Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 120

It was the morning of President McMahon's visit to Chicago, less then two days after the earthquake had caused significant damage to the city. Ahead of the President's arrival, the Intelligence staff, apart from Vega and Lindsay, had joined up with Secret Service agents, as they had been ordered to.

They had been briefed on their role in proceedings again, as if the briefing they had gotten the day before might have somehow been forgotten. What their assignment boiled down to was show up in uniform, and be seen and not heard unless there was a direct threat to the commander-in-chief. Only then would they have to step in to help out the Secret Service.

"I bet we don't even get to meet the President," Raquel Gonzalez grumbled. She was in a squad car with Halstead, part of the convoy heading to O'Hare ahead of Air Force One landing.

"Probably not. Are you fangirling over there, Raquel?"

"No," she snapped back at him, almost as if humour at her expense didn't register. "I voted for her and I agree with what she stands for."

"Didn't expect a Mexican to say that," he countered. McMahon's strict border policies were a contentious issue.

"What, a Mexican whose family came here legally? A Mexican with a dad who worked himself half to death to feed us, but was never anything but honest? Yes, I object to illegal immigrants, and I object to drug traffickers. You got a problem with that?"

"Hey, calm down," Halstead said, using his tone to lower the temperature that had risen so quickly. He made a mental note that his partner really did not like being challenged, even over a fairly trivial topic of conversation.

There was silence between them for a couple of minutes. Halstead concentrated on driving, figuring he would leave her to cool off.

"Jay?" she ventured.

"Yeah?" he said openly, leaving the little heated moment behind them.

"We, uh, never managed to get you and Erin over for dinner. We talked about it, but it never happened. I'd like it if we could. I mean..." She paused for a moment. "I don't have any friends."

In that moment, Halstead felt a bit guilty. It was easy to look at Raquel and think of her as some kind of emotionless amazon warrior or something. But of course she had feelings the same as anyone else, and he could easily imagine why someone who had spent so much of their life undercover wouldn't have much in the way of personal connections in 'the real world'. Even though she had Vega, everyone needed friends in life in addition to their partner.

"Sure, we can come over one night soon," he agreed. "We're in the house now, so all of that is out of the way. I'll talk to Er and sort out a night."

"Great. I'd like to be friends with you."

He got the impression that she meant him, not both him and Erin. Her boss becoming friends with her maybe seemed unlikely to her. Or maybe she just didn't really know how to make connections with people.

"I'd like that too," he said. "Your life hasn't given you much of a chance to make friends since everything happened with your sister, huh?"

"No. Honestly? I don't really know how to make friends. Bayley Martinez is probably the closest I've come, and of course I knew that wasn't real friendship because one day I would have to turn on her. My life has been a weird one. Getting a chance to settle down now with Z makes me happy, but I would still like some friends."

"Of course. Well, as I said I'll speak to Er and we'll come over to your place one night. Looking forward to seeing your hosting skills in action."

Gonzalez laughed, and because she did, Halstead laughed too.