A few weeks later, Maddie was back at school and things were returning to normal, she had reached out to Adam and they were now speaking daily. Adam was helping with the nightmares just like he did when she was younger and every time she closed her eyes she heard the gunshots.
"Yeah I know Adam, I've got to go." Maddie said into her phone as she walked into the district and up to the stairs. "Love you too." She said hanging up the phone before turning to her desk sergeant who looked amused at the conversation she had just overheard.
"Adam?" Platt asked, knowing it wasn't Ruzek but still intrigued.
"Old foster dad, we've just reconnected." Maddie said.
"Oh." Platt said, disappointed she didn't get the gossip she had expected.
"Can I go straight up? Is there anything you want me to take?" Maddie offered.
"Ruzek said he'd left something on your desk for you to look into and could you put these on Voight's desk." Platt said, turning to find the papers as someone else approached the desk from where he was sat waiting.
"She can take me up, then I won't be on my own." He said, Maddie looked over at him and was struck by how eerily familiar he looked.
"No chance, you're waiting till Jay gets here." Platt said, making him return to his seat.
"That isn't..." Maddie said, her gaze following the guy. "Is that?" She asked Platt ripping her eyes from him as Platt passed her a small stack of papers.
"Shoo." Platt said. "And send Jay down when he gets back."
"Yes boss." Maddie said with a nervous smile as she tucked the ring necklace into her jumper before turning and walking up the stairs.
---------
"Hey Minnie, did you look into that car?" Adam asked as the team came back through the back entrance, bypassing Platt.
"Yep, the results are on your desk." Maddie said, locking eyes with Jay before nodding towards the stairs, he understood and took off his jacket before walking over to the stairs where Maddie joined him.
"You okay?" He asked as Maddie handed him what appeared to be a folded piece of paper once they reached the gate.
"Platt wants to talk to you." Maddie said before disappearing back up the stairs, Jay unfolded the paper and found it was the picture of Maddie and her brother.
"Hey Sarge, what's up?" Jay asked, pushing the photo into his back pocket.
"He showed up about an hour ago, he's seen Minnie but I don't know if he knows." Platt explained nodding over to where Mouse was sat.
"How long have you been back?" Jay asked as he pulled his best friend into a hug.
"About a month." Mouse said, he could see Jay doing the maths of his discharge. "Honourable discharge, my mum was ill and as she's the only family I had left..."
"They let you go." Jay finished, leading him into the office where he had once been held hostage.
"Yeah." Mouse said.
"So what have you been doing?" Jay asked, both knowing that question meant are you clean.
"I stayed with my mum until she died two weeks ago." Mouse said. "She wanted me to find Maddie but I couldn't. I tried so hard, but mum made sure she couldn't be found eleven years ago."
"You should've reached out." Jay said, going to pull the photo from his back pocket.
"What use would it've been? I checked CPS records, there was nothing you could." Mouse stopped speaking as Jay placed the photo onto the desk. "Where did you... is she okay?" He asked, his thoughts immediately jumping to the worse case scenario.
"She's upstairs." Jay said.
"What? How? Why?" Mouse asked, multiple emotions crossing his expression. "I spoke to her..." Mouse said realising she was the girl at Platt's desk.
"Yeah, I'm guessing you did." Jay said.
"How did you find her?" Mouse asked, almost certain he had never mentioned Maddie to him.
"She found me." Jay said, remembering the day she had come into the district. "She ran an aging software on that photo, then ran it through the database. She showed up here asking for you, Platt said you weren't here so she left. I found her on a bench outside." Jay explained. "She was in an abusive foster home, he tried to rape her, pushed her down the stairs, she was terrified." Jay said.
"But she's out of there now right?" Mouse asked.
"I adopted her the next day, she's been living with me for about six months I think." Jay said.
"Thank you." Mouse said, hugging Jay again.
"It's the least I could do after everything you did for me." Jay said, patting Mouse on the back. "Do you want to meet her?" Jay asked.
"Only if it's okay with you both, I don't want to overstep." Mouse said.
"You're not overstepping, you're her brother." Jay said, leaving the office and going to get Maddie. "Mads." He said, sending her a smile as he grabbed her attention.
"Does he know?" Maddie asked.
"Halstead, we got the warrant, I want you running point." Voight ordered.
"I'll be fine." Maddie assured him.
"He's in the office downstairs." Jay said. "Call me if you need anything." Jay said as the team geared up and Maddie rushed down the stairs whilst pushing her phone into her back pocket.
"Hi." Maddie said, tentatively knocking on the open door.
"Hey." Mouse said, his mouth growing into a smile as he took in his little sister's appearance. "Come here." He said, standing up from where he had been leaning on the desk to wrap her in a tight hug. "You look so much like mum." Mouse said as he held her face in his hand. Maddie looked up at him hopefully but he shook his head. "You've just got me." He said. "Dad died about eight years ago and mum died last month."
"I need to know what happened." Maddie said. "Why did they abandon me?"
"Mum adored you." Mouse stated. "But dad was abusive, it was getting worse and worse to the point where he would threaten to um... do... things to you to control mum."
"So she got me out before that could happen." Maddie said with tears in her eyes as she understood what he meant.
"Yeah, but by the sounds of it we would've been better off keeping you." Mouse said.
"Jay told you?" Maddie asked, he nodded. "That was the worst house by far, none of the others were anywhere near that bad." Maddie assured him in order to stop him blaming himself.
"Tell me about you, I want to get to know my baby sister." Mouse said.
"Jay says we're pretty similar actually."