Listen to Her || A Chicago P.D. Fanfiction

35- Case 16

A/N: The episode being used for this chapter is called 'Payback'.

The following week, Friday
It's 7:35 a.m. and Al has just had a cup of coffee poured for him at a diner he's sitting in. He was given instructions by Hank, before leaving the house this morning, to meet here. He quietly sips his coffee, yawning after since he didn't get much sleep last night, having been taking care of Danielle who wasn't able to keep dinner down. 'Antonio, I'm sorry.' She sniffled after she was done vomiting for the night. 'Mi amor (My love), why are you sorry? Y por que lloras (And why are you crying)?' He asked, wiping away big tears that rolled down her cheeks. 'Because I threw up the food you made and it was so good.' 'No lloras, cariño, por favor (Don't cry, darling, please). I can always make you enchiladas. I don't mind at all.' 'But now it feels like I didn't eat anything at all.' She said, crying harder into Hank's chest as she hugged him since he was closest to her, the three chuckling softly at her last sentence. They've seen just how much she's struggled with nausea, either because of baby Olinsky or her meds which had already been altered twice to fix the side effect which clearly hasn't been resolved. After that, Al had made her two teas, hoping the warm drinks would settle her stomach which they did, but not until 2 in the morning. Between the time they had all gotten ready for bed at 10:20 p.m. to 12:15 a.m., the 21 year old made several trips to the restroom to dry heave, nothing else ever coming out. Around 2, she finally dozed off and was successfully able to get four hours of sleep. The bell above the diner door rings as it opens, Al seeing Hank walking towards him:

"Hey, man." Al greets him as he walks up to the booth. "Hey." His best friend says, subtly looking around as he slips a small yellow envelope under Al's right hand:

"What's this?" Olinsky asks very softly, Voight sitting across him as the 61 year old takes out what's in the envelope. "I got a source in the Ivory Tower. She gave me that." Hank answers softly, Al looking at a printed photo of a man's mugshot. "Recognize him?" "Yeah. It's the junkie I caught breaking into my car...the night me and Danielle moved Bingham's body." "Well, his name is Ruben Gilbright. My guess is Woods is gonna use him to try and build a homicide case against you." "You really think these guys are that far along?" "Oh, I'm not sure, but I'd rather not take any chances. Right, I'm gonna look into this Ruben, see what he's about, maybe catch him dirty. Destroy what little credibility he has left. Hopefully, we'll put this thing to bed, once and for all." "Let me handle it." Olinsky says, remembering what he promised his wife. "You can't get anywhere near this." Hank tells him, taking the envelope and picture, putting the print-out back inside. "I got this, Al. I got it." Hank adds with a nod of assurance.
"Units on the city wide, we're getting multiple reports of shots fired at 1360 South Waycrest." A voice comes in through Kevin and Adam's radios, both having just finished meeting with a CI. "That ain't far. Come on." Kevin tells his partner both rushing to their Unit car and to the location. When they arrive, they see many people fleeing the apartment complex. "5021 David. This call appears to be bona fide. Keep these cars coming. We're moving in." Kevin informs squad through his radio. "Out of the way! Out of the way!" Adam tells people who are still running out of the building, being the last ones. "You ready?" Adam asks Kev what nods, both entering the main door, clearing the hallway. "I have a body." Adam alerts his partner. "Copy." "Kev, door, door, door, door, door." Both cautiously walk up to a broken down door, entering the room it leads them into. "Clear." Kevin says, Adam walking in front of him. "I see a gun there." Kev says, pointing it out to Ruzek who keeps walking as Kevin goes to take away the gun from a dead man who's lying in one corner of the small living room. "Alright, we're clear." Adam confirms. "Okay." Kevin acknowledges. "We got two down, both nonresponsive." He informs squad through radio. "Help!" A woman shouts. "Kev." Adam says, both walking back out into the hallway where a lot of apartment doors are still closed. "Active shooter in the building." Atwater tells squad as he and his partner try to decipher which door will lead them to the crying woman. "This sucks." Adam whispers as he strains his hearing, finally getting to the last door of the hallway. "Help!" The woman wails. "Kev." "Chicago PD!" Atwater shouts, kicking the door open while Adam covers him. They find a woman hugging a small boy to her on their living room couch which is also acting as a bedroom to the boy since he's sleeping on the couch, her robe bloodied just like the boy's face is. "Oh, please! Please, you gotta help him!" The woman cries out to Adam as Kevin clears the small one person apartment. "Alright, alright." Adam says, putting his gun in its holster then kneeling down beside the child as the woman sits near his legs, still crying. "Alright, he's got a light pulse." Ruzek tells the woman. "Open your eyes, papi! Papi, no te vayas, por favor (Baby, don't go, please)." The woman pleads with the child who's eyes won't open. "Look at me." Adam tells the kid and when he moves the boy's head to be straight instead of turned to the right, it's very clear as to why the child isn't moving at all, there's a single gunshot wound to his forehead. "5021, emergency. We got a third victim down. Talk to me bro." Kevin tells squad then Adam who looks behind him at Kevin, just slightly shaking his head. The woman sees, causing her to sob louder than she had been, "No! No!" She hugs her son close to her, Adam moving out of her way. "Gunshot wounds to the head. Tender age victim. Roll CFD down here right now. Hurry the hell up!" Atwater pressures other units through the radio. "No, my baby!" The woman says, holding her son's head in her hands as she presses her forehead to his. "Ambo on the way." Someome from squad informs both Intelligence members through radio.
"Happened right before we got here. By the time we arrived, shooters were already in the wind." Adam explains to Voight and Dawson as he leads them to the room they first cleared. "Huh. It's another stash house rip." Voight says as the three walk into the room where Kevin is already waiting for them. "Yeah, and they got the hell up out of here, too, Sarge. Dropped a couple bricks of heroin on the way out. No cash. Bricks have a cobra logo this time." Kevin says. "Both guards were dead, just like the other rips." Adam adds. "Sarge." Danielle says from the room doorway, Hank looking at her. "Okay, get the casings to Ballistics. See if they're a match with the other robberies." Voight orders Dawson, Atwater, and Ruzek. "Door down the hall may as well have been paper. Bullets went flying through it. Little boy in there was collateral damage." She tells him softly as they walk down the hall. "Go ahead and talk to the mom." He tells her and Al, who's guarding the apartment door, before Hank walks into the room to see what the findings were by the crime lab. Both walk out of the apartment complex to find the boy's mom standing with McClain who tries comforting her. "Ms. Montero. I'm Detective Olinsky and this is Detective Olinsky. We're so sorry about your loss. If it's okay, we'd like to ask you a few questions." Danielle introduces herself and Al to the mom who nods to the officer, McClain leaving the three alone. "Did you see what happened?" Al asks. "No. I was in the shower. Then I heard loud bangs from the hallway." Ms. Montero answers. "Do you know who was living in the apartment where the shooting happened?" Danielle asks. "We just moved in. It was supposed to be a better neighborhood." "Okay, did you see anyone suspicious? Someone running away, someone..." Danielle stops talking as Montero looks to her right, finding three Hispanic men standing there with some of the other residents, all of them also Hispanic and all of them looking towards the detectives. "They always tell you, whatever happens, you never talk to the police, but I don't care. They took my boy." "What did you see, Sarah?" Al asks. "Two men going down the fire escape." "Can you describe them?" The sniper asks, writing the information down. "Latinos. Young, like, 20." "Okay, anything else?" "They had ski caps." "Ski caps..." "And they drove off in a dark car. After I heard all the shooting, I-I went to look for Felix. He wasn't feeling well. He was taking a nap. And there he was, blood everywhere." Montero explains softly, but her next sentence doesn't leave her mouth as she sees the paramedics rolling out her son on a gurney, his body covered in a white sheet. "No. No, no, my boy!" She says, causing the sniper and her husband to turn around, Danielle steadying the grieving mother who starts losing her balance as she begins crying again. "Hey, hey, hey." She tells Montero who begins sobbing. "Dios mio, por favor (My God, please), no, no, not my boy! Por favor (Please)!" "I'm going to stay with you, okay? I'm right here with you. Let's get in." Danielle assures her as she walks Sarah to the ambulance, giving Al a nod to let him know she's got the sobbing mom steady as he lets his wife take over walking with Sarah.
~1 hour later~
"Today's rip followed the same MO as our previous two. They blast the doors open, kill everybody inside, grab money and product, and get the hell out of there." Antonio informs the other Intelligence members once everything Mouse has printed for them is up on the whiteboard. "Just ran the prints of the two dead guys. These two. Nothing. No names, no criminal history." Danielle adds. "That makes six dead bangers." Jay speaks up. "And Felix Montero. Just turned 10." Danielle says softly, handing a picture of the dead child to Antonio who sticks it up on the whiteboard, the sniper frowning slightly as she keeps looking at the photo. "We talked to Felix's mom. She said she saw two Latinos, 20, jump into a dark car, but that's all we got." Al adds. "Somebody had to see them. They just didn't disappear into thin air." Kevin says. "Alright, so let's double down on traffic cams, start canvassing for more witnesses." Hank orders. "Ask me, we should assume this is an inside job. You don't get the address of a stash house in the yellow pages." Al tells him. "Ah, he's right. I mean, these guys aren't just lucky. They know where to go and when to go." Antonio agrees. "You know, it could be someone inside the Latin Hoods. I'ma reach out to a buddy in Gangs." Jay tells the Sargent. "Good. Chase that. Everybody else, reach out to your CIs, and put some money on the street." Voight orders everyone who all disperse into different parts of the upstairs to begin calling their CIs to meet up with each member. "So I dug into this Ruben Gilbright. He's staying at a halfway house in Pilsen. Got his address." Al very softly tells Hank as he follows him to the doorway of his office, holding out a small piece of paper to him incognito. "What are you thinking? You're the subject of this grand jury. Somebody sees you nail this guy, they're gonna hit you with a tampering with a witness charge on top of everything else. Al, believe me. I got this." Hank says, taking the small note from his friend's hand before turning around and walking into his office, leaving Al to begin on the order of reaching out to any of his CIs that could possibly give the team a lead on their case.