The Bradford's

Not The End

"You ready?" I looked at Tim as we both stood in uniform outside of the briefing room his first day back.
"Yeah I think so," he grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
"Hey, I know this is hard but everyone missed you, no one thinks any less of you for getting taken by the gang." He admitted to me he worried that people would think he wasn't good at being a sergeant because of everything that happened to us. Him pairing me with a gang affiliate.
"It's not that, I paired you with a gang member... I don't know if I should be doing this," he shook his head.
"Hey, hey you earned this spot. You didn't make the mistake the academy did when they accepted that fool. Now straighten up those shoulders and get your ass in there Sergeant." I opened the door and pushed him in. Everyone stood up and clapped him in.
"Okay, okay, thank you everyone, have a seat!" He walked to the front of the briefing room and I took my seat. "I know what happened to me was hard to take in for all of you, but I assure I'm back and I'm ready to take down anything that comes after me and this department! We did manage to get all of the gang behind bars. But we still need to be on our toes and stay vigilant at all times!"
"Sir, what do you have to say for bringing a gang member into this department?" One of the Rookies asked and his eyes found mine and I nodded slowly.
"I had faith in the academy to not even allow someone with gang affiliations in training. I will forever regret that, that being said, we will be looking deeper to our Rookies. But trust me when I say I researched him very thoroughly before allowing him to ride with Officer Bradford and he checked out. His story was that he was being vetted to join them and backed when he was asked to kill someone... during mine and officers time being captured he was asked to kill us to prove his loyalty." Tim found my eyes again and swallowed hard. I felt tears pooling in my eyes but I pushed them away, "but I don't think he was going to, but I couldn't take any chances and didn't give him the time to think it through." He looks around and the room is so silent, "that being said, we need to get out there and do what we do best and that is protect LA!" He looks at me and I smile a classic smile at him as everyone is leaving to get out on the streets and he gestures for me to come see him.
"Hey want to help me with something today?" He asks.
"Sure. What is it?" He's peaked my interest.
"We're going to talk to admissions at the academy." My jaw drops slightly.
"Woah, do you really want to stir the pot? It's not worth it." I shake my head at him.
"Your damn right I do. I want to make sure no other person skips through the cracks. They should be looking harder.  You could have been killed. I-I," he grabs my shoulder gently and pulls me into a room and closes the door, "I watched you get tortured. You watched me get tortured. I put your life in danger by pairing you with that punk."
"Tim, I- you know what, lets go. I'm driving though." I smirk.
"Not a chance sweet cheeks," he opens the door and gestures for me to lead the way. I go grab our go bags and meet him at our shop. He logs us in and our call code and we set off to the Academy's recruitment office.
"Don't lose it in there," I say softly to him as we get ready to walk in.
"Wouldn't dream of it," he opens the door and again has me go in first. He goes up to the front desk and introduces us and ask to speak to the person in charge of doing the digging on the students. We have a seat and after about 15 minutes we are called back.
"Hi there, I'm Dean of Admissions, Mary Adams, what do I owe this pleasure," she smiles and gestures for us to have a seat I start to sit and Tim puts a hand out to stop me.
"No thanks we'll stand," Tim says hardly. "I want to know how Mitchell Reed slipped through the cracks. He had Gang affiliations that almost cost me and Officer Bradford here our lives," he crosses his arms and narrows his eyes at her.
"I can assure we are very thorough at our jobs, and if he actually was, it wasn't enough to pop up on our radars."
"If? He admitted to before he beat the hell out of us!" Tim gets a little loud and I shrink back.
"Look, all we want to do is make sure this doesn't happen again, to anyone else. What he did, was unforgivable." I stepped closer and looked her in the eyes
"Well, I can assure we had no clue," her eyes were shifting back and forth and I saw sweat starting to form on her forehead. She looked fidgety and something wasn't sitting right, "and if you want to continue to question me, we can take this to IA. But I don't think they will like there time being wasted anymore than i do. Now is that all?" She sat down and folders her legs.
"No that will be all, thanks for your time, let's go," Tim said and we left the room and made our way out thanking the secretary on our way to the shop.
Once in the car I looked at him, "did you think she seemed off?"
"Most definitely off and we're going to find out why, let's go see Angela," he put the shop in drive and I called Angela.
"Hey where are you?" I asked her.
"I'm at home with Wes and Mila, why?"
"Meet us back at Tim's office, it's important, and bring that precious god baby of mine." I smiled think of her perfect brown hair in pig tails and rosy cheeks.
"Sure. See you soon," I hang up.
"Listen, I want you to lay low on this, if she's some how connected to the gang, I can't put you in that situation, the kids need you." Tim's haw was tight and his his knuckles white on the steering wheel. "And I know I don't have to tell you this but I am," he looked at me and back to the road, "not a word of this to anyone. The precinct can't afford to be apart of anymore scandals." He's not wrong. There's been the me and Caleb situation, me and Emmett,  Nolan discovering Anderson as dirty, and now Reed being a Ex gang member. But there's no chance I'm not helping.
"Not a chance in hell am I sitting on the sideline, i was kidnapped to Tim. You can't always be my knight in shining armor. What you did was stupid and reckless I might be your wife but I'm a cop first. I could have taken what those assholes planned, I'm supposed to protect the higher ranking as much as you should protect me." Pictures of Tim yelling at the gang members to leave me alone and pictures of him being beat to the brink of death flashed in my mind and I winced.
"Lucy your my WIFE first in a situation like that, I don't care, if it's me or you. I choose you to live every time. I will take your pain and suffering in a heartbeat. You are my world." I felt tears in my eyes ...
"Tim, I can't live without you either. So I guess we are at a stand still on that one. I love you." I lean over and kiss his cheek while we're driving.
Once we arrive at the station, we go into Tim's office and Angela soon arrives with Mila. "Hi baby girl, I missed you," I held her in my arms and kissed her little cheek and took a seat.
"What's going on guys?" She sits down and looks between us.
"We paid the Dean of admissions at the academy a visit today.  Just to get her take on the slip up with Reed. She looked nervous and shifty when we asked." Tim tells her.
"Can we just look into her? Run her name have someone bring her in ask some questions? Someone whose not us... aka you." Tim says and picks up his cup of coffee and smiles at Mila who is giggling at him. "He sweetie." He smiles at her.
"Yeah sure, what's her name?"
"Mary Adams." I tell her.
"Okay, I'll go run the report and bring her down tomorrow, give her time to stir." She sAys.
"Okay keep us updated. We are here to help but want to do it not face to face with her. Because we know what happened isnt the end of the Bragas." Tim looks at me and takes a nervous breath and his eyes flash to sadness.
"Hey, well put an end to them one way or another. You guys are badasses."  She winks at me.