His heart stops when they realize, when the words punch out of Jay's mouth. "Lindsay's with Tawny right now." Mouse is scrambling to get the ping on the phone before Voight has time to say anything, and Jay is charging down the stairs, the rest of the unit on his heels. He confirms to Jay that from what he can tell they're still in the same place he sent Erin, Jay hangs up, and then he waits.
He flicks a pen frenetically between his fingers, feeling the tightness of apprehension in his chest, waiting, waiting, "Antonio, one offender down, find the other two!" Jay's command comes through the coms and he clenches his fist around the pen. He takes a deep breath, trying to convince himself that if Jay is letting Antonio lead the rest of the chase, that must mean he found Erin, and since there was nothing about needing an ambo or anything, that must mean Erin is fine. Right? He chews on his lip, waiting for confirmation. A few minutes later his phone rings, and he snatches up the receiver.
"She's alright," Jay says, pre-empting Mouse's question. "Pissed as hell, but alright."
Mouse drops his head back against the chair.
"Thanks, Jay. See you guys back here soon."
When Erin walks up the steps back into Intelligence and Mouse notices the redness at her throat, he has a sudden urge to jump out of his chair and hug her. He doesn't, but Erin looks over and must see something in his eyes, because she veers towards him, squeezing his shoulder as she passes and giving him a reassuring smile. He lets his relief show plainly on his face, eyes flickering over to meet Jay's after Erin passes, seeing the same kind of relief echoed on Jay's face.
He's cleaning up the evidence board while Erin gets a cup of coffee, and he sees Jay wander into the break room after her. It's not so much that he's intentionally eavesdropping, more just that he's not intentionally not listening. And he hears how Jay's voice is on the verge of wavering when he asks her not to go in alone again, and he's glad that Jay is saying it. He's glad Jay is letting himself be vulnerable like that to Erin, and he's glad because Mouse was thinking the same thing, but he wasn't sure he had the right to say it.
Erin comes wandering back out of the break room and catches Mouse's eye. He knows she knows he was listening, and she gives him a humoured quirk of an eyebrow, but Mouse meets her gaze steadily. Her face softens and she reaches out again, resting a hand on his arm for a brief moment. Okay, she seems to say. Never again.
Then she's turning away again, and Mouse goes back to cleaning the board. As she leaves, Jay comes out of the break room and over to Mouse.
"You almost done? Let's get a drink; Erin'll join us after she gives the family the news."
"Just about," Mouse nods, swiping the eraser over the board, watching the names of suspects and victims disappearing once again. Soon, there will be new names, and new faces to haunt them as they work, but for now, the board is a blank slate. He piles the pictures, sliding them into the hardcopy file and sliding the file onto his desk, waiting for the final incident reports, and Voight's signature, before it gets slotted into a box in the basement. Then he follows Jay out, leaving the room empty and dark behind them.
It's been weeks since the Victoria Wasson case, and while the tension between Erin and Voight has dulled considerably, it's still a little bit there. That little bit of extra something that adds suspicion to Erin's gaze when Voight brings Eddie Little in as a CI. It's contagious – Mouse can't help but watch Voight a bit more closely, his nerves on edge when Little is in the room. Mouse can see it has the same effect on Jay. He may joke with the unit about Little in the beginning but even then Mouse knows Jay is only playing at being relaxed. It's uncomfortable, having the blatant reminder of Voight's crimes hanging around, dragging shadows into the sanctuary of headquarters.
Little throws off their gameplan, steers them off course, and Voight lets him. Mouse meets Erin's eyes across the room and sees her hardened distrust, meets Jay's and sees reflected unease. He doesn't like the feeling that Voight is letting Little pull the strings.
When Voight follows Little into the sports bar meeting with no backup and no eyes, Mouse feels his skin itch. He doesn't like being blind. It's his job to be the eyes in the sky, to turn cameras into allies and wires into ears, and Voight isn't letting him do his job. He's restless, the team milling about waiting for their return.
When Little refuses to let Mouse mount the button cam, he's almost grateful for the opportunity to volunteer the security cameras instead – it means he has to be on site. This time he isn't blind, and he isn't waiting restlessly behind. Little trying to make off with the money isn't a surprise. Voight seeing it coming isn't a surprise. Voight foiling his plans and taking him in… Mouse finds it reassuring, to have Voight's loyalty to the team proven. To know that when he preens at Voight bringing him into the field, that when he picked up that gun at the range and tore open his own wounds, he wasn't doing that for the Voight who first went to Stateville with Eddie. For all his faults, Voight isn't dirty, and Mouse can still respect him. Can still find meaning in Voight's respect for him.
Everyone is riled up, knowing they're on the trail of a potential dirty cop. Mouse may not wear the badge, or the uniform, but Intelligence has become his family, his home, and the cops he works beside are people he trusts. It's sometimes hard to remember the time when he was the one running from the boys in blue, with the second life that they've given him. So he may not technically be a cop, but he's angry right along with Jay's righteous fury, and Erin's betrayal and disgust. But when the plan comes up to put Erin undercover as a gambling drunk in the casino, Mouse hesitates, indignation usurped by concern, fingers finding the coin in his pocket – he's not worried about her safety undercover (at least, no more than usual) but the persona she'll be putting on… He worries it might hit a little close to home.
Erin notices. She pulls him aside as she dons the glittering jacket and squeezes his arm.
"Don't worry." She smiles reassuringly. "I've got this."
Mouse searches her face and she looks steadily back. Mouse's chest eases at the certainty he sees.
"Okay."
The sting works, but the perp isn't a cop. He put on the uniform and put violence into it, and Mouse isn't sure if it's better or worse that the man putting fear of the police into a young woman is a fake.
Except in the end, it really was one of their own who made it happen. Erin, Mouse, and Jay go back to Jay's apartment and they make scrambled eggs and toast because they don't feel like cooking anything more involved. They're all quiet; conversation is minimal, but Mouse is satisfied that there isn't tension between the three of them. Just contemplation. They put on an episode of Doctor Who, because this is what they do – soon enough, they'll run out of episodes to watch. Mouse wonders what they'll do then. They put their worries out of their minds and Mouse watches Erin more than he watches the screen as he tends to do. He knows the show so well by now it's more fun to enjoy her reactions. He knows Jay does it too. Mouse can't help but think of Amy Pond in a poncho and 'her boys,' can't help but think how the three of them, like the Doctor and the Ponds, are tangled up in a mess of love that could never quite work itself out for all of them, but they held onto each other as tightly as they could anyway. In the end, there would always be the Ponds and there would be the Doctor, two plus one that could never quite balance out to three. Mouse was the odd one out, but that wouldn't stop him from clinging to them as long as he could.
