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Tim and Lucy got a call from Westview hospital about an odd disturbance. The hospital had been shut down for years after a few lawsuits and was now abandoned…sometimes.They walked inside.
“Keep your eyes out boot.” Tim said to Lucy.
“Yes sir.” She told her TO as they both got out their flashlights and shone them inside the dark corridor.
“It feels so damp in here.” Lucy noted and Tim nodded, “Yeah. Probably lack of ventilation, it’s making the walls wet.” He touched the wall and smelled his fingers before he shrugged and continued. Lucy followed him after touching the damp wall herself curious what Tim had smelt.
They entered another room. It was eerily quiet before they heard a creek.
“LAPD come out!” Tim commanded. Then they heard the door slam shut behind them, Tim went for the door to open it but the door stayed shut. The more he tried to make it move the tighter the doo seemed to lock. Tim’s jaw set before he decided not to panic. He grabbed for his radio and tried to radio in their predicament. All he got was static. He started to feel different but wanted to stay professional for his roomie who was behind him watching every move. He stretched his neck and turned to her.
“We’re locked in.” He told her, “Radio’s not working.” He muttered as well although under his breath, irritation sharp. Lucy watched him for a second, noticing something off in the way he was relaying the information. It wasn’t calm neutral Tim, she could hear the irritation something was definitely different.
“Tim?” She started. He held out his hands in a small stop motion, “They’ll send out a search unit for us when we don’t check in.” He stilled a moment later, his body feeling like it wanted to spill secrets. He dragged a hand down his face, exhaling hard. “Something is happening.”
Lucy nodded, “I feel it too. What do you think it is?”
“I don’t know. But it’s my job to protect you how could I have been so careless I,” He stopped short, “The walls.” He said as his stomach dropped. “Sodium Pentathol. It would be best if we stayed quiet.”
Lucy nodded not saying anything for a couple minutes. She studied him more carefully now, curiosity threading through the tension, he still seemed rigid, but different, like he was one second away from spilling his soul to her. Lucy’s curiosity at the situation overrode any desire to obey her TO’s instructions; she would start small, test the waters. “Are you okay?” She asked him watching him closely.
“I’m fine.” He said immediately before his jaw tightened, irritation flickering in his eyes as his mouth opened again. “…No, I’m not okay at all.” Lucy’s breath caught in her throat so this was a truth serum. Okay so this is real and she could stop there but she has so many questions, so she doesn’t.
She steps closer, voice quieter but steady. “Since when do you tell me exactly how you’re feeling?” She poked seeing what his reaction would be. His eyes snap to hers, warning clear. “Drop it.” He says through his teeth as he tries not to say anything.
She folds her arms emboldened by the truth serum coursing through her and what clearly is also coursing through him. So she decided to shake her head, firm in her decision. “You can’t make me, at least not right now.”
“When we get out of here I can wash you out so fast you won’t have time to blink.”
“True.” Lucy said, “but you won’t.” That lands heavier than it should, because usually, his threats work. He turned away from her like he can outpace whatever’s happening in his head. “What makes you say that.”
Lucy doesn’t move. “You’re different around me. Why are you different with me?” He freezes. “I’m not. I treat all my rookies the same.”
“I guess this truth serum isn’t as potent as we thought because we both know that’s not true.”
He inhaled sharply before tryin to get her to stop,“Lucy—”
She cuts him off as she continues, “You let me call you Tim. You helped save my job during plain clothes day. You have backed me when you could’ve let me fail. And the fact you are here instead of at North Hollywood.” Each word pins him in place. “You stayed my TO.”
He moves before he had fully decided what he was doing, tired of fighting the truth serum he closed the distance in two quick steps grabbing her chin and turning her face up to stare at her directly in the eyes, “What are you doing.”
“Getting answers for once.” She said back defiantly keeping eye contact. He stood straight showing her just how much taller than her he was causing her to straighten as well. Her back met the wall as they did this the impact more surprise than force, as his hand stayed in her chin before he let go and broke eye contact stepping back. “What answers do you want? Have you thought that I don’t have the answers you’re looking for?”
Lucy’s pulse quickened, “What do you mean by that?”
“What answers do you want?” He gritted out.
“Why am I different, what makes you want to protect me so much?” She looks at his back and he doesn’t answer. “Sergeant Bradford.” Tim stalked towards her his hands finding their place next to her head, one on each side. They’re too close now, his breath uneven where it ghosts over her skin. She stares at him emboldened by making him look so out of control and erratic. His just less certain. “I don’t know.” he tells her.
“That’s it? You don’t know?” Lucy throws in his face.
“What if I don’t want to know.”
“Well I want to know.”
“I’ve never thought about it.”
“Well think about it now.”
Tim’s jaw sets again as the whirlwind of emotions he’s tried to push down swirls to the surface.
“Because you’re you.”
“What does that mean?” She asked a little softer.
Something in his eyes shifts, something sharper, more dangerous because it’s new even to him.
“You are different.” He exhales, rough. “I look for you, in every crowded room even if you’re not there. I miss your constant chatter when I go home to my house which is way too quiet at night.” Lucy’s breathing slowed as she listened to him. He kept going, like once he started these confessions won’t stop. “I trust you more than I should. I make decisions around you.” His eyes flicked over her face like he’s seeing it differently now that he’s putting words to his feelings; like he just noticed how beautiful she really was. “I stayed your TO because I couldn’t bear the thought of someone else coming in and not having your back.” The last confession landed heavy between them. Lucy is unsure what to say as her voice softens, almost careful. “Tim…”
His eyes meet hers with hard direct eye contact , “I keep choosing you, I don’t know why but I don’t think I want to stop.”
The room felt quiet again as the last confession hung in the air. the weight of it settling in. Lucy doesn’t pull away, she maintained eye contact as she grabbed his belt and said, “Then don’t stop.”
The kiss happens like a collision. Immediate, messy, unrestrained as Lucy pulled him towards her crashing her lips into his. His hands fell from the wall to cradle her face and pull her closer, like distance wasn’t something he could tolerate anymore. It’s not careful or soft, it’s rough and bruising, it’s everything he hadn’t dared let himself name. It’s fervent and messy, a little unsteady, almost as if the truth serum is causing their makeout a couple degrees more intense. His hands fell to her waists and tighten, grounding and desperate all at once, and for a moment nothing else mattered no rules, no ranks, no consequences. Just this, her lips on his demanding, intoxicating.
Their air runs around before regret sets in and they pull back panting his eyes lock back on hers. Her pupils are blown and there is a mischievous twinkle as her hand goes up to play with his collar. That’s when awareness hits him. The reality of what had just happen, what he had just done. His hands drop from her waist, the lack of space between them suddenly wrong and suffocating. Tim stepped back trying to recover a sense of decorum,“Chen—” he starts, voice rougher now for a different reason.
“Officer Chen! Sergeant Bradford? Are you here?”
The facade back in place Tim yells their location.
Lucy does everything in her power to smooth out her hair but there’s nothing she can do about her ragged breathing, swollen lips and blown pupils. Hopefully it’s dark enough that no one will notice.
Now she knows why he treats her differently.
He never consciously thought about it, but he keeps choosing her anyway.