Falling For Lucy

Epi 15 - Manhunt

Roll call started today with the commercial we pranked the rookies into recording. Seeing them trying so hard and failing so badly was pretty comical. The whole room was laughing at their bad takes.

"L.A.'s finest," Grey commented with a chuckle.

"Okay, guys, I know there were a few stumbles in there, yes, in the beginning, but this is Hollywood, right?" Nolan said, "They fix that stuff in editing. I think this video is gonna make the department very proud." The room laughed even harder.

Grey looked at me. "Officer Bradford, would you like to do the honor?"

"Actually sir, I think that should go to Lopez. The whole thing was her idea." I replied, looking to Lopez, who was sitting on my right.

"Lopez?" Grey prompted her.

"There is no promotional video." She chuckled, barely holding her laugh in.

"You got punked!" Bishop added and the room erupted into laughter again. It was only then did it fully dawn on Nolan and the other rookies that this was indeed a prank and we were all going to fully enjoy it. Grey pulled out a bowl of popcorn and continued to play a few more clips for the rest of roll call.

Once we were released we went to the garage for a training seminar with Jessica Russo, a hostage negotiator consultant. She had a fake bomb strapped to her chest and she looked like a crazy person.

"We're all gonna die... Right here. Right now. This bomb is packed with C4, ball bearings, screws, broken glass. When this thing goes off, this whole room is gonna turn into a blender. And guess what. If you don't die instantly, you're gonna suffer fatal secondary infections because I soaked the shrapnel in my own filth. Now, you've all been taught to shoot on sight when you see a bomber, right? But you can't shoot me, because I'm holding a dead man's switch. I let it go, it detonates. So, your only shot at survival is to talk me into giving up. But... You only have 10 words to do it. Go." She said, pointing at West first.

West spoke, "Um, ma'am, you don't want to do this."

"Boom. It's a slaughterhouse in here. Go." She pointed at Chen next.

"Uh, my name is Lucy Chen, and-"

"Boom. They're IDing you through dental records."

While Jessica was focused on Chen I tried to launch myself at her to take the switch out of her hand.

"Boom! You just got buried in a shoe box, Officer Bradford."

Nolan stepped forward this time. "I can only imagine the pain you're feeling right now." He said softly, sympathetically.

"You just got 10 more words." Jessica smiled at him.

We ran the exercise for a little bit longer before she dismissed us to the conference room. She came in a few minutes later with her hair brushed and a pantsuit on. She looked like a reasonably attractive woman when she wasn't in character.

"Okay, so what did you all do wrong?" She asked. "Officer West started mansplaining. Officer Chen wasted time by introducing herself. And Officer Bradford decided to skip words altogether."

I rolled my eyes. "They're overrated. If I'd been a hair quicker, you'd be singing my praises." Who needs words when you have action?

"But you weren't. So that means you fall into the fail category, with everybody else - except... Officer Nolan. What did he do right?" Russo asked.

"He expressed empathy," Bishop answered.

I scoffed. "You mean he faked it."

Bishop sent me a look that said, shut up.