One

I ignored the voice to the right of me, my gun in front of me, my arms stretched out.

“Get on the floor now!” Stuart shouted, he was at least a meter in front of me, but my gun was drawn to the scruffy man with his hands up, slowly dropping to the floor.

“Lex.” The voice said again. I ignored it, putting my gun away. “Lex.” It repeated.

“What Leon?” I turned to his stupid face.

“Want to grab a drink after debrief?”

“With you? No,” I said firmly. Leon put his gun away, fully standing now.

“Are you two going to help me or continue to sort out your Friday night?” Stuart said roughly, putting handcuffs on scruffy man.

“Well, we were in the middle of a conversation, Stu,” Leon chuckled.

“Leon fuck off and get him in the van. Fuck sake,” Stuart barked, standing up. Leon did what he was told, lifting the man up and walking him towards the van parked next to the side road. “Good job guys.” Stuart slapped my back. “Lexie, drive for me please?” Stuart asked and I nodded, getting into the police van. I waited until both men were back in the van before driving off.

“Leon, seriously I need you to stop fucking about!” Stuart shouted, I looked in my wing mirror, pretending I couldn’t hear this conversation.

“Stu, the situation was under control,” Leon chuckled, as usual.

“No thanks to you.” Stuart rubbed his brow. Stuart was a lot older than me and Leon, more experienced, a higher rank and I knew he would rather do these jobs with colleagues who hadn’t been on the force for ten years, like us.

“You need to chill the fuck out Stuart,” Leon breathed out and I looked at him through the mirror. He was such a cocky shit and he drove me wild. He never took anything seriously, everything was always a joke, even his job. Leon saw me looking at him and smiled cheekily.

“He’s right Leon, it could have gone wrong today. I don’t know why you always got to joke about shit.” I turned into the police station.

“Don’t you start as well Lex, tell me if we’ve ever gone on a job that’s gone south because of me?” I rolled my eyes, he was right on that one. Annoyingly Leon was the class clown, never taking anything seriously. But when he was needed? He was one of the best specialist firearms officers I had ever worked with.

“Whatever,” I breathed out, parking up.

“Exactly!” Leon laughed. “Because you were wrong I’m taking you out tonight.” I jumped out the van, watching them do the same.

“You deaf? Or you don’t take no for an answer?” I asked, my brow crossed.

“Stu, get the suspect out for me please. I need to sort this out with my work wife.” Leon grinned, attempting to move from the punch that he knew was coming.

“You’re not the boss,” Stuart said, luckily with a hint of laughter.

“Just one drink Lex, you know you want to.” His voice was high, putting his arm around my shoulders. I looked up at him and his beautiful face. Leon was definitely the most attractive of the millions of men I worked with. He had the darkest brown eyes, his full lips always went into a cheeky smile and his light brown skin was just a touch darker than mine.

“You need to go to the barbers,” I teased, running my hand down his shaved hair.

“No, I don’t. I had a shape up like two days ago,” he moved from me, running his own hand down his hair.

“Move!” Stuart shouted and we jumped apart, letting him walk scruffy man into the station. I had nearly forgotten the actual suspect. Stuart stopped by the door and turned to us.

“You two either need to fight it out in a ring or just fuck already.” He rolled his eyes as the door opened. I felt my cheeks burn as I looked down.

“I’ve been saying the exact same thing to her!” Leon cackled, walking behind Stuart. I let out a breath, walking behind them.

“Great work team, debrief room please!” Our Superintendent Williams shouted. I nodded, walking behind Leon into the dark room, chairs facing the front. I sat at the front, huffing as Leon sat next to me. We stood as Stuart and Williams came into the room. Superintendent Williams was the best boss I ever had. She was in her fifties and had been in the police since she was twenty, like me. I hoped one day to be as high up as her. Her blonde hair was starting to turn grey and she was slim as a stick.

“As you were,” she said softly, walking towards the front. We sat, Leon’s thigh up against mine. I knew he was doing it on purpose so I opened my legs further, pushing his back. I heard his chuckle as Williams spoke.

“Right start to finish, Sergeant?” She looked up at Stuart.

“Course ma’am, we were called to the Baker Estate due to a suspect seen with a machete.” My eyes were on Williams, her nodding. “SFO Duggan drove us to the middle of the estate and we proceeded on foot. The suspect was visible to all of us and we started chase to a side street.”

“Duggan, any way the vehicle pursuit could have gone better?” Williams turned to me.

“No ma’am, the suspect was never visible to us on the road, so we didn’t have to pursue as such.” I swallowed, hoping that was the right answer.

“Perfect, continue.” She looked up at Stuart.

“We notified the suspect we were police and then that we were armed police ma’am. Suspect stopped running, we all drew our guns and the suspect dropped the weapon and got to the floor.” Stuart finished. Williams looked over at me and Leon.

“My next question, was SFO Bailey on his best behaviour?” Williams asked with a small chuckle.

“Of course ma’am.” Leon answered.

“I doubt that but okay. Put your guns away, do your paperwork and go home.” Williams walked out of the room. We went back into the armoury, signing back our guns. I ripped off my bullet proof vest as we walked out, Leon right behind me.

“I’ll buy you an extra drink if you do my paperwork?” I turned to Leon’s voice.

“Do your own fucking paperwork.” I rolled my eyes.

“Lexie, why do you always got to fight this?!” Leon shouted as I walked away. I had been a specialist firearms officer or SFO for five years now, being in the police force for ten. It was my dream job and the only reason why I applied for the police in the first place. Leon was my partner but he was the same rank as me so we always had a sergeant with us, usually Stuart. Leon sat opposite me at his desk, groaning as he started typing. I ignored his obvious plea for attention, cracking on with my own work.