Hi babes! The next part of this story line may be slightly unrealistic due to (my lack of knowledge of) laws & such and I am speeding the process up A LOT, so please bear with me! That's all I can say without giving too much away, but I think/I hope you'll enjoy it, please don't hate me! Thank you for the continued reading and reviews, xo :)

Erin awoke to a loud bang and immediately breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Brielle still sound asleep next to her. She slowly got out from under the covers to find the source of the noise and to make sure Jay was okay. She walked down the hall to the kitchen and the first thing she saw was Jay's phone on the ground, the screen newly shattered.

"Babe? What's wrong?" she asked gently, moving over to where her boyfriend was leaning up against the counter staring out the window, a hard look in his eyes.

"My dad already quit the job in Bolivia; said he was too good for it. He's moving back to California on Monday and called to arrange getting Brielle back," Jay choked out, turning his head towards the ceiling to prevent the tears from falling down his face. "I know it's only been like a week, Erin, but I can't let her go back to him. You saw how scared she was when she got here, who knows what she went through with him. She's the only real family I have, I can't let her go…"

"Jay…" Erin was at a loss for words as she moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, trying to process what he'd just told her. "Didn't you sign any paperwork when she first came here? There's gotta be something giving you rights to her,"

Jay shook his head. "No, I mean my dad said he was going to have papers drawn up, but I guess they weren't ready yet. He still has full custody of her, and he wants her back this weekend. She can't go back there, Erin."

Erin's heart was breaking in her chest, between the thought of losing Brielle, the pain in her boyfriend's eyes, and the way his voice was breaking, but she honestly did not know what to do. As a cop, she'd witnessed enough custody battles to know that Jay had absolutely no case; it would be the girl's father, a rich doctor, versus her brother who didn't know she existed until less than two weeks prior. Her next question broke her heart even more before it even left her mouth. "Is there anything you can even do about it?" she asked as gently as possible, but it didn't decrease the harshness of her words.

"I don't know, but I'm damn sure going to try!" Jay exploded, pulling himself out of her embrace and turning to face her. "I spent eighteen years living with him. He hated me. He was abusive in every sense of the word – he mocked me, he made fun of me, he hit me, he abandoned me, Erin! And I'm not going to let him to the same to her!"

Erin gasped at his admission. She knew Jay's dad was never father of the year, but she had no idea he was abusive. "He hit you?" she asked in a quiet voice; throughout her entire childhood, no matter how bad her mom's current boyfriend was, no one had ever laid a hand on her. The thought of Jay's own father hurting him, hurting Brielle, churned her stomach.

"Yes." Jay took a deep breath to calm himself down. "And I know you thought Brie was just nervous about being in a new place, but she was terrified of me for more reasons than that. She thought I was going to hurt her, just like her own father did." His heart hurt to even say those words.

Erin couldn't fight her tears anymore as they began to roll down her face. She looked at the man in front of her, the one who she loved more than anything in the entire world, and her heart broke all over again when she pictured his father abusing him. She closed the gap between them and threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest, squeezing him tight. She felt his arms tighten around her waist and he laid his chin on top of her head, letting out a deep sigh. "I'm so sorry. I love you so much. We're going to get through this," she promised, mumbling the words into his chest.

"How?" Jay asked, his voice breaking again as he felt Erin's tears soak through his shirt.

Erin suddenly saw the custody case in a whole new light; the abuse aspect suddenly giving Jay a chance. She pulled away from his chest to look him in the eyes, moving her hands to his shoulders. "Don't tell Brie anything is wrong yet. Pull yourself together, get her ready for school. I'm going to head to the district early to talk to Hank, I know a few lawyers who owe him favors. Get Brie to school and meet me there, okay?" she squeezed his shoulders reassuringly.

Jay looked at the woman standing in front of him, all 5'3" of her, and almost laughed at how ironic it was that she was his rock. Once again, for about the tenth time this week, his world was crumbling around him and there she stood, making him believe everything would be okay. He tightened his grip around her waist and pulled her back into him, placing a soft but firm kiss on her lips. "I love you," he mumbled into her mouth.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Woah, Lindsay, where's the fire?" Platt asked as Erin sprinted into the district, ignoring the greetings of all the officers in the lobby. Erin rolled her eyes at the desk sergeant's humor as she slammed her hand onto the palm scanner, hurriedly entered her code and yanked open the gate, sprinting up the second set of stairs into the bullpen. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw no one except Hank had arrived yet and she continued her sprint into his office.

"Hey, kid," Hank looked up from his paperwork and immediately knew something was wrong upon seeing his pseudo-daughter's face. "What's up?"

"Did you know Jay was abused as a kid?" she asked, sitting down across from Voight and trying to catch her breath.

"What? No?" Hank creased his brow, confused and unsure of where this was going.

"Well he was, and he thinks his dad was abusing Brielle too," Erin could feel her eyes filling with tears all over again at the thought. She saw a fire light in Hank's eyes as well, knowing there was nothing he hated more than men who abused children.

"Well it's a good thing she's with Jay now, right?" Voight was still unsure of why he and Erin were having this conversation.

"No!" she slammed her fists down on Hank's desk, startling him. "Well, yes, but his dad is moving back to the states and wants Jay to send Brielle back home this weekend,"

Hank went silent, suddenly understanding Erin's mood. "And Jay wants to fight his dad for custody?" he assumed.

Erin nodded. "I know you have a few lawyers…"

"I got it," Hank cut her off. While he wanted to hate Halstead for going against his rules and taking his girl from him, he knew that Jay was as good as it got for Erin. He was it for her, and Brielle was perfect for both of them. He didn't want to think about what would happen to them, especially Erin, if Brielle was taken away and sent back with her abusive father. "I'll make some calls. What I need you to do is start making a case. We'll need evidence, Erin, and I know that's going to be hard, but you need to talk to Brielle about her father, okay?"

"Okay," Erin said weakly, already imagining the conversation.

Hank reached across his desk and grabbed her hand, giving it a supportive squeeze. "I'm proud of you, kid,"

"Thank you," she squeezed his hand back, the pit in her stomach easing just a bit knowing they had Hank Voight on their side.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Erin picked Brielle up from school that day while Jay stayed at the district to meet with the custody lawyer Hank had found. Jay had asked her to be the one to talk to Brielle because of how comfortable is sister was around Erin and how easily she tended to open up to her.

"Erin!" the little girl exclaimed, running over to the detective and capturing her in a hug.

"Hey B," Erin smiled and tried her best to act like everything was normal. "How was school today?"

Brielle got into Erin's car and began to babble on about Michelle and Joey and Alex and the friendship bracelets she made, but Erin couldn't comprehend any of it. All she could focus on was how she was possibly going to ask this little girl if her father hit her. They finally pulled up to Jay's apartment and made their way inside. Brielle was about to run into her room to grab her Barbies, but Erin stopped her. "Hey, B? Can we talk for a second?"

"Of course!" the little girl ran back down the hallway towards Erin, her brown curls bouncing behind her.

Erin took a deep breath as she sat on the couch and Jay's sister climbed up on her lap. "So your dad decided not to take the job at the hospital in Bolivia. He's moving back to California this weekend…" she started.

Brielle's eyes widened and immediately filled with tears and Erin cursed herself for having to do this. "I don't have to go back, right?" she asked in a small voice.

"I don't know yet," Erin answered honestly. Her heart physically hurt inside her chest as she watched tears overtake Brielle's crystal blue eyes. "Your brother and I are trying to keep you here in Chicago, but we'll have to go see a judge for him to decide. But so the judge makes the right decision, I have to ask you a few questions and I need you to tell me the truth, okay?"

Brielle nodded and Erin could tell the little girl knew what questions she was about to be asked. She placed a kiss to Brielle's forehead before beginning. "Did your dad ever hit you, or purposely hurt you, in any way?"

Tears began to spill out of Brielle's eyes and before she even answered the question, Erin felt tears falling down her cheeks as well. "Sometimes," Brie whispered. "When he was in a bad mood. It happened more when mommy left," she turned to bury her head in Erin's chest, sobs beginning to rack her body at the memories.

Erin wrapped one arm around the little girl and used her free hand to wipe the tears from her own face, which was useless because they wouldn't stop falling. "It's okay, sweet girl," she whispered into Brielle's curls. "We're gonna make it okay," Erin prayed to God she could keep that promise.

Brielle ended up crying herself to sleep in Erin's lap by the time Jay got home from the district. As soon as he walked in the door and saw Erin sitting on his couch with tear-stained cheeks, he knew his assumptions about his father were true.

"Please tell me you have good news," Erin whispered in a broken voice.

Jay took a seat on the couch next to her and pulled her into him, placing a kiss into her hair. "Voight got a great lawyer and he thinks we have a case. Now that I know he definitely hurt Brie, we have an even better one. But we have to go to California to fight. It's her home state, so they have jurisdiction."

"When?"

"The lawyer filed the paperwork this afternoon and normally it takes a few months, but Voight's guy pulled some strings and of course my dad got the best lawyer in the state of California, so they're both pushing the case forward, so it should be sooner than later. The lawyer is supposed to call me tonight."

"No matter what happens, she's lucky to have you, Jay." Erin snuggled further into his chest, keeping both arms wrapped around Brielle, who was still asleep in his lap.

"We're going to win, Erin. We have to win. I can't send her back to him. I can't lose her." He choked out, the reality of the day's events finally setting in.

"You're not going to lose her. A blind man could see that you're the best thing to ever happen to this little girl. You gave her a family, Jay." She removed a hand from Brielle's back and intertwined her fingers with Jay's hand that was around her shoulder.

Jay squeezed her hand. "No, Er, you gave her a family. Neither of us would have survived this past week without you. Neither of us will survive this trial without you."

"I'm not going anywhere," she promised. "You two are stuck with me."

"Speaking of family," Jay paused to take a deep breath. "I called Will. He's actually going to testify for us if we need him since he, uh, saw what my dad did…"

Erin's heart ached at the mention of Jay's abuse again. She lifted her head from his chest and turned to look him in the eyes. "I am so proud of you. For everything." She pulled his hand down to her lips and kissed his knuckles.

"I love you, Er." Jay had never told anyone about his father being abusive before, figuring it would send them running for the hills. Throw a four year old child and a custody case into the mix, and anyone in their right mind would be long gone. But then there was Erin, confessing her love for him and kissing him and promising to never leave his side, and Jay was just wondering how he'd gotten so lucky, what he'd done to deserve this.

"I love you too. We're gonna be okay, ya know. All three of us," she laid her head back down on his chest, still not letting go of his hand but making sure she still had a secure hold on Brielle.