1x06: The Hawke

***

Hunter was sitting on the TO table with Tim, they were talking to Grant and Lucy respectively when Nolan and Talia walked in. "Tim and Hunter rode with Hawke back in the day obviously at different times." Talia said.

The four respective people who were talking looked up but it was Tim who answered. "Damn straight. Craziest six months of my life. Craziest of Hunter's as well when she rode with him." Tim said, Hunter nodded in agreement.

"Hmm. Nolan hung out with him last night." Talia said.

"Hawke and Nolan?" Hunter and Tim asked in sync.

"Oh, yeah. They were tight at the Academy. They bonded over their shared love of old stuff." Lucy said, looking between all of them.

"The Beastie Boys isn't old." Nolan huffed.

"They formed before I was born." Lucy said.

Nolan rolled his eyes and walked off to his seat at the rookie table, Lucy hung around seeing Hunter open her mouth to speak. "I have two older brothers, Damien was born a year before the Beastie Boys were formed and my other brother was born the year the Beastie Boys were formed and I was born two years later. Anyway, I grew up with the Beastie Boys in my house," Hunter turned to her sister, hoping off the table and sitting down beside Tim. "Remember Angie?" She asked.

"Damn right, I do. It was annoying." Angela replied.

Everyone was chatting amongst themselves when Grey walked and walked up to the podium. "All right, everyone take a seat," everyone still standing took seats. "Got some catching up to do. Let's go," Grey walked towards Lucy. "First, let's congratulate Officer Chen for allowing her T.O. to finish his coffee before rolling their vehicle," the other officer's laugh and applaud for Lucy, Hunter looks over at Tim and grinned playfully, he just rolled his eyes. "I see "training" is working out for you," Grey walks back up to the podium and addresses all the officers. "All right, more pressingly, midnight shift was flooded with calls last night, and they left us with their mess. Let's get started. Our detectives are working a homicide in Larchmont Village, but there are witnesses that still need to be interviewed," Grey turns to Talia. "Bishop and Nolan, you'll take that. And Burglary has got a search warrant that Patrol didn't get around to. Bradford, Lopez, Lawrence and Chen, you'll take that." Grey said.

Hunter and Tim looked at each other, if the two of them were assigned to the same person then it was probably LeShawn, who's been searched a lot of the years. "Come on, why can't Burglary serve their own damn warrants?" Tim complained.

"Because they don't have the vim and vigor you have, Officer Bradford. This is yours and Detective Lopez's. All the faces. Don't worry. I have pending calls for everybody! All right, let's go knock 'em out and show the late shift how real police work is done." Grey said and everybody left.

***

"I knew it." Hunter huffed looking over the arrest warrant. "It's LeShawn." She said looking up at Tim.

Tim himself, groaned in annoyance. "Great." He drawled. Hunter then slapped his bicep lightly several times. "What?" He asked, being 6'2" Tim had to look down at Hunter, she was 5'9" so not as short as most people.

"You can teach the Boot about the DEAR method." Hunter grinned.

Tim rolled his eyes. "You just wanna steal my money clip again, like you always do when they eventually come to you saying that I told them to think like a criminal."

"The hell are they doing?" Hunter wondered, noticing how Grant and Lucy were both taking their time getting the gear. Tim shrugged. "Well come on, lets find them and hurry...," Hunter paused mid-sentence as she noticed Grant and Lucy talking, well from what Hunter could see it was more flirting. Tim tilted his head in confusion and shared a look with Hunter. "Are they flirting?" She asked.

"No clue," Tim glanced back at Lucy and Grant and then Hunter before looking back at the two officers. "Lawrence, Chen, lets go!" He yelled catching their attention.

Grant and Lucy came over and Hunter and Tim shared one more look before moving to their respective shops.

***

Tim, Hunter, Grant and Lucy were walking through a hallway, with Grant and Lucy behind Tim and Hunter. "All right, we're serving a search warrant. You see door hinges?" Tim asked Lucy.

"Uh, the door opens outwards towards us." Lucy said.

"And what's a "fatal funnel"?" Hunter asked, shrugging when Tim shoots her a look.

"The first three feet in any doorway." Lucy replied.

"Not bad. Here's the real test. Of all the things Burglary told us about our suspect LeShawn Halvorsen, what's most important?" Tim asked.

"Uh, history of fighting with police." Lucy said.

"Wrong. This guy's been served seven search warrants, spent half his life on parole." Hunter told her before Tim had a chance.

"Uh, I'm sorry. I'm not sure I follow." Lucy said, sounding confused.

"He's been searched a lot. He knows what doesn't work, so to find his stash, you'll have to think like a crook. Can you do that?" Hunter asked her.

"Of course. You don't think I can?" Lucy asked when she saw their faces.

"I think you were raised to analyze bad guys, not be one, and to be a great cop, you got to have a little outlaw in you. Hinges?" Tim asked when they got to the door.

"On the inside." Lucy replied.

Tim draws his weapon and pounds on the door of 501 while the other three officers drew their own guns. "Police. Open up, LeShawn." Tim yelled.

"What's an acceptable amount of time to wait before we bust in?" Lucy asked.

Tim kicks the door in. LeShawn is out cold on the floor, having been knocked down by the door. "That had to hurt." Tim comments, Hunter laughed.

***

Hunter's searching a vent and unbeknownst to her LeShawn is checking her backside as she bends to search the vent. Grant and Lucy were in the apartment searching as well but LeShawn focused on Hunter. "Yo, lady cop, you can search my place all day." LeShawn said.

Tim who wasn't actually helping, more or less standing and watching Hunter, Grant and Lucy search, while LeShawn was sitting in the chair, Tim checked to see what LeShawn was looking at and then slapped him on the back of his head and grips his upper arm and shoves him at the wall. "Get up. Face the wall before I snatch the other eye out of your head. You need to learn some respect," Tim turned to Lucy who was looking under the couch, while Hunter and Grant stopped searching. "Okay, come on, Officer Chen. Think like a crook. When's the last time you hid anything under a couch, 8th grade?" Tim asked.

"You know how many times I couldn't find my phone and it was under the couch the whole time?" Lucy replied looking up at Tim.

Hunter's phone buzzed with a message from Angela, something about how she and Jackson can't leave the station and she wants her sister to deal with the domestic call. "Bradford, Lawrence and I are gonna go, we've got something else to deal with."

Tim nodded and Hunter and Grant left, Tim turned his attention back to Lucy. "This isn't that. You ever heard of the DEAR method? D-E-A-R?" Tim asked her.

"No." Lucy replied.

"There are four principles of concealment. First is deception, "D." Deception shows you one thing when it's really something else," Tim opens a refrigerator, takes out a soda can, and unscrews the top of the can to show that it's a hiding place. Empty. ""E" is for "elusive." What appears to be nothing is actually something," he pulls off a vent cover and finds an empty canister. ""A" for "access." Things hard to get to, high places, low places." He reaches up and detaches a light globe, extracts a wad of cash and tosses it to Lucy who catches it. "Which brings us to "R." "R" is for "repulsive." Toilets, garbage, porn collection, anything that makes you want to puke makes a crook want to hide things there." Tim explained as Lucy wrote it all down.

"You've got to be kidding me." Lucy scoffed.

"Might want to glove up. Saw a box of sex toys in the master bedroom, and don't forget the toilet. Search before you flush." Tim said.

"Wait. Uh, why do I have to be "R"? I don't I don't want to be "R." I could be "elusive" or "deceptive" or something." Lucy almost begged, Tim gave her a look and Lucy grabbed her gloves. 

Lucy emerges from the bedroom area with an expression of deep repulsion around twenty minutes later. She sees Tim sitting at the table with a stash of stolen objects. "What the hell?" Lucy asked.

"What?" Tim replied looking up at Lucy.

"I've been back there for 20 minutes digging through Caligula's toy chest, and you've had this the whole time?" Lucy asked, pissed off.

"Well, not the whole time. It took me three or four minutes." Tim said innocently.

"Mm." Lucy hummed sounding disgusted.

"You find anything?" Tim asked.

"Uh, yeah. Horrid, filthy things." Lucy said, removing the gloves and throwing them on the floor before sitting down to calm herself down.

***

Hunter and Grant roll up to another nice neighborhood, where a woman is coming out of a house with a teenage boy. "What's this call again?" Hunter asked.

"Woman called 911 last night to report a domestic disturbance, and midnight shift never got to it," Grant and Hunter walked into the front yard as a mother and son walk to the car. "Good morning, Mrs. Mitchell. Sorry about the delay responding to your call." Grant said apologetically.

Logan Hawke looked at his mother. "Is something wrong?" He asked.

"No, honey. They're friends of your father. Jump in the car. We'll head to school in a sec," Megan said to her son and he got into the passenger seat, Megan led Hunter and Grant away from the car slightly. "I'm sorry. I made a mistake calling you." She said.

"No, you didn't. Clearly something happened last night that made you call 911. What was it?" Hunter questioned.

"Logan was at his grandmother's across the street, so I had a date over. Things started heating up, and that's when he stormed in drunk." Megan admits.

"He being your husband?" Grant asked.

"Soon-to-be ex. I just filed for divorce. Usually I can keep him calm, but when he saw Mike, he pulled out a gun. He hit him in the face. He made him leave in his underwear. Said it was called "walking the plank."" Megan explained to them.

"Did your husband hurt you?" Hunter asked.

"No, never. It's just he's been acting so crazy since I served papers." Megan replied.

"You told your son that we were friends of his father's. I'm guessing that means your husband's a cop? Last name Mitchell?" Grant asked.

"My maiden name is Mitchell, actually. My married name is Hawke." Megan admits.

"Your husband's Jeremy Hawke?" Hunter asked, sympathetically.

"Yes, and that's why I shouldn't have called. He could lose his job over this, his pension." Megan said looking between the two cops.

"I understand, but what you described are crimes. Assault and battery, brandishing a firearm." Hunter said.

"Does this mean you're gonna arrest him?" Megan asked.

"It means we're gonna call the watch commander and ask him how he wants us to proceed." Hunter said.

She and Grant made their way back to the shop and headed back to the station.

***

Hunter and Grant arrive back at the station and Grey manages to pull them aside. "Nolan and Bishop lost Hawke, so now we're all looking for him, I need you two on the street looking with Bishop, Nolan and Bradford and Chen."

"Yes sir." Grant and Hunter replied and the two returned to their shop.

"7-Adam-15, negative on any PIT, Hawke's son is onboard." Talia said over the radio.

***

Tim and Lucy pull up behind an RV parked at the curb. "Dispatch pinged his phone. Shows his location as 10 yards in front of us," Lucy picks up the radio. "7-Adam-19, show us Code 6 at Riverside and Woodman. No sign of suspect Hawke's vehicle. Check Utah plate 6-Mary-Ocean-1-7-Adam." She said.

"I can't believe we're hunting Jeremy Hawke. Man bleeds LAPD. I was first on scene when the guy was taking .223 rounds using the curb for cover," Tim and Lucy leave the shop and Tim calls out toward the open door of the RV. "Hawke? It's Tim. We're gonna get to the bottom of this. Come out. Let's talk." He said.

The door opens and a man is in the doorway, his wife behind him. "Hey. Sorry. No Hawke here. We met back at the motel, though. Did he do something wrong?" the man asked.

"Was he ever inside your vehicle?" Tim asked.

"Nope." The man replied.

Tim walks to the front of the vehicle, examining the exterior. Under the hood he finds a cell phone with a picture of Hawke's wife on the lock screen. "He really is running. He knew we'd track his cell, so he planted it on someone going anywhere he's not." He said looking at the phone.

"He's thinking like a criminal." Lucy said.

Tim looked over at Lucy. "Worse, like a criminal cop," the two start walking back to their shop. "He knows how we do things and what we expect, so he's always a step ahead." Tim said.

***

Nolan and Talia had found Hawke and were going to PIT him but his son was onboard so now they were all going after him at different directions. "7-Adam-19, we are on intercept course with Hawke's truck, three blocks out and closing." Tim said.

"Is this safe with Hawke's kid in the car?" Lucy asked.

"Hawke thinks we've fallen back into tracking mode. He doesn't know we blocked the streets, turned the lights green to funnel him towards us. He won't see the roadblock coming. To him, it looks like we've fallen back." Tim explained to her.

"Yeah, but won't all the green lights look suspicious?" Lucy questioned.

"He won't notice. "What appears to be nothing," remember?" Tim reminds her.

"You're DEAR method incarnate. You've got a tactic for any situation, don't you?" Lucy asked.

"Maybe." Tim answered cryptically.

"What if you get robbed at gunpoint?" Lucy asked.

"Easy, deception. I carry an empty wallet. If I ever got robbed, I'd drop my fake, pull my piece, and good night, nurse." Tim said, sounding as if he said the same thing multiple times, almost have it was rehearsed.

"So, where do you keep your cards and money?" Lucy enquired.

"Money clip behind my belt." Tim replied.

"Okay, you're officially weird." Lucy said.

"Get ready. It's going down." Tim said.

***

"7-Adam-19, about to intercept. Make sure you block him in." Tim said over the radio.

"7-Adam-15, copy." Nolan said over the radio.

"7-Adam-20, copy," that's when Hawke does a hard left turn. "He just did a hard left turn. It's like he knows what we're gonna do." Hunter said.

"The SOB must still have his radio." Tim said.

Hunter makes a decision and speaks to Hawke directly. "Hawke, I know you can hear me. You need to pull over right now. Hawke?" She asked.

"I'm not good at calling it quits, Lopez. You know that. A lot of boys at Pelican Bay can attest to that." Hawke said.

"So, what, you gonna join them?" Hunter snarked.

"That is never gonna happen." Hawke said almost overconfidently.

"What's your end game here, Hawke? You just gonna escape the pursuit and live happily ever after?" Hunter asked.

"Didn't you learn anything when riding with me, Lopez? This is a tactical situation, not a strategic one. Long term isn't about the conversation. The initial obstacle is the pursuit. Once I lose that, just focus on the next step." Hawke said.

"What about Logan? Are you prepared for something to happen to him?" Hunter asked, a parents weakness was always their child, unless they were shitty parents who weren't deserving of children.

"Leave my son out of this." Hawke said.

Logan speaks into the radio. "Don't use me against my dad! He said you'd try that and that you'd lie about everything. But it won't work. We're in this together. Whatever happens to him, happens to me." He said.

"I'm not lying, Logan. Your father is. He's lost control." Hunter said.

Hawke seemingly grabs the radio back from his son. "You're done." He said.

"Logan? Hawke?" Hunter asked, getting no response.

"He's done talking." Grant said.

***

Hunter calls Tim & Lucy and Talia & Nolan on her cell phone and Grant's cell phone respectively. "What's his plan?" Tim asked.

"We were just trying to figure that out. How would you get away?" Talia asked.

"Job number one would be to lose air support. No way to escape the eye in the sky. What about you?" Hunter said.

"Same as Hunt." Tim said. 'Hunt' was a nickname Tim gave her in the army when they first met, because Hunter decided she wanted to do the exact same training as the men and proved that she could and because of that had the respect of her peers.

"Go somewhere packed with people. Overwhelm our resources. Switch cars." Talia said.

"Does every cop have an escape route?" Lucy asked.

"Most." Hunter replied.

"Hawke and I worked a car one summer. We were a two-man wrecking crew. Took down some heavy hitters. We talked about how we'd run from the cops because it made us better hunters." Tim said.

Hunter was nodding in agreement with that. Grant spots a sign for a nearby mall. "Covered parking, tons of people. He's going to the mall."

"We need to get him now." Hunter said.

Hawke dodges through traffic, causing a temporary roadblock while Hunter weaves through after him. "Suspect headed for the Fair Street Mall. Need additional units. Code 3." Tim said over the radio.

***

The mall is crowded; cops are moving, trying to secure the area. Hawke and Logan are walking among the shoppers. Hunter and Hawke spot each other at the same time, from about 30 feet away. "Hawke! Don't do it," Hawke and Logan turn and run; Hunter and Grant pursue. "Move. Out of the way, move!"

"Back!" Grant yelled at the other people in the mall.

"Move! Out of the way." Hunter said.

"Back! Get back!" Grant yelled.

Hawke and Logan enter a store and activate the gate, which drops down across the entrance just as Hunter and Grant arrive. "Don't do this! Hawke!" Hunter yelled.

"I'll go get a key from the security guard." Grant runs off and Hunter confronts Hawke through the gate.

"Don't do this, Hawke. This has escalated way out of your control. You know that." Hunter said earnestly.

"Yeah, well, that's what happens when they push a man too far." Hawke replied.

""They"?" Hunter scoffed.

"Yeah, they." Hawke replied.

"They? Who's they? They didn't do anything. You - You got drunk and you went to your wife's house and assaulted her boyfriend, and then you ran away. There's nothing honorable in that." Hunter said, trying to calm Hawke down.

Hawke turns to his son. "You go. You go. Your dad's right behind you, buddy." He said.

Hunter decides to speak. "No, no, no. Let him stay," Hunter speaks directly to Logan. "Logan, you stay," Hunter turns her attention back to Hawke. "He has the right to know what you're running away from, what he's risking his life to protect. God, your son idolizes you. You are letting him down. You told me you teach by example and you taught me in the field. Tell me what you're teaching him right now." Hunter said.

"Teaching him?" Hawke asked.

"Yes." Hunter said.

"My wife wants sole custody of my son. I went there. I'm the one who tried to reason, and she's in there with a naked man in my slippers, in my bed? Huh? What the hell am I supposed to do with that?" Hawke questioned loudly, the loudness of his voice vaguely reminded Hunter of Tom Bradford when he got drunk at Tim and Isabel's wedding and made Isabel cry.

"Deal with it." Hunter said.

"Deal with it?" Hawke asked in disbelief.

"Like a grown-up." Hunter said.

Logan glanced around. "Dad, we got to go." He said urgently.

"Son." Hawke turned towards Logan.

"Listen, Hawke," Hawke turns back to Hunter to listen to what she has to say. "Please. You will never forgive yourself if anything happens to him. It's time to be a father and do the right thing." She said.

"I'm a - You know what? It's right. She's right. She's right, son. This is where the end of the road is, right here. We're done." Hawke said turning to his son.

"No, Dad, I don't care what you did. I'm going with you. You said we were in this together." Logan said.

"You know what? But you - You're just gonna slow me down." Hawke lays a hand on Logan's shoulder, only to get him in position to handcuff the kid to a clothes rack.

"Dad!" Logan yelled.

"I'm sorry. I love you." Hawke said.

"Dad, are you kidding me? Dad, stop! Dad! Dad! Dad!" Logan yelled.

Hawke escapes out the back of the store as the gate lifts. Hunter moves to unlock Logan's cuffs as the other cops race after Hawke. "Form a perimeter!" Tim tries the back door, but it won't open. "He must've blocked it with something." Tim said turning to the others.

Talia turns to the security guard that came with them. "Where does this door lead?" She asked.

"Interior hallway. From there you can go anywhere in the mall, places the public can't access." The guard said.

"You made him leave me behind. He was safer with me." Logan said looking at Hunter as she uncuffed him.

***

Grey meets with Tim, Hunter, Grant, Lucy, Talia and Nolan to talk tactics. "Make sure it's secure." Tim said.

"Time element since we had a visual?" Grey asked.

"Four minutes." Nolan replied.

"Perimeter?" Grey asked.

Talia spoke up. "Thin, but we have units moving in at every exit. We'll have full containment in a few minutes."

"If I were him, I'd head back to the parking garage and just steal a car, get lost in the stream heading out." Lucy said, coming up with an option of escape that Hawke might do.

"I'd change clothes, pull the fire alarm, blend in with the fleeing crowd." Talia said.

"Sewer system." Hunter said.

Tim agreed with that. "That's the way to go. Dogs can't track him, good current, be in Chinatown in 15 minutes."

"All units, be advised, man with a gun at Lowington Financial. Code 3." Dispatch said over the radios.

"That's six blocks from here." Tim said.

Grey grabbed his radio from his belt and speaks into it. "Description of the gunman?" He asked.

"No, sir. 911 call cut off before we could get more information." Dispatch replied.

"That's how I'd do it. Call in a false report. Pulls manpower away, divides our resources, it frees up an exit. That call's not real. That's Hawke." Nolan realised.

"And if it's not? If the call's real and we don't divert units over immediately, what happens then?" Hunter asked crossing her arms.

***

Hawke has donned a jacket and cap and watches as patrol cars speed past the mall, presumably responding to the fake call. "7-Adam-14, 7-Adam-25, respond to active shooter at Lowington Financial." Dispatch said over his radio that he still had.

Hawke starts to head out of the garage but is confronted at gunpoint by Nolan. He turns to go the other way but is blocked by Tim. "It's over, Hawke." Tim warned.

"Unh-unh." Hawke drawled.

"You know the drill. Slide the gun over here. Get on the ground." Nolan said.

Hawke looked at him. "That's not gonna happen. You already made a mistake. There's no clear line of fire in here," Hawke turns to Tim. "You want to shoot me? You could shoot him, but I'll tell you something. That," Tim moves slightly, something that Hawke notices. "Ah, ah, ah." He takes his gun out of the holster as if he's going to give it up, but then points it at Nolan while looking at Tim. "That doesn't concern me." Hawke said.

Nolan moves slightly, Tim notices and speaks to him. "Easy, Boot. He's not gonna shoot you. He's trying suicide by cop."

"How many times did we run this scenario in the Academy? What do you always say about guys who go down like this? That they're cowards." Nolan said to Hawke.

"That's how cops are gonna talk about you." Tim added.

"You want me to go down without a fight? Huh?" Hawke asked looking at Tim.

"Nobody's saying that." Tim said.

"I was." Tim said seriously.

"Oh! Oh, this this is this is gonna be good," Hawke lays his gun on the floor. "Huh? Oh, this is gonna be good, gentlemen. Not really a fair fight, but it's gonna be good because I trained both of you," Hawke looks at Tim. "One in the field," he then looks at Nolan. "One in the classroom, and I know your strengths, and I know your weaknesses."

Hawke beckons both of them in; they holster their weapons and move warily toward him. "Yeah." A fistfight ensues. "Where's your bladed stance, huh? Always come in with your head." Both men are on the floor.

Talia and Lucy step into view with Talia holding a can of pepper spray. "Hey!" Talia sprays Hawke in the face. Hunter comes around the corner and tases him and he falls to the ground.

"Aah!" Hawke yells.

"You were supposed to arrest him, not get in a brawl." Lucy said.

"We had him." Nolan replied, sounding winded.

"Mm-hmm." Talia hummed.

Hunter places a hand on Tim's shoulder, he glances back at her for a moment, before removing and stealing something from his belt and he didn't even notice.

***

Tim sits with a drink. The bartender, Charlie, comes over with a telephone. "It's for you." He said.

"Thanks, Charlie," Tim picks the phone up and answers. "Yeah, Bradford."

***

Hunter is walking down the stairs outside the station, calling him on her cell phone. "Never tell a crook where you hide your money." She said.

"Hunt?" Tim asked incredulously.

"You told Lucy to think like a criminal and she told me, so after you got your ass kicked, I grabbed your money clip," Hunter flips the money clip over in her hand and looks at it. "I wonder how you're gonna pay for your bill." Hunter mused.

***

Tim reaches behind him to grab his money clip to see if Hunter was serious and rolls his eyes when he realises that Hunter had indeed grabbed his money clip. "You are in so much trouble. And again, really? Why must you steal my money clip all the time?" Tim asked.

"Uh-huh, sure. You know what? Maybe you could wash the dishes. But you might want to glove up. Good night." Hunter then ends the call.

Tim removes the phone from his ear and chuckles slightly before standing up to speak to Charlie. "Charlie. How's my credit here?" Tim asked.

Charlie did a quick check on Tim's credit and saw that his and Hunter's were perfect, their debts to him were always paid within a day or two. "Pay me back tomorrow."

***

Hunter arrived at Tim's putting in the code to stop the security system going off. "Seriously, what's the point of you renting an apartment if you come here every night?" Lexi asked when Hunter walked in.

"Well, I was thinking we order Chinese and watch trashy TV." Hunter grinned.

Lexi lights up at that prospect. "Did you steal Dadford's money clip again?"

Hunter just showed Lexi the money clip and removed Tim's card, she then went online and ordered enough Chinese for the three of them knowing Tim would arrive not long before the Chinese food did.

And he did, Tim arrived ten minutes before the Chinese food. "Relax, we ordered Chinese and got enough for you." Hunter said when Tim walked in.

"Okay, great. Now, money clip." Tim held his hand out and Hunter reluctantly handed it to him and watched as he made sure everything was there, all his cash and his card. "So what trashy TV show are we gonna watch while eat Chinese?" Tim asked.

"I'll see what's on." Lexi replied.

Tim turned to Hunter. "What's the point of you having an apartment if you end up here almost every night?" He asked her.

Hunter shrugged. "What was the point of me having my house before I rented it out, when I was here every night? I'll end up going home at like midnight anyway," Hunter then turns to Lexi knowing she's about to speak up. "But you, young lady are going to bed at ten on a school night."

Lexi rolled her eyes and the Chinese arrived and Lexi put on some TV show, after the food was gone and the show was over, something occurred to Lexi, something she was always curious about but never had the courage to ask. She glanced at Tim and Hunter, the raven had her head on Tim's shoulder and legs on the couch, with Tim's hand on her knee and around her shoulder. "Why haven't you two adopted me yet?" Hunter and Tim both look at Lexi curiously. "I mean, you've been my legal guardians for four years and I know you're not in a relationship but it's nice having parents." Lexi elaborated.

Hunter and Tim shared a look. "Do you want us to adopt you?" Tim asked.

Lexi shrugged. "I don't know. It's just that maybe you could've. I guess I like the idea." She sighed and stood up. "I'm gonna head to bed. Goodnight." She said and walked out the room.

Hunter and Tim once again shared a look. "So, do we tell her that were in the process of getting it sorted or surprise her?" Hunter asked quietly.

"Surprise her." Tim answered easily.

Hunter chuckled. "Right, I gotta go. I'll help you clean and then go." Tim nodded and the two gathered the plates and rubbish, with Tim stacking the dishwasher and Hunter taking the rubbish out.

When Hunter came back in it was then she and Tim had the same thought. "Okay, that was far too domestic, right?" Hunter asked.

"Yeah, just a little." Tim replied.

"Okay, we could just treat it as a friend helping tidy up." Hunter suggests.

"Yeah, we'll go with that," Tim agreed and Hunter grabbed her keys off the hook she'd placed them on, there were three, one for Tim, one for Lexi and one for Hunter herself. "I'll see you tomorrow Hunt." Tim said.

Hunter nodded in agreement and opened the door. "Good night, Tim." She said.

"Night, Hunt." Tim replied as Hunter stepped out and walked to her car and Tim closed the door and Hunter drove to her apartment.

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Tim and Hunter are really domestic and this is gonna be a slow burn story, which sucks for me because I'm really impatient but I have a whole story planned out for when they get together.

I'm thinking of making another one of these but based mostly around Grant and Lucy with Hunter and Tim's relationship being the one on the background, what do you guys think?