Safe Place to Hide || Chenford / The Rookie

Chapter 3

If it was literally anyone else, Lucy would have vocally and violently objected to being manhandled in the manner Tim chose to pull her into the closet with him, but it was Tim, and her trust in him and his instincts is practically innate at this point, so she doesn't resist his unexpected maneuvering.

The first thing Lucy notices about the closet is how dark it is. The tiny sliver of light coming from the bottom of the door is no match for the pitch black of their newfound prison.

The second thing Lucy notices about the closet is how small it is. Given how tightly their bodies are crushed together in this minuscule space, Lucy is grudgingly grateful that Tim had managed to pivot her in toward his chest as he yanked the door closed, because the door closing on her nose would have been pretty unpleasant, and somehow, the alternative of instead being smushed up against Tim Bradford's chest is not entirely... unpleasant.

As such, the third thing Lucy notices about the closet is how very Tim Bradford it is.

His grip around her waist has loosened slightly, but he's maintained his hold on her, seemingly ready to keep her in place should she suddenly get the impulse to burst from the closet and confront Tamara's cousin. His body is so rigid against her own that she's not sure she can even discern where the tension coursing through his body ends and the tension coursing through hers begins, the muscles of his chest and abdomen pressing more tightly against the palms of her hands with every rise and fall of his chest.

She doesn't even realize that she, herself, isn't actually breathing until she feels Tim shift slightly, bending so that his lips are just barely brushing her ear, "Breathe, Lucy," he orders softly.

She's not panicking, per se. And she's not claustrophobic, per se. But it is amazing what spending hours underground stuffed into a barrel with a limited air supply can do to a person when they again happen to find themselves confined in a small, dark space. She fights to mentally steady herself, feeling both hyperaware of literally everything in this closet and somehow like she's floating away to another dimension all at once.

Tim carefully raises his free hand to her upper arm, his firm grip all she needs to know that he knows she's struggling. He's steadying her in the best way he can. "Breathe," he orders into her ear again.

And so she finally does, inhaling the familiar but heady scent of her shampoo commingling with his soap in the tiny space, and it's somehow both soothing and disconcerting at once. It's been months now since they've spent all day, every day on patrol together, where this combination was just a routine occurrence within the 4 doors of their shop, but it's now suddenly making her feel that she's not only been yanked backward into a closet, but also yanked backward in time.

Painstakingly, Tim slides his other hand up from her lower back, settling it so that he is gently cradling her head against his chest. The familiarity of it, him protectively clutching her against his chest, is jarring but in the best possible way. She's safe. He has her, and she's safe.

They haven't been this physically close to each other since that day, and in many ways that memory feels more like a dream than reality to Lucy — a desperately emotional, vulnerable, and protective version of him that she now only ever sees in the briefest of glimpses, if at all. To the point that even though she experienced it and heard about it in the aftermath, she still can barely fathom that the same deep well of feeling that Isabel wrenched from him and Angela's brief disappearance brought to the surface also exists for her.

The steady thud of his heartbeat is exactly what Lucy needs to focus, to tamp down any rising panic, and to slow her breathing. She lets her  arms slide around him as she relaxes into him, his body responding in kind as some of the tension dissipates. She doesn't think too much about the instinctual choice because really, it's the only logical place to put them, and it has nothing to do with wanting to be as close to him as possible. Definitely not.