Work Text:
“Love, it’s getting late.”
“Mhm”
“Tim.”
Moving in together with someone causes you to learn many things about that special someone, and in turn, yourself. Lucy had learnt many things, including which apps they both seem to have an addiction to. Lucy’s screen-time hour count for Pinterest and photos (Kojo is her baby, okay?) is her business and hers alone.
Tim’s new favourite app of the week has become Microsoft Outlook.
Lucy, at times, had half a mind to hack into [email protected] and permanently lock him out. Damn her past self for choosing psychology as her major instead of computer forensics.
“I know, Luce- just the captain needs this sent by tomorrow so he can forward it to Haines- It’ll just take a minute-“
“Honey.”
Like a moth to an artificial light, Tim was head down, drawn to the screen yet again, and Lucy knew she had been blanked.
Lucy loved being on the day shift. Lucy did not love that for it to happen, Tim is now the watch commander. Not that she isn’t proud of him, she is, she always has been- but it’s clearly not doing anything good for her boyfriend’s mental state.
The lack of action, endless paperwork, emails, and zoom calls, it was essentially another desk job. And Lucy felt that tiny twinge of guilt that he’d so readily accepted it first to get her out of the night shift. To make her happy. Again.
Grey assured her it would even out; Tim just needed to find his groove. Lucy sometimes wishes she had that metaphorical shovel to dig the damn trench out for him so he could rest for once.
Eleven times the promised minute had now passed.
“Timothy.” A little trick she’d picked up from Angela. It worked to detach his eyes from his screen, and briefly distract him enough so she could-
“What- HEY!-“
And into the drawer it goes. Lucy’s bedside table, so despite Tim’s impressively long arms, it was out of reach. Finally.
“Sweetheart, you need to sleep. I need you so I can sleep. At the very least, Mid-Wilshire needs one functioning sergeant, and it won’t be me if the light from your phone keeps me up.”
And Lucy knew she had him. His love and care for her would outweigh his need to send Smitty a threatening email on his late coffee jar buck fees. (An email he wouldn’t have to send if Conli actually did his job at being station advocate-). Her smirk at her perfectly executed phone snatch/guilt trip wavered a little, though, when she noticed the small crease between his eyebrows begin to form. A telltale sign (to those who knew and loved him) that he was worried.
“I’m so sorry I’ve been distant recently, it's nothing to do with you, I-I promise, it’s just-“ and now the worried eyebrow scrunch had evolved into his full expression, and Lucy felt a pang of sympathy.
“Work?” He deflated a little, but the panic dissipated. “I know, love. You’ve just started a new job, we both have. I get it, okay?” She gently rested a hand on his forearm as Tim flashed her a hesitantly grateful look. “Don’t feel like you have to apologise.”
His head fell into his hands as he rubbed at his eyes. It was clear the stress was piling on him, and Lucy wished she could help take it off his shoulders. The hand on his arm migrated to his back, where the soothing motion of her rubbing up and down seemed to help a little.
The main problem was, as over the years Lucy had figured out, Tim’s main way of relaxing is to move. Sport, patrol, running with Kojo, you name it. It helps him shake off the stress and anxiety, and he always looks so much happier and calmer after. A problem when they’re both in pyjamas, at two am, in bed.
Herself? She loves staying in and staying still. Long hot baths, facials while she watches TV, cuddling with Tim-
Lucy felt the spark of an idea begin to take flame. The ultimate activity she craved the most after a hard shift was lying in bed with him. Feeling his arms tighten around her waist and the warmth of his chest pressed up against her back always helped ease out any simmering stress and tension from her day. It puts her to sleep almost instantly.
They’d very quickly settled into their respective roles since they first began sleeping in the same bed. Tim was always the big spoon. It just worked out that way naturally. He was taller and wider than her, and his very ingrained protective instincts made him want to have her safe in his arms. And Lucy usually had no issue with that, because he had a spectacular talent for making her feel safe, and she willingly soaks it up like a sponge whenever she can.
And Lucy didn’t have to guess too hard that Tim had never had nor wanted it the other way around. At least not that he’d ever express it out loud.
“I have an idea, but you’re gonna have to just trust me.”
That made him snap out of his half-asleep state.
“Why am I worried?”
She rolled her eyes playfully at his now very concerned expression, her huff of a laugh doing nothing to ease it. She’d never tell him, but it was cute.
“Oh, stop it, it’s nothing bad. Just- might be a little out of your comfort zone…”
“Luce.”
“You know how I love you very much, and you’re my favourite boyfriend-“
“Favourite? How many others do you have?”
That earned him a light smack to his forearm.
“-and,” She gave him a lovingly exasperated look. “I love you-“
“You said that already- Ow!”
“Timothy.”
“shutting up.”
“Good. Now you know how much I love you holding me every night…”
“It makes you go to sleep faster. So you wake up earlier. So we have time to make out before work.”
Lucy only graced that comment with an exasperated smirk. “Well, would you let me?”
“Let you do what?”
She loved this man, truly, but sometimes it baffled her how intelligent and perceptive he is at work compared to at home.
“Hold you instead. It helps me switch off and relax, and you clearly need it.”
Tim’s face was a mix of apprehension, and that one expression he always made before he was about to brush her off and say, ‘I’m fine’.
“Lucy, I’m fine, really. Holding you makes me relax.” And he tried to pull her in for a kiss, but she knew his aversion tactics by now. She lightly pushed against his shoulder so she could keep looking at him, really weaponising the puppy eyes.
“Please?”
Tim felt his resistance slowly melt away. Damn her, she knew how to get him to do her bidding. He was absolutely wrapped around her little finger, and he wasn’t in the slightest ashamed of it.
“Fine. Fine. Two minutes. And I reserve the right to hate this, and we then never speak of it again.”
“Ten minutes.”
“Five.”
“Seven, and that’s my final offer.”
Lucy smirked at her clear win and then witnessed Tim actually unlock her phone and open the clock app.
“Are you serious?!”
“Yep.” And he scrolled to set the alarm to exactly seven minutes.
“You are unbelievable.”
“You love me.”
“…yes. Yes, I do.” And she pulled him in for a brief kiss, just enough to grab her own phone and place it down out of reach. And sneakily on silent.
Tim huffed, but gave in to the motion of her pulling him down to lie in front of her. Her arms snaked around his waist, and he thanked the Lord she ran warm, because she had gone underneath his soft cotton t-shirt to wrap her hands against his abdominals. The solid warmth of her chest pressed up against his back as she pulled him in felt so unnatural, and the lack of anything to hold meant his hands just felt too empty; he didn’t know what to do with them.
Lucy noticed and tried to stifle a laugh as she affectionately kissed his shoulder. She flailed around in the dark for another pillow and then shoved it gently into his grateful arms. “Here. Now relax.”
Grateful for the familiarity, He now could relax enough to feel her heart beat comfortably through the fabric of his sleep shirt, and it gave him that same reassurance he craved that she was still here. Safe and with him, but protecting him instead. The slightly cooler metal of her promise ring, which he’d gifted her the week prior, was now making him wish it had a big fat diamond on it. He couldn’t imagine a future without her. The love he had for her was unlike anything he’d ever experienced.
A quiet ‘I love you’ was muttered into his shoulder, and he melted a little, the pillow abandoned so he could take hold of her arms and pull her closer in.
“I love you more.”
“Not possible.”
“Wanna bet?”
“Nope. All our bets end up with something going wrong. And I want nothing to go wrong with my love for you.”
Tim sighed and resigned to kiss her, but realised he was facing the wrong direction. He could try and awkwardly bend in the middle to kiss her hand, but that would mean moving, and he didn’t really want to stop the other hand from running through his hair in the way she knew made him melt.
“Go to sleep, love.”
“I- Luce, I’ll just keep you awake. I haven’t been able to sleep properly for a while and-“
“Let me help?”
And he felt her slowly rub her hand up and down his stomach, and the hand in his hair had begun to gently massage his temple and behind his ear.
“I-“
“Relax.”
Another sigh, and Tim felt himself slowly start to give in to the affection. Only she would know exactly how to get him to drift off.
“Not so terrible, hmm?”
A grunt.
“go to sleep, handsome. I love you.”
And as the alarm went off (unbeknownst to Tim), Lucy finally felt him start to drift.