Street had to admit that he was never one to worry, especially when it came to someone fully capable of doing shit for themselves, except this was different, this was Chris in another country with a man who has track record of killing people that even look at him wrong, but hey!
She'll be perfectly fine right- right?
God! Why is this so hard, Chris can hold her own and she has Cortez so it'll be fine.
As he sits at the metal table, his mind battling,
she'll be fine- but what if… over, and over again.
He was going to drive himself mad and maybe start a small fire with how hard his foot was rubbing the floor as it bounced.
The only thing that street could think to do 'that was allowed while he was on call' was dig himself into a web search hole that could put "Journey to the Center of The Earth" to shame.
So here he was, littering the search history of this iPad with different variations of the question,
'How many cops die in mexico every year'
Hondo made a solid point, googling was not the best idea because now he had memorized a list of statistics that only proved how risky this op was. A run was the only thing he could think of that would distract him or at least waste time till he got to see Chris come back
'in one piece'
In retrospect- The rhythm of his feet hitting the sidewalk was shockingly slower than his heart rate which only made him run faster, which made no sense whatsoever- but that's an overthinking street for you.
Stopping at a bench street looks down at his watch and realizes that he should have turned around a mile back, but an extra 2 miles never hurt anyone especially when running from a very harsh and gut knotting reality, so he accepts his fate and turns around starting his track back, the pre-mentioned knot in his stomach remains just as big and disheartening as it was when he watched Chris and Cortez get in the car that would take them to the airport.
The run back seemed a lot faster but there's some sort of psychological reason for that, he discards his phone and air pods in his bag, grabbing a shirt and pants from the bottom shelf and getting in the shower. The hot water burns his already warm and sweaty skin as he steps under the spray, water ricochets off his lips as he blows out a ragged breath, the ache from his run begins to take its toll on his muscles.
Shutting off the water took a lot more willpower than street ever will admit but he does eventually, just as he walks up to the mirror he hears his phone go off, muffled by the pocket of his backpack.
011-52-555-0137
FLACO - 6880 FLETCHER 90025
DO NOT TEXT BACK!
Okay- if he was stressed before, someone call med for a potential heart attack victim.
Throwing on shorts and grabbing a shirt, he runs from the locker room, tan spots him through the kitchen door
"Wheres the fire?!" he shouts after him
"Mexico!"
Tan quickly discards his protein bar in the trash and rushes to keep up with him,
By the time they navigate the station and make it to the situation room, he has picked up luca too.
They are all out of breath by the time they make it through the door.
Hondo is already in there running plates for another case
"Hondo, i got an address"
Street hands over the phone to their team leader who reads it over
"Tan, Luca- go run this down, street stay while I contact Agent Romero"
"On it" Luca claps streets shoulder as he passes, tan behind him
The screen bathes them in blue light as Agent Romero's glitching picture appears on screen.
"Romero, we believe that Officer's Alonso an Cortez have uncovered an address to link to Raul" Hondo says firmly, the grey haired man nods along
"Well if Raul believes the video they made, the Intel should be legit.- If he didn't, who knows?" he shakes his head solemnly
Street steps forward a little bit, gaining the agents attention
"Is there any way to contact them and verify?"
"Unfortunately, no. All i can do is give the signal to pull out"
They hear the doors slide open and Deacs voice soon after "I came as soon as i could"
"Woahhh- you always look this sharp at 3am?" he says, a small smirk pulls at his lips
"Hondos boy Dees got me loaded up with shifts at the club- baby coming need money"
Deac turns to the large screen "where are we at?"
"The rest of the team plus benitez are en route" hondo starts "now, street got a text message with an address for flaco- except it's nowhere near where the father saw the van"
"Where's the address?"
"Silver Lake" street cuts in
"Anything else? Who sent it?"
"It's a burner phone in mexico. It said not to text back,- I'm guessing it's Chris"
Deacon turns to the screen "Couldn't it also have been Raul trying to set a trap?- if hes suspicious he sends us bunk Intel, see if we bite"
Street sees the probability of that which doesn't help his nerves because that could mean Chris and Cortez were in danger, and he didn't want to believe that.
Agent Romero seems to have the same idea "If you raid the place and Agent Cruz isn't there, Raul will hear about it. Won't be good for your friends."
Hondo crosses his arms "I see if agent Benson can get her guys to rig that house before the sun comes up"
They all nod in agreement and bid The agent goodbye before doing what they can to ensure their friends safety.
Within 3 hours they have a location and game plan for getting Cruz, hearing hicks say "let's get our people back" was probably the most reassuring and somewhat relaxing thing street had heard all day.
Cruz was in rough condition as street brought him up from where he had fallen to his knees
"I didn't talk"
"I know, you did good man- you did good"
He looked to hondo and nodded
"This is 20-David We recovered agent Cruz and I got Flaco in custody, are you good?"
Deacs voice came through the comms shortly after
One suspect down, two in custody- We're good
Hondo stood to his feet "alright let's get word down to mexico and get them the hell out of there"
In the process of guiding Cruz to the paramedics, Street let out a long heavy sign of relief, There coming back- She's coming back.
"Their car just got here" The relief is evident in hondos voice
"Lets go!" Luca shouts, his childish excitement coming through full force as they walk down the corridor, street hears them first but floats to the back, letting everyone greet them first, Chris comes to him and reaches out a fist
He chuckles "hell no, get in here" he opens his arms and she immediately steps into them
"Aha, miss me or something?"
Something happened in that moment that made them both squeeze tighter, street was so overwhelmed by the rush of relief 'and something else?' that he forgot to let go for a split second.
They both step back and everyone stands in a circle talking and laughing.
Luca clapped and opened his arms in a 'how'bout it' motion "drinks?"
Everyone agreed quickly and with ease they made plans for their favorite dive bar in an hour and went their ways.
Street finally made it home, Luca had to grab some dog food for Duke so he was a little behind, the dog made its way over to where he was filling a glass of water, it was hot in the house and clearly they were both feeling it.
"I know bud, the ac company will be here tomorrow"
Street downed his water and filled dukes, he planned to where jeans to the bar but was starting to succumb to the airless home, he peeled off his shirt and black pant slipping on basketball shorts that would be replaced with pants before he left, and decided to settle with no shirt for now.
Just as he exited his room he heard the door squeak open along with the chirp of their alarm to signal an entry opening
"I'm home!-" it was followed by the squeaky voice that Luca used with Duke that street always struggles not to laugh at.
Street goes around him to grab an apple from the fridge when something cold on his shoulder blade startles him "dude what the hell?" he turns around to see Luca with a wet paper towel "You have dirt on you, turn around"
Street grumbles something about why dirt would be on him as the clothe rubs aggressively against his skin
"okay, that's kinda starting to hurt" he reaches around to swat at Lucas hand but he stops him by grabbing his wrist "its not dirt- hold on"
Luca drags street to the bathroom and turns him at an angle so he can see what Luca was fussing over, definitely not dirt
Upon moving closer to the mirror, street is able to make out the neat, blocky and a little bit cursive-like writing on his shoulder blade that he could recognize anywhere
Miss me or something?
Luca looks awestruck behind him "Dude, that's Chris's writing"
"Heh, looks like it"
"How- why is- Oh my gosh! It's your Platonic mark!"
"My what?"
"Duuude" Luca groaned like he had missed something
"Your so dumb, Chris is your other half, That-" he points at the words "Is your platonic mark, you get it when you realize that you cant live without the other person"
"Heh, cool"
"Cool?! That is all- cool?"
"Yeah, cool, Chris is my best friend, that "mark" isn't really necessary for me to know that"
"Well, you tell her when you want, but i'm still waiting for mine so be grateful"
"Okay dad"
Luca whacks him on the head and leaves the bathroom, street stares at the words for a little longer.
He meant what he said about not really caring about the mark, He needed Chris and it was nice to know that she needed him too.