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Luca didn’t know where else to go. His grandpops had died, and here he was, standing in front of Perry Rocker, unsure of what to do or say. She had opened the door before he could knock and hugged him, arms around his neck, hands in his blonde hair. Tears streamed down his cheeks before he could stop them. She let him kneel and hugged him, his face buried in her neck. She was only five feet tall, yet held him like she was bigger in size. She scratched his scalp, soothing and soft, as she held him, his arms around her waist. Calloused hands clinging to her. He hadn’t let himself grieve properly. It had been a hectic day with the memorial and more. So when he saw Perry? He felt less alone, less of a stranger.
She dragged him softly inside, began the process of starting a shower for him. Clothes magically appeared on the sink, a towel in the dryer, and food from his favorite places (top three that served genuine comfort food, he might add) and their favorite old comfort show (Reba always made him laugh, and he listened to her music, though he wouldn’t admit it because he wasn’t willing to be bullied by anyone). He showered for a while, letting hot water turn cold. When he emerged, food had been arranged on the night stand of her bedroom, the sheets pulled back. He looked at her, the show queued up, and tears poured down again. She held her arms open from the bed, and he crawled between her legs, laying down slowly, nose nestled in her neck as he wrapped his arms around her, careful not to smoosh her while he used her as a human pillow.
She soothed him softly, playing the show as he talked about his grandpops and his love for S.W.A.T. and being married to the job. She listened carefully, asking genuinely loved questions about his family. She smiled at him in a way that didn’t feel like pitty or remorse but actual grief for his broken heart. She scratched his scalp lightly, nails running through his hair, as he felt himself slowly untangle his body from stress, grief, and more, and he felt comfort for the first time. Not from his family or his team, but from an outsider who treated him more human than robot. When he told her about his dyslexia? She began helping in small ways. Stuff she learned from her time working with others who were like Luca when she was in school, needing the extra money from tutoring, those who had learning disabilities or their brains weren’t able to rely on itself to comprehend shit.
“Thank you,” he managed softly as she touched his face, wiping the tears from his blue eyes.
“Luca, Youre more than welcome here. You know that. Plus I knew you needed to decompress. I love having you here. I love our friendship,” she smiled softly.
That’s when Luca really looked at her. She had Donovan’s brown hair, sure, but hers looked like honey instead of brown. Like a golden brown almost. Her eyes? Blueberry blue and yet in the mist of grief, he found love. Love that he found had wedged and lodged itself deep in his ribs. Her eyes held softness and love as she held him, expecting nothing from him but time and patience. She let him feel the grief, and hope, and more. So he nestled deeper, a giggle emerged from her as she smiled at his tiredness.
“Sleep, my goofy man. I will be here when you wake up,” he smiled at her through tears again.
She wiped his tears away with her thumb, hand on his cheek as he sighed so heavily, he felt it leave his body. She ran her nails up and down his head, soft, slow, and grounding. He moaned loudly in pleasure by accident, making them both stop and she giggled happily when she realized he loved her scratching his head with her acrylic nails. She always did them short and simple because of the job but here? It wasn’t Officer Luca and Liaison Rocker. It simply Perry and Dominique. She stared at him shy and embarrassed as he looked at, half goofy smile and all.
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Luca woke up. A year had passed since the day his grandpops died, the day he showed up at Perry’s door, heart shattered in his hands and gave it to her. She took it, held it, touched him so deepily that she had entangled herself in him. He looked at her, as she adjusted in her sleep and smiled in her sleep. She wore his gym muscle shirt, the one with the sides torn off she always claimed to be lucky, and drag him to their room to be taken off and never collected again. She was lying on her stomach, arms curled under the pillow, head facing away from him. Hair in a messy bun and she looked…. Gorgeous…. He couldn’t help but admit he was happy with showing up at her doorsteps, no “I’m sorry for your loss”, no “it will get better.”
Instead, he stayed with her. She allowed him to hide at her house. She forced him to shower, eat, acknowledge his loss. She knew it wasn’t easy. Grief was never easy. It wasn’t a singular straight line. It went up, down, left, more up, down, side swipe. That made him laugh. Laugh through tears because he could hear Jack say ‘This girls the life of the party! Where’d you find her!? The junk yard for SWAT equipment!?’ That made him laugh more with the tears. His dad, Carl Luca, took one look at her and smiled.
“She reminds me of an old friend of mine,” he said once to Luca one night at dinner, beer in hand.
“She knows what to say, when to say it. Grief is a funny thing son, but her? You don’t find gems like that, they’re rare for a reason you know? A woman like that? Shes an angel in disguise, my friend…. They were like that. They were my northern star. Soulmates….? They come in many shapes, sizes, forms. I found my soulmate through a friend and my northern star was your mom. You….? You found yours in a woman, don’t lose that. Your grandpops would approve of her too, you know. He’d probably ramble on about your grandmother and more.”
Luca took his fathers words to heart, so here she was, as he prepared to ask her to be his officially. Yeah, he was married to S.W.A.T. But he also wanted a life with her. She finally woke up and stretched when he saw the ring on her finger. He sat up, looking at her, the ring, back at her.
“Luca!?” She asked as she sat up and he grabbed her wrist, light and soft, bringing it to his body and smiled as he looked at her then the ring then back at her.
“YES!” He shouted at the ceiling and attacked her with a hug as she laughed loudly and he smothered her in kisses as she laughed and squirmed as she smiled.
She smiled once he pulled away from her and she touched his face happily. “Yes, I’ll marry you, but Jesus Luca!! You scared me!” He laughed happily but pulled her to him and they sat on their knees.
She had found the ring six months after they had their first date. She didn’t mean too, she found it doing laundry. He had asked her on a date two weeks after the memorial. Ktown, she had known a Korean place whose owner owed her favors. The owner was an old Korean lady who she worked for and had saved five years before Luca and Perry knew about it. She worked her ass off with this woman who turned out to be a geisha. She listened to the Korean woman, the woman’s name Jennie. Jennie taught her the art of being a geisha, as Perry learned. She listened too, and asked genuine questions about her life before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and more.
She had snuck the ring on a necklace where Luca couldn’t see it after some more time, spoke soft Korean to Luca and he kept falling for her even more. So here they were, as tears filled Luca’s eyes. She touched his face, smiling as he tried to not cry, failed, and gave her a small teary smile. She knew the year had been hard. There had been times where he yelled, screamed, cried, even hit things till his knuckles were raw, and his lungs ached for air. He hugged her tightly, angry his grandpops couldn’t be there and her hands held him, cradling the 6’2 giant she called fiancée. He knew it been a year, he didn’t care. He just knew. It was not just in his heart, he knew it in his gut too. She was the one. He didn’t know why, or maybe he did. The late night call of duty campaigns with her and Street, the nights were it was just the two of them because rocker had pissed her off and she needed a break. He had gone to her for advice on how to handle his half sister, Eva Durant or how to deescalate things with his brother Terry.
She actually spoke to Terry alone. First she smacked him a good few times upside the head, yelling in Korean loudly, as he bowed away from “the crazy Korean speaking no nonsense baby Rocker,” and then they spoke.
“Disrespectful shithead,” she said when she first met terry. Luca spat his drink out, laughing as Carl choked on his drink and 20 David squad looked the other way.
“What!? He is! Came to my shop the other day thinking he could own the goddamn place! Pissed me the fuck off, you don’t disrespect me! I’m the baby!” Everyone laughed but agreed. Rocker? Shrugged it off and said ‘thats my sister, even I get my ass beaten if I’m disrespectful and I’m older than her!’
She talked to Terry, doing his hair cut and beard trim, taking extra care of his hair, having washed it and more first. She did hair cuts on the side when she wasn’t working at her book store, ‘Home is where the books are,’ and she wasn’t volunteering as a foster animal mom. She was working to get herself certified as a foster mom. She had the room. She had the stability, and she loved being a mom. She instantly knew it when her book store became a front for DV survivors, victims, even the women who worked on the streets, she had bought the building next door. Tore the entire inside of it, started from scratch. ‘Perry’s shelter,’ she called it. Thats where she met Terry, who brought in a foster cat in need of help, and the cat was pregnant. He looked like a gentle beast giant.
“He’s my brother, I’m supposed to worry about him. Doesn't matter if one of us is the older sibling. I protect him, he protects me. That’s how siblings work,” she understood better than anyone. Siblings protected each other.
Terry knew his brother didn’t talk about his emotions a lot. So she asked Terry a lot about Luca. His likes, dislikes. His body language when he didn’t wanna talk, when he was having a good day vs. bad day. Terry gave it all. At least without breaking the sibling code of their secrets and private stuff. Luca knew she was talking to Terry and Carl about life as a S.W.A.T. wife, learning a lot from Deacons wife, Annie. He knew she was petrified of the day he didn’t walk through the front door. So was he, and yet, with her by his side? He didn’t fear anything. She touched his face, his eyes closing as he sighed softly. She learned that grief with the Luca’s came as not talking and lots of action. Seeing his heart broken by the loss of his grandfather? That hurt her more than anything. So she held on for him. Held him back when anger surged through him and he just and wanted to fight anyone and everyone. Luca stared at her and kissed her again and she laughed as he stared at the ring on her hand.
“Mr. Luca,” she teased and his head shot up.
“Mr. Luca, mhm?” He attacked her with love as she laughed as he smothered her more in kisses and hugs as she squirmed away laughing.
“Mrs. Luca,” he said once they relaxed and she giggled happily.