Grace & the Windy City (Chicago P.D)

Chapter 6- 1 hour, 30 minutes North

The next morning, Grace awoke in her bedroom in Beverly. She looked up at the ceiling and remembered what happened last night at the district. She rolled over in bed and reached for her phone on the nightstand. She had 3 missed calls and 5 texts from Adam. He must have stopped after tracking her phone to their dad's house.

    "Hey kiddo," her father appeared by her door dressed and ready for work. "How ya doing this morning?"

    "Tired," she sat up in bed. "Are you going to work now? Your real work?"

    Bob nodded, "I've been meaning to go up to the cabin and check on things but haven't had any spare time. If you have time today, I left the key on the kitchen table. The old Honda is in the garage..."

    Grace shrugged, "Yeah, I've got nothing else to do today."

    "Alright, be careful on the I-94 then," he happily tapped the door frame before leaving for the station.

    An hour later, Grace was on the road headed north to Wisconsin. Her father had owned a cabin near Burlington ever since Adam was a kid. It was mostly a cottage-y-backwoods area, but there was a lake right outside so the family spent a few summers there when she was younger. Then, after several more years on the force it became her father's own place again.

    The heat in the car was on full-blast, but even with a sweater, puffer jacket and beanie, Grace was still chilly. She had the radio turned on to an old hits station and was singing along to some Beatles song, coasting along the highway when her phone buzzed for the 84th time. She turned the music down and snatched her phone from the cup holder right beside her.

    "Hello?" she answered.

    "Thank God." the voice on the other line said immediately. Grace rolled her eyes; It was Adam. "I've been trying to get a hold of you since last night. Where did you go?"

    "To dad's, didn't you track my phone there? And I'm driving right now so I need to go. I'm fine, alright?" Grace hung up on him and tossed her phone onto the passenger seat.

    All of a sudden, the car in front of her swerved off to the side, then back again. It was zig-zagging along the icy road, forcing Grace to come to an immediate stop. Her eyes went wide and she gasped loudly as she slammed on the breaks.

"Idiot!" she said out loud, Luckily, there were no cars around to get involved in what could have been a nasty multi-vehicle crash.

The car's driver reached out the window and waved in the form of an apology as they backed up and got back onto the road.

"No problem man, I almost just crashed my car into yours..." Grace scoffed.

Grace pulled into the snow-covered dirt road that led to the cabin. It had been years since she was there last and it had been in July. Everything looked pretty much the same despite it being winter. The trees lining the property were covered in snow and made the fact that they had neighbours almost undetectable. She parked right by the back door and finally checked her phone. No surprise, it was another missed call from Adam along with more texts.

"Why are you up in WI?" it read.

Out of spite, Grace went into her phone's settings and turned her location off. Just because their dad messed up it didn't give Adam the right to step in and try to control her, she thought. Grace pocketed her phone and stepped out of the car. She made her way through the un-plowed driveway and shoveled her way up the front steps. It was a freezing mid-west afternoon, so Grace was thankful when she finally got the door unlocked. It wasn't drastically warmer inside, so she kept her jacket on but kicked her boots off onto the doormat. Grace pulled out the list her father gave her and followed the instructions. She turned the water on a couple times, checked the fireplace, the stove, and made sure all of the windows were still locked. After she was done and everything seemed to be in order, she plopped down in the living room on a chair that looked out onto the lake. She tried to relax and enjoy the view but it was just too damn cold. There wasn't anything else to do here.

Grace locked up the cabin and started her dad's old Honda Civic. At the end of the road, she noticed she was running low on gas; low enough that she wouldn't make it back to Chicago. She began to search around in the car for extra change, and opened the glove compartment. She sprung back in surprise to see a Glock 19 staring right back at her. She was careful not to touch it. Did her father know there was a gun in there? Grace made a mental note to ask him later.

"Christ, dad."

Shaking her head, she found a couple more dollar bills and counted what she had. It wasn't much, but it would at least get her back to the city. She pulled up to the gas station fifteen minutes later, and went inside. She paid for the gas, but as she walked by the snacks she remembered she'd barely eaten all day.

"These too, please," she placed a bag of chips and a couple granola bars by the cash register. The clerk who worked there looked to be around her father's age, and gave her a friendly smile.

"You're Bob's daughter aren't you?"

Grace nodded. "I was at his place checking on things. It's been a cold winter."

He laughed. "He's lucky he's got you around...that will be $6.49 total."

Grace counted out $7. "Keep the change."

He nodded, "Have yourself a nice day."

She grabbed the snacks from the counter and smiled, "You too."

Grace was well into her drive back into the city back when she received yet another call from her brother. At this point, she realized that if she didn't answer, he would continue to bug her. Maybe even put out a BOLO.

"I'm almost home. You happy? Or would you like a more detailed description on my whereabouts?" she asked.

"Grace. I've been calling you all afternoon."

"You know, Dad was actually nice and understanding about why I was at the Blueprint last night. He thought the posters I made were really artistic. He said I should try and get into the Art Institute after high school for visual ar—"

"Grace!"

"What, Adam?" she said, annoyed.

"You need to hurry up and get to Chicago Med. Dad's been shot."