explosion (jay halstead / one chicago)

chapter 21

liz's pov

"Chicago PD. Hands where we can see them."

I put up my hands and slowly turned to face Erin and Antonio, who were quickly coming towards us with their guns raised. I knew Kim and Jay were approaching from the opposite direction, and Voight and Ruzek weren't far away either, but I opted to face Erin, the person that had called out, in order to not draw too much attention to the others. I quickly glanced over at Hugo. He had put his hands in the air and didn't look like he was going to fight back. Before I could start to wonder what Vince was doing behind my back, I learned the hard way. Suddenly, his arm was around my neck and he was pointing his gun at my head.

I exchanged a quick glance with Erin and tried to continue breathing steadily despite the panic building up inside me. "What the hell are you doing?" I hissed at Vince. His gun felt cold against my skin and his arm around my neck made it even harder to stay calm as I suffered from lack of space I desperately needed to function properly. "Getting us both out of here," Vince answered. At least, his words assured me that he was not going to kill me unless there was no other choice left. He had no idea the police was here because of me.

"Hands up, throw the gun away," Erin shouted firmly. "Let the girl go," Antonio added. "They won't hesitate to shoot you," I warned Vince, although I cared more about him taking down the weapon than him not getting shot. "Just shut up, I got this," he replied in an angry tone. He really thought he was in control of the situation. "I don't think so," someone said behind us, followed by an all too familiar chuckle. Jay. Finally. I could visualize him pointing his gun at Vince's head and I would have loved to see it. But for now, all that mattered was that he was here and going to free me.

"Chicago PD. Lower your weapon. Let the girl go. Or I'll blow your fucking brains out." If the situation wasn't on the edge, I would have probably laughed at Jay's words. But there was a gun pointed at my head, and it didn't seem like Vince was going to listen any time soon. I tried to calm myself down by remembering that Intelligence did things like these every day. At least from what I had heard. They knew what to do.

Indeed, the very next second, Jay was forcefully pulling Vince back and knocking the gun out of his hand, shouting a quick "Liz, run" at me while a physical fight broke out behind my back. Reacting immediately, I ran towards Erin and Antonio. Erin pushed me behind herself since she was wearing a vest, which I wasn't, and kept me there until she knew no shots were going to be fired in our direction. When I went to stand next to her again, Vince was on the floor with Kim pointing her gun at his head and Jay on top of him, punching him. I wasn't exactly a supporter of violence, but in this moment I didn't care. It didn't bother me one bit that my ex was being beaten up. After everything he had done to me, it might have even felt a slight bit relieving – to have someone stick up for me, and to finally be free. Antonio patted my back reassuringly, and I took a deep breath before stepping closer.

Jay was now on top of Vince, with his knees positioned on the floor to both sides of his upper body. Breathing heavily, he stared him down for a moment. Then he got up, pulling Vince up afterwards and handcuffing him. "You have the right to remain silent," he educated the newly arrested. "You better make use of that; else I might shut you up myself." Despite being bruised and cuffed, Vince didn't bat an eye when he spit in the sand in front of Jay's feet. He probably didn't know just how fucked he was. That or it was a manifestation of his weird understanding of manhood. "I'll take it from here." Erin grabbed Vince by the arm and exchanged a quick look with Jay before he came over to me.

"You okay?" he asked. It was obvious how angry he was at Vince, but right now he just sounded worried. I nodded slowly. I was fine physically, but my head was a huge mess. All that mattered now, however, was that everything had gone well. I quickly glanced over at Vince and made sure he was watching, then I did the first thing that came to my mind – I kissed Jay. He seemed startled at first but was quick to kiss me back. It felt relieving in a way. Like everything was finally moving into place. Like maybe, the storm that had been hanging over me for as long as I could remember was finally moving on, and the sun was about to come out from behind the dark clouds. When I pulled away, I looked at Vince again, sending him a triumphant smirk. "You wanted my boyfriend? You found him." Turning back to Jay, I smiled at him. "Thank you". Without another word, he pulled me into a tight hug.

I closed my eyes for a moment and just enjoyed having him close to me. I drowned out all the voices and sounds – Erin and Kim dragging Vince over to their car, Voight on the phone giving the order to free my mum, Adam and Antonio arresting Hugo. I felt my heart sting when I thought of my old friend. Throughout the mess that happened with Vince during the past few minutes, I had not once glanced over at Hugo after seeing him surrender to the police. Still hugging Jay, I opened my eyes again, squinting at the sunlight for a moment before making out Hugo, now handcuffed as well, looking at me. It hurt to see him like this. I just hoped that getting him a deal would work and that he wouldn't hate me forever. I mouthed a quiet "I'm sorry", and to my surprise, he nodded with a small smile. Maybe, after all, there was a chance we would be fine.

"Liz?" I took my eyes off Hugo and pulled away from Jay to look at Antonio. "Your mum is fine. She's being taken care of by paramedics now and questioned by the police in Madrid, but I'm sure you can call her tonight." I nodded, finally having no reason to worry anymore. "Thank you." Antonio patted my back and walked towards his car. Jay took my hand as we followed his colleague. "See." He smiled at me. "Told you it's gonna be alright."

jay's pov

Back at the station, we decided to talk to Hugo first. From what Liz had told us, we were hoping he would be willing to make a deal, and at the same time it would give Vince some time to think about what he had done. The rest of Intelligence and Liz stood behind the mirror while Voight and I entered the interrogation room. "Hugo Medina?" Voight questioned. The guy nodded. "I'm Sergeant Hank Voight, that's Detective Jay Halstead." I took off Hugo's handcuffs before I sat down next to Voight.

Hugo shifted in his seat. "Is – Is Elisa alright?" He seemed worried, and he studied me in a mixture of suspicion and curiosity. "She's next door. She's fine." Hugo looked relived. Then he cleared his throat "So, this was all a setup? Elisa is not doing any business in Chicago?" I leaned back in my chair. "No, she's a paramedic. She wore a wire, and we would have backed her up any minute." Hugo nodded. "Thank god." I chuckled. "I don't think we've ever had a suspect relieved hearing about an undercover operation and possible evidence." I quickly glanced over at Voight and he gave me a nod, confirming that I should go on.

"Liz, or Elisa if you prefer, says you're a good guy. We're not interested in putting good people behind bars. So here's how this will go. You cooperate and give us all we need to lock Vince up for a long time, we will figure out a deal. We will send you back to Spain and you won't face charges here or there. You don't cooperate, you'll be made responsible for all of this. Your choice." Hugo looked at me, then at Voight. Voight nodded affirmingly. "I give you my word for it."

A moment of silence passed. The tension in the air was tangible. We needed his confession; we needed his information so our plan would work out. Then Hugo took a deep breath. "I'll tell you everything I know."

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