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Chapter 2

Erin groaned as she ended the phone call on her phone.

Jay's cell had gone to voicemail.

For the third time.

She wanted to make sure that he was okay as well as that he was still coming to work. She had already been pestered with questions, all of which she had diverted or redirected. She still couldn't believe what had happened, and in the end, it was Jay's secret to share.

Erin and Jay had never told anyone else about his sister, who Erin now at least had a name to put to it. Not even Voight, who had suddenly shown up in front of her desk.

Startled, she put down her phone and asked, as calmly as she could, "What's up, Sarg?"

"My office. Now," he ordered monotonously, walking towards his office door. Erin obediently followed him and shut the door behind her.

"Where's Halstead? And what is going on? You promised you wouldn't be late today."

"Sorry, Voight, we dropped Peter to school, and then Jay started feeling really sick, so I dropped him home before coming in." Erin hated lying to Voight, but she had to resort to it for now. Voight wouldn't understand. He didn't know the whole story. Or any of it, Erin corrected herself.

"And I'm supposed to buy that?"

"Yes, you are," Erin replied, trying her best to appear convincing. Apparently it worked, because Voight submitted and said, "Alright. Just try to get ahold of him and let me know how he's doing."

"Sure thing," Erin said, choosing that opportunity to hightail it out of his office. As she headed for her desk, she was about to dial Jay's phone again when a text message popped into her inbox. A message from Jay. About time, she thought to herself.

She read the text, heading for the locker room before she was finished reading. Meet me in the locker room. Need to talk to you. Sorry I didn't reach you earlier. –J

***Twenty minutes earlier***

As Jay walked the five blocks between the precinct and the coffee shop where he had just left Elise, he was still trying to process everything that she had said.

She had become slightly more selfish, yet more open. She had told him all about the past nineteen years of her life, and yet, hadn't asked about much of Jay's life. Then again, Jay didn't reveal much before he stormed out. He just didn't feel ready to talk about it all yet. His head was still spinning.

His mind was still thinking about everything that had happened after his time in the army, since he had brought it up with Elise. He had spent two full years in deployment after three months of training, with a two month training break in between the two deployments. He had been in Iraq both times and seen a lot of action as well as lost lives. Before he had completed his initial army training in Virginia, he had already been selected to join Special Ops. Unfortunately, while that meant a higher rank, it also meant more danger and more death. Jay was lucky that he hadn't developed PTSD.

Because some of his comrades had.

After his second deployment, which had ended with his platoon running into a field of land mines, he had been debriefed in Germany and stuck on the next plane to the US – a flight that landed in Chicago. After more debriefings in the Windy City, Jay found that he liked the feel of Chicago, and decided to enroll in the Police Academy. He had worked as a uniform, then an undercover cop for the gang unit, and then after getting shot on the job he had gotten to move into Intelligence.

He couldn't believe Elise had not even asked about his journey through his years as a cop. But you weren't super inclined to share, were you, Jay thought to himself. He was following the promise he made to Erin: that he wouldn't let his emotions override his common sense. Even right now, he was so thankful for Erin. For everything that she had done for him, including today.

And the day wasn't even half over yet.

As he reached the precinct, he pulled out his phone, and instead of responding to his three missed calls from Erin, he sent her a quick text.

Meet me in the locker room. Need to talk to you. Sorry I didn't reach you earlier. –J