He saved my life.
She had said those words countless times to countless people over the years but each and everytime she was met with a knowing nod, as if they had any idea what she was talking about. Antonio, Halstead, Ruzek, all of them thought her favourite, yet cryptic line was figurative, he'd saved her from the drugs and the street life.
No one had ever figured out she meant he had literally saved her life as she lay dead on the road infront of him.
But now faced with death for the second time in her life, Erin closed her eyes and remembered. Remembered how when death came for her before, Voight shot him in the face and told him to go to hell...
...and before the world fades to darkness she wonders if this time, death is certain.
*11years earlier*
He drove faster and faster; he didn't even care that he was going over 70mph.
"Charlie, could you slow down, you're high babe." Erin whispered as she stroked his hand. She hated pandering to him, acting like everything was good when it really wasn't. Voight had promised her she would be away from it all in a few short days, she could keep up pretences until then.
He pushed her hand away from his, "Are you driving this car? No? Then stop complaining you whiny bitch."
Erin nodded and looked down into her lap. Thinking about the future helped. Voight promised that in a few days she would have a fresh start, a new school, new people around her. He was going to wipe her police record in exchange for the information she'd given him over the last few months. No more hiding and running. That was her only relief at that precise moment.
Charlie reached over Erin towards the ground and picked up the bottle of alcohol that lay there. He thrust is towards Erin. "Open it for me." She nodded and unscrewed the lid. He grabbed it, swigged, then offered Erin the bottle. She pretended to sip from it.
A few minutes passed and she began to relax, only to be startled when a car appeared along side them. Charlie opened his window and yelled something to the other driver, who nodded.
All of a sudden they were driving at over 80mph, the lanscape around them a mixture of dark shades as the day began to fade into the evening. Charlie turned up the music and pushed his foot futher onto the accelerator. "Charlie, baby, slow down."
He reached an arm over and grabbed her face roughly whilst still driving, "I told you to shut the fuck up! This is personal with these guys Erin, If I slow down I lose."
He let go and Erin rubbed her face. Her phone lay in her lap and she reached out for it. There was only one number on it and it belonged to detective Voight. He told her to text or call if things got bad, bad enough for her to be pulled out of the whole thing a few days early. She decided that the current situation was bad enough, especially as in the next second Charlie pulled a gun from the floor of the car.
She typed her message quickly. Yet subtly. Help, he's going to kill someone plz I need out now. She hoped that her text would be received quickly.
"Erin, undo the safety."
She pushed his hand away, "I can't Charlie, I can't be part of this."
He sighed and undid it himself, then put down his window. Then he spoke, "One day Erin, you're gonna understand that sometimes people need to be taught a lesson, you're gonna want to be part of this. You'll be my wife, I already told you that when you're old enough we can get married, then you'll belong to me."
Suddenly she couldn't control herself, "I will never be your wife Charlie."
He turned to her, "WHAT DID YOU SAY!"
Before she could respond she realised that the car they were chasing had stopped and that they were heading straight towards it. "CHARLIE, LOOK OUT."
They swerved and in the next second the car was flying. Flying straight off the bridge and into the water.
The landing was enough to knock the wind out of her and as she struggled to breath, she realised that the water was rising quickly.
She struggled with her belt. "Charlie, Charlie, help, please, the belt...it's stuck."
He'd already got out of his own seat belt and was now trying to climb out of the window. He looked back at Erin, who was now submerged up to her neck. "Sorry babe, I can't help you with this one."
Then he left her. Left her to die alone.
For the next few seconds she thought about what her life could have been if she'd just kept her mouth shut a few more days. The panic was so intense that she didn't realise that her belt had come undone.
She could have been happy and done all those things teenage girls are suppose to do like go shopping and the cinema and out on a date and prom, oh god she had always wanted to go to prom and there would be no more drugs or Charlie or guns or any of it because she'd be safe and happy and living a life that was good and not messed up and she was faintly aware of a siren and a man shouting before the icy waters grasp reached her heart and everything faded to darkness...
On the bridge Voight grabbed Charlie by the shirt, "Where is she?"
He shrugged shivering from the water. "I owe that bitch nothing."
Voight grabbed his gun. "I'm gonna ask you again, where is she?"
Charlie held his hands up in surrender, "She's still in the car ok, I didn't have time to get her out, oh god, she's dead isn't she."
Voight didn't give an answer and instead kicked Charlie in the face, knocking him clean out.
Then he took off his jacket and dived into the icy water. He searched for only a few seconds before he found the car and as he reached in he felt a small hand floating towards his. He pulled and eventually he had her wrapped in his arms and up to the surface.
He didn't even look at her until they were both out of the water and on to the road again. When he did finally force his gaze towards Erin, he was nearly sick. Even when she had been on drugs, she'd always had colour in her cheeks but now she was just pale and her lips were blue and she was so still he knew that she couldn't have been breathing.
"Ambulance needed, the bridge on west side, victim is unresponse." He said into his radio.
Then he began to pound on her chest. He'd seen it in movies, done first aid training but nothing had ever prepared him for actually trying to save a persons life when they were already dead. When he breathed air into her mouth her lips were cold against his like a dead persons and it scared him so much but he had to keep going.
She was just a little girl, a child. Like Justin, she was just a kid and during those 5 minutes where she was still and dead on the road he kept telling himself that, she was a kid, she can't die, she's just a kid.
"Come on Erin, please kid, I promised you I'd help, I can't help if you're dead!"...
Then in the next second Erin became aware of the cold again and there was pressure on her chest and then someone breathing for her and a voice yelling about how she was too young to die, she wasn't going to die.
Then she opened her eyes and the pressure on her chest was gone and she was freezing but she was alive.
The first face she saw was Voight and even when she'd accused him later on, he told her he'd never cried that day but she knew he lied because he had tears in his eyes.
"Breath Erin, it's ok, you're safe, I promised you, I don't break my promises."
She nodded, unable to speak. Then closed her eyes.
The next time she opened them she was in hospital with Voight telling her Charlie was never going to get her again and she had a home for the first time in so long.
He had saved her.
But then it was always inevitable that joining the police force would be a risky job and maybe Voight saving her all those years ago was all for nothing...
She felt the darkness again, enveloping her in her impending death...
*Present Day*
"How far out is the ambulance?" Voight demanded.
"Five minutes, they're coming as fast as they can." Jay yelled.
Voight continued to push on her chest. Come on Erin.
He'd been only meters away when the bang went off and she fell back against the floor. He'd shot the man immediately and ran over the Erin. "Kid, are you ok?"
He knelt down and touched her face. It was calm but there was no breath there.
"Ambulance required, gun shot in the warehouse off 56th street, officer down, I repeat, officer down."
He ripped off her vest and realised that it wasn't a gunshot wound at all. The bullet had caught in the vest but the force behind it had caused her heart to stop.
He immediately began to give her CPR and when Halstead and Ruzek rushed over second later, he saw the dread on their faces.
Jay put his head in his hands, "Oh god no, she's my partner."
Voight continued to administer CPR but spoke, "Halstead! Don't lose your head. She's a strong person, she's come out from worse than this she'll be fine."
Then Halstead nodded and sure enough a few minutes later she gasped and took in a ragged breath and suddenly all the darkness was gone.
The first thing she did was look at Voight and smile. "You always save me don't you?"
He nodded, "Stop making a habit out of dying kid, it's not too fun for me either."
She tried to laugh but instead winced, "The other time was worse, at least I don't have lungs full of water this time."
The rest of the team looked confused but Voight just smiled.
She peered closely at him, "At least you're not crying this time. Yet."
He spoke in a whisper, "If you hadn't just died I would be so angry with you now."
Everything was ok..
because she was alive and he had saved her.
Again.
End.