Chapter 61: Back to school
"Ready?" Street handed Chris a cup of coffee. She smiled at him.
"Yes."
She was happy to be back at work. She loved her sons, more than anything in the world. But she needed to work. It was in her DNA. She was a hands-on woman.
"Just will be weird not to spend the whole day with the little monkeys." Street saw she had some tears in her eyes she tried to hide.
"Yeah… But they will be with Elena… They're gonna be so spoiled!"
Chris laughed. She knew her sons had the best nanny ever but still she was feeling a little guilty to be so happy to be back at work when she was already missing them so much.
"Speaking of the devil!" Jim rushed to the door as he heard someone knocking. "Heyyyy Elena!"
She bent from her seat and saw the two hugging. "Hello carino! Esta bien?"
"Si! Even better now you're here!"
"Listen to this charmer! And where's mi carina?"
"Here tia!" She heard Chris answering from the kitchen. The woman went to see her niece and hugged as soon as she saw her.
"Ready to go back to work? She was always the first when it was first day of school, waiting for the others to be ready. Reading her book, next to the entrance door."
"Tia!" Chris was grumpy Elena talked about her childhood.
"Tell me more!" Street quickly asked. "I want to know everything about little Chris!"
Chris nodded her head in disagreement before walking out of the kitchen to enjoy some time with the boys. She came back 10 minutes later, Elena and Jim were still talking.
"Tia, tengo todo lo que necesitas para los chicos!"
"Gracias! Pero esta no es la primera vez que cuido bebés."
" Lo sciento… Pero me ayuda a concentrarme…."
"Yo te tomo el pelo!" Elena nicely answered Chris who tried to hide her discomfort the best she could. "Es normal que tu entre en pánico…"
She gently smiled to her aunt. She spent the next twenty minutes to tell them everything she could remember about Aaron and Nate till Aaron started to cry. It was breakfast time. Chris ran to the bedroom and appeared again in the kitchen with Aaron over her breasts, eating. She then did the same with Nate.
"And now you go! You're gonna be late, kids."
Elena watched Chris and Jim kiss their kids and then go out. She was now alone with her favorite twins!
[…]
On their way to work, Chris didn't talk much. Street didn't force her to talk and chose to look at the cars which drove next to them. Chris parked the car in the yard and was welcomed by a big hug as she was out of the vehicle.
"Hey Luca, don't break my wife! " Jim joked.
"She'll break all of us before!"
"Ah ah ah, I mean, not wrong." The two men laughed.
"So glad you're back at work!"
"Not totally again! Need to pass an evaluation before kicking your ass!"
"Hey, hey, look who's here!"
"Hey Hondo!" He hugged her. "Ready to join us!"
"Just need to pass my evaluation today and it'll be ok."
They kept talking for a moment, soon joined by Deac and Alicia.
"Love you guys, but need to go and see Hicks or I'm gonna be late!" She hurried till the entrance and vanished in the corridor.
"Is she ok?" Deac asked to Street as Chris was away.
"Yeah… Somewhere between I'm happy to be back and I miss my boys so much. Just time to adjust and she'll be alright." Tan tapped his friend in the back. It was time to go to work.
[…]
The team changed and left HQ to go on a crime scene. Chris looked at them going away from the ring where she was training.
"Alonso!" She raised her head to see Hicks wave at her. She hurried to join him. He was not alone.
"Yes Commander."
"Alonso, meet David Aplin, he's here to evaluate you today. Just a formality and if everything's ok, you'll be able to roll with 20-Squad tomorrow! And now I let you, if you need anything, let me know, I'll be in my office."
Chris and Aplin nodded to Hicks as he walked away.
"So Mrs. Alonso, have you any questions?
He explained to her the different parts of the evaluation: first climbing, then running, abs and Master gunner test.
The SWAT Academy instructor seemed to know about his job and it kind of reassured her.
"When you're ready!"
Chris took a deep breath and nodded to the instructor in front of her. It was time for her to show she was still a badass, as she used to be. She trained a lot for one month. Dr. Jane told her she could after one month, time for her body to heal from the delivery. She enjoyed every nap from the boys to do sports.
Jim kept them when he was not working for her to go for a run with Diablo or to the sports hall. Every moment was good to perform and give the best of herself. She hid in the little house at the end of the garden to work on her Master gunner skills. And today she had to prove she was 100% again.
The evaluation started with the abs sessions. She had to 100 sit-ups, 100 crunches, 100 Russian twists and other series of push-ups to validate the fitness part. She forgot about Aplin with his stopwatch and focused on the effort. She needed to be the best. He then asked her to go for an 8 miles run before climbing on the practice wall in the yard. She didn't think, she just did. Like a robot focused on her assigned mission. And she ran and climbed as fast as she could.
Aplin asked her to join him in the shoot room. He told her to take her gun into pieces and then to put it back together. He ordered her to shoot on the target. He took her to the training course. She had to end it in less than one minute. She loaded her gun and ran as soon as she heard the beep indicating the start. She loved this part. Last time, she lost the competition to Street for Master Gunner. This time, she didn't want to let her title go.
One, two, three, ten targets came out. She shot some, avoiding the victims' silhouettes. She was out in 54 seconds. Alpin nodded at her to indicate it was over. She just needed to wait for the results.
"Will give you the results later. Let you know when." She once again nodded to him and watched him go from the room.
"Hey Alonso!" She turned and saw Hicks at the entrance door. "Everything went alright?"
"Guess so, Commander. Have to wait and see now."
"Aplin told me he should have finished in a couple of hours. Will call you in my office then. Meanwhile, need you in the armory."
"Understood, Commander."
She spent the next hours in the armory to test and calibrate the new devices. Preparing the guns for the incoming interventions.
"Hey!" She raised her head and saw Jim enter the room. "Any news yet?" He was even more hurried than her.
"Nothing yet… Waiting for Hicks to call me. What about you?"
"Back from our catch, just out of my debrief with Lynch. Next step, interrogation room with Hondo. You keep me updated?"
"Of course…" She lowered her head as she felt the rushing coming. "And thanks for always caring…"
"Always there for you, Chris, always."
She kept working. Keeping her mind busy to forget about the stakes of the day. It worked quite well till she heard her phone ringing. It was a message from Hicks.
* My office now.*
She took a deep breath, put what she had in hands on the table and walked till Hicks's office. She will be fixed in a few minutes about her future. One last deep breath as she arrived in front of Hicks's door. She knocked.
"Enter!"
Cards were on the table. Hicks and Aplin were waiting for her.
"Alonso, you came quickly."
"Was around, Commander."
"Not gonna beat around the bush, Alonso. " She swallowed hard. Even if she knew she had done her best, she couldn't prevent her from doubting of her performances.
"You passed! Hands down."
She signed of relief. She did it. She really did it. She was a mom and she was back at SWAT. "Thanks, Commander. Thanks Instructor Aplin." She nodded to them, couldn't stop from grinning.
"It's all yours." Aplin continued. "You've been very impressive. Better than some men I evaluated last week. And Hicks was telling me you've had your sons only 2 months ago. It's really, really impressive. You should be proud of you. As should your sons."
She kept nodding, a little embarrassed by so many compliments all of a sudden.
"I let you announce the good news to 20-Squad and then tell Hondo to come to see me to talk about the details of your return."
"Yes, Sir."
She left the office to look for 20-Squad. She found them in sports hall, training at boxing and muscle building exercising. Street was the first to see her, he got off the ring where he was boxing with Luca and ran to her, with his anxious, worried look.
"It's good, I'm back!" She told him directly, unable to hide her joy. But still so shy.
"That's …" Before he ended her sentence, he was hugging her. To be honest, he knew that Chris and he had agreed not to make any gesture of affection at work but right now, he needed to embrace his wife. What she did was insane, even more only two months after the twins were born. He finally whispered "awesome" in her ear.
Against all odds, she embraced him at her turn. "Couldn't have done all of this without you." She whispered at her turn in his ear. He hugged her stronger.
"Can I get myself a hug too?" Hondo made them come to reality.
"Of course!" Chris let go of her husband to embrace her other colleagues and friends who all congratulated her loudly.
"Hicks is waiting for you in his office to talk about my return."
Hondo looked at Chris puzzled. "He doesn't say more. Sorry!"
Hondo nodded and left his team celebrate the return of the one they considered like their little sister. He needed to talk with Hicks. To know how things will go now that Chris was back full time at SWAT. He knocked at Hicks's office door.
"You wanted to see me, Sir?"
"You must have heard the news! Alonso is back."
"She just told us. Not that I doubted about her, but feels good to hear the news officially!"
"She killed the game, Alpin told me before she got here to get the news. Best time for a SWAT officer in years."
"What could I say? This girl loves to make history!" Hicks smiled at Hondo's remark and approved with a nod. "And what does this mean for 20-Squad?" He became serious once again, stopping jokes and best lines.
"She'll be back with 20 Squad tomorrow."
"What about Street?"
"Back in 50-Squad."
"What about Fowler?"
"Don't know yet. Probably deploy in another team. HR didn't answer me on this anymore."
"Would like to keep Street for a while for at least one week. Just time for Chris to find her feet again and also not to destabilize the rest of the team who got used to having him back with them. Then, he'll back to 50 Squad. Guess HR will never let Chris and Street work together for too long…And also for Nora. She's done an amazing job with 50 Squad, would be a shame to kick her out of the team all of a sudden."
Hicks could feel Hondo was still pissed about the decision to break his team last year. Chris and Street had worked for months being together without slipping a single time. And to be honest, he trusted them enough to keep them in the same team. He knew they were able to separate their professional and private life. But HR was in another rigid world where exceptions didn't exist.
"Consider it done. Whatever HR will say, I'll shut them up."
Apparently, Hicks was still pissed about HR too.