Falling For Lucy

Epi 14 - Plain Clothes Day

Today was one of my favorite days as a training officer. It was a special day that marked my Boot's 100th shift as an Officer, which meant it was Plain Clothes Day. It was an important milestone in Chen's career as a police officer and I had been counting down the days, patiently waiting for today to arrive.

I got up early, did my usual routine, and took my time going into the station. This morning, by all means, this was the only shift that I got to relax on as a T.O. I have trained dozens of rookies and while I knew Chen was a bit insecure, I also knew there was no good reason why she should wash out today. Today was finally going to be easy.

When I walked into the station, Bishop and Lopez were waiting at the bottom of the stairs, the rookies were likely in the captain's office getting the Plain Clothes Day speech. 

"How long have they been up there?" I asked as I arrived.

"About 5 minutes," Lopez replied. 

"Good, they should be down any minute now," I smirked, putting my hands in my pockets as we waited. 

"Excited?" Bishop asked with a smirk. 

"A little." I shrugged. 

Just then all three rookies filed out of the Captain's office and down the stairs. Nolan and West were in front and Chen was right behind them. 

"Are you guys as excited about this as I am? We finally get to call the shots." Nolan said as they came down the first flight of stairs. 

"I know, right!" Chen eagerly agreed. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. They rounded the landing and started coming down the last flight of stairs.

"Woah, slow down. You two realize that 20% of probationary officers that wash out of the program do it during plain clothes day." West said to them which caused me to smirk. The kid was right. 

"Don't tell us that," Nolan complained. "Why would you tell us that?"

"Motivation," West said simply as they landed on the ground floor.

Angela chuckled. "They grow up so fast, don't they?" 

I nodded in agreement. 

"Please, they're just as green as they were yesterday." Bishop sighed. 

Chen was smirking at me. It was good, she had confidence, but that would be destroyed by the end of the day. 

"What you looking at Boot? I'm not even here." I said to Chen, reminding her today was all on her. Her smirk slowly dropped from her face. 

"Let's go get our gear." West prompted them. They started towards the equipment desk and we followed behind them.

"My washout number is 3. What about you?" Lopez asked Bishop.

"Same. I bet Tim's is up in double digits by now." Bishop replied, and Chen turned to look at us, her eyebrows scrunched in concern.

"Damn straight," I agreed. "I've had 11 rookies bounce from the program during plain clothes day. Looking to make it an even dozen today." 

Arriving at the desk, Nolan said, "Do not listen. They're just trying to psych us out." He grabbed the first bags and turned to face us.

"Already making a mistake," Bishop said. I suppressed a smirk.

"If we're not here, why get two kit bags?" Angela asked. 

"Oh," Nolan replied as he turned to put one bag back.

West immediately spoke up, "We're supposed to have two bags. Just in case they have to take action." 

Of course, daddy prepped him.