Int. Inside Hospital Room(Morning)October 25, 2025 11:50 A.M.
Blake glanced longingly at his once prized leather jacket; it's been with him since he first started working as a detective so many years back. It was a gift from Captain Drake back when he was a rookie. Drake gave it to him as a gift for completing his first murder case. He was one of the rare people to move up from a beat cop in under three years; back then he worked hard to prove himself. Blake let out a sigh; he was once like Gabriel, always about the book and doing everything he could to follow commands.
It's been years since then, since he could look himself in the mirror and not feel disappointment for how he turned out. So many thoughts just ran through his head. With a sigh, he sat the jacket to the side, setting it down on his bed. He got up from the hospital bed, grabbing the back of clothes at the edge of the bed. Blake quickly headed to the bathroom and got dressed in a black shirt with regular blue jeans, nothing too fancy.
Splashing water on his face, he noticed in the mirror that a slight stubble was beginning to grow on his face. It's been years since he has let a beard grow on his face; Blake is debating on keeping it and seeing what happens. The closer he looked in the mirror, the more he realized his face was less haggard, the dark black circles missing. Even though his hair was still graying, his face looked a little younger. Now Blake thought about it: he was easily able to get up out of the bed after being thrown around by Lucious. Blake shuddered at the thought of Lucious; he probably had to take a thousand showers before he ever felt clean after being licked by that guy's tongue. He scrubbed his face for good measure before taking one last look in the mirror.
Blake saw the woman in white waving at him, her eyes teary as she faded into a bright light. "Chole," he whispered as he quickly turned around but saw nothing but the closed bathroom door. Blake wanted to reach out, wanted to say something, but it was too late; she was gone once again. "Still looked the same way back when she died," he said out loud, his tone melancholy. With a sigh, the guilt he had from the night back in 2002 still eats away at him, the self-hatred joining in. Once again Chole saved his life, but what is life in the world he lives in? Blake turned around and shut the water off, making sure to ignore the mirror. He grabbed the hospital gown off the ground and walked out the bathroom door.
At the same time he was exiting, the door to his room was opening, a nurse with dark skin entering the room. She glanced at the bed before looking around the room, and saw Blake walking out of the bathroom door. "Next time, Mr. Murphy, wait for a nurse to assist," the nurse scolded, a small frown on her face. "If you had fallen, we would've been in trouble, sir."
Blake scratched the back of his head with his left hand that wasn't holding the hospital gown. "I'm sorry, ma'am, I just got tired of laying around since I woke up yesterday," he tried to explain.
The nurse went to open her mouth, but before she could speak, a man entered the room, slightly bumping the nurse out of the way with a slightly round stomach. The man was slightly shorter than Blake by one or two inches. He had a mustache that stood out, with a small smile on his face. "Excuse me, Nurse, I didn't mean to bump into you, but can you forgive my friend here? I'll make sure he takes it easy for the rest of the day," the man said, bowing his head slightly as he turned back to look at her.
The nurse looked visibly unsettled but kept a professional demeanor. "I was going to discharge him anyway. I was going to leave his papers and explain how he should take it easy until Monday," She quickly stated.
Blake just sighed at the exchange as he watched the man standing straight up; he had the feeling he was probably here to scold him again. "I'll make sure he has plenty of rest, ma'am," the man said. Blake watched as the man led the nurse out the room before shutting the door behind her. The man then turned to Blake, a huge scowl on his face. "What the fuck, Detective!" the man spat, his tone venomous. "I told you to take over the case, stay under the radar, and not, I repeat, not cause any issues. What does burning down a warehouse in the middle of god-forsaken nowhere mean for staying under the radar?"
Blake let out a nervous chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head, a small bead of sweat from the intense gaze running down his face. "This case has been much more difficult than I expected, Captain," he admitted.
Captain Drake was an old friend of Blake's, being the one who worked with him when he first started being offered detective work. Drake grabbed the bridge of his nose with his left hand, the feeling of annoyance radiating from around him. "By the time we got to the warehouse, you and Detective Gabriel were laying on the ground, knocked out. I'm not going to ask what happened, but I need to know: did they return?" he asked, an almost hopeful look in his eye, wanting to be wrong.
Blake knew what he was asking, how twenty years ago he was forced to cover up the death of his partner. "I'm sorry to say, in the report you'll have it, but it looks like those people from years ago are back," he answered honestly, his tone becoming low.
Drake's face looked as if it's aged years visibly upon hearing that statement, his eyes becoming sunken. Blake noticed that his eyes had dark circles underneath them, his face having a slight stubble. Drake's suit was usually very meticulous. "Maybe Drake had another reason to assign him to the case than just helping an old friend," Blake thought to himself. Blake just shook his head; always the same kind of secrets going on in this world, it's why he gave up trying so long ago.
"On Monday, I need an entire debrief in my office about what happened. Don't write a report just in case someone goes through your paperwork," Drake demanded, looking into Blake's eyes seriously.
Blake went to open his mouth, but the door to the room swung open, surprising everyone in the room. Blake didn't even have time to blink as a blur pushed past Drake, pushing him to the side before barreling right into Blake's chest. "OOPH," Blake gasped out loud. The breath was driven out of his lungs as the object wrapped their arms around his chest. He looked down and noticed a head coming up to the middle of his chest, with hair as red as his own used to be. Blake could not help but do his best to pry the arms around his waist off his body, ignoring Drake's smug look from near the door as he spent a minute struggling to remove the arms before finally giving up.
Blake leaned into the hug, though he was doing his best to take in air, his lungs still not fully expanding as it should. He could feel wet spots beginning to build up on his shirt, the feel of his shirt sticking to his skin causing a weird itch. After a couple of minutes, though Blake felt like hours, the object (which was a person) finally unwrapped their arms from around his waist. The person took a step, revealing a young girl, around the age of sixteen, her face red as tears still came out of her brown eyes. "D... add, y... y... ou bi... g idiot," She sniffled, using the sleeve of her arm to wipe away the tears on her face.
"Elizabeth," Blake began, his eyes narrowing at Drake who was doing a poor job of stifling his laughter.
Liz's tears dried up as her eyes narrowed aggressively at Blake, her hands balling in fists as her face burned bright red. "How many times are you going to keep ending up in the hospital for being stupid in the field?" She stated, her tone aggressive as she approached Blake, poking his chest with each word she said. "At least bring backup, or leave before things get worse."
"He did have backup in the form of Detective Owns," Drake interrupted, his arms crossed as he leaned back against the wall.
Blake saw Liz jump in shock as she quickly flinched at Drake, shaking his head as she glanced at him, her face turning white, then red in embarrassment. Ultimately she looked at her father, with defeat in her face."Seriously Gab? Gab of all people we both know he is pushover when it comes you all always just going along with whatever you say while preaching about rules"
Blake grabbed his nose with annoyance doing his best to steam the growing headache while dealing with the two people in the room. "Can we not talk about Gabriel at the moment, I'd rather we start making our way out the room."
"No seriously why Gab I thought he didn't want to work with you anymore?"Liz questioned, her hand in fist under her chin, completely ignoring what Blake just said as she thought out loud. "Dude is a total loser, always being quiet when he came over to our house when you guys first partnered up. Her words came out fast as she kept saying the words she was thinking out.
Blake heard Drake snort, his hand quickly covering his mouth to hide his laughter once again. Letting out a sigh he finally decided on what to do. Taking a couple of steps forward, Blake quickly closed the distance between himself and his daughter, putting his hand on her head just like he did when she was younger. Causing her to pause in the middle of a train of thought looking up at him. "Lizzie, I promise after we leave the hospital, I will pick up my car and come visit you at your mother's, okay? We can go grab food as I'm starved! I promise you I'm feeling okay, and will do better to be mindful of my health in the future."
"Fine", Liz huffed, crossing her arms in annoyance, though when Blake looked closer he could see the smile on her face.
Blake let out a sigh as he stepped back, not before a loud noise from the door grabbing his attention Drake had cleared his throat, his face looking uncomfortable as he hurriedly spoke the words on his mind. "I hate to break up this little moment, but Blake, you can't get your car until Monday. We have forensics going through it in case there is DNA left behind," he explained.
Blake's head snapped up to Drake's face, his hands quickly going towards his daughter's ears, ignoring the small frown she had on her face. "What the fuck happened to my car, Drake?"
"Hate to break it to you, but someone busted the window out of your car, taking whatever was inside of it," Answered Drake, his gaze unwavering from Blake's.
Blake wordlessly dropped his hands from his daughter's ear, the look on her face full of confusion as he zoned out. "Dad," she called out, her tone worried.
Blake heard Drake mutter to her, "Just let him go."
Though his face held no response, raising his head to the ceiling, Blake let out a giant "NOOOOOO!" his voice echoing off the walls.