Altruism | Part One : Trust

Episode Nineteen

"¡Ana! ¡Acostarse!" Carmen yells when she sees that Ana's bedroom light is on at 2 am. (Ana! Go to bed!)

Carmen is an old woman and naturally gets up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Since there is only one bathroom in the apartment, she has to walk past Ana's room. So when she sees that Ana is still awake, she tries to remedy it. 

In response, the light shuts off and Ana stays quiet, trying not to breathe. She creeps back to her desk and turns her desk lamp on. She's studying for her six month exam that is in a week.

"¡Ana!" Carmen exclaims, coming into her room.

"um...  I..." Ana tries.

"¡acostarse!" Carmen yells. (Go to bed!)

"si abuela lo siento" Ana says, softly, surrendering. (yes, abuela, sorry)

Carmen huffs and closes the door. Ana waits for Carmen to go back to bed before going back to studying.

[Timeskip]

"Because you're a rookie, bottom of the food chain. Nothing you think or say matters inside the department. Especially with the Chief of Police, who personally decides Talia's punishment." Jackson says, talking about Talia's punishment.

"Sounds a little harsh." Nolan frowns.

"Harsh as it is, you got to stay focused on yourself right now. We got a six-month exam in the next week, and we got to ace it in order to move on to the next stage of our training." Lucy adds.

"you can still support her, you know, just be there" Ana advises, softly. "she might not want any help but just knowing that you're there could help her. And it doesn't take too much time so you'll still be able to study so we'll move on to the new stage of training"

"Where we'll still be riding with our T.O.s for, what, another seven months?" Nolan points out.

"We get more freedom, though" Ana says, softly.

"And no more daily evaluations." Lucy adds.

"Otherwise, it's back to the starting line, and you're the rookie who got held back. Or worse." Jackson warns. He then slides on mirrored sunglasses, making the other rookies look at him in confusion.

"What's with the glasses?" Lucy asks.

"Uh, I realized I need to start having more fun with the job, stop taking everything so seriously." Jackson says, pointing on a tough expression with the glasses. However, the second Grey walks into the roll call room, the glasses are quickly taken off, making Ana giggle silently.

"All right, listen up. Got some bad news for our rookies. Thanks to Detective Jenkins being placed on the Brady List, the department is tightening the rules regarding the Field Training program. Bottom line: every recruit now has to complete the "training and experience" checklist as a primary officer before they'll be allowed to take the six-month exam." Grey explains.

"does it start with us?" Ana asks, softly.

"starts right now" Grey nods, grimly.

"You got to be kidding. I don't let my rookies be primary until the second month." Bradford says.

"If our recruits experience an event, it shouldn't matter if they were primary. It's not fair to them or us." Angela points out.

"I agree. But this is "cover your ass" time for the department. When the city gets sued, the first thing they look at is the officer training and experience. They've decided that experience can't just be "I was standing there, too."" Grey sighs.