Tim Bradford, Lucy Chen: S4 Moments

Moment 21: Always making this look so serious and go: PSYCH, Got You! Literally

Lucy's words were running through his mind on a continuous loop. He'd told her, when she asked, that he could see himself married to her. Maybe there would be a couple of kids running around too. With their luck (and genes) they'd be very blonde and blue-eyed. But he wasn't ready to do that. Yet. Was he? No, no. It was crazy. Chen was getting in his head. They'd barely been together. They hadn't spent enough time together until recently. He just, he couldn't. Can't or won't, he could hear Lucy probing. Ugh. He really needed to find her off switch. Cause now he couldn't stop thinking about it. And...great, Ashley was there as he walked out the front doors, barely ten feet in front of him. Control, he commanded. 

Three, two, one, and showtime. 

"Hi."

"Hi!" Dang, was that too cheery? Forget that, when was he every "cheery." Blech. Chen's influence. Again.

"Good day?" she asked.

"Yeah, it was okay. Lucy was particularly annoying, but-"

"I don't believe that for a second," she interrupted, smiling. How well the two of them got along disconcerted him. Especially after whatever happened at that one dinner, he didn't think they'd get over it. But, they did. And now he feared for his safety. The two women in his life were forces to behold. Wait, what? The two women in his life? What the- but Ashley was talking to him again. He'd get back to the part where he just put Ashley and Lucy on the same plane in his life later. 

"Hey, I know we said just Hyatt, but I just found this super-cute Air BnB in Ko Olina. Cozier, right?" she glanced at him, appraising his reaction. "Just the two of us?"

"That's romantic." It really was. It was just that him and expressing his feelings-yeah, unusual territory. 

Then his attention was drawn away from the bright display on her screen by the orange-but-not-quite-orange color on her nails that caught the light as she scrolled. It tripped him up. " Is-is that, uh- is that a new nail color?" Good grief, what if Chen was right? I can't-I don't think- I can't deal with this! I don't want to have to.

"Yeah, I just had them done." He usually noticed when there was a change. It was a habit that had been ingrained in him. But this was something different and he was mildly panicking over it. 

"Oh. They're-They're pretty." Real smooth, buddy, he thought. 

"Yeah..?" Her facial reaction revealed her mixed reception of surprise and skepticism. She would be right, he wouldn't typically mention a detail like that. But, again, Lucy was in his head. And it was uncomfortable. And...he needed to fix this or he would screw everything up.

"Uh, I'm sorry. Ashley, look. I-I need to- I need to clear the air about something here. The reason Lucy was so annoying today is that...she is convinced you think I'm taking you to Hawaii to propose. But, I mean, you don't-you don't think that, right? C-Cause I'm not." Okay, well that came out way too wrong. Remedy time. "I mean, I-I think we are magic together, but I-"

She pressed a steady, manicured finger against his anxious lips. "Shh...It's okay. I am not expecting a proposal."

"Okay," he breathed out in relief. 

"I would say "no" if you asked."

What. His mind went off an even deeper deep end. 

"Uh, don't get me wrong. I think we're magic too. But I just have no interest in ever being married or having kids. I'm just not wired that way." 

At that moment, his heart made a complete 180 from returning to normalcy to plummeting through his gut and landing 6 feet under. 

"Oh. Okay. Uh, great. It's a vacation. Look, we're gonna have a great time." 

"Yes, we will."

Meanwhile, on the battleground of his mind...Oh, okay. Well, then this relationship isn't going to last. That wasn't his voice, it was Lucy's. Get out! his mental voice yelled. Fine, Lucy's voice said, but, he could hear the smirk in the tone, you know I'm right. That was the problem. She was. Ashley didn't want, wasn't "wired for" as she said, everything that he wanted. Everything he was wired for. That was going to be a bigger, long-term problem that he wouldn't be able to reconcile with. It didn't matter how "magic" they were. He wanted a marriage and a family. He would never force Ashley into it, knowing how she felt about it. But after the hell he had been through, he felt as if he deserved some of what he wanted. 

He gave himself a mental shakedown. It was like he said. It was just a vacation. They were going to enjoy themselves, to have fun. He didn't need to worry about anything else. And he really didn't want Lucy's voice in his head. 

He caught sight of her, just then, out of the corner of his eye. She glanced quickly over her shoulder as if she hadn't just been shamelessly observing him and Ashley through the glass walls of the precinct. 

He reconnected his gaze with Ashley's, hints of humor teasing the corners of them.

"Will you do me a favor?" he asked almost jovially. 

~~~

She saw them, from the inside looking out. She almost felt ashamed when Tim caught her eye, but she knew the whole, "oh, I wasn't looking at you on purpose" maneuver wouldn't work. She still did it. 

In the next moment, the unimaginable was taking place right in front of her.

Tim, he-he was down on one knee. 

Was he really doing this? Was he proposing to Ashley? Apparently, he was, as Ashley reacted with the only kind of joy you witnessed as someone accepted a proposal. She had spent plenty of nights watching proposal videos, so yes, she knew what it looked like. She had also often yearned to know what it felt like.  

Right now, she felt the muscles in her face deflate, though she couldn't pinpoint why. Do I regret teasing him? Why would I? Was he going to do this all along? Did he feel pressured into it by me? 

She was confused. Either she was going to end up being angry over the way he withheld a clearly premeditated plan or she would feel bad about pressuring him into a premature motion. 

Chris suddenly approached her, tearing her focus away from the celebrating couple. His mouth was moving, she was sure that sound was coming out, but she couldn't hear a word.

*DING*

[Got you!] BRADFORD

She spun around furiously, just in time to see Tim waving as the conniving duo drove off in Ashley's jeep.

Oh, that ass has another thing coming, she thought as she began to storm away from a mudde-puddled Chris. 

Forgetting completely where she was, focused only on the fury that was currently consuming her, she nearly bellowed, "ANGELA!"

"Breakroom, Chen," a random passing officer said. She burst in upon Angela pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Ah, Chen. I heard you from the hall. How may I assist you in absolutely destroying Bradford?"

"How did you-"

"I am very familiar with the particular type of anger that man can instill in a person. Trust me. Though he hasn't made anyone this angry in a long time, so my best guess is...he's back to his good old pranking days?"

The steam filtering out of Lucy's ears was enough of an answer.

She sighed, "Never thought I'd see them again. I've missed them honestly."

"ANGELA. You can reminisce later. Help ME now."

"Okay. Give me the run down and I'll determine the level of pain we want."

"None of that matters. We want excruciating."

"Are you sure you can handle the backlash that will 100% come flying back at you?"

"Absolutely."

"Wow. Tell me what he did anyway. No one has ever been willing to risk their dignity before for this type of move."

A/N: Maybe not my best, but hopefully it was funny ;) Also, Chen totally deserved that. And I feel like we are starting to see a lot more of who Tim used to be before Isobel screwed him up.