Hey guys! Thanks for the response to the first chapter it was great and I really appreciate it. This chapter is kind of shorter, but it made sense for me to leave it here. I do have half of the next chapter already written though, so it should be out soon. Enjoy.

Jay was still standing in Voight's office staring at the doorway when Hank snapped him out of his thoughts. "You good, Halstead?" Turning back to face his boss, he nodded in reply. He'd rather have Erin be angry with him and know she was safe, than allow her to go in alone and have to constantly worry about her. If anything went wrong he wouldn't forgive himself, so there was no other choice for him, but to go undercover with her. "Yeah, I'm good."

"She'll understand, eventually."

"Let's hope." He answered simply before leaving the office.

Jay went to his desk, but with everyone else hustling around to ensure the mission went off without a hitch, he just felt in the way. To the untrained eye, his coworkers looked to be running around frantically with no destination. It was chaos, and he knew asking to help would only take time and setback their work even more. With that in mind, he slipped into the locker room.

He'd expected to be alone, but instead his eyes nearly bugged out of his head at the sight of her. A royal blue strapless dress hugged her curves as she stood before the mirror applying the finishing touches to her makeup. To him, Erin was always gorgeous, but it was an occasion to see her in heels and a dress. He'd seen it a few times now, and it never seized to amaze him. "Wow," was the only word that came to mind.

Startled, Erin peaked over her shoulder to see who had entered the room with her.

"You're, wow… You look beautiful." He stuttered.

Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, Erin responded in annoyance, "Don't, Jay."

"Don't what? Be honest?"

"Don't say shit you don't mean because you feel guilty."

"First off, I said it because I walked in here and you about took my breath away looking like that in that dress. You do look beautiful. Secondly, I don't feel guilty. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, but I won't feel bad for doing my job. This is not personal, Erin. It's professional, and professionally, I don't think you're ready to go at it alone."

''No, you can't say that none of this is personal, and then in the same breath tell me I look beautiful! It doesn't make sense! You can't be strictly professional one second, and then the complete opposite the next. This is personal, Jay. All of this is personal, and you can stop pretending like it isn't because it's not doing either of us any favors."

"Fine, maybe you're right. Maybe some of my reasons are more personal than professional, and maybe some of the lines overlap and blur between the two, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter. This is what Voight wants, and this is his unit, so it's what's going to happen."

"It's what you want! You put the idea into his head that I'm some sort of ticking time bomb just waiting to explode and take down everything and everyone with me."

"I didn't. I gave him my opinion and he happened to agree. You're a great detective, one of the best, Lindsay. Voight and I both know that. Hell, everyone knows it, but it hasn't even been a year yet. These things take time. Rebuilding trust takes time, and you don't seem to understand that!"

There it was. He'd said it, and she understood everything now. It all made since. Why he "couldn't," why he'd talked Voigt into letting him go undercover with her, it all went back to the fact that he still didn't trust her. The realization was heart shattering because he was the one person she'd worked relentlessly to gain back the trust of. She'd told him everything these last few months. Anything and everything she could about her past she laid out before him on the table. She told him her very first memory of being four years old, and waking up in the middle of the night to watch her father be hauled off to jail. She never saw him again after that night. She retold the story of the time she saved Bunny after she overdosed on the fourth of July, and how it happened three more times after that night. Her eyes lit up when she recalled the best childhood birthday she ever had; her mom finally had a decent boyfriend and he took them to the movies to see Aladdin for Erin's tenth birthday. She told him about how she fell for Charlie at fourteen, and how her heroine addiction began. Then she told him how she came to live with the Voight's, and what it was like loosing Camille, the first real maternal figure she ever had. She opened up about every memory she'd spent her adulthood attempting to repress, and she did so with the hope that having no more secrets would begin to reestablish trust. Now she realized that reliving and sharing all of it hadn't seemed to matter. It obviously hadn't worked because he still didn't trust her at work or outside of it.

She took in a gulp of air, the tears pricked in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. With a shaking voice she spoke, "you don't trust me." It wasn't a question; she was stating her newly understood fact. "You don't trust me and you don't know if you ever will the same again."

Jay opened his mouth in response, but closed it just as fast.

She wasn't wrong. He wished more than anything that he could assure her it wasn't the truth, but it was.

The mutual respect and trust they had for one another had made them instantly connect. It was the basis of their partnership, friendship, and relationship. Now, he had no idea who or what they were without it, and that broke his heart. He'd do anything to have it back.

"Erin..." He finally spoke but had nothing to continue with. What was there to say?

"I uh..." Erin's voice cracked as she continued to fight back the tears. "Let's just get this operation over with, alright?"

"Yeah." He nodded as he watched her turn to walk away. He felt like he should say something more.

"Hey, Erin."

"Hmm?" He looked over her shoulder from the doorway.

"I don't, but I want to." He didn't need to clarify. She knew immediately what he was trying to say. He wanted to be able to trust her again, and because of that, there was at least hope.

Not long after, Hank and Erin stood in the garage downstairs as he gave her a final briefing before she left. "So, Madison is staying in a room at the Burnham to avoid any reporters when the news leaks. We're going to have you meet her there. We have a key for you with the room number. Your room is just down the hall from hers, and Burgess has already been there and stocked it with clothes and anything else you may need. It's all set to go." She wanted to ask where Jay would be staying but she bit her tongue, and listened to Hank continue.

"I've always had a rule, don't get your picture in the paper and that applies to undercover work too, but I don't know how easy it's going to be for you with this case. We're going to do our best to keep reporters away, but there is only so much we can do to help. As soon as the next story hits they'll be gone though, so just do your best until then. Halstead is going to be your security guard, so anywhere you and Madison go, expect him to tag along. Treat him how you would security, not like your partner that you're pissed off at. He's just doing his job, Erin."

She rolled her eyes slightly, but Voight decided to just ignore it. There was no sense in arguing more about it now. "Any other questions?"

"No, I'm ready." She spoke with confidence. She was ready to prove to everyone that she could do this.

"Okay then, let's go. Antonio is going to be your driver." There was a pause that made her believe the conversation was over. "And Erin…"

"Yeah?"

"I do believe in you. If I didn't you wouldn't be going out there."