Ravaged // h.s. au

1.

Zayn

They hadn't been the easiest of days. With the hijack itself, and all that followed since then. We didn't have Louis for two months, and then, we lost Harry, or rather, he lost his own self, and six months after we returned Gypsy and the hijack chaos had died down, I had to make the decision to let Harry go. At first, he resisted it aggressively, accusing me of turning against him too, of not understanding, and maybe I didn't. All I knew was that Harry was losing himself and he was bound to take that whole unit with him, and I had to act like an officer rather than a friend, and save what could still be saved, which at the time, unfortunately, didn't include Harry. The boys understood though. They knew that I couldn't let all Harry's doing go to waste, simply because the weight of his guilt was taking him down. They knew I was trying to protect his record, protect him, and us all, from his irrational doings and thoughts. So I did it. I let him go, professionally of course, and it hadn't gotten easier since.

I walked towards the boys' gathering, my irritation growing at the approaching appointment. I was in no way willing to accept that it had to come down to this. I never once expected that I'd have to replace one of my best mates on my team. It also didn't help that I was the one who had to lay him off, until he got himself back together, which didn't seem to be happening at all.

" They're sending in another one today, boys." I announced as soon as Niall, Liam, and Louis came into view. Their laughter came to an abrupt halt, their eyes refocusing on me, waiting for further explanation.

" They called in this morning, and said what they always say. I'm running out of excuses here, I don't know how or why I'd reject this one."

" So, what are you saying? We'll have a new teammate instead of Harry? That's bullshit, Zayn." Louis stood from his position on the table, his eyebrows furrowed, his blue eyes darkening in frustration. It took him a while to regain his strength after his injury, and even more time and effort to adjust to the idea of having to work without Harry. It took a lot out of all of us. Most of the time, we'd still almost call him in whenever we got a new job, but we learned to stop ourselves, because we couldn't do that anymore.

" I don't know, Louis. The record they sent me is spotless. We'll have to see for ourselves and send a review, but, I don't think they'll let us deny this one."

" And what if Harry decides to come back? What then?" Niall suggested, and we all gave him a silent look, knowing how distant the possibility was, because Harry wasn't Harry anymore. He didn't seem to want to be Harry. It had finally gotten too much for him to be his own kind self, and he broke.

" Lets just see where this takes us." I whispered, shaking my head, walking towards my office, sensing them shortly following. Louis came in first, followed by Niall, and finally Liam, closing the door behind him, before taking his usual seat on the tea table by the door. Mere minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

" Alright, show time boys." I said, before yelling a firm "come in". The door opened, and my eyes widened remarkably at the sight ahead. It was a female. An extremely good looking female at that. My eyes fell upon the file in hand, and the name read "Cleo Jones". I looked between the bewildered boys, who didn't meet my gaze, too focused upon her, as she sat herself down on the chair facing my desk. I cleared my throat, putting the file on the desk, meeting her curious eyes.

" You're Cleo?" I wasn't off to the best start, but this caught me completely off guard.

" Yes, I am."

" What's with the name?" Louis interjected, chuckling slightly.

" Parents played too many computer games. By the way, this is extremely unoriginal." She rolled her eyes, silencing Louis completely. I liked this girl. I shouldn't have. I wasn't supposed to, but she was clearly good, and we could definitely use the help.

" How long have you been in the force, Cleo?" I asked, diverting the conversation away from Louis.

" Almost four years now."

" And why were you transformed?"

" Bullshit partner, setting me up so that he wouldn't get into trouble himself."

" That's exactly what anyone who was framing his partner would say though." Niall commented, earning another chuckle from Louis.

" I'm already on every shit list ever made. I have no reason to lie." She shrugged, and I noticed that she carried herself with confidence, that was edging towards arrogance, but not quite. She reminded me of how good Harry once assumed himself to be, acting upon it, and forgetting about all else.

" You do know what happened here, Cleo, don't you?"

" Rumors spread."

" Alright. I get from that, that you do. And I'm here to tell you that whatever you heard, is bullshit. Now, you need to believe me, if you expect me to believe your transfer story." I fixed my posture, leaning forward, with my fingers intertwined.

" Although, I don't care whether you believe me or not, I'm not normally one to believe rumors, so it's cool."

" Oh you don't?"

" No. I don't. Look, I've been through enough shit in this force to know that people are judgmental pricks, just because you have boobs and a vagina, then you're automatically their everlasting source of entertainment. I know that, and I'm done taking that shit. I can see you all are a team, and you don't want an outsider, and that's fine by me. So I'll just get going now, thanks for your time, wish you all the best, and so on and so forth." She lifted from her seat, depriving me from a chance to interject, let alone, deny her assumptions.

" You're hired." I announced, just as she almost opened the door to leave. She tilted her head backwards, her features revealing something for the first time ever since she stepped foot into the office.

" I am?" She questioned, at the same time that all the boys simultaneously said, " She is?".

" You are. You can start tomorrow. 9 am sharp. You'll start off with Louis, and then we'll see where we'll go from there." I nodded, receiving a curt smile from her, before she walked out, closing the door behind her.

" Okay, what the fuck just happened? She was going, Zayn! We wouldn't have had to deal with any of this shit!" Louis groaned, beginning to pace the floor, running a hand through his hair.

" Lets face it, Louis. If it wasn't her, it would have been someone else. Sooner or later, they'll make us add someone to our team and move on with our lives, so we might as well take a good one. Her file is exactly what you'd hope for. She's confident and strong and she just works, Louis. So, suck it up, and be nice to her tomorrow, because I have a feeling she can easily kick your ass if you don't."

" And she's hot too." Niall laughed, receiving a death glare from Louis. He lifted his hands up in the air in surrender, continuing to laugh to himself.

" So, all on board?" I questioned, looking between the three boys ahead, receiving a nod with a smile from Liam, a thumbs up from a laughing Niall, and a "whatever" from Louis, before he walked away, a string of curse words immediately filling the air of the whole unit.

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A/N: starting different povs this part, so I hope you're okay with that :)

let me know what you think, ily x