Nightmare

I do not own The rookie or it's character's.

~~~

" 7-Lincoln-7. Send a. RA to my location and notify Sgt. Grey. I just found a body...It's Officer Lucy Chen. "

Tim grabbed the radio from the duty belt from the person next to him, " No it's not. She's here at the station. "

" Sgt. Bradford, I'm sorry sir, but it is Chen. "

" No. It's not! She is right here beside me! " Tim looks over to where he had taken the radio, but to his shock, he sees that's it's Celina that he's taken the radio from.

" No. " Tim says quietly at first, then screams it, " NOOOO!!!! "

~~~

" NOO!!! " He screams as he wakes up, sitting upright in bed.

Beside him, Lucy also wakes from the noise and movement, she quickly turns to him with concern and worry, " Tim? What's wrong? " She asks, slowly reaching out to his bare shoulder.

Her gentle touch and tone bring him further out of the nightmare and back to reality, he looks over at her and her heart breaks at seeing him looking scared and crying. She doesn't think he's aware that he is crying at the moment, too focused on getting his breathing, heartrate, and nerves back under control.

Few things in this world can scare Tim Bradford. One of those things is dead and buried; but he also hated that one. She has seen him in dangerous situations and not even blink. But when it came to those that he holds dear to his heart, it was harder for him to control his emotions.

It was a couple weeks after the documentary and the murder of his doppleganger Jake Butler. And though she has already had her share of nightmares from it; due to the fact the two men being like literal twins with different life choices and styles. And despite what she said in the interview, Tim was still human and he was bound to have his own nightmares at some point after seeing Jake's body in the morgue like that.

If he didn't have nightmares, she'd be really worried about him and wonder if he was human.

He was there for her with her nightmares and it went unsaid that she'd be there for when he had his, but she was confused by his words as he reached out to her, cupping her cheek in his gentle, loving, caring way, like he always did, and wanting reassurance; after having finally gotten most of his breathing, under control, though she knew that his heart and nerves were still going 90 to nothing.

" You're here? You're really here, Luce? " His voice was so shaken it almost didn't sound like her Tim.

She gently held his hand with one hand and moved her other to his wet face, gently wiping at the tears that were still falling down his handsome face,

" Of course I'm here. Where else would I be? " She asked and gave a small 'oof' as he pulled her to him in a bear hug into his lap, though surprised by the move, she didn't push him away to get a better understanding of what was wrong, she settled down into his lap and hugged him back, rubbing soothing circles over his back and running her fingers through his hair as he held her as much as he could without crushing her to him and cried more.

At one point she started to rock him and hum whilst reassuring him that she was there and that she was fine for several long minutes, maybe even hours, she didn't care.

" It was you. " She heard him say in a choked up tone.

" What was me? " She asked, as she continued to run soothing circles over his back, her fingers brushed against one of the scars there.

" It was you that Aaron found instead of Jake. " He answered.

Lucy stilled. She hadn't even thought...Oh god! It could have just as easily have been Sava that had gotten killed that day instead of Jake.

" Oh Baby. " She said as she held him tighter.

" I know your too smart and strong for that to happen. And I know that it wasn't Sava or you or even me that was murdered. And I don't even know why I had that dream to begin with. "

" Maybe not consiously. But you were subconsiously thinking it. It was there in the back of your mind. And I believe the reason for that was because of Isobel and how she was found with a similar injury. You may not have thought about it at the time or you were thinking it, but pushed back in order to solve the case. But after everything calmed down... "

" It came back and morphed into one of my worst nightmares. " He finished with a sigh, squeezing her to him, finally having calmed down.

" Mm-hm...would you like to talk about it? Sometimes that helps. " She replied, finally pulling back to look him in the eye, they were blood-shot and his face was blouchy, a typical look for someone who had a good, hard cry.

" I'll be right back. " He tightened his hold on her, not wanting to let her go just yet, " I'm just going to the bathroom to get a washcloth. " She gently gestured to the open door to the bathroom, where he could clearly see her, he slowly let her go and kept his eyes on her the whole time. The moment she was back with the warm cloth, he had her back in his lap and hands on her hips.

She gently wiped his face as he held her until he looked a bit better then what he did a moment ago, at least on the outside. He hadn't said a word the entire time she wiped his face.

" Would you like me to get you some water? "

" No...Not right now... " He said quietly.

They stayed in this position for another long moment or so before Tim finally began to tell her about his nightmare.