Work Text:
The front door creaks as James pushes it open— he quickly adds oil front door hinges to the list in the groupchat before he forgets and then steps inside.
Lucy and Tim's once-bright home is dim, dusty, and depressing as he surveys it.
The wrinkles in the fabric of the couch, impressions still present from the last time someone relaxed on it; not to mention the various tears and paw marks as well as what appears to be, from this distance, dried patches of urine.
James feels sympathy for Kojo, not even wanting to imagine how terrifying those forty-eight hours alone before it was realized that the couple was missing must have been for the poor dog.
Dirt and mud have long-since crusted on the foyer floor, and every flat surface throughout the space is a muted shade of its original colour, likely due to the layer of dust covering everything. James holds his breath as he steps out of his shoes and places them as well as the big blue IKEA bag full of cleaning supplies he has brought with him on the shoe mat just beside the door.
It had been his wife's idea, originally. They—as a group—had first planned just to hire a cleaner, once they received the news that Lucy and Tim had been located, but Nyla had instantly shut the idea down.
"Uh-uh. Nope. There's no way we're letting them come home to a house that isn't absolutely spotless." She'd declared firmly, looking around at her colleagues and their partners in the living room of Wes and Angela's place where they had gathered soon after the call came in, as if daring someone to challenge her. "We are going to set a date, we are all going to go over there—no exceptions—and we are going to give them a home to recover in."
To James' intrigue, Nyla's former punishment-rookie had been the first person to respond.
"I, uh, I agree with Detective Harper," the man—Miles, James thinks his name is; the fearsome woman that is his wife does not like to call her subordinates by their first name when complaining about them—had said tentatively. "Growing up, whenever someone at my mama's church or neighbourhood was goin' through somethin' bad, she'd always clean their house and make 'em food. Just wouldn't feel right not to."
He had almost nodded along with the young officer, but Nyla's famous glare flashed behind his eyes and he decided that it was not worth the risk of pissing off his wife in that moment.
Knowing Lucy and Tim were going to be in the hospital for several weeks—at the very least—they had alltogether selected the Saturday before the couple were estimated to be discharged as the day they would get the bulk of the work done. After that, Kojo would be brought back home, and someone would be at the Chen-Bradford home until the dog's parents were ready to be reunited with him; taking care of the household, the canine, and making sure the house would be ready to receive its regular occupants back at any second.
Being that James had taken a sabbatical from work to care for his own children as well as Jack, Emmy, and Kojo whilst the situation was ongoing and nobody's work hours were adherent to any semblance of regularity, he is the first to arrive. The kids who are not yet going to school every day are at his and Nyla's house—the dog included—being watched by the mothers of Nyla, Tim, and Angela.
Wes had given him Angela's spare key when he'd brought the kids over that morning. It feels wrong sitting in James's pocket, so he opts to hang it on the board of hooks to his right. Unfortunately, the single key's face does not have a large enough hole to fit on any of the hooks, so James takes Nyla's thin silk scrunchie off his wrist, threads it through the hole, and folds the elastic so that it hangs from the nearest keyhook in two places, the mass of the key falling in the middle of the scrunchie.
He brings his hands together and cracks his knuckles, sighing as he takes in the many, many jobs that need to be done, adding them to the yardwork list he had made on his way in.
Might as well get started.
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Celina is the second to arrive, sparing Harper's husband nary a glance as she nods in acknowledgement of his presence, pulls several objects out of her bag, and begins to sage the house.
Miles comes in with Celina, but he stays only to check in with James before heading back out the door to get the lawnmower he'd picked up from Nolan's place from the back of his car. A few minutes later, Celina and James hear the lawnmower droning on as Miles takes care of the front yard.
Bailey and John show up together, the latter staying out front with Miles in order to tend to Lucy and Tim's garden. Bailey gathers up all of the soiled textiles and drives them over to her firehouse so that she can use the facilities and chemicals there to clean them.
After finishing her ritual, Celina takes care of the walls and baseboards around the house that have been damaged, painting over what she can, before being joined by Tamara who shows her how to patch up holes and gouges in the drywall.
Tim's sister, Genny, walks in after school ends with her two teenage boys, who immediately disappear to the home office, claiming that "they want to make sure Uncle Tim's Playstation is still working for him when he comes home" before she goes on to do the laundry. Nobody cares enough to stop the boys, and Genny assures her comrades that keeping her sons in one area is certainly going to be more helpful than allowing them to actually help and risking them stumbling across something they'd use to try and blackmail their uncle, the keyword being "try." Austin and Tyler had begged to come along and assist in the cleanup of their uncle and aunt's home, and their mother had not had the heart to deny them.
Angela's loud guffaw from the garage an hour after she'd gone in there to "clean" draws the attention of James, Celina, and Tamara, and the posse spends the next five minutes giggling together as they look at the Copcake poster in the garage, complete with several sticky-note messages evidencing a months-long game between Lucy and Tim.
Tamara pulls out a hot-pink sticky-note from her crossbody bag, and she convinces Angela, Celina, and James to sign it, adding her own signature with a flourish before attaching it just beneath the most recent sticky-note message.
Nyla arrives closer to dinnertime with Percy, Wade, Aaron, and… Smitty… in tow.
Percy and Wade head out to the backyard to cut the grass and powerwash the fencing, siding, patio and patio furniture; arguing for ten minutes straight over whether the grass should be mowed horizontally, vertically, or diagonally to match the elaborate work done by Miles in the front yard; the aforementioned and Nolan joining them to take care of the more delicate landscaping. To everyone's surprise, several of Lucy and Tim's neighbours show up to help with the yardwork as well as a woman—who just so happens to work out as a sergeant out of the Los Angeles Police Department's headquarters, identifying herself as Ms. Athena Grant, lamenting that Lucy and Tim had been kidnapped before she could have dinner with them—who stops by to gossip and hand over a garbage bag full of the several months' mail that had been delivered to the two sergeants' house while they had been missing.
Aaron goes through the place with Tamara who shows him what she can repair and what they'll need to replace, the former curating a rapidly-growing online order on his phone as the latter speaks. Ms. Grant happens to overhear this and scoffs, claiming she knows some handy firefighters who would be willing to fix what they can. After two male firefighters—who seem to be far closer with each other than the average firefighter, Bailey remarks—arrive and add a few more items to the "repair" list, Aaron cuts the respective purchases out of his order and places it.
Nyla steals Angela and Genny, and the detectives plus their compatriot head off to do a large grocery run at Costco. The plan had been that the three women would do groceries and stock up on house supplies as well as toiletries that Lucy and Tim were low on, and then everyone would split the costs afterwards. Aaron refuses, denying Tim's sister, James's wife or her partner access to any one of the house's exits until they leave with his credit card. No one puts up too big of a fight, because the economy is absolute shite.
Smitty surprises them all by making a four-course dinner for everyone present, even going so far as to send his own grocery order to a friend, which is picked up for him and delivered by a man in a clerical collar, all so that Lucy and Tim's stores will not suffer in the fruits of his labour.
Once dinner is over and the dishes are washed painstakingly with care by Miles and Celina, Smitty begins a Michelin-adjacent operation, cooking up two months' worth of meals and goodies to be placed in either the freezer, long-lasting dry-storage, or the fridge; assuring the others that he will replace items if the sergeants are in the hospital longer than expected.
James and Nyla are the last ones out that night, his wife reclaiming her scrunchie with a knowing smile as they turn off the lights and lock up the house.
Kojo is brought home the next morning, and Tamara volunteers to take the first shift.
Lucy and Tim come home three days later.
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The urge had obviously been to throw a big, surprise "welcome-home" party for the sergeants, but James—who has somehow become the head of Operation-Make-A-House-A-Home—strictly forbids it. In the end he, Angela, Nyla, Tamara, Kojo, and Ms. Grant are the extent of the "welcome" party, which James ensures is not a stressful experience; dimming the lights and lighting the well-loved candle that had sat on the dresser in the bedroom, its small flame flickering proudly in its new spot on the dining-room table as Percy West opens the front door and ushers the couple in.
Kojo—who has been trained by various people over the last few weeks to be calm for today by bringing him garments from the hospital, worn by the people he loves most in the world—immediately starts whining and whimpering the second he sees his parents.
Lucy drops to her knees, Tim a stonelike presence at her back as she laughs, the overjoyed dog licking her everywhere she'll let him as his entire back end wags.
She stands after about thirty seconds, borrowing her fiancé's sleeve to wipe the dog slobber off her face.
The two are about to speak when it finally clicks to them that the house is warm, clean, and lived-in.
"I…" Tim tries, voice trailing off as his brain registers the familar scent wafting through the air and his face falls into a soft expression.
"We thought you should have the privilege of coming home, not just coming back to your house." Percy says quietly, dabbing at his eyes as he joins the welcoming group in facing the homecomers.
They give the couple a moment to take it all in, feel their feelings.
"What he said," James offers after a minute's silence, unable to contain his smile any longer. "Welcome home."
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