And here we go, the chapter we have all been waiting for! Hi All, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I have enjoyed writing it and I will bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review.

And some episodes/events will blur together as this story becomes more progressive AU.

What Lies Buried

Chapter 8-Bend And Break

Bridget and Jay suffer under the constant pressure from the hitman hired to kill Jay and in the process of the unfolding events Hank finds something that blows his whole life wide open. And nothing, nothing, will ever be the same again.

May 2015

She got the phone call at one in the morning.

It took her several moments to scramble around for the phone but she found it somewhere near the floor. She picked up the phone and swiped right.

"Lo?"

"Bridge it's me Erin"

She sat up. Jay was out and she knew enough to know that there was a reason why at one in the morning her brother's partner was calling her and not her brother.

"Erin?"

No.

No.

No.

"He's fine" Erin said straight off the bat. "He's fine he's just on his way to Med. He was in a bar and it got shot up and he's helping with the injured but listen…you know the guy that's been trying to kill him?"

"Oh God"

"Yeah. I know. I'm gonna have a couple of cars sit on you for a bit ok? Then when you come home from school just to be safe"

Bridget bit her lip. The idea of a cop car in front of her building made her stomach roll with annoyance. At the same time someone had just taken a shot at her brother and if what Erin was saying was true had missed and hit a random innocent person.

"Kay" she said finally. "Can you get him to text or—"

"As soon as I see him" she said.

"And your sure—"

"Bridget as God as my witness he was fine when he left the bar and the ambulance he was in with the victim had a three car escort"

Bridget nodded.

She was still awake a three when Jay called.

"I'm fine" he said shortly.

"Okay" She said refusing to let her voice show how utterly terrified she was—that being said she knew her brother and she knew her brother knew her.

He knew how her head worked when she got that phone call.

"Listen can you come to the prescient when school is done?"

"Why?"

"Well someone's trying to kill me Bridge and I don't want them missing me and hitting you"

She ran a hand through her hair. She hated it when he used that tone on her.

"Are you asking?"

"Not really"

"Jerk"

"Love you too sis. And thanks"

Bridget let him go and lay there in bed staring at her ceiling. She turned on her side and there was that damn blue blanket staring at her from where she had put it in her bag. She had taken throughout these weeks to taking it with her in her gym bag and she stared at it wondering why now when everything was going tits up, she was clinging to it like it was a lifebelt in the ocean?

She turned over and buried her face into her pillow. And if she cried then that was her business, the fact that she did not know what she was crying for or for whom was another story. Instead when sunlight eventually dragged through the blinds she thought she had a plan.

Or something resembling one.

Bridget really shouldn't make decisions on so little sleep.

Especially not today, for though she didn't know it yet, today was the day that everything changed.

Jay Halstead had asked them to come here. He had reasoned that it was better if Bridget be driven to school by someone she knew and the look he pinned Roman was rather nasty. Kim wasn't sure if it was because he figured that he could escape easily if there wasn't two people watching him or it was because Bridget seemed to giggle quite a bit when she was around Roman. Either way Kim was desperate to get out of that office and away from the tension that seemed to exist.

"Is that really what you want?" Roman asked her as they climbed the stairs to the apartment. "I mean being up there and dealing with those kinds of personalities?"

She thought about it.

"Yes. Yes I do"

"Huh…give me a clean uniform and a decent beat anywhere"

Kim knocked on the door and it opened. Bridget Halstead in a pair of pyjama shorts and a tank top (with no bra) opened the door. She caught one look at Sean screamed and shut the door in his face.

Kim would have laughed at the expression on her partner's face but she had been sixteen and she knew intimately what it was like when you opened the door hopelessly unprepared and you saw a man you liked standing there.

Actually she knew what that was like at twenty two never mind sixteen.

"What the—"

But she cut across him.

"Bridget it's just me. Can we come in. I'll keep Sean in the kitchen until your ready. Promise"

The door unlocked.

Kim nodded.

Halstead's apartment was pretty neat all things considering. There were several army things scattered around and pictures of him and his brother and his sister when they were kids. There was none of his parents and Roman got distracted by the size of the TV and that was the end of that.

Seriously what was it with men and the size of things?

"Help yourself to coffee" came a shout and Kim nodded turning to her attention to the really good coffee machine and the really, really expensive beans that were there. God she needed an expresso.

"Nice tea collection" Sean said and Kim stared.

She liked him and all, she was beginning to trust him but the question sometimes still did linger in her brain.

Seriously how had she gone from Kevin to this?

Bridget came out eventually this time wearing a dress which was something that Kim had never seen her in before.

And it was a nice dress.

It had long sleeves and a clinched waist and a v-neck and was a black and white dogtooth kind of material. It came to mid thigh and Kim thought her hair and make up were immaculate.

Even her boots seemed to be decent.

Roman who had poured himself another cup of coffee smiled.

"Morning. Nice dress"

Bridget went pink. Kim refrained from hitting her partner with great difficulty.

"Thanks" she said preening a little.

"You ready to go to school?"

"Not going, figured I'd go to the station. I want to see Jay before I go. If you don't want to take me that's fine"

She bent to pick up her bag but as she did something fell out of it.

"Fuck"

It was a blanket Kim saw as she bent to pick it up. It was a deep blue baby blanket?

"That's pretty"

"Thanks, I…it was…well you know I'm adopted I assume?"

Kim nodded. Roman didn't.

"Well this is my good luck charm so to speak. Keep meaning to throw it and I never do so I'm going to embrace it"

"That's nice"

Well really what was she supposed to say to that.

Bridget stuffed the blanket into her bag and grabbed her travel mug.

"Ok"

Jay blinked as he saw his sister follow Roman and Burgess come up the stairs.

"No school?"

"Well I thought I'd see you first, it's homeroom first period anyway I mean who goes to that?"

"Nobody" Sean Roman cut in nodding sagely. Jay sighed and then stared.

"Bridge what the—"

"It's a dress Jay move on"

"It's a very short dress"

"No Jay. No it's not"

"It's actually not" Burgess chipped in.

Great. That was all he needed—his sister getting more female encouragement.

Perhaps he should just save this bastard the trouble and just off himself?

Just then there was the sound of running feat and that could never be good in his experience. Antonio came up the stairs looking winded.

"He just killed Steve Kotz's daughter in the street. Two shots to the back of the head—she was sixteen. And—oh she's here"

Bridget gave a small sardonic wave.

"He being the royal He? As in the one trying to kill you Jay?"

"Yeah and that settles it. If I'm a virtual prisoner here then so are you"

He expected the flare of Halstead temper. What he had not expected was for Bridget to dump her bag in Voight's office sit on her desk and cross her legs with a sweet smile.

"Sure bro. Whatever"

Jay was about to ask but he saw that her legs were now more exposed than before and she was grinning.

He did not like this.

He really did not like this.

She was watching the back and forth throughout Intelligence and when they took that hitman into the cell to set up a phone call she knew what Jay was going to do and so she followed.

Nobody bothered to look as she entered the room.

"My boss" said the voice through the phone. "Has a deep personal interest in seeing Halstead suffer. You need to bring him here. Or his family"

The hitman—JP something caught her eye.

"Sister?" she mouthed.

"I might be able to get you his sister. If you don't want Halstead himself of course"

She nodded grinning and turned.

Ah.

Jay, Voight and Olinsky did not apparently agree with her because all three were wearing horrified, furious and utterly exasperated expressions.

"Halstead. I don't need the girl if I've got him. But I will tell you this JP. Two for the price of one is a good deal for my boss"

The phone went dead.

"Perfect" Bridget said to the room at large.

"No. No. No and hell no" Jay said as they came back into the room. "You are not going. Voight tell her she's not going. I will go and I will be the bait"

"Your getting in a car with a hitman"

"Whose retired.

"Oh because that makes all the difference"

"And at least now we have proof he killed the girl and the old woman"

That was Bridget. Jay turned to her.

"The answer is no"

"Why?"

"You—why—you—you want a list of reasons why? You want to know why I don't want you in the car with a hitman?"

"Who you've just said is retired"

"Who will use you as bait—"

"Because it's different with you"

"Yes it is, I am trained three times over for this scenario and you are not. And he will kill you as soon as he sees you and he wants to drag it out with me. Because I took the oath and you didn't. Because you are my baby sister and you are not going to be the bait in this scenario"

"Alright" Voight said cutting across. "But I don't want to risk it. We run this like a tight op. And you" he said pointing at Bridget.

"You stay here"

"Oh come on. If this is going to be as safe as it can possibly be then can I not be in the car if nothing else"

"No" Jay began.

"You can get a radio" Voight ruled putting an end to the conversation. Bridget said nothing.

Personally Jay wouldn't have given her the radio.

She was good right until the moment that Jay went and got himself kidnaped. She had been rummaging through her bag half listening when she heard it and then the address and then she was down the stairs so fast that her knee nearly buckled.

"Trudy it's bad." She said skidding to a stop.

"How bad?"

God Bridget loved Trudy Platt. The woman did not mince her words nor mix them together and when she saw an opening she went for it.

"I think Jay got kidnapped"

"Naturally, keeping that brother of yours safe is a full time occupation"

"Can I borrow a car?"

"Why did you magically get your learners permit in the last twenty seconds?"

"Fine I'll hitchhike"

"Oh for—Gomez watch the desk—you got an address?"

"Yeah the new meet place is—"

"Tell me in the car—and if I tell you to get out and keep your head down then you better damn well do it. Voight might not mind that little stunt you pulled upstairs but I am not Voight."

"Thanks"

Trudy drove like a madwoman.

"Jesus—do they give you lessons on this at the academy?"

"Oh yes. Plus at Christmas It always comes in handy to do your shopping in a squad car"

She dove around three cars in a move that Bridget was sure was illegal.

"What did you mean that Voight didn't mind that little stunt of mine?"

"Oh what that offering yourself as bait. He does mind I was speaking out of term but he's more amused than worried. It's the kind of thing he would have done"

"Oh"

"You know…sometimes…you and he are a lot alike. Kinda frightening really"

"Were not"

Trudy said nothing.

"I suppose" she said finally as they went down at hill at what must have been eighty miles an hour.

"Sometimes you remind me of his wife"

Bridget was too busy trying not to throw up to care about that comment. She was not even going to bother to unpick it once this car stopped. All she would care about tonight was keeping her organs attached to her body—could they loosen and rattle around due to shoddy driving?

Trudy slammed on the breaks so hard if it was not for her seatbelt she would have gone flying through the windshield.

"Fuck me"

"If you puke in my car so help you, I'll have you cleaning it"

"Why did you bring the kid?"

Trudy gave Hank a long look.

"Because she was threatening to hitchhike and that is how girls go missing."

"In 1960s Westerns"

"Oh please Hank. Besides I gave her a taste for the life. It's been a while since I've gone beyond eighty"

Jay was getting checked out and Bridget had slid to the floor looking winded.

"Hey kid"

She looked at him.

"Fuck I feel sick"

"Bet your glad I didn't let you be bait now. Imagine that but lying down"

Bridget groaned. Hank pulled her to her feet with a grin.

"It go ok?"

"Oh he's fine. And it's over. You and Jay are good"

She smiled at him that blinding smile that reminded him a little of his wife and that he never really got tired of seeing—it was a long time since someone had bothered to smile at him that way.

"Thanks Hank"

"Do me a favour kiddo?"

"Sure?"

"Stop wearing dresses that short. You'd give your old man a heart attack"

Bridget gave him a look.

"That in the patrol guidebook?"

"It could be"

She had the grace to laugh and Hank didn't have the heart to tell himself sternly to stop. She was not his daughter and he couldn't tell her that he hated the idea of her flirting with someone in his prescient or that he thought of her as if she was his own and that kept him up at night riddled with guilt because it felt sometimes that the past and the present were blurring together.

He was lonely. He was sad and he was lonely and…and he missed his daughter.

Christ he was pathetic.

But God he really, really missed his daughter.

This would be what killed him. He was hoping for a bullet because if not then this…this would be what killed him. The constant pitter-patter of pain on his heart. The drip, drip of failure that went into his veins.

Didn't matter what Camille had said.

He would never forgive himself.

"You ok?"

"Hmm"

He was very aware that Al was watching him and his friend chimed in.

"We all need a drink tonight I think"

"Oh yeah" Bridget said. "Anyone wanna order me a double vodka?"

Jay who had come over to hug his sister rolled his eyes.

"Seriously" she said into her brother's shoulder. "The way Trudy drives it's for medicinal purposes"

Jay's laughter was confident and loud.

"Hey I wanna go to the hospital" Jay said as she grabbed her bag from where it had tipped onto her side.

"So can I drop you off at home?"

"Sure. You want me to order food?"

"Nah I'll take care of it."

"Jay…none of this was your fault you know"

They were downstairs now.

He smiled though it didn't meet his eyes and somewhere within her bag her phone vibrated. Probably Will.

She opened the clasp of her school bag and stared.

"Shit"

"What?"

"I forgot my blanket."

"That blue thing? Your carrying that around with you now?"

"I thought…you remember it used to be for luck?"

"Yeah but I thought Pat told you to stop doing that in public?"

"Yeah and since when have I listened to Pat?"

Jay did laugh at that grudgingly.

"You know where it is?"

"Voight's office"

"Sarge can you buzz Bridge up while I get the car?"

"Do you one better Detective Pretty Boy. I'm heading up there myself"

"Detective—oh I am so telling Will that one"

"Oh come on, haven't I been through enough today?"

Bridget cackled but followed Trudy up the stairs.

"I need a drink" Al said wincing as his back cracked. It was just him and Hank in the office and Hank personally agreed. All of the team were gone for the night and he needed the oblivion of a Manhattan.

"Let me get my keys, can I dump my car at yours?"

"What are you twenty?"

"Fuck off Al"

Al just laughed and Hank went into his office. His keys were on his desk and he turned and then…

And then he dropped them.

Because he saw it.

Because he saw it.

It was the blanket.

There on his couch was the blue blanket he had bought his wife to wrap his daughter in. It was the same blanket she had been wrapped in when he had handed his daughter of to the nameless, faceless man and he had never seen her again. He had thought that the blanket had gone when she had gone and though they had ransacked half the city for it he had never found it or the baby girl that it had covered.

She'd had perfect fingernails, perfectly small little fingernails for fingers that were made to cling onto his.

He picked it up with trembling fingers. It was the same. He knew it was the same. And there it was the little name embroidered on the edge.

Bridget.

His Bridget.

His baby's blanket.

"Hank are you—"

Al had stopped dead on the doorway.

And when he next spoke it was in a hushed whisper as if saying the very words would change the outcome.

"Is that—that is isn't it?"

"Yeah"

"That's the baby blanket—"

"The one I wrapped Bridget in the night she disappeared." He said hollowly. "Yes Al it's…we never found it…"

"No we didn't. Where did you—"

"Here" he croaked pointing at his couch. "Here it was…it was here"

"How the—"

There was the sound of footsteps.

It was Trudy who came in. Her eyes went from Hank's face to Al's to the blanket and her mouth dropped open.

And then behind her…

Behind her…

Was Bridget Halstead.

And suddenly all of the pieces just clicked into place.

Bridget stared at the blanket. She only had eyes for the blanket.

"Thank God you found it. Sorry Hank, it must have fell out of my bag"

And she took it. It went numbly out of his fingers as he stared understanding but not comprehending all at the same time.

"That's your blanket?" Al asked.

"Yeah" Bridget said stuffing it into her bag. "I used to carry it around in public as a kid but Pat freaked and so I stopped. Then I just stopped you know. Stopped looking and all for my birth parents—oh bloody hell Will—"

She pulled out her phone and scanned it.

"And then?" Al asked.

"Nothing" Bridget said shrugging. "Pat and I don't get on and it was my good luck charm. Kinda works still if today is anything to go by. Besides I don't care about my birth parents. You don't get to dump someone by the side of the road and then have them care about you"

She dropped the phone into the bag and fastened the clasp and then looked up smiling.

"Thanks" she said again. "I don't know what I would have done if I'd have lost it—I should go Jay's waiting. See you guys next weekend"

And with that she turned around and walked down the steps towards her brother and out of the room.

There was a pause.

A terrible pause and then Trudy breathed into the silence.

"Holy shit. This whole time and she's been in fucking Canaryville"

But Hank couldn't hear or see anything other than the fact that Bridget was—that she—that Bridget Halstead was his daughter.

His legs went out from under him.

Al caught him before he hit the floor.

And there you go, I hope you like this chapter. I'll bring the next one to you soon.

Next Chapter-Hank tries to piece things together and makes a decision that sees Bridget's world ripped apart. Al tells Jay the truth and Intelligence reals from secrets that have been buried far deep into the past.