sweet nothing sleeping
summary: lucy has never been so happy to have fallen in love as she is when she’s falling asleep
pairing: tim bradford/lucy chen
word count: short??? i wrote this on notes app don’t ask me to count
warnings: none
a/n: this was written at *many* a 2am but it was my coping mechanism for the chenford breakup so there will be nothing but fluff and happiness here!! but also sorry in advance for any typos. written for my @morganupstead who gave me this idea ages ago and I just took forever to write it LOL
••• ••• ••• •••
cause they said the end is coming
everyone’s up to something
I find myself running home to your
sweet nothings
She’s had a long day.
The list of grievances wracked up in a single shift has been nothing short of astounding. For example: a man no less than an hour into her first stretch of patrol who puked on her. A bar fight gone horribly wrong, and he was drunk out of his mind so when she showed up at the tail end of a swift punch to the drunkard’s gut then… well, you can figure out the rest. Then another man threatened to sue her and the entire LAPD Mid Wilshire division because he refused to be told by a woman to stop ejaculating in public. Nothing but insufferable misdemeanours one after the other, without end. The robbery homicide tailing the end of her shift was the worst. Lucy doesn’t know what’s more horrible: how violent the young married couple’s death was, or how her first thought was that she wished she could have been the detective on a flashy case like this. Knowing she was even capable of putting her career before her compassion and duty left her gutted.
It leaves her now with a bitter aftertaste of guilt and shame. That coupled with the exhaustion and ridicule of her other calls makes for a particularly dreadful combination. Normally she can see Tim in passing and vent to him about things, but he’d been stuck in some new Metro training program all day. Updated protocol or tactical practice, or whatever they wanted to call it. Based on the state she sees Tim in at the end of one of those days, she’d call it something more akin to torture. It also means she had no support system throughout the day whatsoever apart from Nolan’s typical words of encouragement, which were swell but never substantive.
Since Tamara’s moved out, things have been lonely too. She misses her old roommate. If nothing else, at the end of the day Lucy still had a young and vulnerable kid she had to feed and house and clothe. Cooking for them always felt like a backup ritual, a healing sort of constancy, and that’s gone too.
So she heads to Tim’s. Her foot feels like lead on the gas, pushing down hard and inching dangerously closer to speeding the closer she gets to his place. It’s like her heart can feel the distance closing and misses him even more, the weight of her bad day crushing her heart and leaving spider fractures. A magnetic pull is always at its strongest the minute before contact, after all.
For the most part, Lucy’s been able to hold it together. She’s kept things professional, never complained, held her head high. And even as she trembles with anticipation as she knocks on the door, there’s a part of her refusing to let go of that facade.
She knocks at the door, but there’s no answer. Three louder knocks after a minute of waiting, and still nothing. Only after a third round of knocking does she think to use the spare key he’d given her last month.
“Hi,” Lucy calls out as she enters his place. No immediate response, but that’s no matter. She puts the keys down in his key bowl and hangs up her jacket.
The sound of nails skidding against the floor alert her only seconds in advance to Kojo’s presence. He runs up to her full speed but comes to a screeching halt when he reaches her. With his tail still waving fervently, he tries to sit down. (Tim’s trained him to understand that petting and general affection from guests is contingent upon his very handsome sitting.)
“Kojo! Hey there buddy,” she greets him with a soft laugh, like an old friend. Lucy knows by now, even having owned him once, to scratch him behind his ears. The gesture earns her a right good lick from chin to cheek on the left side of her face.
“Yeah, you’re a good boy, aren’t you? You’re a good boy,” she tells him as she keeps petting him. “Now where’s our Tim?”
She looks around half expecting Tim to appear in the hallway, but no sign of him is to be seen anywhere, save for the sound of his television from the next room. Football. Figures.
“Alright, Sir Kojo, King of the Canines,” she declares, patting him on the head and gently urging him forward by the collar, “let’s see what your dad’s watching.”
The two of them make their way to the family room to see what he’s up to. For a football game, Lucy’s already surprised that he isn’t shouting at the TV and jumping up and down like he normally does.
When she enters the room though, she doesn’t see him watching sports. Instead, she sees a passed-out Tim on the couch, snoring in his Rams jersey, remote loosely balanced in his hand. She tilts her head, curiously soaking in the scene.
She should have expected this. He’s been working as hard as she has lately. Though she isn’t entirely sure as to why, he’s been taking on extra shifts and doing double overtime these past two weeks. God knows he didn’t have the steam for a full game of football. Tack on her unexpected company, and she’s sure she’ll tire him out even more.
But the look of him. The television emits a soft glow that flashes hues of green and blue across his stubbled cheekbones. His head hangs back completely crooked on the headrest, and with the positioning of his arms, Tim’s posed like a dramatic renaissance painting. She can’t help but let out a soft giggle under her breath, and then silences into the brightest of smiles she can give after a day like hers, because nothing about this is funny anymore.
Even drooling, his mere presence soothes her. Lying there, entirely disarmed and peaceful. The world and all its troubles just melt away, dissolve in her mind until only a faint trace of what remains lingers like dust. It’s a beautiful haze Lucy can get stuck in, just standing there and watching him. The tight corners of his mouth, his eyes shut gently, the curve of his neck, the way his hair’s a little shorter right now.
Oh hell. Who is she to disrupt him anyways.
She tiptoes over to the couch and carefully extracts the remote from his hand. Turning the television off to avoid more light and sound will definitely help him sleep. Whether Tim’s asleep or awake, it doesn’t matter. Lucy always sleeps better when she’s next to him.
What doesn’t help Tim sleep, apparently, is Kojo. Having followed Lucy into the room, though she will defend him ferociously and say his heart is in the right place, Kojo makes a beeline for the couch and starts pulling at Tim’s jeans with his sharp canine teeth.
“No! No, Kojo! Bad Kojo, stay back,” she pleads in a whisper pushed out through gritted teeth.
Kojo seems to only get more excited— a sort of escalation which Lucy saw all too frequently in her calls from today. Tim jolts awake almost immediately.
“What the-“ he sits up and pulls his jeans away from Kojo, but then looks up at Lucy, still hovering over him guilty as ever. “Lucy?”
“Sorry.” She winces, finally shooing Kojo away enough to give them more space. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I was trying to put a blanket over you but Kojo got excited.”
“It’s okay,” he assures her, though he’s still rubbing at his eyes. Lucy’s almost certain he’s still half asleep and hasn’t registered the whole situation before him. “I gave you a key for a reason. What are you doing here?”
“I…” She tries to explain it rationally to him, to go through each bad happening chronologically, to compartmentalize. But then, his voice. His sweet, low, milky, humming voice like the pulse of a heart being soothed into a slower rhythm. It’s so steady, so calm. Something about hearing it unlocks a valve within her. She cracks, as she knew she would when she decided to come, and before she knows it she’s crying.
“Hey, hey,” Tim hushes gently, immediately sitting up. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Oh nothing,” she sobs. “I just had a crappy day. I got puked on and yelled at and all this nonsense which I can normally handle but I don’t even know why I’m… why I’m…”
“Don’t question it too much,” he tells her. “Just let it out.”
“Okay.”
And so she does. For a little bit, she just cries. Surprisingly, it’s not sad. The world isn’t ending, nothing is going to go wrong. There is no other shoe about to drop, no real heartbreak, no evil around. These tears are but a release, and there’s a safety to them.
Once she’s done, she wipes at her tears with her sleeves and sniffles.
“Better?”
“Better,” she says, and can really mean it, genuine smile and all. “Thanks.”
“You never have to thank me.”
She nods, but switches the subject. “You never told me how you’re Metro seminar went today.”
“Eh, it was alright,” he says. “Apart from being exhausted and sore all over, of course. We’ve got some new recruits who are… eager.”
She looks at him with loving suspicion. “You went full Tim 1.0 on them, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” he admits with a big huff of relief. “I ran through the drills and protocol updates 36 times because they couldn’t get it right. I didn’t have the heart to just demote them from my team.”
“Tim Bradford not having the heart for a tough love moment? Who are you?” She teases. “Where was this energy 6 years ago?”
“Waiting for you to come along and change it, I guess,” he sighs wistfully. “Always just waiting for you.”
“You’ve gone soft, Sergeant Bradford.” She shakes her head. “People will talk.”
“Let them.”
He pulls her in for a kiss, and it only deepens for a moment, then plateauing into a pleasant and chaste hum before release. His arms pull her into his side and her head finds that perfect spot on his chest to nestle into.
The sigh she lets out is almost a song. “This feels good, being here with you. Feeling at peace.”
“Just wait for it.”
“Huh?”
Lucy doesn’t know how Tim saw this coming, but before even asking she’s given an answer. Kojo jumps up onto the couch and steps on Lucy’s lap to lick her and Tim all over their tired, sweaty faces.
“Argh! Kojo, off!” She squeals, though not so gravely that she can’t laugh in the process. Eventually, with enough shooing, Kojo calms down. He doesn’t leave the couch, but lies down next to them, choosing to rest his head on her lap and make happy little sighs.
“Told you.”
“How did you know he would do that?”
Tim shrugs. “He’s happier when you’re around. Like me.”
Lucy smiles, even when pushing Kojo off of them. “I love you.”
Tim doesn’t respond. Too much time passes. A beat, and then another. She gets worried.
“Tim?”
“Oh so you weren’t talking to the dog then?”
She giggles and smacks him playfully across the chest with the back of her hand. “No! Well I do love him, but he drools. And you’re—“
“Human?”
“The love of my life.”
She watches the ripple of those words dance across his face. Tim smiles, his cheeks turning all shades of pink and red. Though he doesn’t seem scared off by her comment, the surprise of it still shows in his raised eyebrows and subsequent lines in his forehead. The way his head tilts, like he can’t quite believe it. But, above all else, the love in his eyes. And that way he’s looking at her now… sometimes she thinks that’s what life’s all about.
“I know I don’t have to be yours,” she continues. “You know, having been married before and all, but—“
“Don’t think for a second you aren’t,” he lets out, almost like the words couldn’t contain themselves. “You are.”
“Good.” Her turn now: the ridiculous blushing, the smile, the love in her eyes. So much joy.
So much fatigue too though. Being around him, getting to decompress like this, it’s making her crash fast. She yawns, and Tim yawns in subconscious response, and out of his own fatigue.
“I should get going,” Lucy tells him, though her face is still nestled into his sweater and has no intention of leaving. “I really only came over to feel some comfort and decompress but I didn’t bring a change of clothes or anything.”
“Mmm,” he groans in disapproval of the idea. “Stay for a bit.”
“No. No, I’ve… gotta…” She sucks in a deep breath, Tim’s woody scent catching onto her nose. Her eyes flutter and her muscles start to release their tension as the hand which isn’t sprawled across Tim’s chest starts to massage the spot behind Kojo’s ear.
“Oh, maybe just a few minutes…” she tells him hesitantly. “But keep me talking, I don’t want to fall asleep.”
“Ok. What about the rest of your day? You never finished telling me all the things that had you so upset.”
“Well it started when the air conditioning in the shop nearly exploded on me, and then I immediately took my first call at this dive bar before I could get it fixed. But oh, you won’t believe what this one guy did…”
Lucy goes on and on, her eyes growing heavy and her voice growing layers of drowsy rasp, fighting sleep to tell all her stories of woe. The drunkards, the sexist pigs, the violence. Part of her registers Tim’s lack of response or reaction as she tells her stories. Time passes. She talks, and he listens.
“I think it’s better not to dwell on it though,” she concludes eventually. “I’ve felt all I can feel about it for one day. And anyways I… I can barely remember my own anguish now. It feels so far aw—“
She looks up to see him passed out, his breathing a low rumble that threatens snoring. The soft fur under her other hand feels alarmingly still as well, until she looks to the other side and sees Kojo sleeping on her lap.
So much for leaving. She supposes that’s exactly how she wants things anyway. The heartbeats of these two precious boys at the tips of her fingers, nestled right next to hers. Giving her strength, steadying her scattered mind. Under these dim lights and warm blankets and beloved company, she wouldn’t dare move a muscle.
“Oh hell, who was I kidding,” she whispers to him. “I was always going to end up here anyways. With you.”
She rests her head on his chest once more. The last thing she remembers is the rise and fall of Tim’s chest against her hand and the feel of Kojo’s soft fur against her other.
This isn’t a big moment. No fireworks, no heartfelt confessions, no twirls or kisses in the rain. But even as the day ends and the lights go out, she feels love where it dwells best: in a quiet room. And it remains that Lucy has never been so happy to have fallen in love as she is when she’s falling asleep.
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Everyone asks about what we want to see in S6, but I'm curious, what are your wants in general for S6 or beyond? Any particular storylines you'd like to see?
Honestly I'm just beyond grateful that we're getting a season 6! (In terms of renewal, and of course the strikes.)
What I want (also includes things I don't want) under the cut!
Tim and Lucy dance at the wedding!!! (it's a need)
KOJOOOOOOOOOOO
The little things: holding hands, a kiss on the cheek, one coming up and wrapping their arms around the other from behind. Just those soft things that are so easily overlooked, but frankly these little moments often have the biggest impact.
CHENFORD I LOVE YOU! That's the only "big" development I need for them in season 6, mostly because I think it should have happened in season 5.
Oh I lied, other big thing I'd really like to see - Chenford living together. Because let's face it, they already do, so might as well make it official already! (Especially if there's a time jump of any kind. Grown ass adults move faster in relationships than 20-year-olds.)
Aaron lives! (I almost didn't bother including this one since he obviously does, but still)
Development to (if not resolution of) everything that's been brewing regarding Lucy's undercover career. I know everyone has their own (strong) opinions on what they want to happen/where they want this to land, but I just want Lucy to have the career she deserves AND the life that she wants (and I personally don't think she can have both with the current state of things) AND for her and Tim to be in a good place. So ultimately I hope she realizes that UC is not for her - BUT NOT JUST BECAUSE OF TIM, because it goes against her character, because she doesn't want to leave herself, her friends, her life behind... (I could write an essay on this, and... oops apparently I have!)
Related the above, but Lucy to advance in her career. Be that as a detective or some other type of promotion or advancement. Girl has been killing it, she deserves it! (As much as I think having Angela and Nyla AND Lucy as detectives is too many detectives, I would loooove to see that trio kicking ass together!)
More Tim and Angela moments. Aside from Chenford, this is my absolute favourite relationship on the show, I adore their friendship and I'd love to see more of it!
Aaron and Celina to be just friends. Petition for more platonic male-female friendships on TV!! And they just give off BFF energy to me
Genny! Moments with Tim, moments with Lucy, maybe tell us her other kid's name... they made a point of moving her character to Los Angeles, I hope they use her!
No pregnancy for Bailey/Nolan. Congrats to Jenna, but we've had pregnancies every season since season 3 and it's a lot. Plus Nolan wasn't keen a few seasons ago, and he's even older now, and giving the lead character a newborn at home would really fuck with the dynamics. Also petition for more female characters choosing not to have kids, representation matters! (Oops another essay...)
Better integration of the various characters. Lots of people dislike Bailey (I am not one of them), but I personally think the biggest hiccup with her character is that she almost exclusively interacts with Nolan. This cast has incredible chemistry, so I would really like to see them play with that more! What I would give for a ladies night with all these badass women (you know they'll stumble across a crime or something...)
I'm sure there's more, but I've yammered on enough. Aside from these things, I'm just REALLY looking forward to my beloved show coming back. This cast is magical, I love how they manage to keep it light, and I'm excited to see what they have planned for us.
And I'm hoping for some renewed inspiration for fic ideas, too! Oh and that reminds me, my biggest want for season 6? RENEWAL FOR SEASON 7!!!!!!!!
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