Hey, people! So this story was requested by a friend of mine here on Wattpad and it took me months to write because of writer's block and personal life/ home and family life were getting in the way! I had a plan in my head inspired by the request of my friend yet the words wouldn't come out! It was furstrating!
But, finally, i managed to finish it...it didn't go the way i planned it at first but i'm satisfied with the end...although the title of the story doesn't match much with the content...that is what you get when you work first on the cover AND THEN on the story! Oops! Lesson learnt!
Anyways, this is for you sonyar1 on Wattpad ! I hope you like it!
Enjoy!
Chicago City Danger City
The ringing of the bell was what was echoing through the school halls and students rushed around to be in class just in time.
A girl was walking in the school looking around her to a normal person you would think she was lost but if you got a looking deeper in her eyes you would see she was looking lost but rather she was trying to spot someone. But as her searches came fruitless she sighed shaking her head and searched through her messenger bag and pulled out a A4 paper size notebook and a black colored pen.
Once she was holding them she walked inside the classroom on her right.
"Oh! Miss Cortez, you find the way." The teacher said mockingly and the girl smiled.
"Sorry, Mr. Collins, new school…" The girl said apologetically and went to sit in the empty seat.
"That is alright." Mr. Collins said and started teaching.
The girl's name was Franny Cortez and she wasn't a girl but a woman….not because she got her period but because she was twenty seven not seventeen as she was pretending to be.
After five hours of two classes, three hours of History and two hours of Algebra they had a lunch break.
She walked quickly to the Principal's Office where the rest of the school teachers were waiting for her.
"Hello! Thank you for allowing me to be here." Franny said thankful as she took her seat and emptied her messenger bag with the case files.
"So, as you might have been told I was sent here to draw out the people who have been in contact or are members of drug circle that has already killed fifteen college students in the area and many more adults, honestly, I was sent to draw the kids because as you see I look like a seventeen year old plus I have a PhD in Children Psychology…so I can work with them. My colleagues are working on the college students and the adults. The circle is so big and we don't know how many are involved. As far as for my cover treat me as if I was you student including yelling at me for not doing my homework…" She told them serious but at the end she had a small smile.
Every teacher in the room smiled and nodded.
"We will try our best, Detective Cortez." The Principal, Mr. Axton, said.
"Oh! And if you see me being really really smart don't target me alright? I've been through those classes almost ten years ago and I still remember some of them." Franny said to them and they nodded.
After that she told them her goodbyes and she was walked towards the cafeteria and ordered a chocolate milk and a chicken, corn, mayo sandwich and a Cesar's Salad without the sauce because she didn't like how it burnt her throat…and thankfully the cafeteria lady gave her ketchup/mayo combo to pour over the salad.
She sat by herself and opened her book she was currently reading. But at the same time she scanned the cafeteria.
Suddenly she felt another person's presence and she looked up.
"I'm Mark." He said and she nodded.
"You're new here as I was told…you didn't listen for me but I was sent here on a dare to get you to go on a date with me. So, would you go with me?" Mark asked Franny with a kind smile.
"Um…sure but can it be during the weekend? During week days I'm busy." She told him and he nodded.
"Sure." Mark said with a smile and stood up from her table.
Franny was alone again and kept reading slash thinking about her mission.
She wanted to beat those bastards who thought that handing drugs to other people especially kids, is good business!
Once school was out Franny was about to die from boredom. She rushed to her fake apartment and got down to work. The entire day she was secretly photographing every student and now she had to pass through Face Recognition Software.
Then she check in with her team and after that sat to do her homework laughing at how she remembered the right answers.
At night around 9 pm she got a hit!
Ed Salazar.
"Got ya! You are going down, Eddie boy!" Franny said smirking and then closed the laptop and went to bed.
The Next Day:
The Next day in school she got stopped in her locker by Mark who was dragging with him four people with him, two girls and two boys.
"Hello, Fenia! I wanted to introduce you to Sofia, my twin sister, Rafael, my twin brother, yes I'm a triple…I'm the oldest by the way. Then we have Martin Collins…yes he is Mr. Collins son, but ignore that he's cool! At last but not least we have April Kelly Stuart. She is an awesome chick that is sarcastic." Mark said smiling and Franny smirked.
"Nice to meet you guys! I'm Franny! Not Fenia, Marcus!" Franny said smirking and the group of people started laughing.
"Oh! Man! I like her! Can we keep her?" Rafael asked rhetorically and sarcastically at them and she laughed.
"Yes, we can." Mark said smiling like he just realized that Franny is a puzzle he wants to solve.
She didn't notice him.
The day went by normally with classes and lunch breaks of course during the lunch break Mark and his friends invited Franny out for ice cream and a movie on Saturday and she accepted.
Saturday came and she went to the ice cream place and the movie but once Sunday came and she was stalking Ed Salazar who she figure out where he lived from searching through his cousin's file at school. Archie Salazar was Ed's little cousin and he was…I shall put it in a kind word…an asshole. He bullies everyone and especially racist towards everyone and everything! He thinks he is the center of the universe.
A narcissist in other words.
She saw him coming out of his house and he had a red bag on his shoulder as she followed him she saw him turn to the left and he handed the bag to a kid around seventeen.
"Sell everything in the bag and your sister will come back home." Ed said to the scared and anxious kid.
"I will, I promise, I will." The kid said as he kept nodding too excitedly for a normal person.
She looked in sadness at the boy.
"Is she okay?" The boy asked Ed in worry and he smiled in a cruel way.
"Well, we haven't taken her from the front only from the back…she's been screaming and pleading us not to touch her but who listens to the bitch…when we are inside her she moans like the slut she is." Ed said to the boy whose eyes were wide in horror, anger and guilt.
"And if you don't sell all of this we and my boys going to take her the right way and in the end I will personally shoot her…so you better sell them!" Ed said with a cruel smile and patted his shoulder and turned around and left. The poor boy was frozen in fear and anxiety.
Franny had taken photos and voice recording of Ed's and the poor boy's conversation. So she put them into the computer file she had on Ed and sent it to her Chief. She then went on with her day.
When Monday rolled over Franny walked to school with a bag full of books when she saw Ed's cousin, Archie, handing some small bag of pills and the other student was smiling as if Archie saved him from a terrible monster.
Franny mentally noted that to write it on her notepad once she sat in her desk.
As she finished writing down the note she saw the teacher walking in and the last student rushing after him into class. Franny listened to the teacher talking when she felt a piece of paper rolling and stopping near her foot and looked Mark who was smiling at her. She ducked down and picked it up.
It read;
"Party this Friday at Archie Salazar's house. Do you want to come? I will pick you up since I'm making rounds to get the rest of my friends."
Franny thought about it for a moment and found that this party was perfect opportunity to search for Archie's drug stash in his house and Ed's stash…if there was one in Archie's home.
She turned to Mark and nodded and he smiled even more at the approval of Fanny.
She focused on planning a bust on Archie when suddenly she realizes something…she can't do it on her own! She has to call for back up and that might make her seem obvious to the rest students that she is not a student but a cop!
She walked home thinking about possible way she could communicate with her unit when she came up with the idea…she could take a "trip" to the center of San Francisco where she contact her Chief and he met her in a dinner where they usually took breakfast in most days before she went undercover.
"You are sure about this, Franny?" Her Chief asked her worried and she nodded as she ate her pancakes.
"Hundred per cent. Just make them blend into the party. I really need this to end. Archie's cousin has a girl hostage in his house and he and his guys are repeatedly raping her while he forces the older brother to deal for him, Jameson." Franny said serious and worried but made sure to keep her voice low.
"Alright, but what makes you believe he will talk?" Jameson asked his Detective.
When Chief Fredrick Jameson met a young Franny he only saw a party girl wanting to prove that she had grown up to her rich parents but as time went by he saw through the façade. Franny was neglected by her parents and she didn't join the Police Force to prove anything to anyone, she just wanted to be independent and find people who really cared for her and not her net worth.
That is why whenever she would get asked if she was related to Richard and Amy Cortez, she would refuse. Richard Cortez was a famous wine seller and boat seller and Amy Cortez a shoes and clothes designer. Franny told him when she decided she wanted to be a Detective, she was around 11 years old when she met her two best friends Elizabeth and Dawn. Elizabeth was a kind girl when suddenly one day, Franny remembered, that Elizabeth volunteered to get Franny's sunglasses' case that had fallen into a ditch but Elizabeth tripped and fell abruptly causing her a deadly neck injury. After being sedated and then falling into a coma and later dying.
The following week Elizabeth's older brother found Fanny and Dawn sitting with Elizabeth's cousin Crystal when Sebastian started yelling and accusing Fanny of Elizabeth's death. Then as the school day was over Franny and Dawn where cornered by Sebastian's "friends" and she got beaten up. She survived but Dawn was stabbed in the gut instead the shoulder as Franny had. Dawn died on the spot.
Franny then was forced to change school and was sent into a Private one where there was a course of choice ability and she chose criminology.
After that she was sure of the bath she wanted to follow, bring justice and save lives.
Jameson was shocked of Franny's story and he saw that she had started opening up to the rest of Intelligence Unit.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do. Go back and get some rest okay? In the party you will see Seth when you see him that means we are in place and you should act normal…well as the socialite you…I mean." Jameson said to Franny and drank the last drop of Espresso before getting up and leaving a tip and patting Franny's shoulder.
Franny smiled at the gesture as she kept chewing and waved goodbye to him from the window.
Once he was gone she took out the book she was currently reading and continued the chapter she was on.
Friday rolled over with Franny acting comfortable around Mark and his friends but what she had noticed was that Mark was always around her during school hours…she was getting bothered by it.
Until Thursday morning she was approached by Archie as she was going to the bathroom.
"So you are the new girl, correct?" Archie asked her with a smug smirk and tried to get close to her.
"Well that is what they say. You are?" Franny asked with a smirk pretending not to know him. With her hand alright on the bathroom's door handle she was ready to go in when Archie invaded her space and said;
"You look fun to be around….want to stay with me and couple guys after the party on Friday to hang out? You are coming to the party right?" Archie asked her and he started twirling her stray hairs and then looked her lips and then her eyes.
"Of course I will but I'm not sure I can stay further than 4 am…I have to take the train home." Franny lied easily and Archie was caught off guard by the comment.
"Oh…okay. See you in the party." He said as he stared at her for a moment too long before leaving her alone.
Franny raised her eyebrows in complete confusion at Archie's last reaction but the need to pee was greater so she shrugged it off and went inside.
Friday night came along as she climbed onto Mark's car she smiled to them with a welcoming smile and they drove to Archie's house. She was expecting a big mansion of sorts but what she saw was amazed by the extend of the property but once she digest it she panicked that meant that her team had to search for long hours because bigger space meant more hiding places.
Shit!
She was getting worried yet didn't let it show or take control of her behavior. She acted like anyone would in a party except drinking, she held a cup and pretended to sip on it but actually she just wetted her lips.
Then she saw Ed walking in and greeting people like he was a God or something. It made her sick.
Then she saw Archie staring at her and she sighed acted tipsy.
"So…you are the new girl…right?" He asked her and she nodded. Then she looked at Seth who caught her and he smiled to the woman before him aka another cop/undercover and they started stumbling towards a room pretending they were going to hook up.
Archie and Franny talked for a few seconds and the conversation went a lot like this;
"Yeah, I am." Franny pretended to be attracted to him.
"Then allow me to show you how kids in our town have the real fun." He said and she nodded with a bimbo like attitude.
They walked into his room and they started kissing. On their way to their room Seth and the other female spotted them and once the door was closed they loaded their guns getting ready while Seth signaled the rest of the cops.
As Archie and Franny kissed she tried to pull away from him to talk to him but he wouldn't budge then he forced her skirt down and put a hand over her mouth and Fanny couldn't scream. She only kicked again and again.
He entered her as she cried. Somehow, his hand slipped from her mouth and she managed to scream/cry out as tears streamed down her face;
"HELP!"
Just then Seth and the other woman named Miranda broke the door and shot Archie in the shoulder making him stop the assault.
He fell on her and started groaned as Franny stayed still in shock and disgust.
Miranda helped her get cleaned and told her what happened then Seth and the rest of her team arrested Archie and they walked out with her. Franny didn't have to pretend to be the victim because she was.
They interrogation took all night yet Franny had to keep her cover up and returned the next day to school were Mark tried to talk to her about what happened to the party and apologize.
Just then both Mark and her saw Ed marching inside the school, it was during lunch break and Franny was going to the library to eat in silence, when she saw him.
He then saw her and took out a gun. Franny acted quickly but everything seemed going slow motion. She pushed Mark out of the way while she reached for her gun in her boot and shot back just then Mark jumped before a speeding bullet that was aimed at her and it pierced him right in the middle of his chest.
He fell down as she looked shocked at him but pushed him aside and shot twice one in Ed's shoulder and one in his leg that made him fall to his knees.
By now the entire school was before them.
She run quickly punched him and knocked him out before calling her team.
Unknowingly to her Seth and the rest of her Intelligence team were looking for evidence in Archie's house and in Ed's. Archie had talked after 12 hours in custody. And the call Fanny gave them came as cheery on top.
Once the case was closed Franny then realized the entire emotional scarring she suffered through. After that her behavior and work ethic was significantly lowered to the point the Chief was forced fire her because she was drunk on the job or high. And other times she wouldn't even show up to work for weeks.
And just like that she found herself in a rehab facility.
Two years later Franny got out of the rehab facility and had decided to make a new begin by going to Chicago and start a new life.
And like that she found herself working at a coffee shop where ironically many cops hanged out. At night she would have a radio show, she got the job though a friend she met at the rehab.
She was making a descent salary and had three loyal friends by the time she closed three years sober when one day she saw who she had heard to be Hank Voight.
She caught him many times looking at her as if he was thinking something but she ignored it until one morning along with the cash for the coffee gave her his card.
"If you want to return to the force."
He told her with a kind smile before leaving the coffee shop and her shocked.
Franny spent a week staring at the card and a week contemplating. Then on week three she decided after her job at the coffee shop to go find this Hank Voight and ask him some solid questions on how he knew she was an ex detective.
The conversation went like she expected her old Chief recommended her to him.
"So, are you in or not?" Hank asked her and she blinked confused and she looked at him shocked.
"Yes I'm in!" Franny exclaimed excited
And that was the beginning of a new life of Franny Cortez.
Franny right after Hank Voight's visit she talked to her manager and he gave her all his best wishes on getting her job back. Patrick Reverend (yeah he was subjected to a lot of bullying in high school because of his last name) had been impressed by her résumé when he hired her and he was saddened hearing her story.
And like that Franny Cortez twenty four hours later walked into precinct 21 and introduced herself to Sergeant Platt.
"Oh! I've heard about you! Don't let the Intelligence take advantage of you…show them what we are made of!" Sergeant Platt said with a wink to Franny as she guided her upstairs.
"Oh! I won't! I'm done being taken advantage of….thank you Sergeant Platt." Franny said with a small smile but her eyes were dead serious and Sergeant Platt understood what she meant…at least she got an idea.
Honestly, Sergeant Platt knew about Franny Cortez because one of her cousins worked in the same precinct as Franny in San Francisco and when Hank announced that he was thinking of bringing in a new member Sergeant Platt reached out to her cousin to ask about Franny.
Franny climbed the last step before she came in contact with hectic office, they were a bunch of people brainstorming in front of an evidence board and they were LOUD!
"Excuse me!" Franny mastered the courage to say but her voice against theirs was just a whisper. Awkwardly she stood behind them and waited to be noticed.
"I'm telling ya I'm right! If you don't think then we should ask the newbie once he is here!" Jay Halstead said with a cocky tone as he raised his hands up and walked away towards Franny.
His eyebrows furrowed at her presence and she just stare at him not really seeing him since her eyes got side tracked by none other than Atwater who was drinking from his cup of coffee.
"Excuse me? Are you lost?" Jay asked her rudely as he waved his hand in front of her face scarring Franny out of her thoughts and on instinct she grabbed his hand twisted behind his back in lighting reflexes and kicked him behind his knees making him kneel and added pressure on his twisted hand.
"OW!" Jay exclaimed in pain and taken aback.
His yelp of pain made everyone turn to them and Hank smirked proudly at Franny who stare him dead in the eyes.
"Hi…you told me to come?" Franny asked in a unsure tone something that strike as a contrast with her body attitude and that she had just made Jay kneel and twisted his arm in nano seconds, Jay, who had gone three times in Afghanistan.
"Yes! Yes, I said that now please let go of Detective Jay Halstead." Hank said with an amused tone and Franny nodded.
"Right…sorry." She apologized ashamed but Jay glared at her and ignored her apology and walked back to his desk rubbing his shoulder and hand.
"Everyone welcome Detective Franny Cortez, our new teammate!" Hank Voight introduced her as he smiled at her encouraging her to wave at them.
Her eyes met again with Atwater who smiled at her like a fool.
Fast forwarding a month in the team Atwater, Burgess and Adam were the best friends of Fanny while Jay was her nemesis for a lack of better words.
She had nothing against him but he had something against her and she didn't want to press on it in fear of losing her job yet again.
At least Jay made an effort not to let his personal vendetta affect him or his partnership with Franny when it came to cases. They were being adults.
But when they got out of the precinct Jay and Franny didn't even speak or attended Molly's at the same time.
If it wasn't a rule for everyone in the Intelligence to have each other's phone numbers Jay wouldn't have Franny's. And in all honesty he had no idea where she lived, he didn't care, he was sure that if something happened to her Atwater and Kim would be the first ones by her side.
The months and day went by quickly for everyone since every month if not week was a new case and soon Franny felt as she was part of a family…she even had an angry brother…aka Jay.
Franny sighed as she rubbed her hand in her gloves, winters in Chicago were brutal! I MEAN BRUTAL!
Franny was trying to get used to having a job just like she had back in her old life. And Atwater was always there…not in the creepy way though.
Atwater and Franny had a chemistry she never felt before.
That continued for awhile now and when two years since she started working for Hank Voight the Intelligence and the entire precinct throw her a surprise party and Jay seemed sort of moody….what is new here?
"Come on, now, Halstead, you can't still be mad at me after I kicked your butt." Franny attempted to joke but Jay's glare made her flinch and walk away from him.
"You can't be trusted with this team no matter what you do to prove to us otherwise!" Jay yelled after her and that sentence made her stop and whipped around and marched up to him.
"How dare you! You don't know what I did and didn't went through to get here to today!" Franny yelled in anger and poked Jay's chest which caused him to nod in a mocking gesture of understanding.
"I know everything! I know how you got a kid killed because you couldn't do your job right and how you started drinking and using while you were on the job!" Jay accused her and Franny opened and closed her mouth and huffed in a angry way.
"I drank and used because before I got a kid killed I was raped by the shooter's cousin just a day before! Get raped and then we will see how you'd react when you see your own rapist's cousin aiming a gun at you!" Franny ranted angrily and then marched away but as she walked away she let a few tears fall.
Franny was found in her apartment an hour after the party was over by Atwater who got worried when he didn't find the guest of honor anywhere and Jay sitting moodily in the balcony of Atwater's apartment.
"What happened?" Atwater asked her as she looked at and she stood up to leave the room only for Atwater to grab her arm and stop her.
"Tell me please." Atwater begged her and she sighed before saying that she will tell him if he brings them snacks from the freeze.
Atwater nodded and went to the fridge only to find it stocked up and like she hadn't touched anything ever since they went grocery shopping together earlier this week….the pack of milk was where he put it and shield locked.
"Does this girl eat?" Atwater asked himself and a voice scared him.
"No I don't…I'm not that hungry most of the time." Franny's weak voice made him turned to her.
"Franny this isn't you! What is wrong?" Atwater asked her in sadness and worry mixed in his voice.
Franny studied him for awhile before sighing and slamming down to the couch behind her and started telling him her story.
Many years later:
A woman and a man rushed into a room decorated in a way that you knew it was a baby's room.
"It's okay honey, momma and dada are here!" Franny Atwater picked up her three month old baby and Atwater was looking at the scene before him and his memory went back in time.
To a time where Franny was a scarred girl and he and his love made her into a strong woman that was raising four kids and working as a Detective.
He remembered how much she cried when she told him her story and how angry he was at Jay for his behavior towards her. Thank God everything turned out okay the next day after the two years anniversary party.
With the years Jay became a great friend almost an older brother to Franny and one of the godfathers of the three kids. He became the eldest's godfather.
As he thought of his confession to Franny; they were chasing a lead and they were getting shot at when he turned to her and blurted out that he loved her.
Franny turned to him shocked and said that she loved him too and if they didn't die they should definitely talk about this on a date.
Three years after that weird ass confession he worked extra hard to propose to her.
They were on Christmas vacation at his parents' house when he kneeled in the snow in his house's yard and proposed.
The funny part was the Franny said yes and scolded him for getting his good pants wet and dirty. Then after a heartfelt kiss she fished out of her coat's pocket a zipped bag with a pregnancy and she said;
"Merry Christmas!" And she moved the zip bag in his face.
Atwater suddenly found himself jumping around and yelling "whoohoo!" in the middle of his neighborhood at 12 am and he didn't give a fuck!
And like that nine months later Carmen Thelma Cortez Atwater was born.
A year later during Halloween Fanny dressed as a giant baby and waited for her husband to realize what she was trying to tell him… it didn't work…
Atwater suddenly as they were getting ready for bed he turned to her and asked;
"Are you pregnant again?"
"What makes you ask that?" Franny asked her husband in a mysterious tone as she crawled to the end of the bed where he was doing sit ups.
"The giant baby you were dressed as during trick or treating and at the office party?" Atwater asked sarcastically and Franny put her chin in the place between his shoulder and neck and nodded her head causing Atwater to tickle.
"You sure?"
"Yes, idiot!"
"HOLY SHIT! I'M GONNA BE A DAD AGAIN! YOU ARE GOING TO BE A MUM AGAIN!"
"Are you sure you can handle another traditional child birth? We can try water birth or a c section?" Atwater rambled worried and nervous as Fanny smiled grateful to have her husband as her husband.
Nine months later little Emilia Sierra Cortez Atwater was born.
Two years later Franny was pregnant again and this time it was during Easter….
Seriously what is it with the holidays?
Nine months later Gregory Noah Cortez Atwater and Joshua Martin-Hank Cortez Atwater were born!
And back to the present where a little Joshua Martin-Hank was crying and being held in his mother's embrace.
Atwater couldn't be happier and more thankful that he was now.
His only wish was that if ever his children face the same challenges (God forbid) as Franny they will be able to have a trustful support system to back them up.
So, kids and adults if you are facing anything mental health related please talk to someone you are closed to or to a psychologist…talking helps!
So? Did you guys liked it? What are your thoughts on it? Please share them in the comments and try to be kind, thank you!
Oh! And if any of you own a account make sure to check the same story out in that site also!
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