⋆° დ ༄ UNTIL THERE WAS YOU
chapter six. the weigh station , part 1.

Sam turns her head to the left and sees her friend Maddie on the ground holding her neck while blood starts to pool around her.

"Maddie!" Sam shouts running over to her friend and grabs a towel from the counter and holds it to Maddie's neck, "It's gonna be okay Maddie. I promise"

Sam wipes her forehead forgetting that she had her friend's blood on her hands, "It's gonna be okay. Just stay calm" Sam then looks up at the other bartender, "I need you to call 911, now!"

"Sammy?! Was anybody hit?" Erin asks running over to the bar.

"It's Maddie, I need more towels" Sam says as Erin hands her more.

The ambulance arrives as Lindsay escorts them to the bar, "Shot to the neck. My partner has her behind the bar"

"Alright we got it from here. I need a stretcher, the backboard and kerlix for the bleeding" Sylvie Brett says as Sam stands up and moves out of the way so the paramedics can do their job.

Sam then turns to look at Erin with anger and Erin says, "We'll get em'"

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Erin and Sam drive to the district and Sam heads straight for the locker room to get cleaned up.

Sam washes off her bloody hands in the sink, thinking about if Maddie is okay or not. As Sam looks into the mirror at her reflection, all she can see is pure anger and in that moment, all she could do was hate herself because if she didn't shoot Jacob Bembenek, then Maddie wouldn't have been shot, so from this pure rage she was feeling, she punches the mirror and tears ran down her face as she slid down against the wall onto her butt.

And just a couple seconds later Jay walks in from being told by Erin what happened so he could check on her. He sat next to the crying girl and wrapped his strong arms around her and says, "Shhh..it's gonna be okay, Sammy. We'll find him"

~~~

Sam and Jay walked back to the unit after it took him about 10 minutes or so to calm down Sam and to bandage up her hand.

"You okay, Sam?" Voight questions.

"Yeah Sarg, I'm good"

"So you know the victim?"

"Yeah, Maddie Callahan, she worked at the bar and we went to high school together"

"No ID on the shooter?" Voight asks.

"No, patrols going door to door in the neighborhood looking for witnesses" Erin answers.

"That was the hospital. Your friend's in ICU, but she's alive" Dawson says to Sam, getting off the phone. Sam nods her head, "Thanks" and sits down at her desk.

She felt like she can breathe a little easier now.

"Hey, it's not your fault"

"Isn't it though? She wouldn't be in ICU right now if I didn't shoot Jacob Bembenek dead"

"Hey that's not on you, he came after us with a gun" Jay says.

"Yeah, whatever"

"Someone needs to talk to Bembenek" Antonio says.

"Oh, Olinsky's already on that" Voight answers.

"A black Arcada was found abandoned in Englewood. It matches the description of the getaway vehicle but there's no prints, they torched it." Kevin states walking onto the unit, followed by Adam, "White male just checked into a South side clinic about half hour ago. Two bullet wounds"

"Alright, Lindsay and Antonio, get on it" Voight orders and Sam gets up and grabs her coat along with the others, "No, no, no, no Sam. You're in protective custody until this dies down"

"They shot my friend and nearly killed me and Erin" Sam protests.

"You got a target on your back. You're not going anywhere till that targets removed"

"So I'm under house arrest?" Sam questions in anger.

"You wanted to see us Sergeant?" Kim Burgess asks as her and her partner Roman step onto the unit.

"Miller doesn't leave your sight until I say so and she stays here at the 21st"

"You got it" kim states.

Sam scoffs and says, "They don't need to stay up here to keep an eye on me. You got to me kidding me!"

"Keep an eye on her" Voight says walking away with Erin. Sam throws her jacket back onto her chair, "Damn it!"

Jay walks over to the brunette girl and wraps his arms around her to pull her into a hug and whispers , "Sammy, calm down" and Sam instantly calms down to his touch.

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Alvin Olinsky waits at a glass booth to talk to none other than Oskar Bembenek to talk about calling off this hit on Sam's head. Once Oskar arrives and sits across from Olinsky, they both pick up the phone so they can talk.

"So they have you in protective custody I hear. You got a lot of enemies in gen pop, don't you?"

"Nah. Just friends. I got friends everywhere"

"Me too. The warden used to be a cop. I know you're afraid to die, Oskar. I could always see it in your eyes. So I'm here to give you one chance...to live. You call off the hit on Miller and you tell me who it was that tried to take her out at the bar"

"Wait, wait...were talking about the detective Miller that killed my brother? That Miller?" Bembenek questions, almost laughing.

"Listen to me. Carefully. I'm giving you one chance" Al says as Bembenek starts tapping on the thick bullet proof glass in between them.

"I'm doing time. Trying to get my head around that. Can't be worried about the outside world" Bembenek  says hanging up the phone then leaves.

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Sam is sitting at her desk twirling her pen around in her fingers, bored out of her mind.

"Uh, detective Miller?" Nadia says and Sam turns her head towards the burnette, "Sergeant Voight is on his way up with the suspect. Um, he asked that on his way to the interview room, you wait in his office for them to pass by"

"Which suspect?" Sam questions.

"Uh, maybe it's better that you don't know, right?" Kim says. Sam stands up and asks, "Is it the shooter?"

"Let's head into Voights office, Sammy" Roman says. which was a big mistake.

The only people that call her Sammy is Erin, Jay, Kelly and her mother, strictly for the ones closest to her. And Jay seeing her tense up, puts his hand on her waist, knowing it's the only thing that will calm her down at this point.

"First of all it's detective and never ever will you call me Sammy again. And second of all, lets not me and you get off on the wrong foot."

"I'm all for that. But if you can join me in Voight's office, Detective, that'd be great"

Sam scoffs as she runs her hands through her hair and walks into Voight's office followed by Jay, Kim and Roman.

A couple minutes later, Sam sees Voight walk through the unit with the suspect, who she recognized as the shooter and shouts, "That's him, that's..." and she tried to get passed Burgess and Roman who pushes her back, while Jay wraps his arms around her chest, stopping her from moving any further, "Give me 5 minutes Sarg. 5 minutes!" Sam shouts, still trying to get out of Jay's hold.

"Sam, stop it!" Jay says.

~~~

"Doubling up on squad cars in front of all the homes of the people involved in the Bembenek trial. There's judges, lawyers, clerks" Kevin states taping up a picture of a young girl onto the whiteboard.

"Bembenek anticipated that. That's why he's going after their family members. Even got protective detail on commissioner Miller" Al comments, while Sam sits back in her chair and dazes out on everyone.

"Two taps to the head without an eyewitness. That was a professional hit" Antonio says.

"And we have no idea how many people are on that list?" Erin asks.

"No"

Sam zones back into reality and walks over to Nadia and asks, "Hey can you call Chicago Med and check on Maddie from the bar?"

"Yeah, of course"

"Thank you"

Adam walks onto the unit with an officer and says, "Hey everyone, this is Sheriff Charleene Radigan. She helped me secure phone recordings, Bembenek made on a Cook County landline"

"Most of the calls are in Polish. Inmates switch to their native tongues all the time when they want to cover up what they're talking about"

"So we're gonna need a translator. The Forsman kid flipped, right? You'd think he'd do it?"

"He'll paint my house if I wanted him to" Hank says leaving for the interview room as Jay leans against Sam's desk and crosses his arms over his chest and asks, "How are you doing?"

Sam looks up into Jay's beautiful emerald colored eyes -that she could never ever get tired of- and says, "I'm fine"

"How come I don't believe that?"

"I don't know" Sam says getting up from her desk and walking into the break room.

~~~

"Command staff has put together a task force to try and reach out to every aunt, uncle, cousin of anyone involved in the Bembenek trial. Although there's so much they can do" Antonio says. Nadia walks over to Sam and Erin and says, "That was Chicago med. Maddie is heading into surgery so they're going to let me know"

"Thanks Nadia"

"She'll pull through" Erin says trying to comfort her friend, who says. "I should never have been there"

"Don't do that to yourself"

"Hey Ruzek, Atwater. I need a cell phone rigged up right now" Hank says walking onto the unit.

"What's going on?" Sam questions.

"Sit tight"

"I'm tired of sitting"

"Sit tight" Voight says and Sam sighs and walks over to her desk.

~~~

Sam walks into the interrogation room as they start tracing a phone call, "Hello"

"JP?"

"What's up, Showstack?" JP asks, "I have something you may want"

"I want a lot of things"

"Miller"

"My understanding is you turned down this contract"

"And I heard they offered you a lot more money than me. I want half"

"Or what?"

"Or I let her go and better think quick. The dilaudid I pumped into her is going to wear off soon" Price says looking at Sam.

"One third"

"Okay. I'll take care of it. I'll bring you a photo for proof"

"No, no, no, no, no, no. Just because I'm talking to you doesn't mean I trust you. I want to see her alive"

Voight mouths 'no' but Sam mouths 'Do it'.

"Deal" JP says into the phone and Voight gives Sam the look. "Alley between Cermak and Kedzie. 30 minutes"

~~~

Sam walks back out onto the unit followed by the rest of the team.

"There's too many risks" Antonio states.

"There's always risks"

"You'll be getting into a car with a hitman" Erin comments.

"Who's retired"

"Because that makes it better?"

Sam walks over to Voight and says, "Hank, you know better then anyone that I can do this. Please, let me do this"

To Be Continued...