5x03: Dye Hard

***

A month had passed since everything went down, Genny had moved to LA, Tim and Hunter were still trying to work out the best time to talk seeing as they were both worried about Lexi as Wesley had raised his concerns about Lexi after seeing NARCAN in one of her open drawers in the office. "I say we talk now, when were not rushing around." Hunter sitting beside Tim at the island table in his kitchen.

Tim who was sitting deep in thought, worried about Lexi going back onto Heroin to try and cope with what happened to her, hadn't heard what Hunter said. "Hmm?" Tim hummed looking up at Hunter after realising she spoken.

Hunter sighed softly. "I'm worried about her to but there's not much we can do to help her until she asks for it." She said to reassure him or try to as it didn't work to reassure herself.

"Yeah but we both know of her history, we both know her dealer is her uncle but we both know she's smart enough to buy a new phone or a second phone that we don't even know about." Tim replied.

"We can check out her other gun safe, it's where she stashed it last time." Hunter said.

"Do you really think she'll keep the Heroin there if she is using again?" Tim asked.

Hunter sighed. "No, but it wouldn't hurt to check her room." She replied, Hunter looked at Tim thoughtful for a moment. "I think we need to wait to have the conversation, we need to wait until everything finally calms down."

Tim nodded. "Agreed." He said.

"Right, so are we checking her room or not?" Hunter asked, walking down the hallway anyway.

Tim and Hunter carefully opened Lexi's bedroom door as at nineteen she had refused to move out but was searching for a place to share with Tamara, the two grownups looked around and noticed nothing out of place.

Hunter carefully moved a pillow out of the way and noticed a bag under it containing some kind of white powder or at least the residue of it. "Tim," the man in question turned around. "This has been recently emptied." She said.

"I'm calling Wesley, he needs to check on her." Tim said, fishing his phone out of his pocket and dialed Wesley. "Wesley, it's Tim. Hunter just found a bag, recently emptied under Lexi's pillow, can you check on her? Thanks." Tim said, hanging up.

***

Wesley moved to Lexi's office seeing as she was right next door to him and noticed the door was closed, he knocked on the door, smiled at a ADA who walked past before knocking once again. "Lexi, it's Wesley." He got no response and peeked through a gap into the office, noticing Lexi sitting in chair looking unconscious.

Wesley opened the door without trying to knock again, kicking it closed and checking for a pulse on Lexi, not getting one and seeing as he lives with Angela, he knows how to use NARCAN and sprays it into Lexi's nose after not getting a pulse, he also starts CPR when Lexi gasped as she woke up.

Wesley made her sit down, waving down Del Monte as he walked past. "Close the door again, call an ambulance, keep her there while I ring her parents." Wesley said quickly, Del Monte worked out something had happened and did as he was told.

***

Hunter and Tim had called in sick for half a day at most seeing as they wanted to check on Lexi. The two met Wesley had the hospital after he went with Lexi in the ambulance. "So, what happened?" Tim asked.

"They confirmed at she OD'd on Heroin." Wesley said.

"Damn it! We should've seen it!" Hunter said, almost loudly and getting quite a few stares. Wesley placed a hand on Hunter's shoulder. "How did we not see it? We have to force her into a program again, don't we?" Hunter asked that last question to no-one in particular.

Tim nodded as Nurse Lisa came up to them. "We can release her in a few hours, if you're both clocking into work, take her with you, make sure she doesn't leave without another cop you trust present," Tim and Hunter nodded. "And if her uncle," Lisa points at Wesley. "Is taking her back to the DA's office, make sure you or someone you trust stays with her at all times." Lisa said.

"She can come with us." Tim said, Lisa nodded and walked off again, Tim turned to Wesley. "Thanks." He said.

"Call me if you need anything." Wesley said, Hunter nodded, Tim shook his hand and Wesley walked off.

Hours later, Tim and Hunter were still waiting for Lexi to be released, eventually Lisa lead her out and then walked to observe from a distance as a just in case. "What the hell were you thinking?" Tim asked.

"I wasn't, I just--I needed something to try and cope but I should've asked for help rather than running straight my uncle James, who's also my dealer." Lexi said.

"You're coming back to the station and you're staying with Wade for the day." Hunter said. Lexi nodded, not knowing what else to do, she just followed them out to Tim's truck.

"I need to show you two something," Lexi handed her phone to Hunter who was in the passenger seat. "It's a message board about people hunting Rosalind, they call themselves "Dye-Hards" in reference to Rosalind's last name of Dyer."

Hunter thanked her and scrolled through the messages. "I'm keeping this for the day." Hunter said. "And hand me your other phone." Hunter held her hand out and Lexi handed it to her.

***

Tim and Hunter clocked into work, Lexi walked to Wade Grey's office and sat down on his couch, taking out her laptop, Grey had been informed about what happened by Wesley at the permission of Tim and Hunter. "So, I want to ride by myself today, do you mind riding with Aaron?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'll go find him." Tim walked off and Hunter walked to the kitroom to get her gear and then heading towards a shop and exiting the station, after making sure that Lexi was alright with Grey.

***

Aaron had his nose stuck in his phone, worried about something, Tim glances over at him after passing a store. "What's the name of the store we just passed?" Tim asked.

Aaron looked up completely unsure. "Huh? Uh, it was, uh --" He trailed off.

"You have no idea because your face has been on your phone for the past 10 minutes. Put it away." Tim ordered.

"Sorry, sir," Aaron placed his phone away. "It's just, um... There's something going on that I don't know how to handle."

"You know the deal. This is a personal-life-free zone." Tim replied.

"Yes, sir. But, uh, this is something that could, like, derail my career." Aaron admits.

"All right," Tim sighed. "What is it?" He asked.

"I'm being blackmailed," Tim stared at him in shock. "Yeah, so, I, um -- I sent this photo to this girl on a dating app, you know, just shirtless, nothing X-rated. A thirst trap, you know?" Aaron asked.

Tim nodded his head. "I wish I didn't."

"Turns out it was some dude, and I was catfished. And now he's blackmailing me." Aaron explained.

"With what? You said the photo didn't show anything." Tim said.

"Right. The -- The original one didn't. But then he Photoshopped it." Aaron said and he fished his phone out again.

Aaron showed Tim the photo. "Whoa." Is all Tim said.

Aaron nodded as he placed his phone away. "Yeah."

"What does he want?" Tim asked.

"He didn't say. He just told me to wait for further instructions." Aaron replied.

"Well, I mean, it could be worse. At least he was generous." Tim comments.

***

Hunter notices someone breaking into an abandoned building while she patrolling and picks up the shop radio. "Control, 7-L-20, I have a 10-34 at The Nautilus near the corner of Virgil and West Fourth. I'm going 9-5-4 to look for squatters," Hunter walks through the entrance that the person breaking went through, she walked carefully and more into the main part of the building before containing on after looking around and then she grabbed her radio off her belt. "Control, 7-L-19, I'm code 4," Hunter places the radio back onto her belt and continues looking around as she speaks to herself. "There's no one here but me and some spiders," that's when Hunter spots a giant metal looking fridge and glances around inside when she get pushed in and the door closed behind her. "Hey!" Hunter yelled and grabbed her radio. "Control, 7-L-19, I need backup to my last..." Static just hisses through her radio. "Damn it!" Hunter puts her radio back on her belt and starts banging on the metal. "Hey! Can anyone hear me? It's not funny."

Hunter sighed upon realising that no-one was coming or could hear her so she sat down and opened up Lexi's phone and started reading through the message board messages. Trying to work out what they were doing messaging Lexi.

***

Tim had just finished speaking to the woman Nolan and Celina Juarez, Nolan's rookie had pulled over. "All right, ma'am. Thank you." While Aaron was taking a swab of the blood.

Tim walked over to Nolan and Celina. "How is she?" Nolan asked.

"Upset. I tried to dust her off. She still wants to file a formal complaint," Tim looked at Celina. "Look, I've never had to say this to a rookie before, but you cannot pull someone over for having a dark aura -- or any kind of aura," Tim then turned to Nolan. "Nolan, how could you let your boot make a stop like that?" He asked.

"I'm sorry, sir. The situation got away from me." Nolan apologised.

"Okay, but what about the blood in the trunk?" Celina asked.

"She says she has a grandson that sometimes borrows the car. He -- Maybe he spilled something. Look, we'll collect a sample. We'll test to see if it's human. If it is, then we really have a problem." Tim explained.

"Okay, but won't that mean I was right? The crime was committed, so --" Celina was saying.

Nolan turned to Celina. "Yes, probably," Nolan interrupts. "But since the evidence was found during an illegal stop, it's inadmissible in court. It's the fruit of a poisonous tree." He said as Aaron made his way over.

Tim turned to Aaron who handed an evidence back with a vial of blood in it, Tim showed it to Nolan. "Nolan, think you can handle taking this back to the station?" He asked.

Nolan nodded. "Sir." And he took the bag.

Tim turned to Celina. "You ever do anything like that again, not only will you be disciplined, you'll be out of the LAPD. You got it?" He asked.

"Yes, sir." Celina said.

"Now go apologize to that woman and tell her she's free to go." Tim said, Celina walked to the woman's car and Nolan followed.

Aaron moved and stood across from Tim after he checked his phone. "Well, my catfish just messaged me. Said he wants a PS5, or he's gonna release the photo." Aaron said.

Tim looked confused at that. "That's it?" He asked.

"I mean, they are really hard to find." Aaron shrugged.

"Okay. Where's the drop?" Tim asked.

Aaron checked. "Looks like his apartment." He said.

"So he's a dumbass. Great. All right, we'll pick one up on the way." Tim deadpanned and he started walking back to the shop.

"Oh, uh... I thought you weren't supposed to negotiate with terrorists." Aaron said, stepping in front of Tim for a moment to stop him walking.

"Well, he's not a terrorist. He's an idiot. But if we arrest him, that photo becomes evidence. Everyone at the station sees it." Tim reminds him.

Aaron eyes widened. "Good thing I got a gamer connect in K-Town." Aaron said.

"Of course you do." Tim sighed and the two returned back to their shop.

***

Hunter stood up after an hour or so of sitting down and tried her radio again. "Control, 7-L-20. Do you copy?" She just got static in return. "Oh!" She exclaimed and hit the door again after she placed her radio away. "It's gonna be fine. This is fine. They will do a welfare check when I don't report in, and this is fine," Hunter sits down again. "Until then, I will continue reading, because there is nothing else to do," Hunter pulled her phone out again. "And now I'm talking to myself."

***

Tim and Aaron arrived at the catfisher's apartment and they knocked on the door and stepped to the side. "Yo, I got what you asked for."

"Drop it and leave." Tim and Aaron placed it down and the catfisher opened the door.

Tim and Aaron stepped out from the side. "Hello," the catfisher looked at the two cops. "Sergeant Bradford, LAPD." Tim said.

"Hi, uh, O-Officers. What's up?" The catfisher stuttered.

"You're blackmailing me." Aaron deadpanned.

"Do you have any idea how serious of a crime this is? I could charge you with a felony." Tim warned.

"Hold on, 'kay? I-I wasn't really gonna release the -- the photo. I-I just -- just wanted the PS5. My mom won't get me one." The catfisher explained.

"Pavi, are you talking to me?" The catfisher, Pavi's Mom, called out.

"No, Mom. God! Just stay out of it." Pavi yelled into his house.

Aaron looked amused. "Oh, I think we should get Mom out here."

"No, whoa. That's not necessary. No." Pavi said, shaking his head quickly.

"Then delete the photo. Now." Tim said.

"Okay. All right. Yeah. Deleting the photo. Okay. See? It's gone." Pavi said, showing the two cops that he deleted the photo.

"And get rid of the dating profile, too, okay? It's messed up, catfishing people." Aaron said.

"Yeah, done." Pavi replied, deleting the account.

"Bad behavior does not get a reward," Tim stopped Pavi as reaches for the PS5, he moves his hadn away from it. "You do anything like that again, I'll make sure your phone and laptop are collected as evidence. You got it?" Tim warned.

"You suck." Pavi scoffed and walked back into the apartment.

"Sweet kid." Tim said as the door to the apartment closed.

"So, what's up? We taking this back or --" Aaron trailed off.

"Hell no," Tim interrupts. "Taking this home," Tim picks up the PS5. "You know how hard it is to find one of these?" Tim and Aaron walk back to their shop and Tim puts it in the backseat. "Lexi's wanted one since she was thirteen, so she's getting it for her twentieth birthday in a couple weeks."

***

Tim and Aaron were patrolling again. "I can't believe my career was almost ruined by a kid whose mom still does his laundry." Aaron said in shock.

Tim wasn't really paying attention to what was being said as he realised that Hunter hadn't checked in for a couple hours. "When was the last time you heard Hunter on the radio?" He asked.

"I can't remember. It was like an hour ago, maybe two." Aaron replied.

Tim picked up the shop radio. "Dispatch, this is 7-Adam-100. Can you perform a security check on Detective Lopez?" Tim asked.

"Hold on, 7-Adam-100," Dispatch went silent for a moment before speaking again. "She's not responding."

"When was last contact?" Tim questioned.

"According to the logs, it was over two hours ago."

"All right, that's a problem we're gonna talk about later," Tim spoke into the radio again. "Right now, give me her last known address."

***

Tim and Aaron arrive at Hunter's last known location, looking for her and calling out for her. "Hunter? Hunter!" Tim yelled.

Hunter looked up and walked to the door. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm in here." She yelled.

Tim tried to open the door. "Hang on," Tim yelled. "The door is stuck." He said.

"Yeah, no kidding." Hunter yelled through the metal, Tim rolled his eyes.

Tim managed to open the door and Hunter walked out. "You okay?" He asked.

Hunter placed a hand on Tim's shoulder. "I-I think I have a lead on Rosalind." She said.

"What?" "How?" Tim and Aaron asked at the same time.

Hunter starts walking, she turned to Tim. "So as you know, Lexi has been spending time on these message boards filled with armchair detectives that are trying to track Rosalind down." She said.

"You think one of them found her?" Tim asked, slightly hopeful.

"I think one of them is her." Hunter said, walking out.

***

Later it was nighttime, Hunter, Lexi and Tim arrived at the FBI office. "What's going on?" Lexi asked as she and her parents were escorted into a room where the FBI were already waiting, Angela had bought her in and then left.

Hunter turned to her. "I was reading the message board on your phone and are you familiar with the username "TruthHunter184"?" She asked.

"Yeah, let me guess, he doesn't live in Atlanta and he's actually Rosalind and this is why I don't join these stupid things but they contacted me." Lexi said.

Tim's head snapped up. "How? Your social media's set to private, you're careful about what you post and who follows you and who you follow and you hardly use it."

Garza did a quick search and found Lexi's social media account. "I need you to accept my follow to see your followers." He said, clicking follow and Lexi accepted it and they found an account that has zero posts and what looked to be Kern County in the profile picture.

"Click that one." Hunter said, recognizing the house. Garza listened and clicked the profile. "That's in Kern County, that house belongs to Rosalind, Lucy and I were buried there." She explained.

"Okay, we'll keep you all updated." Garza said.

The three of them walked out. "Hey, are you okay?" Hunter asked Lexi.

Lexi paused and looked at her parents. "No. I'm not, can I have my phone, I need to make a call to someone who knows what it's like to suddenly be pulled off of Heroin." Tim and Hunter knew who she was referring to and handed Lexi her phone.

***

Lexi had locked herself in her bedroom and was still talking with Isabel Bradford, Tim's ex wife who was still in contact with all three of them occasionally but mostly to wish happy birthdays and at holidays as well.

Tim and Hunter couldn't hear what was being said as they were in the kitchen, Kojo was sleeping in his dog bed. "Did you love Chris?" Tim asked.

Hunter looked surprised at that. "No. Did you love Ashley?" She asked.

"No. So, we both stayed in relationships that were safe." Tim realised.

"I think we stayed because we were both scared." Hunter said, she looked at him thoughtfully. "And now we've both admitted we have feelings for each other---"

"But I'm your superior officer as I'm a Sergeant and you're a Detective, so if we do date we either keep it quiet or one of us moves." Tim said.

Hunter smiled slightly. "I like the idea of keeping between ourselves and maybe Lexi for now." She said. "And we'll both be busy for the next few weeks trying to hunt down Rosalind and helping Lexi."

"When all the craziness is over do you want to get dinner?" Tim asked.

"Yes, I do." Hunter and Tim smiled at each other, when Lexi walked out, still speaking to Isabel as she went to the fridge and grabbed some fruit out. "TV?" Hunter asked.

"God yes." Tim replied, moving to the brand new couch that was bought due to Lexi's wound and it was in Lexi's favourite colour as well. Hunter sat beside him and they put on the baseball.

***

The next day, Hunter walked into Grey's office, after taking one of the Cop Cake posters off of Smitty to keep in her room. "You wanted to see me, sir?" She asked as Grey hung up the phone.

"That was Garza. Their cyber crime people traced the web of Rosalind's I.P. addresses to a house outside Seattle. They're putting together a surveillance team to go there now. Agent Garza has invited you to join." Grey explained.

Hunter scoffed. "Really? Yeah, I-I'm in." She said.

"Jet leaves in an hour." Grey said.

"Sir." Hunter walked out.

***

Tim walked into the bullpen when he saw Smitty putting posters of Tim up, saying WANTED COP CAKE, and there was a picture of Tim, somehow seeing as Pavi had never even been in contact with Tim, he was naked with a cupcake covering crotch. "What the hell?" Tim asked.

Smitty looked over at him as Grant and Lucy both declined a poster as they walked up to them. "Oh, good morning, Cop Cake." Smitty said to him.

"Ooh boy, I guarantee Hunter's already taken a cop cake poster." Grant comments, Tim glared at him. "Luce, lets get back on patrol." Grant said.

"Yep." Lucy agreed and the two walked away before Grant dug his grave deeper than he already had.

"Oh, man. Yeah, I'm thinking we need to pay our catfish another visit." Aaron said staring shock.

"Damn straight." Tim agreed.

***

Tim and Aaron were back at Pavi's apartment with Tim showing Pavi some paperwork. "All right, so here's the deal, Pavi. I filled out the paperwork charging you with a felony, and I will file it today unless you start using your skills to help people." He warned.

"And how much does that pay?" Pavi asked.

"Nothing. But then again, neither does prison." Aaron deadpanned.

"I'm listening." Pavi said, crossing his arms.

"All right, so, we have a friend who has a community center and he needs a volunteer to help teach a computer literacy class to the neighborhood. You keep your nose clean, you show up twice a week, I'll shred these. Otherwise, I've got up to 18 months to file your felony paperwork with the D.A." Tim explained.

"I thought you were gonna take away all my electronics." Pavi deadpanned.

"I was. Lucky for you, Officer Thorsen believes in second chances." Tim replied.

"Just take the deal, kid." Aaron sighed.

"Pavi, why is there a police car parked outside?" Pavi's mom asked from inside the apartment.

"Okay. All right. I-I'm in. Just text me the details." Pavi quickly walked back inside the apartment.

Aaron tries to fist bump Tim but he just walked past. "We did good." Tim said and he headed out to the shop and Aaron followed.

***

Hunter walked into the house that the FBI was staking a house Rosalind was suspected at being in, she walked over to one of the Agents at the window. "Detective Lopez? I'm Agent Miller from the Seattle field office." Miller introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you, sir." Hunter said shaking his hand.

Stensen walked up to the window and looked at Miller. "What do we know?" She asked.

"House belongs to a Phyllis and Raymond Haymen. Friends and family haven't heard from them in over a week, but their car's in the driveway." Miller explained.

"Any movement inside?" Hunter asked.

"None. We can hear their phones ringing inside, but no one ever answers them." Miller said.

"Well, something's not right." Hunter comments.

"We were thinking the same thing." Miller agreed.

Stensen pounded on the door. "FBI! Open up! We have a warrant to search these premises," the FBI busted in the door, they filtered into the house with Hunter and saw the dead bodies of the Haymen couple on the floor when Stensen notices something on the wall. "Look at that." Hunter turned and stared in shock.

On the wall in the blood of Phyllis and Raymond was BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME, the blood dripping down the wall.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know the Heroine addiction on Lexi's part might seem sudden but it's also been a month since she got addicted.

Now, I know the OD probably also seemed sudden but I didn't want to drag it on to long and Lexi will still feel the consequences of her addiction.

Tim and Hunter are finally dating or somewhat they still need to go on their date, it only took them several years to do it.

Yes a Sergeant, as we all know from previous episodes especially Backstabbers in s4, outranks a Detective, technically placing Tim in Hunter's chain of command.

Hope you enjoy.