Chapter 14 and I'm still blown away by your reviews and all your support. It really is the reason I'm writing this story. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter Fourteen: I'll Burn You To The Ground

(Phoenix – Fall Out Boy)

Her eyes were glassy, coated in unshed tears, but Dawson didn't mention it. He said nothing as they drove along the streets of Chicago. He didn't know where she was taking him and, honestly, he didn't really care.

A part of him, hated himself for letting Jay go, for giving in to his suicidal, last resort idea. The other part of him, that had inevitably made the decision, knew Jay was right. Neither part made it hurt any less.

"Torrance," Lindsay said spontaneously as she drove like a madman. She didn't take her eyes off the road as she spoke. Her word came out dead, emotionless, a cold, hard fact.

Dawson turned towards her silently, saying nothing.

"He's an old contact of Dante. I did some digging while you were gone, found out they'd been in contact recently. I was hoping it would be necessary to know, but..." she trailed off.

Dawson picked up on the harshness of her words. "I didn't want him to go Lindsay," he defended. "If I could've traded places I would have."

"It doesn't matter."

"No. It does. You're clearly upset with me."

"All that matters is finding Jay. How I feel isn't exactly a relevant variable in this equation."

Dawson sighed. "Lindsay..." the rest of his sentence died in his throat, never making it to his lips. He knew there was no point in trying to talk sense into her. Dawson had caught a glimpse of fear beneath her cold stare. She was terrified.

Erin Lindsay didn't get scared, let alone terrified. She was trying to hide it with a lack of emotion, but Dawson could tell she was horrified of what might happen if they didn't find Jay in time.

After another period of silence, Lindsay brought the car to a screeching halt outside a run-down, auto-body shop. She hopped out of the car and Dawson followed suit.

Neither bothered to knock.

There was a man underneath a car, fixing something. Dawson and Lindsay walked around the place. Once they were both satisfied that there was no one else but the themselves and the one under the car, they approached him.

Dawson gently kicked the man's leg. He slid out from under the car and rose to his feet.

"Torrance?" Lindsay asked.

The man nodded. "Yeah. Who's asking?"

Without skipping a single beat, Lindsay grabbed Torrance by the front of his shirt and spun his around, slamming him onto a nearby table. His body swept all sorts of miscellaneous tools and items off the surface. Dawson watched. He was concerned Lindsay might pull something, but he didn't say anything, and his expression revealed nothing.

"If you're here for Paco- I got the money!" Torrance squealed.

"Dante. I want you to tell me about your old friend Dante."

"Dante?! I haven't seen him since prison!"

Lindsay shook her head. "I've run your phone records. You two've been talking a fair amount recently."

"Yeah! But I ain't seen him!"

Lindsay walked away, to another surface with tools. As she ran her fingers over the different items, Torrance stayed completely still, paralyzed by fear. She returned a moment later with a blowtorch. She hovered over him and flicked it on. The ex-con squirmed, trying to get away from the flame.

"What did you two talk about?" She demanded.

"I owe a guy some money," he whimpered. "I was hoping Dante could help me out."

"And..." Dawson persuaded him to continue.

"And he said he was doing a job of sorts- didn't say what kind. I didn't ask." Lindsay brought the flame closer to his face, causing Torrance to speak faster. "He said he could help me though- as long as I paid him back with good interest." Closer. Faster. "He gave me fifty grand, but I wasn't going to pay him back. I was going to skip town with the cash."

Lindsay flipped off the blowtorch. "Dante's not an idiot. He wouldn't give someone fifty grand without some sort of insurance. Especially, someone as squirrelly as you."

"We're friends. He must trust me."

Lindsay let out a sigh and placed the turned off blowtorch against Torrance's chest plate. "I suggest you stop lying to me."

Torrance whimpered, "There's this guy...I...I kinda work for him...he gave me one of his lieutenant's cars to fix up...Dante took it as insurance. If my boss...If he finds out I lost the car before I skip town... I'm a dead man. It was a Ferrari."

Lindsay smiled. "I want the names of your boss and the owner of the car. Plus, it's make, model and license plate number."

Torrance shook his head. "They'll kill me..."

Lindsay pulled the blowtorch away from his chest and place it in front of his face, moving it far enough back so it wouldn't burn him alive as soon as she turned it on. Instead, when she did, the flame ended near Torrance's face instead of on. It was still very hot and uncomfortable for the mechanic, but Lindsay didn't care.

"You should be less worried about the dangers that you might face and more concerned about the dangers you are facing, namely. me."

"Fine! Fine! I'll tell you anything you want to know!"

Lindsay waited a moment before turning off the blowtorch and forcefully pulling Torrance to his feet. She gave a harsh shove, pushing him towards a desk filled with drawers.

"Go write it down," she demanded.

As he hobbled off, Dawson grabbed Lindsay's arm. "I'm assuming we're following the car."

She nodded. "That's the plan."

Dawson shook his head and sighed. "I'm okay with threatening a few dirtbags here and there Erin, but you're still recovering. Can we promise that from now on, you'll hang back and I'll talk to them."

Lindsay shrugged. "I'm going to do whatever I have to do to get him back." She made a move to turn towards Torrance, but Dawson tightened his grip on her arm before releasing her.

"If anything happens to you because of your own disregard for your own safety...Voight will have my head."

"Is that all you care about? Your own head?"

Dawson's face gave off a sad emotion. "That's not fair Erin, and you know it's not true."

Lindsay shook her head weakly. "Voight called me before you did. He and the others were on their way back to the station. He told me what happened, how you found Jay and they took you both..." she trailed off for a moment. "I don't know what happened between you and Jay, but judging by the fact that you can't quite look me in the eyes, I'm assuming you accepted his idea."

Dawson stared at the floor, saying nothing.

"You told him it was okay to blow himself up."

"That's not the whole story."

"The whole story doesn't matter Antonio," she snapped. "If he blows himself up, that's on you."

"Valerie's plan involves citizen casualties. That's what Jay told me. As much as I wish we could just ignore that fact, we can't. We're police Erin. His life isn't worth more than the civilians that could die, regardless of how much we want it to be!"

Lindsay was about to speak, but she was cut off by Torrance handing her a piece of paper with all the requested information. She snatched it from his hands.

"You have surveillance here?" she asked

Torrance nodded.

"I want you to send a copy of your feeds to this IP address," she instructed, writing down some numbers on a nearby piece of paper.

The ex-con nodded and picked up the piece of paper.

"Take your money and run," she snapped before walking away. Dawson turned to follow, but paused when the mechanic spoke up.

"Are you police?" he asked quietly.

Dawson didn't turn around. He didn't need to.

"Aren't you supposed to be enforcing the law?...n-not breaking it?" he stammered.

Dawson sighed. "We're supposed to be saving lives," he stated before following Lindsay back to the vehicle.

They sat in the car outside the auto-body shop. They had called Platt's tech guy, Ranger, with the information and the security videos and asked what he could get them. He had said he would call back in a couple minutes. Now, they waited.

"I'm sorry." Lindsay's words cut through the silence like a knife. "I was out of line. I know you care about finding Jay. I just..." She paused for a moment staring right at he friend. "I'm scared," she confessed. "I don't know what I'll do if we can't save him. I don't know how to live in a world without him. I don't- I don't know if I want to."

Dawson sighed. "I tried to talk him out of it," he said quietly. "I told to hang in there, for us, for you." He took a heavy breath. "He's not giving up. He assured me of that. Erin, he doesn't want to die. He wants to live."

Lindsay nodded silently.

"He's going to fight, give us as long as he can. We have to trust that he'll give us enough time."

A single tear began to stream down Lindsay's face. They sat in silence as the tear feel without a sound.

"He'll hang in there," Dawson assured her after a pause. "He's good at that. I mean, putting up with you for this long, how much better can one get at hanging on?"

A small chuckle broke through Lindsay's sobs. She looked at her friend with a weak smile.

"Thank you," she whispered. "I needed that."

"There's nothing you're going through that I don't know," Dawson pointed out, thinking of his own late partner. He paused, thinking for a moment. "Then again..." he said with a smirk. "Jules and I didn't quite have the same feelings for each other that you two do..."

"Hey," Lindsay chastised, as she slapped his arm.

Dawson laughed as his phone began to ring. "Dawson."

"I got some information for you," Ranger announced.

"Hang tight. Let me put you on speaker...Okay. Shoot."

"I checked out the surveillance feeds and found the time that Dante picked up the car. He picked it up only a couple hours before going to Halstead's apartment. It seems like a hell of a coincidence to me, but you're the detectives."

Lindsay and Dawson exchanged a questioning look, but said nothing, allowing Ranger to continue.

"Then I looked at the car. It's owned by Henry Dane, also known as Tiny. I looked through some of his recent purchases, he bought a tracking device only hours after purchasing this Ferrari. If I had to guess I'd say the device is in the car. Of course, you'd have to talk to Tiny to gain access to it. I got an address for the guy, sent it to both of your phones."

"Appreciate it," Dawson said before hanging up. "So, detective, how you want to play this? Barge in demanding in it?"

Lindsay thought about it for a moment.

"I've got another idea that would involve less risk of you tearing your stitches," Dawson admitted. "Because Voight really will kill me. He'll probably kill me anyways. I'm guessing you didn't ask him if you could leave the precinct."

Lindsay shrugged. "I was done sitting around with my partner's life on the line."

Dawson smiled faintly. "Let's go meet this Tiny. And Erin..."

"Yeah?"

"Write something nice on my grave."

Lindsay knocked on the door. She wanted to break down the door and put her gun up against the man's head, demanding he help her. It took all of her willpower to wait for Tiny to answer the door, and even more to stop her from breaking his hand the moment she saw him.

The man had a nice house. It wasn't too extravagant, but still rather pricy. It was likely that nearly everything the criminal owned was bought with drug money. Dawson was probably right. Bursting in would likely set of some type of alarm.

"Hello?"

Lindsay flashed a smile. "Hello. I'm here to talk to you about your car. The Ferrari."

Tiny frowned. "I'm sorry. I-"

"I'm here on Paco's behalf," she interrupted. "The man you had fix your car, he works for Paco. You know this."

He nodded.

"Great. Now, Paco has reasons to believe that this mechanic may be trying to sip town. He's not at his auto-body shop and neither is your car. He sent me here to see if your vehicle was equipped with a tracking device."

Tiny paused for a moment thinking about it. "Yeah, but...I've never seen you before. How do I know you work for Paco?"

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Really? I've dropped several clues in the brief conversation we just had. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were behind on your phrases."

Tiny's face froze in confusion.

"I see. How sad. May I see your cars location?"

Tiny nodded, still confused. "It's- uh- It's an app on my phone." He let her into the house, closing the door behind them. He walked over to a small side-table, picked up his cell and opened the app. "See, it's says my car is- son of a..." Tiny cussed viciously. "It's not at the shop. It's at the other side of town!"

Lindsay smiled an I-told-you-so smile. "I'll go relay this information to Paco. I'll need your phone."

Tiny took a step back. "No. I'm going to go get this back myself. You can tell Paco, I'll bring that damn mechanic back in a body bag."

Lindsay frowned. "I'm sorry, he wanted me to deliver the location. He didn't ask for a corpse."

"Sorry hun," the criminal grumbled. "This is my car, my business."

That was the point that Lindsay lost her cool. She threw a harsh, right-handed punch at Tiny's left cheek. The man staggered, but didn't fall. Lindsay was able to land one more hit to his gut, before he came to his senses and was able to block her blows. He swept her legs out from underneath her with one well-timed kick. She returned the favour with a swing of her right leg as she lay on the floor.

Before he could get up, Lindsay took up position on top of him and began punching him in the face, over and over. A couple minutes (or a few seconds) later (Lindsay couldn't tell), Dawson pulled his friend off the, now, unconscious man.

"Erin!" He called out, as he pried her away from Tiny. "Get a grip!"

Dawson released her shoulders and she slumped to her knees. He walked around her, so he was know between her and Tiny. He then took a knee, getting down to the same level as her. She handed him a phone.

"It's an app," she explained. "I have the Ferrari's location."

"Erin. You're bleeding."

Lindsay looked down. Sure enough, she'd torn her stitches in her brief fight, but she couldn't feel it. She felt a bit faint, but no pain registered in her body.

"I thought we agreed to make this clean. In and out, no injuries," Dawson chastised.

Lindsay shrugged. "Maybe you should've gone in."

"I thought a pretty face would help...and I didn't think you'd beat him senseless."

"Talking around it would take time. We don't have time."

"Erin," Dawson sighed. "You have to consider your own injury. I'll take you back to the hospital."

She shook her head furiously. "Antonio, I can't go back. I'm fine. I'm fine, please."

Dawson stared at her in awe. "Erin, you were shot. You need help. This isn't a scrape."

She shook her head. "I don't care. I want to help. I need to help." She shot her friend a look of pure determination. "It's Jay, Antonio. I need to help."

Dawson inhaled deeply, then exhaled. "I'll call Gabby, see if she can patch you up. But Erin, I swear to god, you have to to take it easy after this."

"What if Jay dies because I'm too concerned about myself?!" she cried out.

"He won't."

"And if he does?! What then? How am I supposed to live with myself if that happens? How are you supposed to live with yourself? Antonio, I'll take it easy, but to save Jay...I don't care what happens to me."

"He does," Dawson reminded her. "I don't want to explain to Halstead that he's the reason you're so hurt. He was so relieved when I said you where okay Erin. Don't make my words into a lie."

"Just...Just promise me you'll find him."

Dawson nodded. "I'll call Gabby."

"I still think it's a bad idea," Gabriela Dawson pointed out as she finished patching up Lindsay's wound. "She needs a doctor."

"What I need-" Lindsay groaned as she rose to her feet. "-is to find my partner."

Gabby bit her lip, looking back and forth between the two detectives. She turned to her brother as Lindsay got into her car, waiting for Antonio.

"Antonio. I'm serious."

He shrugged. "You've done stupider things."

"This isn't about me. This is about Erin. I patched it up for now, but she needs to keep physical action to a minimum, not go on a raid."

Antonio smiled weakly. "We're way closer to this car, than anyone else in our unit. It'll be faster for us to go alone. We don't even know if anyone will be there. We can't send the whole unit to go check out a lead with this small of a chance of panning out."

Gabby sighed. "Keep an eye on her."

Antonio nodded. "Promise," he said, before he and his sister made there way back to their respective vehicles. He hopped into the passenger seat of Lindsay's car and stared silently at her for a moment.

"Why are you doing this Erin? You have to know it's insane."

"Do you remember when you said that Jay isn't worth the lives of a bunch of civilians?"

Dawson nodded.

Lindsay took a heavy breath, holding it for a moment before letting it back out.

"He is to me."

Wow. This chapter didn't go at all like I had planned...like...at all...My writings just develop minds of their own and take over I guess. I still hope you like it. I tried to hint at some Linstead...I've never really written romance before (and it still isn't the focus of this story), but I've been talking with LindsteadLove and I've been trying to figure out how to incorporate some degree of Linstead into my story. Anyways, this isn't my best work, but please let me know how you felt about it, especially the Lindsay feels. Was it OOC? Was it awkward? Feel free to let me know so I can make it better.

I dunno...this chapter kinda felt weird to write...maybe it's because of all the studying I've been doing.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed. NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE UP NEXT SUNDAY (I made that easy to read so people who don't read the A/N can see it). Talk to you then.

Next Chapter:

Chapter Fifteen: So Gung Ho To Lay Down Our Lives