Chapter 2: Big Mouth Jackson
The one where Tim finds out about Chen and Nolan.
Tim had just finished his shower after a shift that felt more like 10, He was done with all the domestic drama and sighted when, as he pulled his sweater over his head, his bones cracked. He closes his locker in time to see Nolan telling the younger police officer about his date with Grace.
"Maybe if you shut up and hurried up you wouldn't be late Nolan."
"You're right Tim..." Upon the look from the more experienced officer Nolan corrected himself. "I mean Officer Bradford." Nolan gathered his belongings and hurried out the door.
"Got any Plans for the evening Officer Bradford?" Asked West filling up time as he gathered his things
"Yes, not listening to any of you." Answered Bradford drily.
"Well that makes one of us." Muttered Jackson under his breath but Tim heard him anyways.
"What do you mean, uhm..." Tim took a step closer to west in order to speak in a lower tone. "Lucy seems to be doing ok…"
"oh, she is better." Laughed Jackson. "But you know I have a date with…never mind and John also has plans with Grace. I'm gonna end up listening to Lucy complain about how single she is and ponder, for the 100th time, the pros and cons of breaking up with John."
"well she does have a shit repertoire of…" Tim stopped mid-sentence and turned towards West. "did you just say breaking up with Nolan?"
"Well yeah, Lucy and John dated for until a bit after we started field training but then Bishop had the "dating around the office talk with Lucy" and she broke up with John…" Jackson looked at the T.O. and when he saw the shocked look on his face understood he had really messed up. "you didn't know."
"Clearly!" Tim stormed out of the locker room, living a shell-shocked Jackson who didn't know if he should be worried for Lucy or because of Lucy.
As Tim was coming out of the locker Room, Angela was also leaving hers. "Lopez!" He shouted causing his former Rookie to turn back and look at him shocked.
"Who pissed in your boots, Bradford?" Answered Angela crossing her arms above her chest.
"Did you know Chen and Nolan were together at the beginning of Training?"
"Yeah, Jackson told me when he was high on horse steroids." Angela answered with a laugh. "Now what's your problem?"
"Am I the only idiot that had no fucking clue?" Tim lightly kicked the foot of the Locker room door causing a few people that were passing by to look at him.
"No, I'm pretty sure Grey and the rest of the precinct don't know." Tim rolled his eyes and ran his hand through his hair. "And I'm pretty sure that was Lucy's intention. To keep it a secret." She said as she pulled him further into the corridor.
"I'm her T.O. I should have known. What if she ever did something reckless to save John? Or..."
"Cut the crap Tim, honestly the few times I have seen Lucy be a little reckless were not because she worried about Nolan… she was worried about you or worst trying to impress you." Angela made a gagging sound and Tim involuntarily relaxing his fist.
"She should have told me." Tim said out loud but inside he was wondering why she hadn't. Did she not trust him?
"Well that you have to ask Chen, when you can hold a conversation without shouting. She doesn't need a guy to go all Macho-Macho on her." Angela turned to leave but turned back to Tim with a smirk. "You know I've never seen you jealous before."
"I'm not jealous, just concerned." Tim answered almost like a child. He didn't like people calling him out about things he wasn't ready to deal with, that he didn't know how to deal with.
"Hum, hum. Well you don't need to worry. I'm pretty sure you are still number 1 on Chen's list of favourite male Police officers." That little comment from Angela made his chest swell with pride, almost enough for him to forget all about this Nolan thing. Almost.
-...-
Jackson had been dreading this moment since he left the station, all the way to the ride home. Lucy was going to kill him for opening his mouth, if he was certain of anything was that she did not want Tim to find out.
"Hey roommate. Took you long enough." Said Lucy from her bedroom as soon as Jackson got through the front door.
"Hey gorgeous. Brought you something" Answered Jackson with a sickly sweat tone.
"Well that was weird." Lucy said and she came to look at Jackson, when she saw the box of Pizza and the bottle of Pinot Noir, she knew something was wrong and Jackson's face just confirmed it. "What did you do?"
"Why would I have done something?" Lucy rose an eyebrow and waited for Jackson to continue. "you are just like him." He muttered under his breath. "I told Tim about you and John." He spit out rather fast but still Lucy managed to understand him, and her face turned Pale.
"You did what?" She advanced towards Jackson and hit him on his left arm.
"In my defence it kind of slipped, we were talking about Nolan and…"
"God Jackson, I'm gonna Kill you." Lucy ran her hands through her hair and wondered what her T.O. was thinking right now. "The entire purpose of me breaking up with Nolan was so no one would find out! Especially MY T.O."
"I know, I know I messed up." Jackson said apologetically as he sat down next to her on the couch. "Tim won't be mad at you…" Lucy looked sideways at Jackson and he grimaced. "well a lot. If anything, he looked jealous."
"Fuck off Jackson." Lucy let out a short laugh.
"I'm just saying." Jackson got up as someone dinged the doorbell. "Must be sterling, we are going out." Before he opened the door, he winked at Lucy. "Maybe you do attract middle aged divorces."
"Tim is not middle…" Lucy's sentence was cut when she saw Tim standing outside her apartment, with his arms crossed and his serious cop face on.
"Talking about me behind my back Boot?" ´Asked Tim rather crisply.
"Only good things Sir." Said Lucy very fast, coming closer to the door.
"Well I got go, because my date is probably already outside." Jackson grabbed his keys and made a b line outside. "There's Pizza and wine."
"No, no he'll ring…" Lucy ran her sweaty palms down her grey faded sweatpants.
"Yeah that's probably best. "Tim interrupted Lucy and took a few steps inside her apartment Jackson left with a mouthed sorry to Lucy.
"Do you want to take a seat?" Asked Lucy nervously as he asked her T.O. It felt strange to have him in her apartment but somehow Tim in casual attire and strong features fitted right into her apartment. Like he belonged there.
"No, I won't be long." Tim answered as Lucy passed him and into her kitchen. Her apartment was everything Tim taught it would be, meticulously furnished and nitty. Everything was handpicked and matched Lucy's vibe. Beautiful and Personal. Intimate. "What are you doing?"
"I need a glass of wine for this. "She said as she poured herself a full glass and another for Tim, that he did not take. Lucy sighed and drowned her in one go, pouring another.
"The point is not to get you drunk Chen." Tim pulled the glasses away from Lucy and looked straight at her. "How long were you and Nolan together?"
"Maybe 4 to 6 months. We started midway through the academy and broke it off a little after we started at Mid-Wilshire." She told him quietly and waited for Tim to speak again, she thought best to let him lead this how she wanted.
"Was it serious?"
"I think so yeah." Lucy answered honestly as the took a seat on the stool closest from Tim. "At the moment it felt serious, but I guess I always knew it wouldn't be a permanent thing… so I don't really know how to answer that."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Tim looked almost pained as he made that question and Lucy wondered if once again things were going to be different and he wouldn't go back to trusting her like he had so far.
"Because it was my private life and it happened right around the time everything with Isabel did and you didn't need that extra information to process." Lucy answered honestly looking straight at Tim. "Besides in the moment we didn't have the best of relationships, I didn't want you to think less of me."
"I wouldn't have thought less of you." Tim sat down on the stool next to Lucy. "Believe, you can't help who you fall in love with… I just wished you had told me."
"So do I." Lucy smiled softly. "but the more I thought about our breakup, the more right it felt. Sure, at the beginning it was hard but as the time passed, I realised I was with Nolan because he was stable, constant and something I could hold on to that wasn't completely new. More like a symbiotic Relationship."
"This thing of no more secrets is harder than it looks, hum!?" Tim took a sip of his wine and looked at Lucy who laughed.
"I guess with time things flow, it takes time to truly now someone. We all keep secrets we don't even realize we keep." Lucy opened the pizza box and offered a slice up to Tim and he took it.
"And here I was thinking I was the one with all the relationship baggage." Tim tried to joke but the truth was that he was always unable to hold down a relationship and they went to shit quickly.
"Well here I am Lucy Chen, the Forever Single Lucy Chen." She laughed but she couldn't take the discomfort form the back of her head. She felt she needed to be honest with Tim, but she knew she couldn't ask him to keep her wrong doings a secret. But for all she knew she needed to trust her partner. "There's something else about me and Nolan I need to tell you."
"OK. Go for it." Tim laid down his slice and turned to Lucy as he whipped his lips with his napkin and for a second too long, she focused her gaze on those same lips.
"Uhm… you remember when Nolan shot that guy?" Tim nodded his head, remembering the case all too well. "Well I lied to the investigators about Nolan's past relationships, I mean, I didn't tell them about us."
"that's ok, closed case Chen. No need to relive that."
"That's not just it." Lucy coughed and Tim waited for her to continue. "That night when the brother broke into John's house. I was there and I left because I didn't want anyone to find out."
"God Chen, that's serious. You were a witness." Tim rubbed his eyes and sighed, keeping secrets like this from the force could ruin their career.
"I knew if anyone knew I was there, I would be the female officer that slept with her fellow rookie and back then that worried more than anything else." Tim could see the fear in his rookie's eyes and sighed.
"Nolan pretends to keep the secret right?" Chen nodded her head to her T.O.'s question. "Then we don't need to discuss any of this." She had covered for him to protect him when he needed, he could do the same for her.
"Thank you."
"And Chen you date whomever you want and tell anyone to fuck off." Tim bite onto his pizza angrily. "Everyone on that precinct has some dirt on them, they don't get take blows at anyone else, besides there's no law forbidding inhouse relationships"
"yeah, I know." She laughed. "But I'm gonna stay single for a little while until I at least get myself on check. And I have my bear to keep me company so I'm all set for the lonely nights." Tim laughed and looked at Chen's room where the pink teddy bear sat on top of her neatly made bed. "Does your USC friend still have some roaches?"
"Yeah why?" Tim asked with a grin.
"I think Jackson needs to learn a little lesson about kipping his mouth shut."
"Uhm, we could put it in their shop that way Angela learns not to keep secrets from me." Tim added, he looked at Chen as the idea processed on her brain and she gave a soft smile. He smiled back gently, like he was proud that although she was so different from him, she was picking up little traits of his personality.
"Now this is our plan?" she asked with her arms on her waist.
"I'm the one providing the roaches." Tim joked. "Besides we are in this together."
Lucy laughed and looked slightly at the kid like grin her partner had. Yeah, they were together for the long run… they just didn't quiet now it yet.
Here it is another one. Always wondered when Tim would find out about John and Lucy or if he already knew… so here it is my take on it 😉.
Thank you all for the amazing feedback. Let me know what you thought of this one.
Next chapter comes out Saturday and it's called "For all that counts…". Any thoughts? Let me know.
XO