Jay made a phone call to Will, getting Erin back to Chicago now seemed more important than anything. What she'd said to them or not said, what her actions implied, it all painted a troubling picture. They'd known she'd had issues but they hadn't realised how deep and serious those issues ran. Will said he'd see what he could do but he was pragmatic about what he could actually achieve. His best idea was to look into private air ambulances, they might have the facilities to transport her safely but even with insurance they could still be expensive.

Hank said he'd make the calls to the insurance company, he might not be Erin's next of kin but she listed him as her emergency contact on the policy. The insurance agency was more than happy to talk to him which was both a blessing and a curse, at the back of his mind he knew how much debt Erin was raking up. It wasn't a problem to work out now but he knew they'd have to talk about it eventually.

As the hours ticked by they went and got lunch and made their way back to the hospital.

…

The anaesthesia slowly worked its way out of Erin's body. As she returned to consciousness the first thing she noticed was the pain. She was in agony even when she was perfectly still. She moaned hoping to get someone's attention. Pain meds didn't seem to work on her like they did on normal people. She moaned again and banged her arm against the bed. A young nurse or doctor appeared in her field of vision, she didn't know who they were but she didn't care, they had the drugs which would make her pain go away. She said yes when they asked her if she was in pain, she gritted her teeth as they made her do their neurological assessment, then she closed her eyes and relaxed as they administered the pain meds. She drifted back to sleep.

…

Hank and Jay were back at the hospital when they finally got the call to say Erin was out of surgery. They met the doctor in the waiting area and he gave them a run down on her condition. The surgery had gone as well as could be expected. They'd traced the source of the infection to one of the screws used in the external stabiliser. With that information they made the decision to remove the rest of the external stabilisers. During the surgery one team of doctors painstakingly removed the infected tissue from her right leg, while another team removed the remaining external stabilisers from her left leg and pelvis and replaced them with permanent internal stabilisers. She'd remained stable throughout the surgery but she was far from out of the woods. They were confident the infection in her leg would clear; they'd left antibiotic beads in the voids where the infection was but follow up bloodwork would tell if they'd stopped the infection spreading to her blood stream.

…

Erin woke again to find herself in a bed in the ICU. Hank and Jay were with her again, they both looked tired and worried, she wanted to tell them to go home but she didn't think they'd like to hear that. She wanted to watch them but they saw her the moment she opened her eyes.

"Good evening kid," Hank said to her with a smile, "how are you feeling? Do you want me to get the doctor?"

"I'm okay," she said trying to look around. For now, for the moment the pain wasn't too bad but she hadn't tried to move anything. "Can you help me sit up a bit?"

Sitting up was hard, Hank and Jay both worked together to help support her while they shoved pillows under her. It hurt but she was grateful to not be flat on her back anymore. From her position she could see her legs, she could see the external stabilisers were gone, replaced by open half casts and bracing. It occurred to her that maybe now she could run but a wriggle of her toes sent pain running up her legs, she was a long way off being able to run.

…

Jay sat in a chair watching Erin sleep. He could see looks of pain starting to cross her face; she'd be awake soon and wanting more pain killers. He reached for the button that controlled her pain meds and pressed it a few times for her. He hated seeing her in pain and pressing that button was the only thing he could do for her. It had been a week since the infection had taken root in her body. The surgery on her leg had no doubt saved her leg and her life but they hadn't got to it in time to stop it spreading into her blood stream.

All week she'd been in a state of semi-consciousness, only waking when the pain got too much for her to sleep through or the doctors or nurses needed her to do something. They hadn't had a chance to talk about the things she'd said or not said before the surgery. For now she was letting the doctors treat her with everything they had. It was hard to tell if the treatment was working. Her fever kept bouncing up and down, she was constantly tired and in pain but at least she wasn't giving up.

…

Hank sat outside the hospital, his phone sitting on his lap. He had it on loudspeaker, classical music he wasn't familiar with played, the on hold music for the insurance company. In his mind he was trying to do mental arithmetic, trying to recall how much cash he had stashed in his safe, how much money was in his bank accounts. He'd found a way to get Erin back to Chicago, an air ambulance company could transport her, provided of course someone could pay for it. He was hoping the insurance company would foot most of the bill; so far they'd been fairly good but the out of pocket costs were starting to add up. He hadn't told Erin, he was hoping to keep that from her as long as possible. Knowing how much her treatment was costing would only add fuel to her argument that treatment should stop. The classical music cut off and a woman's voice began talking down the line. He picked the phone up and took the loudspeaker off. The conversation didn't quite go as he wanted. The insurance would cover some of the cost but not nearly as much as he hoped. There would still be tens of thousands of dollars left to pay.

He didn't like asking for help but this wasn't help for him he was asking for. He picked up his phone and dialled back to Chicago.

"21st District, Sargent Platt," his long time colleague sometimes friend said answering the phone.

"Hi Platt, it's Voight."

"Voight," he could hear the tone in her voice soften, "how's Lindsay?"

"Still sick," he said not wanting to sugar coat it, "she sleeps almost all the time but the doctors say she's making improvements."

"Good," there was a pause on the line, an almost uncomfortable silence, "When do you think you'll be back in Chicago?"

"Soon hopefully," he said before drawing in a breath, "that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

He explained the situation to her, outlined their current predicament. An air ambulance could get Erin back to Chicago but they had to raise the funds to pay for it.

"Don't worry about it Hank," Platt said, "we all want Erin home. I'll pass the bucket around and see if there's something more we can do."

"Thanks Trudy," Hank said with a sigh, "every little bit will help."

He finished his phone call to Platt and began making his way back to Erin's room. He'd left Jay in there with a newspaper close to an hour ago. As the days were going on it was getting easier to leave her, for him and Jay to tag team. They tried not to leave her alone but they were beginning to realise having both of them there was stressing her out sometimes.

…

Erin heard Hank come into her room. She could hear him talking to Jay about her.

"They'll pay for some of it," she heard him say, "we'll find a way to pay for the rest, we've got to do this."

"Do what?" she asked opening her eyes. Hank and Jay both smiled at her but she could see the surprise on their faces, they hadn't realised she was awake.

"Get you back to Chicago," Hank told her coming to stand by her side, "Do you want some help to sit up a bit?"

"Yeah," she said using her arms to push herself up. Hank fiddled with the settings on her bed and helped push pillows under her back. "You don't have to do that you know, get me back to Chicago."

"We want to," Hank said giving her a smile, "are you comfortable?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said trying to smile, comfortable was a relative word for her, she was never really comfortable. "What if I don't want to go back to Chicago?" She asked the question knowing what was going to come next, another fight with Hank and Jay. She didn't like fighting with them; it always left her feeling extra horrible.

"Chicago is your home, you have to go back," Jay said using a light tone, almost like her question was silly.

"But what if I don't want to," she could see they were surprised by her question, "there are too many bad memorise there. I want to stay here, start fresh."

"Erin," the tone Voight used was somewhere between caring and exasperated, "you have to go back. Chicago is your home, it's where your life is, your family."

"I don't have any family, and that life wasn't all that great."

"Erin," Hanks voice dropped and he forced himself to sit down, "you know that's not true. I'm your family; Jay here is your family. If you stay here you'll have no one."

"Maybe that's what I want."

"Erin!" subconsciously Hank found himself grabbing a wad of sheet in his hand and scrunching it. He wanted so much to wring her neck, to shake some sense into her. Every time they'd make some headway she'd say something and they'd wonder if they'd really made any progress at all. "You don't want that. Last week you were saying you didn't want to be alone, if you stay here you'll be alone. We can't stay here forever."

"I'm not asking you to stay. I'm saying I want to stay."

"Erin," Jay came forward now and stood on the other side of her, "you don't want to stay here, there's nothing for you here."

"There's nothing for me back in Chicago."

"There's more waiting for you there than there is here. You have friends, and family, your job, and a life time of memories. You can't just throw all that away."

"I don't have a job, my family's toxic, my friends would be better off without me, and those life time of memorise suck."

"You do have a job, I never filed the paperwork." Hank said speaking up, "Bunny might be toxic but family runs deeper than blood. Everyone back home misses you, they want you to come back and those memorise, they're not all terrible."

"Oh yeah?" she was challenging him again, "Death and destruction follow me everywhere."

"They follow me too kid, but that doesn't mean you throw your life away," Hank reached out and took her hand, she tried to pull it away but he didn't let her, "do you remember the day you graduated from the academy?"

"Yeah," she nodded, knowing where Hank was taking this.

"When Camille gave you that paperweight grenade what did she say to you?"

Erin gulped she remembered what Camille had said to her, and remembering those words she felt ashamed by her behaviour. "She told me not hold on to the shit life throws at me. She told me to take hold of that shit and throw it right back, to not hold on to it and let it explode in my face. She told me I was the grenade, and I needed to be careful not to explode, that if I did explode I needed to let you help put me back together."

"I think you've exploded Erin," Hank said giving her a smile, "now it's time to let me help put you back together. Let us get you back to Chicago. We'll work out our next step from there."

"Okay," she said not looking at him, "I'll go back to Chicago, but this doesn't mean I'm going to stay."

…

AN: Thanks for reading. I've got what I hope are some interesting ideas for when Erin gets back to Chicago. If you have anything you'd like to see let me know and I'll see what I can do. Reviews are always appreciated and keep the motivation going.