⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS FOREVER
chapter fifteen. seven indictments.

"How was bowling with Kevin, Jordan and Vinessa last night?" Sam asks her son, who are both eating breakfast at the island, just as Denise walks in and sits beside Wyatt.

"It was awesome. I got five strikes, Jordan got three, Vinessa got 2 and kev didn't get any, and me and Jordan were teasing him about it all night" Wyatt laughs.

"That's awesome. What about you Dee? How's the science project going?"

"Good. All the hard work is done, now me and Gabby just have to build it" Denise smiles.

"What are you building?" Wyatt asks.

"A volcano"

Wyatt fist bumps his foster sister and says, "cool"

"Where's Jay?" Denise asks. Sam takes Gracie out of her high chair and holds her on her hip and says, "taking his gun requalifications with Erin"

Denise and Wyatt look at each other and smile and say, "awesome" in unison. 

🌙🌙🌙

Sam and Hank drive up to a crime scene after a massive fire takes place at a house, then they walk over to Mouch who is next to the burned victim, who says, "Sergeant. Sam"

"Randy" Voight says, as Sam says. "Mouch"

"Another day at the office huh?"

"Yeah. Natural gas explosions are no joke. Seen one take on half a city block" Mouch says.

"Any indication how it happened?"

"Gas flex hose was removed from the kitchen wall, so...looking like this was intentional"

Sam walks over to where the rest of the team is -minus Rixton- when she hears Kevin ask, "Okay. What did Rixton do?"

"The guy didn't say" Jay says.

"What's going on?" Sam asks.

"The guy who did our requalifications said to watch our backs around Rixton"

"What?"

Erin walks over and tilts her head to the side, looking at Jay, who says, "What? They gotta know"

"Where's Rixton now?" Al asks.

"He's in the back of the house" Kevin says, as Al walks away.

"Guys, I'm just saying, let's not go on the warpath until we know what happened. If anything" Erin says, before they walk towards the crime scene.

Sam catches up to Kevin and says, "Hey, Kev. I heard the kids slaughtered you last night in bowling"

"Yeah, yeah and when I get a rematch, they'll all be sorry" Kevin jokes, all serious, as Sam laughs.

🌙🌙🌙

"Okay, the tenant is Dan Llewelyn, 35, he's a contractor." Sam says, taping his picture onto the white board, "now we didn't find his cell phone anywhere on the body or on the property. All calls to Llewelyns cell have gone unanswered, and we can't get a signal location. We've reached out to his family"

"Body's at the M.E's office right now, they're trying to track for dental DNA. Preliminary report says we got a male, 6'2", maybe 6'3". That matches Llewelyn's height" Porter says.

"Alright, and the other victim? Was he from that LGBT home?" Hank asks.

"Yeah, he's at Med. I'm trying to get an ID, but the home's director says all their kids are accounted for" Kim says.

"Alright, Atwater, you and Rixton head over to Med. I want you there when he's ready to talk. And have his clothes sent to the lab. Have them check for accelerant. He may be our firebug. CFD says we're not looking at a trained arsonist" Hank says, as Kevin picks up his ringing desk phone, "Alright, the rest of you, fire's an easy way to execute a homicide or cover one up. Let's figure out which, and why we got two bodies at the same place at the same time"

"What do we have on the buildings owner?" Al asks.

"Oh, yeah. Fred Teague" Jay says, opening a file, "He's got six priors on the south side, and he's been dancing on and off with the city's troubled building unit for the last few years."

"Copy that" Kevin says, hanging his phone up, "And he's downstairs"

"Huh, well that's convenient" Al says.

~~~

Sam and Erin walk into the locker room, where Kevin is already sitting on one of the benches and Jay closes the door and says, "So, I talked to a guy who I trust. He said indictments are being handed down to Rixton's old unit"

"Seriously? For what?" Atwater asks, as Sam and Erin looked at each other in shock. Jay shrugs and says, "I don't know. He didn't say"

"So what, Rixton bailed on a sinking ship?"

"Yeah, or Voight threw him a life preserver"

"And what are we all supposed to do? Just wait around for IAD to handle it?" Erin asks.

"Because I figure if his old unit's bent, what kind of cop is he?" Kevin says.

"Look, what do we even know about this guy? Aside from the fact that Voight rubber stamped him?"

"I'm gonna call Antonio. I mean, if indictments are coming down, He's gonna know about them" Sam says, standing up from the bench and leaving the locker room.

~~~

"The M.E says no dental work or recent surgeries on our victim" Erin says, hanging up her desk phone.

"Canvass says it may have happened too early for witnesses. No neighbors saw it or heard anything until the explosion" Burgess says.

"Hey, Sarg, um.." Jay says, leaning back in his chair, "we gotta ask you about Rixton"

Everyone looks at Voight who says, "What about him?"

"We heard that indictments were being handed down in his old unit"

"What does that have to do with you?"

"I wanna know who's got my back"

"Well, jeez. I imagine Kenny would like to know who has his as well"

"You'd think that impending indictments would be something that he might, you know, offer up to us. I know I would"

"So you're questioning a guy I brought in and vouched for, instead of working a case that killed two people?"

"I can do both at the same time. Trust me"

"Dan Llewelyn stood up for a few gay teens a week and half ago" Rixton says, walking onto the unit, "punched a grown bully who was threatening them, Harlan Betts. Betts left, but pissed."

Hank looks at Jay and says, "You and Erin"

~~~

Sam knocks on the door to the interrogation room, where Jay and Erin are questioning Harlan Betts and says, "You guys are gonna wanna see this"

As the trio walks onto the bullpen, Voight says, "Hit it"

"Dan Llewelyn. Tenant from 3507 Wallace."  The man says.

"He's alive and okay" Dan's wife says.

"Then who the hell died in the fire?" Erin questions.

~~~

Voight and Miller bring Llewelyn into the break room to ask him some questions.

"Did I hear right that someone from next door got killed in the blast?" Dan asks.

"That is right" Hank says.

"Who?"

"His name was Kyle Harvey"

"Oh, man"

"You knew him?"

"Yeah, he was trying to patch things up with his dad."

"How well did you know him?"

"He'd come around sometimes. We'd talk"

"When's the last time you were at the house, Dan?" Sam asks.

"Um, a week and a half ago. I took everything but the heavy stuff I was gonna sell online."

"Can you think of anyone who might have had it out for you?" Hank questions. Dan scoffs and says, "Yeah, the landlord"

"He alibied out" Sam says.

"Yeah, well, maybe he hired one of his illegal immigrant workers he pays two bucks an hour"

"Could be. Alright, Dan, I'm going to posit a scenario that any objective person would eventually arrive at. Torching the place is one way of getting out of paying the rest of your lease." Hank says.

"Yeah it is. But that's not my style. I already reached out to a buddy of mine getting into real estate to see if he could find me a subletter."

"What's his name?" Sam asks.

"Corey Kipton. He teaches yoga. Until the real estate thing kicks in full time." Dan says, before Sam leaves to go look up this Corey Kipton character.

~~~

Sam opens the caged door from the unit to see Antonio leaning against the banister who says, "What the hell? They won't buzz me up anymore?"

"Well, we told them to keep the riff raff out." Sam says, which makes them both laugh, as they walk into the office across from Trudy's desk, "so?"

"Whole things sealed up tight, and I'm not on that case" Antonio says, leaning on the desk.

"But you must've heard something" Sam says, crossing her arms, making Dawson sigh, "Antonio, come on. We have to work with this guy now."

"I heard seven indictments are coming down"

"Rixton was in an eight man unit"

"That's right"

"So is Rixton the one not getting indicted?"

"Correct. If he wasn't rounded up, maybe he didn't do anything"

Sam scoffs and says, "or he's walking because he rolled on his entire team"

"That's not my department" Antonio says, kissing Sam's forehead and giving her a hug, which she accepts. Sam whines saying, "Man!" As she and Antonio leave the office, "you miss us though, right?"

"I cry myself to sleep every night" Dawson smiles, giving Sam a fist bump.

"Figured" Sam smiles, "and come over soon and see Gracie"

"I will. I'll call you" Antonio says, before leaving the district.

🌙🌙🌙

"Mrs Framingham, we found the watch on a body earlier this morning." Sam says, giving her work phone to Mrs Framingham to take a look at the watch, "The man died in a house fire"

"In New York?" Mrs Framingham asks, as Sam and Brayden look at each other, "my husbands traveling there on business. Is that where this happened?" then giving Sam her phone back.

"The southside of Chicago. We believe the man's name was Bill Johns. He was wearing this watch and a wedding ring." Sam says, showing the blonde a picture of the ring.

"I don't understand, why would a dead man in Chicago be wearing my husbands watch and ring?"

~~~

"Curt and I talked on the phone last night. He calls every night when he's traveling." Mrs Framingham says, as they are now sitting in the living room.

"He called you from New York?" Sam asks.

"Yes. I mean, that's where he said he was. The body that you found, it's...it's definitely him?"

"The real estate agent confirmed from your photograph that he showed your husband that house yesterday. Do you have any idea why he'd be using the name Bill Johns?"

"No"

"Why did he say he was in New York?" Brayden asks.

"He's a trader, his company's at the Board of trade, he travels East all the time or..."

Brayden gives Mrs Framingham his work phone and asks, "did he ever mention the house at 3507 south Wallace? Or moving?"

The blonde sniffles and says, "he always wanted to paint our front door red. Maybe it was...a surprise?"

"Were you guys having any problems?"

"No. We were good. Or, I, um, I thought we were"

"Could there have been someone else in his life?" Sam asks.

"Well, I don't know anything, do I?"

🌙🌙🌙

"Curt Framingham" Kevin says, pointing to his picture on the whiteboard, "Uh, worked for metro gold capital for five years. No employment before here, and no curt framingham in Chicago before that"

"There's no curt or Curtis Framingham country wide. Not in lexisNexis, face of the nation, social media.." Al says.

"However, we ran a multi state DMV facial recognition and piped a match for Curt Forrester. Kevin, would you be so kind" Burgess says.

"Yes ma'am" Atwater says, tapes up another picture of Curt -but this one more, not so put together- next to the other one.

"Great. So, Curt Forrester aka Curt Framingham was arrested in Indianapolis in 2010 for running a Ponzi scheme. He funneled client savings to these money losing businesses to line his own pockets with finders fees. The SEC lost the case when a key witness died during trial. It was a boating accident. Looks like an actual accident"

"Mmm. Call HIDTA. Run a deconfliction report on Curt Framingham and on metro gold capital. Let's see if the feds are onto this guy."

Kenny leans against the wall and says, "I got a guy at the fed, he gets me whatever I wanna know. You want me to call him?"

"We're good" Jay says. Erin and Sam look at Jay then each other, when Rixton asks, "someone wanna fill me in on the office gossip?"

"Uh, your gang unit pulled in indictments for everyone but you. So why don't you tell us how you worked that out?" Al asks.

"Well, maybe there was nothing to indict"

"Seven guys taken in, one in the clear? That happens" Jay says, sarcastically.

"You wanna say something. Say it"

"I think I just did"

"I mean, there's only a couple of options, right? I mean, either you're dirty and you got away with it, or you worked a deal. I think we just want to know.."

Rixton cuts Kevin off and says, "you wrote parking tickets for two years to get up here, and you're gonna lecture me? Come talk to me after you work seven years on the front lines."

"Whoa, you don't need to go there. He's as much of a cop then you are, doesn't matter how long he's been on the job or how he got up here" Sam says, "we're just asking you a question, so why can't you answer it?"

"Is there a problem?" Voight asks, after walking onto the unit by his office.

"No, sergeant" Kenny says.

"Well, that's good. Because if I hear one more person talking about anything other than this case and the two people who were killed, I'll put you on the next transfer order. Try me" Hanks says, before walking into his office.

~~~

Kim walks over to Sam's desk, who is on her computer and says, "there's a Jane Framingham here. Says she wants to talk to you"

Sam sighed, getting up from her desk and walking downstairs to see Jane pacing back and forth.

"God. I just keep running it over in my head. Meeting Prince Charming, falling in love, guy who has money, doesn't want mine...the house thing with the red door, that was for another woman, wasn't it?"

"Mrs Framingham"

"Is she pretty? Younger?" Jane asks and when Sam didn't answer, she scoffs, "both. Did she kill him? I mean, maybe there's some justice in this world! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just... I keep thinking maybe if I wasn't so stupid. Just tell me what you know"

"Do you know that your husband had another name before he met you? Forrester?"

"You're kidding me."

Sam shakes her head and says, "You should start moving on. I gotta get back upstairs." before walking back onto the unit.

~~~

"Hey, we got a hit on Framingham at a car rental place on lake park avenue. It was rented to a Curt Forrester." Jay says, as he and Al look at his computer.

"Same credit card was used at a gas station on 94 headed north" Al adds.

"Is he going to Canada?" Erin questions, earning a shrug from the two.

"And at a motel off 94. Half an hour ago."

"He's bunking down for the night" Rixton says.

"Alright, let's roll. We're gonna get this bastard before he skips town completely"  Hank says.

🌙🌙🌙

The team is gathered at the hotel, waiting for Al to come back from checking out which room Curt is staying in.

As they enter the room, long guns and hand guns drawn, Kenny shouts, "hands up! Gets your hands up!"

"Hey! Don't shoot, don't shoot!" Curt yells. As Jay opens the bathroom door, and shouts, "police! Keep your hands where we can see them!" Bringing the lady out, Sam recognizes her to be none other than, Jane Framingham.

Sam turns her around, holstering her gun, then takes out her cuffs and says, "Put your hands behind your back. You totally had me fooled"

🌙🌙🌙

Sam walks into interrogation where Jane is, closing the door behind her and sits on the edge of the table and says, "Your husband...is he actually your husband? your partner in crime. He just lawyered up"

"I want a lawyer as well"

"That's fine. We have plenty enough to ring you up on as it is. So you don't need to say anything. But you are gonna listen" Sam says, taking out an old news article, from a file and sliding it in front of the blonde, "Leon Tremaine. Also known as Jupiter. He was a boxer who almost made the Olympic team in 2000. All the fighting gave him brain damage and turned him homeless. He wandered to Chicago all the way from Indiana. He had just reconnected with his daughter who'd been looking for him for 10 years. That's who your husband put a bullet into. That's who you put a bullet into because you're gonna get charged the same." then she puts another picture down in front of Jane, "Kyle Harvey was 18 years old. He lost his mom right before his dad kicked him out of the house, twice. And he was coming back to the only place that had ever treated him well, when he died in the fire you guys rigged." Then Sam puts another picture in front of the blonde of Kyles burnt body, "that's how Kyle died. Look at him, Look at him!"

Sam grabs Jane by the back of her neck forcing her to look at the pictures when the blonde says, "you're hurting me"

"You don't know what hurting is. Do you want me to show you? I'd be happy too. Just nod your head at me." Sam says, then releases her grip, "you knew the feds were closing in, so you decided to fake your husbands funeral. Well, guess what, sweetheart? This is your funeral now" then Sam opens the door and slams it behind her.

~~~

As the team was finishing up on some paperwork, Jay says, "hey, um, i'd like to publicly apologize. There was some whispers and some gossip. I ran with it, and I shouldn't have, okay? You know, who's whole nonsense, I was leading the charge in this. I'm sorry, man. I had a bad experience with a guy in my unit when I was overseas who was not who he claimed to be. And that's my problem, that's not yours. You're a solid dude and a good cop. So whatever happened in the gang unit doesn't matter, alright? Man to man and to the whole team, um, I'm sorry"

"Yeah, you can count me in on that, too. My bad dawg" Kevin says.

"Me too" Sam says.

"The sister of one of the gang unit cops was beat up after she turned in a banger for robbing her place." Voight says, leaning on the doorframe of his office, "ASA didn't have enough to convict the guy who did it. So, Rixtons unit went after him. But Kenny wasn't with them. Two cars belonging to other members of the unit were spotted by plate readers one block from where the payback beating went down at the same time it happened. Oh, and one of those cars was approached by a patrolman who was told they were on a narcotics sting, but they'd had already clocked out. So it had to be a lie. That's how they got caught. Not by anything Kenny did"

"I was approached by IAD, but turned down a deal. I never said a word. Not that my unit believed me." Rixton says.

"Why didn't you just say that in the first place?" Kevin says.

"Because I told him not to. We were working a case. Plus, his last unit iced him out over a rumor. I wanted to see if you guys were any better"

Erin scoffs playfully and asks, "how did we do?"

"I'll see you at Molly's" Hank says, walking into his office.

🌙🌙🌙

"It's so quiet" Jay says, resting his feet on the coffee table, while Sam rests her head on her fiancés shoulder, who has his arm wrapped around her.

"Kevin took Wyatt out bowling again, saying he wanted a rematch. Denise is with Gabby and Matt doing her science project and Gracie is with Kelly because he got all upset about Erin rubbing in the fact that she saw Gracie walk before he did"

"We haven't had a quiet night like this since..."

"Literally ever" Sam jokes, "I'm really proud of you for apologizing to Rixton"

"Yeah?" Jay asks and Sam nods her head, "I got sucked into the rumor, that I never even thought twice about what actually could've happened. I just assumed he was a dirty cop and I shouldn't have"

"How about I give you a reward?" Sam smiles, lifting her head up. Jay smiles and asks, "what kind?"

"Anything involving whip cream?"

"You had me at anything" Jay smiles, getting up and lifting his fiancé up, bridal style, as Sam wraps her arms around his neck, "I can't wait to do this for real"

"I can't wait to be Mrs Sam Halstead. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?" Sam smiles as Jay leans down to kiss her.

"Very sexy" Jay smirks, "just like you"

"I know"

a/n:

Sam and Jay are literally the cutest 💖
I can't wait for their wedding.. but then again, something bad is gonna happen and I don't know how I'm gonna handle it 😭🤷🏼‍♀️😲