Chapter Text
‘This if 5021 Frank, we’ll respond to that call over on North Michigan.’
‘Copy that 5021.’
‘Please advise there will be plain clothes officers on scene.’
Jay starts the engine as Antonio clips himself in.
‘That’s like three blocks south of here, right?’ he asks.
Antonio nods beside him. ‘Yeah,’ he says as he turns to grab both their vests from the back seat. He’d met Antonio for an early breakfast before work but their food is now left abandoned in their booth.
And it’s a mess when they get there. There are still three gunmen inside and whilst Jay gets a shot off that hits one of the offenders in the thigh, it’s not enough to take him down and there are too many civilians inside the credit union to get off too many rounds.
The offenders take off out the back and both he and Antonio make for the exit when a desperate cry catches his attention. Turns to see a mother bent over her little boy on the ground.
‘Stay,’ Antonio tells him. ‘I’ll head outside.’
Antonio dives out the back in pursuit as Jay drops to the ground in front of the mother and son. The mother desperately holding her boy to her chest. Jay can see blood. Plenty of it. Too much for someone so young.
‘Ma’am, my name is Jay Halstead. I’m a detective with the Chicago Police department. Let me see if I can help your boy, okay?’
The mother nods and Jay gently pries her away so he can take in the scene before him. It’s hit him in his upper thigh, and he thinks it may have nicked something from the shade of the blood.
‘What’s his name?’ he asks the mom as he starts to work loose his belt.
‘Darrell’
‘Okay, keep talking to him then,’ Jay tells her gently. The boys is holding onto consciousness and he could really do with him staying with them right about now.
Jay loops the belt around the boy’s thigh. He’s too small for any of the holes on his belt to be of any use but he can still tie it off.
He explains to the mother what he’s about to do as he registers Antonio’s voice through the radio giving a partial plate and the direction the offenders have made their escape in.
The boy’s eyes roll back in his head in pain as Jay tightens the belt. ‘You’re doing so good, Darrell,’ he tells him and moves to take off his vest so he can use his sweater to apply pressure to the wound. Checks the boy’s pulse. It’s weak, but it’s there.
‘This is 5021 George. Roll an ambulance to our location. We got a tender-age gunshot victim with a bullet lodged in his thigh. We need that bus here quickly.’
‘You good, man?’ Antonio asks heading back inside.
‘Yeah, yeah, all fine,’ Jay tells him. ‘I haven’t had chance to check if there’s anybody else injured.’
‘On it.’
‘Is he gonna be okay?’ the mother sobs beside him stroking her boy’s forehead.
He has no idea if he’s honest.
‘He’s awake and the ambo will be here shortly.’ It’s the best he’s got right now.
--------
Voight arrives not too long after the ambulance has departed finding the mess of the scene and patrol officers taking witness statements.
Finds Jay and Antonio walking through what may have happened based on what they’ve heard so far.
Finds Jay caked in blood.
‘Halstead?’
He shakes his head. ‘Not mine. A little boy got shot. He’s eight years old, Hank.’
‘Yeah, I heard over the radio. You okay?’
Jay gives a jerky nod of his head. ‘We just need to get these guys.’
‘I gotta say, they can’t have been much more than kids themselves, Sarge,’ Antonio adds.
‘Nothing about this feels neat and tidy. They’re hardly pros.’
‘You get a good look at any of them?’ Voight asks them both.
‘They wore helmets,’ he explains and clarifies off Voight’s look. ‘Motorcycle helmets.’
An officer hands them a cell jammer and when he moves away from them, they turn at the sound of a new voice addressing the member of patrol.
‘I need you outside to move the yellow tape back fifty yards and roll in the crime lab. Now.’
Jay turns and looks at her. There’s a badge on her hip and some sort of file in her hand.
He doesn’t recognise her. She has the kind of face that’s not easy to forget and he shifts to straighten up a little at the sight of the woman who’s attempting to steal their scene.
‘Detective Upton, Robbery Homicide.’
Hank nods, a little amused beside them. ‘Hank Voight, Intelligence.
‘Well, I appreciate the help Sergeant but as of now, this is my scene.’
And that makes Jay’s eyes widen somewhat. Not only does Voight outrank her, but his reputation proceeds him; it’s not often people are willing to challenge him and from the way Voight had already turned away as if the matter was handled, he knows his boss is surprised too.
‘My team recovered evidence. Halstead here saved a little boy’s life, and a woman is dead. We’re running point.’
But she ignores his boss’ clear message and turns to fire off another instruction to an officer. Tells them she’s been tracking the crew for weeks.
‘Then why did my team respond first?’ Voight questions.
She doesn’t look at all perturbed by his boss’ words. Barely even blinks at being challenged by Voight and he has to admit that she’s got gumption. She’s kind of gorgeous too.
‘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.’
Jay can’t help the scoff that escapes him.
‘Excuse me?’ she says turning her head to look directly at him.
‘Oh,’ he smirks. ‘I didn’t say anything.’
She turns to fully face him. Crosses her arms over her chest and fixes him with a stare. Christ her eyes are blue. Alarmingly so. ‘And yet that little noise that just left you said so much. What’s the problem, officer? Cat got your tongue?
‘It’s Detective.’
‘I find most detectives are usually a little more eloquent.’
And that pisses him right off. ‘My problem,’ he starts, ‘is that you swan in here and what, you think because you’re wearing a fancy coat and dress pants, that you get more authority?’
‘It’s a nice coat,’ she deadpans.
‘I responded to this scene - Dawson and I. We’re the ones who were shot at. I’m the one who saved that little boy. We’re seeing this through.’ He clenches his jaw. She doesn’t look like she does the grunt work. Looks way too polished right now.
She shrugs her shoulders up and down as if his response is somehow cute before answering with a hint of mockery in her voice. ‘And I’m sure the folks who were in here are grateful that they had a couple of poster boy detectives in leather jackets looking out for them, but -‘
‘Alright, enough.’
Voight’s words brook no tone for disagreement and even this argumentative Detective before them is quietened.
‘This is a crime scene, not a pissing contest. Halstead, go pull the footage from the security desk.’
He wants to say more but he turns away to follow Hank’s instruction brushing past her as he does.
It’s around five minutes later when Antonio and Hank join him in the back office as he’s sorting through the footage.
‘You get rid of her?’
‘I’ll call her sergeant in a minute.’
It doesn’t quite answer his question.
Hank just raises an eyebrow at him asking him to explain himself.
‘Who does she think she is trying to take the case? There’s been a robbery and a homicide - no shit’ he scoffs. ‘I wonder how many classes she had to take at the academy to work that one out.’
Both Antonio and Hank look a little taken aback by his words.
‘I think she’s probably just a rookie detective trying to prove herself,’ Antonio says carefully.
‘Well, she can find herself another case. I don’t have time for her trying to prove herself. That little boy got shot for fuck’s sake.’
Hank fixes him with a stare. ‘Jay, I gotta tell ya. I don’t think she’s doing anything that you wouldn’t be doing in her shoes.’
He opens and closes his mouth.
‘What’s got you so fired up?’
And honestly, he’s not too sure but Detective Upton has gotten right under his skin.
‘Nothing. It’s nothing. Just a tough scene.’
‘Okay. You good?’
‘Yeah, yeah Sarge. I’m fine. Won’t happen again.’
————
He’s not sure of the conversation that happens between Voight and the sergeant over at Robbery Homicide, but the case is theirs and Jay is grateful. He’d cleaned up when they’d gotten back to the district and shaken off the morning.
They team dive into the case, but they don’t have a lot to go on. Not really.
He’s briefing the others to get them up to speed. Adam asks if there’s a pattern to the type of banks that they’re hitting when he sees her come up the stairs wearing the same determined expression as this morning.
‘Credit Unions,’ she announces. ‘They’re targeting them downtown. Lots of daily on-hand cash but less security than the corporate branches. In the last five weeks, this crew has hit five banks and done over half a million in cash.’
It’s news to him. She clearly knows the case, but he hates the air of entitlement around her.
Trudy steps in front of her and quietly makes her apologies for the interruption.
‘You get lost on your way back to Area Central?’ Voight hums and Jay takes note of Lugo coming to stand beside him.
‘You got balls trying to steal my case,’ she replies to Voight and there’s a moment where the eyes of the Intelligence team collectively widen at her words.
But then she somehow knocks Trudy’s coffee down her and Jay is spurred into action.
‘If you‘ve been doing such a good job, why’s the case still open after all these weeks then, huh?’
‘What did you say?’ she counters.
‘I said -‘
‘Detectives, that’s enough,’ Lugo says cutting across them both.
Jay quietens as his superior’s words. He doesn’t mind Lugo as far as the higher ups go. The man gestures for Voight and Upton to follow him into their office.
But she can’t let it go. Stops beside him to turn and tell him her response. ‘The reason it’s still open is because the guy is slippery. There’s little proof yet, even though everything suggests it’s him and my sergeant, given who Spence is, is reluctant to push too hard.’
He remains quiet and watches her walk away.
He’s not sure what happens inside the office, but when the three of them emerge, Voight turns to the team and tells them that Detective Upton will be assisting them with the case.
‘Okay, so let’s all take five, then finish getting up to speed reviewing the case and then we go from there.’
‘Where do you want me to -?’ she asks Voight gesturing to the desks, and Jay has to walk away before he can see his sergeant point to the empty desk that sits across from him.
He heads for the break room and makes a fresh pot of coffee for something to do and that’s where Antonio finds him.
‘You alright, man?’
‘Me? Fine.’
‘Sure,’ Dawson smiles knowingly. ‘You can come out, you know. She’s gone back to Area Central to get her files.’
He rolls his eyes at Antonio. ‘It’s not like that. It’s fine. Voight wants her to work the case with us, she can work the case.’
--------
The team are well rehearsed. They move in synch and chip in with each other’s thoughts and observations with practised ease.
The officers are good and the three detectives in the unit are too. Dawson is solid and methodical. Olinksy is seasoned and instinctive. Halstead is… well, she’s not sure if she’s honest.
He doesn’t fit in any box she wants to put him in because though he’s been combative with her since they’ve met, asshole doesn’t appear to be his natural state. He’s intelligent and efficient. Gets himself up to speed in no time and is quick to draw connections.
He clearly has the respect of the team which frustrates her because she can’t work out why he’s been such a monumental dick towards her all day. He’s barely looked at her since she’s sat down opposite him in the last hour.
And unlike some of the officers back at her current unit, she knows it’s not because she’s a woman. He and Officer Burgess clearly get along and he treats and listens to her as he does the other guys on the team.
She’d watched him interact with Sergeant Platt downstairs as she came back with the files, and he was deferential to her if a little teasing, but the elder woman had just rolled her eyes at him good-naturedly. There’s clearly a rapport there and mutual respect.
It seems it’s just her he has a problem with.
He’d followed her out to her car without asking to collect more of the boxes of files she’d brought and then shown her the back staircase that would be quicker to get them upstairs, but he’d said nothing further. His feelings about her loud in his silence.
He puts her on edge and she can’t explain why, but she’ll keep her head down. She wants this case solved and, truth be told, she wants to make a good impression. She knows she’s just about made a bad impression on everyone here and she intends to change that.
The team work steadily for the afternoon plotting out possible links and following up ideas from her files.
She makes a suggestion moving to the board to emphasise her point when Jay speaks without so much as turning around to face her. Head down still hunched over his desk.
‘No.’
And what is wrong with this guy? She finds herself placing her hands on her hips and then regroups for something she hopes comes off as less defensive. She doesn’t want him to know that he’s getting to her.
‘Are you intending to shoot down everything that I say?’
‘Not at all,’ he says and now he turns around to face her. His face impassive and it’s all the more frustrating for it. ‘I’m intending to do my job, which is to reason based on the evidence that we have and to follow leads.’
She gestures to the board behind her, well aware all eyes are on the two of them. ‘Which is exactly what I’m suggesting.’
‘No, what you’re suggesting is based on your gut and I don’t know you.’ He gestures to the rest of the team. ‘We don’t know you. We have no reason to trust you.’
‘You also have no reason not to lean into it.’
And it’s not her best counter argument but the guy bugs her.
‘Okay, so Jay’s not wrong,’ Antonio says stepping forwards holding his hands out in peace. ‘But that doesn’t mean we don’t look into that avenue. Like he said, we follow the leads and we can follow this too. See where it takes us.’
She looks between the two detectives and then her eyesight lands on Olinksy sat behind them leaning back in his chair with his eyes fixed appraisingly on her.
‘Okay,’ she nods. ‘That I can do.’
Olinksy smirks a little and rolls his chair back disappearing behind the cabinet once more.
She turns her back on Halstead and walks back to the desk, her desk. At least for this case.
But it’s not much use walking away when he’s sat in the seat right opposite her.
————
‘Al, Jay - take Upton with you.’
They’ve decided on carrying out further surveillance of the car lot and Voight’s words make him close his eyes for a moment. He takes a breath. It’s fine. It’s all fine. Turns to glare at Al when he makes a comment under his breath.
‘Oh goodie. I get the two of them in a confined space.’
Hailey tells them she needs to speak to someone quickly first as she snatches up her coat. ‘I’ll meet you both downstairs.’
He and Al make their way down to the tech room to gather any equipment they might need that isn’t already in the van before heading outside. Jay with the keys in hand.
‘Kid, don’t make this afternoon unbearable for me, okay?’
‘Al, what the hell? I’m excellent surveillance company.’
‘I wouldn’t go that far.’
He turns and frowns at Al as he drops one of the bags down in the back.
‘Whatever this dance is that you and Upton are doing, do it on your own time.’
He’s taken by surprise by Al’s words. There’s no dance. That’s not what this is. ‘Al, you’re losing your touch.’
Al merely chuckles and shoots him a sardonic look. ‘Yeah, that’s not what’s happening here, Jay.’
And the other man’s words sit heavy with him all afternoon.
‘You know, I didn’t mean absolute silence as the alternative to what I said before,’ the older detective whispers quietly to him.
Jay glances quickly over his shoulder to see Hailey focussed on what’s happening out the back window paying no mind to either of them.
‘I, what? Oh, sorry. Just thinking.’
‘I’ll bet.’
And he has been thinking. Thinking about the words that had left her mouth when she’d told them she’d been meritoriously promoted after being undercover for a year. That she’s still under a gag order from the AUSA’s office.
It’s a hell of a thing. Being undercover for a year is no joke and a promotion following it isn’t just for her time given. She must have done a damn good job.
And then she’d gone and thrown him for a loop with her little comment about it being the first time in the back of his van.
Finds that she has, yet again, taken him by surprise, because his assumption this morning that she isn’t one to get her hands dirty couldn’t be more wrong.
————
It’s not been as bad as she thought - surveillance in the van.
After a couple of initial jibes thrown her way by the two of them, both Halstead and Olinksy are polite and focussed. And they hadn’t really been jibes. Felt a little more like teasing in a way.
Felt like it might be a step forward, but she can’t say it’s not felt a little awkward that Jay then hasn’t spoken for close to an hour.
She’s contemplated asking him something. Saying anything to him really, but the words never quite come formulate into anything tangible.
‘Whoah, movement. Couple of kids coming up.’
Al’s words jolt her from her thoughts as she clicks the camera a few more times.
‘Okay. Package clearly being passed to them both,’ she notes. ‘Anybody recognise the guy?’
‘Sammy Ray,’ Olinksy states looking down at one of the open files on his lap.
It’s something. It’s a start.
‘Okay, so let’s go scoop him up,’ she tells them. ‘That bike matches the description we’ve got from the scene.’
‘Whoah,’ Al says but it’s the hand that reaches for her arm that halts her.
His hand.
And the fact that the contact sends a course of adrenaline zipping right through her.
She looks up to see her own surprise reflected back at her on Halstead’s face
So he’d felt it too – though she’s not quite sure what it is.
He quickly moves his hand away and clears his throat.
‘We can’t get him on that. I get it, but we need to wait. That photo isn’t proof of anything until we know what those boys do with the package and there’s no way we’re catching him on that bike in this old rust bucket. All it will do is make them aware that we’re close. That we’re watching them.’
His words are measured, and it makes her pause. She’d assumed he was hot-headed, but this gives her reason to think otherwise.
‘He’s right,’ Al tells her. ‘Though I admire the enthusiasm.’
She deflates a little and sits back down on the stool.
————-
It’s mid-evening by the time they get back and Voight tells them to call it a night. That they’ll go again tomorrow and that the intel they’ve gathered today is a good start.
The team file out calling goodnight to one another. Kim shoots her a smile and Dawson squeezes her shoulder on the way past.
Jay says nothing as he leaves down the back stairway with his phone in hand. She’d seen the name Mouse light up on the screen as he’d snatched his phone up from the desk, evident concern on his face.
She makes a quick pit stop at a little place that’s still open around the block and then heads back to the district and walks over to Sergeant Platt on the front desk sliding the drink and pastry bag over the desk towards her.
‘A peace offering.’
‘You not gonna throw this one over me?’
She accepts the dig. She’d come to apologise to the desk sergeant earlier on before they’d headed out on surveillance.
‘Well if this pastry is half good you’re forgiven, but that’s a one-time deal, Goldilocks.’
Hailey smiles at her words – at the slightly mocking nickname - and turns to walk away.
‘How you getting on upstairs?’
She turns back and crosses over to the desk once more. She’s not entirely sure how to answer that question based on the ups and downs of today.
‘Yeah, good I think. They’re a good team. Solid. Intuitive.’
‘Well,’ Trudy says taking a bite of the turnover, ‘your comparison is with the dicks over at Robbery Homicide.’
She couldn’t have put it better herself. ‘True.’
‘But they are a good team. Heard you and Halstead have gotten off on the wrong foot though?’
She tilts her head back and looks at the ceiling briefly. News travels fast then. ‘Eugh, might be an understatement. Think he hates me.’
‘Are you an asshole?’
She frowns at the line of questioning. ‘No.’
‘Then Jay doesn’t hate you.’
If only it were that simple. ‘I’m not so sure. He’s either sniping at me or it’s the silent treatment.’
She wants this team to like her but he’s one of the three detectives in the unit and he’s made it clear he’d rather she was anywhere else.
He’s good too. That’s the annoying thing. He’s damn good at his job as much as she’d wanted to be able to write him off as someone who has gotten by in life by looking as he does. And from what she’s seen today, she knows his opinion counts for something with his colleagues.
Platt hesitates before leaning her forearms down on the desk to meet Hailey’s eyeline. ‘Look, Halstead’s business is his own but he’s had a hell of year. A lot of changes in his personal and professional life. You storming in here today all high and mighty, well you just happened to be another change in a long line of changes.’
‘Okay,’ she nods. It doesn’t tell her much, but it does suggest that her gut was right: that he’s not a bad guy.
‘He likes the coffee from the place on the corner a couple of blocks down. Takes it with a splash of almond milk though he won’t admit to that’
She taps Platt’s desk. Grateful for the tip.
‘Night, Sergeant.’
And maybe Platt’s right. Tomorrow’s a new day.
Maybe Halstead is a guy who’s worth another shot.