New Family

Vanessa Rojas

Several Months Later

"So Toni's definitely not coming back?" Maddie asked, Jay had waited for as long as possible to tell her but today was the day that the new Officer started and she would find out anyway.

"He's in Puerto Rico with his sister, its what he needs." Jay explained, Maddie looked down at her breakfast before nodding slowly.

She was one of the first people to notice something was up with Dawson as she had seen people hiding drug addictions at group homes in the past. She tried to confront him but he denied it, she pushed and he shut her down and sent her into an episode.

"I know somethings not right Toni." Maddie said, her voice calm as they sat in the office downstairs. "I've seen people trying to cover drug addictions before, I know the signs."

"I'm fine Mads, I promise." Antonio said.

"You're not. Don't lie to me." Maddie said. "You know I can pull your financials and see the large withdrawals in seconds so don't even try it."

"Even if something was wrong, its not your problem. You're just a kid." Antonio snapped, his voice raising as he spoke.

"Tell Jay I've gone home." Maddie said, tears building in her eyes. "I don't feel well."

"Maddie!" Antonio called after her as she ran out of the district.

"You know he didn't mean that right?" Jay asked, knowing exactly what she was thinking about as she had told him about it when Antonio was first sent to rehab.

"I know, and I forgive him for it. I want him to know I forgive him." Maddie said.

"He knows kid." Jay said.

----------

After school Maddie went to the district as normal.

"Hey Sarge." Maddie said, leaning against the desk, waiting to be buzzed up.

"I don't think anyone's up there at the moment, they've just gone to a scene." Platt said, leaning to buzz her up.

"That's fine, I've got some homework to do." Maddie said.

"Can you babysit officer..." Platt drifted off.

"Rojas." The woman said.

"Can you babysit Officer Rojas for me until Voight gets back?" Platt asked.

"Sure." Maddie said, smiling kindly at Rojas. As soon as they were through the gate Maddie spoke again. "You must've done something to annoy her that bad straight away." She joked.

"I don't think so?" She said as Maddie dropped her bag by her desk.

"I'm Maddie by the way." Maddie said as she sat down and got her laptop out, just in case someone rang her and asked her to do something.

"Vanessa." Rojas said, leaning against another desk. "You seem a bit young for a cop." She commented.

"I'm not." Maddie said with a smile. "I'm 16, my foster dad's a detective up here."

"How long you been in the system for?" Rojas asked.

"As long as I can remember." Maddie said. "I've been with Jay for about six months now."

"I grew up in the system." Rojas said. "Aging out alone is painful, you're lucky to have someone."

"Jay's great, he's less of a father figure, more of a brother." Maddie said. "But don't tell him I said that, it'll go straight to his head."

"Copy that." Rojas said with a smile.

"You got your UC identity?" Maddie asked.

"Yeah, Maria Lopez." Rojas said, clearly not impressed by it.

"It's not unique, that's good." Maddie said typing in her computer. "Over 500 Maria Lopez's in Chicago so you'll blend in."

"You running a background check on me or something?" Rojas joked.

"I'm flagging your UC ID so if you show up in a hospital for whatever reason, we'll know." Maddie explained.

"I'm not permanent yet, so you might want to hold off on that." Rojas said.

"It's not an official thing." Maddie said. "I only do it for people I like." Maddie said, sending a smile to Rojas. Rojas was going to say something but was interrupted by Maddie's phone ringing. "Hello."

"Hey, it's Jay, I need you to run a plate for me."

Jay told her the plate and she ran it through the system.

"That car was destroyed a few weeks ago, an engine fault." Maddie said. "But I'm guessing thats not the answer you wanted?"

"We've got it on CCTV footage from two hours ago."

"Right, I'll look into it." Maddie said. "Can you tell Voight the new officer's here?"

"What's she like?"

"I like her." Maddie said, sending a smile in Rojas' direction. "I'll look into that car for you."

"I thought you said you weren't a cop?" Rojas asked.

"I'm not, I think the proper title is civilian technology expert." Maddie said whilst typing on her laptop. "I'm basically the tech girl."

"Right." Rojas said.

"He's gonna tell Voight you're here so you won't be waiting around for too long." Maddie said, grabbing a post-it from the corner of her desk and scribbling down a few notes about the car. She carried on looking into it writing down the original owners name and address, where it was destroyed and who by, along with whatever other details she could find before standing up and sticking it onto Jay's desk.

"Can I get your number? I feel like it could be useful during a case." Rojas asked.

"It's already in your phone." Maddie said. "I'll put the rest of the team's in there once you've met them and Voight works out what you're doing."

"Damn, you're good." Rojas joked, immediately spotting Maddie's contact in her almost empty contacts list.

"That's why I'm here." Maddie said with a laugh as she got out some homework to do.

"Is that actually why Jay fostered you?" Rojas asked, slightly shocked.

"No, no." Maddie said laughing. "That's a long story." She added.

"We'll have to share stories of the system sometime." Rojas said.

"Yeah." Maddie agreed. "It'll be nice having someone around who knows what the system is like, the good and bad." Maddie said, a sad expression briefly crossing her face.

"There's a good to it? I must've missed that bit." Rojas joked, making the teen laugh.

"Nah, I had a few good homes." Maddie said, remembering her time spent in New York and her Puerto Rican mom. "They always ended badly though." She added.