It was nightshift, insects chirped outside of the shop. Zara yawned tiredly, she had no clue what time it actually was right now and she didn't want to know.

"You didn't nap, did you?" Tim asks as he glances at her for a few seconds before returning to his magazine. She leaned her head against the window, trying not to fall asleep. "I didn't have time." she swiftly responded.

"Me and Lucy have to find a new place to live." she added before yawning again. "No excuse, boot. Napping is the key to Midnight shift. No shorter than 20 minutes, no longer than 40. But, hey, if you're comfortable ignoring my institutional wisdom..."

"Im getting evicted, plus if i fall asleep im not getting up for the next 4 hours after." She rolled her her eyes when she knew that Tim didn't watch.

"And whose fault is that?"

"Not mine. They're turning my building into condos." she muttered but it was still loud enough for him to hear.

"That's what happens when you gentrify a working-class neighbourhood." he responded and she just stayed silent, yawning again.

It was pretty silent, then she swore she saw something in the middle of the street, it caught her attention. She narrowed her eyes as she saw that it was some man wearing a creepy mask.

He stared right back at her.

"What the hell is that?" she chuckled trying to hide the fear she was feeling. "What?" Tim asked his gaze not leaving the magazine.

"That."

Zara pointed at where the man was, or where he had been at least a few seconds ago. Tim looked up and then glared at her for disturbing him, she gave him a kinda weirded look.

"There was a guy standing there with a mask on. He was like seven feet tall, i swear." she explained while she stared at the place where the creepy man had just stood. "Mm-hmm." Tim hummed, not believing her in the slightest.

Zara shook her head.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and practically got ready to step outside of the shop. "I saw him. He was right there." she opened the door and got out.

"Boot, if you make me get out of this car for a hallucination.." he got out a few seconds later as he put his flashlight on to see his surroundings better.

"Not car, shop." she corrected and he rolled his eyes.

The two walked over to where she had seen the man right before he strangely disappeared. "What?" she scoffed as she looked around not seeing the weird figure.

"God, he was right here." she sighed dramatically as Tim turned his head around looking at her with his brows raised. "Make-believe time is over." he turned his flashlight off, his right hand still on the gun in his holster as he began to walk back to the shop.

Zara knew that she saw something so instead of leaving as well she continued looking around. She almost let out a surprised yell when she saw a man in the woods.

The same mask.

He stared at her for a few moments before he turned around and began to disappear into the woods.

"Stop! Police." she yelled after him as she took her gun and began following him. Brown found herself in the woods, or whatever this place was.

She let out a few heavy breaths as she checked carefully and slowly checked some bushes. She felt her heart pounding loudly in her ears, where was tim?

When she heard rustling from behind her she quickly turned around and gulped when she saw nothing.

"Tim?" she asks loudly, maybe he was around the corner or something.

She continued to walk down the pathway the creepy man had disappeared in. Moments later she saw him standing in some bushes with his back to her.

"Step out." she sternly ordered, her gun raised and pointed at him. "Step out!" she repeated, her voice louder and angrier.

The man slowly began turning around to face her. "Hands where i can see them." her voice shook just a little bit as she tightened her grip on the gun.

"Peel the mask off slowly, slowly." she demanded and he listened, the man reached for it and began pulling it off.

The next thing she saw was light as bright as the sun shining into her face, laughter was filling her ears.

She opened her eyes to see multiple cops surrounding her, filming her with their phones.

"Welcome to midnight, officer brown."

Tims voice echoed through a megaphone, ripping her out of her trance completely. "Oh, my god." she groaned in embarrassment as she covered her face.

Tim stepped over to her side of the car and grinned evilly. "No. No." she exclaimed loudly as she saw him take a picture, his camera shutter clicked and she groaned again.

<<<<>>>>

She stepped into the station, happy that night shifts were over. Nolan came running in right after her.

"Hey. Happy to be back on days?" he asks smiling. "God, yes." she sighs rubbing her eyes, zara was still tired and embarrassed after the whole ordeal last night.

"I don't know if you heard, but it was-" before she could finish her sentence he ripped open his jacket, revealing a shirt with her face on.

The flashlight made her look horrible and she scoffed. "Tim had shirts made."

"Of course he did. Well, you know, just wait until its your turn, officer in bed by ten." she responded raising her eyebrows.

"What can i say, im a morning person." he threw back and she nodded her head sarcastically.

The two began walking towards the changing room, meeting jackson on the way, who was already in uniform.

"Good morning." he greeted them, smiling happily.

"You're here bright and early." Nolan announces as she walks besides West, Zara behind the two.

"Hey, if you're not early, you're late."

"That's a stupid saying." Brown deadpanned making Jackson quickly turn his head around in her direction.

"What's her problem?" Jackson asks Nolan as if Zara wasn't next to him. "Uh.."

while the two slowed down Zara stepped forward as John showed Jackson the shirt with her face on.

"I wore mine in too!" He let out a laugh making the girl roll her eyes. "It's not the t-shirt, although it is annoying. Me and Lucy can't find a place to live." She replied grimly.

And the thinking about a certain someone bothered her as well.

"The two of you could always move back home." Jackson suggested and Zara had to stop herself from chuckling, sure she'd be like.

"Hey mom, i know i got a restraining order against you but you don't mind me crashing right?"

Yeah, no not happening.

"No, we really cant." Lucy now announced her presence as she stepped over to the trio, already in uniform.

"Or the two of you can bunk up with Nolan. He lives in a mansion." Jackson continued suggesting things and Zara sighed.

"Hey, it's not a mansion. It's the guest house of a mansion. But you're welcome to crash on the couch if you need to." Nolan explained and the two girls nodded along.

"Yeah, thanks. But we are determined to find a nice, clean, affordable place to live even if it kills us." Lucy stated and Zara nodded, completely agreeing.

"What she said."

<<<<>>>>

Roll call was full of indistinct conversation as Nolan entered the room, walking up to see that it's been taken by the sergeant.

"Oh, no, officer nolan. You will be leading roll call this morning." The sergeant innocently said smiling.

"Sir?" Nolan chuckles nervously as he feels everyones gaze on him. "I didn't stutter. Get up there." Grey sternly replied, being deadass serious.

He looked around to see his T.O. nodding in approval, he sighed before stepping up, mocking cheers filling his ears.

"What now?"

"The clipboard." Sergeant leans back in his seat, as he watches John carefully.

"Uh, memo to all divisions from the Chief of Police. Complaints about police officer entitlement have risen sharply during the last few months.. Sir?"

During Nolans speech Wade raised his hand.

"Do you know what that means? Police officer entitlement?"

"I assume it has to do with unauthorised perks. Free food, things of that nature." The oldest rookie answers.

"And what is LAPD's policy on gratuities?"

It was a awkward silence as John looks around the room, recalling his memories of what he had been having to learn.

"No officer shall receive any gratuity, gift, favour, or promise thereof, as it may result in, or be perceived as, payment in exchange for influence, bias, or direction of an investigation or enforcement of punishable offenses."

How did he-

"Nicely done. Brown, Chen, West, will you please join Officer Nolan up front?"

After a few seconds of silents the three got up and walked towards their rookie friend. "Have your training officers discussed this policy with you?"

"Yes, sir." The four answer.

"And what was your takeaway?" he asks and Angela raises her hand. "Sir, if i may?" she inquires wanting to speak about her opinion.

"Oh, sounds like a little CYA."

"No, sir. Boot and i walk the straight and narrow. But businesses like having cops around. A half priced meal every once in a while is just community relations." Angela explains.

"It doesn't mean we show them favouritism." Tim states and Zara gulps, being in the same room as him after everything was awkward as hell.

"You agree with this, officer bishop?" The sergeant questions the training officer who shakes her head.

"Im not saying ive never accepted a free cup of coffee, but its usually the exception, not the norm." talia replies and the sergeant turns in his seat back to face the four rookies.

"What about you, Officer Nolan?"

"I got into this Job to help people, not to help myself to free stuff." The oldest rookie answered as he kept his hands behind his back.

"Cute line. It's a bunch of bull, but.."

Some people in the room begin laughing but it wasn't even funny at all.

"It's not."

"Really? Do you pay fair market value for that beach house you live in?" The sergeant throws back, actually curious about Nolans answer.

"No, sir. But i act as a caretaker for the main house when Ben is away, so technically i am exchanging services for my rent." Nolan answered the question but the sergeant wasn't done yet.

"And what happens when that exchange isn't enough? And your buddy gets a ticket, or-or worse?"

"Then he'll have to pay for his actions."

"Okay. Favours are a slippery slope, people. And so are freebies. Look, i like to keep it real in here. There is the letter of the law and there is the spirit. It is your job to know the difference. But make no mistake- as police officers you have power. Usually we like to focus on the kind."

<<<<>>>>

"We haven't received a single freebie since i've been with you, so why did you defend that to Grey?" Zara asked Tim, the two had arrived on the scene of a break in but nevertheless she decided to ask.

"Because hard rules like that are stupid. What we do doesn't exist in a vacuum. Circumstances dictate actions. Not the other way around." he explained and she nodded, brown stopped in front of the entrance and took her work phone out and took pictures of the broken door.

"Police. Anyone here?" Tim calls out and a few seconds later a woman appears. "Yes. We had a break-in." The doctor tells him and he turns to look back, seeing the shattered glass on the ground right in front if the door.

"I can see that. There has been a rash of burglaries in the neighbourhood recently. Mostly addicts looking for stuff to sell."

While Tim spoke, Zara put the phone back into the pocket of her pants and stepped forward, now standing next to her T.O.

"This wasn't an addict. They took embryos." The doctor announced.

"Thats a new one on me." Tim
muttered under his breath crossing his arms over his chest while looking at Zara who was noting the things that the doctor had been saying.

"Do i write this up as a burglary or an abduction?" She asks, looking back at him being deadly serious.

"You want to put out 50 amber alerts? It's a burglary." He stated and she then wrote burglary down before turning her attention back onto the doctor.

"Officer, there's a crucial time element here. Without proper temperature control, those embryos will be compromised."

That did not sound good.

"Any idea who took them?" Zara inquired and the woman nodded.

"They're part of an ugly custody dispute. A lesbian couple. The eggs we harvested were from only one of the women- Marilyn Tenni. Her ex is suing for custody rights even though she doesn't have a biological connection."

"Okay, we're gonna need names and addresses for both women." Tim tells her and the woman nods once again.

"Of course. But you should know- when i called Marilyn to tell her, she got very upset- said she was gonna kill her."

The two police officers shared a look.

<<<<>>>>

"I can't believe you took-"

"Those are mine!"

"They are not yours! They're mine too!"

Zara and Tim heard yelling as they walked down the hallway into the direction of the apartment.

They looked at each other and placed their hands onto their guns as the arguing inside continued.

"Give them to me! Give them to me right now!"

"Don't you dare hit me again!"

"Listen, i said give them to me!"

Tim knocked on the door announcing the presence of two other people. "LAPD. We are coming in."

They stepped inside and Zara closed the door behind them to not cause any more problems with the neighbours.

"They're mine."

"They are not."

"Hey, hey. Put down the weapon." Tim said as he saw that both woman had been holding weapons in their hands, ready to attack each other.

The blonde woman had been holding the embryos in one of her hand. "Those are my embryos. She stole them from the clinic." Marilyn explained and the other woman shook her head.

"No, they are your eggs, and we had them fertilized by a sperm donor together. You remember?"

"Yeah, and the judge ruled that i get to use them. Do you remember that?" Marilyn threw back and the blonde only got more angrier.

"Not if they're gone!" She was ready to drop them which only made Marilyn swing the weapon, Tim managed to stop her by holding it and throwing it into a corner.

"Officer brown, secure her." he said and slightly pushed the woman towards zara who grabbed her wrists and cuffed her.

"Ma'am, give me the tubes."

"No." the blonde shook her head as she continued to hold the embryos up.

"Please. Those-those are my last chances to carry my own baby. Please, don't take that from me. Please." Marilyn cried out but the blonde didn't care about her pleas.

"We were supposed to have kids together. I saw you through your whole cancer treatment. And then you dump me for a yoga instructor?" She replied, also on the verge of breaking down and then she had tried to throw the eggs but Tim stopped her.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hey. Listen to me. You're angry, okay? You have every right to be. But doing this? It won't put your marriage back together, okay? Nothing will. But you will come to hate yourself if you go through with this. So put the tubes back in that container."

Ouch.

The woman who now had been a sobbing mess put the tubes into the container, tim grabbed the vase from her hand and put in on a shelf while Marilyn sighed.

Tim cuffed the other woman and with that they left.

<<<<>>>>

"It doesn't seem right to lock up Marilyn, too. She was only trying to protect her embryos." Zara said as her and her T.O. were walking down one of the hallways in the station.

"Nothing we can do. She committed assault. Domestic-violence laws are strict for a reason." he replied and she shook her head.

"What happened to "circumstances dictate actions?""

"Trust me, this is one rule i'm all for. Cemeteries are filled with women who'd still be alive if cops had been forced to hook up their spouses the second he or she laid hands." He explained and she raised her eyebrows, extremely surprised.

"That is a very enlightened attitude."

"You seem surprised." He stated as he looked down at her with furrowed brows.

"You surprise me every day."

"Uh-huh. Go gas up the shop." He muttered before he walked away.

Zara grinned ear to ear and then she heard a familiar voice. "Hey. How's it going?" Nolan asked as he fixed his tie.

"Hey, yeah it's been an interesting morning. How about you?" She responded, thinking about what had happened.

"Same. I found a dead body at the langston on wilshire."

"How was it?" she asked him, wanting to know more about the apartment and not the dead body. Nolan got that wrong though.

"Uh, gruesome. Guy took a bullet right to his, uh-" John pointed at his head and Zara shook her head.

"Oh, wait. Not the body. The apartment."

"Oh.. uh, it was nice. Surprisingly upscale for a gang member. Are you asking for you?" He explained although in the beginning he had been pretty surprised at her request.

"Well, the building needs go disclose if someone was killed in the apartment, so it might mean a break in rent." She explained and he raised his eyebrows at her thinking wise.

"Yeah, just a bit of a questionable way to find a place to live, no?"

"Yeah, well, traditional clearly isn't working out, so-" She says and then Bishop approaches.
"Let's go, boot. Captain wants to see us."

With a last smile to Zara Nolan left her alone and followed his T.O.

<<<<>>>>

Every T.O. along with their rookie had been sitting in roll call room, a injured cop in front of them.

"I've been undercover inside La Eme for almost a year. Working my way closer to the offshoot in Boyle heights called Ocamp loco. They control the cash flow and then bundle the drug money and ship it back to mexico." Ortiz explained to the crowd, the white board covered with text and layout plans off of the house.

"How much money are we talking?" Nolan asked the man that had earlier ran away from the ambulance.

"Right now, at least a million. The word is they're gonna ship it tonight. I was about to record it when my cover was blown by, uh, Matthew Rodriguez, who tried to kill me, so i shot him in self-defense. Uh, you know the rest."

"Officer Ortiz has bravely volunteered to go back in to protect his cover and set up out tactical operation." Sergeant Grey announced with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Last time i was at the house, it was four halcones guarding the money. Heavy-hitters." Ortiz added before Wade began speaking again.

"We're gonna gear up heavy, position ourselves down the street, be ready to initiate a full-blown raid on the house once Ortiz gives us the signal."

"Rookies, this is your first high-level tactical operation. Let's be prepared." The captain now states before walking back up to her own office.

<<<<>>>>

finally a new chapter 🤭

hope y'all enjoyed this although nothing interesting happened plus i cut the ep into two separate chapters

bye byee

-nicole

3300 words