ꜰʟᴀᴍᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴘᴀꜱꜱɪᴏɴ | ᴛᴏᴍ ʜᴀɴꜱᴏɴ

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

MARCELLA ROBERTS SAT AT THE WINDOW SEAT OF THE TRAIN, looking out at the trees whizzing past her. She was still unsure whether or not any of this was real. Quitting her new job after only being there a year and a half, the news of her old captain being dead, or the fact that she was going back to her old, lower paying job.

It all felt like a dream, one of those crazy ones where a bunch of things are happening that wouldn't normally happen. And it's full of familiar faces, but something is...different. That's what this was to Marcella; an out-of-body experience. But as crazy as it was, it felt right, like her life was finally beginning. After nearly 22 years of her life being one miserable day at a time, she truly believed she might just start to enjoy it.

Well, for good this time. She had enjoyed it before, for a few months, when she had first joined Jump Street. She had known she wanted to be a cop since she got out of high school, and skipped college to go to police academy. It had worked out, and she was recommended the undercover police program right away, due to her age and youthful looks. Marcella had been wary about going undercover in high schools at first, as she found it hard to believe that it was real police work (In her defense the captain was a hippie in his sixties and the station was actually just an abandoned chapel, supposedly adding to it's undercover charm). But she soon grew to love it and understand that it was an effective way to reduce crime, and guide the younger generation in the right direction. Plus, there was a lot more action in the job than she had thought.

But the best part about it were her teammates and her captain. She had become very close to them, despite trying to distance herself from them at the beginning. Marcella had grown up in a very neglectful and toxic house. When she finally left and joined the academy, she mostly kept to herself, as she tended to be too much for people anyway. It was fine, whatever. She had been alone all her life. So, she didn't have any friends. People judged her too quickly anyway, they made her feel like an outsider.

But from the moment she had met her team at Jump Street, they made her feel welcome. And soon, they became more than co-workers to her. They became her friends, and she would even go as far to consider them her family. The only people that she would ever consider family. And her captain...

Marcella felt her eyes sting up thinking about Captain Jenko. He was like a father to her. He taught her things, he mentored her. He never got angry or called her useless when she made mistakes, like her biological father used to. He wanted to see her succeed, he believed in her. She owed him everything. She still couldn't believe he was gone. She had gotten the news a few months ago, from her old teammate and best friend, Judy. Yet, she couldn't find it in herself to attend his funeral, or talk about it with her former unit. She was afraid that if she did that, it would become real. She wasn't ready to face it then, but she was ready to face it now. That's why she was going back.

That, and because her new undercover unit wasn't good for her. Most of the members were men, and they didn't seem to understand that she was capable of more than just setting up fake dates with criminals. They simply saw her as perfect bait for catching creeps because she was a woman, and that wasn't fair. Didn't they realize they went through the same academy? And not only that, they didn't try to get to know her, or make her feel like part of the team. Marcella felt like an outsider all over again, and she had started to revert back to her old ways. She became distant and withdrawn, at least when she was in the office. That's when she began to realize that she may have made a mistake. She knew where she really belonged, and it was time to face that truth.

"Next stop: Metropolis, Evergreen State."

For the first time in what felt like ages, Marcella genuinely smiled.

She was finally going home.