"You never said what happened with your father," I said after what felt like several minutes of silence. I had taken to staring out the window until the thought came floating back to me that she had never fully answered my question, so I decided to follow up.

"I thought I found him, or at least a lead but it turned out it wasn't anything to write home about." Vanessa hinted at the very thing I had been thinking about earlier. She shrugged her shoulders, keeping her eyes focused on the road. "He left us so long ago I hardly remember what he looks like. You know, after my mom died I tried to find him, but I haven't tried again until now. A part of me thought if I could I wouldn't have to go into foster care."

"How old were you when he left?"

"Twelve. One day he told us he was leaving for work and never came back. The way we found out was when someone from his work called the house asking if he was there. It wasn't like him to not just show up."

"So what did your mom do after finding out?"

"She checked with the police right after he left but they couldn't seem to find him and the leads slowly grew cold. After she died, I wanted to try and find him again but there were a lot of things that stopped me from doing so."

"What made you start again?"

"Growing up, I always had this question in my mind if something happened to him and we just didn't know it. He worked hard for our family, so to have him just leave wasn't like him.

"Sometimes it's worse not knowing than knowing. I always thought that if anyone knew that my dad was abusive, my brothers and I would end up in foster care."

"I feel like most of the time I got lucky with that. I just got shifted from home to home where I didn't feel like I really had one. After Louis came along, I finally felt like I had a family again. Then I came here and you all welcomed me."

"But a part of you will always be with the way you grew up."

"I guess you could say that." Pulling into the parking lot, she found a place right next to the side of the building.

"Hey, look who's back. How was New York?" Kevin turned around in his chair talking to Adam just as we walked up the stairs.

"Long and busy. How have things been here?" Kevin and Adam shared a look I was all too familiar with. Something had happened while I was gone, and it made me curious as to what exactly that entailed.

"It's been interesting."

"Yeah, Kevin showed some police officers what's up," Adam mentioned as he tipped his chin up at Voight who was getting ready to head into the bullpen to introduce a new case. Jay appeared at the top of the steps as he passed by me.

"Raymond Dunn." Voight began, tacking on a picture of a guy who looked nothing more than a family man at first glance, his smile radiating against his umber skin. "Forty-six-year-old father of two was gunned down yesterday while picking up his wife's wedding ring at Azteca Jewelry. He is currently in critical condition. Adam and Kevin, talk to the owner and see if he has any security cameras that can help us piece together what happened today. Jay and Hailey, talk to Raymond's wife. See if there's anyone he could have made enemies with. Kim and Vanessa follow up with any witnesses who could have seen something."

"You up for dinner at Bartoli's tonight?" Jay asks as we both hopped into the truck. "If we get off at a decent time."

"You know I never thought I would miss our pizza as much as I did when I was in New York."

"I'm going to take that as a yes to my offer."

"Yes, sorry. I would never say no to pizza."

"As long as it's Chicago-style pizza" He knows me well enough to finish my thoughts out loud. It's why I loved having him as my work partner. Although we had started off slightly rocky when we met, we found we complimented each other. "I would be worried if you did." I can tell by the look on his face that he's worried but doesn't want to ask the question he was thinking.

"What?"

"I thought you'd be a little happier about being home, that's all."

"I am." I paused for a moment to look out the window, kind of a way to collect any thoughts I was having. "I guess I still have some things to work through."

"With Voight? You know I'm here if you want to talk about it."

"Right now I want to focus on the case, figure out whoever is responsible for shooting Raymond Dunn." Jay nods as we pull up to the curb of a white brick house. A baseball bat was leaning against the railing on the porch, while the bicycle was parked at an angle next to it.

"Allison Dunn?" Jay asked the woman who had answered the door a few minutes later. She had her long black hair in a high ponytail that swung across her bright blue shirt.

"Yes, whose asking?"

"I'm Detective Halstead, this is my partner Detective Upton. We'd like to ask you some questions about your husband."

"I don't know what else I can tell you that I already told the officer at the scene." Wrapping her cardigan around her tightly, she stepped onto the porch."My husband is a good man. One who would give his right leg if someone asked him to."

"The report said your husband was picking up your wedding ring?" I chimed in, leaving it as an open-ended question so she could hopefully fill in some of the blanks.

"After I had my third child last year, my fingers started to swell up so much during my pregnancy. I thought they would go back to normal, but they never did. I put it in the drawer but had forgotten where it had gone. My husband finally found it in the back of the drawer. He told me last night that he was taking it to the repair shop before work so I could wear it again."