"Hey, Nadia," Erin said in a low voice as she traced her fingers over the edge of the memorial stone on the wall outside the station. It was Monday morning and she'd come to work with the full intent of doing her job right for the first time in a while, but first she felt she had to pay a visit to her friend. For some reason she thought it would be more appropriate here than at Nadia's actual gravesite. Erin had been to enough funerals and enough cemeteries to know that if any part of a loved one remained after death, it was not there in the tomb, it was somewhere else…for Nadia, maybe it was right here.
It was early in the morning and there wasn't anyone else coming just yet, so Erin decided it would be a perfect opportunity to say what she needed to say. She looked at the stone and finally said to it, "I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for you when you needed me. I'm sorry that I wasn't a better friend to you than I was. I'm sorry if I pushed your decision to be a cop, and maybe it wasn't really what you wanted to do, but just a way you could be more like me…like I probably became a cop to be like Hank…it was always something I wanted to do once I started living with him, if it hadn't been for him taking me in," she shook her head, "I don't know where I'd be…I know I wouldn't have become a cop…but he never forced it on me…and I'm sorry if I ever did you." There was a larger lump in her throat now as she summed it up, "I'm sorry about everything, I wish things were different now, I wish you were still here."
She really thought she'd be able to come here and do this, and now she was starting to rethink that. The emotions, the memories, it was all becoming too much for her. She pressed a hand against the stone to balance herself and keep from falling. Her eyes welled up with tears and for a moment, she started to think she wouldn't be able to go through with another day on the job, knowing that Nadia wouldn't be there.
Lindsay felt a strong hand on her shoulder, she turned and saw it was Hank.
"Nadia wanted to be a cop because it was what she wanted to do with her life, just like you did," he told her, "Don't ever feel guilty about trying to give somebody a better life, you wouldn't like the alternative."
Erin sniffed and wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand.
"You okay?" Voight asked her.
"Yeah," she answered, a bit shakily, but Voight knew she'd be able to make it.
"Come on," he said.
"Hey!" Bunny called out to the patrolmen who passed by her holding cell, "Hey! I want a lawyer! You hear me? I want a lawyer!"
But they passed by and acted like they didn't hear her. She'd been doing this for most of the weekend and she still hadn't run out of steam yet. Now that it was Monday again, the regulars were clocking back in, so there were a lot of familiar faces passing by, but that didn't seem to count for anything.
"Hey!" she tried again, "I want a lawyer!"
"Yeah and people in hell want ice water," Antonio commented dismissively as he walked by.
"I have been in here for two days!" Bunny said, "I know my rights."
"You could read me my rights," Olinsky told her as he passed the cell and headed down the other corridor.
"Hey!" Bunny pressed herself against the bars and called out, "You can't hold someone this long without charging them, and I've been demanding a lawyer for two days and never got one, I've been violated!"
"Many times," Trudy sneered as she passed by, "You just now figured that out?"
"As soon as I get out of here, I'm going to sue the whole department, I'm going to sue the whole city," Bunny threatened.
Something hit the bars and made a deafening noise and made Bunny's hands vibrate. She stepped back and saw that what caused it was Halstead hitting the bars with a baton he'd borrowed from a patrolman.
"You want to shut up?" he asked her in a low but borderline threatening tone.
"What I want is to be let out of here, I've broken no laws," she insisted.
"Ha, yeah I really believe that," he replied as he walked away.
"You can't do this to me!" Bunny yelled after him as she threw herself against the bars again, "I have rights!"
The next face to appear on the other side of the bars was the last one she expected to see.
"Erin!"
Lindsay stood a few inches away from the cell door and stared in at her mother, the expression on her face one almost completely blank.
"Erin, you've got to get me out of here," Bunny told her daughter, "You wouldn't believe what I've been through the past two days."
Erin looked at her mother for a minute, then leaned in closer and said to her in a low tone, "When you get out of here, I don't want to ever see you again; no more favors, no more playing nice for your boyfriend, don't even say my name."
Bunny's jaw dropped.
"Erin, what're you…"
Erin put a hand up in a dismissive gesture and walked away.
"Erin, you can't do this to me, I'm your mother," she called to her daughter, "I'm the only family that was ever there for you."
Erin stopped, turned on her heel, walked back and told Bunny, "You are not my family…Hank and Camille Voight were my family, and Hank has been my parent for the past 14 years, where the hell were you?" And with that, she turned and walked away again.
And once Erin was gone, up came Hank, who unlocked the cell and told her, "Sorry, Bunny, seems there was a little mix up, you're free to go now."
"Hank Voight you bastard," Bunny hissed at him, "You turned my own daughter against me."
"I didn't need to help there," Voight replied, "You work well enough alone at that. Now, incase you missed something, Erin is good and sober now, and she's going to stay that way, she doesn't need you or any other crutch you can provide, now get the hell out and leave her the hell alone."
"Or what?" Bunny asked, getting in his face, "You going to knock me around like you're always doing to perps?"
"I wouldn't have to resort to that," he answered, then grabbed her and forcefully walked her over to the supply closet.
The closet was dark and Bunny couldn't see anything, but she wasn't apprehensive about it.
"So now what, Hank?" she asked cynically, "The rubber hose? Water boarding? Oh don't tell me, I'm going to commit suicide in here and hang myself by the ceiling."
"That wouldn't lose me any sleep," she heard Voight's deep voice respond in the dark, "But I had something else in mind."
And to demonstrate, Bunny felt a large foot in a hard boot kick her square in the ass.
"OUCH!"
And again.
"YEOCH!"
"Now I don't usually make a habit out of beating the crap out of women," Voight told Bunny, and out of nowhere put her in a headlock, "And I've maintained that general rule up till now with you, but after that last stunt you pulled with Erin I'm making an exception. And if you ever come near Erin again and I find out, I'm making another exception and I'm going to give you a first hand tour in what happens to people who fuck with the wrong cop who has the power to make people disappear off the face of this planet."
He let go of Bunny and she fell forward and hit a wall, she turned back and called out into the darkness, "You're crazy!"
"Oh you bet your ass I am," Voight told her, "Unlike you, there is nothing that I wouldn't do for Erin. That includes exterminating the number one obstacle in her life because it poses a threat to her wellbeing. Now," he warned her, "Get out of my House, get out of my sight, and don't come back!"
Even in the dark, Voight was able to grab Bunny and shove her up against the door, she found the knob and pulled the door open and ran out.
"Thank you for coming," Voight dryly commented as he stepped out of the closet and watched Bunny proceed to the exit.
Trudy caught a glimpse of Bunny leaving and called after her, "Don't forget to not write." She turned and saw Voight heading towards her and asked him, "Well, how'd it go?"
"Well," Voight told her, "If she's smart at all, she'll do what she's told for once."
"If not, we'll be ready for her," Trudy responded with a knowing smirk.
Erin came down the stairs just in time to completely miss the fireworks, and joined the two of them at the front desk and told them, "Thanks, you guys, I really appreciate everything you did for me."
"Oh it was nothing," Trudy said dismissively, then glimpsed at Erin and told her, "By the way, looking good, Detective, you look ready to kick ass and take names again."
Erin laughed and answered, "Yeah, I guess so."
"Welcome back," Voight said, and subtly slipped her her badge.
"Thanks," she said, "I was wondering how I'd explain that."
"Erin," Trudy said to the younger woman, "Everybody in this house has got your back, you know that, don't you?"
"Yeah, I guess I do," Lindsay responded, she looked back at Voight and added, "It's a good thing to know."
"Come on, kid, let's get to work," Voight told her.
Trudy watched them head upstairs to Intelligence, and once they were gone she murmured under her breath, "Kid, you have no idea how much we got your back." She'd put the word out to everyone else in the department to ignore Bunny's antics, after all if nobody 'heard' her ask for a lawyer, nobody could be expected or obligated to get her one, add to the fact that her arrest wasn't exactly a done deal and was never going to go before a judge. Everybody had been willing to go along with it because even though they hadn't been given the full details of what happened with Erin, everybody knew that Bunny had used Nadia's death to manipulate her, and that pain was still fresh for everyone so of course they were all only too willing to go along with it to keep the bitch out of Erin's life and give the detective time to straighten things out for herself. And now that that ordeal was over, maybe things could finally start getting semi-back to normal for them.
That night, Erin had gone back to Voight's place to stay with him for a few days, right now she needed something familiar and safe, and he was it. In the middle of the night, she slipped out of the bed in Justin's old room and quietly padded down the stairs, watching every single step as she remembered only too well, careful to make sure none of them squeaked and woke up Hank. Sleepers didn't come any lighter than that man.
The lights flipped on and Voight called to her from the couch, "Trying to sneak out?"
"Geez, Hank!" Erin grabbed her chest, "You about gave me a heart attack. I thought you were in your room."
"My house," Voight told her, "If I want to sleep on the couch that's my damn right." And apparently he had intentionally planned to stay there for the night because he had his shotgun conveniently propped up against the side and well within his reach.
"So what're you doing up?" Voight asked her.
Recovering from her initial shock, Erin answered as she padded into the living room, "I just came down to get a drink."
"I think there's something we need to talk about," he told her. He sat up and pulled the blanket with him and cleared a spot for her to sit down.
"So," Lindsay said as she made her way over to the couch, feeling like she was 16 years old again and about to get her ass chewed out, "Are you still mad at me?"
"I wasn't mad, I was worried about you," Voight told her, "I know the influence someone like your mother can have on people, I could see what she was doing to you," he shook his head, "You don't wish that on anyone you care about."
"So I'm finding out," Erin said quietly.
"I know it's an unwritten rule that no matter how terrible a parent is, that it's supposed to still be better to have them around than no parent," Voight shook his head, "It's an unwritten rule as old as time, and it's wrong."
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say no parent," Lindsay said, and she looked at Hank, "I still had you."
That brought a small smile to Voight's face, he remarked, "I tried."
"Seems you did a lot more than just tried," Erin told him, "You guys gave me the first dose of stability and the first functional family I ever knew. Thank you."
"Anytime."
Erin fell asleep sitting on the couch with Voight, and gradually slumped against him. Voight had no intention of swapping the couch for his bed upstairs, and he also had a feeling if he tried moving Lindsay, it'd just wake her up, so he repositioned both of them that possibly they could sleep through the night laid out on the couch and not have to deal with anything else. Working around Erin, he laid back down on the couch cushions and pulled her down so she laid on top of him and turned on her side, then he grabbed the covers and draped them over both of them. It seemed a safe bet that Erin wasn't going to wake up until morning for anything.
As for Voight, he'd decided to sleep on the couch to possibly avoid a repeat of the other night. Remembering Camille was easy, it was the nights he woke up and forgot he was on his own now that just about did him in. He'd always planned that he and his wife would be together until they were about 100, or he went out on one wrong call too many that didn't end well, whichever came first. He never so much as considered the possibility that she might be the first to die. Before it happened, they'd had a lot of discussions about Justin and Erin.
Voight had done what he could, but there were still times he thought it would've been easier to reach out to Erin if there had been a woman around she could relate to. He figured that had been part of why Bunny had been able to lure Erin in; it was also why he had been thankful Trudy had been with him that night and had come back with him to talk to Erin. Lindsay and Trudy didn't know each other particularly well, they did not socialize with one another, Trudy was the desk sergeant and Lindsay was the detective, that was just one of the reasons why Trudy seemed an unlikely source for Erin to open up to even though they did share the common factor of Nadia. For the most part, Voight was good and he did what he knew how, but there were some things it was just easier to have a woman help with, especially when it involved another woman, more specifically, a younger woman with serious mother issues.
He looked at the sleeping woman whose head was resting on his chest, and it still amazed Voight to see the vast difference in Erin now and a few days ago. She'd come into this world with the deck largely stacked against her, but if anybody could beat the odds...
Hank smiled to himself, and thought to himself, Camille, I think this girl's going to turn out to be just fine after all. In a few minutes, he also fell asleep, content with the fact that right now, things finally seemed to be working out in their favor. It was about damn time.
The End