CHAPTER FIFTEEN,
down the tubes
ARIELLA AND ANTONIO WERE sitting at the kitchen table. Antonio was feeding Luca, who was babbling in his own little baby talk. She went to open her mouth, but he stopped her, "Don't even." He stopped her.
"Antonio, you got shot." She reminded him.
"So? You did, too." He pointed out, "You went into the field pregnant. I think I can go back into the field after a few gunshots." She sighed, shaking her head and standing up to put her mug in the sink.
"You know, supportive wives support their husband's decisions to go back to work to earn money for their family." Antonio tried to convince her, walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist, and leaning his head on her shoulder, placing a soft kiss on it.
"Most husband's jobs don't involve getting shot at." Ariella pointed out.
"Come on." He begged.
"If you want to go back to work, fine. Just no going out in the field." She pointed at him.
"Fine." He raised his hands in surrender. Ariella's phone beeped in her back pocket, and she looked down at it. Her brows furrowed together as she read the text, "What is it?" He asked.
"I gotta go." Was all she said. She ran over to the front door, grabbed her keys and jacket, then quickly put on her shoes.
"Ariella, what is it?" He asked.
"I can't talk. I need to go." She said, opened the door, and ran out. When she got to the destination, she got out of her car and practically sprinted towards the house.
She ripped open the gate, almost ripping it off the hinges, already hearing a child screaming from outside, "You had every opportunity to reach out to me. Every opportunity, you shut me out!" She heard Charlie yelling from outside. She ran inside and pulled him off of Annie.
"Stop!" She yelled.
"Ariella," Annie shouted. She had a cut on her lip and some blood coming from her temple.
"She's fine! She's fine." Charlie shouted.
"Are you okay?" Ariella asked, bending down in front of Annie.
"Yes." She nodded.
She whipped around to face the man, "You're gonna wish you'd stayed out of Chicago, Charlie." Ariella threatened.
"No, what you're gonna wish is that I'd forgotten all about Sandoval. But I haven't, have I? You want to take me in? Let's go. I'm happy to tell everyone what happened, not five streets from here if I recall. Or, hey, I got an idea. Instead of the past, why don't we focus on the future?" He asked.
"Sure. What do you want? How much?" Ariella asked
"More than you can afford on a cop's salary. I'm gonna need the old Rivera for this one." Charlie handed her a piece of paper.
She opened it and scoffed, "You're out of your mind. Really?"
"You know, I played nice guy before and kept my mouth shut for you two. What did it get me? 12 years wandering the wilderness while you got to play cop and you raised my son!" He went to attack Annie again.
"Don't touch her!" Ariella shouted, shoving him back.
"Nah, not this time. I'm getting my payday, or I run my mouth. I need that today." He demanded, and walked out of the house, shutting the door behind him. Once he was gone, she sighed, her "tough-guy" act slipping.
"Please, Ariella," Annie begged, and Ariella bent down in front of her.
"Annie..." She sighed.
"Ariella, please... Whatever he needs, just..." She cried, "Just give it to him." She pleaded, falling forward, hugging Ariella.
"Shh, shh, shh, shh." Ariella tried to calm her down, hugging her.
━━━
Ariella practically zoomed into the office, "Hey, where's Antonio?" Jay asked.
"I don't know." She replied, and walked over to Erin's desk, setting the piece of paper on her desk. Erin looked at her confused, but opened the piece of paper, before looking up at Ariella, who nodded.
"Atwater, hey." Adam greeted as Atwater stood at the top of the stairs. Ariella put her jacket on the back of her chair, still silent, looking ahead, deep in thought.
"Hey. Good morning." Atwater and he shook hands.
"Here, man, take Sumner's desk." Adam pointed to the desk.
"What's up, man?"
"What's up, bro?"
"Don't get used to it, though. We don't seem to stay in them for very long." Adam joked.
"How is Burgess taking it?" Al asked.
"Taking what?" Atwater asked.
"You know, you get promoted up here, when perhaps... She deserves it a little bit more." Al filled in.
"Oh, that. Well, she's been assigned a new partner." He nodded.
"There he is." Jay cheered as Antonio walked up the stairs. Everyone else applauded and whistled.
"Hey, man, what the hell you doing back so soon, huh?" Al asked.
"Oh, guys. You sound like my wife." He nodded over to Ariella, who was still deep in thought.
"Listen, we got you a little "welcome back/glad you're not dead" gift. Don't say we didn't ever do anything for you." Jay said, and Adam walked out with a walker, a red bow on top of it.
"Oh. Oh. That's hilarious. Come here, a little closer." Antonio chuckled.
"His idea." Adam pointed over to Jay.
"Oh, you want some of this? Yeah? Come on. It was my idea. I didn't think so. You okay?" He asked.
"All right, we're rolling out... five minutes. We just caught a heater." Voight announced, walking out of his office, "Glad you're back, bro." He walked up to Antonio.
"Thanks." Antonio and they shook hands.
"Hey, do me a favor. Just work the desk for a few days. I don't want you dropping on me." He told him.
"I'm fine. I'm suiting up." Antonio said.
"Antonio, I'm not gonna argue with you about this," Voight told him.
"All right." He nodded, putting his jacket on the back of his chair. He walked over to Ariella and sat on the edge of her desk, "You gonna tell me why you ran out like you did this morning?" He asked.
"It's nothing." She shook her head, turning her head to a photo of the three of them together.
"Okay, can you tell me the truth?" He asked.
"No, I can't," Ariella said, standing up, grabbing her jacket, and walking towards the locker room. Erin followed behind her, all the men who were in the bullpen watching them confused.
"Hey, hey." Erin grabbed Ariella's arms and she ran them through her hair.
"How are you not, like, panicking?" Ariella asked.
"Oh, believe me. I am." Erin told her.
"I know what to do, but I don't." Ariella looked at Erin.
"I know. I think we both know what to do." Erin said and Ariella nodded.
━━━
The whole team was at the construction site, looking at the destruction that had been caused, "They had a plan. They took out all the security cameras in the area. Jin checked the pods. There's nothing there." Jay explained.
"They're missing 100 pounds of aluminized water-gel explosives," Adam told them all.
"Water gels?" Atwater asked.
"It's for mining and tunneling. Companies use it for blasting bedrock." Al explained.
"Yeah, that's a lot of explosives, like take-down-a-building big. We've had enough of that around here." Voight commented.
"They're also missing a security guard, boss," Adam added.
"All right, I want a list of all the demo-company employees and whoever signed for the materials here. Anyone who knew water-gel explosives were gonna be on site." Voight told them.
"Over here!" A worker shouted.
"What's this?" Voight muttered.
"You guys okay?" Jay asked Ariella and Erin who were trailing behind, both of them deep in thought. They seemed off.
"Yeah, fine." Erin nodded. They followed the worker towards a dumpster where the security guard was. Dead, gunshot to the head.
"All right, anyone who's been here in the last month, I want their name," Voight demanded.
━━━
"Got to go." Jin hung up the phone as he saw Ariella walking toward him.
"Hey, Jin." She greeted.
"Good morning, Ariella." He greeted back.
"I need a favor... Off the books." She told him.
"Isn't it always?" He asked.
"Do you have access to the city planning and zoning commission?" She asked.
"Uh... as in?" He asked.
"Blueprints." She answered.
"Yes." He nodded.
"Without anybody knowing." She pulled the piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him.
━━━
"Hey, O. Your wife called. Wants to know about dinner." Antonio said, handing him a slip of paper, "Ruzek, your fridge is getting delivered on Thursday." He handed Adam the other.
"Ah, finally. Between 9:00 and 12:00 or 3:00 and 6:00? Did they say?" Adam asked, and Antonio gave him a look, "Never mind." He shook his head.
"Hey, Sarge. Why don't we have a civilian aide up here taking calls? It's in the budget." Antonio pointed out.
"It's all about who you can trust, Antonio. What do you get?" Voight asked.
"I'm waiting on a list of employees from that construction site. So far, no one's popped. And you said they didn't get any blasting caps or detonation cords?" Antonio asked.
"No," Voight answered.
"You're gonna need those," Antonio said.
"All right, det cords and caps... that's our angle for now," Voight told them all.
"I got a C.I. I can talk to about that," Jay spoke up.
"All right." He nodded.
"Yo, Sarge." Atwater stood up.
"Yeah?" Voight turned around.
"You know, I grew up in Harvey, right there near the construction site. That's Two-Eights territory. Nothing goes down there without their permission. I know a guy. I think I can lean on him a little bit, and see what he knows." He explained.
"Olinsky... Go with him." Voight instructed.
"Actually, I think I'm gonna do this by myself, O." Atwater said.
"Oh, hey, everyone, Atwater's been in the unit two minutes, and already he's put himself in charge." Al joked, and everyone applauded.
"Hey. Congrats, bud. I knew you were management material." Adam joked.
"Oh, no, no, that's not what I was trying to say." Atwater tried to defend.
"What were you saying?" Al asked.
"It's just..."
"Oh, you're worried about your white-cop partner blowing the deal?" Al asked.
"Yeah." He nodded.
"Maybe after 20 years working undercover, I know how not to get made... Anywhere in the city." Al said.
"My bad." Atwater backed off.
"Hey, can you do something for me?" Ariella asked Antonio.
"Of course." He nodded.
"So, Nadia's getting out of rehab today, and I'm supposed to pick her up..." She started.
"Please don't tell me you're gonna ask me to..."
"Hey, there's always a nice pullout couch in the living room." She threatened, raising her hands in surrender.
"Ooh." The others smirked.
"All right." He nodded, crossing his arms, leaning back in his chair, "What's the address?" He asked.
"That wasn't so hard." She smiled victoriously, "Just keep her up here. I'll take her home after a shift." She told him, writing down the address.
"She's staying with us?" He asked.
"Who else would she stay with?" Ariella asked.
"I don't know, Erin?" He suggested.
"Just do this and I'll figure it out later." She slammed the paper with the address on it onto his desk.
"Copy that." He inhaled sharply, reading the address.
━━━
"Hey." Ariella greeted as she walked into the basement where Jin was.
"As requested." He held up the flash drive of what she had asked for.
"Nobody knows about this?" She asked him.
"Nope." He shook his head.
"Not even you?" Ariella asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." He cocked his head to the side.
━━━
Antonio was standing outside of the rehab facility, hands in his pockets as he tried to warm up. He saw Nadia walk out, and approached her, "Hey, Nadia. Antonio Dawson... I'm Ariella's husband." He introduced himself.
"Yeah, I remember. I saw you a few times." She nodded.
"Well, she's very sorry, but a case jumped off, so I'm supposed to bring you back to the District," Antonio told her.
"It's cool. I'll take the bus." Nadia brushed him off.
"Are you kidding me right now?" He shouted, and she turned around and walked back up to him.
"Come on. I mean, it's a little weird. You know, Ariella's supposed to be picking me up. She dodges my texts. Now a cop shows up and wants me to get in his car." Nadia shrugged. Antonio stood there, trying to think of a way to convince her. He pulled the piece of paper with the address out of his pocket.
"What address is that?" Antonio asked, showing her the piece of paper.
"The clinic, here." She looked at the building.
"Is that a man's handwriting or a woman's?" He asked.
"Woman's." She smiled.
"Right. Will you please get in the car?" He asked.
"Yeah." She nodded, walking towards the car.
"Sorry I yelled at you." He apologized, opening the passenger side door for her.
"Thank you." She laughed.
━━━
Ariella, Erin, and Jay walked down to the basement, "Charlie Pugliese, or however you say his frickin' name... do you know what he's into?" He asked them.
"Why?" Erin asked.
"I just had a C.I. sit me down in front of him. He's involved in the construction-site hit." He told them.
"What do you need here, guys?" Jay asked.
"We can handle it," Ariella told him.
"Really? How? When? Voight's upstairs. He's waiting for an update." Jay reminded.
"Just stall. We just need to move a couple of things around." Erin told her partner.
"What does this guy have on you?" He asked.
"It's really bad," Ariella told him. He sighed, sitting down on the table, and Erin leaned back on the wall behind her.
"What's Voight always say? Tell him the truth so he can lie for you." He told them.
"No, if we tell the truth on this one, we're done. Do you understand?" Erin asked.
"There's a dead security guard that they left behind a dumpster like a bag of trash." He reminded them.
━━━
Ariella was sitting at her desk, staring at the same picture of her, Antonio and Luca all together, smiling. She heard a whistle, and looked up, seeing Nadia and Antonio walking up the stairs together.
"Hey." Ariella broke into a smile and stood up. Nadia walked over to her, hugging her, "Come on." She led her towards the break rooms, "Thanks." She smiled at Antonio, who nodded, and put her jacket on the back of his chair.
"So the next step would be finding a job, a real job... One that I'm proud of." Nadia told her.
"Do you have any leads?" Ariella asked.
"Well, nothing in stone. But there's this woman that helps out at the clinic. She said she'd introduce me to her daughter, who runs some sort of clothing store or something. I don't know. I need to work on that one." Nadia explained.
"It's all good. Listen, Nadia, don't break my heart again." Ariella told her.
"I won't. I promise." Nadia nodded. She saw Voight walk past his office.
"All right. Uh, you're gonna stay up here till I'm off, all right? It might be a while, but you can stay with either Antonio and me, or Erin till you get settled. The choice is yours" Ariella told her.
"Okay. Okay." Nadia nodded. Ariela walked into Voight's office and sat down.
"Is everything all right?" He asked.
"Uh, no... Not by a long shot. Charlie Pugliese." She told him, and he crossed his arms.
"What now?" He asked.
"Back then, I was a mess. You know. She thought she was in love with him." Ariella reminded him.
"Ariella... You guys were 16. He was 25. He got you both hooked on dope." Voight said.
"Yeah. I don't deny any of that. But my parents were dead, my grandparents were deep in their own grief. Erin's dad was in jail, her mom stopped coming home, and he kept the heat on. He kept food on the table. We were loyal. And if that's our fault then so be it." She nodded, tears glistening in the corners of her eyes, "But, um, our best friend, Annie... she was mixed up with Charlie too, and... And she got pulled into some stuff... Way worse than me and, um..."
"Hey. You're gonna be okay. Just tell me what's going on." He reassured her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"He's got us boxed in real bad... all three of us," Ariella admitted. He pulled her into a hug, knowing that when both girls were 16, they were both messes.
━━━
Ariella pounded on the door, her body was tense and she was stressed beyond belief, "Mm." Charlie smirked, answering the door and letting her enter, "I met your Detective friend. He had a look in his eye when I said your names. Especially Erin's. I seen that look in your boys' eyes before." He told her.
"Don't." She glared, "Here's your blueprints." She handed him the flash drive.
"I need one more thing." He said.
"Go to hell." She spat, going to leave, but he stepped in front of her.
"Just call in a shooter at the Hancock at midnight. That should get a lot of attention, eh?" He asked, and she walked out, "Almost there, Erin... 5-yard line." He called after her. She turned around, "That's my girl." He smirked and she glared at him harder, before walking down the steps and leaving.
━━━
"Kevin "Red" Radner. He's wanted in New York, Indiana, and Illinois for murder, armed robbery, and trafficking." Antonio put a picture of the guy.
"Drugs or..." Adam trailed off.
"Girls." Antonio finished, "Beat a rape charge too." He said.
"We like him for pulling the strings on that construction-site robbery. He's in the wind, but he's had a lot of prior dealings with this guy, Charlie Pugliese." He put up a picture of Charlie. Antonio looked back at Ariella, who looked anywhere but at him.
"We have every reason to believe Pugliese was part of Red's crew. A tip from a C.I. came in, said Pugliese's planning on using the explosives stolen from that site to knock off this jewelry exchange on North Lawndale. We're moving out." Voight said.
━━━
Ariella, Erin, and Voight were sitting in the car, sitting in silence, waiting for anything to happen, "Can't avoid this." Voight told them.
"We know." They both said.
"All right, be ready." Voight said, all of them watching as a car pulled up, "All right, that's it. Move in." He walkied as 3 people got out of the car. They all drove up, lights going.
"Hands up. Keep them up."
"Don't move! Freeze!"
"Put your hands up! Get 'em up! Turn around, get your hands up!
"Don't move. Don't look at me."
"Look away. Keep 'em high! Yeah, yeah, look away." They all shouted. Al slammed Charlie onto the car.
"Anything in the trunk that could hurt me?" He asked.
"No," Charlie answered.
"I don't hear you," Al demanded.
"No." He answered a little louder. Al opened the trunk.
"Explosives in the car." He backed up.
"I'd like to report a murder from October 12, 2002." Charlie announced, "Victim's name was Ricky Sandoval. I have all the information... who killed him and who helped get rid of the body." He looked directly at Ariella and Voight.
"Put him in the car," Voight demanded and Al walked him back to the car. He turned to Ariella.
━━━
"Anything from the other two?" Voight asked, walking into the observation room behind the glass.
"Lawyered up," Antonio answered.
"All right, everybody clear out," Voight announced.
"Hang on. I want to talk to him first. Then you can do whatever you want." Ariella handed her gun to Antonio, then walked out of the viewing room and into the interrogation room. She pulled out the chair in front of him and sat down.
"You wanted to go by the book, Ariella. Well, here we are." Charlie shrugged.
"You know what Sandoval was doing to Annie. You know why she snapped." Ariella spat.
"It's too late for all that. I gave you a chance to keep it buried." He told her.
"You want to go public about everything, fine. But just so you know, I'm gonna say I killed Sandoval... keep Annie and Travis together." She said.
"Wow. You really are a cop, aren't you? Bluffing your ass off. You'd risk your life and go to jail, miss Luca growing up? Didn't you just get married? What's his name? Anthony? Antonio?" He asked.
"You keep their names out of your mouth." She spat, pointing her finger at him.
"You let Voight run me out of town with nothing. Nothing!" He shouted.
"You were headed for the bottom of the lake. I begged for your life. Do something with it, for once. Give us Radner, cooperate fully, and you're out in a year. Clean yourself up on the inside, become a man, and then maybe you can be a dad to your son. Or give a statement on Sandoval. And then you and me... we can go down the tubes together. It's up to you." She told him.
"I didn't kill that guard. Red did." He admitted.
"Where is he now?" Ariella asked.
"He's waiting for his cut of the heist. He was gonna call me. But he ain't calling now." Charlie admitted.
"Where does he flop? Does he have a girl in town?" Ariella asked.
"I heard one of the guys say he worked out of a warehouse in B.Y. Never heard of that area before. A lot's changed in 12 years, I guess." He shrugged, and Ariella could sense the underlying message behind his words.
━━━
All of them were trying to find anything on B.Y., but there was nothing on it. No mention of it even existing, "B.Y... I've never heard of it before. I don't think anyone has." Adam said.
"Hey, you know, at my old job, sometimes we'd get called to this area behind the stockyards." Nadia spoke up, "Guys liked to park there 'cause it was quiet at night. Back of the yards was B.Y." She explained, and they all looked to Voight.
"Let's go." He nodded. Ariella smiled at Nadia.
━━━
Annie and Ariella were sitting on Annie's couch, watching Trevor play in front of them, "He's the only good thing I've ever done." Annie smiled.
"That's not true." Ariella shook her head.
"You know what I mean." She said.
"You're a good mom. Let's leave it at that." Ariella put a hand on her shoulder.
"I don't even know what I would have done if he was taken away from me," Annie said.
"You don't have to think about that now," Ariella told her.
"So... Charlie..."
"Confessed. He'll probably get a little rhythm for cooperating." Ariella told her, "Annie, I'm sorry. I should've never let Charlie back in. People don't change." She said.
"You did." Annie smiled at her and Ariella smiled.
━━━
Ariella walked through the doors of her home, feeling a warm feeling bubbling in her chest, "Hey! I'm home." She sang.
"Look, momma's home." Antonio walked into the doorway with Luca. Ariella smiled, and walked towards him, picking up Luca.
"Hi, sweet boy." Ariella smiled, hugging him close to her. She swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to blink back tears. Antonio saw this and hugged her, "I'm sorry." She apologized.
"No, no. It's not your fault." He shook his head, rubbing her back.
"I could've said more. I could've told you anything." She said, her voice cracking.
"Let's forget about him. He's going away for a long time." He told her.
"He ruined my life when I was 16. He got me hooked on drugs." She told him.
"I know." He nodded, continuing to rub her back.
"I'm sorry." She kept apologizing.
"Shh." He held her tighter, kissing her head.
"I love you." She told him.
"I love you, too." He smiled.
━━━
note.
hey! we're onto part 2! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and this part. I really enjoy writing this book. I love Antonio, and 1, think he deserves more love, and 2, think the writers really did him dirty. thank you for reading and I will see you soon my loves 💕💕
SHOW: chicago pd:
season one, episode fifteen
"a beautiful friendship"
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