The Bradford's

The Chen's

"Hey me and the kids were going to go to the park and then to the mall, want to come in?" I walk into the den that Tim turned into his man cave he watching a game and is staring at it and ignores me. "Earth to Tim!" I say a little louder.
"Huh, what?" He snaps his head at me.
"For a police officer you sure do get distracted by sports easily," I joke.
"Yeah, sorry, what did you want?" He smiles apologetically at me.
"Park and mall, me and kids, you in?" I gesture to the door with my thumb.
"Sure why not," he clicks the TV and gets up. We all get our shoes on and I grab Logan and carry him to the car. Tim drives us there and I get the kids out.
"Daddy push me!" Lila runs to the swings, her favorite thing to do. I follow them to the swings and sit Logan in a baby swing and start to push him softly. Once they are going good I sit down and start to swing myself slowly.
"Hey do you see that," Tim gestures with his head to the bushes. I don't see anything.
"No, just some bushes. Is the heat getting to you already?" I joke.
"No, it's just," he shakes his head, " Nevermind." He doesn't look convinced but I just shrug it off.
Lila eventually heads to the play set and Tim pushes Logan a little to get him going and then sits on the empty swing by me.
"So, what do you think of Reed, honestly," he asks.
"I don't know I think he has potential but I don't know what to think about this gang thing..." I shake my head and look down.
"Me either... it's unsettling. He could be telling the truth or lying, I think we should tell Lopez and let her decide as the detective," he nods.
"Or, we could follow him. Release some lie about taking them down again to the officers, and then after shift see if he meets with anyone we know." I tell him in a excited tone.
"How about we tell Lopez and suggest that. I got to tell someone else babe, to cover our asses." He exhales deep.
"Deal," I put my hand out and he takes it and then pulls me in for a kiss.
"Deal." He whispers with his forehead on mine.
"Daddy I'm hungry!" I'm Lila comes over yelling at him.
"Okay okay, let's go to the mall I hear the food court has some really good pretzels." He picks up Logan and we walk hand in hand with Lila skipping happily in front of us.
We walk in and Lila runs straight for the pretzel stand.
"1 pretzel pleaseeee," she says to the worker who looks at Tim and he nods that it's okay. "Dad I need some money," she turns around puts her hand out.
"Do you really, well let me see what I can do," He reaches in his back pocket and pulls out his wallet, opens it and hands her $20.
"Why don't you ask for 3 more." He hold his fingers up to her.
"I'll take 3 more pretzels please."
"Ooo 1 with cheese," I pipe from beside Tim. Lila pays and we get our food and head to the tables to eat. Tim's eyes scanned the area around us and he looks over at me.
"Lucy, I think I see your mom and dad..." he says and my heart stops and my eyes follow his... that's them.
"Yeah that's them. I haven't see them since I joined the academy." I'm in complete shock at this point. "What do I do, oh my god there waking the way." I try to duck down but they are staring at me and walking closer now.
"Lucy... is that you?" My mom asks.
"Uh-yeah I guess so." I shrug.
"We are so sorry, we have missed you so much. After about a year I called your phone and it was disconnected," she has tears in her eyes. A whole year before they missed me...
"Yeah, well I've been through a lot and you knew where to find me. I've been in the news for the police a thousand times. Could have came to the station, the Hospital one of the times I was found. I don't want to talk to you." I get up and walk away but they stand there and I see Tim say something , then hand them his phone. Then he grabs the kids and follows me.
"Just hear them out, babe," I say as we walk down the mall to look for new shoes for Lila.
"No, I can't forgive them, they abandoned me when I needed them the most."
"Look they said they'll be here all day let's just meet them and talk. Or you meet them alone. I don't care. It could be good." He grabs my hand and squeezes.
"Fine... but we'll do it while they kids play at the play area. I don't want them around them." Lilas too far ahead to hear us.
We go to a few more more stores and Tim called and told them where to meet us. Lila was very proud of her new sparkly shoes and Logan loved his cars hat.
We made our way to the play area where we told Lila where to go play and Tim kept Logan in his stroller and we moved just outside the area where we could see Lila but wouldn't be close enough. When my parents found us and came over.
"Lucy, you look so good, sweetie," my mom told me and I gave her a forced smile and a thanks.
"So, you guys were saying earlier how you regret cutting Lucy out?" Tim asked and I shot him a shut up look.
"Yes, Lucy, as I was trying to explain, Emmett, he told us if we didn't leave your life he was going to move you far away. I knew that one day you would leave him. He was obviously controlling, we just didn't know it got to the points it did. We shouldn't have listened to him," she had tears in her eyes and I felt bad. But they could have saved me before I was forced to go through everything that I did.
"What about when I was kidnapped TWICE! Where were you?" I snapped at her and stopped the tears.
***The last time I talked to my parents***
"Lucy, we need to talk," my mom stood on my front door step and I moved letting her in and we walked to the living room and we both sat down.
"What's up mom?" The look of disappointment written all over her face, but I can't tell why.
"I can't agree with any of this, you being pregnant, taking about joining the police academy when you have the baby. I can't agree with it, it's not ladylike, heck your not even married," I just stared at her mouth slightly ajar eyes wide. Not believing the scene in front of me. Then the tears flood my vision.
"What do you mean? I thought you were excited to be grandparents," I asked.
"Your not married Lucy, it's an embarrassment, we were just being nice in front of the Lang's. So you can come home and forget the police academy, marry Emmett in a month and then you and Emmett can find your own house. Not this silly apartment.",
"No, you can't make me choose. I want to become a police officer. I want to do all of that before marriage. Build a name for myself."
"Then don't contact me or your father. I can't stand by and let you get killed and embarrass yourself and us." She got up and let herself out.
***ends memory***
"We looked for your both times endlessly. Then you were found and we saw that Emmett was behind it." She shakes her head and wipes the tear away, "we felt terrible. Honestly, I kind of blamed myself. It wasn't easy."
"Wasn't easy? Blamed yourself."I scoff. Try being me or Tim or heck Lila not know where her mommy is. Getting kidnapped herself. Thank god she probably doesn't remember it and if she does she thinks she just went away with her dad. She knows her real dads in heaven but Tim is her dad in every way shape and form but blood.
"Lucy," Tim warns, gently snd puts a hand on mine, eyes not leaving the play area though, intently watching Lila as she hops on the little circles.
"When you gave me a choice you said I was an embarrassment, did you mean it?" I don't know if I want to hear the answer.
"We were embarrassed of the situation not you. But, Emmett had us believe he was going to run with you if we didn't stop talking to you." My dad finally spoke for the first time.Che sounded older than before, wiser.
"Why didn't you tell me? I would have left him right then and there." I would have. My parents were more important.
"We figured you wouldn't believe us. And having you in the same state we could keep up on you from afar and we did. When Lila was born we were at the hospital and looked in the nursery at her. We went to your academy graduation, we saw you take in the that criminal on your first day of work. When you were um, you know," my dad could say it, he looked down and played with his thumbs, "we sent flowers to your room both times. We had no clue he was physically hurting you til we saw on the news what he did to you... we couldn't believe it. I'm so sorry we didn't notice."
"She hid it well, I didn't know til I brought her soup one day when she called off sick and I saw the marks for myself... it about made me sick." Tim's face hardened and I saw his jaw clench and then relax.
"I don't forgive you and I can't promise I will. But, I'm willing to try and fix things SLOWLY," I emphasis and my mom smiles and throws me in a hug. "So I notice you have another little one!" She leans into the stroller to look.
"Yes that's Logan," I smile, "and I'm sure he introduced himself, but that's Tim Bradford, my husband, we met at work."
"Nice to formally meet you guys." He sticks his hand out and my dad shakes it.
"We should be getting the kids home. We work the night shift." I look at my watch and see it's 3 and we work at 8.
"Of course," my mom says, "I love you Lucy. And I am very proud of you."
"Love you Luce," my dad smiles and they both walk away. Tim gets up and goes to get Lila and we head home.

Once at home the kids are fed and we leave to go to work and Tamara is with the kids. On the way to work Tim is driving and reaches over to grab my hand.
"Tim, what you said earlier about Emmett hurting me you really didn't notice?" I ask shifting my eyes to him to read his expression.
"No, not until I saw you. I just thought you couldn't take the physical part of the job... I felt terrible when I realized." I feel tears in my eyes.
"I love you, I hid it for a reason... so don't do that! Plus he's gone and we are here together and you treat me right. That's all that matters." I lean over to kiss his cheek. And then something collides with the truck sending the car tumbling and I look over and Tim looks scared. Then I see nothing but darkness.