⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS FOREVER
chapter eighteen. remember the devil.

Sam walks into the break room to see her fiancé pouring himself a cup of coffee and says, "Baby, where were you this morning? I woke up to Gracie crying and you weren't there"

"I know, I'm sorry. I went to the gym kinda early. Needed to clear my head" Jay says, putting the coffee pot down.

"Anything you want to talk about?"

"No. It's nothing important" Jay reassures her.

"Okay" Sam says, as they kiss. Trudy walks up to the door of the break room with Will behind her and says, "Thought they were rousting vagrants when this one stumbled in. Hey, Sam" then she walks away.

Sam smiles and starts to leave the room and says, "What's up, Dr. Halstead?" lightly punching him in the arm. Will smiles and says, "Oh, you know, just staying out of trouble"

"Uh-huh" Sam says, walking to her desk. Will clears his throat and says, "So...Abby tracked me down"

"Yeah, I probably should've warned you" Jay says, passing his brother a cup of coffee, "She called me a few times, too"

"Alright, so you knew she was in Chicago" Will says, taking a sip from the foam cup. Jay looks at his brother in shock and says, "She's here?"

"Yes, she's here. She's looking for you" Will says. Sam walks by and says, "Hey, we gotta go"

"Does Sam know about the two of you?"

"Um, no. Nothing. I gotta go" Jay says, patting his brother on the shoulder.

"Just think about your daughter, alright?"

"I know"

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"This is Sergeant Hank Voight. Why don't you tell him what you told us" Jay says, as Hank and Adam join, Jay and Sam, who is talking with a hiker wrapped in a yellow blanket to keep him warm.

"I was hiking northeast. It's the 5th anniversary of my dad's death. We used to do the trail together" the hiker says.

"Where was it that you saw this girl?" Ruzek asks.

"Not sure. I lost my bearings Wednesday, saw her thursday. It's friday, right?" the hiker says and Adam nods his head, "I tried to help her. I went after her, but I tripped"

"Do you have any other details about the girl?" Jay asks.

"She was white, uh, about my age, barefoot. She was bleeding, running from something. It was about 5 miles in when I saw her"

"Thanks, go ahead Caesar" Hank tells the paramedic, who takes the hiker with him to check him out.

"Alright, so there's a girl lost in the woods, she's barefoot, and it's this cold out? Sounds like the guys hallucinating" Jay says.

"There's one way to find out. Suit up. Get everyone together from every different jurisdiction in five. Won't be any footprints, but maybe we'll get lucky" Hank says.

~~~

Jay and Sam are walking through the woods when they spot a log cabin and they look at each other in surprise, when they hear something, then they take their guns out and walk towards the cabin.

Sam takes out her walkie and says, "Hank, we're a couple hundred yards north of you, approaching a cabin. We may have something"

"Copy that. Be right there" Hank says, over his walkie.

Once the couple walks inside, they clear the house, confused. The detectives walk outside to see Hank and Adam walk towards them and Sam says, "We heard something, but the cabin's empty"

"Huh, check that container" Hank says, pointing to the orange skipping container next to the cabin.

"Oh, that lock's new. That's weird, right?" Adam asks, grabbing an axe that was stuck in a log and goes over to the container and breaking the lock off.

Once the lock is off, Adam opens the container. Jay and Sam's guns are drawn when they see a girl chained up to the wall.

"Hey, we're the police" Sam says, hoslerting her gun, and walking inside the container.

"Don't come in! There's a bomb" The girl says, backing up, "It's a trap. He rigged it. Please! Please, we're all gonna die"

"Guys!" Sam calls out.

"Go check it out" Hank tells Jay and Adam

As Jay and Adam clear the container for any bombs, Sam says, "All the walls in here are intact. Hank, what am I doing here?"

"It's your call"

Sam looks at the frightened girl and says, "Fall back"

"Sam" Jay says.

"I'm already in here. Just fall back" Sam orders.

"Jay" Adam says, as all three walk a little bit aways.

"I can't leave, just go"

"We need to get you outta here" Sam says, walking closer to the woman.

"No, please, you can't cross that line" the woman cries out as Sam walks over the white, taped line, "I can't leave, just go"

"It's okay" Sam says, walking closer to the woman, "It's alright. Can I look at these?" then she detaches the cuffs, easily.

"I don't understand. He said that...he said I couldn't take them off. He said I couldn't.." the woman sniffles, as Sam uncuffs her.

"It's okay. It's okay" Sam says, throwing the chains onto the ground, "Come on, we're getting you out of here"

"I can't. If I leave, then he's going to kill me"

"No, that's not going to happen"

"Why aren't you listening to me?"

"It's okay, you're safe" Sam says, guiding the girl with her outside.

🌙🌙🌙

"The doctor said you refused the rape kit" Sam says, talking to the victim, Juliana Parks at Chicago Med, "Now, we can't force you to do it, but it might help us catch whoever did this"

"He didn't touch me" Juliana says, looking at her hands.

"Thank god, but just in case."

"I'm not stupid. He didn't touch me"

"Okay. What did he want?" Jay asks.

"For me to stay in the trailer"

"Um, Juliana, let me ask you, can you picture the man?" Dr. Sarah Reese asks. Juliana sniffles and shakes her head no.

"Had you ever seen him before?" Sam asks.

"No. He put an ad up on Craigslist, uh, a caretaker for his cabin. I drove up there to meet him, and he locked me up. I escaped"

"Okay, so you got out, and that hiker found you, but you didn't want his help. Why not?" Jay asks.

"He said he was going to find the police, and Austin said no police"

Jay and Sam look at eachother and the brunette says, "What about your car, the one that you drove up there in?"

Juliana shrugs and says, "He must've taken it. My phone, too. He's going to come back. He always comes back at noon, and he said if I'm not there, he's going to find my little sister. I have to go back there"

Sam and Jay follow after Sarah to her office and Jay says, "We need to get her working on a composite sketch. Is she ready?"

"Uh, she is lucid, her CT is clear. She is doing her best to offer whatever details she can remember without reliving the trauma. I don't think we should push her." Dr Reese says.

"So she kept it together well enough to lie to us" Sam says.

"That's not what she's saying" Jay says, and Sam looks at him.

"No, it's not. Um..but given Juliana's state, it's possible she could be lying" Sarah says.

"It doesn't matter. We got to try to ID this guy. We have her clothes. Let's swab them for DNA, see if Austin is in the system. Can you run a pregnancy test?" Jay says, "She doesn't need consent for that"

"What do you think is going on with her? Is she protecting someone?" Sam asks.

"That is where we exit my area of expertise" Dr. Reese says.

"You really don't trust her do you?" Jay asks. Sam crosses her arms and says, "No. This is a crazy tall tale. Let's just start with the test and start from there"

"Alright" Sarah says.

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Sam and Jay get out of the truck and head towards the district to walk inside when Jay stops the two and says, "I'll meet you inside"

Sam looks to her left to see a woman standing there and asks, "What, are you signing autographs?"

Jay chuckles and says, "I'll explain later, I'll meet you inside"

Sam looks over at the girl one more time before heading inside. Jay walks over to the brunette and asks, "Abby, what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you" Abby smiles.

"Um.." Jay says, looking over his shoulder, "Well, it's negative 5 out. You want to talk inside?"

"Yeah"

Jay and Abby head inside to the roll up. Abby notices the cage and says, "You gonna lock me up?"

"Do I need to?"

Abby chuckles and says, "I'm good"

"So what's up?"

"I'm getting married in July. He's a lawyer, a partner at a firm in Philly"

"That's great. I'm getting married too, next month actually"

"To the brunette you were just walking with?" Abby asks, stuffing her hands in her coat pockets. Jay nods his head and says, "Yeah"

"Well, the reason why I had to see you is, I need you to sign our divorce papers"

Jay furrows his eyebrows and says, "Am I hallucinating right now? I thought I signed them, like 8 years ago"

"Well, I...I didn't exactly countersign them. We're still married"

"Wow" Jay says, sitting on the edge of the table, looking over his shoulder to the door, hoping no one is listening to them.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic. Just sign the thing, and I'm gone."

"Sure, yeah. Where am I signing? Let's do it"

"Well, I...I don't walk around with divorce papers. How about a drink? I'm in town for two days"

"Um, alright, sure. Let's get a drink" Jay hesitates.

"Yeah? Cool" Abby says, leaving the district and Jay sighs.

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Sam, Erin and Jay head back to the cabin, where Kevin and Brayden just called from saying they found two bodies.

"This body's still getting worked on. This is a male victim. Tech thinks he's young, maybe 25 at the most, based on the development of the skull. Been buried here for a year" Porter explains.

"Juliana did say to Dr. Reese that Austin was bragging this wasn't his first time" Sam says.

"So she was telling the truth" Jay says and Sam looks at his fiancé, then looks away, "Bad vibe out here"

"Yeah. We'll race you back to the city" Kevin says.

"Okay" Jay says, as the three walk back to their vehicles.

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"We have a BOLO out on Austin Forchette, 24 years old. Kids barley a citizen" Kim says, taping his picture onto the board, "This is him last year in the foster care system. He's got no driver's license, dropped out of high school, no cell phone, no bank account, no political party, no known address. Yeah, in summary, we can't find him"

"So you're telling me that a kid with no job, no education forms an out of state corporation just so he can buy himself a little cabin in the woods?" Hank asks.

"We're still waiting on a judge to tell us who owns that LLC, but this guy, he makes sense as far as snatching up Juliana Parks is concerned" Adam says.

"I don't know, because whoever snatched her up took care of her. That doesn't match the victims that we got over here that died of starvation" Kevin says.

"I want to take another run at this girl. Maybe she's protecting him for some reason" sam says.

"Um, you guys, you're not going to believe this" Jay says, looking at his computer, "The media department just forwarded it" then he turns his computer around and plays the video.

"My name is Daniel Jung. I'm a US military trained hostage recovery specialist, and I've been hired by a third party who offers 50,000 dollars for the return of Shanee Wallis. Now, she was taken with her friend Juliana Parks in the Chicagoland area five days ago. Juliana has been recovered, but Shanee is still being held. I am not law enforcement. I do not represent law enforcement. I only want Shanee Wallis returned to her family.You can contact me at danieljungrecovery.com."

"I want this one" Al says.

"Who is Shanee Wallis?" Kim asks.

🌙🌙🌙

"No, it's none of these. He's uh, older, he's bald" Juliana says, looking through pictures, that Sam and Jay brought to Med so that she can try to identify Austin, "I'm sorry. I should've said that earlier"

"Why did he separate you and Shanee?" Jay asks, as Juliana gets off the bed so her back is turned to the detectives.

"Why don't you want us to find him?" Sam asks.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about"

Sam walks over to Juliana and turns her round to face her and says, "Your friend, Shanee Wallis, he took her, and she's in danger, right?"

Juliana starts crying and says, "He said if I go to the police, he's going to kill her! That's why I went back to the cabin. He's going to kill her. You got to take me back!"

"Listen, you've given us the bare minimum for days, and you are lying to me right now. Is he on this sheet" Sam says, showing Juliana the pictures of suspects again, who nods her head yes, "Which one is Austin?" Julianna points to the picture of Austin Forchette, "If your friend is dead now, that is on you" then the brunette slams the door open and walks out.

"Hey, Juliana. Hey" Jay says, walking over to the crying girl, "Any detail will help. Nothing is too small. We just got to find your friend"

"He drives a green jeep, indiana license plate. He said it belongs to his brother"

"Okay"

"Please find her. She's so scared"

🌙🌙🌙

Sam and Jay meet up with Kevin and Adam on South calumet, who are across the street from Marcus Walker's home with a green jeep parked in front of it.

"Green Cherokee" Jay says.

"Maybe she finally came around. Maybe it's not too late" Sam says, walking away with Jay behind her, who looks at both Kevin and Adam before catching up. Adam looks at Kevin and asks, "Are they cool?"

"I don't know, ask her"  Kevin answers.

"No, sir. You ask her"

"No, thanks" Kevin says, walking across the street.

Sam and Jay head towards the back of the house, when the suspect flees in a blue car. Jay grabs his walkie and says, "5021 George. Advise responding units, that the wanted offender is fleeing southbound. We are pursuing in covert vehicles."

"Copy that, 5021 George" dispatch says.

After a high speed chase and getting hit a few times, they follow Austin into a boat arena, where the side of the car gets hit.

Once Adam and Kevin roll up next to Jay and Sam, they all get out, with their guns drawn, and walk towards the blue car.

"I got movement! He's still alive" Jay yells, "Austin Forchette! Turn the car off, put your hands outside the vehicle! Do it nice and slow!"

"Gun!" Adam yells, as Austin shoots himself. Sam talks out her walkie, as Jay, Adam and Kevin walk over to Austin and says, "Kennedy 5021 emergency. Roll an ambulance to 100th and avenue N. N as in Nora. We have an offender with a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head."

"I think this is Juliana Parks' car" Kevin says. Adam takes something out of the trunk and says, "This could be her friend's sweater"

"Why don't you ask him?" Jay says, pointing to Austin who is now dead.  

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"Bad news" Atwater says, walking over to Jay, Sam, Erin and Brayden at their desks with a laptop in his hand, followed by Adam, "He tried to wipe this thing"

"Who the partner? We need that digital search warrant" Erin says, crossing her arms over her chest.

"No, we were actually able to recover a couple gigs of data. They couldn't write over everything"

"Yeah, it's...we got their whole Caigslist history. Mostly people responding to the caretaker ad, Austin screens them. It's pretty mild stuff except for this one guy. Anthony Ochoa" Adam says, tossing the papers onto Jay's desk, "75 angry emails back and forth. This is five years ago. He's a local cat"

"Bring him in" Jay says.

"That's the thing. He won't come in"

~~~

"Something's been bugging me" Sam says, leaving Hanks office with Hank behind her with a picture of the shipping container in her hand and tapes it onto the whiteboard, "This thing had to have come from somewhere"

"Well, that's safe to say" Hank says.

"Right. So I looked into it..." Sam starts to say when she gets interrupted by Adam, as he and Kevin walk onto the unit and says. "Hey, boss? Sorry to interrupt. The witness who actually saw suspect number two, he's willing to help. He's still a little freaked out, but we're gonna have a sketch soon"

"Alright"

"Okay, so I got somewhere on the shipping container. NCIB sent over their file. The shipping company reported this thing stolen five years ago." Sam says.

"Five years ago Forchette would've been kind of young to steal a box off a truck."

"Right, but we know that he had help from someone. We also know that he purchased the cabin from Darren Crane. This is where it gets weird. Darren Crane was driving the truck when this container was stolen"

"Alright, so talk to Crane's widow. Could be she knows who was helping this kid"

"Or could be the husband was a co conspirator, Sarg" Kevin says.

"No, but he died a year ago. Those girls were abducted two weeks ago. Look, we're missing something. Go talk to that widow"

~~~

"Did we get a sketch yet?" Jay asks, as he looks through the pantry for a snack and Sam pours herself another cup of coffee.

"Uh, Burgess is finishing up with the witness" Sam says, putting the coffee pot back on the burner, "Who's Abby? She's been blowing up your phone, sent, like, five texts while you were in the shower last week. I've been waiting for you to tell me who this chick is, but it looks like I'm just going to have to ask" Jay then shuts the door to the break room and walks over to his fiancé, who is starting to freak out, "Jay, we're getting married, we have a daughter together, a family, if you're cheating on me, please just tell me.."

"Angel, listen to me. I'm not cheating on you. Um, Abby ran cultural support my last tour in Kandahar. About a year after I came home, I saw her at a funeral in Vegas. There was a guy in our unit, he had redeployed, and um, he didn't...um, I was, like, blacking out most nights, and we were both pretty shook up and um, we got married." Jay says, and Sam grows shocked, "It was, like, a 24 hour thing, it was a total joke, and it is long over"

"Jay, you married this girl, and you never told me. And you were never going to tell me" Sam says, with tears in her eyes and Jay looks down at the ground, "What about your daughter, did you think about her?"

Before Jay could answer, Kim knocks on the door and walks in showing the tablet to the couple and says, "Hey. Um, we got a composite. We should get this out on citywide, right?"

"Let me see that" Sam says, taking the tablet from Kim and walking back to the whiteboard and holding the tablet next to Darren Carne's photo, "Are you seeing this?"

"Seeing what?" Jay asks.

"It's him. It's Darren Crane"

"He's deceased" Kim says.

"As of a year ago. Darren owned the cabin. What if it was his corporation he 'sold' it to? He stole the container. Our witness met him three years ago when he answered the craigslist ad. It's him"

"Doesn't make any sense. Maybe there's a third conspirator?" Jay says and Sam nods her head, "Did Ruzek and Atwater get anything from the widow?"

"I mean, I called Adam 20 minutes ago. There was no answer" Kim says.

Realizing what was going on, the three grab their jackets and head out to their vehicle.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam, Jay, Erin, Brayden and Hank roll up to the crane residence with their guns drawn. Sam knocks on the door and as Jay was about to smash in the door, it opens to reveal Geraldine Crane, who acts surprised to see them, when Hank barges in, followed by the rest of the team and says, "Two of my detectives are here. They're parked out front. Have you seen them?"

"No" Mrs. Crane says.

"No?"

"Hey, Ruz! Atwater!" Jay shouts.

"Turn this place inside out" Hank orders, as Sam, Jay, Erin and Brayden walk through the house.

"You can't do that" Mrs. Crane freaks out.

"Geraldine, where are my detectives?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I'd like to speak with your supervisor"

"My commander?" Hank says, as Sam says. "Clear"

"She's on her way. You're not going to like her" Hank says, walking away.

"Hey, Sarg!" Jay yelled, as he and Brayden push the fridge out of the way, to find a metal door with a keypad lock on it.

"I've never seen that before in my life" Mrs. Crane says, as she follows Hank into the kitchen with Sam and Erin behind them.

"Me either. Open the door" Jay says.

"I wouldn't know how"

"Open it!" Brayden shouts.

"My husband must have put that in. I don't know anything about that"

"What's the code?" Hank asks.

"I'm telling you I have no idea"

"And I'm telling you, I know you do know, and I know that girl is in there. Did you do something to my men?"

"I told you, I can't open that door!"

Hank takes Geraldine by the collar and drags her outside, as Jay, Sam, Erin and Brayden, try opening it.

As Jay tries to Hammer in the door Erin asks, "Anything?"

"No, this is a two inch steel door"

"I'm calling CFD" Erin says, when they hear Geraldine scream.

"3737" Voight says over the walkie. Sam runs to the door and puts in the code and when it opens, they rush inside to find Adam and Kevin.

"Adam! Kevin!" Brayden yells.

"We're in here!" Ruzek yells.

As they enter through another steel door, Kevin says, "We need an ambulance, bro. She needs help"

🌙🌙🌙

    Sam heads to Med, while the rest of the team is back at the district getting a confession from Geraldine, to bring Juliana to see Shanee.

"This is it" Sam says, stopping at Shanee's hospital room, "I should have listened to you. Cops don't like to admit when their instincts are wrong"

"Honestly, I wouldn't have believed my story either" Juliana says, grabbing ahold of Sam's hand as they walk into Shanee's room.

"Hey" they both say in unison, giving each other a hug.

🌙🌙🌙

Jay and Abby are at a bar, drinking and talking when Jay says, "Wilson is running through the showers wearing nothing but a Kevlar vest, right?"

"Well, the lieutenant said all outdoor activities to be conducted in body armor" Abby says, making them both laugh, "Do you remember, he had his girlfriend's name tattooed on his ass?"

"Did he tell you that was his girlfriend. That was his dog's name"

"That actually makes more sense"

"I know" Jay says, taking a sip of his beer. Abby taps her glass on the counter and says, "I could do another one of these

"Um, no, I shouldn't"

"Got to get to the barracks?"

"We didn't drink enough back then?"

"See, I think we could've drank a little more. Maybe fixed things"

"Maybe. It's good seeing you. I didn't think it would be. Um, I should probably sign the papers and get going though"

"I don't have them"

"What?" Jay asks.

"I don't have them. There's no one in Philly"

"Abby.."

"I never told you that I loved you. Even the day that we got married. Didn't feel right. I did. I really did."

"Abby, you deserve everything good. I'm just not the guy that's going to give it to you" Jay says, kissing the girl on her cheek, then grabbing his coat from the back on the chair and leaves.

🌙🌙🌙

Sam walks into the house with Gracie on her hip and Wyatt and Denise running past her inside and up the stairs. Sam notices Jay's keys hanging up and she walks up stairs and into their room with Gracie still on her hip to see Jay packing.

"Hey" Jay says, putting a shirt into his duffle bag.

"Hi"

"Um, I'm going to go stay at Will's for a little while"

"Jay.." Sam says, with tears in her eyes.

"I love you, baby, I do with all my heart. Who I was back then, I'm not proud of it, and, um, and I know you think everything's behind, but it's not. And I'm still married, and I got to sort that out, and um, I just don't think I should be here right now"

"Whatever it is, I can handle it. We can handle it, together"

"I don't know. I guess that's what I gotta go figure out now"

"And what about our daughter, Jay, huh?" Sam says, trying to hold back her tears, then Gracie looks between her parents, noticing her mother about to cry, she puts her head on Sam's chest and plays with her hair, "What about our family? We're supposed to be getting married next month"

"I know and we will, I just have to go sort all this stuff out, alone" Jay says, grabbing his bag then kisses both his fiancé and daughter on their foreheads.

"Jay, I told you last time, that if you walk out on me, their will be consequences"

"I'm sorry" Jay says, with tears in his eyes, seeing tears roll down Sam's cheeks.

"Apparently, not enough" Sam sniffles, rubbing her daughter's back, sitting on the edge of the bed.

a/n:

I honestly had tears in my eyes, writing the last part 💔
*internally screaming*