Chapter Text
“E!” Herrmann shouted.
“Nope. No, “E” Herrmann.” Cruz replied standing up at the board.
While waiting for morning briefing to start, the 51 gang was playing hang man. On the board, _ _ a m i _ a _ was already written and the man’s body, head and arms were already drawn.
“L!” Mouch screamed.
“There’s an L.”
_ l a m i _ a _, Cruz wrote.
Severide and Kidd stood at the back of the room watching the rest of 51 go crazy over finding out what the word is.
“Hey so I was thinking, how about we order some souvlakis tonight and have dinner together, just the two of us, in my office?” Severide said.
“I would love that! I’ve actually been craving a souvlaki. You just know me so well.”
She gives him a quick kiss just as Boden walks into the briefing room.
“Slamigan. The word is slamigan.” He says while walking to the front.
“Good job, chief!”
“Thanks, Cruz. Now, go take a seat.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Ok but that’s unfair. We weren’t done guessing!”
Boden gave Herrmann a look and he shut his mouth real quick.
Chief started the morning briefing but about half way through he spotted a couple of people entering the firehouse and making their way to the briefing room. They knocked on the door and made their way in.
“Sergeant Voight. How can we help you?”
“Hi chief, sorry to barge in like this.” They shook hands.
“No problem. Is something wrong?”
Upton, Burgess and Ruzek each made their way to Boden to also shake his hand and said hello to everyone else.
“I’m gonna need to speak to your lieutenant, chief. Immediately, if possible.” He said while looking directly at Stella.
Everyone looked at Stella confused. They all, including her, had no idea what was going on.
“Of course, let’s head into my office. Everyone else get back to work, we’ll resume briefing later.”
Walking to Boden’s office Kelly got slightly worried.
“Alright trouble, what did you do this time?” He asked jokingly.
“I have no idea!”
“Well depending on the crime, I’ll see if I’ll bail you out of jail or not.”
“Ok first off, I didn’t commit any crimes! Second, you’re always suppose to bail me out of jail, no matter what. Why do you think I married you?”
They both let out a laugh and walked into Boden’s office.
“So, why did you guys need to talk to me?”
“We’ve been investigating a couple guys under distributing charges; they’re some of the highest selling dealers in Chicago. They’ve all been apart of the same gang for many, many years now but have some how managed not to end up in jail. Now recently, there’s been a murder surrounding their gang involving the dope they’re selling.” Upton explained.
“Ok. What exactly does this have to do with me?”
“They all went to your high school so we came down here to see if you knew them and might have any information for us.” Ruzek continued as Burgess opened up her phone to show Kidd and Severide the 3 guys they’ve been watching.
Stella looked at the pictures and her eyes widened. She instantly got nervous.
“Uh, yeah. I know them. Well, used to know them.”
“What else?” Voight needed more information.
“I used to hangout with them back in high school and this one,
She pointed to one of the guys. “Well, I was married to him.”
“Grant Smith, right?” Upton asked.
“Yeah. Wasn’t a good marriage. How long has he been back with them?”
“About two years now.”
“Shit! I sent him to rehab right after we got divorced. I thought he was going to stop with all that.”
“Looks like he did for a while but went back after his girlfriend and 3-year-old daughter died in a car accident.”
“What!? Oh my god.”
“Now, Stella. You mentioned that you used to “hangout” with the other two, Logan and Trent. What exactly do you mean by that?”
“I used to buy from them and go out partying with them, things like that. I never sold anything, Sergeant, I just bought. A lot.”
“What can you tell us about that time?”
“Uh, I was bouncing from one foster home to another, no one cared about me at the time so I started with alcohol then to drugs. Grant was going through his own stuff so I guess we bonded over our trauma. He was friends with Logan before I was so he got me some pills from Logan’s older brother and then we both got addicted. Trent and Logan are cousins so that’s how Trent got involved. They had their own family issues; they come from a long line of addicts.”
“So, Logan and Trent got into the “family business” cause of Logan’s brother?”
“Yeah, pretty sure.”
“Where’s the brother now?”
“I don’t know. I was never close to him; he was around only when we would hangout at Logan’s house. I left that life a long time ago and I never looked back.”
“How did you and Grant get together?”
“Sergeant, excuse me but at this point it seems like my lieutenant is under interrogation here.” Boden chimed in.
“She’s not under interrogation, we just could use all the help we could get and lieutenant Kidd is our best option. With the information she gives us, we can take these guys down as soon as possible. If there’s a problem or if she’s uncomfortable, we will stop now.”
“No, I’m fine. No worries. Whatever I can do to help.”
“Great. Now about you and Grant.”
Even though Stella was putting on a strong front, Kelly knew that talking about her past, especially her time with Grant, was hard for her. He took a step closer to her and held her hand the whole time she talked to Voight.
“We got together when we were 17; we were on and off, it wasn’t really a real relationship for a while. Other than Logan and Trent, we both didn’t have anybody else so we relied on each other. We ended up getting into a really bad car accident, all 4 of us, and that’s when Grant and I decided we should get clean but with Logan and Trent around, it was hard. So, we cut down a bit, finished high school, got our diplomas and hoped that after high school we could move on and get fully clean.”
“When did you both decide that you wanted to get married?”
Stella looked at Kelly with a nervous expression on her face. She never told him this part of her story. It was always too hard to put into words and she didn’t want to make herself seem weak in front of him.
“Um. Uh, it was-.”
She took a deep breath before continuing.
“It was after a graduation party we went to. We had both been drinking way too much and high out of our minds. I must have taken too much of everything or someone slipped something in my drink; I ended up passing out on the floor. I woke up in one of the bedrooms of the house we were at, I don’t even remember whose party it was, with Logan’s brother. We called him “Tank”, I’m not sure why we did but to this day I still don’t know his real name.”
She paused for a couple seconds and prepared herself for what she was going to have to explain next.
“Anyways, um, I- I woke up laying down on a bed, naked with Tank holding my hands on top of my head, kissing my neck. I was still half dazed but I felt all of it, it was painful. I tried to pretend it wasn’t happening but I knew what was going on.”
At this point, she was crying and took a seat on Boden’s couch. Severide didn’t let go of her hand and comforted her while trying to digest everything she was saying.
“I guess Grant must have been looking for me or saw Tank take me to the bedroom cause after a couple minutes he barged into the room. He attacked Tank, got me out of there and then took me back to his parents’ house. His parents were pretty normal people, they had financial issues here and there but nothing drug or alcohol related but anyways they weren’t there that night. He took care of me and basically made sure I didn’t die. The next morning, we both decided that we absolutely needed to get clean and to get away from Logan, Trent and Tank.
“In our world, we have this thing called a “rescue crush” where someone you rescue thinks they’re in love with you because you saved them and that’s pretty much what happened with me and Grant. He saved me from Tank, saved me from dying; I felt like maybe he would be there for me forever. So, during dinner the next day when he asked me to marry him, I automatically said yes.”
“Did you two talk about getting married before?” Burgess asked.
“No, we never talked about that stuff. I think he just asked me because he wanted to make sure I didn’t leave him during our whole getting clean process and after that.”
“You guys got married that night?”
“We filed for a marriage licence that night then got married at the courthouse a couple days later. We were married for about 2 years before he relapsed. Shit got crazy after that; he turned into a completely different person. I’ve been clean ever since.”
“When was the last time you two saw the guys?”
“At that graduation party. I haven’t seen them at all since then, I guess for Grant it’s a different story.”
“Alright Stella, we’ll let you get back to work. Do you mind passing by the station after your shift is over? We got a couple more things to talk about.”
“Yeah, of course, I’ll be there.”
They all shook hands then Boden walked the intelligence unit out, leaving Severide and Kidd alone for a few moments.
Stella looked over at Kelly and started to cry again; he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly, letting her cry everything out. Why didn’t she ever tell him that part of her life before?