I'm sorry the update took so long. Just so you know, things are about to start getting real interesting with our young Halstead girl- including a new job, which will not be in narcotics. *wink wink*

Pretty please leave comments/reviews/feedback and definitely suggestions. It's very motivational and also makes me feel really good. I honestly appreciate it a lot when I get emails and notifications saying someone left a review or favourited it.

Enjoy! Thank you for sticking with this story, by the way!

-the author

It was safe to say that Lucia-Marie tended to run into trouble a lot. Which is why she had a black eye after going to the hospital, ironically. She went to have lunch with her eldest sibling, a doctor who worked in the emergency room as a trauma surgeon.

"The swelling's gone down considerably. And I don't have a concussion." she rolled her eyes, even though the outside of her left one was throbbing painfully. The freezing cold of the ice pack she had pressed against it was numbing.

Dr. Choi gave her a half smile and moved her hand and ice pack away from her face, squinting at it. "Well, I'm pretty sure Dr. Halstead wouldn't be thrilled with my decision to let you go."

"Boys. Don't they get that with some makeup, the bruising won't be all that noticeable?" she joked.

He chuckled lightly. "Fine, but I think he called you a ride."

Her spirits went down a bit. That ride was most likely Jay. "Damn it. He called in the cavalry."

She left the small examination room and took her hair out of its ponytail, trying to cover the dark bruising that had already started to develop on the left side of her face. That patient had steel fists, unfortunately for her.

"Remind me exactly how you were injured at a hospital?" her brother's voice carried it's way to her as he waited by the car, Erin in the driver's seat. She sent her a small wave and they smiled at each other.

"Will and I had a lunch date. I came to the ER to drag him to McDonald's, even though he's convinced their food is poisonous..." She shrugged, "Honestly, I just wanted a milkshake."

Jay frowned at her, took a step forward and moved the hair out of her face. She swatted his hand away stubbornly. "It won't last more than a week." he said, even though he was still a bit annoyed.

"Anyway, some patient went berserk on this other patient and I happened to be right in the middle of them. I didn't move fast enough to get out of the way. Oh, and..." She pushed past him, handle already grasped in her hand. "I call shotgun!"

Erin choked on a laugh. Obviously her partner's manhood was at stake every time he needed to be in a car.

Jay clenched his jaw and took the backseat.

Then the girls started talking as if he weren't even there, which was halfway to interesting but still near annoying.

"Men are too complicated. They say we women have our own language-" Lucy started.

"And then they go around being more difficult than we are!" Erin finished.

The female Halstead pressed her head against the window, watching the streets go by as Erin drove. She closed her eyes, ready to have a short nap-

"-In pursuit of suspect in the murder cases right now, requesting backup immediately. We are currently in Freedom Park. She has a hostage and is in possession of a weapon-"

Erin stopped the car, looked at Jay behind her, who nodded, and then glanced at Lucy. Then she made an abrupt start toward a different direction. Pretty soon they had gotten to the park, where crowds of people had gathered behind the police officers. Lucy recognized the Intelligence members. One of them handed Jay a vest, and then tossed one to Erin. Lucy leaned back inside the car.

She knew what was coming.

"Stay here." her brother ordered, giving her a scolding look.

And there it was. The moment where he forgot about her own experience in these situations, where she was the little kid he had to protect.

"Uh-huh." she mumbled, rolling her eyes. The member who gave them the vests, Dawson, gave her a questioning look. He had probably seen the blooming black eye.

Then they rushed off, Jay heading towards a building, probably to act as a sniper. He was one of the best she'd ever met, although Lucy was required to support that fact since they were family.

She slumped in her seat.

Waited.

Waited.

Waited...

"Screw it." She opened the dork and stepped out, moving in between the people who crowded around the scene, giving a wide berth to the officers.

Lucy stealthily made her way past the officers, who somehow didn't notice her slipping by and onto the scene itself. It looked like Erin was trying to talk her down, with her gun still drawn. The woman had a man in front of her, wild red hair a mess, eyes wide and screaming at them to get back. The man himself looked panicked, tense and shaking in her grasp, the gun against his head obviously unnerving.

"Halstead?" someone whisper yelled at her.

She glanced sideways at Olinski. "Yup."

"You're not supposed to be here."

"And you're supposed to be paying attention to the scene, not little ol' me." she said, not even trying to hold back the snark. But he didn't seem to mind.

"Do you know what's going on?"

"No offence, but it doesn't take someone with a high IQ to understand this." She looked to Erin, who saw her out of the corner of her eye. Lindsay was attempting to talk down the suspect calmly, but it was like things were only escalating from where they'd been a minute ago.

"You guys are doing it all wrong. He's going to get killed if you don't change tactics." she shook her head, biting her lip anxiously. She hated hostage situations, they were much too stressful for any human being.

"Okay, if this doesn't work, we- who is she?" It was Voight, appearing next to Olinski and staring down at her with a scowl.

"This is-"

"Lucia-Marie Halstead. You probably don't remember me yelling at my brother the other day." She stuck out a hand, but he didn't even glance at it.

Voight glared at her. "How did you get over here? No, never mind. Just...get back behind the line where you're not in danger of getting hurt, please." It sounded so tensely harsh coming from him that she almost wanted to laugh.

"Listen, I know I've already most likely pissed you off, but you're conducting this all wrong. This woman needs sympathy and understanding. There's a reason she murdered that woman with remorse and the men with hatred. It's-"

"You read the damn file?" he ground out, clearly becoming angrier with her by the second. "I'm going to kill Jay. Civilians aren't allowed to know about-"

"Jesus Christ, what makes you think I'm a civilian?" she snapped. He looked so surprised that he dropped the scowl and instead stared at her, like he was trying to figure something out.

"Erin," he said loudly. Lindsay turned slightly towards him and he directed her to him. She walked over, not at all nervous with him, Lucy noticed. "Switch with little Halstead. Give her a vest, Alvin."

Lucy bit the inside of her cheek at what he'd referred to her as. She could get over it...later. "Uh. What?"

"You act like a cop. Unless-"

"No, I mean, yes. I am...a...cop." More like Special Agent, she thought. And more like was, she added in her head.

"And would Jay get mad about this?"

"Most definitely." She smirked.

He didn't seem to care. He handed her the vest, but didn't even get to make her put it on before she'd gone into the line of fire, standing a few feet away from the redheaded serial killer.

"Who are you?" Her words were rushed, pained, even.

"I'm Lucy. You?" Lucy had her hands in her pockets and could feel the silent thoughts and the people's eyes on her, the cops who were judging her ability. She tried to be relaxed.

Which is kind of hard to do when you're in this type of situation.

"Are you a cop?"

She cocked her head, looking thoughtful. "Not exactly."

"You're going to do the same thing, huh? Tell me to get my ducks in a row and stop?" She pressed the gun harder against the temple of the man.

"Let's forget about whoever you're threatening to kill right now and have a conversation."

"What is this? What are you doing?"

"Look, I'll even..." Lucy trailed off, showing the palms of her hands and then slowly ending down, retrieving the pocketknife she had in her converse and tossing it to the ground, then the black handgun she had in the back of her, tucked into her waistband. She showed it to the woman and then did the same thing with the weapon, hearing it land in the grass a foot or two away from her.

"Let's talk."

They both stared at each other for a few seconds.

Then, "Hannah Martinez. That's my name."

"Spanish?"

"...yeah."

"Cool."

Hannah seemed beyond perplexed at how relatively normal this conversation was. She, holding a gun to a person's head and surrounded by officers ready to shoot her, and Lucy, standing there so relaxed as if she were waiting in line for an ice cream.

"So what's the deal here? Why the men? And that poor girl. Revenge?"

And the normalcy disappeared.

"Why do you care?" she sneered in response. The safety of the gun could be heard being switched off.

"Woah, I'm just trying to understand what's going on."

"I...they were bad men." She looked uncomfortable.

Someone behind Lucy stepped forward to tell her something, in the middle of saying "This doesn't seem like a good idea-"

"Go back! Stay away!" Hannah was yelling, cutting in. Lucy pushed whoever it was back to his place and raised her hands in surrender.

"Hey, relax. He just wanted to make sure I was okay. So...the men? What made them so bad?"

"They were criminals and they got away with their crimes. They deserved what they got. The girl..." She choked on her words. "I didn't mean to kill her." The last part came out quieter.

"I know."

"You- you do? How?"

"I just do. I believe you. But...him?" Lucy gave him a pointed look as his eyes darted around. "He didn't do anything. So at least let him go."

"I-I..." she trailed off, eyes darting to the floor. Ever so slowly, she let go of him, her hold of the gun also slipping until it almost dropped to the ground. He immediately ran to the officers at the side, nearest to him.

Before Lucy could react, though, Hannah Martinez had the gun pointed upwards, aiming for her jaw-

"Don't!" But it was too late. The loud bang of the shot surprised her and she stood frozen in place as she watched the blood pool around the dead body of a serial killer.