"I need to see my family."

Jen glanced up over the edge of her coffee mug the next morning and shook her head at Abby, who was hovering in the doorway to the kitchen, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Absolutely not. You heard me yesterday, you and Kat do not leave this house until you go to court on Monday."

"I wasn't asking for permission, Jen. I need to see my family."

"And I need to make sure that our two remaining witnesses stay alive for the trial next week," Jen said impatiently. "Or do I need to remind you that two of your fellow officers are dead? And that the same people who killed them want to kill you?"

Abby sighed. "I get that you're worried about the trial, Jen, I really do. But try to see it from my perspective."

"And what's that?"

"Four days from now, I'm going to walk out of that courthouse and cease to exist. Abby Kowalski is going to fall off the face of the planet. I get that it's the only way to keep my family and I safe. But my family doesn't get that, because no one's told them. They have no idea what's about to happen."

"Again, for your safety, Abby," Jen pointed out.

"I have to tell them," Abby insisted. "I have to explain it to them face to face."

Jen shook her head. "It's impossible."

"Just an hour, Jen. Give me an hour with them."

"Abby, I will not let you put your life or this operation in jeopardy because you're having some lapse of commitment to…"

"Don't you dare try to insinuate that I'm not committed to this damn operation," Abby interrupted angrily. "For the last two years, everything I've done has been for your operation, Jen. I have broken every law I ever swore to uphold, all in the name of bringing down Felix and Luis Mariano. I have stolen, taken bribes, sold drugs…I have lied to my boss, my partner, my fiancé, my parents, my brothers, everyone. And I have never once questioned you, have I?"

"No," Jen admitted. "You haven't."

"I have done everything that you have asked me to do, and I have not once questioned what it's going to cost me," Abby said. "So I'm not asking for permission, Jen. I'm telling you, I am going to see my family and Brody before the trial starts. Either you make it happen or I will."

"Any news?" Sheila asked, setting two plates of scrambled eggs on the kitchen table just as Don and Donnie walked into the kitchen that morning, having spent most of the night down at the station trying to get more information on Abby.

"The feds have called off the search for Abby and the other girl," Don said.

"Does that mean they've found them?" Sheila asked hopefully.

Donnie shrugged. "Means they're not looking for them. They're not back at the prison, though."

"Why would they call off the search if they haven't found them?"

Don shook his head. "What Donnie's saying isn't that they haven't found her, it's that they haven't put her back in prison. The order to call off the search came straight from the director's office – usually an order like that means they know where they are, but they're not telling anyone for safety reasons."

Sheila frowned as she set her own plate on the table and sat down. "Do you think Abby's in some sort of danger?"

Don and Donnie shared a knowing look across the table.

"You do, don't you? You think Abby's in danger."

Donnie sighed and nodded. "A buddy of mine from the organized crime unit called, thought I'd want to know that word on the street is that Felix Mariano is looking for Abby. He's offering a lot of money for someone to kill her."

Sheila gasped. "Oh my God. But I thought…I thought Abby was supposedly working for the Mariano family? Now they want to kill her?"

"There've been rumors for a couple of weeks now that the State's Attorney's office had a couple of insiders set to testify against Luis Mariano next week," Don said. "They were keeping their identities secret for safety reasons, but I'm guessing someone leaked the info. That's probably why Sam Parker and Mike MacMillan were killed yesterday."

"So Abby's going to testify against the mob?"

Don shrugged. "I don't know anything for sure, but that would be my guess."

"And this other girl that's with her? Katrina? What about her?"

"Supposedly she was feeding information to the Marianos from internal CPD databases," Donnie said. "I think I met her a few times when I was still working patrol. Nice kid, but a kid – she's only twenty-four. No surprise she'd flip after looking at life in prison."

"So Abby and Katrina are testifying against the Marianos," Sheila said. "Does that mean Abby gets to come home? Or does she just get a reduced sentence?"

"It depends on the terms of her plea agreement," Don said.

"No it doesn't." Donnie shook his head as he interrupted his father. "She's testifying against the head of one of the most powerful crime families Chicago's seen in the last half century. His brother is still out there running the organization, and they know Abby's identity. There's no way in hell the feds are going to let her come home with a bounty on her head."

"What are you saying?" Sheila asked anxiously. "She'll go to prison?"

Donnie shook his head. "She wouldn't be safe there either. My guess is they're planning to relocate her, give her a new identity. Witness protection."

"No." Sheila shook her head. "Abby would never agree to that. She would never leave her family behind."

"Even if she thought she was protecting us?" Don asked skeptically.

Sheila frowned and hesitated before she sighed and nodded. "How long do you think she'll have to stay away?"

"Mom…" Donnie shook his head sympathetically and reached for her hand. "Witness protection isn't a temporary thing. If she goes in, chances are she's not coming back."

Abby hummed softly to herself as she moved around the unfamiliar kitchen, using a whisk to take out her frustrations on an unsuspecting bowl of cake batter.

"Abby."

Abby nearly dropped the bowl in surprise at the sound of the familiar female voice in the doorway. Carefully steadying the bowl and setting it on the counter, she looked up and smiled. "Lina. How'd you get in here?"

"Matt let me in." Lina stepped into the kitchen and looked around. "Are you okay?"

"Physically, yeah."

Lina nodded. "I wish I'd been able to get the intel on Melody Parker to the FBI sooner. Maybe we could have…"

Abby shook her head. "It's not your fault, Lina. We all knew the dangers before we went undercover. You don't cross the Marianos and come out unscathed in some way."

"I suppose."

Abby glanced down at the bowl before looking back at Lina. "Listen, I don't mean to sound like I'm not glad to see you, because I am, but…well, why are you here?"

"Because I need to know why you didn't tell me."

"It was too dangerous, Lina. There were cameras everywhere in that prison and if the Marianos were watching them…"

"Not then," Lina interrupted. "I need to know why you didn't tell me from the beginning. Why you didn't let me be involved from the start. Why would you lie to me? Why couldn't you trust me?"

Abby sighed and pushed the bowl off the side of the counter. "I would trust you with my life, Lina. Hell, I'd trust you with my family's lives. This was never about not trusting you."

"Then what was it about?"

"It was about this. All of this." Abby raised her hands and gestured to the room around her. "I knew what the risk was, Lina. I knew what I stood to lose. And I knew if I asked you, you'd take that risk for me, but I couldn't let you do that. You have a family that needs you."

"So do you, damn it!"

Abby nodded, biting her lower lip. "You think I don't know that? It's killing me, the thought of having to leave them."

"And yet you're doing it."

"I don't have a choice anymore, Lina. If I stay, I'm putting them at risk, and I don't know that I could live with myself if one of them got hurt because of something I did."

"So you're really just going to disappear? Go into witness protection and never be heard from again?"

"I hate it, but that's how it has to be," Abby said resolutely. "As long as that kill order is out there, Abby Kowalski can't exist anymore."