Chapter Text
As suspected, Noah heads back to Victorville and Lucy’s stint playing detective is over. She’ll return to patrol Monday morning. It’s going to be strange working patrol without Tim by her side, and she’s not sure what to expect. He made it clear that he wants to be with her, and since he’s no longer in her chain of command, there is nothing holding them back. The ball is in her court.
He told her he’ll wait forever. She doesn’t intend to torture him, but she feels like she needs to take a beat before jumping into anything with him. There’s a lot to consider, a lot to be afraid of, and they definitely need to talk, but she needs some space first. She has the next three days off, and she plans to use them to get her mind right and figure out what exactly she wants.
By Sunday night, though, she’s crawling out of her skin. She wants to be with Tim, plain and simple. It’s what she’s wanted for months, and she feels a little silly for thinking she needed space to figure it out. She considers calling him, but she knows if she does that they’ll end up in bed. As much as she wants to end up in bed with Tim, she wants to do this right, so she forces herself to wait. She’ll talk to him in the morning.
~~~~~~
“Hey Chen,” Lucy pauses her scan of the bullpen to turn toward Harper’s voice. She and Lopez are huddled at their desks, waving her over.
“Hey,” Lucy says as she approaches, a bit distracted. “Have you seen Tim?”
Lopez shakes her head. “He’s doing Metro training; we’ll be lucky if we see him at all this week.” Lucy frowns, resigning herself to talking to him after work. “Forget about the idiot, though, we have something important to discuss with you.”
“Okay,” she turns her full attention to the two detectives, who are wearing matching serious expressions.
“The detective’s exam was just announced,” Harper begins. “And your name better be first on the sign-up sheet.”
She blinks at them. “Are—are you serious?”
Lopez smiles. “Harper and I are tired of carrying the weight, it’s about time we get some kick-ass new blood in this department.”
“And,” Harper interjects, her serious tone only wavering a little. “Passing that test is the vital first step to being a full time UC.”
“You really think I’m ready?”
“Please, you walked in the door ready. Consider your ass tapped.” Lucy chuckles as Lopez nods toward the hallway. “Oh, speaking of tapping your ass, there’s Tim.”
Lucy turns to see him walking toward his new office with a box of stuff. As if he can sense her watching him, he turns to meet her eyes, a faint smile playing at his lips. She smiles in return, taking half a step toward him before realizing the fatal flaw in her plan. The one unmovable obstacle in their path toward happily ever after: undercover work.
She swallows, shaking away their magnetic pull and instead heading for the briefing room. “I’ll uh, I’ll catch him later. I need to get to roll call.” Though she’s still more than thirty minutes early, neither of the women point it out, instead sharing a look as Lucy bolts.
How could she be so stupid? How could she be so naïve to think she could really have everything she wants, when the two things she wants most are incompatible?
~~~~~~
It’s been nearly three weeks since Tim confessed his love and kissed Lucy in the breakroom. He told her he’d wait for her, and he will, but it’s been complete radio silence. He fought every urge to call or text her that first weekend, because he figured she needed the time to get her head right before they talked. When he saw her at the station Monday morning, it looked like she wanted to go to him, but then she practically ran in the other direction. Now, it feels like she’s avoiding him.
At first, he was so busy with Metro training that he didn’t have time to overthink it, but now that he’s settling into his new role, he can’t help but think he did something to screw it all up. Maybe Foster was wrong. Maybe she cared for the other man more than he thought she did. Maybe now that he’s gone, she realizes she does love him, after all. Or maybe she’s testing him, paying him back for all the Tim Tests. A Lucy Lesson, perhaps.
Whatever it is, he wishes she would just put him out of his misery already.
It’s a particularly slow day and he’s been holed up in his office doing paperwork, so he goes to the food trucks for a change of scenery. After getting his food he scans the courtyard and notices Lucy at a table alone near the edge of the patio. She’s hunched over a pile of books, her lunch sitting untouched beside her while she’s deep in concentration. He decides there’s no harm in talking to her; he’s not pushing her to make a decision, just making friendly conversation.
“Mind if I join you?”
She pops her head up, startled at his voice. “Hey, yeah, uh, sure. How—how have you been?”
He smiles tentatively, “Good, you?”
“Yeah—uh, good. How’s Metro?”
“It’s good. Challenging.” He pops a fry in his mouth, leaning in to take a closer look at her books. “What’s all this?”
Her cheeks pink and she doesn’t meet his eye. “I’m, uh, I’m studying for the detective’s exam.”
“You got the tap?” Tim can’t keep the pride and excitement out of his voice, not that he’s trying.
She deflates a little at his reaction. “Harper and Lopez are backing me.” She twirls the pencil she’s holding, picking at the eraser nervously. “I—if I’m gonna work undercover,” she glances at him, studying him closely as if gauging his reaction. “The best move is to become a detective in some division, like intelligence or narcotics.”
“Yeah,” he nods.
“So, all I have to do is score in the top twelve, which—”
“Which you will,” he says with conviction. He knows she will. He won’t be a bit surprised if she gets the top score.
Lucy smiles at his assurance, but there’s something else in her eyes. She’s still avoiding his gaze and picking at her pencil’s eraser. “Yeah,” she says noncommittally.
Tim studies her for a few moments, knowing her hesitation has nothing to do with her confidence in her abilities. Lucy has a tendency to let her anxiety send her into a spiral, but she knows what she’s capable of. Something else is going on, and he has a feeling it has to do with him. “Luce,” he grabs her hand, gently tugging it and prompting her to meet his eyes. “What’s going on?”
She bites her lip, as if deciding whether or not to be honest. “I love undercover, Tim,” she finally says. “I love it.”
He smiles. As much as he hates undercover work, more specifically, he hates Lucy doing undercover work, he loves seeing her thrive. Since her first sting when she was a rookie, he’s known that she was born for it. “I know, and you’re good at it.”
“I am,” she agrees, though it’s not boastful. “It’s just,” again, she hesitates. “It—it’s not the only thing I love.” She looks at him pointedly, willing him to catch her drift. His chest tightens at her confession, but he forces himself to remain quiet while she verbalizes her thoughts. “And I’m just…I’m having a hard time reconciling the two. I don’t—I don’t want history to repeat itself.”
Realization washes over him, and he sits back. “Oh.”
“Yeah,” she says, dejected. “So, I think, for now, at least, we should just keep going the way we have been, right? It’s not worth the risk.”
Tim’s shoulders slump momentarily at the rejection, but then he remembers Foster asking if he ever considered what Lucy wants, and it all becomes clear. She’s not rejecting him, she’s scared he’ll reject her because she’s choosing this path. He sits up straight, resolve washing over him as he takes a deep breath.
“Unless it is.”
Lucy makes a surprised noise, clearly not expecting that response. He decides to go all in, to leave no room for doubt.
“Listen, Lucy, if you’d asked me even a few months ago if I’d ever date another UC, I’d have said ‘hell no,’ because there is no denying I still carry trauma from what Isabel put me through.” Her eyes fall to the table, guilt clouding her features. “But you’re not her. And you never will be.”
She bites her lip, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks as she glances up at him. “What are you saying?”
He smiles reassuringly. “I’m saying I want to do this, Lucy, no matter what you decide to do with your career. I’m saying I made my peace with you doing undercover work a long time ago, and I’ll do whatever it takes to support you. I know I have issues to work on, but you are worth the effort.”
A couple tears slip down her cheek and she wipes them away, a small laugh escaping her lips. “So, what do we do now?” she asks timidly.
Tim smiles widely, relief washing over him. He sits forward with intent, “Do you want to go on a date?”
A soft smile pulls at her mouth. “Yeah. I do.”
They both get lost in the other’s gaze for a few moments, and Tim is about to lean in to seal the deal when her radio crackles to life, reminding them both where they are. They break apart, a little flustered as dispatch relays the details of the call.
“7-Lincoln-19 responding,” Lucy says into the radio, never taking her eyes off Tim.
“Go save the day. Be safe,” he says fondly as she gathers her study materials.
She squeezes his hand before she turns to leave. “Call me later, after?”
“Deal.”
Tim watches as she gets in her shop and drives away, feeling lighter and happier than he has in months. Probably ever.