Chapter 2: Simple Silence

Jay doesn't remember what happened after that. Time stopped. Perry sat in silence, letting him soak it in. Afghanistan? Iraq? Why? Did he do something wrong? Was there something he missed when he was deployed all those years ago? The past was coming back to haunt him. He wasn't ready. He should have a choice, right? This isn't Civil War days; he can't be forced. However, if he didn't go, he'd look like a wuss. The settled kitten too scared to venture out of the scratching post tree house. The Commander's voice rang in his head and brought him back to reality.

"Do you need time? To pack, prepare? You can have paid leave for the rest of the week." Perry watched him carefully.

"Uh…. No. I'm good." He quickly stood and headed for the door. "I'll be upstairs."

Perry stood as well. "Detective." Jay turned, getting slightly annoyed now. Perry gave him a look, daring him to make a snarky comment. "You speak of this to no one. I mean it. Voight, Lindsay," Jay clenched his jaw regarding Erin, "No one. Not a word. This is between you, me, Sergeant Platt, and the military."

"Wait. How come Platt can know but not Voight?" He was growing impatient.

The door swung open as Platt barged in. Perry looked up at the ceiling sighing. Now he was getting annoyed. "Because you tell Hank, he tells Lindsay, she blows up, the whole department knows about it, and your mission is ruined because you can't trust anyone."

"Oh, and I'm supposed to trust you?" He raises his eyebrows at her as he catches the door. "You're the one with everyone's personal information, you could tell anyone too."

Perry put his hands on his hips and looked at the ground as Platt whipped around. "Yeah, you are. Because I'm the one with everyone's personal information, remember?"

Halstead took a deep breath and grumbled, "I'll be upstairs," once again before beginning to walk out. He slammed the door shut, making a picture fall off the wall when Perry told him, "Desk duty until you leave."

Trudy turned around to face an extremely annoyed Ron. "What? You can't expect me to be nice and full of joy when someone decides to be sassy with me, can you? Especially him?"

"Trudy, there is no such thing as 'nice' or 'full of joy' in your book. Now what, exactly did you come back in here for?"

"What? Oh. Nothing. I was standing outside the door eavesdropping and I wanted some input." She turned to leave and nodded to the floor, "Your picture fell," and left.

This was going to be a long day.