This Time? Chapter One

Grey gestures to Lucy as she heads out of Mid-Wilshire for the night. "Chen, I need to talk to you in my office."

"Sir, I promised Tamara I'd be home for a special dinner she's cooking up. Can we talk in the morning? I can come in early."

"Now, Chen," he orders. Sighing, Lucy follows her watch commander. She spies two men already sitting in front of Grey's desk. Grey waves her to another chair. "Take a seat!"

"Yes, Sir,"

"Chen, you already know Sergeant Carradine, our lead detective. This is Agent Robert Beller, from the DEA."

"The DEA and the LAPD are putting together a joint task force," Beller explains.

"Like the one Detective Harper was on?" Chen asks.

"Something like that," Beller confirms. "You scored top of your class in UC training, and you've already completed several highly successful UC missions. We want you for the task force."

"That's great!" Lucy exclaims.

"Before you get too excited, listen to the rest of what Agent Beller has to tell you," Grey cautions.

"You'll no longer officially be part of Mid-Wilshire," the agent explains. "You won't be working out of this building. Sergeant Carradine will be your contact when you need support here, but I'll be assigning your missions. You won't be able to tell your friends, not even other cops, what you're doing. You can't tell your family either. You'll be on special assignment. That's all you can say."

"Would I be working in LA?" Lucy queries. "I have an apartment here, and there's a girl I have living with me, Tamara Colins. She was homeless. I got her off the streets. I don't want her ending up back there."

"You could keep LA as your home base," Beller replies. "But you can't do anything to jeopardize your covers. So you may be in a motel or other location temporarily like you were when you played meth cook. But you'd get to look in at home when the situations permit."

"This is a big decision, Chen. And you won't have Bradford watching out for you. But it would be a step up for your career," Grey puts in. "And being part of the task force could lead to a golden ticket like it did for Harper. You've been telling me for years you wanted to get assigned to UC. But this will be a big change."

"So Bradford wouldn't be my sergeant anymore?" Lucy clarifies.

"I'd be your command contact at Mid-Wilshire," Carradine confirms.

Images swirl in Lucy's head of Harper warning her that a relationship with Tim could put her in big trouble and him in even bigger trouble. And she could see it in his eyes, every time he pulled back. But on the task force, she'd be out of his chain of command and…. "I want in," she announces. "Where do I sign?"

"Your paperwork will be delivered to your apartment by messenger tonight," Beller replies. "There will be orders concerning where to report in the morning. And bring a go bag. You'll have instructions for what you'll need in that, too." Beller extends his hand. "Welcome aboard, Chen. We'll talk again soon."

Tamara sticks her head into Lucy's bedroom. "You're packing. Are you going somewhere?"

"I have a special assignment."

Tamara grins. "Cool. So did going to UC school work? Are you getting the good stuff?"

"It helped," Lucy admits. "But I'm not sure how this assignment is going to work out."

"But Sergeant Zandy will have your back, won't he?" Tamara presses.

"He's not in on this. I may not work with him as much anymore."

"What about your dinner with him? You've been worried about your clothes and hair and everything for that ever since you broke up with Chris."

"I have not! Tim, Sergeant Bradford, saw me all kinds of ways when we were undercover in Vegas."

"Sure, but you should wear the dress you wore to Angela's almost wedding. He couldn't stop looking at you."

Lucy closes her eyes. "Yeah, I remember. But right now, I don't know if I'll even be able to make our date."

Tim perfunctorily knocks on Grey's door before walking into his commander's office. "Chen wasn't at roll call this morning. I can't reach her on her cell, either. Did she call in sick?"

"She's on special assignment, Bradford."

"For how long?"

"Indefinitely. She's still attached to Mid-Wilshire, but she's no longer under your supervision."

"What's going on? Has she gone full UC?"

"That's need to know, Bradford. And right now, you don't need to."

Tim's jaw tightens. "I don't like it."

"I know you don't. But Chen's been on a trajectory ever since she was your rookie, and it's for more than editing your reports and figuring out where you left your radio. She's good, Tim, too good to play gofer. Take my word for it. She's where she belongs."

Tim turns toward the door. "I hope you're right."

"I saw about two seconds of the news on TV before we got the last call of my shift," Bailey says, pouring wine for herself and John Nolan. "Was that you talking that man down off that bridge?"

John takes a healthy sip of merlot. "It was. With her psych background, Lucy usually does stuff like that. But she wasn't around to employ all her empathy genes. I asked Grey where she was, and he just said on assignment."

"So the jumper needed John Nolan empathy genes instead."

"Fortunately, he didn't jump. He just wanted someone to listen to him."

"And you did. You're good at that."

"There wasn't much to it. He did all the talking. He's been working at the same restaurant for 20 years. He started as a busboy and worked his way up to managing the front of house. He thought he was in line to manage the whole place, but then the owner brought in his son-in-law to do it. And apparently, the new manager is a total jerk. They got into it about running out of supplies, a bunch of stuff. But anyway, the guy on the bridge ended up fired. The owner wouldn't even take his calls."

"So he laid it all on you."

"Not entirely. I got the owner on the phone. As it turned out, he'd just discovered that his son-in-law was cheating on his daughter. He was going to throw him out on his ear. He wanted the man who should have had the job in the first place back. Happy ending – or lack of ending."

"We should try out that restaurant sometime," Bailey suggests. "If the guy was willing to give his life for the place, it must be pretty good."

"I guess that would depend on how much damage the cheating son-in-law did. Maybe we can go after we give my non-jumper a chance to clean up the mess. But in the meantime, what is that incredible aroma coming from the oven?"

"It's lasagna, Fratelli's secret recipe."

"I thought he said he'd give up his life before giving up that secret."

"That was before he had queens over jacks in last night's poker game. He bet it against everything in the pot."

"And what were you holding?"

"Straight flush, hearts."

"That makes sense somehow. So the secret is no longer a secret?"

Bailey stretches up for a kiss. "It's still a secret. But I'll be bringing it to our marriage. It will be our secret."

"Mmm, and a wonderful secret it will be."