Cyrus had given Chelsea a tour of the 27th precinct police station. There wasn't much to see, it was currently considered a "quiet time" for the area. The busy day crowds of the local area who end up getting arrested had now moved on (normally kids who brawl, or brazen drug dealers who deal in the broad daylight), and it was too early for patrolman to frogmarch in the normal night criminals, drunks and drug affected individuals who pass out on local park benches.

"Last but not least, here is the squad room. This is where the detectives work their magic, and I mean that. The stuff they're able to uncover with barely anything to go on is nothing short of magic." Cyrus stated as they both walked into the room.

The room matched the rest of the precinct in that it looked very tired. It had faded green paint, with a lot of marks and small holes in the plaster. It was clear the room's interior was very neglected, either due to a lack of precinct funding or perhaps maybe just because nobody cared. Detective work seemed like it was an occupation where the detectives were too busy to care about peeling paint and chipped furniture.

The room wasn't completely empty, but it was clear to Chelsea that a lot of the detectives were missing, as a lot of desks were unoccupied. But there were still a few detectives scattered around making phone calls, or hunched over their desk reading papers with their glasses on.

But the thing that made Chelsea freeze up was seeing the small jail cells a few feet away from the detectives desks. It was clear these were the holding cells, and one was currently occupied by some sort of criminal. She didn't look too dangerous. She was just a frail older looking woman with bad regrowth wearing leopard print. She looked trashy, sure. But she didn't look like a hardened criminal.

"Just ignore her. It's some junkie hooker brought in earlier for harassing men in suits at the convenience store across the road." Cyrus mentioned to Chelsea after he followed her line of sight.

Most people might be alarmed or intrigued at this information. But this caused Chelsea's shoulders to relax. Women in the sex trade was nothing new or mysterious to Chelsea. Her family was full of them, even including her mother in the past. Chelsea always joked to herself that the sex trade was the 'family business' and she was the black sheep of the family for choosing to turn her back on that lifestyle and go to college instead. It was a joke in her head, but she knew it was the truth. Her family knew it was the truth too.

"Hey everybody!" Cyrus suddenly spoke up loudly, causing all occupants of the room to cast their eyes upon Chelsea and Cyrus "My friend here has come to deliver us brownies from the diner she works at."

"Are they special brownies with the good stuff in them? If so, pass 'em over 'ere." The trashy woman in the cell slurred loudly.

"Shut up." The detective closest to the woman's cell snarled at her, and surprisingly she complied.

Chelsea looked over at him and felt her face heat up. She hadn't noticed him before when she first scanned the room but now he stood out. He was older than her, probably far too old for her to be checking him out. He must have been in his mid thirties. But she couldn't help but to be mesmerized by his handsome features. He had nice green eyes. Perhaps it was her Irish genetics subconsciously pulling her towards people of her own ancestry, but she was a sucker for green eyes.

She looked at Cyrus out of the corner of her eye hoping he hadn't noticed her staring at the detective. He hadn't, as he had begun to pass the brownies around to the detectives at their desks.

"So how do you two know each other?" A detective (who's name was Tony Profaci, as that was the name on his desk plate) asked both Cyrus and Chelsea after swallowing a big mouthful of his brownie.

"We're both in the same course at Hudson University." Chelsea responded shyly as she nervously tucked a strand of her brunette hair behind her ear. She knew that by coming here she would most likely have to chat with some of Cyrus' cop co-workers, however she hadn't really thought about it until now.

"Yes, Officer Lupo has told a few of us how he's continuing his business degree part time due to his family's insistence. If it were me, I would have told my family to shove it." Detective Profaci grinned widely.

Chelsea sent Profaci a shy smile in return but kept her mouth shut. She knew that was only partly the reason why Cyrus had stayed in school. Cyrus had always wanted to be a lawyer since he was a child. If he wanted to keep that door open and attend law school he needed to complete his undergrad. But Chelsea rightly assumed that his cop buddies didn't need to know that one of their newest patrolmen didn't completely have his heart set on a long career in policing and was keeping other options open.

So instead she gazed at the handsome detective near the cells. But she was horrified to see that the detective had caught her doing so as he was staring at her right back. To try and save face she kept her eyes wandering in hopes he would think she was taking in her surroundings, and not specifically him.

When she eventually looked towards her friend again she noticed that the desk sergeant had strolled into the room. She had been so preoccupied with the good looking green eyed detective she hadn't noticed the desk sergeant had entered the room.

"Lupo, I need you back at the desk just for a few minutes and then you can come back to your pretty little friend before night rush hour starts. Officer Campos radioed in to say he and his partner are bringing in a spitting perp so we need more manpower out there in preparation." The desk sergeant announced.

Cyrus swore to Chelsea that he would be back soon and told her to hand out the brownies in his absence, passing her the brown paper bag as he followed the desk sergeant out. Chelsea's face heated up at the words 'pretty little friend' but she tried not to think too much of it. It was just a statement said in passing.

"Hey, you," The handsome detective spoke up as he called out to Chelsea "Pass us one of those brownies."

Chelsea secretly took a deep breath as she approached his desk. As she got closer she was able to read the name on his name plate. Detective Michael Logan.

"Hello Michael." she teased, nodding her head towards the name on his desk.

She was trying to play it cool and be subtly playful. She knew it was a small form of flirting, however she would aim to not be too over-the-top so she could scale it back and pass it off as only being young and loud if need be. Chelsea knew how to flirt and whilst she wasn't a total pro, she had gotten better over the years as her confidence began to rise with experience.

"Hello….whatever-your-name-is." He responded as he took a brownie from her brown paper bag, purposely digging through to find one to his satisfaction.

She tried to not look disheartened at the fact it appeared he wasn't in the mood to converse. She was ready to retreat and try to make idle chit-chat with someone else (that Profaci guy seemed friendly) but she was surprised to see Michael Logan indicate for her to sit in the seat opposite him.

"Where's your partner?" She asked him curiously.

"He went out to get us food. But he'll be there for a while. He always likes to chat up the owner of this particular pizza joint as she's close to his age. You can sit at his desk until Lupo comes back." Logan offered her.

Chelsea sank into the seat of 'Leonard Briscoe' and eyed Logan carefully. She didn't know how to act around him and he was hard to read, so she didn't know what to say or whether she should speak at all. Maybe he was busy and wasn't in the mood to entertain a college student.

However she noticed he was staring at her and had yet to go back to his work, so clearly he was waiting for her to speak to him. She gulped, watching as his green eyes bore into her blue ones. She had to speak up. She wanted the attention of the handsome older man.

"My name is Chelsea, by the way." She spoke up.

"As you've already read from my desk, my name is Mike. People who don't know me well just call me Logan, but I suppose you're not from a world where people refer to others by surname are you?" Mike asked with a smirk.

Chelsea just smiled and gave Mike a shy shake of her head.

Mike went quiet again and he lost interest in Chelsea as his eyes darted to the loose pages in front of him. She continued to watch him as she found him pleasing on the eye. He looked extremely bored as he placed his elbow on the table and rested his cheek on his palm as his eyes went from left to right on the page.

Suddenly he became chatty again and raised his head off his palm.

"Tell me Chelsea, what's your opinion on lawyers?" He asked her curiously.

"Lawyers?" Chelsea blinked, his random question catching her very much off guard.

"Yep, lawyers. The narcissistic assholes who actually receive paychecks because people are committing crimes." Mike shot back.

"You mean, like cops? Your job only exists to catch criminals. If all the criminals in the world decided to stop committing crimes and went onto a grassy hill to hold hands and sing Kumbaya with rainbows in the background, you wouldn't have a job." Chelsea pointed out with a small grin, finding herself gaining a little confidence.

"Sure I would. Do you know how annoying those people would be? Surely someone would shoot those annoying, stupid people." Mike teased her.

"But would that be considered a crime? That might be considered a public service if it's deemed by everyone that over-the-top singing and happy people are annoying. Thus no cops would be necessary as it wouldn't be a crime." Chelsea shot back.

"Just like shooting lawyers could be considered a public service by some." Mike bitterly stated.

"What about less evil lawyers? Like entertainment or environment lawyers? Hell what about divorce lawyers. Sure they have a reputation for being blood suckers, but they're doing the lord's work. Divorce is a wonderful thing for the vast majority of people who choose to get one, even if the process of getting a divorce is a soul sucker. Think of the divorce lawyers, Mike." Chelsea babbled. Now that she had engaged Mike she decided to once again proceed with her playful flirting plan. He seemed receptive to it, so why not?

"If you grew up Irish Catholic you wouldn't be saying divorce is the lord's work."

"Psh," Chelsea mock scoffed "It's because I grew up Irish Catholic I say that. How many idiots stay together miserable just because of that? And besides, catholics and being hypocritical go together like a burger and fries. Can't have one without the other."

"Huh. Didn't expect to be having this conversation this evening. You're interesting." Mike stated matter-of-factly.

The compliment caused Chelsea to go quiet and just shrug. It was all she could do as she was trying to prevent her face going bright red in embarrassment. She was attempting to flirt with him and this was the desired outcome, but she didn't think dry quips at the catholic church was the way to get there. They were her true thoughts, but she followed Mike's lead to get there.

"So what do you have against lawyers anyway? My father was an entertainment lawyer, and my brother is one too, just so you know."

"I'm having issues with the new Executive Assistant District Attorney, Jack McCoy. He's prosecuting a case I worked on and he continues to make it very clear he has little respect for police and their procedures." Mike bitterly stated.

"Ah, so you don't have a beef with entertainment lawyers. Just stuck up career criminal lawyers with lame and overly pretentious titles. Seriously 'Executive Assistant District Attorney' what a circle jerk of a title. Who comes up with that? Just put manager in the title. So stupid." Chelsea weakly smiled.

Without realising what she was doing, Chelsea had opened the floodgates. Mike rarely had a complete outsider of the criminal justice system to vent his frustrations about overbearing DAs with unrealistic expectations and timelines. Sure, his fellow police felt the same way he did. But rants to them were just an echo chamber as everybody always agreed mindlessly with what he had to say. He didn't really have anybody outside his profession to speak these thoughts to. His dad (who was a beat cop) was now gone, and he rarely spoke to the rest of the family. He would sometimes vent to the women he dated after a particularly maddening day of dealing with McCoy. But they would just half-listen and say something uninspiring before changing the topic.

But this girl somehow got it. He began to rant and rave about McCoy's arrogance and she would join in with a quip at appropriate times. He could tell that Chelsea also hated pretentious people, so he felt comfortable divulging his problems to her.

"It just pisses me off that he's so hypocritical about police work not always being by the book, when I know for a fact he's done some questionable things in the courtroom himself. Hell, even outside the courtroom. I know for a fact he keeps having affairs with his staff." Mike eventually finished.

This piece of gossip caused Chelsea to raise an eyebrow and she wanted him to continue. However unfortunately for her, it was at this point Cyrus returned to the squad room. Mike eyed Lupo and immediately shut his mouth as Lupo approached the two.

"Sorry Chels, the desk sergeant is wrapped up dealing with this perp they're bringing in so I need to man the desk for a while. It's probably a good idea for you to head out so you can get back to Jersey before it's too late." He said to her, but then fell silent as he eyed both her and Mike suspiciously.

"Detective Logan here was just telling me about the new Executive DA McCoy and what a jerk he is." Chelsea quickly spoke up as she shot up from her seat, feeling guilty for reasons unknown.

"I've never dealt with him, so I wouldn't know." Cyrus shrugged, feeling a little out of the loop.

"Maybe one day when you're old enough you will." Mike joked dryly.

Chelsea could see Cyrus stiffen at Mike's joke. She wasn't sure what he was insinuating but it seemed to be a dig at his junior rank, so she could understand it was hurtful. But she chose not to say anything as she didn't know what the implications would be for Cyrus if she spoke up in his defense.

"Anyway, nice meeting you Mike. Keep fighting the good fight against pretentious criminal lawyers." Chelsea smiled as she began to inch her way to the door.

"See ya 'round." Mike responded with a small smile as he immediately turned his attention back to the papers on his desk.

Cyrus immediately wrapped an arm loosely around Chelsea's lower back and began to lead her out of the precinct. He had been finding an excuse to touch her all day and he finally got one. He was over the moon. However Chelsea hadn't even noticed that he was making contact with her. Her mind was racing with thoughts of Mike Logan.

She still couldn't stop thinking about how handsome she found him, which was strange because she knew he was far too old for her and she didn't normally like older men. Especially after she swore off older guys when she broke up with her first boyfriend who was inappropriately too old for her. After then she made sure to only associate with age-appropriate boys.

But there was something that attracted her to this guy even outside his good looking features. His sly smile and his dry wit. She didn't get the chance to meet many men like him and as such she was enchanted and intrigued. But she shook her head and tried to get the thoughts of him out of her head. She got to flirt and have a bit of fun but she knew she would never see him again. He was an interesting character she got to meet once and there was no point dwelling on it.

"Are you coming to economics class tomorrow?" Chelsea asked Cyrus as they entered the main lobby of the police station and hovered around the entrance.

Both of their attendances could sometimes be a little sketchy. If Chelsea could pick up a lunch rush shift that always took precedence as she needed all the cash she could get (being a broke student and all), but other times she could be hungover from the dorm parties she was sometimes invited to. Cyrus on the other hand sometimes overslept from a hard shift of police work the night before. Although he didn't ever admit it, Chelsea was of the opinion that he most likely stayed home after particularly rough nights where he had to deal with sensitive cases.

"Yeah, I'll be there now I know you're definitely coming." Cyrus smiled.

"Officer Lupo." The desk sergeant called out behind them with a warning tone, beckoning Cyrus back to his post.

Chelsea just bid her friend a warm smile and a wave as she briskly turned away and exited the precinct. She didn't want to stand around saying goodbyes and getting Cyrus into more trouble with his superior.