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Chapter Text

Welcome to the Los Angeles Police Academy , the colorful brochure exclaims, and Lucy smiles as she looks from the glossy picture of a well landscaped and manicured lawn to the slightly less glossy reality before here. The building still holds all her hopes and dreams inside of it, of course, but the picture was clearly taken a long time ago. 

“Well,” she murmurs, sucking in a long, deep breath before stuffing the brochure into her bag and steeling herself. “Here goes everything.”

She walks into the building behind two men who are talking to each other in hushed, excited voices. One is around her age, twenty-two or twenty-three, while the other seems much older, possibly even old enough to be her father. He has a wide, sweet smile, though, and Lucy thinks that her father would never. 

She sees them eyeing and then following the sign that points all potential recruits toward a large lecture hall lined with tables and chairs facing the podium at the front, and follows them through the double doors and into the bustling room where young men and women are mingling and talking, the excitement palpable as they each find and take a seat. 

The two men sit down in the front, and Lucy figures she’s been following them the whole way in like a creeper, so she may as well bite the figurative bullet and introduce herself to some of her fellow academy recruits. 

She slides herself into the third and final seat at their table and smiles as the younger of the two men turns to greet her. 

“Hey,” she murmurs, offering a little wave that immediately makes her feel a bit silly. “I’m… I’m Lucy Chen.”

The young man turns and holds out a hand. His smile is all teeth and his eyes crinkle as he introduces himself. 

“Hey! I’m Jackson West, and this is John Nolan.”

The older man peeks around Jackson’s arm and grins, holding out his hand as well. Lucy shakes them both, their happiness contagious, and falls into conversation with them easily. 

“I’m following in my fathers footsteps,” Jackson says proudly. “Commander West, IA at Mid-Wilshire. All the men in my family have become part of the LAPD, and I’m excited to join them.”

Lucy smiles and nods politely as she listens. 

“John is just having a midlife crisis,” Jackson continues, and Lucy lets out a genuine laugh as she presses a hand over her mouth, her eyes sparkling with mirth as John begins to protest vehemently. 

He doesn’t have long to defend his honor, however, before possibly the hottest fucking man Lucy has ever seen in her entire life walks to the front of the room, his lips pulled into a deep frown and his large hands resting on his utility belt in a way that should not be as sexy as it is. His long sleeved black t-shirt says Bradford, and she finds that even his name is sexy as he clears his throat. 

She sits at attention immediately. 

“Welcome to the Police Academy,” he grunts, and if his face hadn’t already been first in line to star in all of her naughtiest dreams, his voice sure as hell would be. It’s deep and rough as if he gargles nails for breakfast, and Lucy shivers as he continues talking. “Your academic tests have shown that you have the book knowledge to be here, but the next six months will determine if you have the strength and the resilience to stay. You are going to be put through the wringer, both mentally and physically, and only the strongest of you will continue into the FTO program. I will wash half of you out before you even step foot into a station, and of the half that make it, well… let’s just hope your TOs aren’t as tough as I am.”

Lucy licks her lips absently as her eyes wander the man’s form. He’s muscled but not obscenely so, his arms thick as he crosses them across his chest. His eyebrows are pulled together as he scowls, and his bright blue eyes seem to pierce into her soul as he lets his gaze wander the recruits in the room. 

“Today is just orientation,” he continues, sighing as he reaches into the podium and pulls out a thick binder before dropping it loudly on the table at the very front of the room, causing the rookie sitting there to nearly jump out of their seats. “You’ll get your Rook Books today as well as a class schedule and an overview of what the program will consist of. This afternoon you’ll participate in some physical fitness tests so that I can group you accordingly. I will be in charge of your physical fitness training, which is just as or more important than the classes you’ll have in the morning. We will work on improving strength, endurance, and overall fitness. You can wash out of the academy for not keeping up, so you’d better be prepared to take my classes just as seriously as your lecture classes. Now, as far as today goes —”

He turns as he speaks, his eyes roaming the room, and Lucy’s breath catches when his gaze meets hers, and he frowns when he realizes that she’s been staring. 

At him. 

“Officer…”

Lucy sits up straighter.

“Chen, sir.”

His frown deepens. 

“Pop quiz, Officer Chen. What is police code 148.4?”

Lucy squirms in her seat as he stalks toward her, his impossibly blue eyes boring into hers.

Easy.

“Willfully and maliciously tampers with or breaks fire protection equipment,” she says, offering him a lopsided grin before adding, “Sir.”

“You knew that?” Nolan hisses, his eyes darting between Officer Bradford and Lucy. 

She scoffs. 

“You didn’t?”

Officer Bradford’s eyebrows scrunch together into one as he glares at her from only a few scant inches away. 

“Fine, then. How many commas are on page 73 of your rook book, Officer Chen?”

Lucy's mouth drops open as his frown slowly morphs into a smirk. 

Is she supposed to know this? 

He hasn’t even passed out their rook books yet, for fucks sake! 

“I don’t know, sir,” she admits, her voice loud and strong as it carries across the lecture hall. 

She knows this tactic — knows that he’s trying to establish dominance by giving her a question she has no hope of knowing. 

She won’t let him win, though. 

She’s gone through hell to get here. 

Officer Bradford’s smirk grows.

“Five miles, Boot! Now! On the track. The rest of you, you have until 0900 before orientation starts. I suggest you use that time to get your rook books and start studying them so you don’t end up running like Officer Chen!”

Lucy stands at attention quickly, salutes Officer Bradford, and then jogs out of the room to head toward the track. 

She’s dealt with power tripping assholes all her life. 

Bradford isn’t going to be any different. 

______________________

Lucy slides into a seat next to Nolan and Jackson just as the man at the front of the room begins to talk, his voice a dull, slow droning that she knows is going to put her to sleep long before the three hour orientation is over. 

“You’re a little bit crazy, aren’t you?” Nolan hisses, his eyes on the front of the room but his attention on Lucy who is sweating heavily and still panting a little bit from her unplanned but refreshing five mile run. 

Lucy smiles and shrugs as she takes the rook book he pushes toward her. 

“Maybe just a little bit.”

Nolan chuckles quietly. 

“I like that,” he murmurs with a wink, and Lucy smiles awkwardly before breaking his gaze and opening the thick binder to begin scribbling notes on their class schedule. 

“You’ll have Criminal Law and Constitutional Law for the first four weeks of the program,” their teacher continues, scribbling on an honest to god, old fashioned chalkboard. “Classes change every four weeks, for a total of four months. You’ll have 12 classes total, and a failing grade in any one of them will boot you back to the beginning of the program. Classes run from eight to noon, and then Officer Bradford takes over for your physical fitness training from one until five. This program is difficult, and as I’m sure Officer Bradford warned you this morning, not all of you will make it.”

Speaking of Officer Bradford…

Lucy leans over Nolan to poke Jackson in the side with a pencil. He turns toward her, eyes wide as he rapidly scribbles notes in his own rook book. 

“What’s up with Bradford, anyway?” she asks in a low murmur. “He seems like kind of an asshole. Are all academy teachers like that?”

Jackson darts a glance toward the front of the room, obviously worried about being caught talking and forced to run, and then turns back to Lucy when their teacher continues talking to his chalkboard, barely paying any attention to the recruits. 

“He works at Mid-Wilshire with my dad,” he whispers. “He’s a TO… or at least he was. I guess something happened and he was sent here to teach instead of training, though my father won’t tell me what. But it’s definitely a demotion, so I wouldn’t mess with him. He’s probably pissed about it and out to ruin our lives.”

Lucy chews thoughtfully on the end of her pen as she half listens, half wonders. 

What could Officer Bradford have done to deserve a demotion? 

And does she want to get on his bad side? 

She kind of liked the spark she’d seen in him this morning, and the way he’d approached her and yelled at her had caused something warm and funny to happen in her belly. 

She kind of wants to poke at him again, just to see what happens. 

______________________

After what is possibly the most boring three hours of her life (and god Lucy hopes their actual classes have teachers who speak in more than a monotone), Lucy finds herself on the mat in the training room, stretching and trying to ignore Nolan’s eyes on her. 

It’s clear he’s interested, but he’s old enough to be her father, for fucks sake. 

And besides, she can’t focus on Nolan when Officer Bradford is pacing back and forth, eagle eyes on the recruits as they warm up for their first test. 

“Officers will be paired together,” Bradford announces after all twenty two of them are lined up along the wall. “And just because you’re small or a woman, don’t expect me to take it easy on you. I will be purposely pairing you with people who are larger and stronger than you because that’s the job. So, to that end, Chen, you’re up first and you’re with Nolan.”

Nolan grins as he steps onto the mat.

Lucy blows out a breath and shakes out her arms as she joins him.

Officer Bradford doesn’t give them any instructions other than, “Pin your opponent,” before he steps back and crosses his arms, his lips pressed into a straight line as he observes. 

Lucy knows he’s watching to see what they can do, what they already know, and she’s determined not to disappoint him. 

She pins Nolan within thirty seconds, but when she glances at Officer Bradford, he’s not impressed. 

He’s angry. 

“Officer Nolan!”

Nolan scrambles to his feet and stands at attention. 

“Yes sir!”

“You held back. You took it easy on Officer Chen.”

“I— I didn’t,” Nolan stammers, his eyes wide. 

Lucy scoffs. 

Yes, he had. 

“Yes, you did,” Officer Bradford snaps, stalking toward them. “You held back and let her pin you, which is not only stupid as all hell because this is going on your record, but also incredibly disrespectful to Officer Chen. Do you think she’s weak!?”

Nolan’s mouth falls open as he glances between Officers Bradford and Lucy. 

“No, I —”

Bradford doesn’t give him a chance to formulate a full response before he’s in his face, voice loud enough to have every Officer in the room standing at attention, hanging onto his every word. 

“Because what you just did caused me to lose all respect for you. Stand back, recruit, and watch.”

Lucy’s mouth goes dry as Officer Bradford steps into the mat with her. He faces her and she feels her heart thump heavily in her chest as he nods, his hands up and clenched into fists as he begins to circle her slowly, like a predator after his prey. 

“I’m going to win,” he warns her, and Lucy has absolutely no doubt that he will. “But I think that you can hold your own or you wouldn’t be here, Officer Chen.”

Lucy nods, licking her dry lips as she ducks and aims a hit at Tim’s stomach. 

She’s smaller and faster, and quick on her feet. 

She doesn’t win, in the end, but she hardly expected to. 

She does hold out far longer than she’d anticipated, though, spinning out of Officer Bradford’s grasp multiple times and even getting in a few quick hits to his incredibly muscled stomach. He’s breathing hard by the time he pins her, one thigh between hers and both of her wrists held tightly in one of his hands, and she considers it an accomplishment that she’s made him break a sweat. 

He grins down at her, the first thing even close to resembling a smile that she’s seen from him. 

“Good work,” he whispers, his words of praise just for her, and then he’s standing just as quickly as his words had taken her breath away, offering her a hand. She accepts it, her fingers clammy and her heart racing, and lets her skin linger against his as he tugs her off of the mat and back to her, admittedly weak, feet. 

Officer Bradford turns to address the recruits. 

“Officer Chen didn’t beat me, and I didn’t expect her to. She is not weak, but any man who looks at a woman and assumes weakness is. Officer Nolan, that was strike one. Do not let me give you a strike two.”

Lucy climbs off the mat with shaking knees, accepts the water bottle that Jackson hands to her, and watches with Tim’s words of praise echoing in her head as the next two recruits take their place. 

She’ll do anything, she thinks, to hear Tim whisper good work to her again. 

This is going to be an interesting six months. 

Chapter Text

Lucy ain’t afraid to admit that she’s more tired and sore than she’s ever been by the end of the day. She’s strong and can hold her own, of course, but the fact of the matter is that she’s half the size of most of the other recruits and had spent multiple hours being tossed around by men twice her size because Officer Bradford had told them that if they assumed she was weak and took it easy on her, they’d lose his respect. 

It’s maybe the first time she’s ever been taken seriously as a woman who’s on the shorter side (short er, not short, thank you very much) and she’s having conflicting feelings about it.

On one hand, she’s finally being taken seriously. 

On the other hand, she’d eaten the mat a lot this afternoon.

So it’s with very sore muscles that she opens her apartment, tosses her keys on the table, and heads straight for the bathtub to soak her aches and pains away. 

After a very long bath that does wonders for her body but little for her spinning mind, she crawls into bed at 8:30pm and opens her phone to the group chat she’d created with Jackson and Nolan, determined to learn more about her intriguing (and hot as fuck) teacher. 

To: Jackson West, John Nolan
From: Lucy Chen
Tell me more about Officer Bradford. 

The chat explodes immediately, and Lucy chuckles to herself as she turns off her light and gets comfortable under the blankets, sighing at the feeling of silk sheets against her naked thighs. She likes to sleep in just a large t-shirt and panties, and she’s reminded exactly why as she melts into her mattress. 

From: John Nolan
To: Lucy Chen, Jackson West
I don’t know if we should be talking about this, guys. 

From: Jackson West
To: Lucy Chen, John Nolan
Don’t be a wet towel, John. So, I got some more information from my dad, but not much.
Bradford was a TO for thirteen years, and he’s washed out more rookies than he’s passed.
My dad says he was one of the best. Tough, but fair. 

Lucy frowns as she stares at the messages. 

If he was such a good TO, what did he do to get demoted? Did he sexually harass someone? 

No, she thinks. 

She can’t imagine him doing that. 

Maybe he broke a rule? 

She can’t really see him doing that, either, though… 

From: Lucy Chen
To: Jackson West, John Nolan
What did he do to end up at the academy? 

The three dots that show Jackson is typing appear and then disappear several times while Lucy waits, her lip caught between her teeth. 

From: Jackson West
To: John Nolan, Lucy Chen
My dad wouldn’t say. I guess, whatever it is that he did,
it’s kept pretty quiet even from everyone at the station.

From: John Nolan
To: Lucy Chen, Jackson West
Which is exactly why we shouldn't be poking our noses into it.
Officer Bradford is entitled to his privacy.
Besides, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be washed out of the program,
and I have a feeling if he knew we were talking about him, Bradford would kick us out in a heartbeat. 

Lucy sighs — of course John is a bit of a goody two-shoes — and sends one final message before putting her phone on her bedside table.

From: Lucy Chen
To: Jackson West, John Nolan
Fine, we’ll drop it for now. But he’s damn good at what he does, so it makes me so curious what happened. You have to admit it’s intriguing. 

Her phone pings twice but she doesn’t pick it up — she already knows it’ll be Jackson agreeing and John making some comment about it not being their business. 

And he’s right — it’s not their business. 

But it doesn’t mean she doesn’t wonder. 

____________________

Lucy slides into her seat with seconds to spare, morning coffee clutched tightly in her hand. 

Officer Bradford walks into the room mere moments later, and Lucy blows out a breath as she watches him make his way to the podium. 

Her memory really doesn’t do him justice.

He’s even more beautiful than she remembers. 

His signature frown is back as he surveys the room and notes the three empty seats that were definitely not empty yesterday. 

“Well, looks like not everyone was cut out to be here,” he grunts, sighing as he turns on the screen and picks up the remote before clicking to a page that has a schedule on it. “For those of you that made it to day two, congratulations, it only gets harder from here. Classes start today and this is your schedule. Each morning we’ll have morning announcements at 0800. At your station, you’ll have Roll Call during this time. This little morning meeting we do is meant to mimic it though of course we go over different information. You’ll have a break until your first class during which I strongly suggest you study your rook book. From 9:00 until 10:30 you’ll have Criminal Law, and from 10:45 to 12:15 you have Constitutional Law. Lots of information will be thrown at you and yes, we do expect you to memorize it all. I am your afternoon physical fitness teacher, and these first four weeks we will work on physical training and firearms training. I will not take it easy on you, because I plan to graduate Rookies that I would be proud to train. I’ve been a TO for thirteen years, and I’ve washed out more rookies than I’ve passed.”

Lucy gives Jackson a high five under the table for his impressive information sniffing skills, smirking as Nolan rolls his eyes. 

“Do you have any questions?”

Officer Bradford is glaring at them as if daring them to ask a question and, well, Lucy has never backed down from a dare. 

She raises her hand and ignores the groan from her two new friends. 

Officer Bradford sighs a sigh of the long suffering. 

“Yes, Officer Chen?”

Lucy bites the inside of her lip as she considers her words — and prepares to run laps again. 

“Officer Bradford, why are you no longer training rookies?”

Nolan nearly chokes on his own spit and Jackson makes a noise several decibels above what humans can naturally hear as they wait for Officer Bradford to answer. 

Officer Bradford, however, keeps his expression neutral as he walks down the aisle, hands resting on his duty belt in a way that’s somehow gotten sexier since yesterday. 

“Have I done or said anything, Officer Chen, that makes you think I am open to talking about my personal life with you?”

Lucy shakes her head slowly. 

“No, sir, but this is a question about your professional life, not your personal life."

Officer Bradford’s nostrils flair. 

It’s a minute movement, but Lucy counts it as a win, anyway. 

“Ten miles, Officer Chen! NOW!”

Lucy hops up from her seat and salutes Officer Bradford. 

“Yes, sir!”

She doesn’t glance back as she jogs out of the room, and she has to fight a smile as she heads toward the track. 

_____________________

She’s in the middle of her sixth mile when Officer Bradford walks onto the track, now dressed in sweats and his long-sleeved t-shirt, and she nearly stumbles over her own feet as he sets his water bottle down and falls into step a few feet behind her. 

He doesn’t speak and neither does she, though she is very aware of his presence as his feet pound the dirt in rhythm with hers. He doesn’t overtake her or yell directions, and Lucy makes a special effort to speed up, to keep a good pace as she breathes in through her nose and out through her mouth. 

She may not be able to beat any of these men on the mat (yet), but she’s always been a runner, ever since she discovered that it was 1) something her parents approved of, and 2) something that got her out of the house for extended periods of time. 

She finishes her ten miles only minutes before her first class, and she slows down to cool off on the final lap as Officer Bradford finally falls into step right beside her instead of behind her. 

“You kept pace the whole ten miles.”

It’s not a question, but Lucy answers anyway as they finish the last quarter mile at a sedate pace, working to lower her heart and respiration rate.

“Yes, sir,” she gasps. “I’ve been a runner for years.”

“Hmm.”

He tosses her a water bottle and a towel as they head off of the track, and then reaches for his own as he regards her carefully. 

“You’re playing with fire, Rookie,” he murmurs, his blue eyes piercing hers as he takes a long drink, his adam's apple bobbing as he swallows. “It’s clear you want to be here, that you deserve to be here. But if you want to stay, you need to learn your place.”

A rush of warmth travels through Lucy’s entire body and settles between her legs at his gruff, stern words.

“Yes, sir,” she says, not breaking his gaze as she takes another drink to wet her suddenly dry throat. “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll keep it professional from now on.”

Officer Bradford looks at her like he doesn’t believe her for a single second, and then nods once before he opens the door and lets her walk inside ahead of him. 

“See that you do,” he murmurs. “Or you’re going to be running a lot more often, and a lot further, too, because now that I know running is something you’re good at, I’m going to push you a lot harder.”

You can push me anywhere you want, Lucy thinks, but thankfully her brain-to-mouth filter engages and she manages to keep the words inside her head, and instead of sexually propositioning her teacher, she simply nods as he walks off in the direction of the locker rooms. His long fingers are running over the buzzed hair on the top of his head as he goes, his skin is sparkling with a light sheen of sweat, and Lucy has to bite back a moan as she downs the rest of her water in one long gulp.

____________________

“You are insane.”

Lucy grins as she slides into the seat Jackson has saved for her. He pushes her rook book toward her, and then nods toward the front of the room where their teacher has already written his name and the page numbers they’ll be referencing today on the chalkboard. 

“I was just curious.”

Nolan leans back in his chair and catches her eye behind Jackson’s head. 

“I told you, whatever happened to land him here is none of our business,” he says, frowning. 

Lucy just shrugs, and is opening her mouth to respond when their teacher turns and regards them with a tight smile.

“Welcome to your first class, recruits,” he drawls. “I’m Officer Jones and I’ll be teaching your Criminal Law class for the next several weeks. There will be a test at the end, and anything less than an 80 is an automatic fail. Be prepared to study and study hard, because we have to get through the entirety of Part 1 of the California Penal Code by the end of the month. There’s a reason that the program has Criminal Law as one of your first classes, and it’s because a good portion of you will be cut after this class. We have penal codes 25 through 680.4 to memorize, and not a lot of time to do it in. So, get our your pens.”

Lucy grimaces as she notes the extensive number of pages of her rook book that cover Part 1, which is titled Of Crimes and Punishments. 

Officer Jones begins jotting on the board as he talks, and Lucy’s pencil flies across her page in an attempt to keep up as all thoughts of Officer Bradford leave her mind, only to be replaced by endless information about state penal codes.

“Today we’ll be going over titles 1 through 3, which cover penal codes 25 through 38. Penal codes 25 through 38 are preliminary and cover definitions of legal terms rather than definitions of, or punishments for, any specific crimes. We will…”

Lucy finds that she's smiling as she writes, though, her body buzzing with energy and her heart still thumping heavily in her chest. 

This is exactly where she wants to be, and she’s not going to let Officer Bradford or any of the other teachers here scare her away. 

Chapter Text

By the second Monday of their Academy class, Lucy has become quite certain of three things:

1. Not everyone is cut out to be a cop. They’re down to 17 in their class 
2. Holy shit there are a lot of penal codes, and 
3. Her little… attraction to Officer Bradford is going to become a problem. 

They’re on mile four of their daily after lunch run, and she’s fallen into being a sort of cheerleader for her remaining classmates. Some are runners like she is, but most definitely need to build the strength and endurance that Officer Bradford lectures them on daily. 

“Come on, you got this!” she yells, running backward for a moment to offer Higgins a smile. He’s older like Nolan, and he’s out of shape enough that he’s beginning to fade and probably close to washing out. He keeps up in class, but he’s been struggling heavily in physical training. 

Officer Bradford, however, takes a slightly different approach to encouragement than she does. 

“Come on, Higgins! If you don’t cross that finish line before I do, you’re done!”

Higgins honest to god whimpers and Lucy grimaces as Officer Bradford passes her easily and leaves Higgins in his dust.

Sixteen.

They’re down to sixteen, now. 

Lucy speeds up for her last mile, just in case Bradford gets any ideas about washing her out, and she’s only a few steps behind Officer Bradford when she crosses. 

Higgins is only halfway through his fifth mile, paused in the middle of the track and breathing hard with his hands on his knees. 

Bradford scowls. 

Lucy takes a long drink from her water bottle and wipes sweat from her forehead. 

“Are you really going to wash him out?” she asks, even though she knows she should keep her mouth closed. 

Bradford’s gaze snaps to her and she grimaces, mentally preparing to run extra laps. 

But he doesn’t yell.

Instead, he just sighs. 

“Yes. It’s been a week and his mile time has gotten slower. He’s not ready. He can train and reapply next year.”

Lucy hums as they watch Nolan and Jackson as well as a handful of others pass the finish line. 

And then, because she has no self preservation skills, she continues talking. 

“Why wash him out, though? We have fifteen weeks. He could be ready by then.”

Officer Bradford’s scowl deepens. 

“Because I have washed out many rookies in my years as a training officer that never should have made it to the FTO program to begin with. They put my life and others lives in danger, and if I can keep a TO from getting shot on their rookie’s first day, I’m damn well going to do it.”

Lucy’s next question has to do with whether he’s ever been shot, but before she can ask, he’s yelling. 

“Two more miles, recruits! If you don’t finish before it’s time for firearms training, you’re out, too!”

Lucy takes off immediately, her heart thumping heavily because he actually answered her questions! Given, she’s like 90% sure these two extra miles are her fault, but he’d talked to her! 

“This is your fault,” Nolan accuses her. 

Jackson and Nolan huff and puff up to her, and Nolan groans as he sucks in a deep breath. 

“Or Higgins,” Jackson murmurs, eyebrows raised as Bradford jogs over to where Higgins is stalled on the track. He hasn’t even finished his original five laps, and Lucy doesn’t think he’s going to. 

“Regardless,” Nolan huffs. “You have to stop poking at him, Lucy. It’s not professional.”

Lucy rolls her eyes. “He hasn’t washed me out yet. He hasn’t even threatened it. If I cross a line, I’ll know. Besides… he’s kind of hot when he’s mad.”

Jack fist bumps her as they run in tandem. 

“I know that’s right,” he says.

Nolan sighs again. 

“You cannot talk about your training officer like that!” he hisses as they approach Bradford and Higgins. Higgins is clearly upset, and Bradford is talking to him in a soft, low voice. Lucy doesn’t catch much, but she hears Bradford tell him that he can reapply again in the spring and that he’d be proud to train him when he’s ready. Higgins nods, and Lucy snaps her head forward as she passes them. 

“As long as Officer Hotpants can’t read my mind, we’re good,” she says, because what happens between her and her hand after training isn’t hurting anyone. 

“I think he’s married,” Nolan scoffs, scandalized. 

Lucy shrugs, though she has noticed the ring he wears around his neck and wondered about it more than once. 

Why not his finger? 

Is that significant? 

“I’m allowed to notice things, Nolan,” she finally murmurs.  “He’s hot. It’s not flirting — it’s a damn fact. He’s attractive and his voice does things to me. If that offends you, that’s your issue, not mine.”

She picks up her pace, leaving Nolan and Jackson in the dust as she runs. 

She doesn’t want to think about Nolan being old fashioned and disapproving right now. 

She doesn’t even want to think about what Officer Bradford’s ass looks like in his sweats. 

Instead, she wants to think about the tone of voice he’d used when he’d been talking with Higgins. 

He’d been kind.

Encouraging. 

Nice, even. 

Huh. 

It’s a whole new side of him she hasn’t seen. It adds layers to the man she’s getting to know (against his will), and she lets herself wonder what other sides there are to Officer Bradford as she pushes herself to run faster than she has before. 

She finishes an entire lap ahead of the others, and Officer Bradford raises an eyebrow at her as he tosses her a plastic water bottle. She catches and downs half of it, wiping a hand across her mouth before noticing Higgins isn’t on the track anymore. 

Bradford notices her noticing, and the left side of his mouth quirks up as he crosses his arms over his chest. 

“He’s going to reapply again next semester and devote himself to training for the next few months. He’ll be fine.”

Lucy nods, shocked that Bradford is speaking to her without prompting, and finishes her water bottle. 

“Okay.”

Bradford grunts and eyes the rest of the recruits struggling to finish their run before returning his gaze to her and sizing her up slowly. 

She feels heat crawl up her spine as his eyes drag over her, and she suppresses a shiver as he nods slowly. 

“The one point five mile running record is 9:31. Beat it, rookie.”

He turns and walks off, but a challenge has been given, and Lucy fully intends to meet it. 

________________________

That afternoon finds Lucy with one of the sixteen remaining recruits on the sparring mat. He’s twice her size, a good foot taller than her, and somehow, she’s managed to pin him on the mat twice. 

“We’re working on getting out of a chokehold, Herrold!” Officer Bradford yells. “So choke her!”

Lucy nearly chokes on her own spit at his words, gruff and angry, and vows to spend some quality time reflecting on her kinks later tonight when she has some time to herself. 

“I’m trying, Officer Bradford,” Herrold says, visibly sweating as he runs an arm across his forehead and takes a step back from Lucy. “She’s just… she’s fast.”

“I’m not that fast,” Lucy says, shaking her arms out before they try again. She bounces back and forth on her feet, feeling her body, her muscles, and taking stock of every part of herself, of each ache and pain and stretch that wasn’t there before. She closes her eyes and sucks in a deep breath before opening them again and pinning Herrold with a glare. “Do not take it easy on me, okay?”

Herrold swallows and nods, but in less than a minute, Lucy has him pinned again. 

“Oh, for fucks sake —”

Officer Bradford stomps onto the mat and pushes Herrold away. He stumbles and then high tails it back to the group of recruits watching from the sidelines. 

“I will show you, then. Watch carefully — being put in a chokehold is dangerous, and it’s essential you know how to get out of one. If you don’t know how, you’re dead. You will all, at some point in your career, have the arms of a man larger and stronger than you around your throat. If you doubt that, remind me to introduce you to The Hammer.”

He’s addressing the whole class but his eyes are on Lucy as he speaks. 

“If you don’t know how to escape, that’s the end. You cannot rely on backup. You cannot rely on your partner. You can only rely on yourself, so remember the four steps. Write them down a hundred times. Recite them in the shower. I don’t care how you do it — just memorize them. Now, Chen, I’m going to put you in a chokehold. Is that okay?”

Lucy nods, swallowing thickly as Tim steps closer to her after asking for consent. 

“Yes, sir.”

He reaches out and spins her around, and Lucy feels dizzy at the ease at which he moves her. 

His hand stays on her shoulder as he addresses the recruits. 

“Now, the difference between a chokehold and a headlock is that the chokehold restricts air. It is generally considered the more dangerous of the two because it can cause significant damage, including loss of consciousness, damage to the trachea, and even death. I am going to actually restrict Officer Chen’s air because I want her to feel the panic of a real life situation. However, if she is unable to break out of my hold within twenty seconds, I will release her. I am not going to harm her.”

Lucy can’t see Officer Bradford’s face, but she feels his fingers tighten on her shoulder. 

She trusts him. 

“Okay,” she whispers, nodding, and then his arm is sliding from her shoulder and around her throat. He pushes her down until her back is bowed and her gaze is on the floor, his feet swimming in her vision. 

“I’m tightening my grip now, Officer Chen.”

Lucy tries to nod, but before he can, his strong, muscled arm is contracting around her throat and suddenly she can’t take a deep breath — or any breath — anymore. 

The panic he’d warned her of sets in immediately, but louder than the panic is his voice. 

The four steps, Chen! What are they?

She blinks and tries in vain to suck another breath in as she turns her head. 

Step one, she thinks. Turn your head toward your attacker to clear your airway. 

She turns her head, and the move allows a minuscule amount of air into her lungs as the pressure is removed from her trachea and carotid. She blinks past the fuzziness already clouding her vision and clenches her fist. 

Step two: stun your attacker. 

Officer Bradford grunts into her ear when her fist makes contact with his groin, and she sends a prayer up to a god she doesn’t believe in that he doesn’t wash her out for punching him in the nuts. 

Step three: reach for your attackers head. 

She slides her free hand out from between her and Officer Bradford’s body and uses it to push her hand into his face. Her fingers spread out and dig into his flesh, lips and nose and eyes, and she hears another grunt escape his lips as he tightens his hold and tries to get her back under control. 

Before he can, though, she employs a method that Ms. Congeniality had taught her when she was thirteen combined with step four: stand up and attack, and mentally prepares herself to either get her bonus points or earn ten more miles on the track. 

She shoves her elbow into Officer Bradford’s solar plexus, lifts her foot up and grinds her heel into his instep, pushes the heel of her left hand into his nose, and then spins away from his hold and knees him in the groin. 

He goes down hard on the mat and Lucy grins. 

Silence — utter, deafening silence — descends over the training room. 

“Oh shit,” Jackson whispers. 

Lucy holds out a hand toward Officer Bradford as she breathes raggedly, her free hand rubbing her throat where his arm had been against it only moments before. 

Bradford rolls over on the mat, one arm over his face as he tries to recover from not one, but two hits to the groin. His eyes are closed and it looks like he's in actual pain, and she feels just a teeny, tiny bit bad about the second groin hit.

She grimaces. 

“I’m sor—”

“Don’t you dare apologize,” Officer Bradford grunts, sitting up and taking her hand. She pulls him up and they stand there, his intense blue eyes boring into hers, her skin tingling everywhere his touches it. “You just saved your own life, Officer Chen, and now every single one of your classmates is going to repeat what you just did. But for the love of god, let me get my cup first.”

Lucy chuckles, her cheeks bright red as a small grin flashes across Officer Bradford’s face. 

He shakes her hand once and then drops it. 

“Good job, Officer,” he murmurs, and then leaves her on the mat, flushed, her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest. 

Chapter Text

9:32. 

It’s impossible. 

Lucy is huffing and puffing as she stops and checks her watch, the light shining on her face as the sun sets in the background. 

11:12.

How is she going to cut her time by almost two minutes? 

It feels like a test, though, and she doesn’t want to disappoint Officer Bradford. She wants to do what he told her to do, and to hear a good job in response. She wants to see the pride on his face, and feel the warmth in her stomach that she feels each time he praises her. 

She’s become a little but addicted, it seems, to the gruff way he speaks and the intensity of his gaze, and regardless of the fact that it’s a terrible idea to become infatuated with her training officer, she doesn’t feel very inclined to do anything about it. 

She wants to please him.

So, here she goes again. 

“You got this, Chen,” she grunts, and she blows out a break as she resets her stop watch and takes off, feet hitting the dirt in a rhythmic pattern as the sun finishes setting and the lights over the outside track flicker on.

She knows she won’t beat her time tonight — she’s already tired — but she needs to push herself, to relish the ache, and to build her stamina. 

She’s at the mile mark when a second pair of feet begin pounding the dirt beside her, and she whips her head to the she in shock. 

Officer Bradford. 

He’s wearing sweats and a white T-shirt, his muscles bulging in the arms, and she nearly stumbles over her own feet as he flashes her a small smile. 

“What’s your time?”

Lucy glances down at her watch. 

“Just passed one mile. I’m at 7 minutes, 32 seconds,” she huffs. “My last mile and a half time was 11:12.”

Officer Bradford hums as he slides into step beside her, no longer running behind her as he normally does during the day. 

“That’s a minute off your intake time.”

Lucy’s lips fall open in surprise — both that she’s made so much improvement in such a short amount of time, and also because Officer Bradford has her mile and a half intake time memorized!

He doesn’t speak again or offer any further insight, and Lucy tries to put him out of her mind as she runs. She tries not to let them distract her with the way he breathes or the way his body moves next to hers. For all his bulk and intimidating presence, he’s light on his feet as he runs, smooth in the same way he is when he fights. 

He reaches out to tap her waist when she reaches the 1.5 mile marker, surprising her,  and she slows, hitting stop on her watch as she breathes deeply, her chest burning and her legs aching. 

“11:06,” she says, and Bradford nods as he stops beside her and stretches one arm over the other. Lucy lets her eye wander him in the darkness, and she bites her lip as his t-shirt rides up and reveals a trail of dark, curly hair that leads into the dark green sweats riding low on his hips. 

Goddamn, she wants to follow that trail of hair with her tongue. 

“Good,” he says, though his tone is flat and lacking the praise that she craves. “But you can do better. Again.”

Lucy glances at her watch and nearly groans — it’s 9:37 pm, and she has class bright and early in the morning. 

But then she looks up and sees Officer Bradford watching her with a challenge in his gaze, and she gives in more easily than she’d readily admit to anyone. 

“Race me,” she murmurs, and he grins as he drops his arms back to his sides, his T-shirt sliding back into place. He nods sharply, she resets her watch, and then they're off, breath puffing in the cool night air and feet pounding the ground as they round the track. 

Bradford runs close to her, his arm brushing hers every once in a while as they gain and pass each other in turn, his longer legs giving him an advantage but her tenacity helping her keep pace. She notices he speeds up every once in a while, and she has to push herself even more to keep up, to pass him after he passes her. 

It’s a give and take of hard breaths, sweaty skin, and electricity running through her veins and making her shudder each time he brushes his skin against hers. 

By the time Bradford slows down and touches his hand to the small of her back to tell her to stop her watch, every muscle she owns is aching, screaming in a way that she knows is going to make their daily run much, much harder in the morning. 

But…

“10:31,” she murmurs, awe in her tone.

She looks up, her gaze meeting Officer Bradford’s, and her heart nearly drops as he smiles at her.

Not a little grin or a smirk.

A smile.

He leans in, his lips stretched in a way that makes her pulse thready and her head fuzzy. 

“You, Officer Chen, just need someone to challenge you. I knew you could do it. This is good. Very good. But I know you can do even better.”

Lucy nods breathlessly, unable to tear her gaze away from Bradford’s even though every moment she spends staring into his blue eyes causes her to grow more and more lightheaded. 

“Go home now,” he commands, finally taking a step back and letting her breathe. “Rest. And come back tomorrow ready to show these other recruits how it’s done.”

He’s already walking off of the track when her brain reboots, and it’s to the mostly empty air that she murmurs, “yes, sir.”

He tosses a wave over her shoulder and she grins, her face flushed as she takes a long drink of water. 

Officer Bradford had come out to the academy track, after hours, to run with her and push her further than she thought she could go. 

She almost reaches for her phone to message Jackson and Nolan, but, well… 

She kind of wants to keep this all to herself. 

_______________________

“Your arms are shaking.”

Lucy grunts and does not dignify Jackson’s comment with an answer. 

Her arms are shaking because she’s running off of five hours of sleep and she ran like twenty miles yesterday.

So sue her. 

“Yeah, don’t wanna get washed out, Luce,” Nolan says from where he’s spotting her on her left. “Gotta keep up.”

Lucy tossed him a look because Luce?  

No. 

Not from him. 

They barely know each other. 

“I’m bench pressing a hundred and thirty five pounds. How much are you doing?” she says, her eyes narrowing as she glances up at the older man. He flushes and stammers for a moment, and Lucy chuckles as she lifts the bar back into the rest. She sits when she’s done, wiping a towel over her forehead. 

“Your turn, John.”

Nolan sits and lays back as Lucy takes up position to spot him. She catches Jackson’s eye and grins, nodding her head toward where Officer Bradford is observing one of their classmates, a young woman who has proven she’s just as fierce as Lucy but much quieter. 

“Officer Bradford is looking particularly delicious today,” Jackson notes. 

Lucy nods. 

“Looks like a new haircut maybe?”

“Fresh buzz,” Jackson agrees, nodding. “Buzz, buzz, baby!”

Nolan grunts as he replaces the 145 pound weight he’s benching. 

“You’re both on that again? For the last time—”

Lucy snorts; she doubts it’s going to be the last time John Nolan lectures them on thirsting over their academy teacher. 

“— this is inappropriate. He’s our teacher.”

“Oh, get the stick out of your ass, man,” Jackson says, rolling his eyes. “We’re just looking.”

Lucy scoffs as Nolan does another rep with the weight. He pushes it up with effort, blows out a breath, and lowers it once more. 

“Would it be more appropriate if we were thirsting over another recruit instead of a teacher?” she asks.

Nolan huffs and puffs. “Of course it would be!” 

Lucy rolls her eyes despite the fact that she knows he’s right. 

It’s just less fun if it’s not Bradford she’s staring at. 

She doesn’t have a chance to tell Nolan as much before Bradford is walking over, signature frown on his lips as he eyes Nolan up in a decidedly not fun way. 

“You’re pressing a hundred forty five?” he asks, eyebrow raised. 

Nolan turns red. 

“J-just a warmup, sir,” he grunts, though Lucy knows Bradford doesn’t miss the way he struggles to bring the bar back up. 

“Uh huh.”

Nolan’s flush deepens as he sits up, sweat running down his temple. 

Lucy shifts on her feet, trying not to stare too blatantly at Bradford, who turns to Jackson after eyeing Nolan for a moment longer. 

“You?”

Jackson stutters for a long moment before blurting, “170, s-sir.”

Bradford nods and turns to Lucy. 

He doesn’t even have to speak.

“Normally 150. Today 135.”

Bradford raises an eyebrow. 

“Why the change?”

Lucy shifts on her feet.

“I’m sore, sir.”

Bradford’s frown deepens.

“You’re not challenging yourself. Nolan, up. Chen, 150, twenty reps. Now!”

Lucy flushes and moves quickly to follow his directions. She adds an additional five pound weight to what Nolan had been pressing, lays down, and glances up to see who will be spotting her. 

Officer Bradford stares down at her from where he’s standing behind the bench, blue eyes intense, muscles flexing. 

“Go, Officer Chen,” he murmurs, and Lucy nods as Bradford stares down at her and Nolan and Jackson watch, mouths open, eyes wide. 

Lucy drops the bar and pushes it back up, blowing out a breath as the muscles in her arms burn. 

“Again.”

She pushes the bar up again, arms aching but fire burning in her veins. 

Bradford’s eyes follow her movements, eagle eyes on the bar in case he needs to step in.

He doesn’t. 

Lucy finishes twenty and continues, her arms aching but in a good way.

It feels good to do this, to watch Officer Bradford’s lips slowly stretch into a smile as she pushes herself past his expectations and further. 

She stops at thirty and sits up, a thin sheen of sweat covering her whole body.

Bradford rounds the bench and crosses his arms over his chest as he stares at her. 

“Good,” he murmurs, his voice deep and thick as he eyes her. “Challenge yourself, Officer Chen, every day, every time, and you’ll go far.”

He walks off without saying anything to Nolan or Jackson and Lucy watches him go, watches the way his ass flexes in his sweats and the muscles of his back ripple under the material of his shirt. 

“Shiiiiit, that was hot,” Jackson whispers. 

Nolan hums in agreement, but he’s not staring after Bradford. Instead he’s staring at Lucy, at the sweat on her skin and the way her chest rises and falls with her breath. 

Lucy grimaces and realizes that, sooner or later, she’s going to have to do something about this little crush of his. 

Right now, though, all she can think about is Bradford’s blue eyes on her and the way he’d murmured good in his deep, rough voice. 

______________________

Their last hour of the day is devoted to firearms, which is, unfortunately, Lucy’s weakest area.

She grimaces as her bullet flies past the target without even hitting it. 

Fuck. 

If Officer Bradford could see her, he’d be so disappointed. 

“Chen.”

Double fuck. 

Speak of the devil and he will appear. 

She turns around slowly to see Officer Bradford standing behind her, eyes on her target. 

The target she’s only managed to hit three times. 

“I’m sorry, sir,” she says, swallowing thickly as she points her gun at the ground, her finger pressing to the cool metal beside the chamber as she removes her fingers from active firing position. “Firearms are my weakest area, but I swear I’m practicing.”

Bradford’s jaw clenches for a moment as he nods. 

“Part of it is your stance,” he says, and then he’s reaching out and touching her again, his hands on her shoulders as he angles her body. He slides one large hand down her arm once her shoulders are in position, raising her gun hand for her.

“You want me to…? Yeah, okay…”

Lucy swallows hard, her throat bobbing as Bradford’s hand lifts her wrist. 

“Grip the handle and let your pointer finger run parallel to the barrel,” he murmurs, his voice hot in her ear as she hurries to follow his directions. "Don’t place your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.”

Lucy nods; she knows that much, at least. 

“Now, use your non-dominant hand to support. Put your index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers under the trigger guard, around your dominant hand.”

Bradford’s voice is like smooth butter in her ear, and as his fingers guide hers into place, she can’t help but notice how long and thick they are. 

“Feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent,” he continues, and Lucy is wholly unprepared for how he slides one thigh between hers and kicks her legs apart. She nearly stumbles but manages to correct at the last moment, her heart in her throat as she tries to focus. “Align the sight, cock it, and squeeze the trigger slowly.”

Lucy does, the way he’d said cock ringing in her ear, and her bullet misses by a good five feet. 

She grimaces, but Bradford just chuckles. He takes a few steps back, taking his warmth and his hot breath and his distracting-ness with him, and Lucy can breathe for the first time since he walked up to her. 

“Try again.”

His voice is soft, quiet, and Lucy nods as she goes through the steps again in her head, shaking the tension out of her body before carefully aligning her sight. 

She fires again, and this time her bullet hits only a few inches from the first circle. 

“Improvement,” Bradford murmurs, and Lucy glances back to see he’s watching her with a weird look on his face. He’s not angry, which she’s glad to see, but he’s… calculating. 

“I’ll work on it, I promise,” she says, already planning on how she can fit in extra time at the range around her running and studying schedules. 

Bradford nods and walks off to help another recruit, and Lucy blows out a breath before trying to refocus herself. 

She’ll get better at this.

She will. 

Because she cannot afford to be kicked from this program. 

(And also, probably less importantly, she doesn’t want to let Officer Bradford down). 

_____________________

“See you tomorrow!”

Lucy waves to both Nolan and Jackson as they walk in the opposite direction as her. Their trucks are in the west lot while she’s in the east, but she doesn’t mind the extra walk. 

It’s nice after training to have a moment to clear her mind. 

The universe doesn’t give her the chance to come down from the adrenaline high she’s been on since Officer Bradford began whispering in her ear, though, because as soon as she starts walking toward her car, he’s there. 

“Chen.”

She stops short (and just barely manages to avoid swallowing her tongue).

“Sir!”

Bradford chuckles as he slides one hand into his pocket. He’s wearing jeans and a black Henley now, and damn, he looks good in those, too. 

“Before you go…”

He trails off, more unsure than Lucy has ever seen him, and then sighs as he pulls his hand out of his pocket, and with it, a small slip of paper.

“Tomorrow is Saturday. Meet me here. We’re going to work on your aim.”

It’s a demand, not a request, but Lucy thinks there’s nothing in the entire universe that could keep her away from wherever Bradford wants to take her. 

“Yes, sir,” she whispers.

Bradford nods once, as if trying to convince himself he’s done the right thing by giving her the paper, and then turns on his heel and walks off. 

Lucy glances down to see an address and then, below it, a hastily scribbled phone number. 

Well, she thinks, smiling at Officer Bradford’s retreating back. 

This is going to be interesting. 

Chapter Text

Deciding to wear when she doesn’t know what Officer Bradford has in store for her is, in a word, impossible. 

Does she dress casually? 

Functional? 

Sexy? 

(It’s a definite no to the last one, she knows, but the thought of what if flickers through her head every so often…) 

In the end she settles on simple and functional, because if she’s learned anything about Officer Bradford, it’s that he’s not going to take it easy on her, no matter what they’re doing or where they’re going. 

She pulls on a pair of dark camo pants, tight enough to not get in her way but not too tight, a black t-shirt with a camo jacket over it, and a scarf just in case. She pairs it with a pair of black boots and, on the way out of the door, panics in case all of the camo is too much. 

Relax, she chides herself, even though she knows there a minimal to zero chance of that happening. 

She’s going somewhere unknown with the world's hottest man (and god she wishes she could see Nolan’s face about that fact, though she won’t be telling him about this ever). There will be no calm until sundown at minimum, and she spends the entire drive to the address Officer Bradford had given her in a state of near panic. 

She’d googled the address beforehand, of course, but it hadn’t shown much other than an empty field with a thick forest of woods next to it. 

She doesn’t think he’s going to murder her and hide the body, but there’s always a chance she supposes. Sometimes it’s the ones you least suspect that are serial killers. 

When she pulls up Officer Bradford is already there, leaning against his black truck with his arms crossed over his chest. He’s wearing black cargo pants and a long sleeved camo T-shirt, and Lucy takes a moment to congratulate herself on her clothing choices before she puts her car in park next to his and climbs out, her heart in her throat as she lets her eyes roam his body. He’s crossing his arms over his chest and it’s doing wonderful things to his muscles. He’s frowning but not in an angry way, and he’s watching her carefully as she rounds her car and stops in front of him. 

“You’re late.”

His tone is flat and unimpressed. 

Lucy glances at her watch — she’s not late! She’s a whole minute early, in fact. 

Bradford clocks the move and chuckles. “If you’re not early you’re late, Rookie. When you get assigned a TO, make sure you’re there ten minutes before they are. I’ve washed out Boots for less.”

Lucy doesn’t doubt that he has. 

It’s a stupid philosophy, but she’s not going to argue with him because he’d said when she gets assigned a TO, not if.

“Yes, sir.”

He nods once and pushes off of the truck before turning and reaching into the cab. Lucy watches, curiosity (and a little bit of arousal because god he’s hot like woah) burning through her. 

“You’re going to hunt me,” he says, pulling out a paintball gun and handing it to her. “While I hunt you. Every shot I land is a mile you have to run and every shot you land is one mile less you have to run. Only head and chest shots count, anything else is a miss. We’ll start with some target practice, and then I’ll give you a one minute head start into the woods.”

Lucy nods even though nothing he’s said is a question. 

She feels like she’s on fire, the thought of hunting and being hunted sending a thrill through her whole body. 

Being in the woods? 

With Officer Bradford hunting her? 

It’s something straight out of her dreams, though she has a feeling her dreams end very different than reality will.

“Shooting at a target is one thing,” he continues, his voice a warm murmur as his long, thin fingers slowly feed paintballs into his own weapon, each flicker and movement a bolt of lightning through her. “But hitting someone in motion is a whole other. Take this, load, and meet me at the target over there.”

Lucy takes the gun and paintballs from him and scrambles toward the target while quickly loading her weapon, eager to do as he says and please him. 

He walks after her at a more sedate pace, and she can feel his eyes on her as she loads and cocks her gun, already finished by the time he arrives at her side. 

“Good,” he murmurs, and she watches as something flashes in his gaze when she flushes at the praise. 

Oh, god, he knows, doesn’t he? 

He’s weaponizing her fucking kinks to make her a better cop. 

If she weren’t so hopelessly caught in his spell, she might be mad. 

But, well… 

Anything to keep him praising her. 

He’s married, she reminds herself, but her libido (and a little bit her heart, because her crush isn’t purely physical as much as she tries to convince herself that it is) doesn’t seem to care. 

There must be a reason he wears his ring around his neck, after all. 

“All right,” he continues, nodding as he stands next to her. “Let’s do this. You remember the proper stance?”

Lucy is tempted to say no, but she nods. 

She wants his hands on her again, of course, but more than that she wants him to be proud of her. 

“Good,” he says, though his voice is no longer oozing the praise she craves so much. Instead he’s all business. “Then I want you to practice until you can hit your target every time. Don’t you dare run through all of my paintballs, either. Aim carefully. Take your time. Be precise.”

Lucy nods and raises her weapon, taking a moment to take stock of her body and get her stance just right. She aims, blows out a breath, and slowly, gently, squeezes the trigger. 

A blue paintball explodes on the edge of the target, not a bullseye but not far off either. 

She grins, and feels Officer Bradford take a step closer to her. 

“Good. Again.”

His voice is a low murmur, like soft velvet and smooth whiskey. 

She shivers and does as he says, taking aim and taking her time, letting herself be aware of the wind and her body and her breath. 

She hits the target a second time and then a third, and adrenaline is pulsing through her veins when Bradford reaches around her body, his hand hot and heavy over hers as he repositions her fingers ever so slightly. His cheek is brushing hers as he adjusts her, and his breath caresses her skin as he murmurs, “you’re doing great. Keep going.”

Lucy nods and tries to focus on aiming her weapon instead of the way she can feel Officer Bradford at her back. She doesn’t want to let herself get distracted and miss. She wants to hear him praise her again, to hit the bullseye and make him proud. 

“There you go,” he says, voice low and full of admiration as she finally, finally begins to hit the center of the target. She’s at least fifty paintballs in when she hits the first bullseye, but after that, every bullet hits right where she wants it to. 

She knows, of course, that moving targets are a whole other ballgame, but this is progress. 

Officer Bradford seems to think so, too. He stops her with a hand over hers, his fingers removing her trigger finger and pressing it to the side of the gun in a completely unnecessary move. His skin lingers on her longer than she thinks it needs to, and though she craves his touch, she’s confused. 

Married, she reminds herself. 

Then why is the ring around his neck? Her traitorous brain reminds her. 

Maybe he’s separated. Maybe he is available… 

She stops that thought before it can get too far, though, because it’s fucking dangerous. 

And besides, he’s probably doing this because he’s noticed she responds well to praise and he wants her to do well. 

That’s all it is. 

That’s all it can be. 

“You’re ready,” he says, and when Lucy turns, her heart in her throat and her skin on fire where he’d touched her, he’s smiling. 

“Yeah?”

He nods and slings his own gun around his front, holding it in front of him with the barrel pointed toward the ground. 

“As ready as you can be,” he confirms, nodding as he watches her breathe heavily. “You can’t prepare for shooting at a moving target without just going for it, so that’s what we’re going to do. Remember, you get a one minute head start, and then I’m coming after you.”

Lucy wastes several of her sixty second head start frozen in place, her blood pulsing hot in her veins and gathering unhelpfully between her thighs as she realizes that this is it, that Officer Bradford is going to be hunting her, tracking her. 

“Go, Officer Chen!” he barks, and Lucy nods, snapping into action and bolting off into the woods. 

She knows, of course, that there’s no danger in what they’re doing. 

Officer Bradford would never hurt her. 

But her heart pounds and adrenaline floods her body, anyway, because she knows that Officer Bradford is an elite hunter and he’s going to be hunting for her. 

She knows her time is up so she slows to a stop, taking stock of her surroundings. It’s a heavily wooded area, with plenty of trees for cover. The sunlight doesn’t make it through all of the trees, even, so there are more heavily shaded areas she knows she could hide in. There’s lots of sticks and leaves on the ground, though, and Lucy grimaces as she takes slow, calculating steps, trying to quiet her movement now that she’s run far enough into the forest to give her a head start. 

Does she want to lay in wait for Officer Bradford?

Or lay low and wait for him to find her?

She knows without knowing how that he would be disappointed if she simply hid and waited, and so it’s with slow, careful steps that she begins to hunt, her eyes peeled and her ears listening for any sound. 

He won’t make any sound, she reminds herself, and she licks her lips as she scans the tree line. 

Nothing. 

No sound, no movement, nothing to tell her if Bradford is being her or in front of her or if he even has her in his sights right now. 

The thought sends a thrill through her and she whips around, looking behind her in case he already has his weapon trained on her. 

But no. 

Nothing. 

No signs of her teacher anywhere. 

Her hands shake with both excitement and anticipation as she begins to walk through the woods, ducking behind each tree and carefully checking the surrounding area before moving on. 

She’s doing well, she thinks, being careful with her movements, scanning the horizon every once in a while, and making sure she’s not being followed. 

She may not find Bradford, but maybe he won’t find her either. 

She grows more confident with each step, a smile tugging at her lips as she gets into the game, feels the adrenaline in her veins. 

Fuck yes, she thinks. 

Being a cop is what she’s meant to do, because this feeling?

The rush? 

It’s addictive. 

She’s just cresting a hill, hoping to be able to find Officer Bradford with a bird’s eye view, when she feels it. 

Three hits in quick succession, her skin stinging, her heart sinking. 

Fuck. 

How had he found her? 

She spins around, taking note of the three hits to her chest, but she doesn’t see him anywhere. 

“What the…”

A fourth shot hits her in the back ands she yelps, the sting catching her off guard. 

A deep laugh sounds out from the forest and then suddenly he’s there, steps silent but presence overwhelming as he appears behind her shoulder.

“I win,” he murmurs, one corner of his lips turned up in a smile as his voice washes over her, his breath puffing against her neck. 

She spins and sucks in a breath in surprise when he’s right there, only mere inches from her, his chest puffed out in pride and his weapon held firmly in his unfairly strong hands, long fingers caressing the metal barrel. 

“Yes,” she agrees, her voice breathless as her chest heaves. 

Officer Bradford grins and his lips brush her ear accidentally as he leans forward and whispers, “You have thirty seconds this time. Run.”

She runs, her heart pounding from the chaste touch, the way he’d leaned so close to her, the way he’d smiled, and finds herself wondering for the first time if maybe her admiration of him isn’t as one sided as she’d thought it to be. 

Chapter Text

Lucy Chen is, in a word, unexpected. 

And it's annoying. 

He’d planned to spend his six months at the Academy with his head down, washing out as many useless recruits as he possibly could, and then return to being a TO without making any more waves than he’s already made, because despite it being his life goal to piss IA off as much as possible, he actually does enjoy his job training rookies and he wants to keep it. 

The thing is, though, Lucy Chen is making it very difficult to stick to his plan. 

Head down. 

No waves. 

And, most of all, no feelings. 

He hadn’t expected the feelings.

(He doesn’t know what to do with all of the feelings).  

And at first it had been fine, because the primary feeling had been annoyance. 

She talks back, has more sass than he’d thought could possibly fit in her small body, and she challenges him. 

It’s dreadfully intriguing. 

The first time she’d talked back, he’d been annoyed. Then he’d watched her run and realized that it was entirely possible that she was going to shatter academy records, and he’d realized that she was a challenge. 

A challenge for him to train one of the best cops LA has ever seen. 

She’s feisty, hard working, and was able to escape his chokehold faster than he’s ever seen a recruit be able to. 

She’s… 

A paintball hits him on his back as he’s ruminating, and he can’t help the smile that tugs at his lips as her maniacal laughter echoes throughout the woods. 

“I’m still eleven ahead of you! You’re going to be running for hours!” he calls out, rolling his shoulders as the sting from the shot dissipates. She’s managed to land three shots so far, and while later he’ll claim it’s because he’s taking it easy on her, the reality is that she’s just an obnoxiously fast learner. 

Yesterday she hadn’t been able to hit the target, and today… 

He shakes his head and lifts his weapon, ducking behind a tree when he hears a twig snap to his left. 

Well. 

She’s good, but he’s better. 

He smirks and leans against the bark of the tree to give himself some stability as he aims his weapon and follows her path through the forest with his scope. She’s quick and light on her feet, but it’s clear she’s not been trained because she isn’t silent the way he is. 

He waits until she pauses to take a breath and then darts forward, his own footsteps feather-light as he crosses the distance between them quickly before letting off three shots in quick succession, painting a perfect line across her shoulder blades as each of his shots connects. 

“Fuck!” she exclaims, whirling around in shock. He’s already there, his posture and his walk smug as he presses into her space, his face only inches from hers as he whispers, 

“Now I’m fourteen ahead.”

Her breath catches and his smile grows as he watches her push a lock of stray hair out of her eyes. 

He lets his own eyes roam her face and then drop to notice the way her chest is heaving as she sucks in desperate breaths. Her shirt is pulled tight over her breasts, and he tries not to notice these particular features about her but it’s hard not to. She’s fucking beautiful. And yeah, he’s noticed lots of beautiful women since Isabel, but the thing about Officer Chen is that it isn’t just her looks. 

It’s her determination. 

Her bravery. 

Her refusal to ever back down. 

It’s the way she challenges him. 

(God, he hasn’t been challenged in so long.)

It’s just her. 

She’s just… she’s different. 

And it’s annoying. 

“Again,” he murmurs, his voice softer than he means for it to be as his eyes flicker back up to her face. She’s flushed, her cheeks a darker shade than the rest of her skin, a thin sheen of sweat covering her body. 

If he were a weaker man, he could let himself get into trouble with her. 

But he’s not. 

He can’t be.

“Run, Officer Chen.”

She holds his gaze for a few seconds longer and then turns and darts into the woods. 

He gives her a several minute head start, taking the time to calm and center himself. 

No. 

He can’t let himself get distracted by her or the way she talks back to him like no rookie ever has, or the way her body moves so gracefully when she runs.

Six months. 

Head down. 

No waves. 

No feelings. 

Moments later when several paintballs hit his chest and he looks up to see Officer Chen grinning at him in triumph, he realizes that it’s going to be much easier said than done.

_____________________

“Thirty three to eleven. Not bad, Chen.”

Tim grins to himself as he loads their weapons into the back of his truck while Officer Chen chugs a water bottle. 

“I mean, you’re still going to be running twenty-two miles, but it could have been much worse.”

Officer Chen groans, dropping her sweaty forehead against her water bottle as Tim turns back around, weapons and ammo stored safely. He watches her for a moment while her eyes are shut, noticing the way her slim fingers surround her water bottle and wondering what they’d look like —

Nope. 

No. 

Cannot go there. 

“Want to get some lunch with me?”

The words slip out without permission and Tim grimaces, internally kicking himself as Officer Chen’s eyes snap open and meet his. 

“I mean — twenty two miles is a lot of running. You’re going to need the energy for later,” he quickly explains, forcing his lips into a cocky grin as he eyes her. 

Officer Chen grimaces as she pours the rest of her water bottle over her head and effectively short circuits Tim’s brain. 

“When exactly am I running these twenty two miles?” she asks, shaking her head to rid herself of extra water droplets. 

Tim licks his lips and clears his throat. “Tonight, after the heat of the day. You can split it into eleven and eleven if you like, half today and half tomorrow.”

Lucy hums and tosses her empty bottle into the back of Tim’s truck, reaching back to pull her hair out of the messy bun and let it hang down past her shoulders. It’s wet from water and sweat, already forming loose waves as she shakes it out. 

“Eleven tonight and eleven tomorrow,” she decides, and then, true to form, smirks. “But you have to run with me, or else how will you know that I’m not cheating?”

Tim raises an eyebrow and regards her in what he hopes is an unimpressed manner. 

“If you think you’re the one giving orders in this relationship, Officer Chen, think again,” he deadpans. 

Chen laughs lightly and eyes him up and down in a way that is definitely not appropriate and definitely should not send heat racing throughout his entire body. 

“Relationship, huh?”

He glares. 

She smirks, and he worries that he may have met his match. 

“Large and in charge man like you? I bet you secretly like it when someone gives you orders,” she says, and he feels his entire heart stop beating in his chest as her words wash over him. “I bet you like taking a break from being the one to make all the decisions, huh?”

Tim doesn’t breathe for a long moment, which honestly tells her everything she needs to know. 

Her smirk grows and he snaps back to the present, glaring at her as he crosses his arms over his chest. 

“Your chances of getting pancakes before running eleven miles is diminishing with every second you stand there being insubordinate, Officer Chen. Now get in the damn truck,” he snaps, turning on his heel and stalking toward the driver door. He climbs in and starts the engine, and he hears Officer Chen squeal and run to catch up as he begins pulling off of the abandoned dirt road. 

He has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing as she scrambles inside while he’s idling at the stop sign before pulling onto the road. 

“That was rude,” she says, blowing a lock of sweaty hair out of her eyes as she fastens her seatbelt and stares straight ahead. 

He shrugs. 

“Follow orders when they’re given, Chen, and you won’t have to run to catch up to me.”

She shoots him an incredulous look that causes him to break into a smile despite himself, and he relaxes just a fraction as he pulls onto the main road. 

_______________________

“Sooooo.”

Tim groans. 

Officer Chen’s tone is one that lets him know that he won’t like the words that are coming next, no matter how much a good workout and a hearty breakfast have loosened him up. 

He leans back in the booth and points his fork accusingly at her. 

“The rule I do not talk about my personal life extends to anywhere my person is, recruit.”

Officer Chen smiles as she chews a bite of pancake obnoxiously. 

“You don’t know for sure that I was going to ask something personal,” she points out, but he just raises an eyebrow as if asking really? and she deflates, slumping against her seat as she pushes a piece of pancake through the absolute river of syrup she’d insisted on covering them in. 

He watches her, and hates that her defeated posture makes him feel things. 

He sighs. 

“I cannot guarantee I’ll answer,” he says, holding a hand up, but it’s already too late and Officer Chen is sitting up straight, her eyes shining and her lips pulling into a smile. 

Tim groans. 

“I just want to know why you’re at the Academy,” she says, and before he can tell her that that topic is firmly off limits, she’s continuing. “I just… you seem like you’d be a really good training officer. So… why this? Why the change?”

Tim frowns and pushes the singular remaining piece of sausage around on his plate, hating himself a little bit because he actually wants to answer her. 

She’s your recruit, he reminds himself. 

Not your friend. 

Not that many of his friends even know what had happened. Angela does, but only because she makes it her business to know everything, even the things that people don’t want her to know. And Grey knows, because he’d been the one to relay the orders from IA.

To his knowledge, though, everyone else just thinks that he’s spending a semester evaluating the training program to weed out under-performing teachers and recruits.

There’s no need to drag one of my finest officer’s names through the mud, Grey had insisted. Detective Murphy had argued, wanting to make an example of him so that other officers didn’t make a habit of helping their ex wives hide the fact that they were addicted to drugs from the station, but in the end, Commander West and Sergeant Grey had won. 

“I…”

He pauses and drops his gaze to the table. 

He hasn’t told anyone. 

He hasn’t talked to anyone about any of his fucked up history with his ex wife. 

Is he really going to tell one of his damn recruits?

“Hey, it’s okay,” Officer Chen murmurs, and Tim’s breath catches when she reaches across the table to place her hand over his. “I shouldn't have asked. I shouldn't have asked on that first day, either. It’s… it’s not my place. I’m sorry.”

Tim shakes his head, though, swallowing thickly as his gaze snaps from the table to the warm, brown eyes of the woman sitting across from him. 

“No, it’s… it’s okay. I don’t… I can’t tell you the whole story, but… I fucked up. I was protecting my ex, but I still fucked up. I deserved to be kicked out of the station and stuck here, yelling at the likes of Nolan and Jones.”

Officer Chen chuckles, and Tim finds himself smiling at the noise. 

It feels… good to tell someone, even if it’s only a small fraction of the whole truth. 

But… 

“I swear to god, though, if you whisper a single word of what I just said to anyone, you’ll be running the training course in a bomb disposal suit.”

Chen shakes her head as she mimes zipping her lips, her eyes sparkling as she finally, finally pulls her hand away from his. 

“Not a word, sir.”

Tim scoffs. “Like you’d dare.”

Chen raises an eyebrow as she brings her coffee to her lips and takes a small sip. “I think you’ll find, sir, that there isn’t much that I wouldn’t dare.”

Tim smirks and relaxes back into the booth, accepting the challenge that she tosses his way and sending it straight back to her. 

“That will either take you far, Officer Chen, or get you into a lot of trouble.”

She licks her lips and stares deeply into his eyes, her attention unwavering. “I don’t get into trouble, Officer Bradford, I am trouble,” she says, and Tim feels something warm in his belly as she stares and stares and stares, unwilling to be the first to break their gaze. 

Well, he can give just as good as he gets. 

“Good,” he murmurs hotly, pleasure pooling in his belly despite his best attempts to not let himself get drawn in by this mouthy little recruit. She gasps and her cheeks flush, and a thrill runs through him as his little suspicion about her is confirmed. 

Fuck, but he’s going to get into trouble with this one.

Good thing he likes it so much.

Chapter Text

After running Officer Chen’s twenty two miles with her over the weekend, something… shifts. 

He watches her more carefully now. He’d watched her before, too, but now he’s watching her with half a mind on her current training, and half a mind on her future training once she’s in the FTO program. He has no doubts she’ll make it, and he’s already thinking about which TO would be best for her. 

He would be best for her, of course, because he’s the best training officer there is. And he has considered asking to have her assigned to him once he’s reinstated at Mid Wilshire, but… 

Well. 

(He refuses to verbalize why it wouldn’t be a good idea to be her TO, but the thought is there, always at the back of his mind). 

Maybe Lopez instead?

She’s tough but fair, and she could teach Chen how to watch out for herself on the streets in a way that he can’t. 

Or maybe she needs a training officer who’s not at Mid-Wilshire at all…

With a sigh he turns his attention back to running with his recruits. 

He doesn’t have to figure it out today. 

He doesn’t have to figure it out at all, even, because assigning recruits to training officers is not his responsibility. They value his input, of course, because the Academy teachers know their recruits best after initial training, but it’s not his job. 

So why does he care so much who Chen gets assigned to? 

“Nolan, hustle!” he calls out, frowning as he runs by the older man. Nolan is beginning to fall behind, huffing and puffing as they near the end of their daily five miles. 

Chen is already across the finish line, his brain helpfully supplies, and he tries to ignore the flash of warmth and pride that fills him as he lets his eyes wander to where she’s cheering the others on, bouncing in place as she encourages them across the finish line. 

West finishes, then Jones and Poole, but Tim pays them little mind as he turns and runs backwards, catching Nolan’s eye as he wipes sweat from his brow. 

“You’ve made good progress these last few weeks,” he tells Nolan, because he has. He’s keeping up with the others fairly well, which is impressive in a man his age. “But you need to cross that finish line in the next thirty seconds or you’re running the five again.”

Nolan makes a sound that Bradford would classify as a whine and picks up speed, his feet pounding the dirt as he struggles to keep up. Tim runs backwards, yelling at him the whole time, counting down, encouraging, and insulting him in turn. 

It’s his way, and Nolan finishes with three seconds to spare, so he counts it as a win. 

Officer Chen whoops loudly and throws her arms around Nolan, hugging him lightly as she tells him good job. Tim watches with one eyebrow raised as Nolan’s cheeks flush a darker red and his eyes turn to Chen, glassy and lovesick. 

Huh. 

Officer Chen doesn’t even seem to notice his admiration as she pats him on the back and tosses him a water bottle, but Tim does. 

He notices how Nolan’s eyes follow her over to where she’s speaking to West, both of them beginning their post-run stretching exercises as they chat quietly about something he can’t hear. 

He notices how Nolan’s eyes linger on her face, and then her ass as she stretches over to touch her toes. 

He almost makes Nolan run an extra lap for his blatant staring, but instead he just snaps, “Nolan! Stretch, now, or you’re going to be sore tomorrow and I won’t be taking it easy on you!”

His words, harsh and fast, snap Nolan out of his ogling, and Tim frowns as he quickly begins his cool down.

It’s clear that Chen is unaware of the older man’s affections, and she definitely doesn’t reciprocate, but it still rubs Tim the wrong way. 

It shouldn't, but it does, and Tim finds himself so disgruntled about that fact that he sets back out on the running track, trying to exhaust himself past the point of caring whether or not a middle aged man in the midst of his mid-life crisis is crushing on Officer Chen. 

____________________

Running an extra mile doesn’t help, and Tim finds himself annoyed all over again later that afternoon as he begins paring officers up for sparring. 

“During an ideal traffic stop or call, there will be no need for physical confrontation,” he begins, frowning as he paces back and forth in front of the remaining fourteen recruits, all of whom are stretching and preparing for their time on the mat. “But not every stop or call is ideal. In fact, more go sideways than you’re probably prepared for. Domestics, in specific, tend to end in confrontation. And your attacker? He or she will not take it easy on you. They won’t use the usual moves. They’re fighting for their freedom, because the second you take them down, they’re in cuffs. They’re desperate and they fight dirty. So, today, I’m going to pair you up. One of you will fight using every single dirty trick you know — go for the gut, kick them in the nuts, poke their eyeballs, whatever it takes — while the other tries to get them to the ground and in cuffs as quickly as possible with as little damage as possible. People love to use the excuse of ‘police brutality’ to get off easier, so give them as little ammo as you possibly can.”

Nolan raises his hand just as Tim finishes talking and he sighs. 

He shouldn’t be so annoyed by the man, but he’s basically a golden retriever with a god complex. 

Every time they do something new, Nolan has a life lesson or some sage old-man wisdom to add to whatever Tim has said. 

“Yes, Nolan?” he asks reluctantly. 

Nolan frowns. “Police brutality is an actual problem, you know.”

Tim sighs again. 

“Yes, Nolan, I am well aware of that fact.”

“It just sounds like you were saying it’s an excuse, is all,” Nolan says, shrugging. 

Tim grinds his teeth as he takes a couple steps closer to the older man, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes flashing with annoyance.

“Wait until you’re out in the field, recruit, fighting for your life and wondering if you’re going to be able to go home that evening to your wife, your kids, your family. Wait until some asshole has punched you in the head and your ears are ringing and you’re going down, no backup in sight, and then you can lecture me. I am aware police brutality is a huge problem in this city, hell, this country. I wear my body camera and make sure I only ever use force when absolutely necessary for my safety and the safety of others. I am a part of a group within Mid-Wilshire run by the husband of one of my best friends to bring awareness and change to the issue. Police brutality is a very real problem, but until you’re forced to let a man who beat his wife almost to death go because he successfully claimed police brutality, do not presume to lecture me.”

Nolan swallows and Tim takes several slow, deep breaths to calm himself down.

“If you’d like to become more educated on the issue, I’ll pass along Officer Harper’s information and you can get involved rather than lecturing me,” he adds, dropping his arms to his side and shaking them out. “We’ve been trying to recruit civilians and cops alike to collaborate on the issue but it’s difficult because everyone has opinions but no one wants to actually help solve the problems.”

Nolan nods once, sharply, and takes a step back from Tim. “Y-yes, sir, that… I’d be interested in learning more, sir.”

Tim glares for a few seconds longer and then nods. 

“Good. Nyla and James will be happy to have another member. In fact, I’ll give all of you the information, because it’s a good cause and it’s … enlightening to sit in on one of their meetings. James helps run the community center and Nyla has been a cop for eleven years, and their diverse experiences will help make you more aware of how you will behave as an officer who is beginning their FTO program.”

Tim’s eyes flash to Officer Chen as he steps back from Nolan, and he feels something warm settle low in his belly at the look on her face. 

She’s staring at him, her deep, brown eyes intense. 

Something like pride sparkles in them, and while he’d correctly deduced that she enjoyed praise, he’d never considered the effect it would have on him. 

He clears his throat and looks away before he does or says something stupid, and turns back to the recruits before him. 

“Now that we have that out of the way, here are your pairings: West, you’re with Holland. Cruz with Kaplan, Jones with Hurn…”

He continues down the list until he’s left with Nolan and Chen, as well as Tomas (their largest recruit) and Poole, another recruit about the same size as Chen but without as much fire in her. 

Nolan keeps sending hopeful eyes at Chen, and Tim sighs. 

“Chen, you’re with Tomas. Nolan, you’re with Poole.”

Chen grins and turns to the larger man, already talking a mile a minute about who should play which role first. 

Nolan, however, hasn’t even turned to look at Poole and is instead frowning in Chen and Tomas’s direction.

Tim sighs. 

“What, Officer Nolan?” he snaps, though he has a damn good idea what his problem is. 

Nolan squares his shoulders before responding.

“It’s not fair that you’re pairing her against the largest of us.”

Chen stops mid-sentence, her attention snapping to Nolan, irritation coloring her features. 

Before she can speak, though, Tim is stalking up to Nolan and into his space, his frown back with a vengeance. 

“This again? I’ve told you, Officer Nolan, that Officer Chen has to learn to fight men bigger than her if she’s going to be successful. No one on the streets is going to look at her and think huh, she’s small, I guess I’ll take it easy on her. No, they’re going to beat the shit out of her if I don’t train her how to defend herself. She’s our smallest recruit, yes, but there’s fire in her. You want to put it out. I want to throw fuel on the flame.”

Nolan swallows, but Tim isn’t done. 

“She has shown she is nothing if not exemplary, even taking me down in her first week. She can bench press more than a hundred and ten percent of her weight, and she runs fucking circles around you. So, instead of worrying about her, you should probably worry about yourself because you’re inches from being washed out of my program, Officer. If Chen has an issue with who I pair her with, she can come to me. She does not need or want you to be her knight in shining armor, so back the fuck off.”

Nolan looks appropriately chastised, but he’s not completely ready to give up. “I just…” he tries, but Chen steps in before he can continue. 

“Officer Bradford is right,” she says, stepping up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Tim. (Metaphorically, of course, because he’s so much taller than her). “I’m perfectly okay with fighting Tomas. I can take care of myself, Nolan. Please stop trying to defend me from things I don’t need defended from.”

Nolan slinks off with his tail between his legs and Tim turns to Chen. 

He smiles and nods once. 

“Good girl,” he murmurs, watching in fascination as blood rushes to her cheeks. 

Officer Nolan can’t make her blush like that, his traitorous brain offers, but he ignores it. 

Instead he turns to the rest of the recruits, all of whom had been watching the showdown with great fascination. 

“Since Officer Nolan thinks so little of Officer Chen, we’re going to let her and Tomas go first and let her prove that she doesn’t need anyone to fight her battles for her.”

Chen smiles and practically bounces to the mat, stretching her arms as Tomas follows at a more sedate pace. 

“You offense or defense first?” he asks, his voice low and deep. 

Chen hums as she considers. 

“Defense. Come at me. And don’t you dare take it easy on me, either. Give me everything you’ve got,” she says. 

Tomas chuckles as he gets into position. 

“Alright then, little lady. Get ready.”

Chen winks and Tim watches her, arms crossed over her chest, as Tomas strikes first. She blocks and ducks his fists, sliding around him to attack from behind. He’s bigger but she’s faster, and she laughs in delight as she kicks the crease of his knee, causing his legs to buckle. He curses as he stumbles, and Tim thinks he’s going to go down hard but he quickly rights himself and turns to face Chen, already realizing that he can’t afford to let her get behind him. 

Smart, Tim thinks. 

Tomas will definitely make it through the program. He’s fast, smart, and a quick thinker. 

“That was good,” Tomas praises her. 

She smiles and nods, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face as he runs at her again. He wraps his arms around her waist and tackles her to the mat, and Tim can hear Nolan gasping beside him but he ignores the older man. 

“Do not let him pin you, Chen!” he calls out, following along the line of the mat as she struggles under Tomas. “If a man his size pins you, it’s game over! Fight!”

Officer Chen grunts and knees Tomas in the groin, and Tim winces in sympathy as he groans and Chen is able to struggle up from under him. 

“Good! Now, get behind him while he’s down!” Tim yells, his heart racing as she hurries to follow his directions. She’s on hands and knees, trying to stumble to her feet, when Tomas wraps an arm around her ankle and pulls her back down. He crawls up behind her and presses a knee into her back, and Tim sighs because that’s it. 

Game over. 

Fuck, he thought she had him. 

“Fight, Chen!” he cries, though he knows it’s useless. 

Except… 

Tomas reaches for her hands to pin them behind her back, but as he does, Officer Chen uses the fact that he’s distracted to roll to the left, causing him to lose his balance just long enough for her to get out from under him. 

“Yes! Yes!” Tim yells, grinning as he follows them across the mat. Officer Chen gets to her feet and puts some space between them, but Tomas follows quickly, breathing raggedly as he chases her to the very edge of the sparring mat. “Chen, don’t you dare let him corner you!”

She nods and brushes hair out of her red, flushed face, and she’s about to dart under his arm and make her way back to the middle of the mat when he spins and catches his foot behind her knees, taking her down in one swift movement. 

Tim sees it all happen in slow motion, his eyes flickering to the hard concrete at the edge of the mat as Tomas reaches out to break her fall but misses by a single inch. 

One single goddamn inch. 

There’s a sickening crack as her head hits the concrete, and Tim feels his heart in his throat as he runs, falling to his knees beside her as her body stills. 

“Oh, god,” Tomas whispers, dropping down beside him as Tim carefully assesses the situation. “Oh, fuck, I didn’t… I was going to catch her, I…”

Tim ignores him as he turns to the other recruits. 

“Someone call 911!”

Poole and West both reach for their phones as he turns back to Officer Chen, one hand falling to the pulse point of her wrist while he gently cups her face with the other, trying to rouse her without moving her head or neck. 

“C’mon, Chen,” he murmurs, thumb brushing her still flushed cheek. “Open those pretty brown eyes for me.”

She moans but doesn’t open her eyes, and Tim swallows thickly as he notices a small pool of blood beginning to form around her head. 

Fuck! 

He hears the recruits behind him whispering worriedly to each other, but he ignores them as he focuses on the steady thumping of Chen’s pulse under his fingertips. 

What has he done? 

Chapter Text

Nolan barely waits for Lucy to open her eyes before he’s at it again. 

“I told you it wasn’t a good idea to go against Tomas,” he grumbles from where he’s sitting beside her bed.

Goddamn, she does not have the energy for this. 

Who let him in here, anyway?

“Am I in the hospital?” she groans, licking her dry lips as her head pulses in time with her words. Even talking hurts, not to mention the dull ache on the back of her head where, she assumes, she hit it against the concrete.

Jackson is there, too, and he’s the one who answers her.

“Yeah. Officer Bradford called an ambulance and they brought you to St. Stephens. You’ve been in and out of it for a while, they did a CT and everything.”

Nolan sighs heavily. “I told him he shouldn’t have put you with Tomas. This is all his fault. If he’d just listened to me—”

Lucy cuts him off before he can continue with what she’s certain is going to be a very passionate rant. 

“Shut up,” she grumbles, both because she’s tired of Nolan trying to defend her and also because ouch her fucking head hurts. “I agreed with him. I told him to put me with Tomas. I wanted to fight him. And, John, you have got to give this knight in shining armor routine a rest. I am going to be a cop, okay, and I’m going to be fighting guys bigger than Tomas. I’d rather get a concussion under these circumstances with a trainer right there than out in the field, alone, with no backup. A concussion is better than being dead.”

She pauses and takes a breath to quell the nausea rising in her stomach. 

“I do have a concussion, right?”

Jackson reaches out to touch her arm gently. “Yeah, and a nasty cut on the back of your head, too. They glued your skin back together.”

He sounds entirely too gleeful about that fact, and Lucy groans as she (gently) throws an arm over her eyes. 

The light hurts. 

Talking hurts. 

Everything hurts. 

“Can you go get my nurse? I want drugs,” she grumbles, and Jackson laughs as he nods. 

“Yeah, sure thing, Luce. Be right back.”

The fact that Nolan doesn’t go with Jackson does not escape Lucy’s notice, and she sighs as she closes her eyes, trying to both ignore him and not puke at the same time.

“Lucy…”

He trails off and Lucy grimaces. 

His tone sounds sentimental and serious. 

She doesn’t respond, hoping in vain that he’ll just go away. 

He doesn’t. 

“Luce, listen.”

He scoots his chair forward, taking advantage of the fact that Jackson isn’t in the room, and reaches out to try and hold her hand. She feels his fingers on the inside of her wrist and quickly pulls her hand away, sliding it under the covers even as Nolan makes a soft, wounded noise. 

“John, don’t,” she whispers. 

She doesn’t have the energy to deal with this. 

She’s tired and in pain.

He ignores her and continues, scooting even closer to the hospital bed. She opens one eye and looks at him from under her arm, grimacing when she sees the lovesick look on his face. 

“Listen, I’m just going to say it,” he murmurs softly, his face determined and his eyes laser focused on her. “I like you, Lucy, and I think I’d be good for you. I think we’d be good together.”

Lucy swallows and then winces, her head aching with the simple movement. 

“John…”

“You don’t have to respond right now,” he says quickly, but Lucy shakes her head slowly. 

“No, I do,” she argues. “I do, John, because… god, I’d hoped you’d pick up on my more subtle cues so I didn’t have to do this. I have a concussion, John. This is so not the time.”

He winces but doesn’t back down. 

“I don’t like you,” she murmurs, too tired to sugar coat it. “Not the same way, anyway. You’re… I think you could be a good friend if you’d stop trying to control me and what I do, but … but I don’t like you. Not like that.”

Nolan stiffens, his lips pulling into a frown. 

“Is it because of… of him?”

Lucy groans and closes her eyes again, not wanting to see Nolan’s face anymore. 

“Because it’s not right,” he continues. “And besides, he’s… he’s not good for you. He’s married, Lucy, and he’s an asshole, so—”

Lucy bristles despite the pain, moving her arm out of the way so that she can glare at Nolan. 

“He’s not married, actually,” she says, eyes flashing. “And he’s not an asshole. He didn’t… for fucks sake, I don’t know where you got his idea that you need to protect me from him or from how he’s training me. I am not weak, John, and I do not want or need your protection, especially not from someone who’s trying to make sure I’m prepared for the reality of being a cop. If it were up to you I’d only fight women, and then when I got out in the field I’d die. He’s trying to prepare me. You’re trying to … to coddle me, and it needs to fucking stop, okay? I’m not your girlfriend or your sister or anything but your classmate. I did not ask for your protection, so just… give it a rest, okay?”

Nolan looks like a sad puppy when she peeks at him, but she doesn’t relent. 

“I am not yours to protect, so… just leave it alone. Please.”

Leave me alone, she wants to say, but her head hurts too much and also kicking a man when he’s down is just cruel. 

“Just because he’s not married doesn’t mean it’s right,” Nolan grumbles. “He’s our teacher.”

Lucy sighs. 

Fuck. 

That would be all he took from her little rant, wouldn't it?

“I don’t know what you think is happening, but it’s not,” she says, clenching her eyes shut as her head pounds with each tick of the clock. “And even if it were, it’s not your fucking business, okay? Now can… can you go? My head hurts.”

Nolan doesn’t say anything for a long time, but when he finally does, it’s not directed toward her. 

“S-sir.”

Double fuck. 

God, where is her nurse with the good meds?

She’s going to need them for this.

She removes her hand from her eyes to see Officer Bradford standing awkwardly in the doorway. Nolan is standing, too, clearly about to respect her wishes of being left alone, and the two men are staring at each other awkwardly. 

God, how is this her life?

“Nolan,” Bradford says, his tone clipped and his lips pressed in a thin line. 

“Excuse me.”

Thank god. 

A nurse shoulders her way in between the two men as Jackson watches them, eyes wide. 

Lucy ignores all three men and turns toward her saviour.

“My head really hurts,” she says, closing her eyes against the harsh light and the awkwardness. 

“That doesn’t surprise me, honey,” the older nurse murmurs, her voice soft as she checks Lucy’s vitals while she lays out an alcohol prep pad and a syringe. “You’ve got a grade two concussion, sweetheart, and you were out of it for quite a while. Your CT didn’t show any internal bleeding, though, so you were very lucky.”

Lucy licks her dry lips again as she nods. 

“Can I have some water?”

“Sips,” the nurse says, reaching for a white styrofoam cup. She doesn’t hand it to Lucy, though, instead reaching behind her to the outstretched hand that’s waiting before sliding the syringe into Lucy’s IV. 

The relief is almost immediate, and Lucy sighs in relief as she drops her hand from her eyes. 

“Here,” a soft, deep voice murmurs, and Lucy turns to see Officer Bradford holding out the straw that’s sticking out of the top of the little, white cup. Lucy reaches out to take it but he slaps her hand away (gently) and brings the straw to her lips. 

Lucy sips slowly, her eyes darting around the room, her entire body relaxing a little when she sees that they’re alone.

Finally, Nolan had left.

“Nolan has a crush on you.”

Lucy jolts and almost chokes on her water at Bradford’s words, because oh fuck if he heard that then he heard everything. 

“I… probably,” she hedges, letting the straw drop from her lips as her eyes return to Bradford. “It’s… misplaced.”

Bradford raises an eyebrow as he places the cup on the little bedside tray and takes a seat on the spinning chair next to her bed. He rolls it close and then pauses, eyes intense and not leaving hers as he considers his next words. 

“Did you tell him that?”

Lucy nods slowly. “Yes.”

“Good,” Bradford murmurs, nodding as he turns to read the numbers on the screen displaying her vitals. Her heart rate has risen, a fact that he notices and smirks about. “Maybe now he’ll stop trying to defend you. Although, in this case…”

Despite the lingering pain in her head, Lucy shuts that shit down quickly. 

“No,” she says, sighing as she turns her head so she can look Bradford in the eye.

She can see the guilt on his handsome face plain as day, and knows that if she doesn’t put him in his place, he’ll stop challenging her, stop pushing her.

She can’t have that. 

“No, you don’t get to feel guilty about training me,” she murmurs. “For preparing me. I… I like it. I like the challenge.”

A blush stains her cheeks at her admission, and she turns, not looking at Bradford as her words register. 

“I like your fire,” he whispers after a long seconds, and despite the fact that she’s mortified her heart monitor is giving away her deepest secrets like candy to a child, she turns to meet his gaze again. He grins crookedly and leans forward, and Lucy notices for the first time that he’s not wearing the chain with his wedding ring on it. 

Huh. 

“Yeah, well, I like your ass,” she blurts out, and then immediately turns the deepest shade of red humanly possible as he breaks out into loud, shocked laughter that drowns out the sound of her heart monitor alarm going off for high heart rate. He throws his head back, his eyes sparkling, and though she feels fucking mortified she can’t help but smile at the sound. 

She’s never heard him laugh like this before. 

It’s nice. 

Sweet, in a way. 

“Don’t stop training me,” she whispers, her eyes not leaving him as he calms and turns back toward her. He’s still smiling but his expression is softer now, gentle in a way she’s never seen on the track or on the mat. It’s disarmingly human, and she feels her belly swoop as he stares at her from under impossibly long lashes. “I… I want to be a good cop. You’re going to make me a good cop.”

“You don’t need me to be a good cop, Lucy,” he murmurs, his lips twitching at the way her monitor spikes again as he says her name for what she’s certain is the first time. 

Lucy. 

Not Chen.

“You’re going to be a great cop because of who you are. I’m just… pushing you in the right direction.”

“Then keep pushing,” she whispers. 

Her head is growing fuzzy with the medication, but she fights it as Bradford smiles. 

At her. 

“Okay,” he says, nodding slowly as he reaches for her water cup and brings the straw to her lips once again. 

“And don’t … don’t blame yourself for this,” she continues after a long sip of the blessedly cool water. “It was an accident, that’s all. And I’d rather it happen in training than in the field.”

Bradford hums as he spins the chair back and forth, his hands in his lap as he considers her carefully. 

“I do blame myself, at least a little bit,” he admits slowly. “But not because I paired you with Tomas. I should have noticed you were too close to the edge of the mat — it’s not safe to be close to the edge of the mat for this specific reason. I’ll never apologize for preparing you for the world, because the world isn’t going to apologize for beating the shit out of you. I’ve been shot or stabbed seven times in the line of duty, and any one of them could have been life ending if I didn’t know how to protect myself. But I will apologize for not keeping you safe.”

Lucy studies him carefully, her fuzzy brain taking a little longer to process his words. He watches her, too, his gaze more gentle than he’s ever been. 

He’s watched her before — hell, he’s always watching her — but this is different. 

It feels different. 

“Okay,” she whispers, because she can accept that compromise. “But just so you know… if you’re going to insist on blaming yourself, I’ve already forgiven you. This… this will pass, and I’ll be back to being a pain in your ass soon, I promise.”

Bradford chuckles again, and Lucy sighs as the pain medication begins to make things fuzzy around the edges.

“I can’t wait, Lucy,” he murmurs. 

She smiles at the sound of her name passing his lips as the darkness begins to slowly pull her under, the feeling of his fingers touching the inside of her wrist an anchor that keeps her tethered as her eyes begin to slowly slip closed. 

Chapter Text

Lucy spends the forced downtime from her concussion sleeping, relaxing, and obsessing over the way Officer Bradford had touched her wrist, the way he’d come to visit her in the hospital, the way he’d laughed and called her Lucy. 

It’s a lot to process, and she finds herself still thinking about it when she returns to the Academy the following Monday. 

Jackson immediately ambushes her, all smiles and hugs, welcoming her back and filling her in on everything she’d missed while she’d been gone.

“No one washed out, which was a minor miracle,” he says, and Lucy nods as she takes her seat and begins to prepare for morning announcements. Jackson sits next to her and John fills in their table, and as soon as she sees the older man she realizes shit, it wasn’t just Officer Bradford who she should have been panicking about. 

Nolan had basically asked her out. 

She’d told him no and she might have been a little bit mean about it, but to be fair, he had been a bit of an ass. 

“Good morning,” he greets her, awkward smile pasted on his lips. 

Lucy mirrors his awkwardness and nods, and is endlessly thankful when Officer Bradford stalks into the room and drops his notes down on the podium at the front before anything more horrible than awkward half smiles can occur. 

“Well, you all survived another week. Congratulations,” he says, his tone dry and his words dripping literally anything except for approval. 

There’s scattered laughter from the remaining recruits, Lucy among them. 

She watches Officer Bradford carefully as his eyes scan the room, and she’s able to catch the very moment that he realizes she’s there. His eyes, normally so closed off, flash with something, and Lucy feels heat tingle through her entire body, her stomach swooping because she hadn’t imagined it. 

She hadn’t imagined the way he’d looked at her in the hospital, the way he’d smiled and laughed and seemed more carefree than she’d ever seen him despite the seriousness of the situation.

The fact that he seems more human to her now is dangerous. 

Things had been considerably easier when he’d been so out of reach, but now… well. 

She wants to pick him apart layer by layer and see what makes him tick. 

“Ah. Welcome back, Officer Chen,” he murmurs, his attention sufficiently shifted from the notes he’d brought with him.

Lucy smiles, her cheeks flushing a little bit, and fights the urge to duck her head as his endless blue eyes meet hers. 

“Thank you, sir,” she says, her voice more steady than she’d anticipated. 

“Your doctor cleared you to be here?”

“Yes, sir,” she murmurs again, brown eyes never leaving his, and he smiles. 

Not in the unguarded way he had at the hospital, but it’s a smile nonetheless. 

“Good. We’re glad to have you back. You won’t be on the mat today, but you can observe with me and critique everyone’s mistakes.”

Lucy chuckles and nods, finally breaking away from his gaze as he reaches for his notes. He begins going over class schedules for the next four week term as well as expectations for their upcoming 1.5 mile run test. 

“There needs to be at least some improvement, though I don’t expect you to be at end of course expectations yet,” he says, eyes snapping up and turning to Nolan accusingly. "If there isn't at least thirty seconds worth of improvement, you're out of the program." 

Nolan scoffs and avoids Bradford’s gaze, and Lucy tries not to smile as he begins quietly grumbling about fucking Bradford and his pretty face and stupid long legs and his abs.

Jackson turns to Lucy, an eyebrow raised. 

“The fuck is his problem?” he whispers. 

Lucy grimaces, because she has a feeling that Nolan’s sudden irritation with their teacher has a lot to do with her sudden attraction to him. 

“Uh,” she says, and then glances over at where Nolan is reluctantly paying attention and scribbling in his notebook about the training schedule Bradford is rattling off. She ignores it because she’s already made huge improvement in her running (in Bradford’s own words), and leans closer to Jackson.

“He, uh, he asked me out.”

Jackson chokes on the sip of coffee he’s just taken and turns to Lucy with wide eyes. 

“Bradford asked you out!?”

It’s a yelled whisper-hiss, and Lucy grimaces as Bradford’s eyes turn their way. She slaps her hand over Jackson’s mouth and shakes her head. 

“No, dumbass. Nolan did.”

Jackson coughs and wipes at his eyes as Bradford deems his choking fit not important and continues talking. 

“That makes much more sense, though god. Bradford is much hotter.”

Lucy silently agrees while biting her lip to keep from smiling. 

“Yeah. Anyway, I… said no. So, you know, it's awkward now.”

Jackson nods slowly as his eyes dart toward Nolan again. 

“It’s a good thing that you turned him down, though,” he murmurs, eyes returning to Lucy as Nolan remains none the wiser about their conversation. “I mean, you’ll both be rookies soon, and it’s not a good look to already be fucking one of your classmates. As the woman, I mean.”

Lucy sighs. “Sexist pigs,” she grumbles, even though she knows Jackson is right.

Dating a male cop while being a rookie? 

It’ll label her, even if it shouldn’t. 

“He’ll be patted on the back for landing the hot rookie, even if he’s a rookie himself, and you’ll… well… it’s not a good look.”

Lucy grimaces and nods, and tries not to wonder what if fucking your academy trainer would be a bad look, too.

(It definitely would be, and besides, Bradford isn’t interested in her that way… is he?)

She shoves both thoughts away as Bradford begins talking about things that actually apply to her. 

“I have it on good authority that you have a pop quiz in Criminal Law this morning, so I suggest you spend the little time you have before 0900 studying. Dismissed.”

Jackson and Nolan begin panicking immediately, but Lucy doesn’t bother freaking out. She’s had five days off and, in her worry of falling behind, had studied ahead of where they are.

So, while they’re coming up with a rushed study plan before their nine o’clock class, Lucy takes her time gathering her things as she basks in the happiness of being back in this place, the first place that she feels like she truly belongs. 

________________________

“I’m impressed.”

At first Lucy doesn’t realize that Officer Bradford is speaking to her, but once she does, she feels like she flushes all the way from her hairline down to her toes. 

“W-what?”

He grins as he turns to her, arms crossed over his chest in a way that makes his muscles bulge unfairly. She bites at her lip, trying desperately to hold in a whine, and lets her eyes wander his chest and the sexy, sharp line of his jaw until she meets his gaze. 

The other recruits are wrestling on the mat in front of them, but they could be on fire and she wouldn’t care as long as he keeps staring at her like that. 

“I’m impressed with you,” he repeats, his eyes intense as he searches hers. 

For what, she doesn’t know. 

(She does know, and she knows he finds it because his words of praise flush hot and fast through her body before settling low in her belly and between her legs). 

She presses her thighs together and she knows he notices because his smirk grows almost imperceptibly. 

“Why?” she asks, her voice smaller than she’d like for it to be. 

He hums low in his throat as his eyes flicker back to the recruits to make sure no one else is incurring a concussion or other hospital worthy injury.

“You’re five days out from a major concussion,” he says, voice low in a way that she’s certain is meant to completely and utterly devastate her. 

He sees her, and it’s invigorating. 

“I’m fine,” she assures him reaching up unconsciously to touch the spot on her head where the glue has begun to flake and fall away. “The… the doctor said I’m clear for everything except fighting. I can run and… and do weights and all that.”

“Hmm. Still. It's impressive.”

Bradford turns his attention back to the recruits on the mat, and they watch them in silence for a long moment.

Lucy can barely focus, though, because the way he’d said impressive in his deep, raspy voice had done things to her. Her panties are soaked, and she can feel the heat and a pulse of need in her pussy every single time he looks at her.

It’s not the first time he’s made her wet, but after the hospital… god, her brain has come up with an alarming number of new fantasies because the way he’d looked at her? 

He may not like her in the all-consuming-we-could-be-together-for-the-rest-of-our-lives kind of way that she’s becoming worried she likes him, but… well, there’s something, and even if it’s admiration and sexual tension, she’ll take it. 

“What is he doing wrong?”

Lucy snaps back to reality as Officer Bradford’s voice washes over her, less intense now but still enough to make her stomach flip. 

“Um. What?”

He grins and points to where Nolan is fighting Tomas on the mat. 

“Nolan. What is he doing wrong?”

Lucy watches the two men for a long moment, her eyes cataloging their every move. Tomas is the aggressor and Nolan the defendant, and today they’re practicing moves to get their opponent on the ground and cuffed with as little damage as possible. 

“He’s not taking it seriously,” Lucy decides. 

Bradford hums in confirmation. 

“Elaborate.”

Lucy takes a moment to gather her thoughts, during which Bradford whistles and calls the two men over to them. 

“Officer Chen is going to tell you what you were doing wrong, Officer Nolan, and you’re going to fix it,” he says, and Lucy panics briefly because oh fuck no she cannot be the one to correct Nolan. 

Not after…

She swallows, though, and forces herself to find the words because as awkward as it will be to tell Nolan what he was doing incorrectly, it would be worse to make Bradford disappointed in her. 

“Um,” she begins, chewing on her lip thoughtfully. “You, uh, you’re not taking this seriously.”

Nolan makes a face at her. “Yes I am! I want to be here as much as anyone else, Luce. I am taking this seriously. What gave you the idea otherwise?”

Lucy winces a little when he calls her Luce, but pushes on regardless. 

“I don’t mean you’re not taking the program seriously, John. I mean this fight. All of our fights, really, and it’s noble that you don’t want to hurt anyone but it’s a hazard of the job. You don’t want to hurt Tomas, and it shows. You’re holding back, not taking opportunities that you should have taken. He gave you an opening when he tried to take your feet out from under you. You could have taken him down by pushing him off balance and landing on top of him. He may have been able to fight his way out, but we don’t know because you saw the opening and hesitated.”

Nolan doesn’t speak for a long moment, his jaw working slowly as he grinds his teeth. 

Lucy swallows nervously and looks to Bradford, who nods in agreement. 

“She’s right, Nolan, and you needed to hear it from someone other than me. I didn’t say any of those words to her — she came up with them on her own. You need to accept that you’re being soft, and then you need to fix it.”

Nolan opens his mouth and closes it again, his eyebrows furrowed together. 

Lucy waits, her heart pounding. 

Is this the end of whatever friendship they’d managed to cultivate this far? 

“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” he finally says, his voice small.

Bradford nods. 

“I know," he murmurs, his voice softer now. "And as Officer Chen said, it’s noble. But in here, on this mat, you’re not going to do any permanent harm. What happened to Chen was a fluke, and it’s not going to happen again. You have to learn in here, because out there, there are no second chances. Tomas is tough and he can take it. So get back out there and pin him, Officer Nolan.”

Nolan nods sharply and turns back to the mat, and as he walks away from them, Lucy lets out a sigh of relief. 

“God I don’t ever want to be a teacher. It’s hard telling other people how they messed up.”

Bradford chuckles as he leans against the wall, arms crossed again as he watches Nolan and Tomas with eagle eyes. 

“Yeah? You’d be good at it though. But if you don’t want to teach, there are other options than TO. You could be a sergeant, in charge but not teaching necessarily.”

“Or I could just stay a patrol officer,” Lucy suggests, because being in charge is just about as terrifying as being a training officer. 

Bradford scoffs though. “That would be a waste. No, Chen, you’re destined for more. Don’t limit yourself.”

Lucy watches Bradford as he watches the recruits, the warmth in her belly reaching a dull roar as his intense eyes judge her fellow classmates after praising her. 

_____________________

Lucy knows she could shower at home, but Jackson had invited her out for drinks (and gossip, she’s sure, because he’d been giving her and Bradford looks all afternoon) and she doesn’t want to be all sweaty while out. 

So she quickly showers and changes, ignoring the ache between her legs for later when she can give herself and her fantasies the attention they deserve. She avoids her pussy as she washes herself down, biting her lip as she wipes arousal off of her thighs. 

It’s not fucking fair what this man does to her with his praise and his scowls and his stupid deep voice. 

The locker room is empty when she finishes showering, so she tosses her towel in the hamper and dresses quickly, the echoing silence more creepy than she’d like to admit. 

She shoots off a text to Jackson as she pushes the women’s locker room door open, and in her half distracted state she doesn’t notice that she’s not the only one in the hallway. 

A throat clears and she nearly drops her phone, her eyes widening as she glances up to see none other than the object of her desires leaning against the wall outside the women’s locker room. 

What is he doing here? 

“Officer Bradford?” she whispers, throat thick with surprise and something else, and she suddenly regrets not getting off in the shower because she feels like she’s on fire as he stares at her, hands in his pockets and shirt stretched obscenely over his chest. 

“Lucy.”

Oh. 

She’s Lucy now that they're off the clock, huh?

She slides her phone into her pocket and swallows thickly. 

“Is something wrong? Did I…?”

Officer Bradford shakes his head as he pushes off of the wall and takes a step closer to her. His eyes are endless pools of blue, and she’s caught in his orbit as he walks straight up to her and into her space. 

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” he murmurs, eyes searching her face. For what she doesn’t know, but he seems to find it because he smiles as she reaches out a hand to hover at his hip before dropping it back to her side. 

“Then… then what… why did you wait for me?”

Bradford shrugs. 

“Everyone else left. I figured… I figured I’d walk you to your car. It's getting dark earlier and earlier."

Lucy’s breath whooshes out of her at the sincerity in his gaze, and she thinks that maybe that is what causes her to do it. 

Not because he’s hot like woah, or even because he praises her in a way that makes her knees buckle.

But because, in the little moments, he cares. 

He'd seen that she struggle with firearms and had helped her find her footing. 

He'd visited her when she was hurt. 

He noticed Nolan struggling today, and got him back on the right track without being an ass about it.

And then... then he'd waited for her so that she wouldn’t have to walk to her car alone in the dark. 

He’s so… intense, but… 

But he also cares. 

“Tim,” she whispers, the first time she’s said his name out loud, and then she’s crowding into his space and backing him up against the wall.

“Lucy,” he challenges her, blue eyes flashing as his breath catches. 

She reaches up to touch his cheek, and as his eyes flutter closed and a low, long moan slips past his lips, she kisses him the way she’s imagined doing a million times. 

He groans and digs his hands into her ass, pulling her closer, and she smiles against his lips as he kisses her back. 

Chapter Text

Lucy Chen kisses him, and for one long moment, it’s glorious —

soft lips and a wet, warm tongue

the flesh of her ass (god, her ass!) in his hands

her hands on him, sliding under his shirt and touching his stomach, causing desire to ripple through him like fire

her moans in his mouth, vibrating all the way down his spine 

— but then reality sets back in and he realizes he’s flipped their positions and has Lucy Chen, Officer Lucy Chen, his student, pressed against the wall with one thigh between hers. 

“Oh god,” he moans, his head at war with his heart (and a little bit his dick). 

Lucy mistakes the moan for something positive and sucks his bottom lip into her mouth, and he’s lost again. 

He’s lost in her, his determined, stubborn, beautiful firecracker of a trainee, her delicate hands sliding further up his chest as his tongue owns her mouth, licking across her teeth and tangling with hers as he tries desperately to find the will to end this. 

“S-stop,” he gasps, but his mouth doesn’t get the memo and he’s chasing her lips even as she begins to pull away, eyes wild and chest heaving. 

It takes a moment for him to open his own eyes, and when he does he can’t resist the urge to kiss her again, her red, kiss swollen lips calling to him like a fucking siren. 

“Tim,” she gasps, and he grunts as he shoves his thigh higher, higher, until she’s riding him and he can feel the warmth of her pussy through his jeans. 

Fuck. 

Fuck! 

“Please,” she whines, and he nods as he drops his lips to her chin, sucking hard and nipping the delicate skin with his teeth as she takes in several deep, gulping breaths. 

He goes for her mouth again as she slides one hand around to dig into his ass, but she pauses him, turning to the side so his lips make contact with her cheek instead. 

“Wait.”

The word is breathless and sends a rush of blood to his cock, but regardless, he waits. 

They both pant heavily in the academy hallway (the fucking hallway, Bradford) until Lucy finds the breath to speak. 

“You said ‘stop’,” she whispers, licking her lips to chase his taste as her eyes search his. “I don’t… you said stop, so…”

He feels his heart do something funny at the clear concern in her voice. 

It’s been so long since someone was concerned for him like this that he doesn’t quite know what to do with the way his stomach flips and his heart aches. 

“Right,” he whispers, licking his own lips, his tongue mirroring hers as he lets his eyes roam her face, her half lidded gaze, her kiss swollen mouth. “Right. I did… I said stop…”

Lucy chuckles as she wiggles a little on the thigh he still has between her legs. 

“Yes. You did. So…?”

Tim takes a step back and lets his thigh drop, and though it goes against every instinct in his body, he puts some space between them. 

“We need to stop,” he finally says, though his hand twitches in an aborted move to touch her again.

He already craves her, and he’s only kissed her a few times.

Lucy’s chest heaves and she looks at him in a way that clearly communicates that she would rather do anything but. 

“This is… it’s wrong,” he continues. “I… I’m your teacher. I’m taking advantage of you.”

Lucy raises an eyebrow and Tim nearly swallows his own tongue at the challenging look she throws his way. 

God, he loves, he craves, the way she challenges him.

“Do you not remember when I took you down with not one but two hits to the nuts?” she murmurs, voice soft and sultry as she presses her hand to his chest. Tim winces at the memory and Lucy chuckles, sliding her hand slowly down before stopping at his waistband, her fingers playing with his belt loops. “Speaking of which… I didn’t hit you too hard, did I? They still… work?”

Tim swallows as a rush of blood floods his already half hard cock, and his balls — the balls in question, actually — throb as her sneaky little hand slides lower. 

She smirks when her palm settles over the bulge in his pants, and he moans, his face dropping to her neck as he breathes heavily and tries to remember why he’s trying to stop this. 

Oh, right. 

He’s her goddamn teacher. 

“We shouldn’t,” he tries.

It’s a weak attempt, at best. 

Lucy hums as she scratches the fingers of the hand not on his dick through his hair. 

“Well not out here, certainly.”

Tim pulls back to stare at her in abject horror, and she laughs as she grabs the collar of his shirt and, in a swift, smooth movement that he’d praise if they were on the mat, hauls him inside the women’s locker room before closing and locking the door. 

“If you don’t want this, just say so,” she challenges, humming as she finally, finally removes her hand from his cock and begins tracing patterns over the thigh of his jeans. “Not we shouldn’t. But if you don’t want it.”

Something snaps in Tim then, and he growls as he reverses their positions and presses her to the door, her hands pinned above her head as he grinds his hips into hers, letting her feel exactly how much he does want this. 

How much he wants her. 

Her sass. 

Her determination. 

The spark in her eye when he praises her. 

Her smiles and her laughter and her moans. 

“Of course I fucking want this,” he growls, and Lucy smiles like the cat who got the cream as she gives as good as she’s getting, rubbing her front all along his and delighting in the little noises he makes as his jeans chaff none too gently against his cock. 

“Then what’s the problem, sir?”

Tim’s control is a fragile thing, and he sucks in a breath slowly through his nose as he tries to think with the brain in his head as opposed to the one in his pants. 

“I’m your teacher,” he says again, though he can’t help the little hitch of his hips as Lucy’s devious fingers return to rub him through the fabric of his pants. “By the very nature of our positions, I’m taking advantage of you.”

Lucy chuckles as she flips them again, pinning Tim to the wall with a thigh between his and not in a nice way. She’s pressing against his cock in a way that feels good but fucking hurts, and Tim groans as she pulls the lobe of his ear into her mouth and bites. 

“Do you really think,” she murmurs, her breath hot and warm against his ear in a way that makes his knees buckle. “That you could make me do anything I don’t want to do? What over the past five weeks has given you the idea that I allow myself to be taken advantage of?”

Tim whimpers, but Lucy doesn’t give him the time or space to respond. 

“Yes, you’re my teacher,” she continues, her tongue tracing the shell of his ear as she pauses inbetween her words. “But only for eleven more weeks.”

“But then you’ll be a rookie,” Tim gasps, and Lucy chuckles as her lips travel down to bite meanly at his jaw. 

“Yes, but not your rookie.”

“You could be,” Tim argues, his hips buckling into hers as she sucks at the skin right below his chin. “If you’re assigned to Mid Wilshire. There’s… fuck, there’s only three training officers.”

Lucy growls in annoyance as she slides her hand into Tim’s pants and cups him through his boxer briefs. 

“Why are we talking about this right now?”

Tim pulls her hand from his jeans and flips their positions, pressing Lucy’s front along the wall as he presses against her back. He pins her wrists beside her thighs, holding her tight to the wall with his body as he breathes heavily into her ear, his hips thrusting against her backside as he growls, “Because I’m your teacher, Lucy, and I care about you enough that I don’t want you to regret this. To regret me.”

Lucy whines and turns her head, her eyes half lidded as she catches Tim’s gaze. His cheek is pressed to hers, and they’re breathing harshly into the same small space, their breath hot and mingling as they try to control themselves. 

“I don’t…” she begins, but she pauses, closing her eyes as she breathes and tries to calm herself somewhat. She can feel Tim’s heart beating frantically against her back, and she waits until his heart slows in time with hers before she speaks again. “I won’t regret anything that happens,” she murmurs. “I want… I have wanted…”

Tim nibbles at her ear as he slides one hand around her waist, holding her gently to him as he lets up some of the pressure of his body against hers. 

“We should talk,” he says, voice punched out and raspy. “Not… not now. Not when we’re both like this. But... we should talk. Really talk.”

Lucy whines as the possibility of getting what she wants slowly slips through her fingers. 

She wants… she needs…

Fuck, she needs him!

Tim presses a soft kiss to the back of her neck as he sweeps her damp hair over one shoulder. 

“But… I need…” she gasps, whining low in her throat as she thrusts her hips against nothing but the wall, her thighs clenching and her pussy absolutely soaked. 

She can’t go out like this. 

She’s a fucking mess.

Tim chuckles softly into her ear and presses one hand over her heart, the other slipping low on her belly, his fingers toying with the band of her leggings. 

“We need to talk,” he repeats as the tips of his long, calloused fingers dip into her panties and splay hot and thick over her mound. He can feel the heat radiating from her center, the front of her panties completely soaked. “But… I can’t very well leave you like this, can I? That wouldn’t be very fair of me.”

Lucy shakes her head, moaning as his fingers dip between her lips, gathering her wetness but not touching where she wants him, where she needs him. 

“N-no,” she stutters, and he chuckles as he rocks his hips into her ass, his lips never leaving the sweaty, salty skin of her neck as his fingers dip lower, lower. 

“What do you want, Lucy?” he murmurs, and she nearly breaks apart at the way her whispers her name into her ear, the word a hot caress against her very soul. 

“T-touch me, Tim,” she begs, rocking her hips into his hands as he parts her labia and presses two fingers to her clit. She moans loudly and throws her head back, letting it fall on Tim’s shoulder as he circles one finger around the swollen bud while the other slides through her wetness, exploring the shape of her, memorizing the way she feels so hot and wet, so soft and slick. 

“Fuck, baby, you’re so wet,” he groans into her ear, and they both gasp as he rocks his clothed cock into her ass in time with the movements of his fingers. 

Lucy whines and reaches one hand to wrap around the wrist of the hand he has in her pants. She pushes it further down, groaning as his fingers slide across her hole, hitching on the edge but not sliding inside. 

“Tim,” she whines, rubbing her ass back on his cock as he circles her pussy. “Tim, please.”

He chuckles as he slides two fingers inside her without any further teasing, and they both moan long and loud as they slip easily inside, filling her, stretching her, her arousal gushing out around the digits as he curls them in her pussy and thrusts in time with his cock against her ass. 

“God, fuck,” he groans, and Lucy nods as she shoves her hand into her panties and circles her own clit, her eyes fluttering closed as his thick, long fingers press deeper, searching inside of her, thrusting, curling. 

She cries out when he adds a third, and he chuckles in her ear, his free hand reaching up to cover her mouth. 

“Shhhh,” he whispers, lips wet and hot against her cheek. “Someone could be outside of this room.”

A fresh gush of arousal soaks his palm and Tim nearly comes on the spot, his cock pulsing in his jeans and soaking his boxer briefs with precome as Lucy rides his hand, getting off on the idea that someone could be listening to them. 

“You’re… god, you’re something else,” he says, and Lucy chuckles breathlessly as her finger speeds up its movement on her clit. 

“Tim, I’m…”

Her words devolve into a whine as he curls his fingers inside of her, pressing against the front wall of her pussy and dragging slowly along the sensitive skin as she bucks against his hand. 

“You close?”

He can feel that she is, and he smirks against the sweaty skin of her neck as she nods, her hips alternating riding his hand and pushing back against his groin as he licks the sweat from her skin and fucks her with his fingers at the same time. Her own finger is faltering on her clit, and he hums as he slips two fingers inside of her mouth, thrusting them against her tongue and her throat in time with the ones in her pussy. 

“Come for me, baby,” he moans into her ear, and she does, beautifully, perfectly, stunningly. She trembles in his arms and he groans into her ear as he follows her over the edge, pulsing in his jeans as she rubs against his cock and trembles against him, her movements uncoordinated as she rocks against his hand and coats his palm in her cum. 

Tim presses her against the wall, his front covering her back as they breathe harshly in the dim light of the locker room, the reality of what they’d just done settling over him as her hips make aborted little movements, her pussy sliding wet and hot against his hand until he slowly pulls it from her panties. He stares at it, shimmering with her arousal, his fingers absolutely fucking soaked and gleaming in the low light. 

“Fuck,” he groans, and he swears he comes a second time when he lifts the digits to his mouth and sucks them inside, his tongue swirling around and between them to chase her taste. 

God, he wants to bury his head between her thighs and taste her straight from the source. 

Eventually he comes back to himself, though, and he grunts as he adjusts his softening cock in his soaking pants before turning Lucy around, pressing her back to the wall as her eyes meet his for the first time since he gave them both an orgasm he knows he’ll be revisiting later in his dreams. 

“Here, let me…” Lucy murmurs, her hand sliding down his stomach to toy with the waistband of his jeans. 

Tim’s face flushes as he catches her hand, pressing it over his heart as he shakes his head. 

“No need,” he says breathlessly. 

Lucy frowns at him, feeling his heart beat rapidly under her palm as he peels his hips away from hers. 

“You just gave me the best orgasm of my life,” she says, her fingers flexing under his to try and get to his cock. “I insist.”

Tim’s flush deepens; it’s a good look on him, and it only makes Lucy want him more. 

“No, Chen, I mean there’s no need.”

The flush on his cheeks coupled with the way he won’t meet her eyes causes a gleeful grin to erupt across her lips, and her eyes sparkle mischievously as she pulls her hand out from under his and slides it down his sternum, slipping into the waistband of his jeans and running her finger along the trail of hair leading to his cock. 

“You came in your pants, didn’t you?”

Tim flicks her nipple through her shirt, causing her to gasp and moan. 

“Shut the fuck up, Chen.”

“Oh it’s Chen now, is it?” she asks, eyebrow raised playfully. 

“It never should have been anything but Chen,” he grumbles, but the way he moves to begin kissing her neck takes the sting out of his words. 

His next words, though, bring the sting right back. 

“This shouldn’t happen again.”

It’s not a question, even though Lucy wishes it were. 

“You said we’d talk,” she counters, and he sighs as he pulls away and catches her gaze. 

“I did, and we can,” he allows, and the way she’s staring at him coupled with the fact that his body is still singing from his orgasm has him agreeing to things he knows he definitely should not be agreeing to. “But not tonight. Not here. This was already risky enough.”

Lucy nods slowly, and then her expression turns dirty as she sucks her bottom lip between her teeth and eyes him up and down slowly. 

“And after we talk… you’ll fuck me?”

Tim groans, his hips thrusting against the empty air between them as he imagines sinking his cock into the wet heat of her, feeling her clench around his length the same way she had around his fingers. 

“Maybe,” he allows, though he knows his answer should be a resounding no. “But again… not here. If I fuck you, it’s sure as hell not going to be in a locker room at the fucking Academy.”

Lucy laughs and reaches up to cup his cheek, pulling his head down to capture his lips in a kiss. She moans when she tastes herself on his tongue, and he smirks into the kiss as he shares her taste with her, tangy and sweet and irresistible. 

When she pulls away she’s flushed, her hair a mess and her eyes still a little bit glazed.

Her whole demeanor says I was just fucked, and Tim groans as she bites her lip again. 

“To be continued?” she murmurs, eyes flashing with trouble. 

And the thing is… Tim should definitely say no.

He should report himself and let them demote him to whatever is below Academy Trainer, but… 

But he doesn’t. 

Instead he kisses her again and then, as he’s pulling away to walk out of the locker room before he gives in and fucks her against this door, slaps her ass playfully.

“To be continued.”

Chapter Text

Officer Bradford isn’t at the Academy the next day, and Lucy spends the entire class period and their afternoon strength training session worrying.  

Does he regret what happened? 

Did he decide he couldn’t live with the guilt of fucking his trainee, and turned himself in to the powers that be?

Did he crash on the way home because he was busy thinking about fucking her? 

Where the hell is he? 

Nolan and Jackson notice her preoccupation but don’t mention it, and for that, Lucy’s glad. She’d canceled on Jackson the night before, and it’s a perfect excuse —

“I just still don’t feel very well,” she’d explained during morning announcements. “I must have eaten something that disagreed with me.”

Jackson is appropriately empathetic while Nolan mostly ignores her out of residual awkwardness, but it works perfectly for Lucy since she spends most of the day thinking about the way Tim’s hands had felt between her legs and in her mouth, fucking her pussy and her throat at the same time.

By the end of the day she’s so jittery that she can’t even imagine trying to wind down at home, so she stays after everyone else leaves, changes into thin, spandex booty shorts and a tank top, and hits the track in the humid evening air. 

It’s getting dark but the track is lit well enough that she feels safe, and she blows out a breath as her feet his the dirt, pounding in rhythm as she focuses on her breathing and the way her legs burn as pushes herself to run faster, smoother, to beat her record and make progress to the goal Officer Bradford had set for her. 

After a few laps she’s in the zone, all thoughts of last night pushed to the back of her mind, and she grins as the sun dips below the horizon and she manages her personal best on the 1.5 mile. 

“How fast was that?”

Lucy startles and nearly trips over her own feet, but she recovers quickly as she comes to a stuttering stop beside the row of benches where Officer Bradford is tying his tennis shoes, athletic shorts pulled tight over his muscular thighs and arms bulging in a cut off t-shirt. 

She glances at her watch, her heart pounding in her ears, and feels a flash of warmth warm her to the tips of her toes when she sees her time. 

“10:15,” she says, grinning ear to ear as she glances back up at Officer Bradford. 

He’s smiling too as he slides his hands from the tops of his thighs to his knees as he stands. He begins to stretch, one arm pulled tight against his chest as he watches her, his blue eyes sparkling in the light from the street lamp above them. 

“That’s good,” he murmurs, voice low and pitched perfectly to make Lucy squirm. “But we can do better, yeah?”

Lucy nods because honestly, she’d do anything he asked her to do no matter the cost. 

“Yeah.”

Officer Bradford nods and then, in what she presumes is a moment of weakness, lets his eyes roam her body slowly. Her spandex shorts have ridden up while running, snugged tightly under the cheeks of her ass in back while framing her mound in front. They leave very little to the imagination, and she can practically feel Bradford’s eyes on her as she wipes her brow, her tank top riding up to reveal a sliver of her belly. 

“Fuck, Chen,” he groans, and she grins as she brushes a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, her smile growing as he drops one hand to press over his front, his heel digging into the base of his cock. 

“You said we had to talk first,” she teases, purposely rubbing her stomach so that her tank top rides up more. Bradford’s eyes follow the movement with half lidded eyes, and Lucy chuckles softly. 

“We do,” he groans, sighing as he drops his hand to his side. Lucy can see that he’s half hard in his shorts, and she very much wants to do something about it but before she can, he’s reaching for her hand and pulling her along as he breaks into a slow, warm-up run. “We can talk and run.”

“Okay,” Lucy agrees, blowing out a breath as her heart rate begins to climb again, both from the physical activity and the way his long, thick fingers fit perfectly between hers. He doesn’t hold on for long, dropping her hand once they’ve picked up a good pace, but she feels the warmth on her skin long past when he lets go. 

“Where were you today?” she asks as they begin their second lap, running faster now but not timing themselves yet. 

Officer Bradford — Tim, she supposes, if they’re really going to talk about this — doesn’t respond immediately, and for a minute, she wonders if he’s going to. 

“I was finalizing divorce papers with my ex-wife," he finally admits.

Lucy stumbles and nearly falls, but Tim’s hand on her arm keeps her upright as they round the corner and pick up speed once again, their feet hitting the ground in tandem as the muscles in their legs burn. 

“W-what?”

He nods and doesn’t look at her as he speaks, his voice low. 

“You can’t… this… you can’t tell your recruit friends about this,” he murmurs. “It’s… I’m only telling you because… well, because. But it’s not common knowledge.”

Lucy swallows and reaches out to brush her hand against Tim’s as they move around the track.

“I won’t,” she promises, her voice serious and soft, giving the moment the respect it deserves. “I won’t tell anyone, Tim.”

He nods and swallows, and it takes nearly half a lap for him to continue. 

“We’ve been separated for a long time,” he finally says, his breath coming in short pants as they push themselves faster, harder. “She… she’s why I’m here.”

Lucy remembers that much from the hospital. “You said you were trying to protect her, that's why you were demoted.”

Tim laughs, but it’s not a happy sound. 

“Yeah. She was… she was a cop, like me. But she went the undercover route while I stayed on patrol. And for a while, it was fine. She was gone all the time, but it was okay because we were fine being apart. I watched sports and ran a lot, and when she came back between operations, we were… we were good. But then she started coming back less and less, and when she was home, she was… distant.”

Lucy has a sinking feeling in her stomach that she knows where this is going, but she doesn’t dare interrupt because she’s afraid if she does, he'll stop talking. 

“She got hooked on drugs,” he murmurs, and then, as if he isn’t sharing one of the deepest parts of himself with her, adds, “Start your timer.”

Lucy does with shaking fingers, her heart pounding as Tim reaches out to touch the small of her back, to signal her to run harder, faster, to push herself as they time their 1.5 mile run. 

They don’t talk while timing themselves, all of their attention focused on each step, each breath, but Lucy can’t stop thinking about what he’d said. 

Drugs. 

Fuck. 

And to protect her, he’d… what? 

Lied for her? 

Scored for her?

Hidden crimes? 

She knows it can’t have been anything too bad, or else he would have been stripped of his badge. But he’d done something, something to land him here at the Academy instead of on patrol training rookies. 

He continues talking without preamble once they finish their 1.5 miles, Lucy pausing the watch without looking at it so that she can focus on his words. 

“She asked me to hide a brick of coke for her,” he murmurs, slowing his run to a leisurely jog. “And … I almost did it.”

Lucy blows out a breath, her fingers shaking as she reaches out to touch his arm. “Is that why you’re here?”

Tim nods and falls silent for a long time. 

Lucy follows his lead, running with him until he stops in the middle of the track and looks at her, his blue eyes vulnerable and his chest heaving with exertion, both physical and emotional. 

“I realized that I was going to ruin my life if I enabled her, so the next day I told Sergeant Grey, my Watch Commander, everything. We went to IA together and worked out a deal for me and for her if she was willing to turn herself in. She did, and she went to rehab. She’s there now. Yesterday, I…”

He pauses again and Lucy waits as they stand in the middle of the darkest part of the track, chests heaving and eyes connected, hands touching but not holding. 

There’s electricity between them, something heavy and heady as his fingers eventually twitch and begin tracing hers, calloused fingertips making her shiver as he stares at her, searching her gaze. 

“She and I… we started the divorce proceedings a while back, but she begged me to wait,” he says, fingers faltering on hers as his voice cracks. “She begged me to wait until she was out of rehab to finish. I think she wanted to see if … if we could be salvaged, if our marriage could be salvaged.”

Lucy feels a pang in her heart because fuck, had she caused Tim to cheat on his wife? 

He’d said ex-wife in the hospital, though… 

“But it was over for me a long time ago,” he whispers, voice raw and open, eyes wide as he shares the deepest, darkest part of himself with her. 

(She doesn’t feel like she deserves his trust, but she tucks it close to her heart, anyway, warm and safe and hers). 

“Last night… confirmed that for me,” he says, hand holding hers tightly now. “Afterward, I didn’t feel bad. I didn’t feel like I’d betrayed her or … or anything like that. I just felt good. And I knew, then, that there was no going back. She cheated on me over and over while she was high, and I know she hoped to rekindle things between us, but… my heart hasn’t been hers in a long time.”

Lucy licks her lips and nods, her fingers tightening around Tim’s as she tries to find the words to say. 

Before she does, Tim nods toward her stopwatch as he drops her hand suddenly.

“Time?”

He’s giving her fucking whiplash as he switches between baring his soul and asking her to time their running, and she stammers as she lifts the watch and reads the numbers out loud.

“10:11,” she says, and then basks in the delighted laugh he lets out. 

“Fuck yeah. You’re gonna beat that record one of these days soon, Chen,” he murmurs, and then, as if he hadn’t just shared something deep and dark and personal, nods toward the Academy building. “Now come on, you’re going to show me what you learned on the mat today while we keep talking.”

Lucy nods and follows quickly behind him, tugging down the legs of her shorts as she struggles to keep up with his long strides. 

_____________________

“So. Last night.”

Lucy swallows as she faces Tim on the mat, flexing her bare toes as his eyes roam her body, his entire disposition changed from when they were outside. He’s eyeing her shorts again, and Lucy feels a flush of heat run through her as he lingers on the way the black spandex frames her mound, the legs of the shorts bunched up on either side of her. Her thighs, thick and strong, flex as she rocks back and forth on her feet, and she watches as he licks his lips and lets his gaze trail slowly up her body. 

“Last night,” she agrees, a flush of desire running through her as she remembers his damn fingers.

“I’m your teacher,” Tim begins, but Lucy just rolls her eyes. 

“We've been over this. Antiquated rules.”

Tim chuckles as he circles her, looking for an opening in her stance. She keeps her hands out in front of her, a careful amount of space between them.

She’s waiting for him to make the first move so that she can judge what her approach should be. 

“They’re there for a reason,” he argues, and Lucy chuckles as she rolls her shoulders out. 

“Yes, and I get it in a sense. Don’t take advantage of your trainees, favoritism is bad, etcetera, etcetera. But we’ve established that I don’t do anything I don’t want to do and besides, you’re only my teacher for eleven more weeks. Well, ten weeks and three days.”

Tim hums and darts forward, throwing two quick punches to gauge her reaction. She jumps out of his range, her body fast and lithe as she creates space between them again. He grins, inclines his head in approval, and then steps back as she wipes sweat from her brow. 

“Then we should wait the ten weeks and three days,” he says, but Lucy just scoffs. 

“That ship has sailed,” she says, and then adds on a cocky, “Sir,” to the end. 

Tim stumbles and she takes advantage, spinning into his space and throwing a punch toward his stomach. He moves to block it, predictably, and Lucy uses his backward momentum to swing her leg out behind his knees, catching him by surprise as he falls to the mat with a grunt. 

He’s back on his feet before she can pin him, though, his temple dripping with sweat as he circles her. 

“That was a good move,” he praises, and she grins. 

“Yeah? Andrews showed us that today. Go for the obvious and then take them out.”

Tim chuckles. 

“I won’t fall for that again,” he promises, and then, while she’s distracted scoffing at him, he strikes, landing a hit to her solar plexus before she can jump away from him. 

“That was a dirty move,” she growls, and then she’s in his space and going for his stomach. Before she makes contact, though, he wraps his much larger hand around her fist and wrenches her arm, pulling her downward and off balance before his leg is behind hers, following her down as she lands on the mat with a grunt, the wind knocked out of her. He pins her quickly, arms above her head, and then surprises them both by rocking his hips into hers. 

“These fucking shorts,” he groans, and she chuckles breathlessly as she struggles against his grasp. 

“You really wanna wait eleven weeks to get into them?” she asks. 

He growls in response, his large hand holding both of hers to the mat as he slides the other down her side, his fingers playing with the waistband of the shorts in question. 

“I’m not wearing panties,” she says, licking her lips as she ups the ante. 

Tim groans and slides his fingers beneath the band, his fingers finding nothing but smooth, soft skin. 

Lucy can feel his dick hardening in his shorts where he’s pressed against her thigh and she uses the fact that he’s horny and distracted to her advantage. She rubs her leg along his, her thigh giving him the friction he desperately desires, and the second his eyes close in pleasure, she flips their positions, her smaller hands pinning his to his side as she sits in his lap, her pussy right over his cock. 

They both groan at the contact and Lucy can’t help but rock in his lap, her shorts and his doing little to dull the sensation or the heat. 

“That was a fucking dirty move,” Tim groans, and Lucy laughs as she leans down and presses her lips to the underside of his jaw. 

“I’ve got plenty more where that came from, Bradford,” she murmurs, nipping the skin of his jaw enough to send a shock of pain through his body but not hard enough to leave a mark. “The question is… are you in?”

Tim blows out a breath, his beautiful blue eyes closing as he tries to form rational thoughts. 

“It’s clear we’re attracted to each other,” he murmurs, and Lucy hums as she rocks into him again to prove his point. He’s fully hard now, straining against his shorts and rocking into her clothed pussy with short, aborted movements. 

“That is clear, yes,” Lucy agrees, chuckling as she trails her lips down his neck. 

“And we’re both unattached.”

“Mmm hmmm.”

A bite to the devastating curve of his neck. 

“And, fuck, and we’re both … both adults who have admitted we want to fuck each other,” he finishes, whining low in his throat as her lips trail to behind his ear. 

“Definitely want to fuck each other,” Lucy murmurs.

She wonders if now would be a good time to mention that it’s not just fucking she wants from him. Because yes, he’s hot like woah, anyone with eyes can see that. But he’s also kind and determined and loyal and she likes him even though she’s not sure he likes her in the same way. 

He had shared some pretty deep, intimate parts of himself with her, though, that she’s pretty sure he hasn’t shared with anyone else. 

So maybe it’s implied? 

Regardless, she doesn’t want to get off the delicious, horny train they’re on, so she shoves those thoughts to the back of her mind as she slides a hand under his shirt, rucking it up under his armpits as her mouth descends to his nipple. 

“So we’re doing this?” she asks, pink tongue darting out to tease him. 

He grunts and rocks his hips into hers, and she glances up just in time to see him nod. 

“Y-yeah,” he stutters, eyes slipping closed as her wandering little hand slides into the waistband of his pants. “Yes, we can do this, but… fuck, but if at any time you feel like I’m taking advantage of you, or-or…”

He loses control of his thought process as Lucy wraps her fingers around his dick, and she laughs as she kisses down his belly, pausing at the edge of his shorts to glance up and check in with him. 

“I will,” she promises, her voice clear and serious despite the situation. “I swear, Tim, I want this, too. Now… can I please blow you, or do you not do that in the Academy, either?”

Tim laughs, a high and slightly hysterical sound. 

“Fuck, Lucy. Yeah, yes, you can blow me. But I maintain… god, I maintain that I won’t be fucking you in this building.”

Lucy hums as she pushes his shorts down just enough to free his cock and balls, letting the elastic settle over his thighs as her eyes land on the thick length of him. 

“I can work with that,” she murmurs, fingers trailing him from tip to base. “Fuck, Tim, you’re so big.”

Tim whines and throws his head back against the mat as she shuffles down his body, her stomach flat on the mat and her pussy grinding against nothing as she presses her nose to his balls and breathes him in. He smells like sweat and sex, a heady, heavy scent that coats her throat and her nose. 

“Hold on,” she murmurs, reaching for his hand with her own and guiding it to her hair as she darts her tongue out to trace the vein on his cock to the head of him. Tim moans and nods, fingers tightening in the hair that’s come loose from her bun as she finally, finally sucks the head of his throbbing cock into her wet, hot mouth. 

“Fuck!”

He loses control immediately, tugging on her hair and thrusting his hips up, burying his cock deep in her throat as she gags around him. She doesn’t stop, though, spit trailing down his length and pooling on his groin as she presses her arm into his stomach, holding him in place as she backs off slightly, her cheeks hollowing and her tongue circling him as she sucks. 

A stream of filth pours from Tim’s mouth as she begins to bob her head, the swollen tip of his cock hitting her throat each time she takes him in. He’s already leaking generously from being worked up all evening, and she swallows around his length, letting his precome coat her throat as she breathes carefully through her nose. 

He’s big and thick, and she can’t help but imagine what he’s going to feel like inside of her pussy as he pulses in her mouth, his cock thickening as he nears his release. 

“Lucy, Lucy,” he groans, hips bucking up into her mouth as his feet slide on the mat, unable to control himself as her free hand reaches up to cup his balls. She rolls them gently in her hand, her eyes glancing to find him staring at her as she sucks him. 

She grins around his length and squeezes his balls gently, watching as his eyes flutter closed as he throws his head back and bares the pale line of his throat to her. 

God, he’s beautiful. 

She wants to break him into a million tiny pieces and then put him back together again. 

He chants something about her fucking amazing mouth as she sucks a breath in through her nose before swallowing around the head of his cock, encasing him in the wet, warm muscle as her tongue traces the underside of him. 

She can feel when he comes, feels the way his cock swells in her mouth and he comes without warning, thick, hot cum sliding down her throat and dripping out of her mouth, pooling in the mess she’s made of his groin. She chases each drop of it with her tongue, swallowing greedily as he comes and comes and comes before his arched back drops to the mat, his breath coming in short pants and his chest heaving. 

She glances up at him again as she sucks gently at his softening length, not letting him free from the warmth of her mouth yet. 

He’s staring at her again, eyes glazed, bright red lips parted as he pants in the aftermath of his orgasm. 

“That was…”

He trails off and Lucy giggles, finally letting him slip free from her mouth so that she can clean him up. She grabs each of his thick thighs in her hands and holds him still as she licks at his balls, the dip of his groin, and the wiry hairs at the base of his cock. She licks until his skin is gleaming with her spit and he’s overwhelmed, his fingers in her hair tugging her up and up and up until his lips are on hers and he’s licking the taste of his cum from her mouth. 

When they finally break apart Lucy drops her forehead to his, her eyes closed as she rocks against his thigh, her pussy wet and aching with need. 

Tim is murmuring in her ear, one hand on her ass helping her move while the other cups the back of her head, holding her forehead to his as she shamelessly uses him. 

“That’s it, baby,” he murmurs, lips brushing against hers with every word. His fingers dig into the crease of her ass, gripping the flesh tightly as he rubs her up and down his thigh with strong, slow movements. Her legs are shaking as he moves her, rubbing her against the strong muscle of his thigh. “That’s it, Luce. Use my thigh, baby. Rub your little clit on my leg, use me to get off.”

Lucy whines as Tim kisses her again, sucking the breath from her lungs as she finds just the right angle to catch her clit on each movement. She’s close, on the edge from having him in her mouth, his words pushing her closer and closer as she rides him. 

“You blew me so good, baby,” he whispers, sucking the lobe of her ear into his mouth and biting down on the sensitive flesh. “You felt so good. Now I want to make you feel good. Come on, Luce, come on my thigh.”

Lucy whines and buries her face in his neck as he adds a second hand to her ass, squeezing her cheeks as he manhandles her, pulling and pushing her against him as the heat in her belly grows tighter and tighter before finally, gloriously, exploding. 

She cries out, her voice muffled by his sweat skin, as she comes, her whole body trembling as he rubs his leg between hers, the waistband of his shorts pressed against her clit through her shorts. 

“That’s it, Luce. Good girl. Such a good girl for me,” he whispers, lips pressing to her forehead as she trembles in his arms. “So good, baby.”

Lucy collapses on top of him, thighs shaking and breath coming in deep, heavy pants. 

Tim holds her, his own breathing evening out, until she’s stopped trembling and can sit up in his lap without falling over. 

He grins and she laughs, brushing her messy hair from her face as she stares down at him in wonder. 

“We’re good at that,” he says. “Huh?”

Lucy nods and bites her lip as she tucks his soft cock back into his shorts. 

“I bet there are other things we’re good at too,” she teases, and Tim chuckles as he sits up, holding her thighs and pressing soft kisses to her lips. 

“I bet you’re right,” he agrees.

She hums and pulls back, and though he wants to chase after her, he just watches. 

“I have a nice, comfy bed we can use to find out, since you’re so against fucking me here,” she murmurs, and he laughs as she stands up on shaky legs before holding a hand out to him. 

He takes it and lets her pull him to his feet. 

“Oh, yeah?”

“Mmm hmm,” she agrees. “And if you want to get in your truck and follow me home, we can find out right now.”

She grins mischievously and then turns and runs, and Tim’s laugh echoes throughout the gym as he quickly moves to follow her, his hair mussed and cheeks flushed as he chases her out of the building.

Chapter Text

Lucy can feel Tim’s eyes on her, but she can’t see him. 

It’s deliciously exciting. 

Heat is pooling in her belly as she climbs the stairs to her apartment, her fingers shaking as she searches her bag for her keys. 

She hears footsteps behind her and nearly moans. 

She feels like she’s being hunted, but in the best way possible. 

Neither of them speak; Lucy doesn’t even turn around to confirm it’s him because she knows. His presence is all consuming, the sound of his footsteps ingrained in her brain. 

It’s him, he’s hunting her, and she cannot wait for the predator to catch his prey. 

Her key is barely in the door before he’s right there, body pressed tightly to hers and fingers closing in over the doorknob to help her turn the key. 

“This is a terrible part of town,” he grumbles, and Lucy snorts as she rolls her eyes. 

Way to ruin the mood, Bradford. 

“Do you want something to drink?”

With the tension broken, it’s easier for Lucy to open the door, drop her keys into the bowl on the entryway table, and then turn to him as he begins to take in her apartment. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s hers, the first place she’s ever had on her own, and she’s proud of it. 

Tim hums but doesn’t answer as his eyes scan the living room and kitchen, which are a small, combined area that lights up beautifully during the day when the sun shines through the tall, floor to ceiling windows. 

“Someone was murdered here,” she adds as an afterthought, just to see the scandalized look on his face. “I get a killer deal on rent.”

The look Tim gives her is unimpressed, and she can’t help the giggle that rises in her throat as he stares at her in disbelief. 

“Just for that horrible pun, you’re running five extra miles tomorrow,” he says, though his lips are pulling into a smile despite his words. 

“I can’t help it,” Lucy murmurs, sighing as she turns into his space and slides her hands over his shoulders, clasping them behind his head as his own fall to her waist. “You look so cute when I’ve offended you.”

“This whole apartment offends me,” he grumbles, though there’s no heat in his words as his lips find her neck. “Someone was murdered here. Oh my god, Chen, you’re going to be next.”

Lucy pauses where she’s scraping her fingernails through the short hairs at the base of his neck. 

“Sooo… I shouldn’t tell you about the secret passageway behind the bathroom mirror that I found during Halloween last year…?”

Tim makes a horrified noise that causes Lucy’s whole chest to tighten in happiness and amusement.  His fingers dig into her waist, and she bites back a moan as she sways closer to him, her hips pressing into his as he mumbles something about investigating her murder and no sense of self preservation. 

Lucy grins and bites her lip, glancing up at him from under her lashes. 

“Tim. Do you want to critique my living space, or do you want to take your pants off?”

Her words have the intended effect and Tim groans, spins them around, and presses her up against the kitchen island. 

“The second,” he groans, his voice thick with arousal as he presses his hips into hers, his already hard length teasing her with the way it presses against her belly, thick and long. “I definitely want to take my pants off. But I’d rather take yours off first.”

Lucy squeals as his hands land on the impossibly tiny booty shorts, his long fingers sliding into the spandex immediately to cup her ass. He digs the digits into the meat of her ass, spreading her cheeks as he rocks his clothed cock into her and drops his lips to hers. The kiss is wet and messy, lips and teeth and tongue uncoordinated as they dry hump each other against the kitchen island. 

Lucy breaks away when her need for him grows too great, gasping against his still parted lips. 

“Tim. Tim. Take my pants off. You know you want to.”

Tim growls against her mouth and drops to his knees, biting the soft skin of her stomach where her tank top rides up before sucking the spandex, wet with sweat and arousal, between his lips. Lucy moans, eyes half lidded as she watches him pull them down with his teeth, his gaze never leaving hers as he sits back on his haunches, shorts in his mouth. 

“Fuck,” she groans, and he chuckles as he drops the shorts to the ground before nudging her thighs apart as he begins kissing a path back up them. 

“Soon,” he promises, pausing to suck a dark, mean bruise where it won’t be seen on the inside of her thigh. “But first… I have been dreaming about your sweet pussy since last night. Since before last night. Since you first walked into my class and fucking talked back to me.”

Lucy moans and grabs onto the edge of the counter as Tim’s lips continue sucking a line of bruises into her skin, his hot breath fanning out and making her pussy clench around nothing as he gets closer and closer.

“I’m going to eat you out, baby,” he croons, his voice husky and deep as his tongue darts out to run along the outer edge of her lips. She’s soaked, both from imagining what he’s going to do to her and from fucking his thigh on the sparring mat. Her whole pussy is dripping, inside and out, and Tim moans as he gets his first taste straight from the source. “I’m going to eat you out until I’ve had my fill of your sweet cunt, and then I’m going to fuck you until you can’t run straight tomorrow.”

Lucy cries out and throws her head back, her fingers tightening in the scant few inches of Tim’s hair as he noses around her wet heat, teasing her with light touches of his nose as he breathes her in like a man drowning. 

“Tim!” she whines, thrusting her hips toward his face even as he slides a hand over her belly to hold her against the island. His other hand guides one leg over his shoulder as he shifts and gets comfortable, his impossibly blue eyes glancing up to take in the way she’s trembling, chest heaving. 

“What’s the magic word, baby?” he asks, voice sickeningly sweet as he presses a kiss right over her clit. 

“Please!” Lucy screams, bucking forward as she tries to rub her pussy on his face. “Please, Tim, please! Fuck!”

He smirks and bites softly into her mound before whispering, “as you wish” as he darts his tongue out and runs it from her clit down to her cunt, gathering as much of her arousal as he can and letting it coat his tongue and teeth as he devours her like a man starving. Lucy holds on for dear life, her thighs shaking and her hips in constant motion, doing her best to thrust against his mouth even as he holds her in place. 

“God,” she moans, dropping both hands from the island to his hair, guiding his face exactly where she wants it as she rubs her clit over the five o’clock shadow on his chin. His tongue soothes the burn, and she whines high in her throat as the hand on her belly slips lower, his fingers probing at her entrance as he sucks her clit unrelentingly. 

He’s unfairly good at this. 

She’s already close, her thighs trembling and her stomach heaving as she tries to suck in enough breath to keep from getting lightheaded. 

“You taste so fucking good,” Tim moans, purposely dragging his stubble over her clit and sensitive lips, letting her arousal soak his face as she cries out from the sting. “So sweet. Salty. Perfect.”

Lucy forces her eyes open to watch as he dives back in, one finger slipping inside her soaking hole as he sucks her clit back into his mouth, rolling it with his tongue as he teases her pussy with just his fingertip. She moans and pushes into his hand, wanting more, needing more. 

“So greedy for my fingers,” he murmurs, pulling back to place gentle, calming kisses along her inner thighs as he pulls his finger out before sliding two back inside, both of them moaning as he fills her. “You’re so needy, baby.”

Lucy groans and throws her head back, fingers scraping along Tim’s scalp. He growls at the feeling, and Lucy buckles against his face at the vibration against her cunt. 

“Tim,” she pants, pen hand cradling the back of his head as he slowly sips from her, his fingers curling inside of her. “Tim, I’m so close. I’m so close. Please make me come. Please!”

Tim hums as he rubs his stubble along her sensitive inner thigh, his soaking wet lips running along her skin.

“I’ve got you, baby,” he murmurs, his voice soft and sticky sweet as he kisses her clit before running his tongue over the sensitive bud. “What do you need?”

Lucy can’t answer for a long moment, her brain too muddled and her body too sensitive as Tim teases her. 

Finally, though, she pants out, “Suck my clit and fuck me with your fingers. Hard.”

Tim smiles before pressing a soft kiss to her mound. 

“Hold on,” he murmurs, and Lucy barely has a single second to move one hand from the back of Tim’s head to the counter, her fingers digging into the granite as he pulls his fingers out before fucking them back in hard. They both moan in tandem, and Lucy closes her eyes as the warmth in her belly begins to spread outward. Tim sets a quick, hard pace, his lips and tongue sucking and rolling her clit as his fingers fuck in and out of her sweet pussy. She’s soaking wet, making a mess of his hand and his face, but he doesn’t seem to mind as he licks and sucks everything she gives him, drinking her down as she nears her peak.

She comes with a scream, her thighs tightening around Tim’s head as he continues to fuck in and out, her arousal and cum soaking his hand and dripping down his wrist as he prolongs her orgasm as long as he can. 

“Good girl,” he whispers, pressing soft, chaste kisses to her clit, her lips, and her inner thigh as the trembling slows. “Such a good girl, giving me such a beautiful orgasm.”

Lucy whines and scrapes her fingernails down Tim’s neck, falling boneless against the counter as he stands between her thighs, his blue eyes intense as he slowly trails his hands up her body. 

“That was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen,” he murmurs. 

Lucy chuckles breathlessly as she reaches for his waist, her fingers tangling in his shirt before pulling it over his head. Her movements are jerky and uncoordinated, and he laughs as he helps her. 

“Wait until you see me bouncing on your cock, you might change your mind,” she gasps, smirking when Tim’s hands stutter while he’s working on ridding her of her own t-shirt. 

“That sounds like a challenge,” he says, his voice dripping with arousal. 

Lucy smirks as he tosses her tank top to the ground, uncaring where it lands. “That’s because it is.”

Tim chuckles as he drops his mouth, still wet with her arousal, to her neck. He sucks gently, careful not to leave a mark, as his hands slide around her back to rid her of her bra. 

“You know I love a good challenge,” he murmurs, lips trailing up her chin to bite at the line of her jaw. Lucy moans and rocks her hips against his, her naked pussy leaving wet spots on Tim’s athletic shorts. He reaches between them, his hand cupping her between her thighs, and Lucy whines as his fingers find her wet, oversensitive clit. 

“Take me to bed,” she gasps, unwilling to wait any longer to have his cock inside of her. 

Tim grunts as he captures her lips with his own, his hands sliding down her naked thighs to lift her up. She moves with him easily, sliding her legs around his waist and hooking them over the swell of his ass as he turns and begins walking toward her bedroom. She drops her mouth to his neck as he walks, licking and biting at his skin as she rocks her hips into his, making a mess of his shorts as he cusses and nearly slams them both into the doorway of her room. 

“Fuck, Lucy.”

She grins around a mournful of his skin, sweaty and salty and perfect. “That is the idea.”

Tim chuckles and, once they’re in the room, throws her onto the bed with a strength that makes her head spin. She squeals, bouncing on the mattress as he watches her, his eyes focusing on the way her breasts move as she settles in the middle of the bed, completely naked. 

“Perfect,” he murmurs, his hands falling to the waistband of his shorts. He wastes no time pushing them down and off, his boxer briefs with them, and Lucy moans when he’s fully naked, his thick, long cock bouncing against his belly as he walks confidently toward her. One of his hands drops to wrap around his length, and Lucy watches with glazed, half lidded eyes, because yes she’s had him in her mouth but now she’s about to have him in her pussy, and she cannot wait.

“Do you have condoms?” he growls, and Lucy nods, reaching into the nightstand as he comes to stop at the edge of the bed. She pulls out the box and hands it to him, her fingers shaking as she scoots up on the mattress, dropping her head on the pillow and letting her thighs fall open. She knows she looks wanton, her legs spread and her chest flushed bright red, but she doesn’t care. 

Tim Bradford is about to fuck her. 

She doesn’t much care what she looks like as long as he doesn’t stop looking at her the way he currently is. 

“Unopened,” he murmurs, lips stretching into a smirk as he shakes the brand new box of extra large condoms in her direction.

Lucy flushes. 

She may or may not have bought them the other night after he’d fucked her with his hand in the locker room, because there was no fucking way she was going to be caught unprepared if the situation arose. 

“It’s… been a while,” she admits as he tears the box in two, uncaring that condoms go flying in every direction. He grabs one and tears it open with his teeth, and Lucy moans as he takes the latex and smooths it over his thick length. 

She’d bought the extra large based on what she’d felt that night through his jeans, and she’s glad she did. 

“How long?” Tim asks, and part of Lucy wants to tell him it’s not his fucking business, but the other part knows he wouldn’t ask just to stroke his own ego. She’s proven correct when seconds later he adds, “I don’t want to hurt you if it’s been too long.”

Lucy watches as he crawls into the bed, one knee pressing into the mattress as his cock slaps wryly against his stomach. 

“Um… about a year,” she admits, and then she’s squealing again as Tim flips their positions suddenly, his large hands easily moving her where he wants her. He settles with his back on the bed and then helps her crawl over him, her thighs on either side of his as his cock slaps against her ass. 

“Been longer for me,” he says, groaning as Lucy reaches back to wrap a hand around his length. “Since… since Isabel. My ex-wife. Three years, at least.”

Lucy smiles, warm in a whole new way from the easy vulnerability he displays as she runs a hand up his chest to settle over his heart.

It’s pounding beneath her hand.

“Yeah?” she murmurs.

He nods, licking his lips as he pulls her down to kiss her. Her hand gets trapped between them as he coaxes her lips open, his tongue sweet and slow as he explores her mouth. He has one hand on her ass and the other is cupping her cheek, and Lucy feels dizzy with the way he’s holding her, kissing her, surrounding her.

“Yeah. I don’t do random hookups,” he says as he pulls back. 

Lucy licks her lips, tasting the remnants of her arousal from his tongue. 

“You don’t do random hookups. So then that means this is…?”

Tim’s cheeks flush and Lucy can’t resist the urge to kiss every inch of his beautiful face. 

“I don’t know,” he admits, his thumb brushing her cheek as he stares deeply into her eyes. “But I do know that I wouldn’t risk my career for just a quick fuck.”

Lucy sucks in a slow breath and nods, her heart doing something funny in her chest as his hand falls from her ass to his cock, his fingers wrapping around the length and pressing the head to her soaking cunt. 

“Okay,” she whispers, nodding and sitting up as he notches the head inside of her. She moans at the slight stretch, her fingers scraping his chest as she pauses, thighs trembling, eyes fluttering shut. 

“Take me at your pace, baby,” he murmurs, his large palm soothing up and down her spine as she slowly lowers herself onto his dick. It’s large, thick and long, and she whimpers as she rocks in his lap, his cock barely an inch inside of her. 

“You’re too big,” she whines, her toes curling and her eyes fluttering closed at the slight sting. 

Tim smiles and slides his free hand between their bodies, his fingers ghosting over her clit and sliding around her pussy, feeling the skin where it’s stretched around his girth. 

“You can take me,” he promises, his voice gentle as the hand on her back slides down to her ass, tapping the skin just enough to sting and take away some of the focus from the stretch in her pussy. “Slowly, Luce. Slowly.”

Lucy bites her lip and nods, rising off of his cock and then taking him back in just a little bit further than before. She’s soaking wet and the lube on the condom helps, but it takes several long moments of rocking herself forward and backward on him to take his whole length inside. 

“There you go, baby,” Tim murmurs, voice soft as he touches her everywhere he can reach. His hands soothe up and down her arms, across the span other naked back, and over her breasts. His thumbs play with her nipples, causing little shocks of pleasure to zing through her body and settle between her legs where her skin is swollen and hot, stretched wide around Tim. “You did it, Luce. Good girl.”

Lucy whimpers again, her whole body shuddering as she feels Tim’s balls on her ass. He’s deep inside of her, reaching places she’s never felt before, the head of his cock thick and fat and pressing snug up against her cervix. 

“You okay?”

Tim’s voice is low and soft in the dim light of the room. Lucy nods and then opens her eyes, and Tim makes a small, broken noise when he sees tears in them. 

“Oh, baby.”

“I’m okay,” Lucy whispers, rocking in his lap to show him exactly how okay she really is. “It doesn’t hurt… it’s just… it’s a lot. I’ve never been so full. I’ve never…”

She trails off, her breath hitching as Tim’s hand lands on her stomach, the pressure adding to the feeling of fullness inside of her. She shudders again and then raises her hips just a little before falling back down on his length, a long, low moan breaking free from her throat as he fills her again. 

“Fuuuuck, baby,” he groans, and she nods as he pulls her down to kiss her, their wet lips sliding messily against the others as Tim’s large hands land on her hips, helping her move up and down on his thick cock as they slowly find their rhythm. 

She cries out each time he pulls out and then thrusts back inside, her cunt stretched to the limit as he fills her over and over and over again. The whole time he’s whispering in her ear, a mix of sweet nothings and words so dirty she feels her skin flush all the way down to her toes. 

“You feel so good, baby,” he whispers, and then immediately follows it with, “Look at your pretty little cunt, so stretched around my dick.”

She whimpers and rocks faster in his lap, her sore thighs helping lift her off before sinking back down. 

She feels him everywhere, deep inside of her belly, the pleasure echoing all the way to her fingertips. He’s pressing against that spot deep inside of her that she’s only ever been able to reach with her vibrator, the tip of his cock slamming roughly against her cervix on every thrust. 

It hurts a little bit, but mostly it just feels good. The echoes of pain just feed into the pleasure, and all too soon she finds herself trembling in his arms, unable to move any more. 

“Tim,” she whimpers, and he chuckles low in her ear as he places his hand flat on her back before flipping them effortlessly, laying her back on the mattress before helping her hook one of her legs over his waist. 

“You close?” he gasps. “Because fuck, baby, I’m not going to last long. It’s been too long and you’re too wet, too hot, too perfect.”

Lucy nods and then slides a hand down her belly, her fingers finding and playing with her clit as Tim continues to fuck her slowly, deeply, better than anything she’s ever felt before. He’s grunting, sweat beading on his brow and dripping to the bed below, and Lucy moans as she tangles her fingers in his short hair and tugs his mouth down to her breast. He latches onto a nipple and sucks in time with his thrusts, and Lucy cries out, her hips rising to meet his every move as heat builds slow and deep in her belly. 

“Tim, I…”

She trails off, unable to form words as he bites down on her nipple, her eyes snapping shut and her neck arching. 

“Come for me, baby,” he whispers, his lips wet against her ear, and she obliges him, her whole body seizing up and exploding as he fucks her quick and deep, his whole body covering hers, sweaty and warm and heavy. 

He groans and follows her almost immediately, grunting as his hips stutter. He buries himself as deeply inside her as he can before he cums, his dick swelling and twitching as he empties into the condom.

Lucy doesn’t know how long it takes to come back to herself. For a long time she’s only aware of Tim’s weight on her and the aftershocks of the best orgasm she’s ever had rippling through her body. She feels weak and sore deep inside, and she knows that Tim is going to be smug — he has, in fact, fucked her until she can’t walk straight. 

Eventually their breathing evens out and Tim groans, pulling out and flopping onto his side on the bed next to her. She giggles and turns, resting her head on his chest as he throws an arm over his eyes. 

“Fuck,” he says succinctly. 

Lucy giggles again and presses soft kisses over his sweaty chest. He turns and catches her eye and then her lips, kissing her slow and sweet as he wraps an arm around her waist, holding her close. 

“That was awesome,” Lucy eventually says, and Tim chuckles as he nods in agreement. 

“It was,” he agrees. “And we’re definitely doing it again. But first… shower and food? What do you want? I can clean up and order.”

Lucy hums as he stands up, grimacing as he deals with the uncomfortably sticky condom. 

“Thai?”

Tim leans down and kisses her before reaching for his boxer briefs and pulling them on. 

“You wish is my command. Start the shower and I’ll put in an order.”

Lucy stands, eager to find out if Tim is fond of shower sex, but groans as she stands and her legs immediately buckle. 

Tim is already out of sight, but she can hear his smug smile all the way in the living room. 

“Shut up!” she yells, a stupid smile taking over his face when he laughs, loud and carefree, as she wobbles to the bathroom.

(It turns out Tim is very fond of shower sex and Thai and her, and Lucy doesn’t think she’s felt this happy in a long, long time.)

Chapter Text

The next morning Lucy wakes to soft kisses and gentle, calloused fingers brushing hair out of her face. 

She smiles, but she doesn’t open her eyes. 

She’s having the best dream, one where Tim came over last night, did deliciously dirty things to her until she couldn’t move, and then held her in his strong arms all night.

She doesn’t want the dream to end.

“I need to go,” he murmurs, voice soft in the low morning light as he kneels by her bed. “I shouldn’t have stayed the night. I’m gonna be late.”

Lucy hums as she turns over, flopping in her belly on the side of the bed that Tim had slept in. It smells like him, still warm and soft, and Lucy moans softly as she snuggles into the space he’s just vacated. He chuckles and kisses her temple, tucking hair behind her ear before reaching to make sure she’s set an alarm on her phone. 

“You can sleep a little longer, Luce. I’ll see you at the Academy.”

Lucy opens her eyes in time to watch him walk out of her room, fully dressed. She smiles softly at him and he smiles back, his eyes softer than she’s ever seen them. 

“Bye,” he whispers. 

Lucy hums and lets her eyes flutter closed again, Tim’s scent surrounding her. 

______________________

Lucy walks into the station with a I’ve been fucked! sign metaphorically hanging around her shoulders and tattooed on her head. She absolutely is walking funny, her muscles sore and achy in a way that she’s not used to. It’s been so long since she’d had sex before Tim, and even longer since she’d had good sex. 

She’s fairly certain that she’s never had sex this good, but the downside to multiple mind blowing orgasms is that she’s worried everyone can tell she’d been railed for multiple hours the night before. 

Jackson, because he’s a menace, notices immediately. 

He smirks as she slides into her spot next to him and sits down with a wince. 

“Shut up,” she hisses, her eyes flickering first toward where Tim is walking through the door with a thermos of coffee in one hand and his morning notes in the other, and then toward Nolan. 

Things are still weird with the older recruit, and Lucy does not need Jackson questioning her about her sex life with him in earshot, especially not when Nolan knows about her little fascination with Tim.

Thankfully Jackson seems to get the message, and Lucy deflates in relief.

“We will be talking about this later, though,” he warns her in a low murmur before turning his attention toward the front as Officer Bradford clears his throat. 

“Today is your first unofficial firearms testing. I say unofficial because what happens on the range today won’t decide if you graduate the program or not, but it will help form my opinion of you and your abilities. We’re far enough into training that you should show marked improvement, and if you fail to make that improvement, you’re dead to me.”

He pauses and glances at each recruit in turn with his signature glare, and Lucy feels something swoop in her belly when she remembers how he’d been stretched out on her bed, naked, his cock buried deep inside of her only hours before.

Focus, Chen! she admonishes herself, shaking those thoughts away as she raises her hand. 

Officer Bradford’s eyes flicker toward her and she shifts in her seat as blue meets brown. 

“Yes, Officer Chen?”

Lucy leans forward in her seat and lets a smirk play over her lips for several seconds before asking, “What do we get if we win?”

She can tell Tim wants to shoot back with a sassy comment but has to restrain himself in front of the rookies. 

Her smile grows as she crosses her arms over her chest. 

“If you win?” he asks, and though it seems like he’s asking for clarification, Lucy hears the unspoken emphasis. 

If you win?

God, she hopes she wins. 

“Yes,” she murmurs, nodding as Tim grips the edges of the podium with both hands. 

“There is a prize,” he confirms, to the delight of several of the other rookies. “But you have to win to find out. I’m not telling you beforehand.”

Lucy cocks her head to the side as several of the other rookies begin to debate what the prize could be. Jackson, next to her, is hissing something about having bigger balls than he does, Lucy! 

Nolan just looks constipated. 

“You have an hour before your Criminal Law final,” Bradford continues. “Normally I’d tell you to study for that, but it’s not my class and if you fail at this point, it’s on you. Firearms is my class, however, and so I’d encourage you to use your time practicing for this afternoon. Dismissed. Get out of here.”

Lucy shoots Tim a wink before walking out but doesn’t go up to speak to him the way she really wants to. 

Professional distance at the Academy. 

At least if she wants to continue seeing him outside of the Academy. 

“That was brave, Lucy,” Jackson comments as they walk toward one of the empty tables in the common area. They set down their rook books and open them to begin studying without having to talk about it. None of them are truly nervous about failing, but they are nervous about the amount of material they’re being tested over. 

“Or stupid,” Nolan mutters darkly. “What makes you think he’s a prize kind of guy, Luce?”

Lucy opens her mouth to respond but thinks better of it, keeping her thoughts of good girl to herself. 

Tim does give out prizes, mostly in the form of praise and mostly to her. 

Somehow she doesn’t think that observation will help Nolan’s mood. 

“Speaking of Bradford,” Jackson interrupts in a low hiss, his eyes sparkling as he slams his rook book closed and leans in closer to the middle of the table. 

Lucy internally groans. 

She’d hoped he would forget that part. 

“I know that walk,” Jackson continues, voice low so no other recruits overhear. “I’ve walked that walk many times. You, Lucy, were fucked within an inch of your life last night, admit it!”

Nolan chokes on air while Lucy flushes a shade she hadn’t previously known herself capable of. 

“I… no, I just… got in a really intense workout this morning,” she denies, because even though she knows Jackson isn’t going to believe a word she says, she has to try. 

If it had been Nolan she’d fucked, it would be easier. No less mortifying, but at least easier.  

But of course she had to go and develop a crush on her teacher. 

She had to kiss her teacher. 

Sleep with her teacher. 

Why couldn’t she have fallen for the safe, if slightly boring, man?

Jackson snorts. 

“A workout, yeah. I’m sure you got a good, hard workout this morning.”

Lucy almost responds, does 3am count as this morning? but her brain to mouth filter engages before she gives herself away. 

“Lots of squats,” she confirms, nodding. 

Jackson rolls his eyes. “You, Lucy Chen, are a lying liar who lies. Admit it — you got laid. And he was a good lay, too. Or she? No judgement here.”

“He,” Lucy confirms before realizing her mistake. She groans as Jackson pumps a fist, triumphant, before adding, “Allegedly.”

“Yes! I was right! So, who was it? That hot guy from the bar last week? Another recruit? Or Officer Bradford?”

Lucy chokes on nothing. And the thing is, she knows Jackson is just joking. Because sure, they objectify Tim a lot and talk about how hot he is, but who would be stupid enough to fuck their teacher?

“Oh… my… fucking… god,” Jackson whispers, Lucy’s reaction basically confirming who she spent the night with. “You’re fucking kidding me, right? You’re fucking kidding me. How is he? Does he have a huge dick? Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!”

Nolan scoffs as he shoves his rook book away from him, his lips pulled into a frown. 

“That was stupid, Lucy.”

Lucy rolls her eyes, her annoyance at Nolan overwhelming her annoyance at herself for her damn reaction. 

“I didn’t fuck Tim!” she cries, because no matter what, she can’t confirm their suspicions. It’s one thing for fellow recruits to think she’s fucking their teacher. It’s a whole other thing to tell them. “It… it was the guy from the bar. He gave me his number, and I needed… some stress relief, so I called him. That’s all.”

Jackson shakes his head. “There’s no taking back that reaction, Luce, though I respect the effort. But I know why you won’t say anything — I can wait until you’re ready to dish. Maybe this weekend some tequila could help?”

Lucy shakes her head, burying her flush in her rook book. 

“We could report you,” Nolan says, arms crossed as he glares at her. “That’s… that’s not cool, Lucy. Fucking your teacher.”

Lucy bristles. “I didn’t fuck Tim, I just told you.”

“You’re lying,” Nolan scoffs. “You’ve been after him since day one even though he’s married and our superior officer.”

Lucy glares, her lips pressed tightly together. “Look. I’ll say it one more time — there’s nothing going on with me and Tim. Nothing. And for the record, he isn’t married, and if you report us, I’ll deny it.”

She and Nolan glare at each other for another long moment, his gaze filled with annoyance, jealousy, and anger. 

“It’s your word against mine,” she whispers, voice low. “Against Bradford’s, because he’ll back me up because nothing is happening.”

Nolan doesn’t look like he believes her but that’s not Lucy’s problem. 

She needs to warn Tim. 

Fuck, how had this gotten out of control so quickly? 

“I’ll see you in class,” she says, her words directed at Jackson only because she’s fucking mad at Nolan and doesn’t care if she sees him again this century. “I’m gonna go run.”

“Not in a straight line, you’re not,” Jackson murmurs, voice teasing. 

Lucy bites back a laugh as her eyes soften at him. 

She throws Nolan a final glare before turning and heading toward the track.

______________________

“You’ll shoot in groups of three. You have one minute. Emphasis should be on accuracy and not necessarily speed. If you hit ten times but miss twenty, you’re bottom of the barrel as far as I’m concerned. Speed does factor in because in the real world no one is going to wait twenty seconds for you to line up your shot, but it does weigh less heavily. We have time to work on speed over the next twelve weeks, so final scores will be based on most hits and tightest groupings.”

Lucy is too nervous to thirst over Officer Bradford as he paces back and forth in front of them, setting out the limitations and expectations of their first mostly official firearms test. 

Firearms is her worst area, and though she’s gotten better since doing paintball with Tim, she’s still not great. 

She’ll show improvement, she’s sure, which is all Bradford is looking for, but she wants to do well. 

She wants to win, because she loves prizes and praise and she’s endlessly curious what he has up his sleeve for a prize. 

“Up first, Poole, Nolan, and West. Take your places.”

Lucy bites her lip as she watches the men line up on the shooting range, their targets swaying gently in the wind where they sit fifty feet out from the range. 

Officer Bradford walks over to where the other rookies are waiting and stands in line with them, his face serious and his posture stiff as he starts his stopwatch. 

“Go.”

Lucy covers her ears as they begin shooting. Poole is good — he hits his target first. Jackson is slightly better, a little slower but more accurate. He hits the target dead center three times in a row. She’s sure Nolan does fine, too, but she’s still made at him and doesn’t bother watching him or checking on how he’s doing. 

“Time’s up!”

The three men put their weapons down and pull off their eye protection and noise canceling headphones before following Officer Bradford to retrieve their targets. It takes several minutes, but as they begin the walk back, Lucy can tell Jackson did well — he’s grinning widely. Poole seems relatively happy with his shooting, too, but Nolan… well. 

“I was distracted, sir,” he says, voice tense. 

He won’t look Bradford in the eye, either, and Lucy grimaces. 

“That is not my problem, recruit,” Officer Bradford snaps, his lips pulled into a frown. “This shoot was worse than your last. You’d just better hope your fellow recruits are worse than you are, or you’re looking at being bottom of the class. 

Jackson winces as Nolan grips his target so tightly that it bunches up.

“Up next: Kaplan, Tomas, Chen. Take your spots.”

Lucy swallows thickly as she walks forward, hands shaking. 

Nolan bumps into her as she passes him, and he frowns as he catches her eye. 

She tries to shake off the bad feeling she has as she lines up with Kaplan and Tomas, shaking her arms out before reaching for her weapon. She checks it quickly, reloads, and then pulls the noise canceling headphones over her ears. She can still hear Bradford’s commands, but everything is silenced just enough that she’s able to take a deep breath and calm down a little bit. 

“Go.”

 She blows out a breath and lets the tension melt from her muscles, quickly taking note of the wind speed before taking aim. 

She can feel Officer Bradford standing behind her, has become somewhat sensitive to his presence, and its with the knowledge that he’ll tell her good job and give her a prize that she begins to shoot. 

She’s slow but steady, letting her body recover from the recoil of each shot before taking aim again. She’s vaguely aware of the fact that all of her bullets are hitting the target, but she doesn’t overly focus on how she’s doing until the timer goes off and Bradford touches her shoulder to pause her. 

“Time’s up,” he murmurs. 

The tunnel vision fades as she removes her safety goggles, and her hands are shaking as she places her weapon down before running after the others to grab their targets. 

Officer Bradford doesn’t follow her or pay any extra attention to her, but when she looks up after retrieving her target, he’s watching her, blue eyes sparkling and proud. 

Lucy gasps and lets her gaze fall to her target, and a smile slowly overtakes her face as well.

Ten hits. 

Yes! 

They’re all on the target, and five of them are bullseyes. 

“Good job, Officer Chen,” Bradford murmurs. 

Lucy is practically floating as they head back to the range. 

After her is Hurn, Cruz, and Jones, then there are two more groups, but Lucy barely pays attention to them. 

Ten hits! 

Jackson had only made seven, and Nolan two. 

She actually has a chance of winning this thing, thanks to Officer Bradford and the grueling hours she’s been putting in at the range. 

“And that’s it! Time’s up!”

Nolan is still glaring when Bradford has them all line up their targets so they can compare. 

Lucy tries to ignore him, but he’s staring at her and she can’t help but feel partially responsible for his distraction.

“These will stay up for the next four weeks to remind you what you’re working toward,” Bradford says, eyeing the remaining fourteen recruits as he nods toward their displayed targets. “If you did well, do better next time. If you did badly, put in the hours. No one starts out proficient. It takes work, hard work, to be a police officer. I still put in hours at the range every week. This is a skill you never let slide or brush off because it could literally mean the difference between life and death. Let these targets motivate you, because out on the streets? No one gives a shit if you’re distracted or have a bad day. If you miss, you could die. Let that be your motivation to put in the work.”

Lucy beams as he turns toward her, smiling. 

He smirks as he continues. 

“Today, Officer Chen is our winner. But don’t let that discourage you, let it motivate you — because she sucked when we started. Literally the worst I've seen in a long time.”

Lucy’s mouth drops open in shock as he winks at her. 

“But she put in the hours. I’ve seen the logs. She’s here before everyone else and leaves long after everyone has gone home. She logged twenty seven hours over the past four weeks at the range alone, plus extra time on the track, and she deserves this victory. Dismissed.”

Lucy’s grin returns full force despite the trash talking about her firearms skills, and she high fives Jackson as everyone begins to disperse. 

Their day is over, their firearms class their last session, and while several of the other recruits begin making plans to return to the range and practice after dinner, she turns in the direction of Tim’s office. 

She has a prize to collect, after all. 

Chapter Text

Tim is sitting at his desk inputting scores and details about each recruit’s firearms test into his computer when Lucy knocks, and he can’t help but smile when he sees her standing in the doorway, confident but also not, her feet shuffling awkwardly on the floor. 

“Officer Chen,” he murmurs, closing his laptop and leaning back in his chair, smirking as she opens the door wider and steps inside. 

“I believe there was talk of… a prize? For the winner?” she says, her eyes sparkling as she leans against the wall just inside of the door. 

The door she doesn’t close, but despite the recent barrage of fantasies, Tim is glad she hadn’t. 

They can’t afford to fuck up at the Academy. 

“Yes, I do believe there was,” he agrees, his fingers templed together as he rocks slowly back and forth in his chair. His legs are spread wide, uniform pulled tightly over his thighs, and his smirk grows as he notices Lucy’s gaze drop into his lap before snapping back up. 

“And?” she prompts. 

Tim’s grin takes over his whole face as he opens his top desk drawer and pulls something out. He stands, carefully maneuvering out from behind the desk that’s shoved into the corner of his small office, and then holds out the much anticipated prize while carefully watching Lucy’s expression.

She’s confused at first, but then breaks into a grin as she chuckles and reaches out to take it. 

Congratulations! The little paper trophy proclaims. You didn’t suck! 

She laughs again as her fingers trail over the words. 

“I should have known,” she comments, her eyes finally tearing away from the little paper prize to meet his again. “It’s like you’re allergic to giving compliments or something.”

Tim raises an eyebrow as he leans his hip against the corner of his desk. There’s only a few inches of space between them due to the size of his office, and he’s trying desperately to make those inches seem innocent in case anyone walks past.

“Not to you,” he murmurs, and he grins as a slow flush spreads across Lucy’s cheeks. Her smile drops and her lips part, and his grin grows as the flush spreads down her chest. 

“N-no,” she stutters in agreement, little pink tongue darting out to wet her lips as her eyes travel across the sharp line of his jaw. “Not to me.”

“You… like praise,” he continues, and Lucy nods as her fingers tighten on her little paper trophy.

“I like to know… that I’m doing a good job,” she confirms, nodding slowly. “I like knowing that I’m pleasing whoever I’m working for.”

Tim’s pants feel tight as he lets his gaze roam Lucy’s flushed face. 

“Well, in that case, I am definitely pleased by your improvement in firearms.”

The little sound that escapes Lucy’s lips can only be described as a whimper, and Tim nearly gives in and says fuck it. He nearly slams the door shut and takes her right there, flushed and holding her trophy like it’s the greatest thing he’s ever given her. 

But he doesn’t.

“Go home early tonight,” he murmurs, hands tightening where they’re splayed over his own thighs to prevent touching her. His fingers dig into the material of his uniform pants and hold on for dear life as she meets his gaze again, brown eyes so deep he could drown in them. “Don’t stay late.”

Lucy frowns and cocks her head to the side. “I was going to go for a run,” she says, confused. “I’m working on my 1.5 mile time, like you told me to. I’m about to be under ten minutes.”

Tim smiles, pride rippling through him because he knew she could do it. 

But that’s not the point of tonight. 

“ Go home, Lucy,” he says, eyes darting to the door to confirm no one is walking past before he steps closer to her, a scant inch between their chests as he leans in and whispers into her ear, hot breath caressing her skin as he speaks slowly, his words laced with meaning. “You can get a … workout in at home, too.”

“A workout— oh,” she breathes, and he smirks as his meaning finally clicks. Her flush deepens and her fingers stutter on the little trophy she’s holding. “Oh. Okay, yeah… I can… work out at home tonight. That… that’s good, too.”

Tim chuckles as he maneuvers past her, his hand on her hip to hold her still as he navigates the space in the small office. He pauses at the doorway and turns, amusement flaring once more as he notices that she’s still unmoving, the trophy still grasped tight in her hands. 

“Officer Chen,” he says, voice laced with authority as he eyes her rigid posture. “I said, go home.”

 She nearly jumps at his words and nods, quickly walking out of the door and trailing after him as he heads to the locker rooms. 

“Yes, sir!” 

Tim chuckles and heads into the men’s locker room without looking back. 

______________________

An hour later finds him standing outside of Lucy’s apartment, a bag of takeout in one hand and a frown on his lips. 

He really hates that she lives in this part of town. When he’d been on patrol, he’d spent more time in this part of town than he’d like to admit. And Isabel —

He stops that thought before it can take root. 

Tonight isn’t about Isabel.

It’s about Lucy, and how far she’s come in just four short weeks. 

He raises his hand and knocks, side-eyeing one of her neighbors as he tries six separate times to open his own lock. He hasn’t managed to fit the key in the doorknob by the time Lucy opens her own door, and Tim’s frown deepens as he walks inside, shielding her from the obviously drunk and/or high man until he has her door closed behind them and he can breathe freely again. 

“I hate this part of town,” he grumbles. 

Lucy laughs. 

“I know you do,” she murmurs, voice soft as she lets her eyes trail his body, obviously appreciating him in his civvies. He’d worn the dark wash jeans that he knows does great things for his ass, paired with a black henley.

He’s not a vain man, but he knows he looks good. 

He smirks as one of Lucy’s hands lands on his forearm. 

“You brought dinner?”

Tim nods and walks the few steps to the kitchen island to lay the bag down. He begins taking things out, and each little noise of approval Lucy makes helps relax him further and further until he’s leaning against her counter and just grinning at her. 

“Hungry?”

Lucy nods, eyes soft as she brings down two plates and two wine glasses.

“Red or white?”

Tim hums as he looks over the food he’s brought.

Pasta, bread, salad. 

“Red,” he decides, taking a seat to begin dishing them both a healthy portion of pasta as Lucy reaches into the fridge for a bottle of wine. She opens it and pours them both a generous glass, and then she’s sitting down next to Tim and leaning into his space as she takes the first bite. She moans, and Tim grins to himself as he tucks into his own dinner. 

They eat in silence until Lucy sighs and puts her fork down, pasta half eaten and wine barely touched. 

“Nolan and West might know,” she murmurs, her voice low and distraught. 

Tim can tell she hadn’t wanted to say anything, and he’s proud of her for bringing it up. 

As if he didn’t know, however. 

Nolan is an open book and West still has a little bit too much of overenthusiastic teenager in him despite his age.

“Is that why Nolan was so pissy earlier?” he asks, one eyebrow raised as he turns on his barstool, thighs bracketing Lucy’s as she turns, too. He sips at his wine as Lucy shrugs, her fingers running nervously over the rim of her own glass. 

“Probably. He has… a thing for me.”

Tim’s smirk widens, because he knew that without her having to say it.

Lucy huffs as she bites into a breadstick. 

“That’s part of it, for sure. But the other part is that he’s a little bit of a goody-two-shoes. Jackson and I… well, we’ve… appreciated you since day one.”

Tim huffs into his wineglass, amusement dancing in his eyes as he watches Lucy’s cheeks flush. 

“I knew that, too.”

Lucy pushes playfully at his arm, not meeting his eye as her blush deepens. She’s smiling again, though, which was Tim’s goal. 

“We talked about you a lot. About you being attractive. And… and that we liked how authoritative you were. It’s hot, Tim. And Nolan thought it was inappropriate because you’re our teacher, and because you’re married, and… and for a lot of reasons, really, but when Jackson noticed that I’d been freshly fucked and then asked if it was you, he…”

Tim chuckles, cutting her little ramble off with a gentle touch to her arm. She pauses, lips still parted, and meets his gaze. 

“Slow down,” he murmurs. 

Lucy nods and takes a deep, slow breath. 

“He said he could turn us in. That… that was when I basically stormed off. I said I’d deny it, that you’d deny it, and it would be your word against his. But he was mad. Said it was inappropriate. Wrong. He said we were wrong.”

Tim hums and drops his hand, turning back to his dinner as Nolan’s words echo in his head. 

It is wrong, is the thing. 

What they’re doing is wrong by every ethical standard and it’s definitely wrong according to the LAPD.

He’s already in hot water with IA because of Isabel.

What the fuck is he thinking?  

Why is he here?

“Tim?”

He turns and his breath catches when he sees the way Lucy is looking at him, all soft and concerned, wide brown eyes deep enough to get lost in. Her soft fingers are trailing across his arm until her fingers tighten around his bicep, and she leans into his space as he licks his lips. 

“Hmm?”

She scoots her chair closer to his and her scent invades his space, sweet and soft the way she is when she’s in her own home. 

At the Academy? 

She’s fire and brick and a badass. 

But here, in her space, with him?

She lets her guard down in a way that he knows he’s privileged to see. 

“You went quiet,” she says, fingers grounding him as she squeezes his arm. 

Tim clears his throat and pushes his plate away. 

“It is wrong,” he murmurs, though he immediately regrets his words when Lucy makes a soft, wounded noise. 

Neither of them speak for a long moment. 

But then, 

“Then what are you doing here, Tim?”

Her voice isn’t accusing, though.

It’s soft, inquiring. 

Tim shrugs, and lets the intimacy of the moment coax the truth from his lips. 

“Because I want to be,” he answers simply, and really, it is that simple. 

He wants to be here, and he’s wanted so little in his life.

Lucy smiles and slides her hand down his arm until her fingers are sliding in the spaces between his own, warm and soft and gentle in a way that steals the breath from his lungs. 

“You haven’t allowed yourself the simple pleasure of doing what you want very often before, have you?” 

He shakes his head. 

“No,” he admits, vulnerable in a way that terrifies him. 

How does she do this? 

How has she torn down his walls so quickly? 

Lucy leans in, pressing soft, chapped lips to the crook of his shoulder. 

He shudders, his breath wooshing out of him as she brings their clasped hands to press over where his heart is pounding in his chest. 

“Does this feel wrong?” she asks. 

Tim is shaking his head before she even finishes speaking. 

It feels more right than anything he’s ever done before. 

Lucy’s lips curve into a smile against his neck. 

“Then take me to bed, Tim,” she murmurs, lips brushing his skin with every word and stoking the fire within him until it’s a roaring flame. “I believe you owe me a prize, anyway.”

Tim chuckles as he turns in his chair, giving in to her without a second thought. 

“I already gave you your prize,” he argues, hands falling to her hips as he stands from her chair and moves between her open thighs. When she’s sitting on the barstool and he’s standing like this they’re basically the same height, their hips aligned and their foreheads touching. 

“You gave me a paper trophy,” she says, chuckling as one hand slides under her shirt, both of them groaning as he finds bare skin. “Which I don’t think is fair compensation for all the progress I’ve made.”

“You have made great progress,” he agrees. “Going from zero bullseyes to five. That’s damn impressive.”

Lucy giggles as she wraps one leg around his waist, pulling their hips flush. They both groan when Tim’s half hard dick presses to her center, still separated by entirely too many layers of clothing but electric nonetheless. 

“Five is a big number,” he continues, his words breathed into her skin as he trails his nose along her shoulder and neck, teasing her but not kissing her yet. 

“It is,” she agrees breathily, eyes fluttering closed as she presses her breasts into his chest. 

“In fact… I think five is the number for tonight,"  he continues, finally pressing his lips to the corner of her mouth as he drops a hand to dig into her thigh, helping her wrap her other leg around him before he lifts her effortlessly, one hand under her ass as the other cups the back of her neck. His lips are hovering over hers, touching with each word but not kissing yet. 

“The… the number?” Lucy asks, chest already heaving despite the very little they’ve done so far. 

Tim smirks as he catches her eye, his own mischievous and playful as he walks her into her bedroom and kicks the door closed behind them. 

“The number of orgasms I’m going to give you,” he confirms, and then he’s kissing her for real, his lips coaxing hers open as she slides her legs to the ground, her knees buckling as she leans fully against him. He supports her with an arm around her waist, the other cupping her cheek and holding her face right where he wants it as he plunges his tongue into her mouth, searching, taking, swallowing every moan she gives him. 

“In fact,” he murmurs, pulling back just long enough to let them both breathe. He lets his eyes roam her face, drink in the way her cheeks are flushed and her eyes glazed, and smirks as he slides a hand into her pants and panties, cupping her soaking wet pussy as she whines and presses into his hand. “In fact, I think I’m going to give you your first one right now. Fuck, you’re wet, Lucy.”

Lucy moans and thrusts against his hand, her slick soaking his fingers and wrist as he digs deeper, sliding two fingers inside of her pussy as he grinds his palm against her clit. 

“Have b-been,” she gasps, eyes fluttering shut as she throws her head back. Tim smirks and drops his lips to her neck, sucking just hard enough to cause her knees to buckle but not hard enough to leave a mark. “Since … fuck, since you told me to go home.”

Tim chuckles as he licks a path from the crook of her shoulder to her cleavage, his tongue dipping beneath the material of her shirt to reach as much skin as possible. He wants her shirt gone, wants all of her clothes gone, but his hands are otherwise occupied. 

“You like it when I give you orders, huh?” he murmurs. 

Lucy nods and grinds into his hand, moaning as the walls of her pussy begin to flutter around his fingers. 

“Yes,” she admits, breathless. 

Tim smirks and fucks her faster, his fingers crooking inside of her in a way that makes her knees buckle as he kisses her again, swallowing the sounds she makes as she climaxes, her body shuddering in his arms as she comes down from her first high. 

“One,” he whispers in her ear, delighting in the noise she makes as he slides his hand from her pants, his wet fingers immediately going for the buckle on her jeans. He shoves them down and then helps her step out of them, and then he’s kissing her again, one thigh shoved between hers as he walks her backward toward the bed. 

“I think,” Lucy huffs, pausing to take a breath and lick her lips as Tim’s hands slide under her shirt and pull it over her head. “I think you might like it when you’re given orders, too. I have… a theory.”

Tim raises one eyebrow as one hand slides behind her back to flick at the clasp of her bra. 

“Yeah? Want to test it sometime?”

Lucy grins and nods, leaning up on tip toes to kiss Tim as she begins working at the button on his jeans. He helps her, his larger hands covering hers, and together they strip him down to his boxer briefs before he becomes too impatient and pushes her onto the bed, crawling between her legs and pressing a kiss right over her center. Her panties are soaked, a dark spot of arousal on the light pink, and Tim groans as he noses at it, his tongue tracing the line of her panties as her legs fall open wider. 

“Tim,” she moans, her eyes closed and her head thrown back. He glances up at her, at her naked breasts and her peaked nipples. He lets his eyes travel further, to the flush on her chest and the long expanse of her neck. The fingers of one hand are tangled in his hair already, the other gripping the bed sheets tightly as he runs a large, calloused hand up and down her inner thigh. 

“So pretty,” he murmurs, fingers dipping into the waistband of her panties and tugging on them. Lucy lifts her hips to help him, and he watches, licking his lips, as a string of arousal stretches from her pussy to the center of her panties as he peels them away. 

God, he can’t wait… 

He doesn’t have to wait, though, is the thing, and he practically growls as he tosses her panties to the side, digs his fingers into the thick flesh of her thighs, and holds her open as he dives in, lips and tongue immediately feasting on her. She screams at the sudden onslaught of sensation, and Tim laughs into her pussy, hands holding tighter to keep her from arching straight off of the bed as he sucks her clit into his mouth with no preamble. 

He’s going to earn number two incredibly quickly, he realizes, and he smirks in pride as Lucy thrashes on the bed, the fingers in his hair tightening in a way that causes his vision to black out briefly. 

He’s already rock hard, his cock still confined by his black boxer briefs. He rocks into the mattress as he trails his lips from her clit to her cunt, his tongue dipping into her as he grinds his nose at her clit. His stubbled cheeks are soaked, and they both groan in pleasure as he licks arousal from her lips, her inner thighs, and straight from her pussy. He’s making a terrible mess of her as he sucks and swallows, breathing in the scant few seconds he gives himself before diving back in. 

“Tim!” she whines, trying to thrust against his face even as he holds her down, strong hands and arms keeping her wide open for him. “Tim! Please! I… I’m so close! I just need…”

She trails off, but Tim knows what she needs. 

She needs his fingers, but he’s not going to give them to her. 

She whines and shudders in his arms as he continues licking and sucking, his tongue aching as he drives it into her over and over again. He points it and then spreads it wide, licking deeper, deeper, wishing he could bury his whole face in her sweet cunt. 

Two, he thinks, and he grins to himself as she clenches her thighs around his head. She cries out, hips arching once he removes his hands from her thighs, and he licks her through her second orgasm as she rubs her pussy against his face, taking what she wants from him as he prolongs her pleasure for as long as he can. 

Eventually, though, she falls back against the bed, spent, and he pulls back, sitting on his heels as his eyes roam her body, at the new splotchy red on her chest and stomach, at her neglected breasts, at the way her hair is a mess on her pillow and her eyes are still closed. 

“Two,” he whispers, hands soothing as he runs them up and down her sides, thumbs brushing the sides of her breasts as he crawls between her legs and then leans down, pressing against her and moaning at the contact of her overheated skin on his own. 

Lucy just whimpers as she removes her hand from his hair, letting it fall to his back as he rocks against her with little movements, the material of his boxer briefs rough on her oversensitive pussy. 

“That was…” she breathes, but when she can’t find the words she gives up and kisses him, pulling him down to her as her free hand begins pushing at his briefs, trying to rid him of them with one hand as the other scratches up and down his back, nails leaving red marks on his skin as he thrusts against her, each brush of his clothed cock sending a zing of pleasure through her body. 

“You want my cock, baby?” he murmurs, and when Lucy whimpers and nods, he pulls back to help her. Together they rid him of his boxer briefs and then he’s back, skin against skin as his mouth drops to her chest, sucking one nipple into his mouth as his hand slides between them to grip his length. 

“Condom?”

Lucy whines high and loud, annoyed, but reaches out to slap at her bedside table. 

“I’m clean,” she grunts, and Tim chuckles as he grabs a condom and rolls it on. 

“Me, too, but we can have that conversation later when we’re not both horny out of our minds,” he murmurs, a promise in his voice as he presses the fat head of his dick at her entrance. “Ready for number three?”

Lucy nods and hooks one leg over his hip as he begins to slide inside, his thick cock stretching her as he rocks in little by little, his mouth hot and messy against her breasts as he moves slowly, stretching her, opening her up to him. She’s still tight despite two orgasms, and he doesn’t want to hurt her. 

They both groan when he finally bottoms out, and Tim shudders, already imagining how she’s going to feel around him when he’s naked, no condom between them, just heat and wetness and Lucy.

“Fuck, you’re tight, baby,” he moans, pulling out before sinking back inside. She opens to him beautifully, her pussy wrapped tight around his dick as he sets a slow, gentle pace, hands in constant movement as he rocks his hips into hers, cock piercing her open as he fucks her.

“Tim,” she whimpers, mouth against his ear as he kisses her neck, sucking a bruise right below where it would show when she’s in uniform. “Tim, you feel so good.”

He grunts and fucks her faster, the movement made easy by the arousal she’s gushing out around him. 

“Yeah?”

She nods and whines, her throat bared to him as her fingers dig into the muscles of his back. He wants to flip them, wants to let her ride him, but he knows her thighs are sore from the way she’d ridden him the night before. 

“Yeah. So big. So… hnng. So thick.”

Tim smiles against her neck, his tongue soothing the sting of the hickey he’s just sucked into her skin. He pulls back to admire his work as he speeds up a little, hips slamming against hers as she throws out a hand to brace against the headboard. 

They both devolve into grunts and moans as Tim plays with her clit, running his finger over where she’s stretched around him, her skin red and swollen. 

He can tell when she’s close, and he has to bite the inside of his cheek to hold on until she’s over the edge, clenching around him so tightly she almost forces his dick out. She comes loudly, her voice hoarse as she shudders around him, pulling his orgasm from him as he fucks into her fast and sloppy, chasing his own release as she begins to come down from her peak. 

He holds the top of the condom as he slides out, legs shaking as he stands to dispose of it. 

“We are going to talk about that little comment,” he promises, dropping back to the bed and holding himself above her with shaking arms. “But for right now, I’m going to eat you out again and then fuck you again, and since we’ve discovered what motivates you, then we’ll set a goal for your running.”

Lucy giggles, high and light, and Tim chuckles as he drops onto his back and reaches for her hips. 

“You’re gonna have to do the work for number four, though,” he murmurs, helping her climb on top of him as he settles his head on the pillow. “Fuck my face, baby.”

“I don’t know if I can come again,” Lucy whines, but even as she says the words she’s climbing over him, thighs settling on either side of his head as he grips her hips. 

“You can,” he promises, voice thick. “Grab the headboard, baby, and take what you need.”

Lucy nods and settles over him, her pussy hot on his mouth as she begins to rock slowly. He holds her hips and helps her move but lets her take control, lets her set the pace as she fucks his face, her arousal soaking his chin and his cheeks. He can barely breathe as she grinds against him, as she moans and shakes above him and takes her pleasure, but he doesn’t care. The lack of oxygen and the way she’s moving, so deep in her own pleasure that she forgets to let him breathe sometimes, is doing it for him, and he’s rock hard by the time she comes for a fourth time, body trembling and little whimpers escaping from her lips. 

Tim slides a second condom on before guiding her to his lap, sliding inside of her while her pussy is still fluttering from orgasm number four. She whimpers, eyes closed, cheeks bright red. There’s a sheen of sweat on her skin that he wants to lick, and so he does, his tongue trailing over every inch of skin as he fucks her slow and deep, both of them exhausted but not willing to give in before her prize is finished. 

They come together for her fifth and final orgasm, Tim’s mouth full of her breast, her fingers digging into his chest in a way that he knows is going to leave marks. Her final orgasm is silent, her mouth open but no sound coming out as she throws her head back, her hands on his chest the only thing keeping her upright as he buries himself in her heat and fills the condom, hips jerking until he has nothing left to give. 

Lucy collapses on top of him afterward, sweaty skin and damp hair covering his chest as he cups her head to his neck, both of them breathing harshly in the afterglow. 

Does this feel wrong? she’d asked. 

He huffs, holding her closer as their hearts beat in tandem, his cock still buried deep inside of her as the sweat slowly cools on their bodies. 

Nothing has ever felt more right. 

Chapter Text

Lucy walks into morning announcements the next day to see Sergeant Cruz standing at the podium instead of Officer Bradford. 

Huh.

He hadn’t given her any indication he wouldn’t be here this morning when he’d left her bed, though to be fair he hadn’t given her any indication of anything because she’d fallen right back to sleep after he’d wiped his mouth and kissed her goodbye. 

(Waking up with Tim Bradford’s morning stubble between her legs is the best way to wake up, she’s decided, and she’s hopeful she can convince him that it’s the only way she should wake up from now on). 

But now… now, he isn’t here, and she’s confused. 

“Where’s your boyfriend?” Jackson asks. 

Lucy slaps his shoulder and frowns. 

Jackson just chuckles. 

If he wasn’t one of the only two people that she’s managed to befriend here, she might kill him for the stunt he’d pulled the day before, but alas. 

She doesn’t dignify his comment with a response, though, but she’s still denying she’s Tim’s anything. 

“Good morning,” Sergeant Cruz says, and Lucy clears her throat and turns to the front as Nolan slides in beside them, only seconds from being late. “I am taking over morning announcements because Officer Bradford did us all a favor and took one of his one hundred and thirty seven PTO days — well, a half day. Can’t expect too much relaxation out of that man.”

There are scattered chuckles around the room before Sergeant Cruz continues. 

“But it works out well, because today is the first day of the second four weeks, and you have new classes starting, one of which is mine. This morning you’ll start Ethics and Professionalism, and —”

Lucy doesn’t hear what Sergeant Cruz says next because Jackson begins fighting for his life, wheezing under his breath while muttering something along the lines well that ship has sailed and professionalism is out the fucking window. 

“Oh my god, shut up,” she hisses, elbowing him in the stomach. He grunts for a whole new reason now, coughing as Lucy drops her head onto her hand, using it to block him from her vision as she flushes and begins jotting notes in her planner about their next block of classes. 

“ — and in the afternoons, you’re going to start an emergency first aid and CPR class. This will limit your time with Officer Bradford working on strength and firearms training, but believe me, that does not mean that his expectations of you will lower, so continue working out and spending time at the range on your own. Now, your first aid class is going to be intense — I have seen recruits throw up. But there will come a time in the field where you’re trying to pack an open wound and if you don’t know how to do it, your partner may die. So take it seriously and work hard.” 

Jackson is still snickering when they’re released to their morning classes, and Lucy just knows he’s going to start questioning her so she cuts him off. 

“We should go out tonight,” she suggests, and it’s only partly out of self preservation that she does so. 

She’d missed their last planned outing and despite wanting to stab Jackson sometimes, she does enjoy hanging out with them. They’re great fun at karaoke. 

“Yeah, we should do that,” Nolan agrees, flashing her a smile. “It’s been a while.”

Lucy nods and turns to Jackson. 

“You in?”

“Hell, yeah!”

Lucy clutches her Rook Book tighter to her chest and grins as they head toward their first class. 

_______________________

Tim is back in the afternoon but Lucy doesn’t have a chance to ask where the hell he’d disappeared to before he’s barking orders at them, splitting them into groups, and having them spot each other in deadlifts. 

Lucy is paired with Jackson, and she’s thankful he rarely needs her to step in as spotter because she’s… distracted. 

Tim — Officer Bradford, that is, they are at work after all — is walking the room, correcting posture and helping as needed. His signature frown is in place, but he seems lighter and a little less intense than he had their first few weeks. 

Lucy flushes with arousal and pride when she realizes why — he’s getting regularly laid now. 

Repeatedly. 

Enthusiastically. 

He said he hadn’t had sex since splitting from his ex, but now… well. 

“Luce.”

Lucy snaps her attention back to Jackson, who is done with his current set. 

She flushes and takes his place, adjusting the weights on the bar before shaking her arms out and stretching. 

“Bradford seems awfully friendly with Poole over there,” Jackson notes, and Lucy pauses mid stretch, her gaze snapping toward the direction Jackson is looking in. Her heart thumps heavily in her chest, her throat thick as his words settle over her. 

And… and he’s not wrong, is the thing. 

Officer Bradford has a hand on her shoulder and a hand on her hip as he corrects her posture. His touches are quick and efficient, never lingering, but it causes something funny to happen in her stomach as he steps back, watches her lift, and then nods in approval. 

“He’s just helping her,” she murmurs, shaking her head as she turns back to her own weights. “She was lifting wrong. She was going to hurt herself.”

Jackson scoffs. 

“He’s never helped me quite like that.”

Lucy rolls her eyes and tries to push away the intrusive thoughts that are threatening to take over. 

“You don’t need help, Jackson. You’re been training for the Academy since you were in diapers.”

“Okay, fine,” Jackson agrees as Lucy begins her set. “He’s never helped you like that, then.”

If only you knew, Lucy wants to say, and she thinks about running together on the track and paintball. 

But… well, he hadn’t touched her while helping her. 

He’s touching Poole. 

He’s mine, she thinks, and then nearly drops the weight when a bolt of possessive fire runs through her veins. 

She glances back over to see Poole grinning at Officer Bradford as she thanks him, her hand on his arm. He’s nodding as she speaks, but he’s not smiling back as he subtly shifts out from under her touch and redirects her.

At least… she hopes he’s hers. 

_________________________

She’s three tequila shots deep when their waitress winks and gives Nolan her number, and the second she’s out of sight, both Lucy and Jackson are cheering and laughing, drinks sloshing as they bump shoulders and tease their older classmate.

“Looks like at least one of us isn’t going home alone tonight!” Jackson shouts, his voice loud to be heard over the crowd and the booming karaoke. 

Nolan shrugs and slides the waitresses number to the side of the table as he reaches for his almost empty beer. 

“I don’t know if I’ll call her,” he says, his gaze darting toward Lucy as he takes a swig of his drink. 

Lucy grimaces. 

This is something she needs to address. 

Now. 

“Hey, Jackson, can you grab us a new round?” she asks, flashing him a smile. “I got the last one. And then we’re signing up for karaoke!”

Jackson taps the table and stands, grabbing their empty tray and taking off. 

Lucy waits until he’s out of earshot to turn back to Nolan, who is staring at the little slip of paper the waitress had left on the table. He’s frowning, his eyebrows scrunched together as he stares at the digits and plays with the label on his beer. 

“Hey,” Lucy murmurs, reaching out to push the number closer to him. “I really think that you should call her.”

The look Nolan that shoots her is reminiscent of a kicked puppy, and Lucy feels a little bit bad but not enough to give up on this conversation. 

“I know that you like me. But, Nolan, I don’t feel the same. I want to be your friend, but I … I can’t do that if you keep following after me and being moody when I show interest in someone else.”

“Like Bradford?” Nolan snaps. He immediately looks chagrined, and Lucy sighs. 

“I told you, nothing is going on with me and Bradford. Yes, I appreciate his ass. But everyone with eyes does, so, you know. And anyway, that’s not the point. The point is that, one day, I am going to go on a date with someone else, and if you’re going to be my friend you can’t be an ass about that. So, either you find a way to move on, or… or we need put some space between us.”

Nolan frowns down at the table, the label on his beer bottle reduced to a pile of tiny slips of white paper. 

“Okay,” he finally whispers, nodding. “Okay, Luce. I do like you, but I am mature enough to accept that you don’t return my feelings. I value your friendship and what you, Jackson, and I have going on is a good thing, so… so I’ll find a way to move on. I may or may not call our waitress, but I’ll stop being an ass about you checking Bradford out.”

Lucy rolls her eyes and resists the urge to defend herself regarding Tim again. 

“Thank you,” she says, reaching out and placing a hand over Nolan’s as she flashes him a smile of thanks. “Now, I need to step out for a minute and get some fresh air. Do not let Jackson drink my drink, okay?”

Nolan laughs, pockets the waitresses number, and nods as he takes the final swig of his beer. 

“No promises.”

Lucy sticks her tongue out at him and then stumbles toward the exit of the bar. She’s not planning on going far, but being inside surrounded by the heat of so many dancing bodies after downing several shots in quick succession, plus the emotional upheaval of confronting Nolan about his feelings… she just needs a quick breath of fresh air. 

Once she’s outside, though, and her head is a little bit clearer, she finds herself holding her phone in her hand and staring at Tim’s contact information. 

They haven’t talked about boundaries or communication or … well, anything, really. 

But she really, really wants to talk to him, especially after… everything today.

She hits dial without thinking too hard about it, and leans against the brick of the bar as she listens to the phone ringing on the other end. 

“Hey.”

Lucy smiles as his voice washes over her, all of the tension leaving her body as she sags against the wall. 

“Hi,” she whispers, her heart fluttering in her chest. 

“What’s up, Lucy?”

She hears rustling on the other end of the phone and wonders if Tim is at home, comfy in bed. 

She finds she desperately wants to join him. 

“Nothing. I'm out with Nolan and Jackson and needed some fresh air, so I’m hanging out in the parking lot of the bar.”

Lucy can practically hear Tim’s frown. 

“That doesn’t sound safe, Lucy. Go back inside with your friends, please.”

Lucy chuckles. 

“Don’t worry, Officer Bradford, I’m keeping an eye on my surroundings and I’m not that drunk. I even have my off duty piece on me.”

Tim grunts on the other end but doesn't fight her. 

“Stay on the phone with me until you go back in, then.”

It’s easy to agree to that stipulation, and Lucy finds herself smiling as she lets the cool night air calm her nerves and settle her stomach a little bit. 

“Where were you this morning, anyway?” she asks. 

Tim chuckles on the other end of the phone and Lucy is even more sure he’s in bed when she hears the sound of a comforter moving to the side and a light clicking on. 

“I was at the doctor’s office.”

Lucy frowns. “Are you sick? Tim, I can’t afford to get sick and miss class. You cannot get me sick!”

He chuckles and the sound, warm and calm, wraps around her like a blanket. 

“No, Luce, I’m not sick. And if I were, it would already be too late. I had my mouth all over you last night.”

Lucy flushes at the reminder. “Then why were you at the doctor?”

Tim hums on the other end, pausing for a brief moment before saying, “I was getting tested.”

Lucy is confused for a long moment, but when the meaning of his words clicks, she flushes all over. 

“Tested. Like…?”

“A full STI panel.”

Lucy whimpers. 

“I’m clean, by the way. Just like I thought. I had to be sure, though, because… Isabel, in the end, she… well, I just needed to be sure.”

Lucy doesn’t speak for a long moment, her whole body warm and aroused.

Tim takes her silence the wrong way, though, and quickly backtracks. 

“That doesn’t mean we have to… you know, change anything. We can use a condom as long as you want. I just… you said that last time like you maybe wanted to go without a condom, and I wanted to be transparent with my results, so—”

Lucy cuts him off, worried that he’ll keep rambling forever if she doesn’t. 

“I’m clean, too,” she murmurs, voice low, fire burning in her belly. “I was tested at my physical before entering the Academy, but I can get tested again if you want.”

“No, that’s okay,” Tim murmurs, more calm now. “That was only four weeks ago, and I know for a fact I’ve kept you too busy running and playing paintball for you to have time to fuck anyone else.”

Lucy shakes her head even though Tim can’t see her. “I’m not with anyone else,” she says, the mere thought of being with anyone else — or Tim being with anyone else — making her stomach turn. “Are… are you?”

Tim’s answer is immediate and firm. “No. No, I’m not. I don’t want to sleep with anyone else, Luce. Just you. And whether that’s with or without a condom is up to you.”

“Okay,” Lucy whispers, cheeks warm and chest tight. “So does that mean… are we exclusive, or whatever?”

Tim laughs, a deep, full sound, and Lucy wishes she could crawl through the phone and curl into his chest. “Yes, Lucy. We’re exclusive or whatever.”

“Like, are we dating? Because… we never really talked about this, but I know I like you and … and I don’t want to be with anyone else. I don't want you to be with anyone else, either.”

Like Poole, she thinks, but thankfully her filter kicks in before she whispers her insecurities into the darkness. 

“We’re dating,” Tim confirms. “As terrible an idea as it is and even though we absolutely must keep it a secret until after you graduate… we’re dating.”

Lucy isn’t able to wipe the smile off of her face even after she hangs up with Tim, and even though Nolan and Jackson can tell something is up, she doesn’t care because she’s dating Tim Bradford and he went to the doctor to get tested so that they can be together, exclusively, without a condom. 

Nothing can bring her mood down. 

_______________________

Well, nothing except maybe this.

The next morning, Tim catches her right as she walks in the door. 

Before she can even open her mouth and say good morning, he’s shaking his head and guiding her toward the hallway that houses all of the Officer’s offices. 

“Ti — Officer Bradford, what is going on?” she hisses under her breath, the giddiness she’d felt only moments before fading away at the look on his face.

He pauses in the hallway and stares at her, lips pressed into a thin line. 

“Did you tell anyone about us?” he asks, glancing around the hallway to make sure no one is looking or listening. 

Lucy shakes her head. 

“No. No! Like I said, Jackson has theories, but I’ve denied everything. Why? What's going on?”

Tim’s frown deepens, and Lucy feels her heart thumping painfully in her chest. 

“I don’t know,” he admits quietly. “But we’ve both been called into Sergeant Cruz’s office this morning.”

Well. 

Shit. 

Chapter Text

Lucy wants desperately to hold Tim’s hand as they walk into their Sergeants office. 

She can’t, of course, but she craves the support. 

Fuck, is this is? 

Has she messed up her entire future before it’s even begun?

He holds open the door for her and she feels like throwing up as she walks through it. 

“Let me do the talking,” he murmurs, and she nods, her heart in her throat, as Sergeant Cruz looks up from her paperwork. She offers them a small smile, and then motions toward the chairs in front of her desk. Lucy takes a seat, awkward and stilted, and watches Tim with wide eyes as he sits smoothly beside her, hands folded neatly in his lap. She tries to copy him, tries to put on an unaffected, unafraid face, but she can’t. 

He was right. 

This was way too risky. 

She can’t… she cannot lose her job. 

“Good morning Officers Chen and Bradford,” Cruz greets, pushing her paperwork aside after signing her name to the bottom of a form. “Do you have any idea why you’re here today?”

Lucy shakes her head jerkily while Tim murmurs, “No, ma’am.”

Sergeant Cruz hums as she pulls a new file across her desk and opens it. 

“There’s been a complaint against you, Tim, and it involves Officer Chen as well.”

Lucy does her best to look confused as Tim leans forward in his seat, his eyebrows drawn together. 

“A complaint? About what?”

Sergeant Cruz raises an eyebrow as she pushes the file across the desk to Tim. He takes it and begins flipping through the pages, his frown deepening. 

“There’s no name attached to the file; the person who reported this didn’t feel comfortable revealing their identity. But they stated that it seems you’ve taken a … personal interest in Officer Chen and that your interactions are inappropriate for a teacher/student relationship. In summation, they accused you and Officer Chen of having an inappropriate affair, and cited all of those reasons as to why.”

Lucy tries to peek over Tim’s arm to see the file, but the words are too small and she can’t make anything out. 

“Ma’am, I assure you,” Tim says, closing the file and sliding it back across the desk before he leans back in his chair, seemingly confident and calm. “That there is nothing inappropriate happening between myself and Officer Chen.”

Sergeant Cruz raises an eyebrow. 

“So all of these claims are false?”

Bradford grimaces. 

“No, ma’am. It is true that I have found myself running with Officer Chen after hours several times, and on one occasion helping her with her firearms outside of class time.”

Lucy leans forward in her chair. 

“But there was nothing inappropriate happening during those times,” she insists, eyes wide and heart thumping heavily in her chest. 

Except that one time when we were sparring and I gave him a blow job, she thinks, and she’s glad Tim had left out that little detail because she can actually claim nothing inappropriate had happened while running and it’s the truth. 

“Then explain all of this time spent together outside of Academy hours,” Cruz requests, sitting back and templing her hands together. 

Tim clears his throat and waves a hand in the air in Lucy’s general direction. 

“I’ve taken a special interest in Officer Chen because I think she could easily be the best damn cop this city has seen in decades. So, yes, I’m pushing her to run faster, work harder, and train more. And if someone has an issue with that, then…”

He trails off, but Lucy wouldn’t have comprehended his words, anyway. 

The best damn cop this city has seen in decades. 

Her whole body is flushed and her cheeks are red from the praise. 

She comes back to herself just as Tim continues, though her lips are still parted in shock from his blatant compliments.

“ — I even think she’s going to beat my Academy 1.5 mile running record, and it’s been unbeatable for thirteen years.”

Wait. 

What?

“That’s your record?” she accuses, turning in her chair to face Tim. “You never said!”

He smirks. 

“You never asked.”

Lucy harrumphs and crosses her arms. 

Tim chuckles and turns back to Sergeant Cruz. 

“So, yes, all of the events in there did happen, but they’re not being painted in a fair light. I’m simply treating Officer Chen as I would one of my rookies — I’m pushing her harder than others would push her, and we’re all going to benefit from it.”

Sergeant Cruz stares at them, lips pursed together, for a long moment. 

Lucy waits, swallowing past the lump in her throat, as she considers both of their futures. 

She doesn’t like lying; her stomach is churning and she feels sick with the knowledge that they’d done this thing, this stupid, wonderful, life-changing thing, and then somehow almost gotten caught. 

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Sergeant Cruz finally murmurs. 

Both Lucy and Tim lean forward in their chairs. 

“I’m not going to dismiss this complaint — yet. I’m going to hold onto it for a few weeks and observe you two myself. Officer Bradford, I understand where you’re coming from. Officer Chen is an exceptional recruit, I’ve seen it in the reports from all of her teachers, not just you. But you also need to understand that I take complaints like this very seriously. Having any type of inappropriate relationship with a recruit is a serious offense, and I have to protect my officers, especially my female officers, from being abused by the men in power over them.”

Tim swallows and nods sharply, and Lucy wants to reach out and grab his hand to reassure him he had not abused her or used his position over her to make her do things she didn’t want to do. 

Everything they’d done had been completely consensual and she doesn’t regret any of it. 

It was stupid, yes, but not abuse. 

“If, after a few weeks, I’m satisfied that nothing inappropriate is happening, I will dismiss the complaint.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tim murmurs. Lucy echos him and nods her head, standing when he does to shake Sergeant Cruz’s hand. 

“Officer Chen,” she says, turning and focusing her attention on Lucy. “Can you stay for a moment?”

Lucy nods, her eyes following Tim as he ducks his head and leaves the office, closing the door gently behind him. 

“Is… is something wrong, Sergeant?” she asks. 

Sergeant Cruz shakes her head slowly. “No. I just wanted to talk to you without Officer Bradford present. See if there was anything you needed to add to the conversation. This is a safe space — nothing you say here will leave these four walls.”

Lucy studies Sergeant Cruz for a long moment, and though she hates that she and Tim have been put in this position at all, she feels her heart go out to the woman. 

Every female officer who works under her is lucky to have a Sergeant who protects them so fiercely from the shit that happens in a male dominated field. 

“No, ma’am,” she murmurs, her voice soft but sure. “Officer Bradford has never said or done anything to make me feel uncomfortable or pressured to do anything. He pushes me hard, but I like that — I want to be the best officer I can possibly be. This is the first thing in my life that I’ve actually been serious about, and I am lucky to be trained by such amazing teachers here, including Officer Bradford.”

Sergeant Cruz smiles. 

“All right, then, Officer. You are free to go.”

Lucy nods and turns to walk out of the office, her hand shaking on the door knob. 

She makes it all the way into the women’s locker room and into a stall before panicking, her forehead falling against the cool metal and her hand over her heart as she sucks in desperate gulps of air. 

Fuck. 

Fuck!

They’d almost been caught! 

They could still be caught, because Sergeant Cruz is going to be keeping a closer eye on them for the next few weeks, which means that every interaction, touch, smile, and tease will be picked apart and studied and judged!

All because someone complained about them. 

Who would do that?

Who would —

Oh. 

Oh. 

Just as suddenly as she’d panicked, she turns absolutely furious. 

Nolan. 

Fucking Nolan!

Did he file a complaint about them? 

About her and Tim? 

Because he was jealous?

He’d seemed better at the bar last night, but they had just been called into Cruz’s office this morning. Maybe he filed it before he left the Academy yesterday? Before she’d confronted him and basically given him an ultimatum? Or maybe his attitude at the bar was fake, and he was already planning on going behind her back and blowing up her entire career. 

God, she’s going to kill him. 

She dresses quickly, her hair a haphazard bun on top of her head and her uniform askew, and then heads to morning announcements with a frown pulling at her lips. 

She knows she needs to appear normal, to pretend nothing is out of the ordinary and that she hadn’t just been called into her bosses office for fucking her superior, but she’s pissed. 

She slides into her seat seconds before Tim walks into the room. 

She allows herself a moment to look at him, really look at him, and she can tell he’s upset, too. 

No one else would notice, she doesn’t think. 

But she does. 

“Good morning,” he greets the recruits, though Lucy isn’t paying much attention to him. 

She turns to Nolan and hisses, “What the fuck did you do?”

He looks alarmed, his eyes comically wide as he hides his words behind his coffee mug so he doesn’t get yelled at by Tim. 

“A-are you talking about last night?” he asks, voice high. 

Lucy’s frown deepens as she tries to hide the fact that she’s talking behind her rook book. Sergeant Cruz is observing the morning meeting; she doesn’t need to get caught by her and Tim. 

“Yes! Or, this morning. Either way. Why the fuck would you do that?”

Nolan makes a noise that can only be described as a squeak as his cheeks flush red. 

“You encouraged it!”

“I—”

Lucy pauses in confusion.

What?

“What?”

Nolan’s cheeks are bright red as he takes a long sip of his coffee. 

“I … I called our waitress? She came home with me last night? You… I thought you wanted me to —”

“Not that,” Lucy says, shaking her head. 

She’s beginning to doubt her little theory, though, as Nolan’s wide eyes slowly return to normal. 

“Then… what? What did I do, Luce?”

Lucy bites her lip as she turns her attention back to the front. Tim is frowning as he runs through their schedule for today, which includes two hours of their first aid class before time on the track. He’s not looking directly at her, but as his eyes sweep the room, she catches his eyes lingering for a few seconds. 

“... nothing,” Lucy decides. 

Well, if it’s not Nolan, then who?

She glances around the room at all of the other recruits, at Poole and Tomas and Kaplan and the others. 

She can’t really imagine any of them reporting her and Tim, but then again, she doesn’t really know them all. They’re just classmates. 

In the end, though, it doesn’t really matter, she realizes. 

Because what she has to do is the same no matter who it was. 

But fuck this is gonna hurt. 

____________________

She knocks on the door to Tim’s office during lunch. 

She doesn’t really feel like eating now, anyway. 

He answers with a frown, but doesn’t invite her in. 

“Officer Chen. What can I do for you?”

Lucy bites her lip and stares at him for a moment, letting her eyes roam his beautiful face and sharp jaw and soft, kissable lips. 

She takes a second, in the silent hallway, to let herself look in a way she knows she’s not going to be able to for a while. 

“We need to talk.”

“We do,” he agrees, his voice low as his eyes dart around the hallway in apprehension. “But not here.”

Lucy shakes her head. “It needs to be here,” she argues, because she knows that, if she invites him over to talk, they’ll end up doing so much more than talking and then it’ll be a million times harder when he’s in her bed, hair messy and smile sleepy. 

It has to be here, now, because if she doesn’t do it right this second she’s going to chicken out. 

Tim clears his throat and opens his door a little wider, letting her inside. 

“All right. But make it fast, Chen.”

Lucy closes the door most of the way and then turns, her hands fidgeting in front of her as she stares at Tim. 

“I don’t know who made that report,” she begins, because if she jumps right into it she’s going to lose control of herself. 

Tim clears his throat and lowers his voice. “Me, either. Cruz wouldn’t tell me. Probably just one of the rookies, jealous that I give you more attention than them.”

“Right, it definitely could be that,” Lucy agrees, barely letting him finish before cutting in and continuing. “But it doesn’t matter who. It just matters… look, I can’t … I can’t lose my career, Tim.”

There are tears in her eyes, and not just from the idea of losing her career. 

Losing him is going to hurt so much worse. 

But…

“This, being a cop, it’s the first thing I’ve ever been serious about. You … you were the second, Tim, but…”

Tim seems to know the direction this conversation is going, and she hates the devastation that she can see in his eyes. She hates that she’s hurting him, hurting them, but she can’t stop the words that are falling past her lips or the tears that are beginning to swim in her eyes. 

“But I can’t let this ruin me. Us. I can’t let it ruin your career, either, so…”

Tim nods, his long fingers holding so tightly to the edge of the desk he’s leaning against that his fingertips are white. 

“Right. It was… it was a stupid idea to begin with. Risky,” he agrees, his voice soft and small in a way she’s not used to from him. 

Lucy sniffles and wipes a hand across her face, her lip caught between her teeth as she nods despite the fact that with every word her heart breaks apart a little bit more. 

“Right. It’s not worth the risk,” she whispers, and with everything in her, she wishes, desperately wishes, that he’ll tell her it is, it is worth the risk. 

But he doesn’t. 

He just nods. 

“Right.”

“So…”

Tim clears his throat and turns his gaze to the ceiling. His seafoam blue eyes are suspiciously wet and he keeps licking his lips, the movement unconscious and emotional. 

“So we stop,” he says, shrugging as if it’s not a big deal even though it feels like she’s drowning. “We keep things professional.”

Lucy nods miserably even though she wants to scream. She wants to yell what are we doing? why are we doing this?! to the rooftops. 

But she doesn’t.

“Professional,” she agrees, nodding as a single tear slips free from her eye and slides down her cheek. 

Tim reaches out but pauses with his hand mid-air, his fingers trembling slightly in the space between them. 

He drops his hand back to his side and his gaze to the floor. 

“I’ll see you this afternoon after first aid class, then, Officer Chen,” he murmurs. 

Lucy nods again, presses a hand over her mouth, and turns. She doesn’t run out of his office, but it’s a close thing. 

She makes it to the locker rooms without being seen, closes herself in a stall, and cries. 

Chapter Text

It’s ridiculous, Tim thinks, how much the break up hurts. 

Can he even call it a breakup? 

They’d only officially been dating for less than twelve goddamn hours. 

Regardless, he spends most of the morning in his office, slowly plowing through months of backed up paperwork while feeling sorry for himself and wallowing in his sadness. 

Fuck. 

First Isabel, and now Lucy. 

Is it him? 

Is he the reason that he can’t seem to keep a woman in his life? 

And yeah, he knows that the situations are totally different and it’s not even fair of him to compare them. 

Isabel had chosen drugs and other men over him.

Lucy stands to lose her entire career before it even begins. 

He and Isabel had been married for ten fucking years when she’d abandoned him. 

Lucy and he had only been together for a few weeks and officially for less than a day. 

It’s not the same, but his heart doesn’t know how to accept that because it fucking hurts like it’s the same. 

He’d thought that Isabel was the love of his life, the one , but then Lucy… goddamn Lucy Chen had barreled into his life and made him question everything he thought he’d known. She’d sassed him, challenged him, and gave just as good as she got. 

She’d smirked and smiled and teased, and she turned his whole fucking world upside down in a matter of a few weeks, and now… 

With a sigh he pushes the folder he’s working on across his desk and drops his head into his hands, his fingers pushing into his hair and tugging on the short strands. The pain helps him focus a little bit, but it does nothing to take the ache away. His chest hurts, like someone reaches inside his rib cage and tore his heart into a hundred little pieces. And he’s no stranger to heartache, but he doesn’t think it’s something you just get used to. 

He rubs the heel of his hand into his chest to try and relieve some of the ache, but it doesn’t do any good. 

It’s not worth the risk, she’d said, and he’d wanted to scream, but it is! It IS! 

He hadn’t, though. 

He’d let her walk away. 

He could have fought. He could have told her that they could lay low for a few weeks until everything blew over. He could have even suggested taking a break until she was done with training in a few months. 

But in the moment, all he’d been able to focus on was the worry and the fear in her voice and the panic from being called into his boss’s office because someone had complained that he was having an inappropriate relationship with his subordinate, which he is! 

Was. 

Whatever. 

It’s something he never thought he’d allow himself to do, but, well… 

He never thought he’d find someone after Isabel, either. 

Never thought he’d fall in lo— 

With a growl he pushes away from his desk, stands, and stalks toward the locker room. 

He just needs to fucking run. 

_______________________

Running doesn’t do much of anything other than make him hot and sore, so he’s heartbroken, angry, and achy by the time the recruits begin to shuffle in after First Aid for their single hour of physical fitness training together. 

“Drop and give me fifty push-ups!” he yells, and he walks around critiquing and generally being more of an asshole than normal to the recruits, arms crossed over his chest and eyebrows pulled together. 

“Nolan, ass down!”

“Kaplan, we don’t allow girl push-ups in the Police Academy! All the way until your nose touches the mat!”

“Poole, that’s… god, your form is terrible. Let me help you.”

He blows out a breath and kneels down next to Poole, trying to keep his eyes off of Lucy as he helps correct the young recruit’s form. It takes several tries, and he’s growing irritated by the time she finally does a correct push-up. 

“I’ve seen you do push-ups better than this, Poole,” he says, lips pulled into a frown. 

Poole smiles at him as she pushes up, her elbows straightening as she turns her head. 

“Sorry, sir,” she murmurs. “I guess it’s just been a while since I’ve done push-ups.”

Tim watches her for a moment longer, eyes roaming her body to make sure she’s not going to pull a muscle, and then nods. 

“Well you’ve got it now. Keep going. And practice in your downtime, because if I see that form again, you’re running ten miles.”

Poole smiles at him again, nods, and continues, and Tim walks away, noticing that a few recruits have finished and are stretching in preparation for whatever he gives them next. Lucy is one of them, Tomas another, and they’re whispering quietly as he walks around. 

He doesn’t hear much of what they say, and is distracted by Nolan with his ass in the air again. 

“Fucking hell, Nolan,” he mutters, and he smirks as he lifts his foot and presses it onto the older man’s ass. Nolan yelps and falls flat on his stomach, and Tim chuckles as watches, arms crossed. 

“What —”

“I said ass d own,” he says, shrugging. “What were you at?”

Nolan blows out a breath and gets his arms back under him. “Forty six.”

“Start over at zero,” Tim says, and walks away as Nolan begins sputtering in indignation. 

He observes Poole again and then inches closer to Tomas and Lucy, watching them only as long as he knows would be appropriate if Sergeant Cruz were here but listening for much longer. 

“Cop shows? Really? Too close to reality, and they get too much wrong. My guilty pleasure is reality TV, and I love Top Chef,” Lucy says, her cheeks flushed with exertion as she stretches to reach past her toes, her back flat and the long line of her neck exposed. Tim swallows and turns his gaze to the other recruits, but keeps an ear on their conversation. 

“I’ve never seen it,” Tomas admits, and Lucy makes a scandalized noise as she switches arms. 

“Go home tonight and watch one episode,” she challenges. “I bet you’ll love it.”

“Maybe I will,” Tomas says, chuckling. “And maybe… I don’t know, maybe we could watch it together sometime?”

Tim jerks to a stop beside Nolan and pretends he’s carefully observing him as his blood freezes in his veins. 

“T… together?” Lucy asks, her voice high. 

Tim grimaces. 

Fuck. 

“Yeah,” Tomas says, tone cheerful. “You know, if you wanted to. Maybe like… as a date?”

Tim’s vision whites out once the words pass Tomas’s lips, his whole body vibrating with anger and possession. 

She’s mine! he wants to scream. 

He wants to drape his body over hers, kiss her in front of everyone, hell, maybe even piss on her leg to claim her as his. 

But he can’t because they’re being watched, and so instead of walking up to Lucy and laying claim to her like the caveman he apparently is, he has to watch out of the corner of his eye as Lucy awkwardly laughs, pushes a lock of hair behind her ear, and mumbles something he can’t quite hear. 

Tomas nods but doesn’t smile, and Tim feels relief sweep throughout his entire body. 

She’d said no. 

At least, he hopes she did.

The rest of class is honestly a bit of a blur, and Tim is almost thankful when the recruits sweep out of the room, a gaggle of laughter, conversation, and quickly made plans for the evening. 

Tim watches them, his eyes on Lucy until she rounds the corner and walks out of sight, and then comes to a decision, stupid though it may be.

She’s made her choice, he knows, and he swears he’ll respect it. 

He will. 

But she’s not working with all of the pertinent information. She’d made a decision based on them having dated for twelve whole hours, and there’s — there’s something else she needs to know. 

There’s something — he’d been scared to tell her, to even admit it to himself, but —

It doesn't matter now.

How could this possibly hurt any worse if she turns him down again? 

It’s worth the risk, he decides. 

He changes out faster than he ever has in his life, tosses his paperwork onto his desk to do in the morning, and then heads outside, climbs into his truck, and tosses his bag on the passenger seat before peeling out of the parking lot. 

He’ll go to her apartment, tell her… what he needs to tell her, and then… then, if she asks him to leave, he will. 

He’ll respect her wishes, he will, but god he hopes she doesn’t ask him to leave. 

The ten minute drive feels like ten hours, and as Tim climbs the stairs two at a time, he briefly falters.

If she asks him to leave … if she tells him no again… 

But what if she says yes ?

It’s that thought that propels him forward the final few steps to her door, and he bangs on the aged oak with rapid, frantic knocks. 

Lucy answers the door in the same clothes she’d worn into the station this morning, and Tim lets his eyes roam her face slowly, taking in every single detail of her in case he has to turn away and walk right back out. 

“Tim,” she whispers, her lips parted in surprise and her brown eyes wide and bright. 

He tries to smile but it comes out as more of a grimace. 

“What… what are you doing here? This is the opposite of staying away.”

There’s a joking lilt to her voice, but Tim sees right through it. 

She’s hurting, too. 

Making the decision she’d made, walking away this morning… it hadn’t been easy for her. 

“Lucy,” he whispers, her name torn from his throat. His voice is low and quiet, more emotional than he’d intended it to be, and he has to pause to clear his throat and lick his lips before he can continue. 

“What are you doing here?” she asks softly. 

She’s standing with one hand on the doorknob still, and Tim is only inches away from her. 

His whole body screams for him to reach out and touch her, to pull her into his arms and kiss her. 

Somehow, he resists. 

First…

“I need to tell you something.”

Clearing his throat did little to help with the way his voice sounds ragged and torn, like every word is being ripped straight from his chest, and he licks his lips again as his eyes meet hers, both of their gazes guarded but swimming with emotion. Tim’s chest is heaving with every breath, his heart thudding painfully against his ribcage. 

Lucy’s hand twitches where it’s holding onto the doorframe, an aborted move to touch him.

“What?” she whispers, eyes darting down to his lips and then back up. “What did you need to tell me?”

Tim swallows past the lump in his throat. 

Ten seconds, he thinks. 

Just ten seconds of insane bravery. 

Ten seconds of soul-baring, vulnerable, embarrassing bravery.

And no matter what comes of it, whether it’s heartbreak or elation, it’ll be out there in the universe. 

“I need you to know…” he whispers, pausing to run a hand through his already disheveled hair and to blow a nervous breath out. “Look, I know you made a choice. Your career is important. I get that, and I respect it, I do. I will walk out of this apartment and … and be the epitome of professional from here on out if that’s what you want, I will —”

Lucy cuts his little ramble off with a hand on his arm. 

Her skin is soft and warm and he wants to crawl into the circle of her arms and never come out again. 

“Tim,” she murmurs. 

He clears his throat and nods, and prepares to jump off of the proverbial cliff. 

“I know you made a decision already, but you weren’t working with all of the information this morning. And if your choice doesn’t change, that’s okay, but… but I wanted you to know.”

“To know what?” Lucy asks, her voice quiet as her fingers tighten on his arm. 

He knows that for all her strength, all her sass and her indomitable spirit, she’s fragile. 

He reaches out to brush his thumb along the sharp line of her cheek and smiles, his gaze soft as he stares at her, drinking her in just in case this is the last time he gets to look at her like this. 

“I wanted you to know that I am falling in love with you, Lucy Chen,” he whispers, the words whispered between them like they’re something precious. 

Lucy’s breath catches, her brown eyes widening in surprise, but Tim doesn’t relent, his hand cupping her cheek as he continues. 

“The truth is that I am falling hopelessly in love with you, Lucy, and … and I know that this whole situation is fucked up and scary, but I can’t help it and I can’t change it and I wouldn’t even if I could. And I know that you … that you put a stop to us for good reason, because your career is important and this could fuck everything up, but I didn’t want you operating under the misapprehension that this was just a fling for me, because it’s not. I love you, Lucy Chen. I love you.”

Lucy doesn’t speak, and Tim feels his heart beginning to shatter a little bit inside of his chest as the seconds stretch on. 

I love her enough to walk away, he tells himself, and he knows it’s true. 

He drops his hand from her face and smiles sadly as he takes a single step backward. 

“That was it. That was what I wanted you to know, so that… that you had all the information to make your decision. I can… I’ll go now.”

He feels like his entire soul is shattering as he turns, his chest aching and his throat closing with emotion that he cannot let out in the hallway of her apartment building.

Each step away is harder than the last, his body barely moving because walking away from her feels so wrong, so indescribably wrong, that he can barely make himself —

“Tim.”

Her voice is quiet, soft, her hand reaching out to wrap around his larger one and stop him from moving. 

He turns, blue eyes wide and wet. 

Hopeful. 

God, the hope hurts worse than the breakup had. 

“Luce,” he whispers, shaking his head as he fights to keep tears from falling. “I can’t… not if you’re not…”

She slides her fingers between his, and pulls him inside of the apartment before closing the door behind them.

Chapter Text

“Luce,” he whispers, shaking his head as he fights to keep tears from falling. “I can’t… not if you’re not…”

She slides her fingers between his, and pulls him inside of the apartment before closing the door behind them.

They stand still in the semi darkness of her kitchen, her hand in his, the hope blooming in his chest is almost suffocating. He stares at her, at the wisp of curly hair that’s fallen free from her bun, at the way her deep, brown eyes are cataloging his features, her gaze like a caress on her skin. 

“Lucy,” he whispers, because he’s just bared his heart to her and he knows it’s hard, but he needs something. 

He needs… because if she’s not serious, he can’t… 

She leans up on her tiptoes and presses her lips to the corner of his mouth, soft and warm, and he lets out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding as he melts into her, his body collapsing in on itself as he shuffles forward and pulls her into his arms, his face tucking into her shoulder and his arms winding around her back as she surrounds him, holding his fragile pieces tightly together. 

“I love you, too,” she whispers, her breath warm against his ear as she tightens her hold on him, her fingers digging into the muscles of his back. It hurts, her nails stinging his skin, but he doesn’t pull away. 

I love you, too. 

He sighs and brushes his cheek against hers, eyes closed as he moves to kiss her, their noses and cheeks bumping as he searches blindly. 

“Tim,” she whimpers, his name torn from her lips just as he finally finds them with his own. He swallows the sound down, drinking her in as he slides his hands from her back to cup either side of her face, holding her in place as he kisses her desperately. His lips coax hers open, trembling as he presses harder, deeper, his tongue sweeping into her mouth as she presses her body tighter against his, pushing back and taking control of the kiss as her fingers scratch his scalp, running through the short hairs at the base of his neck. 

“Lucy,” he whines, high and needy as they finally pull back to breathe. “I love you so much, Lucy. I … god, I never thought I’d feel this way again. I never thought I’d find… that I’d find you.”

Lucy nods as she licks her lips, eyes wide, pupils blown. 

“I’ve never felt this way,” she admits, one hand on his chest, rubbing gently where his heart is beating frantically under her palm. “I’ve never loved anyone this way.”

Tim nods, lips parted as he breathes heavily, blue eyes half lidded and still wet with emotion as they roam her face. 

“Can… can we have tonight?” he asks, voice low and needy, one hand falling to her hip to hold her close as they sway in place. “Can we have tonight, and then starting tomorrow, we wait? We wait until you finish training and have your FTO placement, and then… then I ask you to dinner?”

Lucy bites her lip but doesn’t even pause before she’s nodding. 

“Yes,” she whispers, her voice hoarse as she slides her hands under Tim’s shirt without hesitation to haul it over her head. “Yes. It’s going to be a long twelve weeks. We’re going to need something to hold us over.”

Tim chuckles as he kisses her, hands already working to unbutton her jeans as he walks her backwards toward her bedroom. 

Part of him wants to fuck her right here against the door of her apartment, but the other part, the part that knows he’s not going to be able to touch her for twelve fucking weeks, wants to take this slow. He wants to take her apart piece by piece, make her come around his fingers and on his tongue before finally sinking inside of her. 

He whispers this all in her ear as they cross the threshold of her bedroom. He kicks the door shut behind them, and then he slides one hand under her shirt and splays his fingers over her the warm skin of her belly as he nips at her ear and continues to whisper sweet nothings. 

“I’m gonna make you feel so good, Lucy,” he murmurs, his voice sweet like dripping honey. “If tonight is all we have for the next three months, I’m going to make sure you remember me over every inch of your body. I’m going to leave marks, baby, that will take weeks to fade. I’m going to make sure that you feel me in your pussy for days. I’m going to make it to where every time you get out your little toys or use your fingers to make yourself come, you think of me.”

Lucy whimpers, and Tim smirks as he pulls back and surveys her. Her face is flushed and her eyes closed, her long lashes tickling her cheeks. Her lips are parted and swollen from the kisses he’s already stolen, and she’s just so damn perfect that he has to kiss her again. 

“Tim,” she whispers against his lips, her hands finally moving from where they’ve been balled into fists against his bare chest. “Tim. Please.”

He chuckles as he finally, slowly, pulls her shirt over her head. “Please what, Luce?”

She moans in relief when he finally gets his hands on her breasts, his large palms cupping her generous tits and slowly massaging the supple flesh as kisses down her neck. 

“I don’t know,” she huffs, annoyed by his slow pace. “Do something.”

Tim laughs and pulls back, blue eyes twinkling with amusement as he one hand slides away from her chest to dip into her already unbuttoned jeans. He teases her, tapping his fingers on her bare mound, and hums as he considers. 

“Strip,” he murmurs, pulling away and putting a few scant inches between their bodies. “Strip and get on the bed. Head on the pillow, legs spread for me. Can you do that, baby?”

Lucy nods and immediately drops her hands to her jeans, pushing them down and off. Tim watches, one hand dropping to press to his groin. He’s already half hard and growing harder as he watches her pull her panties down and step out of them. 

They’re soaked. 

He grunts as he leans down to grab them, and Lucy watches with wide eyes as he stuffs them into the pocket of his jeans. 

She grins at the movement and he shrugs. 

Twelve weeks. 

“You’d better be planning on leaving me something of yours in return, then,” she murmurs, walking backward toward the bed as she reaches up to take the ties and pins out of her hair. She lays them on the bedside table and then pulls the comforter down and off the bed, which, okay, that’s probably a good idea, Tim has to admit. 

He plans on making a mess of her. 

“I will,” he promises. 

He walks toward the bed slowly, hands absently unbuttoning and shoving his jeans down. He steps out of them and kicks them away, and then pushes his boxer briefs off before crawling onto the mattress between her legs. 

“So beautiful,” he murmurs, running his hands from her knees to her ankles. Lucy watches him from the pillow, chest flushed and heaving, eyes half lidded in arousal. 

“You’re not so bad yourself, Bradford,” she murmurs, smiling softly as he caresses her legs, following his hands with his lips. He trails kisses up one leg until he’s at her inner thigh, and they both moan out loud as he sinks his teeth into the delicate flesh there, biting hard enough to leave the first of many, many marks. He sucks for a long moment, bringing blood to the surface, and then soothes the ache with his tongue before pulling back to admire his work. 

It’s fucking perfect, red and purple with a light indent of his teeth. 

“Tim,” Lucy moans, her eyes closed now as she searches blindly for him. He grabs her hand, guiding one into his hair and entwining the fingers of the other with his own as he ducks back down, breathing in the scent of her arousal as he prepares to leave a second mark. 

“Tell me if you want me to stop,” he murmurs. 

She shakes her head and moans as he digs his teeth into her again, her fingers tugging on his hair as she thrusts her hips toward his face. 

He leaves a third on that thigh, and then presses a soft kiss to her mound before railing his lips down her other thigh. 

“I want you to press on these marks when you’re making yourself come when I’m not here,” he murmurs, pausing to suck blood to the surface of her perfect, tan skin. “I want you to touch them and remember me giving them to you. I want you to come around your own little fingers while imagining it’s me between your legs.”

“Yes!” Lucy cries, her voice thick and wet as he leaves the sixth and final (for now) mark. 

He pulls back when he’s done, hands splaying her thighs wide, to admire his work. 

Perfect. 

Six marks, three on each thigh, dotting her otherwise unblemished skin. 

Deep, red marks. 

He knows they’ll last for days. 

And her pussy… god, she’s soaked. 

“You liked that, didn’t you?” he murmurs, smiling as he dips down to press his lips to hers. Her fingers slide down his head to cup his neck as he coaxes her lips open, and he revels in being held as they kiss slowly for a long moment, lips and teeth and tongue searching and taking.

“Yes,” she finally admits, pulling back to breathe as he ruts his hips into the space between her legs. She’s soaking wet and leaving a mess in the hair surrounding his cock, but he’s not ready to fuck her yet. 

He has plans. 

“Me, too,” he says. 

He gives her one more bruising kiss and then trails his lips down her body, memorizing each breath and moan and sigh as he licks and sucks on her breasts. He laves each one with attention, and then pinches her spit soaked nipples between his fingers as his lips travel further south, blue eyes taking in the way she shivers and holds his head as he kisses her inner thighs, his tongue darting out to clean away some of the arousal she’s leaked onto her thighs. 

She grunts and bucks up into his face, trying to push him where she wants him, but he just chuckles as he presses a hot, wet kiss right over her hole. 

“Patience,” he murmurs, his nose rubbing at her clit as he traces each of her pussy lips. He cleans the arousal off of them, savoring the sweet taste as it blooms across his tongue. 

“Tiiiim,” she moans, and he laughs as he shoulders her thighs further apart, settling on the bed in between them. His cock is caught between his body and the sheets, and he grunts as he ruts into the mattress for a little bit of relief. 

He’s fully hard, and he knows eating her out is only going to make it worse. 

“I’ve got you, baby,” he murmurs. He places one final, chaste kiss on her bare mound, and then he goes for the kill, sucking her clit straight into his mouth as he slides two fingers inside of her in one smooth, slick motion. She cries out, her hips rising off the bed even as he tries to hold them down. He slides an arm over her hips, pressing her into the mattress as she holds onto the sheet in both hands, head thrown back and lips open with pleasure. Tim watches her, blue eyes wide open, as he eats her out enthusiastically, tongue alternating between her clit and dipping inside of her to join his fingers. Her thighs tremble around his head and her pussy gushes out arousal around his fingers, and he smirks as he quickly pushes her toward her first orgasm. 

“You're fucking beautiful like this,” he grunts, his words wet with her slick and his spit as he makes an utter mess of them. He’s not trying to keep things clean as he licks and sucks and fucks her with his fingers. Each gush of arousal adds to the mess, his face and stubble absolutely soaked with her. 

He’s drowning in her; she is all he can taste or smell or feel, the way her pussy clenches around his fingers and flutters as she nears her orgasm. 

“Come for me, Luce,” he murmurs, and she does, beautifully, immediately, devastatingly. 

He continues to fuck her through it, his palm filling with her cum and arousal as she shakes and cries out his name, her lip caught between her teeth as her back arches off of the bed. He slows his movements as she comes down, though, until his palm is flat against her pussy, fingers unmoving, as she gasps for breath. 

“That was…”

Tim grins. 

He knows he’s good. 

“Gonna fuck you now,” he murmurs, reaching over to pull her bedside drawer open. He slaps her ass as he reaches for a condom. “You wanna ride me?”

Lucy nods and quickly scrambles into a sitting position as Tim tosses the condom onto the mattress beside them and then settles back against the pillows. Lucy’s thighs are still shaking as she straddles him, hands pressed flat to his chest as she drops her legs onto either side of his. Her cheeks are flushed and eyes glazed, and Tim grins with the satisfaction of a job well done. 

“I don’t know if I can ride you the whole time,” Lucy admits, and Tim hums as he digs his fingers into the meat of her thigh. The muscle is trembling, and Lucy’s movements are jerky. 

“That’s okay,” he says, smiling as Lucy takes a long moment to memorize him, her hands caressing his chest and his abs, her hips rocking into his as he reaches for the condom to open it and roll it on. 

“No,” Lucy whispers, shaking her head as her hand covers his. 

Tim makes a confused noise. 

Does she not want him to fuck her?

She smiles as she shakes her head again, taking the condom and tossing it off the edge of the bed. 

“Fuck me bare,” she says, and Tim groans as her wandering hand finally finds his cock, wrapping around the length in time with her words. He bucks into her hold, his vision blurring as he imagines fucking her bare, feeling her wetness and warmth with nothing between them. 

God. 

“Birth control?” he gasps, because an unexpected pregnancy is not something they can handle right now. 

Lucy nods, and both of them moan as she slaps his cock against her pussy, the fat head of it catching on her clit. 

“IUD,” she confirms. “Do you… are you okay with that? Do you want to fuck me bare?”

Tim nods so fast that he’s dizzy with it. 

“Fuck yes,” he groans, and they both laugh a little at his enthusiasm as Lucy places one hand flat over his chest, bracing herself as he helps her line his cock up with her entrance. 

Lucy takes him in slowly, just the tip at first. They both groan as he slides the head of his cock inside, and Lucy’s thighs tremble as she pulls off and then takes him in a little bit deeper the next time. 

He’s big and she’s tight, and it takes a moment before he’s buried inside of her to the hilt, surrounded by warmth and wetness and heat. Lucy pauses her movements and Tim is thankful, using the brief reprieve to take a few slow, deep breaths. 

“God, you feel so good,” he moans, licking his lips as he forces his eyes open so that he can watch her move. She’s in about the same state as he is, her head thrown back, hair a mess, cheeks flushed and sweaty. She’s still bracing herself with one hand on his chest, but the other seeks his out, entwining their fingers as he grips her hip tightly enough to leave finger shaped bruises with his other hand. 

“Go slow,” she murmurs, and he nods as he rocks his hips up into her, barely pulling out before burying himself inside of her again. He’s tucked up snug against her cervix, filling her completely in a way that’s almost painful. The pleasure overrides the pain, though, and Lucy moans as she rocks her hips in time with him, the thick head of his cock dragging along that spot inside of her with each movement. 

The sex is slow and sensual in a way it hasn’t been before, their clasped hands pressed over Lucy’s heart, their eyes never leaving the others as they move together. Lucy’s eyes are wet with tears when Tim finally flips their positions, burying his face in her neck as he makes love to her slowly, his movements meant to last, to draw out the pleasure, the closeness. 

Neither of them are in a hurry to come. 

They kiss slowly, lips slack against the others, sharing breath as they kiss and kiss and kiss. 

“I want this to last forever,” Lucy whispers, eyes finally fluttering closed as she begins to feel a familiar tightening in her belly. 

“Soon,” Tim promises, biting kisses into her shoulder and chest where her uniform will hide it. “Soon we can have this every single day. Every night. Forever.”

Lucy whines, high and loud, and then comes beautifully around his cock, mouth open in a silent scream as her pussy flutters and her thighs shake with her release. 

Tim follows her over the edge a moment later, groaning his pleasure into her mouth as he comes inside of her, filling her up with cum until it leaks out of her pussy, staining the bed beneath them. 

Afterward they’re both reluctant to move, both knowing that this is it: the beginning of the end. 

(For now).

“Can you stay the night?” Lucy asks. 

She’s holding his head tight to her shoulder, not caring that he’s still inside of her or that his weight is crushing her. 

Tim sighs. 

“I shouldn’t,” he murmurs into her sweaty skin.

Lucy sighs. 

“Stay until I’m asleep, then?”

That, he can do. 

“Okay,” he concedes, smiling as he props himself onto one elbow so that he can see her face. He kisses her, tongue slowly memorizing the shape of her mouth, the taste. 

Eventually, though, they have to get up and clean up. Lucy pees and brushes her teeth while Tim searches for his underwear and changes the sheets. He dresses Lucy in a clean pair of panties (the other pair still tucked away safely in his jeans) and then pulls his t-shirt over her head, not caring that he’s going to have to do the walk of shame half naked to his tuck. 

They climb into bed together and Tim sighs, wishing he could have this now. 

“I love you,” he whispers once more, breathing the words into Lucy’s skin as he kisses her temple. 

Lucy smiles a sleepy, sated smile. “I love you, too.”

“I’ll take you out properly soon,” he promises, sighing as he wraps his arms tightly around her and dreads the moment he has to leave. 

“Ask me to dinner,” Lucy murmurs, eyes fluttering shut. “Later. After.”

Tim murmurs a promise into her skin, and then holds her until she falls asleep before sneaking out of her apartment. 

Chapter Text

The first few weeks of their forced separation are easy. 

Or, well, not easy, necessarily, but easier. Knowing that they both feel the same way, that they love each other… It makes it a thousand times easier to walk into announcements each morning. 

They can do anything for nine more weeks, right? 

Just nine more weeks, and then… 

Lucy blows out a breath and tries to refocus on what Tim is saying instead of daydreaming about the future (and the past. Their last night together had been…)

“ — your First Aid assessment is this afternoon, so I’m canceling physical fitness. Use the time to study or, if you feel confident about your test already, run a few laps on the track. We have our next 1.5 mile assessment next week, and if you haven’t improved from the beginning of the program, I’ll wash you. No excuses this time; we’re almost halfway through your program. If I’m not seeing improvement, it’s because you’re not putting in the effort.”

Nolan audibly gulps in his seat next to her, and Lucy grimaces. 

Maybe she should invite him to run with her this evening? 

But no. 

She doesn’t want him getting any ideas, or reading into her offer more than he should. If he’s not a big enough boy to work out and practice on his own, then maybe he deserves to wash out. 

Tim concludes morning meeting with a reminder to not suck on their First Aid assessment and then stalks out of the glass walled room. Lucy lets her gaze follow him for a second and then clears her throat as she turns to her friends. 

“So, study or run?”

Jackson sighs and drops his head onto his rook book. 

“Both. I should have studied more for this test, but there was this guy at the bar last weekend and we hit it off, so I’ve been hanging out with him.”

Lucy chuckles as she eyes Jackson, who definitely looks like he’s been having more fun than studying. 

“Well the First Aid test is more pressing. So let’s study this morning, and then you can worry about the 1.5 mile run. What’s your latest time?”

Nolan sighs as he stands, his rook book already tucked under his arm. 

“I need to run. I feel confident about the First Aid test, but not my 1.5 mile run. So, I guess I’ll see you guys later.”

Lucy waves and then stands, reaching to tug on Jackson’s arm. 

“Come on. Coffee and study.”

Jackson groans again but stands and allows Lucy to haul him out of the room. 

______________________

After lunch, Lucy leaves Jackson and Nolan to their regular before-test-freak-out-routine and hits the track. She’s studied as much as she can, and the information is all in her head. What she needs right now is to get out of her head, and the best way to do that is to run. 

She changes into shorts and a tank top quickly and then grabs her water bottle, taking small sips as she heads outside into the thankful cooler than normal mid day sun. Once outside she pauses, setting her water bottle down and reaching for the hair tie she keeps on her wrist, throwing her long hair into a quick, messy bun before beginning to stretch. 

She’s not the only one on the track, she quickly notices. 

Poole and Tomas are here, too, already running side by side along the track. They’re talking and laughing, though Lucy can’t hear what they’re saying as she falls into step behind them, her feet pounding the pavement rhythmically as she begins her warm up lap. 

She’s close to being under the ten minute mark, and she’s hopeful that, at next week’s 1.5 mile running test, she can surprise Tim by being within thirty seconds of his record. 

She may not be able to be with him right now, but she can still make him proud. She can still make him smile and say good job, Chen, in that voice that turns her knees to jelly. 

Goal in mind, she clicks the start button on her stopwatch as she finishes her warm-up lap, pushing herself to run at a quick, steady pace, her legs pumping as she breathes in and out rhythmically. 

She’s halfway through the 1.5 miles and doing well on time when Poole falls into step next to her and bumps her shoulder against Lucy’s. 

“Hey.”

Lucy blows out a breath and turns to the smaller recruit, offering her a tight smile as she tries to keep her pace. 

“Hey. What’s up?”

Poole is struggling to keep up with Lucy’s pace, and quickly places a hand on her arm to stop her.

Lucy wants to growl in annoyance, but instead all she does is pause her watch, frowning as Tomas and now Kaplan pass them on the track as she and Poole slow down to a more sedate pace. 

“What’s going on? Why did you stop me? I was timing myself,” she asks, brushing sweaty hair out of her eyes as she watches Poole’s lips pull into a small frown. 

“You seem close to Officer Bradford,” Poole says, apropos of nothing. 

Lucy’s breath catches and her heart pounds, though she does her best to hide both reactions as they continue to jog around the track slowly. 

“He’s … uh, he’s helped me with a few training things, yeah,” she murmurs carefully, hoping her voice is calmer than her heart rate.

It’s not a lie, of course — Tim has helped her with a few training things. 

But she knows she’s on thin ice. 

Sergeant Cruz has let up a little bit with the constant surveillance and had thrown out the complaint after a few weeks of Tim and Lucy staying away from each other, but still.

“It seems like more than that,” Poole pushes, scoffing. “He’s always looking at you.”

“Probably critiquing my form,” Lucy says dryly, rolling her eyes even as she struggles to swallow past the lump in her throat. 

“You’re always looking at him, too,” Poole accuses. 

Lucy pauses in her run, brushing hair out of her face as she meets Poole’s eyes. 

“What are you trying to say?” she demands, hoping that facing the issue straight on will either cause Poole to back off or reveal her hand. “Are you accusing me of something?”

Have you already accused me of something?

She can’t prove it, of course, but of all the recruits… It seems most likely that it was Poole that made the complaint about her and Tim in the first place. 

Poole’s frown deepens and her lips twitch as she struggles with what she wants to say. 

Lucy tries to exude confidence as she drops her hands to her hips and stares the other officer down. 

“I just need you to say what you came here to say or leave me alone, because I’m trying to work on my 1.5 mile time. I’m here at the Academy because I want to be a police officer, and to do that, I have to pass this program. You and I both know that being a female officer is like pushing a boulder uphill. We need to stand out, and that’s what I’m trying to do. That’s what Officer Bradford is trying to help me do. So, either say what you want to say, or…”

Poole huffs, turns, and stalks off, and Lucy watches her, her heart in her throat as the other recruit joins Kaplan and Tomas again, the three of them talking in low voices as they slowly jog around the track. 

She blows out a breath, honestly surprised that her strategy worked, and then resets her watch as she slowly walks back toward the beginning of the track to start over on timing herself. 

Fuck. 

She needs to talk to Tim. 

It was Poole, she’s certain, but the way she’s talking to Tomas and Kaplan now… 

They need to be more careful than ever, because she cannot let another recruit’s jealousy ruin her career before it even begins. 

______________________

She doesn’t see Tim for the rest of the day and resolves to text or call him after she fits in a few more laps on the track. 

She’d been distracted after Poole had stopped her to talk, and her lowest time of the afternoon had been 10:09. 

She’s determined to get it under ten minutes before their test, especially now that they’ve taken their First Aid assessment and she’s cleared up to focus more wholly on one thing. 

She wants… no, she needs to see Tim’s face when she has her best time ever on their upcoming test. 

She can’t have him the way she wants him right now, but she can have his praise. 

His recognition. 

His admiration. 

Her stomach feels warm and squirmy even thinking about the way he grins when he says good job, Chen , and it’s with a new determination that she sets her stopwatch and begins running just as the sun begins to slip toward the horizon. 

She’s on her sixth lap when a second set of footsteps join her own. 

She smiles, recognizing the steps, and continues running without acknowledging the second person until she’s finished and pausing her watch. 

10:01. 

“What’s your time?” Tim asks. 

Lucy smirks and clears her watch so that he can’t see. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Tim raises an eyebrow, his lips quirking into a smile. 

“Have you beat my time yet?”

Lucy shakes her head, smiling softly as they slowly jog their way through a cool down lap. 

“No. But I will.”

Tim laughs. “Your confidence is sexy. I like that.”

Lucy bites her lip to keep her smile from taking over her entire face as her gaze darts around the Academy track to make sure they’re alone. 

Tim notices and hums quietly. “No one else is here. No cars in the lot; nothing.”

Lucy relaxes a little bit, but not much.

There’s a careful few feet of space between them, even when they’re alone, and she hates it. 

“I think it was Poole,” she murmurs, eyes on the track ahead of her and not the man beside her. 

If she gives in and lets herself look at him with the knowledge that they’re alone, she knows she won’t stop at just looking. 

“Yeah, I wondered,” Tim says, voice low as the lights over the track turn on, a few rays of orange and red the only remnants of the sun remaining. 

“She said we seemed close,” Lucy continues, sighing as she stops at the starting line of the track again. “She confronted me today while we were out here. She was with Tomas and Kaplan.”

“We just need to keep being careful,” Tim says, voice a weary sigh as he pauses to stretch. His t-shirt rides up and Lucy’s eyes are drawn to the sliver of skin exposed as he stretches one arm across the opposite shoulder. “But if they don’t have proof of what we’ve already done… then it’s all hearsay and rumor. Plus, Sergeant Cruz came to my office to talk to me today, and she told me that she believes you’re an exceptional recruit, so… if I’m caught running with you after hours or pushing you harder than I push the other recruits… she knows why.”

Lucy smiles as she allows herself to bump her shoulder against Tim’s. 

“She’ll see just how exceptional I am when I beat your Academy record,” she teases, and Tim laughs as she resets her stopwatch and they both take off running. Lucy forces herself to keep pace with Tim, her thighs burning as his longer legs carry him smoothly across the pavement. 

By the time they’re slowing to a stop her chest aches and her breath is coming in quick, short pants, but… 

9:58. 

She smiles and clears the time before Tim can see, her eyes sparkling as she meets his gaze. 

“Prepare to be amazed next week,” she teases, licking the salty sweat off her lips. Tim’s eyes follow the movement, and Lucy wants nothing more than to shove him against the wall of the Academy and have her way with him, but she contents herself with watching the way his muscles ripple as he grabs her water bottle and passes it over. 

“I am always amazed by you,” he murmurs, his gaze devastatingly sincere as he catches her eye. 

She swallows thickly and takes a few deep swallows of her water before brushing hair out of her face. 

She doesn’t quite know what to say in response, but Tim doesn’t seem to be expecting an answer. 

“Well, whatever your time was, I think that based on your smile, it’s good enough to call it quits for today. Over-training can hurt more than help. So, let me walk you to your car and say goodnight?”

It’s a question rather than a command, but Lucy nods anyway, slowly sipping at her water as they walk side by side to the dimly lit parking lot. Tim’s truck is right next to her car, she notices, and she smirks as she eyes the rest of the sprawling, empty parking lot. 

It’s stupid, but seeing their vehicles right next to each other in the large expanse of open space makes her a little bit giddy. 

They come to a stop right next to her driver side door, sandwiched between the truck and car and hidden from prying eyes in the dark stillness. Lucy turns to say goodnight but Tim is already there, his body right next to hers, radiating heat that makes her knees weak and her breath catch. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Luce,” he murmurs, eyes half lidded as he eyes her lips, his own parted halfway. 

And the thing is, Lucy knows it’s stupid. 

But she doesn’t even try to stop herself as she stands on her tiptoes, one hand sliding along the 5 o'clock shadow on Tim’s chin as she cups his face and presses a gentle, lingering kiss to his lips. 

He doesn’t deepen it and neither does she, but they’re both smiling like idiots when she falls back on her heels and chases his taste on her lips with her tongue. 

“Goodnight, Tim,” she whispers, and then she’s turning and climbing into her car and driving away before she can do something stupid like beg him to take her home with him. 

Chapter Text

It’s the middle of week ten of the training program and Tim is watching Lucy intently as she lifts weights, imagining following the line of sweat on her brow with his tongue, when —

“Office Bradford.”

He snaps out of it and grimaces as Sergeant Cruz walks up and stands next to him, arms crossed over her chest. 

“Yes, ma’am?”

He purposefully lets his eyes roam all of the students as she watches him, taking note of Poole’s form and shouting out for her to fix it before turning to face his boss, hoping against hope that she'd just walked up and hadn't been watching him watch Lucy. 

“How are they doing?” she asks, giving nothing away. 

Tim shrugs. 

“They’re all gonna make it, at this point. A few are on the weaker side but showing great improvement. I hate to admit it, but Nolan might even make it.”

Sergeant Cruz chuckles as they both turn toward their oldest recruit. He’s spotting Jackson now, making the younger man laugh as he lifts. 

“It’ll be up to his TO if he makes it in the field, though.”

“Are you ready to go back to being a Training Officer?” Cruz asks, and Tim tries not to let hope bloom in his chest as he nods sharply.

“More than. Will I… will I be heading back to Mid-Wilshire after this round of recruits, then?”

Cruz hums as she leans against the guard rail overlooking the weight training area. 

“I’ve put in my recommendation,” she says, though she doesn’t offer any insight as to whether that recommendation is for him to go back to Mid Wilshire or remain here. “There are some people pushing for you to remain here, saying you haven’t done your time. But there are just as many or more wanting you the hell out of here since you’ve washed out over half of this class in less than ten weeks.”

Tim laughs, a mischievous sparkle in his eye, but then sighs as he turns serious again.

“I’m sure as hell not letting rookies who can’t function at the Academy out onto the street. Being a Training Officer is dangerous, Sergeant Cruz. One wrong move from your rookie and you’re dead, or they’re dead, and honestly, I don’t know which one is worse.”

Cruz smiles. “And that is why some want you to remain here. We’re gonna miss you, Bradford; you’re training some of the best recruits we’ve ever seen.”

“Does that mean you’re recommending I return to being a TO, then?” Tim asks.

Cruz nods and Tim fights the urge to pump his fist in the air. 

“Yes, I am. But.”

All of the excitement Tim had been feeling only moments before evaporates, and he prepares himself for bad news. 

What will his continued punishment be?

Another cycle at the Academy? 

Returning as a training officer, but not at Mid Wilshire? 

He thinks he can deal with anything, as long as he gets back on the streets. 

Being at the Academy feels suffocating in a way that being on the streets didn't.

“But…?” he asks slowly, not entirely sure he wants to hear what she has to say. 

“But … you need to be careful, Bradford.”

Tim frowns and turns toward Sergeant Cruz more fully, ignoring the recruits for a moment. 

That’s not what he expected.

“Careful? Of what?”

Cruz sighs and lets her gaze slowly move toward the leg press, where Lucy is… 

Oh. 

Lucy.

He grimaces again. 

“I swear, we haven’t —”

Cruz cuts him off before he can continue, raising a hand and shaking her head. “I know, Tim. I know. I’ve been watching you both carefully, and you’ve been nothing but professional. But I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t speak to you about this on her behalf. You and Officer Chen have been professional, but it doesn’t take a detective to see the attraction between the two of you. You like her — and however you decide to deal with that, you need to be careful.”

Tim’s frown lessens somewhat, but his eyebrows are still bunched together as he watches Lucy wipe sweat off of her forehead as she stands from the leg press. 

“Careful how? About what?”

Cruz sighs. “Obviously you need to remain professional for the rest of her training; that’s a non-negotiable. Keep your distance, and make sure you aren’t showing her favoritism in any way. I know she’s good — everyone knows she’s good. We see what you see in her, Bradford, and we know she’s going to be exemplary. But … relationships are tricky. Especially relationships between cops with such a rank discrepancy between them.”

“I won’t be her training officer when she graduates, though," Tim says, shaking his head. “I’ll make sure of that. It won’t be an issue.”

“It won’t matter if you’re not her training officer,” Cruz sighs. “She’s a woman, and a lower rank than you. Someone, somewhere, could make that a problem. They could make trouble for her career, or yours. So… you need to make sure that it’s more than a passing fascination because it could be an uphill battle for both of you.”

Tim sighs as he drops his elbows to the guardrail, watching Lucy as she smiles and chats with the other recruits, sweat beading on her temple and her brown eyes shining in a way that makes his knees weak. 

“So you’re saying we can’t… even after training.”

It’s unfathomable, and the thought of having to walk away from Lucy again, after the I love yous and everything else they’d shared… 

He thinks he’d give up his job before he gives up her. 

Cruz hums. 

“I’m not saying that. I’m just saying… be careful.”

Tim still isn’t quite sure he knows what she means, but he nods anyway. 

_________________________

Later that night he finds Lucy on the sparring mat, and he grins as he remembers the last time they’d been on this mat together after hours. 

Only six more weeks, he reminds himself, and then he remembers his conversation with Cruz earlier that morning and frowns. 

He crosses the room silently until he’s standing behind Lucy where she’s slowly, methodically wrapping her hands, and he brushes his hand along her lower back to let her know he’s there.

She turns and smiles, hair falling free from her bun framing her face and the glow of the low lights making her eyes shine in the partial darkness. 

“Hey.”

Tim smiles reflexively at the sound of her voice.

“Hi.”

They’re both speaking softly, their voices low whispers in the mostly dark room. 

Lucy hands Tim a few wraps and he takes them, heart thumping in his chest as she shares a secret little smile with him, her eyes twinkling as she lets her gaze dart to the spot where she’d blown him on the mat only a few weeks ago. 

“Be good, Chen,” he warns her, voice low and hot, and they both chuckle as he begins wrapping his own hands and wrists. 

When they’re done they stand on the mat facing each other, and though Tim knows nothing can happen, he still feels the heat, the tension crackling between them. 

He holds up his hands, grinning, and then quickly ducks out of the way as Lucy speeds toward him, using her quick reflexes and shorter stature to duck under his arm and lick her leg into the back of his knee. His legs buckle but he stays upright, chuckling as he moves out of her way, tuning to face her again so that she can’t sneak up on him. 

“I saw you talking to Cruz earlier,” Lucy says, pushing a sweaty lock of hair out of her face. 

Tim sighs as they circle each other on the mat, eyes intense and watching carefully for the other to make a move. 

“She wanted to warn me,” he murmurs, and then grunts when Lucy kicks out. He blocks and then wraps his hand around her ankle, spinning her leg until she loses her balance and hits the mat hard. He doesn’t have time to pin her, though; she’s back on her feet in less than a second, putting enough space between them that she can catch her breath. 

“About?” she gasps, brown eyes flashing. 

“You,” Tim murmurs, eyes watching her every move carefully. 

He hasn’t made a move yet; he’s hoping she’ll tire herself out and make it easier for him to take her down. 

“Me?”

“Us, more specifically.”

Lucy tenses, and Tim knows it’s an asshole move, but he uses the brief moment of surprise to attack. He wraps one leg around her ankle and pulls her off balance while his hand slides around the back of her head, cushioning her fall as she hits the mat hard. He rolls until he’s on top of her and pins her easily, both of her wrists clasped above her head, one of his large hands holding them to the mat so that she can’t fight her way out of his grasp. 

She grunts and kicks out at him, but the way he has her ankles pinned under his makes it impossible for her to move. 

“You win,” she grunts, and he wants to do something drastic like kiss her or maybe throw himself off of a bridge. 

In the end he does neither; he climbs to his feet and holds out a hand, helping her back to her feet before putting space between them as she checks her wraps and then holds her hands out again, ready for round two. 

“What about us, specifically?” she asks, huffing as they circle each other for a long moment without making a move. 

“About… after.”

Lucy huffs in obvious annoyance and Tim chuckles. 

“She told me that it’s clear there’s tension between us. That she knows we … like each other, as juvenile as that sounds. And then she told me to be careful, because even if we don’t get together until after you graduate, there could still be problems.”

Lucy eyes him for a long moment, her gaze searching his for an answer he doesn’t know if he has. 

“So…” she begins, but she trails off as he strikes, landing one hit to her shoulder as she spins out of his reach. “So she basically said… what? That we shouldn’t be together even after I graduate?”

Tim shrugs and wipes a hand across his forehead. “Basically. She said it could be difficult for you, since… since you’re a woman, and since I’m your superior. Even if we’re at different stations.”

He’s frowning, obviously upset by the insinuation that them being together could hurt Lucy’s career. 

Lucy, however, just snorts in amusement. 

“Fuck that,” she says with feeling, and then uses Tim’s momentary surprise to kick his legs out from under him and pin him to the mat, sitting on his back and wrenching his arm behind his back so that he’d have to hurt himself to get away. 

Tim grunts, slaps the mat with his free hand, and then rolls over onto his back when Lucy releases him. He stares up at the ceiling for a moment, his heart racing and his mind whirring. 

“You don’t care?” he asks breathlessly, letting his head loll to the side so that he can see her as she rises back to her feet. She stretches, her shirt riding up to reveal a sliver of stomach, and he swallows hard as he imagines sliding his hand under her shirt, exploring the skin that he knows is soft and warm and just begging to be touched. 

“It’s not that I don’t care,” Lucy says, holding out a hand. Tim takes it, grunting as she pulls him back to his feet. “It’s just that I won’t let it happen. I’m going to be a good cop —”

“Damn straight,” Tim interrupts, grinning at the amused laugh that breaks free from Lucy’s lips. 

“ — I’m going to be a damn good cop,” she repeats, pushing hair from her eyes as she watches Tim fall back into fighting stance again. “At a different station than you. We’ll keep our relationship under wraps for a while; at least until I’m done with my training year and maybe even after that, too. Not a secret, of course; we can tell our friends and family and go on dates like a real couple and everything. But I don’t see why we’d need to tell everyone. HR doesn’t even really need to know if we’re at different stations, right?”

“I don’t know about that one,” Tim admits, because he and Isabel had both been at Mid-Wilshire and had even been the same rank. “But I can find out.”

“Okay,” Lucy agrees, nodding. “And… and like, I appreciate Cruz’s concern, I do, but I don’t share it. And maybe that’s stupid and naive — she’s been a cop a lot longer than I have been, of course. She’s seen more, dealt with more, and put up with the hierarchy of old, white men for many, many years. But… our relationship has nothing to do with our work. We keep it separate and professional, and… and we cross that bridge if and when we get to it. I don’t think we need to catastrophize right now.”

Tim nods, licking his lips as Lucy lets her eyes roam his body slowly, searching for openings and weaknesses. 

“Okay,” he whispers. 

“Let’s not doom us before we even have a chance to begin,” she murmurs, voice soft despite the challenge in her eyes as she strikes. He blocks her easily and the spin apart, breath harsh and bodies hot, the tension between them from far more than just sparring. 

“Okay,” Tim repeats, a dopey grin on his face as the worry that’s been plaguing him all day begins to dissipate. Then, in a voice so low no one could overhear even if they were in the same room, he murmurs, “I love you, Luce. I hope you know that.”

Her smile morphs into something so soft that his chest aches with it, and for a moment she lets her guard drop as she gazes into his eyes with more love than he’s ever deserved. 

“I know,” she promises. “I love you, too, Tim.”

He continues to grin at her until she kicks at his shin, and he grunts as she laughs and darts away from him. 

“Now help me blow off some steam, Bradford, since all I have to look forward to when I go home is my vibrator.”

Tim groans and chases her across the mat, grinning despite himself as he tries to pin her. 

God, but she’s going to be the death of him. 

(He wouldn’t have it any other way). 

Chapter Text

The last ten weeks of training pass in a blur, and Lucy wakes one morning, surprised, to realize that she made it. 

She fucking made it. 

She smiles up at the ceiling and lets herself relax back into her comforter for a few more minutes after hitting snooze on her alarm. They don’t have class this morning, and graduation isn’t until noon. She has time, though she does plan to be at the Academy considerably earlier than the other recruits. 

We did it, she texts Jackson and Nolan, and she chuckles at the string of excited emojis that Jackson sends back before navigating toward another text chain. 

She bites her thumb as she reads through her and Tim’s old texts, the flirting tone of months past giving way to short, professional texts over the past few weeks. There’s still tension there, of course, but as the end of the program had neared, the seriousness of the situation had weighed heavily on them and they’d made certain, in every conversation and interaction, to be nothing but professional lest one of them lose the future they were so close to achieving. 

Two weeks ago Tim had texted I’m back at Mid-Wilshire after graduation, and Lucy had been so excited that she’d wanted to hug him, to jump into his arms and kiss him senseless. 

Instead she’d sent back, that’s great news! and had smiled at him in a way she’d hoped conveyed her excitement and happiness the next time she’d seen him. 

She cannot wait for today to be over. 

Partly because after today, she’s officially a rookie cop. 

But also partly (and maybe more importantly) because, after today, she’s no longer Tim’s trainee. 

And she has plans. 

A few of her plans are sitting in an innocent little, white box on top of her dresser, and she grins, biting her lip to contain her glee as she texts Tim while imagining his reaction to the emerald green lace that she knows will blow his mind. 

To: Tim Bradford
From: Lucy Chen
Do you have any plans for this evening?

He begins typing immediately, and it’s all Lucy can do to not squeal like a teenage girl as the three dots dance across her screen. 

To: Lucy Chen
From: Tim Bradford
Not really. Why? You got something in mind? 

Lucy bites her lip as she swings her legs out of bed, typing as she walks into her bathroom to begin getting ready for the day. 

To: Tim Bradford
From: Lucy Chen
I have a few ideas. 

She sends a second message before he can respond to the first, and then tosses her phone on the counter so she can hop in the shower. 

Meet me on the track at 9? 

Her phone vibrates while she’s rinsing her hair, and she reaches a wet hand out of the shower curtain to grab it. It takes a few tries to unlock it with wet fingers, but then she’s staring down at Tim’s message, which is a single thumbs up emoji. She chuckles, rolls her eyes, and then places the phone down to finish her shower. 

She knows she’ll have to shower again, after, but her curls are such a rats nest she knows there’s no hope of untangling them without the assistance of her entirely too expensive conditioner. It does the trick, though, and Lucy is happily raking her fingers through the strands as she dances around her apartment in nothing but a towel, humming lowly under her breath when there’s a knock on the door. 

Huh. 

She frowns and glances toward it, considering. 

Jackson? 

Nolan, maybe? With celebratory coffee and donuts, or something? 

A neighbor wanting a cup of sugar? 

Before she can work herself into a proper panic about who is at her door at eight in the morning, her phone dings again and she glances down to see the text preview. 

From: Tim Bradford
To: Lucy Chen
Let me in. 

Oh. 

Oh! 

Lucy grins and bounces toward the door, the lock turned and her apartment hallway laid out in front of her before she realizes that, oh fuck, she’s still wearing just a towel. 

“Lucy,” Tim hisses, and Lucy glances up at him, stunned speechless by the way a single strand of hair has made it free from its carefully gelled style. It curls in front of his face in a way that kind of makes her want to melt into a puddle of goo. “Anyone could see you, Luce! Why the fuck are you answering your door in a towel.”

He drops his hands to her waist, manhandling her back into the apartment before slamming her door with his foot. 

Lucy bites her lip to keep from grinning at the display.

“No one is out there this early,” she says, eyebrow raising as she rests one hand on his chest as she steps impossibly closer to him. She can feel his heart beating frantically, and she wonders if he, too, has realized that, in less than four hours, she’s no longer in his chain of command. 

“I… it… they could have—” he tries, and Lucy giggles at his complete inability to form a thought as his eyes flicker to where her towel is barely still tucked between her breasts. 

It’s been months. 

She can’t really blame him. 

He licks his lips, sucks in a deep breath, and blows it out slowly as he uses his hands on her hips to put a few inches of space between them. 

“Why don’t you… clothes…”

Lucy hums and reaches up to hold her towel together when she feels it begin to give way. 

She wants, of course, but… 

Well, the anticipation is going to make it that much better. 

Plus, she really doesn’t want the lingerie she’d bought specifically for this evening to go to waste. 

“I suppose I should put clothes on,” she murmurs, and Tim blows out a relieved breath as he drops his hands from her hip only to raise one immediately to run through his hair. He disrupts the carefully styled strands and Lucy feels fond warmth spread throughout her entire body. 

God, she loves this man. 

“Yeah,” he agrees, lips twitching into a smile as he lets his eyes roam her body for a moment. He’s clearly affected, Lucy can tell — flushed cheeks, red chest, dark was jeans tight around his groin even as he tries to readjust them. “Yeah, go get dressed. I don’t know why you want to be on the track at 9, but I figured we could stop for coffee and donuts first.”

Lucy grins as she pauses in her doorway, one hand on the frame while the other holds her towel carefully closed. 

“I want to try and beat your record one more time, of course,” she says, and then she’s turning and letting her towel drop before closing her door behind her and leaving Tim in shock. 

“Fuck,” he whispers with feeling. 

Lucy giggles and leans, naked, against her door. 

It’s fun working him up, but the side effect is that she’s worked up now, too. 

It would be so easy to slide her hand down her belly and between her legs, but… well… 

The anticipation. 

“Tonight,” she tells herself, and instead of getting off to the thought of Tim standing only ten feet away from her on the other side of the door, she determinedly pulls on panties and a pair of running shorts before searching for a clean sports bra and tank top. When she’s done she grabs her gym bag to make sure she has everything she’ll need to show and change at the Academy before graduation. Her dress blues, already clean and pressed, are hanging in her closet, ready to go, and she grabs them and tosses her bag over her shoulder before walking back into the living room. 

Tim looks much more put together, his hair hastily finger-combed back into submission. 

“I didn’t know we’d be running,” he says, motioning down at his jeans and henley. His own dress blues are, Lucy assumes, in his truck. 

“You don’t have to run,” Lucy says, smiling as she places her things on the counter and then sits at the island to pull on socks and shoes. “You can just watch me.”

Tim groans low in his throat and Lucy bites the inside of her cheek. 

He’d been so damn professional the last few weeks, it’s nice to know that he does still find her attractive, that he still wants her. 

In her weaker moments, she’d worried. 

What if…?

As if he could sense the doubt, though, he’d always been there to offer her a small smile or to touch the small of her back when guiding her form on the mat. Little touches, little looks, but just enough to remind her —

I love you.

Yeah. 

She grins now, unabashedly, and finishes tying off her shoes before taking the hand Tim holds out to her. He pulls her to her feet but doesn’t drop her hand, and Lucy feels weightless as he tosses her bag over her shoulder and carefully picks up her dress blues.

“Ready?”

For so much, Lucy wants to say. 

Instead she nods and lets her lead him to the door. 

“Ready.”

____________________

Tim sits on the bench and watches as Lucy runs. Her hair shines in the sun, a thin sheen of sweat on her brow as she passes him. He grins at her, eyes squinted against the early morning light, and lets his eyes trail down to her ass in those tiny little shorts as she circles the track again. 

She’s so close to beating his Academy record, mere seconds off, but despite the challenge he’d laid down only a few days into the program, it won’t bother him if she doesn’t. 

She’s amazing in so many ways. 

She’d caught his attention that first day, when she’d sassed him and then run the several miles he’d given her in punishment, a challenging grin on her face the entire time as she’d rocked his entire world and gave just as good as she’d gotten. She’d pinned him on the mat, run further, faster, than any other recruit, and had aced every one of her classes. 

She’s going to take her station by storm, wherever she’s assigned, so it doesn’t matter to him if she’s seven seconds off of beating his record. 

Plus, her legs are a lot shorter than his, so it’s not really a fair challenge anyway.

“Time,” she pants, and Tim stops the watch automatically even though his brain takes a few seconds to come back to the present. He glances up at her, gets lost in her dark brown eyes and then by a droplet of sweat that travels down her neck and disappears into her shirt. 

He wants to follow it with his tongue… 

“Tim. Time?”

He glances down at his watch, and his heart nearly stops beating. 

He laughs and then holds it up, blue eyes sparkling in happiness. 

She hadn’t beaten his record, but —

“We tied,” she whispers, eyes glued to the numbers on the black plastic. 

9:31. 

Tim’s record. 

Her record, now, too. 

“We did,” he confirms, smiling softly.

It feels right, somehow, that they’d tied. 

Cosmically, it feels perfect that she’d met his time down to the second the same way she met him word for word, hit for hit, in every faucet of their lives.

“I love you,” Tim whispers, and Lucy flushes deeper than she had before, her chest red and heaving as she tries to catch her breath. Her lips twitch into a smile, though, and her eyes sparkle as she accepts the towel he holds out to her. 

“I love you, too,” she whispers as she wipes sweat from her neck, and then ducks her head, cheeks heating up as Tim reaches out to touch her hip, his fingers dipping beneath her shirt to touch her skin, grounding them both. The pads of his fingers are calloused in a way that she knows intimately. She’s felt them all over her body, has held onto them for strength and support, has felt them against her body as they fought on the mat. 

She shivers at his touch now, eyes fluttering closed as he rubs them back and forth slowly across the length of her hip. 

“Ready?” he murmurs, and though she doesn’t know quite what he’s asking if she’s ready for — to take a shower? graduation? Everything after? — she nods anyway because it doesn’t matter what he’s asking as long as he’s by her side for it. 

“Ready.”

Chapter Text

Lucy clears her throat and tugs at the neckline of her dress blues as she stares at her reflection in the mirror in the women’s locker room. Her uniform is much more constricting than her running clothes had been this morning, and she feels twitchy as she watches the other women, few as they are, mill about the locker room behind her, talking and laughing as they all prepare for their Academy Graduation. 

She hadn’t really become friends with the few women who had made it through, and she wonders fleetingly if it’s sexist of her that she spent the six months of their training mostly with Nolan and Jackson (and Tim, her traitorous brain reminds her). 

Shouldn’t the women stick together, or some shit like that?

But it doesn’t matter now because it’s over and, chances are, they’ll all be assigned to different stations, anyway.

“I’m hoping for Mid-Wilshire,” Poole says, grinning widely as she leans against her locker, talking in low tones to her friend. 

The other woman laughs and rolls her eyes as she grabs her makeup bag before the two of them meander toward the sinks where Lucy is brushing her hair and tying it off into a tight bun that will fit under her hat.

“You only want to be at Mid-Wilshire because Bradford is there,” Poole’s friend teases. 

Poole flushes and Lucy represses the urge to roll her eyes. 

She’s still a little bit salty about Poole reporting her and Tim, apparently. 

“Would you really turn down the opportunity to train under him?” Poole asks, reaching for her friend’s mascara and making a face in the mirror as she begins to apply it. “I mean, he’s intense here at the academy. Can you imagine what he’s like as a training officer? God. Hot.”

Lucy scoffs and both women turn toward her. 

She clears her throat and shrugs, avoiding their eyes in the mirror as she applies a touch of blush to her own cheeks. 

“You really think running for five miles behind the shop because you failed one of his tests would be hot?”

It’s probably unfair of her, of course, because Poole doesn’t know Tim’s training methods the way she does. Poole hasn’t spent time with Tim over the last sixteen weeks listening to stories of the way he’d trained (tortured) his rookies to prepare her. Poole doesn’t know that she wouldn’t last a day with Tim as her training officer, because yes, intense is a good word to describe him, and yes, intense Tim is hot, but not in the way she's imagining.

“He apparently made a rookie a few years ago dig through a box of used sex toys for evidence he’d already found,” Lucy informs them, and delights in the twin looks of disgust that cross their faces. “He makes you question your every decision and then do pushups at every stoplight if you fuck anything up.”

It’s Poole’s turn to scoff now as she finishes her mascara and moves on to painting her lips with a light colored lipstick. 

“How do you that know he does all that?”

Lucy shrugs, and carefully doesn’t mention that pillow talk to Tim Bradford is reliving his days as a TO and the increasingly creative ways he’d kept his rookies on their toes in the name of preparing her for her own training. 

Poole looks suspicious as she regards Lucy in the mirror, but Lucy decides she doesn’t give a single fuck. 

What’s she going to do about it now?

They’re graduating today, all of them — her and her classmates to fully fledged rookies, and Tim to a training officer once again. 

They’d made it through the seemingly endless weeks apart, and now… 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she says, smirking as she puts her cap on her head, one hand holding the bill while the other lifts it over her bun and settles it into place. She winks at both women and then saunters out of the locker room, her eyes searching the seemingly endless sea of people in the Academy auditorium for Jackson and Nolan. 

They find her first, and she’s caught up in hugs and laughter, their eyes shining as they congratulate each other and talk fondly of their futures. 

“Just think, this time next week, we’ll be at our new stations,” Nolan says, grinning in a way that reminds her of an overeager puppy. “Where did you put in for?”

Jackson rolls his eyes and says, “Anywhere but Mid-Wilshire, because A) my dad wants me there so obviously I have to be anywhere but, and B) I heard they only have three training officers, and I’m not willing to risk being under Bradford for thirteen months. We barely survived sixteen weeks of him, thank you very much.”

Lucy giggles and thinks that she’d be willing to be under Bradford any day of the week, please and thank you.

Nolan grimaces and says, “I actually did put in for Mid-Wilshire. You both know that Bradford should have washed me out of the program like ten times, but he saw something in me and made me a better cop. I think… whether I get him or one of the other TOs, that Mid-Wilshire could help me grow.”

Lucy feels strangely proud of Nolan in that moment, and lurches forward to give first him and then Jackson a bone crushing hug. 

“I hate that we’re all going to be at different stations,” she says, sighing as she pulls back and straightens her dress blues. “Promise me that we’ll all hang out?”

Nolan rolls his eyes fondly and bumps his hip into hers. “Of course we’ll still hang out, Lucy.”

“Yeah,” Jackson adds, a twinkle in his eyes as someone near the front of the auditorium begins to give directions to both the guests and the graduating rookies alike. “After all, now that we’re graduating, I have a feeling that you have some… really fun stories to share with us.”

Lucy flushes a deep, dark red, her eyes immediately flickering to where Tim is standing near the front, frowning at all the people and looking unfairly handsome in his own dress blues. 

Jackson and Nolan chuckle but don’t have time to further tease her as the graduating class is ushered into the back and guests are encouraged to take their seats. Nolan says goodbye to his nearly grown son and Jackson has to pry himself out of his mothers arms, and then they’re lining up in alphabetical order behind the curtain as Tim begins to speak at the podium, his voice deep and rich and the only thing holding Lucy to the mortal plain as she begins to fret, her fingers tapping nervously against her thigh. 

It had been easy to ignore when she’d been getting ready, and even when she’d been shooting the shit with Nolan and Jackson, but as she peeks out from behind the curtain as Tim says something about only the best and brightest making it through the Academy, she can no longer ignore the fact that no one is here for her. 

Not a single one of the guests at this graduation is here for her. 

Her mother and father haven’t even spoken to her since she enrolled in the academy, and the few other invites she’d sent out to friends from college or her life inbetween graduating and starting the Academy had been sent back with regrets and thinly veiled excuses. 

It’s just her, the way it always has been. 

She’s glad, at the very least, that her name will be called first. 

It won’t seem as awful if there’s no one to cheer for her if no one goes before her, she reasons, and when Lucy Chen is called out in Tim’s deep, rumbling voice, Lucy scurries out past the curtain, her eyes downcast until she’s standing in front of him, the auditorium dead silent. 

He shakes her hand and holds it tightly, warm and familiar and grounding, impossibly blue eyes meeting hers for a brief moment before she’s passed off, congratulated by first the Academy sergeant and then several others she doesn’t know as their pictures are taken. She smiles for each one, excitement and pride at graduating warring with the deep feeling of loneliness, and then dips behind the curtain as Joseph Cruz's name is called. 

The sound of his family and friends cheering and whistling for him as Tim shakes his hand follows her into the empty wings. 

________________________

Tim finds her afterwards, which she’d expected. 

What she hadn’t expected is for him to find her in the women’s locker room. 

“Tim!” she cries, her eyes darting around the locker room to make sure it’s empty before she drops her dress blues to the floor, leaving her in only her white t-shirt and a pair of panties, and rushes toward him. He opens his arms wide and tucks her against his chest, and suddenly it doesn’t matter that her mom and dad weren’t there, that Rachel had a meeting that was more important than her, that the friend she’d lived with all throughout college had never responded. 

He’s here for her, and it’s all that matters. 

“Luce,” he murmurs, his voice thick and deep, regret soaking his every word. “Luce, I’m so sorry. God, I wanted to cheer for you so badly,” he says, his voice like gravel as he presses his lips to her temple, her cheek, the spot under her chin that makes her knees weak. 

“It’s okay,” she whispers, because it is. 

She has Tim now, and she even has Nolan and Jackson, a new little family that she’d created here at the Academy. 

People who love her for her, not who they think she should be. 

“It’s not,” he murmurs, his lips trailing up the line of her jaw, his breath tickling her skin as he alternates pressing kisses into her skin between his words. “It’s not. It’s fucked up that your own parents wouldn’t come, wouldn’t support you—”

Lucy shakes her head, her eyes fluttering closed as he presses a kiss to each eyelid. 

“Fuck them,” she says, and she feels weak at the way his chest rumbles with repressed laughter. “I’ve always been alone, Tim, in all the ways that mattered,” she whispers, and then, when he pulls back and stares at her in a way that causes her heart to clench, quickly continues, “But I’m not anymore.”

“You’re not alone anymore," he repeats, nodding as he slides his hands up from where they’ve been wrapped around her, his large, hot palms cupping her cheeks as he stares into her eyes. “You’ll never be alone again, baby."

Lucy whimpers, her eyes fluttering closed against the intensity in Tim’s gaze as one hand tilts her head just the right way, the other sliding down her back to cup her ass, his skin like fire through the thin cotton of her panties. 

“Tim,” she whispers, and then he’s kissing her, his lips and hot and wet and soft over hers in a way she hasn’t felt in days, weeks, in a way that she’s dreamed about, fantasized about, with her own hand between her legs in the long weeks between.

“Lucy,” he groans, his eyes closed as they break apart to breathe in the scant space between them. His lips are wet with her spit now, shining red, and she really can’t be held accountable for her actions as she pushes him back against the door and climbs him like a tree, one leg hooking over his hip as he quickly locks the door and then drops both hands to her ass, helping her, lifting her, until her pelvis is pressed against his, the wet center of her panties over his dress blues as she cups his face and kisses him again and again and again, until both of their lips are swollen and she’s grinding against his hard length, her panties and his fucking dress blues still between them. 

“Fuck,” he groans, and Lucy nods in agreement as he pulls his lips from hers, gasping as she drops her mouth to his shoulder and sucks. 

She can leave marks now, she realizes, and a new fire lights in her belly as one of Tim’s big hands presses between her shoulder blades to keep her right where she is. 

“I came in here to ask you to dinner,” he gasps, and she giggles as she lets her tongue trace the outline of her teeth that she’s left in his shoulder, just under his collar. 

“Mmmm we should skip dinner,” she says, her belly twisting and warming as she gazes at her mark, her teeth, imprinted into his skin. 

Mine, she thinks, and all she wants to do is get him in bed and show him all the ways she appreciates him. 

For a second she thinks he’s going to agree, that he’s going to give in, help her get dressed, and then take her home where he can take all of her layers off of her again. 

But in a show of herculean self control, he lifts her and places her on the ground, still panting as he puts some space between them. 

“No,” he says, shaking his head as Lucy pouts at him, her hands reaching out to tangle in his shirt again. “No, Lucy, we…”

He pauses and takes a deep, centering breath before meeting her gaze again. 

His eyes are intense, determined, and Lucy thinks she’d do whatever he asked as long as he never stops looking at her like that. 

“No,” he repeats, one hand gentle against her cheek as his eyes search hers. “I’m going to take you to dinner, Lucy, because you deserve to be celebrated, damn it. And then I’m going to take you to bed, because you deserve a reward for graduating, for being so good, for being so fucking amazing and tying my fucking record.”

Lucy flushes with the praise, her face warm and her chest red all the way down between her breasts. Her thighs are clenched tightly against the rush of warmth between them, and Tim, the fucking bastard, is grinning like he knows exactly what he’s doing to her with his words of praise. 

“So, no, Luce, let’s not skip dinner. And besides…”

He pauses, one hand reaching out behind him to unlock the door before continuing.

“... you’re going to need that fuel for later, baby.”

He winks and disappears quickly after that, leaving Lucy wet and desperate and mostly naked in the women’s locker room.

Fuck.