Kind of a short chapter, but a lot happens, and it gets us started for what is ultimately the finale to this story. Bittersweet.

Shutting the door softly behind him as he exited his room, he heard a light knocking on his door. His stomach rumbled, and he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

But it wasn't the pizza delivery guy who was at the door when he opened it.

Jay immediately narrowed his eyes and threw his head back as Justin walked past him as though he owned the place.

"So she's here, then?" Justin asked as his eyes traveled up and down Jay's attire. Jay was dressed in gray sweatpants, no shirt, and barefoot.

"Yeah, she's here. What the hell do you want?" Jay asked, closing the door and positioning himself so that he was blocking Justin's way to his bedroom. There was no way in hell Justin was getting in there.

Jay knew that he should probably trust his boss's son, but he didn't; and he wasn't all too sure why.

Call it a gut instinct.

"Look, I…I was at the bar…" He was running a hand through his hair; clearly he was nervous about what he had to say.

Jay scoffed, "Who'd you hit now?"

Justin shook his head, "No, no, no, it wasn't like that. I didn't get into any fights, hell, I didn't even have a drink before I saw him…"

"Saw who?" Halstead asked, leaning his head forward with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Cole."

As soon as the name had left Justin's mouth, Jay's blood began to boil. "Which bar?"

Just spouted off the name of the bar, and Jay went to grab his landline before Justin grabbed his arm, "No, Jay, listen, that's not even the worst of it."

Jay glared in anticipation. He wondered what Justin was doing at that bar. It was a known gang hangout. He also really couldn't imagine it getting much worse than Cole being back.

"He's coming after Erin… hard."

As if he wasn't already… Jay immediately thought, but instead, he narrowed his eyes and said, "And you know that how?" he glared at Justin's hand on his arm and Justin immediately removed it.

"He never knew I was Erin's step-brother. You know that I…wasn't really in her life… but anyway, I heard him talking…hell, I even talked to him, just to be sure."

"What'd he say?" Jay was growing impatient.

"Well, he was extremely drunk, and he was just rambling, but he said he would follow her, watch her, and…kill her."

Jay's blood boiled to explosion. His whole body heated up, and not in the good way.

"Is that everything?"

Justin nodded. "You'll let me help you on this, right? I wanted to rip him apart limb-by-limb after I heard that. I had to walk away. He might know something was up…"

Jay's eyebrows suddenly rose and his eyes went wide, "You idiot! He might have followed you!" He immediately ran for the spare piece he kept in the drawer next to his couch, cocked it and checked out the windows.

He didn't see anything.

"He didn't, Halstead. He was too drunk to walk."

Halstead cocked an eyebrow, "You're sure?"

Justin scoffed, "Yeah, I'm sure. A lot of my friends are in AA."

"If it's AA, how would you know about it?"

"They're my friends…I either watched them get drunk, came in while they were drunk, or called them a cab because I didn't feel like having their drunk asses in my car."

Halstead sighed, putting the safety back on, and placing the gun in the small of his back. "Okay, I'm calling Voight."

"Don't you think it would be best to leave this to us…?"

Halstead's head jerked back as his eyes squinted, "Do you? Never mind, don't answer that. Why in the hell would we go at this alone?!"

"He doesn't know I'm back and I would like to keep it that way."

"Fine. I'll just say a confidential informant who knew Lindsay and Cole overheard Cole talking drunk on his ass in a bar last night…"

Justin cocked an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Alright," Halstead stood straighter now, "either you tell him, or I'll spin something. I'm not doing this with just you."

Hell, I don't even want to be doing it with you in the first place…

"It won't just be us, Erin's not incapable of handling herself." Justin corrected him.

Halstead's head cocked to the side.

"Oh, don't bullshit me, Halstead. You were going to tell her. She'll never trust you again if you don't, and you know that damn well."

Halstead's mouth turned into a straight line as he glared. "Of course I was going to tell her. She deserves to know. I've seen her handle herself."

"Much to your chagrin." Justin smiled.

Jay shook his head.

"Whatever, man, look, I did what I came to do. Keep her safe, if you need my help, here's my number. I can tell you don't want me on this; so call my ass of a father. I'm sure he'd love to protect his rebels with a cause anyway." He left a piece of paper on the island in Jay's kitchen and walked out – closing the door softly behind him.

Jay needed a drink; but, more importantly, he knew he had to stay sober in order to help protect Erin.

He ran his hands over his face.

This wasn't happening.

This couldn't be happening.

Right when things were going well

Cole had returned.

And he was coming right for Lindsay.

They had known he would, but at the same time, they would never get a break.

Then again, this was the life they chose.

He quickly chided himself as he realized Erin didn't choose to be taken advantage of, beaten, and possibly (probably) raped by her asshole ex.

That had done it; Jay's whole body was hot again. He was fuming, and when the pizza delivery boy knocked, he answered the door with his gun.

Upon seeing the gun, the delivery boy's eyes went wide and he handed the pizza and backed away slowly. At first, Jay furrowed his brows, but then, he remembered he had the gun in his hand, and shook his head, putting the gun in the small of his back and holding the money out to him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you…" he muttered, but the boy was just staring at the money – trying to decide if this was a trick or not.

Suddenly, the boy pounced up at Jay, snatching the money out of his hand, and running back down the hallway. Not too long after, Jay heard the car start and assumed the boy was probably peeling out.

Jay just shook his head as he walked back inside and shut the door. After he had set the food on the counter next to the door, he leaned up against the door and ran his hands over his face, taking in deep breaths.

That's when Erin came walking out of the room. "Jay?" she questioned, and from the tone in her voice, she was still half asleep.

He couldn't muster up the energy to say anything to her, so he just stood there, leaning against the door. He did manage to look up at her, though, when she came down the hallway.

"Jay?" she asked again, rubbing her eyes. When she had blinked a few times, and her vision had apparently cleared, her eyes went wide at his demeanor.

"What's wrong?" she immediately questioned.

Jay stayed silent. In her state, he wasn't sure if he would be wasting his breath telling her or not…

Then again, in her state, she could still seriously hurt him if he didn't tell her…

Before he could put a filter between his brain and his mouth, though, he suddenly heard himself saying, "Cole's back."