⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter five. thirty balloons.

Jay hits the punching bag, when Antonio asks, "When are we gonna spar?" sitting on the bench, taking his gloves off, next to Mickey who puts his on.

"I don't like that look in your eye" Jay says. Antonio chuckles and says, "Ah, you're doing great. Just keep dropping your left every time you throw your right cross. It'll be fun"

Jay starts panting and walks over to his bag, taking his gloves off and asks, "Is Voight dirty?"

"Oh boy" Mickey says. Jay looks at his friend and says, "what? I'm asking"

"It's not my department" Antonio says.

"So that's a yes"

"I almost went down the tubes when I was in Vice, which was right around the time I stopped judging other cops"

"I'm not looking for judgement, just...a definition. Do I learn from him, or do I keep my distance?"

"Both. But if you really wanna know if he's dirty, talk to them" Antonio says, nodding towards Erin and Maxine who are walking over to them. Jay takes a sip of his water and jokes, "Jazzercise is, like, a block south"

"Yeah, nice muscle tee" Maxine sasses.

"This is perfectly acceptable attire for the boxing gym"

"No, absolutely. And the bonus is you don't have to change later when you breakdance" Erin smirks, making Antonio laugh.

Maxine goes in for a fist bump with Erin and laughs, "nice one"

Antonio looks behind him to see Justin and says, "it's Voight's kid"

"Justin" Erin calls out, "This is Antonio, Mickey and Jay. Max and I work with them. Antonio's buddy owns the gym, hence the 30% discount"

Antonio looks at the detective and says, "20. Nice try"

"Hey, justin" Maxine says, going in for a fist bump, which he does back.

"Hey Max"

Jay holds out his hand for a shake and says, "Hey"

Justin just looks at the detective and stuffs his hands in his pockets, then looks at Erin and says, "I gotta make some calls" then he walks away.

"He's like my little brother. I'm just trying to keep him out of trouble" Erin says, "Just give him a shot"

"Good luck" Antonio says. Maxine walks over to Mickey and brings him into a surprise hug, "thanks again for the talk the other day. I needed it"

"Sure. Anytime"

"So, you're gloved up. You wanna go a couple rounds"

"Oh, you think you can handle it?"

"Come on, Mick. You should know me better than that" she smiles.

"Alright. Halstead, you got winner?"

Jay nods his head and says, "oh hell yeah"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine pulls up to the curb next to the roll up and Jay says, "All I'm saying is Justin looks like an uphill battle" as they both get out of the covert car.

"He lost his mother and then did a year in prison. He just needs to get his bearings" Maxine says, as they walk inside the roll up.

"Did you see the attitude he gave me in the gym?"

"If I had just gotten out of statesville and had been made to shake hands with a bunch of cops, I would've had the exact same attitude" Maxine says, making the two stop.

"And how do you know all this?"

"Because when I worked in gangs with Voight, I was invited to his house a lot, when Adam and his dad were too busy. They're my second family"

"Understandable. And I don't think it's so much I'm a cop as much as Justin thinks I'm your boyfriend"

Maxine rolls her eyes and says, "You wish"

"You wish"

"No, you wish" Maxine laughs, nudging her partner as they walk over to the back stairs to get to the unit, as Hank walks in drinking a coffee and watching the two.

~~~

Adam walks into the break room with a purple and blue lunch box and Maxine raises an eyebrow, as she pours herself a cup of coffee, "Wendy pack you a lunch?"

Adam sighs, putting it in the fridge and says, "yeah"

"It's cute"

"Mm" he hums, then he leans on the counter next to his best friend, "so, um, you coming to this dinner tonight. Wendy needs us both there."

"Mom and Dad haven't been in the same room in how long?"

"I know. But Wendy says it's important. For the wedding"

"This should be entertaining"

🪩🪩🪩

Antonio, Maxine and Hank walk into the hospital to see Kim and Kevin and the Sergeant says, "What do we got?"

"Female, white, just got out of surgery" Kim says. Maxine looks at Atwater and says, "I heard female, white knocked you around pretty good"

"Whatever she was on gave her the strength of 10 men" Kevin says, buttoning up a new uniform shirt.

"No ID. All she had on her was this plane ticket" Kim says, handing it to Dawson, "She landed at O'Hare this morning from Cabo San Lucas"

"Just how much cocaine does she have on her?" Antonio asks.

"Not on her. Inside her. Thirty balloons in her stomach"

~~~

"Normally, when cops drag screamers in here, we just give 'em a Haldol cocktail and send them to detox, but she started convulsing, and I knew right away this was different" Dr Parker says, as she, Hank, Maxine and Antonio stand in Jane Doe's hospital room.

"Welcome to Chicago, distribution center of the midwest" Dawson says.

"We removed 29 condoms full of cocaine, though she swallowed 30. One broke open and started to dissolve into her stomach." The doctor says, taking the lid from a container which contains the condoms filled with cocaine, "The drug leaked into her bloodstream, causing her psychosis, so I ordered emergency surgery. Never ceases to amaze me what people will do for money"

"Sometimes people don't feel like they have a choice" Maxine says.

As Antonio goes over to look at the balloons, Dr. Parker says, "I tested the residue on the broken balloon. It's 89% pure. That's the highest grade I've ever seen"

"All these must be 50k street value" Dawson says.

"Easy" Hank says.

"So what do we think? Cartel's getting smart recruiting all american types?" Maxine asks.

"They're full of air pockets. That's why they busted. It's amateur hour. Cartel wouldn't be this careless" Antonio says.

"We need to question her. How soon till she's conscious?" Hank asks the doctor.

"Two, maybe three hours" the doctor says.

"Alright, have Jin contact the TSA at O'Hare. See if we can get an ID on this girl"

🪩🪩🪩

"Alright, so our girl in the ER is Amber Morris" Jay says, pointing to their ID's he had printed out and taped to the board, "Amber and her three friends here are all undergrads at Central Chicago University. This is who we're looking for"

"We checked Amber's facebook page. There's pictures of them living it up in Cabo, but not just from this trip" Maxine says, clicking the next slide on the computer, "Amber's been down there twice in the last three months"

"First time, she did the run herself. This time she recruited friends" Antonio says.

"We gotta assume all these girls are mules and ingested the same type of balloons packed with coke" Hank says. Jin walks onto the bullpen and says, "You guys, I ran down those girls' addresses. All three live on campus"

"Let's move" Antonio says, as everyone grabs their jackets. Maxine nudges her partner and says, "Let's go"

Hank stops Jay and says, "You like working on this unit, you keep it in your pants"

"I didn't know it was out" Jay says.

"Maxines off limits. End of discussion" Hank says, before walking away.

🪩🪩🪩

As the team heads over to the campus, to find Amber's friends, Jay and Maxine head to Sarah Hines' dormroom and Jay knocks on the door and says, "Sarah Hines. Chicago PD"

Maxine checks the doorknob and it easily opens and she looks at her partner with raised eyebrows and the two walk in to check out the room.

Maxine checks out the tag on the suitcase and says, "Well, she made it home"

🪩🪩🪩

"Alright Hank, just keep us updated on the van" Maxine says, then hangs up her phone as she and Jay sit in the waiting room at the hospital, "It's so messed up, these girls are out there with no idea"

"Yeah"

"I'm gonna need a drink when this is done. What do you say?"

"Oh, I don't think your dad would like that"

Maxine raises an eyebrow and says, "What are you talking about?"

"What do you think I'm talking about?"

Maxine raises an eyebrow, "I have no idea actually"

Dr. Parker walks over to the detectives and says, "She's awake now. You can come and see her"

~~~

"I can't believe I'm in here" Amber sighs. Maxine claps her hands together and says, "Believe it, Amber. And whoever you were smuggling for just kidnapped your friends. So if you don't give up who's behind this and we find your friends dead, you're gonna be facing narcotics induced homicide all by your lonesome"

"I can't"

"Are you listening? You're lucky we found you" Jay says, leaning on the wall, "Now, all you're gonna have is a scar on your stomach, but your friends, they'll likely OD and wind up in some alley"

"And if that happens, I promise you, you will never forgive yourself. You need to help us save them, Amber" Maxine says.

"I loved him" Amber breathes out.

"Sweetheart, the guy that used you for this...he doesn't love you" Maxine says and Amber starts tearing up.

"I did it once, and it was fine. Then he promised my friends 5 grand each to go. It was my boyfriend's idea, him and his brother"

A couple minutes later Jay and Maxine leave the room to see Hank and Antonio and Maxine says, "We're putting out an investigative alert on a Sean and Brendan Collins. They're the dealers we're looking for"

"Sean's the boyfriend. Amber says him and his brother hang out at a tattoo shop called Underground Ink. That's where they sling the product." Jay adds.

"Good work" Hank says.

"I'll get Olinsky and Ruzek to set up on this tattoo shop" Antonio says.

🪩🪩🪩

Antonio is sitting at his desk with Maxine looking over his shoulder at the computer when Trudy walks up the stairs and says, "Hey. Hey. The girl that's at the hospital, Amber. Her mother is downstairs"

"Alright, bring her up" Antonio says.

"I'm assuming that's spanish for, 'you're going to go down there and get her yourself'" Trudy sasses then walks back down to her desk. Maxines mouth falls and the two detectives look at each other.

~~~

Maxine walks into the locker room to see Mickey washing his hands and she clears her throat.

Mickey looks up through the mirror and says, "alright, alright. You won. I owe you dinner."

Maxine shrugs and says, "I mean, fair is fair"

Mickey smiles to himself and leans against the sink, wiping his hands with the paper towels, "where would you like to go?"

"Mmm. I heard the purple pig is good"

"And expensive"

"Alright. Then how about the diner near my place?"

"Alright. I think I can do that. Tonight?"

"Can't tonight. Gotta go to this dinner for Wendy and Adam's wedding. Tomorrow night?"

Mickey smiles, "deal"

~~~

"The Collins brothers are known thugs from Bridgeport. Both have records for armed robbery and aggravated battery" Hank explains, standing in front of the whiteboard.

"So they've graduated to drug smuggling using naive college girls" Mickey says, leaning back in his chair.

"Had uniforms check their LKAs. These guys are in the wind" Erin states.

"DMV came back that Brendan Collins owns a black Ford van" Dawson says.

"I'm assuming that these brothers are using throwaway phones now that they know Amber's been arrested" Jin says.

"Alright, keep digging. Get me any known associates" Hank says. Maxine walks up to her Sergeant and says, "Hey, we need to talk"

"Come on" Hank says, and the two walk into his office. Maxine closes the door and says, "The overprotective father thing might be okay with Erin, but it's not with me. You might be like family but you're not my dad. You were my partner when we worked gangs"

"It's Halstead I'm looking out for. I've seen what happens to the guys you date"

"God, you sound just like Adam. What is that supposed to mean?"

"You've left a string of broken hearts behind you for the last ten years" Hank says and Maxine crosses her arms over each other, "I need Halstead 100% effective, not throwing pebbles at your window at 3 in the morning"

"You can't tell me who I can or can not hang out with on my personal time"

"My unit, my rules. You wanna date a cop. There are plenty other districts out there"

Maxine scoffs and says, "Not that it's any of your information, and I don't know if this has crossed your mind, but Halstead and I are just friends, partners. That's it." Then she opens the door and slams it shut behind her.

~~~

After finding Brendan Collins, who actually got into an accident because of the team and died on impact. Maxine walks over to Platt at her desk and says, "Hey Platt"

"Bishop"

"You have any twizzlers? This case is really taking a lot of energy from me right now"

"I'm sure" she says, grabbing a package of twizzlers and handing them to the brunette. Maxine smiles and says, "thank you. You're the best" then she walks over to the caged door.

"I know"

🪩🪩🪩

After finding the location of Sean, who still has the kidnapped girls in a warehouse, the Intelligence team goes to the location to find only one of the girls, dead with her stomach cut opened.

Maxine, Jay, Erin, Mickey and Antonio follow after Hank, leaving the warehouse who says, "Girl was 19. Still in school. What a waste"

"Why do only one? Where's the other two?" Jay asks.

"We're not dealing with a pro. Collins got squeamish and ran" Antonio explains, as they walk over to the M.E.

"Whoever cut into her, cut into the condom balloons, destroyed most of the cocaine"

"Thanks, Doc" Hank says.

"There's no way Collins can afford to do that to the other two" Antonio says. Hank looks up from his phone and says, "Look I got some business to take care of. See if Jin's got anything yet, alright?"

🪩🪩🪩

"I was able to obtain subscriber info for all calls from Brendan's cell phone that you found in his van" Jin explains, handing Jay, Maxine, Erin, Mickey and Antonio some papers, "Only two numbers. First, to Sean's prepaid cell which has since gone dead, but I was able to track it to a dumpster on Ashland. Second, six calls to this guy" then he points to a picture underneath Sean Collins picture, "Ryan Porter"

"Ryan Porter. Male, white, 26. Long sheet for possession" Mickey says.

"Worked as a paramedic for three different ambulance companies, fired from all of them" Erin says, reading from the paper.

"I know that M.O. Ten to one Porter's a play doctor. Busted a few when I worked Vice. EMTs who work for private ambulance companies. They barely make 10 bucks an hour. So the ones who wanna make extra cash sometimes provide under the table services, like patching up gang bangers. Forward Porter's picture to Olinsky ASAP" Antonio says.

🪩🪩🪩

After arresting Sean Collins at underground ink and finding the girls. Maxine closes her fridge, carrying two beers and sits on the couch handing one to Jay and says, "thanks for being here for me, after today. Means a lot"

"Yeah. You've been there for me before"

"So, I have to go to this dinner thing for Adam's wedding tonight. Will you wait here so we can finish watching the movie?" Maxine asks, taking a sip of her beer.

"I don't know, Max"

"I'd only be like three hours, tops" Maxine asks, giving him her world famous puppy dog eyes, that she knows works on Adam, "please"

Jay sighs and says, "alright, alright." Making Maxine smile, "no ones said no to those puppy eyes before have they?"

Maxine shakes her head and says, "nope" then she hops off the couch to get changed.

"Great" he sighs.

authors note;

jay and max are like the cutest puppies ever 🥺💓