A/N: A little shorter than the last chapter, mostly because it's just where it felt right to put the chapter break. Some more action in this one. Let me know what you think. :)
Erin was driving back home from Chicago Med, when her remaining symptoms started to make sense. Although the pain had gone, the lethargy and nausea were still lingering, so she stopped off at a drug store and picked up a few pregnancy tests. The reality of a possible baby only settled in once she had used the first test and was waiting for the results. While Erin paced in her bathroom, the intelligence squad were finishing up on the case they had been working on that week. A few days earlier a decapitated body was pulled out of the Illinois River, but the squad struggled to identify the body because the fingerprints were burned off. The lead came from the M.E.'s autopsy report, as she had stated that she discovered that the deceased had had both of his knees replaced. Burgess, who had been pulled up to intelligence during Erin's absence, traced the serial numbers to identify the victim – Clayton Hiller. The team had done some digging and had found out that Hiller was a basketball superstar, who would have been headed to the NBA after completing his senior year at Duke, except a tragic car accident days after winning a crucial game resulted in both his knees being shattered. Kevin and Antonio went to inform the family and came back with more questions than when they left. Despite Mr. Hiller's low paid job and Mrs. Hiller's role as a housewife, the victim's parents lived in a large house. Both detectives wondered how the couple afforded the mortgage, especially on top of paying for 3 children and major orthopedic surgery for Clayton. When Kevin and Antonio ascended the stairs into the bullpen, Antonio being the more senior detective informed Voight that they had returned, while Kevin went over to the white board and underneath the victim's picture and name, wrote 'money?' Moments later the whole squad had assembled to discuss the developments which had been made. Mouse was the first to speak when he said, "I found some irregularities in the financial statements and phone bills." Then he looked around at the expectant faces of his colleagues and he found himself nervous and suddenly he couldn't continue. Jay saw his friend's face instantly pale so spoke up to try and refocus him on the task rather than the pressure of everyone's attention being on him. "What kind of irregularities Mouse?" Jay said and locked eyes with his friend until Mouse nodded a little and looked back down at the sheets of paper in hands. Mouse then continued, "He…uh…he seemed to have three large payments transferred into his account, I tried to locate where it originated but the source of the money was untraceable, but the date of the transactions seems to coincide with a particular phone number. This number called Clayton the day before each payment and then about a month before the accident it called once a week and then after the accident it called every day until a few days before Clayton was found." Once mouse had stopped, Hank asked, "Could you trace the number?" Mouse made a face that almost resembled a smile and then hesitantly said, "Yeah… I could trace it, but I think it will have more meaning to you than it did to me. The calls came from Sanderson chemicals headquarters and I traced directly to the office of Jonathan Sanderson Jr, the son of the president of the company." Most of the team didn't seem to recognise the name that Mouse mentioned, but both Hank and Al not only knew the name but knew what had happened to result in the victim's death. Al only muttered the two words, "Loan shark," but he had spoken so softly that no one had heard what he said. So Hank repeated it, only louder and with more explanation when he gruffly said, "He's a loan shark, and has been in the game for years. Gives people money, then charges extortionate interest so it's impossible for them to pay it back. He threatens them, injures them and then kills them. Every time. And his father is so wealthy that his large team of lawyers always seem to get him of. But not this time. No one is going home until we find some hard evidence."
XXX
After struggling to find leads, Antonio eventually knocked on Voight's office ready to tell his boss of his somewhat unorthodox idea. Antonio entered the office once he heard Voight rasp a quick, "Come In." Antonio walked over, stood in front of his boss' desk and said, "I know how we can get him, but you're probably not going to like it." At that comment Voight raised an eyebrow because it was usually him who led the charge on ideas which the ivory tower wouldn't like, but he didn't interrupt, he just waited for Antonio to fill in the details. "I've got someone lined up to wear a wire. We send them in and wait for him to say something to incriminate himself. We'll wait nearby to make sure nothing goes sideways but should be fairly straight forward. We just need your go ahead to set everything in motion." And even though it should have been phrased as a question, Antonio said his piece with such adamancy that Voight was actually a little impressed. So to respond Voight just gave a small nod to approve the plan and with that Antonio turned, left the office and let the rest of the unit in on the plan.
XXX
Antonio, Voight and Jay were in a van around the north side of the building which was a mechanics auto-repair shop, whereas Adam, Al and Kevin were in a van around the south side. Fitting the wire on Antonio's CI Mo had been easy and he seemed to be steady under the pressure of getting what the unit needed on tape. But when Mo tried to leave his meeting with Sanderson, he started to get a little jumpy. He was stuttering and hesitating and eventually Sanderson got suspicious. Through their earpieces the intelligence squad heard Sanderson call his shady guards over to pat Mo down and the squad all immediately perked up in their seats. By the time Mo said, "there's no need for guns," everyone was out of their vehicles and ready to breach. Voight called out a countdown over the walkie talkies and upon his go ahead everyone entered. From both front and back, the intelligence squad made their way through to where the meeting was taking place, weaving through cars and tools as quietly as possible. Voight was leading the group from the front and Al was leading the group from the back. Everyone had their guns out and ready, but they were all trying to stay hidden. Voight and Al caught each other's eye but before the nod to make themselves known was given loud voices started booming, "Hey! Who's out there?... Hands up. We're armed." The unit had no choice but to move forward with their guns raised and announce who they were. Hank took the lead and barked, "CPD - You're surrounded. Put your hands where we can see them!" With all the noise, more of Sanderson's henchmen came out with their guns and suddenly they matched the numbers of police. Jay mumbled, "We're going to have to shoot our way out of here," to Antonio who was stood just behind him. Just as Jay finished his sentence, the first shot was fired. Everyone took cover, but it was hard to locate where the shots were coming from because of the echoing from the building and the ricocheting of bullets off the cars. Sanderson looked like a deer in headlights, frightened and scared, cowering behind one of his bulky guards. Antonio was the next to call out, "Sanderson, you tell your men to put their guns down and everyone walks out of here alive." Antonio tried to play Sanderson's businessman logic, but Sanderson's men were no longer following the orders of their weak leader. They were all pumped on adrenaline and thriving off the freedom of no longer paying attention to their boss. With any sign of movement, Sanderson's men were wilding shooting not even thinking about if they were shooting at their own guys. Al, Adam and Kevin had the best positioning as they were easily able to duck behind a large van while still having the angle to see and take down some offenders. With four out of the six armed guards taken out, the squad moved in ready to subdue the last two men. But they weren't going to give up, even when it was two against six and they continued to fire. Their shots were wild and unpredictable and thus were hard to avoid. So it wasn't surprising when a voice yelled into their walkie talkie, "Officer down, officer down. We need an ambo immediately to 3401 Ashland Avenue!"
XXX
With the ambulance on its way to Chicago Med, half the unit got in their cars to make their way to their hospital, while the other half took the remaining suspects to the district. Antonio was given the unenviable task of phoning Erin to tell her to get to Med as fast as she could. Erin answered the phone in a fairly chipper voice. Unaware that the team had gone on a bust, she didn't know there was even a possibility that the call could bare bad news. The mug of herbal tea she had just made was left to get cold on counter-top and she didn't even bother to change out of her pajamas before grabbing her keys and coat and rushing out the door. Erin's short drive over to the hospital was a struggle because of the tears constantly streaming down her cheeks.