Chenford: Song Fics

Personal

#104daysofsummervacation
#104daysofchenford
#Day28

Song: Personal, by The Vamps, ft Maggie Lindemann

A/N: Ashley doesn't exist (and in my typical fashion, I mean that in the nicest way possible)

I think it's time I lay my heart out on the line
I think it's time to say what's playing on my mind
I see you out with him and I say that I'm fine
Happens every time (every time)

He could have told you the moment he caught Lucy in the midst of a bickering battle with the snazzy ADA on the scene that everyone was about to witness a recycled Evers-Lopez romance. If they made it to a wedding, everyone would be packing heat.
Only he remembered a little too late that he didn't want that for her.
She could do better of course.

I'm sick and tired of playing games
I'm sick and tired of being second place
And I know if I never try
I'll be sick and tired of being sick and tired

And 'better' was with him.

Chris Sanford was an okay guy. But if he could personally describe the guy in one word, it would be "meh." And that wasn't even a word. The guy just seemed...bland. That wasn't even coming from a prejudiced perspective. At least not heavily prejudiced. Sanford really just wasn't enough for Lucy. Forget 'good enough.'

There was no way he'd be able to keep up with her every mood swing.
There was no way that he'd be able to understand her every quirk.
There was no way, especially given their initial argument, that he would be able to comprehend her values or even appreciate them.
Especially not the way that he could.

But being the flat-out 'man' he was as Angela and Lucy and Nyla and...well as about every woman would say, he waited.
He waited to tell her what he thought.

Don't take it personal
But personally, I think you'd be better with somebody like me
But worst of all, you don't even see (you don't even see)

She was not happy.
"I'm sorry," she said, tilting her head in that abrupt way when something both surprised and pissed her off simultaneously, "what?"

"You heard me," he said, "I think you could do better than Sanford."
"And you decide to tell me this after what, the four months that I've already been dating him?"
"I didn't realize that it was going to last this long. I thought-"
"Oh. Okay. So, what? You didn't expect this relationship to go well in the first place?"
"Well..."
"Wow. Okay. It's-it's reassuring, ya know? To find out that your partner is so supportive of the relationships you enter into. If you knew, from the beginning, that you didn't like him, and that you thought that I could do better, that I, I don't know, deserved better, why didn't you say that? You don't think that I would've wanted to know that? To know that before I met his parents, or before he convinced me to let him meet mine? Now they're in love with him, by the way. You don't think that maybe I've been waiting for your input since my first date with the guy?"

You know how much I love it when you call me out
You see it in my eyes, the way they follow you around
'Cause yeah, I like the way you dance
You know I do, yeah I do
'Cause that's just you

She was furious. She'd been waiting ever since the evening of Jackson's death when he had held her close and had caught a hint of something different in his eyes, for him to just say something, or do anything, that would explicitly convince her that she hadn't imagined it.

She'd found, at some point, that Tim Bradford had invaded the corners of her mind as more than her former TO or even her current Sargent. She'd been waiting for any sort of encouragement. But it never came.

So when Chris came on the scene, she kind of allowed herself to fall into it without much of a fight. Maybe it would encourage Tim to do something.
But it didn't.

Time dragged by, and things were growing increasingly serious and increasingly out of her control. Chris absolutely bored her out of her mind.
But her parents loved him and Tim had done nothing.

I'm sick and tired of being friends
I'm sick and tired of being there
And I know if I never try
I'll be sick and tired of being sick and tired

She had grown sick and tired of waiting for what she wanted. So she found herself trapped in a dull, complacent routine with Chris.
He couldn't even see that she was not invested.

Lo and behold, Tim finally found his voice. At this point, she was just about done. She'd been waiting for this until she couldn't anymore. And now, she wasn't sure how she should take it.

Should she admit everything that had been weighing on her mind for the past eight months? Did he even deserve to know anymore?

Don't take it personal
But personally, I think you'd be better with somebody like me
But worst of all, you don't even see (you don't even see)
Girl, don't take it personal
But personally, I think you'd be better with somebody like me
But worst of all, you don't even see (you don't even see)

"So, Tim Bradford, in all of your almighty wisdom, if Chris isn't good enough for me, then who on this green earth is?"

He balked at this.

Great. Would she have to wait eight more months to get somewhat of an appropriate response to her question?
She couldn't. She'd have her birthday in the next eight months.

Birthdays had never been fun for her, what with her mother always bringing down the pressure on her ever since she'd been tolerably old enough to be considered for marriage.

"You know what? Nevermind."

It was safe to say that the rest of their shift was held in absolute silence.

When they pulled the shop into the garage and all the cameras were off, she was stopped from exiting the vehicle by his hand on her forearm.

"What would you say if I said that it was me?"
"What?"
"You asked me who I thought was good enough for you. I might sound like an absolutely arrogant son-of-a-gun when I say this, but I think I could be. Good enough. For you. What would you say to that?"

"I'd say that you took too long."
His expression fell discernably.
"But I'd also tell you that I broke up with Chris yesterday so if you took me home with you right now, I wouldn't have any inhibitions."
"Really?"

She rolled her eyes, "Yes, really. Now, for the love of my sanity, take me home and show me why you're good enough for me."