Secrets (Never to be Told)

Chapter Three

Three months have passed, and Lucy had crossed off her calendar daily. Today was the 100th day of being a Rookie and she was excited of what was to expect her.

However, seeing Tim in his civil clothes instead of his regular uniform confused her.

She nudged John and he was just as confused as her, so when Grey opened roll call and neither of their T.O.s were dressed in uniform, they knew they were in for a ride.

"Congratulations Rookies, you made 100 days on the job. Now, none of your training officers are in uniform today, why's that?" He looked at Nolan. "No clue sir."

Grey averted his gaze towards the F.T.O group and they all said in unison – clearly amused – "Plain Clothes Day!"

"I'm sorry, what is plain clothes day?" Lucy wondered and looked at their captain who was standing next to the watch commander.

"Your training officers will be riding with you today, but only in observatory manners. It's like riding alone; today, everything will be your call to make." Anderson explained.

After they had been dismissed, the three rookies made their way to the kit room. Lucy looked at the T.O.s following them. "What are you looking at? We're not here." Tim said with his hands in his pockets. He damn straight loved plain clothes day.

Lucy and Tim headed to the garage. She noticed him leaning against a wall with a pen and an envelope. "What are you doing?" he looked up from his place. "Filling out your evaluation." Lucy tilted her head just slightly. "But we haven't even left yet?"

Tim walked up to her and looked her in the eyes. "I already know how today's going to go."

Lucy scoffed, unintentionally walking towards the passenger side. "No, you don't. You're trying to get into my head, but it won't work." When she felt his judging stare and noticed her own mistake, she was quick to switch sides and let him sit on the passenger side.

While on patrol, she spotted a blue van and a man hiding behind a power box with a video camera. Confused, she followed the direction of the camera and realized he was filming a woman in her bedroom.

"That sick bastard, he's filming her!"

Lucy alerted him with her siren and stopped him with the door as he tried to run away. "LAPD, you're under arrest."

She brought him back to station and locked him up after taking the mandatory mugshots and fingerprints. On her way back to the garage, she pulled out the evaluation and ripped it open, but instead of that, a paper with "I said after shift", was in the envelope.

She threw it away, rolling her eyes when she felt Tim's gaze on her gain. "What?" she asked as she got closer, but Tim only shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't say anything." "But you're looking at me in a weird way- oh my god, did I forget something?" She looked at him and he scoffed. "I told you already, I know how today is going to go. Just like I knew you would forget to properly process all of our suspects properties."

Lucy felt the panic well up in her and rapidly she went over the things she took in from their suspect Todd Collins.

Car keys, phone, wallet, the camera...

"But I have everything he had." "Tell me Chen, how did he get to the place where you arrested him?"

She scoffed "I told you, he drove, and I have his keys!" "But not his car." Lucy froze as she heard that, barely taking in what he said afterwards about the network of sex traffickers and contacts and evidence.

Evidence. Evidence. Lucy, get the evidence!!

She rushed back to the shop, and raced back to where they had arrested Todd, but the blue van with the faint label of the power company was gone. She tried to remain calm, but it was difficult to push it down while reaching for her radio. "7-Adam-19, I need a reverse directory on a vehicle registered on the name of Todd Collins."

It didn't take long for an answer to come back through the radio, static and – in this moment – terrifying of what the result might be. "7-Adam-19, it seems like your subject owns a blue '98 Econoline E-350 van with California Plates: 6PCI093. Your vehicle was impounded from your location about an hour ago."

Relief rushed through her body, but she also felt played. "You had it impounded?!" She turned around and looked at her T.O who was leaning against the shop.

"Yes, once I realized you had overlooked that detail. I didn't tell you so that you could discover your own mistake and learn from it. That's what plain clothes day is all about." He walked closer towards her. "I'm here to prepare you for the streets once you're riding solo one day. It is necessary to always keep your environment under control, otherwise you won't survive out here."

Luckily, the following dispatches went differently. Lucy used her intuition and personal skills and observation to cuff up a murderer – even after looking at the end of her probationary year for a second due to a filed complaint. She should really be thanking him for stepping up for her in front of Acker.

When they got out of shift that day, Tim already awaited her in front of the women's locker room. "What are you doing here sir?" Without saying anything, he handed her another brown envelope. Her actual evaluation. Nervously, she opened the envelope and started to read its contents out loud. "Officer Chen second-guessed every decision she made today" her voice grew quieter by the end of the sentence and she didn't want to read more of it.

"The whole point of me doing this was to get under your skin." She scoffed; he did get under her skin. "But in the end, when it really counted, you made the right decision by putting it all on the line." He ripped the paper from her hands and started destroying it angrily. "This pisses me off, now I have to rewrite this whole thing."

She looked up at him, smiling. "Good work today, Chen. See you tomorrow." He didn't smile back, but at least he was nice about it. "Yeah, see you tomorrow, sir."