All Our Own • Halstead.

3| FINDING DIEGO

"Dawson. Look, whatever you need, you have my support." Antonio nodded in appreciation and walked past him. Marina followed, looking back and seeing Voight send her a look as she then follows after her new partner.

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After a failed attempt at catching Ernest Milpas, and Antonio taking out his anger on Ruzek resulting in Marina restraining him, the unit was inside the building watching a video Jin managed to pull up.

Marina sighed as she saw little Diego restrained on a chair with tape over his mouth. "Grita y le cortamos la lengua." Marina cringed at the threat and cast a look down at her new partner. Antonio was crouching in front of the computer, a hand over his mouth.

"Translation."

"Scream, and we cut out your tongue," Marina answered. As her family was from Puerto Rico and Guatemala, and her spending a lot of time with her family there, Marina was fluent in Spanish and understood everything, so it wasn't a surprise for anyone there that she translated what the kidnappers were saying effortlessly.

The man behind the camera ripped the duct tape from Diego's face, allowing the little boy to finally say something. "Daddy. They say they're gonna kill me, daddy." After that, the tape went back to his mouth as Diego squirmed, trying to get away from the man.

"Check out the paneled wall." Jay pointed to the screen, and the team inched forward to inspect the image. "That's not here." Marina sighed as they now were even more than one step behind Pulpo and his men.

Once they were back at the precinct, Voight had them looking through some paperwork to find anything that could be useful. "All right, go through these one by one. See if anyone crosses with Pulpo or Ernest." He then placed a stack of folders on Jay's arms. "These are mine."

Marina stifled a laugh at Jay's face, earning a playful glare from the man. She rolled her eyes and extended her hand for him to give some of those to her. He smiled and handed her half of Voight's files.

"Okay, look, remember, the red-tabbed files are the Cis that have been paid out, okay?" Jin said. "And you.. hey, no, no, no. Those don't go in that pile. You gotta keep it separate, or you're gonna get it confused with the other ones and you—" Voight stopped Jin's rambling to Adam.

"Jin!"

The man looked at his boss. "Yeah?"

"What you got so far on the video?"

Marina turned the page of her folder, still keeping close attention to what Jin was explaining to Voight. "It was recorded last night. There are some other voices in the distance on the audio track, so there's reason to believe that it was in a public place. Backroom of a bar, maybe a motel. It's really not much to go on, though."

"Halstead, Cuevas, come here a sec." Marina closed the file and placed it on the desk she was seating on and walked to the corner of the room with Jay following her. "In case we're considering a trade, I want you to check out these locations. Sightlines, sniper spots, the works." He wrote it down on a piece of paper.

"Are you considering negotiating?" Jay asked.

"Just check it out," Voight ripped the paper from his notepad and handed it to Marina before leaving the two. She shrugged her shoulders and walked out of the room and to the car, settling herself in the driver's seat.

"Can I drive?" Marina laughed and started the car as soon as Jay closed the door. "Neither Erin nor you let me drive," Jay says, starting a conversation with the woman.

"Bad luck," she answers, "Don't worry, your time will come."

The rest of the car ride was smooth. There were small moments when silence consumed them but most of the time they were chatting away, mostly talking to get to know each other better as they've never had a proper conversation just the two of them.

They arrived at the destination faster than any of them assumed and started canvassing the area for the spots Voight told them. Jay was taking pictures with the black camera while Marina had a notebook in hand drawing and marking places.

"All right, put snipers there and there," Jay states as he takes pictures and points at the rooftops. "And two more snipers in the windows there," he finishes as he points behind him. Marina nods and circles the areas in her notebook.

She lets out a frustrated sigh. Jay notices her discomfort and looks at her. "What is it?"

"Do you know what percentage of kidnappings end in a successful swap?" Jay shakes his head in denial. "Less than one percent."

Jay noticed how pissed off she looked and drew the conclusion that some cases, like ones involving kids, were hard on her for some reason. "It's just a contingency," he tried to reassure but he knew it didn't do much.

"Hey, um, I gotta ask you something."

Marina looked up from her notebook and nodded. "Shoot."

"How much do you know about Lindsay and Voight?"

Marina didn't know where this particular question came from, but she didn't know if she had the answer he was looking for. "Not much, honestly. I didn't really know them before coming to this unit. Why?"

"I found Erin's file as one of Voight's CIs."

Marina's eyes widened at the new information. "Wait, really?"

He nodded. "I just found it weird because we all know they have a relationship no one knows much about. So seeing her file threw me off a little."

"Jay, you're her partner. Ask her. Communication is the key to any relationship."

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Author's Note:
Pretty uneventful chapter but I swear things will start to pick up. I just need to establish some things and next chapter will be better.
Sorry for taking so long with this update, next one will come soon I promise.

Hope you enjoy and don't forget to vote and comment.

—A