Monday brought with it the return to work of Burgess and Ruzek following their honeymoon. Not wanting their vacation to be ruined, Lindsay had instructed the team not to mention anything to them about Vega getting shot, so Halstead knew that them receiving that news was going to be one of the first things on the day's agenda.

The job of breaking the unpleasant news fell to Lindsay of course, which was why she had insisted that they had to go in early and be the first ones in the office for this particular shift.

On a personal level, Halstead had more news to pass on to his two close friends, but that would be saved for the first time he had a chance to talk to them out of the office. He wasn't going to announce in front of the whole team that he and Lindsay would be trying for a baby. In fact, he could still hardly believe it himself. Even though they had already had unprotected sex twice the previous night, part of him still expected Erin to pull the plug on the whole idea. So far, at least, there was no sign of that happening.

Presumably wanting to show eagerness on their first day back, Ruzek and Burgess were next to walk in, only about ten minutes after Halstead and Lindsay. Burgess had kept her own name in marriage, which at least saved having two Ruzeks on the team.

"What, are you sleeping here now?" was Ruzek's greeting to Halstead.

"Adam! Is that all you've got to say for yourself?" Burgess scolded him as Halstead got up to greet them. He gave her a hug.

"Looking good, Kim. What a tan!" Halstead said. Next there was a handshake with Ruzek. "Good to have you back, man."

"Wish I could say it was good to be back," Ruzek quipped. He also had a nice tan, and was apparently in good humour. Halstead figured that wasn't going to last long.

"Well, it's good to have you back either way," Lindsay said, coming out of her office. "Kim, you look great."

"Thanks, Erin. It was a lovely break."

The two women hugged, in a rare moment of informality while they were working. Lindsay didn't usually go for that kind of thing.

"Have you kept Jay on the straight and narrow while we were away?" Ruzek asked as he also hugged Lindsay.

"I've done my best. So, guys, I've something pretty unpleasant to tell you. To avoid scaring you, I want to be clear that it's going to sound worse than it is."

"Okay," Ruzek said warily, as Burgess stood there looking concerned.

"As I imagine you saw, AJ Styles, the guy who was on the run and shooting cops, was taken down. Actually, it was me who put him down. But before that, unfortunately, Z was one of the people he shot, while she was on her way to academy."

"Jesus Christ," Burgess gasped.

"You said it will sound worse than it is," Ruzek said. "She's alive?"

"Yes she is, and in time she's going to be okay. She was shot in the back. It was touch and go when they got her to Med due to blood loss, but they managed to save her. They've said her injury will require a tough recovery period, but her life is no longer in danger and they expect her to recover fully, I'm happy to say."

"Thank God for that," Burgess said.

"I hear you," Ruzek agreed. "Is she still in the hospital?"

Lindsay nodded. "She is."

"We'll have to pay a visit after shift," Burgess said.

"I'm sure Z would like that," Halstead said.

"How's Raquel doing?" Burgess wanted to know.

"She crumbled a bit when it first happened, but who wouldn't in that situation? She's doing okay now. She's working, so she'll be here soon."

"I guess Styles is lucky he ran into you instead of her. Can't imagine what she would have done to him," Burgess said.

Lindsay avoided responding to that. "Get yourselves some coffee. Once everyone else is in, we'll have a catch up, then I'm going to send you out to touch base with your Cis while I find us a new case to take on. That is unless you come up with something juicy for us."

"Right, boss," Ruzek said, now firmly in work mode. He walked through to the canteen with Burgess. Lindsay walked with them as far as her office, heading inside. They all disappeared out of sight only seconds before Gonzalez and Purrazzo walked up the stairs together.

Now sitting back at his desk, Halstead looked at them, and the first thing he noted was that Gonzalez seemed pretty cheerful. That told him that there was no bad news about Vega. At least that started the shift off on a positive note.

"Morning," Halstead said to them, before addressing Gonzalez. "How's Z?"

"The same, but at least that's not bad news. She's still in the hospital, still on medication for the pain. They've said they hope to be able to send her home in a couple of days. I might need to take a personal day when that happens. They won't let me stay at the hospital now outside of visiting times."

"That's not good," he sympathised.

"No, it's not. So I felt pretty low last night. Found myself showing up at Deonna and Sylvie's place. They were super nice to me, and I ended up crashing on their couch."

Halstead took a few things from that. The first, and least important was that it seemed odd to hear someone call Purrazzo by her first name. No one else ever did that apart from Sylvie Brett, in his experience. More importantly, he got the impression that Gonzalez was feeling lost without Vega. It made him feel for her, and imagine what she would have been like if the shooting had proven to be fatal. And lastly, he thought for a moment about what genuinely nice people Purrazzo and Brett were, as well as being a lovely couple.

"I did try to throw her out, but I couldn't pick her up," Purrazzo was saying, trying to lighten the mood. It worked, somewhat.

"I'm tall, not fat," Gonzalez said with a laugh.

"Good point. I'll quit while I'm ahead," Purrazzo said, and they all laughed.

An hour later, the shift was well underway. Burgess and Atwater had gone out to meet with one of her CIs. The rest of the team were working in the bullpen, primarily making calls to their own informants. Halstead was busy on his computer, and didn't bother looking up when he heard someone walk up the stairs. He subconsciously assumed it would be Trudy Platt, since she was often in and out for one reason or another. He was right, Platt did walk in, but he looked up when he realised there was someone with her.

'Oh shit,' he thought when he saw who it was. Walking by in a very smart but slightly odd dark purple suit was Bayley Martinez. He barely even got a chance to think about the fact that Raquel Gonzalez was in the canteen and he needed to try and stop them encountering each other before Gonzalez came around the corner into the bullpen with a fresh cup of coffee in her hand.

Gonzalez and Martinez both stopped in their tracks when they saw each other. In that moment, Martinez realised that the person she had trusted most, her right hand, had in fact been a cop, or in reality a fed, the whole time.

He imagined that it was a tough moment for Gonzalez too. Based on what he had learned in conversation, Gonzalez had carried out her undercover work with great skill and dedication, but at the same time she hadn't disliked Martinez on a personal level. She had actually spoken of them having some good times together, including thanksgiving and christmas celebrations.

Martinez walked up to Gonzalez with a look of disappointment and disgust on her face. For a moment Halstead wondered if the two women were going to come to blows, which would only end up one way. But no, Martinez only spoke a few words, but managed to convey exactly what she thought of Gonzalez and her betrayal.

"Of all the people."

Ruzek got up then, going to intervene. "Martinez, you shouldn't even be here. What the hell is going on?" He moved to get between the two women, but Gonzalez was already moving away, leaving her coffee on Halstead's desk and heading for the stairs with her head down, clearly feeling some kind of conflicted sense of shame about what she had done.

Having heard what Ruzek said, Lindsay came out of her office. Everyone started talking at once then, with Platt and Purrazzo also wading in. Halstead was annoyed by it, and chose to get up and go after Gonzalez. He figured someone should, and Lindsay could handle whatever the hell Martinez wanted without his input.

Heading downstairs, he couldn't see Gonzalez. He went out of the front entrance and found her sitting on a bench with her head in her hands. He felt for her. The woman was having a lot thrown at her in a short space of time. He knew from personal experience, most recently when Lindsay had returned to Chicago, how much that could mess up a person's head. He hoped to be able to talk her into going back inside fairly quickly because it was very cold outside and he didn't have a coat on. Neither did she for that matter.

"An awful few days. I'm sure her face is the last thing you wanted to see," Halstead said sympathetically, sitting down next to her. He thought about putting a reassuring arm around her shoulders or a hand on her knee, but he didn't know her well enough to know how she would react to physical contact.

"Why did I feel guilty up there? Why couldn't I look her in the eye? I'm not the criminal."

"No, you're not. But the thing about working under is that the people we have to bring down aren't always bad people. Or, I should say, they don't seem to be when you know them personally. You got close to Martinez. You were pretty much family in her eyes. It's human nature to have the feelings you're having. But the Raquel I'm starting to get to know? She would tell Martinez to her face that she was the reason her empire crumbled, and that she was proud of that fact. I know you've gone through a hell of a lot recently, but you need to get your head back on right." He stood up and offered a hand to pull her to her feet as she looked up at him. "Come on, let's go."

After a moment of thought, she seemed to find some resolve and come to the realisation that he was right. "Imagine if Z saw me sitting there like that," she said. Accepting his hand, she let him pull her up to her feet.

"She'd support you," he said, avoiding the attempt at humour. "She loves you, Raquel."

"Yeah," Gonzalez said, smiling wistfully about it.

Ruzek came out of the station's entrance then, looking for them. "Lindsay wants you upstairs."

"Coming. I'm okay now," Gonzalez said, heading inside.

"Ruze, give me a second," Halstead said before he could follow her.

"What's up?" Ruzek asked, standing in the doorway.

"You okay to come out for a beer tonight? Got something I want to talk to you about."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

I want to tell you that Erin and I are going to try for a baby, and you need to help me put together a plan for proposing to her, he thought. The response he gave was a lot simpler. "I'll have to tell you later."

A/N: What do you think Bayley Martinez wanted when she showed up at the 21st? She certainly got something she hadn't expected!

The time is almost at hand for Jay to come up with a way of proposing to Erin. Will he be able to come up with something that will work?