nothing safe is worth the drive.- A Chenford Fic
In honor of Red (Taylor's Version) being released in less than a week and my newfound obsession love of Chenford, I present to you, my first (of many) Chenford fic...
In which Lucy Chen has a TikTok account that sometimes features one Tim Bradford... aka 2200 words of pure fluff and ridiculousness.
When Lucy first started her TikTok account, she never expected it to blow up like it did. It began as goofy dances with Jackson and late-night song covers on the vintage baby grand piano she’d found at an estate sale (how she’d fit the hulking thing in her tiny apartment, she had no idea).
Then a few months later, Jackson had bet her that she couldn’t make her then-TO a feature of one of her videos (a challenge, indeed—Tim hated everything to do with social media) and, being Lucy, she couldn’t say no. And so, ‘The Many Faces of my Training Officer’—psych, he only had one, and that was glaring at people—was born.
Lucy had woken up the next morning to a thousand new followers begging for more Lucy and ‘Officer Zaddy’ content. She kept it to herself, hoping it would blow over and no one from the station would know that Tim Bradford had become the next TikTok star, but of course, this was L.A. and L.A. was absorbed in social media.
They’d gone to make an arrest a few days later on Hollywood Boulevard (a man had stolen a young socialite’s Hermes handbag, likely meaning to trade it in for a fix) and before they could even cuff the suspect, a crowd of screaming teenagers surrounded them with phones in hand, begging for a photo with their new favorite celebrities.
In all the chaos and blinding camera flashes, the man had taken the officers’ distraction as an opportunity to slip out of Lucy’s grip and take off down the street. By the time she and Tim had pushed the group of girls out of the way, the suspect was nowhere to be found.
Tim had berated her the entire way back to the station, where Lucy was sure she’d be on the receiving end of a nice letter of discipline from Grey. (There went her dreams of becoming a P2 along with Jackson in 60 days—she’d be stuck as a rookie with Nolan.)
“Officer Zaddy? What the fuck, Chen?”
“In my defense, sir, Jackson and I had a bet, and I couldn’t listen to him brag about how there was finally something that Lucy Chen couldn’t do.”
Tim raised his brows at her with lips pursed, the expression so oddly reminiscent of the face that he’d made in the video that Lucy couldn’t help but laugh.
Sure, Grey was pissed. For a while. Until the higher-ups realized how beneficial the goofy, heartwarming videos could be for the force’s reputation in the community and actually encouraged Lucy to make more.
Lucy and Tim had been making videos ever since. Tim had groaned through the first dozen, but eventually even he found that making videos and letting loose for a while was enjoyable.
And as the internet fell more in love with ‘Tucy’, as they’d been coined, Lucy Chen fell more in love with Tim Bradford.
Lucy was horrified that her feelings would show through the lens of her camera, that she’d be found out before she could even process that, holy shit, she was in love with Tim, the man that she’d all but abhorred nearly a year ago.
But instead, the fans were hyper focused on the way that Tim looked at Lucy, his new nickname in the fandom world being ‘Sargent Heart Eyes. ‘He’s totally in love with her,’ they’d commented on a video of Lucy and Tim at Angela and Wesley’s second wedding.
Lucy couldn’t see it, to be honest. Tim looked at her the same way that he always had, with the only expression he had in his repertoire: grumpy sourpuss.
But Jackson had offhandedly commented ‘love is blind’ and suddenly Lucy found herself trying to catch Tim looking at her, to see what everyone else apparently saw.
(He’d caught heronce, stared at her with brows raised in a silent ‘what’. She’d looked away immediately, a blush staining her cheeks bright pink. She hoped he couldn’t tell.)
It was often that she’d sit alone at night, rewatching the day’s videos with a glass of wine and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, that Lucy hoped that maybe, just maybe, the fans were right—Tim Bradford loved her back.
Then he had to go and get himself a girlfriend, and Lucy’s hopes of ever becoming something more with her former T.O. were shot out the window.
She’d hoped it was a short fling, not made to last. His last relationship with Rachel hadn’t lasted for more than a few months. Tim Bradford didn’t do long-term.
But then they’d hit the six-month milestone, and Lucy and Tim’s videos became more and more sparse. She couldn’t bare to play it up for the internet, to hear that Tim was in love with her when he was so obviously in love with someone else.
Lucy had become well-versed in hiding her feelings. She had wanted to be a UC before her TikTok account took off—she’d even been on one or two operations. She was good at lying, at pretending that she was happy for Tim and Olivia as her heart was slowly breaking. But she’d taken those feelings and put them at the back of her mind, where they’d stay.
And they had stayed, well hidden in the deepest recesses of her heart. Until she’d heard Angela and Nyla whispering in the break room about how Tim was thinking about proposing to Olivia, and suddenly the wall that she’d worked so hard at building collapsed in an instant.
Lucy ran on autopilot for the rest of her shift, her serious and unfeeling attitude so opposite from her normally sunny demeanor. So much so that even Smitty asked her what was wrong.
Lucy just said that she was tired and took off as soon as she saw Tim exiting the men’s locker room, thanking God that Tamara was staying with a friend tonight so she could drown her misery in too much tequila.
She’d had a shot as soon as she got home. One after she put on her pajamas. Another after she set Red in the record player and cried along to the heartbreak songs.
Lucy was well and thoroughly drunk by the time “Treacherous” began its haunting beginning notes, laying face down on the floor with a blanket covering her head. The lyrics gripped at her heart, every word describing how she felt about Tim.
Before she could really comprehend what she was doing, Lucy found herself tapping out the notes on her baby grand piano with tears streaming down her face yet again.
Halfway through the song, Lucy’s phone chimed with a notification—another fan DM asking about her relationship with Tim.
What relationship? They’d never had a relationship, or anything close to it. If it wasn’t for the damned account, she never would have fallen in love with Tim. If it wasn’t for fans like this one, she never would have gotten her hopes up that he had feelings for her too.
Angrily, Lucy wiped the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her robe and resolved to set the story straight, to make one last video and be done with TikTok and her feelings for her former TO.
“Hey guys, it’s Lucy. I wanted to let you know that this will be my last TikTok video. I’ve had so much fun, and it’s been great to get to know you guys, but unfortunately this account has ruined my life. Before I go, I wanted to set the story straight. Some of you… um, a lot of you… have been commenting or messaging about how Tim and I are in love. Which I can tell you is 100% not true.”
Lucy pursed her lips as she blinked away the tears that threatened to fall again. “Because Tim is getting engaged to his girlfriend Olivia, who is the sweetest girl in the world, but I can’t help but hate her because I wish I was her. And…I’ve had waytoo much tequila tonight, so internet, I leave you with one last song cover. This is “Treacherous” by Taylor Swift, and I dedicate it to the biggest pain in my ass, Tim Bradford.”
_______________________________________________-
Lucy awoke with a pounding headache, a sick stomach, and a phone that would not stopringing. Rolling over in her bed, she groaned and sent the call to voicemail, which obviously did not deter the caller, who continued to make her life miserable until she finally answered.
“What?!” Lucy hissed, totally not in the mood for whoever was on the other line. “Let me tell you that you’re scamming the wrong person, buddy, because I—”
“Lucy, I’m at your door. Let me in.” It wasn’t the familiar voice that made Lucy freeze with her heart in her throat, but the way he spit the words at her like she was his mortal enemy and not his best friend.
“Tim?” Lucy grimaced as her voice shook terribly. “What’s wrong?”
“Just let me in, Chen.”
She took her time putting on her robe and walking to her front door, wondering what had happened that had put Tim in a pissy mood. It didn’t take her long to find out as she was met with an angry Tim practically shoving his phone in her face.
“What the hell is this?”
Lucy eyed the video that she’d drunkenly made last night in horror. She was sure she dreamed that she’d all but confessed that she had feelings for Tim to the entirety of the internet. Apparently not.
Shit.
“I, um, that’s nothing, why do you ask?” Lucy cringed at how frail her voice sounded as she stumbled over her words, her heart beating so fast in her chest that she felt faint.
She needed to sit down before she fell over from the rush of emotions flooding her brain. Tim didn’t need an invitation to come inside as he slammed the door shut and stomped over to where Lucy was lounging on the blue sofa, hugging a pillow as if it would somehow save her from the mess she’d gotten herself into.
“If this,” he shook his phone at her so violently she thought it was going to break in two, “is nothing, then why did Olivia break up with me last night?”
Lucy was at a loss for words at his confession, so she just said the first thing that popped into her mind. “Maybe she realized you were too good for her?”
Tim’s gaze shot to Lucy—if looks could kill, she’d be dead in an instant.
“Is this a fucking joke to you, Chen?” Tim snarled, making Lucy recoil at his voice before becoming just as angry as Tim was.
How dare he. She stood, raising her haunches as she walked up to him and got in his face the best she could when her head barely grazed his shoulder. “What?! How in the hell are my feelings for you a joke?!”
Tim raised his voice as he raised his arms in disbelief, his phone flying off to somewhere across the living room floor. “Well, they sure as hell were on your last day as a rookie! ‘I have feelings for you. I think the reason why you’re so protective of me is because you have feelings for me, too.’ And then you go off and say it was all—”
“Excuse me, I don’t sound like that!” Lucy shouted back in reference to Tim’s totally inaccurate falsetto impression of her voice.
Tim sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before he shot back another comment at his best friend, “Are you fucking serious? That’s all you got out of it! You’re unbelievable Chen. Why did you say that you wish you were Olivia, huh? Is this another joke? Did Jackson threaten to take away your fucking Datsun if you—"
“For fuck’s sake, Tim, I’m in love with you!” Lucy screamed, somehow feeling infinitely better that she’d admitted her truth aloud while also appalled because she’d admitted her truth out loud.
Tim stopped, arms falling limply at his side, his mouth opening and closing in succession like a fish out of water. He stared blankly at the wall behind her for just a fraction of a second before his eyes landed on her own and he was suddenly moving forward way too quickly for Lucy’s liking.
Lucy wasn’t sure what to expect as her legs hit the sofa behind her, but it certainly wasn’t Tim’s soft lips crashing against her own as he pulled her in for a rough kiss. She reciprocated quickly, pouring every ounce of repressed feelings into her movements. After what felt like an eternity and a second all at once, Tim parted from her lips and rested his forehead against her own.
“I’m in love with you too, Boot,” he whispered, eyes meeting Lucy’s in a look that could only be described as pure admiration.
As Lucy pulled him in for another passionate kiss, the second of many to come, she laughed in delayed realization that she finally understood what the fans meant when they nicknamed him Tim ‘Heart Eyes’ Bradford.
