a little fun (ANDREEEEE)

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Grace changed into her uniform, put her hat on, and closed her locker. She checked herself out in the mirror just to make sure that her gun holster was even. With a sigh, she headed to the hallway for briefing before her shift began. She was really not looking forward to parking tickets all day. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard a voice. "Hey, sexy Grace," the voice said.

oh God. She looked over at the thirty-year old policeman. Didn't he know that it was disgusting to see a man who's a decade older than you flirt? With a monotone, she said "and how was your weekend, Medina?" Not like she cared. But she made it a point to at least attempt to be civil with the other policeman.

"Kind of disappointed. Who uncuffed you from my bed, anyways?" he flirted. Grace looked at him, unamused. All she could think was ew. She couldn't even stand the thought of doing something like that with him.

"Didn't anyone tell you not to get your honey where you get your money?" she asked him. There was no way in hell she was ever going to go out with him. He was a disgusting pig. Besides, she liked Chance. And Chance was a trillion times better than this jackass. When he actually leaned in and kissed her cheek, though, she glared and stood ready to flip the asshole. It was then that she heard her Sergeant's voice.

"Listen up! We got a new Detective coming in from Malibu." She could hear snickers in the background and comments about Ken. She looked at Collins with an inquisitive look, since he was making the comment. Grace was the youngest policeman there, and she wasn't even making fun of the detective. Although, it did make her wonder if he knew anybody famous. I

"He's gonna lead a stakeout on the Truman Brothers. We got a team going with him. I got the list of names here. Step forward if you hear your name. Collins. Schwartz. Medina" Grace cringed at the name and stopped paying attention. She looked out the window to see if she could catch a glimpse of the new guy. After several other names were called, the last one stood out the most. "Yorke."

Grace's head shot up. "Really? I-I mean" she stepped forward, smiling. "Sarge" she just couldn't believe it! She had always wanted to do a stakeout, and the Truman Brothers were a pair of drug lords she was very familiar with. She had encounters with people who worked for them during her shifts quite often. Looking, around, she realized that she was the only female picked, and the youngest by at least seven years. It didn't bother her any, though,

"Ok, the rest of you, get your beat assignments." Grace grinned and kept back a squeal. She wanted so badly to call up Chase and be like GUESS WHAT?! She knew it would be childish, but she sure wanted to! Her triumph was short lived when she heard a man yell. The entire group picked followed the sound, as did Grace. Her jaw dropped at the sight.

It was a man she had arrested yesterday for grand theft auto. He had been really violent, and she had to taze him to get the handcuffs on him. Now, a couple of short deputies were escorting him to the elevator. Grace watched, knowing what was about to happen, and she stood ready. No way was she going to let the man just get away.

Within seconds, he had bitten a deputy's shoulder and got away. The men in her group backed up and said "Grace, come on!" but she stood her ground. "Grace! Come on, you're just a girl!" The comment from Medina pissed her off. So as soon as the man was close enough, she grabbed him and flipped him, getting on top of him. He punched her nose and kicked her off, but that didn't deter him. "hey!" She kicked his side, got him flipped once more, and put her foot on his neck so he couldn't move.

She looked back at the deputies. "Come get him. Try holding onto him this time." She kept her foot on the guy's neck as she looked over and whistled to the sergeant. "Hey Sarge! When do we meet the Beverly Hills guy?"

The sergeant stood, amused by Grace. This is why she was picked; she was tough, and she was good. She had graduated the Police Academy at the top of her class. And so far, she had been able to handle every situation on her own. So even though she was young, he had picked her to work with Detective Simpson. "Behind you." he informed her.

[Andre Simpson]

"If you could breathe the same oxygen over and over again, you probably would, Dre."

"Now, you're being ridiculous."

"I'm just saying, new experiences, new cases, could be interesting."

"We aren't a pair of travelling detectives, and my interests are all filled up."

Two months later, West was dead. It was surreal now. Christopher West. Andre had been his partner for five years and working the cases they did and the hours that they did, it was natural that they were both very in tune with each other's family life. Chris knew his, and Andre knew his. You learned a lot about a person working that closely, but you also learned how to trust, how to think and how to get along with them (hopefully). The two worked excellently together. They had gotten themselves noticed more than once, and Andre didn't think a partner like that could be rivalled. It had been on an investigation somewhere out in the middle of no where that Chris had started mentioning going somewhere like gritty New York City or Las Vegas and looking for work. Andre told him he watched too much CSI, but the subject kept going. Content where he was, Andre had no need to go anywhere and it wasn't like detectives travelled around in pairs. But, Chris figured they could get away with it. They would uproot both of their families and go somewhere else. Well, Andre couldn't do that if he wanted to. It wasn't his job that relied on California. It was his husband's. But, even if that wasn't the case, Andre was stubborn in a lot of ways. After he died, that had changed slightly. He was going after opportunities a little more. It was as if a clock had started ticking in his head. It was slowing again now, but West was still relevant in his life. And why was he on his mind now? Well, it was his first day working in Toronto and it was different. Not to mention, long before West had died, the two had discussed what would happen if something happened to either of them. When you dealt with murderers and criminals, you talked about those kinds of things. And they made a promise to take care of the opposite family if something happened to the other. It entailed calling, checking in, offering help... Just being there, because they were the only ones that would really get it.

Andre kept that promise. He called Laura once a month; and she expected it every month at the same time. Laura had been the man's wife, and Andre met her on several occasions. They had four kids. Two boys, two girls. One of the boys was only 7 now. Adorable kid. But this month he had called twice. Once as a regular thing and that morning, before he went to the police department. They laughed, shared stories on how he would've reacted and she wished him luck and it was done. She was like a sister to him, because Chris had been like his brother. When you counted on someone to save your life in the heat of the moment, that was exactly what they became. "New experiences, man. New experiences." He said to himself as he parked the car and got out. He had no idea what to expect, but he was leading a stake out with a bunch of uniformed officers. That was always different. He didn't envy them for the uniform in the least. He was more than happy not having one. Although, a lot of his outfits consisted of the dark dress pants, dark shoes, and a dress shirt. At least when he was working on a normal schedule and not being called to a case at three in the morning. That day, he dressed professionally, though traded the tie for a dark shirt and threw a three quarter length coat over it.

He got in just in time to watch some girl take down a guy. He stood there, not calling any attention to himself. His eyebrows raised at her, before he walked closer standing just behind her. She had good form. And she looked like a teenager. That was rare. Most of the younger cops made Andre want to roll his eyes. In turn, he made a lot of the older detectives roll their eyes too. It was the profession. But he was thirty-six, no longer a kid trying to push his way up. He heard the question and chuckled, even more amused at the sergeants answer. "Nice to meet you too." He said, sure he was impressed with her, but he didn't come right out and say it. She probably knew she was good, obviously, she did. "And as a warning. No Beverly Hills Cop references."

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Grace stepped off the man as the deputies took him, before turning to face him. This was the man she would be working with? He looked like he could be her father. Of course, alot of the cops were older than her. So that was really no surprise to her. She held out a hand to shake his; she had a good, firm handshake that she liked to use on male cops. It made them less sexist. Not that it worked with the assholes she worked with. " No, sir, of course not. I'm Officer Grace Yorke" she introduced herself. "It's an honor to be working with you, sir."

The sergeant nodded "the whole team's here. Good luck" he said before leaving.

"Geez, Sexy Legs. You gonna salute him too?" Medina said behind her. "Yes, sir, no sir" he mocked her in a high voice, getting the other guys on the team laughing. Normally, Grace would retort by using a scarecrow if-I-only-had-a-brain reference. But not today. Not when she was given the opportunity of a lifetime. A stakeout was something she'd dreamed about doing since she decided to be a cop.

Grace simply kept control and looked at their leader. "Not quite the LA experience, I guess" she commented. After all, he had to lead this crack team. It was really sad when the most professional was a nineteen year old girl. However, that was all she said. She wasn't about to give the Detective a bad impression.

[Andre Simpson]

It wasn't so much the level of professionalism (or lack thereof) that made him want to cringe. It wasn't as if he was used to walking around calling people 'sir'. Cops that were close with each other were often times casual, even with their superiors. It was like any other office situation. Back home, he treated his co-workers with respect (some more than others), but it wasn't highly professional. They joked and talked about useless matters, but when it came time to buckle down everybody did it. One thing he wouldn't think of was to make cat calls at the female officers. Actually the couple female detectives he knew on a good basis would probably toss him through a window as soon as look at him if he started that. A police department condoning sexual harassment? Oh, it wouldn't be the first time. Especially in a profession that was still dominated by men. He wasn't going to listen to it anyway. He had to wonder why Grace seemed to be the serious one of the bunch. "Andre's fine," he informed her, shaking her hand back. He could tell a lot from someone's handshake, although he tried not to assess her from it, it already started. When Andre met people his mind already ticked into filing mode.

Slowly, his eyes were drawn to the cop making the comments. They narrowed, obviously not amused in the least. "Keep going, I dare you." He warned, and looked at the rest of them. "Any of you want to start in, you can stay behind. I don't have any use for that. I shouldn't have to tell you how this works. I don't care if you've been on one thousand stake-outs, every single one of them has the potential to go bad. It goes bad, you need to have your team's back. So, I suggest you figure out what teamwork is on your way over. Everyone keep their lines open, remember to mention anything, even if it might not be relevant." He glanced over at Medina, although his statement was for everyone. "We're not thirteen here, I shouldn't say don't abuse that, but I'm going to do it anyway." Then, stepping back, he looked at Grace. "You're riding with me."

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Grace watched him and slowly smiled. He was sticking up for her? Not one single cop ever did that here. That alone made her admire the man. She kept her eyes on him as he spoke, though she did glance at the men he was getting after. A couple of them were looking away and scratching their heads. It made Grace want to giggle. They acted like teenage boys getting a lecture. It took all of her strength not to let out even the tiniest giggle.

And then he addressed her. She was riding with him? Smiling even bigger, she responded with "Oh, yes sir! I-I mean, Andre" Although, the habit of calling him sir was already starting to form. She imagined sir would be the way she addressed him, even if he told her not to. It was kind of funny; the first cop she ever took a liking to, and it was a newbie from California. Man, maybe she should transfer there.

Not wanting to make him wait on her, Grace headed to the door, standing and waiting for the rest of her team. She was still smiling. He was different from the pathetic assholes she worked with on a daily basis, that was for sure. She only met the man a few minutes ago, but she already trusted him. A leader like that was not going to let just anything happen.

[Andre Simpson]

Andre chuckled to himself and shook his head before he turned and walked towards the door. He figured the rest of them would follow suit and get to the scene. If they had questions, he'd answer them. Of course, he was pretty sure they were all feeling pretty lectured, and that was good, they should. He wasn't going to babysit a bunch of kids. They seemed to be the type that gave uniformed cops a bad name. Andre had respect for them, the same as any police officer, although there just seemed like less of a standard at times. He had met a few beat cops that made him want to beat them senseless with their own gun. Walking out to his own unmarked, black police SUV, he unlocked the doors and looked back to Grace as he opened his own. "Okay, no offence meant, but how many of these have you been on?"

Andre was willing to bet none, but he wanted to ask. It was never too easy to tell with people, and in his old precinct they had a girl in her late twenties that could have passed for a teenager at any given moment. Of course, the police force really used that to their advantage to. She was good in those undercover games. But, he had mistook her age at first and the fiesty girl had become completely offended. He didn't want to offend her if she was older than she appeared. But, if she looked young, she would understand. However, her behaviour, other than the professionalism told him she was young. The younger police had more to prove.

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Grace got in the car and looked to him when the question was asked. Instantly, her eyes were drawn to the floor. She really hoped he wasn't about to make a crack on her age. She knew she was young, of course. But that didn't mean she was incompetent. She just knew from the moment she turned eighteen that she wanted to do this. She didn't even go to college; it was straight to the academy for her.

"This would be my first," she admitted. Then, figuring his next question would be inquiring about her age, she added, "I'm nineteen, sir. Just finished the academy last summer." Normally, when she told people that, she was responded with 'oh, you're just a baby!' Grace resented that. She was not a baby.

Looking back up at him, she pressed her lips together and spoke up again. "But I can follow orders as well as anyone. And I've learned to be quick. I've dealt with alot of emergency situations involving gunfire." She didn't want him to regret having her on his team, or think that she was going to be the weak link. She knew she wouldn't be. "I was born to do this, sir"

And there went the sirs again. It was surprising how naturally it came out. Especially for a girl who was raised by Jay Hogart. But after her experience with Ashton, she learned that the job was too important. She had been given a second chance, and she was really lucky for it. She returned a changed girl. She no longer cared if she had a personal life. She was the job. And being the job meant that a man who was considerably older than her and taking the lead over her was going to be addressed as sir. She felt like she had to. Otherwise, he wouldn't be receiving the proper respect.

[Andre Simpson]

Well, then it was probably even better that she was with him. It wasn't that he doubted her abilities, but she was new, and Andre did doubt the abilities of a few of the other cops, even if they weren't quite as young. But, if it was her first, then it would be better to be with someone who had been on enough stake outs to fill half of his life, it seemed. "Nineteen? Damn, I'd say you were born for it if you're that dedicated. At nineteen, I thought was born for beer and sleep." He joked with a smile, starting up the vehicle. "Actually, I still feel like that sometimes," he said thoughtfully, but in a more playful way. Andre didn't take everything too seriously. When it came down to having to, he did. But, he wasn't going to walk around pretending that all he could care about in the world was his job. He cared about it a lot, and he was incredibly dedicated and focused, but he couldn't bury himself too deep without humour. He would burn out or grow cold.

"As long as you pay attention, you'll be fine. Just don't go above and beyond to prove it. Your sergeant seemed smart, I'm not doubting his choice. Some risk taking might prove your skill, but it's reckless." He didn't try to make it sound like he expected that of her. But he wanted her to know that he wasn't sitting there with doubts and he didn't want her to try overly hard to impress anyone. Young cops tended to do that. Young, good cops, that wanted to show that they could carry themselves well and knew how to handle the situation. Hell, even Andre was still tempted around older detectives. He'd had the pleasure of meeting some of the best of the best before, and detectives that had been working their order for 25 years. Andre was well aware that his career was still going places, and Grace's was just starting out.

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Grace giggled at his joke. "I already got over that phase when I was a teenager," she explained. More like beer, drugs, and vans. Grace been a rather reckless teenager. But she had paid the price for it and learned from it. In her opinion, it shouldn't matter that she overdosed on heroine. What really mattered is that she learned from the mistake and went past it. She never touched the stuff again.

Grace definitely planned on heeding his warning. She wasn't going to jump into danger to prove her worth. If danger came up, she wouldn't run, even if her team did. But she wouldn't purposely create the danger, either. She was smarter than that. "Oh, don't worry. I've found that it proves myself alot faster through teamwork." God, she sounded like one of those retarded training videos. But it was true. Trusting the team and working with it says alot about a person, rather than showing off with abilities that everyone in the force had.

[Andre Simpson]

"Was? You still have a year left." He joked when she referred to having been a teenager. Now, he wasn't saying she wasn't over the phase. And he didn't know how she was in her adolescence. Andre had never had a completely reckless phase. He was pretty average. He partied, did stupid things, but nothing ever threatened his life or made him think lower of himself. He wasn't ashamed. The only time he even had a scare from something reckless was when he was twenty-one. The week before boot camp he decided he needed to have a party and drink himself silly. Instead, he wound up hospitalized after drinking himself into unconsciousness. "Don't worry, we all have our phases." It wasn't bad, and Andre liked to put some thought into recreation and giving into his personality instead of being strictly professional and obsessed with the job. He had to have other interests, because generally, the people he wound up closest to at any length of time were dead and he wound up knowing the dead too well. He had to speak for them.

"Good, 'cause I've seen a lot of cops, good cops, get themselves hurt for forgetting that." He said, and there were circumstances that would get him hurt for the same reason. It was difficult to say how someone would react, even with a lot of training. That was what made experience so important and Chance didn't even have enough to tell himself what different situations would do to him. He winged it as he went. "So, what're you going for, if you don't mind me asking. Was your dream to be a patrol officer? Or are you building towards something?" He asked, curious.

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Grace smiled. "Actually, three months. I turn 20 on June 9th," she corrected with a laugh. "But I don't mind being called a teenager. As long as you don't call me Sexy Legs." She shuddered at the name. It was a nickname she had picked up immediately, because there were only three other female cops, and the women worked in special units. But it didn't mean she liked it. She only tolerated it because she didn't want to get fired for castrating her coworkers with a bullet.

When asked what she wanted to do, she grinned. "This. I want to investigate crime scenes. I've been a first responder to a couple of murders, but I want to actually take on a case and take down the bastard who did it." Her answer was filled with enthusiasm. She loved the idea of kicking ass and taking names.

[Andre Simpson]

"Wouldn't think of it," Andre admitted honestly. He was stunned at the ability of the other officers to pass around that name. It was obviously not friendly teasing either. You could get away with a lot if you were close to someone and you knew it wasn't serious or repulsive. "I'm from LA. If I said that to a woman on the force not only would I have a sexual harassment suit stuck to my forehead, but I'd probably be missing a pretty damn important part of my anatomy. Then, if the dust ever settled, I'd be the most hated man by everyone. So, you don't need to worry about me being a creeper." He assured her. "We once had a guy in my precinct call a woman beautiful once. Bad idea, if he knew the girl's temperament. She filed a complaint and had us watching sexual harassment in the work place videos for over a week. Have you seen one of those before? It's torture." Andre didn't approve how any of them behaved around her. She deserved more respect than that. But, he'd heard being a woman on the force wasn't easy. "Not that I would, even if there weren't risks." He added, in case she thought that punishment was the only reason he wouldn't.

"I know a few people that do that," Again, it was said with an innocent teasing air. After all, that was what he did. "As long as you don't mind spending long hours with crime scene photos or getting to know your coroner, it's not half bad when you get to the end of a case. You just have to be willing not to make work a dinner conversation." Because, that made things awkward. He'd done that before, not thinking much about it. Several times, with several different types of people. It was really bad in casual conversation with someone that you didn't know. It was a job that got a lot of questions or a lot of retracting.

[Deleted]

Grace listened to him with a smile. When he mentioned the women back in California, she blinked back surprise and shook her head. "I couldn't do that. If I even make a verbal complaint, I would magically be either stuck behind a desk doing paperwork, or my hours would randomly go down to zip. I've heard it's happened here." she tilted her head, looking at him. "But with you as boss, maybe this stakeout won't be so bad. I thought that being stuck with Medina, It would be "Oh, baby, I need to pay who uncuffed you from my bed a visit. They need to learn their place," every few seconds. But you won't let that happen, would you?" when she stated what Medina would say, her voice deepened as she mocked him. After asking, she smiled "you're teh first one's who ever said anything to him. Thank you for what you did back there."

He went on about long hours, and Grace simply grinned. "Sounds fun," she commented. She already figured talking about it over dinner might gross a few people out. "Maybe it shouldn't, but it fascinates me. Like the teenage murders that have been happening since January. There was a set of twin girls found behind Lakehurst. They were seniors there. Whoever did it burned a ring behind their ear. And that's not all. They've found a few more last month. Each person was murdered differently, but they all have the ring. I haven't heard of any this month, but my money is that they're out there and just haven't been found yet."

[Andre Simpson]

It didn't sound like an environment conducive to successful work with the men able to mouth off however they liked and with nothing done about it. Sexism in the workplace? Andre had seen it, heard of it, but his precinct back home didn't have a lot of occurrences of it. But, it was because they were all in their own speciality; they were advanced and worked like hell to get there. It wasn't to say that beat cops didn't work hard. He wouldn't venture that far and Andre didn't have a sense of entitlement over them at all. It was just a different world from his to their sometimes. In fact, all the time. "Of course not, I'll knock some sense into them if they keep at it. Don't worry." He assured her, because he wasn't going to tolerate it.

He chuckled when she said it sounded like fun, "Yeah, you say that now. But then you're working on 3 days without sleep, missing your kid's birthday and the journalists and your superiors are breathing down your neck while the case runs you in circles, and if you thought it couldn't get any worse, some slimy lawyer comes and marks whatever evidence you did have useless. --But chases, figuring it out and getting to drive fast... Those are fun." He joked, though it was a high stress job and shouldn't be looked as like too much fun. It wasn't a good idea to get burnt out either. And he wasn't trying to turn her away from it, obviously he wasn't turned away even from experience. The pros outweighed the cons and sometimes the cons made him want to throw his fists through everything he came into contact with. Hearing her talk about a case he'd already been briefed over made him glance at her. "I've got that file, haven't had a real chance to look it over. They're usually consistent, so you're probably right."

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Grace beamed when he said he'd knock some sense into them. "I've been wanting an excuse to flip him. But I don't want to end up suspended" again. She couldn't take her eyes off the man. It was funny; she didn't like a single cop, and then one moved from where was it? Malibu? And she wanted to be a detective right now and partner with him. Of course, that wasn't going to happen. She had to wait another year and a half before she could even take the test. But hopefully, if he got to do more team jobs, he'd pick her. She liked him. She just knew she could make him proud.

And then he started talking about the cons. The mention of his kid's birthday made her think of Echo, and she wondered how she was doing. But that part of her life was behind her now. She was just too young. Besides, the kid only made for harassment from the father. She hated having to deal with Jake. "Oh...well, I don't have any kids or a husband so I think I'll be ok," she said with a giggle. Of course, there was Chance. But it was far too soon to tell if anything would come of it. She couldn't count her chickens before they hatched. She might end up with a broken heart and a cracked shell.