12Author's Note: Ok, so this story started as a "missing moments" type story where I wanted to fill in some of the scenes I would have liked to have seen on screen, but as I started making an outline of what I wanted the story to be, it blossomed into so much more than that. These first few chapters will be "missing moments" from the show so I'll be integrating scenes we've already seen, but I have a lot more planned so I hope you'll stay with me! And don't forget to check out my other story called First Date Or Forever. Thanks for reading!
Chapter 1 - Day 1
The minute Tim saw her car pull into the parking lot of the restaurant, he stepped down out of his truck. He tugged on the sleeves of his suit jacket. When she parked, he made his way over to her car. He opened her door for her.
"Thank you," Lucy said.
Tim offered her his hand and he helped her out of the car. He immediately looked her up and down. She was gorgeous. Her hair was free flowing and curly, her makeup done, but not overdone. And her dress made Tim forget every thought in his mind. He had to remind himself not to focus on the bottom of the V-Neck cutout. This was a very different Lucy than the one he was used to seeing in uniform at work. When Lucy turned around to grab her clutch from the passenger seat and Tim saw the back of her dress, he wasn't sure he would ever think clearly again. It was cut out in such a way that it revealed her beautiful, cream colored skin and he wanted desperately to feel how soft it was. Tim shook his head, trying to control his thoughts as Lucy turned back around, smiling at him. He caught a whiff of her perfume, another thing she didn't wear to work. The smell was intoxicating.
"You…ah…you…" he stuttered.
"I…?" She prompted with a little laugh.
"You didn't wear the green dress," he spit out. Lucy's brow furrowed a little in confusion and Tim realized how dumb his comment sounded. It wasn't what he had meant to say at all. "I just…on the phone you said you were going to wear the green dress."
"Oh, I changed my mind. Are you…disappointed?"
"What? No. No. You look…you look…nice."
Tim mentally slapped himself for the pitiful compliment. Of all of the things he was thinking in his head about how she looked and out of all of the words in the English language that could describe how incredible she looked, 'nice' was the lamest thing he could have said.
"You look nice, too," Lucy returned the compliment. "Shall we go in? I know we're a little late for our reservation. Traffic was bad like you said."
"Yeah, it's no problem. In LA every restaurant assumes you're going to be at least fifteen minutes later. Let's go in."
Neither of them moved. Tim couldn't help but stare at her.
"We actually have to walk to make that happen," Lucy pointed out.
Tim realized that he was standing in her way. Lucy was trapped in the narrow space between her car and the SUV parked next to hers. Tim was literally blocking her only exit.
"Right, let's go in."
Tim moved away from the cars and waited until Lucy caught up so she could walk next to him. As they made it to the front entrance of the restaurant where the automatic doors gave way for them to enter, Tim couldn't help but give her backside a quick glance. That dress fit her like a glove.
After they were seated and Tim ordered glasses of red wine for both of them, they both buried their noses in their menus.
"Everything looks good," Lucy commented.
"Yeah, it does. The descriptions are…nice." Tim nearly kicked himself for using that word again. "How did you hear about this place?"
"A friend of mine recommended it. She…ah…she got engaged here last year."
"Oh, that's nice," he said. There was that word again. Tim put a reminder in his head to never use that words again.
They both went back to looking at their menus. A few moments later, the waiter arrived with their wine and a basket of bread. Lucy took a sip of her wine immediately. They both gave their orders to the waiter and found themselves alone once again.
"The wine's good," Lucy complimented, taking yet another sip.
"I know you like red," Tim replied.
"I do."
Lucy glanced over at Tim. He took a drink from his wine glass. Lucy opened her mouth to say something, but no thought came to her mind. She literally didn't know what to say. She glanced down quickly at her dress, making sure she still looked good. When she had finally picked the dress and quickly changed into it at home, leaving all of the other dresses a mess on her bed, she hadn't done the 'can I sit in it test?' She was relieved to find out that not only was it comfortable to sit in, but it also showed off just the right amount of cleavage.
"It's good bread," Tim commented out of the blue.
"Yeah…it's such a nice assortment," Lucy agreed. Tim took a drink of water, trying to distract himself. He had to come up with something more clever to say. "The breadsticks…"
Seeing a miniscule crumb on the table, Tim brushed it off. He didn't know what else to do with his hands. He smiled at her.
"What did you order again?" He asked.
"Ah…the sea bass."
"Right."
"Mhmm."
They both laughed nervously.
"I almost ordered the sea bass."
"Oh cool."
This time Tim reached for his wine. He looked at her and smiled, wishing he could convey every emotion he had bottled up about her, but all he could come up with was small talk and awkward movements with his hands.
"Why is this so weird?" Lucy finally asked, breaking the tension. "We've eaten together literally hundreds of times."
"Because. Our other meals only held the promise of being shot at afterwards. You know, not…naked time." As soon as the words left Tim's mouth he regretted them.
"Naked time Please, I mean we've seen plenty of naked people after we ate."
"That's not what I meant."
She reached over and touched his arm. It was the first physical contact they had since entering the restaurant and Tim relished it.
"No, I know, I know. I feel like I might…I need…I might just need you to reset your expectations a little bit. You're not going to see me naked for…a while. I mean, I don't want to rush into that. I want to take things slow. I want to go on this date. Maybe a second date. Have our first real kiss. I just don't think we should jump into bed together just because we know each other so well. Right? I mean, do you…"
He smiled at her. What she was saying made perfect sense and he had thought in the back of his mind that they should take things slow, but that didn't mean he wasn't a little disappointed.
"Agreed," he said.
The sliding doors to the restaurant opened, catching Tim's attention. Lucy turned to see what he was looking at.
"Are you worried someone from the station might see us?"
"No."
"You are!" She exclaimed, jokingly.
Her next thought was interrupted, however, from noise in the kitchen. An employee seemed to be in an argument with the chef. Lucy was ready to jump in to diffuse the situation, but not wanting to interrupt their date, Tim assured her that it would all blow over. When it didn't and the two men stormed out of the kitchen and one cut the other with a knife, Tim and Lucy immediately burst into action. It was ingrained in them to help wherever and whenever help was needed. A bystander called 911 and the police, most likely already in the area, arrived immediately. Tim didn't recognize the officers who came into the restaurant. For that, he was grateful. He explained the situation to the officers and they hauled the guy out in handcuffs. In the meantime, an ambulance had arrived to take the victim and another police vehicle showed up to take statements from witnesses. Separately, Tim and Lucy told the second set of officers what had occurred. They couldn't stop glancing at each from across the restaurant. The whole thing took about an hour. When all of the officers finally left the scene and the restaurant could go back to business as usual, Tim and Lucy's food was sitting on their table looking sad and cold.
"Well, so much for my sea bass," Lucy said.
"We can have them reheat it," Tim offered.
"I think it's best we just have them wrap it all up as takeout and we say our goodnights."
Tim nodded. He didn't want the date to end, but things hadn't been going well since the start and the knife and blood certainly didn't help the matter. Tim got the attention of their waiter. They sat in silence while their food was put in takeout containers.
"I'm sorry this didn't go as planned," Tim said when they arrived back at their cars.
"Oh, I don't know, a knife fight seems pretty typical for when we hang out," Lucy joked.
"It wasn't exactly in the plan for our first date."
"Then I guess we'll need a re-do," Lucy suggested.
"I guess we will. Tomorrow night?"
Lucy smiled. "I can't wait."
She unlocked her car door and slipped inside. Tim put his hand on the top of her door frame and stepped up towards her.
"There's something I should have told you from the moment you got out of your car earlier tonight."
"Oh? What's that?"
He leaned in closer to her. "You look beautiful." Lucy smiled and a blush crept into her cheeks. "I'm sorry if I didn't make that more clear."
"Well, you did say I looked nice."
"Nice doesn't even begin to describe you and how gorgeous you are. And for the record, I love that green dress, but I am anything but disappointed."
"Good to know."
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Tim closed her door and waited until she drove away. He couldn't wait for their re-do.