⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS TROUBLE
chapter fourteen. sisterhood.

Sam walks into the diner near the district and takes a seat in the booth across from her brother in law and says, "Hey Will. What's up?"

"Hey Sam. I just wanted to check up on you" The doctor says, taking a sip of his coffee. Sam takes off her winter gloves and says, "I'm good"

Will raises an eyebrow and says, "Yeah?"

Sam nods and says, "Yeah" when a waitress walks over to them and sets down a cup and pours some coffee into it for her, "Thanks Patrice"

"Anytime" the older lady says, before walking away.

"So.." Will says.

"What?" Sam says, taking the creamer from the end of the table and pouring it into her cup.

"Jay is really broken up about everything that's happened"

"Yeah, I bet" Sam says, taking a sip of her coffee.

"He is. And I'm just as pissed as you are but I walked passed the spare bedroom he's been staying in and I heard him crying last night"

Sam takes out her buzzing phone and looks at the text message from her partner and says, "Looks like I gotta go" then she stands up, taking a couple dollars out of her front pocket and puts it on the table, "It was good seeing you Will"

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"Alright, listen up" Hank says, hanging up his desk phone, "Atwater's gun lead went south, but we got something else" then he walks out of his office, "There's two wanna be gangbangers out in the wind looking to do something stupid. It's initiation day for the Three Corner Kings"

"Ah, man, with Pena back in charge, that's not good" Dawson says.

"He's only been on the streets for three months. He's already good for six homicides" Jay states.

"Alright, so let's get these kids off the street fast. Invent a charge if you have to. Just bring him in." Hank says, then places a piece of scrap paper on Burgess' desk, "Hey, get a BOLO out on that car, Late model silver Caprice. That's the partial plate Atwater got"

"5021 Eddie, all units be on the lookout for a late model silver Caprice" Kim says, over the radio.

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"Where's the car?" Jay asks, as soon as he and Hailey get out of his truck to meet with the others.

"It's not here" Porter answers, as he and Sam walked over to Hailey and Jay.

"Dispatch said they picked up a silver Caprice on this block 10 minutes ago"

"Dispatch confirmed this is the right address" Kim says, as she and Antonio walk over to the group.

"Guys.." Hailey says, walking towards the driveway, "Fresh tire tracks. Looks like they left in a hurry"

They follow Hailey down the driveway when Jay says, "Guys, check this out"

The team takes out their guns and follow Jay into an open doorway leading into the house, as they turn on their flash lights so they can clear it out, they stumble upon a body, of a young girl, brutally beaten.

"Oh my god" Kim says, as the team follows her over to the body, who then leans down to feel for a pulse.

Not knowing she did it, Sam takes ahold of her husband's hand and squeezes. Hailey and Brayden stand behind them, then look at each other.

Kim then shakes her head and says, "Dead"

"That's one hell of an initiation" Jay states.

"What kind of animal does something like this?" Sam asks.

"What kind of animal makes someone do this?" Dawson asks.

~~~

Hank follows Sam inside the house, and over to the body as she explains to him, what's going on, "Looks like they dragged her inside, raped her"

"This is Pena's new initiation ritual, rape and kill women?" Hank asks.

"Yeah, control the people, control the territory" Dawson says, following behind them.

"She's just a kid. She can't be more than 17" Hank says, kneeling next to the body, then stands back up, "Right. Talk to your CI, get the names of those two pledges. Fast"

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Antonio sighs, hanging up his phone, then walks over to Hank and Sam and says, "That was my CI. He swears he can't ID the two pledges"

"You believe him?" Sam asks.

"Doesn't matter. He's not giving them up"

"I got the M.E report" Detective Scott Hart says, walking onto the unit with a file in hand, "The DOA was raped, then strangled to death" then hands the file to Voight.

"Any third party DNA?" Voight asks.

"No, they were wearing condoms. They found traces of spermicide inside the Jane Doe"

"Her name's Daniella Rios" Kim says.

"Yeah? How do you know?" Dawson asks.

"I was researching local dance groups" Burgess says, getting up from her desk, bringing her laptop with her over to the group, "She looked like she was wearing a dance uniform, and there was a dance charm on her bracelet." then the brunette shows them the website she found, "Village dance, it's an after school program for at risk teens. Uniform's the same"

"I'll run her name and get an address" Hart says.

"I already did"

"So, go talk to the family" Hank says.

~~~

"Hey" Sam says, walking into the break room to find Kim getting herself a cup of coffee.

"Hey"

"I heard that Tina girl got assaulted, too?" Sam asks, getting her mug from the cabinet and pours herself a cup of coffee.

"Yeah. I mean, she didn't say that, but it's pretty obvious. Poor kid's terrified"

"I don't blame her" Sam says, taking the cream from the fridge and pours it into her cup.

"It's just horrible"

Sam sighs and says, "Yeah" then looks at the pale expression on her face, "Thinking about your sister?"

"Yeah"

Sam puts her hand on the brunette's arm and says, "You know you can always talk to me, whenever"

"I know. Thanks" Kim says and clears her throat, "What's going on with the case?"

"Ruzek and I have been going over the Title 3 wiretaps, but..."

"But he said there's a lot of chatter the night of the murder, but it's all in code or something?"

"Mmm" Sam hums, "All numbers, no words or letters"

Adam knocks on the door, holding up a paper and says, "Got something"

"Good" Kim sighs as she and Sam walk back out onto the bullpen.

~~~

As everyone gathers around the whiteboard, Sam tapes up the Key Code onto the board above the conversation they decoded.

"Alright, so I talked to Gang Intel. They helped me crack the code" Adam says, pointing to the paper on the board, "Each letter's a number. They split the alphabet in half, evens and odds to make it confusing so A is 1, B is 3. Then by the 13th letter, it flips. N is 2, O is 4, so on and so forth. Anyway, we came up with this. 'Matamons a una' means, 'We killed one girl'. That was an incoming text sent by Miguel Salazar. A minute later, another incoming text sent from Eduardo Vargas. 'La otra escapo' means, 'The other escaped'. Both these idiots, they used their own phones. Texts were sent to a burner phone that we think is owned by Pena"

"You run their names?" Voight asks.

"Both are 18, both have impressive juvie sheets" Sam says.

"Ping their phones, grab them up"

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The team slowly walk towards the house where Migual Salazar and Eduardo Vargas live when Kevin says, "The doors open"

They slowly walk inside, guns drawn and go to clear the house and Kevin and Sam walk into the living room to find two bodies with their -you know's- cut off.

"We got two bodies" Kevin shouts. Jay walks in and says, "Okay, um, that's...that's one way to take care of rapists."

Hailey, Kim, Adam and Brayden walk in and Adam's eyes look like they were gonna pop out of his sockets and he says, "You gotta be kidding me. They cut 'em off."

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"Alright, we got any intel on this gangbanger Q?" Hank asks, as he and Antonio walk onto the unit. Brayden sits on the corner of Sam's desk, and opens a file and says, "Yeah. Sarg, his name came up on the wire a few days ago. Exact quote was, 'Have Q deliver the guns. Drop off at the pool hall on 22nd. Usual price'"

"So, I'm assuming that's somewhere in Little Village?" Hank asks. Sam turns around in her chair and says, "There's this place called Kedzie Billiards on 22nd"

"Could be Q's hangout" Al states.

"Alright, check it out, you two" Hank says to Sam and Brayden.

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Sam and Brayden walk into Kedzie Billiards, and Porter shows the bartender his badge and says, "CPD. We're looking for a guy named Q"

The guy chuckles and Sam asks, "Something funny?"

"No, I'm just happy. There's no law against that, is there?"

"No, but there's a law against lying to the cops, so maybe you want to rethink your answer"

"I swear to god on my mother I don't know a man named Q"

"Uh-huh" Brayden says, as the detectives walk away.

As they walk past the pool tables, Sam looks over her shoulder and sees a woman playing pool and on her arm has the letter Q on it and she snickers and walks over to the woman and says, "Excuse me. We're looking for someone named Q. Maybe you could help us out?"

"Don't know no one by that name" the woman says.

"Really? What's that on your arm?" Sam asks and the woman looks at her arm and smirks, "We're gonna need to take you down to the district, ask you a few questions"

"About what?"

"Three dead rapists"

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"Do you know Migual Salazar?" Sam asks, sitting in front of Q in interrogation, with Kim leaning against the blue colored cement walls.

"No"

"Hmm. What about Eduardo Vargas?" Kim asks and Q shakes her head no, "These two fine gentlemen sexually assaulted two girls"

"Killed one. The other one got away" Sam says.

"And what's that got to do with me?" Q asks.

"We just want to know if you know these two guys? Two rapists"

"And I already told you no"

"What about Tina Vasquez? You know her?" Kim asks and Q shakes her head no again, "See, she only lives a few blocks from you"

"Lots of folks live a few blocks from me"

Sam opens the file and places three photos in front of Q of Migual, Eduardo and the janitor and when Q doesn't even blink she says, "Most people cringe at something like that"

"I ain't most people" Q says, pushing the pictures back.

"Yeah. You're not" Kim says, walking over to the table to sit next to Sam, "You're tougher. More fearless. Cause you stand up for your friends. For women, for young girls. And then when someone commits a rape, you kill 'em, and you castrate them. You ask me, you deserve a trophy. But that's not the way the world works"

"You done? Can I go now?" Q asks.

~~~

"Isabel Torres, street name Q. Short for Queen" Jay says, taping her picture onto the board.

"Long rap sheet. Drugs, larceny, aggravated assault" Sam says.

"Yeah, she runs an all female gang called the Viper Queens, but for the most part, they're a delivery service for the local male gangs" Dawson adds.

"Yeah, woman behind the wheel lowers the risk of arrest by 50, maybe 60%" Al says.

"Yeah, because like it or not we're all biased. We don't profile woman as criminals. They're not strong enough, they're not tough enough" Kim says.

"That's a little bit of an overstatement," Adam says.

"Really? Because we never used 'her' or 'she' when talking about suspects in this case. It was 'he' or 'him' from the jump"

"She kind of makes a point" Kevin says.

"Okay, enough. We got homicides to solve. Right, now we got a whole lot of nothing. No physical evidence, no forensics. So dig into these rape victims. Find the connection with this female banger Q. Rest of you, canvas the neighborhood where the bangers got popped. Show photos of them, Q. Maybe someone saw them together near the time of the murders." Hank says, about to walk into his office when Kevin gets his attention.

"Hey, Sarg, I'm looking at this M.E report, and based on stomach contents, it looks like the last thing the Kings had to eat was pizza. So, you should let me and Ruzek check out some local restaurants" Kevin says.

"Well, that's a good place to start"

~~~

After getting Q on a video wire, worn by Tina, confessing to the murders of Migual and Eduardo, Kim and Sam bring Q back into interrogation.

Sam presses play on the tablet, which plays, "'I did that. I killed them because I wanted to protect you'" then she pauses it.

"So, that's you. Admitting to a double muder" Kim says, sitting behind Q on the bench, while Sam sits in front of her at the silver table.

"Look, we know why you killed those guys." Sam says.

"And on some level we get it. Which is why we're willing to offer you a deal"

"Hell no. I'm not snitching on my girls" Q says.

"That's okay. Because we want Jorge Pena" Kim says, as Q looks up at her in shock, "Yeah. Can you get him?"

"Yeah, that's easy"

"So you'll cooperate? You'll wear a wire?"

"Yeah. You just leave the rest of my girls alone. They ain't got nothing to do with this. I did all the shooting. I did all the cutting. It was all me"

"Deal"

~~~

"Q put a feeler out to Pena. He's interested in buying some guns, so it's a go" Sam says, as she, Kim, Hart, Hank, Brayden and Kevin are gathered around the bullpen.

"All we need is a gaming console," Kim says.

"For what?" Atwater asks.

"It's how Q sets up terms with big players and other crews. That way everyone stays off the radar"

"Ah, so grab one of these gaming things. Let's get this operation moving" Hank says.

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"Here she comes" Sam says, as she and Kim wait in a car for Q. As Q pulls up, another car pulls up beside her and passes her something. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, the red sedan pulled up and the driver passed something to Q" Kim says.

"What, a gun?"

"It could be"

"How does anyone even know that she's here?"

"I don't know, the gaming console, maybe?"

"We gotta call this in. We gotta tell Voight"

"Sam, this is our best chance to get Pena"

"Kim, call it in"

"Alright, be advised, we got Pena's car approaching target location" Jay says, over his walkie.

Sam looks at Kim and says, "Kim, you gotta call it in, or I will"

"Sarg, a car pulled up and passed Q something" Kim says, over the walkie.

"Wait, what are you saying?" Hank asks.

"It could be a weapon, I could not make it out clearly"

"So you're not sure"

"Correct"

"Alright, then let's just play it out. Pena's arrived"

Kim takes her binoculars to get a closer look at the deal about to go down. As soon as Q pulls out a gun, Hank says, "Move in, now!"

Sam steps on the gas pedal and races over to Q, right as she shoots Pena, twice.

Sam and Kim get out of the car, with their guns drawn and Burgess says, "Drop the gun, Q!"

Halstead gets out of his vehicle with his long gun and says, "Drop it! Do it!"

Q drops the gun and Kim races over to her and cuffs her.

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Sam is at her locker, taking her vest off and puts it in her locker when Jay rounds the corner and leans on the surrounding lockers and says, "Hey, can we talk?"

"About?"

"Us"

"There's nothing to talk about"

"What about when we found Daniella Rio's body. You squeezed my hand as tight as you could"

"Yeah, because of how bad she was beaten, Jay. It meant nothing, it was instinct"

"Sam, come on.."

"No, Jay. You broke my heart, remember? Not the other way around" Sam says, closing her locker.

"And I said I was sorry. I'm going to therapy and I want to work on things"

"And your sorry means nothing to me, because while you were touching another woman, I was taking care of our daughter, our family"

"I know and...and I was stupid and I wasn't thinking. And I don't have an excuse for it, I don't even know why I did it"

"You know, I've been through a lot of shit and none of it compares to feeling worthless to the man who is supposed to love me"

"But you're not worthless, Sam. You're the most amazing woman I've ever met"

Sam scoffs and says, "Right. Just leave me alone" then she starts to walk away when Jay grabs onto her wrist and pulls her into a kiss and after a few seconds Sam pushes him away, "God Jay, stop it! You don't get to do that anymore" then leaves the locker room.

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"Sam?" Adam says, knocking on his bathroom door, but he got no answer, "Sam" then he turned the doorknob and walks in to see Sam sitting with her back against the bathtub, crying into her hands, and he walks over to her and sits next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his chest, "Sam, come on. What's going on?"

"You even know the real reason why I left in the first place?"

"I assumed it was to take a break from our crazy ass lives"

"Jay cheated on me, Adam"

"He what?"

"And I can't cope with it, the way everyone wants me to. Cause everytime I see his face, I see him touching the other woman and telling her things, he's supposed to be telling me"

"You want me to have a talk with him?"

Sam sniffles and says, "No, Kelly already did"

"Is there where the black eye came from?" Adam asks and the brunette nodded her head, "I'm so sorry, Sam" then he kisses the top of her head.

Sam clears her throat and says, "Where are the kids?"

"Gracie's asleep and Denise and Wyatt are playing video games"

"I'm just, um.." Sam says, standing up, "Do you mind watching them for a little bit? I just wanna head out and clear my head"

Adam stands up as well and says, "You sure you wanna leave? You're way to upset"

"I'm fine, Adam, okay?" Sam says, leaving the bathroom and over to the couch in the living room to kiss the tops of both Wyatt and Denise's heads, "I'll be right back. Adam will still be here" then leaves the apartment.

Sam leaves the apartment building to go to her jeep and just sits there and punches the wheel a couple times, before turning the ignition on and driving away.

A few minutes later, while stopped at a red light, Sam continues to cry and bad thoughts keep roaming through her brain. Why isn't she good enough? Why can't someone love her the way she should be loved? Why can't she have one normal relationship? Why can't she be with her mom and Justin so she doesn't have to deal with life anymore?

Sam looks up to see the light had turned green and as soon she's half way through the intersection, a car almost hits her and she swerves, and when she turns her head back to look at the road in front of her she ends up colliding with a telephone pole, knocking her out.

to be continued...

a/n:

Uh oh 💔
Not good, not good, not good 🥺
Also, Adam is such a good friend ❤️