CHAPTER ONE

✩ ✩ ✩

Constellations of light ceased to flicker overhead as the sun rose, as though fireflies which had been caught on a canvas of nighttime blue had finally been put to sleep. Fleur had always figured that when stars reached the point of adolescence that they ventured from their mother's hateful arms and joined their siblings to create such beautiful patterns in the sky.

But Fleur couldn't see them now, for such dreams had faded alongside the nightmares which most children would remember as childhood memories and despite how the fantasy of stars soothed her as she tried with no avail to fall asleep as a child, for perhaps one day she would reunite with her brother, finally broken free from their mother.

Baby Fleur loved the stars but now she just found them daunting, just a reminder of knives which had been lodged in her mother's heart and of darling Macaulay being taken away in handcuffs. All he was really trying to do was protect his sister.

Fluorescent lights which hummed like the stars as she entered the station merely reminded her of that daunting visitation room, where abused children were brought out in chains like common criminals.

Handcuffs and stars plagued her childhood, perhaps they would define her future.

Bustling through the station as Mid-Wilshire, where she and her fellow Rookies had been assigned for their training, Fleur found herself to be ignoring mocking advice from P2's for her to present herself to Captain Andersen before roll call.

Settling herself in the front row, between Officer John Nolan, who unlike Fleur had paid a visit to his Captain on the first day and Officer Lucy Chen, the first out of their graduating class to make an arrest.

Pounding out of her chest, Fleur's heart rate seemed to elevate every time an Officer entered the briefing room. Which one would be her Training Officer was unbeknownst to her, but he did seem to be staring at the back of her head for an exceptionally long duration of time.

Hushing the chattering of excitable new Officer's, Sergeant Wade Grey introduced himself by cracking jokes about his prehistoric Rookie and explaining how the training academy had earned them the right to be in that room, but they still needed to prove themselves worthy to wear the badge of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The training officer match game was something of which stirred an intense feeling in her mind, one of both excitement for the possibility which the day would hold, mingled with the heartbreaking fear of washing out on the first day.

"Lucy Chen, a hotshot who made her first arrest before clocking in for work. Legacy Jackson West, who broke all his dad's records at the Academy. Fleur Belrose, the Academy's star girl, came top in all her exams. And, our dinosaur, John Nolan, who was born before disco died."

Grey pauses as laughter erupts throughout the room, Fleur also joining in as to not feel isolated from the crowd. However, she felt as though Nolan's age did not reflect his competency as an Officer, he has received outstanding scores at the academy and had carried everyone through alongside him. He should be given as fair a shot as his fellow Rookies.

As Grey continues, gifting each Rookie a TO best suited to train them into being a solid Police Officer, the star girl received Officer Bradford with a pretty pink bow wrapped around him.

Not that he would ever entertain such a metaphor.

Before Grey even took a breath after dismissing them and Fleur rose from her chair a resounding call for Bradford's 'Boot' to be summoned to him was echoed around the station around she hurried herself over to where he stood with a Latina Officer.

"Officer Fleur Belrose, Sir," She offered her hand for him to shake such as her brother had taught her to do when she met a person of authority, however he did not reciprocate.

"Let's skip the pleasantries, Boot," Bradford said dryly, "You're here to learn, not live out your fairytale. Yes, I spoke with your instructors at the academy. I can't have a Boot with her head in the clouds who just crams last minute to come out on top. Are we clear?"

"Crystal, Sir," Fleur would never admit his judgment on her character stung just a little bit. He had earned every right to treat his Rookie as he see fit and some insult at her being a little dreamy in nature couldn't affect her.

"Good. Follow me."

Fleur figured that Tim Bradford was not the type of man who liked to ask things twice, so without hesitation she followed him through to where their vehicle was parked.

"This is your shop, do not call it a car. It is where you work."

Fleur repeated everything he said, over again in her head until it was all her mind could focus on. This was the only way her brain processed things in a quick time span and Bradford would be furious if she were to forget anything he taught her.

"First, you clench the exterior for damage. Any nicks, scapes or dents, log them in. Had the suspect left anything? Money? Drugs?"

Timothy Bradford was somewhat surprised to see his Rookie without a pen and paper in her hands, taking intensive notes.

"Why aren't you taking notes, Officer Belrose? Think that you can just wing it like you did in the academy? Let me tell you now, if you don't know this, you will wash out."

"Sir, please, my Autism doesn't allow me to retain information from notes, the only way I can learn is by repeating the knowledge in my head until it's all that I can focus on. I didn't just daydream my way through the academy, I was just trying to learn."

Officer Bradford really didn't know how to respond to such a statement.

"What's next, Boot?" Bradford brushed over her statement, feeling guilty he had not taking her learning difficulties seriously.

"Shotgun safety check, Sir," Fleur decided to take his lessening of a foul attitude as an apology for his close minded way of handling her learning. "Verify it's empty. Then clear it and close the action. Then we make sure that we have police tape, road flares and spike strips."

She trailed off, repeating the words she had just spoken again in her head so the next part of the procedure would come to her.

"Body-cam test," Fleur told Bradford, turning on her own camera and repeating her name and badge number to verify her identity before starting her shift.

Tim could not deny that he was slightly impressed with his Boot, never before had he let a Rookie dictate the procedure on the first day, let alone have all the information correct.

Awkward silence filled the air which Fleur could not handle so before she ended up spouting some nonsense that she had learned about some variety of flower that Tim surely didn't not care about, she decided to move inside the car and begin proceeding with the next phase of checks.

However, Tim did not seem to move and stood staring at the spot where Fleur had just moved from. She took it upon herself to roll down the passengers side window and politely calling for Officer Bradford to sit down in the car so that she could continue with the procedure.

"Now, we log into the computer and put in our serial number. Test the lights and test the sirens," Fleur stops herself for just a moment to allow for the siren to stop chirping, "Finally, check yourself. You're about to hit the street with a loaded handgun and no idea what happens next. There is no room to have your head in the clouds."

Something about having his words being used against him lit a fire in Tim's mind, something which explained why he was staring at the back of her head this morning.

Star girl was something rather special.

✩ ✩ ✩

Silence enveloped the shop and Fleur did everything she possibly could to hold her tongue from revealing various details about things that no one really wanted to know about. Such as the works of William Shakespeare or the legacy of Alexander the Great - just few of the strange things that Fleur busied herself with reading up on to repress thoughts of her past.

Tim Bradford had never been as fascinated by a Rookie as he was by Fleur Belrose. The way she held herself so lightly and how she smelled distinctly of fresh flowers did something funny to his mind which he could not explain. She may not daydream but he certainly did since being introduced to her.

He wanted to know more about her but as her TO he only had a responsibility to know so much, other information would be taken as being to interested in his Rookie's personal life. Which, of course, he wasn't.

"So, why do you want to be a cop?"

"That's a bit personal, don't you think?"

"You want me to train you, I need to know why you're in this car."

So much for Macaulay not being mentioned on her first day. Perhaps, at some point in her life, her abusive mother would not ruin everything she had worked so hard for.

"My brother's in prison. He got railroaded by the system, I want to make sure that doesn't happen to anyone else."

Fleur had a funny habit of making Tim speechless, he expected her to come up with some nonsense story about how she wanted to give back or do some good in her life. Her honesty was refreshing, it was something that he needed.

"I'm sorry," Was all Tim managed to get out, "I'm not going to ask why."

"Good, because I wasn't about to tell you."

Officer Bradford didn't really figure that it would be a very positive response to her insight into her situation to go back to sitting in an awkward silence. Perhaps it wasn't the best of times to introduce the new Officer to the station dubbed 'Tim Tests' but working the streets wasn't fair game for the police. What better a time to teach her that than now.

Tires screeched in a sound reminiscent of ghouls and other violent spirits that lived under her bed in the house she grew up in as Bradford slammed on the brakes.

"I've been shot!"

"No you haven't," Fleur was concerned that Tim may be having some kind of an episode, perhaps a stroke.

"I'm bleeding to death. You have to call for help. Where are you?"

"You haven't been shot, Sir. Everything's okay, we can go see a Doctor if you'd like," Fleur told in the most calming tone that she could muster in such a anxiety inducing scenario, it was a possibility that these were the after effects of a previously induced head injury.

"And now I'm dead. It's your fault. Get out."

"You're not dead, Officer Bradford, switch seats with me and I'll take you to see a Doctor now, yeah?"

"I'm not crazy, Belrose," Bradford finally snapped out of his faux shot cop persona, "But if I was and all you could focus on was if I had gone mad then I'd be dead. And it'd be your fault."

"She's dead and it's your fault."

Her father's words reverberated through her mind as Tim said this and all of a sudden Fleur felt as though she was spiralling. Panic was all she could focus on and even with Tim trying to bring her back to reality, her vision was skewed by memories of that night.

"Belrose," Tim was worried about her now, perhaps something he had said had triggered a nerve in her and she was having a panic attack. He got them too when the nightmares caught up with him. "Fleur, breathe."

Fleur shook her head at this, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't focus on anything other than his voice. It was oddly soothing for her to listen to. Something about his tone tugged on her heartstrings and it settled her stomach.

"I'm sorry," When Fleur finally surfaced again she buried her face in her hands and tried to not let the dam in her eyes break. "I'm so sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry," Timothy Bradford was not known to be all too good at comforting people, well not people he didn't like anyway. "Not at all."

Embarrassed energy radiated from Fleur's shaking form and the touch of a warm soul was most likely the thing that would bring her back. So, hesitating slightly as it was not in his nature to be physical with a Rookie, Tim reached and grasped her hand in his and like magic, Fleur stopped shaking and started breathing regularly again.

"Deep breaths, Fleur," Tim ordered and she obeyed his commands as she was trained to do. Suddenly, she felt better again and focusing on his apology was all that stopped her from spinning out again.

"I'm sorry, Sir. It won't happen again," Fleur swore, she hadn't thought about her father's malicious words in years. She had wiped it from her mind and filled it with useless facts that spouted from her mouth when she was uncomfortable.

"You're okay, Officer Belrose," Tim had a lapse in judgement when calling her by her first name, it was inappropriate to do so and he realised that.

Honking from a car behind them broke them out of the trance that her panic had put them into, a small had been forced to stop when Officer Bradford had slammed on the brakes to comfort Fleur in her struggle.

Bradford mumbled something under his breath, gripped Fleur's had ever so slightly tighter before letting it go to deal with the issue they had caused. He was not all too happy that whatever between them had happened had been interrupted.

"Gentlemen, I have an honest question for you," Tim began, leaning his arm on the roof of the truck and looking through the rolled down window at the labourers, "Were you grown in a petri dish of stupid?"

"Por favor, no hablo español," The man in the driver's seat started, before Tim cut him off.

"Don't pull that crap with me."

Fleur had a newfound respect for Tim after how he treated her in the moment prior, but that would never excuse casual racism.

"Licencia y registro, por favor," Fleur smiled at the inhabitants of the vehicle, who responded positively by giving her their license and registration.

"Well, aren't you fancy?" Bradford figured this was a perfect opportunity for a Tim test that hopefully wouldn't backfire on him and cause Fleur to spiral again. "Tell him that it's immigrants like them that make Americans like you look bad. If it was up to me, we'd send them all back by catapult."

"I am not saying that," Fleur objected, causing Tim to raise an eyebrow in shock at her blatant disregard for the chain of command, "I don't care if you are my superior. I don't care if you just pulled me out of a panic attack. I don't care if this is just another test, you have no right to abuse these men for simply honking their horn because we stopped our shop."

Somehow, Fleur didn't think that however many times that she pushed Tim's buttons that he would take her standing up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves as disrespect on any level.

"Do I seem laid back to you, Officer Belrose," Tim spoke, "Wishy washy in any way?"

"No, Sir."

"In that case, I think that you get another "A" for standing up for what's right. That's the job, Belrose."

"Even in spite of what you order me to say, Officer Bradford?" Fleur asked, testing the waters.

"Especially in spite of what I order. Good job, Belrose. Now tell these gentlemen to have a lovely day."

"Eres libre de irte. Disculpe las molestias, que tenga un hermoso día."

✩ ✩ ✩

Traffic was at a standstill, horns were being broken by the impatient drivers who clearly had better places to be than watching a crazed father yelling nonsense regarding unicorns and such. Nolan seemingly had made a positive impact on the man, for he made his way down off the roof of the car and relinquished his baseball bat.

However, the unicorn man had turned on his heel and sprinted away as soon as he reached the ground. Nolan sighed before chasing after the man and Fleur mimicked his actions as if she could foresee Tim's next words.

"Go get him, Boot."

Vision locked on the suspect, Fleur broke into a run and all she could focus on was the sound of her feet pounding on the pavement and of the potentiality that could be the first arrest of her career.

Fleur calculated the distance between her and the perpetrator and figured that if she were to do what she was planning, then he would be in handcuffs momentarily. So without any time for hesitation and after noticing the Nolan had got himself caught up in a chained gate, Fleur tackled the unicorn father to the ground and with his hands behind his back, she cuffed him.

Fleur was rather happy with herself for making her first arrest but this was overshadowed by the unicorn father speaking more nonsense.

Apparently Officer Belrose had absolutely no idea what she was doing and that she just must let him go immediately for he had to find the unicorn.

Arriving on scene and releasing the lock to free Nolan, Bradford had rather a smug look on his face to see that his Rookie was the one to make the arrest, rather than the dinosaur.

"Welcome to the arrest," Bradford moved to help his Boot restrain the man who was writhing under Fleur's grip.

"I have to find... I have to find him!" Unicorn father cried, begging Fleur to let him go as he was interrupted by his phone ringing, "He needs me!"

"Who needs you?"

"Lucas! I can't find him!" He continued his begging as the phone kept ringing, "Please, let go of me!"

Fleur took the initiative which no one else seemed capable of doing and answered the Unicorn Father's phone, to which an inconsolable lady was screeching.

"This is Officer Belrose - Yes, ma'am, I'm with your husband now. Please, take a breath ma'am, I cannot understand you."

"Lucas!"

Directing her question at the Unicorn Father rather than his wife, Fleur asked the question which was on everyone's mind, "Who's Lucas?"

"Lucas needs me!"

"Sir, where is your boy?" Bradford asked.

"I only left him in the car for a minute. The unicorn has him."

"The car is gonna be an oven," Nolan fretted, "We got to find that unicorn."

All the Officer's on scene turned to their radio which buzzed with a message from dispatch.

"Be advised, the suspect vehicles is a grey Corolla. License plate: Two, Paul, Charles -"

Whilst Bradford and Belrose processed the suspect back at the station, Officer's Nolan and Bishop were searching for Lucas. Fleur had never imagined feeling useless as a Police Officer, always thought that there would be something for her to do. Some change for her to make. But in that moment, the good for her to do was make sure that Lucas had a father when they found him.

"It's hard, not being right in the action," Tim sympathised with her, "But this is still important work."

"I know," Fleur nodded, "I just wish we could be making sure that Lucas is safe."

As if to read her mind, dispatch came through over her radio and signalled that Lucas was safe and sound with Officer Nolan and Fleur breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank God."

Smiling at her relief, Tim informed that they should probably be taking their break right about now and suggested a food truck where the majority of Officer's took their lunch.

"You're buying," Bradford felt rather smug, being able to have a free meal every time he got a new Rookie.

"Oh, am I?" Fleur asked rhetorically in response, knowing that nothing she could say would actually change his order.

"I want to be surprised, Boot," Tim said. "But you better get the order right."

John and Lucy joined Fleur at the counter, both having been instructed to purchase lunch for their TO's. Seemingly, they had been having much worse days than she, despite giving her a panic attack, Bradford was rather a good Training Officer.

As they were giving their orders from the waitress, they made their way over to the table where the four TO's sat and whilst Davey sent Lucy back to reorder because apparently he was allergic to whatever she had originally ordered, Bradford again seemed rather impressed by Fleur's order.

A steak sandwich without the salad and extra barbecue sauce seemed about right for Tim Bradford.

"Not bad, Boot. Not bad," Tim spoke as he took a bite from his sandwich. Rather happy with himself for making her smile before she made her way to where her fellow Rookie's sat.

Lucy had her head in her hands whilst Jackson's arm was wrapped around her shoulder, in comfort despite the amused smile on his face.

"Davey's been trying to get in her head, keeps pushing her buttons," Jackson explained.

"He made me walk!" Lucy exclaimed dramatically, "I wasn't allowed in the shop for two hours."

Nolan, always the mediator, tried to explain to Chen how it was Davey's job to see how she would react to his treatment of her.

"It's not personal. Just turn it around and figure out what makes your training officer tick."

"You make it sound easy."

"Piece of cake," Fleur giggled, her head tilted to the side dreamily.

"Maybe for you, Fleur. Not all of our TO's flirt with us," Lucy teased.

"Bradford does not flirt with me," Fleur insisted, denying and then racking her brain for any scenario that could possibly make Lucy think that Tim had been flirting with her.

"Not bad, Boot. Not bad," Jackson mocked Bradford's words, whilst Nolan and Chen made kissing noises.

"Shush," Fleur hushed them, completely denying any possibility that Tim could have been flirting with her. Yes, he had held her hand to comfort her, but that's what any decent person would have done. Right?

Yes, he had called her Fleur instead of Boot or Belrose. But that didn't mean anything? Right?

Fleur was a chronic over thinker and now all she could think about from lunch to the end of shift to the bar where he bought her a drink to celebrate the end of her first shift was if Timothy Bradford had been flirting with her.

There was no way.

Right?

✩ ✩ ✩

Overthinking was something that Fleur had suffered with since she was but a child and due to her fellow Rookie's teasing words, only would she have a short sleep the night before she was back out on the street for her second shift as Officer Belrose.

Fleur needed to have the potential of Bradford flirting with her out of the forefront of her mind, being distracted would get her killed. She could not afford for Tim to think of her as someone with her head in the clouds.

As Officer Bradford ordered for his Boot to exit the shop, himself following, he decided that as his previous tests had rather backfired on him, it was time for another.

"I've decided on your next test," Tim explained, for Fleur never seemed to fall for his tests when he attempted to disguise them as a true dangerous situation. So he may as well be upfront with her about them.

"Oh, yeah," Fleur looked up at him, "Are you going to tell me what it is?"

"More of a 'show you' kind of guy," Bradford directed his next statement at the man ahead of them on the pavement, "Ghost Head. No, no, hold up a minute."

"Yo, this is harassment," Ghost Head said, turning around and walking up to Fleur and Tim.

"What? No, it's just good customer service," Bradford insisted, "Kind of like a frequent flyer programme for dirtbag drug dealers. Search him, Boot."

"Turn around," Fleur ordered, "Grab the wall."

Ghost Head grinned maliciously at Fleur, most likely thinking there was no chance that he was about to be restrained by a female cop. Oh, how Fleur was about to prove him wrong.

"Make me, Boot."

For some strange reason, Fleur didn't quite like how that word sounded on anyone's tongue other than Tim's.

A struggle ensued between the Rookie and Ghost Head, the latter thinking that Fleur would be an easy fight for him to win, but her childhood and academy training had given her quite the expertise in hand to hand combat.

"Keep your hands up, Belrose. Don't let him get on top of you!"

Belrose was rather successful in restarting Ghost Head because before he knew what was coming she had him face down on the pavement which his hands behind his back and cuffed him.

"You're under arrest," Fleur said, something of an 'in your face' moment to Ghost Head who figured that there was no way that a girl could beat him in a fight. "That was my test?"

"Yep," Bradford responded, realising that there might not be a test in his playbook that the star girl would not receive an 'A' in. "Plus I got to see if you could handle yourself."

Hauling ghost head in the back of the shop, Fleur was too busy smiling at Tim's comment about how he might now want to mention that he got his arse kicked by a girl that she didn't notice a woman running out of the nearest convenience store until she turned to confront Bradford.

"Hey! Hey! Hey, let him go! Come on."

Seemingly, Fleur was not the only woman who could leave Tim Bradford speechless, for when he heard that woman's voice he really had no words to muster.

"Leave him alone," She continued.

"Isab- Isabel- it- it's me. It's Tim. It's okay. I've been trying to find you just- just to make sure you were okay. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine!" Bradford had his hands gently on Isabel's shoulders now, he needed to make sure it was really her.

"Get off me!" Isabel snapped, forcing Tim's hands away, not that it took much force.

"I just want to help," Tim begged, "I just want to help."

"You want to help me?"

"Yeah," Tim smiled at the prospect of her accepting help.

"Give me all your cash."

Tim's smile dropped, "What?"

"Give me your money."

"God, I'll get you rehab," Tim was desperate now and Fleur felt increasingly uncomfortable, as though she were eavesdropping.

"I don't need rehab! Come on," Isabel pleaded, "Please."

Tim was resigned to the fact that the woman who was once his Isabel no longer existed and the only thing he could do for her now was to dig the remaining cash from his pocket and give it to her.

Isabel ran away after that and it broke Tim's heart just a little bit.

"Are you okay?" Fleur asked, that was all she could figure to say in such a tense moment.

"Let him go," Tim ordered, brushing over her question and Fleur didn't want to make him have to ask twice. Ghost Head smiled at Fleur in a flirtatious manner before sauntering off in the direction where Isabel had run.

"Let's go, Boot," Fleur took that as an incentive to get in the car, he followed her actions.

"Are you okay?" She asked again.

"That was my wife," Tim revealed, "I haven't seen her in almost a year."

"I'm so sorry," For some reason, hearing that Bradford was married made her heart feel a little funny.

Nonsense was what Fleur tended to spill in awkward situations, but this was not the time for that and it certainly was not what Tim needed to hear.

"My brother killed our mother. He's doing life upstate."

Tim turned to her incredulously, really not expecting to hear such news. Perhaps her was waiting for her to offer her condolences for his situation, but Fleur had always found that trauma was slightly easier to bear when others could ever so slightly sympathise with their pain.

"I know your secret and you know mine," Fleur finally came out with why she brought up Macaulay, "Now you know that I really won't tell anyone about Isabel. Because you could just as easily tell them about my brother."

"Thank you, Fleur."

"I really am sorry, Tim," Fleur held out her hand for him to grasp in comfort, which he did, however tentatively.

"I'm sorry too."

For just a moment, both Fleur and Tim felt ever so slightly more positive about their situations.

✩ ✩ ✩

Cruising down a residential street, Fleur was speaking some nonsense about her favourite flowers, which were pink tulips just for your information. And Tim was hanging on every single word.

Quickly apologising for interrupting her, Bradford finally arrived at the address for Selby and informed Fleur that they would set up in the alley behind in case Selby runs when Bishop and Nolan came calling.

Once they pull up in the alley, all that is to be seen is a man standing next to a car which has its boot open.

"That's Selby," Fleur said, excited to have seen the man before Tim, she would rub it in his face later.

"Call it in," Bradford ordered, "Backup and airship."

Pulling her radio out of its place on her belt, Fleur leaned in close to the microphone before saying, "7-Adam-19. Show us code 6 on BOLO suspect. Need backup and airship."

Bradford and Belrose stepped out of the car, "LAPD, gentlemen. Step away from the car and show me your hands."

"There a problem, Officer's?"

"There will be if you don't show me those hands. Now!" Tim commanded.

Selby and his companion pull weapons out of the boot of the car they were standing behind and opened attack on the Officer's. Fleur and Tim quickly return fire, her hands shaking under the gun which she had only ever fired in training before.

Before Fleur could even process the situation, Tim fell to the ground in agony, his hand clutching his midsection and his face contorting in pain. Fleur couldn't let herself spiral now, not that she was so very concerned for her TO's welfare but her priority in this moment was getting him out of the line of fire before he got killed.

Some kind of superhuman strength overcame her and quickly Fleur dragged him behind a car, out of the direct line of fire.

"7-Adam-19. Officer down. Shots fired. In the alley of Bellevue and Clinton. I repeat, Officer down! Please, please send help!"

"Don't worry about me," Bradford grunted out, "Shoot back!"

"Stop moving," Fleur instructed as Tim tried to stand up so that he could help her return fire. She had tore his shirt open so that she was free to compress his wound with her shaking hands.

"Shoot back, Boot," Bradford ordered, "That's an order!"

A number of shots to the car made it explode into flames, causing for Fleur to use her body as a human shield to cover Tim in the explosion.

"You okay?" Nolan asked Tim as he and Lucy rushed over them.

"Of course he's not okay, he got fucking shot!" Fleur exclaimed, thoughts of preserving the life of her Training Officer overcame her vision and she began to drag him away from the flames.

"You and Nolan go?" Lucy said, "I'll stay with Bradford until the RA unit arrives."

"Not a chance," Fleur was much too focused on Tim to be able to be a suitable candidate to take down Selby in that situation. Nolan took off after Selby with Chen in tow after she realised that there was no chance that Fleur was leaving Tim's side.

It seemed like an eternity before the RA unit arrived, but when they did and Tim was safely loaded into an ambulance with Fleur beside him, she could finally breathe again.

He was going to be okay. He had to be.

✩ ✩ ✩

Fleur had never liked hospitals, for she had spent her childhood in and out of them with various breaks and bruises which her mother had inflicted on her. It was where Macaulay was arrested after their mother had brought to the hospital after the stabbing. It was where her father disowned her after the death of his wife.

It was where she waited five hours for Tim to get out of surgery.

Sat at his bedside, reading some book on the language of flowers, Tim muttered some incoherent nonsense that sounded something similar to 'star girl' before finally opening his eyes.

"What're you doing here, Fleur," Bradford mumbled, as he turned to face the chair she was sat in a moment before, now she was stood at his bedside, a hand carefully on his shoulder pushing him down as he had tried to sit up to speak with her.

"Can't be having you die on me, can we?" Fleur smiled, her head tilted to the side, her hand still on his shoulder despite him now having lied back down. "Now just relax, you have the best Doctor's in the world at your fingertips and I'm here to make sure they do everything perfectly."

"Yes ma'am," Tim smiled slightly, his hand moving upwards to his shoulder to cover hers.

"You're going to be fine," Fleur reassured him, however saying it aloud was more so to reassure herself.

"I know that," Tim said, "Do you know that."

"Of course I know that."

"Good."

"Good."

"I'm really glad that you're here," Tim smiled at her, never having felt so comfortable around anyone since Isabel.

"I'm really glad that you're safe."

The silence between them was awkward, it was just easy and warm. It felt safe between them.

They felt safe with each other.

✩ ✩ ✩

A bit of a different one from me, but I love the Rookie and my baby Fleur is too cute not to write. Please let me know if you like this writing style and the long chapters.

Happy Reading.

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I love you to the stars.