CHAPTER THIRTEEN
trust

Hank walks into the locker room in his whites where Adam is sitting on the bench in his blues and says, "I told you to talk it back. Tell Trudy's friend it was me who got in the altercation. Not you, me"

Adam gets up off the bench to close his locker and says, "Sarg, listen. I thought about it. I thought about it long and hard, and I just did what I thought was best for you and for everyone else"

"It's not your job to protect me, to protect us"

"Why is that?! Why are you the only one that gets to live by a code? I don't understand. Boss, this is who I am. I'm always gonna do whatever I can to protect you all. It's how I'm built, like Al was, like you were, and Sam. And I just don't understand why you don't get that"

"Because you're not Al! And you're not me. And Sam can hold her own because she learned from me and her mother. You're a kid. You got your whole life in front of you"

"I can handle whatever comes my.." Hank cuts Ruzek off and says, "We had one chance to make this right, you hear me? One, and you blew it"

"Sarg, listen to me.." Hank cuts Adam off again, by pushing him into the lockers, "This is my unit! My unit! I take the heat, I take the bullets. Is that clear? Is that clear?"

"It's clear. I'm sorry"

🌙🌙🌙

Jay and Sam walk into the dining hall at a hotel in their blues where Brennan wants the intelligence team to be in support of a candidate running for mayor. Brian Kelton.

"Wow, this place is nice. They sure know how to throw a party, huh" Sam says. Jay interlocks his fingers with his wife's and says, "Yes they do"

The couple heads over to the table where the rest of the team is and when Sam makes eye contact with Brayden, she quickly looks away.

Flashback...
A few nights ago

Sam and Brayden sit at the bar in Molly's having a drink (well Sam is have a water due to her not feeling well. She just wanted to take a breathe and talk with her partner) when the brunette says, "I never got to thank you the other day for coming to my rescue and punching that guy in the face who pushed me"

"Hey, I wasn't gonna have anyone mess with my partner. No way" Brayden says, making them both chuckle, "So, can I, uhm, tell you something?"

"Sure, what's up?" Sam says, taking another sip of her water. Brayden takes another one of his shots and says, "Now, I'm only saying this because I need to get it off my chest and I'm buzzed"

"What is it?"

"I like you, Sam"

"What?"

"And I don't how but when we first met, when I came onto the unit last year, I uh, I don't know. You got me hooked, Sam"

"Bray, stop. You're drunk"

"No, not really"

"You can't say those things to me. Jay and I are finally starting to work on things"

"But that's just the thing. He doesn't deserve you. He cheated on you, Sam. Come on. I've always been there for you. A shoulder to cry on"

"So, you think that means I'll just come running into your arms and what, sleep with you?"

"What, no. That's not what I meant"

"No, you know what" Sam says, getting up from the stool, "I can't do this right now" then she leaves.

"Sam, wait, I'm sorry!"

Flashback over...

"Hey, you okay?" Jay asks, nudging his wife. Sam gives a sympathetic smile and says, "Yeah, totally"

"Hey, Sam. Isn't your grandfather supposed to be here?" Kevin asks. Sam shakes her head and says, "Don't know. Don't care"

Jay looks at Kevin and shakes his head who says, "Sorry"

"Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention" Brennan annonces, "Thank you. It is a true honor to introduce this man that I have worked with for 27 years. He has protected this city where he was born and raised. He is a true Chicagoan. He is the man that needs to be Chicago's mayor now. The superintendent of Police, Brian Kelton"

Everyone starts to clap as Kelton says, "Thank you, Kate. Thank you all very much. Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the rank and file. Let's show them how we feel" then he starts clapping along with everyone that's not in uniform, "thank you. I may have just seen Sergeant Hank Voight crack a smile. That's real police, best of the best. Now, my opponents talk about unifying Chicago. That's a noble word, 'unity'. But unity to my opponents means working with gangs, creating programs to help gangs. And that's just not what Chicago needs right now, nor is it anywhere on my agenda. Coddling criminals will do nothing to help the law abiding citizens of Chicago. To be clear, I don't wanna work with gangs. I want to crush them" making everyone in the room clap, "Thank you"

~~~

Sam leaves the bathroom in the hotel near the dining hall, fixing her jacket when she looks up to see Brayden standing by the staircase, waiting for her.

"What are you doing?" Sam asks walking past her partner.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing. You've been ignoring my texts and calls. You won't look at me"

Sam quickly turns around and says, "Because, Brayden. You can't tell me you like me. I'm married"

"But it's true"

"I don't care if it's true. I love Jay. I love my husband!" Sam whisper yells. Brayden places his hands on the brunette's face and stares into her eyes and says, "I wouldn't put you in this kind of position if I weren't sure of how I feel about you"

Sam removes her partners hands from her face and says, "You don't get to put me in any kind of position. You are my partner, Brayden. That's it"

"Look at me, and tell me you don't have feelings for me"

Sam looks at Brayden and just as she was about to say something, Jay walks into the hall and says, "Guys, Voight called. We got something"

🌙🌙🌙

"What do we got?" Hank asks, as a tech takes pictures of a dead Bernie Hoffman an ada. Adam walks over to him, Jay and Sam and says, "Wife's jewelry box was rifled through. A few drawers were tossed. No sign of Hoffman's cell phone, I looked high and low"

"And the techs swabbed Mrs. Hoffman for GSR, she's clean. They also did a quick test on the .30-06, it has not been fired" Sam says.

"And these shell casings are from a 9mm"

"There's no sign of forced entry, so, either the offender pulled off some kind of ruse, or Mr. Hoffman knew the attacker, was having a meeting in here, things went south" Jay says.

"I'd say real south, his jaw is broken" Adam states.

"We know what kind of people Bernie repped. Start with his clients"

~~~

Hank, Sam and Jay walk outside, down the porch steps where they are met with Hailey who says, "I got a neighbor that saw a gray Honda idling outside at the time of the shooting. Two African American males inside. Didn't get a good look, but said they seemed suspicious"

"They could have just been looking for a parking spot" Jay says.

"What about PODs or shot cams?" Hank asks. Hailey shakes her head and says, "Nothing so far"

"Alright, keep digging"

Hailey, Jay and Sam walk away, passing Kelton and Brennan who go talk with Voight.

🌙🌙🌙

"So, Bernie Hoffman had multiple cases in pretrial, including seven homicides" Ruzek tells the team, pointing to his picture that's taped onto the board, "All seven of those defendants are in jail"

"Yeah, he's also got 23 violent offenders awaiting their day in court, and they're all out on bail" Kevin adds.

"Alright, did you talk to his firm?" Hank asks.

"Yeah, one client stood out, Andre Griffin" Adam says, as Kevin points to his picture, "He's a major player in the southside hustlers. He calls for half of englewood. Hoffman repped Griffin on three major drug offenses, two agg assaults...Griffin walked each time"

"Griffin visited Hoffman's work office. Apparently, behind closed doors, things go pretty hot. Furniture was thrown, it was a big fight. Hoffman told the partners that Griffin was just upset about a bill, and he cooled off" Kevin says.

"Alright, you talk to Griffin?" Hank asks.

"Yeah, he's on his way in right now"

"So, Englewood makes sense" Jay says leaning back in his chair, as Hank walks over to him, "We haven't gotten into Hoffman's phone, but techs got into the cloud and he got a text message an hour before he was killed. It says, 'it's a deal. On my way' and the text originated from a burner in Englewood"

"Maybe Griffin's was the deal that went south" Hailey says and Hank walks back into his office.

~~~

Sam opens the door to interrogation where Hank and Kevin are interviewing DeVante a kid who was caught on camera pawning Mrs. Hoffan's jewelry and says, "Sarg, I got something. It's important"

Hank follows Sam into his office where she has the laptop cued up to a video, who says, "So, this is from a CTA bus cam last night. The route goes right past Hoffman's house. This was taken at 9:42" then she presses play and a couple seconds later she pauses it, "That's Brian Kelton. He said he last saw Bernie at the fundraiser. So, he lied right to our faces. Why?"

~~~

Sam sits at her desk when Hank walks onto the unit and asks, "How'd it go with Kelton?"

"He admits he was there, we'll see what his gun says" Hank says, as Kevin catches up with him to tell him something.

Sam gets up from her desk and walks into the break room to get some coffee when Brayden walks in, closing the door and says, "Sam"

Sam sighs and says, "God, Brayden. Stop"

"We need to finish our conversation from last night"

"No, we don't" Sam says, putting the coffee pot back on the burner and starts to walk away when Brayden carefully grabs her arm and says. "I need to know"

"I don't have feelings for you, Brayden. And if you continue with this, I'm asking for a different partner" Sam says, as she gets out of Brayden's grip and leaves the room.

🌙🌙🌙

After trying to put DeVante undercover with Griffin, who never showed. Kevin and DeVante walk outside, where a blue sedan drives by and the driver sticks out a gun and shoots Devante right in the back.

Jay, Sam and Hank rush out of the car and run towards Kevin and Jay asks, "Kevin are you hit?"

"I'm good, I'm good. You got him?"

"Go, we got the kid" Sam says, making Kevin run off after the shooter.

"Oh, god, it hurts" DeVante groans.

"Did you see who did it? Who did it, man" Jay asks.

"No!" DeVante cries out.

After hearing more gunshots, Sam and Hank race around the corner to see Kevin on the ground, holding onto his shoulder where the offender just shot him.

"Kevin!" Sam shouts, then gets on her radio, "10-1, 10-1. Officer down. Repeat, officer down. 5650 South Loomis"

Hank kneels down next to the officer and says, "It's okay, it's okay. You stay with me, Kevin. Stay with me"

🌙🌙🌙

The intelligence team and other patrol officers from the 21st are in the waiting room, waiting on news for Kevin. Jay and Sam walk in with coffees in their hands and they walk over to Trudy who is standing at the nurses station and Sam hands a coffee to the Sergeant.

"Thanks. Anything yet?" Platt asks.

"Nothing" Jay says, then leans his back against the nurses station, when Sam stands in front of her husband and leans her back against him. Jay then wraps his free arm around her shoulder and kisses her head and says, "I love you"

"I love you too"

A couple minutes later, Hank walks into the waiting room with Brennan saying thank you to the doctor and says, "Okay, I got good news. Kevin is gonna be fine" and the team all take a deep breath, "It was a tricky surgery. They took a bullet out of his shoulder, but it wasn't life threatening. The best thing we can do for Kevin is get back out there and drag this prick in. So, I wanna know where we're at"

"The PODs are a negative for the blue sedan, but a witness thinks they saw an African American driving" Adam says.

"Shell casings recovered from the drive by are a match to the gun that killed Hoffman, 9mm" Hailey says.

"That's enough to snatch his ass up" Hank says.

"Sarg, we've been looking. Griffin is in the wind" Brayden says.

"Alright, so let's find him, hunt him down. Squeeze his crew till it hurts. Whatever it takes"

🌙🌙🌙

After going to an apartment building where drugs were being distributed, they come upon a suspect who knows Griffin and tells the team his location. Hailey kicks in the door of the house Griffin uses and shouts, "Chicago PD!"

As they go to clear out the house, Sam follows Jay into a room where they see a stack of money in an envelope on a table and Jay says, "Guys, you gotta get in here" then Hank and Hailey walk into the room to join the two detectives and he says, "We found Griffin's bankroll. That's not the headline, though"

Sam points to all the yard signs and posters belonging to Brian Kelton and says, "What's a gangbanger like Griffin doing with 'Kelton for mayor' signs?"

🌙🌙🌙

"Alright, thanks" Jay says, hanging up his desk phone, "Hey guys, techs ran the envelope we found at Griffin's stash house" then he goes to the printer to grab a picture, "It had 40 grand cash inside, and there was prints on the outside of the envelope and on the cash. We got a hit" then he shows everyone the picture of Brian Kelton.

"Oh. Kelton" Hailey says.

"I was hoping he was better than this"

"Yeah, well, he's not. That son of a bitch has been lying to our faces from the second Bernie Hoffman got shot" Hank says.

"So, the 40 Gs is a payout from Kelton to Griffin for votes" Antonio says.

"Yeah, it makes sense" Kim says, folding her arms over each other, "We found a legal pad at Griffin's place with names and neighborhoods, places to disrupt, pastors to bribe. All in the service of helping Kelton win"

"Chicago politics never disappoints" Brayden says.

"Okay. What happened that night?" Hank questions.

"Alright, so the hotel is about a block away from Hoffman's house. Kelton leaves the hotel around 9:30, get's to Hoffman's 9:35, he delivers the cash. Then sometime after 10, Griffin gets there, collects the money" Jay says.

"So, Hoffman's the bagman"

"Yeah. And Hoffman records the meeting, cause he wants to protect himself. He doesn't trust Kelton. Griffin realizes the meeting is being recorded, things go south, goodbye Bernie"

"Alright, we know the who and the why. Now we gotta prove it"

"Sarg, the way things are headed..." Hank cuts Burgess off and says. "We follow the evidence wherever it leads. This turns back on Kelton, he ordered it, even if he just covered it up, so be it. We arrest his ass. Anyone got a problem with that?" and everyone stays quiet, "Alright, good. Let's get back out there"

~~~

After Kevin gave the team a partial on a plate number on the plate of the sedan that shot him and DeVante, Adam is hard at work trying to find the plate through the system.

"We're in business" Adam says.

"What's up?" Kim says.

"Atwater was one letter off. I got a blue taurus sedan. Reported stolen, Gary, Indiana, two weeks ago"

Kim puts her desk phone to her ear with a pen in hand and says, "You got a vin?"

"Yeah, give me one sec"

"I'll call the techs"

"Superintendent, how can I help you?" Sam asks going over to stand in Kelton's way of Hanks office.

"I'm just checking in with the Sergeant" Kelton says, then looks at the whiteboard which has the case all over it, "Don't let me get in your way"

"Superintendent" Hank says walking out of his office.

"Sergeant, I apologize I didn't make it over to the hospital, but I understand Officer Atwater is feeling better"

"Yes he is" Hank says, looking at his vibrating phone, indicating he's getting a call from Kim, then looks over to her, who hangs up her phone and leaves the unit and heads into the locker room.

"Progress on the shooter?"

"Chasing leads. Can you excuse me a minute?"

"Yeah, a hundred percent" Kelton says, looking at the whiteboard more closely. Hank walks away to the locker room putting his phone to his ear and says, "This is Voight"

Sam and Jay look at each other, then look back at Kelton who looks like he's studying the board.

🌙🌙🌙

Kim and Adam spot the blue sedan that has new plates and he gets over the walkie and says, "Alright, we're 100% on the car. We're gonna sit out back here. Jay, do your thing"

"Yeah, copy that" Jay says, as he, Sam and Antonio walk into the apartment building. As Sam and Antonio stay around the corner, Jay walks up to the apartment of Griffin's baby mom and knocks and when the door opens, he says, "Hi there, Ma'am. I'm Jay, building maintenance"

"You don't look familiar" Deisha says, putting a pacifier in her baby's mouth.

"I worked for the building for, like, two years." Jay smiles, "Come on"

"What you want?"

"Uh, we got reports of a gas leak from this floor. So, we're just going around, we're checking the units. It's only gonna take like five minutes. And it's freezing outside, so we don't want to evacuate you guys. You know, we're just...We're looking out for you"

"Which other units?"

"It was 212, Ms. Diaz"

"Alright, hurry up" says, standing to the side to let Jay in. Jay walks inside and says, "Cute kid. I have one of my own, she's my princess" making Sam smile to herself.

As Jay checks out the apartment, he walks into the bedroom and to find a gun and some money under the mattress.

"What the hell are you doing" Diesha shouts, with a knife in her hand.

"Sunrise" Jay says, taking out his gun when he sees the knife.

"You son of a bitch, you ain't no maintenance man"

"Drop the knife, Deisha! Drop it. Your child is here, I don't wanna hurt you"

Sam and Antonio rush around the corner with their guns drawn and Sam shouts, "Drop it, now!"

"Jay you good?" Antonio asks.

"I'll be better when she puts the knife down" Jay shouts.

"We're not gonna ask you again. Drop it. One, two.." Sam says. Deisha finally drops the knife and Sam goes to cuff her.

🌙🌙🌙

As Hank and Jay leave interrogation, Adam and Sam walk over to them and the officer says, "Sarg. The glock we recovered at Desisha's, it's a match for all of our vics. Hoffman, DeVante, Kev"

"I've also got a CI who puts Griffin hiding at a flophouse on Monroe. We got this prick" Sam says.

"Alright, start typing a warrant. I'll get a judge" Hank says, walking down the hall back to the bullpen with Adam, Sam and Jay behind him, "We move in hot. Fully loaded. I don't care if he comes out in a bag"

🌙🌙🌙

After arresting and interrogating Griffin, Hank gets a visit from Brennan, demanding that Griffin gets released. Sam then rushes to where Kelton is speaking next about him becoming mayor to where she knows Hank is off too.

Sam sees Hank in the warehouse walking towards Kelton and Brennan and races over to him and says, "Hey, I heard about Griffin. I thought you might be here"

"Get out of my way, Sam"

"Calm down, let it go. You gotta let it go, alright?"

"It might as well have been them that shot Kevin"

"Kevin's gonna be alright"

"That's not the point"

"I know. You think I like this? Calling them out in public makes you look bad. These two are more dangerous than ten Griffins. So, we gotta be smart, and we gotta be patient. We're playing a long game here" Sam says, then turns around to see Kelton and Brennan approaching them, "This is Chicago"

Hank glares at the man in front of him, who just nods and walks away.

a/n;

How do we think Sam and Braydens friendship will be effected now that she knows he likes her?
Also, I DESPISE Kelton with a passion. What a jerk!
Also, three more chapters until we find out Sam's surprise (even though she doesn't know yet) 🥳💖