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my-shields-are-down · 6 months

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Divorce (for the one word fic prompt)

While outside tending to Lucy’s tomato plants. Tim hears the baby monitor squawk to life.

His youngest kid is now a teenager, but because he’s in the back back corner of the yard, the monitor keeps him tapped into whether his love is home, if Lucy is home, he wants to be with her. Always.

“It’s PROM Mom,”. Tim hears his daughter exasperatingly whine to Lucy in frustration. Tim immediately places his garden shears, hat and knee-pads in the wheelbarrel beside him and picks up the basket holding the harvested fruits and veggies to bring inside. “Why do all the dresses make me look fat and matronly or boobilicious and slutty? I just want something simple, that I feel great in that breaks his brain… like how Daddy is when he sees you all dressed up.”

Tim scoffs out loud as he enters the downstairs sliding screen door. “Pffff. My brain doesn’t break when I …..” His breath stutters and his mind drops into a tank of dopamine when he sees Lucy in her wedding dress in the candid photo of their wedding party hanging in the back stairway landing by the kitchen.

Lucy had heard Tim moving through the house and suddenly pausing, so she grins at her daughter and places her finger across her lips for silence as they both look around the corner and see the man of the house smiling dopily at the photo, his free hand tracing Lucy’s laughing face.

They lean back into the kitchen as 17 year old Diana whispers, “Exactly like that, Mom.” Diana then grabs a pear from the fruit bowl and the cheese and crackers her mom hands to her. She then sits down before laying down on the blue + white striped seat cushion on the long side of their kitchen table.

“I know we are only going as friends Mom, but it’s Mateo! He’s so handsome, I think I’ve loved him since I was little and I want him to finally FINALLY kiss me on the dance floor. So I need to be beautiful, Mom.”

“But what if he doesn’t think I am beautiful? What if he doesn’t like me back?” Diana cries, tears streaming down her face.

“Sweetie, please eat your snacks.” Lucy says as she places a large tumbler of ice water on the table.

Diana’s sniffles instantly snap Tim out of his reverie, and he strides into the kitchen and winks at Lucy before leaning down over his daughter and kissing her on the forehead and saying. “Then he’s an idiot, and I’ll apologize to Angela and Wesley after I murder their second son for making you cry.”

Diana stands up and hugs her dad. Like her mom before her, she always feels safe and loved when she’s hugging him. Just clings to him and cries. “Did it hurt this much?”

“Did what hurt this much, sweetie?” Tim hugs his baby girl so her head rests on his heart. Diana is 4-5” taller than her mom so he doesn’t have to pull her onto his lap for her to get there.

“Did it hurt this much when you loved mom and you didn’t know if she loved you back?”

Their kids had never been into fairy tales - they so much more preferred the real life stories of how their parents and aunts and uncles got together, including Tim and Lucy pining for each other while dating other people.

Tim looked over at his bride of 20+ years, whose eyes sparkled with love and mischief, and said, “oh I don’t like to remember that, but yes baby girl. Loving your mom in secret, tore a hole right through me. Until I asked her to dinner and she said yes.”

“That’s right… you GOT the girl.”

“I did. I got the girl.” Tim smiles softly at Lucy. “Then 5 years later, I got YOU. My most beautiful creature. ARRRRRGH!” Tim’s long hands shaped like claws reached his daughter’s sides to tickle her - her laughter being one of his most favorite sounds.

Tim had called Diana a creature one morning when she was about 5 months old and his fake growl sent her into a fit of giggles. Then once he added the tickling, her laughter really started taking shape and he did it all the time before she became mobile. Later he’d chase her making grunting growling noises and she’d ask him who his favorite creature is.

For Diana, she adored that she had such a special thing with her Dad. She remembers him asking about her creature hands and feet, discussing why she had no tail, Kai dragging her around the kitchen by the foot of her full-body pjs every Christmas calling her his “Christmas creature.” But most importantly, she was his favorite creature. Not a favorite kid- she let her brothers duke that out themselves. This was all hers.

—————

Later that evening, Diana was going through her closet trying on dresses, hoping for inspiration but struggling, she was more of a tomboy - despite wearing her cheerleader outfit often at school. What? She and Patrizia-still best friends - thought every sport deserved to have cheerleaders at their home games. So they spent almost every afternoon cheering at some team event that didn’t have its own cheer squad. Well, but not the chess team she remembered. She and Patrizia were escorted out because they were too loud. Who does quiet cheering?

She studied herself in the bathroom mirror she shared with her older brother Kai. He is off at UCLA being cool and loving life, so she had all the space to herself. She stripped down to her bra and panties and looked at herself. Strong body and killer legs from cheering and running, 5’ 7” tall, sun-kissed, honey-tinted skin. She mostly took after her dad with a slender frame, thick golden blonde hair which streaked red when she got too much sun.

She had her mom’s boobs and eyes - big, expressive amber colored, long long natural lashes, the same Asian shape that ran back centuries according to her Zengzumu.. (Great grandmother). She thought she was pretty, in an All-American kind of way. She didn’t feel bad or insecure, she just never considered she might be lovely to look at as well as lovely to be with.

On the verge of adulthood, what everyone else saw (except maybe her dad who always saw her at 2 when she thought he hung the moon), was a fantastically gorgeous girl about to step into her knockout phase. Stunningly beautiful, kind, moody, stubborn, thoughtful and hilarious. She was the total package. Dad was about to have a wake up call.

Diana threw her hair on top of her head and put on her brother’s UCLA sweatshirt, and leggings. She moved to her desk and started sketching out the kind of dress she thought would compliment her figure.

*Knock. Knock.” Diana turned towards her bedroom door and saw her mom smiling at her. “Come with me, I have an idea.”

Diana walked slightly behind her mom, silently comparing herself to Lucy. To Diana, her mom was the most beautiful person in the world. Diana had multiple phenomenal female role models, but none compared to her Mom. Her mom was short, curvaceous, same eyes, thick wavy chestnut hair - just gorgeous . Next to her, Diana often felt faded, stretched, and bland. Despite her petite size, Diana felt Lucy cast a large shadow.

Lucy led Diana into her and Tim’s bedroom suite. Since they remodeled, the kids had not spent hours here like they did when they were small. The master bedroom had a King sized poster bed, a sitting area by the fireplace- the walls covered with masterpieces from each of their kids and a larger family portrait hanging on the far wall. A private/soundproofed tv/make out room off to the side with comfy sofas, a drink fridge with a thumbprint scanner to open and access the beer and ice cold tequila inside. Kai had learned the hard way that multiple incorrect scans would result in a flour bomb exploding in his face.

There were skylights in the master bathroom over the teak soaking tub, a wall of stacked slate and dragon water faucets. (The kids’ contribution to the room).

Lastly, the heart of the space was a large walk-in closet, with rows of hangars, shelves for their shoes, two large mirrors situated above two sets of drawers and one floor to ceiling mirror. At one end of the closet hung a family photo of them when TJ was still inside Lucy and Diana and her brother were 4 and 6. Every other blank space on the walls was covered with pictures of the kids.

Diana hadn’t been in here in forever and marveled at how neat it was, how there were pictures she hadn’t seen, how a top drawer in her mom’s built-in bureau created for socks or panties, actually only contained dog treats and chew toys. Lucy moved to one end of Tim’s section of the closet, shoving her Dad’s shirts to the side and to reveal a door.

Diana didn’t remember a door ever being there. Lucy smiled at her daughter and opened the door, revealing a secret room. A closet within a closet. A Narnia room!

They both stepped through and Lucy hit the lights revealing racks of fancy clothes. She saw her dad’s tuxedo and dress uniform he wore for weddings and funerals. Then she saw that everything else was her mom’s dresses.

Flashes of memories of her fairy tale parents leaving for some event flit through her mind. “Wow! Mom, you could make a fortune renting these out to my friends!”

Lucy shuddered at the idea and grabbed Diana’s hand, saying, “all of these dresses have special meaning to your dad and I, but they don’t really fit me any longer. So, we’ll both go through them and pick 5 giving you 10 options for you to try on for me, your dad and TJ. The ones we like stay and the ones we don’t go. When we get to a final 3 - you can choose which one you’ll wear. You can do whatever you want to it, Aunt Amy’s cousin is a tailor who can make whatever adjustments and enhancements you need, ok?”

“Yes, ok. Thank you mom. Let’s do this!”

Twenty minutes later, ten dresses hang in Lucy and Tim’s closet.

The first one got an immediate veto from her dad.

Diana had asked TJ to come help her with the zipper and jewelry as she tried the floral dress on. She marveled at how covered up she was while being incredibly sexy. TJ shook his head and said “I thought you were avoiding being boobilicious? Cuz you are in that dress.”

She looked at herself in their floor length mirror and put on a long sparkly necklace which rested just above her “enhanced” cleavage. She asked TJ to go out to the sitting room and have the parental units close their eyes. He did and they did.

Diana took a deep breath as she waited for her parents to respond, after telling them to open their eyes.

Upon opening his eyes, Tim is momentarily stunned. Instead of seeing the crying girl from earlier, he sees - really sees the woman that Diana will become. “Jesus” he thinks. “When did she grow up?” and “Lucy and I need to mix our DNA more often - we make gorgeous people.”

And then Tim notices the dress… he thinks to himself, “wait….that’s the dress that lives in MY fantasies… about her mom… oh hell-to-the-no. No.”

Diana sees her dad go somewhere in his mind when he opens his eyes. Lucy for her part realizes that dress really isn’t appropriate for prom - that’s a sex dress. No wonder Tim had blurted out “naked time” when she had worn it on her first date with him. She’s beautiful in that dress, but we do not want Mateo thinking what Tim thought that night.

Lucy, sensing that Tim is going to react loudly, reaches over and grabs his hand, running her thumb over his knuckles. Saldy, it’s too little too late….

Diana watches her dad shoot upright and start yelling, shaking his head back and forth, saying, “NO! NO. NO. no! I mean it Lucy - no. I will divorce you right now if our daughter wears THAT dress to Prom.”

He spun to look his amused wife in the eyes before stating what he thought was an obvious problem, “The last thing I want my daughter’s date to be thinking of is “naked time” and ripping that dress off of her with his teeth.”

“Those are the kinds of thoughts he’s going to have. I know, I had them when you wore it on our first official date.”

Diana and TJ mouthed “naked time?” to each other and turned beet red at the thought of their parents getting it on.

Lucy finally calms Tim down, getting him settled back on the sofa. He continues to mutter to himself about being the only one allowed to have the thoughts caused by that dress- not some loser trying to get with his only daughter. No sir. No way. Even if said guy had been known to Tim since he was born.

Lucy turns back to Diana and says “so that’s a no. But to be clear honey, it’s not because you look bad, it’s because we don’t want your dad to lose his mind. That’s a “I want to make a baby with you right now” kind of dress. A dress of seduction - not really a fun prom dress, ok?” Diana nods, “ok Mom. Thank you. Come on TJ, help me with another one?”

——-

The next 5 dresses receive bland, non responses from anyone which was a little discouraging. Lucy comforted her, saying “Sorry honey, none of them fit you right. Definitely in the matronly boring group.” TJ actually yawned.

That left four (4) dresses in the closet with Diana.

A dark green one, a pink floral two piece, a silvery backless number and her favorite from when she was three to four years old.

Navy jersey, floor length, covered in sparkles, sleeveless with a cowl neck that she draped over one shoulder. Because of her height, the dress hit her mid shin and gave her a dangerous slit up her right leg.

Diana took a few minutes to experiment with her mom’s make up, winging out her eyeliner, and covering her lips in a deep plum gloss. She grabbed some sparkly earrings, and a gold pendant she found in a drawer. A simple gold disk on a dainty gold chain. Lastly, she swirled her longish hair into a chignon, held in place with a few flower and butterfly clips she remembered from her childhood which she found in Lucy’s jewelry box.

As Diana stepped out of the closet, she again told everyone to close their eyes. When she stood in front of them, she again told them to open their eyes and she received much different comments.

TJ spoke first - “Didi! You look like a movie star! You have to wear this one!”

Lucy spoke next, “Wow! You look spectacular! Honey, he’s not going to know what hit him. So beautiful. I always felt overwhelmed with all that material. But your dad loved me in that. I was wearing that dress the first time he proposed to me. Oh and you found my necklace! I wondered where that wandered off to.”

Lucy looked at Tim who clearly was a bit shell shocked at the sight of his baby girl who used to make him wear butterfly wings and a sword like all fairy princes do. She’s no longer a baby. She’s a young, gorgeous, woman.

“That’s the one honey. Diana - that’s the one. God, you are so lovely - Mateo is not going to know what hit him.” Turning to his wife, he said, with tears streaming down his face, “can you believe this gorgeous creature is ours?” Lucy and Diana laughed at that.

Finally Tim walks up to his daughter, gathered her face in his big warm hands and said, “Oh, I’m not ready for you to grow up. But I’m so lucky and grateful that I got to watch you go from being a scrappy hellion to becoming this lovely woman who I am so, so proud of. I am so lucky to be your Dad.”

—----

Mateo’s brain turned to jelly upon seeing Diana in her sparkly blue dress - her own brand-new gold necklace with an anchor charm around her neck.

Most importantly, he softly kissed her on the dance floor at Prom.

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#chenford #tim bradford #lucy chen #the rookie #tim x lucy #i love them #things that are awesome #two words this time #chenford fanfiction #Chenford babies growing up #i'm in chenford withdrawal #where have I seen that dress before #narnia #one word gets you one shot #breaking through writers block

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