lucy to protect her from whatever was incoming.