"You guys all on?" Tim whispered into thin air. Lucy, whose arm was linked with his on his right side, knew better. He was really speaking at the earpiece, making sure their base heard them well enough. It was barely an hour outside of LA where they were, so it's not like the whole team would need to be on hand. Besides, they couldn't go in and arrest anyone on anything without concrete evidence. And the only way they were going to get that evidence was to see money and drugs being exchanged.

"Copy that," Jackson replied.

"Proceed with caution, you two," Angela warned, and Lucy nodded, looking at Tim for a moment.

He caught her eyes, their silent communication never wavering despite their lack of constant contact. They just understood. They'd have each other's backs, no matter what. It's something that had been engrained in them since day 1. Not only because of the job, but specifically with each other.

For Lucy, it was on day 2 of her rookie year, when she saved Tim from a gunshot wound. For Tim, it was pulling Lucy out of that barrel only 6 months in. Well, that was when he knew she mattered more to him than any other rookie he'd ever had.

Some things matter more.

That was especially true when it came to her.

He was pulled back to the present moment by Lucy tugging on his arm. "Hey, heads up, I think that's our guy."

Tim's eyes followed where she had nodded. Sure enough, there was Diego Gonzalez. He was already hitting it big on the blackjack tables. A cigarette sat nearby, and he had a fresh drink in his hand. They assumed the couple suits around him were his posse, or two security type goons. Whichever.

"Yep," he whispered a confirmation.

"So, how do you wanna play this?' Lucy asked, her eyes darting from the suspect to the man to her left.

"Direct," Tim replied.

They made their way over to the table, noticing that if the other guys moved out of the way, there was a seat open by Gonzalez.

"You wanna let a lady play, gentlemen?" Lucy asked in her most regal tone.

All three heads turned in her direction, eyes sparking with interest and mouths curving into knowing smirks.

She tried to ignore how she felt Tim grow rigid. She managed to slip her arm out of his and slide into the unoccupied chair. Tim's presence behind her wasn't missed: she could always tell when he was around.

"Think you can handle it, sweetheart?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she heard Diego speak to her.

"We've handled worse," Lucy couldn't contain her smirk as she felt Tim's hand go to her shoulder. She could hear his signature snark in that response. She knew she should probably reign him in.

"What my husband means to say is, I'm quite the card shark," she answered, swiveling on the chair to see Diego.

The man had slick black hair, a ridiculous mustache and full beard that would look out of place had he not been a smuggler, and bling you could see from a mile away. "Is that so, chiquita?"

She bit her bottom lip so she wouldn't say something too smart. "Mhmm," she mumbled. "Watch and learn, boys."

The cards were dealt, and a few "stays", "stands", and "hits" later, she won her round.

A victorious smile graced her lips, and Tim was equally as pleased.

"See, now was that so hard?" She asked innocently as she collected her winnings.

Diego frowned, but not in the displeased way. More, in the, oh crap, I can't believe that happened, kind of way.

"Huh," he uttered, seeming at a loss for words. "I don't think I caught your name?"

"Lacy," she paused, flicking her eyes up to her other half. "And this is my husband, Tom."

"And how did you get so good at blackjack, Miss–"

"Chenford," Tim interjected. "And hell, she's always been good at games."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "True. Course this one likes to have fun in other ways." She hoped that would steer the conversation in the way they needed it to go.

"Is that so?"

Tim narrowed his eyes towards Lucy, not expecting her to put it all in his hands. But, he rolled with it anyhow. "Yeah, well, what we can say? Work hard, play hard, right?" His fingers squeezed Lucy's hip absentmindedly. She leaned into him easily.

Diego stayed silent, so Tim continued on. "It's easy to get, and makes us even more money to purchase and re-sell," Tim added on, raising his eyebrows for the full effect.

Lucy tilted her head, pursing her lips like she was waiting. In truth, she was: for Diego to take the bait. Hell, it really was too easy. When she saw a similar ease in the smile he returned in their direction, she let herself relax a little.

Diego grinned, an unusual laugh coming from the back of his throat. Tim and Lucy glanced at the other, plastering fake smiles on their faces too. Until Lucy felt a harsh grip on her wrist.

Her breath caught in her throat, and suddenly, she wasn't smiling anymore. Her lips parted, ready to ask what the hell this was when she saw Tim, eyes blazing, ready to take the guy's head off. Either Diego saw it too, or he simply smartened up. Either way, he let go of her wrist just as quick as he'd had it in a vice grip. That didn't stop him from leaning in and still invading her personal space. His breath was smoky and distilled with whiskey as he spoke in a low whisper.

"You two either think I'm stupid, or you are. Even so, I don't talk business out in the open. You and your husband wanna do that? Be discreet, for fucks sake. Tomorrow, here's where we'll meet. But we won't speak till we're out of here. Got it? 12 noon."

In another flash, he was gone. Out of sight, like he'd never even been there in the first place.

Lucy was still a little stunned. She didn't say anything for a second, her undercover brain and cop brain co-mingling. She didn't mean to jump out of her skin when she felt what she knew was Tim's hand on her shoulder, but yet, that's what happened.

"Hey, you okay?"

She swiveled back around in the chair to face him. "Yeah." She stood up, eager to get out of here. "That was both very weird, and also a little easier than expected." She checked her surroundings before motioning for him to follow her.

He fell into step next to her and waited until they were back up to the door of their suite before asking her what was said.

Lucy answered quickly as she opened the door to the room. "Tomorrow, 12 noon. We'll meet back downstairs, but we won't actually discuss anything till we're mobile, I'm assuming. All he said was 'till we're out of here' so I'm assuming we're leaving the resort."

Tim hadn't expected that either. That did seem a little too easy. Course, who was he kidding, people in the drug game were greedy as hell. And when they wanted something done, they did it themselves.

"Okay. I'm gonna rope in base, but we should be good to go mobile tomorrow," Tim said, switching off his ears and discarding his gun. He shrugged off his suit jacket, already rolling up his shirt sleeves when he saw Lucy smile.

"What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, nothing. You're just so predictable, it kills me. Already so done with the suit. I'm betting if it were appropriate, you'd wear jeans and your favorite gray jacket every day."

He rolled his eyes. "You caught me, Chen."

She was walking towards the bathroom, but he still heard her classic "Mhmm," before the door opened and shut. He figured now was as good a time as any to brief the rest of their squad.

The phone was ringing at the same time he heard what he assumed to be the shower. He blinked a few times, clearing his mind of that imagery before Lopez answered.

"Tim, you got something for us?" Angela asked, but before he answered, he heard a rustling on their end.

"Oh, okay, sure," he heard Angela say, before Grey's voice surprised him.

"Bradford. Thanks for filling in for me. Now, bring me up to speed on what you and Chen are up to tomorrow."

He realized he was now on speaker. "Hi, sir. Glad you're feeling better. And, as for Chen and I, we've been requested to go mobile, essentially. Gonzalez wants to do a deal, but he doesn't wanna discuss it in the hotel. We should be all good to go tomorrow, I just wanted to loop you all in."

"That's appreciated," Grey said.

"Tim, be careful tomorrow, okay? I know you know how these guys operate, but make sure Lucy's all squared away too. I don't care if you bug the hell out of her with random questions, just make sure you two are as solid as any real couple would be."

"Of course." He told Angela. Tim also found himself fighting a laugh when he heard Grey tell Lopez to get him off speaker. He heard a click, and then he was back on with solely Angela.

"Tim," he heard Lucy call from the bathroom. "I swear to god if you laugh or turn around, I will end you." He quirked his brow, unable to fight the urge to at least peak in the direction of her voice.

"What the hell are you talking about, Lucy?" He called back to her.

"I left my clothes out there, you moron. I'll be in and out in a second. Just, y'know, oh shut up!"

"Lucy, the longer you talk, the more awkward it is. Are you forgetting the time you barged in to Rachel's apartment and I was in the towel? Just come out here, get your clothes, and change alread-"

His eyes widened as the end of the word already trailed off. Shit. He could hear Angela's outright laughter on the other end of the phone, and he swore she was talking to someone else, but he clamped his hand over the phone before he could make a bigger ass of himself.

"Fine," Lucy grumbled. He heard the door open quickly, and saw her feet step quickly across the carpet. He kept his eyes glued to his lap, momentarily forgetting about the phone he still gripped in his hands. Since her suitcase wasn't too far from where he sat on the bed, it's not like he was impervious to what would be technically in front of him in two seconds.

In his defense, he only flicked his eyes over when he heard her fumble with getting the suitcase off the bed and onto the floor. Ever so observant, even with a two second mental image in his head, he noticed 2 things. One, she looked even smaller wrapped up in a towel, and two, the white terrycloth made her tan skin glow.

Three, he knew he shouldn't have noticed. Four, he knew he didn't care.

By the time he went through the numbers, she'd gotten changed and was back out to sit on the edge of the bed where her suitcase had been. In total, it was maybe 3 minutes. The only time Tim realized that increments of time had passed, is when he heard Angela's muffled voice on the phone.

"Tim, I swear to God if you don't hang up or talk to me, I-"

"Sorry, Angela," he apologized, putting the phone back up to his ear. "Got distracted-"

"Uh huh, I bet you did."

He scoffed. "But we're all good, okay? Talk to you later. Uh huh, okay, bye."

He'd hung up after he'd let her give him one last reminder to rapid-fire question Lucy. He said okay, hoping that'd be enough. Apparently it was, because she let him go without protest.

"So, are they okay with us" Lucy began, and Tim's head snapped up too quick at the mention of an us. "going mobile, I mean," she lamely finished.

Duh. "Uh, yeah, we're all cleared for tomorrow. We've got our usual cameras, and even if they take our burners, the cameras feedback to Mid-Wilshire, so they'll have our coordinates."

She nodded. "Good, that's good. Anything else we need to do before then?" She was trying to act casual, but mostly, she was trying to stall the whole bed situation for as long as humanly possible. Her feet ached, but the shower helped relax all her muscle tension. But, it also made her sleepy, and totally ready to fall asleep right then.

"Lopez wants me to quiz you," he paused, noticing her usual look. It was the I can't believe you're doing this again look. The look he'd gotten to know during her rookie year whenever he'd do a Tim test, or give her some sort of reprimand earlier on. He eased up a little on the latter towards the end, but only because she really was handling everything well. The former, well, the former he sometimes still did simply to push her buttons. But, it was just too fun for him to spar with her on shift. "I'm serious, Lucy. Just so we're both ready for any question they'll throw at us tomorrow."

"Ugh," she groaned, finally flopping down onto the bed. "Fine, have at it."

"Okay, how'd we get into this business?"

"We met through mutual friends. I partied, you managed a club at the time. Things happened, and here we are."

"How long have we been at this?"

"Already too long for my liking," she joked. He knew she was referring to his questions, but he didn't fight the smile that pulled on his lips either. He still gave her his firmest I mean business look, and she resigned. "Fine. We've been buyers for 2 years now. We're here for relaxation, but we also have major clients here that want to be serviced locally."

"What're we looking to buy?"

"Pure, uncut, no BS. Like purest form they have of coke. Or heroin, if they've got it. But cocaine's mostly making the rounds for our club scenes anyhow."

Tim nodded, racking his brain for even smaller questions. "Okay, where'd we honeymoon?"

"Why the hell would he-"

"Humor me, would you?"

She rolled her eyes, but answered. "Cancun, duh."

"Where'd you-"

"Wait, I wanna ask one!" She stated, a pleading tone in her voice.

"Have you forgotten I've done this before already?"

"Isabel was the UC, not you, if I'm not mistaken."

"I've been under before. Certainly not as many times as she had, but I know how these people work. You've been what? Good on one operation?"

"Humor me, would you?" She turned his words back on him.

"Fine. One question, then I'm back on."

"Where'd you get the ring?" She asked it innocently enough, he really shouldn't have been angry. It was so much he was angry at her as he was angry about the situation because he really didn't think Diego would care about a ring on Lucy's finger.

"What kind of question is that?" He asked her, eyes narrowing.

"A Lucy question," she said happily, like she was proud of herself for coming up with something like that. If it were any other question, and from any other person, Tim would've been just fine. But it's not, and it wasn't, so, here he was. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"You really think he's gonna care about a ring?" He asked her aloud.

"You really think he's gonna care about where we honeymooned?" She fired back, propping herself up on her elbows.

He sighed, leaning back against the headboard. She had a point, not that he'd ever admit it to her. "I mean, yours would've worked, but it wouldn't match the band I already had," he tried explaining, and watched her nod her head like she was putting the pieces together. He'd only hoped she didn't make him say it.

"Okayyy," Lucy drew out the word, a little unsure. She didn't want to overstep, so she waited for Tim to fill in the blanks. She didn't wanna push, not with this. She swallowed the lump in her throat, suddenly wishing she could take everything from the last 90 seconds back. But, she couldn't. She fidgeted with her hands, also wishing the bed could somehow envelop her whole body so she could disappear from this ungodly awkward moment.

"It was Isabel's," Tim finally spoke, filling in the blank. "That a good enough answer for ya, Chen?"

"I–" she usually wasn't one to stumble over her words, but she was doing exactly that. Before she could get some semblance of a sentence out, he'd already turned on his side – facing away from her – and flipped off the lamp.

She knew better than to press the issue, so she simply flattened herself on her back. But, then again, she also knew she should apologize for making the situation awkward and probably indirectly overemotional for him.

"I'm sorry, Tim." She whispered, before closing her eyes and turning to the opposite side. She didn't know if he'd be able to hear her, or if he was already in REM sleep.

Mere centimeters away from her, Tim hadn't fallen asleep. He couldn't, not yet anyhow. The question he was sure she meant to be lighthearted turned into a natural disaster, and it was mostly his fault. It just stirred up a bunch of stuff, like everything all at once. About Isabel, them being together, then her undercover and subsequent addiction threatening to pull them apart. Which succeeded, he self-deprecated.

He didn't want this to tear whatever the hell was going on between he and Lucy apart too.