This scene takes place directly after the ending of "Born Into Bad News"
There had been plenty of clues to let him know something was wrong. Olinsky had briefed the unit that morning, and the case they had been working seemed minuscule at best, all the unit was told to do this morning was reach out to few CI's and catch up on paperwork. Voight was nowhere to be found, his office door wide open, and there was no trace of him being in the office earlier that morning. Erin's desk was also empty.
The two of them had the timing down pretty perfectly. Usually a quick morning text was exchanged, followed by one of the pair receiving coffee for the other, and arriving a short time later with both cups in hand and a smile on their lips. The rest of the unit always gave them a wry grin, but they enjoyed getting the morning energy from something besides the black coffee that was constantly flowing in the break room, so they ignored it.
The past few weeks had been different since Nadia. She had been distant, and never wanted to talk to him about anything besides work. She showed up on her own time schedule, which annoyed Jay and infuriated Voight. This was way past her typical late though. Even for the past few weeks. It neared 11 am and there was still no sign of her. Jay pulled out his phone to check for any new messages while his heart thudded in his chest. It was irrational to be this worried, right? Just as he was about to send the quick are you okay? message he had typed out to Erin, he heard the door to intelligence swing open.
The heads of all six members of the unit turn in unison to loud footsteps and a very pissed off Voight practically charging up the stairs and into his office, slamming the door roughly behind him.
"What the hell do you think that was?" Ruzek asks looking around the room.
Before anyone had the chance to respond, the door flew open once again and everyone jumps at the sudden reappearance of their sergeant "Halstead!" Voight's gravely voice barks into the room.
"Sir." Jay responds, immediately standing from his spot hunched on top of his desk.
"When was the last time you spoke to Erin?" he practically screams
"What?" Jay asked, clearly confused with the outburst
"I said, when was the last time you spoke to Erin? How long ago was it?" he shouts again, taking a step out of his office door toward Jay.
"Umm. I don't know? Briefly at her apartment after dealing with the Roland situation. Why, what happened? Is she alright?" Concern creeps into his confused voice as her searchers Voight's angry eyes as if he's trying to find any sort of clue into his current line of questioning.
"You haven't had any communication with her since then? Halstead, I swear if you're lying- "he takes one more step forward.
"What would I be lying about?"
Voight narrows his eyes at Jay, unspeaking, unmoving. His chest rising and falling at a fast, uneven beat. The whole unit watches for what feels like minutes in complete silence. Antonio rises from his desk to take a few steps closer to the two men, unsure of what is about to play out, but wanting to be ready to intervene if necessary. "Voight, is everything okay?"
As soon as he speaks the words, he knows they were the wrong ones to say.
Voight's eyes get tight, and his glare moves from the detective in front of him to the one across the room. "Okay? OKAY?" his voice fills the room and Jay unintentionally winces at the volume.
Voight's hand goes toward his back pocket, and for a quick second Jay is afraid he is about to see the wrong end of a gun pointed at his face. Instead, his hand pulls out a round leather object that Jay recognizes in a heartbeat as Erin's badge. His eyes grow cold as he squeezes the badge one last time before letting it fly across the bullpen. Mouse quickly ducks as it approaches the board on the far side of the room and hits it with a loud thud before crashing to the ground.
"Does that seem okay to you Antonio? Does that seem okay to any of you?" his voice is hoarse, and it roars through the room as he extends his hands out in a gesture to include all of them into the conversation.
No one dares to speak.
"No, no, no. Things are far, far from okay. They're about as far as they can get from okay." he spits out the words "This" his finger points out to Erin's empty desk "is not okay."
The air feels so thick, and everyone keeps their eyes fixed on their sergeant. Half hoping that he'll continue on to give some kind of explanation about what has just happened. Half expecting him to blow up even further.
It's only after a few moments of silence that a very calm, relaxed voice chimes in "Hank, what exactly happened?" Al says as he rises from his seat.
Voight looks over at his old friend and takes a long, deep breath. He stays silent for a few moments before gaining a little bit of composure. "She's done. She said she was done. At nine o'clock in the fucking morning I find her at a bar, three drinks in. So she's done. Bunny got her. And it's done." as he speaks, his voice changes to a soft whisper, nearly breaking at the end.
Al walks forward so he's in the center of the room with Voight, Jay, and Antonio. He searches his friend's eyes for some kind of clue as to what their move will be, but gives up, so he decides to just ask. "So what do we do?"
Voight's eyes harden once more as he looks at his former partner, his jaw visibly tightens "We do nothing. This is her choice. We have a job to do."
Antonio meets Al's eyes and he nods, but presses once more "Are you sure we shouldn't reach out? I don't know the full story, but I do know what type of person Bunny is and- "
"Let it go, Toni!" Voight spits out glaring back at Antonio. He looks at the detectives one last time before turning on his heels as an attempt to walk into his office.
"There's no way in hell that I'm letting this go." a voice snarls out, and for a second Voight doesn't recognize the power behind it. At then it hits him, and he turns back around and takes two steps forward in one single motion.
"You gotta problem, Halstead?" he barks and he inches closer.
Their eyes lock, neither intending to look away from the other, standing chest to chest in the crowded bullpen.
"Do you want to repeat yourself, Halstead?" he spits out once more
"Sure." Jay shrugs, felling the sudden sense of courage. "If Erin quit, fine. But leaving her to deal with all of this shit on her own is the worst idea I have ever heard. You know what she's been going through. You know how much this is hurting her. You know how vulnerable she is right now. Why in the fuck would we leave her to deal with it alone?" his tone is laced with hate and he practically growls, eyeing his sergeant up and down the whole time like he's disgusted with the idea.
Antonio quickly takes a step towards Voight to shove him backwards just as his hand reaches for Jays shirt. He takes a firm stance between the two as loud screams erupt out of their superior's mouth.
"Hey, hey. Hey!" Antonio tries to reason between the two. "We need to calm down" he states as he places a hand on Jay's broad chest as he moves towards Voight.
"Calm down? Toni, he's suggesting we just leave her with no one! Bunny? Bunny is the one feeding her all of these lies!" Jay screams
"You don't know half as much as you think you do. So I suggest you stick to making googly eyes at Erin from your desk instead of trying to get involved in personal family business!" Voight seethes as he tries to move past Antonio toward Jay. Al grabs onto his shoulder in an attempt to put some distance between the two.
"This IS my business." Jay shouts back. He inhales a deep breath, and slowly blows it out before he continues "and you know we need to do something to help her." he states calmer than anyone expected. Antonio removes his hand from Jay's chest, feeling him relax slightly. Looking back at Voight he sees his sergeant's eyes darken once again. The anger is evident as his chest rises and he shoves against Antonio's hand.
"I know?" a rough hollow laugh escapes his lips, and he snaps "You know what I know, Jay? I know that I told you from day one to keep it in your pants. I know that I told you that I, in no way shape or form, allow in house romances in this unit. I know that I watched as you deliberately disobeyed my orders!" he shoves Antonio out of the way with full force as he steps closer toward Jay "I know that I saw the two of you getting awfully cozy when you thought no one was looking. I know that I saw your car outside of Erin's apartment building as I pulled up one night to surprise her with dinner." his face was mere inches away from Jay's. Hands wrapped tight around bundled up wads of Jay's tshirt. His eyes search Jay's, daring him to say something, waiting for him to speak.
"Voight-" he says so quietly he wonders if he even said it at all. But it doesn't matter- that one word is enough of a trigger. Before he can even comprehend what is happening a fist hits the side of his jaw at full force with a loud crack, sending him tumbling backwards trying to find anything to grab ahold of. He lands flat on his back before his skull makes contact with the hard floor and can instantly feel the blood rushing to his head. He can't tell which injury hurts worse, but he is suddenly aware of every nerve in his body. The pulsing in his head and the ache in his jaw cause a deep grunt to escape from his lips.
"Oh shit!" Ruzek yells and rushes over with Mouse close behind.
Laying with his back against the cold tile, he tries to focus on what is going on around him. He thinks he makes out Al telling Voight he needs to cool off, and the sound of the office door being slammed shut. He sees Mouse lean down next to him, and meets eyes with Antonio who seems to be standing directly above him.
His head is ringing, and he can barley focus on them, but he knows that Mouse just asked him a question. His lips are still moving, so maybe he still is asking a question? He tries to focus in on what his friend is saying "-doesn't look broken, lets get you into the break room for some ice, yeah?"
He nods in response. Antonio reaches out his hand, and Jay grabs ahold of it firmly and very slowly stands to make his way into the other room.
Ruzek chuckles to himself as he pulls a bag of ice out of the freezer "and that, my friends, is exactly why we don't sleep with the boss's daughter!" he laughs as he hands the bag over to Jay whose seated at the table in the middle of the small room glaring up at him.
"Shut up, Ruzek." Antonio manages before turning his attention to Jay. "Dude, seriously are you okay?"
"I'm fine." he says, wincing at the excruciating pain in his jaw as soon as he speaks. "My head's definitely ringing. Do we have any ibuprofen around here?"
Mouse turns to his friend "The whole left side of your face is purple, your boss just laid you flat on your ass in the middle of the bullpen, and you're worried about the ringing in your head?" he smirks as he gets up to grab his friend some medicine.
"If you knew how bad my head hurt right now you wouldn't be laughing at me." he said as a ghost of smile appeared on his lips.
"Seriously man, what the hell were you thinking in there? Going at it with Voight like that? You had to know that wasn't about to end well for you." Ruzek piped in again, sitting down across from Jay.
Jay shrugs and sets the ice pack down on the table, focusing his attention on the melting ice inside the bag. "It was just so casual; you know? At first he was so angry, and then that was that" he snaps his fingers as if to prove a point "he's just ready to give up before we even started fighting." his eyes fill with tears and he quickly pushes them back down, unwilling to let his emotions get to him.
"Yeah, but Jay, he knows her-" Antonio starts
"You don't think I know her?" Jay shouts back, ice laced in every word. His eyes meet Antonio's harshly.
"That's not what I was saying." he sighs. He has a feeling that as long as Erin is out of this unit and off with Bunny, Jay and Voight are going to be two very unhappy people to deal with. "I mean; he's been through this with her before. Maybe he has some insight on how to deal? That's all I meant."
"That's not good enough! Insight on how to deal? This isn't something you can just brush to the side and deal with when you think its convenient. This is Erin we're talking about!" he slams his hand onto the table and instantly regrets it as his headache deepens. He rubs his temple as he tries to calm his shaking body.
"Jay, man. Erin's tough. You know that. She'll be alright." Mouse pats Jay on the back as he returns with a glass of water and hands Jay three small pills.
"And what if she's not? What then?" his voice cracks the end, and he's unable to meet the eyes of the men sitting around him. He rolls the pills in his had and thinks back to a time a few short months ago when things seemed so perfect. Long cases and days at work being overshadowed by even longer nights in bed with Erin Lindsay. Early mornings where he feigned annoyance at her taking too long in the shower, only for him to always end up under the warm water with her. Short coffee breaks, extended eye contact, innocent touches, deep chuckles. He missed her so damn much already.
"She will be." Ruzek says without missing a beat. Before today, he only had suspicions about any kind of an out-of-work relationship between the two detectives, but as he sat here staring at his friend, one thing was very obvious- Jay cared about Erin. He cared about her a lot.
Jay looked up then. Maybe it was the fact that Ruzek was the one who'd said it. Maybe it was the fact that his voice lacked any of the signature Adam Ruzek humor, and was completely sincere. But for some reason, Jay believed what he had just said. He looked at his friend and nodded.
"So, what's your plan here Halstead?" Antonio wondered out loud, knowing damn well Jay wasn't going to let this go.
"I go talk to her" he says like it was the most obvious answer in the world.
Antonio sighs loudly, squeezing the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb "Voight already tried that, it didn't go so well. You don't want to push her away any further."
"Yeah, well, I'm not Voight." he shrugged and placed the ice pack back against his face.
"You think she'll want to see you?" Mouse asks as Jay turned to give him a death glare.
"Why wouldn't she want to see me? I'm her partner, I'm her best friend. She knows that I've always got her back."
Ruzek lets out a quick snigger. "Maybe that's all the more reason she wont" the table turns to face him immediately with questionable expressions "What? If you were trying to drink your problems away and forget about being happy, would you want someone who clearly makes you joyful showing up to have a chat?" he shrugs.
"He's got a point." Mouse nodded.
"I don't care." Jay says and slams the ice pack down, quickly rising from his seat. "Tell Voight…actually tell him whatever the hell you want to tell him. I'm going to find Erin."
And with that, Jay turns out of the break room, and walks straight past the opening door to Voight's office and down the stairs of intelligence.
A/N: Hey guys! So this is my first attempt at doing anything like this. But with the semester ending pretty soon, and the fall finale, I was feeling ambitious! I'm hoping to make this into a bunch of 'unseen moments' that we all wish would have played out, some slightly AU, others will just be fun ideas. I have a bunch of stuff half written so hopefully I can finally get it out! We 'll see how it goes. I promise they are centered around Linstead, I just had this idea and really enjoyed writing it, sorry for the lack of Erin! Please review!