Chenford: One Shot to the Heart

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"TIM!"

He cringed and held the phone away from his now-ringing ear. He glanced at his bedside clock and internally groaned. "Chen, it's 2 a.m. What is it?" She giggled. Oh no, he thought. 

"UM, TIM?"

"Chen, I can hear you just fine, you do not need to yell."

"OH, SORRY," she replied, the volume of her voice only increasing. Then she got too quiet.

"Chen? Why did you call me? What do you need?" He could hear her mumbling in response. Sighing, he said, "Okay, now I can't hear you." "I'M DRUNK," came the ecstatic reply. Rubbing a hand across his face, he replied, "Yeah, I got that I think. You need a ride? Where are you?" He pushed back the covers, searching in the dark for the shirt and shorts that he knew were neatly folded on the chair in the corner. He slipped on his shoes and was walking out to his truck before he realized she had been too quiet. 

"Chen?" The anxiety crept in despite his best efforts. "Yeah, yeah, I'm here." "Where are you Chen," he asked again. Nothing. "Lucy?" Somehow it did the trick. "I'm with Jackson," she whispered. 

"CHEN, YOU ARE DRUNK AND WATCHING AN INFANT?"

"NO!"

Then it hit him. "Lucy," his tone much softer now, "don't go anywhere." "Not planning on it," came her reply. It was then he realized how empty she sounded. 

Pulling into the parking lot in front of the graveyard in the dark was unsettling, to say the least. The only indication he had that Lucy was even there was her car. Clicking on his phone flashlight, he weaved his way through the area until he found her. 

It was a heartbreaking scene. She was leaning up against his headstone, streams of tears tracing her cheeks. Her hair was tousled. She had propped up in her lap a nearly empty bottle of wine. And it looked like she was wearing... pajamas? This looked like the result of a bad dream. She was staring straight ahead. "Welcome to the party," she said dryly.  He sighed. He did not want to sit on a dead man's grave in the cold. But Lucy was the only thing that mattered right now. He thanked God neither of them had a shift that day, though. 

She hadn't fully acknowledged his presence, but she didn't startle when he sat down beside her. He moved through stages. The first was to get the wine away from her. Not that it mattered too much anymore. Gently, he pried it from her nearly death-like grasp. He saw that her purse was squashed between them. He dug through it, searching for a tissue. With it, he gently cleaned the tears from her face. It wouldn't amount to much, he knew. She was quiet until he brought his arm around her and drew her in close. Then she turned and buried her face in his chest, sobbing as if her heart was torn. If he knew anything, it was. There were so many lines, he knew, that was crossed from the moment he picked up the phone. But right now he was not her ex-T.O. He wasn't her current Seargent, she wasn't his gopher. For now, he let the lines blur to an indiscernible degree. Because she didn't need any of that right now. The Tim Bradford who had fought wars and too many friends knew that. So he was that version of himself. She needed the Tim Bradford who gave her a hug on that first night. So he was that version of himself. She needed the Tim Bradford from Guatemala who promised to be careful. So he was that version of himself. She needed the Tim Bradford that she called "friend." So he was that version of himself. 

He had never taken the time to break down everything that made him, him. Lucy had made him realize just how many versions of himself he could tap into. He had started to realize, recently, that she made him want to be the best of those versions for her. She was good to him, for him. Right now, she needed the best of him. He needed to be good to her, for her. Months ago, he never would have considered it possible. But because of her, he could be who he was now. 

*I desperately want each character to have an episode where they are just totally exposed. Like all of them. Not all at once, because then the focus is lost. But like one or two incidents in a season where they are either drunk or high. And we follow the roller coaster of emotions as they reveal things. I need it! Especially from Bradford and Chen. Duh.*