Work Text:
1.
Angela knows.
As soon as she hears he’s moving to the position of Court Liaison Sergeant, she’s bold enough to start making it more obvious. After all, she’s the only one who’d ever asked him point blank if he had feelings for Lucy.
“Hey,” she greets Tim with a gleam in her eyes. He hasn’t officially started his new position yet, and he knows once he does, everyone will know. But until he’s officially out of Lucy’s chain of command, they don’t say anything to anyone and continue to keep it under wraps. He has to admit, it’s kind of fun. So they enjoy a few more days of this secret relationship and sneaking around and coming up with cover stories. He only accepted the job yesterday, and his move is only spoken of through the rumor mill but of course, Angela’s a detective and her ears are up. “Catch anything good on TV last night?”
“What?” he almost snaps at her, confused by her question but sure by the coy smile on her face that it’s something that should annoy him.
TV talk is not what he’d been expecting.
“Last night,” she grins, “catch anything good on TV?” she repeats, eyes sparkling with mischief and he knows she’s setting him up for something.
“The game was on,” Tim answers easily, and it’s easy because it’s not even a lie. If he’s learned anything in the first few weeks of being with Lucy and trying to keep this thing a secret, it’s that he’s not good at cover stories.
“Huh,” she says thoughtfully. “Well, aren’t you going to ask me what I watched on TV last night?”
“No,” he shoots back simply.
“Well, I caught a rerun of a classic,” she continues anyway but she’s only met with silence from Tim. “Maybe you’ve heard of it, I Love Lucy?” she asks with a smirk as she turns on her heels to head back to her desk. She turns back to look at him, seeing his surprised expression. “Good show,” she adds with a nod.
He narrows his eyes at her in annoyance and fake confusion and she just laughs as she walks away.
For the next two days it’s subtle digs. “Honey, I’m home!” she says when she passes Tim and Lucy in the lobby of the station and he glares at her while Lucy looks completely baffled.
“You’ve got some ‘splanin to do,” she teases even in a room full of detectives as they ask Tim for details about an arrest and he ignores her and turns to speak to Nyla, instead.
When she passes by him in the parking lot, she hums the theme song under her breath and laughs as he opens his mouth to say something to her then promptly shuts it again.
When everyone finds out about his new position, officially, they finally come clean – they don’t have to hide it anymore and there’s no other believable way to explain why he’d move to a desk job when he’s spent his whole career praising patrol.
“I knew it,” Angela says with a huge grin and he wants to say yeah, you’re right – but then he realizes what she’s implying. That he loves Lucy, not just that they’re dating, that they’re together, but that he loves her and he closes his mouth.
Not because it isn’t true, he realizes, but because he’s not going to say it to Angela first.
2.
Obviously, he knows about the tattoo.
But it’s different now, when in the midst of falling into bed together and taking off her clothes for the very first time, it stares back at him.
He’d never really known what she’d decided to do about the ink that brandished her. He’d offered his opinion on it, how it labeled her as a fighter rather than a victim. But Lucy is her own strong, stubborn, independent person and part of him believed she had brushed off his words and had it removed the minute she could.
He’d never asked her about it again. She’d never brought it up again.
So he was never completely sure until this very moment when it stares back up at him. It’s faded a bit since he last saw it, the ink no longer bold and black as it had been when it was fresh.
He pauses momentarily, but understands that this is not the time or the moment to make a big deal about it. He’s sure she notices his reaction – probably, she’s waiting for it - and he wonders if maybe he should say something to acknowledge it because maybe that’s what she’s expecting from him.
He glances up at her and she’s fixing him with a soft stare, ever so slightly biting her lip as she waits to see what he’s going to say or do.
Making a choice, he lets his finger drift over it with a feather light touch, giving it the slightest bit of attention, making a statement they both understand. Then she lets out a breath, her stare turns into a smile, and she hauls his lips back to hers.
He remembers the bodies they had seen, decomposed yet fresh with ink declaring the victims’ day of death, their last day still fresh and frozen in time, and he can’t even imagine that Lucy, his Lucy, could have been in that state – that she was destined for that fate if they had only gotten to her a few minutes later.
He feels a sudden rush of affection for her and the words I love you threaten to spill from his lips as he’s reminded of how close he had been to losing her that day, but he keeps them to himself because they’ve only been together a few weeks and this is their first time in bed together and it’s way too early to say such a thing.
Isn’t it?
He’d told her once that the tattoo represented the first day of the rest of her life, and now that they’re this he realizes that it speaks to him, too. It will always be there as a reminder to be thankful that she’s here, to appreciate her and never take her for granted because so easily she could have become something he lost.
3.
He pulls up at Nolan's place, taking stock of the cars parked on his street. He sees Lucy's car, knows she's here. He's taken to ignoring the group text thread so often, he's not taken aback when Nolan seems surprised to see him - they probably forgot he was on the chain (or, they forgot to loop Nolan in, because Tim doesn't really recall him ever replying to their plans).
"Is that Lucy's car?" he asks, trying to play it cool - because he knows it's her car.
People are starting to find out about them, now. They've been cluing people in little by little, those closest to them have started to guess as soon as he moved to a desk job of all things. And now that he's out of her chain of command, and they both know this is serious, there's really no reason to keep it a secret anymore. When he steps into Nolan's place, though, he's not sure if Nolan knows - and when he finds everyone there, he ignores them all and smiles at Lucy. He thinks most of them know - can't be sure about James or Wesley (scratch that - there's no way Lopez kept her mouth shut to him) so he tries to keep it nonchalant.
The whole room is oddly stiff and quiet when he comes in, he can sense something is going on but he figures it's just their new change in relationship status throwing everyone off kilter.
She's not herself, he notices this immediately - but it's hard to say if she's up to something or she's just unsure how to act around him now that they're together and their friends know, now that they've just recently slept together and it's all a new vibe. She flips her hair and he's literally unsure if she's feeling guilty or she's being a little flirtatious or, more than likely - both.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Couldn't be better."
She's up to something, he knows it. He knows her.
A few hours later, those with babies are making plans to stay - though Tim can see Nolan and Bailey exchanging glances - and he declares he's going to head out. He takes his beer bottle to the kitchen to throw it in their recycling bin, when Lucy's suddenly behind him when he turns around.
"Hi."
He laughs. "Hey." He throws his bottle away and then watches as she leans back on the counter, trailing her eyes up and down his body. "Leave with me?"
She grins, as if she wasn't fishing for this the whole time. "And do what?"
"We can stay cool together."
She bursts out laughing. He can see Angela over her head and notices her little smirk (not the first one he's seen tonight) at Lucy's laugh, but this is their new reality so he figures they may as well get used to it.
"I don't think keeping cool is what we'll be doing," she says knowingly as she flips her hair over her shoulder. "Not judging by the last few nights."
"Not if you don't stop flipping your hair like that," he mutters and he sees her flush a little as she giggles and does it again.
He'd thought wanting her when they were co-workers and friends was tough, the anticipation of wanting her the last few weeks while they took it slow had him on edge, and he'd thought that by the time they were sleeping together his desire would have been quelled a bit. But now it's just worse. He's staring at her here in Nolan's kitchen, she's his girlfriend, they are definitely no longer taking it slow and yet he can't resist her.
The words are about to spill out of his mouth, the way she's looking at him - like she feels that same desire - the way she's flipping her hair, how he makes her laugh, how he just wants to be with her all the time, because damn he's at Nolan's house isn't he? And God, how do you know someone for years, change your job to be with them and yet the words still haven't come?
She never misses a beat to keep him on his toes, he knows the comment about her hair flustered her but she always comes right back at him just as strong (yet another reason he loves her). "Good to know. I'll file that away for later."
He smirks and takes her hand, giving it a little squeeze. "Come over," he says the two words instead of the three he really wants to say (and, those are two pretty good words to replace them with, he figures). "I can keep you cool."
She doesn't know what he means by that (and honestly, neither does he - yet - but he has an idea that involves cold water and his shower) but it clearly works as she turns on her heels to start bidding everyone a goodbye and well, she could've waited a few more minutes to make it a little less obvious but he's certain no one is even surprised.
4.
The boots fall out of the kitchen cupboard and he understands immediately.
She drives him nuts.
It’s his first day of Metro training and, just like his first day as a sergeant, she’s wishing him luck and also can’t resist teasing and messing with him by calling him a boot.
He has to hand it to her- she commits to her bits.
Part of him notes how she knows exactly what his morning routine is in her apartment, which cabinet he’s going to open, how they’ve become so comfortable with each other and in each other’s space already.
All those years she’d made him crazy doing things like this – irritating, he’d called it - and more and more now, it’s becoming clear why. It wasn’t irritation.
It’s more fun this way, when she drives him crazy now.
He remembers a conversation with Grey, about what it would take to move to NYPD and how he’d essentially told him he’d have to be the newbie, start all over again.
It's kind of ironic that here he is. And though moving to Metro is nothing like starting over from scratch in a new state, he did make a pitstop at desk duty on the way. She’s the only one he’d ever considered making a change in his career for.
Tamara had interrupted Lucy's little bit in the morning, and clearly, she’s not quite done with the ‘boot’ gag, so she sends him several pictures of boots throughout the day.
You drive me crazy, you know that? he shoots back after the pair of metallic splattered Doc Martens.
Mmhmm, she replies and a moment later she adds a second text. I know. She follows it with three emojis in a row - the wink, the kissy face, and the devil.
Is he going to have to start using emojis now?
Now that he knows this new side of her, he can just see the smirk on her face, hear the soft giggle, the flirtatious tone.
Damnit he’s so in love with her.
5.
She takes an elbow to the face struggling with a suspect while on a call with Aaron. By the time she’s back to the station it’s already bruising and her lip is caked with blood. It’s the first time since she and Tim have been together that she’s come back from patrol with a visible injury.
“What happened?” he exclaims when he sees her, causing several other officers to look over and she shushes him, not want for the attention.
“It’s nothing,” she reassures him with a whisper. “I’m fine.”
But still, he steps forward and tilts her head gently to get a better look at her eye. “You need to ice that.”
“I will,” she says softly, realizing this is probably the first time he’s engaged with her in such an obvious, tender manner since they’ve been on the job as a couple. Their relationship isn’t a secret anymore, but it’s also not advertised on a huge billboard with flashing lights. Those closest to them know – but they didn’t exactly send out an email to the entire Mid-Wilshire division announcing their new relationship status. She doesn’t care anymore about the fact that female cops aren’t supposed to date cops (because she’s also been told dating civilians is no good) because this is Tim and it doesn’t matter if he was her TO or just a fellow cop or a stranger on the street, it’s who she knows she’s supposed to be with and none of those stupid rules will stop her.
Still, they figure they don’t need to open themselves up to anything unnecessary at work by overdoing it with the PDA.
They figure those who know, know. Those who don’t… don’t.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asks, looking directly into her eyes and it melts her a little.
“Yes,” she assures him softly with a squeeze of his hand. This is new, this boyfriend Tim, and it took her a little by surprise to see such a reaction from him.
That evening she falls fast asleep on his couch under the blanket she forced him to buy, Kojo curled up at her feet. Kojo appreciates the soft blanket just as much as she does. Her eyes flutter open as if she is aware of him watching her, and she smiles at him.
“How’s the eye?” he asks, sitting down carefully next to Kojo who seemingly gives him a glare for invading his space.
“Fine. Better. Y’know,” she teases, nudging at him with the foot he’s currently massaging, “Sergeant Bradford, you’re turning soft. Can’t imagine what you would’ve told your Boot about an elbow to the eye day one on the job? Probably would’ve told me to toughen up.”
He smirks. “Yeah, well, day one on the job I wasn’t…” he’s shocked at how easily the words almost fell from his mouth, stopping moments before he says them when he realizes he isn’t supposed to say those words yet, despite his feelings they’re not common knowledge- … in love with you.
He fell in love with her somewhere along the way, but in the last few weeks he’s fallen even more – now that he sees this other side of her, now that they can say the things they really mean, flirt the way they really want to, touch each other without disguising it.
“… your boyfriend,” he finishes lamely and he thinks he sees a flash of disappointment in her eyes, as if she thought she knew what was coming and maybe she’s as ready to hear it as he is to say it.
+1
“What time did you come in?” Lucy asks with a yawn as she wakes up and rolls over to face him.
Tim grumbles with a little bit of guilt. “Late.” Somehow it’s as if he doesn’t give the exact time, she won’t realize how late it was.
He feels guilty about the hours, sometimes – he likes Metro, he really does – but sometimes the hours are brutal and it’s hard to be in a brand-new relationship – one he actually cares this much about – and balancing both.
Lucy doesn’t seem to mind; though they’d hoped to have dinner together last night, instead he’d used his key to her apartment to let himself in and crawl into bed with her when she was already fast asleep, not even shifting in her sleep as he got into bed.
“I’m glad you came over,” she says as she toys with his t-shirt.
“I’m sorry we missed dinner,” he says with a small frown.
“That’s okay,” she says easily, rubbing his chest. “There are many more dinners to be had. In fact, I eat dinner every night.”
He chuckles into her shoulder as he presses a gentle kiss to it. “It’s been quite a few late nights lately.”
She frowns and shakes her head. “We knew Metro could be like this,” she reminds him.
“Yeah. Yeah, I know, but-“ he falters for a moment. “But this is a new relationship.” She laughs heartily at that and he frowns. “What?” he asks.
“I mean – it’s not a new relationship,” she realizes. “It is But it isn’t. We’ve known each other for years. You’re not some random guy I just started dating who works late hours and I can’t figure out if he’s worth the effort or not because I can never pin him down.”
Tim grins. “So, you’re saying I’m worth the effort?”
Lucy laughs and rolls her eyes, but she can’t help but smile brilliantly. The phrase does hold more than an ounce of meaning between them and they both know it. “Shut up,” she mutters as she leans up to kiss him.
“It really doesn’t bother you that we talked about you moving to another station and how It would suck because our shifts wouldn’t sync up, but now I’m over here working all kinds of crazy hours?”
Lucy blinks and she can tell that this is actually something that’s weighing on him.
“No,” she says simply. “No, because the whole point was that you knew I love it at Mid-Wilshire and you knew I wouldn’t be happy somewhere else, having to work the midnight shift on top of it all. So you went and took a desk job so that I wouldn’t have to give up the job I love and if you don’t think I know what a big sacrifice that was, you’re wrong. Nobody has ever made a sacrifice like that for me. The difference with this is that you love this job. You do, right?” she suddenly panics, wondering. “You love it? Because if-“
He cuts her off with a finger to her lips. “I do,” he assures her. “The hours are rough sometimes - and I never would’ve said that before.” He’d never cared about the hours of his job before. He’d never minded a shift that went overtime or taking an extra shift or working on a holiday, even when he’d been in a relationship. The job came before everything else. Now something feels different, and she nods in understanding. “But I love something else more.”
Her heart skips a beat and she feels her stomach churn in anticipation, feeling certain she knows where this is going and wondering if this can be the moment, finally, after all these years. “Oh?”
“I love the job. I’m in love with you.”
She’s known it, she’s known it the whole time, that she loves him and he loves her. People who have known each other this long, been friends this long, then get together – it’s not a surprise, but she can’t deny how utterly surprised and thrilled she is when he says the words, as if she had no idea they were coming.
“Finally,” she says, and she’s even surprised with herself for the response that comes out of her mouth. That’s what she chooses to say to his love confession?
“’Finally?’” he mock questions. “If only you knew how many times I –“
He’s cut off by her lips crashing down on his and suddenly the words are gone as she kisses him.
“I’m in love with you, too,” she finally tells him and they grin at each other before he returns his lips to hers.
“Obviously,” he teases with a playful roll of his eyes.
“Aren’t you going to ask me when I knew?” she teases.
He mocks annoyance. “There’s no way you can mark the moment you knew,” he insists, because when he looks back, he himself has no idea. There was no one moment where it all became clear. There were just lots of little moments and then one day it was as if it was a given, as if it had been a given the whole time.
“Okay, well, yeah – I guess didn’t think ‘I’m in love with him’ at the time, but looking back… it’s when things started to change. It’s when things felt different.” When he doesn’t reply she demands, “Ask me!”
He decides to take the bait, but not without ruffling her up a bit first. “Okay. When did you know you had fallen in love with my devastatingly handsome and charming self?” he asks simply.
She rolls her eyes at his words and gives his shoulder a little shove and he laughs, because this has always been them and it feels good that this will always be them, that becoming a couple hasn’t changed who they are together and it makes it feel so right.
“’Veggie burger and fries, extra pickles,’” she says simply and he blinks at her, knowing exactly what she means.
He thinks he knew then, too, but he knows he didn’t even let himself consider the possibility he had any feelings for her until long after he was no longer her TO. He knows he felt it that first time he danced with her at Nyla’s wedding, by the time she kissed him in her apartment and they went undercover together he was well aware, knowing all too well that it didn’t feel like pretend. That he didn’t want it to be.
“I love you,” he tries out the actual words and she grins and kisses him.
“Yeah?” she raises her eyebrows and grins. “Then prove it,” she teases and he chuckles before flipping her over onto her back.