Falling For Lucy

Epi 17 - The Shake Up

Returning to work was harder this week. Everything felt weird, off even. The dark part of me wanted to hide and avoid it. The responsible part of me wouldn't let me do that. I needed to be there for Chen, she needed a strong shoulder to lean on during this. So like every morning I woke up at an ungodly hour, studied for my upcoming exams, and finally gave up when my head hurt too much and opted to go to the gym at work and put in my workout for the day.

I arrived early to roll call like I do every morning I waited for everyone to trickle in. Everybody's face looked a little darker and dimmer. We were all feeling the effects of the station just not being the same without Captain Anderson. Her funeral had been a beautiful affair honoring her life, but her death sucked the light out of the room. We all wore heavy hearts, but we also knew we have a job to do.

Today, my job was to keep an eye on Chen. I didn't want her washing out because of something like this. I knew she admired Anderson and I didn't want her feeling discouraged. Anderson's death was tragic, but if I didn't have Chen, I would have nothing in my life. The realization hit me the moment she walked in with Nolan and West.

Grey entered closely behind them and we started roll call just as they were sitting down.

"Per Captain Weatherby, the following protocol changes," Grey started and I rolled my eyes. the new captain was a tool. "will take place immediately. no more putting boots on top of the lockers. Any boots on top of lockers will be thrown away at midnight and noon daily. Second, every officer must provide a business card to every citizen they contact. If a citizen doesn't want a business card, the officer must write a police report and document the fact that the citizen refused a business card." Grey sighed.

Angela spoke up first, "Sir, with all due respect, this sucks." I agreed, I already hated doing police reports, and now we had to do 20 more? And don't get me started on the lockers, they were already small as it was.

"Ours is not to judge Officer Lopez. Command believes that the captain's focus on efficiency is what Mid-Whilshire needs right now." Right, cause police reports for refused business cards were efficient.

And as if he could hear us talking the new captain entered roll call looking lost and confused. How was this guy a captain again?

"Captain, how can I help you?" Grey greeted him cordially.

"I need an updated vehicle list." He stated plainly.

"Yes, sir. I am in the middle of a roll call. I'll get to you right after. But since you are here, would you like to say anything inspirational to the day shift?" Grey asked. Honestly, I felt bad for him. The captain wasn't my direct boss, so Grey definitely had it worse than us.

Captain Weatherby quickly looked around the room. "Did you tell them about the boots?"

"Yes, sir," Grey answered.

"Oh, okay. Well, uh... Keep up the uh, good work." He stumbled through his response and then slowly left out the door he came in. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again so I dropped my head in disappointment instead.

"Alright," Grey cleared his throat and went back to roll. "Last bit of business. District Attorney's office has a witness on ice. They need our help watching them."

Nolan started raising his hand, but Grey continued. "I usually don't assign rookies these types of details, Officer Nolan. And Officer bishop would agree." Nolan turned around to see Talia not having this assignment.

"Forget it. Protection details are like watching paint dry," she responded.

"Looks like your out of luck." Grey shrugged.