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“I feel like you might have over done it,” Lucy eyed Tim worriedly as they walked Kojo down the sidewalk towards their house. It had been over a month since the station exploded, and she’d saved Tim from being burned alive after being pinned beneath his desk. In hindsight he was lucky, emerging only with a cracked rib and smoke inhalation, but it was enough to have Lucy worrying about his healing process.
Only a couple of weeks ago had she finally stopped analyzing the deep rasp of his voice, deeming it back to normal when he convinced her he was fine the only way he knew how and talked her through to an orgasm.
His ribs naturally took a little longer, so they had to be more creative in their activities, and he was only four weeks into the mandatory six-week healing period. He’d insisted that he was okay to take a walk with Kojo, but he did slow down a bit on the route back.
“I’m okay,” Tim reassured her with a gentle smile, “A little tender, but it was to be expected. Besides, I even let you hold Kojo, to be on the safe side. I’m still following your orders.”
“You mean the doctors orders?”
Tim shook his head, “No I definitely meant yours. The doctor told me to start walking more within the first week. You only let me do the range of motion stuff for the first two weeks.”
She eyed him affectionately, “Well I will say you’ve been a much better patient this time around.”
“And you’ve become bossier since you made Sergeant.”
“You did say it was one of my gifts,” she smiled sweetly as they turned up their front walkway. Tim hummed his amused agreement as they passed in front of their wood slated screen that blocked the view of the front door from the street. Lucy paused for a moment to survey the potted plants that had been slightly neglected over the past few weeks, making a mental note to give them a good watering later.
“Genny!” she heard Tim exclaim in surprise and quickly turned to see Genny rising from the bench she’d been sitting on, wringing her hands and looking suspiciously nervous.
“What are you doing here?”
“I-uh…I need to talk to you guys and I figured what better way to do that than over brunch from Moonlark!” she pointed to the two brown paper bags sitting on the bench beside her.
“Of course!” Lucy smiled, moving to wrap her in a hug before abruptly pulling away as she caught Tim grabbing the bags before turning to unlock their front door. “Tim, you shouldn’t be carrying those!”
“Lucy, they weigh nothing. I promise I’m fine,” he waved her off as he crossed the threshold, leaving the door open for them to walk in behind him. Lucy unlatched Kojo’s leash as Tim disabled the alarm and Genny had already walked ahead to the dining table.
Tim placed the bag on the table and Genny immediately began unpacking their food as the couple washed and dried their hands before grabbing plates, cutlery and napkins before joining her at the table.
“Okay, so I got an egg scramble with spinach, mushroom and feta for Lucy and I. Tim, your two eggs over easy, sausage, potatoes and toast. And—” she reached in the other bag. “Café de Olla for each of us.”
Lucy practically squealed in delight, reaching her hands out to grab her coffee. “This is perfect! Thank you!”
“Okay, what’s going on?” Tim narrowed his eyes at her, opening the lid of his container and plating his meal. “Not that I’m complaining about it, it’s just the last time you brought me food it was to bribe me into being your wingman on Valentine’s Day.”
Genny was silent as she began dishing out her food, her eyes focusing on her task and decidedly not looking at her brother or future sister-in-law. The couple exchanged concerned glances.
“Genny?” Lucy prompted seriously, “Is everything okay?”
“Did something happen with the boys?” Tim asked.
Genny shook her head. “No, no, the boys are fine.”
The couple frowned, exchanging a glance again.
“But you needed to talk to us…so I assume something happened?” Tim probed again, and then his expression hardened a bit. “Did Rob do something?”
“No! Nothing like that. Rob has been good lately. It’s um…I--” Genny pulled her lip between her teeth, looking down at her plate for a moment and sucking in a breath. “If I tell you something, do you guys promise not to judge? Or you to get all Tim about it?” she directed the last sentence at her brother whose frown deepened.
Lucy immediately voiced her agreement on their behalf. “Of course, Gen. Whatever it is, you know you can tell us.”
“You know, whenever Lucy, you or Angela tells me not to get all Tim about something, it’s usually bad news. Is it bad news?”
“Tim!” Lucy hissed whacking his arm lightly and making him recoil in mock indignation. “Would you just let Genny get whatever it is out? I get the sense that it isn’t easy for her.”
Genny threw a grateful look to the woman who she already considered a sister. “She’s right, this isn’t easy for me.”
Tim’s expression immediately softened as he realized his error and he leaned forward to place a hand on her forearm. “I’m sorry. Whatever it is…we’re here for you.”
Genny paused for a moment, visibly gathering courage and finally shoveling the first bit of eggs into her mouth. She chewed as the couple waited for her to speak, taking the silence as an opportunity to also start eating. Somehow with their eyes focused on their food instead of Genny, it made it easier for her to get the next sentence out.
“I slept with John.”
Lucy’s fork clattered loudly to her plate as she gasped, her head shooting up, eyes wide with shock.
“Genny!”
Tim’s brow furrowed as he took another bite, his eyes darting confusedly between the pair. “Who’s John?” he asked as he chewed slowly. “And why am I just finding out you’re seeing someone new? But also…TMI.”
“Tim!” Lucy hissed again and Genny closed her eyes, taking a measured breath.
“What?” he asked honestly, shrugging his shoulders.
“Seriously, Tim?” Lucy cocked her head in disappointment, deciding to focus on the most pressing. “How many Johns do we know?”
There was silence for a moment as the two women let Tim catch up from his cruise down denial lane. It was clear the second that realization sunk in because his fork clattered to his plate just as Lucy’s had.
“Wha…Ge…NOLAN?!” he exclaimed, so loud that Kojo actually stood up on alert. “You slept with Nolan?”
“Gosh say it any louder why don’t you, I don’t think the neighbors down the street heard you,” she said indignantly. “And you said you weren’t going to be all Tim about it.”
“How can I not be!? It’s Lumps!”
“Tim!” Lucy glared. “Genny was coming to us for support, not judgment. And weren’t you feeling sorry for the guy a month ago? And didn’t you nearly call him a friend?”
“I’m not judging,” Tim denied and the two women sent him equal looks of disbelief and he quickly schooled himself, dropping his shoulders and relaxing into his seat. “Ok I was. I’m sorry. Let me shut up and let this digest for a minute. It’s just…Nolan? Seriously?”
Deciding to ignore Tim’s breakdown, Lucy took over for a minute as her boyfriend stared down at his plate, shellshocked. “So…what happened?”
“Well…do you remember Wesley’s fundraiser a little over a month ago?” Genny started and Lucy nodded. “Well back then Tim had just told me about the troubles going on between John and Bailey.”
“Oh yeah, Tim was particularly chatty about that one,” Lucy snorted and Tim glared at her.
“Well I just offered to be a friendly ear to John if he ever needed to talk about things. And at the time, it seemed like they were going to be okay. John declined and then they made up but…”
“But then Bailey moved to DC,” Lucy finished for her and Genny nodded.
“Yeah. And at first John seemed pretty confident about it, but then…I think he got lonely,” Genny told them. Tim, who had been listening the entire time, finally looked up, meeting her eyes. “And all his other friends who he would usually go to for advice or to just hang out with had their own thing going on or, in the case of someone like Celina, were just too young to understand. So he reached out.”
“And how did you go from….” Tim trailed off, not wanting to say what it went to, not wanting to think about his baby sister in any type of compromising position. And definitely not with Nolan.
“Well, he started coming over for dinner regularly. The boys love him—”
Tim grunted and Lucy sent him a warning glare.
“And it really was all just two people commiserating about the states of their relationships—or lack thereof. But then a couple of nights ago…I think some things finally came to a head with Bailey and they had a huge fight and then we met up and there was wine and…”
Tim held up his hand, stopping her and shivering. “We get the picture.”
Genny sighed, “Yeah. Well, I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Well…have you talked to him?” Tim asked. “We all know Nolan’s a talker. He probably would love to talk about it.”
He flinched when Lucy whacked him on the arm again.
“We kind of did…I just…I don’t know what to think. He mentioned the d-word multiple times.”
“Please don’t tell me he promised to divorce his wife for you,” Tim scoffed, “Because we all know those lines mean shit.”
Genny shook her head. “No, she was the one who brought it up. Apparently, John finally talked to her about how he was really feeling about long distance, and that he didn’t really like it. But she was loving her job, so she gave him an ultimatum. Either he supports her being in DC and he stays in LA, or he moves to DC or they cut their losses.”
The couple blinked at her in shock and the room went silent with her revelation.
“Are you kidding me?” Tim finally burst. “Are you fucking kidding me? What did he say?”
“Well, he reminded her again that he couldn’t start over. And I guess after that conversation they kind of left things. And then two nights ago she served him with divorce papers.”
“Wait a minute…” Lucy interjected the food in front of them long forgotten. “You’re telling me that Bailey filed for divorce?” Genny nodded.
“Oh that’s fucking rich,” Tim spat out, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms, completely unimpressed with what he was hearing. “First the woman runs away from her problems, and now she wants to abandon the man that she created the problems for? A month ago she gave him some ridiculous valentines gift that ‘recommitted herself to him’” He emphasized the last four words with some very sarcastic air quotes that made Lucy raise her eyebrows.
“So…what does all this mean?” Lucy asked curiously.
“Ugh, I don’t know!” Genny threw her hands up. “We have a really good connection, and things are just easy when we’re together. And even you said he was decent in bed.”
Tim swiveled to face Lucy fully so fast that his chair teetered on its legs and he had to grab the table to keep balance. “Hold the fucking phone. WHAT?!”
At the same time Lucy yelled, “GENNY!” in a panic and this time their combined voices were caused Kojo to jump of from his bed and let out a loud bark, hurrying to Lucy’s side.
“Lucy…how…what….ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” Tim’s eyes were wide, his eyebrows were in his hairline and his breath came in short pants as he tried to grapple with the second revelation of the night.
“Thanks a lot, Gen,” she grumbled to the older woman, who smiled sheepishly.
“I’m sorry,” she shrugged apologetically, “I thought he know.”
“When?!” Tim was still stuck on the news and Lucy patted his hand reassuringly.
“It was a long time ago, babe. Long. The first few weeks of my rookie year. Honestly, I kinda forgot about it.”
“Why!?” he asked desperately, still gripping the table.
Lucy shrugged. “I had needs. He was nice. And like Genny said…decent.”
“There is no way Lumps is decent,” Tim scoffed, his scowl deepening.
“Nuhuh,” Tim shook his head refusing to believe anything, but what his head told him about Nolan and his…performance. Although, decent wasn’t anything to really celebrate. It just seemed too good for Nolan. But when he looked at Lucy and saw the telltale sign of her lip between her teeth he cringed. “Oh come on.”
“Well, it’s not like you were available to me then, Tim. And I can’t just sit here and tell your sister how good you are in bed as a comparison,” Lucy rolled her eyes.
“Oh thanks, sis. You just did,” Genny wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Can we get back to my problem now?”
Lucy refocused her attention on Genny. “I’m sorry,” she glanced at him. “We’re sorry. So…what do you want to do?”
“I don’t even know,” Genny groaned, dropping her head into her hands. “I’ve never slept with a married man. And I’ve certainly never slept with anyone where the feelings, and the situation were so complicated. I guess I’m just worried that whatever we had really only worked because he was in this situation and we connected based on our mutual feelings of failure and woe. If he does actually go through with the divorce…what happens then?”
Tim sighed, wiping his mouth with his napkin and dropping it to the table before he leaned back against his chair. “Alright…I’m giving you my two cents on Nolan. Even though--let me be clear--I absolutely hate the idea of this. But you need to talk to the man. Part of what made him and Bailey fail is because they talked around things. They never face the crux of their issues from both sides. So, you need to tell him what you’re thinking. And then find out what his intentions are.” Genny nodded along with his words, and Tim paused for effect before adding. “And also, be cautious because the man moves between women out of his league faster than I can blink. Clearly.”
Lucy pushed out of her seat, rounding the table to plant herself firmly in Tim’s lap, sliding her arms around his neck and planting a kiss to his temple. “I told you it was a long time ago, babe. And it was really nothing.”
Tim locked his arms around her waist, grumbling a bit, but smacked a wet kiss against her mouth that Lucy readily accepted.
“Alright, I think that’s probably my cue,” Genny pulled a face at their body language. “He never used to be into PDA, Lucy. This might be the one change I’m not fond of.”
Lucy hummed a little, running her fingers through Tim’s hair. “Unfortunately, I have to disagree with you there. I kind of love it. And he gives thoughtful advice to others now? It’s quite a turn on.”
“Annnd I’m out!” That got Genny moving and she picked up her bag to head towards the door.
“Gen?” Tim’s voice stopped her before she reached the knob and she turned around to face them. “I’m glad you felt like you could tell me—tell us. But you can tell Nolan that if he ever does anything to hurt you…they’ll never find his body.”
Genny scoffed incredulously, “Yeah, I’m not telling him that. For gods sake Tim the man is over 50 years old!”
“What’s your point?” he shrugged dismissively. “Fine, don’t tell him. But just know I’ll be telling him myself.”
Genny merely rolled her eyes and waved him off as she walked out the door, calling out her farewell. Tim turned back to Lucy who was watching him in amusement.
“What?” he asked, the picture of innocence.
“I can’t believe you’re going to give Nolan the talk,” she chuckled, leaning down to slant another kiss against his lips.
“Nolan knows that I know how to think like a criminal, which is how I train the best rookies,” he said bluntly. “It’s why you made Sergeant and he never will.”
“You’re ridiculous,” she grinned, shaking her head.
“Yeah, but you love it,” he smirked.
“I do,” Lucy nodded, leaning down to capture his lips. “I really, really do.”