They weren't allowed enough time to see her in the hospital. They were called back to Chicago by Voight. Neither Jay nor Antonio had heard from Kayla, Grant, or Justice. They had called her, even Voight called, but they got no response.
Antonio glanced at the picture on his desk. Halstead shook his head. "She'll get in touch."
"I know. But we haven't heard from her in 3 months."
"When we left, she was seriously hurt. She needs her time to get back to normal."
"Yeah, I get that." He checked his phone again, checking to see if Kayla had texted him. A smile spread across his face. "Jay, Kayla just texted me. She's here."
"Why is she here?"
Antonio shrugged and grabbed his leather jacket off the back of his chair. "I don't know." He headed downstairs and saw Grant texting on his phone. As Antonio approached him, Grant walked away to take a phone call, exposing Kayla talking to Platt. "Kayla!"
She used her forearm crutches to turn herself to face him as she flipped her red hair over her shoulder. The bottom half of her left leg was gone. "Antonio!"
He carefully hugged her and she hugged him back, the crutches hanging off of her wrists. He made sure she was able to catch her balance before he looked at her. "I am so glad to see you. I've been trying to get in contact with you for months."
"I know. I kept breaking my phones when I was learning how to walk cause sometimes I would wake up and forget my leg was gone so I just gave up on trying to keep one. I just got a new one since I've finally got the hang of these things." She looked down at her crutches.
"I can only assume this has to do with where you were shot?"
She nodded. "They couldn't get the bleeding to stop so they applied a tourniquet. But I had already lost too much blood and it was save my leg or save my life so... the choice was made."
"It's good to see that this hasn't slowed you down much."
She shrugged. "It made moving difficult."
"Moving?"
She beamed brightly. "We got an apartment here. I told Grant about how you raved about the fire department and he agreed that we should move up here, even if I don't have a job."
"So then what are you going to do?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't figured that out yet."
Grant came back into the precinct and waved at Kayla. "Honey, we gotta go. Your parents just landed. Oh, hey Antonio."
"Hey Grant." He faced Kayla again. "I guess I'll see you around." He watched her walk away and Grant help her struggle down the stairs.
Antonio ran upstairs and entered Voight's office. His sergeant looked up from his phone. "What's up Antonio?"
"I just saw Kayla. She lost part of her leg and now she lives in a strange city."
Voight was not following. "Okay. So?"
"You offered her a job before all of this. Can you find something for her? She is one of us."
Voight nodded and looked down. "You're right. She is one of us. I'll get her a job, don't worry. And her husband is a firefighter, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I might be able to pull some strings and get him placed at station 51."
The next day, Antonio invited her out with him and his kids. She met him at the park with a huge smile on her face. When she saw Eva and Diego, she started fawning over them. "Oh my gosh, you guys are so cute. I love your hair Eva. Those curls are so adorable."
The kids were confused. Antonio laughed at their expressions before he introduced her. "Guys, meet my friend Kayla Ray. She's a firefighter, a detective, a soldier, and a true hero." Kayla shook her head and blushed. Diego saluted Kayla who did her best to salute back and Eva happily shook her hand.
Antonio took a picture of the three of them together and Eva was going on and on about how she was going to do a paper on Kayla. "So I'm supposed to find someone that is a hero to me and I was going to do Ariana Grande but I want to do you instead."
Kayla agreed. "I would be honored. Now go run and play, it's beautiful out."
Antonio helped her walk over the rocky terrain to get to a bench where they sat down together. Kayla watched the kids while Antonio turned and looked at her. When she noticed Antonio staring, she just raised an eyebrow.
Before she had a chance to say anything, Antonio interrupted her. "I'm sorry but I need to ask. Are you okay?"
She took a moment and looked at the ground. "I am really happy, happier than I've been. I don't know why but maybe it's because my fight is over. I'm done going after psychopathic killers who made me into a lower limb amputee. I'm sure I'll get bored eventually but for now, I think I'm okay."
"What if I told you that Voight has a job for you?"
She let out a sigh of relief that made Antonio laugh. "Oh, thank God. I was afraid if I didn't have a job I would turn into painter and that is not something I want."
"Voight worked out a desk job for you. You'll assist Sergeant Platt."
"This'll keep me out of trouble. Plus, I'll get to hang out with my favorite detectives."
"I thought that was the coolest part about your new job. You start in two days."
On her first day, Antonio helped her up the stairs and she stopped on the landing, nervously fixing her uniform. "What do you think? Do I represent the Chicago Police Department well?"
"I think we are incredibly lucky to have you on our force." When they finally got up the rest of the stairs, the entire Intelligence unit as well as Officers Burgess and Roman were waiting at the top with Platt standing front and center.
"So, this is my new partner?" She looked at Kayla closely. The new officer nervously bit her lip. Sergeant Platt smiled, something that no one really ever saw. "Let's get to work." Everyone except Halstead, Voight, Mouse, and Antonio walked back upstairs to work. While the 3 detectives talked off to the side, Mouse nervously approached Kayla.
"Uh, Kayla?" She gave him a dazzling smile and he relaxed. "I'm Mouse. I'm the tech freak for the Intelligence unit."
"You are Jay's war buddy. It's nice to meet you."
"Yeah, it's great to meet you. I'm sorry that last case did... that." He was looking at her stub.
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to snap if you say it."
He blushed and looked away awkwardly. "You never know." Kayla looked away to wave at the captain as he walked by. Mouse continued to question her. "Did you ever think something like this would happen to you in civilian life?"
"I'm a police officer, I knew I would more likely get hurt here than over there."
Mouse nodded in understanding. "Well if you ever want to get together and talk, I'm down."
"Yeah, I'm down. Let's go get something to drink after work today. You can show me all the good bars around here." He smiled and nodded at his new friend before Halstead called Mouse over to him.
Voight interrupted them. "Come on Kayla. You should probably sit down." He took her to the other side of the desk and showed her the tall padded wheeled chair they got just for her and the hook they put in the counter for her to hang her crutches. She sat on her chair and turned to Voight.
"Thank you for everything you've done for me. I really will never be able to thank you enough."
"Please, I wanted to do this. You are one of us and we take care of our own. Now, you better get to work before Platt gets to you."
He left and Jay and Mouse both said goodbye as they headed up. Antonio went behind the desk and put a hand on her shoulder. "I am so glad you are here."
"I really need to thank you. My life was going down the drain until I met you. Now you are giving me a way to keep helping others even if I'm not the one chasing the bad guy."
"You will always be important, always be my hero. That's why I love you." He pulled her down towards him and kissed the side of her head.
"I love you too Antonio." He let her go and saw her shivering from the chilly air conditioning. He pulled off his leather jacket and helped her into it. She just shook her head in disbelief as she smiled.
"Keep it. It looks pretty awesome on you."
Platt walked over and stood between the two friends. "Alright, break it up love birds." She started pushing Antonio toward the end of the desk.
He protested. "Uh, she married Sarge."
"I don't care. Go." He finally started walking on his own and he over exaggerated his shrug and it made Kayla laugh. "Dawson, keep walking! You are distracting my new partner!"