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Lucy gripped both of the war bags in her hands, as she unloaded them into the back of the shop.
“Hey” A familiar gruff voice echoes beside her.
“Hey” Lucy beamed, upbeat and joyful as usual. “Where have you been, Bradford?”
Tim moved toward the driver's side and opened the door, but looked at Lucy the entire time. “Oh, just Angela,” he chuckled.
Both of them were in the shop now, as they pulled out of the station, talking about Angela and the hilarious case she was working on at the moment. They laughed and spoke for a while, unlike the silent awkwardness they had during Lucy’s rookie year.
For a moment, her mind switched back to that year, where Tim was so much different. Lucy saw how broken he was. He was a completely different person back then. For months he sat next to her, only cracking a small smile every once in a while and always made sure she was focused on the job. Tim realised he was harsh with her as a rookie. For example the word “boot” triggers her now whenever she goes shoe shopping. Or the fact she has literal trauma from the time she had to dig in that man’s toilet for drugs. Or the time he snatched her duty belt when she went to pee. But she knows now he regrets it. Some of it anyway. Because some of it helped her become the great and respected cop she is and gave her some of the strength to get through the worst trauma of her life. She enjoys spending time with Tim and he enjoys spending time with her. So when he finally asked Lucy to become his aide after becoming sergeant, she could not wait to get back on shift with Mr #grumpy cop.
Tim noticed her looking out her window which he knows she always does when she’s thinking about something.
“You alright?” He asked as he turned to look at her.
As her thoughts were interrupted, Lucy grinned up at him. “Just thinking back to my rookie year. As much as you wanna admit you have changed y’know, you really have, a lot.”
“Not again. How many times are you gonna bring this up?” he smiles again, “Look maybe I have changed a little bit. Only a little bit.” He said slowly making sure he emphasises ‘little’.
“Mhm, yup of course Officer Bradford. But can I just mention the fact that you have smiled and laughed and made jokes all day today. You laughed three times in the first six months. Yes I counted by the way.”
“You counted?” He raised his eyebrows, forehead creasing.
“You were miserable.” Lucy replied more seriously now. “You’re now ex-wife was a drug addict and left you for a whole year, and you had no idea where she was. I’m pretty sure you were allowed to be miserable.”
Tim listened to her soft voice. She had always been so sympathetic to him even when he was harsh. Lucy helped him through the Isabel situation by telling him ‘It’ll not change her, but it will sure as hell change you’ which he finally accepted to be true. So even though Lucy was his rookie and he was her T.O, Tim did call her a friend…maybe more…no, no just a friend
But he did see her as more, really. Though he would never admit it. He hasn’t thought about it much (or just avoided it) but he admires her. A lot.
“Yeah, thanks Lucy.” He gives her a small smile as his grip on the wheel tightens and his eyes narrow on the road in front of him.
****
It was the afternoon now, they had just set off from the food trucks, when Lucy’s phone buzzed in her pocket.
“Oh it’s…”
Tim looked at her weirdly, trying to find out who it was.
“Hi. What’s the matter?” She speaks low, phone against her ear.
A deeper, inaudible voice muffled from out the speaker. Tim couldn’t make out what he was saying.
Lucy quickly glanced at Tim for a split second.
“Yeah that’s fine.” Suddenly she spoke quieter. “Mhm you can come over tonight.”
Tim shifted uncomfortably in his seat, when she turned the phone off.
“Who was that?” He asked as he bit his cheek.
“Uh…just a guy. I’m dating someone.” She replied. Her fingers twiddled with her earring and she looked down as she spoke. She didn’t know why she was being awkward, Tim’s just any other guy right? Lucy had told him when she dated people before. So why was she feeling weird about this?
“Is it that Sandford guy from the attorney’s office? It’s just that I’ve seen you two talking a lot when he’s at the station.” He turned to study her face and turned back.
“Yeah it is. We have been dating for maybe four or five weeks now.”
“Well he seems like a decent guy.” He assured her.
“Yeah he’s…he’s uh fine”
Fine
Tim narrows his eyes further. Fine. Fine isn't good. Fine means Chris did something. He knows Lucy. Usually she would jump at the chance to talk about a guy she likes if he brings it up. But she is hesitant.
“Lucy what do you mean…fine?”
She stays silent for a couple of seconds, avoidant at the question he asked her.
“I haven’t seen him since last week because,” she pauses to take a small breath, “…because. Last week was the Rosalind thing and he was there. He saw the video. So I watched it too. I found out he watched the video because he sang it in the breakroom.”
She was louder now, more angry, “ He sang the fucking song that I sang while I was dying in that barrel.”
Her eyes welled up with tears, and she sniffled as she looked him deeply in the eyes.
Tim immediately turned to her, an angry expression formed by the creases between his brows and his lips tightly pursed.
“He sang that song…while you were in the room with him. What the hell is wrong with him. I take back what I said about the guy.” He sternly replied, the heat rising up within his body.
“I dunno. But he wants to see me again so I just said yes. It was only a mistake I guess.”
“No Lucy, he should’ve known. You shouldn't have to….”
Before Tim could continue, a deafening siren filled the car, cutting off his speech to Lucy who was now yanking her phone out of her pocket.
They both stared at the flashing screen. In big, bold, capital letters, the words ‘NUCLEAR MISSILE ALERT. LOS ANGELES WILL BE HIT IN APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR. PLEASE SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.’ glared at them.
“No, no, no, not again.” Lucy panics.
“Chen, we can't panic, but…we need to get people to safety.”
Grey’s voice comes from the radio. “All officers must do their best to protect the city of Los Angeles. Get civilians to safety and get yourselves to safety too. I am hoping this is a false alarm, but nothing can be for sure.”
Their eyes lock. It was a few years ago now where they had the same situation and as much as Tim reassured her it was a false alarm, he didn’t fully believe it himself.
Grey’s voice came through the radio again. “Bradford, Chen, switch to channel nine.”
Tim switched over, unsure what Grey was about to say, but it couldn’t be good.
“Bradford, Chen I…I…” he goes silent for a second, “I think this might be real this time. I have talked to the head of NNSA (National Nuclear Security Agency) and he can't confirm, but he told me the statistics. There is a 89.6% chance that there is a bomb.”
Tim can hear the uneven, shaky breaths through the radio. Both of their faces set stone cold while they process. Lucy scoffed at the number, slowly picking up the radio from Tim’s grasp.
“Sir” She mumbles, the radio shaking slightly near her lips. “What do you want us to do?”
Tim joins in, “Sir?”
“Bradford, you are a great friend, who’s always got my back and you are the cop I can trust more than anyone. Chen I saw you go through literal hell. You have always got my utmost respect because it showed how strong you are to still be here right now. Both of you are the cops I want to be beside if this thing is real. I want to see you alive. But you must do your jobs. So make sure you too get people to safety, but please try and find shelter if you can.”
“We will try our best sir,” Tim replied. He wanted to promise that to him, but cops can't keep promises. He knows he can’t promise that. Cops will be one of the last people to find nuclear shelter, so there is no guarantee they will get in, or even find one.
It had been ten minutes of silence in the shop, when Lucy finally broke it.
“Tim if we can’t get to a shelter-”
“Lucy, we will get to one” Tim interrupts.
She took a deep breath and faced him, “We won’t though will we. There is so much chaos already, and our priority is to save lives right now. When it gets to us finding shelter, there will only be a few minutes left. So unless you want to disobey direct orders from Grey, there is no chance we will be safe.”
He lowered his head to her firm words and he contemplated what to do.
“We will protect the people. But Lucy when there is 20 minutes left…can we get ready for it…if it comes?”
“Yes, that sounds good,” she nodded.
They immediately go to find shelters, shooing people in fast, just to move onto the next one. People screaming, crying, running and creating utter chaos all around them. Some had nothing better to do than break into shops and steal cash from the registers, or steal firearms, or refuse to get into their shelters. After a long and drawn out forty minutes, both get into the shop and sigh.
“All of them are full for miles now I’d say. Unless you want to try get in one, but we’d be wasting time,” Tim sighed.
“Hey, Tim, we still don’t even know if this is real yet,” she said.
“It probably is though.”
The 40 minutes had gone by fast. Worryingly fast. Tim and Lucy got back into the shop after dealing with the chaos outside, resting their heads on the back of the seat with exhaustion.
“So what should we do?” Lucy mumbled.
“You wanna go some place quieter?” Tim asked, as an idea just popped into his head.
Lucy’s eyes darted to him. “Yes please”
Soon they pulled up to a nice house, with a modern exterior and well kept plants in the garden. Bradford’s house. Lucy stared out the window to admire the building, as he exited the car and opened her door. She smiled up at him, acknowledging his kindness.
“Come on, lets get inside,” He whispered softly.
After wrangling the keys in the door, unlocking it, he stepped inside the warmth within his walls.
Lucy couldn’t help but nosey at the furniture and the objects placed neatly and his slightly boring colour palette of greys, browns and whites.
She looked down at her watch, audibly gasping at the mere ten minutes left. Tim checked his phone, noticing they had no signal, and slapped the device onto the table beside him.
Hurriedly, they sat down on his couch, leaving a gap between them as they relaxed themselves into the comfortable material.
“Lucy, I know you have empathy for everyone, but Chris was wrong to do that,” he pleaded unexpectedly, “No man should ever make you relive your worst nightmare like that.”
Lucy was shocked. But he wasn’t wrong. That hurt her a lot and she knew someone like Tim wouldn’t do that to her.
“I know,” She replied, almost at a whisper, unknowingly leaning closer to him now. “I’m gonna break up with him
At this point the two of them were staring deep into one another’s eyes.
3 minutes.
3 minutes.
Oh god, only three minutes until they would be dead…probably anyway.
Tim noticed her eyes filling up with tears and some slowly trickling down her flushed cheeks. He slowly picked his hand up, brushing away some of the tears and pulled her into him. His arms gathered around her, her head leaning on his chest gently.
One hand held the back of her head whilst the other wrapped around her back as she sobbed. A couple of tears even ran down Tim’s face.
“I don’t want to die Tim,” she whispered shakily, pinching the material on his uniform.
“Me neither Lucy.”
They turned their heads to face each other, still gripping each other.
“I don’t wanna leave without…without telling you the truth Lucy.” He formed a weak, but powerful smile, which was flooded with awe.
“I love you.”
Her entire body rushed alive with shock and pure happiness. He just told her he loved her. The words were everything she’d ever wanted to hear from him. She denied the fact she was in love with Tim when she first had feelings but now she could tell him. Tell him how she felt too.
She giggled up at him, still flooded with tears, finally having the courage to tell him.
“I love you too.”
Immediately the pair smiled. They were close now. Very close. Lucy could see the barely visible scar he had close to his eyebrow. Tim could see a freckle he had never noticed before on her cheek. He placed his hand on her cheek and gently pulled her face up to his
Their faces pressed together. Her lips brushed against his, feeling each other's breaths. Slowly, they began kissing like they wanted for so long. A long, deep sigh released from Lucy as she closed her eyes and held his cheek and the back of his neck.
Time went by…they didn’t know how long, but they didn’t care. Finally they pulled apart, breathless and panting with swollen lips. The air felt lighter and their grip on each other stayed tight.
Lucy laughed again when she checked her watch, realising the nuke was a false alarm.
“It was a false alarm,” she sighed with relief, falling into Tim’s arms.
He rested his head on Lucy also releasing a large sigh, holding her tightly against him.
“Of course it was,” he chuckled. That was probably the most heart wrenching, scariest day of his life and all he could do was hug her and kiss her for as long as he could.
Lets just pray that they never get a nuclear bomb warning ever again.