A few days later, John was back on the college campus with his binder, books, and pencil in hand. A blank Scantron card stuck out from the front part of the binder. He walked into the classroom, closing the door behind him, and sat down at his desk. Taking out his Scantron card and pencil, he set his books and binder under his seat and took a deep breath. The professor welcomed the class and began passing out the test. As he looked at it, John could feel his nerves rising again. He closed his eyes and took another deep breath, willing the information to come back to his brain. He opened his eyes, wrote his name and the date on the Scantron card and looked at the first question.

Come on, Nolan. One question at a time. He thought to himself.

Question by question, he made his way through the test. Some of them gave him pause and he had to really think about the way they were worded, but he eventually got to the last question with ten minutes left in class. When he finished that last question, he quickly gave his test one last look and took it up to the teacher. He looked around and realized he was the last one done. He was used to that, though. It was this way whenever he took a test because he wanted to take his time and make sure he understood each question. Gathering up his belongings, he left the classroom and walked out to his car. Checking his watch, he saw he had time to pick up something to eat on the way into work. His uniform was in the back seat, so he could quickly duck into a bathroom at work and be ready to go. After getting some lunch, he pulled in at the station with time to spare. He quickly changed into his uniform and got his mind on the job at hand. Pushing the test out of his mind, he met up with James and got everything they would need for patrol. They walked out to their shop and began patrolling their beat. An hour into their shift, the sound of an alert tone greeted their ears and John's heart dropped into his stomach.

"All units, copy officer needs help over in Hollywood beat 2. Mulholland and Topanga Canyon. 4-Mary-13 is in a fight. Working on Hollywood frequency 1."

James immediately grabbed the radio.

"7-Adam-15 enroute. ETA 5 minutes. Switching to Hollywood."

"7-Adam-15, 10-4."

Their lights and sirens blaring, they raced as safely as they could through the streets of LA. As they approached the incident location, body cameras on, they saw the officer and suspect rolling on the ground. James and John ordered the suspect to stop and put their hands up. When he didn't respond, John grabbed his taser and tased the suspect, who immediately let the officer go and began shaking. The officer got up, panting. John and James rushed up to him, James detaining the suspect and John checking on the officer. It was quickly determined that, aside from a few scratches, the officer was ok.

"7-Adam-15, out with 4-Mary-13. All are code 4 and have one in detained."

"7-Adam-15, I copy all code 4 and one detained." the dispatcher replied.

After a brief pause, there was another announcement over the radio.

"All units, the officer needs help call at Mulholland and Topanga Canyon is code 4. Suspect detained."

James had just put the suspect in the car and was reading him his rights. John got a statement from the officer and walked with him to his car, where he would wait for an ambulance. John requested the ambulance and waited for it to arrive. After making sure he was truly ok and was loaded into the ambulance, James and John got back into their car and began driving back to their assigned beat.

"7-Adam-15 switching to Wilshire."

"7-Adam-15, 1453."

They drove to the jail and booked the suspect in on aggravated assault. After that, they drove around their beat looking for anything unusual and waiting for a call to come in.

"You did well on that call, Nolan." James said as they drove. "Never would've guessed that was only your second or third 'officer needs help' call."

"Never gets easier, does it?"

"Nope. That tone will always get your blood pumping."

"You think he's really ok?"

"He'll be fine. They'll get him checked out at the hospital and he'll be back on patrol before we know it."

John nodded and put his focus back on the road. After a few minutes, his mind was back on his work. The officer came to mind a few times, but eventually, John was able to push those thoughts aside as they handled a few more calls. When they arrived at the station near the end of shift, Sergeant Grey called them into his office.

"What happened out there?" he asked.

Together, they explained that when they had arrived on scene, the officer and suspect were rolling on the ground. They gave the suspect an order to stop and tased him when he didn't comply. The officer stated that he had pulled the suspect over for an out of date registration and when he told the suspect this, the suspect got out of the car and jumped him. Aside from some scratches and a few bruises, the officer seemed to be ok and was at the local hospital.

"You both ok?"

"Yes, sir."

Sergeant Grey nodded and sent them on their way. John and James clocked out and walked out to their cars. As John drove home, he replayed the events of the day in his head. He decided it would be a good idea to call Jackson and Lucy to talk it out, so when he pulled into the driveway, he took his phone out and dialed Jackson's number.

"Nolan, what's up?"

"Hey, Jackson. Doing ok. Had a bit of a rough shift."

"Yeah? Heard there was an officer needs help call. Wanna talk about it?"

"Yeah. I haven't had many of them and they still get my heart pumping. Can't get the tone out of my head."

"I get it, man. Does it bring back memories of…" Jackson's voice broke as he couldn't quite bring himself to say the name of their friend.

"Chris," John finished after taking a breath. "Yeah. I think it does. Felt like if we had just gotten there faster, maybe he'd be with us."

"I know. But what about today? Is the officer ok?"

"Yeah. He's ok. We got the guy. Got there as fast as we could."

"That's what matters, right? He's ok and you're ok."

"Yeah, I guess so. Do you think it'll get easier?"

"Honestly? No. I think there's always going to be that rush of adrenaline when that tone goes off. And you know what?"

"What?"

"I think that's part of what makes us good officers. The fact that we care so much for our community and for each other. It's gonna be ok, Nolan."

"Yeah."

"You good?"

"I'll get there. Thanks, Jackson."

"Anytime, man."

John hung up the phone and sighed. Taking inventory of his mental state, he realized he was feeling a little better. Talking it out had helped some, maybe getting some sleep will help, too. He gathered his belongings and walked inside. After grabbing a shower, he went downstairs and made sure that he had everything ready to go for his next class tomorrow. Putting all of the paper, books, and binders in his backpack, he set it by the door and set the alarm. After locking the door, he made himself some dinner and watched some television until he was ready to go to bed.

The next day

John awoke with a start as his alarm went off. He got into uniform and made himself some breakfast. He had about an hour and a half before shift started. He hoped that today's shift would be better than yesterday's. Checking his watch, he grabbed his backpack for his night class and rushed out the door. Driving through LA, he made it to the station a few minutes earlier than he thought he would. He and James drove through their beat, handling multiple calls. After grabbing a bite to eat, they clocked out for the day and John drove to the college. He looked around for the building he was supposed to be in and got himself pointed in the right direction. Walking down the hall, he looked at each classroom number until he found the one matching the one on his schedule. Opening the door, he found a seat near the door and took out his books and binder, waiting for the professor to come. A few of his classmates had already arrived and taken their seats. Some of them were finishing their dinner while they waited. Suddenly the door opened and the professor walked in. They started off going over the syllabus and then cracked open their books to chapter 1. As the professor talked, John's pencil was flying over the papers in his binder. He wanted to make sure he didn't forget a single thing the professor said. Before he knew it, the class was over and he and his classmates gathered their things and left. As he walked out to the car, John felt like someone was watching him. He turned around and saw one of his classmates standing there.

"Hi." he said. "Can I help you?"

"I...uh...I noticed you were taking a lot of notes...um...during class. Can I borrow them sometime?"

"Sure. I'll try and get here early next class so we can compare notes."

"Cool. G'night."

"Good night."

John got into his car and drove home, exhausted from all that had happened. After answering a text from Henry, he plugged his phone in and fell asleep.