Hook and Tinkerbell: A Wish Realm/Hyperion Heights Love Story

Chapter 30: New Job, New Partners, New Case

5 a.m. came early for Jade Monday morning after another difficult night of sleep - this time plagued by nightmares of Pan. She got up and pulled on her running clothes and sneakers and went to the kitchen to start the coffee maker. She always started it before her run because then it was done by the time she got back. Grabbing her phone, earbuds and keys, she left her apartment. Once outside, she stretched out and then popped in the earbuds and turned on her running playlist and took off on her run. She ran 2.5 miles and then turned around and headed back. She was stretching out her sore muscles on the front steps of her building when Colin came out the door, dressed for a run.

"Why do I have the feeling you've already taken your run," he said, taking in her flushed face and slight shortness of breath, as he stretched.

"Umm because it's almost 6 and I told you I get up at 5 to run before work. I have to fill out paperwork this morning before our shift starts, so I gotta be there at 7. Starting tomorrow I probably won't get up till 6 or 7 to run since shift starts at 9. You can join me then," she said, her shortness of breath having nothing to do with her run but with how hot he looked in his running shorts.

"Deal. See you at the station then," he said as he finished stretching and then he took off on his run, before Jade could say anything more.

She chuckled and went inside and up the stairs to her apartment. After pouring her first cup of coffee, she walked into her bedroom to figure out what she was going to wear. Luckily she had found out from Colin that jeans were totally acceptable for detectives to wear, unless they had to go to court - then they had to wear a suit. She grabbed a pair of blue jeans and a green button down long-sleeve blouse out of her closet, along with a brown leather belt and brown leather low-heeled boots. She tossed the boots on the floor near her bed and grabbed undergarments and socks from her dresser. The socks joined the boots as she walked into the bathroom to shower off her run.

Once she was showered and dressed, she poured the rest of the coffee in the pot into a travel mug and grabbed her gun from her gun safe and holstered it on her hip. She picked up her favorite brown leather jacket, shoved her i.d., debit card, and cash into her coat pocket and slipped the coat on. A glance at the time on her phone told her she better get a move on or she'd be late for her first day. She picked up her coffee and keys and ran out the door, down the stairs, and outside to her car parked down the street. Thankfully the station was only a 10 minute ride away and she found a parking spot across the street, so she was still 5 minutes early.

She walked into the station to find Captain Michaels waiting for her at the front desk. He greeted her and introduced her to the desk sergeant and then led her down the hall to his office.

"Normally you would go through all this with Vivian in Human Resources but she broke her leg over the weekend and is in the hospital. Lucky for me, she had gotten everything ready for you before she left on Friday and emailed me very detailed instructions yesterday once she could form coherent sentences," Michaels told her.

"Oh that poor woman! How'd she break her leg?" Jade asked.

"She landed wrong when she was skydiving. She's a bit of an adrenaline-junkie when she's not at work," he told her, chuckling.

"Ah I see," she replied.

They had reached his office and went inside and sat down. He gave her a thick stack of papers that had colored arrow post-its throughout. He pulled his own thick stack in front of him to use as reference as they went through everything.

Two and half hours later, they finished up with him handing her her new badge and escorting her to get her picture taken for her police i.d. Once that was taken care of, he walked her out to the front desk again to track down her new partners.