2x16: The Overnight

***

Hunter, Grant, Nyla, Tim, Lucy, Grey, Nolan and several other cops are all donating blood, while Grace Sawyer keeps an eye on them, Tim's wearing a suit and has already finished his blood donation. "Why the suit?" Grace asked.

"Court appearance." Tim replied.

"Ever given blood before?

"Every eight weeks, like clockwork, Hunter does the same." Tim said.

Nyla and Lucy both shared a look and rolled their eyes, of course they donated blood together, they did almost everything together.

"Good for you two." Grace looked over at Hunter who nodded.

"Yeah, save lives, get a personal oil change. It's win-win." Hunter said.

"I didn't know machines had blood." Nyla deadpanned.

Grace turned back to Tim. "You know the drill. Light squeezes," she said handing Tim a red stress ball like the others and then she goes over to Nolan. "How's it going, Mr. AB Negative?" She asked.

"Good. Donating blood is bringing back some complicated memories of when Henry was born. He had TOF. I spent a lot of time in the hospital banking blood." Nolan replied.

"I had no idea." Grace said sympathetically.

"What's TOF?" Lucy asked.

"Tetralogy of Fallot. It's a heart defect." Nolan said.

Grace looked over her shoulder. "Four defects, actually." She said.

"It's corrected by surgery. Three of them he had before he was a year old. Since we share the same rare blood type, I donated approximately 16 gallons." Nolan said.

"But everything's okay right now, right?" Nyla asked.

"Oh, yeah. All his checkups have been fantastic. Thank God." Nolan replied.

Grace and Nolan were whispering when Grace looked over at Grey who placed his juice box down. "Make sure you drink the whole thing down."

"Woman, I'm a grown-ass man. I don't need a juice box." Grey starts to rise, but then wavers and sits back down heavily.

"Whoa. You okay?" Grey asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Grey replied.

"Sir, did you just faint?" Nolan asked.

"No, I briefly succumbed to gravity." Grey said. Hunter, Nolan and Nyla had to stifle their laughter. While Grace handed Grey his juice box and he reluctantly drank it and looked at her with raised eyebrows.

***

Hunter was working at the reception with Lucy. When she decided to check where Tim was upon seeing that he was close by she turned to Lucy. "You go get the shop and shit ready, Tim's nearly here. I can handle this until Grant returns." Hunter said.

"You sure?" Lucy asked, Hunter just gave her a look. "So, where is Grant?" Lucy asked quickly.

"Visiting his grandmother in the nursing home, she moved here after Grant was born." Hunter looked at Lucy. "So, at the risk of sounding rude, are you gonna go and get the shop ready?" She asked.

"Yeah." Lucy walked off.

Hunter looked up when a woman walked in. "Hi. I'm Valerie Castillo. I work for the Los Angeles Herald. I'm here to see yesterday's case reports." She said.

"Okay. You a crime reporter?" Hunter asked as she handed Valerie the case reports.

"Um, not yet. I write for the Style Section, going on 15 years. Oh. But I'm over it. It's all been reduced to sex tips and celebrity gossip. You know, the clickbait." Valerie replied.

"Mm, so you're fishing for a real story?" Hunter asked interested.

"Actually, I've already got one. Do you know anything about a bunch of robberies at five-star hotels?" Valerie asked.

"Mm, first I've heard of it." Hunter replied.

"Well, a concierge at the Borden told me that two guests were beaten and robbed there in the last few weeks. Now, neither victim want her to contact the police. When I went to other stations to look through the crime reports, I found three similar incidents in hotels around town." Valerie explained looking through the folder.

"Is there a description of the attacker?" Hunter asked.

"No, because none of the men gave one. But the cases have to be connected." Valerie replied.

"Yeah, I mean, it sure seems like it." Hunter shrugged.

"Right?"

"You know, you don't want the case reports," Hunter turned around to grab another folder, it was large white binder. "There's actually a lot more information in the CAD printouts." She said.

"What are those?" Valerie asked as Hunter grabbed the binder and turned to Valerie.

"Computer Aided Dispatch reports." Hunter replied.

Tim walked over. "Why are you volunteering to show her those?" He asked grumpily.

Hunter frowned deeply at her best friend's attitude. "This is a reporter from the Herald, and these are public-facing documents. And don't speak to my like I'm your boot, 'cause I'm not." Hunter snarked.

"Valerie Castillo." Valerie held her hand out to Tim to shake.

Tim ignored her and turned to Hunter. "They're only public-facing when asked for."

Valerie turned to Hunter and made a gesture with her hand. "Can I see the CAD reports, please?" She asked.

Hunter was handing them over when Tim sighed. "Fine. Give 'em to her."

"Thank you," Valerie said taking the CAD reports, she opened it and looked at Tim for a moment. "Not a fan of the press?" She asked.

"Eh, Herald's got a bias against the police." Tim shrugged.

"No, we don't." Valerie scoffed.

"It's implicit." Tim said.

"Unlike your bias against me." Valerie scoffed looking at Tim, it seemed Tim had met yet another person who could match him, the first one being Hunter.

"Cute," is the only response Tim had and that made Hunter chuckle slightly because her best friend always had some snarky remark to hit back. "You know, the media will say or do anything to get you to back up their headline," Tim turned to Hunter. "And make sure she gives you those printouts back. And where's Chen? We've got hit the streets as soon as I change." Tim said unbuttoning his blazer.

"I saw you were on the way here and told her to go set up the shop and shit like that." Hunter said.

"So, you decided to warn her?" Tim asked annoyed at her for that.

"Uh-huh, you're always grumpy after court." Hunter replied nonchalantly.

Tim rolled his eyes and walked off without another word. Valerie turned to Hunter. "You shouldn't let him talk to you like that." She said.

"He's my best friend, has been for 19 years, I've known him since 2001. It's kind of his style." Hunter shrugged.

"Well, being as ass isn't style," Valerie looks over to where Tim had walked off. "But he sure can wear a suit." She replied.

Hunter chuckled. "You're not wrong," Valerie handed Hunter the CAD reports back. "Thanks." She said.

***

"I'm sorry, are you ranting to me about Hunter befriending someone from the press?" Lucy asked interrupting Tim mid-sentence.

"Yes," Lucy sighed as Tim continued ranting on. "Reporters always have an agenda."

"To get the truth? Sounds horrible." Lucy drawled.

"Don't be so naive." Tim scoffed.

"Well," Lucy chuckled. "I am not naive. I'm just not like you. God, you don't trust anyone." She said.

"'Cause trust has to be earned. All I'm saying is watch your back when dealing with the press, Hunter knows this and yet she's blindly trusting this reporter." Tim said. Lucy rolled her eyes.

"7-Adam-19, 415-fight. Manager versus customer in a physical. Multiple RPs. E&L Auto Body. 3905." Dispatch said.

"Copy that. En route, Code 3." Lucy replied.

***

They pull into an auto body shop, where Yuri, the proprietor, is arguing with a customer. "$2,000. That's final."

"That's not what you quoted me! I'm not giving you a penny more than $500!" The customer yelled.

"$2,000! No pay, no car! I keep!" Yuri yelled.

"Like hell you will. Say hello to William Snakespeare, bitch!" The customer pulls a snake out of his backpack and waves it at Yuri.

"Hey! Drop the snake! Drop it!" Tim yelled, as he and Lucy drew their guns.

"Ohh! Ohh!" The customer taunted.

"Drop the snake!" Tim yelled.

"Get that away from me!" Yuri yelled.

The snake bites the man holding it in the face. "Aah! Oh." The customer drops the snake and falls to the floor, writhing. The snake slithers away and the other three humans get on top of the cars nearby. "Aah! Aah!" The customer screamed in pain.

"Oh, no. Where the hell did it go?" Lucy asked, seeing as none of them saw the snake.

"I don't know." Tim replied.

"Sir, just stay where you are. The ambulance is on its way." Lucy said to the customer.

"He's not gonna make it. Animal control's 10 minutes out. EMTs won't step foot in here until that snake's been neutralized." Tim said.

"Damn it, well, we can't stay up here while he's dying." Lucy states.

"Alright, we'll just flush it out in the open. I'll end it." Tim said.

"You can't kill it." Lucy scoffed.

"What the hell are we supposed to do with it? Snuggle?" Tim asked incredulously, Lucy gets down off the car. "Boot, don't be a hero. It's venomous." He warned.

Lucy works her way cautiously over to where she last saw the snake. It's hiding under a tool box on wheels and it hisses at her as she squats to look at it. Snakespeare hisses at Lucy.

"Whoa." Lucy looks around, sees a stack of tires nearby and a pole with a hook on the end. She takes the pole and squats down again to slide it slowly toward the snake under the tool box.

Snakespeare's hissing intensified as Lucy moved the pole closer.

"Hey, there, Snakespeare. It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just..." Lucy manages to hook the snake, pulls him out from under the tool box, and quickly deposits him inside the stack of tires, where he's not likely to escape soon. For good measure, she places a sheet of metal across the top of the stack. "Ohh. Oh. Okay," Lucy places a metal sheet down. "Hoo!" Lucy looked over at Tim. "It's not his fault his owner's an idiot." She said.

"Control, advise fire and ambulance our scene is Code 4 — clear to enter." Tim said into the radio.

***

Hunter and Grant are patrolling around the Westwood Boulevard. "7-Adam-20, a silent alarm has been tripped at 1854 Westwood Boulevard." Dispatch said.

Grant picked up the radio. "7-Adam-20, responding." He then placed it down and looked at Hunter. "So that means Peet's Coffee's getting potentially robbed. Or the silent alarm was tripped is accidental but it's always treated as a real robbery."

***

Grant and Hunter pull up outside of Peet's Coffee, they park the car away from the windows, Hunter peers into a coffee shop window to see a person pointing a gun at the staff. Hunter looks back at Grant and then grabs her radio. "7-Adam-20, we have a 2-11 in progress at our location. Requesting backup."

"We'll grab him on the way out. Seeing as going in would make things worse." Grant said.

The robber exits the diner and is confronted by Hunter and Grant. "Police! Drop your weapon!" Hunter yelled.

The robber takes off on foot with Grant in pursuit. "Stop! Stop!"

The robber has dropped his gun and Hunter picks it up and looks at it. "It's plastic." She scoffed.

"Stop!" Grant tackles the robber and pulls off his mask.

"Aah!" the robber said as Grant pulled the mask off.

"Okay, great work, Lawrence," Grant nodded slightly, knowing Hunter was keeping it professional. "Lets get him to the shop and processing."

The robber looks over at Hunter. "Well, damn, where'd you come from? The modeling school?" He tried to flirt.

Hunter rolled her eyes. "Typical." She muttered. Grant laughed and Hunter gave him a look. "Lawrence, need I remind you of the woman that flirted with you on patrol in 2015?" She asked. Grant shut up after that.

***

Hunter was about exit the station, after knocking off of her shift when Valerie walked in. "Valerie. Hey, you're back." Hunter said.

"Hey. Yes. To thank you for getting me those CAD reports." Valerie thanked her.

"Yeah. Well, did they help with your story?" Hunter asked.

"You're kidding me. It's even bigger than I thought. You know, every one of those assault victims lives in town. Who gets a hotel room in the same city that you live in?" Valerie asked.

Hunter and Valerie moved over to the reception desk, whispering. "Uh, well, men who are hooking up with sex workers." Hunter said.

"Exactly. I'm convinced it's a Murphy scam. You know, the rich guy meets an escort at the hotel —" Valerie was saying.

"Yeah, and gets beaten up and robbed by her accomplice but can't report it because then he'd be copping to his own crime." Hunter added.

"This was the story that I was looking for and my editor said to run with it and I couldn't have cracked it without you. So I want to buy you a drink to say, you know, thank you." Valeria said with a smile.

"Oh, uh, I shouldn't." Hunter declined

"Why? Because your best friend would disapprove?" Valerie asked.

"Uh, no, no," Hunter shook her head. "It's just it's been a long day and I want to go home, besides I've got plans." Hunter said.

"Okay, listen, listen. You helped me, and I want to return the favor. So any time I get any information on crimes, I can feed it to you, and you can make the arrests." Valerie said and Hunter agreed, texting Tim.

***

Hunter and Valerie were sitting in the Coldwater in the hotel room lobby with two glasses of wine. "Salut." Valerie and Hunter clinked glasses.

Hunter placed her drink down and looked at Valerie, leaning back on the couch. "So, you've got a bunch of victims who aren't talking." She said.

CASTILLOWrong. They're not talking to the police, but I got one of the guys to talk to me off the record this afternoon.

CHENAnd...?

CASTILLOIt's exactly what I thought. He hooked up with a woman online. They went to a hotel, they go upstairs, they get naked, then a guy walks in with a gun. He steals the guy's watch, money, phone, and then tells him, "If you talk, your family's gonna get hurt."

CHENDid you get a description?

CASTILLOBetter. He gave me the woman. Now we're gonna catch her in the act.

CHENUh, we— um... Y-You lied to me.

CASTILLONo. No, I-I didn't. I told you I was gonna help you, and this way I was gonna get a killer story and you were gonna get a high-profile arrest.

CHENI'm not just gonna runaround making arrests, I'm off duty and there's really no crime here, sure sex work's illegal but if I arrest her then my boss is gonna wonder what I'm doing here.

CASTILLOCome on. Why not?

CHENWhat?!

CASTILLOHoly crap. That's Alex Shaw.

CHENWho?

CASTILLOThe huge movie producer. And his wife is super pregnant. This is suddenly a front-page story. This is amazing! Oh, no, no, no, no. They're gonna leave. Let's go.

CHENWhat?

"I booked the room right next to hers," Valerie stood up, Hunter was hesitant to join her. "Come on! Let's go, Hunter." Hunter sighed and followed Hunter.

***

Valerie and Hunter were walking in a hallway when they noticed Shaw and the escort making out. "Oh, God. Quick," Valerie took her phone out and turned around after opening the camera. "Take a selfie with me," Hunter didn't join her and Valerie took a lone selfie, she zoomed into the photo. "It's too far away. I can't see their faces. I need to get closer. Come on." Valerie urged Hunter.

"Not without blowing it." Hunter replied, not joining Valerie.

"What are you doing?" Valerie asked when she noticed Hunter had grabbed her phone out and started typing to someone.

"I'm texting Tim. Because if I'm gonna do this, he's gonna help." She replied.

"No, don't! He'll just steal the credit." Valerie argued, turning around to Hunter try and stop her.

"Look, if Tim's here helping, I'm less likely to reprimanded for this without reporting in overtime, so this technically counts as moonlighting so, Tim will call in the overtime I could but I left my radio in my locker and my off duty one's at home," Valerie opened her mouth to argue. "We either do this my way or I walk." Hunter said.

"Fine." Valerie agreed.

***

"Hey, thanks for coming." Hunter said, opening the door to the hotel room after Tim knocked on it upon arrival.

"Mm-hmm." Tim hummed sound unimpressed that Hunter had trusted a member of the press even though she knows better.

"I'm sorry. I know we had plans." Hunter apologised, knowing that Lexi probably wouldn't be too happy with her.

"Mm-hmm." Tim said, sounding not very impressed that she'd cancelled on him and Lexi, seeing as it was Lexi's birthday.

"If he punishes you in any way for skipping out the plans, I'll write a story about it." Valerie said not looking at Hunter and still trying to listen to the room next door via a cup.

"No, don't do that. Do not do that. Besides, I actually outrank him." Hunter said shaking her head.

"You know that doesn't work. But there's an app for it." Tim said walking past Hunter to walk into the room. Hunter closed the door and walked over to the couch.

"Really?" Valerie asked, looking over at Tim and placing the glass down.

"No," Tim walked further into the room and looked at Hunter. "Shaw still in there with the escort?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, but there's no sign of her accomplice." Hunter sighed.

"Maybe he's not coming. Maybe he doesn't exist." Tim drawled looking at Valerie.

"He exists, okay? And when he comes, he's gonna be armed and dangerous." Valerie replied.

"If so, you'll be nowhere near the action." Tim replied evenly.

Valerie rolled her eyes and Tim grabbed out his radio. "7-Adam-19, requesting another unit to the Coldwater Hotel for a 647-B event. Contact me in the lobby."

Tim looked through the peephole on the door and watched as someone walked into the room next door. Tim looked over at Hunter. "That's him. And he's armed," Tim said noticing the gun. Hunter looked over Valerie who shrugged almost smugly. Tim grabbed out his radio. "Dispatch, be advised, suspect at my location is armed with a handgun. White male, 6'2", black jacket, blue jeans. Here we go. Alright, stay," Tim paused when he noticed Valerie wasn't in the room, Hunter also just realised that the reporter wasn't in the room as well, Tim looked at his friend. "Where is she?" He asked.

"I don't know." Hunter replied.

That's when Tim and Hunter both heard Valerie screaming. "Ah! Aah!" The two cops ran out to the balcony and saw her hanging on by one hand not wanting to drop the phone.

"Hang on!" Tim grabbed Valerie's wrist and then looked over at the other room and the three occupants saw him and the man ran, Tim looked back over at Hunter. "He's running! Give me your hand! Let go of the phone!" Tim yelled.

"No, no, no, no! I have a photo of Shaw in — in bed." Valerie replied.

"Valerie, drop the damn phone!" Hunter yelled.

"Give me your hand! Come on! Let go! Let it go!" Valerie reluctantly dropped the phone and Tim grabbed her hand and pulled her up, Tim handed her to Hunter. "Watch her," Tim ran inside the hotel room and spoke into his radio as he ran out. "7-Adam-19 in pursuit of the suspect, heading to the lobby."

Luckily Angela and Jackson were there and managed to arrest the man, Hunter and Valerie arrived in the lobby shortly after Tim while Angela and Jackson hauled the man to their shop, Tim glared at Valerie. "She's coming to the station for her statement." Tim said.

***

Hunter was in the bullpen sitting across from Valerie at a table. "Once you're satisfied with your written statement, just sign the bottom." Hunter said.

"I am so sorry." Valerie apologised, signing the paper.

"Don't worry about it." Hunter said standing up after Valerie slid the paper over to her.

"Listen, I should have been straight with you from the beginning." Valerie said.

"You took advantage of me because I trusted you straight away which, I mean," Hunter rubbed a hand over her face. "I should've known better. You knew that a senior officer would never have let you get involved in a dangerous takedown." Hunter said.

"Yes, and it was very unfair of me, but, listen, I've been stuck for so long. I needed this. To be taken seriously." Valerie said.

"And yet, when push came to shove, you went for the tabloid photo instead of the news story." Hunter walked off and returned to her apartment and collapsed on her bed and fell asleep right away.

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Yes, I skipped episode 15 because I wasn't sure how to add Hunter and Grant into it, so we'll just pretend they had that day off or something.

Also, I have no idea how cops work in America, so in my story they also have off duty radios like they have off duty weapons, also that's how I explained it in the part where Valerie wonders why Hunter's texting Tim just in less words than this.