Sending love and light to everyone. There's so much happening in the world right now, and I'm still sorting out how I feel about what happened in New York yesterday but it's heavy. I'm happy I have this space to share my stories with all of you and have this space to step away for a few hours. Thank you again for reading and supporting me in this space to create stories that reflect me and my experience as a person of color. Love y'all and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Caleb groans as he hears his phone buzz, He had fallen asleep on the couch watching the Bulls game. He reaches for his phone, sits up, and reads the message. He had a crime scene to get to. It was just after 9 but for the intelligence unit, they were never really off the clock but on nights like this, the overtime was nice. He throws on a pair of sneakers and runs out the door.
When he pulls up to the scene, he sees fire trucks along with blue lights of police cars. There was an apartment building with smoke coming out of the roof and there was black soot covering the bricks on the left side.
Caleb hops out and flashes his badge to the patrol who had barricades up blocking the scene from onlookers and those displaced from the apartment building.
"Hey, Sarge, what we got?" Caleb asks his sergeant, Jack Kang.
"CFD called us in because they responded to a fire and one of the victims had been shot. They think the fire was set to cover up the shooting, the fire spread quickly, and a 10-year-old girl and her mother were taken to the hospital"
"Damn, anything left of the crime scene?" Caleb asks as he looks over to the firefighters rolling up the hoses from putting out the fire in a part of the apartment building.
"Let's hope so" Jack motions for them to walk over to one of the firefighters who had just come out of the building.
"Sergeant Jack Kang, Intelligence, this is Detective Caleb Prior. Do you know if it's safe for us to take a look inside?"
"Lieutenant Zeke Pedrad. I just came out, not too much structural damage, we got here in time to put it out pretty quickly but I think a few of us should go with you. Let me check with the Squad Lieutenant"
Zeke motions for Tobias and they escort Jack and Caleb to the second floor where the body is and the fire started.
"Watch your step here" Zeke points out as he shines a flashlight where a beam has come down.
Jack looks at the partially charred remains as he squats down to get a better look. It wasn't possible for a facial id but he could see that the body had taken a bullet to the head.
Caleb shines his light and looks around inquisitively.
"Did this fire start as soon as he was shot?"
"No, it was set to start. From what I can tell, over here are burn marks that show where it started" Tobias shines the flashlight to a point in the wall that shows a v pattern.
"Sarge, look at this" Caleb calls as he shines his light on a charred piece of paper next to the body.
Jack takes a pen out of his pocket and flips it over. It was a half-burnt playing card, most of it was gone but you could tell it was a Joker.
"A joker," Caleb narrows his eyes trying to figure out why this one playing card was near the body.
"What did you say?" Zeke asks, walking closer.
"It's probably nothing, but it's a Joker from a deck of cards"
It was dark but Caleb could sense the change in the mood of the two firefighters.
Tobias sucks in a breath and looks immediately at Zeke. "Do you think?"
"It can't be a coincidence" Zeke replies with his eyebrows furrowed.
"What am I missing?" Caleb asks as Jack stands up next to him.
"That's a calling card, the fire that killed my father, the arsonist left a joker as a calling card. There have been other fires started by this guy" Zeke explains.
"My father worked for the Office of Fire Investigation and this was the case he could never solve" Tobias adds, crouching down to get a better look.
Caleb and Jack look at each other. This case just took on an entirely new meaning.
"Good Morning Johanna," Uriah says with a smile as he slides a cup of coffee in front of her at the nurses' station.
"Thank you, Sweetie, what's this for?" Johanna smiles appreciatively at his sweet gesture.
"For being my work mom, I really appreciate it" Uriah smiles shyly. Johanna had been a great support for him and this morning he just wanted to show her how much her support meant to him.
Johanna Reyes was the charge nurse that oversaw the logistics of the emergency department at Chicago Med. With her copper skin and long brown hair, he reminded Uriah of his Aunt Amanda, and his mother Hana. She was loving and supportive but ran the emergency department with a no-nonsense attitude.
She had taken Uriah under her wing in the past six months he had been at Chicago Med, always there to answer questions, and cheer him up when he felt the pressure of the job weigh on him.
With only 3% of physicians being Black men, Johanna knew the uphill battle Uriah faced. He was smart and had great instincts but there were no other Black doctors in the emergency department and Johanna wanted him to succeed.
"So I bet Ambulance 61 will come through a few times today," Johana says nonchalantly as she sips her coffee. She didn't miss the looks and smiles between Uriah and Christina Dawson.
Uriah can't stop the smile that comes across his face when he thinks about Christina.
"I hope so"
"So when are you going to ask her out?"
Uriah sighs but still smiles.
"I don't know….my hours are so crazy...I don't want to start something I can't commit to"
"Start small, you don't have to go all out, just let her know you're interested," Johanna advises.
Uriah doesn't say anything else, He just grins wider and nods his head as he heads to the staff break room to store his things in his locker for the day.
Christina feels Ambulance 61 come to a halt as she checks the vitals of her patient. He had stopped breathing when Pedrad and Foster first pulled him out of the fire. She hoped he was going to pull through. She could tell from the motions of the rig from the back, Shauna was driving as fast as she could to get them to Chicago Med.
As soon as they pull up to Med, Christina pops open the back door and she and Shauna pull the gurney down to wheel the patient into the.
Johanna rushes to them and she quickly takes a look and surveys the availability of the exam room.
"Pedrad, this one is coming to you! Trauma 2" she calls to Uriah.
"What you got?" Johanna asks Shauna and Christina as they hurriedly roll in their patient on a gurney.
Uriah runs up next to her to hear all the information. The Emergency Department had been slammed since he arrived at 7 am that morning and it wasn't showing any signs of slowing down today. He wasn't even going to deny it, his day always got a little better when Christina brought patients in during his shift and he got to see her for just a few minutes.
"Victim was in a house fire, and a bookcase fell on him. Compound fracture in the left leg had to intubate in the field, BP 100 over 75," Christina rattles off as she and Shauna run alongside the gurney at Chicago Med.
"So, the way Pedrad just looked at you, I think he's smitten" Shauna teases as she fills out the paperwork on the patient they just brought in at the nurses' station.
"What? No, Well…I umm, you think so?" Christina answers nervously as she bites her lip with a smile.
Shauna throws her head back in a laugh. Whenever they were at Dauntless when Christina was bartending or they had a drop at Chicago Med, depending on how busy it was she watched Christina and Uriah flirt like they were in high school, both of them afraid to make the first move.
"You two are hopeless. How long has he been back in town? Six months? And all you two have done is make heart eyes at each other at Dauntless"
"Come on, let's grab some supplies while we are here" Christina grins as she shakes her head but Shauna was right, she had a crush and she just wasn't sure what she was going to do about it just yet.
"Well hello again, back for another Old Fashioned?" Christina says with a smile as she sees Uriah grab the barstool in front of her. It had been a few days since their last run-in at Chicago Med.
She found herself taking a little extra care with her outfits when she was on the schedule at Dauntless now. Tonight she had gone for an off-the-shoulder cream top with large gold hoop earrings that touched her shoulder and her favorite pair of jeans that hugged her hips.
"I mean it is the best in Chicago" he grins as his eyes rake over Christina's body. Good Lord she looked amazing.
"What's up, bro?" Zeke calls from the other end of the bar where he was fixing a drink and Uriah throws a hand up in a wave to him.
They had been doing this the past few months, Uriah would come in and hang out when Christina was working. They would flirt and chit chat and Uriah would stay until closing some nights just to walk her to her car.
"Tough shift at the hospital?" Christina asks as she sets Uriah's drink in front of him.
"Yeah, rival gang shootout, we were slammed with gunshot victims all day"
"What made you choose emergency medicine?" She asks.
"You know I was in the Army"
Christina nods. They did this, talking when the bar wasn't busy and no one else was around. Christina could tell he was smart, she wanted to tell him how much she understood the pressure he was under but she couldn't bring herself to tell him about her past yet.
"I wanted to use my triage skills to help people. The ER seemed like a natural fit. I think one day I might want to run a free clinic for people who don't have access to health insurance"
Christina feels her heart swell, Uriah was the perfect mix of being caring and tough from his time in the Army. If he said he loved animals next she might just hop over the bar and kiss him right then.
"You have a good soul, Uriah Pedrad," Christina tells him honestly.
He runs his fingers over the outside of his glass. He saw a lot of terrible things when he went to war. It made him want to do more good in the world. He hoped Christina saw it for what it was and not a line to score points.
"What made you want to be a paramedic"
"That my friend is a long story," She says.
Another customer signals her and she walks to that end of the bar but shoots Uriah a smile. Inside she was trembling, what would he think of her if he knew the real reason she became a paramedic.
Uriah liked watching her while she worked. She was great with people, how she chit-chatted with them while she took their orders, and made them feel comfortable. But at the same time, he could tell she was holding something back from him. He wanted to get to know her, help her trust him.
When she finishes taking care of a few customers she heads back over to him.
"You having another one?" She could sense a playful look in his eye and she wondered what he was up to.
"How about you give me your phone number instead?"
"Hmmm, and what would you do with it if I gave it to you?"
"Well I know both our schedules are crazy busy but we could compare crazy days, maybe grab dinner?"
Christina smiles and bites her lip as she pulls out her phone and unlocks it before handing it to him to put his number in.
Tris drops her bag on the floor of her apartment and locks the door. She had just finished her last shift at the Atlanta Fire Department.
All her things were packed except for a few clothes and the sheets on her bed. The movers were coming in the morning for the things she was shipping. She was driving with the rest of her things packed in her car. Even though she was born in Chicago, Atlanta was home and it felt strange to leave it. There was so much she was going to miss but at the same time, she was excited about starting over.
She flops on her bed and looks at her phone. She thumbs through the pictures she had. She looks at the picture of her and Tobias smiling at Navy Pier on the Ferris Wheel. It had been a little over a year since their visit. She wondered what he was doing and if he still thought about her. Now that it was really happening that she would be in Chicago at the end of the week she wasn't sure what to do.
She'd gone on a few dates in the past year. Not one of them led to a third date, and even though a few of them ended with sex, she was still unsatisfied. At first, she told herself that it was because she wasn't sure if she was moving to Chicago or not but the truth was there was no spark with any of them. That thing, that connection she had with Tobias just wasn't there and she craved that feeling she had with him.
"Is this the last box? cuantas cosas tienes (How much stuff do you have) ?" Caleb huffs as he drops the box in the living room of Christina's apartment. Things had moved quickly with getting Tris set up to move to Chicago. Christina found a bigger place when Tris was offered the job so they could split the rent.
"Oh Shut Up and yes that's the last one," Tris says with an eye roll as she drops her box.
"Don't run her off Caleb, we are happy about her moving here remember! " Christina teases as she comes in with her last box.
"I'm happy, trust me but I deserve pizza and a six-pack for this"
"But you're the best big brother ever and Chris and I love you so much, don't we Chris" Tris whines
"That's right what would we do without!" Christina adds in the same tone as Tris.
"Yeah, Yeah I expect payment in full Hermanita (Little Sister)" Caleb tells them as he chuckles.
He loved Christina like she was his sister now too. He remembers the slight crush he had on her in high school even though he was two years older. It was nothing and he never said anything about it even though he wondered if Tris ever figured it out. He was thankful he had been there to help out when she was dealing with her mother, he had been the one to break the news about Stephanie's death. It damn-near killed him when she broke down crying in his arms. Caleb would check on her every few weeks now, just to make sure she was okay and his unit was always hanging out at Dauntless so he saw her then too. This was another reason he was happy about Tris moving, Christina needed her too.
It takes another hour or so but Tris and Christina get all settled into their new apartment and Caleb heads out to deal with a crime scene.
"So now that you are all moved in, are you going to call your mystery man?"Christina asks as she waggles her eyebrows while she and Tris dig into their Chinese takeout.
"That was a one-time thing, Chris" Tris reminds her as she rolls her eyes and digs into her lo mein with her chopsticks.
"Yeah, when you were living in Atlanta…"
"And I don't have his number" Tris fires back.
"But you know where he lives…." Christina counters.
"And what if he doesn't live there anymore…"
"Tris, you haven't had a real relationship since the Nita disaster, you deserve to be happy and if you had this crazy connection with this guy, why not explore it"
Tris nods her head as she listens. Christina was right. It had been five years now since she and Nita ended things. She had purposely kept things casual with anyone else she dated, that one night with Tobias had shaken her a bit. She had found herself thinking about him more than she wanted to admit over the past year.
"Let me get settled at 51 first, then I'll think about it but I'm not making any promises," Tris says as she gives in.
It wasn't as if she never wanted to find love again, but no one had ever made her feel like she did with Nita, until that night. And truth be told, it scared her a bit, part of her thinks that's why she wanted to keep it casual, not reveal too many details, because if she did, she would have given herself to him, she felt it.
She hadn't told Christina just how much she had let her thoughts wander to him or that she knew he was a firefighter but chances are she would run into him eventually.
"That's what I'm talking about Prior, get out there" Christina smiles, satisfied with her best friend's response.
"You keep pestering me, what about you? When was the last time you dated someone for more than 5 minutes?"
Christina grins into her white take-out box as she moves her chopsticks.
"Who is he?" Tris squeals as she sets down her lo mein.
"It's nothing yet, we've just been flirting for a while, and texting, he hasn't asked me out or anything. Well he kind of did but our schedules are really crazy and we haven't had time for dinner"
"And where did you meet him? What does he do? How long has the flirting been happening?" Tris presses.
"So I told you I've been bartending at this place called Dauntless for some extra cash, I can't wait to take you there by the way everyone in the house hangs out there when we're off shift… but he came in one night when it was kind of dead and we just talked, he stayed until closing and walked me to my car…."
"He sounds sweet," Tris sighs with a dreamy look on her face. Christina had been through so much, if anyone deserved a chance at an epic love Tris knew it was her best friend.
"He really is, there are just two problems, well the first isn't really a problem…"
"Okay…hit me" Tris straightens up to show Christina she has her full attention.
"So he's Pedrad's brother…"
"Pedrad as in Zeke Pedrad, my new Lieutenant?" Tris asks. She had a Zoom interview with him, and he seemed like a good guy, good-looking, all about teamwork.
"Yeah, Pedrad and his ex-girlfriend and her brother own the bar. It was cool when they offered to hire me but am I getting too mixed up in this if I start dating his brother? I don't want any bad blood in the house if things don't work out"
"Chris, that's nothing to be worried about. You and Pedrad might be in the same house, but you aren't on Truck, what happens between you and anyone outside that house is none of their business. Besides, If you already work at the bar, he trusts you."
"I know I just don't want to mess anything up, things are great right now, I love my job, they've all been at 51 a while, and everyone's so close, I just don't want to be the cause of any drama since I'm still the new kid on the block" Christina admits.
"Well I'm officially the new kid on the block so stop worrying, now what's the other problem"
Christina takes a deep breath before she starts talking again.
"He's an ER resident at Chicago Med" Christina bites her lip waiting for her best friend's reaction.
Christina had a great instinct for medicine. She graduated top of her medical school class at Northwestern and in the first year of her surgical residency program, she was kicked out when it was discovered she was taking a banned substance to help stay awake to study for her board exams.
Chris had been devastated, but during that time she took her medical licensing boards, her life had crumbled.
Christina and her sister Rose were put in the foster care system when Christina was 6 and Rose was 2 after a concerned neighbor hadn't seen their mother Stephanie leave without the kids and she had been gone several days.
Stephaine was found in a flophouse during an arrest and the girls were split up. Christina bounced around to different foster homes but settled with a decent family when she was 14. The Wilson's were a lovely older couple. The husband, Stanley, passed away from a heart attack during Tris and Christina's senior year of high school. The wife Mildred, died a year after her husband. When she was 18, Christina started trying to find Rose, but she hit dead end after dead end. Rose had been adopted and it was a closed adoption. She did however get an address for her mother. She wrote a letter, explaining who she was and that she hoped to meet her one day even though she was moving to Chicago for college.
Christina heard nothing for years and then Stephanie showed up during the 3rd year of med school in Chicago wanting to reconnect. Having no idea who her father was, she felt obligated to get to know Stephanie. She helped her find a job waitressing in Chicago, and helped her find a program to get affordable housing.
By the time she was in her first year of residency at Lakeshore Memorial, Chris started to see that Stephanie was using again. Stepanie started pressing Christina for money, she got called a few times to help bail her out of jail and Christina was all over the place.
A few months into her second year at Lakeshore, Stephanie was involved in a drug deal gone wrong. Stephaine was using at a crackhouse when a shooting occurred between dealers over some missing product. Stephanie was shot and killed. Caleb had been called on the scene since the dealers were related to a case he was working on and he called Tris immediately when he realized who Stephanie was.
Christina was numb at first just going through the motions but she broke down crying when Natalie and Tris flew to Chicago to help her through things. Medical school was so competitive, that Christina pushed herself hard, not allowing herself to slack off or take time off after the funeral but when it came time to take the medical board examination, she couldn't focus.
She knew the information but the constant calls about her mother getting into trouble, Stephanie pressing her for money, and then her death had taken a toll on Christina. She started taking speed to stay awake and study. When the hospital had a random drug test, she was brought before the ethics board. She didn't make excuses to the ethics board at Lakeshore and they fired her. With that scandal, there was no residency program that would take her on.
Tris had tried to get her to come back to Atlanta but Christina couldn't bring herself to go back. She really did like living in Chicago. After a year of bartending, Tris convinced her to become a paramedic and put all her medical knowledge and skills to work. After going back and forth, Christina went for it and she was so happy she did. Tris was really proud of her, she had worked so hard to pull herself together.
"Chris, if he holds what happened against you, then the hell with him, he didn't deserve you anyway. Just tell him. You don't have to carry this over your head forever. You have done so well with starting over, you have a new career that you love. Do not keep punishing yourself"
Tris scoots over, wraps an arm around Christina, and gives her a comforting squeeze.
"I hope so, I really like him so far. Now if you find your mystery-one nightstand- might be the love of your life guy, we can double date" Christina teases as she leans her head on Tris's shoulder.
Tris laughs at Christina's enthusiasm. If she were to see him again, she wouldn't be opposed to spending more time with him. Just maybe this move would be better than she had imagined.
Over the next two weekends, my schedule is a little crazy so look for updates on Mondays instead of Sundays. I may be able to get them up Sunday but no guarantees!
