Special Agent Hailey Upton of the Secret Service was reporting for duty to take a job she hadn't expected to get, under circumstances that she wouldn't have wanted to benefit from.

"Agent Upton?" a stern-faced woman with long grey hair asked her as she walked into an office on the ground floor of one of Chicago's most expensive hotels.

"Chief Platt?" Upton asked. Platt was who she had been told to report to.

"That's right," the Chief said stiffly.

Beside her was a very attractive man with short brown hair. He looked to be in his early thirties, Upton thought as she let her eyes linger on him for a second. There was a somewhat reluctant smile on his face. The gesture came out of politeness, but in truth these were not smiling circumstances.

"I'm sorry about the loss of agents Jin and Willhite," Upton said, standing to attention.

Platt's reaction was barely noticeable, but Upton's job was to pick up on things that were barely noticeable. The Chief appreciated the fact that she had taken the trouble to find out the names of the two agents who had been killed the night before when a cement truck had hit their stationary car from behind at full speed, crushing it against a truck that had been parked in front of them. Jin and Willhite had been killed instantly, which may at least have been merciful. The cement driver had been on his phone instead of paying attention to the road at the time of the accident. Upton hoped he would pay for what he had done with a life sentence.

"This is Agent Jay Halstead," Platt said. "He's going to be the secondary agent to you on Congresswoman Burgess' detail. I assume you were told you're taking the role as her primary agent?"

"Yes, ma'am," Upton said. Congresswoman Burgess today maybe, she thought, but what about tomorrow? It was Presidential election day, and Burgess had possibly a 40% chance of winning the contest for the Republican party, if the latest polling was to be believed. Upton had voted for Brian Kelton, the Democrat candidate. But her personal opinions had nothing to do with the task she had been assigned. The life of Congresswoman Burgess was about to become her responsibility, which she would defend with her own life without hesitation if necessary. That was the job.

"Good to meet you, Agent Upton," Halstead said to her.

"Hailey," she allowed. "It's good to meet you too."

"Right, to business," Platt said, tiring quickly of the pleasantries. "The Congresswoman and her husband are in her suite on the top floor. They'll be leaving soon to cast their votes. You know the kind of media scrum that entails, so you'd better get up there, introduce yourselves, and get ready to leave. Obviously we have agents already on scene at the polling place. I'll have the car brought around now so that it's ready when they want to leave. The police team know you're coming up."

"Got it, ma'am, thank you," Upton confirmed. Nothing else needed to be said. She and Halstead walked out of the office, through another door out into the lobby, and headed for the elevators. There were several uniformed police officers scattered around the place, forming the first ring of security around Ms Burgess.

"Did you vote for Kelton?" Upton asked her new second-in-command.

"Yes, ma'am," Halstead said. "You?"

"Yep. And you don't have to ma'am me. Hailey will do. I assume the way you voted isn't going to give you a problem with this assignment?"

"Absolutely not," Halstead said, sounding a bit offended that his professionalism was being questioned. It was exactly the kind of reaction Upton had wanted to get. She had asked the question to test how he responded, not because she had been in doubt about the answer she would get from him.

"Good," she said.

As they neared the bank of elevators, a cop who was standing guard pushed the button to call one for them. It turned out that there was already a car at the lobby level, and it's doors immediately slid open.

"Where are you from?" Upton asked as they walked into the elevator. She pushed the button for the top floor.

"Right here in Chicago," Halstead said. "It sounds like you are too, judging by your accent."

"That's right. I grew up near Greektown."

"Condolences," Halstead said deadpan.

The unexpected and effectively delivered humour made Upton burst out laughing. It was lucky that it was just the two of them in the elevator because it was hardly appropriate behaviour for a Secret Service agent while on duty.

"Good to know you've got a sense of humour. I think we'll get along okay," Halstead said.

"I think so too. But joking can wait until later," Upton said, feeling the elevator slowing down. Remarkably, it had gone all the way to the top floor without stopping, saving them the trouble of having to tell anyone that they couldn't get on. The top floor was currently off limits to anyone not in the Burgess party, the Secret Service, or the police.

The elevator doors opened on the top floor. Several police officers were on guard the top floor's elevator lobby in case anyone came up who wasn't supposed to be there. Forewarned, they did nothing to impede the two Secret Service agents.

"Just down there," one of them said, pointing to a nearby open door to one of the lavish suites.

"Thank you," Upton said. From the suite they had been directed to she could hear several people talking at once. It was apparently a hive of activity, not that there was any surprise in that. At least two year's work had to have gone into this day for the Congresswoman, all for it to likely to not be enough according to the polls, Upton thought. If that was the case, this assignment would prove to be a very short one.

"First indications are that turnout looks high," a man with a very gravelly voice was saying as Upton and Halstead walked into the suite, entering into its living room area.

"Is that good for us?" Congresswoman Burgess asked. She was sitting with her husband on a comfortable leather couch in front of a big TV that was showing an election day special news show.

"Looks like a lot of young people in line, so that's possibly not good for us," gravelly voice admitted. He was a man in his fifties with short greying hair, sitting at a large round table in the middle of the room with a laptop open in front of him. There were several younger staffers also at the table.

Congresswoman Burgess turned to look at him, which brought her gaze onto the two unfamiliar Secret Service agents. Their presence distracted her. "Who are you?" she demanded.

Oh great, no one bothered to pass on the bad news, Upton thought. It was unfortunate, but not particularly surprising. The Service could organise the most elaborate security operation down to the most minute of details, but if someone was required to use some old fashioned common sense? Forget about it.

"I'm Agent Upton, ma'am. I'm going to be your new primary agent. This is Agent Halstead, who is my second-in-command."

"What happened to the other two? Jin, and... I've forgotten her name."

"Agents Jin and Willhite were killed last night, ma'am. They were travelling together after their shift when their car was hit from behind by a truck and crushed."

"Damn. I'm sorry to hear that. That's awful news," Burgess said. With that she looked at her husband, Adam Ruzek. "Let's hope that's not an omen, huh?"

Upton could barely believe what she had just heard. She clenched her fists at her sides to help her control her anger. Two agents were dead and all this bitch cared about was whether it was a bad omen for her stupid election chances. Looking at Halstead, she saw that he was equally pissed off by the cold-heartedness.

Ruzek got up and looked at the two agents. "Sorry to hear that news. I guess it's time for us to leave?"

"We're ready when you are, sir," Upton said without sounding too icy about it. Christ, they're a caring pair, she thought sarcastically. Their attitude wasn't a great surprise, though. Ruzek was a multi-millionaire who had made his money on Wall Street, and still had interests there. Burgess had been a chemist before going on to start her own chemical company, which she had ended up selling for several million dollars. Along the way she had met and married Ruzek, who had brought with him the power and influence that had helped her when she had decided to get into politics and run for congress, and after success there, for President. Now she had a chance at being the first female President, at only thirty-nine years old. At least that was how Upton understood the story. The bottom line for her was that these were the kind of people who cared more about taxes, stock prices and profit margins than they did about people. That was why she couldn't have considered voting Burgess even without the so far unpleasant experience of actually meeting her.

"Right then, let's get it done," Burgess said, getting up. "Hank, you stay here and keep me up to date with anything important that happens."

"Kim, relax. It's going to be hours before we even think about getting an indication as to which was it has gone. And you need to put on a good show for the cameras," said the man with the gravelly voice who was apparently called Hank. To Upton he seemed like someone who wouldn't take crap from anyone. He looked and sounded like he could be a nasty son of a bitch if he wanted to. Perfect for a campaign manager or a chief of staff. Or both, she supposed.

"Yes, you're right," Burgess said as Ruzek passed her a thick red jacket. She put it on while he donned his dark blue suit jacket, apparently intent on braving the November cold like that.

"Right, let's go. Lead the way," Burgess instructed Upton after making sure she had her phone. She took a pair of black leather gloves out of a coat pocket and put them on.

On the way out of the suite, Upton used the small microphone at her wrist to inform the rest of the team that they were on way down with Chemist, the code name for Burgess, and Trader, the code name for Ruzek. She had memorised them earlier. Halstead fell in step with her, far enough ahead of their subject to speak quietly and avoid being overheard.

"Hailey, can you believe she just said that?" he asked. "That omen comment."

"No, Jay, I can't. The less I say about it the better," Upton hissed back at him, conveying how much it had angered her. "Hopefully we're only on this job today."

"Seconded," he said as they headed for the elevators.

As had happened down in the lobby, one of the cops pressed the button to summon an elevator for them. This time there was no car on their floor, they were going to have to wait for one.

"Have you voted, Agent Upton?" Congresswoman Burgess asked when she and her husband caught up to them.

"Yes, ma'am," Upton said. Please ask who I voted for, she silently begged, her face impassive as she took in the rather smug luck on Burgess' face.

"Did you vote for me?" The smugness actually increased with the delivery of the question.

"No, ma'am, I did not," Upton took great pleasure in saying, although she spoke with no emotion in her voice.

An awkward silence fell on the group. Burgess looked like she had been slapped across the face, which amused Upton greatly. She also noticed the look on Halstead's face. He was standing in such a position that neither Burgess or Ruzek could see him unless they chose to turn and look at him. But Upton could see him, and she could tell that he was trying not to laugh. At least I'm going to get along well with him, she thought.

A/N: Thank you for checking out this story – my first AU for Chicago PD. What do you make of our characters so far?

I find that whenever you see a TV series about politics there is always a President who's a really nice person, and they make America and the world such a great place where everyone is happy and lives in harmony. But the real world isn't like that, and the people at the top of any political mountain usually aren't nice people. I aim to bring some realism to that side of things in this story.