MY HERO |T.BRADFORD

VIII. rapunzel moment

CHAPTER EIGHT
RAPUNZEL MOMENT

It had been one day since Valerie was released from hospital, five days since she was abducted, tortured and buried. She had the intent to go into work that morning, but Tim Bradford had showed up as she was getting dressed to ensure that she stayed home.

And he had made it his mission to make sure she stayed in bed. So when he arrived and seen her ready for work, he tricked her into thinking he was giving her a hug and threw her back on her bed. He'd claimed that if she agreed to stay in bed that he would show up to her house to have a Disney marathon later that night. She couldn't miss that opportunity.

No matter how much Valerie protested again it, Tim had managed to get Valerie back into her pjs and get back into bed. Valerie ended up sleeping for a couple hours and then when she awoke again she'd chosen to search through Netflix to find something to watch.

When Valerie couldn't find anything, she'd jumped out of bed and searched the whole house for something to do. She had even cleaned. Something she had not done in months, and when Valerie Barnes cleaned, people knew it was bad. She was bored, honestly she'd never been so excited to go back to work.

She loved her job. Being a policewoman was something Valerie Barnes was most proud of. She felt like it was her path in life, due to how she had grown up. Her mission was to help people. Her favourite part of the job would always be saving people whom were born into families of which could not love them how they needed to be loved. 

It brought her relief. Because even though she could not have had the childhood she deserved, now she could help others and try and prevent them from going through what she did.

Though, despite everything she'd gone through and the things her own father had done to her. She would not turn back time. Her childhood shaped her whole life. Valerie had ended up with an amazing life filled with many huge opportunities. And she'd made the best memories with the best people.

So even though she had suffered for many years of her life, she had managed to turn her life around. She'd managed to escape the hell she'd been living through and shape and form a stable life, surrounded with people she would love forever. Her family.

She had created her own family. A family that she had never gotten. They weren't blood, but they were home. And they were all Valerie Barnes needed in life. Tim, Angela, Grey, Jackson, Lucy, Nolan, Harper. And she had Nick back.

Of course Valerie was scared. She was afraid to step back out into the world. But what she had gone through, unfortunately that was life. Valerie and Lucy had just been fortunate enough to be the only ones of Rosalind's victims to escape.

The world was a messed up place. People murdered, attacked, tortured, kidnapped. It was just the way that life worked. It was messed up. Yet, uncontrollable. Nobody could control others, their thoughts and their actions.

Valerie was having trouble wrapping her mind around everything. Why her? Why Lucy? She couldn't understand why. Out of everyone in the world, out of all of the phone calls they had received about abductions and murders, Valerie had never expected to be a victim of both. How had she allowed herself to be tricked? How had she allowed herself to be spiked? Why, Why, Why?

A knock on the door caught Valerie's full attention. Valerie spun around from where she sat on the sofa, her gaze fell on the door. It wasn't Jackson as if he needed in, he would have used his key.

Slowly, Valerie lifted herself off the sofa and approached the kitchen. Valerie opened a cupboard, lifting out a frying pan of which she had cleaned away. And slowly, Valerie made her way towards the apartment door with the frying pan in her hand.

Valerie's hand reached the door handle, and very slowly, she pulled the handle down. Even slower, she began to open the door. And her face filled with relief when a tall blonde was revealed.

"What's with the pan?" Tim asked, curiously as he pointed towards the pan which Valerie still aimed at him. Valerie slowly lowered the pan and gazed down at it with her lips pushed firmly together.

"I was having a Rapunzel moment." Valerie told him quietly, earning a small chuckle. Valerie allowed Tim inside and she closed the door behind herself. She hasn't even realised how late it had gotten. Half of the day was a blur to her. She'd slept, cleaned and sat in silence. And somehow it was pitch black outside. "I'm sorry, I didn't make any food."

Tim turned around and smiled at Valerie. Tim shrugged his shoulders. "You know I never come here without food." Tim told her, bringing his arms out from behind his back and revealing two large paper bags. "McDonalds, 6-piece chicken McNugget Happy Meal." Tim announced.

Tim placed the two bags of food on the counter before he felt Valerie's body collide with his own. Tim looked down at the woman whom held on tightly to his warm body. Tim wrapped his arms around Valerie. He'd never loved anyone as much as he'd loved Valerie.

Valerie was Tim's whole world. Of course, he had Ashley, he had his other friends. But, no one would ever compare to his Valerie. They'd been there for each other through thick and thin. Whenever they needed something, the other would be there. One was sad? The other was there. One was angry? The other felt the same. One was happy? The other was for them.

There wasn't one day that went by where Valerie and Tim weren't together. Ever since the day they had met, they had immediately clicked together. Though, Tim tried to be strict with Valerie, he found himself unable to stay away from her. And so when their friendship developed, they'd discovered that they were very similar. They both struggled with their families and found it hard to let people in. But for some reason, it was easy for each other.

"Speaking of Rapunzel..." Tim trailed off, grabbing some snacks from out of the cupboards and placing them with the takeaway. "What Disney movies do you have lined up tonight?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, meeting eyes with Valerie.

"Hmm, do you even have to ask?" Valerie furrowed her eyebrows, whilst she crossed her arms over her chest.

Tim shook his head with a small laugh and rolled his eyes playfully at the woman. "Tangled, Frozen, Lady and the Tramp, and Aladdin." Tim finished, causing Valerie to pull a face. "Oh! And the Lion King." Tim added at the look of the woman's face.

Amara nodded her head with a bum before taking a chip out of the paper bag. "Well, come on then. We have five movies to watch." Valerie told her bestfriend, lifting all of the food in her arms and making her way towards the sofa. Tim followed closely behind her and the two plopped down.

Something about Tim and Valerie was that they occasionally had their movie marathons. Wether it were Marvel, Scream or Disney. They would usually have one marathon a week, but due to everything going on they hadn't had one in forever. But, Valerie felt like she could hopefully try and get back to normal. Starting off with a movie marathon.

And for the rest of the night, Valerie and Tim watched their list of Disney movies. Even when Jackson arrived home, neither of them moved from the couch, only muttering a quick hello with a full mouth of food.

It was like old times. Tim slid his arm over Valerie's shoulder, causing her to rest her head on his shoulder. And he admired her peaceful features as she watched the movie before her. He listened closely to her slow and deep breaths with a tight-lipped smile on his lips.

He just watched her. And in that moment, he realised that he never wanted to let go of Valerie ever again. They were both at home. And Tim never wanted to lose his girl. Never again.

•••••

It's been a hot minute :)
Ik it's only a small filler chapter but I'm on a 3 hour long car journey atm so I had some time to make a filler
But what do you guys think of Tim and Valerie so far?