Chapter 1
“This is the third time this week you’ve been in my ER.”
Detective Jay Halstead grimaces as he looks up to the approaching figure of his younger brother, Dr. Will Halstead, hand still pressed to the sluggishly bleeding wound on his arm.
Will’s expression was a mix of despair, worry and amusement all rolled into one as he took in the sight of his brother. Since he’s moved to Chicago, he’s seen his older brother in the hospital more times than he wanted too.
Jay meets the gaze of his partner, Detective Evan Severide, who sat on the bed across from him “I told you.”
Evan laughs softly, before closing his eyes in pain “Brothers are going to worry. Connor worries all the time.”
“Connor’s lucky he doesn’t work down here as much to see the aftermath” Will grumbles, shooting Evan a look standing between the pair “Okay, who’s worse?” he asked.
He’s not surprised when the pair points at each other.
Will eyed both of them “Bullet only grazed; I’ll call a nurse to patch you up.” Will says, slipping out of the curtain briefly to call April over, before eyeing Evan critically. “Head wound, caused by?”
“Pistol whipped.” Evan grumbled “Snuck up on me.”
Will sighs, but sits beside the young Detective, gloves snapping on, and starts examining the wound... “Doesn’t look too bad. Any pain, dizziness, blurred vision, nausea?”
“No.” Evan told him “Well, my head does feel like it’s been cracked open, but nothing else.”
Will hummed, moving back to shine a penlight in Evan’s eyes, tracking his movements and coordination. “Okay, mild concussion. You are going to need stitches, but I’m not keeping you overnight.”
“Really?” Evan’s eyes light up. He did not want to be stuck in a hospital again.
Will laughed “You hate hospitals almost as much as Jay does.”
There was a moment when Evan’s eyes dimmed, his lips twitched downward, before he blinked “Thanks Doc” He smiled.
“Just take it easy. No gallivanting around for a while.”
Evan glanced back at his partner “It’s like he doesn’t know us at all.” Jay grinned in agreement. Will rolled his eyes at the two.
They make it back to CPD roughly two hours later, patched up and armed with antibiotics and painkillers, which Evan knows he will not touch. Voight is quick to check on the two and make sure they’re okay, because no matter his reputation, everyone in Intelligence knows he’s just a big papa-bear and his team is his family.
Evan nor Jay says anything about it, knowing Voight needs this, especially after losing Justin, he’s been more protective over his team.
After several minutes of reassuring both Voight and the rest of their team, they’re filled in on the past two hours of their current case, including another lead on the leader. Frank Bennett.
“Looks like Bennett has been transferring money into the Prince’s bank account for the best several weeks.” Dawson told them, “Money which can’t be traced back to the Mexican cartel.”
“So, the cartel pays the Prince’s to smuggle the drugs into the city, but right when we get a lead on him, he takes them out. Why?” Erin asks, leaning back in her chair “It doesn’t make any sense. Sure, they cut their losses, but not this brutally.”
“And why deal bogus products?” Evan added. “They’re not going to make any money once word gets around their killing the clients.”
“None of this makes sense,” Voight says, “But we need to make it make sense.”
“Mouse is running down a trace we got on Bennett.” Alvin told Voight just as Voight’s desk phone began to ring. The man in question eyes it through the window, Trudy appears at the top of the stairs, addressing Voight.
“Hank, L.A. on the line for you. Case related.”
Voight nods and quickly moves to answer the call, door clicking shut behind him. Alvin watches through the window for a long moment before turning back to the rest of the team. “As I was saying, Mouse’s running a-”
Mouse appeared at the top of the stairs, waving a paper around “Bennett’s been making several trips back and forth between Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as hitting a couple of other major cities once or twice, and guess where he just landed this morning?”
“L.A.” Evan guessed, gaze flicking back to Voight’s office, a frown on his face.
“Yeah, how did you know?” Mouse asked. Evan pointed at Voight who hung up the phone.
“That was Los Angeles’ NCIS.” Voight says walking out his office with a grim face, pinning two fresh printed sheets of papers to the board. “Two bodies were just found in Southern L.A. district this morning, both with the same COD as our five. Two more John Doe’s from the past month have been linked in with similar COD also.”
“They think it’s the same group?” Atwater asks.
“Certain it is. With Bennett in L.A. as in this morning, this is now a cross-state case.”
Evan felt a pit forming in his stomach “So we’re heading to L.A?” he asked.
“Some of us.” Voight said, watching Evan carefully. “Half of the team needs to stay here to keep this end going. Alvin is going to stay here and run it from this end, and I need two of you with me.”
There’s a moment of silence from the team. Every one of them understands what Voight is subtly asking of Evan, and how this might not be the best idea but the only one who would work. They know little about Evan’s time in L.A., but they know he didn’t leave on good terms.
Eventually Evan nodded. “It makes sense for me to go. I know the layout, and I’ve worked with NCIS before.”
Jay raises a brow at this. For all the stories he and Evan shared about their past- Jay is the only person Evan opened up to down here about the war, since he knew what it was like- he’s never mentioned working with NCIS.
“Then I’m in too.” He says softly, knocking their shoulders together “Where Ev goes, I go.” he said looking at Voight.
Voight gives them a tight smile, like he was already regretting this, “I knew partnering you two together would be golden and a pain in my ass.”
Evan grins, “We live to please, Sarge.”
He tried not to think about what he’s going back to. There is no way he would run into anyone.
