"Anyone seen Hondo?" Street asked as he pulled on his uniform t-shirt.

Deacon shook his head.

"No, not since last shift." Luca answered, as if that wouldn't be a knowledge his roommate already had. They had all had two days off, Tuesday and Wednesday. Kind of like a mid-week weekend.

Chris and Tan also shook their heads.

"He's almost never late." Street frowned.

"He could already be here, getting his time in with the sandbag or something…" Luca shrugged.

"No, I checked." Street shook his head.

"He wasn't in the command room either." Chris shrugged.

SWATSWATSWAT

Ten minutes later, in the command room, they first heard Hondo before they saw him.

First a distant click, then a distant shuffle, repeat. The sound grew louder as it came closer.

"What happened?" Luca was the first to ask when Hondo rounded the corner with a cast on his lower leg.

The whole team stepped closer, as if ready to catch Hondo if he was to fall. Not that it was a likely thing to happen.

"Played football with some old friends on Tuesday." Hondo shrugged, "Broke the thin bone of my leg near my ankle."

Luca winced on Hondo's behalf, the other ones just sported worried expressions.

"That sucks." Street frowned as Deacon excused himself and stepped outside.

Hondo nodded, "Sure wasn't a part of my plans…"

A few moments later Deacon returned with one of the bar-chairs from their work kitchen.

"Thanks," Hondo grinned.

"No problem."

"Now, as you might've guessed… I'm not going to be with you in the field for a few weeks." He started, "So in the meanwhile, we borrow an officer from San Francisco. He's going to be here tomorrow, he's experienced, good teamworker and some of you know him already. His name is Jakob Bowden."

"Jake?" Deacon grinned.

"Is JB coming down to us?" Luca grinned, "For real?"

Hondo nodded.

"Man, I don't think I've seen him in like five years…" Luca chuckled.

Hondo nodded, "Yeah, he's thinking about relocating back here. Agreed a short trial period would be great."

"Look, I'm sorry you hurt yourself over our days off, but…" Deacon shrugged, "It's going to be pretty awesome to see Jake again."

Hondo nodded with a smirk, "Yeah, I figured the two of you would be excited…"