He knew a good portion of his character flaws. One was dyslexia, although he didn't really consider it a flaw anymore. Another was what someone, sometime, had argued had to be ADHD, or at least ADD. He didn't really care about that, he knew his attention span wasn't the world's greatest, but it was alright.

Some would call it a character flaw to be as tied up to his job as he was.

And there was a bunch more.

Eating like a medium sized industrial vacuum cleaner…

Maybe a bit more quick-tempered than one should be…

Right then and there, chasing a suspect, only one of those flaws he could come up with from the top of his head came back to bite him in the ass. -Or rather, the ankle.

A smidge more of attention would really have helped.

He heard tires squeal against the hot asphalt. And quick reflexes was the only thing that saved him from being hit head on by the Mercedes-Benz star, but it wasn't quite enough for him to avoid being hit by the car all together.

The first couple of seconds after he landed, he was in a sort of numb state where pain didn't register yet. It was almost like a land of denial, as long as it didn't hurt yet it couldn't be that bad.

At the same time, he wasn't sure if he could force himself to look towards his ankles.

The car that hit him didn't stop, the next car didn't either. But then again, it wasn't even sure that the second car had seen what happened.

And then his right ankle started letting him know something was seriously wrong.

Tan came running up to him, and Luca managed to convince him to bolt after the suspect.

Next came Hondo.

SWATSWATSWAT

"Are you hurt?" Hondo asked as he kneeled down next to Luca, who was in the process of propping himself up on one elbow.

Luca blinked a few times and chanced a glance towards his legs.

"Luca, are you hurt?"

"My leg's broken." Luca answered with a 1000 yard stare.

"You think your leg is broken?" Hondo asked, "Which one?"

"No. My leg IS broken." Luca swallowed.

Hondo frowned, "Which one?"

"Right one."

"Lower leg? Upper leg?"

Luca swallowed hard, "My ankle's toast. My lower leg in general feels wrong."

Then random cars which had been further away, and had a better view of the whole accident started slowing down and stopping.

Hondo called in the accident, and Luca's suspected injury. Agreeing that they needed an ambulance to come pick him up.

"Hey, I barely saw what happened…" A guy who had parked his truck came up to them, "Are you alright?"

"He likely broke his right leg." Hondo answered for Luca, "Dispatch said the ambulance was ten minutes out."

The guy nodded, "Anything I can do?"

Luca shook his head.

"No, nothing I can think of…" Hondo shrugged.

"We're good here." Luca ground out, "You can move on, no need in being parked on the side of the road and making LA traffic worse."

The guy chuckled a bit, "Okay, alright. I wish you a speedy recovery."

"Thanks." Luca nodded, he was uncharacteristically pale by now.

The guy left.

Hondo looked back down at Luca, "How are you feeling?"

The blond shook his head.

"Still not a mind reader…" Hondo reminded him.

"My leg's pounding." Luca grimaced, "And I feel like I'm either going to pass out, or puke."

"Well, please don't do either…" Hondo smirked, hoping that he'd pull a short laugh from Luca. A short laugh from Luca would make it feel like everything was going to be alright.

"Man, it hurts." Luca admitted through gritted teeth.

"I know…" Hondo nodded and placed a comforting hand on Luca's shoulder, "Do you want me to start untying your boot? So that we can take a look at your ankle?"

Luca shook his head, "Nah. I think the ambulance people has more experience in that. Let them do it."

Hondo nodded, "Okay, that's alright."

SWATSWATSWAT

After work they all went to visit Luca at the hospital.

He was basically just laying, waiting for swelling of his ankle and leg to go down enough for the surgeons to piece it back together.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Deacon asked as soon as he had stepped into the room.

"Been better." Luca admitted, "But they give me enough painkillers to make laying here semi-comfortable…"

Deacon offered up a brief smile.

"So, what's the damage report?" Street bumped in, nodding towards Luca's leg, which was covered in a temporary cast and rested on a mountain of pillows.

"Definitely broke it." Luca shook his head, "Don't really remember the fancy explanation for it, but I broke my leg six inches above the ankle, straight across both the bones… And my ankle is in multiple pieces. No better way to put it."

Street nodded slowly as he tried to imagine the fractures in his mind. "So you'll be laid up for a while?"

Luca shrugged, "I don't really know what's going to happen. Except that I need surgery to give all that a chance to heal…"

"That sucks, man…"

Luca bobbed his head in a nod, "Sure does."

"On the plus side, Tuana might come visit you…" Street teased.

"Tuana?" Tan asked, as Luca blushed bright red.

"Kelly's mom…" Street answered with a shit eating grin.

"What?" Deacon's eyebrows shot up, "Are you dating her?"

"No…" Luca shook his head, almost defensively, "N-"

"Not officially." Street chuckled, "I'm really tired of the way the two of you are doing your best futile attempt at keeping it hidden."

Luca shook his head, "Well, it's not, -official-, yet."

"Well, maybe you two can finally get a move on, now that you're off duty." Street shrugged, causing most of the other S.W.A.T members to laugh.

"Dude, stop it."

"Never." Street answered smugly, "Not unless you come over here and stop me."

"You're punching a man while he's laying down." Luca said as he gestured to his cast clad leg.

"Only unfair fight is the one you lose…" Tan chuckled, "Isn't that what you said to the recruits last year?"

"Yeah. I also told them to not kill each other, because they weren't in the streets." Luca pointed out.

Right then there was a knock at the door, before it opened up and Kelly and her mother entered.

"Hey team!" Kelly beamed, she saw most of the team first, before she came far enough inside the room to see Luca, "Hey Luca. Mom said you got hurt."

Her eyes went wide when she saw the cast on his leg.

"I did…" Luca nodded, "But I'm going to be alright. It's just going to take some time."

"Wow, hey…" Tuana nodded at the guys and Chris, "I should have known all of you'd be here…"

Hondo smirked, "Actually, we were just about to leave… But our boy here could use the company…"

Tuana blushed a bit, but recovered quickly. Then she looked over at Luca, "Hey there… How are you doing?"

Luca shrugged a little, "Gonna be a rough couple of months… But I'll be okay."

"You didn't really answer my question, now did you?"

Luca chuckled, "Well, no. My leg hurts, and I have to have it elevated and completely still…"

Tuana smirked a little, "Can you actually lay, or sit, still?"

The whole team chuckled.

"She really called you out there…" Chris grinned.

"Well, my girl texted me that she would have dinner ready when I came home. So I gotta leave now." Hondo said, looking at the other team members in a hope that they would take the hint.

"Yeah, and we have that thing at… At…" Chris rolled her hand in the air, like she was searching for the correct word.

"Oh, yeah…" Street nodded when he caught on, "Yeah, you, me and Tan are meeting Derek and his girl…"

"Exactly." Chris nodded.

Deacon smirked, "Well, I've got about an hour before I have to pick up the two youngest from kindergarten… That gives me a chance to grab a coffee and sit down in peace and quiet for a spell."

The team members who weren't confined to a hospital bed up and left, switching between goodbye hugs and fist-bumps on their way out the door.

SWATSWATSWAT

"Well, the team acted weird…?" Tuana shrugged after the team left.

Luca chuckled, "Yeah, you should've heard them before you guys came."

"Oh yeah?"

Luca nodded, then he tried to shift a little in his bed, ending up with grimacing and groaning, fighting not to let out every four letter word he could think of.

After half a minute he pulled the pillow from below his head and placed it over his own face, finally allowing himself to whisper a silent 'fuck' into it, before removing it and placing it back under his head.

"-Are you alright?" Tuana asked, "Do you need anything?"

Luca shook his head, letting his right hand dart up to wipe away the remnants of smeared tears.

"I'm alright." he choked out, "I just need my leg to stop aching so much."

"You're acting weird…" Kelly said with worry in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Kelly-girl…" Luca sighed, "It's just that my leg hurts really bad. And I don't want to… I don't want to say bad words in front of you…"

"Like, Hell? Or, Damn?" Kelly asked, "Some kids at my old school cussed really much. Some kids at my new school says some bad words every now and then… It's not like I haven't heard it before?"

Luca chuckled, "Well, I'm trying to be a good role model here…"

Kelly chuckled, "Alright. Okay."

Tuana chuckled, then she looked at Kelly, "Kelly, maybe you could go down to the lobby and buy yourself some snacks? Since we didn't go home to eat before we got here…"

Kelly's face lit up at that, as Tuana pulled out a few dollars to give to her. "And bring me back a coke."

Kelly nodded before she headed out the door.

SWATSWATSWAT

"So, how are you really doing?" Tuana asked after the door closed.

"I'm a little freaked out…" Luca admitted, "But I know that's mostly just because this hurts like a motherfucker right now."

Tuana nodded.

"Wanna hear something funny?" he then asked.

"What?"

"Street kinda mentioned that we had been seeing each other a bit more recently…" Luca admitted, "To the rest of the team… That's why they acted weird…"

She smirked, "I kinda guessed it had to be something along those lines…"

"Yeah…" Luca nodded, "He's getting impatient…"

"Well, he's not completely alone…" Tuana winked, then stood up and stepped over to Luca's bed, placing a hand on top of his.

"Maybe we should… Y'know…" Luca's tongue darted out to wet his lower lip, "Maybe we should…"

"Make it official?"

Luca nodded.

"Maybe we should…" Tuana smirked and leaned down to place a kiss on Luca's lips.

Luca met the kiss eagerly, running a hand through her dark hair.

"You had me worried." She said as she pulled away a little, "I heard it on the news before I got your call. And I just had this FEELING it had to be you."

"I'm sorry…" Luca said, rubbing a calloused hand against her upper arm, "Someone left my phone on the other side of the room, with my clothes… And I didn't exactly know where it was…"

"Not like that…" Tuana shook her head, "You were in great pain, of course your first thought wasn't to call your secret girlfriend. And besides, I bet the doctors and nurses kept you occupied for a while…"

Luca nodded at that.

"I meant, I know I don't want to lose you…" she admitted, "Actually, I've known that ever since you started helping Kelly with reading sessions, and helped her get into her new school…"

Luca's lips curved at one side.

"But, I also want to be able to be proud of you in public." She winked, "Not… Not real public, but… Amongst our friends…"

"Sweetheart, it would make me so incredibly happy to just… -To just tell my friends that I'm with this amazing woman and mother…" Luca gave her arm a squeeze, "And to be Kelly's… Kelly's… Step-dad?"

Tuana chuckled, then nodded. "I think she might already consider you her dad in some ways..."

"About that…" Luca looked down at his lap for a bit, "I never asked, 'cause it wasn't my place earlier…"

She nodded slowly.

"But…" he looked back up, "Is Kelly's dad still in the picture?"

She shook her head, "No, he's dead."

"I'm so sorry…"

"Relax." Tuana rolled her eyes, "He's never been in the picture… He left as soon as he heard he knocked me up. And he died before Kelly was born."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Must've been rough on you…"

"It has made me cautious with men…" she chuckled, "You must've noticed."

Luca couldn't help but chuckle a bit, "And here I thought I was the one playing it safe…"

"We need to talk about your definition of 'playing it safe'…" Tuana chuckled and jerked her head in the direction of his busted leg, "You're more of a crash-test-dummy…"

Luca blushed a bit, "I deserved that one…"

She let her hand come down at his hairline, and brushed his hair back a few times before she leaned down to kiss him once again.

They got lost in it.

Lost in it, and they didn't even notice Kelly opening the door and returning to the room.

Not before she let her presence be known with an audible squeal.

Luca and Tuana both froze, then Tuana stood back up.

"So you two ARE together!" Kelly grinned, "I knew it!"

Luca and Tuana both still had the deer in headlights look for a few seconds more before they simultaneously broke out laughing.

"How long have you been together?" Kelly wanted to know.

Luca shrugged, "A while."

"Since my birthday…" Tuana clarified.

"That's…" Kelly started counting on her fingers, "That's four months!"

Tuana nodded.

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"-We wanted to know that it would work out between us first…" Tuana answered, "We were planning on telling you soon."

Luca nodded, "I hope you're not angry…"

"Why would I be angry?" Kelly frowned at the thought, "I've been wishing for this for almost a year!"

Tuana and Luca both visibly relaxed a bit more at that.

"Does the team know?"

"Not really…" Luca answered, "Street might have started to spread rumors, but they haven't been confirmed yet. I was planning on telling them after we had told you."

Kelly grinned.

"Well, now you know…" Tuana chuckled.

Kelly nodded. "So, are you going to move in together?"

The two grownups looked at each other for a moment, neither really knowing the answer.

"That's something we haven't talked about yet…" Luca said, scratching the side of his head.

Tuana nodded towards Luca, "Yeah, we should probably talk about that soon…"

"-Amongst other things…" Luca nodded back.

"Am I going to have siblings?"

Both Luca and Tuana froze once again.

"That's also something we haven't talked about yet…" Tuana answered.

Luca nodded.

"But is there a chance of it?" Kelly asked. Hope was audible in her voice.

Luca shrugged, "We haven't talked about it yet. So we don't know what to answer…"

"Can you talk to each other about that a little quick?" Kellie prompted in a voice only a girl in her pre-teens could manage, before realizing how she sounded and added "Please?"

"I think that's something we have to talk about alone…" Luca thought out loud, and gave Tuana a questioning look.

Tuana nodded.

"If I went outside, could you talk about it now?" Kelly asked, still very excited about the idea.

The two grownups looked at each other, scanning each other's expressions for what the other one thought.

Half a minute later Tuana nodded, "Sure."

Kelly grinned, "I have my phone on me. Call me when I can come back!"

Tuana nodded, and Kelly headed out the door again.

SWATSWATSWAT

"So…" Tuana started, pulling a chair over next to Luca's bed, "Guess we have to talk…"

Luca nodded, "Yeah…"

"Do you want kids?" Tuana asked, tilting her head.

Luca trapped his lower lip in thought for a moment, then he looked over at Tuana. "Well, yeah… But as long as I get to be a father figure for Kelly, that's enough. I mean, if you don't want more kids…"

Tuana's face softened, "But if I'm up for more kids?"

"Then yes. Definitely yes." He winked.

"How many kids would you like?" Tuana followed up.

"I don't know, never really thought about that…" Luca rubbed his neck, "Always figured I'd have to start with one anyway…"

Tuana laughed, "Think about it… Do you have a maximum limit?"

Luca thought, then chuckled, "Well, I guess it's probably an idea to slow down if we'd have to drive two cars to go anywhere as a family."

Tuana chuckled as well, "You're probably right about that."

"That being said, I can't really come up with a number right now." Luca shrugged, "What's your number?"

"Well, growing up I always wanted a big family." She answered, "But I guess two to four kids would do…"

"So, four's your max?"

"I wouldn't say that…" Tuana shrugged, "I guess my actual max is when I start feeling that I'm losing more grip than is okay."

He chuckled, "That's a nice max limit. Mind if I adopt it?"

She chuckled, "No, go ahead."

"Then that's my max as well, whether that means two or ten…"

"So, at least one sibling then."

"As sure as we're able to, yeah." Luca nodded, "I mean, you're obviously able to… You've got a real life proof of that walking around… I can't exactly point to a definitive proof like that."

Tuana shrugged, "Just because I have one kid, doesn't mean it's going to be just as easy to have a second one. Not this many years later at least."

Luca nodded, "Well, at least we can have some fun trying."

Tuana chuckled, "Yeah, after your leg is better."

He nodded, "Yeah, there's not going to be any 'trying' for AT LEAST a month. Maybe longer."

She nodded, "I think you're right about that…"

He nodded.

They both fell silent for a little while, then Luca cleared his voice, "About that other question…"

"What other question?"

"If we were going to move in together…"

Tuana nodded.

"What are we going to answer to that?"

She shrugged, "I don't know…"

"I mean, there's three possibilities I see." He shrugged, and started counting them off on his fingers, "First one, I move in with you guys. Second, you guys move in with me… We might have to figure out something to do about Street then… Or the third option, we continue living in separate houses, but I sleep over at your place every now and then, and vice versa…"

Tuana nodded, "All three are valid options."

Luca nodded.

"Just because we chose one for now, doesn't mean that it has to stay that way…" she mentioned.

"That's true."

"How about we go for option number three for now, and then we just roll with it? See what happens?"

Luca nodded.

"But of course, if you want option one or two…" she shrugged, "I mean, we could keep the other house and rent it out…"

Luca shrugged, "Whatever is fine by me. Sticking to status quo and just seeing where that leads us sounds good."

She nodded, adding a reassuring smile.

He smiled.

"But maybe you'd like to stay with us for a little while now?" she asked, "I mean, Kelly and I are probably at home more often than Street, right?"

He nodded, then tried to shift ever so slightly. His right hand darted down towards his leg, and it took everything he had to not start sobbing. "Dammit."

"Do you want me to go ask the doctor if you can get anything stronger?"

He shook his head, wiping at his eyes as salty tears rolled from them.

"Luca, you're in pain…"

Once he was able to speak again, he looked at her, "Well, I can't really have opioids."

She tilted her head, "Have you had a problem in the past?"

He shook his head, knowing what she was thinking. "Not like that… I just have a really low tolerance for that stuff, it often makes me sick… And I don't want to add 'nausea' or 'throwing up' to my list of troubles right now."

"Oh, I'm sorry… I thought… That was dumb of me…"

"Don't think about it… It was a bad choice of words on my part." he chuckled.

"So, do you want to stay with us for a while when you're discharged from this place?"

He nodded, "Could I borrow the guestroom? I'm pretty sure it'll probably hurt too much to accidentally get bumped into… -And you move around a lot when you sleep…"

"Of course…" she nodded, then she glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall, "Maybe we should call Kelly now?"

He nodded, "We probably should, but I'd like to sneak a kiss from you first…"

She smiled, stood up and stepped over to make that happen.

SWATSWATSWAT

"Now? What did you decide?" Kelly asked, almost bouncing where she stood.

"What do you want to know the answer to first?" Tuana asked.

"Everything." Kelly grinned, "But I guess it makes sense to start with if we're all going to live together first."

"We decided that we don't know the final answer yet." Luca shrugged, "But I'm going to stay with you guys for a while now that my leg is injured."

Tuana nodded, "After that we'll have to wait and see. We might decide to live like Theo's parents. They don't live together all of the time, but it seems like all three of them like the arrangement."

Kelly nodded, "Theo's parents fight less than most of the other parents, so that's cool!"

Luca really liked Kelly's way of reasoning.

"And babies?" she then quickly switched over to the next question on her list, "Am I going to be a big sister?"

Luca and Tuana laughed.

"Well…" Tuana started, "If everything works out well, then you are going to be one."

Kelly's grin grew wide, "Really?"

"Yeah." Tuana nodded, "But we can't make any promises before you actually have a brother or sister, you know that? Sometimes it can be really hard to get pregnant."

Kelly nodded, her head going up and down at a comical speed. "But you want kids together?"

They both nodded.

"But if it doesn't work out for us, you are enough." Luca pointed out, "Remember that."

Kelly smiled, "Thanks."