Grace & the Windy City (Chicago P.D)

Chapter 19- Call from Indiana

Trudy Platt was sitting at the desk of the 21st District one morning, completing her usual duties when her cell phone rang. She removed it from the back pocket of her pants and saw that she recognized the area code. It was from Indiana.

"Sgt. Platt...Hi, how's it going over there? ...Yeah...yeah that's him. Oh...Ok, thanks for calling. Bye.", she quickly hung up the phone.

With a serious expression on her face, she left her post and stomped up the stairs to Intelligence. She needed to speak to Voight immediately.

Later that day, Grace sauntered up the steps of District 21 at the request of Sgt. Platt. Apparently, she had a friend whose wife just opened up an art gallery where there'd be some sort of summer program beginning there for high school students. Platt heard and thought Grace would be interested. Or, at the very least have an excuse to get out of the apartment that wasn't to go to therapy.

Grace and Sgt. Platt were finishing up their chat, when she felt the presence of someone beside her. She turned to her right and didn't believe who she saw. Neither did the person looking back at her.

"...college admissions would eat this kind of thing up, and I think you'd really enjoy it." Sgt. Platt finished.

"Sasha?" Grace spat out. What was the bartender from the Blueprint doing at the 21st? She wasn't dressed like a bartender either. More like a detective.

Oh.

"What are you doing here?" Grace asked.

Suddenly, Sasha pulled Grace into the empty office right behind them. That was weird, it was like she already had been inside before.

"Oh my god, you're a cop, aren't you?" she asked.

"Sasha", if that was even her real name was reluctant to answer. "Yes, I was undercover when I was at the Blueprint."

"No shit." Grace didn't know where to begin. "So, what were you looking into there? The drug/party scene? Serving minors? What was it?"

"It was a little bit of everything, let's put it that way. How about we discuss you disappearing after the shooting? I looked everywhere and couldn't find any info on you."

Grace looked puzzled. There had to be hundreds of texts between her and Carter spanning a year or so. How could she not have found them? "Why don't you just ask Carter? You know what, it doesn't even matter because...here's what you need to know: I didn't see anything happen, I haven't even seen Carter since that night, and I was not involved. Case closed. Not for you, but for me it is."

"Carter hasn't been in the city for months. I myself have been working to track him down. He supposedly got back a couple days ago. And Grace, you were sort of a regular at the Blueprint, so I'm going to need more than that." Sasha pressed.

Grace sighed and looked anxious. "I really don't want to talk about it anymore, ok? My dad and brother are cops and they don't know I was there. And a lot has happened since, like a lot, and if they found out this happened too, I will never be able to leave the house again."

"You're saying you're related to a cop? You should've known better then."

"Yes, and one of them works right here, up in Intelligence so I'd appreciate some discretion about this."

"Intelligence?" Sasha repeated.

"Yeah, when my brother first got in my dad wouldn't shut up about it. Why are you asking me about Carter anyways? You guys were dating, or at least it seemed like you were. You should know more than I do."

Sasha sighed, "I wasn't the one he ran off with that night, was I?"

Grace chewed her lip. "I really don't want to talk about that night anymore. I told you everything I know."

Sasha thought for a second, "Ok. If you hear from Carter, stay away alright? He's not a good guy."

"Yeah, clearly. I wouldn't keep my hopes up. I haven't heard from him in ages." Grace shrugged, trying not to sound nervous. "Look, I've gotta go."

"Alright, here's my card in case you think of anything or if Carter tries to call you."

Grace stuffed it in the pocket of her jeans as she walked towards the door. "Your name's not Sasha." she noticed the obvious.

'Sasha' shook her head. "No, it's Hailey. Hailey Upton."

"Oh one more thing. You weren't a very good bartender," she twisted the doorknob.

"When I'm forced to serve minors, I make it a point not to do a good job." Hailey humored Grace.

Once outside, Grace began walking to her car. She felt glad she wasn't involved in anything at the Blueprint considering what Sasha aka Dt. Hailey Upton just revealed to her. Even if working with Carter had helped her figure out she wanted to go into the Arts, it definitely wasn't worth sticking around there anymore. She knew now the situation was odd to begin with, and there were red flags along the way that she ignored. The free entry to 18+ shows where she was the youngest person in the room, attention from an older guy...Carter never once tried anything on Grace, but it made her wonder how much more time went by until he would have?

Grace turned the radio on in an effort to shake her head of these unsettling thoughts. That time of her life was over and done. There was no use combing through it now.

Just as she was about to pull out of the parking lot, her phone rang. She figured it was Adam, probably annoyed she didn't come up to Intelligence to say hello so he could check in on her.

Except it wasn't Adam. It was Carter. Suddenly, everything came rushing back. Even 10 minutes earlier when she was talking to Hailey, the memories were at bay, but now in the car, alone, and a direct line to Carter buzzing for her attention, it was impossible. The shooting. Running away from stray bullets and into the cold Chicago night with Carter. Spending the following hours at an apartment downtown dealing with a bad high and older guys. A week later, on that day up at the cabin. Everything that happened after that kept flooding back into Grace's mind as she squeezed her eyes shut trying to escape.

No one but Hailey knew about her being at the Blueprint shooting, not even Dr. Charles. She barely knew Hailey and wasn't going to go blabbing to her about everything, especially since she was a cop and all. Grace had no one to talk this out with.

Except that was a lie. Severide knew.