**Jay POV**

"What did she just call you!?"

Crap. I'm about to get it. The one thing that he told me was that Erin off limits and that happens to be the one rule I couldn't help but break.

"Daddy," She answers oblivious to the fact that anything at all is wrong. "That's who he is duh,"

"Halstead, hallway now," He demands, fury filling his eyes. He storms out the room, probably preparing to murder me.

"Hey baby I need you to sit here for a little while okay? I have to go talk to Sergeant Voight and then I'll be right back okay?" I whisper in her ear.

"Okay," She responds softly. I pick her up off my lap and put her back in her seat before giving her a light kiss on the forehead.

I prepare myself, not sure what Voight is going to scream at me. I'm readying for the worst. I'm sure he'll try to get me to break up with Erin. Little does he know, there's no way in hell that's happening. My nerves are getting the best of me, but I won't back down from this. I'm not giving up Erin no matter what he says.

"Halstead what the hell was that?" He shouts, his already normally stoic eyes looking more pissed off than I've ever seen them.

"That would be my daughter," I respond. I hold my breath, almost waiting for his fist to connect with my face. But nothing comes.

"Your what?" He's still loud, but he seems less angry and more confused. I know Erin has kept him in the dark after she talked to him on that first day. I take a deep breath.

"My daughter," I repeat.

"Isn't Erin supposed to be fostering her?" He asks, his volume not decreasing and left eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, she still is," I respond.

"Then where the hell do you come in?" He demands.

"I've been staying at Erin ever since she got Lucy, helping her with Lucy and she latched onto me," I say slowly, waiting for the backlash.

"And then you and Erin happened?" He bellows.

"Yes, pretty soon after that," I say carefully.

"You have got to be kidding me," He says angrily as I peek past him to drop a quick glance at Lucy.

"No," I say, "I'm dead serious,"

"Halstead I gave you one rule. One rule. Erin was off limits. That was my one rule, and you just broke it," He states angrily as he fills in the blanks and all the pieces begin to slide into place.

"I know," I say slowly.

"I don't have any tolerance for in house relationships," He roars.

"I know, believe me I know," I voice, "but I'm not giving up on this,"

"Oh you aren't now are you?" He retorts.

"No, I'm not," I respond, my confidence slowly returning. "I will not give up on her or us or our daughter no matter what you say, because I love them, I love her," My own words shock me, I didn't think that word would come out of my mouth this soon, but I don't regret it. Not for a second.

"You do?" He questions, his eyes starting to ever so slightly soften.

"Yes sir," I say carefully.

"Is she is happy?"

"I can't speak for her, but she seems happy,"

"Halstead I'm not happy about this," He says.

"I'm aware of that," I say.

"But I'm going to allow it," He says, sending shock waves through me.

"Y-you are?" I stutter in surprise.

"She's happy and she's loved, I'm not thrilled that it's with one of the guys in my unit, but it's okay,"

"Thank you," I say as I look up at him. This wasn't necessarily an approval and he wasn't super on board with the idea of her dating me, but this was as close to an approval as the insanely protective Hank Voight would ever give in any scenario pertaining to the closest thing he had to a daughter, Erin Lindsay.

"Don't screw this up Halstead," He retorts.

"I won't," I say with conviction.

"I'll you if you do," He threatens.

"I know you will, but I'm not screwing this up," I assure him. I can tell that that still means nothing to him. Actions will always speak louder than words, a statement truer than true when it comes to Voight. He'll be skeptical until I prove that I'm worthy of Erin. Which I won't, no one is worthy of her. We both know that. But I will try damn hard to get as close as I possibly can.

"Have you heard anything?" He asks as he walks briskly back into the waiting room, a cup of coffee held in each hand.

"Nope," I say as I gratefully take the cup offered to me. "I don't know if it's a good thing because it's going fine and there's nothing to update on or something went wrong and they're working so fast there's no time to update us," We'd been sitting here for running on five hours, the time now approaching 10 PM. Lucy fell asleep on me about an hour ago and we moved her to the couch on the opposite side of the waiting room after Natalie had swung by with a blanket and pillow. I knew that she was fighting sleep, she didn't want to fall asleep without knowing that Erin was okay. But eventually sleep won out and she drifted off. We decided not to call the rest of the unit, not yet at least.

"We just have to hope for the second option Halstead, that's all we can do," He says.

"I know, it's just hard," I tell him.

"I know it is, but you have to power through, hopefully someone will be out soon,"

"Yeah," I agree as I take a sip of the coffee, trying to load my system with caffeine as I know I won't be sleeping tonight. Things were still quite awkward between me and Voight, but we had been civil, communicating honestly and respectfully for Erin's sake.

We sit there in silence, drinking coffee and waiting. Just waiting. The minutes feel like hours as they tick by.

Voight and I both rush to our feet as we see Dr. Choi approaching from down the hallway. My nerves are flying wild, every fiber of my being just hoping that she is okay. I know that Will said she would be okay, but I need to hear it from them that she is okay.

"Family for Erin Lindsay I assume," Dr. Choi asks as they walk up to us.

"You assume right," Voight responds, "what's going on?"

"We repaired the pneumothorax and the removed the spleen without any issues," Dr. Choi says.

"Thank god," I say without realizing it.

"But," He continues. My heart drops, but is never a good thing. "We did find something else, a bleed near her liver,"

"Did you fix it?" Voight interrupts.

"We did," He answers, "however Erin did lose a lot of blood while we were operating on her, but she should be okay,"

"Should be?" I question, my voice rising a little bit.

"Will be,'" He corrects himself, "she will be okay,"

"Can we see her?" I ask impatiently.

"She'll still be asleep and she will be for a couple hours as she comes out of the anesthesia, but yes I can take you guys to see her,"

"Thank you," I say. I look back at Lucy, deciding to try and transport her without waking her. "Give me a second, I just have to grab my daughter,"

"Don't worry take your time," He says as I turn and cross the length of the room. Her sweet face looks so peaceful, so angelic, like she doesn't have a care in the world. I smile down at her before scooping her up in my arms, leaving the blanket wrapped around her but abandoning the pillow on the couch.

I feel her stirring against my shoulder, starting to wake.

"Daddy where are we going," She says hazily as her eyelids flutter.

"Don't worry about it baby, go back to sleep okay?" I whisper in her ear.

"Okay Daddy," She says as her eyes close once again.

"You ready?" Voight says softly from across the room.

"Yeah let's go,"I say quietly, not wanting to wake Lucy again.

Dr. Choi nods at me and motions for us to follow him. The of us follow him down the winding hallways of Chicago Med, trying my best to not shake Lucy around too much, even though all I want to do is break out in a sprint and run to Erin as fast as I can. But I hold back, walking slowly behind Dr. Choi, letting him take the lead.

After what seems like forever, we enter the Intensive Care Unit, all the rooms blocked off by sliding panels of frosted glass, the unwelcome scent of antiseptic filling my nose. The unit feels so sterile, which I guess is good, but it's giving me the best feeling.

"She's right over here," He says as he gestures to one of the doors on the left. He guides us over to the entrance on the room and slowly slides the door open.

Erin lies there, hurt, but also peaceful. A cut runs down the side of her forehead with an oxygen tube just entering her nose and that's just what I can see now, who knows what's going on under that hospital gown.

"I'll leave you to it," He says quietly as he walks away from Voight and I.

"Thank you," Voight says. He nods back at us. I lay Lucy back down on a couch luckily placed in the room before moving myself to a chair by her bedside. I grab her hand, they're cold.

"Now we wait," Voight says as he takes a seat on the other side of the bed.

"No," I respond, "I'll wait, you should go home and get ready for tomorrow,"

"I'm not leaving," He says, "and besides, what's tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow is the day you are going to catch the son of a bitch who did this to her," I tell him.

"Halstead I can do both, but I'm going to be here now," He says to me, his voice angry but still quiet.

"No you can't," I say forcefully.

"Excuse me?" He says, his voice rising slightly.

"You can't do it all and it isn't going to doing Erin any good if you are sitting here worried all night and then you are off your game tomorrow," I say with conviction.

"Halstead I'm not leaving her," He tells me.

"You aren't leaving her though, I'll be here and she'll be fine, I won't leave her bedside I promise," I assure him.

"You swear?" He asks, letting me know that I'll slowly swaying him.

"I don't break promises," I assert.

"Okay," He says as he gets up out of his chair. "But if anything happens you call me okay?"

"I wouldn't think of doing anything else," I swear.

"I'm calling in the team early tomorrow to figure this out, we're going to catch this guy," He guarantees me.

"Call me with updates, I want to know everything you found out," I say.

"Of course," He says as he turns to leave. "And Halstead?"

"Yeah?" I respond as I look up at him.

"Take care of her okay?"

"Yes sir,"

It's been another five hours, the time ticking past 3 am. Erin still wasn't awake. She should be. I'm tired, I've been running on straight caffeine in the form of coffee brought to me every half hour by my brother or a nurse probably sent by my brother. Luckily Lucy hasn't woken up either, she's still happily sleeping on the couch in the corner of the room. My back is stiff as a result of sitting in the same chair for so long, but I don't care. All I want is for those beautiful hazel eyes to open.

Dr. Choi had stopped by a couple hours ago. He hadn't had a reason for why she wasn't awake yet, everything had gone well in the surgery. So once again I'm flying blind, just waiting for those eyes to open up. I've heard horror stories about people not waking up, no reason behind it, they just don't. That can't happen to her. To us.

Her left hand is encased in mine, just as it has been for the past five hours, my eyes almost always focused on her still face while occasionally taking a glance away to take a peek at our daughter.

"C'mon Erin you have to wake up," I plead, not knowing if she can even hear me, "Lucy can't lose another mom, I can't lose you, I love you,"

"She's not going to," She says weakly with her eyes still closed. My heart soars, she's awake, she's okay.

"Oh my god," I say hysterically as I press a kiss to her forehead, "you scared the crap out of me Erin Lindsay,"

"Is she okay?" She asks gently as her eyes open slowly.

"What?" I ask, still in shock from her awakening.

"Lucy, is she okay?" She asks.

"Yeah," I say as small tears form in the creases of my eyes, "She's okay, we're all okay,"

"What happened?" She asks.

"It was a hit and run, they rammed into your side of the car and you got knocked out, they rushed us all to Med and they sent you straight into surgery,"

"How long have I been out?" She questions, her usual rasp even more accentuated.

"You were in surgery for around five and you've been asleep for another five hours," I answer.

"Oh god I'm sorry," She responds.

"You didn't do anything wrong babe," I tell her.

"No but I'm sorry, I know you and Luce were probably scared to death,"

"We were," I answer honestly, "but it wasn't your fault Er and you're okay now, that's all that matters,"

"Okay," She says softly, "Did you call Voight?"

"Yeah he was here the entire time that you were in surgery, I sent him home so he could go catch the guy who did this tomorrow, he put up a fight though,"

"I'm sure he did," She says with a weak laugh.

"Hey why don't you just sleep, you look tired,"

"I am," She says with another weak laugh, "which is bizarre because I've been asleep for the last 10 hours,"

"Don't worry about it, just go to sleep, I'll be here when you wake up," I tell her.

"Okay," She says, "and Jay?"

"Yeah?" I respond.

"I love you too,"