⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter sixteen. call it macaroni.

"You promise you'll be here after my shift?" Maxine asks, going to put her gun into her holster. Joey walks up behind the brunette girl and places his left hand on her hip and his other hand tucks some of her long hair behind her ear, "I promise kitten" then he peppers kisses on her neck.

Shivers run down her spine every time he'd call her that. It was his nickname for her and no one else and she wanted to keep it that way.

Yes, they have a very long undercover history both very personal and professional. And yes, Hank knows about it. That's why he's so concerned about how her behavior has changed since he found out Joey came back. But that's a story for another time.

Maxine smiles to herself, not going unnoticed by Joey of course, and turns around wrapping her arms around his neck. As they were about to lean in for a kiss, Maxines phone rings.

Joey sighs, "that's like the 10th time this morning he's called"

"I know. Sorry. He's just worried"

"There's nothing to worry about. You have me" he smirks.

"Yeah, but he doesn't know you exist, so he probably thinks I'm just going crazy or something"

"Well, how about . . ." The tattoo covered man says, combing his fingers through Maxines hair, "we all have dinner together after your shift"

Maxine looks at him surprised, "wait, really?"

Joey nods his head, "anything I can do to make you happy" he then kisses her forehead. Maxine smiles like a kid in a candy store, "okay"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine walks through the side door of the rollup after parking her car, when she hears, "Maxie!"

Maxine takes a deep breath and turns around, "hey"

"What the hell, you don't answer my calls anymore?"

"Sorry. Long morning"

"Well, it hasn't just been this morning. What about yesterday and the day before"

"Adam, come on. Don't be like that"

"Well, I am gonna start being like that. You can't have me worried like that anymore"

"You're right. I'm sorry"

"I am? I mean, damn right I am"

Maxine rolls her eyes, "don't try and be intimidating. It doesn't work for you" then she starts walking up the back staircase.

Adam scoffs, following after her, "I so am"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night. Speaking of night, after shift we're having dinner because there's someone I want you to meet"

"Who?"

"Can't tell you"

"Gross, you know I hate guessing" he whines.

Maxine shrugs as they make it up to the unit. Then she shrugs off her jacket, placing it on the back of her chair and heads into the break room.

"Morning" she smiles, going to make herself a cup of coffee, along with her partner.

"Morning" Jay says.

"Nadias first day"

"Can she type? Did we look into that at all?"

Maxine puts the coffee pot back on the burner and says, "Yeah, she can, smart ass." Then she points her stir stick at the detective, "do not hit on her"

Jay looks at his partner in shock and says, "Nadia? I mean, what kind of dog do you think I am?" and Maxine raises an eyebrow.

Jay follows his partner back out onto the bullpen when Hank walks onto the unit and Maxine asks, "how'd it go?" going to sit at her desk.

"It went. They asked some stupid questions, I left."

"Boss, where they at with Jin's murder?" Ruzek asks, sitting on the edge of Al's desk.

"Nowhere. Where's Antonio?"

"He's meeting an informant. He's got a tip on some armored van thing." Al answers then Hank heads back to his office.

"Sarg, why aren't we looking into Jins murder on our own?" Jay asks.

"For the same reason I told you last time you asked. They don't want us anywhere near it since he was in our unit, okay? He was a police officer. Area Central is all over it."

"So they had no updates this morning?" Atwater asks. Maxine and Erin look at each other in shock, that he just asked that.

Hank sighs then turns around and walks toward Kevin's desk and says, "the update? The update is they're coming for my badge! So when there's another update, I will convey it! Okay? Until then, just do your jobs!" Then he storms into his office and slams the door.

~~~

Down in the roll up, Antonio and Al prep Adam for some undercover work.

"We'll be right behind you. Eyes and ears the whole time. You got two distress signals. For visual, just run both hands through your hair. For verbal just say popcorn." Antonio explains to the officer, who is buttoning up his shirt.

"Popcorn" Adam repeats.

"Either one of those or both and we're moving in."

"Alright, I got it"

Jay helps his partner strap up her vest and asks, "is everything okay?"

Maxine goes to move her hair to the side and says, "yeah why?"

"There's something different about you. You're not being sarcastic. Should I be worried?"

Maxine rolls her eyes, turning around and says, "yeah, I'm fine"

"Okay, you'd tell me if something was wrong, right?"

Maxine places her hands on Jays shoulders, "Jay, I'm fine"

"Okay"

"Hey" Voight says, leaving Jin's office, "We all go home tonight"

As the team leaves to head to their covert cars, Mickey walks over to his partner and asks, "hey, you wanna grab a drink after shift?"

Erin nods her head and says, "Uh, yeah sure"

Maxine walks over to her best friend to give him a double fist bump, "be safe"

"Always" Adam says.

"And forever"

🪩🪩🪩

The team is following after Ruzek, while he's undercover in the armored van. Voight, Dawson, Olinsky and Atwater in one car while Lindsay, Bishop, Halstead and Jacobs in the other car.

Adam then starts talking about a bad sushi incident, that Maxine remembers all too well , then says, "and that is why I don't eat raw fish" then she turns left following Voight.

Everyone agrees right before someone rams into Voight's car.

"Popcorn, popcorn, popcorn" Adam shouts, getting out of the armored van, shooting at the suspects.

As the shootout continues, Maxine, Mickey, Erin and Jay get their long guns and shootback.

As the suspects get into their cars and leave, Jay and Maxine run towards them, shooting at the back of their vehicles. Erin goes over to where Hank, Antonio, Al and Kevin are, slamming on the window and says, "Hey, everyone okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine. Just go!" Hank yells. Erin takes out her radio and says, "Lincoln 5021 emergency. We have shots fired by the police. Roll an ambo to 1400 west Roosevelt. We have multiple wanted offenders."

🪩🪩🪩

Jay and Maxine walk into the lobby of the district when Platt says, "Hey, Halstead"

The detective walks over to the front desk and Trudy hands him an envelope, "addressed to you, but mailed to the 28th district. It sat there for awhile until the desk sergeant figured it out"

Jay looks at it and says, "it was mailed six weeks ago"

"Wow. That is some real detective work right there" Platt says, sarcastically, making Jay sigh and walk away, "Hey Bishop"

"Hey Sarg" she smiles, leaning on the front desk. Platt rolls her eyes, giving her a package of twizzlers.

Maxine smiles, "you're the best" before walking away.

"Uh huh"

~~~

"Alright, we have the driver Lee Pritchett" Maxine says, pointing to the victim's picture on the whiteboard where her and Erin are standing, "worked there three months. Had a wife and a two year old kid at home." Then she points to a picture of one of the suspects, "dead crew member. Apparently we got a lead in that"

"Yeah, Jeff. I knew him from my last.." Maxine cuts the patrol officer off and says. "Not yet. And we've got the shooter in the armored van"

Jay smiles to himself. 'That's my girl' he thinks.

"ID and social came back bogus from the company." Erin says, folding her arms over each other, "he started work three days ago. We have calls into the company to find out who hired him and who put him in that van today."

Maxine then looks at the blonde patrol officer and says, "now"

"DOA is Jeff Gamble. He's got a long rap sheet. Possession, domestic battery, burglary and two prior armed robberies. His cousin Chris Gamble is basically his partner in crime. If Chris wasn't involved himself, I'll guarantee you he'll at least know what Jeff was up to" Patrol Officer Sean Roman says.

"Alright. Why don't you and Burgess go find this cousin" Voight tells him and they walk away. The detective duo go sit at their desks when Nadia says, "Erin, There's a Bunny on the phone for you?"

"is she in jail?" Erin asks.

"Uh.." Nadia stutters.

"Look at the caller ID. If it's an 888 number, that's the jail, you're gonna get a lot of those" Erin says.

"312"

"Take a number. I'll call her back" Erin says, even though she won't. Maxine looks over at her partner who nods at her to follow him and she does.

"What's up?" She asks, as Jay closes the locker room door then she looks around to see if anybody was in there. Jay hands her a piece of paper that reads, 'I know I can trust you -Jin', then he holds up a flash drive and says, "Jin sent this to me"

Maxine looks up at her partner in shock and asks, "what's on the drive?"

"I haven't checked it yet"

"Show it to Voight"

"Not until I know what's on it" Jay says, taking the note back and walking away.

~~~

Maxine sat at her desk, doing some work when Adam rolls his chair over to her and says, "so, should I bring anything to this dinner?"

Jay looks up from his papers as Maxine says, "uh no. We're going to this new Italian place. Says he's gonna pay"

"Ooh, mister big shot has money, huh?"

Maxine rolls her eyes and pinched Adam's arm, "don't be rude. Go back to your desk and do some work"

"Alright mom. Jeez" he says, before rolling his chair back over to his desk.

"Important dinner?" Jay asks. Maxine shrugs, "yeah I guess" but in reality it was really important to her, but why didn't she want jay to know that?

~~~

The intelligence team is gathered around the whiteboard, where Adam and Al are standing and the older detective says, "Oskar Bembenek and his younger brother Jacob. Oskar runs, a uh, crime outfit for the last 25 years. Prostitution, extortion, drugs, you name it. Now Oskar never gets his hands dirty. He always sub contracts when it comes to taking people out. That's how he's lasted so long"

"This murder charge, what's that about?" Ruzek asks.

"He just had a mistress. Just wanted to break up with him. So...he stabs her 25 times. His shirt, it's got her blood on it. Now I know this girl" Al says taking a pause to take a breath, "I knew this girl. Judy Martin. I was trying to turn her out as an informant against him"

Kevin picks up his ringing desk phone and says, "Intelligence. Atwater" while Antonio gets a text and leaves, "alright, thanks" then the dark skinned officer hangs up his phone, "the supervisor from the armored van company I've been trying to get ahold of just went home sick"

Voight looks over at Maxine and says, "you and Halstead. Let's go"

Jay gets up from his desk and says to kevin, "hey, text the address."

"Gotcha"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine pulls over to the side of the street in front of the supervisors house, Luke Kendricks, as Jay takes out the flash drive from the laptop and Bishop asks, "so, what's on the drive?"

"Did you know Jin was working with IA?"

Maxine takes her sunglasses off and says, "I didn't"

"Any shot Voight was mixed up with them?"

"Don't get stupid on me now, Jay" Maxine says, getting out of the car, followed by her partner as they walk up to the front door of Kendricks' house. The brunette detective slams her fist on the door and shouts, "Luke Kendricks" then she knocks on the door again.

Jay goes to look through the windows and says, "Body" instantly making them take their guns from their holsters. Jay then slams into the door, opening it and yells, "police!" then they go through the house to clear it out.

"Clear!" Jay shouts.

"Clear!"

Jay goes to check the pulse of the body and Maxine takes out her work phone to compare the picture they had of Kendricks to the body and says, "Yep, that's Kendricks"

Jay stands up and points to the couch and says, "Looks like he was trying to clear out"

"Okay. So, he's working for Bembenek. He hires the shooter in the armored van and then tips off the crew when he knows we've got a guy in there and we're following."

"I'll call it in"

🪩🪩🪩

"Lindsay?" Nadia says, "bunny again"

"take a number. I'll call her back" Erin says. Maxine hums something, doing her paperwork.

A couple minutes later, Jay leaves Voight's office, grabbing his coat and leaves. Maxine raises an eyebrow when she gets a text saying to meet him at Molly's.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine walks into Molly's and sits down next to her partner, who sets his glass down on the bar and says, "Hey, what's going on?"

"Let me ask you something, straight up. Do you think there's any shot that Voight is involved with Jins murder?"

Maxine squints her eyes at the brunette man and says, "are you out of your mind?"

"That's an answer to a different question."

"No. There is no way he's involved."

"Yeah, well, he's gonna bury the case. For god knows what reason."

"Why? What reason would he have?"

"Do you really think that you know everything about this guy?" Jay asks. Maxine looks at her partner in shock and says, "he was my partner in gangs. I always trust my partners, Jay"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine looks at her watch. '15 minutes late' she thought. Adam knew how important this dinner was to her. Joey places his hand on her thigh, that was shaking up and down.

"Hey, it's okay. Maybe there's traffic"

"Then he should've left earlier. He knew how much this means to me"

"Sorry we're late. Traffic" a voice says, walking towards them. Maxine stands up to give Adam a hug, "15 minutes, Adam"

"I know. I'm sorry. Hope it's okay that I brought kim with me"

'15 minutes late and he brought a date. Great' she thought.

"Well, she's already here. So.."

Joey stands up and goes to shake both Adam and Kim's hand, "nice to finally meet you. I'm Joey"

"Adam"

"Kim"

"So, you're the guy that's been keeping Maxine hostage"

"Adam!" Maxine warns. Adam shrugs, "what?"

Joey puts his arm around Maxines shoulder and says, "I'll admit it. It's hard not to keep this one to myself" then he kisses her cheek, making her smile.

Adam rolls his eyes, "yeah I bet"

Maxine gives her best friend daggers. If looks could kill, Adam would be so dead. "Can I speak to you outside for a second?"

"Sure" Adam says before following Maxine outside of the restaurant.

"Why are you even here?" She asks, folding her arms over each other.

"What are you talking about?"

"First you were late, then you brought Burgess as your date and now you're being rude to Joey and he's trying to be nice."

"I don't like him"

"You don't even know him!"

"Exactly"

"You know what, Adam. Forget it. This dinner meant a lot to me. I wanted you two to meet and you're ruining it. So, if you can't even be civil with someone who makes me happy for a couple hours then leave because I don't want your negative energy here. Got it?"

"Alright, I'm sorry. I'll try harder"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine laid in bed, later that night looking at her phone screen that was lit a little bit too much, as Joey snores away right next to her.

Jay Halstead:
so how was your important dinner?

Maxine Bishop:
it was good. Adam was annoying
but what else is new lol

Jay Halstead:
remember that walkway I told you
about when I was a patrol officer?

Maxine Bishop:
Yeah?

Jay Halstead:
I wanna take you there sometime.
it's actually really beautiful.

Maxine Bishop:
yeah. I'd like that.

Jay Halstead:
Cool. I Guess I'll see you tomorrow?

Maxine Bishop:
Bright and early.

🪩🪩🪩

The next day, after Roman and Burgess found Chris Gamble and arrested him.

Maxine stands in interrogation with him and says, "See Chris, nobody knows this and it's one of my favorite surprises to lay on guys like you that are sitting across from me" as Jay walks in and leans against the blue cement wall, "say you and your buddies, I don't know, robbed an armored van and somebody gets killed. Even if it was one of the bad guys. Even if that person was killed by the police. Somebody's gotta get charged for that murder. So we're gonna prove that you were there yesterday, and in addition to the attempted murder of a police officer, you are gonna get charged with the murder of the van driver and the murder of your own cousin. Or Chris, or," she continues, now sitting in front of the suspect, "you give us the other participants and you let them take the ride"

Gamble scoffs and Jay asks, "you can't be happy with how this went down, right? Your cousin gets killed for what?" Then he pushes himself off the wall, "how much did Bembenek pay you to get the shirt?"

Gamble looks at the detective in surprise, and Jay takes the chair, spinning it around so he can sit in it backwards and says, "Yeah, we know all about it. So quit trying to figure a way out, Chris. It's over"

Gamble sighs and says, "it wasn't supposed to go down the way that it went down. They never told us the cops were gonna be there"

Maxine sits up in her chair and asks, "who's they?"

"Oskar and his brother, Jacob. They said it was just gonna be a security team from the van company that would be following and that there would be money. That's why we weren't handing it over until we get more"

"Hand what over?" Jay questions.

"The bloody t-shirt. The evidence bag. We told Oskar that he needed to come up with 200k or we were dropping it to the nearest police station"

"Where is the bag right now?"

"My buddy Christians got it. But I'm supposed to meet him and back him up for the trade with Oskar"

Jay and Maxine exchange looks and leave the room.

~~~

The team is going through files or sitting at their desks when Voight walks onto the unit and says, "I don't know what you heard but let me set things straight. In order to get my job back I made a deal with IA. The deal was I put myself out there as dirty, so I can take down some high level criminals. I never agreed, nor did I ever report on another cop"

Maxine looks over at her friend, who does not look to happy. I mean, she wasn't either, but Erin was definitely more pissed then she was.

"Well, you can like it or not, that was the deal" he says, looking at Erin more than anyone. As Nadia answers the phone, Erin says, "we should gear up for our meet" then walks away, followed by Max.

~~~

"Sit down!" Antonio shouts at Gamble who is currently in the cage in the roll up.

The team minus Hank are gathered around, vested up when Mickey leans in closer to his partner and asks, "you good?"

Erin nods her head and hums, "Mhmm"

"Now, whether this evidence bag was opened or not, or if it broke the chain of custody, I don't really give a damn" Dawson states, "that's for the states attorney's office to worry about. Main thing is to get Oskar Bembenek showing up with the 200k and heads will roll from there. Wait for the money to be handed over first then move in"

"And we move in quick, okay? As you can tell Bembenek and his brother have no problem getting violent, alright?" Al says, making the team nod their heads in agreement before they head out.

🪩🪩🪩

As the team watches close by as the meet goes down, they see Oskar tell his guys to shoot the others when Antonio shouts, "move in, move in" over the walkie.

As the team moves in, Maxine and Jay drive to the entrance before Oskar and his brother can escape and they get out pointing their guns at them.

"Let me see your hands!" Jay shouts, as he and Max slowly walk towards them.

"Put 'em up!"

Jacob gets out of the car, holding his gun behind his back and yells, "it's all good!"

"Stay in the car!" Jay yells. Jacob moves his gun in front of him ready to fire a shot when Jay fires back, hitting him multiple times, causing him to fall to the pavement.

"No, Jacob!" Oskar yells, getting out of the car.

"Up where I can see 'em. Put your hands up!" Maxine yells, still pointing her gun at the older man as Al walks over to cuff him, while Antonio does the same to Jacob.

"You shot my brother" Oskar says, looking at Jay. Max puts her hand on her partner's shoulder, taking out her radio and says, "Kirby 5021 emergency. We have shots fired by the police. Roll an ambo to 35th and Hamilton."

"Copy that, Kirby 5021"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine, Jay, Kevin and Sylvie are sitting at a table at Molly's and having a drink after this exhausting day. Max looks down at her phone after getting a text from Joey saying he wasn't gonna be home tonight.

Jay bumps into her shoulder and asks, "you okay?"

Maxine nods her head, "yeah, totally" taking a sip of her beer, "are you?"

"Yeah"

"Yeah? You seemed a little zoned out earlier"

"I'm good"

"Hey get this" Adam says walking over and sitting down next to Sylvie, "Voight beat his suspension"

"Thought he was facing termination?" Kevin questions.

"I don't know. Call it macaroni dude, I don't know, at least he'll be back in the office tomorrow"

While this whole conversation is being had, Jay zoned out on everyone again and he didn't even know Al was standing there as he says, "Jay"

At the sound of her name, Jay jumps back a bit, making Max worry, "Al, jeez, hey"

"Hey, um, can I get a quick word with you?"

Jay nods his head and they head to the back of the bar.

"Al, what the hell's going on?" Jay asks.

"Oskar Bembenek just put a $100,000 bounty on your head, for killing his brother Jacob"

"What?"

~~~

Little later that night, Maxine looks around for her missing partner and when she watches him leave the bar, she chases after him.

"Jay. Is everything okay?"

"No, uh, Oskar Bembenek just put a bounty hit on me"

Maxines eyes go wide, "what?"

"Yeah"

"Are you leaving then?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna head home. Get some rest" he says, gripping his jacket in his hands.

"Okay, um, just—if you need anything. You know I'll be over in a second"

"I know" he says, going to grab her hand for a second, rubbing her knuckles with his thumb, "thank you" then he walks away.

authors note;

like jay said last season . . . maybe they are soulmates ??? idk 🤷🏼‍♀️