Author's Note: More names that I did not attempt to replicate.

"Have you ever been in an OR before?" Bradford asked, as he escorted Ella through the hallway.

"Just once. My neighbor's dog bit me."

He was a little disappointed she was walking behind him, unable to see the eyeroll. "No, I'm talking about the observation room."

"Yeah!"

Intrigued by the loaded syllable, he turned to face her and cocked an eyebrow.

"I have," she said in a more regular voice, "And I've been on the other side of the glass as well." She shuddered in revulsion as she heard Pete's confession in her head; to cover it, she pretended like she was cold and further zipped up her hoodie.

"Frequently?"

"Uh, nope. Nope, once or twice."

He pushed back the urge to question her ability to count past one and opened the door of the OR. "You can wait here," he muttered, and continued on to the other door. She sighed, shutting the first door behind her and meandering to the window, watching as Bradford sat down opposite of their first witness. At least this time she was on the outside of the fish tank, and she stood there taking comfort in her invisibility.

"Your husband told me two of the children were being babysat. Which one is yours?"

"The girl. Maddie."

"And for the sake of the report, what are the boys' names?"

"Robert and Kyle Simpson."

"I will need their parents' information as we progress. Your husband's name and yours, and employment."

"Uh, he's Erwin Garcia, and he's a chairman," she said, pausing as he wrote. "I'm Hannah Garcia, and I'm a statistician at LACC."

"Thanks," he said, to which Ella thought she may have misheard. "Okay, what were you doing at the time of the attack?"

"I was brushing my hair, I was going to put on my makeup..."

"If you work at a university, why were you babysitting on a Wednesday?"

"They're close with Maddie. They wanted a sleepover. Their mother was going to pick up all the children for school, only, she never showed."

"And why was Kyle hiding in the closet?"

Hannah's eyes flicked briefly down and she shook her head. "He does that sometimes. Claims the world is too bright, too loud... Too much."

"Okay. So he's in the closet, you're brushing your hair."

"Yeah, trying to bribe him out with Lucky Charms. It's never failed before."

"Any behavioral changes?"

Ella frowned at the rather medical-sounding question. What was he doing?

"Uh... Yeah. He used to be pretty loud himself. Then one day, it was like someone pressed a mute button on him."

"Did he say anything this morning?"

"He said he heard a noise, but I mean, he doesn't like the sound of water hitting the steel sink, so I didn't take him seriously... I should have," she whispered. She thought for a moment, then said, "This is going to make me paranoid, isn't it?"

"Did you see him before he knocked you out?"

"Yeah. A split second before. I mean, I turned around because I heard him enter the room, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up next to the kids. Couldn't walk, couldn't talk. He could've killed me and made them all watch."

"I sent a couple of plainclothes officers to your house in case he comes back for another sweep. They'll leave when you return." Abruptly, Bradford left the table and went to the door on the far side of the room, opening it and muttering something Ella couldn't hear; Mrs. Garcia stood up and left the interrogation room.

"Poops," Ella said to herself. "This is the literal opposite of action."

But, as she hovered and watched like a sneaky spy, she got to see something truly amazing; Bradford went to the lights and dimmed them down. "That sweetiepants," she whispered to herself―and fleetingly wondered if, horrifically―he could hear her, as she could hear him. If he could, he was too preoccupied in the files on the clipboard he held to notice, and she thanked God that men had a one-track mind.

Mrs. Garcia's absence was soon filled with the collective attendance of all three children. She saw the little boy who had hit her glance up at the dim lights as he came in. Bradford had wandered to the nearest chair after turning them low, so he now faced the glass behind which Ella stood, and for the span of a single heartbeat, his eyes locked right onto hers.

Surely he couldn't see her, though? This was supposed to be her cloak of invisibility!

"So Kyle, I know," Bradford said, and his eyes moved to the other two. He pointed at the girl. "You must be...Robert."

Robert and Maddie's youthful giggles eradicated the darkness that had wrapped around Ella's heart. "No," the girl laughed.

And Kyle leaned forward, rested his arm on the table and his chin on his arm, and said nothing.

"My mistake, my mistake. Listen, I need to ask you some hard questions, okay?"

Robert sighed, his humor instantly vanquished. "They better not be math."

"No. They're about what you saw when you were attacked this morning. I know it's going to be difficult for you, but we all need you to soldier through. Because what you say could help a lot of people."

"Well, the guy who broke in was wearing all black. He had a mask and gloves on," Maddie said, confirming (or at least echoing) her mother's words. "Like it was winter."

"He didn't want you seeing his face. Wore gloves so he wouldn't leave fingerprints."

"So he wasn't as dumb as he looked?"

"Of course he was dumb," Bradford shrugged. "Guy's a criminal."

There. His job to dissuade them from being bad was accomplished. And parents say it's hard...

Ella tore her attention away from the enigma that was her sergeant when her phone dinged; she read the text message from Chloe, "Sorry about last night" and considered for a few seconds before pocketing her phone, even though she was all by herself. When she looked up, she quickly realized two things; she had lost track of their conversation, and Kyle was walking up to the glass. When his searching eyes went to the door leading to the OR, she quickly and quietly ducked out of the door leading into the hallway. She really didn't want to get pounded on by the same kid twice in a day.

She waited until she heard the OR door close, then popped around the corner and shut the door to the hall, going back up to the window. She didn't see the point, since that one text message had thrown her completely off-course and, much as she loved kids, they weren't going to say anything more helpful than they already had. But perhaps the only reason she needed was being there for her partner. If Lucifer could come to understand it, surely she could.

"...was already inside," Robert was telling Bradford.

Bradford leaned a little closer to Kyle over the table and spoke in a surprisingly gentle voice. "Kyle, did you see the man's face?" he said, and when there was no audible response he tried again, "Kyle, you like hanging out with Maddie, don't you? Telling me what you know or saw would really help her mother."

The silence grew, and staring intently at the kid's face, Bradford's expression suddenly changed. He stood up, abandoning the files on the table and ushering the two children out into the hallway. Just as Ella was wondering if he was going to hurt the child―the boy slid off of the chair, writhing around on the floor. Then Bradford was there again, kneeling by his side and saying, "It's gonna be okay, buddy."

A quick search of his pants and he looked up at the window in alarm. He wasn't getting out his phone. No, Ella realized, he couldn't. He didn't have it. She turned and rushed into the hallway, making a right turn and finding the Garcia family (and Robert) just standing there. "Hey! Does Kyle have epilepsy or something?"

"No."

"Oh, God," she whispered, dialing 911 as she rushed into the interrogation room.

And that was how they met the parents. They all sat in the waiting room, and Ella's head was resting on the wall behind her. Bradford couldn't stop sneaking glances at her, and eventually she had enough. "What?" she asked, without sparing him a glance.

"Kid's been unconscious for almost three hours, and you look bored."

"Yeah, well...you look amused," she noted, obtaining the Simpson's attention.

Bradford decided to ignore her, and she turned her eyes back up to the same pattern on the ceiling she had been staring at for almost three hours. Until finally there was a flash of white in her peripherals. She brought her head down and struggled to sit up on her completely numb ass when she realized the doctor wanted to sit down, and her legs were in her way. She brought her legs under the seat, and the doctor sat across from her, focused on the Simpson family, all of whom sat to Ella's right. Her words only included Kyle's parents.

"I'm so sorry. Your son is in a coma."

"Well, can't you bring him out of it?" Bradford demanded.

"Unfortunately no. We have tried glucose and insulin to adjust his blood sugar, which hasn't worked. He's not hemorrhaging, so he doesn't need surgery. His blood is clean and his white cell count is normal, so no infection. And given his age," she sighed, "We've gone ahead and ruled out alcohol and opioids."

"What's wrong with him?" Robert asked.

Her eyes flitted briefly down to him, but again her words were for the parents only. "We believe your son has a pituitary tumor. It would explain his photophobia and behavioral changes as well. It's curable, but right now it's a theory. I'm sorry," she added again, as she got up. Perhaps busier than Bradford, she walked swiftly to go deal with someone else.

Bradford and Ella turned all of their attention to the Simpson family; holding his wife, Mr. Simpson looked back at them and whispered, "You should go."

It wasn't like they could argue. Muttering their condolences, they stood up and walked through the hospital.

"I mean, I can't even believe we stayed so long. Or that you made them laugh, or...took his light sensitivity to heart," Ella rambled. She looked up at his strong, handsome face. "I guess you're full of surprises like me."

"I think we all are. And some surprises are even good."

She liked his reasoning. "Well, you heard the doc. If it's curable, he's going to be just fine."

"You heard the doc, too. It's a theory. There's no room for faith in here, okay, it's the wrong building."

"Do you see a cross on me?"

Intrigued, Bradford's steps slowed, and she matched his decreasing speed until they had stopped in the hallway. He stepped closer and fussed with her neckline, not realizing the effect he had on her; seeing that her neck was bare he withdrew back into his personal space. For a second he examined the different look that had come over her face, then he turned abruptly away and began heading for the exit, leaving her scrambling to keep up.

"Control, this is 7-Adam-100; we are 10-8."

"Copy, 7-Adam-100. Attaching you to a pursuit."

Rushing to the exit, Ella grinned as Bradford continued holding open the door for a young woman on crutches, who thanked him as she struggled out the door. Bradford looked at her smile until he was bored of seeing her face and stepped out into the parking lot, making her grab the door for herself. "Told you not to make me wait. It's because I won't."

"Could you be any sweeter back there?"

"Don't make me hurt you, Lopez."

"All I hear is, you don't want me hurting."

His cold stare followed as she walked with perky steps toward the shop.

Getting in, she turned her bodycam back on before he turned on his, and he seemed to give her a little nod as they were putting their seatbelts on. Otherwise ignoring her, he briefly tapped away on the computer before starting the engine. "I hope you like going fast."

"The faster the better."

And that wasn't predictable, either. He shook his head in wonder and began to drive.

"What was the look?"

"I don't understand you. One minute you're full of surprises, the next I can read your mind."

"Always keep 'em guessing."

He scoffed at the quote. "I'm not sure instability's an admissible trait for an aspiring officer. Or any contributing member of society."

"What about a magician?"

"I said a contributing member of society," he repeated, and then muttered quietly, "Where the hell do you get magician?"

"7-Adam-100, heads up. Suspect's vehicle is headed your way. All attached units to 7-Adam-100."

Nolan's voice came over the radio, "7-Adam-15 responding."

And Chen's voice followed, "7-Adam-19, show us responding."

Bradford drove towards the exit, but stopped a car's length away from it, searching the area ahead. Ella didn't have to feel the itch of anticipation for long; she saw the suspect's vehicle before she saw the sirens. Driving well over the speed limit and weaving between traffic, it was kind of hard to miss. When it roared past the stop sign, Bradford hit the gas and took the turn, peeling out onto the open road and joining, at the front, the pursuit of the suspect. Ella looked in her rearview mirror to see a sea of red and blue lights, and she felt her adrenaline beginning to rise. Finally...action!

Bradford turned on his lights and sirens and began to accelerate. The engine grew louder.

"Suspect is doing over 100, headed west on Olympic," the radio chattered.

"Yeah, not for long," Bradford muttered, and was reaching for his speaker phone when the driver swerved between a semi and a van. The gaps between the suspect's vehicle and theirs were frighteningly narrow, but Bradford gritted his teeth and followed him through, his only comfort knowing that the vehicle the suspect drove was wider. The other officers, however, did not have that certainty to fall back on, and they deliberately fell behind, losing the suspect. Ella twisted in her seat, watching the lights fade.

He was ignoring her, so she thought she would make herself useful. Exercising what job experience she did have, she ran the suspect's plate, then utilized her radio to announce, "Suspect vehicle is stolen."

"Yeah, and real nice," Bradford growled.

She dug deeper and nodded. "It's theirs."

"Goddamn it!" he answered, and sped up even more.

But then the suspect took a hard left, cutting into oncoming traffic. Since Bradford was unwilling to do the same, he was easily lost. He promptly pulled over and grabbed his radio. "7-Adam-100, I've lost eyes. Do you see him?"

The delay was brief. "We see him. Suspect has just run somebody over."

The woman in the airship clicked off, and it seemed the entire world had gone quiet. Ella thought she would need more than the rest of her shift to process the words themselves, let alone how terrible it was; then Bradford began to drive again.

Sometime later, the officers involved in the pursuit had all assembled outside for their lunch break. They hogged the chairs, eight officers gathered around a dinky little table; they were the largest group in the designated dining space by the little food stands, but also the quietest. Squinting in the light, they treated one another like a thing to be looked at. Nobody spoke; they just sat there, dealing with it. It was only when Chen's face suddenly crumpled that the chill in the air between them thawed.

"I suppose we should notify the Garcias," Nolan murmured.

"Can you imagine how devastating it'll be?" Angela asked. "Your family tied up and left for dead, your things stolen, your car an accessory to a murder. Son in a coma. It's got to officially be the worst day ever."

"Yeah," Thorsen muttered, "But at least it won't be the case Harper comes back to."

"Man, why aren't police cars the fastest vehicles made?" Juarez piped up.

"It's a damn shame," Smitty agreed.

In the silence, their eyes began finding Ella, like they wanted her to speak, so she said the only thing that sprang to her grieving mind: "Who's Harper?"

"Let me give you a hint; she's worse than Bradford," Thorsen joked, and quickly sobered, looking at him. "No offense, sir."

"Relax, Thorsen, I don't care about your opinion. Or entirely disagree with it."

"Good," he said, extremely serious. "I'd hate to have just enlightened you."

Bradford turned his attention to Smitty. "Why're you here?"

"He's with me," Chen said quickly.

"Why?" he pressed.

"Because he is, okay? God," came the whip of her response. Then she bit her lip and avoided his eyes, regressing into a silent state; she appeared instantly contrite, but didn't apologize. Bradford shook his head, telling himself there was a dead girl and it wasn't personal. Or rather it was, but at least not towards him.

"I will notify the Garcias," Nolan said, his voice perpetually gentle and hesitant. It was like he was constantly trying to figure out the world, and like Bradford had already and didn't like it. But Ella was familiar with those kinds of people. In fact maybe they were the only types of people. It would explain why they were everywhere.

Nolan left the table, getting out his phone.

"Gotta tell ya, this has been one heck of a first-ish day," Ella announced.

"Ready to read in bed yet?" Bradford grumped.

"That won't pay for my bills."

"Is that the only reason you're here?"

"No. It's the reason I'm staying."

Bradford rolled his eyes as he looked at her, then he got up and left the dining area. As he left, he bumped into Nolan―almost literally; Nolan moved close and narrowly avoided brushing into his sergeant, not knowing of the near-collision until he passed him. "Oh! Hey, where's the fire?"

"Not in my rookie's heart."

"What do you mean?" Nolan stammered.

"She doesn't care. So I may as well be under command to teach a mannequin. The sergeant and I are just wasting each other's time."

As Bradford left, Nolan turned to look at the young woman under his severe watch―worrying for her. "Hey, Bradford?" he called, halting his impatient sergeant.

"What?!"

Nolan moved closer, so Bradford yelling at him loud enough for Lopez to hear him would be a choice. "Are you going to continue teaching her?"

"What's the point? She's only in it for the money. I'm not even sure she's interested in helping people."

"So what's your solution? Kick her to the curb, force her to do something else, like strip?"

Bradford smiled, thinking of Ella's criminal family.

"You think that's funny, sir?"

"I think her arrest would make my day. Nah, I'm gonna see if any other suckers want to train her."

Nolan waited until Bradford had gotten in his shop and driven away without his rookie, leaving Ella to peer in worry at the now-vacant spot he had parked in, before digging out his cell phone and calling Grey.

"Nolan," was how the grumpy sergeant greeted him, "This better be good."

"Uh, sir, I'm afraid it's bad."

"Well, I suppose that's interesting, too. What's going on?"

"Bradford's just given up on his new rookie. Said he's 'going to see if any other suckers want to train her,' and I was wondering if―"

"I told you before, I can't assign two rookies to one T.O."

"Yes, sir. But there has to be someone whose hands are free."

"Why are you pushing so hard for this girl?"

"Respectfully, sir, someone has to. Bradford's not going to do it. Besides, we are the only station in L.A. to have made it three months without someone quitting."

"I like your competitive spirit. But our only free hands are Smitty and Harper, when she returns."

Nolan gripped the phone tightly, trying to stop his head from spinning. "Sir, there has to be something besides tossing her to the wolves. Why can't a T.O. have two rookies in the first place?"

"In addition to the extra, unnecessary stress on the T.O., anybody can slip up and pay more attention to one rookie than the other. Then it's two people making mistakes."

Nolan closed his eyes. "Then the only solution I can see is having Smitty train her, even if until Harper comes back. And then it's... It's Harper," he sighed. "After two days with Bradford, I'm not sure she's ready for that."

Grey was quiet for a moment, considering, then said, "I suppose I could pair Thorsen with Bradford and Officer Lopez to Chen. Is that better?"

"Sure is for Lopez."

"Thorsen's more accustomed to Bradford, he'll survive."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"Alright, I'll announce it right away."

Nolan hung up, forcing a smile of encouragement at the lost-looking rookie.

Also watching Nolan, Smitty gestured to him. "I guess everything's sorted with the Garcias."

"He's good," Thorsen acknowledged.

It sure seemed like a lot of time on the job was spent sitting in the glass room listening to announcements. On the plus side, Ella got to sit down for this one. It may have taken her two days, but at least it happened. Maybe there was a first for everything. She sat down, grinning in victory at Bradford and watching him roll his eyes again. She tried to not be disheartened―after all, if he were easy to please, nothing would feel like an accomplishment, and she really wanted to earn a place on his good side. His friendship, even.

"In light of what certain people want," Grey began, and his eyes briefly found Nolan's, "I've decided to swap things up. So Officer Lopez, you'll be riding with Officer Chen, and Officer Thorsen, you'll be riding with Sergeant Bradford until further notice."

Ella was pleased, until she noticed that Bradford―and more concerningly, Nolan―looked pleased as well. She shifted in her seat, suddenly uncomfortable, as she wondered who had notified Grey of the pushing incident. And as she continued to observe her former T.O., she realized he was beginning to suspect Nolan, too. It was obvious, the way he was watching him and scowling despite Nolan's guilty smile directed his way. Thorsen was visibly disturbed by the announcement, his eyes flicking around the room like he wanted to escape from it.

Then she noticed the officers all around her staring in disapproval, and she realized she had just heard Grey say something. She looked up front to see bodycam footage of a teenager standing in a mall, and saying, "Come on, Officer. Help me out. If my parents have to spot me again, they're gonna kill me."

The officer groaned, taking a moment to respond; when he did, even Ella recognized the voice. "Alright, I won't bust you, but you've gotta do something for me."

"You want some coke?"

Now only Grey was watching the video; he pointed and murmured, "Keep watching," prompting them to look back at the screen.

"I want to try out your skateboard."

The kid handed it over, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, and the bodycam footage revealed Smitty attempting to ride, even though he clearly said, "I've never done this before."

Everyone had mixed reactions as he fell; Bradford was among the few who found it amusing. Juarez and Chen seemed to feel his pain.

Grey clicked off the screen and was quiet for a moment, finally saying, "Officer Smitty, stay behind. Everyone else, be safe out there."

Ella nearly went to Bradford, but when Thorsen pointed at Chen, she nodded her thanks and redirected.

"Well, I hope T.O. Chen is the same as cafeteria Chen," Ella greeted her.

Chen gave her a grin and said, "I actually have no idea."

Then Chen turned and walked to the door, motioning her along, and Ella followed, suddenly more intimidated than ever.