⋆° დ ༄ RISKY BUSINESS
chapter twenty three. they'll have to go through me.
svu crossover

Jay opens the car door for Maxine and helps her out, who looks at the restaurant sign in awe.

"Jay, this is a really nice Italian restaurant. Are you sure you wanna eat here?" Maxine asked, sliding her dress down a bit.

"I'm sure" he smiled, holding out his arm for her to take. Maxine wraps her arm around Jays as they walk inside the classy restaurant.

"Reservations?" The hostess asks.

"Two for Halstead"

The blonde woman looks through the big red book and looks up and smiles, "right this way"

"Are you sure you wanna be here, Jay? Seems expensive" Maxine says, as they follow the older woman to their table.

"Max, relax. It's okay. I promise"

On the other side of the room, sat Maverick at a table with a couple associates. He takes a sip of his bourbon and as he sets the glass down he looks up to see Maxine arm in arm with some guy, walking over to their table.

His hand grips around the glass, his knuckles turning white. Anger and jealousy running through his veins. He watches as she moves some of her hair over her shoulder and laughs and whatever joke that guy was telling her.

Maxine looks around, just people watching when her eyes fall upon his baby blues. The ones she's missed the past week. She watches as he gets up from his seat and walks towards the bathroom.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom, Jay. I'll be right back" she said, getting up from the table and heads towards the bathroom.

Maxine looks around for her baby blues when she gets pulled into the men's room and pushed against the wall.

"Mav, what are you doing? There could be people in here"

"There's not" he says, locking the door. Maxine ghosts her fingers over his left eye, where there was a cut and still bruising that was healing, "what happened to your face?"

Maverick looks away, "nothing"

"Is this why you didn't want to see me? Because of how your face looks?" Maxine asked, touching his scruffy cheek, making him look at her, "I've seen worse. And I would never judge you"

"I'm sorry I turned you away. I didn't want to" Maverick says, cupping Maxine's cheeks and leans in for a kiss.

"I could've helped you, Mav. With anything you need" Max smiles, "I'm cool like that"

Maverick chuckles, "you're cool like that huh?"

"Hmm" she smiles, leaning into another kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. Maverick tucks some of the detective's hair behind her ear and asks, "so, this guy you're on a date with.."

Maxine raises an eyebrow, "is someone jealous?"

Maverick wraps his hand lightly around her throat, making Maxine smirk. Maverick could feel himself grow inside his boxer briefs and a low groan escaped his lips, "what are you doing to me, pretty girl?"

Maxine felt butterflies in her stomach, the rush that she felt around him was more than she felt on the job, "What do you want me to do to you, pretty boy?"

Maverick sucks in a breath, he didn't understand how she made him feel like this. No woman has ever made him feel such a rush. Maxine hooks her leg around his hip. Maverick slides his hand up her bare leg and up the slit of her dress, slipping his hand under the waistband of her panties and squeezing her waist.

Maxine's lips part and maverick smirks, "you'd wish I'd go lower huh?" And Maxine frantically nods her head, "soon, pretty girl. Not going to let your first time with me be in a men's room" then he goes to unlock the door and walks out.

Maxine just stood there in shock, she then gathers herself together and slowly leaves the mens room without being caught and makes it back over to her table.

"Everything okay?" Jay asked, taking a bite of his bread. Maxine nods, "Mhmm"

"I ordered you your favorite"

"Chicken parm?" She asked and Jay nods his head, "thank you" then she looks down, feeling guilty.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine, Al, Antonio, Kevin and Adam run down the hall of the west wing of Chicago Med and they meet up with Roman and Burgess, who are next to the body of one of their own.

"Ross McCadden. Six years on the job" Kim informs the group and Max lets out a faint, 'oh my god'.

"He was my homeroom instructor at the academy. We were really good friends. I just talked to him" Adam sighs, "Somebody tell Jenny, has his wife been notified or.."

"Yeah. A street deputy and peer support team went to their house" Sean answers. Adam kneels down next to the body and takes the tarp off from over his face.

"Lewellen" Al says and Max, Kevin, and Antonio follow Sean into Lewellen's hospital room, where he was also shot.

"Fire alarm was pulled right around the time of death" Roman informs them, "Security guard walked up right when a guy wearing a hoodie and a ball cap was walking away"

"What condition was Lewellen in? Was he out of a coma?" Al asks.

"Yeah. He was responsive, talking to doctors"

"Where's the security room?" Dawson asks Roman. "I'll take you to it"

Dawson, Bishop and Atwater follow after Roman to the security room. A few minutes later, the security guard shows the three officers the footage.

"-he never saw it coming" Max says, watching the horrific crime -the suspect shot McCadden in the back of the head then shot Lewellen. Neither had a chance-.

"Horrible. Just horrible" the security guard says.

"Can you freeze that image" Kevin asks, as he, Dawson and Bishop lean closer to the computer screen and the security guard pauses the video, "Ah. That's the only angle you got?"

"Yeah, that's it"

"Alright, print that out"

"Not a lot to go on, sorry"

"We've started with less" Dawson says.

Adam then walks in, and says, "Voight's in the air, on his way back from New York. Wants everybody to meet at the district. Two hours"

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine walks out onto the bullpen when Hank says, "You all remember detective Rollins, New York Special Victims. This is detective Amaro. They have full jurisdictional powers here and together...we're gonna end this." Introducing the detectives from New York, who were standing next to Nadia and Roman.

Amaro looks over at Maxine, who was taking a seat at her desk and the look of shock on his face couldn't be missed, and the only one who seemed to notice was Adam.

"Alright, this pedophile ring, they're desperate, well-connected and clearly, they'll do anything to avoid being exposed. We found the body in New York, but the head of the snake is here in Chicago"

"Okay, so, Bob Clinton...is our middle man from New York" Rollins says, going over to the whiteboard, "Now NCMEC tells us he was getting victims from a youth center in Times square. Now, a lot of the kids were actually funneled to New York from here in Chicago and according to our talks with Clinton, there is a higher up. A true shot caller"

"Now, Clinton was gonna give us a name but he didn't make it 24 hours in jail" Amaro tells the unit, "Got shanked in the showers"

"We liked Lewellen for financing this whole thing" Hank says, pointing to his picture, "Hey, Antonio, where we at with the shooter?"

"Well, due to the poor quality of the video, there was no match in the face recognition database. Best we got is male, white, around 5'9", dark hair, 170 pounds, give or take" Dawson answers.

"So, patrol, you turn over every stone you can to get an ID on this guy"

"You got it, Sergeant" Kim says, as she and Roman leave.

"Ruzek, Lewellen himself, where we at with that?"

"Got to all his main accounts. Nothing stood out except for payments to a Oak Brook Senior Community. Western suburbs, come in at, 5K a month" Ruzek said, sitting on the edge of his desk.

"And that's relevant how?" Al questions.

"Lewellen has no living relatives"

"Right, Ruzek and Amaro, go check out this home" Hank says, as Trudy walks up the steps with a handful of black badge covers for their fallen officer, Ross McCadden.

As Nadia passes one to each of the detectives and officers, max puts hers on, as Platt says, "Ross was a father, a husband and one of my patrolman. I assigned him to that hospital protection detail. He was supposed to be off the clock, but he needed overtime for his daughter's tuition. So when you find the animal that killed him and for whatever reason he doesn't come back alive, you call me. I'll dig the ditch"

Platt leaves and then there's a silence that fills the air before Voight breaks it, "Alright. Let's hit it"

🪩🪩🪩

As Adam and Nick leave the senior center, the officer turns towards the detective and asks, "Uhm, so how do you know Maxine?"

"I-uh, I don't"

"Yes you do. The way you looked at her when you first saw her...you looked shocked"

"It's a long story"

"Once this case is done, let's grab a beer. I love a long story"

"Uh, yeah. Sure" Nick hesitated before getting into the passenger seat of the car.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine walks down to the lobby of the district and takes out a fifty and puts it in the jar for the fallen officer. "Hey Sarg"

"Hey"

"You need anything?" Maxine asks and Trudy shakes her head no, "okay, you know where I am if you do" then she walks away back up to the unit.

~~~

"Sergeant?" Nadia says, leaving her desk.

"Yeah?" Hank says, leaving his office.

"Matilda Hughes is an employee with the department of children and family services. I spoke with her boss. She's not at the office and she's not answering her cell. This is her home address"

"Beautiful" Hank says, handing the paper to Maxine who leaves the unit, followed by Jay.

🪩🪩🪩

"No pets. Always pays the rent on time. Nice lady" the landlord says, escorting Jay and Max to Matilda's apartment.

"When's the last time you saw her?" Maxine questions, as they stop at a door.

"Maybe three days ago" the landlord says and the two detectives draw their weapons, "maybe she's just out of town"

"Let's find out" Jay says, as the landlord unlocks the door, "stay here"

"Matilda Hughes, Chicago police!" Maxine shouts, as she and jay search and clear the apartment, "clear!"

"Clear!"

As they walk in sync down the hall, they find Matilda's body on her living room floor.

~~~

"So?" Hank says, walking into the room. Jay stands up from a kneeling position as Maxine says, "couldn't find any other evidence linking her to Andrew Lewellen and her computer and cell are missing"

"How long she been working at DCFS?" Hank asks, kneeling next to the body.

"Fifteen years" Jay answers.

"And how long was Lewellen paying her mom at the home?"

"Almost as long"

"So she was funneling kids to New York through DCFS?" Maxine questions. Hank stands up and says, "I think that's the theory to best right now, yeah"

"She's not the shot caller though. Lindsay's brother, Teddy said it was a white male that was in charge" jay states.

Maxine sighs, "this is gonna end bad"

"I'm getting everyone else over to her office at child services" Hank says, getting on the phone, "we need to turn this place out"

🪩🪩🪩

"Hey E" Max says, getting out of her car, meeting up with Erin outside of Sam Whiting's home.

"Hey, Max"

"I never got a chance to ask, how you're doing? With the whole Teddy thing And then Mickey told me you practically got ran over by an idiot on a bike"

"Holding up as best I can" Erin reassures her friend, as the two walk up to the front door of the man's house and Erin knocks.

"Well, I'm here for you, okay? Whatever you need"

"Thanks, Max"

A couple minutes later, the door opens to reveal a tall, brunette male, "Can I help you?"

"Sam Whiting?" Erin asks, showing him her badge.

"That's right"

"Chris Sepka and Amy Kleinpass. Are they your foster kids?"

"Yes"

"Are they home?" Max questions.

"No, they're out"

"Okay, we'd like to come in and talk to you"

"Um, let me just let the dog out first" Sam says, then walks back inside his house.

Maxine's phone rings and she answers it, "Hey, Adam. What's up?...okay, thanks" then said girl hangs up and sighs.

"What's up?" Lindsay asks.

"Adam says, Jill Whiting died...nine years ago"

"If his wife's dead, why does DCFS still have her listed as a foster parent?" Erin asks and Max shrugs her shoulders.

The two detectives walk inside the house, "Sam?...Sam?"

They clear the downstairs half of the house then they walk up the staircase, pulling their guns from their holsters.

As they reach the second floor of the house, Max and Erin clear the rooms, then Erin slowly opens a door and whispers, "Gun". Then both girls slowly walk in with their guns pointed at the male, who is sitting in a chair with a revolver gripped in his hand, "Sam"  

"Listen, I'm sick"

"Put the gun down" Max says, as hers and Erin's guns are still pointed at the man.

"I hate that I was made this way"

"Put the gun down" Erin now demands.

"I tried, but..."

"Hey Sam...You can make this better, okay?" Max says, walking slowly towards the male and lowering her gun.

"I'm sorry"

"Sam, listen to me. You can still make this right and tell us where Chris and Amy are" Max says, trying to convince the older male, where the two -most likely scared out of their minds- kids are.

"I'm sick"

"Sam, she's right" Erin says.

Max puts her gun in her holster and slowly puts her hand out to try and reach for the revolver, "Sam, I'm gonna come closer to you. I need you to give me the gun...give me the gun, Sam"

The male looks up at the brown eyed girl, "I'm sorry" then puts the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger, leaving no time for the two detectives to save him and Maxine stays frozen in place.

"Max?...Maxine!" Max is brought back to reality by Erin nudging at her shoulder.

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" Max waves her friend off and looks around, blinking her eyes a couple times.

🪩🪩🪩

"Alright, DCFS employee funnels kids to foster parent who, with the financial help of Lewellen, funnels kids to New York where this guy photographs and organizes the abuse" Mickey says, pointing to the pictures on the board, "now is this hired muscle? The man in charge?"

"Well, we're still looking for Amy Klienpass and Chris Sepka" Amaro says, handing Jay their pictures to put on the board, "believed to be abducted."

"Well, these are all the people that are in Matilda's office" Maxine says, standing next to another board with all of Matilda's co workers ID's on it, "I already interviewed about half of them. But none of them had a clue what she was up to"

"What about the guy Matilda was seeing? What, Gary Miller?" Hank asks.

"No. I got her phone records. There's no calls to a Gary Miller. I checked her cloud. There's nothing there either" Ruzek says.

Antonio walks back onto the bullpen, hanging up his phone and says, "that was Burgess. She and Roman ID'd the shooter from the hospital. Target's name is Todd Ledbetter. Ran his sheet, he's got a boatload of violent priors. There's an active warrant for his arrest on a violation of registration as a sex offender. Witness says he dropped off some HGH to Ledbetter on the corner of West Huron and Leavitt, then saw him walk into a house a half block up"

"Let's gear up" Hank says.

🪩🪩🪩

Max and Erin roll up to the house that the rest of the team is at with their guns drawn, as they follow Kevin, Mickey, Amanda and Antonio inside, clearing it.

Once they get to the second floor, they come to a locked door, "Chicago PD! Anybody in there?"

"Help!" A child's voice calls out.

Dawson hands Atwater a hammer, who then slams it on the locked door. Then the four slowly make their way into the room with their guns still out, clearing it to then see -who could be Amy- .

"Amy?" Max asks, as the little girl nods her head, then she kneels down next to the scared girl, "It's gonna be okay, sweetheart. We're the police"

"Box cutter!" Erin yells out, then looks back at Amy, "Where gonna get these off you, okay? Chris Sepka...is he here?"

"They took him yesterday"

"Who's they?" Max asks.

"The guy that lives here. The big guy. You gotta find him. He's really mean"

Atwater finally cuts the cuffs off of Amy, then said girl immediately attaches herself to Erin.

🪩🪩🪩

Maxine takes out her keys and was about to unlock her door when she sees an envelope sitting on her doormat. She bent down to go pick it up and looked it over. It had no returning address, it didn't even have her address. Just her name.

Maxine walked into her apartment, setting her bag and keys down on the hallway table and opens the envelope. She takes out the letter and reads it over.

Dear my baby Maxine,

I know this will come as a shock to you to hear from me after 32 years and I'm so undoubtedly sorry for everything I put you through. I know you owe me nothing. I just wanted to tell you that you have always and will always be with me.

Love mom

Maxine looked at the letter in pure shock. Mom? But there was no way, it couldn't really be her, right?

🪩🪩🪩

Olivia Benson walks onto the unit, after Platt and introduces herself to everyone. She walks over to Maxine, about to give her a handshake when she looks over at her in shock.

"Maxine. Nice to meet you" Max says, holding her hand out to shake with the older woman.

Olivia looked over at Nick, who shakes his head then back over to the detective and says, "you too"

"So, that must be Amy" olivia continues, "Who owned the house that she was found in?"

"An old timer in St. Louis. Turns out, Andrew Lewellen, from the hospital, he was paying rent in cash once a year for the last five years" Jay answers, "No telling how many stash houses could be in the city"

Benson sighs, "Okay, she give you anything else?"

"No. In terms of what she went through in that house...she didn't say and we haven't asked...yet" Al says.

"Anything from the missing boy?" Liv asks.

"We're working on it" Amaro says, taking Olivia's bag from her.

Olivia Benson walks towards Hank Voight and Maxine sits back at her desk and sighs.

~~~

Maxine pulls her best friend into the locker room and shuts the door. "Ow, arm" he says.

"Sorry" she says, walking to her locker to grab the letter from her bag and hands it to him.

"What's this?"

"Open it, A"

Adam opens the envelope and reads the letter then he looks up at the brunette in pure shock. "What the hell? Your mom?"

"I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"How can I really be sure it's her? I don't know what she looks like or sounds like. My mother could be anyone"

"Yeah, I mean. You're right"

Maxine takes the letter back and sighs, putting it back into her bag. "I don't know what I'm gonna do, Adam"

Adam brings his best friend into a hug and wraps his arms around her and kisses the top of her head. "It's gonna be okay, Max. I will right by your side, no matter what"

🪩🪩🪩

Erin walks onto the unit with Teddy trailing behind her and says, "this is it. Hey guys. this is teddy. I'm gonna catch my boss up to speed. You can take my desk" Erin continued, walking to Voight's office.

Teddy goes to sit at her older sister's desk, as Mickey goes to sit on the corner of his and says, "how's it going Teddy?"

Teddy smirks and says, "oh you know"

As everyone goes back to what they were doing Teddy looks around and spots something on the board and his face goes completely pale, "oh my god"

"What?" Maxine asks, sitting up in her chair. Teddy points to a picture on the board and says, "that's him. That's the guy who's in charge"

🪩🪩🪩

Al and Maxine walk down the halls, past all the cubicles at the DCFS office where Matilda Hughes worked and the older detective says, "Van Camp. Get on your feet. You're under arrest"

"For what?" The man asks.

"Get on your damn feet now" Max says, as Al grabs onto the man's arm to stand him up so he could cuff him. Max sees VanCamp smirk and says, "keep it up. Watch what happens when we get back to the district"

"Is that a threat?"

"No. It's a promise"

🪩🪩🪩

After finding Chris Sepka, the team drives back to the district where the officers of district 21 wait outside for McCaddens wife and kids to leave the building.

"Attention!" Trudy yells, making all the officers and detectives stand straight, "present arms!" Making them go into a salute as McCaddens wife and kids walk to their car, get in and drive off, "order up!"

🪩🪩🪩

Jay opens his door to find his partner standing on the other side, looking disheveled, her mascara stained on her cheeks. "Max?"

"Can I come in?" She asked and Jay moved to the side to let her in and closes the door behind them.

"What's going on, Max? Why have you been crying?"

"I don't deserve you." She sniffles, "you deserve someone who will be able to be there for you and treat you like the amazing guy that you are and not lie to you an—and I'm so damaged. You don't need that"

Jay cups her face with his calloused hands, looking into her chocolate brown eyes, "Max, what are you talking about? I want you to—"

Maxine pulls away, "jay, you are the best partner I have ever had. I can't lose you over this"

"Angel...you're not gonna lose me over anything"

"I'm sorry" she said before opening the door and leaves.

🪩🪩🪩

Adam takes a sip of his beer as he sits across from Amaro at Mollys. "So, what's this long story?"

"Bishop has a twin sister" Amaro said and Adam looked at him in pure shock. There was a lot of that going around today. "I guess it isn't such a long story"

"Wait, how do you know any of this?"

Amaro sighs, "because she's my adopted sister and that's half the reason I came to chicago instead of Fin. She just moved here. She's a firefighter"

authors note;

WHAT A PLOT TWIST!!