Hey guys! Thank you to everyone who reviewed and is now following my story, I absolutely love it. And while I should be working on my essay right now, this is just so much more fun than that. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize belongs to me

Team Five showed up at the house of their first evaluation, each wearing their vest with the word CADET bolded in the back, in place of their actual name. They moved towards their instructor.

"All right guys, are you ready?" Sergeant Parker asked. Team Five nodded all around him. "Get to it."

Most of the team just stared at him, and he smiled. Lucia and Dean, however, quickly took charge. "Whiz, into the command truck," Dean ordered. "I want information on whatever is going on in there. See if we can get a visual, as well."

"On it, Sarge." Whiz ran off to do his job. "Snips?"

"All right, Sharp, I want you to find a visual for me, you're Sierra One. For right now you're the only Sierra, Wheels will be joining you shortly." Sharp ran off to find a vantage point. "Wheels, Ninja, and Red, see if you can get a camera anywhere. I'm going to get info from Sarge."

"We're going to need to get visual of our own, guys," Whiz reported. "There are no security cameras in there at all."

Lucia nodded. "Alright guys let's see if we can get a cam in there without alerting them. Sharp?"

"Getting into position," Sharp grunted. "Alright, I have a visual. There appears to be three people in there, two adults, one male and one female, and one teenage boy."

'Teenager?' Kyle mouthed to Lucia. She shrugged. She had no idea where they had gotten a teenager to play the part.

"The teenager is holding the gun," Sharp reported. "The adults are tied to chairs in the room, back to back."

"Good Sharp," Sarge said. "Stay there, we may need you. We have information," he said, speaking to all of them. "The parents are Michael, 47, and Sharon, 46, Johnson. The son is fifteen, his name is Richard."

"Copy that," Lucia replied. "Do we have any reasons why this might be happening?"

"Working on it," Whiz replied.

"Okay, Snips, I'm going to start negotiations, see if I can get anything on this family. I need you working on entry plans."

"Already on it, Sarge," she replied. "Red, I want you with me. Wheels, you and Ninja go around back, see if you can get in through there. We're going in front."

The two boys nodded and ran off to the back as Lucia and Red pulled their paintball-filled guns and entered through the front door. They checked each of the rooms, making sure there was no one else in the house before heading upstairs. They ended up right outside of the room with the hostages inside.

"Boss, I have a clear shot now, but if the kid moves I lose my vantage point," Sharp said into his comm.

Lucia turned to Wheels. "Grab your gun and find another vantage point," she instructed quietly. "You're Sierra Two."

"On it, Snips," Wheels whispered back before quietly exiting the house.

"Red, do you have the camera?" she whispered. She could hear the phone ringing and knew that Sarge had started his negotiations. Red nodded affirmatively. "Can you get it on the door, facing the room, without them seeing you?" she asked.

Red looked uncertain, but Kyle stepped up. "I can, if you want," he offered quietly. Red nodded and gave him the camera. He set it up and was back within minutes. "Done."

"I have a visual," Whiz reported. "And more information. Richard apparently has a younger sister, Emily, age seven."

"Where is she?" Lucia asked. Where were the SRU getting these kids?

"In the hospital." Red, Ninja, and Lucia all looked at each other in confusion. "Broken arm, cracked ribs, cuts and bruises all over her body, and a serious concussion. It was reported that she fell down the stairs."

"Because falling down the stairs leaves you with cuts all over your body," Ninja said sarcastically. Even though this was just an evaluation, Lucia knew her brother was extremely angry over this case. "He's trying to protect his sister, guys," Ninja reported. "If it was the parents abusing her, or just mom or dad, whatever, then he's trying to protect his sister. He thinks the only way to protect her is to get rid of the threat. His parents."

Lucia nodded. Team One had given them a very challenging first evaluation. It was hard to negotiate in cases like this, when all you wanted was for the people who had done wrong to just disappear. However, them dying would mean Richard went to jail, which was not a choice. They had to get this kid to stand down.

"He's hung up on me, guys," Sarge reported. They could hear the frustration in his voice, but he calmed down quickly. "Any suggestions?"

"Well, less lethal we have a couple of options. Obviously, one of them is you talking him down. If that doesn't work, we have tear gas. We also have the option of distraction before a hand-to-hand combat to neutralize the threat. Sharp and Wheels are on call for lethal, but I don't think we need to go that far," Lucia reported.

"What are you thinking for distraction?"

"You come out here, talk to him face to face, while Ninja goes around back. Red and I will provide cover for you. If need be, Ninja can use surprise to take him down from behind."

"Is there another way into the room?"

"Yes," Ninja replied. "There's an air vent large enough to crawl through that comes behind the bed. Richard won't be able to see me."

"Okay, do it," he instructed. Ninja ran off.

"It also would show your face to him," Red offered. "It might make Richard trust you more if he can actually see the person behind the voice, see that you're only here to help him."

"All right, I'm on my way. The time it takes for me to get to the house, will that be enough time for you to get in position, Ninja?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Snips, Red, I'll be there in a few minutes. Stay there."

"Cause we were so planning on going in there and having tea," Lucia whispered sarcastically to her partner.

"And you wonder why we call you Snips," Red remarked. Lucia just shook her head. Sarge arrived shortly, and Ninja whispered that he was in position. Red picked up the shield as Lucia readied her weapon.

"Richard?" Sarge called. "It's Sergeant Parker, with the SRU. We talked on the phone, remember?" He got no response. "Is it okay if I come in?"

"Do you have guns?"

"My friends have guns," Sarge replied honestly. "But they're only there for protection. They don't want to hurt you."

"…Fine."

Red and Lucia took the lead, slowly walking into the room. Sarge came last, hands raised slightly to show that he had no weapon. Richard looked at them like they were crazy. "You're kids," he said finally.

Lucia had to smother her laughter down. Richard obviously didn't know that the SRU had a cadet program. He had probably been told he was helping with the training of new recruits, and thought they were supposed to be adults.

"Teenagers, actually," Sarge replied good-naturedly. "I was wondering, Richard, what can we do to make sure everyone gets out of here safely?"

Richard's face closed off again, going from confused to dangerous. "Nothing," he said. "These people," he spat, "are never going to be able to hurt anyone ever again."

"You don't want to kill them, Richard," Sarge said. "You're-"

"You don't know crap about what I want!" Richard yelled. "It's not even what I want, it's what I need to do. I need to kill them, I need to protect her."

"Emily."

Richard's shoulders straightened, and he moved closer to his father. "So you see why I have to do this," he hissed. "She needs to be protected. Falling down the stairs? Who even uses that excuse anymore?"

"If you kill them, Richard, what will happen to Emily?"

He looked up, confused. "What do you mean? She'll be safe."

"From them, yeah. But she's going to need you."

"No. She's better off without me. I couldn't protect her." Tears were coming freely from his eyes. "What kind of big brother am I, that I couldn't protect her from her own parents?" He had the gun shoved in his father's face. "Do you know what they do?" he asked Sarge, who just shook his head mutely. "My dad here has a temper. He likes to hit things, throw things. It started out as plates. When he was angry, he would throw plates at the wall. Just something to vent, you know? Then he started on me. I hated it, but it was better than him hurting Emily, so I just took it. Mom just watched. She didn't want him to go and hit her, but she didn't care if we were hurt.

"I took it," he whispered. "Whatever he dished out to me, I took it. Without complaint. I never told anyone, I never tried to stop him. I just didn't want him to hurt Emily." He shook his head, not talking for a moment. "I was late coming home from school. I had needed to ask for a teacher's help for this project coming up. I couldn't have been more than ten minutes late. But he was so mad. And Emily was here." It was taking every ounce of self-control that Lucia had not to shoot that man in the head. "He hurt her because I was late." Lucia was beginning to see where this was going. "He hurt her because of me."

"It was not your fault," Sarge said forcefully. Richard looked up at him, surprised at the conviction in his words. "But you need to think about Emily right now, and about what will happen to her if you do this."

"What do you mean?"

"You kill your parents, Richard, and you will go to jail. There is no question about that. And Emily will be alone in this world. She won't have a family, she won't have anyone to take care of her, and she will end up in the foster care system. Maybe she'll find a good family, people who will love her and take care of her, but it won't be enough. Every night she'll go to sleep and wish for her big brother. Because from what I can tell, Richard, you are the one who has taken care of her. You're the one who played with her, who fixed her up when she scraped a knee, who hugged her when she had a nightmare. You're the one she wants, Richard, and if you do this, you won't be there for her." Richard was shaking now, not even trying to hold his tears back. "So don't do this. Be there for Emily. Be her big brother. Be her hero."

That was the final card. Richard backed away, setting down the gun and raising his arms. Lucia moved towards him, kicking away the gun before handcuffing his hands behind his back. "It's just a precaution," she told him. He nodded.

Ninja appeared next to her, and Richard looked at him in surprise, though he said nothing. Ninja moved to help Red with untying and cuffing the parents before everyone headed outside.

Once they were outside, Team One came over to them and nodded. They freed everyone, and the rest of Team Five came out to join them. "Well done, all of you," Sergeant Parker said quietly. "That was an amazing job you did."

Constable Lane spoke next. "You all kept your cool and worked as a team. That is what we're trying to teach you, and you did it." He waited a moment, then smiled. "Nice job. Go ahead and change. You have the rest of the day off. No need to debrief. We'll work on that another day."

Wheels and Sharp high-fived each other as everyone else grinned. Together, they all turned around and headed towards the showers.

"Nice job, Sarge," Lucia said, watching as their team raced each other to the base.

"Thanks." He rubbed the back of his head. "You don't think I got to emotional about it? I mean, I know it was just an evaluation, but it felt like so much more."

"I think you did amazing, just like you're dad said." They were walking slowly to where their friends were.

"I just don't want them to think that I'm trying to… like I'm trying too hard, you know? But I don't want anyone to think that I became Sergeant just because of who my dad is. I don't know."

"What I can tell you, Dean, is that one day, this isn't going to be an evaluation anymore. One day, it's going to be real. And when it is, I hope you do exactly what you did back there. Anyone who listened to that would know that you didn't get to where you are by your father." He smiled. "Besides," she continued. "If it was based on who your father was, that would mean that Wheels should have been Team Leader."

He laughed, then looked towards the base. "Race you?" he offered. Unfortunately for him, she was already gone. Grinning, he raced after her.

FPFPFPFPFPFPFP

Later that night, Lucia was in her room. She was staring at some different tests she wanted to try. Red needed some work on stealth, Sarge and Whiz both needed work on hand-to-hand combat. Kyle and Sharp needed practice on strategic entry, and both Wheels and herself needed more practice with negotiations. She was going over some plans that allowed the team to practice it all at once. She was mostly leaning towards everyone switching roles for a day during practice, so they could all work on it at the same time. She would definitely have to run that by Sarge.

She glanced up in surprise when someone knocked on her door. Her brothers never knocked, so it had to be Dave or Mary. "Come in," she called.

Dave poked his head through the door. "Hey," he greeted. "Got a minute?"

She nodded, vaguely wondering what the triplets had done now. "It's not the boys, if that's what you're wondering," he assured her. "You've just been down here for awhile, and I figured you might be hungry."

Lucia grinned when she saw that he had brought down two cartons of Ben and Jerry's cookies and cream ice cream. It was her favorite, though she didn't know that Dave knew that. She tilted her head at him, silently asking the question.

He shrugged and smiled. "I was trying to remember, then finally gave up," he admitted sheepishly. "I finally just asked Justin. I knew he wouldn't say anything."

She raised an eyebrow at that, but gladly accepted the ice cream nonetheless, moving over her plans and motioning for him to sit down. "What's up?" she asked.

"Nothing much. I was actually gonna ask you that question."

She took a spoonful of ice cream, using it as an excuse not to say anything. She didn't know what he was playing at.

Dave was amazingly good at reading people, and he lifted an eyebrow. "I honestly just want to know how you're doing, Lucia. I hear you talking with your brothers, asking how their days were, but never once have I heard you say how your day was. Not even with Kyle. I just figured you might like someone to talk to."

"Everything's fine," she said.

"Good," he smiled. "So what are you doing that makes it fine?"

She smiled at him, a full out smile. No one had ever worded it quite like that. They mostly got upset when she answered with 'fine'. "I don't know," she finally said. "I guess I'm finally starting to feel like I belong here."

He slurped a large chunk of ice cream off his spoon as he debated on how to answer. "I'm happy you're feeling like that," he commented slowly.

"But you're worried how it will be when we finally go home?" she guessed. When he nodded, she sighed. "I don't know," she said, flopping back against her pillow, hand still clutching the ice cream. "Part of me wants to go home so badly, wants to go back to my friends and my work… and then part of me"

"Wants to stay here?" Dave guessed.

Lucia nodded miserably. Neither one spoke for a moment, until—"Does this make me a bad person?" she asked softly.

Dave stared at her in shock. Never, in all of the time that he had known her, had she sounded as unsure of herself as she did right now. "Why on earth would you think that?"

Lucia shrugged, glancing away. "It's just… They all think I'm dead or missing, Dave. I let them all think that the boys and I are dead." She shook her head. "He once told me that the only thing I was good for was bringing pain to people." She glanced up at him. "What if he was right? What if I'm only going to bring pain to everyone I meet?"

"Hey." He grabbed her chin, forcing her eyes to meet his. "Don't ever let anyone ever tell you that you're a bad person, Lucia. You are one of the bravest, goodest people I know. Don't ever let anyone tell you differently."

A moment of silence as Lucia soaked this in and then:

"Goodest isn't a word," she pointed out helpfully.

He shook his head. "Thank you," he responded drily. "Just when I thought we were having a good heart to heart…" She giggled, chucking a pillow at him. He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so that's how it is, huh?" he asked mockingly, picking up the pillow threateningly. She rolled out of the way of the trajectory and grabbed another pillow, slamming it upside his head. He ducked, though, and returned the hit. They went on for about ten minutes, just having a pillow fight, when they finally decided to end.

Dave said goodnight and was almost to her door when he felt her throw her arms around him. "Thank you," she whispered.

He hugged her back. "You're welcome."