Chapter Text
Lucy spends a few hours sleeping restlessly, wrapped in Tim’s arms. She startles awake several times, noting each time how the sun peeking in through the hospital window is a little brighter. It’s disorienting to keep waking up in an unfamiliar bed, but Tim is always there. She studies his beautiful face and relishes in the warmth and security he provides. Even after all she’s been through, she feels so safe with him. So cared for. So loved.
Tim loves her.
It’s overwhelming and a little scary to think about to be honest. Because she’s waited her whole life for her soulmate, for him , and now that she has him she doesn’t really know what’ll happen next. She’s never been in a real relationship. She’s definitely never been in love. The way she feels about Tim is so all-encompassing in a way that she never could have anticipated. Even after everything…meeting him, getting to know him, falling in love with him, she so often doubted that they would ever get here. To this point. To a point where she loves him and he loves her back .
Tim loves her.
So yeah, it’s pretty scary. But as she snuggles closer to his warmth and feels his breath fan across her face, it’s also perfect .
When she wakes up for real several hours later, the sun has fully risen…
And she’s alone.
Her disappointment is harsh and immediate, but she quickly chides herself. Of course Tim couldn’t stay here, as much as she wishes he would have. He has to go to work. She knows him well enough to know that he does not take time off, not unless the department mandates it like when he got shot.
Still, it would’ve been nice to wake up with him holding her. She has a feeling waking up in his arms is going to end up being one of her favorite things ever. She thinks about them , about him wanting to take her on a date, and wonders just when she’ll get to experience sleeping in his arms in a real bed. Are dating rules different when you already know you’re in love? Is he expecting their first date to be an overnight affair? Is that what he wants?
Is that what she wants?
She’s never really dated before…she’s never really done anything before. Because, well…she was waiting. For him. But now that she has him she kind of wants to take it slow…but that feels silly when they’re in love and they already know they’re soulmates. Still…she wants to go out with him and get a goodnight kiss and get to know him more and fall more in love with him before she goes to bed with him. Will he think that’s silly?
He’s obviously more experienced than her. He was married . Will he be upset if she wants to wait? And is that something she’s supposed to tell him on the first date? Or after the first date? Or before the first date?!
She’s interrupted from her relationship etiquette panic spiral by a soft knock on the door and before she can even process who it might be, Tim is coming through juggling a paper bag and two coffee cups. He smiles when he sees that she’s awake.
“Good,” he says, striding across the room and laying a gentle kiss on her forehead. “You’re up.”
Lucy stares at him, confused. “You’re here?” she asks stupidly.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up,” he tells her. “But I’ve been subjected to the horrors of Shaw Memorial breakfast enough to know that I didn’t want you to have the same experience…you’ve been through enough.”
Lucy continues to stare like a moron. “You brought me breakfast?” she asks, unable to keep the wonder out of her voice. Jesus , his presence is turning her into a crazy person.
Tim gives her a weird look before reaching into the bag and pulling out a warm muffin. “Just a blueberry muffin and a chai from the little cafe next door,” he says. “Not much, but better than anything they have here, I assure you.”
He hands her the muffin and pulls her tray table over her lap before setting the chai down carefully in front of her. She places the muffin next to it and watches him settle into the chair he had sat in last night and pull an egg sandwich out of the bag. He immediately starts eating and has taken a few bites before he looks up and sees that she hasn’t touched her food.
“Want me to go grab you something else?” he asks with a frown. “They had other pastries. Or you can have my sandwich.” He holds the partially eaten sandwich out to her.
Lucy shakes her head and lets her lips curve into a small smile. “The muffin is perfect,” she murmurs, reaching down and pulling off a piece to pop into her mouth. She chews carefully, mindful of her aching jaw, before asking, “Don’t you have to work?”
Tim looks up, seemingly surprised that she thinks he’d be at work, even though he’s spent months bragging to her about how he never misses work. “I took a week of PTO,” he says with a shrug.
“What? Why?” Lucy asks, completely baffled. “You never take time off.”
“I have like 200 PTO days…gotta use them at some point,” he tells her. “And I wasn’t just going to let you go home and recover alone .” He seems offended that she’s even questioning it.
“Oh,” Lucy says softly. So does this mean he’s going to come stay with her? In her apartment? In her room?
In her bed?
Is she going to have to figure out the relationship etiquette situation sooner than she’d thought?
She shakes her head and takes a few more bites of her muffin to bring herself out of her head and back into this moment, with Tim.
“What’d you tell Grey?” she asks him, her mouth full of muffin.
“About what?” he asks.
“About why you were taking a week off,” she elaborates. “He must’ve been pretty shocked.”
Tim shrugs again, and looks a little guilty. “He wasn’t shocked,” he tells her quietly.
Lucy clocks the guilt on his face and is confused for about three seconds before she realizes what it means.
He must’ve told Grey they’re soulmates.
“He knows?” Lucy asks.
Tim nods, watching her face closely and still looking guilty. “He does,” he confirms.
Lucy lets him spend a few more seconds looking at her like he’s preparing to beg for her forgiveness before she puts him out of his misery. “You can stop looking like a puppy who chewed the furniture,” she snorts. “I’m the one who wanted to disclose that we were soulmates right away…I don’t know why you’d think I’d be upset about disclosing now.”
Tim relaxes slightly, but still looks uncomfortable. “It’s just…” he starts with a wince. “He’s not the only one who knows.”
Lucy shrugs and takes a gulp of warm, spicy chai. “Oh?” she asks. “Who else knows?”
Tim blushes. “Just like…everyone,” he mumbles, averting his eyes.
“Everyone knows?” she asks, surprised but not upset. God, she knows she was a little preoccupied with being buried alive , but just how much did she miss?!
Tim looks up from where he’s been intently studying the ugly linoleum floor. After searching her face for a few moments and finding no anger, he breathes out a sigh of relief and lets out a chuckle. “Kind of hard to hide it when I was running around the station like a mad man, screaming about you being in pain,” he tells her at last, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his neck. “It’s how I figured out what was happening…that you’d been taken.” He swallows and all traces of humor leave his face. “I felt him tattooing you,” he says quietly.
“I knew you’d feel me,” she murmurs. “It’s the one thing that…that kept me sane down there. Knowing that you could feel that I was alive.”
Tim reaches out and grasps her hand, pulling it to him and turning it over to reveal the bruise on her forearm from where she had pinched herself over and over, just trying to stay connected to him…just trying to reassure him.
He runs his fingers lightly over the bruise before lowering his lips to it and kissing it softly.
“It’s the one thing that kept me sane, as well,” he whispers against her skin. When he looks up at her, his eyes are wet with unshed tears. “Those pinches…they were everything. And then the last time, just as I saw your ring in the dirt, those three pinches…knowing you were still with me and that I was so close …like you were saying ‘ I’m right here .’”
Lucy shakes her head and pulls her hand gently out of his grasp before reaching over to his forearm, the warm skin exposed by his rolled up sleeve. “I,” she says, pinching his arm lightly. “Love.” Pinch. “You.” Pinch.
Tim looks confused for a moment before his eyes widen in realization. “‘I love you,’” he says slowly. “You were telling me that you love me?”
Lucy nods and laces her fingers through his. “It’s the last thing I remember,” she says softly. “I couldn’t…I didn’t want to die without telling you. Somehow . I knew it was the end and I just…I needed you to know.”
“I love you, too,” he says, squeezing her hand three times. “And, for the record, I’m very glad it wasn’t the end. Because I plan on showing you how much I love you every single day for a very long time.”
“A very long time sounds…perfect,” Lucy breathes out, her lips once again curving into a smile.
They stare at each other sappily for a few minutes, looking every bit like lovesick teenagers. Lucy has no idea how much time has passed when there’s another knock at the door and a doctor pokes his head in.
“Hi, Lucy,” he greets warmly. “I’m Dr. Swanson and I’ll be handling your discharge later today. I just wanted to come by and run through your care instructions, if that’s alright.”
“Yes, of course,” Lucy says, sitting up straighter in bed. “How much longer until I’m discharged?”
Dr. Swanson glances down at his clipboard and flips through a few pages. “Probably sometime this afternoon,” he says finally. “They want to get one more bag of IV fluids into you and run one more blood panel. I’d say we’ll be able to spring you within four or five hours.”
“Thank God ,” Lucy says with a dramatic sigh. “No offense to the accommodating staff here at Shaw Memorial, but I want to go home .”
Dr. Swanson laughs. “Don’t worry, I completely understand,” he says. “These beds aren’t exactly Tempurpedic, and I can see that you chose a different establishment for breakfast,” he winks at her before leaning close and whispering conspiratorially, “A wise choice.”
Lucy lets out a laugh of her own, but quickly cuts it off with a wince when it makes her chest ache. Tim reaches for her worriedly, while Dr. Swanson gives her a sympathetic look.
“Right,” he says, looking back at his clipboard. “So you have a cracked rib from the chest compressions, but luckily it’s a relatively small fracture and it’s only on your third rib on your left side. That will take about four weeks to heal on its own, but you should start feeling much better in a week or two. The rest of your ribs and sternum are what we call ‘bruised’ but what this really means is that you have deep bruising on your chest wall. This should start to feel significantly better in a couple of days. Otherwise, we’ll send you home with antibiotics for the tattoo and you’ll care for it as you would any other tattoo,” he gestures vaguely to the tattoo on her neck. “Keep it dry, wash it with antibacterial soap, keep it moisturized. We’ll give you pain meds for the ribs…and you’ll have to take it easy until they heal. And that’s about it. Any questions?”
Lucy shakes her head and reaches out to shake the doctor’s hand. “Thank you,” she says. “You’ve all taken good care of me…except for the mattress.”
Dr. Swanson shakes her hand and smiles. “Just doing our jobs,” he says. “A nurse will be in shortly to take some blood and hook up those fluids. It was nice meeting you, Lucy.”
Once he’s gone and a nurse has come and gone, another bag of fluids being pumped into Lucy’s arm, Tim stands up and gathers the trash from their breakfast before leaning down and placing a chaste kiss on her lips.
“I’ll be back to pick you up before they discharge you,” he tells her. “I have to go to the station real quick…Grey wants to talk to me.”
“About…about us?” Lucy stutters out. “About us not telling them we’re soulmates? Are we going to get in trouble?” she asks, unable to keep the worry out of her voice.
“You’re definitely not getting in trouble,” he tells her firmly. “Me? Maybe. Technically, as your superior, it was my responsibility to disclose the relationship. But technically , we didn’t have a relationship, so who knows? I’m pretty sure there’s nothing in the rule book about soulmates…I don’t think this is a situation they ever pictured encountering.”
Lucy stares at him, worry still clouding her face.
“Don’t worry,” he murmurs, keeping his tone as reassuring as possible and bending down to kiss her again. “You’re alive and okay and I love you. That’s all that matters. Everything else will be fine.”
Lucy nods and watches him leave, forcing herself to take deep breaths and repeat his words in her head.
Everything else will be fine.