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The thing is…
After what happened with Caleb she's hyper aware of everything around her. It becomes a habit, really, and Lucy doesn't try to shake it off. If anything it makes her job easier and Lucy a better cop.
However…
They are alone at the beach and Tim has just proposed so when the couple approaches them she's not paying attention. They're too close, too fast and Lucy's brain barely has time to register anything but reaching over to Tim. Then everything goes black. She wakes up groggy, hands tied behind her back, her body aching. Her tongue feels thick. For the briefest moment she's back at that farm with Caleb over her. Tattoo gun in hand ready to mark her as one of his victims. This history is not going to repeat itself, though.
"Luce?" Tim's soft voice grounds her and she opens her eyes. She steals a quick look around assessing their surroundings. The room they are in is barren from any kind of furniture, light is filtering in through the bottom of the locked door. It's not much, just enough for them to be able to see silhouettes, but it will do. Their captors clearly did not have comfort in mind when they put their little plan together.
"Come here often?" She jokes and she can barely see the worry etched in his face. Knowing Tim he's already gone through all possible scenarios and blamed himself twice while she was waking up.
"Don't-" He starts and his voice cracks. No, absolutely not. They're not doing this, not now, not ever. They've come too far to let this whatever the fuck it is to break them up. She flexes her fingers and feels the weight of her engagement ring still there. Good, she didn't even have time to tell him she loves it, damn it! Whoever kidnapped them is going to get so much shit. So.much.shit.
"Timothy Bradford," She hisses turning to face him. Her body protests from the hours of being stationary. "You're not shutting down on me. We've been through so much shit, one more thing to add to the list is nothing. You're going to tap into the G.I Joe part of you and help get us out of here because I found the perfect wedding dress months ago and I'll be damned if I don't get to wear it!" Lucy had found it accidentally during a shopping spree with Celina. A beautiful, off the shoulder golden piece, made out of pure silk with little flowers embroidered all over the fabric. Sure, the traditional color for a wedding dress is white but Lucy is not going to be a traditional bride. She bought it without a second thought and let Celina store it for her. She knew eventually they were getting to this point but no need to stress Tim about it.
"You have a dress?" He asks and Lucy nods her head.
"Of course, I do, you idiot! We've been talking about grandkids since our first date. I like to be prepared. " Which is true, again, they were walking down that aisle one way or another.
"We need to get out of here." Tim says more to himself than to Lucy, really, and starts looking around again.
Saying it is of course easier than actually doing it.
They're both handcuffed, thankfully not to each other or anything else. This proves to be a bad day for Lucy not to be wearing any bobby pins. She could pick the locks in no time if she had one. Everett is either an idiot or too sure of himself. Lucy would bet on both. God only knows why he's after them because Tim did not let him escape. It's not like that was his only chance. He's filthy rich, getting caught just threw his plans for a little bit. But no, he had to be a little bitch and kidnapped them to prove his dick is bigger. Something that is not true because in this situation the person with the biggest dick is Lucy and she will prove it in a bit.
Of course, one thing this crime lord never counted on was the fact that Lucy has been waiting for this ring for a while. No small dick, dirty criminal is going to walk all over her plans of getting married to the love of her life. The plans of giving Tim at least two children with his blue eyes and stupid smile dimples. The compound is quiet, too quiet, and no one had checked on them since they brought them here according to Tim. Which reinforces Lucy's theory that the idiot does not know what to do with them. Then again, he could also be too cocky thinking no ones knows where they are. She highly doubts it, their family is severely codependent. Too many bad things happening too often for any of them to assume uncommunicated radio silence is a good thing.
With that in mind they can try and escape, possibly get hurt in the process. The other option is to pray to whichever god is listening currently that their friends know something is wrong and are on their way. "I'm 99% sure that Angela is already coming for us." Tim breaks her out of her thoughts, bumping her shoulder with his.
"My money is on Grey," She teases. "Do they even know you were proposing?"
"So funny story," He starts and she side eyes him. "I actually lost the ring and Angela found it. She was at the door, not the mailman."
"I knew it! It's not even mail day. We need to work on your lies." She rolls her eyes. "You were practically shaking."
"I'm sorry I was stressed by the fact that I was going to ask you to marry me and wanting it to be perfect. I won't even go into the scenarios my mind made up about you saying no!"
"Don't be ridiculous," She chastises him. "There's no universe where my answer to this question is anything but an enthusiastic yes." She feels him relax a bit beside her. Still to this day, he's worried she might run away. Lucy would never, she said forever and meant it.
"On the bright side, this is going to be another amazing story for the grandkids!" She's about to snap something back when the door to their cell opens and Everett steps in.
"Oh, good!" He says gleefully. "You're awake!"
What a lot of people struggle to understand about Lucy is that she's no longer a green rookie.
Sure, her round face and happy attitude paints a cute picture but in reality she's a seasoned police office. Someone that has completed several successful undercover operations as well as leading Mid - Wilshire's best for a few months now. She managed to shape the night shift into decent cops, accomplish all targets set by the division and most of all get Timothy Bradford to get his shit together. So this? This ridiculous measuring of penis means shit to her.
Everett has been giving his little speech for the better part fo an hour now. He's outlined all his professional resume, has tried to rage bait Tim three times and now has moved into describing how he's going to kill her to teach Tim a lesson. Which would be scary if Caleb hadn't kidnapped Lucy six years ago and buried her alive. Now, it's just annoying. Her lower back is strained, she's cold, hungry and frankly done with whatever this is. She tests the handcuffs again and when they do not move much she takes a deep breath. She recalls something Nyla taught her while they were undercover at Baja. In all the commotion between Everett and Tim who has started rage baiting the older man back, no one pays attention to the sick sound her wrist makes as it dislocates from its place. Lucy feels her hand slip free of the metal but keeps it behind her back.
There's a bang from outside and that's all the distraction Lucy needs to jump up and swing the handcuff at Everett's face. The metal connects with his nose and she feels adrenaline pump in her veins. Her muscles protest but her rage is burning bright. The fight is a blur if not a little unfair to the older man. He's made the mistake to underestimate her. Because Lucy is a woman and obviously needs protecting. Mind you, Lucy kicks Tim's ass in sparing at least twice a week. He's still yet to successfully score a judo throw on her that she hasn't allowed.
Lucy lets her body guide her, throwing one punch after another. Her fists connect first with his cheek, then with his jaw and when he falls to his knees she kicks him on the ribs as hard as she can. Is this excessive force? Sure. Lucy is mad as hell, he interrupted the best moment of her life so far. They didn't even get to have engagement sex! The rage needs to go somewhere. Preferably breaking every bone in Everett's body like he promised to do to her. The door is thrown open and as predicted Angela steps in, followed by Nyla and Nolan.
Damn it, she could have thrown a few more punches!
According to Nolan they were gone for all of six hours before Angela sound the alarm.
Then it took Garza another twelve to track down their location and for the team to assemble an attack plan. They debrief on the way to the hospital because apparently being a victim requires less hassle. Angela has refused to leave their side for a single second, hand on her gun at all times, and at this point she's more than earned her godmother status to any future Bradford children. Nyla, naturally, has also stayed. These two could rule the world if they wanted to.
"Did you really dislocate your wrist?" Tim asks her, worry etching his beautiful face.
"Nyla showed me how." She shrugs. "It's a good party trick as you can see."
"Good girl," Nyla nods in approval. Lucy is her best student after all.
"How did you find us?" He turns to Angela.
"I got worried when you didn't text me anything after the proposal," Angela purses her lips. "That raised a red flag and I tracked you down your last location through GPS. When I saw your phone signal still on the beach it was all boots on the ground. There's no way in hell you'd stay on the beach more than the necessary time." Tim smiles and no one of them comments on the tears brimming his eyes.
"Thank you," He says simple. "Thank you both," He turns to acknowledge Nyla too. He reaches over for Lucy's good hand and squeezes gently.
"We're heavily invested in this thing between you too." Nyla nods, seriously. "Just make sure not to screw it up."
"Never." Tim promises and brings her hand to his lips.
And Lucy knows he means it.