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Wade Grey considers himself a fairly observant man. He’s worked his whole life in law enforcement hand has been trained to see things that most people would miss. He likes to think he’s good at reading people and this applies to the officers under his command. Two of those officers have recently piqued his interest and he’s decided to start paying them a little more attention.
Tim makes Sargent
Two weeks after the Sargent’s exam, the scores have finally made their way to Grey’s inbox. He’s not nervous per-say but he is anxious to see how well Bradford did. He’s glad the officer has finally decided to move up. Tim is great on patrol and he’s proven to be a valuable T.O., but Grey knows because of Tim’s military background that he’s capable of more. He doesn’t know what motivated the man to finally take the leap but he’s glad he did.
Grey clicks on the email and scrolls through the list, it starts from the lowest scores to the highest. He doesn’t see Tim’s name right away which is a good sign. As he gets closer and closer to the top scores he sees it:
Bradford, Timothy – Mid-Wilshire: 8th of 140.
“Yes!” he says quietly to himself, “well done.”
Before Braford and Chen head out for the day Grey waves them into his office to give them the good news.
“Those are the kinds of decisions you’re going to have to get used to making as Sargent,” Grey says as Tim’s face lights realizing what he’s talking about.
“Scores are in?” Tim asks.
“List just arrived, you’re 8 out of 140,” Grey tells him.
“Yes!” squeals Chen, “I knew it!”
Immediately she looks embarrassed from the reactions from the two men in the room. “Sorry, I mean, congratulations, Sargent,” she says sheepishly.
“Not a Sargent yet, at that place on the list it will take at least 6 months for something to open up,” Tim explains.
Chen looks a little disappointed by that.
“Well,” says Grey, “I heard there’s a position opening up soon in North Hollywood, the position is yours if you want it. The captain there owes me a favour; you’d start in two weeks.”
Tim looks conflicted as he looks from Chen to Grey then back to Chen.
“Can I think about it over night?” he asks.
“Of course,” Grey says, “just don’t forget, opportunities like this don’t come along often,” he reminds Tim.
Before Tim heads out to the bakery to show Chen how well their plan worked he stops by Grey’s office. It’s time he gives his answer about North Hollywood.
“Sir, do you have a minute?” he asks.
“Of course, what’s on your mind?”
“That job, in North Hollywood…” Tim says.
“It’s a good job,” Grey reminds him.
“I know, and I appreciate the offer, but I’m going to pass,” Tim says hoping his boss won’t be mad or disappointed in his decision.
“May I ask why?”
“I want to finish Chen’s training. If something comes up after that I’ll gladly take it. I just want to finish what I started, sir,” Tim tells him hoping that’s an acceptable enough reason.
“Okay, that’s fair, I’ll let them know. Oh, how did you and Chen make out at Nevins?”
“I sent out a memo to every cop in the area surrounding Mid-Wilshire telling them it has the best coffee and pastries,” he says with a devilish grin.
“Nicely done, I’ll see you tomorrow."
Tim leaves the office and sees Lucy,
“Hey Chen, follow me out, I’ve got something to show you,” he tells her as the leave the station together.
Grey shakes his head but is grateful that Bradford and Chen have developed such a solid working relationship. He’s known Braford a long time but in the last few months he’s finally started to watch the man grow.
Chen goes under as Nova for the first time
Grey has just given Nyla permission to use Chen on an undercover sting as a drug cook with her friend June. He’s not sure it was the right call, but after hearing about Chen’s interest in U.C. work and how she handled herself improvising at a bar the previous night he feels that she’s in the right hands and has earned a chance to prove herself.
What he’s not sure about is how Tim will react. She’s still his rookie; although nearing the end of her training, but Tim doesn’t exactly have the most positive feelings towards U.C., for obvious reasons. So he sits in his office and waits for the shit to inevitably hit the fan.
Tim comes out through the bull-pen and sees everyone gathered in the roll-call room. Chen is already there but she’s not in uniform. He immediately reads the room and realizes what is happening.
He’s pissed.
He listens to Harper explain the operation from the door and once everyone has dispersed he walks with purpose into the room.
“You can’t put an un-trained probationary officer against one of the biggest crime syndicates in Southern California,” Tim says much louder than he should.
“She has some of the best to support her, and she volunteered,” Harper bites back as if Lucy isn’t literally standing next to both of them.
That’s the metaphorical knife to his gut that he didn’t need.
“You don’t know the lion’s den you’re walking into, they do, that’s not volunteering, that’s being used,” he spits out at Lucy before turning on his heel and walking away.
Grey has heard the commotion from his office and waves Bradford in before the man gets a chance to go out on patrol this angry. He knows Bradford is going to want an explanation for approving this operation.
Tim walks in and doesn’t say anything.
“She has some of the best in the business to help her with this,” Grey says without Tim having to utter a word. “She’s got Metro, Harper, Nolan and other officers as back-up. Chen’s smart; but more importantly you trained her. She’s not Isabel.”
Tim knows everything his boss is saying is true. He knows that Lucy and Isabel are entirely different people, different officers, different women he cares about.
“But this is how it started…”
“I know, but this is Lucy, and you need to remember that and let her do this,” Grey reminds him, “And,” he adds against his better judgement, “you can watch her back.”
He sees Tim’s expression change from stressed, angry and helpless to hopeful.
“You’ll let me be her back-up?” Tim asks surprised but not unaware of the fine line he’s walking.
“You can be on over-watch with Nolan up on one of the rooftops, if you can keep your head on straight,” Grey stresses.
“Yes sir,” Tim says with confidence and a steadiness in his voice, “thank you.”
Tim heads out of the office to track down Nolan and get caught up to speed.
Wade knows letting Tim be involved in this isn’t the best idea, but he fears keeping him from it will be worse.
A few hours later Harper tells Grey everything went pretty much perfectly and everyone is in custody. They made sure to arrest Lucy and June to keep their covers intact and this way they can use Nova again in the future.
Grey goes looking for Bradford to make sure he’s okay but finds him having a private moment with Chen. Letting his curiosity get the best of him he makes himself scarce but stays within listening range.
“Hey, I meant what I said earlier,” Tim says.
“Promise?” Lucy asks testing him a little in a friendly way.
“Yes, you did good. You handled the situation well. My issues with U.C. work are very real, you know that better than anyone,” he tells her.
“I know,” Lucy says softly as she puts a hand on his chest, “but I’m not her. You trained me, don’t forget that okay?” she says looking up at him with her big brown eyes as she removes her hand.
Tim immediately misses the warmth.
“Right…” he says, not really giving Lucy any kind of response, “I’ll uh, see you tomorrow.” And with that he leaves her standing alone.
Grey smiles and comes around to corner after Tim is out of view.
“He’ll deal with it you know, if this is something you decide to move forward with.”
Lucy doesn’t look convinced
“Just give him time,” he says.
Lucy nods and goes to change out of her ‘Nova’ clothes so she can finish her reports and leave for the day.
Vegas
Wade Grey is nervous. He’s not nervous about the O.P. itself, just the circumstances surrounding it. He knows sending Lucy and Tim to Vegas is worth whatever Hajek is after, but he’s still nervous about Tim and Lucy having to do it as a couple (or acting like one) not that they have much of a choice with the whole long lost twin situation. As far as he knows both officers are in relationships, but that doesn’t make things less complicated. Doing undercover work can often call for blurring some lines and he’s not sure after the week of prep they’ve been doing that Tim or Lucy even know where those lines are.
It doesn’t help that Rosalind’s trial is fast approaching and has all of their resources stretched pretty thin. So if anything happens in Vegas they’ll pretty much be on their own except for the back-up of Lopez and Thorsen. He just hopes everyone comes back in one piece.
After they all get back Grey reads the reports from Vegas and everything was done to the letter, it was simple and straight forward and yet that seems to be the exact opposite of the energy between Bradford and Chen. Things appear to be far from simple. Now with Rosalind in the wind it seems all of Mid-Wilshire is a little off balance. It doesn’t help that Chen’s boyfriend ADA Chris Sanford was attacked and left for dead leaving Chen to hang back and take care of him, now leaving Tim more at odds than before. Wade sticks him with Aaron to at least give the man something to focus on.
Chen shows up at his office door a week or so later.
“Sir, do you have a minute?” Lucy asks as she steps into the doorway of Grey’s office.
“Of course, take a seat,” he says gesturing to the empty chair.
“Um, so I’ve been recruited to go Sacramento…to attend undercover training…” she tells him nervously.
Grey’s face lights up like a proud father, “undercover training,” he echoes, “that’s impressive officer Chen.”
“Thanks sir…I’ve decided I’m going to go, if that’s okay with you and the department of course,” she says.
“Of course, I’ll make sure everything gets approved by the Captain; it will be good to have another officer at Mid-Wilshire who has completed the training. I guess Bradford will be stuck riding with Thorsen,” Grey says with a smile.
“Ya, I’m sure he’ll like the quiet,” she says with a small smile on her way out.
Courtyard Conversations
Once Lucy returns after her six weeks it’s like her and Bradford are strangers. He’s still riding with Aaron, she hasn’t asked for her spot back, so she’s off solo every day. The two of them don’t acknowledge each other let alone make eye contact. Grey starts to devise a plan to sort them out. Thankfully not long after an opportunity presents itself.
Thorsen has requested some time with the detectives in order to further hone his skills which in turn will leave Bradford without an aid. Grey insists Bradford reunites with Chen and makes sure they both know it’s less of a suggestion and more of an order.
With the day involving chasing down a vengeful bomber and trying to save lives, Grey almost forget all about the pairing he made earlier. He’s pretty sure he’s already missed them change out and leave so he figures he’ll just have to keep a close watch over the next week or so to see if anything seems different between them. He’s surprised however as he reaches the station doors to see Lucy approaching Tim who is occupied by his phone sitting out in the courtyard. Grey decides to hold back for a moment and watch things play out.
They appear tense at first, like they are both trying to talk without hurting the other person. But soon they relax, he sees Chen appear to touch Bradford’s knee, and then he sees Tim smile and take a deep breath before he speaks. It’s that moment that Grey is sure he’s seen enough and heads out to his car thinking finally!
You know how I feel about co-workers dating
A few weeks later Grey is in early to review reports from the night shift. He’s not expecting to find anything exciting from a Wednesday night but he wants to get home early today so he wanted to get a jump on things. As he flips through the papers on his desk he sees: ‘bar fight, noise complaint, car accident, and knife fight, another bar fight’. He flips back to the report of the knife fight confused as to why he sees Bradford and Chen’s names listed in it. He looks at it more closely and realises they were listed as ‘off-duty arresting officers’. He looks at it some more and sees that the incident took place at a restaurant named Rouge; that sounds fancy, and romantic.
He doesn’t want to assume anything, but he also wants to know if it was indeed a date.
As the morning shifts get started Grey notices Bradford and Chen standing closely together out in the bullpen talking. His attention is diverted to the laughter coming from the roll call room where he sees officers Juarez and Thorsen laughing and touching.
Oh Jesus! Grey thinks; he does not need more than one potential secret relationship brewing in his office at a time. He has a plan - he calls Bradford and Chen into his office.
After his little speech the two officers leave and Grey figures that should spook them just enough to come clean. It however does not, at least not as quickly as he expected.
Why don’t you two ride together?
About three weeks go by when Grey makes his last and final attempt to get Tim and Lucy to disclose their relationship.
Once again Aaron is needed by the detectives so Grey greets Lucy and Tim as they arrive (together?) at the station and informs them that they will be riding together. He tries to be as casual as possible but doesn’t miss the looks of concern on their faces.
Finally at the end of shift Tim Bradford graces Grey’s doorway and takes a seat across from him. Tim admits he and Lucy have indeed started a romantic relationship and Grey can’t help but lean back in his chair and smile.
“I suspected as much,” he tells the Sargent.
What he doesn’t expect however is Tim saying he needs to move out of Chen’s chain of command in order to maintain professionalism.
Grey realizes there’s only one position open that will allow Tim and Lucy to remain at Mid-Wilshire and will allow Tim to maintain his title as a Sargent.
“It’s not a great job,” Grey tells Tim.
“Doesn’t matter, I’ll take it,” Tim says with absolute certainty.
Grey nods and starts to get the paperwork sorted out so the change can happen quickly. As Tim goes to leave Grey can’t help himself from saying, “I’m happy for you, for both of you,”
“Thanks,” Tim says with a smile as he heads towards the locker room to change out.
Grey shakes his head replaying what just happened and thinks now that’s love