⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS US
chapter nine. one month later.

Sam walks into Denise's room with Gracie cradled in her right arm and feeding her a bottle and says, "Dee, you ready for school? The school bus is gonna be here in a few minutes"

"I'm ready" Denise says, zipping up her bag and putting it over her shoulders. Sam smiles and Denise follows her foster mother down the stairs and into the living room and asks, "Alright, you got your homework?"

"Yup"

"Awesome. I got your lunch" Sam says, walking into the kitchen and opens the fridge and pulls out a purple lunch box for the brunette and walks back into the living room to hand it to her.

"Thank you"

"And your homework is completely done?"

"Almost. There were some questions I didn't know"

"That's okay. As long as you tried your best. What am I forgetting?" Sam says, taking the bottle from her daughter's mouth, then wiping her mouth with a cloth.

"Field trip money"

"Ooh right" Sam says, walking over to the bench by the front door to get her wallet out of her bag and takes out a ten dollar bill and hands it to her foster daughter.

'Beep beep' was heard from outside.

"Alright, there's the bus. Be safe and have fun" Sam says, kissing the top of Denise's head.

"I'll try" Denise says, then kisses her sister on her forehead, "bye gracie"

Denise opens the door and closes it, walking up to the yellow school bus, as Sam watches her from the window, making sure she gets onto the bus safely, even if it's only a few feet away.

Sam hears her cell phone ringing, so she walks over to the kitchen counter and looks at the caller I.D which says private. The brunette narrows her eyes and answers it anyways and says, "Hello?"

"Sam, it's your father"

"How the hell did you get my number?"

"Sources" Aiden says, which makes Sam roll her eyes, "Can we meet up and talk?"

"If I say yes, will you leave me alone"

"Yes"

Sam sighed and said, "Fine. There's a diner on the corner of arthur and wellmont. Meet me there at 2"

"Okay, great"

Sam hangs up her phone and puts it in her back pocket and takes the file of her 'brother' Sawyer Hudson from the counter and goes to sit on the couch, putting Gracie in her swinging chair and looks over the file, that she's been putting off for the last month and a half.

"Alright. Son of Aiden and Lindsey Hudson. Sister is Harper Hudson. 23 years old, majored in psychology. No criminal past, some parking tickets. Damn, there's gotta be something" Sam says, skimming through the rest of the file, "This guy can't be my brother"

~~~

"You are the cutest baby in the whole world. Yes, you are" Sam smiles, using her baby voice to talk to her 1 month old, who smiles.

There's a knock at the door, that brings the soon to be bride's attention from her daughter to the front door. Sam kisses her daughter on her forehead and goes to answer the door to reveal Kelly Severide.

"Hey, thank you for coming over" Sam says, hugging her best friend.

"Happy too" Kelly smiles, walking inside, "I get to see my beautiful goddaughter"

Kelly walks over to the baby swing and picks up his goddaughter with such ease and kisses her cheek. Sam smiles and says, "So, I need to talk to you"

"What's up?"

"I'm meeting with my dad in a half hour"

"I'm sorry, you're what?" Kelly asks, cradling Grace in his strong arms. Sam shrugs and says, "I'm meeting with him because he said he'd leave me alone if I did"

"And you really believe that?"

"No, but a part of me wants to. I mean I haven't seen him in 20 years" Sam says, stuffing her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and leaning on one of the lounge chairs.

"You think that's a good idea, Sammy? You said it yourself, you think he's involved with your mom's death"

"Yeah, I know and if he is, I have an upperhand here and I can maybe get some real answers outta him"

"Do you need backup?"

"No, I'm good. I was wondering if you could watch Gracie. I don't want her around him"

"Yeah. Of course. Just be careful, alright?" Kelly says, bringing his best friend into a side hug and kissing her temple.

"Always"

🌙🌙🌙

Sam walks into the diner on the corner of Arthur and Wellmont, and looks around the small area to find that familiar face that's been missing from her life for the last 20 years.

Once the raven haired detective spots the face of her father, she takes a deep breath and heads over to the table he's sitting at and sits across from him.

Aiden Hudson sets his coffee cup down and says, "It's good to finally see you again, Sammy"

"It's Sam. Sammy is for the ones close to me" Sam says, looking every where but her father.

"Sorry. Sam. You've grown so much"

Sam scoffs, finally making eye contact with the red head and says, "Seriously? I was ten the last time you saw me. Of course I've grown"

"Sam, look, I'm sorry okay. Do you want something to eat?"

"No, I'm good. Is there a reason you wanted to talk or is it to bring up unwelcoming memories of how you just up and left me and mom for your other family"

"Sammy.." Sam interrupts her father and says, "For the second time, it's Sam and I met your other kid. Who just so happens to be 7 years younger than me."

Aiden clears his throat as his daughter continues on with her rant, "So, not only did you leave me and mom when we needed you the most, you cheated on her and had another family, who you've been with this entire time"

"Look, me and your mother fought all the time, okay. It wasn't easy. I'm sure you were better off anyways"

"Better off? You left and mom started to work more and more, leaving me to raise myself. I got pregnant when I was 16 and my baby was taken away from me. Then when mom died the following year, I started using and I tried to kill myself. Does that sound like I was better off?"

"I'm sorry about your mother passing"

"All that and that's what you get from what I said, 'I'm sorry about your mother passing'? You're about 12 years too late"

"Sam, listen.."

"No, you listen. I hate you, alright. I hate you for leaving, I hate you for having another family. And I hate you for getting mom killed!" Sam shouts, which causes everyone to look at the father/daughter duo.

"Sit down!" Aiden says, more sternly.

"I don't listen to you or anyone" Sam says, standing up and leaning her hands on the sticky table, glaring at her father, "I will find out how my mother died and who killed her and if I find out you had any involvement in it, you will be sorry, got it?"

Sam goes to turn on her heels to leave when Aiden shouts out, "Hank Voight really got to you, huh?"

The detective pushes the door open and walks over to her jeep and gets in, finally letting the tears fall from her chocolate brown eyes and punching her steering wheel a couple times.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam unlocks the front door of her house and walks in, setting her bag on the bench and walks into the kitchen where Kelly is helping Denise with her homework and feeding his goddaughter a bottle.

"Hey, Dee. Kelly helping you with your homework?" Sam asks, getting a water bottle out of the fridge. Denise giggles and says, "Yeah, kinda"

"Math is hard, what do you want from me" Kelly says, making both girls laugh and Grace smile, "Now if it were history, well then, we'd be in business"

"Dee, sweetie, do you mind going up to your room to finish your homework?" Sam asks. Denise raises an eyebrow and gathers her things to head to her room.

"How'd it go? Did you ask everything you wanted?" Kelly asks.

"Nope. The second I saw his face, everything went out the window and I started yelling at him"

"I'm surprised you didn't strangle him. All that rage built up after 20 years" Kelly says, passing Gracie back over to her mother. Sam sighed and said, "Tell me about it. I came close though. And I may have already accused him of having involvement in my mom's death"

"Sammy..."

"I know, I know" Sam says, walking into the living room, followed by her best friend, and she puts gracie down in her swinging chair, "it just came out. I was angry and upset. He gets to make all these horrible mistakes and gets to live while my mom was just doing her job to protect this city and shes dies because of it. It's not fair"

Kelly pulls a crying Sam into a hug and whispers, "You're right. It's not fair"

Denise being just as nosy as Sam is, sits on the top of the stairs listening to her and Kelly's conversation.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam sits on her bed, putting lotion on her long, tanned legs and looks over at the clock, which reads, 10:30 p.m. and sighs.

Jay walks in, exhausted and drained from his day at work and falls back on the bed and says, "Hi gorgeous" while rubbing his eyes.

"Hi baby. Long day at work?"

"You don't know the half of it" Jay says, sitting up and leaning in closer to kiss his fiancée, "what we thought was just going to be a take down of a kingpin, turned into a murder investigation and military software being sold over the black market"

"Damn, can't believe I missed it"

"Gracie's asleep?" Jay asks and Sam nods her head.

Jay stands up, putting his gun and badge away in the safe under the bed and walks off to his daughter's room and picks her up and cradles her, sitting down in the rocking chair and just sits there in silence watching his baby girl sleep, peacefully.

~~~

"Hey, everything okay?" Sam asks, leaning on the doorframe, "It's been a half hour"

"I just needed to see her. I missed her so much" Jay says, kissing the top of his daughter's head. Sam smiles and says, "Alright, I'll let you two be alone"

Once Sam leaves, Jay whispers, "I love you so much, baby. You're the best thing to ever happen to me, just don't tell Denise or your mother" which puts a small smile on Gracie's face.