Partners

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He couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen; sure, they’d figured out most of this mess but Chad knew that there was something they’d missed. Detweiler wouldn’t have called in his ‘favor’ just for the hell of it. Andrea shifted and he smiled as she snorted softly before relaxing against him once more. Maybe it wasn’t too late to make sure she was safe… he discarded the idea as soon as it formed, knowing he was being weak. I just want her with me. I can protect her, Chad told himself firmly. She’d insist that she could protect herself, of course, but he wasn’t going to let her take any risks – especially now that she was pregnant.

Chad still couldn’t believe that he was going to be a father; it was a gift he didn’t deserve, just like he didn’t deserve Andrea. He’d missed holding her so much, it was like he couldn’t get enough of just being with her. He stifled a yawn and rested his chin atop her head – he should have gone to sleep but he hadn’t wanted to miss a second of finally having her there in his arms and being able to hold her all night long.

Andrea stirred again and opened her eyes, yawning. “Hey, you.”

“Hey,” he said softly.

“What time is it?” she asked, arching against him as she stretched and lifted her face for a kiss, which he gave gladly.

“Early.” Andrea settled back against him sleepily and, kissing her temple, Chad shifted his gaze towards the gap in the curtains where he could see the sun coming up. “I want you to promise me something.”

She rested her head against his chest. “What’s that?”

Go home so you stay safe. “Just…be careful today, okay?”

Andrea laughed and sat up, purposely letting the sheet fall down around her bare hips as she shook her long hair from her beautiful face. “What’re you talking about? I’m carefulness incarnate.”

“I’m sure you must think so,” he said dryly, reaching out to tap his finger on the tip of her nose lightly, “but I doubt that the range hood agrees with you.”

She bit her lip and did her best to look chagrined. “You noticed that, huh?”

“Just a little. I can’t quite figure out how the flames could have gotten that high.” Chad threw back the blanket and stood, shaking his head at the lecherous expression on Andrea’s face as she watched. “Get some clothes on, woman – we’ve got a busy day ahead of us.”

After walking Meredith, Chad opened the rear door of the SUV and mentally inventoried the gear stored neatly in the back while Andrea went to make sure Hopper was ready to go. Chad tensed as she came back out of the other room at a run, lunging through their room door and nearly tripping over a chair in her haste. The bathroom door slammed shut and Chad relaxed, taking his hand off his sidearm and returning to his task. Andrea came out a few minutes later and plopped down beside the duffel bag he was going through, scowling. “Well, that was inconvenient.” She lifted her chin suddenly. “Here comes Hopper.”

Chad turned to see his ex-partner closing the door to his room before joining them. “You get in touch with her?”

Hopper nodded. “Yeah, she’s…she’s fine. Did you get a time for me to meet up with Mrs. Garza?”

“Yup, she’ll be in Interrogation Room 3 – Faith set it up with Choi.” Andrea tilted her head slightly. “She said he had no problem with it, didn’t argue at all. Wanna tell us about that?”

“I helped him out with something,” Hopper said, taking out his cell phone and punching a number into it. “Look, I’m going to head over there and see what I can turn up. I’ll call when I find out more.”

Andrea looked up at Chad with a thoughtful expression on her face. “What now?”

“Now we go down to City Hall and see if we can find Booth, get anything we can that proves his connection to Detweiler,” Chad sighed. “We only have a few more hours until Steve’s amnesty runs out and he starts looking for me.”

He’d thought it would get easier, but at City Hall things just seemed to get even worse – Andrea had lured Booth’s assistant away by pretending to pass out, and Chad slipped into the councilman’s office to look through his files. He came up with nothing and Andrea pulled another fast one on the guy when he came back with a cup of water for her, giving Chad time to get out of there. “This isn’t looking good,” Andrea grumbled, pacing back and forth on the walkway above the main floor. “And I’m not talking about me having to play Swooning Sally back there.”

Chad opened his mouth to respond when he caught sight of two very familiar looking men. What the hell was Nick Vukovic doing here with Booth? “Wait here, I’ll be right back,” he said hurriedly, pushing off from the pillar he’d been leaning against. Wherever they were going, he had to get there first… Chad walked along the side of the walkway quickly, glancing down to make sure they were still there. The path they were taking had two hallways branching off of it, and one of them led to a bathroom. He managed to slip inside the men’s room just ahead of them, and found a broom closet inside as the sound of their voices grew closer.

The two men came inside and planted themselves directly in front of the small, cramped closet to talk. Chad listened in shock as Vukovic – Hopper’s old man’s partner, for God’s sake – gave him all the information he needed to know. When the two men began discussing a woman, he ground his teeth together to keep silent until Booth snapped at the other man and they left. Shit. Chad mentally replayed the conversation he’d just overheard. Shit, shit, shit. You just had to run off, didn’t you, Rita? Goddamnit. Andrea came running to meet him as soon as he came back up the stairs, taking them three at a time. “What’s going on?”


_ _ _ _ _ _


Chad met her eyes, nodded silently, then they both raised their guns and ran inside the warehouse to find Rita tied up to a chair with some sort of bag over her head. It looked like she’d been beaten pretty badly, and despite the fact that she didn’t much care for the other woman, Andrea couldn’t believe that anyone would ever do this to her. “It’s okay, we’re here,” she soothed, then stopped in surprise when Chad pulled the bag off her head. It wasn’t Rita.

When they’d gotten the woman calmed down, she introduced herself as Margo. “Wait a second, weren’t you the one who nearly got hit by a bus yesterday?” Chad interrupted.

“How did you-”

“Long story,” Andrea said, helping her up. “Let’s get you out of here before they decide to come back.”

Margo still seemed to be in shock, and who could blame her? Whoever had kidnapped her, they’d sure done a number on her. “I need to call Judge Nitzberg, he probably thinks I’ve run off with his coffee and I need to make sure the Grand Jury goes ahead as planned…”

“Grand Jury? For what?” Andrea asked, sliding her arm around the other woman to reassure her. Chad kept some first aid stuff in his car that she could use to disinfect those cuts on Margo’s face.

“I just set up the appointments,” Margo apologized.

Andrea opened her mouth to respond when she saw that Chad had stopped and was staring at Margo with a strange expression on his face. “What’s going on?”

“I think we need to pay Judge Nitzberg a visit,” Chad said slowly, looking like he’d just figured something out. “Let’s go, we don’t have time to waste standing around here.” He helped Margo into the back seat of the SUV and handed Andrea the first aid kit, then got behind the wheel and started the car. They were both pressed against the back of the seats as Chad stomped on the accelerator, and she had her hands full trying not to be thrown around the car as well as trying to help Margo get cleaned up. She was tempted to snap at him, but restrained herself – Chad apparently knew what he was doing, and once he got going there wasn’t any stopping him. Besides, from the look on his face this was a vital piece to the puzzle they were working on and woe betide anyone who got in her lieutenant’s way.

An hour later, she sat stunned as the judge gave them the details of the Grand Jury investigation. Chad’s face had gone back to being expressionless, but she could tell that he was just as shocked as she was…maybe even more so. “When do they meet?”

“This afternoon,” the judge answered, looking more than a bit shocked himself at the evidence Chad had provided him with. “We’d suspected, but…” he shook his head. “I never thought I’d see the day that it would come to this.”

Chad looked over at Andrea, then back at Nitzberg. “I think they’re going to try something with all of you in the same place at the same time. Can you change rooms without anyone besides the other judges knowing about it, or just reschedule? As long as they still think you’re all in that courtroom, I make sure SWAT’s in there to greet them.”

Nitzberg blinked, then swiveled his chair around towards Margo. “Can you make this happen before three?”

Leaving her there to make the calls, the judge ushered both of them into the outer office. “We’ve got to see what Detective Hopper’s turned up,” Andrea said, glancing up at Chad. He looked like he’d explode if she didn’t get him out of there. “Make sure nobody finds out that you won’t be in that room, Your Honor. SWAT OIC Romero will be here with a team in less than an hour.”

They’d taken half a dozen steps down the hall before Chad stopped to slam his fist into the wall. “It just doesn’t end,” he snarled angrily, glaring at a passing clerk who was staring at them wide-eyed. “What?” The clerk nearly dropped the files he was carrying as he fled; Andrea stepped forward to catch Chad’s arm when he drew back for another punch and folded her hands over his larger fist gently.

“You’ll need this hand,” she reminded him, feeling the muscles in his arm quivering as he fought with his anger and disillusionment. “Look at me, sweetheart… it’s almost over. We finally found out what this was all about – all we have to do now is make sure we’ve got a copy of the tape, if Hopper managed to make Mrs. Garza talk.”

Quickly moving back down to the parking level, Andrea made several calls while Chad made a few of his own. “…I’m telling you that I saw him with my own two eyes,” she heard him argue as they reached the car. “Whatever you think you know about him, you might want to – you know what? I’m tempted to just leave you to explain your own way out of the arrest warrant,” Chad snapped. “Now where the hell are you? Wait, what are you doing? Stay there, damn it! Hopper? Hopper!” After ending the call by shutting the phone so violently that it nearly broke, he started the car with a growl of “some people never change” and steered out into traffic.

“Where’s Hopper?” Andrea ventured, grabbing onto the door as they went flying around a corner. She trusted Chad with her life, but with him this angry he might inadvertently get them into an accident. “I guess he’s where the fire is.”

“Oh, who the fuck knows?” Chad yelled, thumping the steering wheel. “I only told him about his ‘uncle’ so I wouldn’t have to explain once we got there, but now he’s gone haring off to find his CI for something.”

“Faith says they’ve got Mrs. G on tape confessing to an affair with Councilman Booth and admitting to knowledge of Isabella Contrarez as well as her husband’s killing – she’s in custody, and they’re getting a warrant issued for Booth’s arrest.” She took a deep breath and looked straight ahead. “And Steve said he’d set up a team in the courthouse.”

Chad’s tone was flat. “Steve said so, did he?”

“He also says he’ll kick your sorry ass the next time he sees it.”

“Well, that certainly sounds like him.” Without taking his eyes off the road, Chad moved a hand over to cover hers and their fingers twined tightly as he drove on.

Twenty minutes later they reached a place that looked like a rock quarry, and Andrea loosed her grip on Chad in shock as she recognized Nick Vukovic arguing with Hopper. The shorter man in a black coat with cornrows in his hair must be Damien Ortiz, she thought. Exchanging a look with Chad as they got out of the car with their guns drawn, they started to run forward as Hopper pulled his own gun and knocked Nick down. “…think of your dad,” the older man pleaded weakly, looking terrified.

Hopper cocked the gun, prompting Nick to gibber and close his eyes, then lowered it. “You know what? You’re not worth the bullet.” He glanced over at Damien and turned his back on his adopted uncle to walk towards Andrea and Chad. “I take it you heard about Garza’s murder.”

Chad opened his mouth to reply when a shot rang out – Andrea jumped and looked back over to where Damien was calmly tucking his gun back beneath his coat. Hopper didn’t even blink. “Okay, what the hell?” he demanded.

“Turns out my dad’s suicide wasn’t a suicide after all,” Hopper said slowly. Andrea placed a hand on her partner’s arm comfortingly. “We trusted him, all of us. I knew something was wrong, but after following the clues he left behind…” he shook his head. “It’s been a long day.”

The sound of gravel being flung around by speeding tires made them all look around, and Chad’s jaw tightened. “Looks like it’s being extended even further. Andy, get behind the car.”


_ _ _ _ _ _ _


Perfect, Chad thought sourly as he moved for cover behind Vukovic’s truck. Picking up the pieces was never as easy as it was on TV – coming towards them were two vehicles that were definitely not pizza delivery trucks. Gravel and dust was thrown into the air as the cars stopped, and out of the corner of his eye Chad saw Damien making a run for it. He wished he could do the same, but it was far too late for that now.

The newcomers opened fire and Chad winced as a hail of bullets decorated the car he’d taken refuge behind. It was just as well Vukovic wouldn’t need the truck anymore. Waiting for an opening, Chad rose from his crouch and fired – one of them dropped, and Hopper took the opportunity to take a few shots of his own.

By Hopper’s car, Andrea ducked reflexively as another shot broke the windshield out and glass rained down over her. As Chad slammed another clip into his gun with the heel of his hand, he watched Andrea bring down two more. The swastikas on their jackets left little doubt to what gang they belonged to, and Chad hoped against hope that more weren’t on the way. He leaned out to cover Andrea as another shot came just a little too close, jerking back with a startled oath when a bullet ricocheting off the high grill of the truck grazed his forehead just above his left eye. That was way too fucking close, Shelten. Hopper fired back and Chad took the opportunity to dive across beside Andrea. “I’m alright,” he assured her when she immediately reached up to touch the painful gash.

“I’m running low,” Hopper yelled across, and Chad turned his head towards his SUV, trying to think. There was no way he’d be able to reach it…

Andrea turned to look too, then grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him hard. “I got it, Lieutenant.”

“What- Andrea, no! ” Chad lunged to stop her, but she’d already darted out from concealment and was running as fast as she could towards the other car

Heart in his mouth, Chad rose to give her cover fire - she was halfway there when a bullet slammed her down onto the ground.


tbc…
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