My daughter -The Rookie

14- Clean up

I went to the copy room to get a big cardboard box to store everything in. After that I went to the changing room where all the lockers were. I put the box down on a bench in the middle of the hall. I was putting in the code when I heard a voice behind me. 'What are you doing?' I turned around and saw Angela. 'I'll give you three guesses.' I said, turning back the locker. 'Who's locker is that?' Angela asked. The lock opened but I kept the door ajar, scared to show Angela something she wasn't allowed to see. I looked at her, my eyes tired and heavy. 'Can you please just go?' I begged. 'Are you okay?' She totally ignored my request. 'No, now, please go.' I was trying to be patient but I had enough and wanted my peace. 'Okay, fine I'll go, but if you need anything, just say so, okay?' Angela said, a little held back by my outburst. 'Don't worry, I won't. Now, please go.' I stared at the ground. I felt how she walked past me to the door.

I heard the door close and I took a deep breath before opening the locker. It looked kind of like mine. Two uniforms, her shoes, a small bag with probably make up, and a little basket for jewelry. Indeed, she had a picture of us inside her locker. It was a little hidden in the back against the wall, but it was clear. She had some other things like a bracelet I had made for her when I was little, an agenda and half a heart. It was a stone made from the gemstone, rosen quarts. It was broken in half perfectly. She had the right half and I the left half in my locker. I put everything in the box. First, all the personnel stuff that I covered with her uniforms. It actually felt pretty peaceful to do, which I didn't expect. I didn't had the feeling like I was erasing her from the station or anything like that. No. It was like she would want it. Her daughter clearing out her stuff to make place for another great cop to serve our city like she had done for years. It took me about half an hour to do. I was working very slow, letting all the memories get back to me. When I was done, the locker was completely empty and my box halfway filled. I closed the locker and made my way up to her office. I closed the door and blinds behind me so nobody could come in or see that I was in here. I put the box I had just filled next to the door and started opening every drawer from the desk.

There were three drawers and in the first one, I just found office supplies like a stapler, adhesive tape, paperclips and some other things. I left it for the next captain to use. The next, way bigger drawer had just papers and cases my mom was working on. I grabbed another box and wrote 'Case Files' on it. I put every file I could find in that box so it wouldn't get lost. In the last drawer I found some small things. Pictures of her family, friends and her old dog. I liked that dog too. Cap was his name. It was an abbreviation for Captain. I smiled and put all the pictures in the box. There were also a couple large cupboards with more papers. I didn't go through those, because those just looked like case files and my job was taking care of all the personnel things.

I ended with the framed photos on the cabinet. I put them all in the box. Pictures of her parents, sister, nieces and... I froze a little when I saw the last picture. I grabbed it. It was another picture of me, but with my real parents. It was weird to see in her office, since she practically hated them. It was also crazy to think about how often I had been in here without noticing it. It was already pretty dusty so it must have been standing there for a while. I pushed the thoughts away and put the last picture down in my box. It was now completely filled. I looked at the uniforms on top and took them out and folded them so they wouldn't wrinkle too much.

When I was done, I brought all the stuff back to my car. I was putting the boxes in my car when my phone rang. 'Lucy.' I answered. 'Hi, it's me. How is it going?' Tim asked and I couldn't help but smile. 'Good, I cleared out the locker and her office. I'll let someone else handle the files.' I answered. 'Good. Well, it's my lunch break right now so would you like me to pick you out so we can have lunch with the others?' I hesitated. 'I would like that, but... I don't know.' I explained, but I couldn't find the right words. 'Are you not sure because you don't want to go or because you're scared of the questions the others might ask?' He knew exactly what was going on. 'Well I wouldn't say scared...' I started. 'Well, put a word on it.' Tim pushed. 'Okay, ehh... No, yes, let's go with scared. Scared is fine.' I couldn't think of something else and I could hear Tim laugh over the phone. 'Okay, well don't worry okay. If they're annoying or bothering you, you let me handle it, okay?' Now I laughed. 'Wauw, protective and compassionate. Where is Tim and what did you do with him?' I played with him. 'Boot, don't talk to me like that!' He said back in the same playful tone and I giggled. 'Anyways, I'll be there in five.' He added. 'Yes, see you soon, bye.' I answered and he hung up.

I shook my head, smiling, thinking about Tim as I closed the trunk. I locked my car and went back inside to grab my jacket that I had left at the desk I had been standing at when I had to wait for Grey to give me the locker combination. As I did so, Grey came up to me. 'Hi, how is it going?' He asked me and I turned around. 'It went great. I got all the personal stuff in a box in my car and I put all the loose case files if found in a box and put that on her desk.' I explained. 'Good, I'll probably ask the other rookies to sort that out in the upcoming days. Unless you want to help them?' He asked. 'Of course, There were a lot so I'll be happy to help.' I answered. 'Good answer.' Grey smiled. I got a message on my phone. It was Tim, saying he was outside. 'Okay, well I'm going to grab some lunch with the others and I'll let Nolan and West know about our new task.' I said. 'Thank you, Have fun.' And with that Grey walked away. I was feeling a lot better than this morning and yesterday. I was way happier and the smile I had on my face was real this time.