Tough Love

Chapter One

*This is my first story, so please bear with me. I would appreciate any feedback. I have rated this PG-13 as I don't know how hairy things will get later on. Please let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy it.*

Chapter One 

“It is now midnight, and I am absolutely terrified. I start my new job tomorrow (or maybe its considered today), and I am extremely nervous. I know I should be sleeping, or at least trying, but I can’t seem to relax enough to go to sleep. I have 7 hours to actually talk myself into stepping foot into that building. I know I need to do this; I need this job and not just for the money. I need to do this for myself; for my confidence. I am going to try to sleep, maybe a few hours will give me the confidence to actually do this.”

As I walk up to the big building, I’m not quite sure how I’ve managed to get this far or how I am going to get through the day. I took a deep breath to try to steady my nerves as much as possible and briskly walked into the building before I change my mind and ran away. As I walked up to the reception desk, the desk cop stopped me and asked, “Can I help you, miss?” “Yes sir. I’m here to see Captain Michaels. My name is Danica Romanov.”

“I’ll just call him to check in, Ma’am.”

“Thank you, sir.”

I stood off to the side, watching the hustle and bustle of people’s morning routines. Someone stood in front of me, causing me to jump slightly. “Good morning, Danica. How are you this morning? Are you all set to start work?”

“Morning sir. I’m fine, thank you. I just hope I can meet your standards, sir.”

“I’m sure you will. I wouldn’t have hired you if I didn’t think you were up to it. Let me show you to your desk and I’ll give you your passes. You must wear your pass at all times while in the building. I’m sure you can appreciate that security is very tight around here.”

“Yes sir.”

Captain Michaels shows me to my desk and explains what my duties are and where I should start. Just before he left me to start my work, he smiles softly at me and says, “If you need anything, just call through to my office or come looking for me. I hope you settle in just fine. 

I return the smile ever so slightly and reply, “Thank you, sir. 

I suppose now is a good time to introduce myself. My name is Danica Romanov, as you’ve already heard. I am of Russian decent, as you may have guessed from my name. I have just started my job at the New York Police Department, as an analyst for the S.W.A.T team. My job is to analyze the data that we receive to check for threats, if they are viable threats, to categorize threats or emergencies and then pass that data on to Captain Michaels. That’s a pretty scary job, right? I mean, I’m not the only analyst, but still, that’s a lot of pressure to get things right. If I miss a threat, the whole country could be blown up. (Maybe that’s a little dramatic, but you get what I mean).

My desk is right near Captain Michaels’ office, so there’s a lot of people passing through. The teams seem to pass by constantly, waiting for missions, or being briefed or debriefed. I try to ignore all the human movement, which sets me on edge even more than I already am. I need to focus my attention on the stack of files that have already been placed on my desk. I grab the top file and start processing the data.

It must have been a couple hours later, when someone cleared their throat in front of my desk. I jumped and nervously looked up. I saw a group of guys wearing their S.W.A.T uniforms, all standing around my desk staring at me. I let out a small gasp, and tried not to show that I was actually pretty scared right now. “You’re new here.” It was said more like a statement than a question. I didn’t look him in the eyes, in fact, I didn’t look any of them in the eyes as I whispered, “Yes sir.” 

The same guy looked at the name plaque on my desk and asked, “Romanov? That’s Russian, right?”

I really didn’t want to talk to anyone, but I couldn’t be rude on my first day, so I whispered, “Yes sir.”

The other guys all shot looks at each other, which I didn’t understand, but I wasn’t going to question it. One of the others asked, “You speak Russian?”

I didn’t answer straight away. In fact, I was a little shocked that these guys were so forward. I didn’t like speaking to people, and they were totally catching me off guard. That wasn’t fair. I didn’t have any time to throw my defenses up. The original guy that spoke must have noticed how uncomfortable I was, because he quickly said, “Hi, my name is Elijah. This is Ash, Ben, Justin and Cameron. You’re Danica, right?”

“Yes sir.”

“That’s a lovely name.”

“Thank you sir. I really need to get back to work, sorry sir.”

The guy that was introduced as Ash just burst out laughing, muttering something along the lines of, “You got shot down, man.”

Elijah just smiled and whispered, “We’ll see you around Danica.”

As soon as they walked away, I let out a long breath of air. My heart was racing at 100 miles an hour and I felt like I was going to pass out. I thought to myself, “This was a bad idea, Dani. You can’t actually do this. You can’t be normal like everyone else.”