---
[7:15 AM | First Day Back]
Alice stood in front of the mirror, wearing her badge again — and Tim’s hoodie over her uniform. She tugged at the zipper for the third time.
“I look like a mess.”
Tim walked in behind her, arms sliding around her waist. “You look like my wife. My very clingy, sleep-deprived, still-super-hot wife.”
Alice tilted her head back to rest against him. “Can I bring you with me? Like, literally duct-tape you to my side?”
Tim smirked, kissing her temple. “That might interfere with my own job. And, you know, basic mobility.”
“Details.”
---
[9:02 AM | At the Station – Round One of Clinging]
Nyla raised an eyebrow the moment Alice walked into the bullpen… still wearing Tim’s hoodie.
“You sure you’re back, Hartwell? Or just shadowing your husband full-time now?”
Alice, who was tucked under Tim’s arm as they walked, didn’t even pretend to deny it.
“He disappears for a month and now I have attachment issues. Deal with it.”
Angela grinned from her desk. “New mom, newly married, survived a coma and a secret baby? Honestly, cling away. You’ve earned it.”
“Thank you,” Alice deadpanned. “Finally, someone gets me.”
---
[12:15 PM | Cling Break – Literally]
Tim handed her a protein bar during their break and tried to step away to take a call. Alice followed him like a duckling, one hand still gripping his shirt.
“I can still hear you from here,” he laughed.
“But I can’t feel you from here,” she pouted.
He hung up, pulled her into a hug, and whispered, “You know I’m not going anywhere, right?”
She nodded into his chest. “My brain knows. My trauma says nope.”
---
[3:00 PM | Return to the Field]
The team was on-site for a low-risk warrant. Alice insisted on partnering with Tim. Again.
“She really said, ‘if you’re going into that sketchy apartment, I’m going in too,’” Lucy whispered to Celina.
“Honestly, mood,” Celina whispered back.
Alice cleared the room like a pro, but stayed within a two-foot radius of Tim the entire time. Like an anxious shadow with great aim and a pink glitter pen in her notebook.
---
[5:45 PM | End of Shift Snuggles]
Back at the station, Alice leaned against Tim’s side as they debriefed.
John watched the whole thing with a smirk. “You sure she’s working? Or just being your emotional weighted blanket?”
“Both,” Tim said, placing his hand over Alice’s. “She multitasks.”
Angela leaned over to whisper, “The cling is strong with this one.”
Alice didn’t care. She had survived hell. Now she had him back. She wasn’t letting go again — not for a long time.
---
---
[6:12 AM | Holding On Tight]
Tim was buttoning his uniform shirt when Alice clung to his back like a sleepy octopus.
YOU ARE READING
Rabbit Hearts & Bulletproof Vests || Tim Bradford??
FanfictionAlice Hartwell never wanted to be a hero - just someone who could run toward the chaos and still feel the world's poetry through it. But when she joins the LAPD as a rookie and is paired with the infamously hard-edged Tim Bradford, she finds herself...
