6x08: Punch Card

***

Hunter was training Celina for the day as Nolan took a personal day and there was a bunch of people that called in sick for the day while Tim and Aaron were meant to be on surveillance but Tim called in for a personal day for half of the day anyway.

Only Hunter knew why he took the day, they'd found a therapist outside of work as neither of them trusted the new department shrink, Blair London, and they knew that Grey would try and convince Tim to see her and so he was avoiding the station especially since his first session was today.

The two of them also found a support group for veterans for them to start attending when they were ready, Hunter also found herself a therapist to go to when she finished work for the day.

Hunter was back to a P3 and no longer had the chevrons denoting that she was also a detective, she was going to be a Sergeant in a few months but until then she was stuck in Tim's chain of command.

***

Tim was walking to a lift, having just finished a whole morning at work, he was having a half day until next week when he was working full time and his therapist would see him before work, when he bumped into Mad Dog and Blair London the new department shrink. "Hey." Tim said.

"Bradford." Mad Dog said shortly.

"Mad Dog, Dr. London," Tim nodded to the two of them and he turned to Mad Dog. "Hey, listen. We didn't get a chance to talk about me leaving Metro."

"Water under the bridge, bro. See ya, Doc." Mad Dog walked off and Tim stepped into the lift.

"Are you..." Tim was asking.

"No, I'm actually heading up to five to drop off some paperwork, just got on the wrong elevator." Blair said.

"Everything okay with Mad Dog?" Tim asked frowning.

"Can't discuss a patient. Technically shouldn't have told you he's a patient. How are you doing? Did seeing a former squad mate upset you?" Blair asked.

"Well, last I checked, we're in an elevator and not your office, so..." Tim shrugged.

"Of course. Sorry. Still internalizing the rules of engagement. Besides, you're not one of my patients." Blair replied. "But I have to ask as a civilian, how's your relationship with Hunter going?" Tim gives Blair a confused look. "A lot of cops like to talk about your relationship, wanting one just like it, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"Hunter's fine. Our relationships good." Tim replied shortly.

"Off home then?" Blair asked.

"Half day." Tim replied deadpan.

"How come?" Blair asked.

"Personal, back to work full time next week." Tim replied.

***

Celina and Hunter were at a hospital, there was some kind of war going on and they were all separated, Eastern was somewhere else in the hospital and Southern Front was in another part of the hospital.

Celina and Hunter were speaking to some people that could've been involved or seen anything when they came across some young adults all covered in blood, one of them in particular. "Okay, what's your name?" Hunter asked.

"Bite me." The kid snarked at Hunter.

"That's--that's catchy. Have your parents been notified that you're here?" Hunter asked him.

"I don't need them." The kid replied.

"Well, yeah, technically you still do. What are you, 15?" Celina asked.

"Please. I'm 18." The kid scoffed.

Hunter sighed. "Please," Hunter closed her eyes for a moment to calm herself down. "It has been a very long day, I'm ready to go home, and you are clearly closer to being a child than you are a man, so just--"

"Bitch, I'm more of a man than you've ever had." The kid said confidently at Hunter, looking her up and down, not noticing the pregnancy bump.

Celina whistled and Grant walked past after finishing with Southern Front and muttered something along the lines of. "He's clearly never met Tim." Celina and Hunter both heard him and Hunter glared while Celina just laughed.

"What did you say to me?" Hunter asked, she stepped closer to the kid and looked down at him. "Say it again. Get up." Hunter pulled him up.

Celina and Grant shared a look. "Wait, what are you doing?" Grant asked, the two followed her.

"Taking him somewhere else to talk," Hunter puts him against a wall in a corridor. "Let's try this again, without your friends around. Okay?" Hunter pulled her notepad out. "Name.

"I told you. Bite me." the kid once again snarked.

Hunter looks at Celina and Grant. "Can one of you head back out to the waiting room and see if anybody knows the name of the kid who's spilling Eastern Front secrets?" Hunter asked looking back at the kid.

Celina nods and starts walking down. "You wouldn't do that." The kid said, tensing up.

Hunter looked at the kid with a cold expression. "Hm?"

"She's not gonna do that." The kid said.

"I'll do whatever she tells me to. I'm a rookie, and she's my TO. But we're gonna find out your name no matter what. So why are you sweating us?" Celina asked as Grant returned to the Southern Front idiots to help Lucy.

"Fine. I'm Slak." The kid said.

"Thank you." Hunter wrote that down.

"Babayan." He said for his last name.

"All right, and you are an Eastern Front wannabe." Hunter said.

"Nothing wannabe about me. I'm all in, and they know it." Slak replied.

"No doubt. I think you should want to help us figure out who killed your boss." Celina deadpanned.

"Armen's dead?" Slak asked.

"Yeah. He died about an hour ago on the operating table. Did you happen to see who pulled the trigger?" Hunter questioned.

"No." Slak said.

"No? The blood splatter on your face and your clothes says otherwise. I'd say you were standing right next to him when it went down." Hunter deadpanned.

"Wrong." Slak deadpanned.

"Listen, Slak, if you have a name, just give it to us, okay? There's no reason anyone needs to know that it came from you. But it just points us in the right direction so we can go and make a case." Hunter said.

"Forget it. I mean, even if I did know who killed him, that's for us to handle." Slak said.

"Us? Do you really have that in you after what you just went through, watching your friends get shot and stabbed right in front of you? You have barely got a foot in the life right now. You can still walk away. But you go all in on a murder, and your fate is sealed. You understand? You don't have to do that." Hunter deadpanned.

"It was... it was the big Russian Nave shot... Kostya." Slak was saying.

"Okay, Celina you'll be with Lawrence for the rest of the day, I'm going home Grey's approved my time off." Hunter sighed and walked out.

***

Hunter had a half day at work and spent the rest of it with Kojo and Tim when they get informed that the Metro team was caught in an explosion. "Should we go check?" Hunter asked him.

Tim shrugged. "If you want."

Hunter hummed. "Well we need to know how what caused the explosion and how others knew because it was a well kept secret."

"So you want to ask Mad Dog if he knows anything." Tim said.

Hunter nodded. "Yeah," Tim sighed and stood up, helping Hunter up, she was now eighteen weeks pregnant and there was a small bump that was noticeable if you were really looking. "We also should stop by Wendy's on the way." Tim looks at Hunter and shakes his head. "Don't argue with the pregnant lady."

Tim laughed. "Okay." He just grabbed the truck keys.

***

Tim and Hunter at Mad Dog's hospital room and walked in, Hunter finishing a drink from Wendy's with a doughnut. "Don't look at me like that." Mad Dog said to them.

"Nah, the only way I'm looking at you is with empathy. I've been in that bed, worrying about my guys, wondering if there's anything I could have done differently. Sometimes things just go wrong." Tim deadpanned.

"I'm not buying it. I think you're standing there thinking I should have listened to you." Mad Dog drawled.

"No, no, no. This--this wasn't about quality of mission plan." Tim said.

"This was a trap. Nah, the question is, how did they know you were coming?" Hunter asked.

"I don't know. I mean, we played it as close to the vest as we could." Mad Dog said.

That's when Blair London appeared, Tim and Hunter looked over at her. "Dr. London." Hunter said after finishing slurping from her drink.

"I heard what happened. Ran over to make sure everyone was okay." Blair said.

"Thanks, Doc. Yeah, I think we're all pretty far from okay." Mad Dog deadpanned.

"Of course. That was stupid of me. Do you need anything? Is there someone I should call?" Blair asked.

"Nah. We're all squared away."

"Hey, I'm curious, how did you hear about the ambush?" Tim asked.

"Are you kidding? It's all everybody can talk about. That and the gang war. Half my patients today canceled because they got called into work. I'm so sorry that this happened to you and your guys. I'll say a prayer." Blair walked out.

Tim and Hunter turned to Mad Dog. "She seemed like the last person you wanted to see." Hunter comments.

"No, I just... I'm in no mood to talk about my feelings. Look, man, I'm a wreck, and they shot me full of painkillers, so I'm shutting down for a while." Mad Dog said.

"Yeah, I get it. Hunter and I'll check back with you after Nash's surgery." Tim said.

"Thanks." Mad Dog said and the two walked out.

***

Hunter sighed and turned to Tim as they returned to the truck and got into return back to the house. "I'm glad you weren't there." She said.

Tim just kissed Hunter's head and later in the evening Tim got a text from Mad Dog wanting to meet. "It's Mad Dog, he wants to meet."

Hunter frowned. "Then I'm going with you. I'll drive." She grabbed the truck keys and walked out, Tim followed her.

***

Tim and Hunter walked out onto the roof of the St Vincent's. "The hell are you doing up here?" Tim asked.

Mad Dog turned and looked at the two of them. "Nash is paralyzed," he eyed Hunter and then turned to Tim. "Why is she here?" He asked.

Tim sighed and pressed the bridge of his nose. "Because she's my fiancée. We heard. They think it might be temporary." Tim said.

"It wasn't supposed to go down like this." Mad Dog said.

"What do you mean? Did you compromise the op?" Tim asked.

"They were just supposed to clear out before we got there. No one was supposed to get hurt." Mad Dog said.

"Who did you tell?" Hunter asked.

"I can't." Mad Dog said.

"Why not?" Tim asked.

"Because she knows all my secrets." Mad Dog said.

"Who does?" Tim asked.

Hunter frowned deeply wondering if he was talking about Blair London and she knew Tim was thinking the same thing.

"I'm sorry." Mad Dog jumps over the edge, Hunter and Tim are in shock as they watch him fall, quickly moving towards the edge and saw where he'd landed. This wasn't how Hunter expected the rest of her day to go at all.

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So, I cut this episode short, mainly because I can't be bothered to open 7Plus to watch it and write the scenes, so I wrote what I could, plus it was a little hard given that in the actual show Lucy and Tim broke up and Tim started seeing Blair London but I've changed that for this story.

I've decided that I'm gonna skip ep7 in case that wasn't obvious.

I promise Hunter will become a Detective again and a DS at the same time, I've got a plan just trust the process.

I'm sorry that Blair's not in this, I thought I'd be able to add her more into the story but I have no places to add her because Tim had no need to see her in this story because he has Hunter helping him find a therapist outside of work.

Hope you enjoy.