Hey guys! I haven't published in a while and I felt like writing something sad, so don't hate me for posting something super sad when I haven't posted in forever lol. This story features a Major Character Death, so don't say I didn't warn you.
(Cross posted to Ao3 with the same title)
Disclaimer: I don't own The Rookie or it's characters.
Lucy Chen threw her coat on, tucked her gun in the waistband of her pants and left the motel room, making sure to lock the door behind her. She had been undercover for almost a month and not much had been going on. She was working to infiltrate another cartel that had come around after they busted Salonga's crew, but this time she was posing as a buyer. She had finally been able to contact the sellers and negotiate a price, now she was waiting for them to set up a time and place.
She missed her friends. She missed riding with Jackson, joking with him and Nolan, and she missed her relationship with Tim. Every time she saw him—which wasn't often, recently—she couldn't help but feel butterflies in her stomach, as if he was the man she'd been looking for her whole life. She felt herself smiling at just the thought of him.
As isolated as she felt sometimes, she did love working undercover and she was damn good at it. Ever since she had helped take down Salonga's crew and La Fiera, she had a newfound confidence in herself.
Tim not being on board with her working undercover did make it more difficult, and it was something she had been wanting to talk to him about. She really loved him and knew they could figure everything out if they could just talk about it. She knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She almost started to think about when she could talk to Tim about everything but then she remembered she needed to stay focused. Just because a lot wasn't going on didn't mean she could lose focus now. She pushed all of those thoughts out of her head when she was approached by man who she vaguely recognized.
She eyed him up and down, slowly moving her hand towards where her gun was, "What do you want?"
"Nova." He said, mostly as a statement, but still paused for acknowledgment and she gave him a slight nod, "Garcia sent me. We don't trust cell phones with this information. The deal is going down tonight at 9." He rattled off the address. "Don't be late."
"No way. That hardly gives me any time—"
He cut her off, "Doesn't matter. If you aren't there tonight the deal is off. You want in, you'll be there." And with that he turned and strode away, but not before turning and eyeing Lucy one last time.
Lucy was furious and anxious. That gave her two hours to get ready and contact Harper and Grey to let them know it was going down. This cartel had quickly risen in the ranks, and she'd be damned if they didn't bust them during the major deal that was apparently going down tonight.
She calmly walked back to the motel room, trying not to show her anxiousness in case she was being watched. When she got back in her room she quickly texted Harper their code, letting her know what was going down, when, and where. Then she prepared for one of the biggest moments of her career.
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Nyla Harper's phone signaled, indicating that she had gotten a text message. She was just leaving the precinct as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and read the message. She stopped in her tracks and was almost plowed into by her rookie, John Nolan.
"Harper? Something wrong?"
Before answering she quickly sent Lucy a message making sure she was good and received a thumbs up back. She then turned and saw the concerned look on Nolan's face. "Yeah, you'd better stay. We're gonna be logging some OT tonight. Where's Jackson and Tim? I know they'll want in on this."
Nolan was fighting off a smile. Harper was rough around the edges when she first joined them, but she had really come a long way when it came to working together and relying on her coworkers and friends, something she couldn't do when she was deep undercover. "Jackson's in the locker room. Tim's at home, remember, he was on midnight shift last night."
"You go get Jackson and I'll call Tim on the way to Grey's office."
"What's this about?"
Harper locked eyes with him, "Lucy's deal is going down in two hours."
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Everyone was gathered around the roll call room, minus Tim. He hadn't answered his phone, so Lopez was going to swing by his house and wake him on the way to the location.
Grey spoke up, "Alright everyone, listen up. Officer Lucy Chen is undercover posing as a buyer for Garcia's crew. She got word a few minutes ago that the deal is going down at 9 o'clock tonight. That gives us less than 2 hours to plan and set up, so time is not on our side. We are not leaving our Officer out there alone, so let's get to work."
The team made up of Grey, Lopez, Jackson, Nolan, Harper, and a dozen other officers worked out their game plan and left to set up. As they were leaving Lopez cursed under her breath.
"What is it, Lopez?" Jackson asked.
"Tim is not going to be happy about being on perimeter."
Jackson chuckled, "you're right about that one. Good luck."
Lopez sped to Tim's house. They only had an hour until the deal went down and a bad feeling had settled in the pit of her stomach. She didn't like to be rushed when coming up with a plan. Things never seemed to turn out right when they were rushed. But Harper had called Lucy to inform her of the plan and she sounded ready and confident. In fact, Harper, Grey and everyone else seemed confident too. Lopez only wished she felt the same way.
She pulled into Tim's driveway and rushed to his door. She pounded on it a few times and called his name, "Tim!" She knew he wasn't going to be happy about any of this, especially the fact that it was rushed and he didn't get a say in anything, but at least he was going to get to be there. She continued pounding on the door and calling Tim's name as the clock kept ticking down.
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Tim groggily opened his eyes and looked at his clock, which read 8:10pm. He had slept later than he thought. Not to say he didn't need the sleep. He hadn't slept well since Lucy started her undercover assignment. His girlfriend being undercover gave him flashbacks to Isabel, and he felt helpless. He hated that feeling, but Lucy was her own person and she knew what she wanted to do. He knew they would need to talk about it eventually, but he knew he loved her. He couldn't deny the fact that every time he was with her he genuinely enjoyed her company and couldn't stop himself from smiling when she entered a room.
Suddenly he heard pounding on his door. He grabbed his phone off of his nightstand and hit the power button. The screen lit up and showed a missed call from Harper, one from Grey and about a dozen from Lopez.
He threw off the covers and jumped out of bed. He rushed towards his front door, barely giving himself time to throw on some jeans and a t-shirt, and grab his off duty weapon and badge. He swung open the front door revealing Lopez with her fist raised, getting ready to pound on the door again.
"Lopez, what's wrong?!" Tim asked urgently, the sleepiness he felt a minute ago completely gone from his voice.
"Calm down, Bradford. I came to get you because Lucy's deal is going down in less than an hour. We figured you'd want to be there."
"Of course I want to be there. Why didn't I know about this before?"
"No one did. She just texted about an hour ago letting us know it was happening. They only gave her two hours heads up and they said if she doesn't come tonight the deal is off. She's ready to get these guys."
Tim threw on his shoes and followed Lopez to her car. "So how's this going down?"
On the ride over, Lopez detailed the plan to Tim. As she expected, he was not happy the plan was rushed and he definitely wasn't happy to be on perimeter.
"There's no way," he told her. "I'm close to this, I'm not on perimeter."
"That's exactly why you're on perimeter, Bradford. Remember last time with Isabel? You rushed in against the orders of Vestri and Wolfe."
"And I was right to do that. She had been shot in the head, Lopez."
"I don't disagree with you, but the powers that be see it differently. This isn't my case, I'm lucky I got to come along at all, and so are you. You and Lucy are dating, that's definitely a conflict of interest, but it was actually Harper who insisted you be here tonight. We're perimeter, and there's no use arguing about it. We've only got 30 minutes until the deal anyways." Tim and Lopez got into position and the team went over the plan one last time.
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(~8:50pm)
Lucy arrived at the set location about 10 minutes early. She didn't see any of her team, which didn't mean they weren't there, they were just doing their jobs. She wished she had gotten to see Tim. Even if just for a minute, she wanted him to wrap his arms around her and kiss her. She was looking forward to spending time with him after they busted Garcia's crew tonight.
About 5 minutes after she arrived a dark SUV pulled into the parking lot. Three men got out and started walking towards her, and two got out and stood guard by their car. Of the ones walking towards her, one she recognized as Adrian Garcia, the head of the cartel, another was Eduardo Garcia, his younger brother and second in command, and the last was the guy who found her and told her about the deal earlier today. She thought he looked familiar, but not from going over the members of the cartel with Harper, from somewhere else. She pushed those thoughts aside and focused on the task at hand.
As they approached the older brother spoke, "It's nice to meet you in person. You aren't really who I was expecting, but I like to be surprised." Lucy just stared, waiting for him to cut to the chase. He opened his mouth to speak again, but the man Lucy didn't have a name for leaned over and whispered something in his ear.
He eyed Lucy up and down and she suddenly got a bad feeling.
"You're a cop." Adrian Garcia ground out.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Lucy shot back, trying to give off anger and confidence even though those weren't even close to what she was actually feeling. But she knew why she had a bad feeling. She remembered that the unnamed man was someone she had arrested around a year ago.
"I remember you. You arrested me for drug possession." The other man spoke up.
"I don't know what you're talking about. If you guys are through insulting me, let's get on with it." Lucy had to save this. If she signaled for help, she still had 30 seconds until her team would get there to help her.
Unfortunately, Garcia wasn't convinced. A look of anger crossed his face as he said, "I don't believe you, and I'm not dealing with you." He whispered something to his brother and turned to walk away.
His brother quickly pulled a gun from the waistband of his pants and pointed it at Lucy, as she reached for the gun she had hidden in the back of her waistband.
She felt the burning sensation spread through her abdomen and shoulder before she even heard the gunshots. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.
She collapsed to the ground.
What felt like an eternity later, her team was flooding the area. Tim was the first one to her. She smiled at him as he began working to stop the bleeding. It felt like her ears were filled with cotton because Tim sounded like he was a million miles away. Eventually she could make out what he was saying, "Stay with me Lucy. Come on, stay with me." Then he turned and yelled, "where is my RA unit?!"
Lucy saw Lopez whisper something to Tim and a look of frustration and desperation came over his face. He said something to Lopez then turned his attention back to Lucy. "I've got you Luce, stay with me."
Lucy was tired. Breathing was getting harder. Darkness tugged at the corners of her vision.
Her arm felt like lead, but she used all of her strength to lift it and grab one of Tim's arms. She locked eyes with him, "I… love you… Tim…" came out between ragged breaths. She saw a tear trailing down his cheek. She gave him one more smile, and then slipped into unconsciousness.
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(~8:55)
Tim and Lopez watched the video feed as Garcia and his men pulled into the parking lot of the location. They watched as three men got out and walked towards Lucy.
After hearing their very short conversation, Tim was already opening the door of his car, "we've got to get in there, they know she's a cop!"
He heard Harper's voice over the headset, "damn it. It'll take us 30 seconds to come with force. She has to try and get out of it herself." But Tim wasn't listening. He already had his weapon drawn and was sneaking towards the parking lot when he heard 3 gunshots. His sneaking turned into a full on sprint as he ran toward the fallen figure in the middle of the parking lot, Garcia and his men already driving away.
As he ran he yelled into his radio, "Officer down! Officer down! Requesting an RA unit immediately!" He sunk to his knees next to Lucy and began taking in her wounds. She was bleeding from a bullet hole in her stomach, one in her shoulder, and a graze on one leg. He started trying to stop the bleeding from the wound to her shoulder, as that one was spurting blood. Seconds later his team was behind him after clearing the area.
"Stay with me Lucy. Come on, stay with me." His voice was starting to sound desperate as her breathing got more shallow and rapid, and the pool of blood underneath her kept growing. He turned and yelled, "where is my RA unit?!"
Lopez came over and whispered to him, "they're still 4 minutes out."
"The shot to her shoulder must've hit an artery, it's spurting blood. Someone get me a med kit! We have to apply a tourniquet." Harper came running back with one.
He tried not to let the desperation show on his face, but he couldn't help it. 4 minutes might as well be 4 hours. "I've got you Luce, stay with me."
Suddenly she grabbed his arm and locked eyes with him. He had to block everything else out to hear her. "I… love you… Tim…"
He felt a tear slide down his cheek and she smiled at him. He was about to respond, but her eyes rolled back in her head. He leaned down to her chest, trying to find a heartbeat, trying to feel her breath. Anything. "Come on, Lucy."
Nolan felt for a pulse and looked at Grey, shaking his head.
"No. No. This isn't it. We have to do something." Tim was frantic, "we have to apply the tourniquet. We have to—" he stopped when Grey grabbed his shoulders and turned Tim to face him.
He looked into the faces of each of his friends and coworkers—Harper was seething, fists clenched at her sides; Lopez had tears streaming down her face, but she was trying to comfort Jackson; Nolan's expression was sullen as he stared at Lucy's lifeless body; Jackson sunk to his knees and buried his face in his hands, sobbing loudly—Tim then settled his gaze back on Grey's face.
"Tim, she's gone."
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Tim just needed to hold her one last time. His friends gave him a few minutes, but eventually reinforcements arrived, along with the coroner. And with reinforcements came the media. Lopez saw them first, cameras pointed towards Tim cradling Lucy's body in his arms. "Sarge." She called to Grey. He looked at her and she nodded towards them, "the media is going to have a field day…"
Grey nodded and walked over to Tim. He knelt down and put his hand on Tim's shoulder, "it's time to let go, Tim." He almost broke down himself when Tim looked at him, tears still rolling down his cheeks.
"We were planning our future together, Sarge. How am I supposed to let her go? She was so young. She was my rookie and now my girlfriend. I was supposed to protect her. She had so much more to do in her life." Grey had never seen Tim like this, ever. He stole a glance towards the reporters and saw Lopez, Harper, Nolan, and West forming a semi circle around he and Tim, and he gave them a nod of appreciation. No matter how much they were hurting, they were still looking out for one of their own, and he was proud to call them his officers and detectives.
He finally was able to get Tim to let go, and he led him back towards their cars. He had his arm draped over Tim's shoulders and he had to stop him from turning back to look at Lucy one more time because all he would see was a white sheet covering her body.
Once they all converged back at their cars, Tim's friends were caught off guard when his sadness turned to anger, and it was directed at Harper.
"This is your fault!" He yelled, pointing a finger in her direction.
Grey grabbed him as he took a step towards her. Tim fought against his sargeant, something he would usually never do, and Nolan had to help restrain him.
"Hey!" Lopez yelled, "Tim!" She waited for Tim to stop struggling and look at her. "This isn't anybody's fault. Lucy wanted to get this deal done, and she could've called it off. Lucy was confident, we talked to her on the phone before the deal was supposed to go down. She was ready for this Tim. It was just a bad situation that Garcia happened to have someone working for him who you and Lucy had arrested before. That's it."
Tim jerked away from Grey and Nolan's grasp and walked quickly towards the car. He slammed his fist down on the hood over and over, ignoring the pain that was shooting through his hand, until he heard someone clear their voice behind him. He turned to see Harper.
"I know this isn't easy, Bradford. Trust me, it's not easy for me either. I should've called the deal off when we didn't have time to prepare—"
Tim cut her off, "Lucy could've called it off too. It's not your fault and it's not her fault that someone recognized her from an arrest. And it's not anyone's fault that she was—was shot…" his voice cracked, but he kept going, "except Garcia's. We need to nail that son of a bitch." He finished through clenched teeth.
Grey had walked up to them, "we already found him, thanks to Lopez getting us a partial plate."
"Give me a minute with him." Tim said.
"Not going to happen. They started shooting at our guys pulling them over. Adrian Garcia has been transported to the hospital in critical condition. His brother is dead. The guy you and Lucy had arrested is going to jail."
Tim just nodded and turned to walk away.
"Tim." Grey called after him. Tim turned around and saw the concerned look on Grey's face. Grey asked, "do you need to crash at my place tonight?" Tim sadly shook his head and got in the car Lopez brought him in.
As Grey walked over to check on Jackson and Nolan, Lopez nodded to him, indicating that she would make sure Tim was taken care of.
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It was cloudy and misty the day of Lucy's funeral.
The service was outside under the trees at the site of her grave. Her parents sat in the front row, along with Grey, Tim, Lopez and Wesley, Tamara, Jackson, Nolan, and Harper.
Before the service started, Tim had looked around at all of the people Lucy had touched in her short time on Earth. He was so damn proud of her and how far she had come. She had really made a difference in the city of Los Angeles, and especially in his life.
For a moment, he stared at the flag draped casket, but let his mind wander to the good times they had together. He thought of their patrols together, their movie nights, dinners and breakfasts together. His mind kept wandering and he couldn't stop it. He didn't want to stop it. He thought about all of the conversations they had. Marriage. Trips they wanted to take together. Kids.
He reached into his pocket and felt the ring. He had picked it especially for her. They weren't quite ready to get married yet, but he had seen this ring one day and knew it was perfect for her.
He clutched the ring in his hand as the service started.
Tamara, Nolan, and one of Lucy's childhood friends got up to say a few words. Tim had prepared a small speech, but now he didn't know if he could get up there.
He pulled the index card out of his pocket and fiddled around with it as Lucy's friend was wrapping up her speech. He felt Lopez put her hand on his arm. He looked at her, tears already glistening in his eyes, and she nodded at him.
Everyone watched as he stood and made his way to the podium, and Lopez made her way to stand right behind him. She rested her hand on his shoulder as he began speaking.
"Lucy was the most selfless and dedicated person I've ever met. She always saw the good in people, and wanted to help everyone. She touched many lives in her short time here on Earth. She was such a strong person, especially to put up with a stubborn hard ass like me every day." That drew a few chuckles from the crowd. "But she made me a better person just by being in my life. She was my rookie first, and she was a damn good cop. But more recently she was my girlfriend, and she was even better at that. She never failed to make me smile or make me see the bright side of things, as she tried to do with everyone. We will hold her in our hearts forever." He turned and placed his hand on the casket, this time talking to Lucy, "until we meet again, my sweet Luce, I'll be missing you."
There wasn't a dry eye after Tim was done. He walked back to his seat and was met with a hug from Lucy's mother. He took his seat just before the 21-gun salute. With the first shot of the salute, Tim couldn't help but flinch. His mind flashed back to two nights ago and he squeezed his eyes shut. He heard the shots. He saw Lucy's body fall to the ground. He almost had to get up and leave but he felt Lopez grab his arm and that grounded him.
He looked back at the casket as the trumpet started. The honor guards started folding the flag that had draped her casket. Then one of them walked over and offered the flag to Lucy's mother. She rested her hand on top of it, but then gestured towards Tim, so the guard brought him the flag. Tim took it and rested it in his lap.
The weight of its meaning took over in Tim's mind and weighed heavy on his heart as dispatch came over the radio, "All units, clear the air for Officer Lucy Chen. Control to Officer Chen." Silence. "Officer Chen… Officer Chen, respond." More silence as everyone waited for an answer they wouldn't get. "Officer Lucy Chen, Los Angeles Police Department, badge number 28573, you are clear to go 10-7. Thank you for your service and dedication to the job. Rest easy, we'll take it from here. End of watch, November 17, 2021."
They lowered her casket into the ground and all of her friends walked by and placed a rose on top of it. As Tim passed by he took the ring out of his pocket and looked at it one last time, before kissing it and dropping it, where it landed amongst the flowers on her casket. "I love you", he had whispered as the ring slipped through his fingers.
Lucy's parents and her friends lined up next to where her casket rested as everyone paid their respects. After everyone else had left, including Lucy's parents, Tim, Lopez and Wesley, Jackson, Nolan, Harper, and Grey were left standing by the gravesite.
Grey spoke up softly, "we have to clean out her locker." Everyone slowly nodded as they all headed to their cars.
They met back at the precinct and gathered in the women's locker room, after making sure no one was in there. Nolan held a cardboard box as they all stood around and stared at her locker.
Grey finally opened it, revealing pictures lining the door of Lucy and Tim, Lucy with Jackson and Nolan, Lucy and Tamara, even one with Lucy and Kujo.
Tim and Jackson carefully took everything out and placed it in the box. Jackson offered to take the box back to he and Lucy's apartment so he could give it to her parents. Everyone agreed.
Tim noticed something glistening at the very bottom of her locker and reached down to grab it.
Upon picking it up for closer inspection, he immediately knew what it was and his mind flashed back to one day a few months ago when she had spent the night at his house.
They were supposed to go get breakfast, but she was upset because she couldn't find the necklace Tim had given her.
"I can't believe I lost it!" She half-yelled, highly frustrated.
"It's not a big deal, Luce. I can always get you another one."
"I know, but it's very special to me," she said, still upset.
It was a simple gold bar necklace, inscribed with the date of the day they shared a dance at Lopez's wedding.
When he gave it to her, she had asked him, "why that date?"
To which he replied, "Because that was the day I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you."
Clutching the necklace in his fist he stormed out of the locker room and out of the precinct. He jumped in his truck and drove home, still holding on tight to the necklace.
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Once home, Tim sat down on his couch and turned on the TV, hoping he could watch a football game and clear his mind. Unfortunately, the last time he had watched TV, it was the news, so that was the channel it was on now.
He recognized the recording to be the end of Lucy's funeral, with the headline across the bottom of the screen reading, "Final Respects for Dedicated LAPD Officer".
Then images of him covered in Lucy's blood and cradling her lifeless body began flashing across the screen. He punched the power button on the remote and quickly stood, flying across the room and ramming his fist into the wall. He kept at it until he heard a knock at the door. He then realized his hand was numb and blood was dripping down his fingers.
He answered the door to see Lopez, Harper, Jackson, and Nolan standing there with pizza. Lopez saw his hand, then looked past him into his house and asked, "Get into a fight with the wall?" Tim nodded. "Want to talk about it?" He shook his head no, so his friends just came in and dished up the pizza while Lopez wrapped Tim's hand in gauze.
The all sat around, not really eating, not really talking. Just sitting in each other's company, all personally grieving the loss of their friend and fellow family member in blue.
Eventually, Grey and his wife showed up. Grey joined everyone sitting around Tim's living room, and his wife pestered them until they ate and drank something.
The sun started to go down, and everyone left Tim's house except Lopez.
"I'm crashing on your couch tonight." She told him.
"You don't need to do that, Lopez. I'm okay." He told her, but he didn't even believe himself. How could he be okay when the love of his life was gone?
"Don't try and be all tough guy on me now, Tim. I can read you like an open book. You have to give yourself time to grieve."
That brought a flashback to his last day riding patrol with Lucy. She had made a checklist of what they needed to go though to be able to "acknowledge their loss" of their partnership or mentorship.
Little did Tim know how he would need to go through the process again, but this time on his own after really losing her. He felt like his life was spiraling out of control.
He was angry. Angry at Lucy for leaving him. Angry at himself for not protecting her. He was confused. Why did it happen to her? She deserved to live and continue making the beautiful mark that she had already begun to leave on the world. He was sad. Sad that he wouldn't marry her. Sad that he wouldn't have kids with her. She would've been an amazing mother.
She had been killed at the hands of a scumbag cartel leader, and now he was left picking up the shattered pieces of his life, and trying to figure out how to live without her.
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A few days later, they were all back at the station before roll call, admiring the plaque of Lucy that had been hung on their memorial wall.
It was almost time for shift, so everyone headed to the roll call room. Everyone except Tim. He stood in front of her picture for a minute longer, rubbing his fingers across the engraving of her name.
"I love you, Luce." He whispered to her.
Then he headed to roll call, with a new determination to try and see the good in everybody, and help as many people as he could.
Just as Lucy would've done.
Well I hope y'all enjoyed as much as you could! I appreciate any reviews! Thanks guys! :)