"You're on your own kid, you always have been."

~ 2019 ~

"I've lost count of the times I've had to drive you home." Officer Adam Ruzek says to the young girl in the back of his patrol car as he drives through the Chicago streets. "You're lucky we're not arresting you, again, this time."

"All I was doing was hanging 'round with some friends." The young girl huffs.

"It's 10 pm and those guys had to be in their late twenties." Adam states.

"So," the young girl shrugs.

"So," Adam sighs, "you're twelve years old, Maddison. You shouldn't be out this late, let alone hanging around with random strangers."

"I've already told you, they're not random strangers, they're my friends." Maddison snaps back. Adam sighs and rubs his face whilst keeping one hand on the wheel.

"Does your mom and dad know you're out?"

"Didn't go home after school. Told 'em I was going to a friend's house for the night." Maddison shrugs. "Y'know, you could just let me go? I'll find my own way home." She adds. "My mom will be at work and my dad will be asleep."

"Nope. Not gonna happen." Adam shakes his head. "You're a minor and I have a duty of care to take you someplace safe."

"You could just take me to a hospital, that's someplace safe. Y'know, make sure those guys didn't do anything. Make sure I'm not flying high or somethin'." Maddison suggests.

"You already know the answer to that." Adam looks at her in the rearview mirror. "Do you want to tell me the real reason you want to go home?" Maddison ignores the question by placing her hand on her chest and faking groans of pain.

"Chest. Hurts. Need. Hospital. Stat."She says, faking the groans the whole way through.

"Not funny." Adam shakes his head, putting the patrol car in park. Maddison stops the fake groans, looks out of the window, and sees that they're in the parking lot of Wendy's.

"Why we here?" She asks him and he turns to face her.

"I assume you haven't eaten since school lunch?" He questions and she just shrugs. "Then I'm getting you something to eat." He gets out of the car, walks to the back, and opens the door. "C'mon." He motions with his head. Maddison gets out of the car and Adam closes both doors. They both walk into the restaurant and up to the counter to place their order. Adam orders the classic chicken combo whilst Maddison has the 20 pieces chicken nugget combo. Once they have their food, they sit in a booth and open up their food packages.

"So, out with it ma dude." Maddison says, popping a fry into her mouth. Adam quirks an eyebrow and laughs. "What?"

'"Ma Dude"?'

"Yeah." Maddison laughs. "Why are you buying me food? How many peeps end up in the back of your patrol car and you decide to buy them food?"

"Well, you're a kid," Adam tells her. "Can't let you go home hungry, especially if you haven't eaten in what, 10 hours?"

"Fair." Maddison nods. "Won't you get in trouble for this?"

"I'm doing overtime on patrol. The investigation unit I normally work in, we're one big family and when we see someone struggling, we help them." Adam informs her. "Even if that person is someone who always finds trouble." He adds, hinting at the young girl in front of me.

"'Kay, I get it." Maddison nods, laughing slightly. They eat the rest of their meals before walking back out to the patrol car. Adam is walking in front of Maddison talking to her and so she uses the opportunity to slip away. As Adam opens the back door of the patrol car, he turns around.

"You have got to be kidding." He mutters. He grabs his radio, changes the frequency to dispatch, and presses the button before talking into it. "This is 5021 IDA, the young girl I was escorting gave me the slip." He proceeds to give a description and he's told that they'll put out an alert and to carry on with his shift.

.

A few days later, Adam has been called to an arrest. He walks up to the arresting officer, Garcia.

"I appreciate you calling me, Garcia." Adam nods, shaking his hand.

"No problem." Garcia nods back.

"What'd she do?" Adam asks.

"Vandalized the side of the store, got caught by the shop owner. He was willing to let her off given how young she is, as long as she cleaned it off. He took her into the store to give her some cleaning supplies. Next thing he knows, she's pushing everything off all of the shelves." Garcia explains. "She's in the back of my patrol car. She hasn't been that cooperative. She spooked when I went to cuff her, Marcy had to do it." He motions to the female officer standing by the patrol car.

"Right." Adam sighs. "Well, I'll take her in. She'll be a lot more cooperative with me." Garcia leads him over to the patrol car and Marcy opens the door. Adam plants one hand on the door and one hand on the top of the car before looking into the back. Maddison looks at him.

"Ugh." She scoffs.

"Vandalism and criminal damage?" He raises an eyebrow.

"He deserved it." Maddison shifts in her seat. "Dude beats the kids he fosters."

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Adam asks.

"One of his foster daughters is my friend. She told me this morning at school." Maddison tells him. "So, it was worth getting arrested for."

"We'll look into that. For now, I'll be taking you to the district." Adam informs her. He goes to grab her arm to help her out of the car when he thinks about what Garcia told him about her getting spooked. "I'm going to grab hold of your arm and help you out of the car. Okay?"

"Yeah." Maddison nods. A few moments later, Maddison is out of the car. Adam takes his handcuffs out of his pocket.

"I'll take these cuffs off, but you can't run off on me, okay?" Adam tells her and she nods. He unlocks the cuffs, takes them off, and hands them back to Garcia. "Send the paperwork to me." He tells Garcia and Marcy.

"You got it." Garcia nods.

"Come on." Adam looks at Maddison. They both walk over to his car. Maddison gets into the back whilst Adam gets into the front.

"I'm not lying about that dude hitting kids," Maddison tells him after a few moments.

"I know." Adam nods, turning to face her. "I have no reason to believe you're lying. You've always been truthful with me, but you could've come to me."

"I wanted to, but-" She bites her lip.

"You didn't know what would happen because of the other day." Adam finishes for her. "Maddison, you're not in trouble for that. I'm just glad that you're safe."

"I'm sorry for running off." Maddison looks down.

"It's okay," Adam reassures her. "Now, I'm gonna take you back to the district. I've got a way to get these charges dropped." He turns back around and starts the drive to the 21st district.

.

Half an hour later, Maddison is sitting in an office. Adam and the DA - Leighton Murray.

"So, we have an offer for you," Adam tells Maddison. "The charges from today will be dropped if you agree to become one of my confidential informants - a CI."

"I'm not in any gangs," Maddison says. "I wouldn't be any help."

"You're out all of the time," Adam notes. "You'll see things that other people won't. You'll have to report to me with any info you think might be helpful or gather info when I come to you."

"With payment, it will all go into a secure account which you'll get access to at 18. It will be up to Adam with how much you get." Leighton adds. "You can't tell anyone you're a CI, not even your mom and dad. It will keep you safe."

"Will you look into the child beater?" Maddison looks at Adam. "I don't care if I face charges for destroying his shop, all I care about is making sure he doesn't hurt another kid."

"I'm going to start building the case as soon as we're done here." Adam nods his head. "We take that kind of allegation seriously, Maddison, even if they're from someone who's just been arrested."

"Okay." Maddison nods, after a few moments of thinking. "I'll do it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, first chapter is here! Well, the prologue. I thought I'd do a chapter introducing how Adam and Maddison know each other to give a little bit of background. I hope you'll like the new and improved "A New Life" - now called "Vigilante Sh*t" - where my swifties at?!

Let me know what you thought of the prologue!

Much love