Chenford Fanfic: About Last Night
The Rookie Fanfiction | Chenford | One shot | 5K | Rated T | 5x01 Alternate Take | Sharing a Bed | Repressed feelings | Chenford Week '23
Story summary: Chenford, Vegas, and the one bed trope
In a world where their undercover op isn't interrupted, Lucy and Tim must find a way to share a bed one night in Las Vegas.
One day last November, my friend @heatherelf77 shared the following tweet, and it got my brain a'thinkin'.
My first thought was of a scene from the 1934 film It Happened One Night, when Clark Gable creates a room divider out of a blanket between his and Claudette Colbert's beds. I imagined Tim doing his own version of that for sharing a bed with Lucy, and it went from there.
Read a short excerpt below, or jump on over to AO3 to read it now!
Lucy opened the bathroom door to find Tim arranging pillows on the bed.
“What are you doing?” she asked, amusement plain on her face and barely able to contain her laughter.
Tim paused and looked up at her. Why did he feel like she caught him doing something he shouldn’t?
“I’m creating a, uh–,” he gestured with his arm, moving it horizontally over the bed from head to toe and back again.
“A pillow wall?” she asked.
Tim looked sheepish under her gaze and shrugged one shoulder.
“Tim…” Lucy swallowed a grin, trying to maintain her professionalism “… do you really think that’s necessary?”
His cheeks flushed with embarrassment over the thought of admitting out loud that he was worried about being able to resist his attraction to her—especially when she had already made it clear that she didn’t feel the same way.
“I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. I know that this wasn’t part of the plan.”
“It wasn’t. But I can keep my hands to myself if you can.”
Tim held his tongue. That was certainly a loaded subject, and one he had already given far too much thought to in the past 24 hours. He knew he didn’t trust himself to answer. Avoiding the topic, he rolled his eyes and chucked a pillow in her direction.
“Fine,” he relented, and started to place the pillows back at the head of the bed. “Which side of the bed do you sleep on?”
“You choose,” she offered, before tossing the pillow back to him. “It really doesn’t matter to me.”
A knock and a voice diverted their attention to the door.
Lucy was already making her way to the door when Tim stopped her.
“Wait,” he said in a firm, but quiet voice, causing Lucy to turn to look at him. She noticed his hand hovering behind the firearm tucked away at the small of his back.
“I’ve got it,” she reassured him. “It’s okay.”
“I know you do,” he returned, stepping in close and lowering his voice. “I just don’t like this. Any of this. I keep feeling like something is going to go wrong or our cover’s going to be blown.” He peered through the peephole to find a waiter with a room service cart on the other side. Keeping his hand behind his back, Tim opened the door, then poked his head out to look up and down the hallway.
“Baby,” Lucy cooed, walking toward Tim, “you got us room service?” Her fingers curled around his biceps and the tips of her press-on nails sent a shiver through his body.
He turned his head to look at her, and dammit, the way she looked up at him with adoration written so plainly across her face reminded him she could turn her undercover persona on and off so easily. If he didn’t know any better, he’d believe she was actually into him. And it was his job to play along.