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Officer Riley Whitmore visibly cringed and grumbled when he read the email that his FTO placement was to be at Mid-Wilshire. So much so that everyone in the line he was standing in turned to look at him.
It’s not that he’s not proud to have been selected for a placement at Mid-Wilshire. He is. It’s just— Mid-Wilshire has a reputation. A big one. The captain and watch commander are the stuff of legends—legendary hard asses. Not that he can't handle it, he just doesn’t want to work that hard to not wash out. It does not help that he’s been assigned there with two fellow recruits who seem to hate him— both women, so he’s the sole rookie in the locker room.
“Oh look. A new boot. I love rookie day,” one of the older looking officers says as Riley comes to his locker. He’s a bit taller than average, has dirty blonde hair with a slight bit of salt and pepper thrown in, cut short on the sides but longer on top. He’s also built, arm muscles for days, but looks grumpy as hell. He doesn’t listen to the man much, though, his sleeves are bare, so he’s likely just a patrol officer.
“Yes. Fresh meat. Heard promising things about two of them,” another says, and this one has two stripes. ‘Traning Officer likely’ runs through Riley’s brain. But the man seems somewhat kinder, even though he too is slightly graying.
“Oh yeah. The captain and I had a great time pairing them up with TOs,” the first says, and Riley furrows his brow. Why would this low level officer be helping the captain with TO pairings?
“I hope that means I got a good one?” a younger well built black officer says in a southern drawl. He too has two stripes on his sleeve.
“You think I’m going to spare you for your first boot, boot?” the grumpy one barks.
“No sir,” the man replies, and Riley is starting to question who this officer really is, because the third officer instantly snaps into subordinate mode.
“It’s time for roll call,” the stripe less officer grunts, shutting his locker and storming out the door.
“Must have been a rough night at home,” the younger of the two remaining officers remarks, closing his own locker door.
“Yeah those sleep regressions will get you,” the older man remarks as they leave the room, leaving Riley stunned and scrambling.
Riley walks into roll call, seeing the two girls starting with him already seated in the front row with their notebooks out. Why did he have to get stuck with the two eagerest, teacher’s pets of potential officers in the program? Both send him a quick but curt hello as he sits in the remaining seat in the front row.
Riley quickly glances around, and sees two of the three officers he heard talking in the locker room sitting at table with a very short Latina woman. He guesses it’s the TO table, even though he doesn’t get how the woman could possibly be a TO. He glances around more, but weirdly he doesn’t see the grumpy one.
“Settle down and listen up.” Riley hears from the front of the room, and he knows that voice. He turns to see grumpy cop standing at the front behind the podium, and it’s in that moment that Riley realizes his mistake. He missed the bars on the collar. Shit. That’s no other than Lieutenant Bradford. At least he didn’t mouth of, he thinks.
“Today is Rookie day,” Bradford announces. “We have three new recruits joining us. Please stand up and state your name and badge numbers.”
“Shoshana Williams, badge number 867138.” The first stands. She’s short with dark and curly hair. She’s not Latina, but she looks like it to Riley.
“Annalise Elliot, badge number 789809.” The next says, a cheery but tiny blonde. He doesn’t understand how a woman like her could ever be a cop. He doesn’t believe she could ever take down a suspect, let alone have the want to do so.
“Riley Whitmore, badge number 809823,” he says last.
“Captain Chen is not back from leave,” Bradford continues, “so you are stuck with my warm welcome.” All the officers in the room besides the rookies chuckle and hoot in response. “Alright alright. Settle down,” he addresses the room, before turning back to the rookies. “You have earned the right to be in this room, some of you more than others, he glares, and Riley swears he’s looking straight at him, “but you must prove yourself to stay. The way we do things matters. Protocol and tradition are the metal from which every cop in this city is forged. That said, forget everything you learned at the academy and listen to your T.O.s.”
“Let’s get to your TO assignments,” Bradford says after a pause to let his speech sink in. “Officer Elliot, you are paired with Officer Juarez, Officer Williams with Officer Nolan, and Officer Whitmore with Officer Penn. Good Luck out there.”
Well, at least he wasn’t assigned to the tiny cop. He doesn’t think he could handle that.
Riley’s first two weeks aren’t as bad as he thought it would be. Officer Penn may have some weird sayings, being Texan and all, but at least he’s a no nonsense cop. He feels like he’s doing well, while the teachers’ pets have had a few major screw ups. He had even heard Bradford tell Penn that he was doing a good job.
The beginning of week three brings his major screw up, and a lot of lessons in assuming.
Day one, he witnesses Officers Juarez and Elliot easily chase and take down a man three times their size. They respond as back up to a domestic call and by the time they get there, the women have it handled. It’s an eye opening moment, and he thinks maybe he’s misjudged.
Day two is when he really steps in it.
“Ugh! Why did the drop off at Genny’s have to take so long?” Lucy laments as they pull into the station garage.
“It’s our first day dropping off two kids,” Tim reassures her. “It was bound to take longer with two, and we can adjust tomorrow.”
“I can’t believe you aren’t freaking out about being late,” she says in response.
“I’m not early, but I can make it in time for roll call, especially if you drop me off and you park.”
“Good point.”
“So you park and stay in the truck and finish your makeup. You’ve got this. Get into roll call when you can,” he says, kissing her forehead before he gets out of the truck he had stopped right in front of the entrance.
“Okay, I love you,” she says as she rounds the front of the truck, passing him on his way into the station.
“I love you too.”
Five minutes later, Lucy is parked, done with her makeup, and loaded up with her go bag, her cooler bag, her pump bag, and her lunch. She’s excited to be back, but she’s also very much missing her girls. Her maternity leave flew by, and eight weeks with her three year old and newborn were not nearly enough. But she’s also worried about her other baby—her station, and she’s ready to get back to it. She gets to the elevator, gets in, and the door is almost closed for a solo and silent ride when a hand reaches in and stops the door.
Riley barely makes the elevator, and is lucky enough to reach it in time. He’s late, and he knows it, but he needs to stay cool. He's cut it this close before, and all he has to do is change.
Except when the door opens back up, he’s not alone. Inside the elevator is one of the most gorgeous women he’s ever seen. She may not be conventionally skinny or blonde, but she’s smoking hot all the same.
“Hey,” he says casually, looking her up and down. “You new here?”
“Something like that,” she replies, relaying a stoicism that he’s never seen before.
“You must work in dispatch. Seems to be a lot of hot girls in dispatch. Maybe we could grab a coffee sometime?”
“Did you just ask me out?” she asks incredulously, staring straight at him with a glare that feels remarkably like Lt. Bradford.
“Uh… if you want… if not that's okay too…I”
He’s cut off by the elevator door opening, and the woman speaks calmly as she walks out of the elevator, not waiting for him.
“Your reputation precedes you, Officer Whitmore.”
He stands shocked still in the elevator so long after her words, that the door closes on him.
Shit. Who the hell did he just ask out?
He scrambles into roll call just in front of Bradford, flustered and bumbling.
“You’re late, boot!” Bradford scolds as Riley slides into his seat, and Bradford takes his place behind the podium.
“Officer Penn, what's an acceptable excuse for a rookie to be late to roll call?”
“There’s not one, sir.”
“Correct. This isn’t a good look Officer Whitmore.”
“Sorry, sir,” Riley says, bowing his head. this day was going to hell in a hand-basket, as his TO might say.
“Today we are switching things up for the Rookies and TOs. Penn, you’ll have Elliot, Juarez, you’ll have Williams, and Nolan, you’ll have Whitmore. Nolan, do my best and whip him into shape, will you?”
“Yes, sir,” Nolan replies with a nod and chuckle.
Then, Riley's life crashes around him. He catches the quickest glimpse of a smile on Bradford’s face, then the room around him is breaking out into applause and wooos. Then his eye is drawn to the officer walking in the roll call room door. Not any officer. The woman he shared the elevator with this morning. He wrinkles his brows, until she starts yelling.
“Yes. Yes. It’s good to see all of you too!” The room quiets quickly— more so than he’s noticed from Bradford so far in the two weeks he’s been here.
“Oh, I’d officially like to welcome Captain Chen back to work,” Bradford says, and it’s the least grumpy Riley has seen him look.
The room breaks out into applause once again, but Riley’s face turns 10 shades of red. He asked the captain out. The Captain. He called her dispatch. He is screwed.
“Alright. alright. I don’t need this much of a fuss.”
“You were missed, Captain,” Riley just barely misses Officer Smitty say from the back of the room.
“Thank you, Smitty,” she says with a bright smile. “Anyway, just wanted to come introduce myself to the new rookies. I look forward to riding with you in the near future.”
“We only have one holdover from night shift— Officer Janssen that one is going to you,” Bradford announces. “The rest of you, have a good shift and be safe out there.”
The room bustles to action, officers standing up around him, and he decides he’s going to leave as quick as possible, and head and get the war bags.
“Officer Nolan, I need to see your boot for today in my office before you head out,” Chen says above the commotion. Riley freezes, and prays that he makes it through this.
It doesn't even occur to him until he’s walking up the stairs to the captain’s office that she wasn't even in the room when Bradford announced the swap, and there’s no way she would have been able to talk to him beforehand.
Before he realizes, he is standing in front of the office door, hesitating to knock.
“Come in, Officer Whitmore.”
“Shit,” he mumbles, wondering if she's psychic.
He pushes the door open, taking a deep breath before he enters.
“I’m not psychic,” she says, answering a question he didn't even say out loud. “I know you were thinking it. It’s about observational skills, Officer Whitmore, something you seem to be slightly lacking,” she points to her wedding ring, and he has at least some good sense to look embarrassed.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t—”
“I meant it when I said your reputation preceded you. You made quite a name for yourself hitting on your fellow recruits at the academy.” He flushes again, embarrassed. “It’s why your fellow rookies here don’t like you.”
He looks up in shock. He didn’t— oh. he did. oh. Oh.
“Yes. You had great scores at the academy, and you’ve had a great first two weeks all things considered. However, there were quite a few higher ups that were VERY concerned about your— shall we say— ways of communicating with women. that said, the ONLY reason you are here is because the second you are told no, you stop. The reason you were even assigned to this station is because I believe in learning from your experience and second chances, and the higher ups agreed that you needed to see women in leadership positions, and men that respect women in those positions. Needless to say, this morning was not a good look for you.”
“Again, I’m so sorry Ma’am I—”
“If you want to stay in this program, you need to start treating women the exact same way you would treat a man. Women like me, we only get where we are by training harder and longer than you. In addition, any civilians you meet have to be treated exactly equally. You will not look or talk to any woman in this station as anything other than an equal or superior. Today was your last and final chance. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
"Dismissed.”
“So what did the Captain need you for?” Nolan asks when they are out on patrol.
“I’m not comfortable saying, sir.”
“Understood. The good thing is Captain Chen is a very reasonable person, as long as you don’t cross her. She just has very high expectations of her officers.”
“Hmm,” Riley hums in acknowledgement.
“As long as you do whatever she asks, you’ll be good.”
“Understood, sir.”
They finally get to lunch break, and he’s incredibly glad that he’s not permanently partnered with Nolan because the man can talk. It’s kind of crazy how much he talks, when he thinks about it. But he did learn something this morning, so he’s not entirely mad. He’s just very ready to have Penn back.
They park in the sally-port and walk into the station when they both see a beautifully tall redhead pushing a stroller and wearing a baby. Riley shoves down the feeling— because he didn’t realize how thin of ice he was on, and now— well, he doesn’t want to wash out because he can’t control his reaction. He can compartmentalize.
Nolan, however, is heading straight toward the woman and immediately pulls her into a hug.
“Genny! What are you doing here?” Nolan exclaims, and Riley wonders for a minute if she’s his wife and this is his family.
“Someone was missing her mama,” the woman, Genny apparently, answers. Not his kids then.
“Unca John!” the girl in the stroller shouts, and the few officers around her coo at her.
“Well hello there Miss Evie. Did you bring your sister to visit Mommy and Daddy?”
Riley’s head snaps up Mommy and Daddy. Wait… what?
“Yeah. Plus I know if Lucy isn’t busy she wouldn’t mind doing a feed.”
“Yup. I remember from Sarah that straight from the source is so much easier.”
Riley keeps watching the volley of conversation back and forth, growing more confused by the minute.
“Is this your new rookie?”
“No. This is Officer Whitmore. He’s just my rookie for the day. It’s a rookie swap day.”
“Ah, well nice to meet you Officer. I’m Genny,” she replies to Riley, then turns back John to continue their conversation. “Anyway, have you seen either Tim or Lucy?”
“I would think Lucy would be in her office. I know Tim responded to a scene earlier this morning, but I would think he would be back soon.” Riley is even more confused by this answer.
“I checked her office before I came back down here.”
“I can radio her if you want?”
“No that’s okay. We can hang out and wait.”
No sooner than the words are out of her mouth do they all hear a voice from behind them.
“Are those my babies?”
“MAMA!” the older girl shouts, and he sees Captain Chen running towards them.
“Hi Miss Evie! I missed you!”
“I missed you too. Are you having fun with Aunt Genny?”
“Wots of fun, but I wanned to see you.”
“Aww sweetie,” Captain Chen leans down and gives the girl a hug. “And how about my Zo Ro?” she says, moving over to the baby on Genny’s chest.
“She did a lot of playing this morning,” Genny explains. “Then had a nice full diaper and a little nap. She should be hungry soon.”
“I could tell,” she chuckles. “I am just about ready for my lunch break, not sure about Tim though.”
“That’s okay. He could always join us later.”
“Officer Whitmore and I were just about to step out for lunch too. Maybe I can go grab us a table.”
“That sounds great, Nolan, thank you,” she coos, and it’s so weird to reconcile the woman that gave him the chastising this morning, to this one that is staring heart eyes at her baby. He ponders for a minute how crazy it all is, when he hears the little girl again.
“DADDY!!!!”
The little girl hadn’t moved much in the time they had been there, but now she was doing her best to climb out of the stroller. He hears the sally-port doors open, then he sees the last person he expects to see grabbing the girl out of her stroller.
“It’s my Evangeline!” Lt. Bradford exclaims, shifting the toddler to his hip.
“Daddy! I missed you. We gonna go get wunch.”
“That sounds great!”
Riley knows he’s staring with his mouth open at this point. He’s just stunned. He can see where Chen might have had a maternal side, even when she was reaming him out. But a soft Bradford? With a smile? And then there was the small fact that apparently Bradford and Chen had kids together? And she’s his boss. And they work together. And they are married. It sure explained a lot, especially their notoriety in being a well run station.
“Hey boot, close your mouth, you’re catching flies,” he hears Nolan chuckle as the whole group starts to move away from where he is still frozen.
‘Huh,’ he thinks to himself. Then it hits him.
Fuck. I hit on Lt. Bradford’s wife.