Chapter Text
Lucy Chen walked into her first day as a rookie at the Mid-Wilshire police station with a lot more confidence than she expected to have. Although it probably helped that she already had a suspect in tow to prove her worth. She brought the suspect and his gun to the desk, confidently declaring "Officer Chen, reporting for duty". After doing so, she took a moment to really take in her new workplace- proud she could refer to it as such. Well, the station itself wasn't really her workplace at the moment, since she'd be out on patrol the streets were really her new office. Regardless of this technicality, Lucy was happy to be there.
She bounced into the locker room to put her stuff away and get dressed for work. Her locker squeaked as she opened it to put her bag inside and grab her uniform to get changed.
She was slightly sad to see that her new uniform covered her soul mark- an image of a dog that was permanently imprinted on her collarbone. Lucy had gotten a few tattoos of her own over the years, but that one was always her favourite. After all, it connected her to her person, and what could be better than that? She softly circled the mark with her finger before snapping out of it. She couldn't be acting like this on her first day of work. Sighing, she buttoned up the long-sleeved wool top and put on her tie.
Once she finished putting on her police uniform, she headed to the glass-walled room where roll call was held. She was eager to begin today. After 6 months of the academy, she was glad to finally get started on what she thought to be her calling in life- even if it meant losing her parent's approval. Lucy never understood why her parents never liked her choices. Between joining the LAPD and waiting to settle down until she met her soulmate they acted like they couldn't have a worse child. Maybe policing wasn't what Lucy had initially envisioned for herself either, but she could tell from the very first day at the academy that it would mean a lot to her.
New voices bounced off the walls as Lucy entered the room. She didn't see either of her fellow rookies inside yet, giving her no clue as to where she could sit.
As her eyes darted around to room to try and figure out an acceptable location, a voice behind her yelled out "Rookies sit in the front!" Lucy turned to see that the comment had come from a brunette woman whose name tag said 'Lopez' on it.
After momentarily considering if this was a prank, Lucy ultimately decided that it was probably best to listen to Officer Lopez. She didn't want to end up breaking the rules on her first day, after all. First impressions were incredibly important, and she wanted her colleagues to take her seriously.
Lucy went to the front row of chairs and sat in the middle. Her leg bounced up and down as she waited for something to happen. About 30 seconds later, her two fellow rookie, John Nolan and Jackson West, sat next to her. Nolan and Jackson had been Lucy's two best friends at the academy, so she was grateful that they all ended up at Mid-Wilshire. In spite of her enthusiasm, Lucy was also aware that this was going to be a difficult 13 months, and she was grateful to do it with people she knew she could count on.
She, Nolan, and Jackson started whispering about their first day until their conversation was interrupted by the watch commander, Sargent Grey, entering the room. Lucy instantly turned her attention to the front of the room, missing anything on her first day was not an option.
When Sargent Grey finished giving the speech that every new rookie entering this division likely received, he began what he referred to as the "training officer match game".
Lucy was paired up with Officer Bradford, but when she turned to look at him, it felt like something in her world shifted. He had dark hair, blue eyes, and a stern expression on his face. When their eyes met, something clicked. She wasn't sure what- or even why- but she was sure that it was important. After being momentarily shaken by this, she steeled herself, because this was an objectively strange reaction to have when first seeing her training officer. Besides, it probably had nothing to do with anything that actually mattered, and everything to do with the fact that... well... he wasn't exactly unattractive. Lucy took a deep breath, she could not be thinking things like that about her TO, it was objectively stupid and would likely only result in her getting washed out of the program. She wanted to be here too much to let her chances get ruined because she felt weirdly pulled to some guy at work.
And so she resolved to do her best to ignore the fact that her heart was pounding. Even ignore the fact that she could feel a strange warmth in her soul mark- which had never happened before- because it probably- no definitely- meant nothing... right?