Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews, really love hearing what you all think. I don't want to spoil anything in the story so I'm being careful about how I respond to them, but yes someone is dead. Afraid I won't confirm who it is/isn't yet though, but I promise everything will be revealed at some point and hopefully it'll be worth it.
Present Day
Kevin squinted his eyes, trying to focus on the road ahead as the snow bombarded the glass in front of him. This wasn't just a light dusting, this was a full-on snowstorm, and even with the windscreen wipers on full his field of vision was minimal at best. The sensible thing would be to reduce his speed, yet he pushed his foot down a little further. He didn't have time to waste right now, he just hoped he would be able to react to anything the headlights displayed before it was too late.
"Next right," Adam called out after a minute.
Kevin gave a nod, not risking a glance in his partner's direction. He could see the turn ahead so he tapped the breaks. There was a fine line between breaking and skidding and they could not afford that mistake.
"Please tell me it ain't much further." He wrangled the car around the corner and onto the next street which was somehow even worse than the previous one. Within seconds Kevin felt the car drifting as the tarmac disappeared into a sea of white. "Ruze?"
"It's uh…one of the warehouses over there. It's gotta be one of the middle ones."
He couldn't see where Adam was pointing, but he could see the outline of the buildings in the distance. They couldn't be more than a few minutes out now, he just hoped it was enough time. Jay and Hailey had been missing for at least four hours and they all knew what could happen in four hours, especially with someone like Damien Clarke.
Just thinking about the man caused Kevin's grip to tighten on the steering wheel. Sometimes he really wished he had never heard the name but the more he tried to push the thoughts away, the more his brain plagued him with the memory of when this had all started.
He remembered Hailey and Jay spotting Clarke as part of a routine surveillance. He remembered the rap sheet that had popped up on the screen once facial recognition had finished. He remembered talking to Voight. And he remembered what followed.
Two months ago
"Stay focused on Thomas for now, I need to make some calls," Voight told him, still flicking through the file Kevin had handed him. "And don't mention this to anyone else yet. We still have a lot of bad dope out there and we need to stay focused on that for now."
"Yes, Boss."
He left Voight's office, shutting the door behind him. When Voight said he needed to make some calls, he clearly meant private calls, which made sense given the information he had just been handed. Kevin was still trying to get a grip on the situation himself because he had seen some bad sheets in the past but the number of things this guy was linked to was insane.
"You alright?" Adam asked as he walked past him holding a mug.
"Yeah." Kevin rubbed a hand over his face before scratching his jaw and following Adam. As much as he wanted to fill Adam in and talk about the situation, Voight had said not to, so he would focus on the job at hand. "Got a couple of things we should follow up on. You want the witness or the tech guys?"
"You really have to ask?"
"Witness it is then." Kevin handed over the sheet with the details, ignoring the look Adam shot him.
Witnesses could go either way, whereas they worked with the tech guys enough that it would be simpler. He took a seat at his desk, ignoring Adam's mutterings about payback, and made the call to tech. They didn't have any news though, saying they were swamped but would get back to him as soon as they could. Kevin accepted it, knowing full well how these things went, and set about going over the rest of the case files. Maybe they were missing something, maybe he could find some other angle to work on this crew?
He wasn't sure what he was looking for yet, but after a while he suddenly heard some new voices along with Platt's. He shifted round in his seat, spotting Platt escorting two men up the stairs and over to Voight's office. Voight greeted both with a handshake before all four of them headed inside.
"Okay, what just happened?" Adam asked, causing Kevin to turn towards him.
"I dunno, man."
That was the truth of it; he didn't know. He could take a guess, because this had all happened after he'd handed Voight Damien Clarke's file and those men had been wearing FBI badges, but he had no way of knowing exactly what they were discussing.
"You get anywhere with that witness?"
"He tried, but nothing we don't already know. Tech?"
"Still working on it."
"Alright, guess we're back to finding alternatives while we wait."
Kevin gave a nod and lifted the file he had been reading before the FBI had rolled into the station. He wasn't sure how long he and Adam spent poring over the files, but by the time Kim and Vanessa returned, neither pair had managed to turn up anything new.
"So, what's going on in there?" Rojas asked, appearing at the side of his desk as soon as Adam and Kim headed off towards the breakroom.
"No idea." He glanced at Voight's office, but nothing had changed. The blinds were still closed and Voight was still in there with the feds. "Guess it's something important though."
"Well while we wait to be filled in, how about Molly's?"
She flashed him a smile that he had a hard time saying no to, not that he wanted to say no to it, but it would have been difficult had he wanted to. "Yeah, give me five to finish up."
"Alright, I'll see if those two want to join," Vanessa said and headed in the direction of the breakroom.
Kevin had been tempted to tell her not to bother because he knew the two of them would be leaving together to do whatever it was they did these days. He wasn't judging them, they had both been through so much after they lost the baby, so he was just happy they were actually smiling and laughing again. But he also knew that the way they were looking at each other meant they would not be coming out for a drink tonight.
He gave himself one more second of watching the group before shifting his focus back to the reports on his desk. He filed away some of the pages he had been studying and stacked them neatly to the side so they were ready for tomorrow morning or easy to access if anyone else needed them. Once that was done, he grabbed the mouse and checked his emails, looking to see if he had received any information that needed to be passed on before leaving for the day.
There were a few new things, but nothing related to the current case, so he allowed himself to be distracted by the newest one in his inbox as he heard the gate downstairs buzz open.
"I'm just saying a hot dog stand doesn't count as dinner."
"Well I disagree. And you said dinner, you never said where." There was a moment of silence before Jay continued as Kevin skimmed over the dates of the upcoming detective exams. He might need a few late nights of cramming, but he could do this. "Okay, fine, where do you want to go?"
"Bartoli's."
"Of course," Jay said as Kevin closed the email.
A moment later he spotted Jay and Hailey out of the corner of his eye. He assumed they would head straight to their desks whilst carrying on their conversation because sometimes he swore the two of them lived in their own world. Yet instead, they both came to a halt by his desk.
"What's going on in there?"
Kevin had a sense of déjà vu from Hailey's question, but he still couldn't provide any real answers, so he shrugged. Then he realized he didn't have to completely hide the details from them as they already knew something was up.
"Think the guy you spotted earlier caused some red flags because the feds showed up an hour ago and have been in there ever sense."
Kevin saw the two of them exchange a look, clearly communicating something that he couldn't quite decipher. And while part of him was curious as to if they could shed any more light on the situation, it had been a long day and he was more than happy to just get out of here. If they happened to spill some details over drinks then he'd take it, but he was also willing to wait until tomorrow for Voight to fill them in.
"Rojas and I are heading to Molly's if you wanna join."
Another look was shared between the two of them as they came to a decision without uttering a word to each other. "Sure, just give us-"
But Hailey didn't manage to finish as the door to Voight's office opened.
"Halstead, Upton," Voight called out, indicating for the two of them to join him.
Kevin saw them glance at each other but this time he could read the expressions. They were confused by the request but curious too.
"We'll catch up with you," Jay told him before he and Hailey headed into Voight's office.
Kevin leaned back in his chair, keeping his focus on the closed door, trying to work out what it all meant, until his concentration was broken by Vanessa.
"Okay seriously, what is going on?"
He slowly shook his head. He had spent a good amount of time in this unit so while some things were shared on a need-to-know basis, and the feds would drop in every now and again if they were working on an overlapping case, this seemed different. "Something above our pay grade."
Vanessa held his gaze before looking over to the office. "Think they'll be long?"
"Yeah." Given how much time Voight had spent in there already, Kevin couldn't imagine this being a two-minute conversation. "Let's go. They'll catch us up when they're done."
She seemed a little hesitant, but after a few moments she turned back to him with a smile. "Sounds good. It'll just be us to start with though, Adam and Kim said they were busy."
Kevin couldn't help but match her expression; it was possibly the least surprising news of the day. And as much as he would love to hang out with the two people he considered his closest friends, he wasn't exactly disappointed about the opportunity to get to know Vanessa better. "I think we can manage."
Present Day
They had managed, in fact it had been one of the best night's out Kevin had had in a while. He and Vanessa had spent the whole evening drinking, talking, and laughing, but Jay and Hailey had never shown up. Rojas had dropped Hailey a couple of messages, asking where her and Jay were, but she got no response, so they had just assumed the two had gone out for dinner since they had been talking about it earlier. Yet the next day Voight had informed them that the two detectives had gone undercover as part of a joint operation with the FBI.
It had been a surprise, but it seemed like a good opportunity for them and Intelligence in general. So for the past two months they had helped run the operation, and for the past four days they had helped plan the bust, but then, with only forty-eight hours left, everything had gone to hell. Jay had missed his check-in yesterday, Hailey had missed hers this morning, and now they were officially missing. No one knew where they were or what had happened to them. They all had ideas, this warehouse being one of them, but they didn't know for sure yet and that scared Kevin.
"There!" Adam called out after a minute of driving down the row of warehouses.
Kevin pushed on the breaks and managed to keep control as they came to a halt by the car parked outside. He knew that car.
Ignoring the thoughts of what it meant, he climbed out of the vehicle and headed towards the door. Three metal poles had been placed through the handles which meant anyone inside wouldn't be able to open the door. The realization of what that meant didn't sit well with Kevin, but he pushed the thoughts aside as he slid the poles out. They didn't know anything for certain yet.
By the time he placed the last one on the ground, Adam had taken up a position on the opposite side of the door to him. They both drew their guns and torches and exchanged a silent ready check before Kevin pulled the door open. Adam stepped through into the darkness first, taking the left-hand side. Kevin followed a step behind, keeping his eyes on the right as they moved through the building. It seemed deserted, but for all they knew there was another entrance, or Damien or some of his guys were still lurking, so they took it slow and steady.
The place had clearly been abandoned by workers a long time ago. There were some old boxes and racks dotted around the place, but for the most part it was just a concrete shell. That was until Kevin caught sight of a sharp contrast against the grey floor he'd gotten used to seeing. The sinking feeling was back as he focused his torch on the red substance he had just discovered. It was fresh.
He exchanged a quick look with Adam, taking a moment to prepare for what they were about to find as the worst-case scenarios played out in his head. They had both done the job long enough to know what they would find at the end of the blood trail currently revealed by the torch. Normally it wasn't someone they knew though. But as much as Kevin hoped that it was someone else, that Jay and Hailey had run off together and were completely safe, he wasn't that naïve.
They pushed on in silence for another fifty meters, Adam leading the way as Kevin kept a look out behind them and off to the sides.
"Oh shit." He didn't need to ask what had caused Adam's remark as he turned back to see exactly what Adam's torch had revealed. "Kev."
"I'll check," Kevin said, suppressing the nauseous sensation he was suddenly feeling.
Adam kept his gun up and pointed into the darkness as Kevin holstered his and crouched down, placing his hand to Jay's neck. He tried to focus on finding a pulse, but with the way his chest was currently beating he wasn't sure if it was his or Jay's he was feeling. He tried to calm himself, letting out a slow breath before suddenly feeling the sensation from the tips of his fingers. He dropped his torch and grabbed his radio immediately, but he needed to be sure he wasn't imagining it, so he waited a moment longer, until he felt it again.
"Fifteen twenty-one David, roll two ambos to my location, we've got-"
"Kev?" He stopped as he heard Jay's hoarse voice.
"Jay. It's okay, man. Help's on the way," he said as he placed his hands over the one Jay had on his abdomen. Once he was sure he had enough pressure on the wound to stem the bleeding, he started searching for other sources of the blood surrounding them. Yet before Kevin managed to fully check the two people lying on the floor in front of him, Jay started trying to move. Kevin wasn't sure what his plan was, but he gently pushed Jay back down. "Stay there. Adam, you gotta check her. She's-"
"Dead."
Jay's interruption caught them both off-guard, but Adam seemed to recover quicker, dropping down onto the floor next to them.
"She might not be, we might still be able to do something," Adam said as he frantically searched for a pulse with one hand whilst keeping his gun pointed off into the distance. "Shit, come on."
Kevin found himself looking between Jay and the parts of the warehouse he could make out as he tried to process the situation. This was not how things were supposed to go down. None of this should have happened. Maybe Jay could explain it but he could see the pain on Jay's face and how much he was struggling to stay conscious.
"Fuck."
The single word from Adam was all Kevin needed to know that Jay's assessment had been correct. She was dead. He felt his stomach lurch as he tried desperately to hold it together. How the hell had this happened? How had it all gone so wrong so quickly?
He pushed out a shaky breath, biting back the fear, as he tried to regain some control over his body. This wasn't over yet; they still hadn't fully cleared the place. They could-
But his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of movement from somewhere in the darkness. It was faint and it only lasted a few seconds, but it was real which meant one of them needed to check it out. After a look at Adam, who seemed frozen in place, Kevin knew he had to be the one to do it.
"Ruze," he whispered, gaining his partner's attention after a few seconds. "Take over."
He removed one of his hands from Jay and grabbed his gun, covering their position so Adam no longer had to. It took a moment for Adam to snap out of whatever he was thinking, but then he moved over to Jay and placed one of his hands over Kevin's. As soon as he was sure Adam had it, Kevin slipped his remaining hand out, ignoring the feeling of Jay's blood, and picked up his torch.
"You're gonna be okay," Adam said quietly as Kevin stood back up. "Jay…Jay…come on, man. Don't do this. You have to stay awake."
Kevin took one last look at them as he stood up properly, just in time to see Jay's eyes fall shut, before he heard the noise again and he forced himself to start moving. It wasn't over yet.