⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS TROUBLE
chapter seven. care under fire.

Adam walks out of Voight's office with a bug, that Wood's wants to be put in his office, but couldn't do, when he hears small cries and whimpers from the break room, and he walks in to see Jay sleeping on the couch and says, "Jay. Jay, wake up, man" then he goes to put his hand on the brunette's shoulder, who then jumps up, with his fist held back, ready to throw a punch, "Hey, it's alright. Whoa. You okay?"

Jay drags his hands down his face and says, "Yeah, man. I just came in to take a nap"

"A nap? It's 7:30 in the a.m., man. Why aren't you at home with Sam and the kids?"

Jay looks at his watch and says, "I, uh...What are you doing here so early?"

"I had to do some paperwork" Adam says, as Jay gets up and heads for the door, "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, man. It was just..a bad dream"

"Does Sam know about these bad dreams?"

"No...and don't tell her" Jay says, before walking away.

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"Sarg" Hailey says, as she and Sam walk over to Hank and Jay, from the ambulance after a shooting occurred at College near Randolph park and Sam rests her hand on her husbands arm, "We have a witness who saw our female victim running inside with a kid. She hid, heard gunshots, looked up, and saw the offender running for an exit with a boy over his shoulder"

"Any sign of the boy?" Hank asks and Sam shakes her head, "So, this is a kidnapping?"

"Possibly, yes" Sam says.

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"Tell me we got an ID on this boy" Hank says, walking onto the unit. Kim gets up from her desk and says, "Uh, not yet, but we do know more about the DOA. She is originally from Dayton, Ohio. Biology major, working part time as a nanny. So, I assume the boy was under her watch"

"We're dumping her phone. Got a car on the way to her dorm" Porter says, walking over to them, "Uh, local police are on the way to talk to her parents"

"Anything that might make us think our DOA was the intended target?" Hank asks.

"No. Sarg, it looks like these guys were there to kidnap the boy, and Teresa just got in the way" Jay says, standing up and turning his computer around to show them the security footage. "Look. There's Theresa and the boy"

"Right"

"There's our shooter." Jay points to the screen, "There's our shooter's ghost. When this guy comes in, he scans all the exits like he's never been there before. Then he goes up as a cover. I don't think they meant to go in. I think this went wrong. Theresa saw them in the park, and she ran to protect the boy, and it got her killed instead"

"It might be a long shot, but Narcotics has had a bead on a kidnapping and ransom crew they can't make" Dawson says.

"I heard about this. They're going after kids connected to west side dope gangs" Hailey says.

"Right. The crew, they nab a kid, set ransom, banger pays them with drug money, never calls the cops. No victim, no crime. All they got is what they're hearing on the streets. Crew's three males. Black, Hispanic, white. Twenties, trained. I mean, if we're to assume our guys had a getaway driver, it's a match"

"Dig into it" Hank says.

"Hey, boss" Atwater says, walking onto the unit.

"Yeah"

"We ID'd the boy. Theresa's calender says she picked up a Cody Barton. He was at a music lesson two blocks away from Randolph park. Olinsky's on his way with the mom right now"

"Hey, tell Lugo keep a lid on this to the press" Hank tells Jay, "If there's a crew out there working a ransom, we don't want a word of it to hit"

Sam walks over to Jay and pulls him into the break room and says, "Hey, what's going on with you?"

"Nothing, why?"

"Because you weren't home this morning and you look exhausted"

"I'm fine"

"Jay, look at me..hey" Sam says, resting her hands on the mans, scruffy face, "Talk to me. What's going on?"

"Nothing" Jay says, removing his wife's hands from his face. Sam scoffs and says, "So, I have to talk to you, but you can't talk to me? How does that make sense?"

"I'm not talking to you about it, because there's nothing to talk about" Jay says, walking away and Sam clears her throat.

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Sam and Brayden arrive at the Barton residence and Sam slams her fist against the door and says, "Ben Barton! Chicago PD, open up!"

The partners draw their guns from their holsters and Brayden prys' the door open and they slowly walk inside and clear it. As they walk through the kitchen, Sam looks at the dining room table and says, "Keys and cell phone are on the table"

"Sam" Brayden says. Sam walks over to Brayden who is staring into a box with an ear in it and says, "Oh, god"

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"So, what do we got on the crew?" Voight asks.

"Well, these guys are trained, so I ran a query through the VA. There's 350 soldiers injured with similar age, weight and burn. But only four of them live here in Chicago and only one matches this well. That's Luis Vega, 28, 1st Ranger Battalion" Dawson says, pointing to his picture on the board.

"Luis got booted last year due to an IED injury" Kim says, walking next to the board, "Right forearm burned through. After he got out, he spent three months in south america on contract as security"

"AKA, he did kidnapping and ransoms" Jay states.

"Yep. Height and weight match this guy to a T." Antonio says.

"We got someone headed to him?" Hank asks.

"Covert car en route. We'll get eyes" Al says.

"Good"

"Okay. but what's...what's the plan, though? Cause we can't grab him up on what we got, and the odds of him talking are not good. Plus, if we spook the crew, we could get this kid killed" Jay says.

"That's why we get eyes on Luis right away"

"Or you put me under"

"What?" Sam says, "No"

"He was a ranger. We served at the same time. I can connect with him" Jay says, ignoring his wife's disapproval.

"That's a bad idea, no" Antonio says, "And undercover would only heat him up. We don't have enough info"

"That would be the point. I'd get it"

Hank looks at Onlinsky and says, "Al?" who shrugs, then looks at Halstead, "Sam?"

Sam shakes her head and says, "No way"

"What about you? You got a take Hailey?"

"No. I'm neutral"

"Okay. Let's give it a shot"

Sam scoffs and goes back to sit at her desk.

~~~

Hailey gets Jay wired up in the tech room inside the roll up and says, "Ruzek will log everything. I'll stick by you in the field, and Antonio will be there as a second. We'll have eyes on you even if you can't see us"

"Why the neutral?" Jay asks his partner.

"Just been a little concerned lately and Sam is pissed and I don't want her going crazy on me. And you cover well, but I got eyes, Jay. You sure you're solid?"

Before Jay could answer Atwater walks in and says, "Yo. We just got the undercover narcotics up to speed. We got the coverts trailing Luis to the Veil Club. Uh, bartender there named Camila. That's his sister"

"Let's roll" Jay says.

~~~

"Halstead caught that dude flush" Ruzek says watching the video from the wire, with Kevin and Sam standing behind him.

"Innocent Bystander, too. Wasn't he only supposed to throw one punch?" Kevin asks.

"If that. Hailey said it got a little hairy in there" Sam says, "No wonder why she was pissed"

"That undercover must be mad as hell" Adam says.

"Mmm. And that good Samaritan's probably gonna sue when he finds out that Halstead is a cop. You're gonna delete that right?" Kevin says, sitting on the edge of his desk.

"Of course. I'm not logging that" Adam says, as Sam goes to sit at her desk.

"Alright, anything on Cody's dad?" Voight says, walking onto the unit.

"Not yet, but he likes to visit the bank a lot" Kevin says.

"Okay"

"Uh, his finances show a hell of a lot of cash deposits. All nine grand, so that's just under the federal threshold" Ruzek says.

"Alright, have Antonio and Burgess hit up their CI's. Someone in Players gotta know this guy"

"Copy that" Kevin says.

"And Halstead?" Voight asks.

"He's all good. He actually just go in contact with Luis a few hours ago"

"Good" Voight says, walking to his office, "Sam, my office"

Sam sets her phone down and sighs when she has no calls or texts from her husband and follows her sergeant into his office, who closes the door.

"How you doing?"

Sam folds her arms over her chest and says, "I was fine, until you sent Jay undercover, after I said no"

"It's not just about you, Sam. We have a duty to find out who these guys are"

"I know, I know...it's just...I haven't heard from Jay and he's been acting weird lately"

Hank puts his hands on the girl's shoulders and says, "He's fine, Sam. Just let him play it out"

"Yeah, sure"

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Sam walks into her bedroom from putting Gracie to sleep when she sees Jay putting his gun into the safe and she walks in and says, "You been with Luis all night?"

"Uh, yeah."

"That's it. All I get is a yeah?"

Jay goes to take his shirt off and says, "What do you want me to say, Sam, huh?"

"I want you to say that you're not doing good. And if you need help, I can help you"

"I don't need help, I'm good"

Sam scoffs and says, "Right. You're always good, but what about your family, huh?"

"Don't play the family card on me right now"

"Really? You have an 18 month old, sleeping in the next room, who needs her father. Because she's the only one in this house right now, who actually has one in their life, so I'm begging you Jay, for the sake of your daughter, talk to me or to someone"

Jay grabs a pillow from the bed and says, "I'm sleeping on the couch, good night" then walks past his wife to head downstairs. Sam puts her hands on her hips and takes a deep breath.

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Sam sits in a covert car with Al, waiting for the other suspects to leave Luis' house, so they can finally find out who else they're dealing with.

"Okay, here we go" Al says, as the two other suspects get into their car, so Sam can now look up who they are through their plates, "Victor, seven, three, Nora, Andy, four, six. And nine, Mary, one, William, x-ray, five, one"

Sam types the plates into the tablet and says, "Okay, first plate is registered to a Josh Miller, no relation. 28. No priors. Second plate is Marcus Tate. 25. Height and weight match our college shooters. He's got two DUI's and an assault charge in the last two years"

"Angry guy. We could use something in there"

"Marcus is former Army Infantry and Josh is a Marine vet. We got them"

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"You want us to pull Marcus?" Sam questions, as she and Hank meet up with Jay in a tunnel, so no one sees them.

"Yeah, if you guys pull him, I can get Luis to get Josh to use me. You get him out, I'm in" Jay says.

"No"

"No? What the hell does that mean?"

"It means it's too risky. You're not seeing straight. You trust this guy and you shouldn't. You went offline at the club, you punched a civilian"

"I didn't have a choice!"

"You always have a choice, Jay"

"Alright, alright, enough" Hank says, "Okay. We'll pull Marcus"

"Sarg"

"This is our only play, Sam. Okay, we're done talking" Hank says, walking back to the SUV. Sam shakes her head and follows after Voight to the car.

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After tailing after Jay, Luis and Josh to an abandoned factory, the intelligence team rushes into the building with their long guns, and hearing gun fire, they start firing towards the shooter.

"Chicago PD!" Upton yells.

After Dawson kills the shooter, Sam walks over to her husband who is trying to revive Luis, after getting killed and says, "Jay...Jay" then all of a sudden he points his gun at her, "Jesus...Jay, look at me"

Jay looks from Luis to his wife, lowering his weapon and whispers, "I'm sorry"

Sam kneels down next to Jay and pulls him into a hug, "It's gonna be okay"

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Sam takes the phone away from her ear and sighs, when Jay doesn't pick up, when Wyatt walks over to his mother and sits next to her on the couch and says, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing to worry about, sweetheart. So, uh, tell me...how has baseball practice been going?"

Wyatt smiles, brightly and says, "It's awesome. For juniors and seniors, they're really nice to me"

"Well, I'm glad everything's going good for you" Sam smiles, bringing her 16 year old into a hug.

a/n:

oh boy