There were only a handful of days out of the year that Tim actively looked forward to on the job. New rookie day, with the thrill of fresh blood, was one of them (and his latest had been the most eventful yet, bar none). The round-up was another, and it was neck-and-neck with what had been his favorite in every year past: plain clothes day. The training officers were meant to accompany their boots on patrol as silent witnesses in civilian clothing, intervening only if absolutely necessary. Inevitably, his rookies chose this day to choke, and Tim considered it a point of pride to see so many wash out of the program on this occasion, the first day riding "alone" (even technically) revealing them as deficient officers.

That wasn't the case now. Of course, Tim didn't try to play favorites, but that was somewhat unavoidable considering just who his rookie was this time around. He decided against outright warning her about the rapidly approaching milestone, instead deciding to ramp up the "Tim" tests in the days leading up to it.

And if he told her the night before, "Remember I'm on your side"? Well, that might have been a little blatant favoritism. Only a little.

Beyond that point, though, Tim was hands off. He began the morning by writing an evaluation for Lucy containing his best guess on how the day would go. He'd done so in the past with each of his rookies, and far be it from him to abandon the ritual now. On a blank sheet of computer paper, he scribbled the words "Officer Chen second-guessed every decision she made today" and placed the note in a manila envelope that he folded and kept in his back pocket.

Remember I'm on your side. So he'd said, but by mid-morning, it seemed his encouragement had slipped Lucy's mind. As he was meant to be a passive observer, Tim was not permitted to stop her mistakes as they were in progress. He was only allowed to interfere if the situation required it, and when it became clear she neglected to call dispatch to impound a repeat sex offender's (and suspected pedophile's) van, he was forced to intervene. After that, she never quite got her feet back beneath her. Misstep after misstep followed, culminating in a call from Sergeant Grey mid-shift. She was ordered back to the station, where she would have to report to the sergeant at once.

"Shut the door," Grey said, foregoing a greeting as the two of them entered. Once Tim had done so, he spoke again, addressing Lucy. "I remember my plain clothes day, even if it was a long time ago. I was desperate to impress my TO." He glanced at Tim pointedly before looking back at Lucy. "I made all kinds of mistakes. Big ones, little ones; most of them completely outside of my normal character. Do you know why I'm saying this, Officer Chen? It's because I sympathize with your situation."

She shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. "I don't understand, sir," Lucy said.

"We got a rude conduct complaint from a man named Rodney Acker. Does that sound familiar?"

Lucy nodded. So did Tim, recognizing the name belonging to the owner of a dog that had become something of a nuisance to his neighbors. Tim had been present for the whole conversation; had heard every word, including when Rodney called Lucy a bitch under his breath. Sure, she'd had been firm -stern, even- with the man, but rude? That was a real fucking reach, and it took some willpower for Tim not to roll his eyes at the accusation.

"What are our options, sir? Is there any way we can get him to cool off?" he asked.

"I'm afraid there are no options, Officer Bradford. He wants to make it formal." Returning his attention to Lucy, Sergeant Grey spoke again. "Officer Chen, Internal Affairs has been notified. Captain Andersen is in meetings all afternoon, but she wants to speak with you at the end of your shift."

Lucy's voice wavered uncertainly as she asked, "Sir, what kind of disciplinary action am I facing?"

When the sergeant hesitated to respond, Tim took the opportunity to interject. "Don't worry about that yet," he said, and quickly found himself chastened by Grey.

"Tell her, Tim," he ordered. "She should know"

He could not face her directly as he said, "Worst case scenario? You'll be my twelfth."

"Twelfth?"

"Yeah. My twelfth rookie to wash out on plain clothes day."

Luck saved her. Luck, if a turn of fortune via a murder could be considered "lucky", saved Lucy's job, but it did not absolve her of every consequence. She still had to face the captain and did not speak so much as she was spoken to. Tim heard every word said, and in each word detected disappointment. It was a thorough (and sadly, deserved) dressing down, and Lucy was on the brink of tears as she was dismissed and turned toward the door.

"Officer Bradford," the captain called. "Your turn."

He waited to enter until Lucy had passed through the doorway, and on impulse reached for her hand, a stolen touch where his fingers brushed against hers for less than a full second. He tried to imbue the graze with comfort, with consolation; with the promise that, despite how it all looked now, everything would be okay.

Captain Andersen was facing the window when Tim entered the room. For a moment, she said nothing, then ordered quietly, "Close the door."

He did as she asked, and she turned to face him once he had done so. To a certain degree, her fury had dimmed, and the captain's voice was low as she asked, "Am I going to be disappointed in you, Officer Bradford?"

Confusion was his first reaction. Disappointed in him? "I don't understand, ma'am."

"'It won't be a problem, ma'am'." She looked at him evenly. "Do you remember saying that to me?"

He nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I do."

She took a deep, steadying breath. "How well do you know your rookie, Officer Bradford?"

Not as well as he would like, he thought, but had the good sense not to answer so. "Not very well, ma'am."

"Really?" She reached for a folder from a stack on her desk; a personnel file marked Chen, Lucille Vanessa in typed, capital letters. "So you don't know that she was salutatorian of her graduating class? That she speaks four languages? You don't know she has her bachelor's in psychology?"

"I know she's smart, ma'am," he replied, then confessed, "I maybe didn't know she was that smart."

Captain Andersen let the file fall onto her desk; it landed with a slap. "I'm not amused, Tim."

"I wasn't joking, ma'am."

"I told you she has the potential to be great."

He nodded, remembering their conversation from months ago.

The captain continued. "I asked Sergeant Grey to place her with you because I believed you would coach her best. I let her stay under your care despite my reservations because I still truly believe you are the best teacher for her. She's got intelligence in spades, but God damn it, she needs guidance and a bit more street sense. What she does not need is to fall into the trap of trying to impress anyone, especially her training officer, and it's clear to me that that's what happened today." She dismissed him then, offering a final warning. "I expect better from both of you going forward."

Concern -maybe even a little fear- was plain on Lucy's face as Tim exited the captain's office. She had been pacing the few feet outside the door but stopped mid-stride as he exited, approaching him with an apologetic expression and a question on her lips.

"Are you mad at me?" Lucy wondered.

"No," he answered immediately, adding, "Or at least, I'm not now." The day had been rough on both of them, and they needed grace from one another if they wanted to get beyond it. For his part, Tim was anxious to put it in the past, but first, he asked, "You realize how lucky you got today?"

She nodded.

"What were you thinking?" When Lucy tried to skirt the question, he gently insisted.

"I was thinking I wanted to impress you, okay?"

Her answer made his heart sink. So the captain had not been far off the mark when she voiced her concerns. Hell, she'd landed on the mark directly, but as Lucy explained, Tim found himself smiling. Not because it was funny; it wasn't funny in the slightest, but it was so damn sweet that she with all her intelligence was still so set on impressing him, he nearly laughed for joy about it.

"This was my day to be in charge, and I just wanted to do well." She had avoided his eyes and only looked up as she finished speaking. It was a quick, anxious glance towards his face, so fast he could not conceal the little bit of a smirk on his lips for the sake of her pride. Lucy blushed as she defended meekly, "Like I said, it's dumb."

"I didn't say that. I don't blame you for wanting to impress me." There was a slight chuckle to his denial, but he hoped she would forgive him for it.

"You don't?"

"Of course not. I'm great."

Finally, that got a smile out of her, even if it was a little marred by the threat of a few tears. "And so humble, too."

She offered to buy him a drink. It was thanks, Lucy said, for his compassion after the day had gone so poorly. Specifically, "After what I put you through" (her words, not his). Tim replied that a drink -that thanks- wasn't necessary, but nonetheless accepted her offer. He lingered in the hall outside the locker room as she showered and changed, and the soft look she gave him before they walked towards the food truck circle for some reason momentarily left him breathless. Talia, Angela, and the other rookies were already at the circle, and Angela winked at Tim as they approached the group before they split off with the rookies at one table, and the TOs at another. A pint each and an hour later, Lucy presented him with a manila envelope of her own, explaining, "It's my evaluation of you, sir."

"That's not how this works, Lucy," he said with a slight snicker. At his side, Angela laughed, too, while Talia leaned in closer, trying to sneak a peek at what his rookie had put inside.

She grinned coyly in response. "Yeah, well, if you don't want to read it, don't." She excused herself then, and once she had left, Tim opened the envelope. Inside was not a single sheet of paper, but three small, rectangular sheets that he looked over with disbelief.

"What does it say?" Talia asked.

"It's their bar tabs," he answered, and looked up when he heard laughter. Lucy had roused the other rookies to their feet and hustled them away from the food trucks, giggling as they went. "That little…" The rest of the sentence -half fond, half frustrated- was left unspoken. While Talia and Angela enjoyed a laugh at his expense, Tim pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted Lucy.

What happened to buying me a drink?

She replied I said I'd buy you a drink. I didn't say when.

Clever, he thought drily, and a moment later, another text came through. Are you free tomorrow night?

Tim knew he should have probably said no. He knew that agreeing could very well cross some invisible line or another, but as he contemplated it, a few dozen excuses filled his brain. It wasn't like they hadn't hung out before, he justified, although he had to acknowledge that those moments had always had an excuse; a reason. Making plans without the secondary purpose of a move or a car repair or anything other than the desire to be in each other's company? That would be an entirely new development. New, but as he dwelled on it, he found it easy to ignore the reasons why he should have declined. Turning to his friends, he informed them he was leaving. When Talia complained that the night had just started, Tim held up the rookies' checks.

"Not for me, it hasn't. Apparently, I've already bought four drinks." He paid the tabs without further protest from either Angela or Talia and left after a short goodbye. If either of them were suspicious, they did not outwardly let on, but he noticed that Angela regarded him with some scrutiny just before he walked away.

Despite what he'd led his friends to believe, Tim did not go home after leaving. Instead, he drove to a nearby bar. Stoli's was one of his old favorites, although he had visited less frequently in recent months. He gave a nod to the hostess before helping himself to a seat at the bar, ordering a black and tan. While the bartender pulled his beer, he sent a reply to Lucy's question.

I'm free right now.

What a coincidence, she answered almost immediately. So am I. Where should I meet you?

He was used to it by then; the way she melted the world away by stepping into a room. Used to it in that he had come to expect it, but Tim was still a little bowled over by her presence when Lucy walked through the entrance to Stoli's. The bell above the door chimed as she entered, and even though it had only been an hour or so since she'd pranked him with the checks, he drank in the sight of her like the separation had been months and not minutes. He noticed her hair was down, as it had been earlier, and realized suddenly that he had developed a preference for it that way. She was always beautiful, but there was something about the way the slight waves framed her face, laying long to the middle of her back. Tonight, it made his hands hunger to touch her, to course through the dark brown locks that hung over her shoulder. What would it be like to once again tuck one of the loose strands behind her ear, to let his fingers brush against the tattoo on her neck?

Lucy noticed him staring; of course, she did, because his gaze had not broken once since the second she walked in. She looked away shyly, composing herself for just a moment before meeting his eyes once again.

"Hey," Tim greeted nervously as she took the seat to his right. It was a piss poor welcome on his part, but if she noticed how his voice wavered on that one syllable, she did not pay it much mind. She ordered the same drink as him, and as they settled in with their beers, he asked her why she'd joined the academy. Sure, he was a few months late on asking that particular question, but with the captain exposing how little he knew about Lucy's life, he figured there was no time like the present to get to know her.

The answer she gave surprised him, as Lucy basically chalked the choice up to a whim. Tim was secretly jealous that she could just decide to do something and be pretty decent at it almost immediately. The process of becoming a cop had taken great effort on his part, and Tim didn't know if he would've been half the officer he was without his time and training from the military.

"Okay, maybe whim is the wrong word," Lucy said, rephrasing after a moment. "It was sudden though. I had put off going for my master's, and my parents were starting to get on me about that. Then I joined the academy. I didn't really plan it, but I'm glad it happened. Don't get me wrong, it's hard work. Luckily, I have a great teacher."

Now that he agreed with, adding, "Great, good with a gun, and handsome as hell."

"Are you fishing for compliments?" Lucy joked. "I'm starting to think this is a long con to get me to call you pretty." She brought her glass to her lips. "Yes, my teacher is all those things. And more." There was a pause as she took a quick sip of her beer, and as she set her glass back down, Lucy asked, "What about you? Why did you join the force?"

"I needed something to do after the Army, and being behind a desk never really appealed to me." When she wondered aloud whether he considered patrol to be his final career destination, Tim answered truthfully. "I haven't really thought about it, to be honest."

To that, Lucy hummed, a small sound of disbelief in the back of her throat as she looked away, suddenly paying much too much attention to the half-finished drink in front of her.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"Yeah, right."

Lucy shot him a sidelong glance, a wordless look that hinted at the fact that she was hoping he would insist. "I guess I just think about the officers I've worked with, the cops that taught me at the academy, and… I wonder if you aren't depriving the department somehow by staying put and trying to take on the world one rookie at a time."

Was she complimenting him? He couldn't be sure, but when Tim jokingly insinuated that she was trying to get rid of him, she confirmed her praise through a laugh.

"I'm happy you're my TO," Lucy said, "but good cops make good cops and… to be honest, we need more good cops."

The topic fell to the wayside not long after that, and Tim spent the rest of the night asking about her past. He learned Lucy was an only child, that the parents she'd referenced previously had had high hopes for her following in their footsteps as psychologists. She desperately wanted a dog, even though she knew she didn't have time for a pet, and followed that confession with a cute story about how she and her college roommate Rachel had once snuck a bulldog puppy into their dorm. He fed her enough questions to keep her talking, relishing every new fact, every anecdote she shared. Tim committed as much of the night to memory as he could, but it was the idea of moving on from being a TO that stuck in his craw for days.

I wonder if you aren't depriving the department somehow by staying put and trying to take on the world one rookie at a time.

It wasn't that Tim had never thought of pursuing other aspects of police work. There were plenty of opportunities with an upward trajectory, especially for an officer with his background. He stayed on patrol because he enjoyed it and because it was familiar, but thanks in part to her musings, he had taken the time to assess his wants. What did he enjoy about patrol? It wasn't as if the job itself was routine, so he couldn't say he appreciated it for that reason. There was a degree of "anything can happen" to any shift, and that was true especially for training officers. Tim didn't mind being kept on his toes, but if he were honest, his reasons for staying weren't so much because he liked patrol, or even because he liked being a TO. It was true that he didn't favor the thought of being behind a desk, but he was getting older, and long shifts in the shop would only get more punishing with age.

Maybe Lucy was right. Maybe it was time for a change.

He brought it up to Angela after work a few days later, catching her just before she headed into the women's locker room.

"Do you think I should stay on patrol?" he asked.

She appeared stunned by his sudden question. "Where the hell did that come from?"

Tim shrugged; he wasn't about to attribute it to a conversation with Lucy, knowing that was a can of worms better left unopened. "Just thinking about my future, I guess. My options."

"Your future?" Angela smirked. "Your options?"

He shot her a withering look. "You make it really hard to talk to you when you're like this, you know that?"

"I'm kidding, okay?" She tried to force her face into a serious expression, but it didn't quite work; there was still amusement on her lips when she wondered, "Why do you ask?"

"Just… considering whether I should be doing something else. I mean, I've been on patrol for over ten years now. Maybe it's time for a new thing, you know?"

"Since when do you want to try new things?"

He sighed, admitting, "Chen may have indicated that I'd be better used if I'm not restricting myself to 'one rookie at a time'."

"She said that?" Angela chuckled gleefully before exclaiming, "What a little suck-up!"

"You don't think she's right?"

"No, I do. I absolutely do. It's just cute how a single compliment from a pretty girl has you thinking about upending your life." She laughed again before saying, "Look, I've never thought about you as anything but patrol, but that's because you've never expressed in anything but patrol work. Do you really want to make a move?"

Tim nodded. "I think I do."

"Then you should talk to Grey." She grinned before clapping one hand on his shoulder in congratulations. "Someone's about to be a whole new Bradford. Good for you, man. It's about damn time."

The discussion with Sergeant Grey yielded a few potential moves. The one that interested him the most (and the one Grey agreed was the most sensible step) was to pursue a sergeant's position. Based on Grey's description, it sounded like the best of both worlds; a vertical move that, if he passed the exam, would still allow him to work patrol with some frequency. Unfortunately, the next testing period was only a few months away; unless Tim was willing to wait another two years for a new round of exams, he would have to prepare quickly. When Grey asked whether he would be ready by then, Tim paused.

"Let me think about it," he replied, internally compiling the information to dwell on it more later. Hard work had never bothered him, and even though studying was not his strong suit, Tim had all confidence in his abilities. There was just one opinion he wanted first.

He heard Lucy's words verbatim throughout the next day as he weighed his choice. Her call to action, as it were, played on repeat in the back of his mind throughout the tensest shift they'd had in months. Lucy had noticed his stoicism; of course she had, attuned as she was to his moods by now. No doubt she'd known for hours that he was not entirely present, but she refrained from commenting on it only after the issues of their workday (in this case, a city-wide manhunt) had been resolved.

"Tim," she said gently as he drove them back towards the station. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah… just thinking."

"Is something wrong?"

He shook his head. "Not exactly. Um… did you mean what you said?"

"… You're going to need to be more specific."

Right, of course. Enough time had passed that that could mean anything. He clarified, "The other night. When you said I'm depriving the department by staying put."

At that, Lucy exhaled wearily. She slouched in the passenger's seat, a posture change so significant he could see it from the corner of his vision without needing to take his eyes off of the road. "Tim," she whispered, "if I hurt your feelings-"

"-No, you didn't," he interrupted, thinking far from it, actually. "I think you might be right."

"You do?"

"I think maybe I should take the sergeant's exam." He looked her way then, trying to guess, to gauge how she might respond to this news. "It would put me at a desk sometimes, but still keep me closer to patrol work when I want to be. I don't know. Could be a good balance."

Lucy was silent for only a moment before agreeing softly, "I do like the idea of you being out of harm's way more often."

That was a perk he hadn't considered, and to be honest, Tim was kind of touched that her first response was to think of his physical well-being. "So you don't think it's a bad idea?"

"I mean, technically it was my idea," she teased, "but no, I think it's great." He glanced at her again; even in the dark, he could see a smile on Lucy's face as she finished, "I think it sounds perfect."

A/N: Sorry this one took a bit! It's a little harder to find time to write in the summer, but I'm trying to get back on a schedule. I plan to publish every other Wednesday again, so look for the next update on August 10th!

I wrote and posted tiny prequel one-shot for this series. It's called "Tall and Handsome, Eyes So Blue". What happens in that story may be relevant to a later chapter for this one, so you might want to check it out! I promise it's a quick read!

Thank you so much for reading and supporting this story. Please comment your thoughts!

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