Chapter Text
Just like every couple, Tim and Lucy sometimes come across a disagreement and fight but if they do they would try their very best to work it out before the day ends. They've certainly gotten better at communication after getting back together and going to series of therapy, both individual and couples therapy. It was a very exhausting journey but it was worth the effort.
Tim proposed to Lucy 6 months after and they got married a little while later. The wedding was beautiful, it was everything they've ever dreamed of and more. It was safe to say no eyes remained dry when they shared their vows.
A year after they were legally husband and wife Lucy found out she was 8 weeks pregnant. It wasn't an easy pregnancy but Tim was there in however way he could. Seven months later, after a gruelling 30 hours of labour, Lucy gave birth to their beautiful daughter Elizabeth Zoe Bradford. Life was perfect.
2 years fly by in a blink of an eye. Tim moved back to Metro and was now promoted as a lieutenant. Lucy became a patrol sergeant, taking over her husband's former job, her husband couldn't be happier of her achievements. Their daughter was thriving as well, she got her mother's eyes, face, as well as her sunshine with her father's dirty blond hair and his smile. She's both Lucy's and Tim's life. And just like her mother, she got Tim wrapped around her little fingers. He isn't protesting though.
Both knew what their job entails, the risk and the chances of them not coming back each day. Their job comes with a price. That doesn't mean they're prepared to be face to face with it. Nothing could ever prepare Tim for this.
***
"Wait... Are you saying there's nothing more you can do?" He heard his best friend ask, her own voice wavering. He's truly thankful of her presence here because he doubts anything would come out of his throat other than choked sobs even if he tried. But he's not ready. Not ready to hear the answer that deep down he knew the answer to.
"I'm saying you should get her other families here as soon as possible and say your goodbyes, I'm sorry,"
Then everything fades out, it's too much, everything is too much. The blinding fluorescent light. The smell of a distinct blend of antiseptic and medicinal scents. The beeping sound of the machine that tells him his other half is still alive despite the words he just heard moments ago. It's just too much.
Tim swore he could feel Angela's steps falter just for half a second, he felt her grip on him tighten, and if the person who kept him sane this whole time was breaking too, what was he supposed to do?
Was he just supposed to continue living if his whole world died? How the hell was he supposed to do that?
Tim didn't hear another word of the conversation that was exchanged between Angela and the doctor, he didn't even know how long it had been since the doctor left until Angela cupped his cheek with a hand, the other on his shoulder her own eyes glistening with tears.
"Tim… " her voice was soft unlike her usual firm and that scares him more. Because it made everything true. He wasn't just imagining it, his Lucy is actually slipping away from his fingers.
Angela pushed Tim down slowly to the chair beside the hospital bed, and knelt to become eye level with him. "Tim,"
"Ang, I.. I don't-" he took a deep breath and wiped his eye with the back of his hand, "What else did the doctor say?" he said instead.
Angela glanced at the younger officer laying on the hospital bed, battered and bruised with machines keeping her alive, before looking back at him, "She said a decision should be made soon… about whether or not Lucy would be on life support when her heart fails, and Lucy left the decision for you to make"
When, not if.
As cops this particular conversation was inevitably shared between Tim and Lucy after a rough shift a year ago. Not physically but more towards mentally. They had to arrest a daughter for attempted murder because she tried to unplug her mother's life support. Even if it was her mothers wish, her father didn't want to let go and he was her medical proxy.
"Tim?" Lucy mumbled against his chest, his arms were around her waist and her leg tangled in his. He made a noise to let her know he was listening. "I don't want to have machines keeping me alive," Lucy could feel the moment he tensed and his grip on her tightened. He used his other hand to lift her chin so she was looking at him, he almost regretted it when he noticed her red rimmed eyes.
"Luce-," she shook her head and cupped his face, cutting him off. "We both know it's a possibility with our job, I don't ever want it to happen but if it does, please don't hook me on machines forever. You can take your time, for you and Zoe to say goodbye, but once you're ready, please let me go." Tim nodded and Lucy used her thumb to wipe off his tears.
"I promise." She pressed her lips onto his and he pulled her closer. Eventually when they had to seperate for air she grinned at him. "Don't worry babe you can't get rid of me that easily."
His breath hitched, Tim weakly turned to face his wife.
His partner
His soul
The mother to his child
Hie everything
She looked so small, so fragile, but still beautiful as ever. Tears started to blur his sight but he still reached out to move her curls away from her face and his hands ghosted the side of her face.
"Luce, baby can you hear me?"
Tim's voice began to crack as he whispered the words ever so quietly, hand trembling beside her cheeks. He lowered himself so their forehead was pressed against eachother.
"I need you... please- please don't leave me,"
"Please don't leave us baby..." he begged her over and over and after holding his emotions for so long, the dam finally broke.
Angela pulled him into her arms as he let out the most guttural sob she ever heard, she couldn't help but cry silently as well. "You don't have to decide right now, we have time okay? Just breathe," she murmured into his ears.
There's no words that could be said to make this situation better, no action that could be done, the only thing Angela could do was be there for him, be his life raft when he's barely afloat in the middle of the ocean while a storm is pulling him down and hope that it's enough.
There would be more time for her own mourning for her friend later, for now she just needs to be there for him. Or she'll lose two instead of one.
It took the detective a while to realize that his friend was muttering something almost inaudible in between his cries. "Tim I can't understand you,"
"Zoe, she's alone, I need-"
"Zoe is with Luna and the others, she's fine, I need you to breathe Tim. Can you do that for me?"
He hates that she's treating him like a kid, like he's fragile but he can't stop the tears that's flowing. In all his adult life the only person he allow himself to cry in front of, to be vulnerable, was the woman lying down on the hospital bed, that thought shattered his broken heart even more.
Eventually, his cries quiet down and he succumbed to sleep, his head laying beside Lucy's body, holding her hand close to his lips and Angela let him be. As it was the last sleep he would have with her forever.
Angela left the room as quietly as she could and made her way to the cafeteria where a few of their family was waiting too. Nolan, Bailey, Wesley, Nyla, Luna, Tamara and baby Zoe sleeping soundly on the stroller.
The room was tense, everyone tried to comfort each other, reassuring them that everything would be okay but they themselves were not so sure.
The crash site was an image that will permanently be marked in the mind of any officers who saw it. Though Lucy got the worst of it, it was a miracle that Lucy and Aaron got out alive.
Though maybe it wouldn't be that much of a miracle for Lucy.
The teen was the first to stand up when she saw Angela coming, hope glimmering in her eyes that immediately died down when she noticed the detective's grim expression. She instinctively wrapped her arms around her middle, as if it was the only thing keeping her grounded.
"What did the doctor say?" Nolan asked.
The detective shook her head, she watched as each and everyone of them process the new information.
How Nolan bowed his head down and Bailey's immediate embrace,
how Nyla sat back down as her legs buckled gripping the sides of the chair,
how Wesley looked at her with his own tears pooling but wanting to make sure his wife was okay,
how Luna covered her mouth with her hands and quietly cries
and definitely how Tamara stood still, not moving a muscle, her eyes begging Angela to say it was a joke.
"You're lying right ? This isn't funny, Lucy's fine" Tamara stammered, shaking her head furiously as her tears began to well up. She took a few steps back from Angela then scanned the rest of the officers in the room.
It's easy to ignore the detective when she simply stated that Lucy wasn't going to make it with a single shake of her head, but when everyone who was close to Lucy started crying, she couldn't drown herself in the sea of denial.
"No.."
"Lucy's fine, she's okay.."
"She- She's hurt but she will be okay, she-she'll wake up and we all can go home. She can't..."
"She can't be gone, Angela please... please tell me you're lying," she pleaded the detective while she kept distancing herself from the others, pushing anyone who tried to reach her.
"Come here," Angela pulled the young girl into her embrace despite the girl's protest, sinking down to the floor together as Tamara held on to her for dear life. Mumbling chants of no's and please's.
"Angela she's…she's all I have"
"I know baby I know, I'm so sorry,"
The detective cradled the back of Tamara's head gently, rocking her back and forth while she sobs uncontrollably. Grieving for the loss of her best friend. Her sister. Her mother. The person who believed in her when nobody else did.
Sensing the situation, Zoe started crying as well. Screaming for her mother. Luna gently lift her from the stroller but her attempts to console the baby remained futile because the comfort Zoe desperately sought for wasn't coming. It never will.