F | I'll stand by you (One Chicago)

Chapter Three

Emily wakes up around an hour later covered by her blankets. She gets up, gets a spare set of clothes and puts them on her bed. She then gets her toiletries and goes for a shower. She puts it on as hot as it will go and steps in. The boiling water scolding her skin, crying, she scrubs herself from top to bottom, creating friction burns as she goes. She may not have been conscious during the attack but she knows. She knows what happened.

After about half an hour, she gets out an hour she gets out. She wraps a towel round her body and round her hair and perches herself on the end of her bed. She dries her hair with her hairdryer, brushes her hair and puts it into a messy bun before drying her body and getting changed into an oversized jumper, some leggings and pumps.

As she's on free time,  she decides to go for a walk. She grabs her phone and her bag and makes her way down to the desk to sign out.

She walks through Millennium Park and then sits down on a bench just outside the children's play area and gets out her phone.

Missed Calls (10)
Lei

Messages
Lei: Are you OK?
Lei: Where are you?
Lei: Em, answer my messages!
Lei: I got back to the room and you weren't there.

Emily ignores the messages and puts her phone back in her pocket.  She then takes her hair down and makes her way out of the park and to the nearest Starbucks a block away.  Once she's there, she orders a drink and a sandwich and sits at a table in the back corner. She gets out her book, We Were Liars by E.Lockhart and starts to read whilst eating. Little does she know, her eyes are filling with tears, that's until a tear drops onto her page. She closes the book and wipes her eyes. Detectives Jay Halstead and Hailey Upton happen to be in the coffee shop too. They see her, look at each other, nod and walk over to Emily. 'Hi.' Jay smiles and Emily looks up.

'Hi.' Emily smiles back, tears still collecting in her eyes.

'Are you OK?' Hailey asks.

'Yeah. I need to go.' Emily nods, whilst standing up. She puts her book in her bag, picks up her drink, puts her bag on her shoulder and walks out of the coffee shop, leaving Jay and Hailey concerned about the young girl. 

~

When Jay and Hailey walk up into intelligence, Voight is about to address everyone. Before he does, he puts up a picture of Emily with her mom and dad a year ago. 'We have a case.' Voight starts. 'Joseph and Caitlin Doherty.' They've been off the radar for about two months. Missing persons were dealing with it until they came across new information and handed it over to us. They have been suspected of drug dealing multiple times, but now they're suspected for mass murder.'

'Who's that young girl in the middle?' Adam asks.

'Their daughter, Emily Doherty, 16 years of age. She's at the centre of another investigation we've been asked to run point on. She goes to Central Chicago Academy. In the past there have been allegations of sexual abuse by one of the teachers. The name was never given but a description was compiled and it matches that of Mr David Shakespeare.' He then puts a picture up of David on the board and turns back around. 'He's a family friend of the Doherty's. We believe he may try to take advantage of Emily's mental state, if he hasn't already. She's got depression and is a recovering anorexic.'

'Serge, me and Upton saw Emily not long ago. She looked upset.' Jay informs him. 'Her skin looked red, like she'd be standing under boiling water.'

'Where was this?' Voight asks.

'Starbucks, about a block from Millennium Park.' Hailey replies. Trudy then walks up the stairs.

'Hank, there's a young girl downstairs, Leigha Martin, she's worried about her friend, Emily Doherty.' Trudy says.

'Bring her up.' Hank nods. Trudy walks down the stairs and returns a minute later with Leigha. Hank nods gratefully and Trudy returns to the desk.

'Leigha, I'm Sergeant Voight. Sergeant Platt said that you're worried about your friend Emily Doherty.' Hank starts and Leigha nods. 'Why's that?'

'She came back to school from the hospital this afternoon. She's my roommate and when I got back to the room after classes she wasn't there but her bed was a mess, there was a set of clothes missing and some blood on the bed sheets. I went down to the office and saw that she had checked out so I called her and text her. I got no response so I came here. I think she's in danger.' Leigha explains.

It's been a few hours, Leigha hasn't heard from Emily. Leigha stays with the intelligence team. They haven't told her anything about the case and have connected her phone and Emily's number to the tacker.

It's 7pm when Emily finally calls Leigha. As she's still at district 21, Hank asks Jay to track the number. As soon as Jay brings the tracker up, he nods at Emily to answer. She answers, puts the phone on speaker and immediately hears Emily's voice.

'Leigha, before you say anything, I'm fine.' Emily says.

'Em, I've been worried sick about you!' Leigha exclaims. 'Where are you?'

'Just know that I'm fine.' Emily tells her. Leigha and the rest of intelligence can tell that Emily is upset through her voice.

'Em, you're clearly not f-' Leigha starts to say but Emily hangs up.

'Halstead, did we get a location?'  Voight asks.

'Lakefront trail, near Royal Scoops Ice Cream.' He says as he stands up and puts his jacket on.

'Let's roll out.' Voight nods. 'Leigha, you can come with.'

They all make their way to the location. When they arrive at the scene, they get out and start walking down the trail until they see Emily. She's standing, looking out into the distance, her light brown hair blowing in the gentle breeze. As they get closer Voight puts his arm out for them all to stop. He then walks closer to Emily on his own. 'Emily?' Voight asks. Emily turns to him and he sees that her eyes are puffy and her cheeks are stained with tears from crying. 'My name is Sergeant Hank Voight -'

'Let me guess, Leigha sent you.'

'She's worried about you-'

'She's always worried about me.' Emily laughs. 'She's found be lying half dead, twice, after over dosing. She's seen me with my arms cut wide open.' She continues. 'I'm fine. You didn't need to bring your whole team out.' She says, noticing the team. She then picks up her bag and puts it on her shoulder. 'I just wanted nice afternoon walk into the evening. I've bee in hospital for a few weeks.' She then walks away. They all go to follow her but she senses it and turns around. 'Don't follow me.' She shakes her head. She turns back around and walks off. She walks past an off- license across the road and walks in.

BOOM!