Work Text:
The Unacceptable Leave Request
Tim Bradford would say he was having a pretty good day; he was a married man again. He was leaving for his honeymoon soon, and he was looking forward to it. A few years ago, if someone told him he’d be looking forward to being away from work, he would not have believed it. But he guessed he shouldn’t be surprised because he was always looking forward to spending time with his wife. Just the thought of her made him smile. You might be surprised to know then that when his wife walked into his office and presented him with her leave request, his smile turned into a deeply dissatisfied frown.
“Five days, Lucy? That's not even one week. In five days, I won't even be able to reach the moon, let alone be over it on our honeymoon."
"Tim, I don't mind. It's called a honeymoon anyway. Short and sweet.”
"I mind," declared the Watch Commander with an adorable pout on his lips. "I demand a honeymoon as long as you love me.”
“Dearest husband,” Lucy said, putting her hands on his desk. “If we had a honeymoon as long as I love you then we would never return,” she said, finally making him smile until she continued. “But you’re the Watch Commander, I am your sergeant, we can’t leave the station understaffed and in chaos,” Lucy stated calmly and he could tell she expected him to find this explanation perfectly reasonable. She expected him to accept it and approve the ridiculously short honeymoon. Unfortunately for her, (or maybe fortunately, if you were to ask her, she would surely tell you that she is most definitely fortunate to be his wife.) Yes, he was a sergeant, but this sergeant was also a man who just wanted to have a long honeymoon with his honey bunny. For once in his life, Tim wanted to listen to his heart instead of his brain and his heart was telling him to sweep his wife away on a really long honeymoon.
“Besides,” the love of his life continued, still in that reasonable tone that bothered him. “I thought you would get anxious were we away from the station for too long…”
By God, was he such a workaholic that his own wife truly believed he wanted to cut their honeymoon short just so he could get back to work as soon as possible? Come to think of it, could he really blame her? Had he ever taken a vacation in all the time they’ve known each other? No, his brain immediately supplied the answer. No, he had not.
As it were, he had to disabuse his wife of this notion immediately.
“Lucy,” he started calmly, “Is there a reason why you think I would choose work over spending time with you?” He questioned and he could not keep his incredulity entirely out of his tone.
“No,” to her credit, Lucy did not falter. “But you know, you used to work long shifts when we met and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you voluntarily take a vacation if you absolutely didn’t need to, so I was just trying to accommodate-”
He put a hand up to stop her, “I appreciate the thought, my love,” he told her as he looked at her with soft eyes; he truly had married the most amazing woman. “But that is entirely unnecessary. I ask that you re-submit your leave request again with acceptably long days of leave, as this one’s been denied.”
He took a stamp and stamped the word DENIED over her leave request and it was even encircled and underlined.
“I need you to take more days, Lucy,” he admitted quietly, his tone was almost bashful and shy. “Not just for yourself, but for me,” he looked at her and his eyes were warm and loving. “I never took vacation days before because I didn’t have a reason to,” he explained in a whisper. He stood up and walked over to her. “Work was a distraction from everything that was going wrong in my life,” he continued. “I had nobody to come home to, so I threw myself into work because work was the only thing in my life I was certain I was good at,” he took her hand in his and kissed it. “But now I have you,” he smiled at her then, “and being a good husband to you comes before work every time,” he said firmly and Lucy was pretty sure she had just reached the absolute pinnacle of ‘Tim Bradford’ romance; it gave her goosebumps, to tell the truth.
“So,” the love of her life continued, not knowing that he was dangerously close to making her knees buckle, he reached over to the desk, scribbled a new number on it, then gave it back to her, “If you want to submit an acceptable leave request,” he said in his serious, ‘Watch Commander’ tone. “This is the minimum number of days I’m willing to accept,” he informed her with a shrug, “If you want to go higher, that’s also acceptable.” He added calmly.
And when she looked at the newly scribbled number of days, her mouth fell open and she was left wondering if she was hallucinating. “But Tim,” she started before she could ask herself why she was protesting a longer honeymoon with her husband, “If we have a 30-day long honeymoon, you will have used up all your vacation days for it.” She protested in indignation.
“Why are you so surprised?” her husband asked, now he was the one genuinely confused, “all my days belong to you anyway.” he stated it as if he were saying that he was a police sergeant. And when she could catch her breath again, all she could do was squeal in delight, cup his face in her hands and kiss her husband.