The Rookie Exclusive Clip: Lucy Is Still Unsure About What's Going on With Her and Tim

What will it take for Lucy Chen (Melissa O'Neil) and Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) to have an honest conversation about their lingering feelings for each other on The Rookie?

A season and a half after Tim rashly dumped Lucy over a well-meaning but misguided attempt to protect her both personally and professionally, the two police officers have continued to circle each other at work, even falling back into bed together multiple times — including on Valentine's Day. While she has never loved another man quite like Tim, Lucy decided, in the wake of their break-up, to focus on advancing her career. After failing the detective's exam the first time around, Lucy took the sergeant's exam and passed with flying colors in the penultimate episode of Season 7.

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"The damage done was fairly seismic, and it felt like there needed to be a real journey for them to get back [together] — both him needing to do the work to understand why he blew up the best thing that ever happened to him, [which was] to punish himself, and her dealing with the pain of that [break-up], and then also wanting to focus on her career moving forward and ultimately trusting him again," Hawley told TV Guide of evolving the "Chenford" relationship in Season 7 last year. "So it felt like we needed to earn that. We had moments along the way where they moved towards each other, and then they moved away a little bit. I do think that having conversations is not necessarily their strong point as a couple."

That may be an understatement. In TV Guide's exclusive sneak peek of the premiere, which airs tonight at 10/9c on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu, Lucy returns home from another dreaded night shift just as her roommate Celina (Lisseth Chavez) finishes up an early workout before the start of her day shift.

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The new season picks up just three days after the events of the Season 7 finale. But despite now being at the same rank professionally, which creator and showrunner Alexi Hawley has used as one of the reasons to keep the couple apart, Lucy reveals that Tim has still not asked her out again. (Little does Lucy know that, when she fell asleep on her couch a few mornings ago, Tim had actually been working up the courage to ask her to move in with him.)

"She's a sergeant now, there's no line of command [issue], and I think Tim has realized over the season what he gave up and that he's trying to be a better person, and feels like they lost out on and missed a lot of time together," Winter explained to TV Guide at the Disney upfront blue carpet last May. "So I think this is his way of trying to speed things [up], move things along in a faster way, to get to know each other like that and see how compatible they really are."

In an interview after the finale, Hawley confirmed that Lucy and Tim have "definitely turned a corner." But, he added, "I think they still need to have the talk, the conversation. I don't want to rob them of that, but I think we're almost there."

The good news is that the long-awaited conversation is seemingly just around the corner — and diehard fans of "Chenford," who have been vocal in their displeasure of the break-up, may have some of Lucy and Tim's meddling co-workers to thank for finally forcing the issue. The question is, will Lucy say yes?

Come back to TV Guide after the premiere for a post-mortem chat with Hawley, who promises that there will be plenty of obstacles ahead for "Chenford" and other couples on the show this season.The new season of The Rookie premieres Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 10/9c on ABC.