Case 04 - The new hire of Metro SWAT

<Some time before SWAT S1E3 and The Rookie>

"Don't let it get to you," Chris said as she sat behind Ben on his bike.

The modified BMW R1200 GS touringbike was one of the few possessions he could keep from his life as Ben Muller and he had asked Sgt Grey if they could arrange for someone to drop it off at his new place - the bike was what Phil Dunphy had worked on in the garage when they arrived. It came a little earlier as them and was the only thing Phil didn't polish to perfection.

"I know, I know. After five years... I just hate feeling like I'm not a part of this community, like I'm an alien. Or worse, an enemy."

Ben had done his best to cover his already fading tattoos as he took Chris to treat her to a nice meal in a soul-food diner on Crenshaw Blvd near his home. Everything was fine there, the people were very inviting. But then he brought Chris to a clothes shop and one of the shopkeepers saw his tattoos while he changed. She went balistic on him, something Ben just took - but Chris berated the woman and told her about his undercover work and how he desperately tried to have the tattoos removed which was easy to prove by their increasing fade.

The young black woman had apologized profusely, and Ben had paid for his choice of clothes without getting kicked out first. A small victory, but it still stung.

"Ah, I mean, who cares. I get it, I'm as white as they get, even without the ink - the moment I'm back in my blues, I have to fight an uphill battle anyway. This is just a precursor," Ben said as he fastened his helmet and started the bike.

Chris just leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, which she thought was supposed to be reassuring. It was, but it also gave Ben the mounting suspicion that he might be able to score an actual date with the SWAT officer if only he asked. He wouldn't because Chris was his first real friend after getting out, but it felt nice.

Small victories.

-----

The next day, Ben arrived at the SWAT command center on his bike in a leather jacket, dress pants, and a nice sky-blue shirt with a soft sky-blue scarf to hide his tattoos. He was a properly handsome man, but his physique certainly couldn't hold a candle to the swat officers inside. Still, he turned quite a few heads.

Since he was in the middle of SWAT territory, he simply left his helmet with the bike without locking it away in one of the boxes at the back, hoping he was right about nobody daring to steal a bike helmet here.

Waiting for him outside was SWAT Commander Hicks, an old LAPD veteran, and Captain Cortez, one of the youngest and only female SWAT captains ever.

"Captain Cortez, Commander Hicks, pleasure to meet you. And thanks for having me over," Ben greeted with a sincere smile.

"Officer Weiss, glad to have you with us. I hope we're going to be able to rope you in," Commander Hicks said as he stepped forward to give him the first handshake. "Exemplary work with your notes. There was so much attention to detail. We're still finding people to arrest from your pile of letters."

"Ah, I just wish Agent Ford had already worked with everything I brought him. I bet the first two years of letters had some more info on different lowlives in it - but IA informed me that the first two years of letters were never found."

"Indeed, something I hope we can combat by you being on the force again. I'm told your memory for faces and dates is terrific. Hello Officer Weiss," Captain Cortez offered as she took his hand.

"Sgt Grey probably said that? He was just boasting... Officer Alonso mentioned something about a grand tour and getting my ass kicked when I come here?"

As three were walking inside, Captain Cortez was quick to answer with a laugh, "She exaggerated. But we had some videos in our briefing about Ben Muller being the instructor on 'German Jiu Jiutsu' for the White Front. Quite a few of us had to even look up what GJJ is."

Ben shook his head and said, "And I bet you didn't find a satisfying answer. The GJJ I do is just regular Jiu Jitsu with more proactive kicks to the opponent's feet to get people off-balance so you get untrained people into a lock quicker. I don't even think GJJ is a single martial art. As a German would say: 'I'll lean myself out of the window' and say: every GJJ instructor teaches a different kind of GJJ. But you can't be a white supremacist pseudo-military if your martial art isn't named after a 'white' country."

"Lean yourself out of the window?"

"Figure of speech, means going out on a limb," Ben answered with a shrug.

"Ah, well," Hicks answered with a confused frown. "Just say that next time..."

They continued to tour a little until they landed in Hicks' office with team leaders Mumford, aka 50-David and Harrelson, aka 20-David.

"You must be the Wundershot," Mumford greeted as they sat down.

"Wow, I hope that doesn't stick," Ben mumbled. "But I guess, yeah. Please, call me Ben, though."

"Alright, Ben. Tell us more about what you plan to bring to the table, and we'll tell you what we expect from you," Captain Cortez inquired when the small banter was over.

"Well, I don't ever want to step on any of your toes during a breach. I'm okay with a gunfight, but I'd prefer to be there before or after there is one. I'm taking a class to get myself licensed in hostage negotiations starting three days from now. My stamina went down the drain, couldn't even jog more than ten minutes without dry-heaving, but I'm working on it," Ben recounted. "But I guess my specialty is my computer expertise and an eye for details. I won't be able to crack electronic devices for you like we're in a hacker movie. But with the tools SWAT has, I'm sure I can get your teams to a higher level of proficiency when securing digital evidence. As for my eye for details, I'd hope to get that trained and sharpened for crime during my detective education."

"So you're not a gunslinger going gungho on us? I like you already. I feared you turn out to be some lone cowboy after those five years," Mumford said in appreciation.

Hondo gave his two cents and added, "Nah, Ben is the real deal. Chris can't shut up about what a good kid he is."

"She called me a kid?"

"I'm calling you a kid, hot stuff. Sorry, sir," Hondo joked with a wink.

"Already forming bonds with the officers at this station? You're working rather quickly," Captain Cortez joked.

"Well, quick is not always best. Even before you finish your detective's exam, you still have another month of physical therapy and getting licensed again for your gun and all that jazz," Commander Hicks interjected bringing the joking officers back to reality.

"Ah, about that," Hondo said as he perked up. "The team figured you probably didn't have a service weapon because you turned yours in before you vanished. We all chipped in and got you this. As a welcome gift of sorts."

The SWAT team leader placed a simple but elegant wooden box on the coffee table in front of Ben. He opened it to find a high-quality pistol lying inside with a black barrel, silver body, and wooden grip.

"That's a Kimber Custom II Two Tone. Most of us here at SWAT carry the regular edition as our side-piece. Even if you join as a detective, we thought you might appreciate going into the field in style like the rest of us," Hondo joked.

Ben picked up the gun and turned it over in his hand until he saw the name "Ben 'Wundershot' Weiss" engraved on the side. He looked up with a deadpan, and Mumford began laughing.

"Sorry kid, kinda hoped you liked the nickname."

"Haaa, well, I guess only the gun range was left on the tour. I should test if the name is even around to stick, no?"

"Let's make it a competition," Hondo challenged. "Loser has to buy dinner for the teams."

"Yeah, sure. Let the guy who didn't shoot a pistol after weeks in a coma because he was shot in the heart compete against two decorated SWAT team leaders," Ben said while rolling his eyes with a smile.

"Two SWAT team leaders and a SWAT Captain," Cortez threw in, and both team leaders started hollering. Ben brought the box, and they made their way to the basement.

"Anybody ever tell you that the concrete grey decor of this place is kind of a drag?" Ben asked as they reached the gun range. "Looks modern and all, but honestly, this place could use a touch of color."

Hondo, who greeted and filled in Tan and Luca in the range, turned around and said, "Yeah, man. This place really lacks a feminine touch. Been saying it for a long time. But the women here probably don't want to be seen as too girly, so they keep it to themselves."

Cortez regarded Ben and Hondo with a frown but eventually shrugged. His assessment was essentially accurate. But she wasn't big on interior design either, so she simply had another reason on not trying to change anything.

Under the cheers of Tan and Luca, Ben was allowed a full magazine of test shots to get a feel for his new gun. The ex-undercover cop did burst shots of twos and threes to get the recoil down with furrowed brows. He had terrible aim, barely even hitting the target at 30 feet. Though at least no shot outright missed the target. Tan, Luca, and Mumford didn't miss this chance to make fun of him a little, but they still kept it civil.

After that, all three contestants from SWAT were given six quick shots in four seconds - three to the head and three to the chest. The rings on the target indicated the points gained. The highest would be a perfect 66 because the center ring for 10 points had a small dot that gave an extra point.

Mumford landed a respectable 58 in 3.1 seconds, Captain Cortez fell behind with a 57 in 3.7 seconds, and Hondo managed to land a better than 'perfect' 62 in 3.9 seconds.

<Cast: Wilson Bethel as Stokes>

To add some banter, Tan and Luca already started shouting their plans for takeout that Ben should get, and even two guys from Mumfords team, Donovan Rocker and Wilson Stokes had entered and joined in on the fun.

Putting on his earmuffs and safety glasses again, Ben stepped up and closed his eyes to take a deep breath. Making fun of each other in good fun was a big part of SWAT culture, but the officers present all stopped and gave Ben the silence he deserved.

He weighed the pistol in his hand some more, and then he opened his eyes with laser focus. Three quick shots in under a second followed by three quick shots in almost exactly a second later, Ben placed down the pistol and looked up at the monitor that gave out the time and points.

1,9 seconds, and 53 points, but it was the spread that left the SWAT members in the room truly speechless. Ben turned around and with a smile on his face shrugged.

"Guess food is on me. Just tell everyone to order what they like, I'll wait outside with my wallet," Ben said with a small sigh.

"Holy shit, kid," Mumford mumbled

"Yeah, man. That was AWESOME!" Luca shouted as he practically ran toward Ben to give him a patented Luca-bro-hug as the newcomer placed down his pistol.

"Man, that gave me goosebumps," Mumford spoke again as if he had seen a ghost.

"What's up?" Ben asked as he looked around with furrowed brows.

"Bro, you hit four bull's-eyes for 44 points followed by a 7 and a 2 in under two seconds. That's some magic shit," Luca bragged on his behalf.

"Should have named you the Magic #4 or something. Those four shots in the yard were the same. I see now how you shot off the index finger off of that Vogel guy," Hondo quipped with a bright smile.

"Nicknamed after a four? That's some bad juju," Tan interjected because in Chinese culture, four represented death and was a bad omen. He had goosebumps for a different reason than Mumford.

"Imagine what the kid could do with an AR," Mumford said with shining eyes.

But Ben quickly shook both hands, "Nono, the main reason that I don't plan to join SWAT as a full member is that I'm no good with anything bigger than a pistol. Well, that and I'm not much of a badass like you guys. Didn't even enlist like probably most of you. I lack your brass balls and... I don't have an appropriate female equivalent, ma'am."

Cortez began laughing. Ben really was quite the pleasant joker. Usually, there were no jokes for the female officers, or they were taken too far, making their gender the joke. So far, Ben had walked the fine line and got into Cortez' good graces. She really hoped two days later, after Ben's meeting with the chief of police, they could welcome their new future liaison detective.

As Ben sat down with the 20- and 50-David teams in their kitchen/mess to eat the take-out he paid for, everyone that was present at the range took a shot at sharing the story of the magic four shots.

"Just needs to train his focus to extend to more than four shots," Rocker quipped with a big grin as he ate his free french fries.

"Nah, Ben needs to keep doing what he's doing. Imagine he retrains and loses his magic touch," Luca argued.

Chris gained an impish grin and pumped her eyebrows to taunt him, "I mean, all I'm getting from this is that he's spent after four pumps."

A few more ooohs and aaahs at Ben's expense, 50-David was called out for a mission, so the crowd dispersed. 20-David got into a ready-state, too - just in case 50-David needed backup.

"Hey, Hondo. I was reading a newspaper on that Sunday that I was released, and I was wond-"

"Nono, Ben. I know where you're going with this. I'm not signing any autographs," Hondo quickly waved away. "Getting into the news is bad business for us here at SWAT."

"Huh? Ah no, I was just wondering if it was really necessary to shoot from a fricking helicopter. It was hovering right above a hill, man."

The 20-David team began laughing at Hondo's expense for a while longer until they reached the gym with the boxing ring right next to the armory. The team solemnly checked their gear for probably the third time today.

That was when Street walked up and asked, "Hey man. I wasn't SWAT yet when this stuff happened, but everyone said you were mentioned as this amazing Jiu Jitsu practitioner in the briefing material. You up to show me a move or two in the ring?"

"Don't make him stretch his new shirt," Chris threw in from where she was cleaning her rifle. "It came at the price of his dignity."

Hondo and Deacon lifted a brow in askance, so Ben explained, "The shopkeeper, she saw my ink. Chris stepped in like a knight in shining armor and defended my honor... but it still stung."

"I can't make the sessions for removal quicker, but I got a cousin whose wife is one of the most sought-after tattoo artists in Beverly Hills. Maybe she could cover up some of the more ugly ones?"

Ben looked to Tan with a surprised expression. Tattoo artists were a dime a dozen in LA, but actual good ones that could cover up a tattoo and still make it look good were in high demand. He didn't have any connections to that crowd after five years away, so this offer came at an opportune moment.

"Real? Man, that would be amazing! I was half a mind to have someone simply black out my entire left upper body, but that's so much better!"

"Hey, hey. I was asking for pointers first, Tan. You can get your nipples pierced together tomorrow," Jim Street, the newest SWAT member, countered when Ben and Ten began talking. Ben looked to him with an amused smile and conceded to throwing a little fisticuffs with the guy before he finalized the deal with Tan's relative.

The two stepped into the ring under the observant gaze from the rest of the team, and Ben made Street take off his weapons before he told him to stand in a posture to attack him.

"Alright. Please keep in mind I 'trained' idiots that had no discipline and only wanted to do cool moves," Ben said as he walked closer while gesturing with his hands just enough to make Street focus on them.

"But those idiots never got the real essence of Jiu Jitsu, they just wanted to break bones and look cool and menacing doing it," Ben continued, then took a quick step forward for a feint punch while he kicked the leg Street was putting less of his weight on outward away from his gravitational center.

The kick came as a surprise because Ben was gesturing with his hands so much, and Ben managed to get under Street for a hip-throw into submission hold on one of the SWAT officer's arms.

"And that's a move they never got. Subtlety wasn't their forte. Then again, now that you know," Ben explained as he helped Street stand up, "I doubt you'll fall for that again."

"Keep in mind if you want to try going for legs, you can do some real permanent damage. One strong kick to the leg they have all their weight on, and you can give someone a limp for the rest of their life," Ben offered as he patted Street's shoulder. "But you already knew that, I bet."

Street, not one to be outdone, tried grabbing the hand on his shoulder for a take down of his own, but Ben managed to reverse the situation by getting one leg between Street's and that got him off-balance from there. Another kick to the SWAT officer's heel from a weird angle later, Street was once more on the ground with a knee on his shoulder.

"Of course, you want a suspect to land on his stomach for an easier arrest. But if your opponent plays dirty, just crack a rib or two with that move," Ben explained with a grin.

"We good?"

Street just shook his head and decided to be a good sport, "We good."

"Man, pistol lessons followed by take down lessons. What can't you do for us?" Deacon asked with a teasing grin.

"You guys better keep taking down bad guys like you do. As I am, I couldn't even outrun a fat teenager, so you keep at it by being your own kind of badass."