A/N: Okay, so, Playlist and Lullaby are still in the works, but this was something that I've been thinking about for a while and the wonderful HalsteadPD got me kinda hyped to write it. This will be a 10 part story and it is entirely AU. We'll be dealing with violence and crime and some other adult themes such as a few kind of abuse - Sexual, physical and drug abuse. If that kind of thing isn't your cup of tea, please turn back now. This also has strong connotations of Linstead and certainly looks like its headed that way. So...if that isn't something you're interested in... please don't bash the story, just don't read it.

This AU is set in current CPD - Al is still there and so is Lindsey. The main difference being Jay was never a cop.

Also: some name pronunciations that might be helpful to you.

Caoimhe - Kee-Va
Saoirse - Seer-sha
Darragh - Dah-Rah
Aideen - Ay - Deen. (Not a typo!)

Please, please read and review, that makes me write, publish and upload much, much faster :D! Reviews are also helpful if you tell me your favourite part or what you liked specifically about the story, or what you think is going to happen next!

Please Enjoy!

xo


"Hey, hey, come on." His voice is like honey, soft and sweet and she's trying to stay conscious, but its hard when she's on as bad a trip as this. He has her in an old tub of ice cold water and he's keeping her cool. She's not overdosing, she knows this, and he knows this, but he's trying to work the drugs out of her system faster because whatever it was she shot up, it wasn't what she was used to.

"hey." His voice is harsher, and she couldn't stop her eyes from sliding closed only to widen her eyes again when she got her face of cold water, trying to throw him a glare, but the concern shining in his large blue eyes that seem too big for his face.

"Sorry." She mumbles, trying hard to keep her eyes open, to keep that look from his face. He has been her constant for the past year now, she'd come to rely on him to keep her sane and be her look out when the going got rough.

"Don't be sorry, be awake." The smirk on his face had her reaching out as best she could to splash him and she revelled in the burst of laughter he let out, smiling as she focused on the way his eyes shone in the poor lighting of the bathroom and the way his hands felt smoothing her hair from her face.

"Yo! It's flower day again." Atwater called as he carried a gorgeous arrangement of autumnal flowers to Erin's desk, causing her to snap out of her little daze, her pencil clattering to the desk to a chorus of sniggers and laughter from the rest of her team. Erin waited as patiently as she could, tapping her foot beneath her desk. She was beginning to wonder if someone had slowed down time or if Kevin was deliberately messing with her and walking incredibly slowly, because he was taking the longest time to get from the top of the stairs to her desk. The second he placed the flowers on her desk with a flourish, she waved him off, muttered a thank you and stood to examine it, grinning widely when she spotted them nestled in with the oranges and reds of the flowers.

Her little stem of forget-me-nots.

The pale blue flower stood out in stark contrast to the darker colours associated with fall and Erin reached in to touch the soft petals. She didn't know for sure who was sending them, there was never a card or a specific florist to track them down to and the arrangement changed every year, but there was always a little stem of pale blue forget-me-nots in there somewhere. Had been for the past 17 years. Flower day had become somewhat of a spectacle in Intelligence when Hank had formed the Unit, everyone trying to spot who it was that was delivering them, knowing how desperately Erin had wanted to track down the sender. She'd gotten close one year, after they'd arrived at her desk in the old gang Unit and Alvin had set up a lipstick cam the night before. They'd gotten a lead, but it petered out when the kid refused to talk because delivering those flowers was the easiest $100 he'd ever made.

"Same person?" Antonio asked, peeling an orange as he stood beside her desk, looking down at the blooms on her desk, their scent filtering its way through the bullpen. He discarded the peel into her little trash can earning him a look before she turned back to the flowers, one again engaging in a futile search for clues to finding the person responsible.

"I think so." Erin shrugged, inhaling the scent of the flowers before pushing them to the corner of her desk, arranging them just so, making sure she and the others could still see the board, but also making sure that everyone could see the flowers, too.

"Someone wanna fill me in?" Hailey asked, moving from the desk across from Antonio's -beside Ruzek's – to admire the flowers. She'd only recently joined the unit and working together on a case and making quite the impression on the team causing Voight to offer her the empty chair they'd been trying to fill permanently for as long as Erin could remember. Erin raised an eyebrow and smirked as she settled into her seat again, reaching for the flowers and stroking their soft petals.

"Basically," Ruzek announced as he too came over to check out the floral arrival, leaning in and smirking at the little Forget-Me-Nots, winking at Erin who rolled her eyes at him and motioned for him to continue. "Our little bundle of fun here gets a delivery of flowers, with forget me nots, every single year on November 18th." He took a sip of his coffee and smirked at Erin, "Started about 17 years ago. Its like clockwork." Adam pointed at the calendar that was on his desk and grinned knowingly.

"Seriously?" Hailey raised a brow, a sceptical look colouring her features as she approached to take a better look at the flowers, leaning in to catch their scent and smiling at Erin. "And you have no idea who sends you them?"

"Yeah, seriously." Erin nodded, a laugh falling from her lips, as she turned to gaze at the flowers again. "I have absolutely no idea who they're from."

"Have you tried finger printing them?" Hailey asked, tucking her hands into her pockets, spinning around to follow the sound of Al's voice filling the room.

"Yup, we got nothing." He'd stated, while he sat at his desk eating a pastry at his desk and sipping coffee; the look of alarm on some of the other's was enough to know that no one had seen or heard the older man enter. Ruzek's muttered, "We talked about this. Gonna get him some bells," was covered by Alvin clearing his throat.

"We set up cameras, we finger printed, we chased leads, we followed people." He sighed and shrugged, an impressed smirk on his face as he took another piece of pastry. "Still nothing."

Hailey had just begun to ask a question when Voight appeared at the top of the stairs causing everyone to disperse from Erin's desk and begin to look busy elsewhere, doing something else entirely.

"Call for you, Sarge." Burgess held the phone out for him and he shook his head, bustling through the crowd and marching through the bullpen to get to his office, and Kim looked at Erin who nodded in the affirmative -the girl should put the call through.

Erin sat down at her desk, admiring her flowers and letting her mind wander a little; the pale blue flower making sure she didn't forget those eyes or the way he made her feel safe. Surreptitiously, she slipped her hand into her top drawer to feel around for the little box she usually kept hidden at the back. When her fingers made contact with the smooth and slightly worn fabric, she grinned and dragged it to the front, closing her hand around it and keeping it tightly in her palm as she withdrew her hand from the drawer and rested it on her lap.

"We caught a case," Voight's voice carried from his office, moments before he appeared in the doorway, "Patrol just fished a body out of the river, I said we'd take it."

"Any particular reason why?" Hailey piped up and 6 sets of eyes landed on her causing her to square her shoulders and wait patiently for an answer.

"Because, body was identified as Vincent Abernathy." Voight stated, glaring at her from his doorway, his hands in his pockets. "And because I said so, that's why."

Erin had smirked at his last statement, sounding more like a father than a boss and she shoved the small box into her drawer again, grabbing for her badge and gun to get herself ready to get moving.

"The Vincent Abernathy?" Ruzek asked, immediately reaching for his coat, a strange kind of excitement on his face as he all but shoved his gun into his pants and tripped over his feet to get to the top of the steps, being met with a snigger and a steadying hand from Kevin. "Oh, man."

"Who's Vincent Abernathy?" Kim asked, as she got her stuff together, almost distracted by the way Adam was behaving, the excited toddler phase of his still hadn't worn off, apparently.

"Crime boss, controls 90% of Chicago's drug traffic, mostly Cocaine and Heroin." Olinksy offered, moving from his desk towards the door, "Has controlled most of it for the past 30 years. Never did like the man."

"So, he has a gang?" Hailey asked, joining the team as they began to move downstairs, frowning when Ruzek let out a loud laugh and muttered "gang" as he shook his head.

"More like an Organization." Antonio frowned at Ruzek and held the gate open for the others, "he has a really tight nit group. It has different levels and it controls a lot of product moving in and out of the city in different ways, it's not just a street gang, its organized crime and really, if he wasn't moving drugs and running guns and girls? I'd be impressed."

"C'mon, bro, I know what he does is illegal, but damn I'm impressed at how he does it." Kevin smirked, causing Antonio to laugh and shove his shoulder. "Moving that much and never getting caught? Keeping those operations separate? Dude and his family have been running Chicago since the turn of the century. Never makes any kind of mistake to make it stick. Its damn impressive."

"They fished him out of the river, someone made something stick." Ruzek patted Kevin on the shoulder, throwing a playful glare at Antonio for hitting his friend.

"So, someone had enough of him then?" Hailey asked, zipping up her coat.

"Not likely, can't get a face to face with the man without an appointment and even then, you can't get near him alone." Sargent Platt helpfully supplied from behind the desk, giving Hailey a grin and taking a drink of her coffee.

"So a powerplay?"

"How about we just get to the scene and then we can work out what the hell happened, or do we pay you to just stand around guessing?" Voight barked from the top of the stairs causing the team to scarper like naughty school children, out into the lot towards their cars.

Platt looked down at the paperwork on the table and waited for Voight to stalk passed, muttering under his breath before he put her hand up. "Flowers were delivered by a woman this time, red head, green eyes, about five four. She looks familiar, seemed to get a kick out of being in the precinct, kept looking around."

"Thank you." Erin nodded, wincing when Voight yelled her name, earning an apologetic grimace from Platt as she headed out, keeping her head down until the last minute when she paused, her hand on the door as she frowned and looked around, the feeling of eyes on her raising the hairs on the back of her neck.

"Erin." Voight sounded exasperated and Erin sighed, getting into the car, shaking her head. "If you don't wanna be here—"

"—Just drive." She snapped, fastening her seatbelt and holding on when Voight booked it out of the lot, the screech of tires echoing down the street.


"You know, this is borderline stalking." Caoimhe smirked when Jay got back into the car, her feet propped up on the dashboard, a law textbook nestled on her lap. "You could get arrested."

Jay let out a loud laugh as he signalled and pulled the GMC Sierra into traffic, "Sure, Keev, that's the thing I'm gonna get arrested for." He laughed, his phone ringing, cutting through the laughter as he giggled when she punched his arm. "Yo, Jackson, what's up?"

Caoimhe watched the change in his facial expression, felt the car lurch forward as he sped up, his face now serious; gone was the playful expression and the carefree smile he wore, replaced by the serious face he usually reserved for business or when her father asked him to do…stuff.

"Jay?" She asked, bringing her feet from the dash and turning in her seat to face him, closing the book on her lap and raising an eyebrow. When he didn't answer she felt her stomach turn, the angry set of his jaw told her something was very wrong and the way they were speeding through traffic towards her sister Saoirse's apartment had her feeling nauseous. "Jay?" Her voice was softer this time, reaching a trembling hand to place on his arm.

"Caoimhe." He spoke, voice rough and she swallowed. He'd only ever used that tone of voice directed in her direction once before and she shook her head, hand tightening on his arm. Jay let go of the steering wheel and put his hand on hers, taking her smaller hand into his larger one and squeezing.

"who?" her voice trembled, and she hated it, she was 17 now and really shouldn't be crumpling into a heap in the passenger seat of his car. Her father would expect more of her.

"Keev," His voice sounded broken, and she noted the look in his eye. Her siblings were her first thought. He was so close to everyone, Caoimhe was 10 before she found out that Jay wasn't actually a blood relative, he'd been in the family longer than she had and it always made her smile.

"Who?" She asked again, gripping his fingers tighter, forcing him to slow the car to a stop at the lights and not take the side street as he clearly originally planned. Caoimhe wanted to know before they got to his sister's apartment, she didn't want to be walking into the room like that, knowing that one of her siblings was gone. "Is it Saoirse? Is that why we're going to hers?"

Jay let go of her hand and grabbed the wheel as the light turned, shaking his head in the negative. "No, kid." He sighed and pulled the car over when they got through the lights, pulling in against the curb and turning to face her. "We're going to Seer's because the apartment is in my name and no-one can find it." Jay took her face in his palm, stomach turning at how young she looked in that moment and how his next sentence was about to shatter her entire world.

He'd loved this kid since she was born and he got to hold her, he didn't realize hearts could feel so much love for something so small, but she was so tiny and perfect, and she'd given him a whole new outlook on life and she'd been the reason he decided to stay with the family. Her huge eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip trembled, so Jay pulled her to him, pushing his seat back and pulling her into his lap.

"Its your dad, Keev." He swallowed the lump in his throat, almost feeling like it had been his own dad he'd just lost. "They found him this morning." He barely managed to get the words out before she began to sob against his chest and he continued to hold her, reaching for his phone and firing a quick text to Declan to let him know they were a few blocks away but running late.

"How?" She eventually mumbled against his chest and Jay sighed. "How did they get to him, Jay? Even we can't get to him without someone knowing or being there and we're his kids." Her voice was stronger, and she swallowed hard, patting him on the shoulder.

"We don't know," he shook his head, wiping at her tears. "but you can bet your ass we're gonna find out." Jay told her determinedly, pushing his own pain to one side now having seen hers, it was almost as though he'd been given a whole new set of reasons to find the person responsible.

Caoimhe nodded and smiled when he pressed a kiss to her forehead and pushed her hair out of her face. She pushed off his lap and back into her seat, curling up small. "We need to get to your place. I'm assuming the others are waiting." She sniffed, and Jay nodded.

"Fagan is meeting his contact from Homicide to see what they know about the case, but Aideen, Dec and Darragh are all there." Jay blinked when she let out a humourless laugh, raising an eyebrow as he pulled them back into the traffic and moved down the block to the underground parking.

"I have a brother called Fagan." She giggled, "out of all the names my dad picked Fagan and now he's running the cash side of the business, I can't be the only one who finds that funny." She grinned, tears still falling down her face.

Jay offered a smirk and gave her a tap on the knee. He wasn't sure how his day had turned so far around. Getting to lay eyes on Erin Lindsey every year was the one thing that he'd held onto from his childhood, the one thing he had done since clockwork every single year since that first one. Making sure she was okay was good enough for him.

He didn't remember making his way out of the car or to the apartment and that bothered him, knowing his guard was down and Caoimhe was with him, something that never happened. Pushing his key into the lock, he twisted it and opened it, allowing the tiny red head beside him to go flying into the room, gripping hold of Darragh and crying into her brother's chest.

Jay closed and locked the door behind him, running a hand down his face and making his way over to Saoirse, opening his arms for her to tuck herself into his side, stroking her hair when she rested her head on his shoulder and pressing a kiss to her hair, hold tightening when she began to sob. His eyes surveyed the scene before him, all of the siblings but one gathered in his living room, two of them crying, two of them comforting, Declan nursing a drink in his hand as he sprawled on Jay's favourite chair and Aideen, standing looking over the city. Being the oldest, Aideen was now the next in line to run this city, and it had been Vinnie's wish that the line of succession was followed within hours of his demise.

"Ayd," Jay spoke and there was a pause before a set of tear-filled eyes, a similar shade to his own, landed on him and he offered a small smile. "Whatever you need. We're here for you." The terse nod that met his offer before Aideen turned away, had him sighing, his eyes meeting Darragh's, then Declan's. No words were needed between the brothers; it was obvious. The first thing on the Abernathy's agenda was simple – avenge Vincent's death.