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The op had not gone well.
Well, from a purely operational standpoint it has been a success. The goal had been to gather intel on the prostitution ring they had uncovered last week, and they had done that. But on a personal level, it had been a disaster.
Lucy had been weird all day. Something was clearly bothering her, but she hadn't said a word about what it was. In fact, she hadn't said much at all as they got ready - aside from a tense exchange when she was a bit too aggressive with the tape attached to his mic - and that, more than anything, worried Tim.
Now the job was over and they were having a stand off. Not really, but it kind of felt that way. Neither one of them moved, but neither did they break eye contact. There was maybe six feet between them as they lingered beside the borrowed sedan and the surveillance van, but with emotional distance it felt like it might as well have been six miles.
Tim fought the urge to roll his eyes at his own thoughts. Lucy brought out a side of him that not one else could. One that was a little too sappy for his liking, but it was starting to feel a little out of his control. He sighed. If he could only figure out what had gone wrong, he could fix it.
After a silence that stretched well past the point of being comfortable (not that any part of their day had been) he cleared his throat.
"Look, Lucy." He shrugged. "I don't know what's wrong. I don't know what I did to upset you and I'd really like to know. At the risk of pissing you off further, I've been racking my brain and I can't figure it out. I mean, things were fine this morning, weren't they? When we came in, everything felt normal."
He mentally analyzed the day.
"We had coffee, you asked me about Kujo and if I had any weekend plans. I told you I had a date with Ashley tonight and..."
He hesitated. His pulse jumped, but he took a breath and continued.
"Then we went out for the op and you've been closed off and kind of icy every since."
Tim ignored the glare at the word 'icy' that only proved his point.
"The only comments you offered before I left were passive-aggressive warnings about not getting carried away the with the flirting. Not to mention when you attacked me with the tape."
He let out a humorless laugh and she rolled her eyes. He felt his frustration rising and the next sentence slipped out in a rush before he could stop them.
"I mean, Chen, if I didn't know any better I'd think you were jealous. I mean, are you jealous?"
Tim cringed the moment the words left his mouth. He shouldn't have said that.
First of all, it wasn't true. It couldn't be.
And, more importantly, it trivialized Lucy in the exact way he was worried about when she agreed to be his aide. It reduced her and her emotions down to her romantic interests, or in this case her potential interest. In him, her...well, a lot of things, but namely her superior. It made him sound gross and self-absorbed.
He felt like a jerk for even suggesting it, but he felt like the absolute scum of the earth when, to his horror, Lucy's eyes filled with tears. She crossed her arms defensively and glanced at the ground. To the side. Anywhere but at him.
Crap.
He took a hesitant step forward, hand out in an offer of peace. Her brown eyes met his again and he stopped. His stomach lurched at the tortured look in them. He opened his mouth to apologize, to take it back, anything to make it right when her voice, shaky and unsure, finally emerged.
"What the hell happens if I say yes?"