I know we are all still processing but I wanted to share this anyway. This is written before I saw Crusade and is on the timeline of Under Fire.
Chris was happy in their new apartment. It was nice to have her own place again. She loves her family, but they can be overbearing and with what she put Sarzo through with the deputy mayor... thinking back about that situation so shortly after Dylan's death just made her mad at herself again. Street was right. She is righteous.
Should she change that? Well, the basic answer yes, but she should also keep what makes her unique and own her sense of what's right. It hasn't steered her too far of the path yet.
Erika was still asking for a good time for that housewarming and Chris only could tell her so many excuses. TLI was not a good one in her roommate's book.
A knock on her door brings her back to the present. "Are you ready yet? You wanted this early morning, before work out!" Erika shouts through the door.
Chris can't help but roll her eyes and laugh. "I am coming!"
Erika is always championing her and that strange betting pool, as expected as it was, came as a shock and motivator too. If that darn building thought Street was in the lead, there was a good possibility Hicks would see it like that too. And therefore, she had to train harder to show all of them who is the best.
Walking out to their cars in the pitch-black night of LA Chris could already see herself winning. And she had to admit she would enjoy that feeling.
There still was a niggling thought in the back of her mind, telling her that TLI, K9, and SWAT might be a bit much, but she couldn't entertain that and block herself mentally.
During the drive, her phone buzzed, and at HQ it was the first thing she checked.
"Hey, Erika are you ready for our first third..." she takes a pause and then adds "roommate?" Somehow it felt odd still to stop at third.
She can see the happy glimmer in Erika's eyes.
"Already? Yeah, bring them home. When?"
"I am going to get them after shift. They are at the training center."
After changing and light warm-ups in the locker room, the day gets slightly derailed. Chris can still see Tan's incredulous expression hearing about the betting pool and if he ever found out his odds... that could lead to something stupid even from a squared away officer like him. She can honestly say she prays he is smarter than that and ignores the disturbance.
Their day with the LAFD is slightly weird but it is so nice to show them they are a family almost as much as the firehouses are. The eyes when they show them the food truck and let them taste is just gold.
The case is dragging on and Chris feels somewhat powerless. They have no good way to get that firebug besides keeping the house safe.
While putting away the leftovers from lunch she goes over everything she will still need to get ready again for a dog. She has almost everything aside from food at home. And everything else "personal" should come from K9. She can't deny she is excited to have that feeling again and the opportunity to continue her work.
When she hears Street greet Molly, she looks in their direction and the anguish on Molly's face alone makes her pack away the food a little quicker. Just to get out of there.
Hearing that something seems to be going on with his mom almost immediately explains his distracted texting this morning.
Chris takes one last breath and packs away the last of the food. Just from the little things she heard, it seems there is some information missing, but it is not her place to say anything. And so she just walks out.
At the end of the day, she can't help herself. She has done everything in her power to get Street to a place where he can thrive, and she has to ask him how he will fix the mess.
A tiny bit of her heart breaks hearing him blame his mother for everything that went wrong in his life and that is when she just blurts out if he is sure he wants this relationship to blow up because of her too.
Chris can only hope he realized he needs to at least talk this out with Molly. If not, she can't say she'd blame the woman if she walks out.