⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS US
chapter fifteen. forty caliber bread crumb.

"Hey" Brianna says, walking over to Jay who is taking his break.

"Hey. I gotta say, you run a very nice operation."

"Oh come on, you've never got food catered to the district?"

"Yeah. Once. This old man, he left his inheritance of 530 dollars to the district, so we got Al's beef for everybody" Jay says, taking a sip of his water. Brianna laughs and says, "Gosh. Being cops. I would hope that you wouldn't have to pay for anything."

"It used to be that we didn't. Now you get written up for taken a stick of gum."

"Miss Brianna and Jay." Terry says, as he and his wife Lissa walk over to them, "listen I just came from Chicago med"

"We're having a boy" Lissa says, handing Brianna the sonogram.

"Congratulations" Jay says, giving Terry a hug.

"Thanks man" 

"That's wonderful" Brianna says, handing the sonogram back to Lissa then walks away.

"You have any kids?" Lissa asks Jay.

"I do, actually. Two girls and a step son" Jay smiles.

"Are you married?"

"Engaged. I actually gotta steal him to do a bank run. It was very nice meeting you. Congrats again" Jay says, before he and Terry leave.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam is currently talking with Vinny Cortez at statesville with a 3 inch piece of glass between them, and talking on the phone booth looking phones.

"Tell me everything my father did and asked you to do"

"Why? Your mother is already dead and if Aiden finds out I snitched on him, I'm dead too"

"Does it look like I care?" Sam asks, "tell me everything that happened or I'll make it worse for you in here"

As Cortez was about to say something a guard walks in and says, "detective Miller"

Sam turns around and says, "what?"

"There's an officer Ruzek on the line. Says it's important"

Sam sighed, then looks back at Cortez, "this isn't over" then the brunette hangs up the phone and leaves with the guard and gets on the phone, "what is it Adam? You know why I'm here...what?...alright, I'm on my way"

Sam gives the phone back to the guard and goes back over to the front desk to get her gun and phone and she leaves.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam arrives onto the crime scene where she sees Al backing an angry Jay up against a cement column trying to calm him down.

The brunette runs over to them and pulls her fiancée into a hug, not caring about her shoulder and says, "Jay, oh my god. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I'm just glad you're here" Jay says, as he buries his face into the girls neck.

"Looks like they left behind a .40 caliber breadcrumb" Roman says, walking over to the group. Jay lifts his head up from Sam's shoulder and says, "I shot one of them. He must've dropped it."

🌙🌙🌙

After getting back to the district, Sam and Jay both walk into Voights office and Sam closes the door behind them.

"You're not taking me off this" Jay states, with his hands on his hips.

"I'm gonna do whatever I feel is right for this unit, Jay" Hank says, leaning on his desk. Jay looks surprised and points to his coat jacket and says, "this is terry's blood. I saw the guy who shot him. You need me"

Hank looks over at Sam who is looking at the ground then back at Jay and says, "Okay. But anytime I or Sam tell you to sit on the sidelines, you're gonna sit, you understand?"

Jay nods then looks at Sam, so they can leave.

~~~

Voight and Miller sit in interrogation with Brianna Logan who says, "my family warned me about getting into this business"

"You're a lawyer?" Voight asks. Logan nods and says, "I am"

"What did you practice before getting into the marijuana trade?"

"Corporate law."

"Bit of an unconventional jump, wouldn't you say?" Sam says.

"I was under the impression you were investigating a robbery, not me." Brianna says.

"We have to check every box."

Brianna scoffs and says, "the federal government classifies marijuana as a controlled substance. So, I don't have access to our country's banking system. That's why every week, I deposit a quarter mil cash into a safety deposit box at chase. So, I really don't think I'm gonna steal from myself."

"Who else knows the bank route?" Voight questions.

"Just my security team. And since one of your own, Jay Halstead, is in charge of that, I think we can rule out that angle."

"We're gonna have to run background checks on all your employees." Sam says.

"I already do that"

"We understand, but we haven't. What about any disgruntled employees"

"I pay three times the minimum wage to all of my workers"

"You can imagine a lot of gangs aren't happy" Voight says.

~~~

After Voight leaves interrogation, Sam asks Logan a couple more questions, while waiting for a uniformed officer to escort her out.

Jay walks down the hall, as Brianna is about to leave who says, "hey. I just heard about Terry. I can't help but feel responsible for what happened to him"

"You're not. I am"

From afar, Hank watches as Brianna grabbed ahold of Jays hand and says, "please tell Terry's wife that I'll take care of all funeral costs."

"He was a marine, so he'll get a military send off."

"Okay" Brianna whispers. Erin walks over to the two, and notices how Brianna is holding onto Jays hand and he pulls it away as the brunette says, "Jay, we got something off the gun"

"You should stay low until we find these guys" Jay tells Brianna, "Just in case" then he walks away.

"If there's anything I can do..." Brianna says.

"I'm sure we'll have more questions. And I know this is hard for you but just as a heads up if Sam, Jays fianceé, catches you that close to him, it won't end well"

Brianna clears her throat and says, "thanks" before walking away.

~~~

"I got the lab to do a rush order, and they managed to pull a partial print off the clip inside the .40 sig that was left at the scene." Mouse says, as he tapes a picture onto the whiteboard, "now, it came up matching to a one Joesph 'joey' Ortiz"

"Ortiz?" Kevin says, "yeah, he's a known member of the Insane King Lick crew. They don't sell drugs. Their MO is to follow cartel mules with large amounts of money after big drug deals, then they rob them"

"Hmm" Hank hums.

"Sound familiar, Jay?" Adam asks. Jay nods his head and says, "yeah"

"Alright. Put out an investigative alert on Ortiz. Have patrol saturate all known areas him and his crew frequents" Hank says, then turns to jay and quietly asks, "look, I gotta ask. You sleeping with this woman?"

"Brianna?"

"Hmm. Cause if you're stepping out on Sam" Hank warns.

"I would never do that to her, I love Sam"

Hank looks over at Sam who is on the computer then looks back at Jay and says, "let me ask again. Are you sleeping with her?"

"No"

~~~

After finding Ortiz, Jay and Antonio start questioning him but he's not giving anything up. Saying he doesn't know anything.

Sam walks into interrogation and says, "Jay, you're gonna wanna see this"

As the three detectives walk back onto the bullpen surrounding Mouses desk, Erin says, "turns out Ortiz's cousin, Sasso, was a runner for the cartels, and was going to give Ortiz up for robbing their cash drops. So it looks like Ortiz was just giving him a gentle reminder to keep his mouth shut."

"Okay, so I pulled this from a Zac's beef parking lot up on Clark and Ridge" Mouse saying bringing up video surveillance footage onto his computer, "now if you look at the time code on the actual footage, it's just six minutes before Jay got lit up."

"I don't know, bro. I don't see Ortiz and his boys making it from Ridge down to Van buren in that kind of time" Kevin says.

"Ortiz still could've set it up" Jay says.

"No. That .40 sig was left there on purpose to mislead us." Hank states.

"Oh, well, the DNA from the blood splatter at the robbery scene came back inconclusive" Adam says, walking onto the unit with a file in hand and drops it on the desk, "doesn't match any offenders in the system. And the '96 Chevy that was lit on fire, pushed over the overpass. Stolen from a junkyard a week ago."

"We didn't get anything from the shell casings?" Jay asks.

"No. All clean. No prints. Every last one" Mouse says.

"Alright, kick Ortiz." Hank says.

"No, I'm not done talking to him." Jay says.

"Well, he's not our guy. His cousin isn't gonna press charges. So kick him"

Jay sighs and Sam grabs his hand and squeezes it for reassurance and she gives her fiancée a small, closed lip smile.

"Jay, talk me through this route again." Al says.

"There's nothing to talk through. We change it up every week." Jay says.

"Alright, what was last week's route?"

"Al, man. We've been over this."

"Did you or your guys discuss the route with anyone else?" Hank questions.

"For the 10th time, no"

"Well, they found out somehow, so someone must be talking" al says.

"Or listening" Hank suggests, "Al, go down to your basement, dig up your old equipment. I want you to sweep that dispensary."

"Sweep for bugs? We should be taking a harder run at Ortiz" Jay says, sternly.

"Jay, take a step back or go home. It's your call" Hank says. Jay looks over at Sam who says, "you want me to come with you?"

"No. I'm just gonna go see Gracie" Jay says, walking away.

🌙🌙🌙

Jay walks into Lissa and Terry's home to see friends and family gathered in the kitchen and dining area with Gracie snuggled up to his chest in a baby carrier.

"Jay" Lissa says, walking over to him.

"I'm so sorry Lissa"

Lissa nods her head and says, "Is this your daughter? She's precious"

Jay smiles a soft smile and says, "she is isn't she? She's almost 5 months already"

Lissa places a hand on her stomach, "I'm gonna tell our boy everything good about his father"

"And you should, Terry's a hero"

🌙🌙🌙

Jays stands in the bathroom, in their bedroom staring at himself in the mirror when Sam walks up behind him and puts her arms around his waist and kisses his bare shoulder blade and says, "I'm here for you baby"

"I know" Jay says, tuning around and placing his hands on the brunettes warm cheeks, "and I love you for that"

"How'd it go at Lissa's?"

"Terry got accepted into the police academy. He was supposed to start next month"

"Wow"

"And I told Lissa we'd help with her and the baby however we could"

"Yeah, definitely"

🌙🌙🌙

The next day on the unit, Sam walks onto the bullpen with a file in hand and walks over to the whiteboard and says, "we got serial numbers off the bugs we found in brianna's office. Called all the spy shops in Chicago. Guess who paid for them?"

"Briannas soon to be ex husband Jason Logan" Al says, taping his picture onto the board.

"I got his work address. JMC fittings on West Augusta." Sam says.

"Go pick him up" Hank says, as Jay grabs his coat and leaves then Voight looks at Sam, "hey, make sure he doesn't break anything"

🌙🌙🌙

Jay and Sam walked over to Jason who is welding something and the male brunette taps on his shoulder and when he turns around, Jay shows him his shield.

"Can I help you?"

"We need to talk" Sam says.

Jason Logan leads the two detectives to the break room and he sits down and says, "I have nothing to do with Briannas dispensary being robbed"

Jay slams his hand on the table and says, "the dispensary wasn't robbed. The cash drop I was in charge of was. And a man died."

"You think I'd pull an armed robbery for over a quarter mil and show back up here for shift?"

"We know you're suing her for alimony in your divorce settlement" Sam says.

"I admit there is no love lost between me and Brianna. I mean, the whole idea for the dispensary was mine." Logan explains.

"Oh, okay. So, you think you got squeezed out of a business deal that would have put you in a high tax bracket?"

Jay takes out a piece of paper from his coat pocket and sets it in front of Jason and says, "maybe that's why you bought the bugs that we found in Briannas office. That's illegal wiretapping. More importantly, that means you heard our cash drop routes to the bank. So, along with your partners in crime, you're looking at a homicide."

"Whoa, I didn't bug her office. I hired a PI to help me with the alimony case. He's the one watching Brianna, to get her to pay up some sexual abandonment."

Jay and Sam look at each other and the female brunette asks, "for sexual what?"

"Abandonment. I wanted her bugged cause I knew she was cheating on me"

"So this PI, he's monitoring the calls?" Jay asks.

"Listen, I maxed out my credit cards cause he promised me I'd get a better settlement if I found dirt on her."

"We're gonna need the name of this PI"

"And until that checks out, we're detaining you down at the station. Get up" Sam says, "you got cuffs?"

"Yeah" Jay says, handing the cuffs to his partner who starts to put them on Logan.

"Thanks Jay"

"Your first name is Jay? Jay Halstead?"

"Yeah, why?" Jay asks, stuffing his hands in his front pockets.

"Heard to many times on the tapes about how Brianna wants to screw you"

Sam raises an eyebrow at her fiancée as they walk Jason out.

🌙🌙🌙

Back on the unit, the team surrounds the whiteboard as Jay tapes up a picture of the PI and says, "This is Frank Amerson. He's 51. He's used to work as a bail bondsman. Now he's a PI making his bones spying on cheating spouses."

"You know, I read that something like 73% of men mess around on their wives" Adam says and Jay looks at Sam who is twisting her ring around her finger, then taking her necklace off and putting her ring on the chain and putting it back around her neck and he frowns.

"Where'd you read that?" Al asks.

"Playboy" Adam says and the team laughs.

"They took out the centerfold, right?" Kevin says, "what's the point?"

Adam fist bumps Kevin and says, "look my point is, Amerson lives in Oak Park. Makes a good living destroying marriages. I mean, why get into armed robbery?"

"I've seen a 65 year old woman killed over a 2 dollar lotto scratcher. We're talking six figures here." Erin says.

"Yeah we need to grab him up" Jay says.

"And I think we should take a breath. Do our own counter surveillance. See if we can make a concrete connection to this robbery" Hank says.

"Look, I can be up in his phone in, like, two minutes." Mouse says.

"Alright, won't take long. Antonio, you and Ruzek get eyes on this Sam Spade" Hank orders.

~~~

After finding Frank Amerson, he gives up a name. Colin Briggs. So they set up a meet between the two to capture Briggs which they did and they bring him down to the cage where he's handcuffed to the railing and Jay about ready to beat the living hell outta him.

Once Antonio told Jay and Hank that they found the rest of the crew they head back to the bullpen as Kevin says, "so, this car that Colin Briggs was driving belongs to 61 year old Jacob Seeley. He lives in Will county. He has a house right outside of Joliet."

"And I did a search figuring the car was stolen, but it wasn't reported. And guess who Jacob Seeley is the father of?" Mouse says.

"Brendan Seeley. He did a stretch in Pontiac for a string of armed robberies where he used a hammer. Guess who his cellmate was? Colin Briggs." Erin says.

"These are the Seeley brothers." Adam says, pointing to three pictures on the board, "along side Brendan is Larson and Carl. All three have priors for weapons violations in Joliet."

"That's him" Jay says, "Brendan. that's the guy who killed Terry"

"Looks like we got our crew" Dawson says.

"Want me to call Will county sheriff?" Erin asks.

"Tell 'em were on our way" Hank says.

🌙🌙🌙

Hank, Al, Jay and Sam quietly and slowly walk inside the house of the Seeley brothers.

Once they have Larson Seeley in custody, Jay and Al start to walk up the stairs to find the other one, when they hear glass breaking and find Brendan Seeley jumping out the window to get away. Jay starts running and Sam looks at Hank who nods, and she follows after her fiancée.

"Police! Stop!" Jay yells.

Jay follows Brendan into a warehouse with his gun and flashlight drawn. A minute later, Sam runs in to see Jay stabbing Brendan in the leg with a metal rod.

"Jay" Sam breathes out, as she points her gun out. Jay turns around and pulls Sam into a tight hug.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam and Jay walk out of the church from Terry's funeral with Gracie snuggled up to Sam's chest in her baby carrier and Denise holding onto Jays hand and Wyatt holding onto Sam's hand.

"That was a very beautiful service." Sam says.

"It was" Jay says.

"And I can't believe this is my first time seeing you in your rangers uniform. You look good. I'm proud of you" Sam smiles. Jay leans in for a kiss then says, "thank you"

"Dee, Wyatt why don't you head to the car and we'll go get something to eat," Sam says. 

"Cool" Wyatt says and the two walk away to Jays truck.

"I love you Jay, okay? And I know that you are a good man" Sam says, placing her hand on the man's right cheek who leans into it.

"I love you too"

🌙🌙🌙

Jay and Sam walked onto the unit with Denise and Wyatt running in front of the couple into Voights office and they sit on the couch. Jay holds onto Gracies car seat and Sam follows him into Hanks office.

"Uhm, I just wanted to come in and say thank you for keeping me on the case" Jay says.

"Well, right now, you're gonna take a weeks medical leave." Hank says.

"I appreciate it, but I'm fine. Really"

"It's not open for discussion. The boss has spoken"

"What?" Jay asks and Hank points to Sam. "It was Sam's decision"

"Thanks"

"I've been meaning to tell you, I'm lucky to have you in my unit. Both of you" Hank says and Jay nods.

"Hey, do you mind watching them for a second?" Sam asks Voight.

"Not at all" Hank says, getting up from his desk and walks over to take Gracie out of her car seat.

As Sam takes Jay away to the locker room she hears Hank say, "who likes magic tricks?" Which makes her smile.

When Sam brings her fiancée into the locker room, she turns the water on at the sink so Jay could splash some water on his face when all of a sudden he slides down the wall on his butt and starts crying.

Sam gets down next to Jay and pulls him to her side, "shhh. I know it's hard baby. But we'll get through it together. Us and our family. We love you and support you and we're very proud of you. I will always be here for you"

a/n:

I hate seeing Jay so vulnerable like this 💗
but he's lucky to have someone like Sam to be by his side through it!