Disclaimer: Still don't own a damn thing... boo

A/N: Ok so I'm trying to include Raf in all this, although he's still relatively new so I'm not entirely sure how to write him, so my apologies if anyone finds him at the end of this chapter to be inaccurate.


Jules stood in front of the locker room mirror, pulling her hair back into a pony to keep it out of her face while she worked. Noting the time on her watch she made quick work of it and headed out. She met up with Spike, and they walked to the range together to meet up with the rest of the team, who had just started running drills on the many anxious cops vying for a spot on team one.
"So how's life with Samtastic?" Spike smirked, then when Jules gave shot him a nasty glare he added, "Oh come on, you're not on the same team anymore, we don't have to pretend its a secret that you two are together." She rolled her eyes and he pressed on, "So like, is Sam the romantic type?"
"Is Natalie?" she snapped.
She had him there - he had taken his still beating heart as a good indicator that Jules had never told Sam about what she walked in on that one fateful day in his apartment, a fact that Jules' tone had just confirmed. "Fair enough," he conceded, as they reached their destination.


Greg looked anxious to get the process started. "Nice of you to join us. Now, we've got our first group of 25 here. We'll start with some target practice." Ed moved to take his place at the beginning of the line of recruits, and began drilling them with questions. That narrowed down the first group pretty quickly, and as he ran through the second the rest of the team talked to the first group to see if there was anyone that stuck out.
There was another female sniper, a blonde named Laura, who felt the need to introduce herself to Jules. After talking to her briefly, Jules turned her back and walked towards Greg, shaking her head.
"No. Hell no."
"That bad?"
"Sarge, she just asked if there was room in our tac vests for lip balm." They both laughed.
Spike wandered up to the pair, rubbing his temples. "Guys I hope you're having better luck than I am. Some kid just asked how many bombs I've 'gotten to see go off'. Red Flag."
"Geesh," Jules huffed, scanning the crowd for some sign of Raf. She found him, talking to a group of guys who looked like they were a part of a boy band. As he started to walk over to join the rest of his team Jules directed their attention to him, hoping he brought good news.
He shook his head 'no'. "Maybe we should have done the psych evals first."
They all sighed, and parted ways to go try again. Ed joined them shortly after, and eventually they had narrowed it down to 10 candidates, and decided that was a good number to start trying negotiation with.

First up was a guy named Alex. Relieved not to be the one under scrutiny, Raf graciously volunteered to play the subject, and took his place on top of a table, threatening to jump off the 'bridge'.
"It's not fair!"
"I know this is difficult sir but if you'll just talk to me…" Alex started, as Ed added to Alex's knowledge of the subject. "I know you feel like you've failed but…"
"I did fail! I failed both of them, and myself. I'm a failure!"
"No, no you're not. You're a man who made a choice and now you're having a tough time dealing with it. It happens."
The team looked impressed, but after that point the quality of Alex's negotiation began to waiver, and eventually his frustration reached a breaking point, prompting him to say "Alright then jump!" Knowing that negotiation is challenging and under the pressure of a job interview like this people aren't themselves, the team might not have given up on Alex had the next thing he said not been, "fucking talk bullshit." Jules reckoned that was what really got him crossed off the list.

The rest of the recruits did alright at negotiation, again a learned skill so all they were looking for was some potential, some kind of drive to make a difference in a way only an SRU team could. After that they decided to call it a day, with 50 more recruits coming in the next day they had a lot of paperwork to sort through.


Jules and Ed took care of collecting the targets from shooting practice and walked back together.
"This is going to be a long process isn't it?" Ed nearly whined.
Jules gave a small smile, "Yes it is."
Noticing her half hearted gesture Ed slowed down, hoping it would give him more time to get out of Jules what was bothering her. "Everything ok over there?"
Jules rolled her eyes, "Why? What did Spike say?"
Ed was confused, he hadn't spoken to Spike at all that day, aside from when they were together as a group. "Spike didn't say anything Jules, I just thought you were looking a little down is all." Jules didn't say anything. "So how's Sergeant Samtastic? Didn't see him yesterday since team three is on nights this week."
"He's fine."
Ed nodded at her short response. Nervously he asked, "You two ok?"
"Ed, everything is fine, just drop it." Ed could tell everything wasn't fine, but when he opened his mouth to press for more she cut him off. "Do I ask you about Sophie?"
Ed backed down, and decided there were easier ways to find out what was going on.


Walking into the men's locker room team one found themselves sharing the space with team three, who had just arrived for their shift. Sam was standing at his locker laughing at something one of his new teammates had said when Ed and Spike cornered him. "What the hell is going on with Jules?" Spike demanded.
Sam looked shocked. "Hey, if you figure that out I'll buy you lunch."
"Sam! What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything!" Sam insisted, opening his locker to get his uniform shirt.
Ed's turn now. "Well you must have done something, she just nearly bit my head off when i asked her what was up."
"And I asked her about you this morning and she…well she deflected the question and turned the conversation around on me" Spike added.
Sam just shook his head. "Look I don't know what the deal is, she's barely talking to me right now." Turning his back to them he pulled his gym shirt off and reached for his uniform.
Seeing the fresh nail marks on his back Ed cleared his throat and nodded for Spike to look at them. Their jaws clenched, almost audibly. "Sam-" Ed started with a stern tone, sure he was about to give Sam the beating of a lifetime.
"What?" Sam spun around.
"Where the hell did those come from?" Ed took a step forward.
"Huh?" following Ed's gesturing finger he checked out his back. "…Jules," He said hesitantly, not sure that Jules would be comfortable with him talking about her like that with the guys on her team. "I said she was barely talking to me, not that I hadn't seen her," he added, seeing the doubt on their faces.
Raf, having been pretending not to notice the confrontation going on across from his locker, shook his head and said, mostly to himself, "Thats more than I needed to know." With that he left the locker room, deeming his presence unnecessary.
Spike and Ed stood studying Sam for signs that he was lying, but ultimately decided to take his word for it. "So whats the deal then?" Spike wondered aloud.
"No idea. Look, one minute everything's fine and I'm telling her I'm leaving the team, next thing I know she's got nothing to say to me." Sam shook his head. "If she's snapping at you maybe you should just leave it alone. But like I said, if you figure out what's going on I'll buy lunch." With that he left the room, taking the rest of team three with him.


Outside of the men's locker room Raf hesitated a moment, before wandering into the women's. "Decent?"
"Yeah."
As he rounded the corner he saw that Jules was the only one in the room. Donna must already be in the briefing room with her team. "Raf," she said, sounding surprised even though he had announced his presence. She thought he was nice enough, and they got along fine when they went out as a group, but aside from a few patrol nights together she had never really been alone in a room with him. "Whats up?"
Raf shook his head, not entirely sure what he was even doing there. "Just thought I'd come say bye…"
She eyed him suspiciously. "Alright, who said what?"
Damn she was good, he thought. "Nobody said anything, really just came in to say goodnight."
Her eyes narrowed, then, decided to leave it alone and change the subject. "Uh huh... So, excited not to be the rookie anymore?"
He laughed. "Hmm more like not the only rookie. I'm not sure I've worn off that label yet."
She smiled, "You're getting there, don't worry." She opened her locker to put away her curling iron and grab her bag to leave, exposing the door covered in pictures. When Raf smiled to himself she tilted her head and gave him a quizzical glance. "Whats so funny?"
"You have a lot of pictures in there." He said simply.
"And?"
"I always thought cops put pictures of things, people, that make them happy in their lockers. Sort of a reminder of why they're there after a tough day, you know?"
"Yeah…so why is having a lot of pictures my locker so funny?"
He stood up to leave before answering. "It's not, really, I just think it's cute that you and Sam both have that same picture in your lockers," he said, pointing at one of the two of them. Seeing the look on her face he decided to make his exit then. "See you tomorrow."

She stood stunned, and turned to check out the picture in question. It was just her and Sam, likely the only one like it in existence, she mused. It was from a night when she had dragged him out to a friend's house in Oshawa for a barbecue, and he had snuck his arm around her right as the picture was taken, later claiming 'its not like any of the team will ever see it'. As a result they picture found him grinning, and her blushing only slightly as a smile slid across her face.

She then wondered when he had put that picture up. She had only put her copy up that morning, having found it on her way out the door and felt the need to take it with her. She reasoned that he couldn't have put it up any sooner than the previous day, since that would have been the first time it would be safe, though it shocked her that he would have acted so fast with something as small as putting up a picture, their picture, in his locker. Still, the thought made her smile.