"Jay..." Erin raspily whispered as she woke from her slumber.
"Jay.." She said a little louder, still no response.
"Halstead!" She yelled.
"What!"
"You're hogging the blanket."
Jay let out a sigh as he gave away some of the cover.
"Thanks.."
"What time is it?" Jay said, not moving from his reclined seat.
"Almost six."
Jay let out a sigh, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he sat his chair up. He knew that once he was up, he could never go back to sleep.
"Is there any food left?" He asked as his stomach growled.
"I'm sure there might be a crumb or two underneath the seats if you wanna check." Erin said as she still laid in her seat, her eyes closed.
Jay sighed, reaching over to try to crank the engine, even though he knew it would not crank, he knew of he turned it just right they could get radio.
"... and today we can expect cloudy skies as another storm system moves across the area, highs will reach the low twenties with winds gusting around fifteen miles per hour. Tonight..."
"Great."
"I guess it's a good thing we packed heavy."
Jay said nothing in return, as he began moving about the car.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for.. Ha! I found it!" He exclaimed as he turned on the flashlight.
"Be right back." He said as he opened up the car door, an influx of cold air filling the car as he stepped out.
Erin sat there in the silence of the car, the radio softly playing in the background, as the wind pushed the snow around outside. She checked their phones only to avail, no service. No more than two minutes later Jay returned.
"No way we are getting out of here unless the snow melts, or we get towed. I don't see a plow coming through until at least tomorrow."
"Great..."
"There was that gas station about a mile back, lets throw some layers on and see if they can help us out."
Erin agreed, popping the latch for the trunk before grabbing the handle of her door, pushing it back with all her strength against the banked snow. She stepped out, shutting the door, walking into a snow bank that came up to her waist. Jay was already rummaging through their suitcases, pulling out the thickest clothing for them both. They layered shirts and pants on to the best of their ability. Jay shut the trunk, Erin locked it and they turned, beginning to make a trail down the road.
"Wait! I forgot something!" Erin said as she stopped in her tracks and went back to the car.
"What did you forget?" Jay asked her as she returned a few minutes later.
"My piece."
Jay let out a small laugh, "You brought your gun?"
"Yeah." Erin said as they continued walking.
"I thought you said this weekend was and I quote "No Work, No weapons.""
"And you actually believed me?"
"Nope. I snuck mine into my jacket while you were still in the car." He grinned.
The deep snow drifts had eased off, now only half a foot deep, and their pace picked up.
"So, I have told you a lot about my life, I think it is time for you to tell me something."
"Seems fair enough."
"You have told me about a lot about you and Mouse, but never how he saved your life or how you saved his."
Jay let out a sigh, he knew she would ask one day, and he figured she thought now was better than never.
"If you don't feel comfortable answering it's-"
"It's fine." Jay said as he felt Erin grab his hand for comfort. "Which one do you want to hear?"
Erin took a second to think, "How did you save Mouse."
"Which time?" he said as he laughed to himself.
"Surprise me."
Jay nodded his head, and took a deep breath in. "We were both in the second leg of our first tour, stationed in a small town just outside the capital of Afghanistan. Mouse... He… We had gone out in a three vehicle convoy that day. I was in the second hum-vee, he was riding in the first, we had went out on patrol late that morning, our COs had warned us to be cautious, not that we never were but to be extra aware that day because of increased activity in the area. Princess and Dirty John, I'll explain the nicknames later," Jay said as he glanced at Erin who was giving him a curious look "they were cracking jokes over the headset as usual, which had us all laughing, Princess was riding in the first truck and had just cracked a Yo Mama joke, those were his favorite. I'll never forget his voice, telling those stupid jokes. He had just finished telling us one that almost had a few of the guys at each other's throats, I was about to tell him never to give up his day job, but it was right after that when..." Jay's voice had drifted off, and they stopped walking down the snowy road. Erin took his other hand and squeezed both of his shaking hands, "Jay, you don't have to continue."
He shook his head and cleared his throat, pulling his hands away from her and walking ahead, she could see the internal struggle he was battling, peeling the scab off the old wound. "It was an IED, the hum-vee drove right over it. When those of us in the second vehicle, finally realized what was going on it was too late and we were being ambushed, I grabbed my rifle and jumped out of closest door, I didn't care about the consequences at the time, I cared about the safety of my brothers. The rest of the guys from my truck were right behind me, jumping out as the gunfire surrounded us, I yelled to Ry who was on the machine gun and told him to cover me as I ran towards the mangled steel. What was left of the truck had been tossed a good twenty yards off the road, landing on it's top, I ran over to the first door I came too, and stuck my head through the broken glass, it was bad Er. Blood and gas was everywhere, something acidic was in the air, I could barely see anything through all the smoke, it was... I thought they were all dead..." Jay closed his eyes to try and regain his emotions that were spiraling out of his control, Erin's heart broke, she felt the need to do something so she did the only thing she knew how in that moment, she stood up onto the tips of her toes, giving him a light kiss on the lips, as a tear slid down both their cheeks. "I was pulling my head out of the truck, when I heard someone coughing, it was Mouse, he was still strapped into his seat in the middle of the truck, holding onto his handheld GPS and rifle for dear life, upside down. I crawled in, and checked a few pulses of the other guys, they were already gone, so I cut him free, and we both barely escaped by the grit of our teeth, the gas had been ignited and the truck exploded behind us. I couldn't save them, it doesn't matter how many people tell me that they were already dead, I could have at least let their families have something to bury…"
"Jay, tell me something, do you have superpowers?"
"What? No." he shook his head before giving her a quizzical look.
"Then, why blame yourself, you just said that they were already gone but Mouse was still alive, you had to save him, you couldn't have magically stopped the explosion and saved everyone."
Jay said nothing as he pulled his head down and stared at the ground, pondering her words.
"I think I see the gas station." Erin said attempting to break the sorrowful mood that had fallen upon them as they continued their trek towards the block building. They made it to the entrance of the drive, a partial shoveled parking lot with a car sitting on one side of the faded blue building, on the other side was a one vehicle mechanic shop, a neon open sign flashed in the dusty window. Jay and Erin stepped foot into the warm building, the temperature difference of the sweltering heat inside the convince store versus the blistering cold outside, caused a burning sensation to spread across both of their faces.
"Hello?" Jay asked as the bells on the door rang as it closed behind them.
"I'll be back in a second." Erin said before she turned and walked across the store, down a small hallway.
The store was small, coolers lined the right side of the wall, while machines of sugary and hot drinks lined the right side of the store, shelves of snacks were in the middle and the register was against the back wall. A light thump of something falling or closing could be heard coming from the back room.
Jay walked around, picking up a few bags of snacks before walking over towards the coffee machines and fixing two cups.
"Still no one?" Erin asked as she walked up beside him.
"No, but I think someone is in the back room, check it out?" Jay said as he nodded his head towards a door behind the register counter. Erin nodded her head, and pulled her gun out from under her jacket, Jay doing the same as they simultaneously approached the door. Jay reached down, turning the handle with one hand and thrusting it backwards, he entered the storage room, going straight as Erin followed behind, turning off to the left and walking across the space, Jay began to slowly clear the area, one step at a time, Erin on the other side doing the same, they cleared the room, row by row as they reached they last set of shelves, Erin moved ahead "Hey Jay.." she said, her voice almost a whisper.
Jay rounded the corner, Erin's back to him as he observed the situation in front of him, two subjects, a make and a female both in their elder years were laying on blood stained concrete, he quickly turned around, to make sure that no one would be making any surprise attacks and to be cautious of the evidence spread across the floor. "Cover me." Erin said as she turned around to check either of the two victims for a pulse. Jay glanced back and Erin shook her head, letting him know that they were both deceased. They holstered their guns back into their jackets.
"I'm going to find a phone, call it in."
"I'll find gloves; we don't need to contaminate the scene any more than we have already."
They retraced their steps out of the storage room, Erin quickly found a box of rubber gloves on the counter, next to the fountain drink machines. She threw a pair at Jay, before throwing on a pair herself.
"Found a phone." Jay said as he thumbed over towards the device mounted on the wall, picking up the receiver.
"Iron County 911 what's your emergency?"
"My name is Jay Halstead, I am a Detective with the Chicago Police Department, me and my girlfriend got stranded in our car overnight due to the snow and it let up long enough this morning for us to get out, we are at a blue building convenience store and gas station off the main road, and stumbled across a 10-31. You might want to send someone over here."
"A 10-31? And you are sure about this sir?" The female spoke a second later.
"Yes ma'am, it seems to have occurred within the past hour or so."
"Ok sir, my partner is having personnel sent to your location right now."
"Ok."
Jay hung up the receiver, "I guess we should head back outside till patrol shows up."
"If patrol show up, the roads haven't been shoveled, how can we expect anyone to get out here?" Erin said as they walked back out into the blistering cold.
"They will get here eventually."
"So, what do you think happened?" Erin asked changing the topic.
"Well, they both had GSWs to the back of the head, which means it was either someone angry or it was personal, and it looked like there was nothing wrong with the register so it wasn't a robbery."
"How could someone be so cruel to do that to an elderly couple? I mean, they are just out here trying to make a decent living like everyone else in the world."
"Erin, we see this stuff all the time, we don't know their back story, we don't know anything about them."
"I know, but that is always just something I ask myself every time we get a case."
"Technically this is not our case…" Jay told Erin as she shot him a pleading look. "Erin… No, we are not working while we are on vacation."
"But Jay… What if they miss something, they don't have the resources and training like we do." She said saying anything to get him on her side.
"No. Babe, we actually got a weekend away from work, we have three whole days to ourselves, there is no Voight calling saying we have a case, it was supposed to be a relaxing weekend getaway."
"To Wisconsin."
"Northern Wisconsin."
They stood in silence out front of the building, still waiting on the arrival of the local police, Erin looked at Jay, and bit her lip, "Please?" she blurted out.
Jay let out a sigh, he knew he would never win an argument with her.
"Yes!" Erin rejoiced as she threw her arms around Jay's neck. "I promise to make it up to you."
"I know."
"Your birthday is coming up soon.." she said mischievously, slowly closing the small amount of space in between them.
"So it is."
Erin was millimeters from Jay's lips, when the distant sound of an engine coming up the road interrupted her actions.
"Finally! It's about damn time they showed up! What did they do, stop for doughnuts and coffee?" she voiced as she pulled away, her antics resulting in a curious look and a laugh from Jay "What, I'm cold."
"You could have told- Erin… Those aren't cops."
Erin spun around to see what he was talking about "We need to go, now." Jay said as he grabbed Erin's arm, quickly pulling her away from the front of the building.
They rounded the corner of the convenience store, ducking into a small crevice that surrounded them with concrete behind and on both sides, but concealed them from the two men on dirt bikes as they approached the building but stayed on the main road. Erin and Jay pulled out their service weapons, keeping them down at their sides, intently watching the two people on the dirt bikes.
"What do you think they are doing?" Erin lowly whispered.
"Don't know, we're too far back to see a whole lot but they don't seem to be friendly type." Jay pointed out as the people on the dirt bikes messed with something around the console, before cranking the engines and driving on up the road towards the stuck Chrysler.
"Think they are gone?" Erin asked, but before Jay had a chance to get the words out of his mouth, the revving of the engines could be heard coming back down the road.
The bikes got closer to the building once more and both Jay and Erin jumped, surprised by the sound of rapid gunfire piercing the air, breaking the silence of the frigid winter morning. Bullets began whooshing by their heads as they pressed their backs to the sides of partial cylinder block enclosure, as the copper began ricocheting off the metal and concrete further down the building. The smell of gasoline pouring out from the pumps began to grow potent, as the suspects stopped their bikes but continued to fire their weapons towards the building.
Jay moved slightly forward, pulling his gun up to eye level, checking for a clear shot, he noticed Erin out of the corner of his eye, doing the same.
Jay nodded his head, Erin nodding back. Silent confirmation that they were on the same page.
They both fired their weapons, one of them hitting one of the dirt bike shooters in the arm holding his automatic firearm, the man lost control over his weapon as his arm flailed all over the place, his finger still on the trigger as bullets went flying sporadically into the air.
"Get Down!" Jay yelled. He crouched low to the ground, Erin sliding down next to him in the small space as they both ducked their heads, being wary of any stray flying bullets; he opened his right arm and pulled Erin into his side as the gunfire continued on for a few more seconds before stopping, and once again, they heard the sound of the dirt bikes, revving their engines before blasting off down the road.
Jay lifted his head and observed their surroundings.
"Oh Shit." He said, coughing on the fumes from the gas that had been leaking.
"What's wrong? Are you hit?" Erin asked as she got to her feet, beginning to check to see if he had any new injuries.
"I'm fine, but we have a bigger problem." Jay said, looking out into the parking lot in front of them. She turned her head, to see what he was talking about, expecting to come face to face with the two men who could have returned once more, only instead she seen that they were face to face with a raging inferno of red and orange flames with no way out.
