"What do you mean you now have custody?" Nash questions in confusion.

"It means just that. They were going to place her, in my opinion, in an overcrowded foster home and the chances of Jade being brought here to see her mom was low and I didn't like that,"  I explain calmly.

"And they said okay? Just like that?" Haruto asks in surprise.

"I'm a police officer and a detailed background check of me is being sent to their office plus personal email, I don't see why they should say no," I reason. "They did try to point out that there could be times when I'd be working late or I'm called into work in the middle of the night and there would be no adult with Jade. Of course I understand that but I mentioned Charlotte and how she has children of her own, the both of them were surprised I knew her since they helped with Wren."

"So they ok'd it because they're already social workers for Wren?" Nash says putting everything together.

"Bingo," I grin. "Her mom trusted me to watch over her today and while she's here I'll continue to do that. Besides if it's needed, she can join at us the station when she's done with school, she'll have a lot of people to keep her company."

"I'll help you, I can't work on the investigation but she did grow onto me today," he says with a fond smile.

"I had a feeling you would say that so I asked Jason to send a background check of you too," I grin. "They'll probably have to stop by your apartment to make sure it's safe but other than that you should be in the clear."

"And while Julia is here I can send you updates of her condition," Haruto tells me.

"Thank you, I want her to recover and then they can put this mess behind them," I say to them as a nurse approaches us.

"Excuse me, are you waiting for a patient? Visiting hours are currently over," she says to the three of us. "Well that excludes you doctor Sato," she says with a coy grin. I frown when she says that and I cross my arms over my chest turning my whole body to face her.

"You do realize that we're not incompetent right? Instead of telling us that visiting hours are over, why don't you ask us why we're still here? And flirting with your superior while you're still on the job, you have guts," I tell her, my eyes widening mockingly. "Haruto, can you find someone that has a brain around here and find out what's going on?"

"Sure, let me go see if she's out of surgery yet," he chuckles as he stands and walks past the nurse. She glares at me before scurrying after Haruto.

"Wow, they weren't kidding I mutter as I sit back down.

"Who wasn't kidding?" Nash questions.

"Victoria and Haruto. They said the women here are vultures or in Victoria's words, fucking thirsty pieces of shit," I chuckle and his laughter joins mine. We hear the elevator doors open again and this time instead of being met with a doctor or nurse, Aurora is the one walking towards us.

"You needed things from the house?" she questions as she holds up a bag.

"Yeah, I'll take that thanks," I tell her as she hands it to me.

"So that's the kid that you'll be watching over?" she asks as she looks at Jade.

"It's a temporary arrangement," I reply as I go through the bag, double-checking she grabbed most necessities.

"I see, well, Nash, since you have no reason to stay with them do you want to head out?" she asks him.

"I can't, I have to drop them off at Natalia's place later and I can't leave the two of them yet," he says to her as Jade starts waking up. She looks startled for a moment, I can see she's wondering where she is but when her eyes land on me she calms down a bit.

"Jade, where's my mom?" she asks as she rubs her eyes.

"I can answer that," Haruto says as he walks back to us. "They just moved her into a room and we can go see her now." She quickly sits upright before standing as she looks at me eagerly.

"I know, don't worry we're going," I tell her as I stand up and swing the bag over my arm. I ignore Aurora as we walk past her tell her but hear Nash saying bye to her before his footsteps quickly catch up to us and the bag on my arm is slipped off my shoulders. Jade's hand finds mine as we pass other hospital rooms before stopping at the very last one in the hall.

"Your mom is in there Jade but she's sleeping," Haruto tells her. We look inside the room and see Julia lying on the bed, hooked up to a ventilator, different monitors, and now since she's been cleaned of the blood I can see her hands are bruised plus parts of her face.

"Mom, mommy," Jade starts crying as she looks at her. Nash moves to wrap an arm around her and nods his head at me.

"You go talk to the doctor and hear the full prognosis, we'll stay here," he tells me as a doctor walks towards us.

"Yeah, we'll be right back," I tell him as Haruto and I go to meet them.

"Haruto, I wasn't aware you knew the patient," the female doctor says to him.

"I don't know her Amelia, but my friend does, she brought her daughter here," he says pointing back to Jade and Nash.

"I want to know how Julia is doing, how bad were her injuries?" I ask the doctor. 

"The person that did that to her really did a number. Yes, there were multiple stab wounds but he managed to hit some of her vital organs including her lungs, we were amazed she didn't bleed out. She has a couple of broken bones but those will heal on their own in due time," she tells us. "She flatlined four timeswhile in surgery but we managed to stablize her. We also found some bleeding in her brain which was quickly dealt with. For now because of the extensiveness of her injuries, we placed her in a medically induced coma. We'd rather she heal while sleeping and we can continue to monitor her so we know there were no complications with the surgeries."

"Okay, while she's here the only people that will be visiting her will be either me or the man at the end of the hall accompanied with her daughter. Haruto and a nurse here named Victoria will be the other two people allowed to visit so they can also keep me updated while I'm at work, I'd rather have a limited number of people here," I tell her. 

"Of course, Haruto will you take care of that?" she asks turning to look at him. 

"Yeah, you can leave that to me," he tells her. 

"Then I'll leave you to it. I'm going to make my round through the ward so have a goodnight you two," she tells us as she walks past us. We echo a goodnight to her as she turns the corner going further into the ward. We walk back to Nash and Jade and he looks at us but I shake my head, we can talk about it at a later time.

"Jade, we should get going. Your mom is going to stay here while she rests but we can come back to see her during the day and my friend here is going to text me about how she's doing," I say pointing at Haruto. 

"Okay," she whispers as she moves towards me, her face buried into my side and I move my hand over her hair. 

"I need to get going too, can't spend another night in the hospital sleeping," Haruto chuckles and that's when I notice the dark shadows under his eyes.

"Get going otherwise you'll be hearing from me," I tell him as I hug him quickly. "We'll see you later." He nods his head at Nash before walking in the direction the other doctor went earlier. 

"I'll drop you guys at your place and then I'll come over in the morning," Nash tells me as we walk to the elevators.

"No, stay the night," I tell him as the doors open and we step inside. "Plans may have changed but I want you to stay."

"Sure beautiful," I hear him murmur as his hand links with mine. It's been a long while since I've been mentally exhausted but the most important thing is getting Jade settled in since it's still unclear how long she'll be staying with us. 

✘✘

"Go back to sleep Jade. You don't have school tomorrow so you can sleep in and then we can go and visit your mom," I tell her as I fix the spare blanket around her. We left the hospital an hour ago and the three of us came back to my apartment tired on our feet. We did our night routines and now here I am tucking Jade in bed.

"Natalia, do you know when my mom is going to wake up?" she questions. 

"I don't know but all we can do is pray for her and trust she'll wake up soon," I say with a soft smile. "While she's there you'll be staying with me and Nash, is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, it's okay," she says with a smile of her own.

"Alright, I'll let you sleep but if you need anything don't hesitate to wake me up okay?" I ask her as I walk back to the door. 

"Okay, goodnight," she says to me.

"Goodnight," I tell her as I flick off the lights and close the door but not fully so some light still seeps in.

"She's asleep?" Nash questions as I walk back into the living room.

"Not yet but hopefully soon, I'm worried about how she's handling everything. Her mom is in the hospital and now she's staying here," I say to him as I drop beside him. 

"Well, we'll make sure she's okay," he says as he wraps an arm around my shoulder to kiss my forehead.

"Her mom's injuries were pretty bad. The stab wounds she got hit a lot of her vital organs including her lungs, it's a miracle she didn't die in the apartment. She had internal bleeding in the head, some broken bones and she flatlined a couple of times so for now, they're keeping her in a coma, though I don't know for how long ," I say to him as I lean into his side. 

"She has the best doctors there, I do not doubt in my mind she'll make a full recovery," he tells me.

"Yeah, you're right, she'll be fine," I say agreeing with him. "If you want you can go to sleep right now. I'm tired still but showering woke me up and my mind is going a mile a minute. I think I'm going to continue stalking that guy's Instagram," I say to him as I tilt my head to look up at him. 

"I'll stay here with you, we'll just change our seating position," he says to me as he moves back so he's sitting against the armrest and he pulls me so I'm lying on top of him. He grabs the spare blanket I keep thrown over my sofa and spreads it over the two of us before wrapping his arms around me.

"You comfortable?" he asks with a smirk.

"Yeah, this is nice," I whisper as I wrap one of my arms to hug him back, my other holding onto his phone.

"It's refreshing to see you wearing these," he says touching the glasses that are currently sitting on my face.

"I'd rather have my contacts on so there's no chance of it getting broken when we're in the field," I chuckle.

"Yeah, well they make you look sexy, it's a look only I know," he grins and I roll my eyes.

"Yes, yes, feel honoured that you're the only one that knows this version of me," I say in a snobby tone as he laughs. 

"When you're ready to go to sleep, wake me up and then we can go to bed," he tells me and I let out a small hum in response. It's peaceful, the rise and fall of Nash's chest, his light snores that fill the room; I better hurry and find a picture soon otherwise this peacefulness will put me to sleep.

"Another picture of him with a woman in a bikini, another one, another one; wow he must think he's the shit," I say to myself as I continue scrolling. The time slowly passes and my eyes start getting tired from staring at the screen for so long. I don't know what number I'm at but my eyes stop at a group photo with him and five other men on what looks like to be a boat with strippers. 

I zero in on one in particular and I tap the picture, holding my breath to see if his username will come up. It does and an excited smile makes its way onto my face. I press on the username and I'm taken to his Instagram page and I read the name he put on it, Ricardo Accardi. I scroll through a couple of the photos he posted and I can confirm that it's the man we're looking for.

"I found you," I say in a sing-song voice and my grin widens. I screenshot the page and open Nash's messages with Felix and send it to him. I type out find him before powering off the phone and leaning over the sofa to place it onto the floor along with my glasses. I doubt we'll be going into work today but by Monday we should have something on this guy. 

I turn my head so my chin rests on Nash's chest and I watch him sleep, it might sound creepy saying that but it's nice he can let his guard down around me. My fingers trace his cheekbones and I move up, kissing him softly on the lips before settling back down. Sure he said to wake him so we can go to bed but how can I do that when he looks like this? If I wake up again later maybe I'll consider it but for now, he's warm and I like how he's holding me so no need to disturb that.

✘✘

A/N Some of you know The Officer was completed last week Friday. I told myself I would put the last three chapters up all in one day and I'll be honest even I doubted I could do it but alas I did. It's sad that chapter is closed but now I can look towards this story plus another one I currently started The Underground Fighter.

I had this chapter half-ready during the weekend but I was sick, well kind of. I took some allergy medications and I already knew it'd make me drowsy but by the time it reached ten at night it's like my body was shutting down as if I was really sick; I just took it as a sign I desperately needed sleep.

What are your thoughts on the chapter? be sure to leave them in the comments and has anyone noticed the cover for T.D has gone through a slight change? I love black and white but having white lettering in the title really pissed me off and after playing around with so many different lettering, I finally found one that's not ugly and I'm satisfied with. The other two stories T.E.C and T.O have been charged as well to fit the same theme!!