Voight was staring at the whiteboard. The lack of progress was frustrating and being told that they had to the end of the day was not helping. They were a long was from figuring this one out. The witness was now claiming she is too traumatised to talk and got herself admitted to hospital.

"Hey Boss." Halstead arrived first; he stood next to his boss, coffee in hand and stared at the board as well. "What you think?"

"I know Ruzek didn't do this. I just don't know who did." Brennan had told him that unless they could make an arrest she would be charging Ruzek. Even though she knew it was all bullshit she was going to take down this Unit one way or another, brick by brick, cop by cop if she had too. It bought up memories he was desperately trying to suppress. He'd already lost one cop to a beat up charge. There was always someone who was willing to look the other way as far as he was concerned. Truth didn't matter, getting him did.

"We'll work it out. We are a man down though."

"Two."

"Ah, I tried calling Upton." Jay had called her several times and got no answer, he went to see her but she wasn't home. Nothing was making sense although he was smart enough to realise that this was spiralling out of control faster than they could imagine. Didn't it always?

"Upton is not involved in this case and I would appreciate it if you kept it in house, and at this moment she is not in the house." Voight glared at him. "Got it?"

"Sure, can I ask why?

"I don't need people one this case who can't follow orders and only worry about saving their own asses. Don't fuck with my city, don't fuck with me." He had enough; he was tired of saving this team from themselves.

"Boss." Halstead felt the need to defend Hayley. He didn't know from what though or why.

Voight was having none of it though. "Do you job Jay, just do your fucking job."

It was frustrating for all of them; here they were again. All this unit seemed to do lately was save each other from whatever shit they got buried in. Halstead longed for the days were they just saved innocent people from the shit side of Chicago society. It was getting tiring always having to protect each other from their own stupidity. At some point it was going to blow up in their faces and each time it happened that day was getting closer. "I am doing my job, with half a bloody story."

"Ruzek had an alibi on the night of Cole's murder, that's all you needed to know." Voight had tried to keep it out of the narrative for as long as possible. This case was personal enough; he didn't need to have his remaining team screwing this up because they took it personally.

"Great so what's the problem." He didn't see the problem with it. "And then at least we can get Ruzek cleared."

"His girlfriend initially denied him being with him that night."

"Why?"

"I don't know why Jay." Voight spat out. "Brennan no longer believes his alibi, she thinks she is covering for Ruzek to save his ass. She contacted him after being specifically told not too and Brennan knows this."

"Why did she lie to begin with?"

"Perhaps you can ask Upton why she does anything."

Kim stopped dead in her tracks and they both heard the gasp. Both Voight and Halstead turned around and Kim had gone as white as a sheet. The whole conversation hung in the air and for the briefest moment Burgess let the revelation sink in before shaking it off. "So, where are we at?"

"Well thanks to Ruzek not being able to keep it in his pants and Upton wanting to keep it a dirty little secret Brennan now thinks this is another bloody cover up. She's gunning for us, she has been for months and people here are stupid enough to think they can do whatever they god damn please."

Voight had been far from impressed when he got called into the Ivory Tower. Brennan wasn't stupid; she got him on the back foot, in her office. For a moment he considered not going, telling her to shove it but that wouldn't get him anywhere fast, he had to know what cards she was holding. "So, I see your team is up to it's usual tricks?" She literally threw a phone at him, Ruzek's phone. "Barely three hours after telling you that Ruzek was not to be contacted his girlfriend is calling him, texting him. No doubt to get the stories straight."

His blood boiled.

Brennan was in his face; he could feel the heat radiating off her she was that close. "You have no control over them do you? Now you are getting one of your Detectives to cover for another one of your out of control officers. When does it end?"

"I did not get anyone to cover for anybody. Ruzek didn't do this?" Voight seethed. He was angrier with Upton than Brennan right now but she wasn't winning him over either. "No matter what you think of me, my team are not murderers."

"But they are liars. You've got 24hours and then I am charging Ruzek, he'll be up before IA and I will have his badge. He's the first."

He stalked from his office and meeting up with Upton this morning and watching her still try and save her own ass had pissed him off even more.

Atwater stood behind Kim and felt her sway a little. She may have said all the right things, they were over, better off as friends and it was time they both moved on but the realisation that he had done exactly what she told him to do was a bitter pill to swallow. He steadied her with a quick squeeze of her hand and headed towards his desk. Voight was right, they had a job to do, they needed to clear Ruzek's name and then he needed to kick his ass.

"Is this going to be a problem for you Burgess? If it is you may as well go home too." Voight wasn't pulling any punches today. They needed to get this done and he didn't need a jilted ex heeding their progress.

Kim lifted her shoulders, squared them off and responded. "No problem Boss. Adam needs us to solve this so lets solve it."

It wasn't easy to push it aside but it had to be done.

"You Burgess, you okay?" Kev waited until they were safely in the car, heading out to take another pass at the witness. They were running out of options and they had begged Voight to let them try one more thing. At this stage he was willing to give anything a go.

"Sure Kev."

"About everything?"

"Kev, Adam is free to date whoever he wants. It's all water under the bridge. Adam and I were over a long time ago, we both needed to move on." Her mouth was saying one thing and her eyes were saying something else but Atwater didn't push it.

"Yeah but Upton?"

"It's his choice." She shrugged. "And I'd be a hypocrite wouldn't I? I mean I had that whole Roman debacle and he sucked it up, so…" Atwater couldn't argue with that but by god he was going to kick his buddy's ass when he got the chance.

"Didn't think she actually liked him? She always looked liked she'd sucked a lemon when he was around." Kev muttered under his breath. Nothing made sense about any of this. What they were doing even doing together?

"Can we talk about something else?" Kim sighed. "Like how we are going to play this."

"Burgess?"

"It hurts okay?" She spat out. "It hurts but what's done is done."

"Kim…"

"Really Kevin, fucking drop it." She did not want to talk about it, she needed time to digest it all and having Atwater in her ear about it wasn't helping. Despite Adam repeatedly asking her to give it another go she had dug her heels in and refused to entertain it, she needed to focus on her career and Adam would always be a distraction and on the add occasion they had indulged in that distraction. Not for a while now obviously and she thought it was probably for the best, now she wasn't so sure.

When they arrived at the hospital they were surprised to see the witness had a visitor. Kev circled back out of view. He followed the visitor, a tall blond with tattoos on his neck, out to the parking lot and left Kim to take a pass at the witness. He just oozed scumbag; even the way he walked made him look like he was up to shit.

"I told you I can't remember." She wailed, a little too dramatically.

"Okay. Okay." Kim touched her arm tenderly. "I really get that, but we do have another witness who has given us some descriptions. Can I just show you a few photos? She if anything looks familiar. The smallest thing can help."

"I don't know." Her eyes shot towards the door.

"If he knows you saw him and we don't put him away you think you'll be safe? We can't protect you." Kim laid it on thick. "You give us something to work with and I promise you I will keep you safe, from everyone. Being a black cop in Chicago is tough, a lot of people owe him." Kim wasn't sure if she'd gone to far and gave her best shocked look. She needed her to think she'd said too much. "I mean… sorry. Can you please just take a look?" Waiting for her to take the bait was excruciating. They had one shot at this; if this didn't work they had no idea what they'd do next.

When she nodded, after glancing at the door again Kim showed her a photo array on her phone. "Umm that one I think." She pointed to the third photo.

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Perfect."

"Did I get it right?"

"You did well." Kim patted her arm again. "Just let me call my partner and I'll be right back."

Kim stepped from the room and texted Kev. 'Got her. Number 3' He would know precisely what she meant.

"Hey Bro, wait up." Kev jogged over towards the visitor who was picking his way through the parking lot. "Bro, wait up." He called again when he didn't stop. "Bro, stop. Chicago PD."

With that the visitor took off and Kev was on his tail and caught up with him eventually. He was blowing hard, the guy moved quickly but Atwater was fuelled by a fierce determination. His buddy wasn't going down for this. "You've got some explaining to do."

"Fuck you." He spat at Atwater who just managed to avoid the gobful. What was it with guys, and girls for that matter that when they were caught they thought the best way to make things easy for them were to spit? It just pissed them off more, not less.

"No, fuck you. Your girlfriend has just dropped you in it."

"In what? She's a dumb bitch, she'll do what she's told, and if she knows what's good for her."

"You sure, she says you were more than happy to pop Marcus Cole because he was dipping his wick." Kevin was just making shit up. They had only worked things out so far and the rest they had to make up on the fly. He trusted Burgess to do her bit.

"Yeah right."

"And she put you at the murder scene."

"Dumb bitch, all she had to do was keep her mouth shut. I was just cleaning up her mess. Fucking a guy who was snitching to you assholes." He snarled. "He had it coming."

Kevin snapped the cuffs on and pushed him face first into the bonnet of the nearest car. "Hey Bro, she did keep her mouth shut. Pity you didn't."

He called Burgess and told her that he had his guy and she went back in to see the witness. Leandra wasn't the brightest crayon in the box and had no idea she'd been played. "So, what now?"

"Now? Now you'll be charged with giving a false statement. You didn't see jack shit did you? You weren't there at all? What happened, you found a business card, your boyfriend snitched so you called your dealer?"

"No."

"He must have been pissed so he came over, killed Marcus Cole and then what? You stood and watched your dealer knock him off and then concocted your story. Pity it had more holes in it than Swiss cheese. The guy you fingered for it wasn't even anywhere near Cole, he hadn't been in touch with him for weeks. He was alibied out."

"So? You could have lied, covered up?"

Kim showed her the photo array. "Thing is Leandra there is no other witness, except your neighbour who puts you at the house in the hours before you called it in and the guy you accused…" she tapped the photo she had picked…."he isn't even black."

"It was dark."

"Your dealer has just spilled his guts all over the parking lot. He's telling my partner that it was you, he's covering his ass and willing to drop you in it."

"I didn't do it, I couldn't. Murray was so angry, Marcus was going to snitch on him."

Hayley approached the locker room with trepidation when Kim packed up for the day. It had been awkward coming back to work; they certainly hadn't welcomed her with open arms. Voight had called her late yesterday and told her that they had charged Murray Klein and Leandra Chapman with the murder of Marcus Cole and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

"And Adam?"

"In the clear. He's still got his badge."

It was business as usual but it felt weird. Everyone just got on with the next job. They had nothing on the board so it was just catching up with paperwork and chasing CI's, keeping them on the chain. "You and Atwater did well."

"Just doing our jobs." She didn't stop what she was doing and didn't even really look at Hayley.

"I know it must have been hard for you."

"Not really." Kim shrugged. "It was Ruzek."

"Kim. Thank you."

"I didn't do it for you."

"I know. I'm sorry." And she genuinely was. Things had got out of hand quickly and in ways she never imagined. It would have been easier to run away but she was stronger than that, she didn't run away from her mistakes. "Have you talked to Adam?"

"No."

"Kim, please. I need to know he's okay?" Hayley took a step closer. She was desperate to know that Adam was okay and so far she'd heard nothing.

"I told you I haven't talked to him. Do you think I am lying?"

"No, not at all. I just know that if he was going to talk to anyone it would be you or Kev." While they hadn't spent a lot of time with anyone else lately she did know that Kev and Adam had been close and that he was also close to Burgess despite the end of their engagement. She did admire both of them for that. She'd never been able to maintain a friendship with an ex. "I know now is not the time but I hope we can still be friends."

"Friends?" It took everything Kim had not to openly laugh. "I don't think you and I were ever really friends, we are work colleagues. Going out for dinner once doesn't make us friends. I think it's best if we just stay the way we are don't you? I can live with that."

"Does that include Adam too?"

"I'm sorry. I'm not having this discussion with you. I have Kevin is waiting for me." Kim grabbed her bag and slammed her locker door shut. "See you tomorrow."

The ramifications didn't end there. Coming into work the next day certainly reminded them all that things can change in the blink of an eye and one wrong move could send you down a path that you didn't expect.

Hayley was already at her desk. She felt the best way to prove herself was to put in the hard yards, be first in, last out and earn back the respect of her colleagues and perhaps even set herself on the road to making real friends. Holding yourself to the side didn't stop you from getting hurt. Sitting alone in her apartment last night drove that home. She got no messages; nobody checked in on her, nobody answered her calls. She never heard from Adam even though she left him a message apologising and that she was happy that the truth came out in the end.

"Hi." They were all surprised when Platt appeared at the top of the stairs standing next to a slightly older man, not quite Voight's age but maybe a little older than Antonio. Voight came out of his office and shook the man's hand.

"Welcome to Intelligence." He swung around. "This is Detective Harrison Brentwood. He'll be joining us."

"Boss?" Upton stood up quickly. She looked at both Atwater and Burgess and they looked equally as shocked.

"Detective Brentwood is Ruzek's replacement. He'll be partnered up with Burgess." He waved his hand from Jay to Kevin. "Halstead and Atwater and Upton and Dawson from now on."

"What do you mean Ruzek's replacement? He was cleared."

"He was." Voight nodded. "He asked for some time off, the Ivory Tower agreed." He waved at Ruzek's desk. "Jay, get him up to speed."

Atwater and Burgess saving their best friends ass, that's the story we deserved.