February came and went, the cold, dark winter giving way to the slightly brighter and longer days. The Intelligence Unit had recently received good intel from one of Antonio's CIs that Sinaloa Cartel were planning to push a boatload of cocaine into Chicago through a number of prominent drug dealers that were on the radar of all CPD departments, including Narcotics and the Gang Unit. Given it was Antonio's lead, Intelligence were running point.

Kevin and Kate were assigned the task of tailing one of the lower-level dealers in the hopes that they would unearth some useful information on the stash house. They had parked a couple of blocks down the street after following Marco Perez to a property in Pilsen and they watched as he took the front porch steps two at a time before disappearing from view.

"5021 Sam. Perez has just entered 219 West 21st Street. We haven't got eyes but we've dropped an anchor out front. Any chance you can run a check on the property and also run a plate for me? Victor, Ocean, King, 5, 5, 4, 9."

Just as Kate put the call in, her personal phone began to vibrate in centre console, her brother's caller ID flashing on the screen.

"Hey Matt, how's it going?"

"Even better now I've heard my baby sister's voice!"

Kate rolled her eyes but couldn't help the smile that spread onto her face at her brother's affectionate greeting. They traded idle chit-chat for a few minutes, her eyes still firmly on the front door of the house Perez went into before Matt got to the reason for his call.

"So, listen. I've got some time off coming up and I wondered if you wanted to come out and spend a few days? Maybe check out the St Patrick's Day parade?"

"Yeah, sounds good. I'll speak to Voight and see if I can get some furlough time. I'll talk to him later and let you know."

The two said goodbye with plans to firm up the details later in the week and Kate dropped her phone back into the holder in the centre console.

"That your brother?"

Kevin was scanning through the pictures he had taken of Perez, the house and the car he'd been driving as he spoke. This was a surveillance assignment only and, given the recent 'incident' involving Danté Williams, the two of them were still treading on thin ice where Fischer was concerned so they needed to be completely by the book.

"Yeah, I'm gonna try and get out to New York to see him in a few weeks. Catch up, ya know."

"I feel you. I was thinking of heading down to see Jordan and Vinessa actually. That whole thing with Danté…" He tapered off, shaking his head but Kate knew what he was trying to say. When cases hit a bit too close to home, you wanted nothing more than to hold the people you love just that little bit closer, to convince yourself that they're still safe.

"5021 Sam, the property you requested a background on is registered to a Javier Nunez. Also ran the plate you gave us, tags are hot."

"Copy that, thank you."

Kevin pulled up Nunez's file on his phone, whistling through his teeth as he read through his rap sheet.

"Javier Nunez, 32, known member of the Latin Kings. Been popped for all kinds of drug charges, distro, possession, intent to sell. He got out of Stateville a year ago after doing five years for assault with a deadly weapon…beat his girlfriend half to death with a baseball bat."

"Huh. What a fucking charmer."

The two fell silent once again, both lost in their own thoughts when movement outside of the house they were watching caught their attention. Perez re-appeared on the front porch, trotting down the steps but this time he had a black duffle bag in one hand as he moved back out onto the street towards his car.

"This is 5021 Sam. Sarg, Perez has just left the house with a black duffle bag. Could possibly be with some of the cartel's product but we don't have confirmation. What do you want us to do?"

After a few seconds, Hank responded.

"Scoop him up. We know there's at least one big deal going down today so maybe he can tell us the when and where."

"Copy."

Putting the car in drive, Kate waited for Perez to load the bag into the trunk of the car and pull away before she rolled away from the curb, following close behind. She waited until they were far enough away from the stash house that they wouldn't draw any unwanted attention before putting the blue lights on, forcing Perez to pull to the side of the road.

Both she and Kevin approached the car, identifying themselves as police officers and requesting Perez keep his hands on the wheel. Kevin opened the door and pulled Perez to his feet, forcing him over the hood so that he could pat him down and, as expected, Perez was carrying a weapon in the waistband on his pants.

"You got a permit for this Perez?"

"Go fuck yourself!"

Kevin shoved a heavy hand between Perez's shoulder blades, pushing him down onto the car none too gently. With Perez under Kevin's watchful eye, Kate rounded the back of the vehicle and popped the trunk to find the duffle bag he'd placed in there a few minutes beforehand. Holstering her weapon, she tugged the zip backwards to reveal eight bricks of cocaine, all packed up with a skull insignia on the front.

"Well, well. What do we have here?"

Picking up a brick in her hand, she waved it to the side so that Perez could see what she'd found.

"Someone's been a naughty boy Marco."

He began cursing in Spanish, no doubt telling them both how much he'd like to cut both of their heads off but instead Kevin just secured the bracelets around his wrists and escorted him to the back of Kate's Jeep.

When they arrived back at the district, the rest of the unit were already working on chasing leads and putting a hierarchy together on the Sinaloa Cartel and their distribution network.

"Where do you want him, Sarg?"

Hank vaguely gestured in the direction of the interrogation rooms, his eyes on Kate who had deposited the duffle bag full of coke down on Antonio's desk, pulling two packages from the bag and holding them for the rest of the unit to see.

"There's eight bricks in here so, what's that? $50k a brick? Nearly half a mill street value."

Antonio nodded, edging closer to peer inside the bag and jabbing his index finger against the logo.

"That's definitely cartel product, got the Sinaloa logo on the packaging."

"Alright. Antonio, you and me."

Hank stalked towards the interrogation rooms, locking his gun in the safe before heading into the room where Perez was waiting with Antonio following close behind. Kevin and Kate watched on from the viewing room as Hank and Antonio pressed Perez for information. After two hours, he still hadn't budged an inch and tempers were running high.

Kate had headed back to her computer to do some digging around on Perez, searching for anything that they could use as leverage to get him to flip on the cartel. When she found exactly what she was looking for, she scooped up the printed pages and knocked on the interrogation room door before pushing it open.

Hank had his hand around Perez's throat, pushing him backwards against the wall so that the chair he was sitting in was resting precariously on two legs. Perez was turning an unattractive shade of red, his fingers clawing at Hank's hand in an attempt to get air back into his lungs.

"Sarg, you got a sec?"

"Not now." He growled, eyes boring into Perez's with their faces millimetres apart.

"Trust me, you're gonna want to see this."

After a beat, he released Perez's neck from his grip, leaving him spluttering and coughing as he gulped in lungfuls of air and followed Kate from the room, Antonio in tow.

"This better be good."

"Oh, it is."

She handed him the paperwork and his eyes scanned the document quickly, returning to her face once he'd finished reading.

"You sure?"

"Positive." She nodded, eyes locked firmly on his.

He returned the documents to her, nodding his head in the direction of the interrogation room door, a silent request for her to get in there a do her thing.

Leaving the two of them in the hallway, she opened the door and took a seat opposite Perez, resting the documents in front of her before placing her elbows on the table, interlacing her fingers and resting her chin on her thumbs.

She let a couple of minutes pass in silence, the two of them simply staring at one another before she dropped her forearms to the table and spoke.

"You know, with your resume and the amount of gear we found in your trunk, you're staring down the barrel of a long stretch inside Marco."

His dark eyes remained locked on her face, his own carefully blank.

"If you tell me where the cartel are doing their hand-off tonight, I can cut you a deal. A good deal."

He huffed out a humourless laugh, the smile on his face never reaching his eyes as he tilted his head to one side.

"Why the fuck should I trust a puta cop like you?"

Kate let an amused smile dance across her face.

"Because I'm the only hope you've got if you want to see your baby mama or your boy ever again."

Perez's eyes immediately turned cold, the smirk leaving his face as he glared at her from across the table. She had him on the hook, now she had to reel him in.

"Yeah, you see. I have an arrest warrant here for one Leonie Marquez…that's her name, right?"

Kate kept her tone light and casual, as though they were two friends discussing the weather. She made a show of running her finger down the document, stopping at various points to read sections of the warrant.

"Says here that she's wanted for a string of possession charges. And with her rap sheet…" Kate whistled through her teeth. "…she'll do some serious time."

Lifting her eyes to meet his, she drove what she hoped would be the final nail in the coffin.

"What's going to happen to little Mateo, hmm? Chicago social system will chew up a cute kid like that."

Perez surged to his feet as far as his handcuffed wrists would let him, chair clattering to the floor as a vein pulsed dangerously in his forehead. Kate merely raised an eyebrow at him, schooling her face to remain impassive.

"You give me the cartel, I'll make sure these warrants never see the light of day. That offer expires in thirty seconds, Marco."

Perez stood ramrod straight, his entire body tense as he considered his options. When Kate checked her watch at twenty five seconds, he closed his eyes tight and let out a sigh.

"Alright. I'll tell you what I know but I want it in writing that Leonie will be left alone."

With a nod, Kate left the interrogation room and closed the door behind her. Antonio, Hank, Kevin and were waiting for her in the hallway, all with impressed looks on their faces.

"You alright to get that deal on paper Kev?" He nodded, offering his fist out for a bump as he passed.

"Great work, Kate, truly. Folded like a lawn chair." Antonio praised as he too followed Kevin back to the bullpen, leaving Kate and Hank alone.

She gave a half-shrug, an uneasy feeling settling in her stomach.

"It's amazing what people will sacrifice for the people they love. Perez basically just signed his own death warrant. He knows full well the cartel will be able to reach him wherever we put him."

Hank took a step closer so that he was in touching distance and cupped her face with his hand, drawing her eyes to his face as she leaned into his warm touch.

"You did your job…and you did it incredibly."

Swiping a thumb across the soft skin of her cheek, he held her for another second before dropping his hand back to his side and Kate let out a low whine at the loss of contact.

"Let's get this deal drawn up so we can take down these pricks."

"Yes Sarg."

Within the hour, the Intelligence team had all of the details of the Sinaloa Cartel's distro meeting. They were scheduled to meet with five key distributors in an abandoned warehouse off of East 45th Place at nine o'clock that evening. Hank had called in the CPD Narcotics team as backup so, as a team of sixteen, the plan was to break into teams of four and breach from each side of the warehouse. Patrol would set up a perimeter as a backstop to make sure that nobody fell through the net.

Together the team moved down into the garage to gear up, donning their tactical vests and artillery before separating into their allocated teams. The Narcotics team would split in two, as would the Intelligence Unit with Erin, Jay, Hank and Antonio forming one team and Kevin, Kate, Alvin and Adam forming the other.

They moved in on Hank's orders, many of the cartel members and dealers immediately trying to scatter as the CPD closed in. When the realisation dawned they had no escape, they turned to using firepower and bullets began to zip through the air, forcing everyone to take cover.

Kate was in the process of covering Kevin when she saw a Latino man with a tattoo of a skull on his neck approach Al from behind, the blade of a weapon glinting in the dim light.

"ALVIN!"

Before she could think, she lunged towards the offender, using her bodyweight to knock him to the floor where he landed underneath her with a grunt of surprise. He had a good forty pounds on Kate and quickly managed to reverse their positions, gaining the upper hand and using his dominant position to try and drive the blade into Kate's chest.

Her muscles trembled as the two struggled, Kate using both hands to divert the trajectory of the blade away from her body. But with gravity and physics working against her, a cry tore from her throat as the serrated edge of the blade cut through the skin of her upper arm like a hot knife through butter.

Then suddenly the resistance was gone and the man fell onto her chest, his dead weight driving the air from Kate's lungs. It wasn't until Kate wriggled out from underneath him did she realise that someone had put a bullet in the back of his head, killing him instantly.

Her frantic eyes lifted from the body to settle on Alvin, who was crouched in front of her with his weapon still raised after firing the fatal shot at her attacker. A flurry of bullets ricocheting overhead served to remind them that they were still in the midst of a dangerous situation and Al reached out and took hold of the arm strap at the front of her vest, tugging her towards him so that they could take cover behind a nearby crate.

"You alright kid?"

With a shaky nod, she took a second to lean back into Al's body, the two of them breathing heavily at the very near miss they'd both experienced. Drawing a deep breath, she shuffled out of the 'v' of Al's legs and into a sitting position, once again drawing her weapon as they rejoined the fray. Reconvening with Adam and Kevin, the four of them moved through the warehouse, arresting those they were able to disarm and neutralising those they couldn't. It was a bloody thirty minutes but, miraculously, all of them made it out relatively unscathed with two cartel members and four distributers in cuffs.

It wasn't a perfect bust but they got some big cartel players and over two million dollars' worth of product off the street.

At Alvin's insistence, Kate reluctantly allowed herself to be pushed down into the back of an ambulance to get her arm looked at, the paramedic removing her vest and tearing away the fabric of her bloodstained shirt to get a better look at the injury. When he sucked in a breath, Kate peered down to see a deep laceration at the top of her bicep, just below her shoulder.

"I don't think there's any nerve or muscle involvement but it's deep enough to need stitches. We'll have to take you to Med-"

"Is that really necessary?"

They were interrupted by the arrival of Kevin who had just finished putting the last of the offenders in the waiting patrol cars. He visibly winced at the sight of her injury but she waved him off with her free arm.

"Looks worse than it is, Kev."

Hank appeared at Kevin's shoulder, his face a picture of fury mixed with concern as his eyes scanned her form before settling on her arm. They watched on as the paramedic wrapped padded gauze around Kate's upper arm, instructing her to head straight to the hospital before moving off to patch up a member of the Narcotics team who was cradling what appeared to be a dislocated shoulder.

"Atwater, head back to the precinct with the rest of the unit, get these assholes booked."

Hank addressed Kevin but his eyes remained firmly on Kate. Oblivious to tension between his boss and his partner, Kevin nodded, patting Kate's thigh twice with a fist before turning on his heel and heading back towards the rest of the unit.

The silence stretched for what felt like eternity, Kate not daring to speak and Hank worried he'd say too much. Tension crackled in the space between them and eventually Kate crumbled.

"Look, I know you're mad but-"

"Mad?"

Hank's eyes glittered dangerously, stepping in between her parted legs and closing the space between them.

"Mad doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling right now."

His tone was lethal and Kate felt herself shrink backwards at the intensity. The last time she saw him this mad was when Darius Leto had tried beating the shit out of her. But as much as she was appreciative of his concern for her safety and wellbeing, she wasn't made of glass and she absolutely didn't expect to be treated as such.

Straightening her spine, Kate squared her shoulders and locked eyes with him.

"If I hadn't done what I did, your best friend and my colleague would be dead right now."

"Don't get cute with me." He growled, her stubbornness and unwillingness to see reason rattling his cage. "You even realise what you did? You jumped in front of a knife-wielding maniac, putting yourself in danger-"

Kate had heard enough, pushing to her feet so fast that her chest bumped against his as she got in his face, her own temper flaring.

"I did exactly what I was trained to do."

They were both breathing heavily, adrenaline coursing through their veins and blood pounding in their ears. After a beat, Hank dipped his head almost imperceptibly, their noses brushing and Kate watched in fascination as the muscle in his jaw twitched rhythmically.

"Do you have any idea what I wanna do to you right now?"

A centimetre. That's all it would take for her to taste him. Her tongue traced over her lower lip subconsciously as her gaze darted from his eyes to his mouth and back again. All of the previous anger burning in her chest was replaced with a familiar desire.

"God I love you."

The words fell out before she had the chance to stop them.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise, eyes searching her face as he processed her admission. The initial shock quickly faded and was replaced with a wry grin, his eyes glittering in the dim light. Kate hiked her shoulders at her outburst, a smile forming on her own face.

"Just…you know, in case you didn't know."

A deep chuckle vibrated through his chest and, after a few seconds, he seemed to remember that they weren't alone and took a step backwards.

"C'mon, I'll drive you to Med. Then we're going home."

'Home.'

She had no idea if he meant her place or his but it didn't matter. In that moment, she realised that home had become wherever he was.