Grace & the Windy City (Chicago P.D)

Chapter 20- The Incident

With Det. Upton aka Sasha bringing up the night of the shooting and thus everything that came after, Grace was on edge.

Sasha is really Det. Upton, an undercover cop. She knows I was at the Blueprint the night of the shooting. She's after Carter, who's supposedly MIA but also just called me. It was like he was watching me, Grace sighed, and groaned out of frustration.

Det. Upton aka "Sasha" being at the district brought up bad memories for Grace. She remembered the night of the shooting, which brought Carter and Severide's faces to mind. Severide. He was the only one who knew and might be able to understand. With that idea filling her thoughts, she drove to Firehouse 51.

"Hey! Cruz!" Grace called out.

Joe Cruz, a firefighter at 51 turned around from his car. He saw the familiar brunette and smiled. "Grace, how are you doing?"

"Y'know. The same. Do you have any idea where I might find Kelly? I need to talk to him."

Joe looked a little confused. After what happened with the two of them, why would she be so eager to talk to Severide?

"I heard him say he was going to Molly's. I'd check there first."

Grace looked set to hop back in her car. "Thanks!"

"Hey, Grace?"

She widened her eyes, "Mm hmm?"

"You doing alright?"

She hesitated, but plastered on a smile and nodded. "See you around!"

Grace walked quickly down W Cortlandt Street to Molly's and opened the door without hesitation. She spotted Kelly at the bar talking with another man, around his age.

"Grace," he said surprised, sipping on a beer. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you...like now."

He turned to his friend, "I'll be right back."

The two of them went outside, since she knew Herrmann would only allow a minor like her in his establishment so many times.

"Are you alright?"

Grace paused, "I'm getting a little tired of people asking me that question. I thought you'd know better. You're the one who saw me have some sort of psychotic break in the middle of the street."

Severide didn't think Grace would bring that up. He lifted both hands as if to say no harm. "Is everything ok with you?"

"No," she answered. "It's not."

Suddenly, Grace remembered the last time the two of them were on a street corner together.

It was the middle of the night, and Grace hadn't slept for almost a week. 5 days to be exact. Her heart was racing, her hair looked ratty, and she looked pale as if she had the flu. She had on just a cropped zip up hoodie, shorts and sneakers on. She left Adam's apartment and took the Pink Line to Union Park and then walked and walked and walked until she ended up near Molly's. Grace remembered a young woman asking for a light for her cigarette, ignoring her, and then walking across the street into the middle of traffic. Severide spotted Grace before she saw him, even if she had she was so out of it.

"Grace! Grace, what the hell? Are you ok?"

Grace continued on, stumbling on the sidewalk like she couldn't hear him. Then it came out of nowhere— the thoughts in her head became louder and louder. She began muttering to herself out loud, screaming, then crying. Severide tried his best to calm her down or help her snap out of whatever state she was in, but it was no use. Grace began pushing Severide to get out of her way and he tried to stop her and hold her arms down. There was no way he was letting her go roam the streets of Chicago at 3 am dressed in what looked like her pyjamas. This got the attention of a few bar patrons around them, who called over a couple of police officers thinking a man was harassing a young girl. It didn't help that Grace kept yelling "He's going to kill me", having some sort of flashback to the cabin. Long story short, she ended up in the hospital for a while and hadn't seen Severide since.

"I think the Blueprint thing is going to come out soon." Grace shared.

"What makes you say that?"

"Some detective named Upton showed up at the District while I was there, and guess what? She was undercover at the Blueprint for months. I'd seen her like dozens of times. She would serve me really shitty vodka sodas." Grace rolled her eyes. "The problem is that Upton is police and now she knows I was there. It's only a matter of time before my dad and brother find out too," she started breathing heavily.

"Is that really a bad thing?" Kelly asked.

Grace suddenly looked more nervous. "I haven't been totally honest with you about that night."

"...Ok...well what is it?"

Grace took a deep breath. No one knew this, not even Dr. Charles. "I saw the shooter that night."

"You saw the shooter?" he repeated.

Grace nodded.

"I left out the back, like that paramedic friend of yours saw, but further down the alley...I saw him."

"Why did you leave the scene entirely? Everyone was waiting out front in the street."

"Carter told me that if the cops saw me there, they wouldn't care about the shooting just that there was a minor who was over served at an 18+ establishment."

"That sounds ridiculous."

"Another night in Chicago." Grace shrugged.

"Could you pick out the shooter in a lineup or something? You really should tell your brother about this."

Grace sounded more stressed out than before, "I could, but I can't."

"What does that mean?"

Grace broke eye contact and nervously looked across the street to the steady flow of cars passing through traffic. She turned back up to Severide from the meaningless distraction. "I can't because...the shooter is a friend of Carter's, the guy I was with who works there. If I talk to the police, I'm afraid he'll kill Carter or something..." Grace didn't mean to say the last part in such a dramatic way, but keeping it inside was eating at her, "Or kill me."