Y/n's POV
"So you're doing this with every officer from CPD?" I question and take a seat in front of the interviewer.
"Yes," the woman replied. "And I'm just simply asking questions designed to forecast future problems."
"To predict the future?" I ask.
"No. This is just another supplement to Early Intervention Strategy," the woman clarified.
"Right, to predict if I'm going to do something stupid on the job in the future. What happens if I answer a question wrong?" I quiz.
"There is no wrong. Any answer would just help us understand you and who you are," the woman responded. "So how do you like your coffee?" I frowned. That kind of threw me off. Why were they asking about my coffee order?
"Uh, milk, two sugars," I answer.
"And have you always taken it that way?" the woman asked.
I nodded. "Yep. Every morning." And the questions continued, her asking a question and me answering it.
Her: "Have you ever used a racial slur?"
Me: "Wow. That's one hell of a jump. The answer is no. I haven't."
Her: "Have you ever heard a family member use a racial slur?"
Me: "It's possible, but unlikely."
Her: "Would you say you have a good relationship with your family?"
Me: "Very much so. I'm extremely close with them."
Her: "Do you consider the police force your family?"
Me: "Those in my unit, sure. Everyone else I don't know, no."
Her: "Have you ever felt what you would categorize as anger issues?"
Me: "I hope not."
Her: "What about trauma?"
Me: "Yes. Too much, to be honest."
Her: "Have you experienced post-traumatic stress?"
Me: "A little bit every now and then."
Her: "Have you ever made a mistake on the job?"
Me: "Depends on what you view as a mistake. I do what I believe is right."
Her: "Have you ever had to fire your weapon?"
Me: "Every damn week."
Her: "Have you ever killed someone?"
Me: "More than I'd like to admit."
Her: "Have you ever felt fear on the job?"
Me: "Countless times."
Her: "Do you believe you are the wrong fit for this job?"
Me: "I believe everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, me included."
Her: "Are you proud to be an officer of the Chicago Police Department?"
Me: "Not all of the time, but sometimes, yeah. The job makes me feel like I'm doing good for the city."
Her: "Do you believe you're capable, worthy, right?"
Me: "Capable and worthy, sure. Right, well, that depends on my view compared to everyone else's."
........................................
"Was it just me, or did that feel a little personal?" I ask Hailey, Adam, and Kevin as we walked into the district together.
"It definitely wasn't just you," Adam replied as we walked up the stairs to get to the bullpen.
"Hey, guys," Jay called out and waved us into the wire room.
"What's going on? We got a case?" Hailey questioned.
"An officer-involved shooting. A bad one," Kim admitted.
"What happened?" Kevin quizzed.
"A buddy of mine in patrol sent over this civilian witness video. Somebody caught it on a cell phone," Jay spoke and nodded to Kim, who played the video. The video showed a police officer with his gun pointed at a black kid, who was arguing that he did nothing wrong, but the officer thought otherwise. When the kid didn't want to raise his hands, the officer shot him 4 times. I stared at the computer screen, trying hard to understand what was going through the officer's mind, but I couldn't. There was no valuable explanation for what just went down.
"Did the kid die?" Kevin asked.
Jay nodded. "On the pavement." As all of us made our way into the bullpen, we came across Superintendent Miller, who was waiting with Voight at the head of the office.
"I'm assuming you all saw the video. It's not yet viral, but we will be putting every officer on immediate 12s. We expect mass protests and violence, so we will move fast. Officer Atwater, Officer Ruzek, I want you to go to Officer Wheelan's home and arrest him for murder," Miller ordered. So Adam and Kev went to go arrest Officer Wheelan, but after that, we discovered a problem. A big problem.
"Adam, Kev?" I ask into the phone.
"Yeah, Y/n, we made the arrest. We're in transit," Adam told me.
"Well, we've got a problem. There's a video we didn't know about. Jeff Duncan had an app on his phone that recorded the traffic stop and sent the full video to all of his emergency contacts. The video's gone viral. We've got unruly crowds at headquarters, City Hall, the jails, and south detention. We've also got death threats against Wheelan," I add.
"Okay, Y/n, what are you telling us here?" Adam questioned.
"I'm saying you can't bring him in yet. Not until we clear this out. Sorry," I say and type away at my computer. "There's a safe house about ten minutes from you. I'm going to send you everything right now. Just stay there, and we'll be quick, all right?"
"Okay. Copy that," Adam said.
.....................................
"Sarge, our guys got ambushed," Jay informed us as he entered the bullpen, holding his radio up to his lips. "Are you guys okay? I heard the whole thing over the radio."
"Yeah, somebody hit the safehouse," Adam replied.
"What the hell does he mean, hit?" Kim asked. "Are you all right?"
"Uh, we're fine. We hit one of the shooters, maybe two. Both were masked. I mean, the place was clearly compromised," Adam spoke. "They were there to kill Wheelan."
"Adam, are you still at the house?" Voight questioned.
"No, we're driving. Patrol said they were a minute out, but driving feels safer right now," Adam claimed.
"Okay, we are heading to the safe house now, see what we can learn. Find a location off road, hang tight until we get you an escort, and use only your DCs to communicate," Voight ordered. At the crime scene, we all began to take a look around, and once we had seen everything we needed too, we grouped up. "What are we looking at?"
"It looks like Atwater caught him center mass. We've got no name yet. They just printed him, but I'm thinking we're going to get a pop because he's got prison tats," Jay admitted.
"Let me show you this, Sarge," I say and lead both him and Jay down the alleyway. "There's .32 caliber shell casings here. Then we've got 9 mil casings all the way over here, and then there's blood going down the gangway. So the second shooter, he's in the wind, but he's injured. They both had street sweepers, and they were coordinated, but they didn't care about crossfire. This is a do or die crew. We're probably not looking at teenage foot soldiers."
"And when did Miller get here?" Voight asked.
"Oh, she got here before us," Jay responded. Back at the district, I was grabbing a hoodie from the locker room when the door opened behind me, and Jay stepped inside.
"Hey," I greet and turn around to face him. "What's up?"
"I just remembered that you're going dress shopping this week," Jay told me and cornered me against my locker. "Am I going to be able to see the dress you pick out?"
I laughed and placed a hand on his chest. "No. You have to wait until the wedding."
"Yeah? Well maybe I can convince you somehow," Jay murmured and kissed me passionately. I smiled against his lip and leaned more into his touch, but we were quickly interrupted as Hailey peeked her head into the room.
"Uh, hey. Sorry to interrupt," Hailey cut in. "But Voight wants to speak to us."
"Right," I mumble and distance myself from Jay. "Lets go and see what he wants." Hailey led Jay and I to Voight's office, where Kim was already waiting.
"Ruzek and Atwater can't move until we determine that leak wasn't inside. So who the hell is going after Officer Dave Wheelan?" Voight questioned.
"So, mobile techs just sent over the fingerprint card on our dead shooter. Ray Macks, 25. Gangs has him hooked up with the Rollin' Reapers. His boss, T-J Jones, just so happens to be the half-brother of Jeff Duncan. T-J runs a crew of hired guns. They think of themselves as the 'police of gangland'," Kim informed us.
"So T-J's half-brother gets killed by a police officer, and he sends two of his guys to kill that police officer," Jay clarified. "He's keeping order on the street."
"We got anything on T-J?" Hailey quizzed.
"No, no open warrants, no longer on probation, I seriously doubt he's carrying. I mean, Gangs has been on it for a while, but they have nothing to arrest him on," Kim answered.
"Yeah, well, he knows our second shooter, so we're gonna make him talk to us anyway. Jay, you and me," Voight commanded.
"So, dress shopping," Kim brought up as Jay and Voight left the bullpen.
"It's tomorrow afternoon, unless I need to reschedule," I say and take a seat at my desk. "But I really don't want to push it back anymore, so lets hope this case finishes up by tonight."
..............................................
"TJ's alibi is rock solid. He's definitely not our second shooter," Jay told Voight as him and Hailey as they came back from interviewing TJ.
"Did his lawyer show yet?" Voight asked.
Jay nodded. "He's already threatening to sue. He says we brought T-J in unlawfully, and he wants a release right away."
"What about T-J's phone?" Voight questioned.
"We're good there. We downloaded everything. It's mostly burner phone contacts. The guy's really smart, but our OCD techs are on it," Kim answered.
"So we'll release him. Just get a tracker on his car and put a tac team on it too. We're going to take everything we've got and put it up against everything in T-J's phone. Believe me, that second shooter is going to be buried in there somewhere. Find him," Voight demanded. All of us got to work, trying to find anything that we could use to find our second shooter, and my work finally paid off.
"Hey, guys. I just got off with OCD tech," I announce. "They finally got something from POD footage. A silver SUV was caught on eight cameras. It was parked a block away from Dave Wheelan's house. Then they caught it two stoplights behind Atwater and Ruzek, and then it's right out front of our safehouse. The car is registered to an Antoinette Clark. She's 22, lives in Englewood. 63rd and Marquette."
"That's where our second shooter's phone is sitting right now," Kim stated.
"Get that guy in custody now. Let's go," Voight said. So we headed to that address and got the second shooter, meaning it was okay for Adam and Kevin to bring Wheelan in. Except there was a problem. We had a third guy in on this, so Adam and Kevin still weren't safe. We told them to take cover, and we'd be heading right over. When we finally arrived at Adam and Kevin's location, Wheelan was dead. Apparently, he sacrificed himself so that TJ, our third shooter, wouldn't hurt Adam or Kev.
"Hey. You okay?" I ask Adam. Adam nodded, so I turned to Kevin. "Kev?"
"Yeah. I'm fine," Kevin muttered. The next afternoon, it was time for me to go dress shopping for the wedding, and Hailey and Kim accompanied me to the store. I wanted my mom and sister to be there as well, but both of them were busy. We found the bridesmaid dress pretty quickly, and Hailey and Kim both loved it, so we decided that it was the one.
The wedding dress took a bit of work. I had tried a few on already, but none of them seemed to be the right one. I had just put on another dress, and it fit really well. It was also my style, so that was a plus. I stepped out of the dressing room to show Hailey and Kim the dress, and spun around.
"What do you guys think?" I quiz.
"Y/n, if you don't get this dress, I will kill you," Kim exclaimed, to which Hailey nodded.
"You guys like it?" I ask and glance at myself in the mirror.
"You look amazing, and I'm sure Jay will love it as well," Hailey pointed out.
"All right then. I think I've found my dress," I claim. After buying the wedding dress, and putting in the order for the bridesmaid dresses, I headed home. I walked into the apartment with the box containing the dress in my hands, and Jay looked up from the couch as I entered.
"Hey," Jay greeted and stood up, making his way over to me. "Is that the dress?"
"Yes, but you can't see it," I retort and hold the box away from him.
"Come on! Not even one peak?" Jay questioned.
"No. You have to wait for the wedding," I tell him. "Hey, did you get your psych results back?"
"Yeah. Detective Halstead has a reckless behavior which could compromise those around him. This could be problematic," Jay told me. "You?"
"Detective L/n gets too emotionally attached to cases in the line of work. This could be problematic," I repeat from the email I had gotten earlier.
"I'd rather just forget about those results to be honest. You want to get some takeout?" Jay asked.
"After the day I've had, I could use some good food, so sure. I'm down for whatever you want," I claim.
"Deep dish it is," Jay said and picked up his phone.