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Lucy almost didn't recognize the woman looking back at her in the mirror at first.
For a split second when she looked in the mirror, she genuinely thought someone else had been placed in front of her. The woman staring back at her was clearly Lucy Chen, but a majestic version of herself. er hair fell in gentle curls pinned on one side just enough to show her features but still loose enough to feel like her, and the white dress she'd picked with her friends and family hugged her curves and fit so perfectly she felt ethereal.
It was really happening. Today was the day she would get married to the love of her life.
The thought still felt surreal enough. All their journey has led them to this precise moment, from getting assigned to who she thought was the grumpiest TO ever to turning their relationship into a perfect partnership and friendship before getting together. Then, despite the rocks along the way, still finding their way back to each other.
All of that had led them here. Not in a straight line of a clear path, but revolving, going back to each other when it mattered. Every version of them had somehow still been pointing toward this, even the ones where they did not know it yet, from rookie and TO who stared at themselves from across the roll call room to now, bride and groom who'd soon be staring at each other from across the isle.
Tamara was the only other person in the room with her. The rest of her bridesmaids left a few minutes before and only her maid of honor stayed, she moved around adjusting small details at the back of Lucy’s hair with a huge smile on her face.
She stepped back a little, tilting her head as she looked at Lucy trough the mirror.
“So you are really doing this, huh? You and Officer Zaddy.”
“Stop,” Lucy managed through the nonstop laughter that had escaped her, though it came out more amused than anything else. “You can't call him that on my wedding day.”
“I am just saying,” she replied, completely unbothered, “it's his official title in my heart by now. That and grumpy cop of course.”
“First of all,” Lucy said, still smiling, “Please tell me you are not gonna put that in your maid of honor speech.”
"Too late," Tamara eyed her mischievously. "I already wrote that in"
"Tam!?"
"Calm down, calm down. It was just a joke, I promise my actual speech will have no mention of officer's Zaddy's nicknames."
Lucy shook her head, still laughing as her eyes drifted back to her reflection. For a second she just looked at herself again, her fingers smoothed lightly over the fabric at her waist, grounding herself in the texture of her dress while breathing in the image in front of her.
Tamara watched her for a beat longer, then her hands slowed at her shoulders again as she spoke again.
“So…are you ready for this?”
Lucy did not answer right away. She stayed looking at herself in the mirror for a moment, thinking about her life till that moment.
“To be honest, there were times I didn’t think I’d get here.” She swallowed and kept looking at herself. “Not..not after everything.”
Glancing back at her wasn't just a bride, but an entire history of how she got to that point, and with it, everything that had almost stopped before it reach it.
From the hardships that had built between her and Tim after the break up, the months without each other. Then the rebuilding after the breakup, learning how to trust each other again, communicating more through the difficult times.
Her throat tightened slightly as another memory pushed its way forward, impossible to ignore. The proposal, watching her life gone from something safe, a beautiful memory turned into something fear in seconds. Being so afraid of losing him without ever getting the chance to be anything more than a fiancé, what they had been seconds before it all went wrong.
“When I was in that bunker, they separated us and..” she said quietly, “all I could think about was him. How I might not make it back and I would never get to this. Never get back to him or never see him again.”
Her eyes flickered slightly, but she did not look away from the mirror. She could not quite bring herself to.
“There were times I thought we would only ever be…an almost,” she admitted. “Almost together or almost married."
"I know this is a bit sad to say on my wedding day, but I just wanted to say that because it isn't true. We're here, we got through everything and got to this very moment."
"And yes, I'm ready to do this."
“You were always going to get here, you know?” Tamara said. "I mean, I have watched you two for a long time, I knew it. There were so many times where I'd be sitting in the apartment and you'd be talking about him for no reason. You'd come home and tell me about your day and every single story ended with Tim, it wasn't even romantic stuff at first, most of the times you were annoyed with him, sometimes worried or impressed. Whatever it was, it was always him"
"And don't even start me on him, that man held a torch for you since forever. I know he calls me your 'puppy' whatever that means, but truly he's the one with permanent puppy eyes while following you around."
"I guess what I'm saying is... I watched this happen." Tamara continued, still looking at Lucy through the mirror."Even when you were not together,you kept always going back to each other in one way or another so it only made sense that you two would end up here"
Lucy felt another wave of emotion rise in her chest, hearing it someone who had witnessed so much of their story made it feel different.
"God Tam, I was actually trying not to get emotional until after the ceremony." she said with tears on her eyes.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry." Tamara shook her head, apologetic. "I just..." She stopped again, searching for the right words.
"What is it?" Lucy turned her chair, looking at her directly instead of through the mirror.
"I don't think I've thanked you enough for everything you've done for me. And seeing you here, now, about to start a family with Tim, I guess I'm just so happy I get to be a part of this moment."
"Tam..."
"No, no, let me say it." she pleaded, and as Lucy looked at the beautiful and confident woman smiling in front of her she saw the same scared sixteen year old looking back at her, the one she had met sleeping in her car all those years ago.
"You taught me what it feels like to have a family." she added softly, the words landed heavily on both women.
"When you invited me to move in with you, my whole life changed. I was a mess, trying my best and creating shields all over me, having to steal or put myself in dangerous situations to survive out there. And then I stole your car, best decision ever"
"Tam.." Lucy groaned instantly, dropping her head into one hand.“Oh my God.”
"I mean it, you took me in, you gave me a home even after I stole your car. You had no reason to trust me and yet you cared, about my classes and my friends, how well I did at school, to always have my favorite foods at home."
"You were the first person who had ever done that for me, the first person who made me feel like I wasn't a problem." The smile remained on her face, but her eyes had teared up too.
That one hit Lucy hard. "Tam, you could never-"
"I know that now, you showed me that." she interrupted. "You never acted like I was somebody passing through your life, you went and made space for me to be someone permanent in it."
Lucy could feel the tears in her eyes threatening to drop now. She had never thought of it that way, she had never helped Tamara because she wanted credit for it or for the younger woman to thank her, she had simply wanted to help her as much as she could, and she would continue to do that because she loved her.
Because somewhere along the way the scared teenager who had stolen her car had become family.
And she would do it all over again, from giving her car to her to opening space in her small apartment, every difficult conversation they had.
She would choose it all again.
Because looking at Tamara now, standing in front of her healthy and happy and confident, smiling brightly in her fancy maid of honor dress, Lucy realized she had never once regretted making room for her in her life.
Lucy pressed her lips together, trying unsuccessfully to stop the tears that kept gathering in her eyes. "Come here." she extended her arms to the other woman.
The younger woman stepped forward without argument, and Lucy immediately reached for her hand.
For a moment, neither of them said anything.
Lucy looked at her and once again saw every version of Tamara at once. The scared teenager sleeping in her car, the stubborn girl who acted like she didn't need anyone to care for her, the sly roommate who kept teasing her about every milestone she had with Tim, the college freshman she had helped move in with friends. And of course, the young woman who had grown to become one of the most important people in Lucy's life, her own family.
"You know none of this changes anything, right? You keep talking about the things I've done for you, but you need to hear me too."
"We're family, you know that. You don't stop being my family because I'm getting married."
"I know that."
"Do you?" Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Because you're looking at me and talking like you're about to give me a goodbye speech and that's not gonna happen."
"You're not losing me today.If anything, you get another person stuck with you, I've told you this before but my home is your home. It always will be."
"Lucy...I-I.."
"If you need somewhere to stay, you can always stay with us." Lucy squeezed her hand again. "I know you have your own apartment with your friends now, but I need you to know that there's a permanent room for you in the house that's just waiting for you to reform it the way you want, whenever you want."
"You have a room for me?" Her voice cracked.
"Of course we do."Lucy looked genuinely confused by the question.
The answer came so quickly, so naturally, that it made Tamara's chest tighten.
"Lucy..."
"What?" she asked, like she honestly did not understand why this was surprising. "Tam, I told you years ago I'd never go somewhere that didn't have space for you. The house has three bedrooms, but Tim converted this bigger room he used for storage into a huge bedroom with an inside bathroom and an separate entrance from outside. I was thinking that would be your room, we were trying to reform everything before showing you but it's all ready for you now."
"You can't just say things like that." Tamara laughed through her tears, shaking her head.
"Why not?"
"Because then I start crying."
"You want to paint it? Paint it, you want one of the other rooms? It's yours. I mean it, you can do anything you want."
"You know, I bet Tim is going to regret giving me that kind of freedom." Tamara laughed.
"Oh please, Tim already knows, it was his idea to add a bathroom inside the room, he was there when I said we should leave it mostly empty until you decide what you want to do with it."
Tamara blinked. "He knows?"
Something in her chest cracked a little more, of course he knew.
"You're family." she said, explaining everything.
Lucy and Tamara were a family.
And now Lucy and Tim were gonna become a family.
So that meant Lucy, Tim and Tamara were a family.
"I need you to understand something. You are never going to have to earn your place with us, the house is your house too, you don't have to ask permission to come over or call ahead. Whenever you want, you can just come home."
The words hit Tamara hard and she has to take a deep breath to hold her tears.
Because Lucy had not said our house or stay with us.
She had said come home.
"Mine and Tim's house is your home too, forever." Lucy said.
"I don't know what I did to deserve you." Tamara said shakily, squeezing Lucy's hand.
"You stole my car." She grinned, pulling a laugh out of both of them through the emotional moment.
For a moment it was just the two of them again, smiling through tears and years of memories.
"Okay, if we keep talking like this, we're both gonna cry and your makeup artist is going to come in here and kill me." Tamara said while pulling herself together.
Lucy watched as she switched back into maid of honor mode, adjusting her make up slightly, even though it still looked perfect and smoothed the dress fabric one last time.
Eventually she stepped back, studying Lucy from head to toe with a smile before nodding once.
This was it, she's ready.
A knock sounded faintly at the door, both women looked toward it and then back at each other.
It was time. Tamara took a deep breath and squeezed Lucy's hand one last time.
"You've got this."
Lucy felt herself exhale, she looked at herself in the mirror one final time, breathing deeply while taking herself in.
She was a bride, who was moments away from walking down the aisle. In a few minutes she would see Tim Bradford waiting for her, she would say her vows and promise to stay with him to the end of her days.
The thought should have felt overwhelming, but it didn't. After everything they had been through, every obstacle that had seemed determined to pull them apart, this was the part they had been fighting for.
Her gaze shifted slightly in the mirror until she found Tamara standing behind her.
Her family, as she had just said.
Lucy felt her chest tighten with emotion one last time, not from last minute nerves or fear, but from gratitude. To her part family inside this room and the one who'd be waiting for her on the other end of the isle.
"Okay." she said to the mirror as her smile widened. "Let's go get me married."