2x01: Impact

***

"What's wrong? is it the virus?" Hunter asks her voice breaking as she holds Tim's hand while he convulses and seizes on the gurney in the ambulance.

"There's no bleeding, looks like he's having a severe reaction to the shot we gave him. He's going into anaphylactic shock. Get me epinephrine!" Dr. Lee explains.

The ambulance comes to a screeching halt in front of Shaw Memorial Hospital. Then they hear gunshots. Hunter dives to cover Tim's body with her own and Dr. Lee gets shot herself as the bullets pierce the ambulance.

Hunter then exits the ambulance, walking around to see Nolan using the drivers side of the ambulance as cover. She moves over to him. "Nolan, I'll cover you, get to that pillar." Hunter whispered.

Nolan nodded and Hunter covers him as he moves to the pillar. "Nolan, I need cover." Hunter yelled to him, she pointed to the two injured nurses, Nolan nodded and cover for her as Lucy, Grant, Jackson and Angela arrived.

All of the other officers firing and covering for each other, when Nolan shoots the attacker in the shoulder, then moves closer as she pauses to reload her weapon. She gets it reloaded just as Nolan realizes he needs to reload, and she's about to bear down on him and fire when the back of the ambulance bursts open and Tim jumps out, shooting the woman in her other shoulder. Nolan tackles her and cuffs her, then checks her wounds.

"Suspect in custody! Doctor! I need some help over here!" Nolan yelled to a doctor.

Doctors rush over to help the woman, while Tim stands beside Nolan who rises as Hunter runs over to him from her place of cover and hugs him, smiling widely before pulling away. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Are you?" Tim replied.

"I asked first." Hunter said.

"I should've taken yesterday off. You?" Tim asked Hunter.

"I'm fine." Hunter replied.

"Nolan how about you?" Tim asked.

"I should've reloaded on the run." Nolan answered.

***Two Weeks Later

"How are you feeling?" Lucy asked, talking to Tim in the briefing room, Angela and Hunter were yet to arrive.

"Ready to get back to it." Tim replied.

"Did you get the food I sent over?" Lucy asked.

"I did. You shouldn't have done that." Tim said.

"Well, I wanted to, and eating well is crucial for a fast recovery." Lucy goes and sits down, Hunter and Angela enter shortly after, Tim completely ignoring Hunter, who shared a look with her sister.

Grey walks in and writes three numbers on the chalkboard: 97, 91 and 81 . "All right. Shake off the rust and grab a seat. Anyone want to guess what these numbers represent? Nolan." Grey turned to the other man.

"Those are the scores to our six-month exams." Nolan said.

"That is correct, Officer Nolan." Grey said.

"Oh! We all passed." Lucy states sounding pleased and smiling brightly.

"Technically, yes, but that 81 is ugly, given that an 80 is basically an F." Grey said.

"Who got the low mark?" Angela asked.

"Clearly not West." Tim remarks.

"I could tell you, but self-reflection is necessary for your success as a patrol officer. So I want your guesses, as to which score is yours by end of shift. Understood?" Grey asked.

"Why not give them now?" Jackson questioned.

"To mess with our heads." Nolan replied, looking over at his friend.

"Are you saying you're so easily sabotaged, Officer Nolan?" Grey asked.

"No, sir, I was speaking for Officer Chen." Nolan said, Lucy gives him a look and they both grin.

"Sir, will there be consequences for the officer with the low score?" Lucy asked.

"Detective Lopez, you want to take that?" Grey asked.

"At a minimum, a low score means merciless taunting for months." Hunter said.

"Great." Lucy said sarcastically.

"But you three did pass, so there's good news - you can now wear short sleeves. Congratulations," Nolan glances at the TO table and raises his hand. "Nolan." Grey said.

"Sir, who will I be riding with today?" Nolan asked.

"I was thinking Detective Lopez. How's that sound?" Grey asked, Nolan gives a thumbs-up. "All right." Grey said, Nolan glances at Hunter, who gives him a small smile, Grant would happily ride alone on patrol until Nolan gets a new TO.

***

After roll call Angela and Hunter are talking to Tim in the hallway. "You look worried." Angela said.

"I have never had a rookie score that low on the exam." Tim sighed.

"There's a first time for everything." Angela comments.

"No. Officer Chen is a natural born test-taker. Nolan didn't even finish college. Plus, Chen had me for her T. O. Nolan had Bishop." Tim said.

"Really? You're gonna smack-talk her when she's not here to defend herself?" Angela asked.

"You're right. It's not the same." Tim sighed.

"Even if she was here, you'd still be fighting for second place." Tim ignored Hunter's comment, he wasn't in the mood to talk to her.

Lucy comes walking up, wearing a short-sleeved uniform and no tie. "What are you doing?" Tim asked.

"What?" Lucy asked in return.

"My rookies wear long sleeves and ties until the last day of probation." Tim snapped.

"Yeah, but Sergeant Grey said -" Lucy's smile fades.

"Grey is not your training officer. I have complete discretion of the training of my boot, and that includes uniform. Okay? So go change back into your long sleeves. And don't forget the tie," Lucy hangs around for a moment and Tim gets impatient. "Now, Boot." He snapped.

Lucy walks back down the hallway and passes Nolan and Jackson. Hunter turned back to Tim. "You're just harsh. Didn't Officer Ashcroft allow you short sleeves?" Hunter asked. Tim rolled his eyes and walked past her. Hunter frowned, Tim hadn't really been talking to her since the incident at the hospital two weeks ago.

***

"Can I ask you a personal question?" Nolan asked, looking over at Hunter, he was driving, Hunter had allowed him to drive.

"Sure, so long as it has nothing to do with my love life." Hunter said. Nolan gives her a confused look and Hunter shrugged. "Rookies that I temporarily train seem to ask about mine or Tim's love life."

"Interesting. But that's not what I mean." Nolan said.

"Well then, shoot." Hunter said, wanting to know what Nolan had to ask.

"Do things bother you less now?" Nolan asked.

"No, you're just as annoying as you were before." Hunter jokingly replied, she smiled at him slightly.

"Very funny. I mean the job. My first six months have been a lot to process. It's like a raw nerve. "All the feelings", as my son's fond of saying. Does that get easier?" Nolan asked.

"Look, a cop has a decision to make in the first few years. "How much can I handle?" How much I'm gonna let the job affect me. "If I had an input control, where would I set it to?" Some cops set it to 7. They take a lot in. Some set it to 3. Hell, some set it to zero." Hunter explained.

"Anybody keep it at 10?" Nolan asked.

"Can't be done. Let me see your hand," Nolan gives Hunter one of his hands and she looks at the palm and taps it. "You've been demoing your house for about a week, and you already got calluses growing. Your body does that to protect itself. Your mind does the same thing, whether you want it to or not. And I was grateful my mind protected itself, especially after the horrors I saw serving." Hunter said looking back out the windscreen and dropping Nolan's hand.

"7-Adam-15, 507 at Sunset Plaza, Code 2." Dispatch said.

"7-Adam-20, copy." Hunter said, answering the radio.

***

"Stop pouting." Tim said, as the two exit their shop at a park.

"I'm not pouting. What are we doing here?" Lucy asked.

"You thought it was gonna get easier after you passed the exam, but you were wrong." Tim said.

"Awesome." Lucy muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Tim asked.

"Nothing." Lucy said.

"If recent events have taught us anything, it's that we need to remain ever-vigilant. You probably think you know everything about policing, but you don't. For example, what's the most important thing you need on the street?" Tim asked.

"Is this a trick question? Okay, well, the easy answer is my gun, but I know that's not right. So, my mind? No. That's too esoteric for you." Lucy comments.

"Are you through not answering my question?" Tim asked.

"Uh, my judgment? Yeah, my judgment." Lucy said.

"Your eyes. "Cop eyes" stop crime and save lives. Did you study explosive devices in the Academy?" Tim asked.

"What? Yeah. I mean, a little." Lucy said.

"Good. I hope you paid attention because I had a buddy from the bomb squad mock up an IED and hide it somewhere here in this park." Tim replied.

"What?" Lucy asked.

"You got 10 minutes to find it, or I'm adding the duty hat to your standard uniform. Go." Tim said.

"I -" Lucy was about to say.

"Go! 10 seconds." Tim said, Lucy turns and starts frantically looking around the park.

***

Hunter and Nolan walk up to where a man seems to be harassing one of the diners. A man who looks like a bodyguard has him by the arm. "All right, all right. What's the problem here?" Hunter asked.

"The problem is this guy trying to sell me a colon-cleaning start-up while I'm eating lamb chops." Cuban said.

"Look, Colon Glow is patent-pending. "Make it sublime where the sun don't shine. " You can get in on the ground floor for only $100K." The Colon Glow person is saying.

The bodyguard drags the man away and Hunter follows to speak to him. "Sir, sir, sir, sir. I admire your passion, but you need to leave Mr. Cuban alone. We get another complaint, we're gonna book you for public nuisance, okay?" She explained.

"Yeah." The Colon Glow guy said, he shakes off Hunter's hand and marches away.

Hunter walks back over to Nolan and Cuban. "Mr. Cuban, sorry." She said.

"Yep." Cuban replied.

"Nolan, let's go." Hunter said, heading back to the shop.

"Yes, ma'am," Nolan then speaks once again directly to Cuban. "Actually, when I was in construction, I invented my own - it's sort of a fast binder, but the difference is, the heat sink -" Nolan feels Hunter's intense gaze on him and glances at her. "You know what? Never mind. You have a nice day." Nolan walked away.

***

Lucy has found a device with a blinking green light stashed in a garbage can. She pulls out her radio to tell Tim. "I found -" The device "explodes", painting Lucy's upper body in something like whitewash, Lucy blinks in shock.

"And you're dead. Because radio frequency energy can trigger a bomb. You gonna forget that lesson, Boot?" Tim asked.

"No." Lucy replied stiffly.

"Good. Go get cleaned up." Lucy walks away and Tim looks down at the bomb and nods his head, looking impressed.

***

Hunter and Nolan go into Top Cop Uniforms to make purchases. "You're supposed to carry an extra uniform shirt in your war bag." She said.

"Oh, yes, ma'am. I didn't expect to be in short sleeves yet. This is the only one I own." Nolan said.

The young man behind the counter looks like he doesn't know what he's doing, Nolan goes to choose another short sleeve shirt while Hunter walks up to the counter. " Hey. I ordered a new set of dress blues last week. See if they're in?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah. I can go look in back." Justin replied.

"Frank usually checks the computer," Hunter gestures at the computer. "Is he around?" She asked.

"No." Justin said.

"Oh." Hunter surreptitiously releases the strap on her holster and backs away from the counter as Nolan walks up holding two shirts of his size.

"Everything good?" Nolan asked.

"Yeah, it's great." Hunter said.

"How long you been working here?" Nolan asked.

"Couple weeks." Justin replied.

"What's your name?" Nolan asked.

"Uh, Justin."

"Justin what?"

The conversation ends abruptly when Justin ducks away, through a back door. "He's headed for the alley. I'll cut him off." Hunter runs out to the patrol car. Nolan leaps over the counter to chase Justin.

***

Nolan runs out into the alley, dodging escaping thieves on motorcycles. He knocks one of them off his bike, and as the thief remounts and speeds away, Nolan picks up a duffel bag the thief dropped. When Hunter arrives, grabbing out her radio after joining Nolan in the alley. "7-Adam-20, 211 at Top Cop Uniforms. Three suspects escaping on motorcycles heading north, south, and east. Send backup and airship," Hunter puts the radio away. "What'd they steal?" She asked.

"Police uniforms." Nolan said, showing her the bag, the two of them shared a look.

***

Tim and Lucy are following up on a Missing Persons call, knocking on the door of a modest house. "Missed a spot." Tim said as he walked to the door.

"What?" Lucy asked, she looked in the mirror and noticed she still had some powder on her neck.

Ritchie Brown opens the door, looking anxious. "Thank God. My wife's missing. She never came home from work last night. She always comes home. I texted and called her friends, and nobody's -"

"Okay, sir, can you please slow down? It's important I get the report right for the detectives. What's your wife's name?" Lucy asked.

"Susanna Brown. She's a clerk at the courthouse downtown. We're trying to have a baby, and she was supposed to come straight home to - you - you know." Ritchie was saying.

"Yes, sir." Lucy said.

"Do you have a picture?" Tim asked.

"Uh y-yeah." Ritchie grabbed out his phone to show a photo of his wife.

"No, hard copy's preferable." Tim said.

"Of course. Hold on." Ritchie steps back in the house to get a picture.

"Poor guy." Lucy said.

"Really?"

"What?"

"Cop eyes." Tim reminds her.

"What? You You think the husband did something?" Lucy asked.

"You always assume the husband did something."

"Officer Bradford's first rule of domestics?"

"This isn't a joke, Boot. You don't have the experience to evaluate people yet, so your default should be suspicion, not compassion. Understood?" Tim asked.

"Yeah."

***

Hunter leans into the interrogation room where Nolan's sitting with the artist, but he's the one showing the artist the drawing. "They found the bikes." She said.

"Got to go. Great work." Nolan said to the artist before he left.

***

Firefighters are covering a smoldering wreck with water as Hunter and Nolan arrive. "Oh, yeah, that's those are definitely the motorcycles from the robbery. We're not gonna get any forensics off them now, though." Nolan comments.

"There's a body." Hunter said, looking at the crime scene grimly.

"How can you tell?" Nolan asked.

"The smell. A burning body's unmistakable." Hunter said.

They move closer and Nolan gets a look at the badly burned body entangled in the wrecked motorcycle. "Oh. That's him. I see the teeth. That's definitely the guy from the uniform store." He starts to gag, about to vomit.

"Not on the crime scene! Go! Go!" Nolan runs to throw up and Hunter grabs out her radio. "7-Adam-20, change our call to a homicide. Send detectives and a forensics team. And alert Jessica Russo at DHS." She said.

Nolan returned to the scene to talk to Hunter. "So, they must have met up here after they got away, but then his crew killed him? Why?" He asked.

"Because we saw him." Hunter said grimly.

***

Grey's standing with Hunter, having arrived at the scene, when Angela and Tim also arrive. Jessica joins them a few moments later and they all stand, discussing what's going on while surveying the scene.

"Still think they stole the uniforms to rob drug dealers?" Jessica asked Grey.

"Let's skip the "I told you so" s, please." Grey said.

"What does your intel say?" Tim asked.

"Print from the store got a positive ID on our corpse. Trevor Travis, 28. Spent 18 months in Nevada State Prison for armed robbery." Jessica said.

"Known associates?" Hunter questioned.

"Too many to name, but none in Southern California." Jessica answered.

"Well, whoever his new crew is, they're ruthless enough to kill one of their own to stop our investigation." Hunter comments.

"And whatever they're planning, no one's gonna see it coming because they're all dressed as cops." Jessica said.

Tim looks around at the personnel on scene. "Hell, they could be working the scene right now."

"So, we'll implement new identity verification protocols."

"I'll call my guys, have them start an interagency task force. We've got to get out in front of this." Jessica said, taking her phone out to make a call.

***

Tim and Lucy get out of their unit and they both heads for the exit. Lucy exits first and then Tim but Hunter blocks him. "Why are you ignoring me?" Hunter asked.

"What?" Tim scoffed.

"You're not talking to me, wanna tell me why?" Hunter asked, not relenting.

"You lied on a report." Tim said.

Hunter blinked in shock. "What?" She asked.

"I read your account of what happened at the quarantine house." Tim said.

"O-Okay?" Hunter asked, not entirely sure what he was pissed about.

"When I thought I was infected, I told you I'd rather take my life than bleed out. You failed to report it."

"That's what this is about?" Hunter scoffed.

"Suicide ideations by a law enforcement officer are extremely serious and should have been reported immediately. You know this Hunter, you've reported it before." Tim snapped.

"I was trying to protect you! They would have put you on leave, required therapy. You weren't even actually suicidal." Hunter snapped.

"Not your call! You should have detailed everything, regardless of the consequences." Tim said.

"Oh, yeah? Like I should have filed a report detailing everything you've done to protect Isabel?" Hunter goes silent for a beat. "You know what? You wanna ignore me for the rest of out lives, you go ahead. But don't pretend like it's because you've got some code." She stalks away and Tim stares at her in shock.

***

The next morning everyone was in the briefing room with Grey. "All right, take your seats. As expected, the stolen uniforms caused a bit of paranoia out there. Overnight, there were two fights and a near shooting 'cause two officers didn't recognize each other. All right, that being said, it is vital that we remain vigilant. Understood? Now, to your exam scores. You all submitted your guesses last night, and none of you guessed right."

Grey wrote Lucy's name under the 91. "Thank God," Lucy said relieved, trying to be nice. "Nolan, I'm sorry." She said.

"Save your concern, Officer Chen. Officer Nolan got the highest score, not the lowest. That "honor" goes to Officer West." Grey said, writing Nolan and Jackson's names under their scores, underlining Jackson's seeing as he got the 81.

"That's not possible." Angela said.

"I've seen a lot of strange things in my 20 years, but never would I have imagined that the golden boy would tank his test." Grey comments.

"But there's a th- like, I-I -" Jackson stuttered, stunned.

"Uh-oh. Looks like Grey broke your rookie." Hunter and Tim commented, looking over at Angela.

"Shut up."

Jessica appears in the doorway. "Ah, Agent Russo. You looking for me?" Grey asked.

"No. Actually, Officer Nolan. Can you spare him for the morning? I need his help running down a lead." Jessica said.

"Nolan. All right, let's go back to work." Grey said as Nolan joined Jessica.

***

Grey and Lucy are standing on the level from which the suspect jumped, looking down at the dumpster seeing as he managed to get away from her. "And you jumped from here?" Lucy asked.

"Yes, sir." Lucy said.

"Are you okay?" Tim asked.

"Yeah."

"You went right over after him?" Grey asked, still in slight disbelief.

Tim joins the conversation. "'Course she did. I trained her."

"Mm-hmm. You saying this guy stole a radio?" Grey asked.

"Yes, sir, out of Car 26. Actually, he he wasn't wearing gloves. Maybe we can pull a print?" Lucy wondered, Grey and Tim shared the same impressed look.

***

"7-Adam-15 to 7-Adam-19. We have eyes on a car belonging to Susanna Brown."

"Parked in front of the fake cop's house?" Lucy asked after she grabbed the radio.

"That's correct. Who is she?"

"She's a clerk at the criminal courthouse. Didn't come home last night. No idea how she could be connected to our uniform thieves. Do you need backup?" Lucy asked.

"No." Nolan said.

"Roger," Lucy put the radio down and spoke directly to Tim. "Husband always did it, huh?" Lucy asked, when she noticed the truck and police shops. "There it is. Fake escort's already got them."

"Can't warn the truck driver, because our heist crew's jamming the signal with their stolen radio." Tim said.

"Shouldn't we wait for backup?' Lucy asked.

"We are the backup." Tim and Lucy have pulled their unit across the road to block the convoy. They get out of their unit as one of the fake cops gets out of his. "Okay, get ready. Remember, they don't know that we know." Tim said to Lucy as they got out their shop.

"What's the problem?" A Fake Cop asked.

"Radios are down. We were sent to escort the truck back to the courthouse." Tim said.

"Must be a mistake. We're the escort. So get out of the way." The Fake Cop said.

"No problem. We were headed to lunch when we got the call." Tim and Lucy start strolling back to their unit. 

Lucy gets a glimpse of a man in the back of the fake cop's ride who's holding a large non-regulation weapon. "Tim?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah, I see it," Tim speaks to the Fake Cop. "One last thing before we go - real cops wear their vests under their shirt." He said.

A shootout ensues. Lucy throws a smoke bomb into the line of fire and uses that cover to get around behind the man with the large gun. Hunter and Grant arrive at the other end of the convoy and confront the fake cops in that unit.

"Get out of the car! Facedown on the ground!" Hunter yelled.

Lucy gets the man in her sights; he's still peering toward Tim's position. "Drop your weapon right now! Down on the ground, facedown, hands apart! Don't you move," Lucy cuffs him and hauls him to his feet. "Up."

***

Hunter returned back to the station, Jessica and Nolan having saved Susanna Brown and returned her home to her family. Sighing the raven haired woman released her hair from the tight bun and then walked into the showers the locker room had.

After she got dressed, Hunter blow dried her hair and then walked out, running into Tim on the way. "Can I come over for dinner, explain my reasoning for lying? That and I really want to watch Top Chef." Hunter said.

"Yeah, meet you there. Use your key to get in." Tim said smiling slightly before moving to the men's locker room, Hunter watches him go before walking to her car and driving to Tim's house.

Lucy, Grant and Daisy were watching them. "Hunter Lopez has the ability to do what most consider impossible." Grant said.

"Which is what?" Daisy asked.

"Make, Tim Bradford smile." Grant replied.

"When I first saw him on my first day, he looked so angry all the time and then while I was getting our gear with Grant who was getting his and Hunter's, the two were speaking and he had the happiest grin on his face." Lucy said. 

"That's the affect my sister has on him." Angela said from beside the three of them, causing them all to jump at Angela just appearing out of nowhere. "They served together, and they've been through a lot together, they've got the kind of friendship most people dream of having, being able to stay with someone, sleep at their house and be their closest friend even after breaking up." Angela added.

"Woah, they dated?" Daisy asked surprised.

"Their entire rookie year and the last three months at the academy, they thought only Isabel knew and they were so good at keeping it secret, the only reason Isabel knew was because they told her when they needed covering for and I knew because I caught them on a date once." Angela said.

"I know because Hunter confided in me after we first became partners." Grant said.

"Wait, didn't Tim marry Isabel?" Lucy asked.

"Wait a second, so Tim and Hunter broke up and stayed friends, he dates and marries Isabel and then she leaves him with signed divorce papers in 2016 on the dining table in the middle of the night," Angela and Lucy stared at her wondering how she knew that. "Grant told me." She said.

"Yes, it wasn't awkward for them, I don't know how. Tim and Isabel didn't start dating until 2012 and Tim asked Hunter if she was alright with them dating and then marrying." Angela said.

"Yeah but she could've been lying." Daisy suggested.

Angela shook her head. "Tim always sees through her lies somehow and yet she can lie to God and get away with it," Angela said. "Right, I will see you in the morning." She said leaving.

"Yeah, we better go too." Grant said looking as his watch. "Good night Lucy, see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, you too Grant, Daisy." Lucy replied, following the two of them as they all left the station as night shift took over.

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I won't always show Hunter at Tim's house in the evening's even if they talk about it.

I'm really excited to do season 6 for Tim and Hunter's story (also, spoiler they WON'T break up, I can't have them break up seeing as I wrote this as a slow burn and there's not point breaking them up after taking long for them to actually get together.)