⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS US
chapter seven. a dead kid, a notebook and a lot of maybes.

Jay's beautiful hazel colored eyes flutter open to see his beautiful fiancé sitting up in their bed, who is looking at her engagement ring.

"Baby, you okay?" Jay asks, sitting up and wiping away the sleepiness from his eyes. Sam looks at her fiancé and smiles, leaning in to kiss him and says, "I'm more than okay. Never been happier"

"Good"

"Are you sure it's okay that I have your mom's ring? I don't wanna-" Jay cuts off Sam, tucking some of her hair behind her ear and says. "She would want you to have it. Trust me"

"Okay" Sam whispers, "I love you so much, Jay Halstead"

"I love you too, Samantha Miller" Jay says, leaning in to kiss his fiancé again.

"I'm gonna go wake Dee up for school"

"And I'll go make breakfast" Jay smiles, as the couple get out of their comfy, queen sized bed to start their day.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam and Hank walk into Webster Country Day school where the students are clearing out on the word that one of the students has a gun.

Kim and Sean walked over to them and Burgess shows 'em a picture of a boy and says, "Colin Blake. Went missing yesterday with a loaded pistol taken from his house"

"We checked with the headmaster" Roman says, "Colin was marked absent, but his mom recognized his bike outside the school, so we think he's here"

"Well, get every uniform a picture of this kid and start sweeping the campus" Voight orders.

"Got it" Kim says, as she and sean walk away.

Sam and Hank continue down the hall, when Antonio approaches them, "Sarg, Sam. Just got word. Patrol found a body behind the school"

Now walking towards the back of the school, the intelligence unit finds the body of Colin Blake with a gunshot wound to his temple.

Ruzek -who now has his police powers back- kneels down next to the body and touches the boys face for a couple seconds and says, "Well, body's cold. He's been here awhile"

"He's still holding onto the gun and there's a muzzle flash on the entry wound. It looks like a suicide" Jay says.

"It's a .22 caliber. No wonder nobody heard the shot" Dawson says.

"Alright, Burgess, I want you to hand deliver that pistol to forensics" Voight orders, "tell them I need a rush order to confirm ballistics"

"Got it"

"And keep sweeping the school. We don't know if this kid was operating alone"

Erin bends down to unzip the kids backpack when she finds a bomb, "Guys. Nobody move. Don't key your radios and just back up slow. We got a bomb"

Jay takes ahold of Sam's hand and everyone backs up slowly.

About ten minutes or so later, the bomb squad arrives to destroy the bomb, while the team watches.

"It's a crude pipe bomb" Sully -from the bomb squad- says. Hank shakes his hand and says, "Thanks Sully"

"Crude bomb in the right place will do a lot of damage" Jay says.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam, Jay and Alvin are at the home of Linda Blake -Colin's mother-. Sam is sitting at the kitchen table with Linda. Jay behind her looking at all the things that are magnetized to the fridge and Al leaning against the wall, looking through Colin's notebook.

"It just doesn't make any sense. I don't know what happened to him, he was always such a happy kid"

"I can't imagine how difficult this is, but I have to ask you these questions" Sam says, "Colin went missing yesterday, but you didn't report it until this morning. Is that right?"

"Oh, I-I got home late. I fell asleep. I just assumed he was here" Ms. Blake says, staring off into her water glass.

"How was he able to get his hands on a gun?" Jay asks.

"My ex left it for my protection"

"Did your son have any activities outside of the swim team?" Sam asks.

"Um, video games. Lots and lots of video games"

"So, he was basically unsupervised?"

"It's hard when you work two jobs. It's not like I can afford a nanny"

"That wasn't an accusation, Ms. Blake. I promise" Sam says, putting her hand on her stomach, as grace began to kick.

"Who was Colin's friend..EJ?" Al asks.

"I'm not really sure. He, uh, was an only child. He was used to being alone"

"So, he didn't have one close companion?"

"I wish I could tell you"

Jay grabs the book from Al and looks it over.

"I never knew he was in so much pain" Linda says, starting to cry and Sam tried to comfort her.

🌙🌙🌙

Now back on their unit, the team is gathered at their desks, around the whiteboard as Jay tapes up a picture of Colin Blake.

"Colin Blake. Apparant suicide outside of his school. We're waiting on ballistics, but the gun that was recovered at the scene is registered to Colin's father" Jay says.

"I questioned the headmaster. He said Colin was a loner. Scholarship student, swim team" Dawson says, "He was the kind of kid who you saw around, but never noticed"

"I checked Colin's phone. There's a few texts and calls, but nothing jumps out" Mouse states, "You know, he didn't post much on social media. No manifestos"

"Except that in Colin's journal, he always draws his revenge fantasies with a partner...ooh" Sam says, putting her hand on her stomach and placing her hand on Dawson's desk, leaning on it.

"Sammy, you okay?" Jay asks, panicked, just like everyone else.

"Mmm. Gracie is just kicking up a storm today. We're good, I'm not going into labor" Sam says and everyone sighs in relief that it's not happening in this particular moment, "Anyways, Colin talks a lot about a kid named EJ. 'talked to EJ at practice. He's the only one who gets it', 'I have to do this no matter what. I hope EJ is with me'."

"So, maybe EJ wasn't with Colin. Something happened. He didn't show up. Colin got cold feet and decided he couldn't go through with it alone and took himself out instead of his classmates" Jay says.

"If EJ is in fact a real person and they were in this together, he could still be planning to carry out the attack on the school" Erin says.

Adam, who is standing at the printer, picking up a piece of paper that had just printed out says, "Well, there's no EJ at Webster, but there are four boys with those initials and one of 'em is on the swim team" then he tapes a picture onto the whiteboard, "Ethan Jones"

"Find him. Get expedited search warrants. Talk to teachers, students, anybody who knew Colin" Hank orders, "I need to know if there's an ongoing threat at Webster country day"

~~~

"Guys" Sam says, walking into the viewing room of interrogation with an older male, "this is detective McCabe from the youth division. Since Ethan's a minor, he has to be in there with us"

"As an observer" Hank states.

"Well, he's a minor who hasn't been charged with a crime. Let's play nice" McCabe says.

"You and me" Hank says to Sam.

"Sarg, let me do this. I used to be this kid" Jay says. Hank nods his head and says, "Hit it"

Sam opens the door to interrogation followed by her fiancé and McCabe.

"Hey Ethan. I'm detective Sam Miller" Sam says sitting across from the boy. Jay sits next to his fiancé and says, "I'm detective Jay Halstead"

"And I'm detective McCabe. I'm with the youth divison" McCabe says, "I'm here on your behalf"

Ethan scoffs softly and asks, "Why am I here? I'm the one who got beat up"

"Ethan, I think the kids at school were just scared" Jay says, "Not just about Colin. They're scared about you"

"Did you know that Colin kept a notebook? It's pretty interesting" Sam says, opening it up, "'talk to EJ at practice today. He's the only one who gets it'. EJ is you right?"

Ethan shrugs.

"'I want revenge. I want to kill'" Sam says, sliding the notebook in front of the boy.

Ethan takes the black notebook and reads it over and chuckles.

"Is there something funny to you in there?" Jay asks.

"If you knew what it was like, you wouldn't be too happy about it either"

"You're at school with a lot of rich kids and you didn't fit in, like Colin" Jay says, "The rich kids, they look down on you, bully you. You and Colin, you decide to take your revenge"

"You really don't get it. I wasn't planning to kill bullies"

"Then what were you planning?" Jay asks, "What am I not seeing?"

Ethan looks down and says, "Nothing"

"Hey, ethan, I'm here, alright? Tell me"

And right when Ethan was about to talk, there's a knock at the door and in walks Ethan's mother, Sarah. "Oh, baby, look at you"

"I'm fine"

"Alright, Ethan stay with me. Stay with me. What were you and Colin planning?" Jay says.

"You don't have any idea what you're talking about" Ethan says, "All that stuff about Colin, that was his thing"

🌙🌙🌙

After picking Denise up from school, Sam drives them both back to the district and they walk behind Trudy's desk and she sits in the chair next to her computer.

"Hey Kiddo. How was school?" Trudy asks. Denise smiles and says, "Good. Can you help me with my homework?"

"Sure"

"Thanks Sarg" Sam smiles, "Be good for Trudy, Dee"

"Always"

Just as Sam was about to leave, Darren Sanders -Ethan and Colin's swim coach- walks down the steps at the same time Jay walks into the district with Ethan.

"Ethan.." Sanders says, "I don't know what's going on but you need to stop"

"Leave" Jay says, "Go"

"Come on" Kevin says, walking Sanders out.

~~~

After Jay talked with Ethan, he ended up confessing that Sanders had abused him, Colin and another boy named Jeff who contacted Colin and they were planning on bombing Sanders car the day Colin died but both boys ended up backing out. Now the team is gathered around the whiteboard as Erin tapes up a mystery picture.

"Alright, Sanders did coach at a small prep school in Milwaukee, but he never had a jeff on any of his teams" Erin says, "there was one Jeffrey at the school, but he's black and lives in London"

"I spoke to the Milwaukee police. Never had any charges filed against Sanders, no victim reports" Adam states.

"M.E came back on Colin's death" Sam says, walking onto the unit with a file in her hand, "Muzzle burn is consistent with suicide, but there wasn't enough gun powder residue on his hand and the angle of entry doesn't make sense"

"Colin was murdered" Jay says, as Voight grabs the file from the pregnant girl. "It's looking like it. Time of death between 10 a.m and 2 p.m. We know where Sanders was then?"

"He was at school with an airtight alibi for when Colin disappeared" Kevin says.

"Uh, guys" Mouse says, "Guys, I just pulled the surveillance footage from the cameras around the emerald city cafe on the afternoon that Colin died. There's one next door" Mouse then plays the video as everyone gathers around to watch, "Alright, there's Colin" Mouse says, pointing at Colin's moving figure then to the other male, "and that's Jeff. I know, it's not much, but, you know he's 5'10", white, he's got a tattoo on his neck. They left around 1:15"

"So, this Jeff lured Colin out pretending to be another boy and then killed him" Voight says.

"Sanders has to be the one pulling the strings" Jay says.

"I accessed Coach Sanders bank records" Ruzek said, grabbing a file from his desk, "He, uh, liquidated a college fund a week ago for 32 hundred dollars"

"Where's he gonna hire a hitman for that?" Sam questions.

"He volunteered at a juvenile detention center last year as a conditioning coach" Al says, "You throw a rock in there, you're gonna hit somebody willing to pull a trigger for that price"

"Find this guy" Voight says, pointing to the computer screen.

🌙🌙🌙

After finding out the real identity of Jeff, who is really Jessie Madel. Jay and Antonio chased him at the 'L' station, who then jumped out of the moving train to his death while Sam and Adam go to Darren Sanders home to arrest him in front of his guests.

"What is this?" Sanders questions, walking from behind his grill.

"Darren Sanders, you're under arrest" Sam says as Adam takes out his cuffs.

"For what?" Sanders says, walking closer to the pregnant girl.

Sam tilts her head to the side. "You don't really want me to say in front of all your guests do you?"

Silence lurks between them, as Adam pushes back on Sanders chest, "Step away from her"

"Look, I'm not going anywhere until I talk to my lawyer"

"Yeah? Turn around" Adam says, turning Sanders around, quickly patting him down and then cuffing him, "You know, I'll drag you out of here face first across the ground in front of your guests. Give me a reason, please"

Sanders stays quite again.

"No? Move" Adam says, pulling Darren away to walk back to the car with Sam following behind.

🌙🌙🌙

Jay and Hank walk down the hall towards interrogation, when Sam stops them at the door, getting off the phone.

"Thanks. Sanders's lawyer is on his way up"

"Well, hold him off. Just let me set the hook" Voight says.

"Sarg. I want to do this" Jay says. Hank looks at Sam, who shakes her head no, then looks back at the brunette, "Maybe a little too much"

Hank walks into interrogation and Sam grabbed ahold of her fiance's hand and says, "Jay, come on" leading him into the viewing room.

~~~

After Sanders admits to hiring Jessie Mandel. Sam heads to her locker, where she's met with Sean Roman. "Hey"

"Hey. Hey, uh, listen, I don't like cases like this one, but I'm grateful when you guys do catch 'em. That's for sure"

"Yeah, I guess, huh?" Sam says, opening her locker, "Hey, sean, I'm really sorry to hear about your friend. You know, we all heard about what you were doing for that boy and I'm really sorry he passed"

"Thanks" Roman says, closing his locker.

"Hey, um, listen. I know we didn't get off on the right foot, but I'm here if you ever need to talk. Don't bottle it up, okay?"

"Thanks Sammy" Sean says and Sam raises an eyebrow at the officer, "Nope? Okay, sorry"

Sam stifles a laugh and closes her locker, "See you later, Roman" before leaving the locker room.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam is sitting in the living room watching a movie with a sleeping Denise next to her when Jay walks in and sits in the chair opposite of them after kissing his fiancé.

"Hi baby. How was the talk with Ethan?"

"It went alright, I think. He's a tough kid"

"He is" Sam says, before standing up, "Can you take Denise to bed. I gotta pee"

Jay nods his head, standing up to carry Denise to bed as Sam heads into the master bath in their room.

A few minutes later, Jay walks into his and Sam's bedroom, taking his shirt off and throwing it into the laundry bin and opens the door to the bathroom to see his fiancé sitting on the edge of the bathtub, bent over in pain.

"Sammy? What's wrong?" Jay asks, rushing over to kneel next to Sam. Sam takes a deep breath and says, "My water just broke"

Jays eyes widen and says, "What?"

to be continued...

a/n:

😮😮😮
oh. my. gosh.

It's happening!!!💗
Baby Grace is gonna be here very, freakin' soon and ugh I can't wait for everyone to meet her 🥰😇