Snapped


"Let's just behave. For my parent's sake." Jude nodded, pulling up outside her parents house in the early evening.

After moving their things from AJ and Punk's house to a hotel nearby, Jude had fed her parents with an innocent story that they just wanted to spend a little bit more time in Chicago. Part of her didn't want to tell them about Sean's job. They didn't need any more grief from anyone else. Part of her did want to tell them about Sean's job, because she wanted to celebrate his success and the fact they were moving back to Chicago, but she didn't feel it was appropriate.

"They're gonna need to know at some point. I'm surprised Cassie hasn't told them." Sean admitted, getting out of the car and helping the girls out from the back.

"Cassie doesn't tell them much. She never has." Jude said, not surprised at Cassie keeping things to herself.

"I thought she'd be desperate to get more people to hate me. Not that your parents don't already hate me." Sean nodded as Jude shook her head.

"They don't hate you." Jude shook her head, watching the girls run ahead to AJ and Punk's front door, "I know it's a weird situation but I do think it's unfair that nobody is even congratulating you. They'd all be congratulating Theo if he got it." She shook her head unhappily, "It's bothering me."

"It's fine. Like you said, the situation is weird." Sean understood, "I get why I'm not getting any congratulations."

"My parents will have to find out eventually. When we tell them we're moving back here, they're immediately going to ask why." Jude nodded, walking towards the house with him.

"Let's just get this dinner out the way and then we can maybe see them on our own to tell them." He said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder as she nodded.

"How has your first few days as chief been?" She smiled, placing her hand on his chest.

"Tough." Sean laughed a little, "But I feel like I'm starting to find my feet. I haven't gotten a chance to speak with Theo yet about him coming back. Maybe I can get a hold of him tonight." He shrugged.

"I don't know if that's such a smart idea." She said, opening the door to her parents house and walking in, "Maybe it's best we keep work out of all the conversations." She nodded to him.

"Yeah, maybe." Sean said, "They can't be mad at me forever, right?" He said.

"I don't know about that." Jude rolled her eyes, making her way through to the kitchen, "They must all be outside." She realised when she saw the kitchen empty, walking over to the door and out to the yard where the rest of the family were.

"Oh, hey." AJ noticed them arriving.

"Hey, it's so beautiful out here." Jude raised her eyebrows, not realising how much work her parents had put into making their yard look great. They had string lights all around the fencing and around the plant pots, as well as some hanging lights above the outside table which everyone was sat around.

"He's not just a pretty face." AJ pointed over to Punk who chuckled, "Give me your jackets and I'll put them inside." She said.

"We're eating outside?" Jude asked.

"Yeah." Punk nodded, "It's a nice night."

"It is." Jude agreed, "Dad, this is really nice out here. I had no idea you spend so much time on it." She admitted truthfully, handing her mom her jacket.

"I'll take them inside." Sean assured AJ, taking their jackets along with the girls and sitting them inside the house.

"I got some spare time here and there." Punk shrugged modestly.

"It really is nice." Thea nodded, sitting with Dominic on one of the two seater benches around the table, leaning into him with his sweater on, "Maybe when you retire you could give free lawn cuts to the neighbours?" She said as Punk looked at her.

"I hate that I still, to this day, never know if you're being serious or making fun of me." Punk admitted as Thea chuckled.

Jude took a seat at the opposite end of the table to where Cassie and Theo were sat, in their own conversation beside Punk. The kids had gone off to play together besides James who was sitting with his games console and his foot up.

Thea analysed the situation, looking from Jude to Cassie, wondering if her parents had caught on yet to their lack of contact with one another.

"Cassie do you need another drink?" AJ asked, noticing Cassie's bottle of beer was finished.

"Yeah but I can get it, mom. You sit down." Cassie waved her hand, standing up and leaving the table, going through to the kitchen whilst Jude sighed a little.

"You ok?" AJ asked Jude.

"Yeah, fine." Jude smiled as Sean eventually returned, sitting down next to Jude.

AJ still knew something was going on that she nor her husband knew. And she'd managed to figure out it was something to do with Jude and Cassie. She'd had a few sleepless nights trying to figure out what it could possibly be, but she came up short. She hoped maybe this dinner together would give some clues.

"So… Atlantic City? You recommend it?" Theo asked.

"Yes." AJ nodded immediately, "But not with kids." She added as Punk chuckled.

"Oh, here we go." Thea scoffed, sitting up a little from slouching on Dominic, "The Atlantic City series." She shook her head as Jude chuckled a little. She was glad Thea was here to break the tension at least.

"Is this where you told the hotel your dad was dead for an upgraded room?" Sean asked Thea.

"My wife." Dominic nodded, kissing Thea's cheek as she nudged him away playfully.

"That's cold, even for you." Theo chuckled a little.

"The important thing is, I had a good sleep." Thea nodded as Punk rolled his eyes, smiling a little.

"At least Cassie had a blast that time, though." AJ nodded.

"Cassie had a blast where?" Cassie asked, walking back outside with two beers for her and Theo.

"When I took you guys to Atlantic City." AJ said.

"Oh, yeah. I did have a blast." Cassie agreed, sitting back down beside Theo, "There's just so much to do there, right? Maybe we should take Chase sometime." She tapped Theo who nodded.

"No, seriously. Go without kids." AJ suggested.

"Yeah ok, mom." Thea scoffed, "What were you guys getting up to exactly?" She questioned.

"Oh, stop." AJ shook her head as they laughed.


They all broke off into their own conversations once the food they'd ordered had arrived. The kids quickly ate what their parents deemed acceptable before rushing back to play together.

"How you been feeling?" Punk asked Theo, "How's the rehab been going?" He asked more specifically as Theo nodded positively.

"It's going good. I'm not getting as much pain. I don't walk with a limp… as much." He said, "I'm getting there, I think."

"Good." Punk nodded, "Any word about the job? Jake's job I mean." He said. Unlike his wife, he had no suspicion that anything was going on.

"Uh…" Theo paused for a moment, looking over at Sean and Jude who were chatting with Thea, "No… no, I've not heard a thing." He nodded.

"Well surely they gotta be looking to you at some point. Don't they need a chief?" Punk asked as Cassie picked up on the conversation beside, turning around a little.

"Yeah I suppose they do." Theo nodded briefly, picking at his food.

"Chase was bummed you missed his game." Cassie interrupted, not baring to see Theo so awkward for any longer.

"Oh, don't." Punk placed his hand over his chest, "I feel bad enough." He said as Cassie smiled.

"I'm going to get another drink." Theo stood up, walking on through to the kitchen as Cassie watched.

"He good?" Punk asked Cassie.

"Yeah." Cassie nodded, "Yeah, he's fine."

"Your mom thinks something is going on that nobody is telling us." Punk scoffed as Cassie looked at him.

"Yeah? Like what?" Cassie asked curiously.

"I don't know." Punk rolled his eyes, "She gets paranoid when she hasn't seen you girls for more than a couple days." He concluded.

"Maybe she's just smart." Cassie nodded to him as Punk looked across at her.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Theo was helping himself to another beer when he saw Sean enter the kitchen.

"You want one out?" Theo asked. They hadn't had a conversation yet. They hadn't seen each other yet until tonight.

"I'm good." Sean shook his head, "I was hoping I'd get a chance to speak with you." He nodded.

"Yeah about moving me to narcotics? Do whatever you want." Theo shook his head, opening his beer with the opener.

"Well… I think we got a lot more to talk about than that." Sean said, "Look, I am sorry for how this is all going down. I do know you were real close with Jake. And it's unfortunate you've been having such a tough time with your injury-"

"Unfortunate." Theo smirked a little, nodding as he took a drink of his beer.

"Yeah, it is." Sean said, "The job was opened for anyone with the experience. You weren't… you weren't guaranteed it, and they needed someone to start now." He said, "So I went for it and got it. I'm sorry you had hopes of getting it but I'm not sorry that I did." He made clear.

"Of course you're not sorry." Theo shook his head, "You know, Cassie asked me a few weeks ago why it is that we never hang out. You know… the six of us. Sisters and their tag alongs." He said, "This is why." He pointed to Sean, "I don't trust you as far as I can throw. I never have… never will." He made clear, "And you know it's sad, cause when Cassie told me you cheated on Jude… I wasn't really that surprised." He admitted as Sean looked across at him.

"You're making this personal." Sean said, "Don't." He shook his head.

"You made it personal when you took my damn job." Theo spat. He wasn't sure if it was the few beers he'd had or if he'd just had enough of pretending it was ok, "You wanna talk about making things personal? We're supposed to be family. You don't do this shit to your family. Even if the job was opened to anyone… if you gave a shit about anyone but yourself you would have known how wrong it was to go for that interview." He shook his head.

"So what? My life is on hold because of you? Dude, come on." Sean laughed a little, "You've not even been at work for months. How do you expect the board to have faith in you? I'm here and I'm ready-"

"You're not here… you don't even live here." Theo shook his head, "Your wife hates it here. And I would too if I was her, believe me." He said, "You got two kids that you're moving schools, moving them away from their friends-"

"Don't stand there and tell me how to live my life. You and I are not that close." Sean said.

"Yeah, thank God." Theo said.

"I'm assuming you don't want to be second in command-"

"Are you having me on?" Theo looked at him, unamused, "Of course I don't." He shook his head, "And moving Cassie to homicide? What's that about? Those cases can get ugly and homicide detectives barely leave the station-"

"It's a challenge. She's been doing the same thing for too long. That's how you grow and learn." Sean shook his head, "I'm trying to help her out. I can't… Jesus I can't win with either of you." He laughed a little.

"When do you need me back?" Theo asked bluntly.

"When you're ready." Sean said.

"I'll be back next week then." Theo nodded, "Put me on narcotics, hell, put me on patrol. I don't care." He shook his head.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Sean screwed his eyes up as Theo walked past him, heading outside as Sean followed, "Fine. I'll put you on patrol." He shrugged.

"Do what you want." Theo nodded, "You're gonna do whatever benefits you anyway." He said as Sean pushed him around by the shoulder. They hadn't realised they were now outside, where everyone could see them a few steps away.

"You realise I'm your boss now, right?" Sean said, "I'll put you on patrol. I'll transfer you. I'll fire you if I really want to." He nodded as Theo looked across at him, "This isn't gonna work with you acting like a little bitch."

"Why don't we just admit why you really went for that job here? Why you really wanna move back to Chicago?" Theo asked.

"What's going on?" AJ asked sternly to the rest of the table who ignored her and continued to watch what was going on.

"Why's that?" Sean asked.

"Cause that's where you fucked someone else and your wife doesn't trust you at your old job anymore." Theo nodded as Sean shook his head angrily, "Stay the hell away from me." He said, turning to walk away.

"Ain't no wonder you two are waiting so damn long on that adoption agency calling." He said as Theo stopped in his tracks, "Couple of mixed up crackers. The both of you." He turned to Cassie who stood up, "I'd pass on you both too-"

Theo clenched his fist, punching Sean hard across the face, the hardest he'd ever hit someone, which was definitely saying something.

"Oh my God." Jude stood up.

"Yeah alright, that's enough." Punk also stood up, walking over as Theo stepped back, shaking his hand off whilst Sean sat holding under his nose which was bleeding.

"Good going." Sean nodded, pointing behind Theo, causing Theo to turn around where he saw Chase standing holding his soccer ball, looking at him with confusion.