ᗴ᙭ᑭᒪOՏIᐯᗴՏ|ᵗⁱᵐ ᵇʳᵃᵈᶠᵒʳᵈ

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑥| 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴.

"Wake up!"

Diana groaned as a pillow hit her head. Still a little groggy, she turned her head and opened her eyes, finding her roommate standing next to her bed with a shit eating grin. "Buckley, I had a really, really long night."

"Well, I had a great night," he grinned brightly at her, then sat down on her side. "Buck 2.0 rocks. I was out the whole night with Maddy and Chimney and I didn't talk to a single Lady."

He looks so proud of himself.

"That's great, Buck... but if that's the reason why you woke me up so early on my day off then I swear I'm gonna get my gun an-"

His laugh interrupted her. He grabbed her hands and pulled her up in bed, so that she was sitting upright. "No, that's not it. It's jut that we're going to brunch with Eddie and his son Chris."

"Wasn't he the new guy you didn't like?"

"I've changed my mind, come on."
_

"Hey, guys."

While Buck greeted his friends, Diana slid into an empty chair at the table. Her roommate soon sat down next to her, while his friend and his son sat opposite. "Diana, this is Eddie Diaz and that's his son Christopher. Eddie, Chris, my wonderful roommate and Detective of the LAPD Diana Ryder."

She smiled at them. "Hey, guys, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Diana. I like your accent, are you from Texas?"

He also has an accent but it sounds more southern.

The woman nodded, happy that she gets to talk about her home. "Born and raised in Austin. I also went to police academy there but then decided to go to New York afterwards. What about you?"

"El Paso. We moved away only a few months ago. We miss our family but we just needed the change," Eddie explained, a small, melancholic smile on his lips.

Diana understood that feeling. She missed her family in Austin dearly. Her father, four brothers, especially Judd, he was a few years older than her but still the youngest out of the brothers. Actually, she was just their half-sister, as they all shared their father but Diana had a different mother.

It was a shock when Diana came into the family. Stuart knew he had a daughter with the woman he had a one-night stand with, but the pair decided as soon as they found out, that he wouldn't be involved in her life. What he couldn't know back then, however, was that she would become part of a sect and follow a self proclaimed prophet, not noticing how abusive and toxic she treated her daughter.

To her new brothers, it was a shock. Not only did they now have to live with a young girl - well, only those who were still living home as the oldest two already moved out - no, she also was so different to them. They didn't care about her different skin colour, what they worried about was her strange behaviour that she picked up after years of living in a cult.

Over the years, they slowly managed to integrate her into the society, although she did have some big trouble as a person of colour living in Texas of all places. With none of her family looking like her, they naturally had trouble understanding how she felt. At this time, only Judd was still living at home with her and her father, being the only one of the brothers still underage. Out of her whole family, he had helped her the most, even though he had the hardest time when she first joined the family.

In the beginning, he detested her the most. Over the years, this rocky relationship evolved into a stable one, non-toxic and healthy in every way. He became her protector, she became his backbone, always there when they needed each other.