Chapter Text
It was the end of another grueling day at the academy and Lucy was ready to crash, but no instead she was in the computer lab with Jackson learning about a new program within the police academy. It was a sort of pen pal program where recruits and rookies can exchange emails anonymously with a more veteran officer. They were even getting ready to implement an instant message system as well in the near future. Jackson had tried to convince her about how helpful such a connection could be and they should take advantage of every possible source of training help they could get.
She wasn’t completely on board, but she was having trouble saying no to him today. She sat through the explanation and the account was set up. She had the system set her up with a random officer and she started to write her first email letter.
To: Officer65
From: Rookie89
So, I’m not sure how to start this out. It’s meant to be anonymous so I guess no names. I mean we are both part of the LAPD, I’m just a little newer than you. I’m meant to ask you to share your well earned knowledge and experience with me to help me become a better cop so I guess if you have any tips to share with me before I head out onto the streets next week I’d love to hear it.
She knows that her tone isn’t very warm in that short email, but she’s hoping maybe she can put off the officer she was paired with so they don’t respond and she can just shrug and not have to keep up pretense of actually wanting to do this. She hit send and then had a sudden wave of guilt wash over her. She thought it over and realized it wasn’t like her at all to not put her best foot forward and she immediately started to type another message.
To: Officer65
From: Rookie89
I’m sorry, that first message came off really rude and that’s not me. To be honest, I was talked into joining this program by one of the other recruits I’ve become friends with and wasn’t really feeling it, you know. This was a really hard day and it just seemed like it would never end and I kind of thought that if I was rude you wouldn’t write back and then I could tell him I tried and his little overachiever heart would be content with my attempt, but that’s just not me. I’m sure you have a lot of great experience that I could learn from. If you are still willing to share anything with me I would be grateful.
Lucy sighs and logs out of the computer lab, making sure to take the sheet with all her login information with her so she can access this program at home and leaves the lab. She’s half expecting to not get a reply at all.
The next day they had a pretty early break as they were planning night training so Lucy decided to check her messages around lunch time. She was pleasantly surprised to find her pen pal had replied.
To: Rookie89
From: Officer65
I just want you to know that your attempt to make me not reply to you with that first email would have worked. After I read it I was convinced that I had no reason to reply to such an ungrateful recruit, which would have been fine by me as I too was talked into this against my will by a well meaning best friend. After reading your second message though I was struck with how similar our situations were and now I feel obligated to answer. I have to warn you, I am not here to be your friend, just pass on some advice. And I will, but I want to make sure we have some ground rules set first.
Rule one: No names, no station assignment, no personal details or any work related details. I don’t want to know who you are or vice versa.
Rule two: No favors. I will give you advice, maybe relay some stories from my rookie year that could benefit you but I’m not going to bail you out if you screw up.
I’m sure there are more things I want to avoid, but honestly, I’m exhausted. Let me know if this sounds alright to you. It’s okay if it doesn’t. We can still say we tried.
Lucy couldn’t help but smile as she read and then reread the message. At least she wasn’t the only one forced into this, but maybe she could still benefit from this thing. She immediately set about typing up a response.
---------------
Tim just wanted to collapse on his bed and sleep for twelve hours, but his tablet was dinging at him that he had a message. He groaned as he dropped his bag on the floor next to his closet and picked up the tablet from the nightstand. Angela had signed up for the pen pal mentorship program because it would look good come promotion time, he still wasn’t sure how she had managed to talk him into doing it as well. He only wanted to torment his own rookie, not help someone else’s.
He got his first message the day before. It was quickly followed by his second message. It appeared that his randomly chosen recruit wasn’t one hundred percent on board with the program either, but if they felt guilty about trying to get out of it, now so did he. The whole premise for the program was good at its heart. Just because he didn’t want to participate didn’t change that, and he did sign up to do it. It wouldn’t be good to not put in his best effort.
He opened up the LAPD site for the program and read his latest message.
To: Officer65
From: Rookie89
Thank you for responding, and for understanding. Seeing as we are both here basically against our will I will try to make this as painless as possible for you. Your rules sound reasonable to me, and I would be more than willing to hear any others you come up with. I have to admit that receiving your message put a smile on my face that I didn’t expect. I have night training tonight so I should go take a nap.
I look forward to your next message.
Tim rolled his eyes, his recruit sounded a little too cheery. Hopefully their training officer could knock some sense into them. For now he would just have to think about what grand wisdom to share before typing up his next message.