At 5 AM Rookie officer Lucy Chen drops off her stuff at her locker, already dressed in her police academy tshirt and leggings, she pulls her ear buds out of her bag and gets her workout playlist up. The station is quieter this early, overnight shift is on their way back to the station and the day shift has more than an hour before starting.

She heads to the training area where the heavy duty punching bags are. The room is empty. Putting the earbuds in she turns up The Crystal Method, one of her favorite workout partners. She lets the music take over and it pushes away the memories causing her nightmares. Hit after hit she works up a serious sweat with the heavy bag. Before she knows it, the alarm on her phone warns her she needs to hit the showers and be ready for role call.

Sweating and out of breath, Lucy feels better. Reaching for her phone to turn off the music, movement in the corner of her eye catches her attention, startling her, and she looks up.

Leaning against the wall, arms crossed, is Tim Bradford, his brow furrowed as he watches her. He says something to her but she can't hear anything except the loud electronica music pounding in her ears.

Immediately Lucy flushes and her heart races. She's not sure when these unfortunate involuntary reactions to his presence started, but now every time she sees him her body just reacts and she can't seem to get it under control.

Their dynamic had started out strictly rookie and training officer. Almost immediately though she had gotten a peek into his private life when his strung out ex wife made an appearance their first day out. Since then a tenous friendship of sorts begun to grow out of mutual respect. Over the past few months even that had slowly been changing. Especially after Tim rescued her and literally brought her back from the brink of death, though neither of them would acknowledge it. They'd been through a lot together but having these kinds of feelings, it isn't just bothersome, relationships between a rookie and TO are prohibited and could lead to disciplinary action.

The music still pulsing in her ears she pulls the ear buds out.

"Hey" she says "sorry, didn't hear you come in"

Tim pushes away from the wall "How long you been here Boot"? His brow gives away his concern for her. He walks towards her. Sporting a well worn LA Rams t shirt and sweat pants that fit just right on him she can't help but sneak a glance as he moves past her. It appeared they both had the same idea this morning, or maybe he couldn't sleep either.

Taking the gloves off and swapping them for the towel she had on the floor she wipes the sweat off her face and neck.

"Not too long, I was just finishing up"

Tim turned and was now standing so close to her, he could see the dark circles under her eyes, and while she was physically recovered he knew she was still carrying the burden of what happened. The tattoo was a permanent reminder of what Caleb did. Crossing his arms again he bent down a bit to meet her height looking right into her eyes.

Again, she flushes and heart betrays her. 'He's gotta hear that' she thinks to herself.

"You look tired Chen" he spoke, this time his voice much lower, almost a whisper. "Are you alright?"

Lucy nervously looked away, they'd worked together long enough he'd see right through her if she tried to lie to his face.

"Woke up at 3 and I just couldn't go back to sleep so I figured I might as well come in, get my workout done before shift".

"Mmmhmmm" he says and heads to the bags pulling his own gloves on.

Tim isn't oblivious to the effect he seems to have on her now. She isn't alone. Every time she smiles at him he has to fight the urge himself not to grin back. Especially when she gives him that 'look what a great job I just did' look when she wants him to see how she's passed one of his many tests. But he's her training officer, nothing can happen so why sit around daydreaming about what it would be like to tuck that loose curl behind her ear, it always manages to breaks free when she works out, then lift her chin to give him access to those lips. He catches himself staring at them sometimes just wondering what it would be like to...

He pushes the thought deep down reminding himself he's her superior and decides to focus on how tired she looks right now instead.

"A good nights sleep is mandatory Boot, you can't be at the top of your game if you're ready for a nap". His voice louder and authoritative this time. He puts one earbud in, realizing afterwards how much harsher that sounded. He was part of why she went through hell and was still carrying that guilt himself.

He pauses to look back at her, his eyebrows raised.

"You sure you're okay Lucy"? He asks, softening a little and holding the heavy bag.

Her heart does a little dance every time he uses her first name. Lucy meets his eyes. Not wanting to tell him about the nightmares she keeps that to herself. She can tell he feels responsible for telling her to grab that drink. The best she can do is a nod as she grabs the rest of her stuff.

Second earbud in he gives her a half smile, turns, and starts with the bag himself.