Amy watched Lucy barrel back into the house and run straight for the bathroom, and she followed as quickly as she could. She sank down on the bathroom floor beside Lucy and put an arm around her niece. "Honey, you know I love you, right?"
"I do," Lucy answered through her tears.
"Well, I'm gonna say something to you with love. I need you to get out of my house and go back to L.A. right now. You need to make up with Tim."
"Aunt Amy..."
"Whatever dumb excuse you're about to give me, save it. Get in the car, listen to some music, clear your mind, and then, talk to that boy. If you don't, I know Tamara has no problem locking you two in a room until you resolve this," Amy cut her off with pursed lips.
"I was gonna stay with you for another day."
"Sorry, but Dave and I are un-inviting you to stay with us."
"We should stay to clean up the cottage."
"I'll take care of it," Amy promised. "No more excuses. No more bull. Talk to Tim, and then afterwards, break a piece of furniture or three with your makeup sex. I'll buy you a new bed or whatever."
"Aunt Amy!" Lucy gasped.
"You're both young and athletic. It's not out of the realm of possibility."
"I'm not really sure that's how things will go."
Her niece could not clearly see what was right in front of her, so Amy needed to explain, "One time, Tim showed up to my dialysis treatment with the biggest, dopiest grin on his face that he couldn't wipe off. I asked him what got him in such a good mood. I thought maybe he broke up with that boring girlfriend of his, but no, I pushed him enough, and he finally told me about how he had a great night with you."
"When was this?"
"You two were at some wedding for a fellow officer, and you danced together for most of the night apparently. Tim wouldn't give me a lot of details, but that look on his face told me all I need to know."
"Which is what?"
"That you're acting like a fool right now, so," Amy stood from the ground and offered her hands to help her niece stand up, too. "Get up, and get out of here."
Lucy obeyed and rose to her feet.
"Go back to the cottage and pack. I'll tell Tamara to get her stuff together, too. I want you two on the road as soon as possible."
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay and take care of you?" Lucy asked.
"In any other circumstance, I would love for you to stay forever, but I need you to get your happiness, and then maybe you can come back and visit with Tim."
Lucy followed her aunt's instructions and packed up her belongings in the cottage. It took a minute to actually leave the building she had grown emotionally attached to, but she knew that her aunt was in one of those very stubborn moods where Amy would show up and drag her out of the cottage herself if she thought Lucy was taking too long. She put her bags in her car before going back to the main house to say goodbye to Amy and Dave with plenty of hugs and a few more comments about getting back together with Tim.
Tamara waited until they were on the highway to ask, "So, what are you gonna do about Tim?"
"I wish I knew. I have until we get back to L.A. to figure it out," Lucy answered honestly.
But, the drive did not bring any clarity. Part of her never wanted to see Tim again while the other part of her wanted to run right over to his house and hold him in her arms forever. Torn, exhausted from the trip, and still reeling from her broken heart, Lucy decided to wait to talk to Tim in the morning.
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Both Tim and Lucy were so heartbroken that they forgot about the tiny fact that all of their colleagues thought they were engaged.
When Lucy entered the station, she was greeted by well-meaning officers who kept congratulating her about her news. Aaron gushed for five whole minutes about how perfect Tim and Lucy are for each other and asked if they needed help planning the wedding. Through the swarm of kind cops, a warm hand settled on Lucy's shoulder, and she looked up to see Tim. As hard as it was to be around him, she was grateful that he was there with her, because she was so uncomfortable listening to everyone tell her how happy they were for her engagement- an engagement that was not even real. At least he could back her up in this situation the way he had so many times before.
"Hey, guy, thanks so much, but we really should change for shift," Tim said kindly to the group to free Lucy from what seemed to be torture for her, since he could see the hurt in her eyes behind the smile plastered on her face.
When they walked away far enough, she murmured, "Thanks."
"No problem," he responded tightly and escorted her to the women's locker room.
Sergeant Grey was waiting outside of the locker rooms for them with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. "My office. Now," he seethed then stalked towards his office with his officers in tow. He sank into his office chair while Tim and Lucy sat in chairs across from him at his desk. Grey sighed and knitted his fingers together, trying to calm himself down before he spoke. "I can't say I'm surprised to hear about you two...but, I'm disappointed nonetheless."
Lucy swallowed hard and Tim wanted to reach out and touch her, but he kept his hands to himself.
"You are two of my best officers in the entire station, and both of you know the rules. You're supposed to report a romantic relationship to Human Resources. There are rules about this for a reason so that there's not even a hint of impropriety here. Dating in secret? Getting engaged when no one even knew you two were together? It's against the rules, and more than that...we're close. You could've come to me and told me that you're in love. I could've helped. I would've wanted to help. You know that," Grey said unhappily.
Tim saw that Lucy was shifting uncomfortably in her chair, and he piped up. "It's all my fault, sir. Don't blame Chen for any of this."
"Tim," Lucy shook her head.
"We weren't even together until we left town last week. We weren't dating while on the job, and the rules for reporting a relationship are that it should be considered 'serious' when we go to H.R.," Tim pointed out and was grateful he knew every single rule.
"And now that you're engaged, I'm assuming it's serious," Grey connected the dots. "If that's the truth, then you won't face any backlash for this surprise engagement."
"It's the truth," Lucy promised. Nothing had really happened before they went to Carmel; before then, they kissed for work and maybe had a few charged moments, but nothing that could be considered a romantic relationship in any sense that anyone could prove whether or not her heart felt differently about their daily interactions and the time they almost slept together after returning from their undercover assignment.
"Okay, then...I feel a little bit better about the fact I already solved your problem," Grey said with a smile starting to stretch across his lips. "The second I found about your engagement, I knew you couldn't be in the same chain of command any more, so I called in a few favors, and I got Tim transferred to Metro Liaison Sergeant."
"Metro?" Tim asked excitedly. It was a cool division.
"You'll fit right in, and then you two can work at the same station so neither of you have to transfer."
"Transfer," Lucy whispered under her breath. If she transferred, she would never have to see Tim again and that sounded pretty ideal considering their situation.
Grey blew out a breath. "Now, I am really happy for you two. You both deserve to be happy, and I'm glad you found that happiness in each other. I've suspected a certain connection for a while." He picked up the forms on his desk and handed them to Tim. "Fill out these relationship forms and bring them to me by tomorrow morning, and report to Lieutenant Pine upstairs to start your training. I gotta get on a call with the brass, but we'll talk later."
Lucy turned her gaze to Tim who offered her a half smile before tilting his head towards the office door.
"Oh, and if I catch you two in the supply closet, I'll give you night shift for a week. Lopez knows I'm serious about that," Grey warned.
Tim walked over to open the office door for Lucy to exit first.
She glanced back at Grey who was dialing on his phone, then made eye contact with Tim to quietly say, "This is getting out of control."
He shrugged.
"When everyone was congratulating me this morning, someone told me who Smitty's source was. Ashley. Did you really tell her we're engaged?" Lucy wondered.
"I did."
"Why? Because you lied to her, she came back to town and told her dad, and her dad told Smitty. We have to tell everyone we're not engaged. We have to set the record straight. I'll make an announcement at the end of shift."
"If that's what you want to do, fine."
"There's not exactly an alternative."
"Lucy..."
"Guess congratulations are in order," Chris approached them saying harshly.
Tim took a half step forward as if he needed to physically protect Lucy from her ex-boyfriend.
"How long were you cheating on me with him?" Chris asked, his eyes locked on Lucy's to ignore Tim.
"I didn't. I didn't cheat on you," Lucy insisted. There was that one time she almost did, but they found a nearly unconscious Chris on her living room couch, which definitely ruined the mood and foiled any plans of crossing the line into cheating territory.
"Liar," he bit out.
"Watch how you speak to her," Tim growled.
"That's what she is. I'm not dumb. When I broke up with her, I accused her of having feelings for you and something going on here. Of course, Lucy kept saying no, but less than two weeks later, you're engaged? Yeah, the evidence is pretty clear," Chris reasoned.
"We didn't even go on a date until a few days ago. I wasn't lying," Lucy tried to keep her voice as even as possible.
"How else do you explain that you two got engaged so fast?" Chris pressed.
"Because we love each other," Tim answered. "We've known each other for a while. It's not like we'd need to date long to know it's serious and that I want to spend the rest of my life with her."
Lucy searched Tim's face, but he did not seem to be lying. That was different than what he told Angela on the phone the other night. What should she believe?
"Bradford! We start drills in 5 minutes. Hustle up," Lieutenant Pine barked from the top of stairs looking down at her newest team member, his fiancée, and some other man.
Tim flicked his eyes over to Lucy for a second before jogging up the stairs.
"I, I have to go," Lucy said to Chris awkwardly and went back to the locker room to actually change.
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At the end of shift, Lucy slowly re-dressed in her civilian clothes to bide some time and gather up the courage to announce to the station that she and Tim were not actually engaged. She had been crying quite a bit since they broke up, and she did not want to start tearing up while speaking to all her coworkers. Unhurriedly, Lucy ascended the stairs until she was on the landing where she could look down at the bullpen. She opened her mouth to call everyone's attention, but Lucy froze when her eyes found Tim leaning against a desk. He looked upset. Why was he upset, she wondered. Not once throughout the day had Lucy managed to tell anyone their engagement was not real, but neither had Tim. After so emphatically denying the rumor to Angela, he failed to do so in response to all of the congratulatory words from their colleagues as far as she knew, and now he looked sad at the prospect of her telling everyone they were not actually engaged. Was he being honest when he spoke with Angela or Chris? Lucy could not be sure, but she was certain that she was starting to get dizzy, so she walked down the stairs and went over to Grey's office.
"Sir, can I...can I get a transfer form?" She asked.
"I already explained that Tim joining Metro means it's not necessary," Grey replied.
"Right, but...can I have one anyways?"
He eyed her curiously but pulled one out of his drawer and handed it to her.
"Thanks," Lucy responded while accepting the piece of paper and turned to walk briskly through the station all the way to her car. Her aunt asked her to speak with Tim, so she was willing to have one more conversation with him, but if it did not go well, she had a backup plan.
In truth, she sweated so much from all the lying that Lucy needed to shower when she got home before even thinking about going over to Tim's house to talk to him. She was getting some conflicting messages from him, and even if hope was dwindling, Lucy naively thought that maybe she should not let go of him so easily.
She set the blank transfer form on her kitchen counter before entering her bathroom to shower and try to stop thinking about her situation with Tim for a few minutes, but she was unsuccessful.
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Tim watched Lucy leave the station so abruptly that he did not have a chance to talk to her- not that their conversations had been going well lately. Before he could leave the station as well, he was silently beckoned by Grey to join him in his office. "Sir?" Tim asked.
"Why did your fiancée ask me for a transfer form? Do you not like Metro? I can help you find something else..."
"She what?"
"You didn't know? I thought it was for you. Why else would she need a transfer form?"
"I think that's a question I need to ask her," Tim answered somberly.
Grey looked at the other officer curiously; he was not exactly sure why Tim and Lucy had been acting so strangely all day, and neither of them looked particularly happy despite their new engagement.
"Good night," Tim curtly nodded at his boss and left the glass office. He needed to find Lucy.
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Tamara heard a knock at their front door and found Tim in the hallway. "Lucy, your fiancée's here," she announced. Then, she narrowed her eyes and leaned in, "Remember how I threatened to kick your ass? If she cries one more tear over you, I promise they'll never find your body."
Slightly freaked out by Tamara's threat, Tim walked into the apartment as Lucy came out of her bedroom. His eyes scanned her and saw that she was dressed in a robe with freshly blow dried hair. She looked beautiful.
Instead of greeting him, Lucy said, "I was about to go over to your house, well," her eyes dropped to her barely clothed body and added, "after I changed."
"Maybe showing up in the robe wouldn't have been such a bad thing," Tamara thought aloud. Both Tim and Lucy turned their attention to her, and she put a hand on her hip. "Just saying what Amy would say if she were here. Now, I'm gonna go grab my bag and stay at my friend's house, and you two are gonna stay here and talk. I won't be back until the morning, so you can be as loud as you want." She disappeared into her bedroom to quickly pack.
Tim had a lot he wanted to say to Tamara, but more importantly, he came to be with Lucy. "Why were you going to my place?" He followed her eyes as they dropped to the piece of paper on her counter. "Were you coming over to tell me in person that you're planning on transferring stations?"
"It's an option," she answered vaguely.
He bridged the gap between them to stand right in front of her and took her hands in his. "I need you to listen to me. Really listen to me. Everything you've said and done over the last few days...I think you're scared right now, and that's okay. I'm scared, too. I'm scared of losing you, but I already told you I'd never let you break up with me. I feel like you're trying to run away from us, and it doesn't make any sense. You told me you were happy."
"I was...that's what really terrified me," Lucy admitted.
"Andy texted. She volunteered Olive to be your flower girl," Tamara summarized the text that had appeared on her phone a moment ago. She noticed the looks on her friend's faces and said, "Okay, we'll talk about that some other time. Bye," and left the apartment quickly.
Lucy took a deep breath and squeezed Tim's hands. Looking in his eyes, it was not as scary to share the truth as she suspected, "Before you, the most serious relationship I had been in was with someone that I thought I loved. He told me that some day we were gonna get married, and he was saving up to buy me a ring. I believed him. We were living together and building a life together, and it felt real. I really thought I knew what love was and that's what we had, but then...I came home one day to OUR house and caught him in OUR bed with someone who I thought was my best friend. Then, you and me were acting like we were engaged and living together, and I felt like I finally learned what love really is and it was even easier to see my whole future with you. It freaked me out, and I tried not to panic, but then you told Angela that it would be ridiculous for us to be engaged, and I just lost it. All that stuff I thought I had processed with my ex, it just came back."
"I didn't think I'd get married again before you opened me up to the possibility that I could find someone else. We all have baggage."
"Mine shouldn't have gotten in the way of us. I got scared. Everything between us has happened so fast, and it's been so perfect. But then, we got interrupted both times we tried to have sex, and I wondered if it was a sign that we shouldn't cross that line, but I thought my car troubles were a sign I should stay in Carmel, and that wasn't a sign. That was Amy messing with my car."
"She messed with your car?"
"And our bed & breakfast reservations. She was behind all of it to get us together. I told you already that she knew we were lying the whole time."
Tim was not necessarily surprised, but still, he responded, "I had no idea."
Lucy smirked. "Neither did I, but that's not important. I'm sorry, okay? I'm so sorry that I've been acting so...unlike myself. I'm usually pretty calm and rational unless I've had too much coffee, but I've never loved someone as much as I love you, and everything with my ex...Amy said we should talk, and she was right, so I was gonna go over to your house to clear the air."
"And, if it didn't work out, you were planning to transfer stations and move away just like you moved out of your apartment and away from your cheating ex," Tim followed her train of thought.
She nodded. "I've been trying to protect myself, but...I don't want to close myself off from you. I want you."
"Why else do you think I came over here? That's what I want, too."
"Then why did you tell Angela we're not engaged and that it would be ridiculous that we were?"
So much had happened, it took a moment for Tim to recall how he panicked when Lucy told him she loves him and in an idiotic response, he answered Angela's call where she started pressing him for details about his engagement to Lucy, and he tried his best to react to his friend's scrutinizing detective voice with a million thoughts flying through his mind. "Oh."
"You told her it would be ridiculous, but you told Chris you want to spend the rest of your life with me. What am I supposed to believe?"
"I-I wasn't really thinking when I was talking to Angela. I mean, you had just told me you love me while you were shirtless. Can you blame a guy for being a little distracted?" He watched her cheeks pink up and traced circles on the backs of her hands. "I was trying to get her off my case. She's already accused me of having feelings for you, and everything between us was so new, plus...at Amy's wedding when your mom accused us of faking our engagement since Smitty's blog hadn't reported on it yet, you may have been lying when you said you were keeping our relationship a secret from our coworkers to avoid getting comments from everyone, but that made sense to me. Cops are such gossips. Look what happened today. I only told Ashley, and within a day, our entire station thought we were engaged. You must've felt all the eyes on us during shift, 'cause I did. I didn't think we were ready for that level of judgement, so I lied to Angela to get her to back off. That's it."
She was kicking herself as she responded, "That makes sense. I'm sure there's also a good reason why you didn't ask me on a second date?"
"I thought we'd wait until we got back to the city. I figured you would want to spend as much time with Amy as you could before we had to leave."
"Wow, I was being really dumb."
"No, you were scared. You were thinking about what happened with your ex, and you didn't want to get hurt again. I get it, but," he reached up to hold her face. "You have to know I never want to hurt you. I love you."
"I love you, too." Lucy leaned in to kiss him lightly, and it felt perfect like all was right in the world, and she was exactly where she belonged.
"Does this mean you'll throw out that transfer form?"
"I couldn't even manage to fill it out."
"Good. Speaking of forms, I wanna submit the ones Grey gave us."
"Everyone already knows, so I guess the official paperwork wouldn't hurt," she agreed.
"The problem is, we're not actually engaged," Tim pointed out. Her eyebrows shot up, and he let go of her face. "I'm a traditional guy. There's no universe where I wouldn't ask you." He pulled out the engagement ring from his pocket that he had been holding on to since Lucy gave it back. Tim restlessly slept with it next to him on his nightstand and tucked it into a pocket of his uniform to keep the ring with him every second. Even though she had suggested he threw it in the ocean, the only place he wanted to put it was back on her hand as soon as possible, so he dropped down on one knee and softly asked her, "Lucy, will you marry me?"
She was so overcome that she did not have a chance to speak before Tim slipped the ring on her finger. "I didn't say yes," she pointed out cheekily.
He repeated the words she said to him when she assumed he would agree to her fake engagement charade in Carmel, "I know you well enough to know that it's a yes."
Lucy rolled her eyes. She should have known that conversation would come back to haunt them, so she said the words he told her when he finally surrendered to playing along and pretend to be her fiancée, "Fine, it's a yes."
Tim felt a grin stretch his cheeks as he stood up. "I'm not gonna tell our grandkids you said 'fine'. It'll sound like you didn't want to be engaged to me."
"We'll tell them what I told Amy when we didn't have a ring to go with our cover story. Maybe our engagement was a little unconventional, but that's par for the course for our relationship. We just love each other so much..."
He finished the statement she said to Amy that day that felt so long ago, "All that matters is that we want to spend the rest of our lives together. Nothing else is as important."
Tim really is a good listener based on the fact that he could quote her words back to her. She reached up to pull his face down before crashing her lips against his.
One arm wrapped around her waist to bring her close while his other hand was buried in her hair as he kissed her back enthusiastically.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Lucy, and she pulled away from him abruptly. "Wait, we should call Amy. She'll be so happy."
"You know she's gonna have a million questions and tease us a ton, right?"
"For once, I think we might deserve it."
He chuckled and pulled his phone out of his pocket to text Amy.
Tim: We're engaged. For real this time. Will call in the morning.
"We'll call her in the morning," he told his new fiancée.
"Don't you think that's a little rude? She's sorta the one that brought us together," Lucy noted.
His phone buzzed before he could even put it back in his pocket and laughed when he read her message. Lucy looked over to see Amy's text, and she blushed.
Amy: Hell YES! Break some furniture tonight and we can talk tomorrow when you come up for air
"I think she's okay with it," Tim smiled.
Lucy popped one of the buttons of his shirt and responded, "If we've learned nothing else over the last week, we know now that we should always listen to Aunt Amy."
He played with the tie of her robe. After seeing her wear it a few times in the cottage and wanting to unwrap her from it like a present, Tim realized that now, he could do just that. In an instant, he dove in for another kiss while backing her in the direction of her bedroom. Trying to explore her mouth while walking proved to be a little too difficult, so he pushed her against the doorframe of her room, careful to protect the back of her head, and kissed her for a few moments.
Lucy was growing impatient, so she started backpedaling into her room knowing he had no choice but to follow with the way their lips were connected. She blindly felt around for the doorknob to shut the door while he yanked at the tie of her robe. In one quick motion, her robe was suddenly on the ground, making her gasp.
"Get on the bed, baby," Tim said sweetly while he started unbuttoning his shirt and wondered why there seemed to be so many buttons on his shirt keeping him from her.
"I don't take orders from you anymore," she shot back playfully.
He considered tearing his shirt off the rest of the way, but Lucy reached out to help him finish with his buttons. "This is how it's gonna be for the rest of our lives, isn't it? You refusing to listen to me?"
"Yes, sir," she flirted and looked down at his bare chest.
"God, I love you," Tim smiled and watched her sit on the edge of the bed.
"Prove it. After all, you're a show me kind of guy," Lucy tugged him close by the hem of his pants that were unfortunately still on his body.
"Challenge accepted," he replied smugly and pushed her to fall back on the bed while he climbed on top of her.