Hi, so here is the second chapter and though not as long as the last one the last chapter but one I hope is meaningful.

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

And I wish you all a Very Happy 2022!

Trigger Warnings for Kidnapping.

And yeah Pat is the very sad villain of this story. There is literally no excuse or redemption for him.

What Lies Buried

Chapter 2-Compulsion.

In 1998, Pat Halstead is driven to the extremes and makes a decision that will ruin several lives. In 2014, Jay and Bridget deal with presence of Lonnie Rodiger in their lives as her birthday approaches and unbeknown to all, Hank writes a very special card.

December 17th 1998

He had not planned to do this. And yet…he had planned to do this. He had staked out the entrance and exits, bought a car seat, bought clothes and had sold his house for a new one in the South Side simply so there was no trace. He'd even managed to get himself adoption papers on the sly.

It wasn't like they hadn't been thinking of it. Mary after their last miscarriage had spoken of adoption but her face was sad and lined now and Pat didn't have the heart to tell her that it was his past that would bar them from the process. He hadn't really wanted another baby, but he had wanted his wife to be happy. He really wanted his wife to be happy and he knew that this was the only way to do it.

This was the only way to guarantee that she wouldn't leave him and Pat knew that if his wife left him—if she took the boys with him then he was finished.

So he'd planned.

And planned.

And planned.

And yet when it came to actually doing it he had not known what to do. He had been on the nursery floor looking at the babies and had realised that simply he didn't know which one to take. It seemed so utterly stupid—would Mary like a boy or a girl? It wasn't as if he could ask her?

He walked downstairs, forcing himself off that floor. It was stupid, it was so utterly stupid, taking someone else's baby and beyond cruel but Mary…Mary needed another baby.

And he needed Mary. And he needed his boys.

It was outside the ER that it happened. There was a man there holding a baby in his arms wrapped in a blue blanket and his wife (he assumed) was crashing in the room. Pat had a moment to feel sorry for him but it was like fate had given him a chance.

And the rest of it was honestly just surreal.

He remembered taking the baby out of the man's arms. He remembered changing into his clothes in the men's bathroom and taking the baby to his car and strapping her into the car seat. She had been quiet the entire way watching him with dark eyes but Pat knew enough to know that soon she would start crying for food.

Thank God he'd brought formula.

This couldn't work. It really couldn't work he thought as he managed to drive home without anyone stopping him. This couldn't work.

At some point that father was going to come and get him and take this admittedly cute baby out of his wife's arms and back to his own warm house. His own warm, fancy house while here was Pat with three kids (hopefully) and struggling to keep the lights on.

Jay and Will were both asleep when he came in but Mary was awake. Her red hair was tied back off her face and when Pat came in with the baby she started off the couch even though she staggered somewhat to the side. He winced.

"What the hell did you do Pat?"

"Nothing" he said thanking God he had changed since he left the hospital. "I went looking for beer and I heard some crying behind the trashcans and I found her. This little baby, all cold and alone and I thought that she needed a home. A warm loving home and I know that there is much that we need and much we can't give but we can give this little girl a warm home Mary"

Mary blinked.

"You found her behind the trashcan in a blanket wrapped in silk?"

"Hey I don't know what happened. Maybe Mom was a rich kid who prayed her problems would go away? Maybe she wanted the kid to die in the cold. It's December and this is Chicago, Mary, the child needs to be somewhere warm. And I know we've talked about adopting and think of the boys…think how happy they would be to have a sister"

He was rambling and babbling and she was melting. The baby cooed again and then started fussing and Mary being Mary went to get some milk from the stuff they'd bought when…well…it didn't matter now did it?

"We can do this" he said to her as he followed her into the kitchen.

"We can do this Mary, we can raise this baby and love this baby. We already started planning adoption proceedings, I'll speak to the social worker and if nobody comes forward then…why shouldn't she be ours"

Mary smiled.

"Does she have a name?"

Pat paused. The easiest thing, indeed the best thing to do was to change the name of this baby and throw away that blanket but he found he couldn't do it. He thought in that moment of the father whose arms he'd taken her out of so easily the same way he'd had his own daughter taken out of his arms.

He thought of what carnage had been left behind in his wake and he thought that this was the small price he could pay for the sin of making his wife an accomplice in this terrible crime. Of making it a possibility that one day that detective would come crashing through the door and take away their baby girl.

"Bridget" he said finally. "It's the name on the blanket but it's a real nice name. Bridget Halstead's got a real nice name to it"

"Yeah I suppose it does…hey can her middle name be Anna?"

He knew what his wife was asking him and if there was a moment where Pat Halstead was going to tell his wife the truth it was that moment.

"I think Anna is a lovely name"

"Bridget Anna Halstead"

"Our baby Mary."

"Yeah" she said looking up at him her face shining.

"Yeah her name is Bridget Anna Halstead"

That night as Bridget went into the crib that was still in the damn room Pat went on his knees and prayed to God for forgiveness. He did not deserve it but he did and he continued to pray for the parents of that baby he was now going to raise as his own and he hoped that one day he would be granted absolution.

It wasn't until two days afterwards that he realised the consequences of what had happened.

They had called the baby 'Baby Girl Voight' for reasons that nobody could determine and for some reason there was no picture of her either. Mary commented on how it was a crying shame that such things could still happen and Pat hummed in response. That night Pat dressed his daughter in blue for a while, forged paperwork, paid his mortgage and got done all that needed to be done before Jay and Will finally got to meet their baby sister.

"She's pretty" Will said at seven patting his sister on the head.

"I don't get it Dad" Jay said finally frowning into the frown that Pat knew would lead his son into nothing but trouble.

"Why would someone leave such a sweet child?"

"Because some people are scum son" he said over his beer.

Bridget fussed a little her legs kicking outwards, Will passed her the teddy bear as Mary heated the milk and Jay regarded his father with a strange look but Bridget caught his attention and his son turned his face towards his baby sister.

"It's Ok Bridge. I promise you, me and Will are going to protect you. Nobody's going to take you away from us"

Mary laughed, Pat said nothing. He just cracked open another beer and prayed that Jay could keep that promise to his innocent baby sister.

17th December 2014.

Will had sent something in a card that Jay was betting his next pay was a ticket to a sushi house or Mexican or Japanese or some fine dining place that Bridget would love and he would hate.

Damn the sneaky fucker.

Bridget had opened her present with a grin.

Please Will, please not Sushi

"Mexican food" Bridget said smiling at the voucher and Jay relaxed somewhat because he could do Mexican food.

Sushi his stomach could not do.

Bridget opened their Father's present which was a collection of things for the bath that were involved glitter and bubbles and other things Jay didn't like and then there had been the eyeshadow palette and the mascara and the face stuff. Some of it was from Pat, some of it wasn't. And never before had Jay been so happy that his baby sister was living with him. It was hard to explain to Bridget that he had been the one to buy those presents and pretend that they were from their Dad.

"Thanks Jay" she had said and he had smiled at her and wished her well before she had unwrapped what was his present which was a dark blue leather jacket.

Even Erin had sent a card which Jay found he was more touched by than Bridget was. They ordered food in and watched Harry Potter for what felt like the millionth time and Jay liked it now when Bridget was sixteen as much as he did when she was six and that was all she had wanted to do and Will and he had moaned though not really meant it.

It had been the perfect birthday.

Utterly and completely perfect.

Except for Lennie Rodiger. There was nothing but for Lennie Rodiger.

The piece of shit.

Bridget didn't comment. Ben had been her friend in school. The one boy who had liked books as much as she did and his death had struck at the heart of the community. Both of Lonnie's parents had adored his sister and sometimes he used to take her round. They had doted on him and his brother as well and there had always been something baking or something being built. When their Mom had died it was Ben's mom who had taken Bridget back to their house and shown her how to bake bread to keep her mind off it. The whole of the community had been shaken to the core by what had happened to this perfectly lovely family and even his Dad in a rare moment of concern had insisted that he and his brother had walked Bridget home every night from school and the night of the funeral he had tucked them all into bed hugging them close as if the danger was too great to put into words.

If what he was doing involved putting Lonnie and that bastard of a father of his through the ringer then he didn't care.

He really didn't care.

He knew what he was doing.

The monster had to be stopped.

Whatever Bridget thought of that mercifully she said nothing.

Hank had took the afternoon off. Considering he worked most days he had made this work.

Considering Erin and Al who both knew what today would mean to him it didn't matter.

Of course there was always the rest of them but they didn't matter either.

None of them,

What mattered was this.

He had done this since that nightmare in 1998. Camille had been the one who had insisted they did it and it had been Camille who had been the one who had been the one to tell him to let it go…to try and live after her…well…after.

She had been insistent when he had asked her on Bridget's first birthday what she was doing with a cake and a candle and she had looked him in the eye with those dark eyes that were so full of pain he had to look away.

"Somewhere out their is our daughter Hank. And I am going to celebrate her birthday as if she was with us. So somewhere she knows that she is loved"

Justin had been so utterly confused by it and even Erin had thought it was morbid but despite the fact that they were two teenagers who pulled away from home time and time again they always managed to come home and celebrate with smiles on their faces.

The last one had been the worst.

The one where he had wanted more than anything in the world to bring their girl through the door so her Mom could see her...

And he'd never managed to do even that.

There were things to worry about. Halstead was doing something…and he didn't like it. Who knew what Antonio was doing and there was the added presence of Bob Ruzek's son…

And he did not think tonight of Halstead's baby sister so bright and alive when his daughter was dead.

Because she had to be didn't she? The alternative was just...unthinkable.

Instead he went home.

He had a week before he had to worry about Justin getting out. Until then he could wallow in this moment of utter self pity and misery. After all this was the one night he granted himself.

Down in his safe he kept the battered case file and anything and everything else that he had managed to get together. It wasn't much and he knew everything word for word. Half of his life it seemed had been spent staring at the words trying so desperately to see something that he knew was not there. There was nothing there any more.

They didn't even have a photo. There had been no time to have a photo taken. That perfect baby girl had existed only in a memory. In his memory and he had preserved her face in his mind for the nights when it was all he could do to keep from screaming. He would look over this file tonight. This was the night to look for the file and look at his mistakes written there in black and white (as if he could forget them) as if they were not scrawled on his bone and in his blood.

But he had to do one thing first.

He took out the card and paused

And then he wrote the message on the birthday card.

"To Bridget.

Have a wonderful sweet sixteen birthday baby girl wherever you are.

Mom and I love you so, so much

Lots of love.

Dad"

And with that he silently sealed away his heart and put the letter in the box of other letter some written by his wife and some written by him and the pictures by Justin…everything and anything that his family had hoped for when it came to their missing member.

"I love you Bridge" he said into the silence and then he locked away the letter, the box and his heart in his safe and went back upstairs to the warmth of a house that was utterly devoid his daughter.

Bridget

God how he missed her.

Bridget.

And there you are. I hope you enjoy and I wish you a very happy and safe 2022!

Next Chapter-Al's point of view of 1998 is explored, meanwhile in 2014 Justin is released from prison (and goes of the rails) and two Detectives come from New York.