Hi, so here is another Chicago PD story and I am so excited to bring you thins one, this one takes me to a world post Erin, to Season 5 and this is a new thing for me so I hope that you enjoy. Also this delves a little into the Al/Adam relationship that I have enjoyed so much and like the Jay/Hank relationship is often ignored.

This story takes place around the break that happened in Season 5 when Adam's duel role was discovered, I can confirm that Hank and Al are not the enemies in this story. I think we all know who the enemy in Season 5 was.

This story does deal with upsetting themes including murder, rape and child abuse and PTSD flashbacks. If this TRIGGERS YOU THEN PLEASE STOP NOW!.

Pairings are as follows, Kim/Adam, Hailey/Jay, Will/Conner (briefly) and Al/Meredith.

Just to confirm that Lexie is dead in this story as well.

Disclaimer-Nothing here but Vicky is mine.

This story is AU as well but does stretch over Season 5 and Season 5 alone.

Please Read and Review and I will update as soon as I can.

And on a side note, I like so many other Fanfiction Authors no longer receive notifications via email about reviews/PMs etc. So if you do send any it might be a while, if ever before I get back to you. Please keep that in mind for it is not intentional-If anyone has a fix please let me know.

I have also stopped taking any kind of personal messages, any questions please leave them in a review and I will get back to them in the next chapter note. This chapter should be about twenty-twenty five chapters.

AND TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER AND DISCUSSION OF RAPE. PLEASE KEEP THAT IN MIND.

I have a love hate relationship with the characters of Chicago Med. Will I love, Connor I love, Ava I loved before they made her crazy for no reason. Doctor Charles, Natalie, April and Maggie irritate me beyond words which is annoying because I used to kinda like like Nat for like the first season. Goodwin is just kinda meh for me. I like the show and now Asher and Hannah are in it they it's better but the characters with the exception of Will and Connor (and wasn't that a golden opportunity wasted) kinda irritate me in case you couldn't tell by this chapter.

The Spirit That I Have Seen

Chapter 10-The Harsh Light Of Day

Vicky sees Adam, Meredith nearly gets into a fight and a decision is made. Also, Voight and Adam come face to face. Part two of this two part handler.

Meredith saw the second that the girl woke up. How many times had she seen Lexie wake up like that? How many times had she come into her daughter's room and seen Lexie her hair a mess on her pillow her little face scrunched up in sleep and then smoothing out again. How many times had she seen that and not thought anything off it and then since that dark, dank, blackest of black days, how many times had she gone up to the empty room, devoid of life and wished that she could turn back the clock to those golden moments where she should have slowed down time and time again?

And so when Vicky woke up she was still stuck in the memory and she didn't realise until the girl had pushed herself up off her back and was staring at her with the one wide eye and the other one swollen shut until she spoke.

"Who are you?"

It startled her back to reality first and foremost.

"My name is Meredith sweetheart. I'm a friend of Adam's. You sleep okay?"

She nodded but she looked at him with a lot of distrust in her little face and Meredith couldn't blame her. She sighed and tried to make herself as non-threatening as she could (not that, that made any difference she thought bitterly, Vicky had already been through so much already)

"You want to come and see him? I know where he is and I promise you that if your quiet you can come with me"

Vicky looked at her, her whole body trembling for a second with need and her eyes wide and big and terrified and she nodded then her face splitting into a smile. She found that she was smiling just looking at her and that was enough for the kid to apparently decide that she was lying and so Vicky swung her legs around the side of the bed and hoped down steadying herself and then standing up tall and bright eyed.

It was so like Lexie that it physically hurt to look at her Meredith thought. But at the same time it wasn't about her, this kid had inspired some kind of deep need in her to protect from harm. It was the motherly instincts that never went away regardless of how lost your child was and she found that she was revelling in them, it was like dusting off an old book and remembering just how much you loved it after a very long time. Like drowning and being saved…

Yeah she had to stop the Grey's Anatomy reruns when she got back home. It was doing nothing for her or her brain apart from melting it.

She did not offer the child her hand and the child did not offers hers. Everything had to be done at a snail's pace and Meredith understood that.

She understood a lot.

But the door to the little room they were in opened suddenly and Vicky pressed back as she saw the strange people in the room hiding behind her and Meredith felt her hackles rise. She knew Doctor Charles, she knew Sharon Goodwin, she kind of knew the two nurses Maggie and April at the back of the group whispering between themselves as they looked at her and she felt her teeth gnash together. She did not know what she was looking at but she knew when she was looking at a fight. Meredith had been raised on the South Side of Chicago. Ignore whatever crap Alvin had told you, she damn well knew when a fight was about to start.

And she was damn well good at them herself.

And getting Vicky to Adam? Well…that was a fight that she was damn well going to do her best to win.

God help anyone who got in her way.

Hank walked into Chicago Med to the sound of Meredith Olinsky shouting at the top of her lungs about yanking out some poor nurses lungs and wrangling them around her as a cheap ass necklace.

Sounded about right.

He half expected to see his wife who had always been Meredith's partner in crime lounging in the corner and his heart twisted painfully. Meredith however was painfully obvious to see because she was standing in front of the child's room her blonde hair down her back squaring down with Doctor Charles who was looking very much as if he had wished he had not gotten out of bed today.

Hank knew the feeling.

Intimately.

"Problem?" he asked sliding next to Meredith who turned to look at him and for once it was with relief which was very, very odd because…well…Meredith never looked at him that.

"They want to take Vicky" she snapped.

"Yeah well that ain't happening" he said casually. "Girls a material witness in an open case involving one of my officers so she's not going anywhere"

"Hank" Doctor Charles began in what sounded like a placating voice which nine times out of ten worked and now only served to make him irritated.

"Hank you gotta understand…Vicky and Adam are our primary concerns here and she's well enough to be released but I don't think that overwhelming her with his presence—"

"We are not splitting them up" Hank said flatly, unbending, uncompromised. "I have a kid up in your ICU who is all but a teenager compared to you and me and dealing with more injuries than you will ever experience in your lifetime and all he wants to do is make sure that child is okay, we are taking her up to see him and I don't care weather or not that damages the front cortex or whatever it is. The girl is under our protection, so is Adam, I will be the judge of what is enough mental strain. Not you"

Clear. Quiet. Concise.

Deadly.

God that felt good.

Doctor Charles pushed his glasses up on his nose.

"You know I think that Vicky and Adam could serve to have a little space just until we can figure out what is going on with them both and what CPS says and—"

"We are not calling CPS and Vicky is coming with us to see Adam—kid you good?" he called out from behind the curtain and maybe it was a bit catchy, catchy, softly monkey but suddenly the skinny kid was there clutching Meredith's coat with her hand. Meredith gently smiled down at her and then twisted her hand so that Vicky had the option of grabbing it. Vicky took it after a moments hesitation her one eye swollen shut. Hank was going to find out who had punched her eye in and he was going to personally feed them to the sharks.

Or drop them with a weight around their ankle into the Chicago river in January at three AM whatever came first.

"You good kid?"

"Yep" she said nodding her head and Hank nodded. Meredith took her hand and with that they were off. Perhaps something in his voice made them all step aside or maybe it was the look on his face because the next thing he knew the three of them were in the elevator together..

"Not bad" Meredith muttered.

"Never thought I'd hear you say that"

"Yeah well…you're a bit like the common cold Hank, never said you didn't grow on me I just—"

"Always wished I was gone, yeah, yeah, yeah"

It wasn't said with any kind of heat and Hank shot her a sideways glance.

"You know your warming to me" he said quietly. "Twenty two years and you are warming to me"

"Dream on Hank"

Adam was leaning against the pillows face red and blotchy. Kim in the corner wasn't much better but she wiped her face when she saw them coming. Al was sat next to Adam gently running a hand through his hair and he saw Meredith stop dead taking in her husband and his partner/whatever the hell Adam was to Al (it was the same as what Jay was to Hank he just didn't know it yet) and Adam slowly looked at him when he walked in with that gaze that unnerving even to him. Hank smiled at him but Adam didn't smile back and Al didn't look at him and Hank remembered suddenly what Jay had said about Adam believing that they were responsible for what had happened and his stomach twisted into knots.

"Hey kid" he said but the moment was ruined by Vicky who shouted loudly with more life in her voice than he had heard before.

"ADAM!"

She ran to his side and then stopped dead looking at him and Hank knew the tubes had freaked her out.

Unbidden the image of Justin running to Camille after chemo came to his mind and he thought he was going to be sick.

"Hey Vicky" Adam said quietly and his hand came out like a pale spider and gripped her tiny one. "I hear you saved us"

Vicky shook her head.

"You knew who to call" she argued and Adam flicked a smile upwards though it was a sad one and false to anyone who knew him Hank included.

He wouldn't lie. Adam and his betrayal had disappointed him. He hadn't realised how raw he was from Jin until he had come close to seeing someone else fill that role. He had been weary of both Antonio and Jay when they had come up but he had never considered that anyone coming after him would use Adam.

Instead he had allowed himself to be blind. Blind from the start because if he was being honest with himself there was no way that Woods would let it go. He wouldn't have in his shoes but he had come out on top so he had put Denny Woods to the side of his mind and had never considered what the price would be. Had never considered that Denny had a few chips of his own to play out just the way that he had. That Denny could get himself back on the job like he had, promoted like he had, in a position of power like he had and would come for revenge which he had not.

And Adam…Adam was just a kid who had been caught protecting his family.

Christ the shit that he had done for Justin and Erin…for Jay and Antonio and Kevin and Kim and Hailey…there was no option for it.

And then the kid had gone missing and it had been like a part of them had gone missing and Hank hadn't know what to do, had drawn a blank and had hated it with everything that he had in him and there had been nothing that he could.

Hank had felt that helpless twice in his life and both times it had ended with someone he loved in a wooden box and he was not going for a third.

"Boss?" Adam croaked and Hank realised that he had been silent for so long Vicky had been able to climb into bed next to him and Meredith had tucked them both under the covers. Already the girls eye was dropping shut again. Clearly whatever had happened Adam was part of the safe space she had created. He was how she stayed safe. If Doctor Charles wanted to come for this kid, if Sharon regained on thirty years of friendship by calling CPS Hank was going to have this hospital up on drug charges so fast their heads would spin under the paperwork.

"Adam?"

For a second they stared at each other and then Adam closed his eyes for a second before opening them and before he could blink Hank was back around to his other side bending down so the kid had nowhere to look at but at him.

"Adam…I wasn't angry you know. Never was angry. Just confused. And we sorted it. So we were good. We still are okay?"

Adam watched him for a second and then nodded though Hank could see he wasn't entirely sure if he believed it. He caught Al's eye and Al shrugged once still not taking his eyes off Adam who was still out of it still.

"Boss" Kim muttered. "What are we going to do about?" she gestured quietly to Vicky. "You know CPS will have to know we have an unaccompanied minor and how much do you want to bet someone downstairs has called them—"

"She can come live with us" Meredith said and her tone broke no refusal not that Al was going to give one. Both Al and Hank had learnt a long time ago that when that tone of voice was used it was best not to argue.

"I have Lexie…I have a room spare and she can come and stay with us and then if you want Adam you can come and recover there. Your going to need someone to look after you and my guess if your friends want to find the piece of…" she twisted her words when she realised Vicky was still awake and it was almost comical to watch.

"That thing that has done this to you"

Adam blinked again. Clearly it didn't surprise him that his own family was AWOL and when Hank got his hands on Bob Ruzek…seriously he would murder the entire city to get Justin back no matter how damaged and Ruzek couldn't…

It was beyond him it really was.

"Wow" Adam said softly. "That's real nice of you Mrs Olinsky but I…I don't want to be too much trouble to you all"

Oh Dear God.

He could hear Camille in his head and he had to bite down his response that if Adam didn't go home with Al he was coming home with Hank.

"Don't be daft kid" Al said softly. "I've…we've spent six months looking for you, you think we are going to let you go now? Come back home Adam and let Meredith take care of you"

"And it is Meredith" Meredith ruled quietly. "You call me Mrs Olinsky again Adam and I swear I will never let you hear the end of it"

Adam looked around at all of them as if he was a little bemused at what was going on and then he nodded.

Perhaps he sensed this was not a battle that he could win.

"Okay" he said quietly. "But I don't want to be any kind of trouble. I know I can be a handful"

He was going to throw Bob Ruzek off the nearest bridge and then for good measure throw his ex-wife off with him.

And the sister, Hank don't forget the sister who got him into this mess.

"Your not going to be any kind of trouble" Meredith said her eyes flashing with the thought of violence (Hank had to admit it was kind of nice to not be the one on the end of that look).

"Face it kid" he said and he wrapped his own hand around Adam's and took it as a good thing that Adam didn't pull away.

"Your family. And we always look out for family"

And this time Adam's smile was a bit more real.

Hank would take a victory where he could get one. And that, that smile? Believe him, that was a victory he would take.

And there you go, hope you enjoy.

Next Chapter-There is a break in the case, kind of, Adam tries to deal with the news he has been given. Al helps...kinda of...so does Kevin.