forevermore , antonio dawson

thirteen.

━━━

Pulpo sent them on in a circle, knowing Munoz wasn't gonna be there in the first place. He wanted them to do his dirty work for him, "This is Pulpo's baby mama and son, Osberto." Jay told Voight and Antonio.

"She here 'cause she wants to be here?" Antonio asked.

"No. We leaned on her. She's got a failure to appear off a DUI." Erin stated.

"Maybe played up possible jail time," Jay added and Voight patted his shoulder.

"You watch the kid." He told Ariella, and she nodded. She walked into the room, "Can you come with me, please, ma'am?" Voight asked Lina. She stood up hesitantly, grabbing her stuff. Ariella took her spot, sitting down next to the kid.

"Looks like it's just gonna be me and you for a while, little buddy." She smiled at the boy.

"Is my mom in trouble?" Osberto asked and Ariella sighed, struggling to find the right words.

"There's a bad man, and we're trying to stop him from doing more bad things, and your mom's helping us." She tried to explain it in the simplest way.

"Okay." He nodded.

"Okay? It's all right. Okay?" She reassured. He stood up, and hugged her, "Oh." She hugged him, back surprised, but accepting the hug.

━━━

"8:00 A.M. be suited up and ready to go," Antonio announced to all of them.

"And we believe Pulpo?" Al asked.

"What is it Jay likes to say? He's the best of a lot of bad options." Antonio said.

"So we're just supposed to take his word for it even after he lied..." Antonio banged on his desk, causing Ariella, who was sitting in the break room to gasp and looked up, and everyone else to jump.

"You think I want to be dealing with this prick? Every day I look across the desk and I see a chair where my partner used to sit, and she ain't here because of him." Antonio stormed off.

━━━

Ariella and Antonio were walking out of the precinct. He opened the door for her and she smiled, "Ariella." She turned to where she heard her name being called.

"Charlie." She looked at him shocked and surprised.

"I'm back." He told her. Antonio looked between the two of them confused.

"I'll, uh, I'll meet you at the car," Ariella told her husband, still looking at Charlie, shocked to see him.

"You sure?" Antonio asked, not really wanting to leave her alone.

"Yeah, I'm good." She nodded and sent him a reassuring smile. He walked out of the door, but not before looking Charlie up and down once more.

"Boyfriend?" Charlie asked as soon as Antonio was gone.

"Doesn't matter." She told him.

"No hug? Come on. Come on." He asked, and she sighed, walking down the steps and hugging him, "All right. Okay, where's the badge? I'm not gonna believe it till I see the badge. Come on." She pulled up her shirt, and showed him her badge that was attached to her waistband, "I still don't believe it." He scoffed

"It's funny how life works out, huh?" She crossed her arms, "You're not supposed to be in Chicago, Charlie."

"It's been long enough. I missed everybody, missed you and Erin, and, uh... well, I don't need to explain myself. I wanted to come back." She was waiting for the question she knew was coming, "You still in touch with Annie?"