Hello! Sorry for the long wait! I've been really busy with life and school especially, but I aced my finals and now on vacation, so I now have more time to do more. I hope you enjoy this new chapter!
Once I made my way towards Captain Fuller's office, I tapped my fist against the frosted pane glass of his door and waited for permission to enter.
"Come in." Adam Fuller's voice answered from inside and I turned the cold metal doorknob clockwise before pushing myself into the quiet office. My brown eyes met the attention of my superior.
"Hey, Soto! Just the officer I wanted to see. It's good to see you again." Fuller greeted me with a bright grin spreading along his dark skinned face. Despite the creases of tension visible on his forehead, he looked happy to see me as he leaned against his leather chair. I took a seat in front of his desk with my legs crossed.
"It's great to be back, Captain. I just wanted to check in with you on the first day back. So, what is it that you wanted to see me for?" I asked with a light smile placed on my lips, waiting for his response.
"I got a case for you to handle. This morning I received a phone call from the principal at Coral Ridge High School. Ten students had been found dead in the span of two weeks outside of school. The victims were all identified females, each one fit the description of being popular at the school. Blood tests confirmed the deaths were drug related." He spoke about my assignment, placing the manila folder in front of me. I began to open it and scanned through the contents, glancing over the photographs of the victims and feeling remorse. Each of these girls had such bright futures.
"Any possible suspects…?" I let out to him. I knew the information was inside the folder but with stacks of information that was going to take time for me to thoroughly look over. It was better to hear it from someone who had already read through each of information.
"Yeah, there's a possibility that few of the victims boyfriends could be connected to a cult. You're going in it alone and if it becomes too heated, I'll send in Ioki for back up. Do you think you can handle it?" I heard the Captain's voice questioning me for an answer.
"Going to a school to take care of possible psychotic cult boyfriends? Yeah, I think I'll be able to manage on my own, Captain. Is there anything else?" I closed the file and left it alone until I return to my desk.
"Actually, there is something I need to talk to you about. Now, I'm sure you already met Officer Booker, he was sent to Jump Street a couple of days ago and is working on a case with Hanson. So far, Hanson doesn't seem to be cooperating with his new partner very well and they need to get along in order to solve their case or this City Council woman is going to give me hell. Look, I'm asking you because you're close to Hanson, Rose. Try to knock some sense to him for his sake and mine." Fuller asked me to do him a favor and I felt a sharp twinge prodding my heart twice, the first time when he spoke about Dennis and the second time when he told me I was close to Tom.
"I'll do my best." I told him with a soft grin on my face. To be honest, I didn't think persuading Tom to give Dennis a chance was going to work out. The minute I saw those two together under the same roof, a uneasy tension brewed in the air and thickened once Tom found out that his new partner and I knew each other in the past. Still, I had to at least talk to him and hopefully listen to me.
I sat myself down at my desk with the case file in front of me and needed a nice cup of hot tea before I can start looking through it, but really I needed it to settle the nerves after seeing Dennis again.
"So, what happened between you and Dennis, girl? And don't even tell me nothing happened because I saw that peck on the cheek and most of the officers here can back me up as witnesses." Judy suddenly reappeared like an apparition haunting me, I easily jump in my seat feeling my heart pounding in response. She looked at me with an apologetic grin after scaring me as I quickly recovered. Before I began to explain, I stood up from my seat and walked towards the vintage Coke machine with Jude close by my side.
"He asked me about our break up and I mentioned him the letter ending our relationship. He knew those words written in that letter wasn't from me and he had the right to know the truth. So, I told him my parents were the ones behind it after they found out our secret exchange of letters. At first, I thought Dennis would blame me for not fighting back, but he knew it wasn't my fault and still holds a disliking to my parents to this day. Then I brought up Jeff, how once Dennis left, he would asked me me to go out with him and when I refused he then proposed to me. I told Dennis that at that time I was still in love with him even when my parents told me I would never see him again and how I decided to move in with my aunt and uncle to get away from my parents who I hardly hear from now." I started to recap my conversation with Dennis to her as I grabbed my teal colored mug and poured hot water into it before looking through the variety of tea packets. "Dennis then asked about my time with Jump Street and also complimented on my leather jacket, the reason I own one was because of him and mainly because I love the color too. He then told me how much he missed me and I admitted to feeling the same before telling me he's glad to have me back in his life and things began to feel as if we never broke up…" I paused in that moment to take a packet of Chamomile tea from the tin canister next to the coffee pot placing it inside my hot cup of water.
"Rose, did the two of you…?" Judy clasped her hand over her mouth, but I quickly explained it to her.
"No. I couldn't go through it, Jude! I told him that we can't pretend those years apart meant nothing and that's when he said he loves me and wants us to start all over again…" I let out to her before taking a sip of the hot liquid and heard Jude speak.
"What did you say to him?" Her voice burst with excitement but quickly soften to avoid bringing unwanted attention around us. Most importantly, the female officers who I've noticed gawking at Dennis and Tom when they were inside the Chapel.
"I'll let you know on Wednesday." My lips curled slightly while Judy's expression became filled with disbelief.
"Why Wednesday?" She sounded impatient and I told her.
"Because…I'm going on a date with him tomorrow night…" Her eyes became bright underneath the lighting fixtures from above while her lips turned into a wide grin.
"Oh, my god…Rose, this is great! You better not hold out on any details because I want to know everything." Judy happily let out, wrapping her arms around my neck and carefully avoiding the hot tea spilling from my hands.
" I promise to tell you everything. Judy, you're always the first to know with what goes on with my love life even if it hasn't been much for excitement. Just don't tell Tom, okay? Fuller asked me to convince him to get along with Dennis while working on their case. I know he's not fond of his new partner, especially after the way he kissed my cheek in front of him. I think it only added fuel to the fire for him." I lowered my voice, telling her about the Captain's favor.
"Also, the fact Hanson knows about the two of you meeting in high school. It sure caught him off guard, Rose. Are you going to tell him about it?" Judy stared at me with a questioning glance. It wouldn't be fair not to tell him, Tommy was also my best friend and he did needed to know about it.
"I've been thinking about it. Whether it's going to help the two get along, I don't know. I just know it won't be easy." I exhaled out a deep breath of air and glanced across the Chapel seeing Doug's vacant desk. "Right about now, I can use Doug's help convincing Hanson that Dennis isn't as bad as he thinks he is." I told her softly, as she looked over at his desk with a sad look on her face. Doug was with us since the beginning, we knew we weren't going to be with the program forever, but we didn't think one of us would leave so soon either.
"If he was here, he would keep Tom from murdering Dennis. Though, I wouldn't worry, Rose. I'm sure Hanson will listen to you and see that Booker isn't a terrible guy." She perked me up with a grin before I retreated to my desk and Jude made her way to Fuller's office.
The following morning, I'd checked in with Captain Fuller before starting my first day undercover at Coral Ridge High School to warm the hearts of the suspects. After speaking to him, I exited the Chapel through the alley and heard footsteps close behind as I reached for the parking lot.
"Rose…" My heels stopped in place, turning around to find the warm grin running along Tom's handsome face.
"Hi, Tom." I smiled in return, knowing the Dennis situation had to be talked about sooner or later.
"Mind if I walk you to your car? I'm making my way towards mine and head back to West Side to meet with my partner." Tom suggested to me to which I always enjoyed our short walks to each other's cars in the past year.
"I would love that, Hanson." I smiled, accepting his offer and walked beside him. As we walked on the asphalt, all this time I've noticed his Mustang parked next to my Stingray. At first, I never thought about it as much until Judy began to hint that Tom might like me more than a friend and partner and many times I would ignore her because the thought of it was silly. I have thought about the little scenarios of us together and maybe it would be nice, but with Dennis suddenly back into my life and wanting to start over with our relationship. It makes everything twice more complicated.
"So, I heard Fuller assigned you to the Coral Ridge case…" He began to spark up a conversation to kill the silence, only I knew him too well and played along with it.
"Yeah, it's the usual drug bust mixed with some psychotic boyfriends to spice things up a bit. I'm sure I'll be fine dealing with them and today's the day to warm their hearts." I smiled at him, as he cracked a smirk seeing my bright expression.
"Yeah, you're good with that." He responded as I continued.
"I'm hoping things don't go out of control though. Fuller will send Ioki to help me out if it escalates to that." Tom nodded his head, standing at the driver side of his vehicle. He rested his arms on top of the roof, keys in hand while I leaned my back against the side of my Corvette, facing him to hear his words.
"It won't because you're a good cop, Rose. Even if it does happen, I'll try to solve my case with Booker and ask Fuller to get me on your case and help you out." Tom looked at me with a hopeful smile before the conversation died and awkward silence surrounded us.
"Tommy, I know you didn't want to talk about my case. This is about Booker, isn't it?" Slowly, I crossed my arms over my chest. His face suddenly changed, looking at his hands before running one through his brown locks.
"You know me too well, Rose." He let out with a defeated smirk and before he could speak his mind, I tried to change his perspective.
"Look, Tom before you say anything, Dennis isn't a bad guy. Try to be patient with him, I should know…I known him for a long time." My words soften, looking at Tom, who became irritated.
"Did the two of you dated?" I heard the pain inside his voice and felt a little taken aback by it. This was the time to be honest with him, but there wasn't enough time to tell him everything.
"Yes, we did. But it became very...complicated and we ended things. I'm just asking you to give him a chance and solve this case. Once it's over, I'm sure Fuller wouldn't pair the two of you together anymore and we'll be partners again." I looked at him with a small grin, he managed to cheer up before I spoke again. "You're going to be late for school, I'll see you later." I entered my car and started the ignition after securing my seat belt. As I drove out of the parking lot, I took one last glance at Tom from my rear view mirror, finding his eyes staring back at me.
Thank you for reading! This is happening during the "Fun with Animals" episode of season 3 of 21 Jump Street and this story is going to go through the episodes of the season and I have plans to go through season 4, but that's way into the future.
Have a good weekend!