Chapter 2

Current Time

Val has been working at Cal's Dinner now for a year now while trying to save up some money. Hank Voight always offered to help her with money, but she always refused saying that she was fine. Val's shift finally ended and she was able to go to the station to go help the guys in intelligence. Walking out of the bar, Val waved goodbye to her boss, Jack, and headed towards her car. The car was a 5 year old truck, with cloth seats and a huge trunk.

The drive to the station, plus the coffee shop to grab some coffee for the guys, didn't take long, it was roughly 20 minutes. When Val got there, she said hi to everyone and then made her way up to the intelligence office. Val buzzed herself in and headed up.

"Hey Uncle Al," Val said as she walked past him. He smiled up at her and she offered him a cup of coffee.

"Thanks Valerie," Olinsky said as he gave her a hug and took a sip of his coffee.

"Yeah, of course. Do you know where my dad is?" She asked as she set down the remaining cups, minus one, on a desk.

"I think he's in his office. Why?"

"I think I'm gonna tell him," Val said as she walks over to Voight's office.

"Hey good luck kid," Olinsky said as he sat down at his desk.

"I'll sure need it," Val said, laughing. She peeked into Voight's office and saw him sitting there with a pile of paperwork in front of him. Val walked into his office and sat in a rolling chair in front of the desk.

"Hey dad," Val said as she set down the coffee in front of him.

"Hey sweetie," he said looking up from the papers. To most people Voight was a rough guy, somebody you would not wanna be on the wrong side of, but to Val he was like a teddy bear.

"How's the day been?" Val asked as she tried to get the courage to ask what she's been wanting for a while.

"Good, we've been trying to get this guy," he said as he held up a paper for Val to see, "El Payaso is what they call him."

"The clown?" Val asked.

"Yeah, big drug dealer. One of our CI's can trace him back to some murders that have been happening around the town."

"But you don't have enough evidence, right?" Val asked. That was what happened most of the time, they had the bad guy but they just needed that final bit of evidence. In this case they would need to catch him in the act.

"You're correct, did you come here for something?" He asked.

"Yeah. So you know how I have been working at the diner downtown?" Val asked and in response Voight nodded so Val continued, "Well recently I've been looking into a more stable job.." Val said. This was it, the big question.

"OK…" he said as he motioned for her to continue. Val had this big plan on how she was going to tell him, but now that she was here she couldn't remember any of it. The best thing she could do was just to spit it out at this point so that's what she did.

"I wanna be a firefighter," Val finally spat out.

"What?! Where did this come from?" He shouted.

"Well I really wanna do something meaningful, you know?" Val said.

"No, it's way too dangerous," Voight said as he set down his coffee. Val knew that there was a chance that he would say no, but she wasn't prepared for it. Getting ready to leave, Val turned around only to turn back around

"You're one to talk," Val said as the frustration bubbled over.

"And what does that mean?" Voight asked as he stood up and glared at Val.

"You get shot at on a daily basis!" Val shouted, surprising herself with her response.

"I don't run into fires. The answer is no!" Voight shouted back. Val was about to say something when Erin burst into the door.

"Is everything OK in here? I heard yelling…" Erin said as she looked at Val. Val just nodded slightly before going to walk out. However, before she could go Erin stopped her and whispered into her ear.

"I'll talk to him."

"Thanks Erin," Val said as she smiled slightly at her. Erin nodded and Val left the office to head over to Alvin's desk.

"How'd it go, kid?" He asked, looking up at her.

"Not good, he said no. But Erin's talking to him…" Val said as she sat down.

"If anybody can convince him it's Erin," Alvin said.

"Yeah… Do you need help with the case?" Val asked. Occasionally when the guys had a tough case Val would help out, much to Voight's disapproval.

"I don't know, kid. This guy is pretty tough…" Alvin said as he looked up at Val.

"I can take him, besides if I stay in here I think I'll go crazy,"

"Fine kid, just don't tell Voight. He doesn't really like it when you do these things."

"Thanks Uncle Al, I'll get ready," Val said as she got up to grab her outfit. This outfit consisted of a camo jacket, a black t-shirt, and sweatpants. Val slipped into the clothes and walked out to see Erin still talking to Voight.

"You ready?" He asked as Val approached him.

"Yep all ready," Val responded.

"Good, let's get you suited up," he responded as the two walked down the stairs. Ten minutes later, once Val was suited up, she, Ruzek, and Alvin headed out. Once the group was about five minutes away, she got out and smiled at the boys. Val walked away and got into her character, Jamie. Jamie has lived in Chicago for 10 years, dropped out of high school at 16, and is a druggie. The druggie walk, as Val liked to call it, was shaking hands and constantly looking around. When Val got to the place where the CI said El Payaso would be, she stopped and kept looking around. About six minutes later a guy started to walk up. With all the work Val had done with Intelligence, she could easily tell that was him.

Val ran up to him and asked, "Are you El Payaso?"

"Who's asking?" He responded..

"I need some, I-i got cash," Val said as she fumbled around trying to get the cash. Handing it to him, she kept looking around.

"Here you go kid," he said as he handed Val a sack, of what could best be described as the "stuff". Val grabbed it, but before she could get away, and say the code word there was a glint of something metal. A knife. Val panicked and freaked out, backing slowly away.

"Hey dude, put that down," Val said as she held up her hands . She could only hope that Al and Ruzek heard her on the wire. He kept getting closer and before she knew it he was right in front of her. She could smell his breath and almost gagged at it.

"Now why would I do that?" He asked as he traced the knife along her face. Val tried to talk but couldn't get anything out. Usually things didn't go this far, the boys would come and arrest him. The guy continued to drag the knife along my face and blood dripped down her face. Just then Val heard the best noise she could possibly ever hear, sirens, and they were close. The look on his face was a mix of shock, surprise, and hatred. He gripped the knife tighter, and thrust it into her abdomen. Val let out a scream of pain and fell over. He was about to come at her again when somebody yelled, "Chicago PD, drop the knife!" It was Halstead, and he had his weapon trained on the guy. At this the guy grabbed Val's hair and pulled her up with the knife held at her throat.

"Drop the gun or this girl dies!" He yelled as he looked around. The knife dug into her skin and she was terrified. Val closed her eyes and was prepared for death. Her life flashed before her eyes, everything that hadn't happened. And then she thought of Lanie. Lanie, her best friend, would be devastated. She couldn't let anything happen to her, for Lanie. So Val slipped her hand into the pocket of my pants and grabbed the pocket knife. This would have to do. While the guy had his attention focused on CPD, Val stabbed him in the side. She took his surprise as an opportunity to escape, so when he dropped the knife, Val slipped out from his grip and ran as fast as she could over to CPD. As an officer ran over to arrest him Val sat down and leaned her head against the wall. She looked down at the wound and wrapped her jacket around her chest, trying to hide it. Olinsky walked over to her and sat next to her. He still hadn't noticed the wound and Valerie couldn't get herself to say anything about it.

"You did good, kid," he said looking at Val. Val guessed he noticed the paleness in her face because he looked over at her. When he noticed her abdomen, he stood up and started screaming. Val started to feel tired and started closing her eyes, but Alvin slapped her in the face.

"Kid stay awake, OK?" He said as he took off his jacket and pressed it against the wound. She could see that he had tears running down his face. There were paramedics running up to her and she felt herself being lifted up. Olinsky got into the ambulance with her and gripped her hands tightly. The pain in her abdomen wasn't as bad as before and she started closing her eyes. She knew she was dying, it felt like somebody was wrapping a blanket around her. Val closed her eyes and put her head down on the bed. Then everything went black but she could still hear Olinsky. He was screaming, she tried to figure out what he was saying but it sounded like everything was muffled. Just then Val felt a shock run through her body. Then another. And another. At the end it ended up being 5 shocks. At the last shock Val felt the "warm blanket" leaving her. There was the inside of a hospital and a bunch of people around her. The last thing Val remembered was seeing Voight running after her, sobbing.