A/N: Thank you all so much for the love on the last chapter! I love writing, but it's so much more rewarding when I know other people are enjoying it too. =D I sincerely hope you all enjoy where this is going! Now, without further ado, here's Chapter 2!

Chapter 2: Cut the Crap

Despite being mad at Bunny this morning, Erin found herself back at her bar after she got off work. Nadia had asked her about Molly's but she'd refused, citing needing some time alone. She suspected Jay had put her up to it, anyway.

"I'm glad you came back," Bunny told her, pouring her a glass of scotch.

Erin stared into the glass. "This is the only place I have without memories of him," she said simply.

"Erin, sweetheart," Bunny cooed.

The sympathetic tone quickly made her forget her sorrows and she tiredly glared at her mother. "I don't need to be coddled. I just need to forget." She downed the shot. "Let's just not talk about it."

Bunny refilled her glass with a shrug. As far as she was concerned, it was a damn good thing Hank was dead. No one would be poisoning her daughter's mind against her now. "So. You'll never guess who I ran into today."

Erin really didn't care, but if it meant not talking about her feelings or work or Hank - "Who?"

"So I'm just running some errands and this guy comes up to me with his arms outstretched saying, 'Remember me?' It's Landon Vannagan. You remember him?"

"Scrawny kid from down the street?" Of course she remembered Landon. "He used to pick a fight with me every day after school. He bit me once."

"Well he has definitely done some growing up," Bunny said, refilling her daughter's glass, trying not to look at the man approaching her. In the end though, she failed, flicking her eyes to the man who was now leaning up against the bar beside Erin.

Erin followed her mother's gaze and quickly looked back to her, cocking her head as if to say Really? You invited him here? before she turned back to the man beside her. "Hey, Landon," she said politely.

"Been a minute," he replied with a wistful grin.

"Yeah, I'd say," she nodded. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"I'll let you two get caught up," Bunny said, setting another glass on the bar for Landon before excusing herself.

"Mind if I sit?" he asked, nodding at the stool beside her.

She shook her head. Maybe she should mind, but right now, she found she didn't.

A few drinks later, he asked her to go home with him.

Maybe she shouldn't, but she sure as shit didn't want to go to her home and she definitely didn't want to be alone. At the very least, it would be better than going home with Bunny.

Nadia sat up waiting for Erin again that night. It was almost midnight and she still wasn't home, so she pulled out her phone and texted Halstead. He called her a few moments later.

"Hello."

"Erin's not home yet," he said, more a statement than a question.

"I can't stop looking at the door, Jay. She's not answering her phone and she hasn't responded to any of my texts."

"She hasn't been answering me either."

"I'm worried about her."

"I know. So am I." He paused. "She'll hate me for this, but if I start driving around looking for her, do you want to come with?" he asked, sounding a little uncertain.

"If she didn't want us to come looking for her, she should have told me, at the very least, where she was going or not to wait up for her or something."

"Be there in ten. Meet me outside."

They ended the call and she jumped up to grab her coat and a notepad, quickly scribbling some ideas of where Erin might have gone.

Ninety minutes later, all of her suggestions and most of Jay's had been crossed off. Their initial worry had festered into something much more. Erin was nowhere to be found.

"Wait, stop," Nadia said suddenly, pointing out the window. "That's her car."

Jay whipped into the nearest parking spot and practically leaped out of the vehicle. Nadia jogged ahead to look in the car as he took stock of the buildings around them, searching for anywhere Erin may have gone.

Nadia came back to him with a brief shake of her head.

"There," he said, pointing to a bar.

"She did come to work really hungover. Let's check it out."

The bar was quiet, most people having gone home by the early hours of the morning. They headed toward the bar where the bartender had her back to them. Jay cleared his throat, getting her attention.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me," Nadia murmured when the woman turned around.

Jay's face hardened when he recognized Bunny. "Where is she?" he demanded.

"Jay! How nice to -" she started insincerely.

"Cut the crap, Bunny," he interrupted fiercely. "Where's Erin?"

"Why is that any of your business?" she asked cheekily. "I heard you broke up with her."

"He's here with me," Nadia said, leaning menacingly on the bar, "so stop being all pretentious, acting like you're trying to protect her. Erin's not answering her phone and I'm worried about her. So if you know where she is, I would very much like to know where to find her."

"She went home with an old friend. Sheesh. You don't have to be so bitchy about it," Bunny said with a dismissive wave.

"And where does this 'friend' live?" Nadia pressed.

Bunny narrowed her eyes, ready to argue, but a piercing look from Nadia kept her from saying anything. She huffed, rolling her eyes and scribbled an address down on a napkin.

"Thanks," Nadia said dryly, snatching the napkin out of the older woman's hands before spinning on her heel and exiting the bar, Jay following right behind her.

"Remind me never to piss you off," Jay said on the way back to the car. "You were spitting some serious fire back there."

She stopped in front of the passenger door, her eyes still ablaze. "Erin's told me enough stories about her mom for me to know I don't trust her one bit."

"You have good instincts," Jay replied, getting in the car.

A pounding on the door woke Erin up. Landon was still passed out on the bed beside her. She carefully extracted herself from him and pulled a shirt over her head. Who the hell was coming to see him at - she glanced at the clock - 2:15 in the morning?

She padded across the apartment and peered through the peephole. She groaned, but opened the door anyway. "What do you want?"

"Nice to see you, too," Nadia replied sarcastically, more than a little hurt by Erin's brash greeting.

"You weren't answering your phone and we didn't know where you were, Erin. We were worried," Jay said, equally unamused by Erin's attitude.

"Well, here I am. Happy now?"

"Actually no," Nadia said, looking into the apartment behind her. There were drugs strewn across the coffee table. "That'd better not be what I think it is."

"It's Landon's. Don't worry about it," Erin answered shortly.

Nadia narrowed her eyes, taking a long, hard look at her roommate. It might have been Landon's, but Erin had definitely had some of it.

Jay scoffed and shook his head. He could see it too. "I don't know who you are, but tell Erin that she has people who actually care about her, people who will love her no matter what and are here for her. . . if you ever see her again."

Erin rolled her eyes and started shutting the door in their faces.

"No," Nadia said, jaw clenched, catching the door before it closed. "Now here's the deal. You're gonna come home with us right now and sleep off whatever the hell you had. I know you're hurting, but this isn't the right way to deal with it. I don't care if you stay at home with me or go home with Jay. You're coming home with one of us."

"What if I just want you to leave me the fuck alone?" Erin gritted, looking from Nadia to Jay and back again.

"I'll drag you out of here kicking and screaming if I have to," Nadia said, unmoving.

Erin turned to Jay, eyebrows raised as if daring him to agree with the younger woman.

"I'll help her," he said evenly, arms crossed in front of him. "Or do I need to arrest you for possession?"

She glowered at him. "You wouldn't."

To the Erin he'd fallen in love with, the Erin who'd been his partner for years, the Erin who always had his back? No, he wouldn't. To whomever this was standing in front of him? Yes, he would. In a heartbeat. He'd do whatever it took to save her from herself. "Try me."

"This is ridiculous," she fumed, but turned back into the apartment and started grabbing her things.

Half an hour later, Jay pulled into Erin and Nadia's apartment complex. He picked up Erin, who had fallen asleep on the way over, and carried her all the way into the apartment.

The woman in his arms looked so much more at peace than the woman who'd answered the door nearly an hour ago. His heart broke a little for her. Voight had been as close to a father as Erin had ever had.

He sighed. Losing Voight was no excuse for her behavior, but he blamed himself too. Shit, maybe she wouldn't have retreated to Bunny if he hadn't been such a coward around Voight. Maybe, if he would've manned up and owned their relationship, Erin wouldn't have gone off to that Landon asshole, whoever he was. He didn't really care. He just knew he wasn't doing a very good job taking care of Erin.

All Jay really wished was that Erin would have leaned on him instead and he never would have had to worry about her, never would have had to drive all over Chicago in the wee hours of the morning trying to find her.

Inside, Jay carried Erin into her room.

"Jay?" Erin mumbled into his chest.

"Yeah?" He hadn't realized she'd woken up, but between the closing doors and the dinging of the elevator, he couldn't say he was surprised.

"Shirt?"

He gently laid her on the bed. "Of course," he said, going to her closet and pulling out a familiar shirt. He chuckled softly. It was his. Erin had always stolen it to sleep in when they were still together. She must have kept it. He extended it toward her. "Here."

"Help?" she asked him groggily.

He obliged, helping her out of her work clothes and into his shirt before letting her lay down again. Her head no sooner hit the pillow and she was asleep once more. He smiled softly, pulling a blanket over her and tucking her in.

He stepped back out to the living room, where Nadia had pulled out some extra blankets and pillows.

"I figured you could stay here tonight since it's so late," she said quietly.

"I appreciate that."

She turned to go to her bedroom, but stopped. "Thanks for everything tonight, Jay."

He smiled at her. "If it weren't for you, I would probably still be out there looking for her. I should be thanking you. Now listen, if there's anyone who loves Erin more than I do, it's you, and I'll always be here for you because of it."

Nadia gave a tired smile in return. "I'm just glad we have her back."

"Me too."

There were going to be some hard conversations tomorrow, but for now, they had Erin, and they weren't going to let her anywhere near Bunny again.