Chapter Text
“Hey Chen,” Lucy rolled her eyes as she looked up at Smitty, a habit she’d picked up from Tim.
“Smitty,” she smiled politely, closing the report she was looking over, “what can I do for you?”
“Chen, ask not what you can do for Smitty, but what Smitty can do for you.” Smitty grinned, nodding at her.
Lucy pursed her lips, tilting her head to the side. Ever since she’d pulled off the five player switch with Smitty’s help, he’d sort of made himself her champion in many matters, usually to their demerit.
“I’m almost afraid to ask…” she trailed off, as if not saying the words would make whatever Smitty did, or was about to do, not happen.
Smitty just raised his eyebrows expectantly, shit-eating grin still on his face. She thought about shrugging him off, telling him she wasn’t really in the mood. It would be true. All she was in the mood for right now was Tim. Talking to Tim while being able to touch him, openly affectionate again. Maybe even sharing a bath… if Tamara was out she might get a repeat of the laundry room on the kitchen counter while waiting for dinner to finish cooking. Maybe she’d even get Tim to punish her for watching Top Chef without him.
Her thoughts and schemes for the night were almost enough to make Lucy walk away from Smitty, but they both knew she was entirely too curious to let it go.
“Fine! Smitty, what did you do?”
He folded his arms across his chest. Lucy took a deep breath and tried again.
“Smitty, what can you do…” She crossed her own arms, mirroring his pose. Then, when he still didn’t reply, she added through clenched teeth; “for me.”
Smitty held on for a second longer before giving in, he was such a gossip.
“Fine, now, you didn’t hear this from me, but you know I got your back, Chen.”
“Is this about the detective’s exam?”
“No, but it is about lover-boy.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Tim?” Lucy wracked her brain, what could possibly have happened in the last five minutes he’d left her to talk to Grey before they went home? Had something happened while she was undercover? Or -and she prayed it was anything other than this- did Smitty somehow know about the laundry hook-up?
“Yeah, apparently he was almost shot in the back, Jan said he got lucky, the gun was empty, but the other guy snuck up on him and shot him in the back.”
“What?!” Lucy re-opened the report she’d just been looking over, no mention of any near death incidents. One sentence, stood out to her. Suspect had attempted to fire their gun, gun was empty. Tim had written it, so it was reported, but he had tacked it on as a footnote. Nowhere did it say it was at point blank range, or to his back, or a close call. Oh, she was going to kill him.
“Speak of the devil and he shall appear.” Smitty said with a nod behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Tim leaving Grey’s office, nodding at her with that soft smile of his that never failed to make her fucking melt.
“Remember, Hot Pants. You didn’t hear this from me, just like I didn't see Tim return late from your debrief with his shirt on inside out...” Lucy had honestly forgotten that she was talking to Smitty. She looked back at him once Tim’s back was to her on the stairs. Smitty tapped his nose twice then winked at her.
“Yeah, sure,” she said distractedly, Tim was making his way over to them, and the way she’d missed him so much after being apart from him for just a week made her original schemes for the night flood her brain again. She’s fine, he’s fine. No one actually got shot, and she couldn’t wait to spend the next two days with him in domestic bliss. This discussion could wait. Smitty turned to leave before his words caught up to her. Hot Pants, shirt inside out. “Wait! What now!?”
Smitty just tapped his nose twice again, and then Tim walked into her line of view and totally eclipsed any other thought in her brain.
“Hey,” Tim smiled at her as he basically stepped into her, both unable to keep out of each other’s personal spaces on a good day, their separation only made them more like magnets than usual. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah,” she smiled, closing the file and filing it, and the conversation, away for later, then grabbed her bag. “Let’s go.”
She loped her arm through his and leaned into him as they made their way out of the precinct.
Lucy silently vowed to herself never to tell Tim that Smitty knew everything.