A/N: If I haven't thanked you already via message, thank you so much for the love on the last chapter!

I decided I didn't want to leave you all hanging with Erin's life in the balance for too long, and who says Friday the thirteenth is all bad luck? Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 5: End of the World

It had been a slow day. On the bright side, Jay had finally gotten caught up on all of his paperwork from last week.

He never would have accomplished that if Erin were here. He'd be writing notes, then crumpling up the paper and throwing it at her. He didn't do it much when Voight was around, but Voight wasn't here to stop him anymore.

He would get a slight feeling of hunger and use it as an excuse to go talk to her. She had a desk drawer dedicated to snacks - mostly for him. He thought about going and grabbing one, but it was a quarter after one. He really should just go get his lunch.

He grabbed his leftovers from the fridge and popped them in the microwave. His cellphone rang. He looked at the caller ID. It was a number from Maryland. Probably just a telemarketer. He ignored it.

The microwave beeped and he took his lunch back to his desk. He'd no more than sat down when Nadia told him there was a call waiting for him.

He picked up the phone. "Hello," he answered.

"Jay Halstead?" a woman asked on the other end of the line.

"Yeah," he said.

"This is Angie Rizzoli, I'm a nurse at Harbor Hospital in Baltimore. We have Erin Lindsay here. Law enforcement said there was a note in her wallet saying to call you if anything happened to her."

Jay nearly dropped the phone. He couldn't breathe. They just got Erin back.

"Mr. Halstead, what is your relationship to Ms. Lindsay?" Angie asked.

"She's my partner." He knew if he classified it as a working relationship, the nurse probably wouldn't tell him what was going on, but there was nobody else to tell besides Nadia, and she wasn't related either.

"Do you know her next of kin, someone who can make medical decisions for her?"

He couldn't help the tears that flooded his eyes. "I'm the closest she's got."

"Mr. Halstead, Ms. Lindsay was brought to our emergency department with multiple gunshot wounds. She's unconscious and we're taking her in for emergency surgery to stop the bleeding. We're going to need you to come to Baltimore as soon as you can."

"What happened?" Jay choked out. He couldn't lose her.

"We'll fill you in when you get here. Just come as soon as you can."

He didn't need to be told again. He was on the next flight to Baltimore.

Erin woke up in the hospital a couple hours later. It took a couple moments for her to get her senses about her, but then she remembered everything.

A nurse came knocking on her hourly rounds. Her name tag identified her as Maura Jordan, RN.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Like I got shot," Erin answered dryly.

"You say that like it's happened before."

"It has, plenty of times."

Maura quirked an eyebrow at her.

"I'm a cop in Chicago," Erin explained. "No stranger to a gunfight."

"Oh," the nurse said, finally understanding. "Well you got lucky with this one. The surgeon said the bullets barely missed your lung."

"The surgeon?" Apparently she didn't remember everything.

"You were unconscious when the paramedics brought you in," Maura explained as she changed the bandaging on Erin's shoulder. "One of the bullets nicked your subclavian artery, the other one broke through your clavicle and lodged in your scapula. We performed emergency surgery to stop the bleeding, remove the fragments, and put a screw in to set your clavicle back to how it's supposed to be. Not that you have issues with this as law enforcement, but metal scanners at the airports aren't going to let you go through without raising hell anymore."

Erin offered her a small smile. She liked this nurse.

Maura finished up her examination and told Erin to call if she needed anything before she came back in an hour, then she was off to the next patient.

Shortly after she left, another knock sounded at the door. A tall, white man with short, sandy blonde hair stood beside a shorter, olive-skinned woman with long, dark, unruly waves.

Erin didn't recognize either of them, but noted the badges and guns holstered on their belts.

"Erin Lindsay?" the woman asked.

She nodded. "That's me."

"I'm Special Agent Ziva David (Dah-veed) and this is my partner, Special Agent Tony DiNozzo."

Tony took over. "We're with NCIS. We were told you're the one who took down the gunman."

"You have him in custody?"

"Not often our job is done for us," Ziva affirmed with a nod. "We just have to wait for ballistics to come back."

"Not often an unarmed civilian is ballsy enough to chase down a shooter," Tony said.

Erin smirked. "I'm not exactly your average civilian. I'm an Intelligence detective with the Chicago Police Department. I was practically on top of him before I remembered my sidearm was still in Chicago."

"That explains a lot," Tony commented.

"Chicago," Ziva repeated, smacking her partner and shooting him a silencing look. He had a tendency to make inappropriate remarks. "What brings you to Maryland, Detective?"

"Lost our boss in a hostage situation gone wrong two weeks ago, but he was more than just a boss for me," Erin said with a thick swallow. "He was like my dad - had been since I was fifteen. I needed to get away for a bit after we got the bastards who killed him, clear my head."

"Sorry to hear that," Ziva replied. She and Tony both knew what it was like to regard their boss as a father figure.

Tony gave a sympathetic nod before moving on to their questioning. "That head of yours clear enough to remember what happened, Detective?"

Though the question was less than tactful, Erin knew it was for good purpose. Any officer worth their salt would want to get as trustworthy of a witness report as they could. She nodded and gave as thorough of a statement as she could.

They thanked her when she'd finished and told her to make sure she stayed in town in case they had any more questions. Good thing she wasn't supposed to be back in Chicago for another week… not like she was going to be able to go back out in the field right away anyway.

As the agents turned and walked away, Erin couldn't help but notice Agent DiNozzo's hand come to rest on the small of his partner's back. Erin's mind floated to Jay. He used to do that to her all the time.

Agent David said something too quiet for Erin to hear, but the smile that danced across her partner's face as a result could have been seen from outer space. Clearly the two were more than just partners.

People often said that about her and Jay, even before they were dating.

She missed those days.

Things had been so tense between him and Voight before the older man's death.

Maybe now that he wouldn't be around to make Jay's life hell at work they could try again. She subconsciously pulled her phone and dialed his number before realizing what she was doing.

Shit. This wasn't a conversation appropriate for a phone call.

She quickly hung up. She'd talk to him later.

A good thing she didn't call, too, because the nurse came back again to test her vitals and check the bandages.

Erin appreciated the care she was getting, but between that and giving her statement, she was tired and growing frustrated that she couldn't just have some alone time to rest.

When Nurse Jordan left her room, she gladly reclined back onto the bed. It wasn't the coziest thing in the world, but she was too tired to care.

She pulled the blanket up over her chest and let her eyes close. She was about to fall asleep…

Then there was another knock at the door.

"What?!" she snapped, not even bothering to open her eyes and look who it was this time. She just wanted to sleep.

"Well you must not be hurt too bad," Jay commented, his voice still thick with worry. "You're still just as feisty as I remember."

Her eyes flew open. "Jay?" she breathed, instantly forgetting the irritation she'd felt only a moment ago. "What are you doing here?"

He rushed to her side and grabbed her hand, pain etched on his face. "They called me at work. I came as fast as I could. The way they made it sound, I thought I'd lost you," he said, not bothering to blink away the tears in his eyes. "God, Erin, I was so scared. It felt like the end of the world, the end of my world. All the things I never got to tell you -" he trailed off, just looking at her, relieved she was okay.

"Unfortunately for you, you're stuck with me for at least a little bit longer." She grinned at him, giving his hand a tight squeeze. "But for now, I gotta get some rest."

"I'll be right here when you wake up."

She smiled again then closed her eyes, letting sleep take her.

While Erin was sleeping, Jay took the opportunity to call back to the 21st. He relayed what he knew, which wasn't much right now, just that Erin was alive and in good spirits. He'd update them as he learned more.

As promised, he was still right there when she woke up nearly an hour later. Nurse Jordan introduced herself to Jay and did her check up.

Once she left, Erin turned to Jay. "You'll - uh - you'll never guess what I did today."

"Judging by where we currently are, it could be anything," he mused. He was relieved that she was okay, but he was still in the dark as to what happened to get them here. "They just told me you got shot. Lay it on me. What'd you do?"

"Well I'm gonna have a cool new scar, to start."

"No shit."

She chuckled then recounted the story for him. She started by telling him where the shots hit her and about her surgery, then she backtracked to the part about witnessing the murder of a Naval officer, chasing the guy who'd fired the gun, and finally taking a bullet when she'd tackled the man to the ground. "So I got a personal thank you from a federal agency today," she finished with a brag.

"That's my girl," he said, a proud smile spreading across his face.

She smiled in return. "So I'm your girl again, huh?" she teased.

"Erin," he started cautiously, but she interrupted him.

"You know how I said I got questioned by a couple feds earlier?" she asked.

"Yeah." Where was she going with this?

"It was like watching me and you, back before Hank scared you off."

"So they had each other's backs?" He thought he knew where she was going with this now, but wanted to be sure. His emotions were a mess just a couple hours ago. He didn't trust himself enough to start jumping to conclusions.

"They looked like they had a lot more than that of each other," she responded, giving him a pointed look.

"Erin, I'm sorry-" he started, but then he realized he didn't know what to say. Sorry wasn't quite accurate. He'd done what was best for his career at the time because there was no way that Voight would have given Erin the boot.

"Don't worry about it," she said with a shake of her head. "It wasn't your fault. I'm the one who should be sorry, and I am - not just for not leaning on you after Hank died, but also for not having your back and standing up to him. He shouldn't have threatened your job like he did, Jay. I should have called him on it."

He shook his head. "If you would have said anything to him, we both know that would have just made it that much worse. You've had my back in everything else. That's what matters. It's all in the past now, and I'd very much like to keep it there. Life's too short to focus on the 'should haves.' I knew that before, but it really hit me when I got that call four hours ago. Whatever I told you, whatever I told myself a month ago, forget it. I'm a damn fool for giving you up and it scared the shit out of me when I thought I'd lost you. Can you give me a second chance?"

She reached for his hand and squeezed it tightly. "You gave me a second chance just last week, even before I'd asked for it. Who would I be to deny you yours?"

He breathed a sigh of relief. A smile crossed his face and he met her eyes. "I love you, Erin," he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he leaned in close.

"I love you too," she replied, closing the distance to meet his lips.