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“I think she resents me for reminding her of him.”
It’s cruel, to eradicate her entire existence in a sentence, to be the opinion of one woman’s love. Tim might as well cancel that dinner reservation, and find a sweet convincing apology for his date night, because now he has got afterplans, plans that include a dinner with less sunshine Chen , and convincing her to have a goddam heart to heart talk with her daughter.
Lucy Chen has assumed different frames in the mantle of Tim’s life. She did put the nail for herself with strong opinions of Isabel. The right choice, the strong hand holding him off the edge. He will forever be thankful to end up on the right side of that night, silent ofcourse, god knows a sappy thank you will never shut Lucy up. And then somehow she climbs up the ladder, she listens, she comments, she puts the rainbows in the shop. She grounds him, with touches, with words, with actions. She edges him, with pranks, with jokes, with stories. She completes him, with empathy, with kindness, with sincerity. So he would take a bullet for her, or four if the numbers have to be shown anywhere. He would now also arrange a dinner with her mother and explain thoroughly, why the world is a bad, complicated, unloving, unforgiving place but her daughter puts one convincing argument to live in for.
Most parents by definition fuck up, they project their mistakes, dreams and desires onto their off-springs, forgetting the part where children grow up to adults with capabilities and conscience to take their own decisions. That is the separation line between good and bad parents, and not hitting them to express their disappointment in them. Tim knows he is working with zero examples, his own childhood a mess of sharp edged glasses, and zero good parent examples. On a level he understands, Miss Chen worries and concerns for Lucy. God, he himself wants her to believe some bad exists in the universe. She knows of a criminal mindset now, wouldn’t do the best in her job, without that, but give her a stranger and Lucy would be the last person to suspect them. It is the fundamental truth of the station, Lucy Chen is as good of a cop as they come and it is high time she receives praises and acceptance for it.
“ Don’t you think we are crossing some major lines here, Sergeant Bradford?”
“Learnt this straight from your blood, look ma’am, I know the whole idea is absurd, but your daughter needs to have a conversation with you, and since you won’t, I am the next available option. “
“One dinner, One dinner is all I ask, I’ll book one of those unbelievable cuisine inventors restaurants for you. If nothing, you get a free dinner out of this.”
“Quite familiar with the Chen taste, now are we?”
“Fine you, get forty minutes. And no restaurants, we do this properly, over a bowl of soup and cup of tea.”
Tim has a great streak with adults, it turns out you ask for loads of help when adults in your life don’t show up. He has been curtful to all the girlfriend's dad's, won the mom’s with flowers and compliments. Any bumps on the road have been swiftly dealt. For a matter of fact his personality has never been an issue for any parent, they have loved him as a human, And yet as she stands across the wooden fence, the smell of herbs overpowering the air, a green flat starting at him, he thinks maybe he can just buy crap loads of chocolate for Lucy and cheer her up. Or fries, or burgers, or just good coffee for two days would do. This is perhaps not the best way to spend his early end of shift. And then the strangest thing happens, he receives a text from Lucy, a wallowing cat gif, and he is taken to the morning, a sad sunshine as his passenger, a smile faked out of self pity, an hour of no true crime fiction update. Screw this, he wants to know what happened on the show.
“So you are my daughter senior”.
Slow sips, the tea is actually amazing, would Ms.Chen actually mind sharing the recipe to a mom-daughter relationship intruder? “Yeah, she has been under my supervision for a while, I was first her training officer, and now she is my aide, as I step into the role of Sergeant.”
“Okay, so you trained her. Where is the part explaining why you insist on being in my house?” Nowhere, in fact Tim firmly believed it wouldn’t have existed some months ago.
“Lucy, knows about her biological dad. Don’t load me with questions, that is a conversation you want to have with her first. But she knows, she needed it for something medical and now that secret has seen the light of the day. She is mad at you, and currently she is not the only one.”
“I can assure you, you don’t know the whole story, Sergeant.”
“Of course I don’t, but I think your daughter does need to. She has twisted it into a weird question of her existence. She thinks you resent her, a reminder of everything awful in your life. Do I have all the facts? Nope. Don’t want to pressure you to reveal any. But the earth is round, the sky is blue, and Lucy Chen is the most precious thing to come out of you. She has and will with her passion and goodness, make the world a better place, and make everyone around her an extension of that good. And show them puppy pictures without consent.”
“I know being a cop doesn't earn stars in your diary but your daughter isn’t out there taking lives. She has saved some for sure, civilians and other officers. You don’t believe me? I have got twenty other people, that would say the same for her. Have a talk with her, let her be herself. She is amazing like that. Don’t lose your child over a battle of ego, I need the chatterbox to function properly again. Weirdly she has me hooked over her.”
“So the weirdest of the weirdest things happened to me today. I wake up, eat, get ready for work and bam, the phone goes off. My mother calls me. She apparently wants to sort things out, and wants to tell me about my father. She tells me she could have behaved differently and there was no reason to make this into a lifelong fight. That is the Asian way of sorry. And I am pretty sure, I didn’t imagine it.”
“That's really good. At least we won't get, only powdered donuts for lunch.”
“No need to eat the half today then! But that’s not the only thing I got to know. She also said, next time the rude officer visits my home, tell him to bring a bottle of wine to show manners. “
“I did it for the show okay, you became this eerie quiet version of yourself after learning the show and I have got half a dozen theories about how Taylor was killed. Tell me one of them is right and then go back to living on caffeine and sugar.”
“Tim?”
“Lucy?”
“Thank you, you have no idea what you have given me. You are a good man and I am grateful to be on the receiving end of this goodness.”
“Um, I didn’t do anything-”
“Say you are welcome!”
“You are welcome, ma’am.”
Ah the weather has cleared up and sunshine returns to the shop.
Two years later
“Remember that disaster before ‘dating’ dinner with my mother?”
“The one where I made sure a Chen can murder me in future? No, it doesn't ring any bells.”
“Yeah, yeah. How are you going to convince my mother for my hand baby?”
“Oh shit!”