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.
The Spirit That I Have Seen
AU: In which after his confrontation with Voight and Al about Woods, Adam wakes up next to a dumpster. That in itself is not a thing, the problem is the blood, the child next to him and the look in Kevin's eyes when he tells him he has been missing for six months. TRIGGER WARNINGS, Adam/Kim, Jay/Hailey.
Chapter 1-World On Fire.
It's all just darkness and pain, and the sniffing next to him, and that's how Adam wakes up.
Adam wakes next to a dumpster.
He wakes up face down in the dirt curled up on the floor his whole body aching like he's been tasered and prodded and poked.
Seriously he knew Voight was gonna be pissed but seriously? Even if Voight did let this happen how did Al let it?
Because you betrayed them comes the voice that sounds wonderfully like a sneering Bob Ruzek, you betrayed the badge, the blue, you stabbed them in the back. Your lucky you're not dead.
Come to think of it with Hank Voight there's a point to that one.
But this isn't the worst place that he comes to in and that does say a lot about his life. He flips his eyes open and then groans and shuts them again and he thinks he is going to be sick so instead he just lies there watching his hands and the dirt that is crusted in them until he is sure he is not going to puke all down himself.
But it's the whimpering that gets him.
The sniffing and the whimpering and he knows that's not him (at least he hopes that it's not him) and because he is a cop (though for how much longer who knows) he is trained to respond to the sound of someone in pain and so with an agonising slowness he forces himself to his elbows and then to his knees and then…like it a bad sushi roll his stomach gives one final heave of protest and he throws up all over the floor.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
He turns and collapses against the back wall wiping his mouth on his hand and he pauses. There's blood on the back of his hand and he stares at it with dirt encrusted hands. He has no fucking idea why he is…Jesus did they beat him enough to make him bleed from the inside out?
Well if that's the case then they've probably told the whole unit. They've probably told everyone what Woods had asked him to do, what Woods had made him do and he thinks tears in his eyes that that is it, that's the end of Adam's career. He knows he doesn't have his badge on him, hell he doesn't have his shirt on or…
Oh fuck.
He's in his boxers.
In Chicago, bleeding, in winter with no shoes, no socks, no badge, no gun, no phone, no nothing.
And this time it's not just tears that are making his whole body rack with shivers.
He vaguely remembers it being summer the last case he worked.
He shift a little wincing as something hits his dirty feet. He stares at the marks on his ankles like chains holding him down and he sees the small hand patting his ankle and his eyes strain in the darkness. There is nothing but a dim street lamp and it's nowhere near him and so he strains his eyes and drags up whatever cop is left in him and forces past his chattering teeth.
"Hello?"
There's another sniffing and a whimpering noise and then…
"Hello" he tries again and he tries to make his voice sound as normal as possible. "Hi there, my name is Adam…I'm…I'm a police officer…you…err…you want to tell me your name? It's okay if you don't, but it's very cold and I think we need to go somewhere warm."
And like he was dealing with a scared cat he held out his hand on the floor.
Very slowly the hand on his ankle, the child's hand, the very small child's hand if the hand on his ankle was anything to go by let go and then came back into view. Adam stayed as still as he could his whole body shaking with the wind and his teeth chattering as finally the kid trusted him enough to come into view.
It was hard work to keep his face straight. The kid…the girl…couldn't be more than six ish and she had mass of dirty matted hair that could have been blonde or could have been brown it was just that hard to tell. One eye which was shockingly blue was swollen shut and her lip was split wide open as if her little teeth had been digging into them. He smiled at her trying to remember what they had taught him in the academy about working with children and she shifted forwards and he could see skin rubbed raw on her wrists and handprints and bruises on her arm and he didn't know what had happened but…but something had happened to this kid.
She shifted forwards again and from what he could of her face it was milk white and she was shaking, she was dressed in a thin jumper that might have been a man's and came down to her knees which were scraped and bloody and bruised and Adam smiled at her again trying to indicate that he was not a threat. Her feet were bare too and she shifted again coming closer to him and then she burrowed in by his side and forgetting all of his training he slipped his arm around her and let her rest her head against his chest and for a second they both shuddered there together.
He didn't know what had happened but clearly something had and his brain was too tired, to bloodied, to cold to register anything other than the pain in his ribs and his arms and the small child curled up next to him shivering into his chest and sniffing into his arm. He leaned his head against brick and then forced the smile back onto his face.
Right now this kid couldn't be the strong one, that had to be him. That absolutely had to be him.
"Okay" he says trying to smile. "Okay that's really good sweetheart, thank you for trusting me. My name is Adam…do you…do you know what yours is?"
There was a pause and with a swooping, sickening feeling of something that once would have been rage and now was just exhaustion, Adam realised that she had to be thinking about it.
"Vicky" she said quietly. "My name is Victoria…I think…but everyone used to call me Vicky"
Vicky.
Right that was something.
"Vicky" he says into the night. "That's a right pretty name…Vicky do you know what happened?"
Her head shook side to side.
"Vicky do you know what happened to me? Or to you?"
He wasn't sure, still if this was some kind of thing from Hank and Al, everything up to Vicky's arrival felt like Hank and Al but the truth was he couldn't be sure. He certainly didn't think they had done anything to this child next to him but maybe they had not known that she was here when they dumped him…that being said that sounded like exceptionally poor planning on their part and whatever you thought of them Hank Voight and Alvin Olinsky planned and planned well. Otherwise they would both be making licence plates somewhere, or pushing up daisies.
He swallowed and his throat was dry.
"Vicky I aint gonna lie to you, I don't remember anything about getting here? Do you?"
"I…don't know" she said quietly. "I don't remember…I think…I think I was pricked with something but I don't know what. My arm hurts"
Right…that was something to go on. If they had been together, or if she had come separately then she had been drugged.
"Are you really a cop?" she asked looking up at him titling her head in the only light that was on offer so that her face and the cuts and the bruises were on show. Adam saw that there was a handprint around her neck and her ear was red and bleeding as if someone had grabbed it and this time instead of the rage he felt utter sadness. He didn't dare look at him but there was a wetness under him that made him think that he was bleeding from somewhere and that was never good. .
He had to call someone, even for Vicky's sake if not for himself. He had to get her to a hospital. He didn't know who to call though or if he could find a payphone or if he could even flag down a passing patrol car. Hell at this point he didn't think he could move.
And anyways who would he call?
If his theory about Voight and Al was right then he suspected they had gone home to find the team and tell them and then who would come out for him. Antonio? Jay maybe if he explained about his sister. Hailey? Well he didn't know her well enough to know. Kim?
At that though he had to swallow and blink back tears. He couldn't let Kim see him like this, he couldn't look at her and see disgust in her eyes and he couldn't look at her and see pity in them either. She'd come for Vicky he was sure of it but he wasn't going to push it either.
God he was going to be sick again.
He bit his lip and let the pain numb him a little more. He had stopped shivering now and he didn't know much about hypothermia but he was guessing from what he had seen that time that Kim had made him sit through Titanic, that this was what it felt like.
Either way, not good.
He paused and then…
Well there was Kevin.
Kevin his best friend, Kevin who had been his brother, his best friend, his drinking buddy, his priest, the Al to his Voight. Kevin who had a sister who would come out for Vicky and maybe if he was lucky give him a ride to the hospital as well or at the very least bring him some clothes.
"Okay" he said and then with an effort that he didn't think he had he reached forwards and grabbed the top of the dumpster and pulled himself up catching himself on the edge. Vicky followed and she took his hand and something from that seemed to give him strength. He didn't dare look back, didn't dare look back at the mess that was sure to be behind him because if he did then he was going to falter but he gripped Vicky's hand and he limped around the edge of the dumpster to stare at the now deserted street.
And it was snowing too.
Oh and had Adam mentioned that his knee was totally fucked as well?
The kid looked at him and he nodded at her encouragingly but if truth be told he didn't know what the fuck he was supposed to do next. He needed to find someone but he had no idea who he was looking for or what he was supposed to do and then…
"Payphone"
"What?"
Vicky uses her free hand and she pointed at the payphone that Adam had never seen before and he stared at it and wondered weather or not it simply had dropped from the sky like a gift from the great beyond. At this point nothing would shock him.
"Thank you God" is all he says and then…
"Shit…sorry kid, I don't have any money"
"I do"
He turns and she's holding out one dollar.
"You were asleep a long time" was all she said and Adam takes it and he can feel tears burning down his face and he wipes his face with his arm roughly and forces himself under control before he collapses. He's made it this far, for her sake if for nothing else he has to make it to the end and so with that he puts one foot in front of the other and the two of them very slowly make it to the payphone.
"Adam?"
"Yeah honey"
"Your bleeding"
"Yeah I know honey…from where?"
"Looks like your underwear"
Adam pauses. He's been steadfastly ignoring the pain that's down his lower back and his legs, compared to his ribs and his knee it's been child's play but he looks down into the face of this child who is looking at him with that one eye that she can see from and suddenly the bright flare of hope on her face fades and he feels like a complete and utter dick.
He can't panic, he can't, he can't…
He can't feel anything.
Shock.
He thinks. God his thoughts are running away from him and he has to choke back bile. He spits once onto the ground and then turns to Vicky who is watching him with her one good eye wide and open in her face. He smiles at her and she smiles back though for both of them its more a pained grimace.
"Help the old man kiddo?" he says at some light attempt at humour and he gets a smile in response and together they make it to the phone box. He does what he has to do to get it working and he patiently dials Kevin's number. He doesn't know what time it is, doesn't know if Kevin will be at the office or not, doesn't know if Kevin will even let him speak but he has to hope with everything he has with him that his friend will listen long enough for Adam to tell him that there is a child out here.
It rings once, twice, three times.
"Lo?"
Adam could cry.
Actually fuck that he does. He let's out a rough sob and he has to let go of Vicky's hand to wipe his face.
"Kev?"
For a second Kevin doesn't speak and Adam can feel the breakdown happen and he knows that his friend isn't going to come and he can't…he just can't, his knee gives out and he falls to the floor crying hysterically unable to stop and so he misses the gasp down the phone that's still connected and he missed the sound of his best friend kicking back his chair with enough force to send it flying across the bullpen.
And he absolutely misses the calling of his name.
"Adam? Ruzek? Ruz? ADAM!"
Yeah, he misses all that.
He doesn't realise until later, that he's missed a lot more.
And yeah there you go, I don't know how much it takes to place a call in a payphone so let's just say it's a dollar.
Next Chapter-Vicky doesn't know what is going on but she thinks that someone better answer the man screaming down the phone and she figures it may as well be her.
