Safe with me - Lucy Chen.

Part one.

"Teyah! We're gonna be late!" Jackson yelled. I leapt out of bed, realising I'd forgotten to set an alarm the night before.
8:40am "Shit. I'm coming!" I ran around my room, chucking on the closest pair of joggers and throwing on a top, conscious of the fact I looked as though I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, but time was really not on my side. Quickly running a brush through my long, dark red hair, and touching up my makeup that I'd forgotten to take off the night before, I grabbed my bag and sprinted out of mine and Jackson's apartment and met him down by his car in the lot beneath the apartment building.

We had just over 10 minutes to get to the station and change before roll call at 9 am. On the way, we noticed a bright orange, run-down Datsun getting pushed by someone along the side of the road. "Hey isn't that Lucy?" Jackson pointed out. I turned my head towards the direction of the person pushing the broken down car and realised it was in fact Lucy Chen, one of our close friends from the academy. Just as we were about to pull over and ask if she needed help, we noticed she was talking to a guy on the sidewalk. Staying cautious, we pulled in behind her and drove slowly in case she needed a save, just as the guy showed off a gun in his waistband. I leapt out of the car, but before I could get to them, Lucy already had him on the ground and in cuffs. 'That's my girl' I thought to myself. We'd gotten close in the academy, being the only two women in our class. We'd spend every day together and spent evenings studying and drinking, getting to know each other. Sadly, for me, she made it obvious she was straight from the get go, constantly referring to our male teachers at the academy as "hot" or "daddy material", which always made me internally cringe, replying with 'um's' and 'ah's' because I personally didn't see it, but of course I didn't. If I'm honest, she laid it on thick, almost trying to make herself believe she felt that way, or that's just my imagination.

Just then, Jackson called from the truck, "Nicely done officer chen!" She turned around, and noticed him in the truck behind her, then her eyes landed on me, who was stood there incredibly awkwardly in the middle of the road. Her eyes lingered for a while and I, of course, just stood there looking like an idiot. She eventually smiled, looking back at Jackson. "Thanks! Fancy giving me and this imbecile a lift to the station? Cars crapped out again and I gotta book him before roll call." Jackson agreed and we all got into the car after I offered to roll Lucy's car further over to the sidewalk so it didn't cause any problems on the road. On the way, Lucy called a tow truck to go and get it. We got to the station with five minutes to spare, dropping Lucy off to book the guy she'd arrested and parked up. I bolted to the locker room and changed as fast as I could, as being late on the first day really wouldn't have made a good first impression. I checked everything looked neat and tidy before attempting to leave and make my way to roll call. In the midst of my hurry, I ran into someone, knocking me back and landing me flat on my ass. Looking up I noticed it was Lucy. "Sorry I didn't see you there!" She said with a smile forming on her face. "No it was my fault, I was in a rush." I explained, cheeks heating up from embarrassment as she helped me up off of the floor. "Hey great arrest this morning, haven't even started your first day and already made your first arrest, you tryna make the rest of us look bad?" I joked. She laughed. I loved that laugh. "Aha not in the slightest, but you got some catching up to do Mason." I smiled, talking to her had definitely eased some of the nerves I was feeling about my first day. "Well I'll see you in there." She said, "try not to run into anyone else." She winked. Laughing, I said "I'll try my best."

In the room, we were all seated, Jackson on my right, Lucy on my left and John on the other side of Lucy. Sergeant Grey walked in and all focus was on him, the room going silent. "Good morning everyone, as you can see, we have four new rookies today, can you all stand up and introduce yourself, stating your badge number." Jackson stood up, he'd waited for this moment his entire life, I was so proud of him. Then I realised it was my turn. The nerves from earlier creeping back up on me as I stood, legs wobbling and my heart rate increasing. Until I felt a hand come into contact with my knee, it was Chen's. She rubbed her thumb comfortingly on my knee and suddenly all my nerves disappeared. "Hi I'm Teyah Mason, badge number 2955." Wasn't a speech or anything, so I don't know why I was worried, but speaking in-front of that many police officers as a rookie was terrifying. As I sat down, her hand remained until she was told to stand up. She introduced herself with such confidence and assertiveness, like she'd been doing this job for years. She was a huge people person, it's why we clicked at the academy. She was the yapper, I was the listener. She brought out my talkative side and made me feel comfortable and confident in myself. That's how I knew she'd be an amazing cop, you trust her immediately even though you don't know her.