A/N: This is just something I made up quickly and I usually don't write these. This is just the beginning of the story, so let me know what you think and any ideas you have for future chapters. Thank you! xoxo
Erin had given up. That's all Jay could think about as he paced around his apartment that night. Voight pulled him aside before he left work to tell him about his interaction with Erin earlier that day and Jay couldn't believe what he was hearing. Sure, Erin had been trying to deal with Nadia passing, but the whole unit was going through that grief as well. He couldn't understand why she wanted to separate herself and quit their "family" to go and party with Bunny and god knows who else.
He thought she would eventually come to him when she was ready and they would be able to make it past this terrible time in their lives and be okay again. Clearly that wasn't how things were going to be after she refused to listen to Voight and give up her badge. Thankfully, Voight placed Erin on furlough hoping she would come to her senses and realize that the kind of grieving she was doing wasn't healthy for her and that isn't what Nadia would want her to do.
Jay just couldn't accept the fact that Erin not only gave up on her career or "family", but she gave up on him as well. He and Erin had said that they would always have each other's backs, but that clearly wasn't how things were now. She just left him without actually telling him herself. What the hell am I going to do? Jay thought to himself. He knew that deep down the real Erin, his Erin, was somewhere in there and he was going to everything and anything to ensure he got her back.
Jay woke the next morning to the sun light blinding him from his windows. He rolled over to look at the clock on his nightstand reading the big red numbers 6:06 AM. He flipped himself back over and then looked down at his clothes only to realize that he was still wearing the same outfit from work yesterday. I must have just passed out last night Jay thought to himself as he recalled the events from yesterday and all the pacing he had done in his apartment.
Thinking about yesterday just reminded him of everything that happened with Erin and he still didn't have a solution to how he was going to get Erin back and away from Bunny and the partying. Before he could start formulating a plan in his head, Jay hear loud banging coming from his front door and jumped out of bed to go retrieve whoever was interrupting his early morning thoughts.
"What the hell do you want?" Jay violently said as he whipped open his door without so looking through the peephole.
"Dude, chill. What's up your ass this morning?" Ruzek joked.
"Nothing is up my ass, it's just too early for you to be banging on my door. Now once again, what the hell do you want?"
"It's actually not that early considering it's almost 8:30, but I figured we could go into work together. I don't know you seemed out of it when we were leaving work yesterday and I know it has something to do with Lindsay so I wanted to make sure you were okay." Ruzek said sincerely.
Jay was confused for a split second after hearing what time it was not realizing he had been lying in bed so long, but once Ruzek said Lindsay it brought him back into the conversation with Adam looking warily at him.
"Halstead, did you hear what I just said?"
"Huh, what? No, sorry man. I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm a little bit out of it."
"Yeah, I can tell. I was telling you that if we want to make it to work on time and not have Voight chewing out our asses all day that you better get moving so we can leave."
"You're right, just give me five minutes to go do whatever. You can hang out on the couch, I guess."
"Oh wow, so generous."
Jay quickly let Ruzek in and then walked into his room and closed the door behind him. He couldn't believe he had spent all morning thinking about Erin and now he was going to make both him and Ruzek late to work if he didn't hurry up and change. He swiftly discarded the blue t shirt he had been wearing yesterday and threw it into his laundry hamper. He grabbed a new pair of boxers along with some socks and went to his closet to grab a freshly laundered black t shirt to put on. Making his way into his bathroom he took off his jeans to put on some new boxers and then pulled on the same jeans he had been wearing along with his black t shirt, and socks. Looking at himself in the bathroom mirror he recognized how exhausted and disoriented he looked, but he quickly tore his eyes away from his image and brushed his teeth while pulling on his boots. Once he was done in the bathroom, he grabbed his watch, wallet, and keys from his dresser and pulled open his door to leave with Ruzek for the day.
"You ready to go Princess?" Ruzek yelled without tearing his attention from sports newscast he was currently watching on Jay's TV.
"Yeah, let's go man before we get stuck with desk duty for the day." Jay muttered before grabbing his gun and badge from the safe in his hall closet.
"I'm coming; I'm coming" Ruzek insisted as they both made their way out the front door.
Driving to the district with Ruzek this morning had already given Jay a headache and he could only imagine how much worse his day was going to get from there. Ruzek just kept going on and on about Burgess and how he proposed to her and when they were going to start planning, blah, blah, blah. As happy as Jay is that Ruzek and Burgess were together and happy, he couldn't help but feel envious and bitter because of everything currently going on with Erin. He didn't think that the other members of the team were fully aware of what was happening with Erin and trying to seem chipper and joyful about anything knowing what she doing was going to be impossible.
Ruzek kept talking the whole ride to the district and them some when they walked up the stairs into Intelligence. He finally stopped chatting when they arrived to their assigned desks and noticed that Voight, Olinsky, and Antonio were all gathered around the whiteboard filled with different names and pictures.
"Oh, wow. How nice of you two to finally join us today." Voight growled without even looking up from the whiteboard.
"Sorry, sir. That's my fault." Jay heard Ruzek yell before whipping his head around to look at him.
Ruzek just shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the whiteboard to start catching up on the newest case the team had got.
"Yeah, whatever." Voight mumbled.
Jay decided to let go of thinking about the reasons behind Ruzek taking blame for their lateness knowing full well it had been Jay's fault. He stood up from his desk and took a few steps forward to look at the whiteboard himself, trying to ignore the strange pull inside him to look at Erin's desk. He needed to get his head set to work mode for the day or else he would be useless to the team so he pushed all thoughts of Erin to the back of his head and ignored the urge to look at the desk.
"So what do we have for today?" Jay questioned eager to think of anything else besides Erin.