The Doctor Is In (Law & Order: SVU and Chicago PD)

North By Northwestern

August 2015 rolled around, and it was time for me to start my doctoral program. I was nervous as fuck when the first day of classes came around.. I don't know why. I didn't have to go anywhere and I'm plenty smart enough for it, but I still had a nervousness to me.

Adam and Kevin showed me around campus last week. It's only 30 minutes from my house and the station, which is nice. Although, my particular doctoral program is 99 percent online, and mostly independent learning based. There are classes I will be taking though, of course, it's just not a course heavy program. I will only need to be on campus to turn in the written potion of my thesis, and then to defend it, during my last semester. The program normally takes three years, I hope to finish in two. Fingers crossed.

I was with Adam one day when asked me, "what're you going to do your thesis on? That's what it's called right?"

"Yep! I'm thinking at the moment... how a person's particular diagnosed psychological disorder affects police treatment of said person, before, during, and after arrest!"

"Sure.." he laughed.

"I know, but it's not as crazy as it sounds!" I returned the laugh. "I might have to expand a little though, have to wait until the spring to submit a proposal topic, so they'll tell me if it's trash or not..." I faded off, not thinking he cared.

"What was your master thesis?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"Are you sure you wanna know?" I blushed and he grabbed my hand.

"Definitely.."

"Okay, well.. my master's thesis was called.. 'How white police officers perceive fellow officers of color based on nothing more than color: does that perception change when the POC is female or in a position of power? An observational approach'.."

"You had that whole thing memorized?!"

"No! I was reading it offline!" I winked. "I'm not that much of a nerd!" I lifted my phone to show him my paper.

"Oh, well sounds awesome! Though, not entirely sure what it means," he smiled.

"Thanks! I was proud of it, and you don't need to know what it means," I laughed. He smiled back as he sat down on my bed, and put his arm around me. I laid my head on his shoulder, and sighed.

Before I could get comfortable, though, my phone rang, followed immediately by Adam's.. Hank called us both into work. I still didn't have a car, so Adam drove us to the precinct.

"Sorry for calling you in on a Saturday, I'll submit the overtime. We got a case.. it can't wait.." Hank said when we walked in. He pointed to the board, "rash of burglaries in the west side. Used some sort of agent, knocked out the family, ransacked the homes, and then beat the fathers, sometimes mothers.... raped the daughter."

"One crew?!" I asked. "That's extremely rare.. MO (Modus Operandi- Latin. means, method of operation) all over the place, not to mention multiple MO's.. this profile's gonna be a bitch. I gotta get to work.. thanks Hank." I walked over to my desk and got to work.

Adam walked over and bent down in front of me a few minutes later, I smiled slightly before I looked up. "Can I help you?" I asked smartly.

"Dinner tonight?" He whispered, but Kim overhead which made me smile harder.

"Yes.." I winked. He knocked on my desk and walked away. I gave Kim a satisfied look and she furrowed her brow and walked away.

After about a hour, I felt as though I had a solid profile and I delivered it to the team, "you're looking for an all male crew. Mostly white, but it's possible one or two could be minorities. The leader is the dominant one. He's more than likely the rapist. The others follow his lead and are likely the ones prone to violence.. possibly to impress the dominant one."

"How many?" Antonio asked.

I smirked at him, "detective Dawson... I'm not done yet." Everyone laughed. "3-5 persons."

"Alright.. let's go." Hank said. Everyone spread out to their own desks or downstairs. I sat back with a deep breath, and looked around. Jay and Adam were at their desks and I caught Jay's eye. I smiled when we winked at me, careful to not let Adam see. I felt guilty as fuck... and for what?! Adam and I were just fucking.. no attachment, no feelings.

While the office was quiet, I decided to log on and start some work for my program. I spent the rest of the day reading up on advanced forensic profiles written by some of the best on the business; Dr. George Huang, and members for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. Some of my idols in the field.