Lucy had startled at the sound of Tims voice so close, but she was barely asleep and recovered fast. "Got it". She congratulated herself for not blushing when he got this close, but it was likely just the surprise of him waking her. In fact her initial instinct was to lean into his lips, luckily she was awake enough she hadn't done that.

Tim leaned back and she sat straighter unbuckling her seatbelt.

Tim Bradford and Lucy Chen stepped out of the Range Rover. He shut the door behind him, looked in the direction of an elderly woman next door pretending to inspect at her flowers but peering over at the new arrivals. Tim lifted a hand in greeting, and just as she responded in kind he walked around the front of the car to Lucy's side. The trees on both sides of the driveway formed a canopy of sorts so the house was barely viewable from the street. Once you drove through, however, the house appeared. The dark stained wood, glass, and metal organic design of the home harmonized with the surrounding forest of palms and other greenery that completely enveloped the outside of the house.

Knowing the neighbor was watching, Tim slid his arm around Lucy's side pulling her towards him, and turning her a bit so she could see the woman. He kissed her cheek, lingering long enough to whisper "24 hours, if we haven't introduced ourselves, she will be over with a housewarming gift". His face so close she could feel the grin. "Mark my words".

Lucy tried to force her body not to shiver at his breath in her ear again. She tried to play it off by holding her hands out in a long stretch, like she'd just been in the car for hours and also shared a quick wave with their neighbor.

She turned to him and lifting herself onto her toes she reached to whisper back, her lips reaching his neck. She was close enough to lose herself in that smell of him again. "So should we go introduce ourselves now and get it over with"? He turned his head towards her for just a second so her lips actually brushed his skin. This time it was Tims turn to try and play off the reaction that caused immediately turning towards the house but leaving his arm around her, resting his hand on her stomach.

"Be plenty of time for that tomorrow, let's see what needs to be done right now with Caruso's guys". He started towards the front door.

For the first time she was really beginning to comprehend how difficult this was going to be. 24/7 Tim Bradford. Who knows, she thought, maybe he'll be so annoying to live with that this crush, or whatever you want to call it, will just dissipate. Fat chance she thought, maybe she'd just spontaneously combust from the heat instead. She imagined exploding into flames for real the next time he touches her, smiling to herself she followed him.

The front door was unlocked. The movers, who were also LAPD, appeared to be finishing up. Tim held the door open for Lucy and followed her in. Lucy stopped a few feet into the foyer. "Wow". The whole first floor was open, and running the length of the entire back of the house were giant panels of glass running up 3 floors. The Pacific Ocean filled the entire view.

Tim walked past her, through the foyer that led to a dining table made of 2 giant pieces of tree trunk joined by a blue epoxy river running down the middle. Lucy had seen tables like that in magazines. She ran her hand over it tracing the blue down the middle. Comfortable C shaped mod chairs surrounded it. Warm coffee colored Spanish tiles covered the entire first floor. The wall that wasn't glass was a built in bar and bookcase with more seating in front of it. Then there was a telescope closer to the glass. In the middle was a shag carpeted sunken living space with a big comfortable sofa and chairs.

The galley style kitchen was full of high end appliances. And open to the large living space as well. The glass doors that ran the length of the home appeared to pull back accordion style to make the outdoor space part of the home. Outside, a large deck overlooking the ocean had stairs that led straight down to the beach. At one end of the deck a hot tub, at the other a glass rock fire pit with another outdoor seating area. A few lounge chairs, and outdoor kitchen faced the incredible view as well.

Tim turned to look back to Lucy holding his arm up at the view eyebrows raised.

"It's crazy"! She said. To the right of the dining space, a dramatic spiral staircase surrounded by glass walls led to the next floor. The intense lush foliage that surrounded the home gave the impression of being outdoors.

Before they could explore any further 3 men walked in the front door behind them. Two of them wearing moving company uniforms with a dolly of boxes heading for the stairwell nodding hello. The third, a tall, dark haired immaculately dressed man was holding a 'Sold' sign and a clipboard. He had a name tag with 'La Costa Realty' above his name. "Hey guys, I'm Steve Price, let's talk outside" he shook both their hands and opened a glass panel that was a door to the back deck. The doors could be opened all the way across but he opened it enough to allow them out then closed it behind.

The waves crashing close to the house indicated it was high tide. Lucy realized talking out here no one would be able to hear them over the pounding surf.

"So we swept the house for bugs just in case, nothing was found. As we thought the security system is the same as the other 2 homes, everyone here in this neighborhood does use the same service as well. Looks like they have cameras in every room but the bathrooms".

As he talked he pulled out his file and at various times pointed to parts of the house. Anyone watching would just think he was welcoming them into their new digs.

"The cameras don't appear to have sound, but in case this security company is involved somehow, I'm gonna suggest, if you can, to turn away from the camera when speaking about this case or come out here for conversations. The house is sold with the security service so they'll likely reach out soon .

"This does mean you'll be sharing the master bedroom to maintain your cover", he peered at them over his sunglasses " although with all this glass you probably would've needed to do that anyway".

Share a room? Lucy thought? Sharing a house was going to be a struggle, now they needed to share a room too?

Tim crosses his arms then brought a hand up to cover his mouth nodding. He had considered this as a possibility, given the link between the 3 families but he'd hoped not. Chen might be the best rookie he'd ever trained for real, but this was asking a lot to give up this much privacy.

Lucy spoke up before he had a chance to say anything. She straightened and nodded her head.

"Okay, thanks for the heads up" was all she said.

She was a professional, so was Bradford. This was part of her job and this was a good opportunity to experience UC work, which she hadn't done before. She looked at Tim for approval as she often did when she made a decision she thought he should have a say so in.

Tim gave her a head nod, showing his approval of her decision.

Cross out 'might be the best' thought Bradford.

Chen constantly surprised him. As they got closer to the end of her training he had begun to view her more as a partner, someone who had his back as much as he had hers.

She really was going to make an amazing cop, hell she already was. He'd come to depend on her more than he wanted to admit to himself over the past few months.

Steve continued "Okay, I'm gonna walk you through the rest of the house then I'll be heading back to our headquarters at another safehouse and you have the number saved in your cells as 'La Costa Realty' in case you need backup. We'll meet a week from today, unless you have something we need to know asap, then call". He looked at Tim then Lucy "Lets take a tour"!

They'd seen the first floor, there was one guest room down there that was decorated as an office with some really amazing photographs of past and present military action scenes on the wall, Lucy was especially drawn to one with a masked soldier stepping out of a plane mid air with a military K9 strapped to him. "This is clearly your office" she said "these are amazing". There were drafts of prototypes depicting drones, machine guns, and Kevlar vests on a shelf along with a bunch of military medals and actual photos of Tim as a soldier that he'd given to the tech guys, his cover name replacing his real one.

What caught Lucy's attention was the photo framed of the two of them. A real photo. She was laughing hard at something he said with her eyes closed and he was watching her, grinning at how he'd made her laugh.

She looked at Tim with her mouth a little agape. She didn't know that photo existed. He saw her see it, looked away at the floor and couldn't meet her eyes. Lopez had taken it one night after shift at the food trucks. She sent it to him and he kept it. He gave it to the techs at the safehouse this morning. He figured one less thing they'd need to photoshop.

They moved to the second floor. First he took them to the office meant to be Lucy's. An entire wall was a built in bookcase filled with physicians references psychology text books, psychiatric studies and some photos peppered into the shelves, including some wedding photos of the two of them in front of a tropical beach and turquoise waters that were photoshopped from the photos they'd been able to provide. Tim walked over to that to inspect it. They were good, it looked real.

A beautiful acrylic desk had the computer appear to be floating in the room as well as an antique filing cabinet she would presumably keep patient information.

A second bedroom on this floor was meant to be used as a bedroom. Minimal design details but they had personal touches here and there created by the technicians. Photos of other adults and children in photos intended to be family friends of theirs on the nightstand next to the bed.

Up another curve of the spiral staircase was the master suite. The entire length of the room was just Pacific Ocean as far as the eye could see. This third floor was slightly smaller, and 3 out of 4 sides were nothing but those giant windows. Up this high the canopy of the trees filled the 2 sides halfway up with beautiful greenery, then the entire length was just Pacific Ocean. The room was large, and had a small sitting area in addition to the king size bed that faced all those windows. A nice large bathroom was more than large enough for 2 people wirh a giant glass shower and clawfoot tub.

While Steve was there they could keep themselves occupied with learning about the house. That was a good distraction for both of them from having to think about how this was all going to play out later tonight.

Bradfords concern over how he would handle being so close to her all the time was secondary to his desire to make sure she felt safe. He hadn't forgotten Harper's words to him. She'd said Lucy lived through every woman's worst nightmare, she still had the scars to prove it. Lucy insisted over and over she was fine. Two tours of duty in the Middle East had taught Tim you can't control how or when the post traumatic stress might hit, no matter how much mediation Lucy might do.

Steve looked at his watch. Close to 6 pm. "I need to report back, remember what I said, call if you need anything".

They all walked down the stairs. The other 2 officers who'd done all the moving were grabbing some water from the fridge downstairs. It had been stocked with a few things, enough so they could go a day or two without needing to get to a store.

"I almost forgot" he said and pulled a set of keys out of his inside suit pocket and grinning ear to ear. "You're going to appreciate this officer Chen" he said and opened the door to the garage.

He flipped on the light in the garage and there sat a 1971 Datsun 240Z which appeared to be in pristine condition.

Tim Bradford laughed.

"Whaaat" Lucy exclaimed. She immediately opened the door of the sports car and hopped in.

"We got this off a doctor in Beverly Hills selling Oxy, it's been in his garage for 30 years almost never driven. Your Sergeant said you had an appreciation for first generation Z cars so we pulled this one for you, it's worth more than that Range Rover believe it or not"

"I do", she said smiling appreciatively.

"It's very you". Tim said holding the door and peering inside. "Except I bet this one runs". He joked.

"Hey"! She gave him a playful shove and got back out of the Datsun.

Steve opened the garage door to walk out, the moving van already pulling away. His Mercedes was behind the Range Rover. "Enjoy your new place" he was a bit louder than normal, trying to be more realtor less cop. He waved as he got into his car to leave. Lucy and Tim walked out to see him leave, waving back as he drove off.

Tim got in and pulled the Rover into the garage next to the tiny Datsun dwarfing it.

"Here we go" whispered Chen under her breath.