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“Boot, get in the car! You’re late.” Tim snaps at her. Lucy is carrying their heavy gear towards the garage bay. She stumbles a bit, feeling lightheaded under the weight of the heavy bags and uniform.
“Chen!” He calls, smirking at her, “did you trip?” Thankfully, the uneasy feeling passes. She recovers and starts to load the car with their war bags. "Come on, boot," Tim says gruffly as she takes too long to prepare the shop. She shuts the trunk and quickly gets into the passenger seat.
They drove around for a while and she was able to keep up their usual quiet banter. Then, they got a call for a domestic disturbance and the car sped up. Lucy sighs, the speed making her stomach even more queasy than it was previously.
The couple's fight had escalated quickly since they'd received the call, the man having broken the woman's arm. When they arrived, she was on the floor sobbing and he looked ready to attack again. "Put your hands up! Step away from her!" Tim commands as they enter the home forcefully.
The man immediately snaps out of his enraged trance and does as Tim says. "I didn't mean to hurt her! I swear, we were just having an argument…" he tries to defend himself. Lucy puts her weapon away as Tim handcuffs the man and rushes to the woman's side.
She calls for an RA over the radio and soothes her. The woman isn't able to answer any of her questions, she just cries and holds onto Lucy's waist as she tries to provide first aid. When the ambulance arrives they take the offender back to the station.
Lucy hopes that they will go to the hospital to see the woman after the book her husband. She not only wants to make sure the woman's okay, she also thinks that a cool, air-conditioned, hospital would be much better than the sweltering LA heat and a moving car.
Lucy tried different positions to keep herself comfortable in the car; Tim didn’t notice at first. “Would you turn the temperature, I’m freezing!” The abuser complains, knocking on the window seperating them from each other. Tim looks at the thermostat, “Boot, why is the car temperature as low as it can get?”
“I…” she gulps, unsure of what to say. It was hot outside, wasn't it? She wasn't crazy for wanting to be cool…right? A wave of nausea washed over and any hope of coming up with a reasonable answer went out the window.
“Whatever, we’ll talk after I get this guy in a cell, I would tell you to turn it up, but if it’s bothering him, so be it.” He shrugs, brushing it off. Lucy barely conceals a sigh of relief. The nausea receded slightly, but she still felt extremely sick, she really just wanted to lay down, but admitting to Tim that she was sick sounded like hell.
When the car finally stopped inside the station, it almost caught her off guard. She could still feel the man banging on the window, she holds back a groan, remembering where she is. Since when had she zoned out?
Tim got out and pulled the man out of the back. “Chen, little help here?" Bradford calls out to her, she sighs and forces herself to get out of the cool shop.
Upon being upright she stumbled, the world spinning in front of her. The nausea hit her like a freight train and it was all she could do to swallow convulsively in hopes of keeping her meek breakfast down.
“Chen, get over here!” She stumbles over to him and grabs the other arm of the man in handcuffs. They manage to get him over to the door, although Tim does all the work. “Why is she leaning on me?” The man asked no one in particular.
Tim looked over to see that Lucy was in fact putting weight on him. “You’re supposed to be helping to get him inside, not weigh him down.” Tim snaps, a little amused at his boot's clumsiness.
“Bathroom…” Lucy mumbles, feeling extremely dizzy. “What, Boot? Speak up!” He urges, taking the man's fingerprints.
“I need to use the bathroom," she says, more clearly this time. “Your bladder can wait, Chen and stop dragging your heels," he criticizes sharply.
“Not my bladder, sir," she swallows thickly. “Then what?” He asks, glancing over at her as she steps away from the desk. She suppresses a gag as she realizes that her stomach is not taking no for an answer.
“What, Boot, speak up!” He yells when she just stares at him dazedly. “Glad to see it’s not just criminals you’re mean to,” the man mumbles, Tim gives him a slight shove in response.
Lucy feels more vomit rising in her throat, she doesn't want to disobey orders, but this is an emergency. She takes off running to the door leading to the rest of the station. “Chen!” Tim calls after her, annoyed at her sudden disappearance. Although, he has an easier time getting the criminal booked without her.
Meanwhile, Lucy dashes towards the locker rooms. It's the middle of the day, so no one is there and she's thankful for it, because she barely makes it to the toilet before she's retching violently, her breakfast coming up in a few brutal waves. Her stomach doesn't settle after getting sick, it only gets worse, she tries to give it a few minutes to settle. While it doesn't go away, it does get a nit better.
“What the hell was that?” Tim asks her the second she stumbles out of the women's locker room. “I…it was an emergency.” She mutters, looking at the ground. “Don’t let it happen again.” Tim replies gruffly, he can't really blame her for needing to pee, but surely there were better ways to go about it, rather than just running off.
“Yes, sir” She affirms, with a respectful nod. “Now let’s go.” He nods back to the shops and she follow reluctantly. If she told him right now, she could go home and wallow in her misery alone. But if she told him, she might get a long lecture. She sighs and decides to try and stick out some more.
Soon she was in the car again, and they were driving around LA. She's dead silent, she feels horrible, hot, sweaty, nauseous, her head hurts, and she's slightly lightheaded. Tim got another message over the radio. “We have to go back to the station,” He says, turning the shop around.
She wants to say something but she can't, she's too tired, struggling to even stay awake. “Chen, what’s going on? You seem off today.” Tim questions, sounding the most gentle he'd ever heard him.
She looks away from him in shame. “Chen?” He asks again, glancing over at her slightly slumped over form. She mumbles something in response. “What, Chen?” He tries to clarify, having not been able to make out anything she'd said.
“I said I’m fine” she mumbles again, but he could understand her this time. “Okay then, you better not be lying.” At this point, he knew something was wrong. The person sitting in the passenger seat was a far cry from the bubbly, talkative Lucy he knew.
They pull up to the station and get out of the car. Tim starts to give her a direction, but another wave of nausea hits her upon standing up. She claps a hand over her mouth a rushes over to a trash can in the garage. Tim is taken by surprise when his order is interrupted by the sound of retching.
He walks around the car, finding her hunched over the trashcan, vomiting miserably. “Fine huh?” He asks, joking slightly to cover the fact that he was seriously worried about her. He then realizes that she isn't just vomiting, she's also…sobbing?
“Easy, it’s okay. Lucy! It’s okay. Take a breath, what’s going on?” He asks, walking over to her, unsure of how to continue. She stops vomiting and stands up straight only to stumble backwards. Tim catches her and helps her to lean against the shop.
“What’s wrong, Lucy?” It wasn’t often he used her first name on the job, but it was clear she wasn’t on the job anymore. “I…I…” she sighs and starts to cry again. “I don’t feel good.” She finally confesses, “I don’t feel good at all, I’m so sorry, I should have told you, I shouldn’t have come to work today, I wasn’t feeling this bad this morning. I’m sorry, I’m gonna get you sick and…” he cuts her rambling off.
“Lucy, calm down. You look awful, if anyone’s sorry it’s me. I should have noticed, you did look awfully pale earlier. Wait a minute… this isn’t your first time throwing up today. You threw up in the bathroom earlier, didn't you?” She nods, avoiding eye contact again, her face flushing with fever and embarrassment.
“Lucy, I’m sorry you’re feeling so bad. Come on, let’s go inside and get the rest of the day off.” He takes her hand and starts to lead her away from the car. As he pulls her along, her vision starts to swim, black dots dancing around and she feels her knees buckle underneath her.
“Lucy!” He catches her and notices that she's barely conscious. “Can you hear me?” He asks, trying to hide the panic he was feeling. She nods in response to his question, although he sounds so far away.
“Okay, we need to get you inside.” He would normally pick her up, but she has all her gear on and there was no way he could lift her in any way that would be comfortable for her. Still, he let her put all her weight on him as they headed into the station.
Tim sets Lucy up in the lobby with a trash can and goes to talk to Gray. Lucy was barely taking in what was going on around her, and Tim, who keeps glancing over at her, doesn't think she’ll remember any of this later.
“Sick huh?” Sergeant Gray asks Tim, glancing at Lucy. “She can hardly walk, sir.” Tim answers for her, not going to take no for an answer. Lucy needs to go home. Then Tim sees her face, which was already pale before, but was not white as a sheet and her eyelids flutter.
“Lucy!” He yells, rushing over to catch her and lower safely to the ground. Gray bends down as well, looking over her. Tim checks her pulse, “her heart is racing," he shakes his head, dropping her wrist.
"She probably pushed herself too hard. She’ll be fine, after some rest. Drop her off at home, would you?” Gray says with a nod, standing up. “Sure” He had wanted to do it anyway but now it was an order.
He doesn't want to have to carry her so he tries to rouse her, “Lucy, wake up.” After a minute of coaxing he manages to get her eyes open. She murmurs something incoherent.
“Come on, I’m taking you home” he says softly, but sternly. Lucy wants to argue with him but when she tries, it comes out as more nonsense.
“Okay…” he says in response to her incoherent murmuring. He stands up and pulls her to stand with him, but makes sure to support her fully. He guides her into the girls locker room first. He wasn’t about to change her into the clothes she came in wearing, but he could at least get her heavy gear off.
He takes everything except a white under-shirt and black pants, off. She doesn't say anything while he does this, he was worried about her mental state. She didn't feel too warm and she hadn't been injured, she was probably just exhausted, he decided. She would be fine after some rest.
He gathers her things and they are heading out of the station when Angela calls after them. Tim turns around to see her.“Hey, I-what happened to you?” She asks Lucy, walking up to them.
“She’s sick.” Tim answers for her, Lucy just stares at the ground. “Earth to Lucy,” Angela tries, waving her hand in Lucy's face. Lucy just cringed at the movement, it was making her more dizzy than she already was.
“I don’t even know if you can hear me, but I hope you feel better, Lucy.” She says before looking at Tim, "check her fever when you get her home, she seems really out of it." Angela says seriously, Tim nods, "I will, I think she's just tried," he sighs, sad for her.
Finally, they were in her apartment. Tim leads her to her bed and pulls back the covers, she practically melts into the bed. He takes her temperature with a thermometer he finds in her bathroom. “102.4, you must feel awful.” He says, worrying about how high it was.
He knows that she is probably asleep at this point but he keeps talking to her. He pulls over a trash can, and puts a glass of water on her night stand. He doesn't really know what else to do, but he finds a washcloth in her bathroom and wets it, dabbing her forehead soothingly, after a few minutes he leaves it there to help with the fever and decides to write her a note that reads:
Don't try to come back into work unless you're completely better. - Tim Bradford
Then he writes another one for Jackson and leaves it in the kitchen, that one just says:
Lucy's pretty sick, make sure she doesn't need to go to the ER please and remind her not to come back to work until she's better. - Bradford
When Lucy wakes up it's dark outside. She's confused about what had happened, but her train of thought is suddenly interrupted by overwhelming nausea. She gags and sits up, covering her mouth. Her eyes darts around the room until she finds the trash can next to her bed.
She pulls it into her lap and tries to keep her hair out of the way as she vomits again. She puts it down when she's finished. She sighs and places her aching head in her hands as she tries to remember what happened. She sees a glass of water near her and sips it gratefully. That’s when she saw the note. Now, she really wanted to know what happened.
What had happened to prompt Tim to write her a sweet note? And she didn't fail to notice that he'd written, Tim, crossed it out and replaced it with Bradford. Her clothes suddenly feel overwhelming and sticker on her skin so she makes her way to the bathroom and finds some more comfortable spare clothes. She starts the shower, but heads up with her head in the toilet for another round of vomiting when she suddenly gets nauseous again. She manages to shower quickly, change, wash her mouth out and fall asleep without any further incidents.
Two days later, she's back at work, returned to her normal self with no trace of the stomach bug that had incapacitated her earlier in the week.