Hi, so here is another chapter and I hope you enjoy it. This one is just one little scene with Erin and Jay but hopefully by the end of it you will see that the stage is set.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

I may have messed around with Jay and Erin's ages in terms of this story and their career progression within the Department but this story is AU so...

Please Read and Review.

And significant TRIGGER WARNINGS for this story.

Also as I said in the last chapter I am back at work now so updates might be a bit few and far between for a while.

Stand And Unfold Yourself

Chapter 3-Can't Feel My Face.

Jay finds out the story about Bridget Voight and comes to a new understanding about his boss. Hank gets the shock of his life.

12th November 2014

Jay hated cases involving kids. He absolutely hated working cases that involved kids. He hated them when they were witnesses, when they were victims and he hated above all of the cases in the world when they got a call to say boxes of photos had been found, video's, witnesses or hospital reports. He hated those cases but those were the ones that made you wish you could take a shower in a septic tank and then drink until you couldn't feel your legs.

And it didn't help Voight was in a foul mood today. And Jay had seen Voight in some foul moods but this was just…worse…

And it was made stranger by Erin and Al and Antonio's reaction to it.

Erin was barely speaking unless she had to, Al had been watching Voight in the way that Jay used to watch enemy snipers on routine prisoner swaps and Antonio was barely making eye contact with anyone or everyone. Even Adam whose father knew Voight from long ago had an expression that wouldn't be out of place at a funeral.

Something was going on and yet nobody was going to say what it was and though Jay wanted to know he was not suicidal so therefore, he Kevin and Nadia had decided universally over coffee that they were going to remain deaf, blind and dumb in order to keep their jobs.

But that was before they had gotten the call from Kelly Severide at 51 which told them that he and his men had responded to a fire and in pulling out a heavily burned victim there had been some sort of incident with a box that had seen hundreds of kiddy porn pictures spread all over the floor.

Jay had been out responding to a domestic when this had happened and he had come back to find the dampened spirit of the team even more dampened by what had happened. Nothing killed the mood than cases like these and nothing made Voight worse than cases like these. Jay didn't have kids but considering it also affected Al and Antonio a little bit more he assumed that that was a main reason behind it.

Eventually though exhaustion had pulled at them. They were working on double night shifts since the whole undercover prison thing and Kevin and then Adam begged leave so they could sleep. Antonio went too not meeting anyone' s eye and that just left him and Erin, Al and Voight. Al finally dragged Voight out around ten in that way that only Al could do and he had offered Nadia a lift to the library on the way home which she had accepted with that smile that Nadia gave that made you feel a hundred times better no matter how crappy your life was.

That just left Jay and while he wanted to go and fall asleep into his warm bed and pretend that cases like this didn't affect him that would mean leaving Erin on her own and that was just not what partners did. So instead he went and got the good coffee with the syrup and two bear claws which he knew one way or another they would eat when they could stomach food again. Erin who had still be wearing the dreaded black gloves for evidence had smiled at him though it hadn't met her eyes and Jay had touched her shoulder in a vein attempt to give her some much needed comfort and support and she had smiled at him turned a photo and had made a noise of such horror that Jay got shivers down his spine just looking at her.

You didn't need a gold badge to know that something was wrong…something was very…very…very wrong.

Erin was looking down at a photo of some girl. Jay followed her gaze and saw what looked like a mass of dark hair over a face that he knew from experience had shown a lot of weight loss in a small amount of time. Her collarbones were sticking out and they looked as if you could snap them into pieces and there was something about her dead eyes—captured perfectly on the photo—that made something in Jay's gut twist. That was before you got to the black night slip thing that she was wearing that was way to big for her and the handprint around her neck and the bruises on her wrists that told Jay that for a long time she had been held down by something probably chains.

Christ, he hated cases like these. Kid couldn't have been older than fourteen for crying out loud!

What was more startling however was Erin's reaction. She ripped off her glove and threw back her chair and clutched her now un-gloved hand to her mouth. Her eyes were wide with a horror that Jay had never seen before and though he was perfectly safe, though they were perfectly safe he found that his hand had made it to his gun before he could remind himself that he was not overseas but in Chicago.

"Erin?"

She didn't answer him and so Jay raised his voice.

"ERIN?"

She didn't respond she looked look at him with that terrible blank expression that told Jay she was going into shock.

"Erin what is it? Who is that?"

But Erin wasn't saying anything. She stared at him for a long moment and then she pushed back her chair and she bolted towards the locker room her hand clamped over her mouth the photo fluttering down onto the floor and Jay followed her just in time to see her violently throwing up in the bin. She was retching her whole body violently shaking like she was a teenager having her first binge puke and Jay couldn't do anything but gently rub her back and try and pull her hair out of her face like he had done with Allie that night Lennie Rodiger had left the courtroom smiling and she'd had to be restrained by three cops of all whom looked as if they'd very much like to let her kill him.

He may have also kissed her hair a little.

Jay might not be held responsible for his actions in cases such as these.

"It's okay" Jay said softly. "It's okay Erin, you take your time, I'll be here when your ready and I promise you whatever it is we can fix it"

Erin shook her head and then like a puppet whose strings had been cut her legs went out from under her and she sank to the floor. Jay shut the door to the locker room and gently took one of the towels and wet it under the tap letting the cold water soak it so he could wipe Erin's sweaty, tear stained face. He found a bottle of water and passed it to her and then sat on the floor watching her cautiously.

"You want to tell me what's going on?" he said quietly. "Cause I know looking at shit like this is hard but Erin…we look at it. We've done it before this and we'll do it after this so I don't…explain it to me please. Because…because to me it…it kinda looked like you knew that girl"

Erin watched him for a long moment and Jay couldn't help but think that she was sizing him up for something. There was something here, a secret that he didn't understand but that he wanted to and he didn't know what it was that was going to make her tell him. Instead she eyed him with those eyes that he was not ashamed to admit he had thought about when he was…alone and then finally she spoke.

"I do know her"

"Okay"

"She's…she's my sister"

For a moment Jay struggled to breathe and then…

"Hang on you have a sister?"

"Sort of, kind of…she's like my little sister. Actually…she's…she's Hank's daughter"

Jay was glad suddenly that he was sitting down because he was sure that if he was standing then his legs wouldn't support him.

"I don't…I don't understand..." he said carefully choosing each word carefully. "I didn't think that Voight had a daughter…that….wasn't Justin an only child?"

"No. No he had another one. Bridget."

Jay nodded encouragingly.

"She…Jay she was the sweetest kid you'd ever met, she must have been the only eleven year old who completely mastered the art of sarcasm, she was…she was bookish and polite and she so not like Hank unless you pissed her off and then she would set her jaw and…and she accepted me before anyone else did and she would ask me to do her hair and—"

She stopped talking and looked away her jaw working furiously and Jay looked away too in order to give her some privacy. His brain was still reeling.

"And then she went missing" Erin said finally.

"Missing?"

"About five years ago. You didn't know?"

Jay shook his head. About five years ago he had just graduated High School. Things between him and Pat had hit rock bottom, his mom was on death's door and he had gone to basic. Three years later he had been out and then it had been the police academy, patrol and a fast-track to detective and then here.

"It was all over the news"

"I'm sure it was but I didn't hear about it"

Erin watched him for a second and then she nodded and carried on with her story.

"Well…Jay you gotta understand Camille…Hank's wife we…we all knew that there wasn't much of a chance after the third round of chemo and we just…it just spread—"

"I know" Jay said cutting across her. He remembered his Mom and he really didn't want to go down memory lane again. He knew what the cold long face from the Doctor meant and he too had, had a father who had refused to believe it was coming.

"—Yeah" Erin said softly. "Yeah but…Hank he didn't…he didn't…he kept trying to find doctors the last one was real fancy but it didn't…and then she died and Bridget was eleven and…and we were so bad Jay"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…Hank, Justin, me we just, fell apart and Bridget…she just became an adult overnight, she cleaned up the booze and she made sure the fridge was stocked but we…we weren't home I hit the bottle, Justin hit the bottle and Hank…Hank really hit the bottle, when he wasn't working he was drinking just…I was partying and taking whatever I could up my nose and I dragged Justin with me and we just…we were such terrible people Jay, she was a kid…she was a kid and her family had been blown apart and all we cared about was ourselves."

Jay said nothing. There was nothing to that, that he could say. So instead he watched as she took another sip of water and then carried on with the story. He wanted to hear the end of it but he knew enough to know that it wasn't going to be a happy ending. Right now even if nukes were fired at him he didn't think he would care just as long as he could hear the end of the story.

"Bridge and Camille…they were big on Christmas. It was like their holiday you know, me, Justin, Hank we didn't do anything that was their thing and one night…I was at a party, Justin was with me, Hank came home drunk and found her with the Christmas decorations out and he just…he just snapped…"

"What he hit her?"

Erin shot him a very nasty look but Jay didn't think it was an unreasonable question.

"No he didn't…he…he just yelled at her and he told her that there was no Christmas and that she should go and she just…she went…she packed up what stuff she could get her hands on and just…went…"

"And let me guess. Voight cracked open another bottle, passed out on the couch and didn't notice until she was gone in the morning?"

Erin said nothing.

"Jesus" Jay said shaking his head. "What a fucking—"

"Don't" Erin warned. "Seriously don't Jay you can't…believe me you can't possible hate him more than he hates himself. He…he rips himself in two over it every hour of every day he just…he couldn't…seriously he hates himself and this isn't me making an excuse but…I was there and I didn't care about anything other than myself. Neither did Justin, she was drowning and we didn't notice it."

Jay said nothing but he was suddenly reminded of Pat and for reasons he didn't want to go in for he thought that the blame for the entire thing rested at Hank's door but then again. He had seen Justin Voight, he had seen Erin when she was in a mood. There had been a child drowning and nobody had bothered to check if she was okay.

Something about it must have shown on his face because Erin gave a little noise but Jay couldn't comfort her in this. Instead he curled his legs up under his chin and stared at the sink until she was done crying.

"Did you look for her?"

It came out more accusatory than he wanted it to and Erin to her credit didn't pick him up on it.

"Yeah, we flooded…everywhere, neighbourhoods, press releases, everything that we could do we did and believe me Hank's never stopped looking no matter what he says but she just…she just vanished. Only image we ever got of her was walking down the bridge and then…then they suggested putting divers in the river and—"

Jay winced. He could imagine how that went down.

"We didn't find her we just…we just didn't…and now this."

"Who else knows? In the team I mean?"

"Al. Antonio because it came out at trial…Peter Stone fucking used it as bait to get under Voight's skin"

Jay suddenly felt the urge to take a tyre iron to Peter Stone's car.

"And Adam I think…his Dad was involved in the initial search. He doesn't know all of it, Al and I are the only ones who know about that night but…" she gave a little shrug again and Jay nodded casting his mind around desperately for something to say that wouldn't sound patronising or even worse…false hope.

"At least you know she's alive. Or at least was. She's got to be what? Fourteen in that photo it looks recent enough—"

"Fifteen. She turned fifteen today. Today's her birthday. Hank used to do a cake but then he got sent to prison and I…I didn't know if we were going to do anything and now this and…"

She started crying again and Jay didn't know what to do. He could count on one hand the number of times that he had seen Erin cry and he knew that nothing he could say would make it better. How do you make something like this better?

He thought about it. About Voight and while there was a fair amount of blame to be put at his door there was also equal to be shared like Erin said. And he thought about what it must be like to have a missing child and he felt like crying himself. Suddenly a lot of things about his boss made sense.

There was nothing that he could do so he moved across the floor and let her cry on his shoulder. When she was done she took the wet flannel and wiped her eyes.

"I just…I just need a minute. I have to figure out…I have to figure out what we do next and I don't…"

"You have to tell Voight" Jay said. Because Erin was a cop and Erin was also a big sister and right now she was a big sister rather than a cop and so he had to be the one who had his eyes on the case right now.

"You have to tell Voight, you have to show him, Andrew Llewellyn has connections with New York so we have to rope people in there. And he has to hear about this from you. It can't be me that tells him that his daughter was trafficked. Cause I love you Erin but there ain't enough hazard pay in the world for me to be the one that tells him."

Erin sniffed and wiped her eyes.

"Okay" she said. "I'll…does it have to be tonight? It's her birthday?"

"Yes it does" Jay said firmly. "Because the earlier we start this investigation the early we can get a lead. We've got something now. We've got great connections with New York SVU and we can use them. We've got something Erin and if he finds out we knew about it, if he finds out that we knew about this last night and we let it slide so he could drown his sorrows in a bar somewhere were going to be slaughter. Seriously he will light us up like a Christmas Tree and I like this Unit Erin and I don't want to be busted down to somewhere horrible like…like traffic or something like that.

Erin gave a watery smile. Jay decided to be reckless and he kissed her on the cheek.

"Take a minute" he said. "I'll grab us some coffee and then I can be with you when you call him"

Erin nodded. "Thank you Jay"

"Anytime" he said smiling. "It's what partner's do"

Erin smiled. They were more than that they both knew it but now was not the time to dance around it.

He stood up stretching his legs and left the room. He leaned against the wall for a second his eyes closed and then he moved to go to the bullpen for the coffee. It was then that he stopped dead.

Because there was already someone stood there.

Voight.

Shit.

Al was with him and Al's eyes slid to his and Jay suddenly felt like he was standing right in the middle of a sniper's scope. Al looked at him and Jay knew it was written all over his face that he knew. Al sighed and nodded once and then he reached out to touch Voight's arm.

Voight who was holding the picture of his daughter with fingers that were shaking so badly it was blurry. Voight who was wearing an expression on his face that made Jay feel like he was a kid again and that he wanted to find his Mom and tell her that he had a nightmare and she'd make it all better. Voight who turned to look at Jay and Jay who looked back.

There wasn't any need for words. Not really.

Jay didn't think there were any, anyway.

And there you are, I will hopefully see you soon for the next chapter.

Next Chapter-Hank on his blackest day gets the shock of his life and there is finally a thaw in the Bridget Voight case. Potential for a slightly smaller chapter.