A/N: A day early but y'all, I am just so happy today. As a form of celebration of all the good that has happened today, I just wanted to post a day early.

Thank you all for the love on the last chapter! I hope you enjoy this one. =)

Chapter 4: Out Cold

Before she even got out of the city, Erin had a strong desire to pull off the skyway.

She'd just crossed the Calumet River. With a quick glance to the east, she could see Lake Michigan and Calumet Park.

She found a parking spot and walked over to the playground. School was in session, so it was totally empty.

She lowered herself onto the tire swing and pushed off the ground with her toes, staring out toward the water.

…...

This week had been a fucking nightmare.

More of a nightmare than usual, that is.

Three of her friends just got arrested for murder and her mom had forgotten her sixteenth birthday.

She scoffed. At this point, she was over it. Bunny never remembered her birthday.

But she wasn't over her friends. Sure, they'd been flaunting a gun they stole, but Erin didn't think they'd actually use it. To add insult to injury, some cop named Voight wanted her to flip on them, saying she could either give him information on them or he'd take her in and charge her as an accessory.

She'd stayed silent at first. None of her friends were there, but surely they'd know if she was the one to flip.

Voight leaned in. "I know your mom. Bunny Fletcher, right?"

She tried to stay mum, but her curiosity got the better of her. "How do you know my mom?"

"How don't I know Bunny?" he'd mused. "She's been in and out of lock up more times than I can count. With a record like that, I can't imagine she has much time for her daughter, probably misses a lot. It was just your birthday a couple days ago, wasn't it? Must suck getting looked over all the time." He paused, studying her. He'd touched a nerve and he knew it. "Now listen close, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. You help me, I help you. I've got an extra bedroom at home. You tell me as much as you know, it's yours. New school district, new life. I'll give you a shot to clean up your act and make something of yourself."

She furrowed her brow, looking up at him.

"I'll give you a bit to think about it. If you want to talk, meet me on the playground at Calumet Park in two hours. You be there and I'll help you. You're not there, I come looking for you - and make no mistake, I will find you if you try to run - and you'll be going away with your pals."

…...

She let herself swing to a stop. This is where she'd been nearly sixteen years ago. This is where her life changed forever.

She'd gone home with Hank that night and had the first home cooked meal she'd had in months. She slept the whole night, something she never allowed herself to do on the streets and something she never could do when Bunny was home.

Hank, Camille, and Justin had welcomed her with open arms. Now they were all dead. It wasn't fair. Why should she be the one to survive all of them?

She sighed and pulled herself back to her feet. No use thinking like that. It wouldn't bring any of them back.

With one last glance over her shoulder, she trudged back to her car and was on the road once more.

Erin's low fuel light dinged on as she was coming up on Toledo, Ohio.

She pulled off the interstate and her stomach growled, letting her know that it, too, needed filling.

After topping off her gas tank, she grabbed some lunch and stopped at a park on the edge of Lake Erie to eat. She stared out over the water as she ate.

Maybe she would just stay here tonight, figure out where she was going in the morning. Or she could just figure out where she was going now. She'd already been driving for five hours, after all.

She opened her phone and entered a search for a random trip generator. She'd go to the first place that sounded interesting, as long as it didn't require a passport to get there. After the first few results came back in Berlin, Minsk, and Toronto, a town called Luray in Virginia came up.

A quick Google search showed it to be close to Washington D.C. and Shenandoah National Park. Good enough for her.

When she'd finished eating, she strolled around, giving her legs some activity to hold them over before she drove for another six and a half hours. Then, she pulled up directions and she was off.

Around noon, Jay finally looked away from his computer screen. They were all just catching up on reports today. Antonio had just come out to tell them his intention to pull Burgess up to Intelligence. Nearly everyone voiced their support before turning back to their paperwork.

Ruzek was the only one to take issue with it. "Oh no. I can't let you do that," he said.

Antonio scoffed. "Let me?"

"This job is dangerous," the younger man pressed on, "I can't let you put my girl in harm's way every day."

"I don't believe you have a say in the matter. She's a damn good cop, Ruzek, and fully capable."

"But if she gets hurt -"

"Hey, Halstead!" Antonio interrupted.

"Yeah?" Jay asked, turning away from his computer once more.

"You and Lindsay are together, right? How do you feel about her working Intelligence?"

"Nobody I'd rather have my back than Erin. She's the toughest cop I know," Jay said. He didn't bother to tell the new sergeant that he and Erin were taking a bit of a break for the moment.

"That's different," Ruzek argued.

"Look, I understand you want to look out for your girl," Antonio said, making it clear he was done with this debate, "but you're the only one to take issue with it. If she accepts and seeing her in Intelligence is going to be an issue for you, I'm sure Sergeant Platt can find a spot for you in uniform. Now, should I ask her about that or are we cool?"

Ruzek glared at his sergeant. "We're cool," he gritted out.

"Okay good," Antonio replied, though he knew he was going to have to watch closely how Ruzek and Burgess worked together. He wouldn't be able to partner them up, that was for sure. He'd probably put Burgess and Atwater together. They'd been partnered in uniform so they already had some idea how the other worked. Ruzek would have to go with Olinsky. The older man was good for him.

A half a week into her vacation, Erin had seen everything Luray had to offer. She'd gotten in late, so the first day, she just relaxed in the hotel. She called Jay as soon as she got checked in then spent the rest of the evening sleeping off the day of driving. The second and third days, she'd explored Shenandoah National Park and the caverns. Then she'd stayed there for an additional four days and made the trip to D.C.

As the days passed by, it was getting easier to wake up in the mornings. The pain in her chest from losing Hank and the guilt in her gut for running away from her friends began to subside. It was still going to take some time to heal, but she was headed in the right direction.

Today, one week after leaving Chicago, she decided to take her vacation in another direction. She checked out of her hotel and drove to Baltimore. After she found a hotel with an open room, she went to visit the National Aquarium.

She grabbed some lunch afterward then went to Fort McHenry and, later, a nearby park.

She was strolling through the park, stopping every so often to greet curious dogs and their friendly owners. Suddenly, she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Just like that, her detective senses were on high alert.

A gunshot rang out and she located a man in a Navy uniform bleeding heavily on the ground and another man, gun still in hand, running.

Part of her wanted to stay with the victim, start administering first aid. She was supposed to have a partner for this reason… among others. That way one of them could tend to the victim and the other could chase the suspect. "You! Call 911!" she yelled, pointing at a random stranger. Since Jay (or any other partner she might be assigned) was still back in Chicago, that would have to do, and she took off after the man with the gun. Instinctively, her hand went to her waistband, grasping for her own firearm.

But she was grabbing at air. She didn't have her gun here. She'd left it in Chicago.

Shit.

She kept chasing the gunman anyway. She was gaining on him.

"Hey! Stop!" she yelled after him.

He didn't stop.

She was only a few feet behind him now. A couple more bounds and she tackled him.

"Drop it," she growled, trying to wrestle the gun out of his hands.

Two more shots rang out and Erin cursed as a searing pain ripped through her right shoulder.

Seeing an opening, she swung her left elbow into the gunman's face - hard - and he was out cold.

She rolled off of him, holding her right arm close. She stood, feeling a little unsteady on her feet, and kicked the gun away. The adrenaline of the chase was wearing off fast.

Just then, two uniformed officers came running up behind her.

"Baltimore PD! Hands where we can see them!" one of them yelled.

Erin raised her left arm and stuck her right hand to the side of her torso so the officers behind her could see. "My right arm's hit. I'm unarmed," she called back, feeling rather woozy. She was losing a lot of blood. She started turning around at a snail's pace. "Your guy's on the ground. Gun's about two yards that way." She nodded her head weakly toward where she'd kicked the weapon. "I gotta sit down," she mumbled. She heard one of the officers starting to radio for an ambulance. Her vision was getting blurry and sounds were fuzzy.

She was going to die here, wasn't she?

No, Erin. You can't think like that.

She thought of Jay, picture perfect memories from the day they'd met, to the day she'd skipped out on the task force and that blasted press conference to come back to him... the day they finally got together... the day he asked her to move in with him... and so many more, all leading up to now.

God, she missed Jay.

She was fighting the coming darkness, but it was getting hard. She didn't know if she would come back from this.

"Jay," she croaked, then she couldn't fight it anymore and her world went black.