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M: Making a Team
*Jay remembers the first time he met Erin. The district gave Voight a unit and told him to pick his people, while giving him Antonio and Jules to work with. Voight chose Al and Erin, and Antonio suggested Jay. No one could imagine how well their two youngest detectives would work together.
"So tell me about this Voight guy." Jay asked his friend and fellow cop, Antonio Dawson. The two of them were carpooling to work for their first day in the Intelligence Unit. "How well do you know him?"
"I know he just did time. He's been suspected of being a dirty cop, but the guy gets the job done." Antonio replied. "The commander told me that he would be the head of the unit and that I was going to be working with him. He asked me if I had any people I wanted to bring in, and I told him you and Jules." He was referring to his partner, Jules Willhite.
"Who else did Voight bring in?"
"Alvin Olinsky, he was his partner back in the day when he was in the gang unit. And a newer detective, Erin Lindsay." He pulled into the parking lot. "Just do me a favor and keep your head down. We don't need your temper flaring up."
"I don't have a temper." Jay defended, though both men knew he was lying. They walked into the district together.
"Look who it is! Our newest Intelligence officer." Jay saw an older woman standing at the front desk. "Good to see you, Dawson."
"You too, Trudy. This is Detective Jay Halstead; he's going to be in Intelligence too."
"Nice to meet you, ma'am." Jay held out his hand to shake hers, but she just looked at him.
"Yeah, you're not going to last long." She turned around and started looking at some papers.
Jay looked at Antonio in alarm, but the older man just laughed. "She's tough at first, but she'll get to like you. That's Sergeant Platt; she's one of the best."
The door buzzed as the two men opened it and walked up the stairs. They looked at the sets of desks and the office in the back of the room and Jay couldn't hold in his happiness. This was a great opportunity and he couldn't wait to get to work.
"Dawson." He heard a gravelly voice say. Jay looked over and saw a man who was probably in his early fifties. The man gave him a once over and then nodded. "You must be Halstead."
Jay nodded once. "Thank you for this opportunity, sir."
"We're glad to have you. Your desk will be there." He pointed to a desk. "Dawson, you're there."
"Are we the first ones here?" Jay asked once Voight went back into his office and shut the door.
"Looks like it."
Right after Antonio spoke, they heard footsteps on the stairs. An older man, probably a few years older than Voight, came up the stairs. He noticed the two men and nodded in greeting.
"Hey Antonio."
"Hey Al. Exciting day, huh? The team is finally together." He looked towards Jay. "This is Detective Jay Halstead."
"Alvin Olinsky." The older man stated before nodding towards the office. "Hank in there?"
"Yeah." Alvin went into the office and shut the door. "He's a man of few words."
"Obviously." Jay wondered how he would like working with Olinsky and Voight. It seemed like the two of them were obvious choices for partners and Antonio and Jules would probably be together, so he wondered who his partner would be.
"Hey guys!" Jules came up the stairs with a smile. "God, this is amazing! I can't believe we're in Intelligence!"
Jay had only met Jules a few times, but from what he had seen, he liked her. She seemed sweet and very capable of doing her job.
"How you feeling, Jay?" she asked.
"Great. Just glad to be off patrol."
"This is going to be a good team, I can feel it."
Voight's door opened and he and Olinsky came out. Both men looked pointedly at the desk right across from Jay's and Olinsky shook his head. Voight greeted Jules and told her which desk belonged to her, and then he went up to the front of the room. As soon as he was about to speak, they all heard the door click open.
Jay watched as a woman probably a few years younger than him entered the room. She had brown, slightly curly hair and she was tiny. As she got closer, he noticed she was even more beautiful than he had expected.
"Lindsay, so nice that you finally decided to join us." Voight called out.
"Sorry, there was traffic."
He silently pointed to the desk across from Jay's and the woman sat down. She looked over and they made eye contact and Jay swore he felt like lightning had shot through his body. God, she was gorgeous.
Voight started to go into the details of the case they would be working on, and then he made an announcement. "Dawson, Willhite, you go to the warehouse and search for anything that could help us. Al and I are going to do an interrogation on the man seen snooping around the day before. Halstead and Lindsay, I need you to talk to the family and see if they know anything."
Jay smiled. He would get to work with this beautiful woman. Intelligence was already seeming like the best job he would ever have.
The girl who was apparently named Lindsay stood and came to his desk. "I'm driving."
Jay stood. "Fine by me."
She walked quickly towards the stairs that would lead them out of Intelligence and he went to follow after her, but felt a hand on his shoulder that pulled him back.
"The quickest way to get kicked out of this unit is to let her get hurt in any way possible. Do not screw up." Voight practically threatened.
"I won't, sir."
He jogged down the stairs to catch up to her. She kept her gaze straight ahead and they walked silently to the car that they had been assigned to. He didn't speak until they got inside.
"I'm Jay Halstead, by the way. And you're Lindsay…" he trailed off, waiting for her to fill in her last name.
"Erin Lindsay." She supplied.
"Oh, so your first name isn't Lindsay. Got it." He wasn't sure what else to say. "Intelligence is a great opportunity, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Everyone seems like they know what they're doing." She started the car and drove in the direction of victim's home. "How did you end up in Intelligence?"
"Antonio and I have known each other for a while now. He recommended me and I thought it sounded interesting, so I agreed to do it. What about you?"
"Voight brought me in."
"I heard he's pretty tough on the people he works with. He must have really liked you to bring you into his unit."
She smiled slightly and he got a glimpse of her dimples. It made her look even more beautiful than he already thought she was. "Yeah, he likes me alright."
Jay wondered what she meant, but didn't have time to question her on it because they pulled up in front of the house they were going to. As soon as they stepped out of the car, Jay felt like something was off. He waited for Erin to walk around to his side of the car and he could see from her facial expression that she felt it too.
They both had their guns strapped to their sides and he put his hand over top of his, but didn't pull it out. He looked up towards the window of the house they were walking towards and saw something reflect. It took him less than a second to realize it was a gun.
"Gun!" he shouted, jumping forward and pushing Lindsay to the ground. He grabbed his radio as bullets began to fly towards them. "This is Detective Jay Halstead. Shots fired at the police! Requesting immediate backup!" he looked at the woman next to him. "You good?"
"Yeah, thanks." They both moved back to use the car as cover. Their guns were drawn as they aimed them towards the house. They heard a sound crash in the backyard and saw a man running to the left of the house through the backyards. "We have no vests and no backup. What do you want to do?"
"You watch my back and I'll watch yours?"
He watched as Erin took a deep breath. "Let's do it."
They both took off in the direction of the man who had run from the house. It didn't take long to catch up with him and they cut over to go into the backyards with him. He started to fire shots as he ran, but they weren't aimed very well and completely missed the two detectives.
Erin and Jay launched themselves over a wire fence, Jay getting enough of a jump that he tackled the perpetrator. He sent the gun flying and Erin went to pick it up as Jay handcuffed the man. He and Erin made eye contact and nodded at each other; they were both pretty sure this partnership was going to work out.
LINSTEAD LINSTEAD LINSTEAD
"Day 1 and I've already got two irresponsible detectives." Hank stated as he looked at Halstead and Lindsay, who were sat across from him in his office. "When you request backup, you wait for backup. Neither of you were equipped for a chase, and you shouldn't have taken the risk of being shot."
"So we were supposed to just let him get away?" Erin questioned. "We just found out that this man killed his own brother because he wanted to be with his wife! How could we let him get away?"
"At the time, you had no idea what the man had done. All you knew was that he was aiming for you."
"I knew Halstead had my back." Erin replied. "He had me on the ground before a shot was even fired. I knew that I could watch him and that we could get this guy, or at the very least try. We wouldn't be cops if we didn't try to take down all the bad guys."
Hank sighed. "You know, you're both young and a little reckless. Maybe this partnership isn't going to work out…"
"It'll work." Jay and Erin replied in unison.
"Sarge, I've worked with her for a day and I already trust her to have my back. That's not something that happens every day." Jay chimed in.
He looked first at Erin, then at Jay. "From now on, you follow orders."
"We will." Erin agreed.
"See you tomorrow morning." Hank dismissed.
Erin and Jay stood and exited his office. They both looked at each other and shared a small smile. This partnership would definitely work.
Next up… N: Nadia