Everything is set and ready to go. After explaining everything to Hank, he offered me the position in Intelligence, of course only after threatening to kill Kelly with his bare hands. Not like I would have expected anything less from Hank Voight, he's been scaring the crap out of my boyfriends since I was sixteen years old.

I came home with Emma last night and even though I've spent so many nights alone in that apartment while he's been on shift, it still feels eerily quiet, just laying in my bed alone staring at the ceiling. But I have to do. I can't stay with him

I've packed as many things as I can, enough clothes to get through a couple weeks and all the stuff Emma would need and Olivia arranged for a moving company to bring the rest of our stuff to Voight's in few days. Thank God for Olivia Benson, she's been the glue that's holding everything together and I am well aware that none of this would be possible without my incredible boss.

As far as my job, Olivia took care of everything and I called her daycare to let them know that Emma wouldn't be coming back. I'd decided to drive my car out, so booking plane tickets wasn't a problem, but I am scared about doing the twelve hour drive by myself. It's not like I've never done it before, I've made the drive from Chicago to New York alone more times than I can count, but never done it with a baby in the backseat of the car. But it does beat flying with her, the air pressure really screws with her ears and she is consistently a holy terror.

We've been constantly moving, quickly at that to get everything ready so that the two of us could be out of the apartment by six and everything got done. Well almost everything, there's one thing I still have to do, the one thing I've been holding off on, calling Kelly.

There are no words to express how much I don't want to do this. I've been holding everything back and calling him, it's just going to bring it back up again. But I have to suck it up, my Highlander is packed to the brim, the trunk stuffed with luggage and everything she could ever need and Emma is waiting happily in the car behind me and I cannot just drive his child over state lines without so much as a phone call. I take a deep breathe and hit his name on the screen. It doesn't even finish the first ring before he picks up.

"Erin I am so sorry baby, please just let me explain," He rambles.

"Kelly stop," I interrupt him, "I really don't care what you have to say,"

"No, no, no we can fix this, we'll get past it. Anything Erin, I will do anything,"

"Well you really seem to have shifted mindsets from last night when I caught you in bed with mystery blonde."

"Erin, please that was a mistake!" He pleads with me.

"Kelly don't, I'm leaving." I tell him.

"What?" He nearly yells.

"I'm taking Emma and we're going back to Chicago," I respond calmly.

"What, no you can't do that," He demands.

"Like hell I can't," I growl.

"Erin you can't just take my daughter," He says defensively.

"You are free to come see her anytime you want, but I need to go home. I'm going to stay with Voight, I need some time. Maybe, just maybe I'll let you explain to me why the hell you thought it was okay to bring someone else into our bed. But right now, I need space and I need time to think and I can't do that in New York."

"Erin please, please don't leave," He pleads.

"Kelly this is your fault," I tell him.

"I know, I know and I'm sorry," He begs, "I will do anything to get you and our daughter back,"

"Kelly I can't trust you. I'm sorry, I'm done,"

"Erin ple-" I don't let him finish before I hang up. I slip the wedding ring off my finger as throw it as far as I can. And then I get in the car and drive.

I start driving and I don't stop. It's a long drive and occasionally we have to pull into a rest stop or something like that, but otherwise it's straight through, twelve straight hours of driving. All I want is to get back to Chicago and out of New York.

We left at around 11:15 and I knew that it would be nearing midnight by the time I got there and luckily Emma fell asleep around seven. I've been feeling my eyelids starting to droop for the past hour, but by using coffee and taking quick glances to the back seat, I've somehow kept them open.

I take a deep breath as I pull onto Hank's street. I've driven down this road more times than I can count, but this time feels different. I can see the lights on in the front of the house and as we pull up, Hank emerges from the front door, a huge smile on his face. I smile back at him, it's good to see a familiar face, someone that I know I can trust. He pads over as I park my car in the driveway next to his, his hands shoved in his front pockets.

"Hey Hank," I say with a smile on my face as I embrace him in a loose hug, my entire body exhausted.

"How you doing kid?"

"I'm holding it together," I tell him as he releases me from the hug. "Just trying to get past it you know,"

"Good, how's the baby?" He says, looking back at Emma in the back of my car.

"She's great, you know her. She's just a happy little baby, she doesn't know what's going on," I tell him honestly.

"You know my offer to toss him in the river still stands," He says as I go to grab Em's car seat from the back seat.

"I'm okay Hank, thanks," I say with a slight laugh, the first one in a couple days. It feels good to laugh.

"Let me know if you change your mind,"

"I'll keep it in the back of my head," I tell him as I sling her diaper bag over my shoulder, the handle of her car seat resting in the crook of my elbow.

"So I have you all set up in your old bedroom and the pack and play that Daniel slept in sometimes is there too," He tells me as we walk up the front sidewalk towards the door.

"Thank you Hank,"

"Anything for you and that baby, you know that," He tells me as he pushes open the front door. "I told you I was going to take care of you when we took you in, that didn't end when you turned sixteen," I smile up at him, giving my the universal and silent signal of thanks.

"It's so weird to be back in this house," I say with a sigh as I set down a sleeping Emmy on the wood floors.

"What do you mean, you've been back here so many times so you guys left for New York,"

"I know, but it just feels different, I'm not visiting this time, I'm not going back to New York,"

"Well I'm happy to have you for as long as you need alright," I let out a yawn as his words escape. "You want to head up to bed? I can grab the stuff out of the trunk,"

"Don't worry about it Hank, I can get it in the morning, I just want to go to bed right now and I have a feeling that you do to," I tease.

"Alright kid, everything's ready to go upstairs so head up and I'll see you in the morning okay?"

"Alright thanks again for everything,"

"Erin stop apologizing," He insists as he heads down to his bedroom on the main level. I grab Emma's car seat up and make the ever so familiar trek up the wooden staircase, every muscle and nerve in my body screaming at me to get some sleep.

I feel my eyelids start to fall as I take my sleeping baby out from her car seat, putting her directly into the pack and play and hoping and praying that she won't wake up. Luckily the transition happens seamlessly and I collapse into my old bed. I smile as I look over at the nightstand, there's a picture of the four of us from the first summer that I lived with the Voights. All of us smiling on the beaches of Lake Michigan, the sun shining high in the sky and my arms around Camille in a hug, her blue eyes shining and Hank holding her close. Justin's even smiling, something he rarely did back then as the angst filled teenager that he was. That was a really good day, we spent the entire day on the beach and eventually dark gray clouds flooded over the beach and rain started pummeling us. We all made a mad dash for the car and we all just ended giggling the entire way home. God I miss them so much.

I crane my neck slightly to look over at Emma. I hope I can give her memories like that. But that's another worry for another day. Right now I just need to sleep, so I let my eyelids fall, wonderful memories of Camille and Justin flowing through my mind.

I wake up to the soft fall of rain on the roof and look over at the clock. It's 9:54. Why is it so late? I never sleep this late. I look around. Where the hell am I? That's when it all comes rushing back to me. Here I am in my old room in Hank's house. Because I left my husband. My husband cheated on me. Kelly cheated on me.

On instinct I hop out of bed to grab Emma and change her. She's not there, the panic sets in quickly. Then I hear her babbling happily downstairs. I smile, knowing that Voight must have picked her up.

I pad out of my room and down the stairs, still dressed in my attire from yesterday, a red flannel over a white t-shirt and a pair of black leggings, my hair thrown up in a ponytail, well I don't know if you could call it a ponytail anymore, it's kind of just a mass of hair with a hair tie kind of hanging on to the end. I pull it out, why not just let it flow free.

"Hey baby," I say, dropping a kiss on the top of my girl's head as I enter into the kitchen, her short blonde hair pulled into a ponytail on the top of her head. "You got her up?" She's sitting in Daniel's old high chair, a sprinkling of berries and some cereal on the tray. You can tell she's been eating them, the corners of her mouth raspberry red and the remnants of some blueberries splattered on her bib.

"Yeah I heard her crying around 8 and I wanted to make sure you got some rest," He tells me.

"Thank you, it was much needed," I say gratefully.

"So I'm not sure if you're ready, but if you want to, you can start Intelligence tomorrow morning,"

"So soon?"I question as I pull a chair over next to Emma's high chair.

"If you want, we're down a detective, so they fast tracked the paperwork," he explains.

"I don't know, what am I going to do with Emma?"

"I've got an old CI, Lacey King, she's clean now. Has been for over 10 years and she runs a daycare over on W Addison and I gave her a call, she'd be happy to take Emma tomorrow morning,"

"You trust her?"

"I do, plus I ran extensive background checks on every employee that sets foot in that building and you should be good. It's one of the best in the city, I've only ever heard good things about it."

"Alright," I tell him, still unsure about it but knowing that I do need to get her into daycare fast.

"As for Intelligence, I'm partnering you with Jay Halstead,"

"He good police?" I question as Emma babbles behind me.

"Excellent. He's slightly hot headed and he's stubborn as hell but he's a solid cop and a good guy. You remember Antonio?"

"Of course yeah," I tell him, conjuring an image of the dark haired man in my mind.

"Well he took a job with the State's Attorney, but he pulled in Halstead," Hank tells me.

"Alright sounds good, so I start tomorrow?"

"8 AM." He tells me. "Oh and that reminds me," He says getting up and disappearing into another room.

"What are you doing Hank?" I call after him.

"Give me a second Erin!" He yells back before emerging, something hidden in his hands. "This is for you," He tells me as he slides the object across the kitchen table. It's my badge. A Chicago badge. A badge handed to me by Hank Voight. I've dreamed of this since I was sixteen years old. .

"How'd you get this so fast?" I question as I take it in my hands, running my fingers over the metal.

"I don't know if you've figured this out, but I know a couple people," He says with a smirk.

"Oh don't I know it," I tell him with a playful grin, pulling Emma from her high chair and wiping off her face with a nearby washcloth and discarding her bib. "So do you have an open case right now or am I starting fresh?" I ask.

"Just closed one," He explains. "But another one should roll in in a couple days, that tends to be how things work,"

"Okay, so I've just got one question?"

"What's up?"

"Is this Halstead guy going to let me drive?"

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Over the next couple weeks, my schedule is insane and I have three trips basically back to back and I've just moved, so I apologize if the updates are coming in a little slow, but I will try my hardest to get you updates as fast as I can. Please review!

Much love,

Addie