"So, this is the famous intelligence unit." Sophia grinned at Antonio as she looked around.
"This is it," He nodded. "And this is your desk."
"Is it right next to yours?" She asked. "Like old times?"
"It is, and it's also right next to the door." He said with a smirk. "You know, in case you want to make a quick escape."
"Oh, you think you're funny." She nodded. "That's cute."
He smirked and shook his head. "I've missed that sassy attitude of yours."
"Well good," She said, sitting down in her desk chair, leaning back and putting her feet up on her desk. "Because it's been building up inside of me for a whole year, so get ready."
"I wouldn't have it any other way." He said. "You're my new partner by the way."
"Really?" She asked with a shrug and a grin. "This is going to be fun."
"Well look what we have here," Olinsky said when he came up the stairs and saw Ivy.
She turned, grinning when she saw him and got up to give him a hug. "Been awhile, hasn't it?"
"Too long," He nodded, before turning to Ruzek. "This is Adam Ruzek, we pulled him out of the academy too, but it never works out as good the second time as it did the first." He said jokingly as he nudged Ruzek.
"Ivy," She said, as she shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Yeah, you too." He said. "I take it you've all worked together before?"
"Oh yeah," She nodded. "They needed an undercover cop, female, that would have no chance of being made. So that meant pulling someone from the academy and they chose me."
"And she killed it." Antonio said. "So, I stole her for more undercover work in vice."
"So, this new side case we're working on," Ruzek said. "You were working it back in vice?"
"Yeah, last year." Ivy nodded. "And I was so damn close too."
"What happened?" He asked.
"I got made," She said as she glanced at Antonio. "And then they disappeared."
"And now they've reappeared." Antonio said. "And we're going to get them."
"We better, this is one of those cases."
Ruzek frowned. "One of what cases?"
"The ones that haunt you, and keep you up at night, the ones you just can't let go of, that's this case for me." Ivy explained. "It's personal, and I need to catch these guys, but I need some coffee first."
"I like her." Ruzek nodded when she was out of ear shot. "She seems bad ass, like Lindsay, but not as rough."
"She's great, and she's great police," Antonio said. "But we've got to watch her; this case was hard for her. She worked it deep uncover for a year, and thinks ended bad."
"How bad?" He frowned as he looked between Antonio and Olinsky.
"Bad enough." Olinksy said. "But it's her story to tell, not ours."
"Hey, is it true?" Jay said to Antonio as he came upstairs with Lindsay. "Is she here?"
"Yeah," He nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He frowned deeply as he looked around. "Why am I the last to know?"
"You aren't the last to know." He said. "We kept it quiet until the transfer came through and you know why."
"Where is she?" He demanded.
"She's in the break room, but Jay," He already started to walk away and Antonio sighed, letting him go.
Ivy was in the break room getting a cup of coffee when Jay walked in. She looked up and hesitated as he stood awkwardly in the door way. They both continued to look at each other for a few minutes, Jay was wearing a worried frown and Ivy had a look of hurt in her eyes. Neither one of them knew what to say, or what to feel in that moment. It had been a long time since they had seen each other.
When he finally seemed to snap out of it, he went right to the coffee. He didn't say a word to her and he didn't look at her again. He just poured his coffee into a travel mug as she watched him, and then he was gone. He stormed out of the unit with Lindsay right behind him. She finally caught up with him outside as he was about to get into the car.
"Hey," She said, grabbing his arm. "What is going on?"
"It's nothing, let's just go." He said, pulling out of her grasp and getting into the car.
Lindsay got into the car with him, but she wasn't going to let it go. "I'm your partner, just talk to me."
"Ivy and I have history." He said.
"Work history, or personal history." She asked.
"Both," He mumbled and then sighed. "She worked in vice with Antonio but she was focused on the drug movement in gangs, and I used to work gang Intel, so we crossed paths a lot."
"You became involved?"
"We weren't in the same unit, or even the same district." He said with a shrug. "But then we got put on the same case, working different angels of two rival gangs undercover. We came face to face at a meeting, trying to get the same shipment, and that's when things went south."
"Between you two?"
"On the case. There was going to be retaliation for losing our shipment." He explained. "I got word about it just before and I tried to pull her out but she was so consumed with bringing these guys down."
Lindsay nodded. "You blew her cover."
"I had to get her out of there, but they turned on me and she had to give herself up," He shook his head. "But I didn't know her partner was in there too, and since he brought her into the gang, when she was made, so was he."
"What happened, Jay?" She asked with a frown, even though she was sure of the answer already.
"He tried to save his cover so he shot her in the shoulder," He said. "I didn't know he was a cop, and I didn't know they had a plan, and I didn't know it was her shoulder."
"You shot back." She said. "And you didn't miss."
"The bullet in her shoulder hit an artery. She almost died in my arms on the side of the road waiting for back up." He said. "They took her into surgery, and then protective custody, and then she was just gone."
"How long has it been?"
He frowned deeply and sighed. "About a year."
OOOOO
When Severide, Casey and Dawson got home from shift that morning they walked into the apartment and immediately smelt cooking. Ivy was a stress baker and after her day yesterday, she was pretty stressed out. She had worked late, went home and drank a bottle wine, and watched TV before going to bed. They had the weekend off so she woke up and tried to distract herself from thinking about Jay by baking. So far she had made blueberry muffins, chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, and now making another batch of muffins
"I got it." Severide said to Casey and Dawson before he walked into the kitchen. "Rough day?"
"Yep," She nodded. "You know me so well."
"So, is it the case, or is it Jay?"
"Couldn't be Jay." She shrugged and shook her head as she continued to mix the batter in a bowl. "He'd have to talk to me and he's not doing that. He's just pretending I'm not there. He won't even talk to me and it's not like I can blame him. I wouldn't talk to me either and it's not like I can talk to him. What would I even say?"
"So, it's Jay." Severide nodded and took the mixing bowl out of her hands. "We're going out."
"I can't go out, Kelly." She said as she tried to steady her shaky hands. "Was this a bad idea? Coming back here and going back to work?"
He put his hand over hers to settle her down. "Let's just go for a drive."
Severide took her out to the cemetery, to visit Shay's grave. It was the first time he'd been there since they buried her and Ivy frowned as she looked at the grave. "It really sinks in when you see it in stone."
"Yeah, I know." He nodded. "When I saw you yesterday, the one person I really wanted to talk to about it, wasn't here. She was my best friend, the one person I could always talk to, about anything. And I know Mark was that person for you, so trust me, I get it now."
"It doesn't get easier." She mumbled. "Time doesn't heal anything, you just learn to live with it, and somewhere along the line you get used to living without them."
"The thing is, we're both missing the same kind of person in our lives," He said. "So, I was thinking that maybe we could be that person for each other."
"I'd like that." She smiled at him. "I missed you."
"I missed you too, more than you know." He said, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her into him as he kissed her head. "We'll work it out, Vee, we always do."
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