This story was never fully published, only read by a few select people (no spoilers please). You should know I can't leave well enough alone. Sorry (not sorry).
Street steps back from the table and admires his work. This would have to do for now. If someone would've told him three months ago that that first date would not happen anytime soon, he'd laughed it off. Chris had been ready. He had been forever, so what could go wrong?
Life.
Yes, them being on separate teams meant that Chris's rules and the ones set forth by the LAPD were not being broken anymore, but she still insisted on professional behavior at work. Then came the shift planning. They somehow ended up on opposite shift blocks almost every time. And the few days they had off together so far, one of them had always been too exhausted to do anything more than just spend some time together, mostly at her place, where they were on their own.
It's where he set up this little candle-lit takeout dinner too. Pretty quickly Chris had given him a key and Street took that as a good sign. They were on the right track and happy.
He checks his watch again. Chris should be on her way home by now, but she hadn't texted him yet. Maybe paperwork or some case made them run overtime. It didn't matter. He was only on late shift tomorrow, and Chris had the day off, so they could enjoy this evening together thoroughly.
At least, that was the plan.
He contemplates texting Chris or Luca and ask what's what, but if they were still in the field, he'd never hear the end of it. So he decides to just collapse on the sofa, turn on the TV and wait.
It must be hours later when Street suddenly startles awake. The room is dark and silent. Had Chris come home and not woken him up? He glances over to the still set table. The food looks untouched and he can't see her shoes, keys nor her backpack anywhere.
Street fumbles for his phone. No new message but the time catches his eye. 4 am. Something had to be seriously wrong if Chris wasn't home yet. He dials her number but her voicemail picks up immediately. If her phone is off, maybe she decided to crash at HQ? But Chris would've texted him right? She knew he was preparing dinner.
Taking another glance at the time he decides to try Luca, but his phone goes straight to voicemail too. The landline just keeps ringing off the hook.
Street is growing more worried by the second. But if something had happened to them, surely someone would've told him by now, right? If the whole team was in trouble, the rest of them would've been called in, right?
He paces around Chris's place for a good 30 minutes trying to decide what to do, before he can't take it anymore and climbs on his bike. He doesn't care that if he is worried for nothing Chris will be mad. He just needs to be sure she is okay.
When Street arrives at Eagles Nest about 30 minutes of riding later he furrows his brows. The parking lot is packed. It looks like it's all hands on deck but his phone doesn't show an alert.
Chris's truck is parked right next to Luca's just like when he left hours ago. But he can also spot Stevens's car and Tan's truck among others. He heads straight inside and is met with a flurry of activity. Something that's quite unusual for this shift. This would only be the case if something went seriously wrong in the city.
He is in some sort of daze when he runs into Tan. "Street? What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing. What's going on?" Street fires back and Tan clicks off the tablet he had been carrying around. He grabs Street's arm and pulls him into an empty office.
"Why did you do that?" Street shrugs loose and with a glare at his friend reaches for the door.
"Stop," Tan lets out. "Street there is a reason, why everybody is here but you,"
Tan gets quiet and glances at the tablet and the alert showing. "Listen, I gotta run. You have to stay here, and as soon as I can I'll be back and fill you in." he pleads with Street knowing full well that that probably won't work.
Street falls onto a chair. The bad feeling in his stomach just grows and when he then hears Rocker call to Tan "Gear up, we have a signal from Luca's tracker," he can't help himself and opens the door to head to op's. On the way he feels a few eyes on himself and when he steps into the room one of the tech's taps Hicks's arm.
The commander turns to him with sorrow on his face. "Street, who called you?"
"No one, I came to check on…" he trails off when his eyes finally register what is on the monitors. Every tracker for 20squad is offline except the intermittent bleep from Luca's.
"What the hell happened?" Street takes a breath but before he can add that he needs to be out there helping Hicks holds up his hand.
"We don't know for sure what happened. I'll brief you and then if you can't go straight home and wait there, you may stay here and stay out of our way," the commanders says calmly and motions for him to follow.
Hicks heads for his office silently and motions for Street to take a seat while he shuts the door.
"20 squad cornered their suspects at an old coal mining shaft. The robbery crew entered and the team followed. We knew we'd lose contact for a while because of the soil and how deep the tunnels go, but no one has checked in for," Hicks glances at the watch "going on 7 hours,"
"I gotta get out there and help searching," Street wants to jump up and run down to change.
"No, you are not going out there. You're emotionally compromised, and I can't allow you to be in the field. I had my reasons to order Stevens not to alert you!" Hicks tells him sternly and Street furrows his brow.
"Everyone here is emotionally compromised. Those are our colleagues and friends missing out there!"
"Not everyone is dating one of the missing officers," Hicks says quietly and Street lowers his gaze. He hadn't realized Hicks knew. "Please sit down, and let me fill you in on the rest and the search,"
Hicks's voice pulls Street back. "There is more?" he asks anxious and taking in Hicks's grim expression, and remembering the urgency when Tan and Rocker talked about them finding a blip from Luca. It had to be something bad.
"When you drove in, you probably heard about the mini earthquake right?" Hicks carefully asks and Street nods. He faintly remembers the radio mentioning that.
"There was no earthquake. There was an explosion in one of the mineshafts. But search and rescue hasn't been able to find anyone down there. And the signal coming from Luca is on the opposite side of town," Hicks finished and even if he wanted to help Street was frozen.