**Jay's POV**
I look over at Erin as we drive back to the district. God how did I get so lucky with her? I may never know.
"Erin you okay?" I say to my partner, knowing how hard this case had been and will continue to be on her.
"I'm trying to be," She says, her eyes trained on the road in front of her, "How can I be a good and fair cop if every time we work a case like this I see Lucy?"
"Erin that's what makes you a good cop," I say as I reach over to grab her hand. "You care and don't ever look at that as a bad thing okay?" She nods back at me, but the sadness still clouds her eyes.
"Thanks Jay," She says as she glance back over at me. "I just can't stop thinking about her, I don't know it might be the hair or maybe it's the eyes, I don't know, but I every time I think about those girls it just terrifies me that something could happen to her,"
"Erin," I say as I squeeze her hand again. "Nothing is going to happen to her," She smiles back at me. My phone dings in my pocket and I pull it out to look at it.
"Who's that?" She says, her eyes not moving from the road ahead.
"Ruzek, they brought in a few of the teachers from Sutton and they want us to come back in to help question them,"
"Okay, tell him we're already headed back and we should be there in a couple minutes,"
"Alright will do," I say as I type up the text. "So," I ask deciding to change the subject in an attempt to take her mind off the case, "how do you want to tell Lucy about us?"
"Well I mean I think we should just keep it low key, it's not a big deal, we shouldn't make it into a big deal," She says.
"Erin, c'mon it is a big deal," I say, "You told our daughter that we weren't dating less than a month ago and now we are, we can't just slip that it," I say.
"Oh so this is my fault," She says, her voice slightly rising.
"No, no, no, no, no that's not what I meant Erin," I say quickly correcting myself.
"Oh okay because that's what you said Jay," She fires back.
"Erin," I say, trying to calm her down, "all I meant was that we cannot brush this off like it is no big deal because she's four and it will be a big deal to her. You didn't do anything wrong Er and I never said that you did,"
"Fine fine I guess you're right." She says annoyed. "And I'm sorry," She says under her breath.
"Oh oh what was that?" I say, trying to get under her skin. "Was that Erin Lindsay apologizing?" I say with a gasp.
"I can admit when I'm wrong Jay," She snaps.
"Well you can, but you won't," I say with a smirk.
"Oh shut up," She says she smacks me on the arm. "And as for telling the kid, maybe just sit her down and straight up tell her,"
"Alright," I agree, "that sounds good, but you know if you aren't ready we don't have to tell her yet,"
"No," She responds, "I want to tell her, it's time that she knows,"
"You know that once we tell Luce the clock is ticking on when we tell Voight," I say.
"What do you mean?" She questions.
"Well she's four, you don't think she'll let it slip the very next time she sees him?" I say.
"Crap," She says as she realizes I'm right. "I didn't think about that,"
"Well you know Lucy, that child will talk your ear off," I say with a chuckle.
"Jay would it be the worst in the world if he found out? I mean we're going to have to tell him at some point."
"I guess you're right," I admit. "We should probably tell him," I say as we pull into the parking lot of the 21st District.
"It'll be okay," She says as she places her hand on my left shoulder.
"If he kills me, I'm blaming you," I say.
"Well I mean you'll be dead, so go ahead," She says with a smirk. She laughs before pulling into our designated parking spot.
"So are we telling him now?" I tease as we get out of the car.
"Hell no!" She exclaims back at me. "I want him to know, but I mean we don't have to ruin things just yet right?"
"Whatever you say," I remark as I pull her into my side and plant a kiss on the top of her head.
"Babe not here!" She exclaims as she scrambles away from me.
"Erin you're being paranoid," I say back, "no one can see us,"
"You don't know that!" She retorts back at me.
"Fine," I say with a smirk as she whacks me again. I laugh at the adorable anger spread across her face which of course just leads to her becoming madder as we make our way to the front entrance. It becomes of a cycle of me laughing and her hitting me that only stops with our entrance into the district.
"We're not done with this," She whispers as we walk up the steps.
"Oh of course not," I say mockingly back to her with a smirk. She glares at me as I push open the front door.
"Batman and Robin let's get a move on, they're waiting for you," Platt yells from behind her desk.
"Always a joy Sergeant," I say sarcastically as we pass her by.
"Yeah I know," She says back. "Now get your assses upstairs," Erin waves her off and we jog up the stairs towards the bullpen.
"Oh you're here finally!" Ruzek says as the bullpen comes into sight.
"You texted us like four minutes ago," Erin responds.
"Whatever," He retorts quickly.
"Okay so who's here?" I ask, not wanting to engage Ruzek right now.
"We've got the twins teacher Hailey Leighton, the other teacher who was on the field trip with them Angela Britton as well as two teaching assistants Lena Kennedy and Olive Marsak and the principal Hollis McAlister is on her way over,"
"Okay great where are they?" Erin asks.
"We put Angela in room one and Hailey in room two and we've got the TAs over there," He says gesturing to two young brunettes in the corner of the bullpen. "We'll have to talk to them afterwards,"
"Okay," I say back to him, "Erin and I will take Hailey and you and Olinsky can talk to Angela. Sounds good?"
"Perfect, let's get started," He says. I nod him off and follow Erin's lead to the interrogation room.
**Erin's POV**
"Hi," I say as we walk into the room, "my name is Detective Lindsay and this is my partner Jay Halstead, we just need to ask you a few questions,"
"Yes of course anything I can do," She responds.
"So," Jay says, "Take me through your day with the twins yesterday Ms Leighton,"
"Call me Hailey please," She says with a grim look of sadness on her face. She's pretty, hair cropped right beneath her chin and blue eyes sparkling yet masked in a layer of sadness.
"Okay," I say with a weak smile, "Hailey take us through your day please," She sighs before giving us a response.
"I saw them for the first time around 8:10, their mom walked them into my class and gave them both a hug and then she turned around and left same as every morning." She says.
"Okay do you remember what the girls were wearing?" Jay interrupts.
"Um Sawyer had on a green dress and Zoey had a pair of jeans and a pink top or it might be swapped I don't remember I'm sorry,"
"That's okay, what did you do next?" I say.
"I took attendance, all of the kids we're here so we separated the kids into their groups and we started heading towards the busses,"
"Whose group were Sawyer and Zoey in?" Jay asks.
"Both of them were in Olive, sorry Miss Marsak's group, she was the one who called me in a panic when she realized they were missing," She says, rendering an image of the two brunettes in the bullpen.
"She's your TA correct?" Jay confirms.
"Yes, she's a student at CCU and she's doing her student teaching with us, she's been here since school started and the twins love her," She says.
"Okay what happened next," I ask as Jay jots down all the information being relayed to us by Hailey.
"We took them to the busses, we got to the museum and the employees went over the rules with the kids and Olive took her group and that's the last time I saw them. She called me five hours later and she was in a complete panic, she said the kids we're missing and I left my kids with one of the employees and ran to her. She was freaking out. I called the Lacens and they told us not to call the police. So we loaded up all the kids and raced back to the school and that's where we met them. I told them what had happened and she told me they would take care of it. It seemed odd to me, but I went along with it. They left the school and I told my kids that Sawyer and Zoey had to leave early and that was it, no one has told me anything since then," She finishes.
"Well the reason the Lacen's told you not to call the police was because they called threatened to hurt the girls if they involved the police or didn't pay a $400,000 ransom within 48 hours," Jay confides.
"Oh my god seriously?" She gasps. I respond with a simple solemn nod. "Then why did they call you guys?" She asks.
"The two of us are part of a unit called Intelligence, we're very good at making people believe that we aren't working on cases, that's why we are here," He responds softly as he reaches across the table to grab her hand as a gesture of comfort. I feel a pang of jealousy, I know that he doesn't mean anything by it, but it still hurts a little bit.
"Did you see anything or anyone unusual while you were at the museum?" I ask, trying to cut their interaction short.
"No, the crowd looked really normal, a lot of moms and nannies with kids, that was about it,"
"Are you sure you didn't see anything?" Jay adds onto my statement.
"No," She says with a shake of her blonde hair, "I'm sorry, everything looked really normal and safe,"
"How about the Lacens?" I ask.
"What about them?" She responds, obviously confused.
"Do you think they would have the money to pay that ransom," I continue.
"Yes definitely," She responds with a nod. "It's a well known fact at Sutton that they have money, a lot of money. The girls came in a year early for kindergarten which made news already with us, but then Kate's very wealthy aunt died and they suddenly became the only thing any of the moms could talk about. So of course that made it back to all the teachers and now pretty much everyone here knows what happened. These Sutton moms gossip like high schoolers, it's kinda ridiculous."
So what you are saying that basically anybody who goes to Sutton or knows someone who goes to Sutton would know that they have money," Jay confirms.
"Yes," She answers. "But I don't know why it would be anyone related to the school, my best bet would be that it was an angry ex con that Mrs. Lacen put away."
"You know about her job?" I ask.
"Again Detective, everyone knows everything about everyone at this school," She responds.
"Okay thank you Hailey," Jay says as he gets up from his seat behind the table, "you're free to go, if you think of anything else please give us a call," He says as he hands her a card.
"I'll walk you out," I say with a small smile. I get up from my chair and she follows suit.
"Hey this is going to sound totally inappropriate, but," She says once we're almost to the end of the bullpen, "is your partner single?" I feel a bit of anger rising in my chest.
"No, no he's not," I say doing my best to appear calm.
"Oh," She says deflated, "that's a shame,"
"Yep," I say writing her off, "but seriously if you can think of anything else call us,"
"Yes of course anything I can do," She says.
"Okay thank you," I say as she walks down the steps. I really hope that we never have to talk to her again.
"Okay so are we talking to Olive Marsak next?" Jay asks as I rejoin him in the room.
"She asked me if you were single," I say with a raised eyebrow.
"Who?" He asks confused.
"Hailey did stupid," I says.
"Oh that's weird, what did you say?" He says now intrigued.
"I just told here that you weren't, no big deal," I say trying to hide my true emotions.
"Were you jealous?" He questions as that dumb smirk he knows I love spreads across his face.
"No," I say, even though I know I'm lying through my teeth and the look on my face definitely giving me away.
"Oh yes you were!" He teases.
"No I wasn't!" I insist.
"Yes, yes you were," He retorts.
"Fine," I concede, "maybe I was a little jealous,"
"Ha I knew it!" He exclaims back at me.
"Okay so I was jealous, she's a hot blonde asking me if my boyfriend was single, why wouldn't I be a little jealous?" I say.
"Erin," He says as he encases my hands in his, "you don't have any reason to be jealous, you are the only person I want to be not single with,"
"Well thanks I guess," I say.
"Alright now we got to go talk to Olive Marsak, you ready?" He says.
"Let's do it,"
Just a disclaimer, anything that is procedural like the foster care thing, any kind of police procedure or anything else that comes up in the story is not factual for the most part. I will try to figure out how these things actually work, but I will usually just incorporate them in a way that fits the storyline. If anyone has any questions about the story, feel free to either leave a review about it or PM me. Thank to everyone who continues to read and review as well as everyone who has favorited and followed! Love to you all, Addie.