Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 143

The next morning, Lindsay had arrived at a decision. The Intelligence team were convened in the bullpen for her to address them.

"Morning," she began. "As you all know, there is an open spot on the team. Yesterday, two people were interviewed in regard to the vacancy. I've now arrived at a decision as to who will be joining us. It's going to be Amanda Rose. Raquel, after this briefing you can get on the phone to Trudy Platt and set up giving Rose the good news. Tell her she's to finish her shift as normal today. She starts here tomorrow. Right, that's all from me, unless anyone has any questions?"

No one did, so Lindsay went into her office, leaving Gonzalez to deliver the rest of the briefing in her current role in charge of the unit. When that was done, Gonzalez did as had been suggested, calling Platt and setting up another meeting at the 18th with Rose. Only Halstead remained in the bullpen when she ended the call, as the rest of the team had been sent out to work Intelligence's current case.

"Let's go, Jay," she said, heading for the elevator, putting her coat on as she walked.

"I'm glad Rose got it. Although I didn't doubt she would," he ventured.

"Agreed. I'm sure Kylie Estevez is a good person, but inexperience isn't what we need in Intelligence right now. Hey, do you guys want to come over for dinner one night this week?"

"Sounds good to me," he replied without needing to think about it. He liked spending time with Raquel and Zelina outside of work, and so did Erin. "It'll depend what Er has going on with work, but if she's free I'm sure we can work something out. Actually, we've got Clem's wrestling lessons starting this week," he suddenly recalled. "That's tomorrow night and Friday night, so we might be up against it."

"Oh yeah, you told me about the lessons," Gonzalez said with a smile as they stepped into the elevator. She pressed the button for the ground floor. "I bet she's really looking forward to it, huh?"

"Like you wouldn't believe. She gets so excited about the things she's interested in. I wish I had passion for things to the extent that she does. We picked up her wrestling attire yesterday. I've never seen her happier than when she tried it on."

They walked out of the elevator and through the 19th's lobby.

"Aww. Did you get a picture of her in it?" she asked.

"Er did, but I have them on my phone. Let me pull them up for you."

He took his phone out of his pocket and navigated to the gallery as they walked to Gonzalez's Mustang. "Here you go," he said, offering her the phone. "Swipe right for the other one."

Gonzalez took the phone and looked at the picture. It showed Clementine standing in the living room at home, wearing red lycra wrestling pants and a matching sports bra. She had white boots on, and as ever her hair was in two small pig tails. Standing with her hands on her hips, she had a big smile on her face.

"That's such a lovely picture, Jay. She looks so happy. You should get that framed."

"I said that to Er last night. Look how happy Clem is. I so hope she does well in the lessons. It's going to upset her so much if she's no good at wrestling."

"You might need to get her working out, Jay. She's skinny. She has no muscle on her arms. It might not matter too much for wrestling at her age, I don't know, but as she gets older it will."

Halstead had considered that himself, but it seemed more of a concern now that someone else had said it. Clementine was quite fit, but she wasn't strong. "You think we should look at a gym membership for her?"

"Not necessarily. You don't need a gym membership to put some muscle on. Buy some weights, show her how to use them properly, and make sure she works out every day."