Christmas Day passed quietly as my Dad and I exchanged gifts in the morning and ordered delivery from the Chinese Food restaurant a few blocks away. I felt bad that Officer Roman was stuck guarding my door again so I made him come inside and eat with us. Sean is actually a pretty funny guy, with a dry sense of humor, once you get to know him. After dinner he went back to his post outside my door as my Dad and I watched the Celtics – Lakers basketball game. As we were sitting there I couldn't help but continually check my phone. I thought I would have gotten at least one text from Jay today. I could have sworn we had a real moment last night, but maybe that was just the alcohol clouding my memory. "So the Detective, the Doctor and the Fireman walked into a bar..." my dad started. "This sounds like the start of a really bad joke." I replied knowing he was teasing. After the game was over I decided to head to bed. I was exhausted with the stress of the past few days finally catching up to me. Knowing my Dad was leaving the next morning didn't help either. It meant I had to go back to O'Hare...the scene of the crime.
I was up and showered early the next morning. I checked and responded to the majority of my e-mails before breakfast. Dad had to be at the airport by 10:30am and I was going straight to the hotel after I dropped him off. I walked out of my bedroom, dressed for the day in a black and purple Calvin Klein knee-length sleeveless dress with matching suit jacket and black knee-high leather boots with a low heel, when I stopped abruptly, surprised to see the guy who had been the manager of the Publican Tavern sitting in my living room with Kevin Atwater. "Morning Christine. This is Detective Adam Ruzek. He's part of the Intelligence Unit down at District 21. I wanted to come by and introduce him to you. Officer Roman informed us of your plans for today and Sargent Voight though having a plain clothes detective would be less conspicuous than having a uniformed cop hanging out in your office all day." Kevin said. I looked at Adam and grinning at him said "I should have known. You made a pretty shitty restaurant manager."
After a very emotional good-bye with my Dad at O'Hare, Adam and I got back into my black Mercedes GLE 350 SUV and headed to the hotel. "I don't get why I couldn't drive." Ruzek said as I navigated downtown Chicago traffic. "I just met you thirty minutes ago and you're wondering why I won't let you drive my $60,000.00 car? You're as insane as the rest of your unit. No one drives my car but me." I responded glancing at him as I pulled into the hotel's valet. "You obviously let the valet drive your car." he said as I slung my leather bag across my body and hobbled thru the front door of the hotel. I greeted my staff by name and asked about their holiday as I passed the front desk. There were lots of curious glances at my crutches and towards Adam, who was practically glued to my side. Upon entering the Executive Offices, I introduced Adam to Brianna, my Assistant. I asked Bri to set up a meeting with Laura, the hotel's Assistant General Manager, and Stephen, the Director of Security at 2:00pm. I then asked her to order lunch from the restaurant and have it delivered to my office in 45 minutes. I ordered burgers and fries for Adam & I and told him, with an evil grin, the food and service would be much better than what I received at the Publican. Bri said she would take care of it and then told me the daily reports along with my mail were on my desk. Adam and I headed into my office and as I did I smiled when I walked through the doors. I loved my office and was so thankful I was able to design it when the hotel was built. The room itself was all white with a light blueish-gray trim. The dark colored hard wood floors were covered with white, gray and plum colored area rug under my desk. The glass and chrome desk added a modern touch to the room while the leather tufted high back desk chair added a comfortable homelike feel. The windows behind my desk looked out over downtown Chicago. It was a beautiful view, day or night. A round glass conference table with chrome accents and white leather tufted chairs sat four and was the perfect spot to host small departmental meetings with my managers. Across from the conference table was a sitting area made up of a gray and light blue sofa flanked by two high back chairs of the same fabric and color. A glass coffee table with chrome accents and two similarly designed end tables completed the seating area. Adam made himself comfortable on the sofa as I immediately got to work. After a few minutes I almost forgot he was there as I focused on revenue reports from the previous three nights. I was very pleased with what I saw. We were on schedule to blow away our annual budget and I couldn't be happier. It would shut up the doubters on the Board of Directors who have repeatedly said I was too young to be General Manager of a 5-star / 5-diamond property. I then sent out a few e-mails, thankful there weren't many left since I had cleaned out most of my inbox that morning.
By the time lunch was delivered I was caught up with the exception of my mail. Adam and I sat down at the conference table when lunch was delivered. As we ate I opened my mail. Everything was normal until I reached for the box that had been on the bottom of the pile. "Huh. That's weird." I said. "What's weird?" Adam asked. "There's no return address or postage on the box. It's almost as if it was hand delivered." I replied. "Put the box down" Adam instructed as he made a call on his cell phone. "Boss, I think El Gato has made his first move. There's a box with no return address and no postage that was delivered to Christine's office at the hotel before we got here. I need a bomb tech and back up at the Beacon Hotel. We're in the Executive Offices. I'll have the Director of Security waiting for you out front." he paused listening to whatever Voight said in response. "Yeah. I'll take her out the back and meet you at the District afterwards." he replied ending the call. "We gotta go." Adam said grabbing my bag and winter coat. "I'm not leaving." I told him. "You can't expect me to run away and leave my employees in danger. It's like the Titanic. If the ship goes down then the Captain goes down with it." I said calmly as I buzzed Bri over the intercom and told her to get Laura and Stephen into my office immediately. "I think I saw the movie Titanic. Didn't the Captain jump ship and get into a lifeboat as the Titanic was sinking?" Ruzek asked. I ignored him as my office door opened and I quickly made introductions. Adam gave Laura and Stephen a very abridged version of what was going on and Stephen immediately headed outside to wait for the cops. Laura and I posted ourselves in the lobby to make sure the staff, and any guests passing through the lobby who noticed the police, remained calm and to ensure it was business as usual.
"I'm not sure who will kick my ass first for not getting you out of here, Voight or Halstead." Adam said, standing next to me, as the rest of his unit came through the front doors. I turned and, on my crutches, lead the way to my office as quickly as possible. As we entered my office I heard Jay's voice angrily say "What the fuck, Ruzek?" You were supposed to get her out of here and back to the District." I ignored Jay, instead looking at his boss saying "Sargent Voight, it's nice to see you again. Maybe one of these days we will bump into each other under less dire circumstances. Tho no one is pointing a gun at my head at the moment or shooting me so I would like to think we are making progress. I'm sure you can understand that I wasn't going to leave my hotel, my staff and my management team who are like my family to run away and hide while they are unknowingly in danger." "I can respect that. But it's our job to keep you safe. Please remember that and remember the suggestions or orders we give you are to protect you. Now let's find out what's in the box." he replied. When the bomb technician gave the all clear, I watched Detective Alvin Olinsky carefully open the box. I then noticed Jay had moved to my side. He stood so close our arms were touching, almost as if he was ready to block me from any danger the contents of the box may cause. Inside the box was one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen. Sticking out of the mouth of a dead snake was a dead rat with a noose around its neck and a bullet in its stomach. There were three dead rats spread around the box, all with bullets in their stomachs. Al looked at me and in a soft voice said "He's sending you a message." "No shit. I figured that out. He's telling me I'm going to die no matter what for shooting him, which resulted in his capture, but if I rat on him or testify then he will get to my family, friends and the one I love." I responded calmly. I turned and headed to my desk. As I sat in my chair I looked at the seven faces in front of me and said "I need a minute. Take the box into the conference room. I'll be with you shortly." I knew I was reaching my breaking point but there was no way I would let them see me cry. I turned around in my chair and looked out over the city I had come to love almost as much as I loved my hometown of Boston.
When I heard the door close I let the tears flow. I was afraid and maybe at that point I realized for the first time how easily the Cartel could get to me. I put my Dad and my friends at risk as well. As soon as that thought crossed my mind the tears stopped and I became angry and worried. I turned in my chair to grab my cell phone off my desk so I could text my Dad when I noticed I wasn't completely alone. I chose to ignore him as I texted my Dad making sure he had made it home safely and after hitting send I glared at Jay and with an angry voice said "I believe I asked for a few minutes to myself Detective Halstead. Why are you still in my office?" "You're amazing." he said getting up from the sofa and walking over to my desk. He walked around to the side of my desk I was sitting on and leaned against the desk facing me and said "Most people would have had a complete breakdown. Yours lasted for maybe a minute and then something inside you clicked. You once again started thinking about everyone else's safety ahead of your own, didn't you?" Without waiting for a response, he pushed himself off the desk and leaned forward placing a hand on each one of the arm rests of my chair. "Amazing." he said again, his eyes searching for something in mine before adding "Probably goes to show just how stubborn and crazy you really are. Smart too, I'm guessing." I held my breath as he leaned in a little closer and he caught me off guard when he asked "Are you hooking up with Connor Rhodes or Kelly Severide?" "What? No! Why would you ask that?" I replied. "Because I can't get you out of my mind and I've been dying to do this since I first saw you." he said as he leaned in to kiss me. And what a kiss it would have been if there hadn't been a knock on my door followed by Ruzek bursting in. "Hey Jay, Voight needs you, Kev and Antonio to follow up on a lead. He contacted Boston PD and they're going to put a couple of detectives on Christine's Dad. Burgess and I will stay with Christine until Roman comes on duty at midnight." he said. Jay turned and without another word or a glance in my direction he walked out of my office.
The next few days followed without incident but my normally cheerful disposition was taking a turn for the worse. Adam would relieve Roman each morning at 7:00am and ride with me to work at 7:30am. He would stay by my side until either Antonio or Kevin relieved him at 4:00pm. At 6:00pm, I would drive home from work with my babysitter, and they would stay with me until Roman arrived at midnight. I hadn't heard from or seen Jay in three days and it was not helping my mood. At least it was Friday night which meant time for a much needed girls night! Due to an emergency at the hospital, April and Nat couldn't make it. It was going to be me, Gabby, Sylvie, Stella and Kim. Stella was the only one who hadn't been to my apartment and as she walked in she said "Girl, it's gorgeous! Oh, and the view! I love you still have your Christmas tree and decorations up." she said as Kim walked into the living room with Adam and Kevin behind her. "Thanks." I said. "I don't typically take them down until after New Year's. This year will be a little later than that thanks to these damn crutches. And what are the two of you doing here? Pretty sure I didn't extend an invitation for the two of you to join us for girl's night." I said hating the fact my voice sounded angry and bitter. "Hold up! Relax. We are just dropping Kim off. Since she's a cop and gonna be here Voight gave us the night off from babysitting duty." Adam replied. Kevin grinned at me as he said "Your mood has become just as bad as Halstead's these past couple of days. It's almost like you both are taking the holiday blues to the extreme. We're meeting Jay here and then heading to Molly's. Adam will be back later to pick up Kim when she's ready to leave, after Roman gets here. We convinced Voight to give Halstead a hall pass for the night. He is free of his babysitters for a few hours and gonna crash at my place tonight." "Jay's coming here? Now?" I asked as I automatically tried to tame my curls and wondered if I had time to touch up my makeup. As Gabby snickered there was a knock at my door. "I'll get it." I said as I quickly hobbled my way towards the hall. "No!" Adam, Kevin and Kim all yelled. "Jesus!" Sylvie said. "I'd kinda be a bitch too if I had to deal with this all week. You must be going out of your mind." "Now's your time...make your move." Stella whispered to me before announcing to the group that she wasn't feeling well. "I hate to do this since we haven't had a girl's night in such a long time but I think I have to go. Brett, Dawson do you mind giving me a ride since we all came together?" I stood in disbelief as my three closest Chicago girlfriends put their jackets on and flashed me wicked, knowing grins before saying goodnight. Kim then grinned at me before turning to Adam and suggesting they have a date night since they were both off of work for the night and didn't have to go into the District the next day. "Yo dawg! Can you drop me at Molly's on your way?" Kevin asked. Adam turned to Jay and said "Enjoy babysitting duty. Roman should be here at midnight. She's been in a mood the past few days so good luck." before he followed Kevin and Kim out of my apartment, leaving me alone with Jay.