⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS FOREVER
chapter three. all cylinders firing.

Sam sits up in her and Jays bed, Gracie sleeping right next to her, when her phone rings.

"Hey. How's Trudy?"

"She's still in surgery"

"I can't believe someone attacked her. Do we know if she was targeted?"

"Voight thinks so"

"This is crazy, I'm coming to help find this s.o.b" Sam says, taking the covers off herself.

"Hey, just wait until morning. We're probably not going to find that much tonight anyways"

Sam sighs and says, "Alright. Be careful please"

"Always. I love you"

"I love you too" Sam says, before hanging up the phone. Wyatt walks in and rubs his eyes and says, "Mom. Can I stay in here with you?"

"Of course, baby" Sam says, carefully picking gracies sleeping form, so her 15 year old can get under the covers, "more nightmares?" Wyatt nods his head, as he pulls the covers over his body, "Well, I'm gonna put your sister back in her crib and when I come back, I'll tell you some more stories about your father, how does that sound?" Sam asks and Wyatt smiles.

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"Robert Platt, age 72" Hank says, taping up his picture onto the whiteboard, the next day, on the unit, "well, this is no longer an isolated attack against a sergeant in our district. Mr Platt was found in his apartment. He'd been beaten, shot several times with a .357 caliber."

"He's got no priors but he was investigated by financial crimes and the IRS." Adam says, reading from a file, "three buildings his development company put up, they went bankrupt."

"He made a lot of people rich in the '80s and lost money for them ever since." Al states.

"Neighbors called in shots fired at 10:04 p.m. patrol responded by throwing the zone operator a code 19-Paul" Dawson says.

"And nobody else called in the shots?" Sam asks.

"No, so patrol didn't knock. But that gives us a timeline. Platt leaves her house, offender enters, shoots Robert. Platt buys a water bottle at CVS. 15 minutes later, she's attacked."

"And he wasn't robbed" Kevin says.

"Nothing appeared to be disturbed, except for the living room where there was an apparent struggle."

"Alright, listen. I liked Robert, but I think we're looking at the wrong Platt. I want you to cross reference everybody he did business with, same with anybody Trudy arrested, beefed with, anything. She's counting on us to get this right, so is her husband. So am I." Hank says.

~~~

After finding Natalie and her scumbag boyfriend at an electronic store and arresting them, they're brought back to the district, where Sam and Hank interrogate her.

"We executed a search warrant at your apartment, Natalie." Sam says, placing multiple pictures down in front of her, "you have quite the collection of gold watches. Most of them have Robert Platts initials in them. This ones nice how do you pronounce it? 'Outermores peegwet' or something?"

Natalie shakes her head and says, "mm-mm. Piguet. Audemars piguet."

"Oh"

"They were all gifts for my birthday last month."

"Seven Mens watches? That's a nice gift."

"We were in love"

"How about you hit that line again, but this time with some feeling. Alright, I'm gonna fill in the blanks. You're a con artist, so is your boyfriend. Only he has a habit of getting caught. And you targeted Robert Platt, a rich, older man, and you killed him. You tried to kill his daughter, a Chicago police officer, cause she didn't trust you. Only you sent your boyfriend to do it, and he's so stupid, he botched the job and she lived." Voight says.

"No? You represented that you were single. You're still with leonard." Sam says.

"Yeah, but that's not a crime." Natalie says.

"It's motive for murder." Voight says.

"And you ran. Why'd you run, Natalie?" Sam questions.

"You know, you guys all ask me the same questions." Natalie states. Voight stands up from his chair and says, "take her and her boyfriend, have them processed for the homicide and attempted murder of a police officer"

"No, wait, he didn't kill anyone." Natalie says, meanwhile on the other side of the glass, Leonard is confessing to Al and Adam, "and last night. I was at the club near the house. He was in a casino in Indiana. He didn't get home till late. Look, Robert is a nice man. I think he knew I was stealing from him, and I don't think he cared. He just...he just liked me."

"Well, a lot of guys make that mistake, right?" Sam says.

"Why would I want to kill him? He transferred everything he had, all of his secret little corporations to his daughter six months ago." Natalie says and Sam looks at Hank, "believe me, he wasn't as broke as he seemed to be."

"Alright, the club where you were" Sam says, passing a notepad and pen to Nataile, "and everything you stole from Robert Platt and where it was stashed. Start writing"

~~~

Sam, Erin and Jay walk onto the bullpen and Sam holds up a picture and says, "dark red 1968 mustang fastback. Not a lot of these left around."

"This one belongs to Wade McGregor" Erin says, showing the group his mug shot.

"McGregor, his name popped in Platts dads files." Dawson states.

"Yes, McGregor ran a construction company that did work for Platts dad, and he also invested in one of her father's business deals that went into receivership when the economy tanked" Sam says.

"The file also says he ran a side business  distributing narcotics. He's fresh out of stateville for an eight year bump." Jay says.

"How's he connect with sergeant Platt? She didn't arrest him, narcotics pinched him. He's not in any of her files." Dawson says.

"Paths might've crossed at some point. Platt knows how to cover her tracks." Jay says.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hank asks.

"It's true."

"Just get that file in front of Trudy, see if she can make a connection."

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Sam and Erin walk into Med to talk with Trudy, and as they were about to enter her room, she wasn't there.

"Uhm, where's Platt?" Sam questions. Erin looks around to see Maggie coming out of one of the rooms and asks, "Maggie, did you guys move Trudy Platt to another room?"

"No, why-?" Maggie cut herself off to see Trudy not there.

"And where's her protective detail?" Sam points to the empty seat in front of the room.

"I-I don't know. He was just there"

Erin dials on her phone and puts it to her ear, "Hank, she's gone"

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"Okay, thank you" Erin says, hanging up her desk phone, "okay, Platts car hasn't moved, so if she's mobile, we don't know what vehicle she's in."

"Wait, so she just...she just walked out?" Adam asks.

"No, sounds like she escaped to me. We got two patrolmen sitting on the room." Kevin says.

"Should we put out an investigative alert? She's injured. She needs help." Jay says.

"No, we bring her in, and we do it quiet. I don't want a paper trail until this turns into something we can't contain." Voight says.

"I don't understand. I was with her. She seemed fine." Kim says.

"What did she say?" Dawson asks.

"Nothing. She was breaking balls, mine, like, she seemed fine."

"What did you say? Did you tell her where we're at with the case?" Voight asks.

"I might have said something about the muscle car."

"Oh, man. You gave her our lead. She's chasing it down. She knows who the guy is now." Al says.

"Alright, find Platt, find McGregor before someone gets killed." Voight says.

~~~

Sam follows Kim into the locker room and says, "hey. Hey. You didn't know"

"I shouldn't have said anything." Burgess sighs.

"You angry?"

"Yes, I'm angry"

"Good. The only way to get out of this is to do good work. We have one goal, find Platt, right?"

"Right"

"Let's go" Sam says, leaving the locker room.

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After finding McGregor and Trudy. Platt heads back to med to rest up and Voight arrests McGregor.

Sam and Jay are sitting on their couch, taking a sip of their beers, as they watch Denise and Wyatt play with Gracie on the floor. Sam lays her head on her fiancées shoulder, who puts an arm around her and says, "we're pretty lucky, huh?"

"Very" Jay says, kissing the top of Sam's head, "and I can't wait to marry you. You know, we haven't even set a date yet"

"Hmm, how about April 20th?"

"April 20th? Sounds perfect. Just like you" Jay smiles. Sam playfully rolls her eyes and says, "I bet you say that to all your fiancées"

"But you're my favorite" Jay smiles, making them both laugh.

"Ew" Denise and Wyatt say unison, as they watch their parents kiss, while Gracie looks confused. Sam and Jay laugh and Sam says, "alright, time for bed"

"Aww" they whine in unison.

"I know, I know" Sam says, standing up and setting her beer on the table, then picks up Gracie as Denise and Wyatt walk up the stairs.

As Jay stands up, Sam covers her daughters ears and says, "and when I put Gracie to bed. I better find you in our bed, underneath the covers, naked"

Sam walks away with a smile as Jay gulps.

Flash forward to
April 20th, 2017

Sam silently sobs to herself as she sits in a holding cell in her wedding dress. The bottom of her dress ruined by the snow and salt.

"Sam"

Sam looks up to see Hank standing there and she gets up and puts her hands around the cold, metal bars and asks, "Hank, what is going on? They haven't told me a single thing"

"Sam.."

"What, Hank. Tell me.."

a/n:

whoa 🤭
that's all I have to say...