AN: I own nothing. Just borrowing some characters to make the time pass a bit quicker until September 30.

Big thanks to everyone who reviewed and added this story to their alerts! Thanks xo

Chapter Song: I'm a Mess by Ed Sheeran

Welcoming The Burn

Chapter Two

Erin burst through the front door of Molly's back out into the frigid Chicago night. Reaching into her coat pocket for her cell phone she tried not to think about the added weight of Jay's badge. She swiped the screen and hit Jay's name in her contacts and waited for the call to connect. But it didn't. He must have turned his phone off. Which spoke volumes about his state of mind. Jay never turned his phone off. She only hoped she could find him and sort out the mess she had made before they got a call in from work and he didn't answer that. Because there would be hell to pay if Voight called them in and Jay didn't answer that call. Erin let out a frustrated sigh. She needed to fix this mess and fast.

Looking around Erin spotted Jay's car parked across the street and made a beeline for it to make sure he wasn't inside. He wasn't. She was thankful that he hadn't tried to drive home. Which meant he'd either caught a cab or walked the six blocks from Molly's to his apartment.

Erin jumped in her car and headed in towards Jay's apartment, keeping an eye out for him walking on her way. Seven minutes later she pulled up outside Jay's apartment building. She tried ringing Jay's cell phone once more before she got out of the car, but there was still no answer. She left a short message pleading with him to ring her.

She walked into the apartment building and the two flights of stairs that led the Jay's floor. Stopping outside his door she took a deep breath and raised her hand to knock on his door.

"Jay it's me Erin open up." Erin said banging her fist on the door of his apartment.

"Jay please open the door." She pleaded when there was still no answer.

She was just about to knock again when the door was suddenly opened to reveal a shirtless Halstead. Only it was the wrong Halstead brother.

"Where's Jay? I need to talk to him." Erin said brushing past the older Halstead brother into the apartment.

"Please come on in." Will said with a smirk and a shake of his head at Erin barging into his brother's apartment.

Erin walked further into the apartment looking for Jay, expecting to see him sitting on the couch. He wasn't.

"Feel free to take a seat and wait for him." Will told her.

"Why is he in the shower?" Erin asked starting to walk towards the bathroom.

"No he's not here." Will told her.

"What do you mean he's not here?" Erin asked walking across the room to Jay's bedroom.

"Exactly what I said. He hasn't been here all night." Will told her.

"If you are lying to me. I will kick you ass." Erin warned him.

"Why would I lie to you?" Will asked his hands raised in surrender.

"Can you ring him please?" Erin demanded hoping that if he wouldn't answer her call he would answer his brothers.

"What's going on? Did you guys have a fight?" Will asked but Erin just glared at him from across the room.

With a sigh Will walked over the Jay's back leather couch and picked up his cell phone and did what he was told. Rang his brother.

"Huh. That's weird. His phone must be turned off." Will said looking down at his phone.

"Shit." Erin said her hands covering her face as she sank to the chair across from the couch.

"What the hell is going on Erin? Is Jay in some kind of trouble?" Will asked her the concern for his brother evident on his face.

"I don't think so." Erin told him.

"That doesn't fill me with a whole lot of confidence. What happened?"

"I don't know if Jay told you about us –"

"I know you two were together. But he wasn't very forthcoming about the details, only that it ended."

"It did. But, well -– we kinda got into it at work today. I said something I shouldn't have. Something I didn't mean."

"Give him time. I'm sure he'll get over it." Will said.

"I don't think he will. I hurt him. Badly. I tried to apologize to him later but he blew me off. And then I got a phone call from Gabby saying Jay's at Molly's and he's in a state. Only I didn't get the call until later because I was trying to ring Jay. And then by the time I got to Molly's it was too late he was gone –'

"Take a breath." Will said. "He probably just went somewhere else –"

"He quit Will. He put his badge on the bar and left." Erin said, her eyes glassy with unshed tears.

"No way. Jay would never do that." Will said shaking his head.

"Yeah well he did." Erin told Will taking Jay's badge out of her pocket and passing it to him.

"Well fuck." Will said and jumped up and pulling on a shirt and some shoes.

"What are you doing?" Erin asked the older Halstead brother.

"I'm going to go look for my brother." Will told her grabbing a jacket and his keys and wallet.

"I'm coming with you. I need to fix this mess." Erin said following him out the door and into the hallway.

"Any ideas on where to look?" Will asked her as they headed down the stairs.

"Yeah a couple bars. We could start at." Erin told him, "We can take my car." Erin told him.

"Yeah I kinda expected that." Will said thinking back to how Jay told him how Erin hardly ever lets him drive. "Hey did you try ringing Mouse?"

"Shit I didn't think about that." Erin pulled out her phone and called Mouse, pissed that she hadn't thought about ringing Jay's Army buddy earlier.

"Well?" Will asked when she ended the call a couple of minutes later.

"Mouse hasn't heard from Jay since he left the precinct today. But he's gonna put a trace on Jay's cell phone and can hopefully tell us where he is."

Erin and Will walked up to one of the bars Jay frequented, the one his friend Maddie worked at.

"Let me do the talking." Erin told Will as they walked though the door of the bar, causing Will to roll his eyes at her.

Erin didn't know if she should be relieved or worried when she didn't see Jay anywhere in the bar. She did however see Maddie working behind the bar.

"Hey Maddie I don't know if you remember me or not I'm –"

"Jay's partner. Sure I remember you." Maddie said her tone less than friendly.

"I'm Jay's brother Will. We were just wondering if Jay had been in here tonight?" Will asked with a charming smile, noting the tension between the brunette behind the bar and the blond standing next to him.

"Jay hasn't been in here in weeks." Maddie told Will, completely ignoring Erin.

"If you do happen to see him tonight can you give me a call." Will asked jotting his number down on a drink coaster and handing it to her.

"I can do that. But like I said I haven't seen Jay in weeks." Maddie said narrowing her eyes in Erin's direction.

"Thanks we appreciate it." Will said and turned to leave, all but dragging Erin out of the bar with him.

"What the hell Will. I thought we agreed that I do the talking." Erin fumed when they outside.

"I don't remember agreeing to that. Besides for some reason she doesn't seem to like you. She would have given you nothing."

"Yeah well she gave you nothing either. And I could tell she way lying. She has seen Jay. If not tonight, then recently." Erin said not wanting to think about Jay being with the pretty brunette bartender.

"Yeah well she's not gonna tell us anything else tonight."

Erin and Will tried a few other places they thought Jay may be, but with no luck. Phone calls to Antonio, Gabby, Mouse proved to be fruitless too. No one had heard from him. Jay's cell phone was still turned off and Mouse hadn't been able to trace it to a location. Wherever Jay was it appeared that he didn't want to be found. Something that both worried and frustrated Erin in equal measures.

It was just past four am when Erin pulled up our the front of Jay's building. With both Will and Erin hoping that Jay had arrived home while they had been out looking for him.

Will wasn't all that surprised when Erin locked her car and followed him inside. The apartment silent and empty when they walked in. Jay obviously still not home.

"I was hoping he might have come home." Erin said with a tired sigh.

"Yeah me too. Listen why don't you head home and get some sleep. There's nothing else we can do right now. He'll come home when he wants to. I'll ring you as soon as he gets home." Will said when he noticed how exhausted she looked.

"No. I'll stay and wait for him." Erin was adamant she wasn't going anywhere.

"Ok." Will said and headed for Jay's spare room which he had claimed as his own.

Erin walked into Jay's darkened bedroom, wishing she could take back the words she'd said to him at work today, words she hadn't meant. Words that she knew would hurt him, but said anyway.

After shrugging out of her coat and taking her boots off, Erin crawled onto Jay's bed his badge clutched in one hand her phone in the other, and sleep claimed her.

"Erin wake up –" A familiar voice said, accompanied by a gentle shaking of her shoulder, jerking her from a dreamless sleep.

"Jay –" Erin gasped out sitting up, memories of the previous night flooding in.

"He's still not home." Will told her with a shake of his head. "Your phone has been ringing of the past ten minutes."

"Shit." Erin said looking around for her phone, which had somehow found it's way under Jay's pillow.

Erin looked at her phone and saw she had fifteen missed calls.

"Have you heard from Jay?" Erin asked Will her voice husky from sleep.

"Not yet. But if he drank as much as you said last night. He's probably sleeping it off somewhere." Will said trying not to let his concern for his brother show. There was no way he was going to tell Erin that he had spent the last two hours on the phone to every hospital in the Chicago area seeing if anyone with Jay's description had been brought it.

Erin scrolled through her missed calls and listened to her messages. Antonio and Gabby wanting to know if she'd found Jay. Mouse letting her know he still hadn't heard from Jay, but was still trying to track his phone down. Ruzek letting her know it was her and Jay's day to stop and get coffee. And two calls from Voight wanting to know where the hell she was. Nothing from Jay.

"Shit." Erin said as she noticed the time. It was nearly nine am and she was late for work. "I need to go to work."

"I'll let you know when I hear from him." Will promised her, hoping that it was 'when' and not 'if' he heard from his brother.

"Thanks. I'll keep let you know if I find anything on my end." Erin told him, while she hurriedly shoved her feet into her boots and put on her coat, Jay's badge one again safely in her pocket.

Erin raced out of Jay's apartment trying to decide what if anything to tell the rest of the unit about Jay. After an internal debate Erin decided it was probably for the best that she tell everyone Jay was sick. At least until she could find him.

When Erin raced up the font stairs of the precinct ten minutes later it was only then that she realized she was still in yesterday's clothes.

"Nothing I can do about that now." Erin muttered to herself buttoning up her coat. After a quick nod to Platt, who just arched a brow at her. Erin scanned in and ran up the stair to the Intelligence Unit.

"Erin nice of you to join us." Came Voight's gravelly as she walked over to her desk. "Where the hell is Halstead?" Voight wanted to know.

"Umm he's sick. Flu." Erin said looking over at Jay's empty desk hoping to avoid eye contact with Voight.

"And he didn't think to call in?" A clearly pissed off Voight asked.

"Sorry my bad. He rang this morning. I meant to tell you." Antonio told him, as he caught Erin's eye, obviously having the same thought as her.

Clearly not impressed with Jay's absence and Erin's tardiness Voight narrowed his eyes at the room in general.

"Lindsay my office now." Voight barked before heading into his office.

Erin unbuttoned her coat draping it over the back of her chair before turning to head into Voight's office.

"Hey Lindsay isn't that what you were wearing yesterday? Big night huh?" Ruzek asked her with a smirk.

Erin ignored him and walked into Voights office closing the door behind her.

"What's up." Erin asked wishing she had, had time for a cup of coffee before facing Hank after a horror twenty-four hours.

"That's what I'd like to know?" Hank demanded. "You out partying last night Erin?"

"What? No." Erin stammered out.

"Well what the hell is going on then? You finally decide to come to work nearly an hour late, looking like shit and wearing the same clothes as yesterday."

"It's not like that I promise." Erin said her eyes pleading with him to drop the subject.

"I don't believe you." Hank said angrily.

"I can explain –" Erin started when her phone buzzed in her pocket.

There was a quick knock on Hank's office door, the door was flung open and Antonio and Mouse walked in both visibly distressed.

"We have a problem." Antonio said.

Erin's phone buzzed her in pocket again. She got her phone out looking down at the screen. It was an unknown number. Erin swiped to answer the call, bringing her cell to her ear. Her blood running cold when heard voices on the other end of the line.

"Oh God." Erin whispered her phone dropping out of her suddenly numb fingers bouncing off Voight's desk with a crack onto the floor, clattering to a stop on the floor at her feet.

TBC...

Who was on the phone? What is the problem Antonio speaks of? Can Maddie be trusted? And most importantly where is Jay and is he ok?

Well you'll just have to wait and see ;)

AN: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Look forward to hearing what you think.

Sneak Peek.

Chapter Three.

The first thing Jay became aware of was the blinding pain in his head.

The second was that he had no idea where the hell he was or how he got there.

The third was that he was in trouble. Big trouble.