The smell of fresh coffee filled the upstairs bureau of the Chicago Police Department's Intelligence Unit. The first one to arrive for their meeting, Detective Jay Halstead opened the blinds in the break room to let in some early morning sunlight as the coffee machine hissed and howled, filling up the glass carafe with steaming hot beverage. As part of the Intelligence Unit, Jay and his fellow detectives investigate the city's major crimes, including organized crime, drug trafficking, high-profile murders, and whatever other cases they stumble upon or take over.
In case it wasn't clear enough: coffee is a must. Just the smell of the roasted beans filled his blood with a little kick.
Minutes later, the rest of the unit arrived. His partner, Erin Lindsay – not a morning person, mumbled a quick greeting as she dropped her belongings on her desk.
"Poured you a fresh cup," Jay pointed out the CPD mug sitting on the corner of her desk.
Her eyes instantly lit up. "Best partner in the world."
He laughed as he sipped his coffee and watched how she picked up her own, inhaling the caffeinated scent. She had the sweetest face and the kindest heart, and he truly appreciated the bond they shared.
As expected when two insanely attractive and charismatic people are paired up for a high-intensity job, there was definitely some attraction that they explored in the beginning, but it just never felt right to either of them, so they decided it was best to remain platonic partners and friends.
The veteran detective-turned-sergeant, Hank Voight, stood at the front of the room, ready to debrief his crew. As the leader of the Intelligence Unit, he was a tough, no nonsense, straight shooter who held the respect of most everyone he came into contact with.
"To be honest, I don't have much information about our next case yet," Voight began with his gravelly voice. "All I officially know is that we're being handed this case from the FBI. They're briefing me at 9am with all of the specifics, so I'll have more information for you then."
"That's unusual," Antonio Dawson, a veteran cop-turned-detective, said.
"Well, something tells me this case is unusual. Now, I don't like blindly dealing with the FBI, so I had Trudy do a little digging," Voight spoke of their tough-as-nails front desk sergeant, Trudy Platt. "Seems like we're dealing with some big time criminals using tight-lipped petty criminals to do their dirty work so they fly under the radar."
"Sounds pretty cut and dry then, no?" Adam Ruzek, the newest (and clearly the most naive) of the unit, asked.
Voight looked over at him with his lips in a thin line and his signature smart-ass glance. Out of the corner of his eye, Jay noticed Erin looking over at him, so he turned to meet her gaze. Knowing Ruzek was always digging himself into a hole with Voight, they gave each other smirks.
"If it was 'pretty cut and dry,' do you think it would be handed over to us?" Voight asked rhetorically.
Ruzek contemplated for a moment. "So… not cut and dry, then?"
"No," Voight answered. "Not even close. This seems to run pretty wide and pretty deep. Trafficking in every corner of the world."
"Of the world?" Erin questioned with raised eyebrows.
"Of the world," Voight confirmed with a nod. "Which is why the FBI is involved. But Trudy seems to think they just want us to infiltrate the Chicago hub. Once we do that, we'll hand it back over to the feds and let them handle it from there."
Everyone nodded in understanding.
"What we're looking at here is a very small section of a much larger underground ring of crime. We're meddling with a lot of dangerous people, and it's going to get ugly. But this one is a priority for the chief and being delegated by the feds, so we don't have a choice but to be on board," Voight explained.
"I know there are no specifics yet, but is there anything we can get started on now?" Ruzek wondered.
"Honestly, I need someone to go downstairs and start sweet-talking Trudy," Voight answered. "Once we know what crimes we're looking for, we're going to need to thoroughly comb through old records to start making connections and we're going to need her help. And I want all hands on deck so I'm going to need her to give us Burgess and Atwater too."
"On it," Ruzek said, rising to his feet.
"No," Voight shot down instantly. "Lindsay, she's got a soft spot for you. You and Halstead start on Platt."
"Got it," Erin said with a nod as Ruzek frowned and sat back in his chair.
"Adam, you and Antonio can work on wrapping up the paperwork for all of our current cases so we have less on our plates as we start this new case," Voight assigned.
Ruzek grunted but nodded, not looking forward to the assignment or working with Antonio. But he had the most to prove in the unit, and when his sergeant said jump, he asked how high, so he didn't protest.
And with that, everyone got to work.
"Last week, I overheard Platt talking about some upcoming remodels happening downstairs that she's in charge of overseeing," Lindsay began as she and Halstead walked down the steps of the bullpen and into the lobby of the district where Trudy Platt's desk resided. "She was real proud of it, so I'm going to start up a conversation about that to put her in a good mood," Lindsay schemed. "I want you to go down to Hot Doug's and get her that disgusting big-ass breakfast hot dog thing that she likes so much."
"The line at Hot Doug's is going to be at least an hour long," Halstead complained.
"Which is exactly why you're going now," Lindsay pushed. "Or would you rather chat about the precinct remodels for an hour?"
He groaned, neither option sounded inviting.
"Exactly," she replied, turning towards Platt's desk and pasting on her perkiest and kindest face. "Morning, Trudy."
"Oh boy, what the hell do you want?" Jay heard Platt ask behind him as he turned toward the main entrance.
As he walked out of the precinct, he spotted an unfamiliar face walking up the steps. A damn good-looking unfamiliar face. Her jet black hair blew away from her face in the Chicago wind, revealing a beauty so bold that Jay almost tripped over his own two feet. Her light brown eyes practically shined gold in the sun, outlined by thick, long eyelashes, and she had high cheekbones and pouty lips that could've made a model cry with jealousy. She was likely around his age but she looked so well put-together in her pencil skirt and form-fitted long-sleeved top as she carried a box toward the door.
He quickly retreated to catch the closing door, holding it open for her. She didn't spare him a single glance, but she muttered a quick and hurried 'thanks' to him as she shuffled inside.
He couldn't help but look back at her. He tried not to be obvious about it – she could've been a victim for all he knew. But the most gorgeous girl he had ever laid eyes on had just walked by him; he had to get one last glance at her before he never saw her again.
Jay walked back into the precinct over an hour later, with hot breakfast sandwiches in hand for himself, Lindsay, and Platt. When he walked up to the desk, he noticed Gorgeous Unfamiliar Girl behind the desk next to Platt. She was laughing – a sweet and delicate sound that tingled his ears. Jay loved a good laugh. Made his heart swell. Lindsay had a good laugh but the sound of hers made his heart swell in a different way.
"Hot breakfast for my ladies," Jay stated as he walked up. He looked at Gorgeous Unfamiliar Girl and started to apologize for not grabbing an extra sandwich, then he remembered he had three in his hand. "Didn't know I'd have an extra lady at the desk – good thing I grabbed three."
"Della, this is my partner, Jay Halstead," Lindsay introduced, smiling. "Jay, this is the district's new evidence and records clerk, Della Caputo."
"Nice to meet you," Jay greeted, handing the sandwich over to her, interested to find out that a girl he thought he'd never see again was going to be working at the district.
"It's very nice to meet you, but I have a feeling you're handing me your breakfast, not an extra," she greeted, not taking the sandwich from him.
Jay flashed a kind and charming smile but shrugged his shoulder and pushed it closer to her. "I insist."
With an uncertain but appreciative smile, she accepted it.
"Thanks for this, Halstead," Platt mumbled as she chewed a large bite of her sandwich. "I don't know what you two are up to, but I'm happy to reap the benefits."
"We'll let you enjoy your breakfast," Erin said, grabbing her food and tapping the counter.
They exchanged pleasantries then Lindsay and Halstead moved back upstairs.
"Didn't know you were such a gentleman, handing over your breakfast to the new girl," Erin teased.
Halstead gave her suggestive eyebrows but didn't comment further.
"Okay, who is the hottie behind Platt's desk?" Adam Ruzek wondered as he walked up the stairs hours later.
"New evidence and records clerk," Halstead answered, not looking up from his paper as he completed some mandatory forms for an old case.
"What's she doing behind Platt's desk?" Ruzek wondered, taking a seat at his desk.
"I got all the scoop this morning," Erin said, leaning back in her chair.
"Spill," Ruzek demanded.
Erin laughed as she closed the file in her hand. Jay couldn't help but look up to hear the info - Ruzek wasn't the only curious one in the room.
"The district is switching over to a new record filing system and moving the records room from that small storage room to a bigger one down the hall," Lindsay began. "It's all part of the remodels going on downstairs. So they hired an official evidence and records clerk – her name is Della Caputo and apparently she's an organizational genius. She's set up this new system for a few other police departments before. She'll be behind Platt's desk for the day, learning the ins and outs of the current filing system, so she can switch everything over to the new one."
"So what you're saying is that I only have a few hours to make my move," Ruzek said.
"If you're trying to make your move in front of Platt, sure," Lindsay laughed.
"Sounds terrifying," Halstead commented with a laugh.
"Sounds like a challenge," Ruzek teased. "Game on."
"She's married to some hot shot criminal defense attorney," a deep voice unexpectedly spoke.
Everyone whipped their heads in the direction of the voice and saw Alvin Olinsky leaning back in his chair, looking at them. They were all unaware that he was even at his desk.
"How do you know that?" Halstead wondered.
Hank Voight sauntered into the room at that moment. "Because we know everything." He continued to the front of the room. "Now it's my turn to give you the scoop."
Antonio Dawson emerged from the break room as everyone turned their attention to their boss.
"We've only got a few names to go off of, but it's a start," Voight began as he rolled the large whiteboard to the front of the room and began taping pictures to it. "Lars Jorgensen." He identified the first picture. "This guy is a Danish investor with ties to so many Fortune 500 companies that it would make your head spin. The feds haven't been able to prove his involvement in any of this so far, but they've pegged him as one of the top dogs in this – if not the top dog. They're looking at him for pushing illegal guns and heavy drugs into different parts of the world, most recently Chicago. But – they don't know who's running the Chicago branch of this operation. They seem to think it has recently changed."
All of the attentive detectives were nodding, indicating they were following Voight's details.
"So, while Lars Jorgensen is the main target, he's not our target. Our job is to find the top dog in Chicago. The kicker is that the feds are looking at so many different cases and people that they don't even have a starting point for us. So, like I assumed, we're going to need to dig through old records and start linking some of these criminals together until we can flip them as CIs," Voight explained.
"With all due respect, sarge," Adam began. "That's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
"Yeah, we're basically starting from scratch," Lindsay supported.
"I know," Voight agreed. "That's what I told the feds. It's going to take some time. There was a gangbanger recently arrested for possession of illegal firearms, Mikhail Castile." Voight slapped his picture onto the whiteboard. "So we're going to make him our starting point. We're just going to have to start small and work our way up."
"Do you think Castile is involved or is he just a shot in the dark?" Halstead wondered.
"Shot in the dark at this point," Voight said with a 'tough shit' shrug. "But the firearms found in his possession have shown up in this crime ring before, so if he isn't directly involved, hopefully he will point us in the right direction."
Halstead nodded in understanding.
"Okay, so we've got a new records clerk who's changing over the system, which means it's the perfect time to start combing through similar cases to look for any links as she's reorganizing them," Voight stated. "I know it'll be tedious but I need someone to start flipping through files."
"I'll do it," Ruzek shouts, his hand going straight into the air.
Blinking, Voight turned and looked at him, staring for a solid five seconds before turning back to the others then motioning to Halstead and Lindsay.
"You two," Voight nodded to them. "You're already working on softening up Platt, might as well work on the new clerk too."
Ruzek exhaled in defeat but then Voight turned to him.
"I need you and Olinsky to go talk to this gangbanger, see if you can get him or any of his associates on as a CI," Voight assigned. "Do whatever you need to do, threaten whatever you need to threaten, and offer whatever you need to offer to get them to flip."
"Cool," Ruzek agreed, liking the potential behind that assignment.
"Sarge, I have a CI in Pilsen who hears a lot of chatter about underground firearm sales," Dawson informed. "I can meet up with him to see if he knows anything."
"Get on it," Voight agreed. "Let's get to work – we don't have any time to waste."
Erin and Jay stood in the small storage room, taking in the stacks and stacks of boxes of files and records, as Platt and the new records clerk lingered behind them.
"See why Ms. Caputo is so desperately needed?" Platt asked.
"Uh, yeah," Erin voiced. "I don't even know where to start."
"You're the organizational mastermind here, Della," Platt stated. "What do you think is the best starting point?"
"Well," Della spoke up. "I'll be scanning each file into a computer-based system that will make it incredibly easy to filter through files and narrow down searches, but that's going to take months to complete. In the meantime, I'll be pulling files from this room and restructuring the contents in each folder then shelving the file in the new room down the hall in alphabetical order by year, but that isn't really helpful either."
They all continued to start aimlessly at the boxes around the room.
"Could you start with a specific year?" Halstead wondered.
"If it would be more beneficial, sure," Della agreed with a nonchalant shrug.
"The first connections made in this case showed up in 2010, but were likely happening well before then," Halstead pointed out.
"So one of you should start with 2010, start combing through records between 2010 and now," Platt suggested. "And the other start at 2009 and work backwards."
Jay and Erin nodded, their brains working overtime to troubleshoot.
"I can bring all of the files from 2010 until now into the big room," Della offered. "One of you can go through them as I'm organizing."
"That's perfect," Lindsay agreed.
"I like to think I have a keen eye, so if you give me criteria to look for – names, ages, charges, whatever – I can keep an eye out for those things as I'm looking through the files and notify one of you if I find anything," Della offered.
"That'd be great," Halstead replied.
Once all of the boxes from 2010 to the present day had been moved into the bigger room, Jay grabbed a stack of files and sat down at one end of the fold out table then began flipping through the pages, looking for anything that stood out as potentially related to their case. It was incredibly overwhelming to not know what he was searching for, but he had to trust that he would know when he found something of value using his detective skills and intuition.
Jay was flipping through the pages of the second file when Della walked into the room. She placed an insulated White Sox cup on the other end of the table and turned to him.
"Have you started with 2010 files or present day?" She wondered.
"2010," he answered.
"Perfect," she replied as she scanned the boxes on the floor. "I'll start my project with present day files so we don't get in each other's way."
"That works. And if I get in your way, just let me know," Jay offered. "I can always take these files upstairs."
"You won't be in the way," she assured him as she dragged a box to the table. "It'll be nice to have some company – this room looks like something straight out of a horror movie."
He gave her a laugh and watched as she pulled out the contents of a folder and spread them out onto the other end of the table. She separated the papers into piles and appeared to be putting them in a different order. He wasn't really sure what she was doing but her actions seemed meticulous.
"What did you do before?" He wondered, letting his curiosity and developing crush distract him from his task.
"What do you mean?" She asked, glancing up at him briefly.
"Sorry," he breathed out a small laugh. "For work, I mean. Takes a special kind of person to take on the daunting task of sorting through all of these files like you are. I was just curious about what you did before this."
She smiled up at him. "The same thing. For another district. Organization is sort of my forte."
"That makes one of us," he commented.
She laughed, the sound tingling the bones of his inner ears, sliding throughout the rest of his body. She had a beautiful smile and a beautiful laugh and Jay suddenly felt immensely jealous of a man he had never even met – her husband.
Jay's eyes fell to her left hand, specifically her ring finger, where a giant sparkling round cut diamond sat in a six-prong setting on a gold band that was coated in tiny diamonds, wrapping all the way around her slender finger. Her wedding band was also coated in tiny diamonds, identical to the band of her engagement ring, minus the rock on top.
He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed the flashy jewelry before that moment. It seemed hard to miss.
"That's quite a ring on your finger," he commented. He really didn't know why he felt the need to say something, but sometimes his mouth worked faster than his brain.
Della looked up at him briefly before glancing down at her own hand. "Yeah," she replied casually. "My husband is not a subtle man."
Interesting response, Jay thought, as he watched her focus back on the papers in her hand. He continued to study her unnecessarily, eyeing her fresh manicure of shiny black nails as she reached for the White Sox cup and brought the straw to her lips then sipped whatever was in there.
Her lipstick left a soft pink ring around the tip of the straw that Jay's eyes lingered on for a few extra seconds.
"Baseball fan?" He wondered aloud before he could stop himself. What was his deal? Why couldn't he shut up?
Della looked up at him again. He nodded toward her cup.
"Oh," she spoke. "No, my husband is a baseball fan, so we have a ton of baseball memorabilia around. I'm a hockey fan."
"The Blackhawks?" Jay questioned.
"Well, I grew up in Boston so I'm a Bruins fan at heart," she explained. "But since we've moved to Chicago, I've been keeping up with the Blackhawks. They're good this year."
"Have you been to a game yet?" He asked.
"No," Della answered. "We've been to a few White Sox games though."
"Well, it's only fair that your husband takes you to a few hockey games then," he replied.
"He hates hockey," she said with a dismissive laugh. "So that'll never happen."
His natural response was a smile, but once her words really sunk in, his smile faltered. "He should take you to a hockey game." What kind of guy doesn't take his hot wife to a sporting event? Especially one that she's actually interested in…
She gave him a half-smile and asked, "Shouldn't you be digging through files, detective?"
Jay pressed his lips together but laughed. "Yeah, I should be. Sorry, I'll shut up now."
He watched as she went back to her task but he couldn't help but notice that she was trying to hide a soft smile that managed to stay on her lips. He liked that more than he should. Obviously his morals would never allow him to make a move on a married woman, but he didn't see any harm in making the girl smile from time to time. It certainly helped his ego, and if her husband sucked, maybe it would help her too.
Author's Note: Been a looong time since I've posted here but been working on this little story and wanted to share the Halstead love in case anyone was interested in reading!