ᗴ᙭ᑭᒪOՏIᐯᗴՏ|ᵗⁱᵐ ᵇʳᵃᵈᶠᵒʳᵈ

𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 14| 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦,

It's a little shorter than usual, but all I have time for now that I started a new job and have to study a lot.

Hope you enjoy❤︎
_

"Guess what."

"What."

Chen rolled her eyes playfully. "Guess."

"Guess what," Diana asked, how am I supposed to know what this is about? "What is it? Your apartment, Jackson, the Sergeant, did you adopt a kitten? Please say no, I'm allergic and I adore them, so I can't stand away when I see one. That means I have to pet them and I get a rash and-"

"Okay," Chen interrupted her friend's rambling. "I was talking about this guy. This morning, there was this really, really cute guy at the bakery and he had this bright smile and we kinda talked a little and we went outside together - still talking - but then he stumbled over his own feet and he looked so cute and he had his coffee all over him and guess what he said. He said 'do you happen to have a band-aid, 'cause I scraped my knees falling for you' and i can see the blood running down his leg and all I can do is laugh," the Officer reported excitedly, barely being able to suppress a giggle. "But of course I didn't have a band-aid, so I told him I'd buy him a new coffee and we exchanged numbers and it was so romantic."

Diana chuckled at her friend. "Good for you. When are you seeing him again?"

"Oh, I-"

The officer was eager to tell her about their plans for Friday, but sadly they were interrupted by Bradford. "Chen, let's go. Get our stuff."

"Yes."

Lucy disappeared, leaving the two behind by themselves. Diana wanted to greet him, but he was faster than her. "Are you here because of him?"

"Huh?" She followed his eyes that were totally focused on the meeting room filled up with a few dozen officers. And in front of them, Commander West of IA. "Oh, yeah. He told me he'd come by. Probably because of what happened last week."

She could feel it. The look he was giving her, that of pity and sympathy. Though, it was gone as fast as it had appeared when he turned around to face the meeting room again.

Now, Tim Bradford wasn't really a person one would call sympathetic, and it was not like he had been in that situation before, so he had no idea how to comfort her. But what confused him even more, was that he even had the urge to comfort her, to make her feel better. After all, she was the one who was constantly getting on his nerves, driving him to the edge. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you think they'll make a decision soon?"

"Hah, yeah, sure, why not? And we all know how that will turn out."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on." She rolled her eyes, an empty look on her face. "I'm 27, a woman and black. He has been with the police for at least 30 years, doing a decent job as a captain - minus that whole harassment thing obviously - and he is a white man. I'm from Texas, I know that his word will ultimately weight more than mine. I've experienced it more than once or twice, it's been that way my entire life." She stared him in his eye. "To our society, he is worth more than me. Way more."

"That-"

"Detective Ryder," a voice interrupted the Officer. Without noticing what he was stepping into, Commander West stepped in between them. "If you're free now."

Diana nodded at him. "Let's go."
_

"Earth to Ryder. Are you in there? Diana?"

The Detective snapped out of her thoughts when a hand appeared in front of her face. Confused, she stared at her partner. "Hey, Charlie. What's up?"