Little Warrior

1. Braids

As Lucy Chen was walking through Mid Wilshire station, she heard someone say, "I'm looking for Bradford. BRADFORD. Need me to spell it for you?" She followed the direction of the voice to the front desk. "I'm Detective Chen Bradford. Are you looking for me?"

The man took one look at Lucy and shook his head. "No, I'm looking for a dude. TIM Bradford. He works here, too. You know him?"

"I sure do. He's my husband."

"Can you take me to your husband?"

"What's your name, sir?"

"I'm Mikey, and I'm an old friend of Bradford's. I really need to talk to him, lady, so are you gonna take me to him or not?"

"It's detective, and maybe I can help you. What's this regarding?" Mikey looked down, and Lucy followed his line of sight to make eye contact with a young girl standing beside him who was about five years old with long mousy brown hair and light blue grey eyes that showed her confusion. "Hi, sweetie. Are you okay?"

"She's fine. Now, let me talk to your husband."

Lucy would have told Mikey to leave, but she wanted to keep a close eye on the child with him. "I'll take you to his office." She took small steps to walk side by side with the little girl between her and Mikey as they navigated past the front desk and the bullpen to enter the Watch Commander's office. She pointed to the black leather couch along one of the walls and said, "Have a seat."

Lucy pulled one of the plastic chairs from where it faced the desk to place it in front of the couch where she could sit across from Mikey and the child. "What's your name?" She asked the quiet girl.

"Trixie doesn't talk much to strangers. She's barely said anything to me," Mikey answered for her.

"That's your name? Trixie?" Lucy asked sweetly. When the little girl nodded, Lucy complimented, "That's a pretty name. My name is Lucy."

"Pretty, too," Trixie replied with the beginning of a smile that made Lucy grin.

Lucy heard the office door open and saw Tim walk in. "Hey, Tim, this is..."

"Mikey, been a while," Tim said plainly.

"You look good, Bradford. Is this your office now? Fancy," Mikey said regarding the room.

"Our old Watch Commander just retired and Tim got promoted last week. We're all so proud of him," Lucy gushed.

"Good for you. Last time we talked, you were married to someone named Isabel, but this chick said her name is Lucy," Mikey pointed out.

"A lot's changed since you got locked up," Tim replied coldly.

"I'm out now, and I've gone straight. I got a job at an auto repair shop. The owner even lets me live above the garage, so I got a good place to stay," Mikey said.

"Happy to hear it. So, why are you here?"

"This is my daughter, Bellatrix. Trixie for short. I need you to take her," Mikey answered.

"What do you mean take her?" Lucy wondered.

"I need you to, you know, take her home with you. Raise her. Give her a house, and a family, and all the stuff I can't give her," Mikey said.

"You can't be serious," Tim shot back. "If you can't take care of your daughter, we can get you in touch with a social worker, and..."

"No! No Child Services and social workers. Trixie would be in the system and grow up in group homes. I can't have her grow up how Val and I did, man. I want a better life for her, and the only person I could think of that would do that is you. You're a good man, and I'm sure she'll fit in with your other kids."