A/N: Sorry for the typos in the last chapter. Fixed now. Also sorry to any law enforcement people who may be reading if I got stuff wrong. I did do some research, but it wasn't too extensive. ;) Here's the next chapter. Let me know what you think.

Even though Frakes had changed the schedule, Santana still showed up at her regular call time at 6 a.m. and planned to work her original shift. Frakes could just work his final shift hours at the station, which he would probably love, Santana thought.

She would to take the car out on patrol by herself while Frakes got his physical. Santana walked down the corridor and went in to sit in on the first morning rundown meeting.

"Hey Santana," Tina greeted.

"Hey," Santana said going to sit next to Tina, "How's it going?"

"We shouldn't have gone for drinks after dinner last night," Tina said, a bit tired.

"You could never hold your liquor," Santana said, amused, "We have to change that."

"Well, excuse me for not being an expert drinker like you and Kurt," Tina mocked.

Santana turned to the front door and saw Quinn Fabray enter and sit next to Officer Rob Staff.

"Hey look, it's your buddy," Santana quietly told Tina.

"God, she reeks of money," Tina said, a bit enthralled.

"Guess she's parented with Staff," Santana said.

Quinn looked over at Tina and Santana and caught their eye. She smiled and quickly sat down.

"Shit," Tina said, a bit panicked, "She knows we were talking about her. That's it. She's going to call her mom..."

"Would you just drop it," Santana said, "We'll introduce ourselves after the rundown, OK?"

"I thought you didn't want to be friends?" Tina asked.

"It's not about making a friend, it's about professional courtesy," Santana said, "She is one of us. And, it's also so you can drop whatever scary perception you have of her."

"Fine," Tina said, giving up, "After the meeting."

The meeting went underway and lasted for about 20 minutes where they were updated on the recent burglaries, parolee violators, and a possible drug ring in West Hollywood. When the meeting ended, the room came alive with chatter from all the officers.

"Let's go," Santana said, getting up. She wanted to get to Quinn before she left.

Tina got up reluctantly.

Santana and Tina approached Officer Fabray and Officer Staff who were in the middle of a discussion.

"...so let's do a patrol there first." Officer Staff finished saying. He refocused his attention when he saw Santana and Tina, "Officer Lopez, Cohen-Chang. How are you?"

Quinn, whose back was to them, turned around.

"Good," Santana said, "Just wanted to come over and introduce ourselves to your new partner." Santana extended her hand, "Hi I'm Santana Lopez and this is Tina Cohen-Chang."

Quinn shook Santana's hand then moved on to Tina, "Hello. Quinn Fabray. Nice to meet you. I've actually seen you two around the station."

"Right," Santana said, admiring her. "I saw you in the locker room yesterday."

Tina was right, Santana thought, she was a bit intimidating.

"You've seen me?" Tina asked a bit surprised.

"Sure," Quinn said with a smile, "Earlier today at the parking lot. Officer Staff said you brought a major drug dealer the other day and that he was gigantic."

"Yea, he was," Tina said with a nervous chuckle, "Damn crazy too."

"OK," Officer Staff said, "This was nice, but we gotta head out on patrol."

"Of course," Santana said, smiling, "It was nice to meet you Officer Fabray."

"You too," Quinn said. She gave Santana and Tina a smile and left with her partner.

"See," Santana said once they were gone, "Not scary."

"Definitely not scary," Tina added.

###

Brittany's second day was proving to be an interesting one. So far she had gone on four calls, ranging from a park fight to a dog wandering a busy street.

"I hope they find the owner of that dog," Brittany said from the passenger seat.

"If they don't, after a few days, he'll be up for adoption," Jim said, "You need a dog?"

"Are you kidding?" Brittany said, "With this schedule, I'd never be home to walk him. Besides I already have cat who I'm lucky actually prefers the apartment to himself. I'm pretty sure he thinks he owns the place and I'm his tenant."

"Sounds fun. Listen, this job can become your life," Jim said, "Don't let that happen."

"Excuse me?"

"Are you married? Significant other?" Jim asked.

"Uh," Brittany began, a bit off-guard from the personal question, "Yes...well, no. I was seeing someone but we broke it off when he got a job in Florida.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to get personal," Jim said, "It's just that this job almost cost me my marriage. I kept taking it home with me. My point is, don't let your whole life be the job. You'd be amazed how easy it is."

"I'll keep that in mind," Brittany said.

All available units, please respond to a one-eight-seven and two-one-one at 4565 Prado Way

Brittany responded to the call, "Car 282 responding."

Jim turned on the siren, "Looks like you get your first robbery homicide call on your second day."

Brittany felt her heart start to race.

"Here we go," Brittany said under her breath.

###

Santana had gone out on patrol by herself while Frakes took his physical. She was in heaven. Not having Frakes around just proved what she already knew, it was better to work alone than with a partner who didn't give a shit about the job.

She headed back to the station around mid-morning to find out if Frakes was fit for duty. She walked up to the command desk near the front of the station.

"Hey, Rogers," Santana greeted the desk commander, "Have you seen Frakes? He was supposed to meet me here after his physical."

"Oh Frakes," Rogers said, "I just got his paperwork. Sorry Santana, but Frakes didn't get the clearance for patrol."

"He didn't?" Santana asked, trying desperately not to jump for joy, "That's too bad."

"You OK going solo for the rest of the day?"

"Perfectly OK," Santana said.

"Alright, I'll see who I can get you for tomorrow," Rogers said.

Suddenly Santana's hand radio went off.

All available units, please respond to a one-eight-seven and two-one-one at 4565 Prado Way

"Gotta go," Santana said running out of the squad room and into her patrol car.

Santana managed to get out of the building and get in her squad car in record time. She turned on the siren and hit the LA streets. Being it was late morning, most of the rush hour traffic had died down.

After 10 minutes she reached the street where the homicide and robbery were located.

"Shit," Santana said as she recognized the neighborhood. She had answered a robbery call last week in this area.

She saw about three patrol cars already on scene, one officer already putting up yellow police tape around the front of the house.

She stopped her car beside a patrol car and got out.

"What do we have?" Santana asked on the officer with the yellow tape.

"It's pretty bad," the officer said, "Two men, one woman. Beaten to a pulp."

"Jesus," Santana said. She went up to the front door and as she was going in, collided with another officer.

"Watch it!" Santana said. She pulled back a bit and saw the top of the head of a blond woman.

"Oh..uh sorry," Brittany said without looking at who she had bumped into. All she wanted was to get outside, "Sorry."

"Good Lord," Santana said annoyed. She ignored the officer who had quickly walked across the lawn to the sidewalk.

Brittany tried catching her breath. There was so much blood. She had never seen so much blood.

"Fuck!" Brittany said, letting out a breath. So much for making a good impression, she thought.

Brittany and Jim had been third to arrive. The first on scene officers had just finished securing the area. Brittany had seen a dead body before, but nothing like this. Three people, bludgeoned to death.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!"

Brittany collected herself and looked up to see a young woman quickly walking toward her with a notepad and pen.

"Hi," the woman said, a bit out of breath, "Phew, gotta get back to the gym."

"Can I help you?" Brittany asked.

"I hope so! My name is Sugar Motta, LA Times."

"Oh."

"So a robbery turned homicide huh?" Sugar asked.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry but I can't discuss this case," Brittany said.

"You look like you're gonna throw up," Sugar said, slowly inching toward the lawn, "Is it that bad? What happened?'

"Ms. Motta, I'm going to need you to stay on the sidewalk," Brittany said guiding the reporter back.

"You must be new. Rookie? I'm the crime reporter for The Times and I've been covering these break-ins for weeks now."

"Good for you," Brittany said, unimpressed.

"I know there's been a series of burglaries in the area," the reporter continued, "You guys have no leads and now it looks like the robbers have escalated to murder. Is that right?"

"I told you I can't discuss this with you," Brittany said forcefully, "The department will put out an official statement once..."

"Those stupid press releases don't tell you jack shit," Sugar said, "Have you been inside? How many bodies? Any fingerprints?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Brittany saw an officer approaching.

"Motta!"

Santana walked over to Sugar and the officer who she had bumped into earlier.

"Lopez! How is my favorite LAPD officer?"

"Don't even try it," Santana warned.

Brittany looked as the shorter officer, who somehow looked familiar, approach. She couldn't help but feel both nervous and embarrassed. Officer Lopez radiated an air of command and confidence. Just great, Brittany thought, I almost knocked down a senior officer.

Santana quickly reached the pair and saw that the young officer looked a bit pale and also a bit familiar. Has to be a rookie, Santana thought.

"So what's up?" Sugar asked, "Robbery turned homicide huh?"

"You know we can't comment on that," Santana said, wondering how much the rookie had revealed.

"I heard it was three bodies," Sugar said, confidently.

"Sugar, stay behind the yellow tape," Santana said, "I'll tell you something when I can, OK?"

"Promise?" Sugar asked, a bit excited.

"Yes, now wait here," Santana said. She turned to the officer, "Officer, can I talk to you in private."

"Uh..sure," Brittany said, suddenly feeling like she had been called into the teacher's office.

Santana lead the rookie far from Sugar to the other side of the lawn.

"Officer...Pierce," Santana began, reading the name tag, "What exactly did you tell her?"

"Nothing," Brittany said, "I just told her that the department would release a statement soon."

"Are you sure?" Santana asked, maybe a bit too forcefully.

"Yes I'm sure," Brittany answered, now a bit upset at the tone this officer was taking.

"How did she know about the three bodies?"

"I don't know," Brittany said, now on the defensive, "She's a reporter, she must have found out some other way. It wasn't from me."

Santana looked at the Officer Pierce, who was now upset. The more she looked at Officer Pierce, the more she was sure she had seen her before.

"You just started on the force, right? Maybe you said something... maybe something just slipped out?" Santana asked.

"Please don't talk to me like I'm some 12 year-old playing cop," Brittany said, "I know what I said, and what I didn't say."

Santana saw that Pierce was no longer pale, in fact her cheeks were a bit red from anger. She knew that she was probably a bit too hard on her, but keeping details of cases classified was top priority.

"Fine," Santana said, backing off, "But just stay away from the press."

Brittany controlled her anger, "No problem."

"Pierce!"

Brittany looked over and saw that Jim had exited the house.

"Excuse me, Officer Lopez," Brittany said, coldly.

Santana watched Officer Pierce walk towards Jim Wilder and wondered if she had been too hard on her then quickly decided she wasn't. Rookies have to learn, she thought.

Brittany was glad to leave Officer Lopez's presence. This might be her second day on the job, but she knew the rules.

"Do you need me to check the perimeter?" Brittany asked Jim once she had reached him.

"No, we're leaving," Jim said, "Things are under control here."

"OK," Brittany said letting out a breath.

"You feeling better?"

"Yeah, fine," Brittany answered, a bit embarrassed, "Sorry I ran out of there...I just..."

"It's fine," Jim interrupted, "It happens to all of us. I threw up my first crime scene."

"Really?"

"All over a flowerbed." Jim said with a small smile.

"Well, that makes me feel better," Brittany said, "I didn't throw up."

"Gold star for you then," Jim said, "Did Officer Lopez have any new details on the case?"

"What.., oh, no," Brittany said, looking over and seeing that Officer Lopez had walked over to talk to the reporter again, "She...just wanted to make sure we keep the press at bay."

"Oh I see Sugar is back," Jim said, "Lois Lane can be quite persistent."

"No kidding," Brittany said.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Jim said.

As they walked to their car, Brittany glanced over at Officer Lopez who in turn looked back. Brittany's anger returned. I hope I don't have to work with her anytime soon, she thought.

Santana stopped listening to Sugar and watched Officer Pierce get in her patrol car and drive off. Hope I don't have to deal with her again, she thought.

"...all over the place...," Sugar said, "Hey! Are you listening to me?"

"What?" Santana asked, trying to remember what Sugar was talking about, "Umm yea..look Sugar, you know the drill. Let us finish up here at least OK?"

Santana saw Sugar's attention shift as the corner and detectives had shown up.

"Oh the calvary is here," Sugar said, "I'm going to go see if they have loose lips."

Santana let out a breath. Dealing with Sugar could be frustrating. As the reporter walked away, Santana went back inside to see what she could do to help.

-TBC-