Chicago PD: Hank Voight's Forbidden Love

SWEET SIXTEEN

It was Elena's 16th  birthday. She felt she had reached a milestone. While legally she was too young to drink, she didn't care about that. She had tasted alcohol once when she took a sip of Bourbon out of her uncle's liquor cabinet, and spit it out. She couldn't understand how anyone could drink that stuff. She wouldn't be one of them. End of story.

Voight asked her where she wanted to go for her birthday, and without hesitation she said Pappadeaux, a Cajun restaurant in Westmont where she and her Uncle Mike went every year for his birthday. It was his favorite restaurant, so celebrating his birthday had become a tradition with them.

"That's fine," said Voight, "but what's your favorite restaurant?"

"Ron of Japan in Northbrook."

"So let's go there," he said. "It's your birthday."

"I would rather go to Pappadeaux," she said quietly.
"In honor of Uncle Mike."

Voight was chagrined. Of course she would rather go to Mike's favorite restaurant. The only restaurant that would be of any significance to her would be the one her uncle loved.

"Of course, Kitten, Pappadeaux it is. And who should we invite?"

"Everyone," she said excitedly. "My ensemble—
Midian, Mark, Byron, Leonard, and Bradford —
and the entire Intelligence Unit — Kevin, Jay, Adam, Hailey, and Kim — and of course Trudy."

Voight smiled. "You got it. I'll make the reservations. You contact your friends once I get the time, and I'll let everyone else know. It'll be a real blast."

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Everyone showed up. They had a room to themselves, but every diner in the restaurant could hear their laughter and animated and raucous  conversation that filtered out of  that room.

Elena sat at the head of the table, and Voight sat at the other end. Kevin Atwater sat to her right, and her best friend, Midian, sat to her left. She looked like a girl queen holding court. Everyone was having a wonderful time celebrating the birthday of this beautiful and charming young woman they had all come to adore. Never in her life had she been surrounded by this much love, she thought.

The conversation turned to colleges. Everyone knew Elena had been applying  to colleges the last several months and was accepted at three of them: the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Howard University in Washington D.C. She would be graduating from high school early and had been spending the past 6 months researching colleges across the country.

"Have you made a choice yet?" Atwater asked. His little sister, Vanessa, was in her third year of college at Tuskegee University in Alabama, and he couldn't have been prouder.

"Actually, I just decided last night," she said as she looked at her friend, Midian. "I called Mid last night, so he was the first to know."

"Yes, she called me, but I knew where she was going to go long before she knew it," said Midian as he reached over and affectionately stroked Elena's cheek.

That stroke did not go unnoticed by Voight, and without realizing it he shot the young man a murderous glance. He quickly recovered himself, however, and looked around to see if anyone had noticed. No one had. Except Trudy. Their eyes met momentarily before they both turned their attention back to the conversation at the other end of the table.

"So what's it gonna be?" asked Adam. "Inquiring minds want to know."

Elena looked at Midian and nodded. "Go on, tell them," she said.

"Howard University," said Midian. "I'm going, too. I got my acceptance letter last month, so I'll be able to keep an eye on my little sister here."

"And I'll be able to keep an eye on my big brother here," Elena giggled as she playfully punched the young man on his arm.