Want You to Stay || Chenford / The Rookie

Epilogue

The wind ruffles her hair as she gazes out over the balcony at the Los Angeles skyline, and for a moment Tim is struck dumb by how absolutely beautiful she is.

The long red gown that is hugging her curves in all of the very best ways has been drawing his eye the entire evening. The brief kiss on the cheek he'd gotten from her in the lobby and reassuring squeeze of his hand under the table at dinner before they'd been pulled away to schmooze with the brass and various department heads had not been nearly enough to sate him through this year's True Blue LAPD Gala.

Tim closes the distance between them, sliding his hand around the front of her waist and reveling in the warmth of her soft curves pressed against him as he pulls her back against his chest. His eyes barely flick out over the balcony to take in the view before he turns his full attention back to the woman in his arms; it's hardly a competition.

"So which unit is trying to recruit you tonight?" he murmurs into her ear.

Lucy giggles, tipping her head back against his shoulder as she leans back into him. "No one is trying to recruit me —" she starts to say before he cuts her off with a disbelieving scoff. "Fine. Vice."

Tim chuckles as he clucks his tongue. "Such a hot shot," he smirks.

He leans down to brush his thumb against her hip through the fabric of her dress and nuzzles his face into her neck. "You should only ever wear this, by the way."

Lucy laughs. "You can't say that about every dress, Tim. It doesn't really work that way."

He shakes his head, "No — nope. This is the one. This is my favorite."

"Better than last year?" Lucy murmurs mischievously, and now it's Tim's turn to laugh.

"I knew you wanted me to notice you in that dress."

She huffs out a small sigh of indignation, but can't fight the smile pulling at the corners of her lips. "I didn't wear that dress for you —" Lucy can feel the heat of his scoff against her neck, and it makes her shiver. "But I didn't hate the way you looked at me in it either."

Tim lets out a hum of pleasure as they lapse into silence.

"It's strange, isn't it? Thinking about the last time we were out here together?" Lucy asks softly after a moment. She feels Tim nod his head behind her.

She twists her body around so that she's facing him and reaches up to wrap her arms around his neck. "I was so confused that night. I just remember feeling so disconnected from you and — everything just felt wrong."

Tim tightens his hold on her before reaching up to tuck a strand of her loose waves behind her ear. "Everything was wrong," he agrees.

And as he gazes into her eyes, he's struck by the truth of his words. He swallows, thinking back on that night — how completely lost he'd felt despite trying to convince himself otherwise at every turn. About how finding out that his father had died put a final nail in that facade — and about how completely shattered he had felt in the aftermath.

And then she had turned up on his doorstep, not giving a shit about any of his jagged edges as she had cradled him in her arms, held every bit of his pain when he had crumbled.

Tim's voice is thick when he continues, "Lucy, I — I probably don't say this enough, but you know that I couldn't have gotten through this year without you, right?"

Her eyes soften, and he knows she's remembering, too. What this night one year ago had been for them.

She slides her arms around his waist, squeezing him tightly before pulling back to look at him. "You may have helped me out a bit, too," she teases gently, before her expression becomes more serious. Some days she can't believe how lucky she is — to be loved by a man that has seen her at her very best and her very worst, a man that knows her insecurities as well as he knows her strengths.