One
Erin walked up the stairs to the 21st precinct intelligence unit with some amount of hope, a lot had changed since she had left, she had missed a lot. She kept in touch with her father figure Hank and she had tried to come back before Alvin's funeral but she was called in for an undercover assignment for a bomb plot for time square, she regretted not to be able to say goodbye to a much-loved friend and almost like an uncle to her but he was already gone but the tens of thousands commuting through time square were very much alive and she couldn't help but think of the lives of many like Al had taught her to as a rookie cop. All living lives matter whether they were drug addicts, prostitutes or children, everyone mattered, everyone had a family that loved them, so for the first time in 4 years she had stepped foot in Chicago was the same day she would step into the 21st precinct, she was coming home, she was home, she had got a new job and she always thought that she'd get one day, today was her day to the intelligence sergeant at the 21st precinct.
Hank had decided that enough was enough with his job, he was getting older and with his grandson in another state he wanted to see him grow up and play with whilst he was fit and able, so he had spoken to Olive and Erin at length about his decision and had named Erin as his successor to the position he had filled for so many years as sergeant of the intelligence unit because he knew it would be safe with her and he thought that he could finally bring her home to Chicago again. He trusted Jay to be sergeant but Erin had been on the job longer and has a certain clean and non-corrupt image of herself in New York and the head of the 21st precinct wasn't bothered about her return and her coming back, even though the reason she left wasn't entirely clean, but had been highly recommended by much high authority holding FBI agents that she had changed a lot since joining the FBI and she did everything by the book and the law, that her true colours had changed.
Erin had left a lot behind her in Chicago and New York but she was in somewhat excited to coming back home to her old police station she had spent so much time and of her life there, so the 21st precinct would always be home to her, and when Hank told her that he was leaving intelligence she had started to look for a home for her in Chicago, she had sold her old home years ago and she had bought a three-bedroom, but it was more like two bedrooms and an office about 5 miles away from the precinct, it wasn't too far away if there was an emergency, but it was far enough to be away from all the sirens, however she had got used to hearing those quite often in New York.
But the only thing that scared her the most was him. Jay. She had left without saying goodbye and they had broken apart in her last weeks in Chicago but she had never loved anyone in New York or before in Chicago like the way she loved him, he was the one for her and her already he wouldn't be excited to see her but she had to see him first before she could just turn up in intelligence and just say 'ta-da', but she couldn't she knew she needed to but instead she turned up on the first Monday of October to the 21st precinct, said 'Hello' to Sargent Platt and proceeded to walk up the stairs to intelligence.
Sargent Platt had briefed the intelligence team that a new sergeant for intelligence had been picked without anyone's knowledge except Voight and the Deputy chief in command who had approved of the appointment they had been told that they were due to be starting at the beginning of October, and Monday would be their first day. After Trudy announced the news to the team she walked back down the intelligence stairs and texted Lindsay to tell her that she had briefed the team that her arrival would be on Monday. Trudy had gotten excited when she had a coffee at Starbucks with Erin, she had noticed the difference in her the minute she saw her, dressed in black formal paper bag pants, a wite chiffon vest and flaunty black blazer and heels, Trudy knew she had changed just from the fact that she was wearing heels, Erin had always been a boots sort of girl and her hair was highly strewn into a high top ponytail, she looked smart and classy but she looked a long way from the ex-drug addict from the 21st week before she left, she had long blondish brown hair which was a mixture of straight and curled locks. They had sat talking for hours until the Saturday night breeze was coming around and they both nodded goodnight and Erin drove her blacked-out truck to her empty apartment waiting for Monday for her new job to start.
So as Monday came she walked up the stairs a wave of emotion had hit her hard as she got to the gate, she buzzed herself in and walked to the top of the large staircase to arrive to be met by the team, Jay, Hailey, Kevin, Kim, and Adam. Erin had spoken to Kim and got all the intelligence gossip while she was away and her first decision she knew was that she was going to change up the partners but she would tell them that later. Erin thought 'Jay and Kim, Kevin and Hailey, which meant she was with Adam.' Before they all stood there in shock that there she stood Sergent Erin Lindsats, none of them had even thought of Erin becoming sergeant as the last they had heard she was second in command to the Counter-Terrorism unit n New York with the FBI ad that was from Kim Burgess over 3 months ago.
"Erin!" Kim shouted as she gave her friend a huge hug, "Your back, woohoo! Girl Power. So you're the new sergeant, fancy Molly's tonight to celebrate?" Burgess expressed happily.
Erin said 'Yes', smiled and looked at the rest of the team she had been promoted over all of them so she knew they could be some hostility but Atwater, Ruzek and Hailey were all pleasantly surprised and happy that it was Erin and not some good for nothing Rookie sergeant, they knew that they could trust her to have their backs and her own back, but there was one person in the team was surprised, shocked and happily sort of angry that she was stood right in front of him, Jay.
Jay looked at Erin in disbelief, she was back after 4 years, no contact with anyone for nearly 2 years until Kim had got in contact with her and they spoke on a monthly basis but Kim had said she hadn't spoken to her in months, always missing one another. She stood right in front of him with her greenish hazel eyes and long dark brownish and blonde soft curled hair which just under the bottom of her ribcage, she had muscular toned shoulders that would only show her muscles if she flexed and sort of olive tanned appearance. She wore a nude pink blazer with a white v neck plain t-shirt and black paper bag formal trousers, he looked in-depth at her as she hugged the rest of the team, leaving him out probably because it was awkward to hug him when he noticed that she looked taller, and he began to look her up and down and noticed the black shiny stilettos, and her makeup was different more dramatic with a light shaded smoky eye and eyeliner, she looked like the big-city version of Erin Linsday, he thought to himself that he could walk down the street and no even notice her, she looked so different but when he stopped to really think what she looked like, she looked and seemed like she was healed, she wore the pearl bracelet on her wrist from Bunny and she didn't flinch when she touched them, but instead, she seemed to make peace with them, with Bunny.
All he thought was that four years was a long time for someone to heal and make amends with people and build relationships with people, he wondered whether she had met someone new and she was a relationship, he missed her but she had broken his heart even though they were apart, all he wished for was a goodbye from her or even a conversation on the phone after she had left but no he had got nothing for 4 years. New York had been the best decision for her at that point in time as she had healed and finally found inner peace and he was happy was better and not hurting but she left before he could ask her the question he wanted so badly to ask "Marry Me?", but while she was gone he wasn't healed, he was hurt and soulfully injured by her departure that he had to work his life out on his own, no love life, no fiance, no girlfriend, no Erin, and he had lost so much when she left, firstly her, then Al, then his father, and having a dead kid on his conscience.
"Hey," He spoke slowly, trying to evade gossip and whispering about their previous relationship "good to have you back." She smiled and said "Thank you" and they shared a quick hug with everyone staring at the backs of the past lovers as if they needed to be put in a room together and talk for hours about the past but the pressing case in front of them begun and everyone was looking at Erin from the direction in the case like Voight used to do at the beginning of a new case, she quickly placed her box of belonging in her office and the nameplate on the office door which read 'Sgt. Erin Lindsay' and she finally began to feel like she was at home again.
She told the team what to do, unpacked her stuff in her office including photographs of her past and present teams in both New York and Chicago, they was one of her, Jay, Kim and Adam smiling after they'd gone to see a movie all together, she started to think about the hug with Jay how it may have been short but it felt electric and just as loving as before, well for her anyway, he would always make her feel that way he was the love of her life, at one point up in New York he was all she could think of, to come home and tell him, but things happened, one she didn't ever want to relive and so she didn't, she stayed in New York with her feelings for him locked away and she didn't look back at the good or the bad time because they began to be too painful to remember.
Jay sat at his desk waiting for facial recognition to identify a suspect in a triple homicide, all the victims were members if the west coast snakes, as they all had the identifying tattoos on their shoulders, that was something Erin noticed first since quite a lot of the counter-terrorism and gang unit worked in unison and so she had worked both at one time as she had gone undercover for them a couple of times. He began to wonder about Erin and the past, he couldn't stop thinking about her sitting in front of him the office just meters away, she looked different but she seemed the same, the same cheeky fun loving Erin who had instantly said yes to drinks at Molly's that night and he wondered whether the change in appearance was just because of her work in the FBI and she was really the exact same woman who had left years ago, he thought had she changed at all was she just the same and acting a clean and non-corrupt image of herself for the sake of the FBI and her job and that she wasn't really any different to how she was before she had left. He envied her for the job she had just got but he knew she was more than qualified to do the job and especially more than himself but her had begun to think that Voight trusted him to become Sargent when he left but obviously Hank had been up to something he was trying to bring his "foster" daughter home back to Chicago back to her family. Jay still had the ring, his mother's ring in his save at home, it felt right to keep it there instead of his mother's safety deposit box, but no girl he dated or went out with, came anywhere near where he and Erin were because he always felt that she was his soulmate. But he thought back to when he hugged her and he remembered she sort of had a small finch as his body touched hers almost as if she repelled at his touch and he couldn't fathom why.
Erin booked outside of her window to see Atwater waving his hand to come out of the office and she walked quickly with the click-clack of her heels bouncing off the floor. "Me and Jay have gotten the face recognition back and we have a match for Nolan Simons from the Blackstone Disciples," Kevin said to his commanding officer.
"Right get a warrant out for his house and any other building he owned and suit up, we're gonna go raid his house and bring him in for questioning," Erin told the team as she questioned herself if this was the right way to go about her first case, but she knew to the sergeant at the 21st intelligence you had to have balls, and the need to prove to the gangs that she was as brutal as Voight was, otherwise they would walk all over her. They all rushed down to the cage and the gun room to get geared when Jay noticed Erin was the last to come down the stairs a couple of minutes after he had, when she got to the bottom of the stairs she sung the heels she had on off to the side of the wall with her nude blazer as she rushed to her boots which had her socks stuffed inside, he proceeded to get his vet secured tight on his masculine body, and went over to give Erin a hand with hers as he noticed that she was the same when she was vesting up, she couldn't get it tight enough, she felt a hand on her barely covered shoulder who had grabbed the strap to her vest and began to tighten the velcro strap on the shoulders, she began to turn and she said thank you, noticing it was Jay like old times like they were partners again, but they wasn't, and probably never would be again.
The team was already and getting into the cars, when she thought to herself again about did she want to change the partners, and she looked at Jay and Hailey, and Adam and Atwater, which left her with Kim, and she would see how it would go for this case and if she wanted to change the partners it would be changed to Jay and Burgess, Atwater and Upton, which meant she was with Ruzek, because she couldn't bare to go with Jay, it would be weird and inappropriate, so she got in the car with Kim, with the keys to go and they all rolled out to get there man for questioning.