Hi, so here is a smaller-a much smaller-chapter from me and the start of the Season 2 arc which is where the drama really happens. This is just a filler chapter between Season 1 and that.
Hopefully I will bring you the next chapter sooner rather than later.
Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.
Please Read and Review.
And any spelling mistakes then I do apologise.
What Lies Buried
Chapter 7-Inside And Out
First chapter of Season 2-Stillwell is dealt with, Jay takes on a gangster and puts his own life at risk. Bridget meets both Nadia and Sean Roman and certain events begin to shape that will see the lives of several people blown apart. Smaller chapter.
May 2015
Voight was technically on modified assignment for two months there was a sense after Jin's death that they were all being on watch. Jay after much prodding and poking got the information out of Bridget that Jin had been the leak mostly because his sister had told him at one in the morning when she had come into his room looking so impossibly young and exhausted to tell him what had happened and that she might have accidentally given a murderer a motive.
"The only person who got Jin killed was the person who killed him"
"And you think that's Voight"
It wasn't a question and Jay couldn't give her an answer even if he wanted to because the truth of the matter was he didn't know. He had no idea what Voight might have done when he had found out that a member of his team was working with IA behind his back. The man had been in prison for crying out loud for trying to order a hit on a first responder. It wasn't beyond anyone's wildest dreams to imagine him capable of doing such a thing when he screamed at Kevin that the brass was after his job and acted so horribly for days that half of them were nervous wrecks around him.
Bridget never asked again and Jay never mentioned it. Nor did either one of them ever mention it in Erin's presence who was so firmly pro Voight in all of this that Jay half expected her to be up his backside before the end of the shift.
Instead they turned their attention to other cases that were pilling up on the desks and pretended that they all weren't in fear of their lives.
Today's was the case of the missing shirt.
"It sounds like it should be the name of a murder mystery novel" Bridget said from where she was passing around photocopies of the Benbenick file. Olinksy shot her a nasty look and Jay prodded her with a finger to get the hell of his desk
The arrival of Nadia had made the whole office more crowded. Trudy had brought in two small desks and Bridget mostly worked in the file room anyway getting what they needed from Virginia and helping out when the woman needed a much-deserved break. Right now she was leaning against the table and watching her dark hair tied back off her face. Nadia was in the process of filing out the insane amount of paperwork that came with walking through the front door without having a badge and then Kim came up with her partner who seemed to be the living re-edition of a Ken doll.
"This is my partner Sean Roman" Kim said with a smile that told everyone she was not sure if she was too happy with the arrangements.
"Jay Halstead" he said holding out his hand. "And my sister Bridget"
Bridget held out her hand and Sean shook it looking slightly surprised.
"So are you…"
"Just the girl who helps with the filing"
"Cool. Gotta love that"
Bridget gave a very un-Bridget like giggle. It was so Un-Bridget like that Jay blinked turning to stare at Erin who was grinning as if she held the secret to the universe. Even Voight looked surprised and for some reason rather irritated but Jay supposed that, that was Voight all over right now.
"Hey what do you suppose that was about?" he asked Erin as they were in the car heading to visit one of the victims.
"I think that was your sister having a crush"
Never had he been so glad that she insisted on driving because he was sure that he would have rear-ended the car into a tree.
"WHAT?"
"Oh come on Jay she's sixteen surely she's had crushes before?"
Jay thought back…and he thought way back.
"Actually I don't think so. I don't remember there being any kind of crushes."
"That's cause she was living in a house with three men. Trust me Jay girls are crafty, if I were you, I'd start preparing"
"For what…oh God like birth control?"
Erin looked as if she was refraining from rolling her eyes with great difficulty.
"She's sixteen Jay. If she's smart which we both know she is then she's probably already on birth control"
Jay thought about that and promptly wished he'd never gotten out of bed this morning.
Erin patted him on the arm as if to say that she understood but that she was secretly amused.
Ugh.
Just…ugh.
Oh God he was going to have to give her the talk wasn't he?
"No" Erin said when he voiced this out loud. "Because if your Mom was half the smart woman you've described her as before she died she had this conversation with her. Also any teenage girl worthy of the name is not going to listen to her big brother give her the sex talk. Just leave her alone and when she's ready she'll come to you"
"Stupid fucking barbie cop" Jay muttered.
Erin really did roll her eyes at this.
Hard.
This was of course all before he got the memory stick from Jin.
Then everything because very, very complicated.
"Can I ask you something?" Jay asked her over dinner. They were eating his choice of food which was mostly burgers and salad but he had barely touched his.
"Sure?" Bridget said putting down her fork.
"You…err…are you on birth control?"
Bridget stared at him and then rolled her eyes.
"Oh god we are not doing this"
"Then humour me, believe me this is worse for me than it is for you"
"I highly doubt it Jay I really do"
"Bridget Anna—"
"Ok, ok. Yes and before you ask Mom gave me the talk before…well…before…so your good there and Will…Will gave me the medical version of it as while you were at war and believe me that's done the trick. And besides I have to meet someone to have sex first and that's not gonna happen anytime soon"
"Oh…why?"
"Because Will would fly back, your team would show up halfway through the date, he'd probably be arrested and Pat would be sharpening his shotgun"
"You don't sharpen—never mind"
"Look Jay…when I'm ready you'll know. Cause I trust you, and you trust me…yes?" she prompted.
"Yeah ok" Jay said looking thoughally irritated.
Bridget took the win.
"So do you think he did it?" she asked.
"Who?"
"Hank?"
"Since when the hell was he Hank?"
"Since—look it doesn't matter since when did you think he was involved"
He told her about the memory stick.
Bridget was silent for a long time and then she said carefully.
"Do you think he did it?"
"I don't know. And I don't know what to do"
Bridget chewed a piece of cucumber thoughtfully.
"I think there's a reason he tells us to tell him the truth so he can lie for us. But you do what you think is best Jay. Because it will keep you up at night if you don't"
Jay said nothing.
Six days after this conversation Edwin Stillwell was arrested for the murder of Shelden Jin. His arrest sent shockwaves through the Chicago PD and through Intelligence. Apart from of course Hank Voight.
That Saturday he was waiting. Jay came up nodded and then went to grab the paperwork of the case and his sister followed wearing a shirt that Hank personally thought showed off a lot of midriff. He jerked his head at her and she nodded going saying she was on a coffee run. Jay his head buried in his paperwork didn't look up so he was able to follow her into the breakroom and shut the door.
"It's over" he said. "Your safe"
For a moment Bridget stared at him and then she smiled.
"Thank you"
"Your part of the team now"
She beamed at him and then hugged him. Hank hugged her back. He was getting better at it he thought. It did nothing to ease the pain, the never ending throbbing ache where his heart had once been but he thought that being around her was getting a little bit easier. Somehow after his talk with Al he had realised that he couldn't replace Bridget Halstead with the Bridget Voight that he had lost.
And yet for the life of him he could not understand how Pat Halstead was not proud of this girl standing in front of him turning away and beginning to make his team coffee on a Saturday.
If she had been his…well…he would have been very proud.
Very, very proud.
"By the way" she said to him as she turned around. "I knew you didn't do it"
Then she must have been one of the very few ones then. Because half of his team, his department and the world seemed to think he had been as guilty as sin. Again he was not going to let anyone see how much it meant to him.
That night he had been at Molly's (Bridget had gone home early to work on her paper but Jay was certain that in reality she was going to bed. For reasons she would not tell him she about she seemed as if the weight of the world had been taken off her shoulders) when Al had come to see him.
He had looked concerned.
Or as concerned as Al could get.
And that was when Jay found out that a hit had been put out on him.
A quarter of a million dollars worth of a hit.
Which was…
Which was…
Impressive.
Fuck. Bridget was going to be a mess when he told her. And he knew that he had to tell her.
How was it he was more worried about telling his sister that someone wanted him dead more than the fact that someone was prepared to pay quarter of a mil to actually do it?
Bridget had in fact not been working on her paper. The tension that had been in her body locking down her muscles and her brain since that confrontation with Stillwell in the office was draining out of her. Will would have given it some fancy medical reason but as she got into bed (Jay still out) she thought that she could breathe again.
In hindsight considering he had murdered a fellow police officer the fact that she had punched him clean in the face and had then gotten away with it was nothing short of a miracle.
Perhaps things were looking up now thought. She had met Nadia, she had met Sean Roman who was potentially the most good looking guy she had ever seen and the monster in her nightmares was dead.
Thinking of Sean Roman made her think of her Mom. What Mary would have said and the giggling and the laughing that they would have had over stupid little crushes. She longed for that sometimes. The woman had been dead nearly three years and she still…god there were days when it felt like yesterday.
She tried to avoid thinking of her adoptive mother because thoughts tended to turn towards her birth mother but tonight staring at the ceiling she found she didn't have it in her to hate the mysterious woman who had dumped her at the side of the road for Pat to so helpfully pick up.
Instead she got out of bed and found that old blue blanket with her name embroidered on it and before she could change her mind she stuck it in the bag she took to work. She had been like this as a child once, taking the damn thing everywhere with her (though in secret—Pat would have a fit when he found out screaming that he should have gotten rid of the damn thing when he'd had the chance) and then she had stopped.
Now she put it under the change of clothes and went back to bed curling under the covers. It had always been a combination of painful but good luck and she thought about all she had been through since Jay had gotten this promotion and all no doubt that was to come Bridget thought wryly that she was going to need all the good luck she could get.
Even if it was from a ratty old blanket with her name on it.
And you know what's going to happen next.
Next Chapter-Bridget and Jay suffer under the constant pressure from the hitman hired to kill Jay and in the process of events Hank finds something that blows his whole life wide open. And nothing, nothing , will ever be the same again.