"Small of your back?" jackson asks lucy and she shakes her head. "No!"

"Mm!"

"Uh, left ankle?" chen asks her friend as Zara sits on the couch a bit further away from them while she was on her phone.

"Oh, so close." Jackson announces and Lucy begins guessing again even if tho it wasn't her turn. "Right ankle."

"W-Hold on. It's my turn. You don't get to go twice."

The two friends hadn't even realised that Nolan was approaching everyone with alcoholic drinks, zara hummed in delight as she took a sip of the fruity cocktail.

"Favourite body parts? I don't-"

Lucy and Jackson take a drink of their own from the small tablet their elder friend was holding.

"Guessing where we keep our off-duty weapon." West explains.

"Oh!" he nods, now understanding what this conversation had been about. "Wait. Hold on. Let me guess. Ankle holster- like most old timers."

"Okay, "A," im not an old-timer. You're confusing age with experience. "B," not even close." he throws back.

"He doesn't even carry an off-duty piece." Lucy explains and jackson looks shocked.

"That's crazy."

"I'm sorry. How did i not know that?"

Brown and west say at the same time. "Im still getting used to carrying a loaded weapon on the job. I don't know that i could handle packing heat in my real life."

The last part of Nolan sentence makes everyone rupture into laughter. They all continue to sip on their drinks as they try not to laugh while drinking.

"Oh, no." Nolan groans as he sees his boss siting at a table a few feet in front of them.

"What?" Zara asks looking up from her phone, she was to busy to look at her surroundings because she was texting with Tim, making her laugh every few minutes.

"Sergeant Grey is sitting over there with his wife. He's coming over here." Nolan answers trying not to look up and grimace after he sat down and saw wade approaching.

When John sat down Zara immediately closed her phone, not wanting anyone to see the conversation she was having with her T.O.

"Oh, man." Jackson sighed before clearing his throat when the sarge now stood in front of him.

"Hey. Small world." John says while Grey looks pissed off. Zara glances over to Luna who meets her gaze, the two exchange smiles and a wave of their hands.

"Too small right now. You know, for 19 years, my wife and i have gone out on February 13th. Why the 13th, you ask?Because the 14th, Valentines day, is for amateurs. The 13th is calm and relaxed. It's easy to find a table. There's no overpriced Prix-Fixe meals. It's just me and my lovely bride- good food, a warm conversation, a place where i can not thing about the job for a little while."

"Sounds nice, sir." Jackson replies looking at his friends for support.

"It is, which is why on my special night, I don't want to see your faces. So by the time i walk back to my table, you will be gone. Am i clear?" Grey declares looking at Nolan for the most of his sentence, at the end he gave brown a quick apologetic look.

"Crystal."

"Like ghosts."

Lucy and Jackson say at the same time. "Have a good evening." Wade politely tells them, fixing his suit jacket and walking away in style.

"Okay. Shall we?" John huffs putting down his now empty glass.

"Yeah." Jackson sighs before doing the same, the two females following in suit after finishing their drinks.

Zara had already been at the door of the café, she hadn't realised that a fight had happened until she saw Nolan cuffing someone and Grey's disappointed glare.

Bradford

I don't mind waisting time on you 😉

<<<<>>>>

"Alright, we know what today is. The most dangerous day of our year."

"Valentine's Day, sir? Really? Not Black Friday, no New Year's?" John asks the sergeant, it was pretty early in the morning making Zara yawn tiredly.

"That's right, officer Nolan. Break ups and broken hearts. Jealousy and revenge. All make for a perfect storm of heightened emotion and dangerous situations. Hell, sometimes violence can find you minding your own business at dinner."

People chuckled all over the room as Zara grimaces before looking for Tim, he wasn't here. Where on earth was he?

"Sir, again, i can't tell you how sorry i am." Nolan tries explaining but Grey cuts him off. "I'm not the one that needs the apologies, Officer Nolan."

"Yes, sir. Please apologise to your wife for me. If you'd like me to make you another reservation-"

"I traded shifts for last night off. The night you ruined." Grey declared sternly.

"Yes, sir." Nolan replied.

"Uh, sir? I don't see my T.O." Zara says as she looks at her father figure. "Officer Bradfords taken a personal day." grey explains.

Ugh.

"You're kidding. Tim hasn't taken a personal day in his entire life." Lopez interrupts, clearly shocked that he wasn't here.

"Be that as it may, he's off today. So, brown, you'll be assigned to the front desk. Alright. That's it. Everybody be safe out there."

<<<<>>>>

"So, im having a little get-together tonight. Kind of an anti-Valentine thing. Bens having it catered." Nolan explains as the other three rookies stood besides him ready to roll.

"Sadly, i'm not doing anything else." Jackson replies. "Well, if Jacksons in, im in." Lucy adds as she takes her war bags.

Everyone now looks at Zara, she hadn't said anything yet. "Im busy." she mutters, unless.. ugh screw the thought.

"Wow. Way to make me feel like a consolation prize."

"Since when are you anti-valentines day? You're a romantic." Lucy begins but Jacksons look threw her off the edge.

Ugh.

"Well, i-i mean- i mean, you seem like one." She corrects making Jackson shake his head, although he already knew about the two he still found it weird.

"Yes, well, traditionally, yes, but, uh, this year, i thought i'd just embrace the single life."

"Shouldn't you be at the front desk, boot?" Lopez asks as she approaches with her two colleagues.

She groaned in annoyance, she had completely forgotten about that. "Oh, right. Sorry, muscle memory. I don't need the gear today, so."

Brown returned her gear and walked away smiling at Angela before walking to her new work place.

<<<<>>>>

She was bored out of her mind as she sat in front of the computer, she hated this.

She definitely didn't become a cop to do this type of work.

"Next." she called out right before a man approached her.

"Hi. Uh.. I need to talk to a vice cop." he requested leaning onto the desk.

"Okay, about what?" she asks, curious about why he was here.

"Uh, i need to find a hooker. And not a street-walker. Uh, she's, uh, higher class than that. I, uh, met her at a hotel bar and, uh, spend some, uh, time with her on Saturday, and, uh, i'd like to take her out tonight on a date for, uh, valentines day."

During his speech her jaw was dropped. Seriously?

"So you walked into a police station to find a prostitute?" she asked, hoping that he wasn't serious about this.

"Well, yeah. You guys have, like, binders full of them right? I figure i can just page through the girls till i spot her." he laughed.

"Yeah, uh, I'm sorry, sir. The LAPD is not a referral service for prostitutes." she explained hoping he'd understand and leave her alone.

"Okay, uh, you're standing in the way of true love."

"And that's a burden i will have to bear." she swiftly replied as she heard him scoff.

<<<<>>>>

A blonde smiling woman put a large gift with a humongous red bow onto the desk with a loud thud before speaking up. "Hi. Is officer Nolan around?" she asks.

"Oh, yeah, i think i just saw him. Sorry, you are?" zara replies curiously.

"I am a very grateful citizen. He saved my life this morning." denise tells and she nods her head. "Oh! Okay." she chuckled.

The intercom beeps before she begins speaking into it. "Officer Nolan, report to the front desk."

Indistinct conversations were all over the entry room of the station, as the blonde waited for her hero to arrive.

The two woman faintly smiled at each other.

"Do you know him?" The Blondine suddenly asks and she nods her head responding. "Yes, we're friends."

"He seems like a lovely man." She muses and Zara chuckles. "He's okay." she says back.

Denise exhaled deeply before speaking up again. "He saved my life."

"Yeah, you said that already." Brown inhaled, she wanted to go out on patrol or see Tim.

Suddenly Nolan comes over.

"Oh, hey! What are you doing here? You should be at home in bed."

"I'm on my way home. The hospital gave me a clean bill of health, thanks to you." she laughed as she touched his chest making zara narrow her eyes.

"Oh, good." John sighs leaning against the desk where brown was working at. "Yeah. Just some superficial burns."

Zara acted like she wasn't paying attention but she was. "Ooh."

"Yeah. These are for you." Denise says as she points at the muffins making Nolans jaw drop.

"That is, uh, extremely kind, very thoughtful and entirely unnecessary. Um, but now you should really get home and take some rest." he nervously responded clearly not knowing what to do.

"Well, maybe you can stop by later and check in on me."

Zara raised her eyebrows at the boldness of the woman. Yuck. Being like that around someone you're dating was fine but a unknown person? Thats creepy.

"I, um- I do have a, um, long shift that i really shouldn't be getting back to. But, again, thank you so much. This is really nice, and i'm j- im just so glad that you're alright, and, uh, thank you. That's.."

Zara innerly face palmed herself at his words, seriously?

"Well, thank you. Thank you for- Yeah, thank you." she chuckled before straightening her bag and walking off.

"Don't say anything." he says seeing the look on her face. She shrugs not knowing what he was talking about. "I didn't plan to say anything."

"The look on your face-"

"What look?"

He scoffs before turning around ready to walk away. "She seems nice though." she falsely smiled. "Uh, yeah, i saved her life."

Zara chuckled. "She said."

When Nolan wanted to turn around and go back to work she called after him. "Don't forget your muffins." she teased.

He turned around walking over to her and taking the baked goods. He chuckled as he picked the basket up. "Heavier than they look." he grimaced and when he left she laughed.

<<<<>>>>

Zara walked past Tim in the hall way. Wasn't today his day off?

"Oh, hey. What are you doing here? I thought you were off today." She stops a meter in front of him awaiting his answer.

"I was. I just, uh- I needed to take my mind off some personal stuff, so i figured a stack of paperwork would do the trick." he explained and she nodded taking in his words.

"Well, i was thinking about going to Nolan's anti valentines thing cause you had been ghosting me for the past 6 hours." She deadpanned and he sighed.

"Im sorry." he tells her and she rolls her eyes. "It's not an excuse, Tim."

He nods, he understands that she was mad, because if she did that to him he would be furious as well.

"I know, it's just-"

"I don't want to hear it, you ghosted me after you told me yesterday that we could spend the day together. Then i find out you took your day off for the first time, since ever and instead of telling me what had been so important that you couldn't text back you say nothing."

How relieved she was to finally have that out.

"Zara, as i said it's a personal matter-"

"Personal? You're acting as if we aren't dating-" she threw back clearly not understanding why he couldn't tell her about his whereabouts.

"Who i meet shouldn't be your goddamn business, boot." he spat and she huffed angrily before she walked past him.

"Good night to you too, sir." she seethed as she walked off.

<<<<>>>>

She laid in her bed, breathing heavily as she overthought the conversation with Tim.

He acted off.

She actually felt bad for being so invasive in his private life, but as a part of it she also had a right to know, didn't she?

Bradford

Im sorry, tim i didnt mean to be like that
seen

He left her on seen making her feel even worse about herself. Why am i like this?

There it was.

She began blaming herself on the fight the two shared and she couldn't stop herself from what she was about to do.

<<<<>>>>

Zara walked into the building, where no one else other than Isabel Bradford was currently going through rehab.

She stood at the front desk, thank fuck they didn't have cameras here.

She shouldn't be here. This is wrong.

A polite lady at the desk smiled at her before getting out of her seat and approaching the cop.

Zara gulped for what she was about to do. "Hey, i'd like to see the visitors of today." she flashed her badge and the woman nodded.

Clearly, this hadn't been the first time that a cop had asked for this.

The black haired woman handed her the clipboard with the information on it.

Zara smiled at her as she took the board her hands slightly shaking, due to the stress she had went through earlier.

As if the Tim ordeal hadn't been enough, the unknown number aka one of her siblings began sending texts again.

The Cops eyes scanned and when she saw that Tim had been here visiting Isabel her heart dropped in her chest.

Her lips pressed together as she closed her eyes which were filling with tears. Zaras body was tense as she almost felt her knees giving out, she sighed clenched her jaw and looked away from the board blinking her tears away.

The visitation time was 7 hours long.

She swallowed hard as she clenched her hands into fists, a scowl now evident on her face.

Liar.

<<<<>>>>

um.. hi

IM SO SO SORRY ABOUT THIS, THIS WAS MEANT TO BE ALL CUTE AND ROMANTIC BUT I COULDNT HELP MYSELF-

pls don't come for me<3

anyways i hope yall liked this (no satire)

bye bye

-nicole

2450 words