⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS FOREVER
chapter twenty three. fagin.

"You okay, kid?" Hank asks Sam as they head to the crime scene at a local bank. Sam nods her head and says, "Never been better" looking out the window.

Hank pulls up to the scene and parks, and the pair get out to see Erin and Jay walking with a woman on a stretcher to the ambulance.

"So, one wounded, one dead?" Hank asks, as the four head back inside the bank. Erin nods her head and says, "Yeah. Security guard didn't make it."

"Whoever did this came in heavy. They hit the tellers, they hit the vault. Vanishes on motorcycles with over 150 grand, according to the manager" Jay states.

"They say whether they handed out dye packs, GPS trackers?" Hank asks.

"Haven't gotten that far yet"

"Sergeant, a witness saw one of the offenders drop this when they were fleeing. I got no idea what it is" a patrol officer said.

"It's a cell jammer." Hank says, then turns to Sam, "bag it as evidence"

Sam puts on a latex glove then takes the cell jammer from the officer and puts it in an evidence bag, she grabbed from her pocket.

"And make sure you got a copy of everyone's ID that you interviewed so far"

"Yes sir" the officer says, about to head over to the witnesses to take statements, when a blonde lady walks in and says. "I need you outside to move the yellow tape back 50 yards, and roll in the crime lab"

"Alright, but.."

"Now" the blonde woman says, then faces the intelligence group, "detective Upton. Robbery homicide."

"Sergeant Hank Voight. Intelligence"

"Well, I appreciate the help, Sergeant, but as of now, this is my scene"

"My team recovered evidence, saved a woman's life. We're running point"

"Make sure those shell casings are photo'd, bagged and tagged" Upton tells an officer, then looks back at Voight, "I've been after this crew for the last three weeks."

"Then why did my team respond first?"

"I'm from robbery homicide. There's been a robbery and a homicide here. So, I'd appreciate it if you vacated my crime scene" Upton says, walking away.

"Huh"

"Wow" Sam mouths to her husband.

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"Alright, what we know so far, we got a four man takeover crew armed with SIG MPXs, dressed to the nines in Kevlar and motorcycle helmets, with blacked out visors to conceal their identity." Hank says, standing in front of the white board, and everyone gathers around, "as soon as this crew enters a bank, they shoot out the security cameras, which is why there's so little footage of them. In this latest robbery, they killed a security guard and shot a female teller who was going for an alarm."

"We know they also use cell jammers, so that nobody in the banks can call 911" Erin states.

"And this crew comes in heavy, demanding all the money in the drawers and the vault. They use dirt bikes as getaway vehicles, easily cutting through traffic, which is how they've eluded responding patrol cars."

Jay walks onto the unit with a file, a picture and the cell jammer in hand, giving Al the evidence bag and tapes a picture onto the board and says, "Alright, I talked to an ex burglar CI buddy of mine. He said the cell jammer came from Bucktown. This is Jimmy Rickert. Old school tech guy. He illegally imports cell jammers from China into the U.S and sells them through his electronics business to burglars. I was able to track the serial number from the supplier in Beijing. It was delivered, along with other jammers, to his storefront a month ago"

"Is there any sort of pattern to the types of banks that they're hitting?" Adam asks.

"Credit Unions" a voice says and the team turns around to see Upton, Chief Lugo and Platt walking onto the unit, "they're targeting them downtown. Lots of daily on hand cash, but less security than the corporate branches. In the last few weeks, this crew has hit five banks and done over half a million in cash."

"Sorry for the interruption, Sergeant" Trudy says.

"You get lost on your way back to area central?" Voight says.

"You got balls, trying to steal my case" Upton says, backing up and hitting Trudy's coffee mug, spilling it all over her.

"That's enough detective" Lugo says, then turns to Voight, "your office"

Sam stood up from her desk and walks to the locker room and sits on the bench and buries her face in her hands.

There's a sudden knock on the side of the lockers and Sam looks up to see her husband standing there who says, "hey"

"Hi"

"I thought I could do this. I thought I could come back, but..." Sam says, with tears gathering in her eyes. Jay sits in front of his wife and wipes away the tears that are rolling down her cheeks and says, "hey, it's okay"

"Is it? Because nothing about my life is okay. I'm just so sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I just want it all to stop" Sam says, as Jay brings her in for a hug, and kisses the top of her head.

"I know you do, baby. And I wish I could back all the bad disappear. If I could take all your bad and make it mine, I would"

"Why are you such an amazing guy, Jay Halstead?" Sam sniffles, lifting her head up. Jay smiles, caressing his wife's cheek and says, "because I married an amazing woman, Samantha Halstead"

"That sounds so nice coming from you"

"How about you go home and rest. I'll talk to Voight"

"Yeah? I guess I could use the rest"

"Whatever my wife wants" Jay smiles, brushing his hand through Sam's pitch black hair, then leans in for a kiss. Sam stands up, while Jays hand drifts to her waist and says, "Thank you, Jay. For everything that you do for me. I'll see you at home" then she leans in for another quick kiss then grabs her bag from her locker and leaves.

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"How are you feeling today?" Brayden asks, as he and Sam sits at a table, and Gracie in a booster seat next to them.

"Fine. What about you?"

Brayden shrugs and says, "Could be better. Why aren't you eating?" before taking a bite of his sandwich. Sam shrugs and says, "not hungry" before stealing a fry from her partners plate and handing it to her daughter who smiles, "I tried going back to work today. Couldn't even make it through the morning"

"You know you can talk to me right?"

Sam nods her head and says, "Yeah. Same with me"

"So, I heard it's Jays birthday today. You guys doing anything?" Brayden asks, taking a sip of his water.

"Nothing big. The guys are taking him to Molly's for a drink, then when he gets home we'll do presents and cake"

"That's good. We need to start having normal in our lives"

"There's nothing normal in my life, Bray. Never will be and I can either let that destroy me or build me up. I guess, we'll see what happens"

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"So, did you have a good birthday?" Sam asks, leaning her head on her husband's shoulder, who wraps an arm around her, while placing soothing circles on his daughters sleeping form, who is laying on his chest.

"I did" Jay whispers, kissing Sam's temple, "because of you"

"How about, you put our daughter to bed and when you come to bed, your birthday present from me will be waiting for you to unwrap" Sam smiles, getting up from the couch, swaying her hips and walks up the stairs. Jay sighs and says, "She'll be the death of me" then kisses his daughter's head, "You too, babygirl"

a/n;

sorry the chapter was short & sucky 😔🤷🏼‍♀️
Anyways, there's two more chapters left of the book! 😲😳🤭