A/N: Long time, no write! I know that's not grammatically correct, but you know what I mean, right? Anyhow, this is just my take on how an Upstead/Chenford double date could go. Hope y'all enjoy it, and hopefully it tides you over until September 22 & 26 (Chicago PD and The Rookie premiere dates, obviously!)
"Hey, can I get another round?" Lucy Chen called to the bartender on duty. It was an usually cool Friday night for Los Angeles, so she and Tim decided to go to a pub for their date instead of the beach as originally planned.
"Sure thing," the barkeep replied, taking note of her empty beer pitcher.
"Thanks," she yelled over the roar of the crowd. She now remembered why Tim was so keen on this bar: they always had a game on. Typical, she thought to herself, taking in the throngs of people along the bar, and normal seating area. They were decked out in varying sports memorabilia, cheering or booing the appropriate teams.
Lucy got sports, but she was never into them like Tim was. Speaking of her boyfriend, he was still nursing the last of the beer he grabbed for himself, looking intermittently at one of the many big screen TVs that were posted at any given corner of the establishment.
As she turned to give him a wave, she landed smack dab into another body that was definitely not her boyfriend's.
"Beautiful girl like yourself shouldn't have to wait so long for a drink," the random guy told her, looking everywhere but her face.
Lucy couldn't help but scoff. "Yeah? I'm sure that line works on all the beautiful girls you've tried to hit on tonight, pal. Just not me." She turned her body away from him and back to the bar, where thankfully, the bartender came back with her refill. She said a grateful thank you, grabbed her new pitcher, and saw her pathway was clear of whoever the hell that was. She motioned over to Tim, holding up the container a little higher like I finally have it, when something else caught her eye.
The idiot from seconds earlier had obviously moved on from her…unfortunately to another girl not far from where she was at the bar. The woman who was now in his sights was the same height as herself, quite thin, with blonde hair. Lucy studied the situation for a moment, wondering if she should do the "girl code thing" and pretend to be a friend to the blonde so she could help her out of the impending predicament.
Apparently sensing her curiosity, she sensed Tim by her side, grabbing the pitcher from her hand and turning back to their table. "You good?" He whispered in her ear before he walked away completely.
She nodded, giving him the look that reassured him yes before turning her attention back to the asshat's next potential victim. A "hey" was out of her mouth in a second, but she didn't get a chance to say more than that before she saw the girl execute an impressive takedown maneuver.
The poor guy never knew what hit him. The blonde was leaning over him, probably telling him something stern and somewhat threatening, just in case he decided to try anything like that again. Lucy figured because, well, she was going to do the same thing if the idiot attempted to hit on another innocent woman in here tonight.
She caught the tail end of the woman's issuance to the man. "We clear?" Lucy bit back a smirk when the man's head shook quickly, and he took off like a rocket when the woman finally let up.
Ready with a compliment, she was unluckily interrupted by another man, but the way the girl leaned back into him suggested he was not a threat to her at all.
"Hails, what the hell? I leave for 5 minutes to move my truck out of an apparent loading zone, and you take some dude out like that?"
"He was annoying, Jay. What can I say?"
Lucy felt bad for being close enough to hear this conversation, and was ready to bolt back to Tim when the blonde locked eyes with her.
"Oh, shit. Sorry. And you were the one he hit on before me. Wow, I'm sorry…." she said regretfully, but her eyes looked like they wanted Lucy to fill in the blank that was her name.
"Lucy," she introduced. "And yeah, I was unfortunately the one he attempted to hit on before you. But, that was impressive. Where'd you learn how to do that….?"
"Hailey. I'm Hailey, and this is my fiancé Jay. And well, it comes with the job, I guess. We're police, actually."
"CPD, not LA." Jay chimed in. "Silly of me to leave my fiancee for a minute and think an actual ring on her finger would make guys not hit on her."
Hailey shook her head, rolling her eyes at his sarcastic tone. "Yeah, silly you. And here I was thinking we wouldn't have to use any of our job skills while on our proposal vacation. Okay, well now it's an engagement vacation, but still."
Lucy grinned at the duo in front of her. It was only then she noticed the rock on Hailey's finger. She assumed the moron from earlier was too inebriated to see it.
Jay had pulled Hailey into him, giving her a look Lucy had only seen in one other man before. Tim. It was the look of both protection and admiration, and Tim looked at her like that more times than she could count.
She could smell Tim before she saw him out of her peripherals as he came to stand behind her. His cologne from earlier was gone, and she instead caught the beer and bar atmosphere from his body.
"Hey Luce, had I known you'd get caught up here, I would've brought you a beer."
She smiled up at him. "Sorry, Tim. Just meeting Hailey and her fiancé Jay."
Tim looked from the blonde to the taller brunette. "Hailey, Jay." He nodded. "Bradford–– sorry, habit. Tim. Nice to meet you."
He watched the other man narrow his eyes a moment. "Last name first? Let me guess…Army?"
Huffing out a small laugh, he added: "Uh yeah. Sergeant of a squadron my second tour, did my first in Iraq. You?"
"75th Battalion, Rangers out of Afghanistan. Halstead," Jay tacked on for good measure.
"Anyway," Hailey said jokingly. "Before these two start sharing too many war stories, I wanna know what you guys do? I'm assuming you guys live out here in LA? It's so nice, my god, makes me rethink Chicago winters altogether!"
Lucy smiled. "Yeah, we do live out here. We're both LAPD. Well, he's a sergeant, I'm almost a P3."
Hailey nudged Jay at Tim's proud smile down at Lucy when she mentioned her closing in on the next rank of officer. Jay looked back at her, because he knew that look too well. He'd given it to her when she received a medal of commendation; and he remembered her giving it to him when he too, passed the sergeants exam.
"Wow, that's awesome. Coincidentally, this one here recently passed his sergeants exam," Hailey told Tim. "Got any pointers?"
"Well, man, LAPD's probably way different than CPD. But, if there's one thing I can say, having my own office has been pretty nice."
"It's so great. Well, he finally let me put a few things in there, like a beanbag chair, even though I know he hides it from me every chance he gets. but I don't even care. Because I know he uses it when he thinks I don't see him––" Lucy was firing away all her personal touches she gave TIm's office, and everyone was listening enthused by her whirlwind of energy.
"Damn, you sure you two aren't already married?" Jay joked, and Tim shot him a look that said ha ha, very funny.
Before Tim could actually utter a reply, his phone rang. "Yeah, Bradford? Oh hell, Ang, really? Okay, okay, just give me a second, I'll be over." He snapped his phone shut, sighing and looking to Lucy.
"Sorry, 'uncle' duty calls. Apparently Wesley got called for an emergency meeting, and Julian's not going down for his bedtime like Angela wanted. So, off to rescue I go."
"My hero," Lucy replied earnestly. "Oops, so sorry you guys. Um, Tim's gotta go help out our friend Angela with her newborn. But, how long are you guys in town? We should definitely continue this!"
In an instant, Hailey whipped her cell out, and the girls were exchanging numbers. The boys gave each other a nod of yep, whatever they wanna do, and they parted ways.
Lucy was all ready to go for their double date. But, Tim was dragging his feet, mostly because of what had transpired earlier.
"Why can't we go golfing?"
"Tim, and I mean this in the nicest way possible. But, no."
"But, WHY, Lucy? That's what I wanna know."
"Because I don't care how hot you'd look in a polo, it's the most boring thing in the world to me. We're going bowling, because there's still that element of competition you like so much, but it'll actually be fun for Hailey and I too. That's WHY."
"Fine. But you owe me," he reminded her.
"Mhmm," she murmured, wrapping her arms around him. "I'll make it up to you tonight, don't worry."
"I'm gonna hold you to that," he whispered, kissing her cheek.
"You'll be holding me down is more like it, but sure," she teased, not even bothering to look up at him when she felt his body tense at her response. Mission accomplished.
She slipped out from under his hold, finding her jacket. "Now, come on, for real! I wanna go see Hailey!"
"Good lord, you're already best friends, aren't you?"
"Yes, yes we are. Now shut up and let's go!"
And so, that's how he ended up at the bowling alley with Chen, Halstead, and he found out a minute ago that Hailey's last name was Upton. So, the foursome split off into their respective pairs: Upstead vs. Chenford, and the battle was on.
"Oh, hell," Hailey mumbled to herself when she saw Jay size up Tim as he took his turn. "Jay, behave," she told him, digging her hand into his shoulder to emphasize her point.
"I never do, you should know that by now, Hailey," he tried to joke, but she knew he was somewhat serious. Hopefully he remembered this was all in good fun, and wouldn't go too wild and out of control.
"Mhmm," she rolled her eyes, shooting Lucy a look that asked Is Tim this bad too? Lucy seemed to pick up on her hint, and nodded, shrugging her shoulders in consolation.
"Oh yeah! Strike!" Tim cheered, holding his hand out to Lucy for a high five.
"Yeah, good work there, champ," she said, high-fiving him anyway, holding his hand for a second longer to remind him she was only kidding a second ago.
"Alright, let's go Luce," he cheered for her just the same. Lucy bowled, managing a split. Tim clapped for her like she'd gotten a strike too, and she beamed at his support, no matter how cheesy.
She walked over and hugged him as they watch Jay and Hailey take their turns. Each of the CPD cops bowled clean strikes, putting them in the lead.
"Well shit," Tim muttered under his breath. Lucy felt him tense next to her again, but in a whole different way than this morning. "I knew we should've gone golfing."
"Oh hushhhhh," she ordered, and he took his turn again, only hitting five of the 10 pins.
"Dammit," he cursed, and he pouted while she went again, getting her first strike of the game.
He held up both his hands for high fives, and she clapped hers against his, smiling at his excitement at them pulling closer to Jay and Hailey.
Speaking of, when Jay got a gutter ball, Hailey rolled her eyes for the second time that day. "Jay, chill."
"No way, man, see now they're gonna pull ahead of us for sure!" He whined, just like a little kid.
"Jesus, Jay, I swear. Maybe we should've gone golfing….." she whispered, sighing. At least then she and Lucy could've stolen their golf cart and gotten drinks while the boys duked it out on the green.
"Tim! You golf?" Jay asked, calling to his new pal over the partition.
"Yeah, man! Why? Do you?"
"Sure do! I suggested it to Hailey this morning, but then she said she'd divorce me before we were even married," he quipped, earning a punch in the arm from his fiancee.
"That's funny," Tim said, eyes darting to Lucy, who pretended to look off in the distance.
She may have texted Hailey and told her under no circumstances, were they going golfing. No matter if Tim or Jay suggested it. Oops.
"….Luce?" Tim's voice brought her back, and she blushed, knowing she'd been caught.
"Well! Tim come on! It's the most boring thing everrrrrrrr, I'm sorry! No way was I letting you or Jay drag Hailey and I to a court!"
"Course," he corrected her, which was when his shoulder hurt since she shoved it.
"Whatever," she dismissed, going to sit by Hailey instead. She chatted up her new blonde girl friend, noting even more similarities between themselves, their men, and their relationships. Hailey was like the soul sister Lucy never knew she needed.
"Hails, you're up!" Jay called, and Upton sighed, telling Lucy she'd be back in a second. And that's how the rest of the game went really: the girls would be chatting, toss the bowling balls down the row, then go back to talking. Meanwhile, they laughed at how competitive their significant others continued to be, trying to distract the other, or call each other out for bad rounds.
"Alright, that's it, I'm calling it," Hailey announced, not even bothering to look at the leaderboard to see where they all stood. It'd been a couple hours, that was enough.
"What?! No way, Hailey! Come on!"
"Please, Upton, I'm sorry I'm kicking your fiancé's ass, but at least let us finish the game!"
"Guys," Lucy warned, looking between the dorks she and Hailey decided to spend their time with. "We're done, and we're hungry. Come on, for us? Please?"
"Hailey, you so owe me," Jay told his partner, and Hailey nodded in agreement, pulling him along.
"Anything for you, Lucy," Tim replied, somewhat defeated yet nonetheless sincere. He leaned closer to her as they fell into step beside each other. "You know, I could eat…just not food."
She swatted his chest. "Timothy James!" Her eyes darted up ahead to where Hailey was holding Jay's hand, and he was telling her something, possibly equally as risqué as Tim had told her, because Hailey had her head thrown back in laughter, even though her cheeks were pink.
The text she received seconds later confirmed her suspicions. Hailey: I swear, I can't take Jay anywhere.
Lucy fired back: Same! Tim's over here being flirty and I'm dying! Gosh, we really should've just let them go golfing!
She switched her phone off when they got to their cars.
"Well, I think a photo is in order, don't you think?" Hailey announced, not ready to take Jay's "no" (that she knew was coming) for an answer.
Before Lucy knew what was happening, Hailey was pulling her over, demanding Jay take a photo of the two of them.
The girls smiled, and even Tim snapped a picture too.
While the guys sent the photos to the correct numbers, Hailey snuck a video of them trying to figure out technology and sent it to Lucy, who giggled at her caption: "Dorks with phones. But they're our dorks."
So, when she and Tim were out to dinner an hour or so later, and her phone pinged again, she wasn't surprised at all to find a new photo on Hailey's account that read: "Mrs. Steal Your Girl. Sorry timbradford, Lucy's mine now. Thanks for the pic jayhalstead!"
Sounded about right.
"What's that about?" Tim asked as the waiter walked off with the check.
She showed him the photo, and he snickered. "Yeah, I figured."
Lucy chuckled. "No, you didn't!"
Tim sighed. "Fine, no I didn't. But I also never thought any of the things that happened within the last 24 hours would have happened either, so, can ya blame me?"
She looked at him. "No, no I can't."
Her phone buzzed again. It was a new text from Hailey: Jay said for me to give you his number to give to Tim because apparently, the next time you guys are in Chicago, they're going golfing. Whether we like it or not.
Lucy showed Tim the text, and he laughed. Yeah, sounded about right indeed.