Woah that was fast too! I've got two amazing people helping me out, coffeebeannerand the deepest secret. This has become a fun group story I think. We've already got the next chapter mapped out too, so that shouldn't be too long either. It's so much easier when the story has a beginning middle and end and you've got three brains on it.

Enjoy!

"Keep the change," Erin Lindsay told the cabbie with a forced smile before stepping out of the white and turquoise taxi. She had taken it from Halstead's apartment to her own at 1601 S. Indiana. Pressing the button to extend the handle on her suitcase, she made her way towards the front door of her building, taking long, determined strides. Once in the elevator, she let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. She was exhausted, frustrated and on edge; she couldn't wait to get back to her apartment she hadn't been there in days. Her partner, and his brother (who had unfortunately been her doctor) had convinced her to stay with them against her better judgement. She should have trusted her instincts. She had known it would be a bad idea. In her painkiller induced haze, however, she'd given in, somewhat as a ploy to get the hell out of the hospital.

Once she reached the third floor, Erin dug through her purse, finding her apartment keys to unlock her door. She was shaking, she was so mad at herself. Mad for letting her guard down around Halstead. For fucking sleeping with him. She was rock solid, no one got to her, but he had, and for that she felt ashamed.

After a few attempts the key went in and she turned it, opening the door, walking into the safety of her home and slamming it behind her. She hung her purse on the coat rack next to the door and wheeled her suitcase behind it. She tossed her keys in the small glass bowl she had on the sideboard table. Her phone vibrated in her back pocket, she sighed and checked it. A voicemail from none other than Halstead.

"Erin, please call me. If you don't want to talk about today; fine. At least call me to let me know you got home safely." she could hear Jay let out a long sigh before ending, "I'm sorry Erin."

Erin deleted the message and placed her phone on silent before heading to the bathroom for a long hot shower. She turned on the shower and waited for it to warm up. As she stood in front of the mirror and stripped off the clothes she'd hurriedly put on just 45 minutes ago, she noticed something dark on her collar bone. The bastard had given her a fucking hickey. That was the last straw. Tears welled up in her eyes. Tears of shame and regret. She felt like a complete idiot for letting herself get caught up in him. She wiped furiously at her cheeks but new tears just kept replacing the ones she had swept away. Realizing the tears weren't going to stop any time soon, she gave up, letting out a deep ragged breath and stepped in the shower.

"So are we just not going to talk about what happened?" Jay Halstead asked his partner from the passenger seat of the squad car they were sitting in. It had been 24 hours since he had woken up to Erin Lindsay panicking about sleeping with him. She hadn't said a word about it to him since, nevermind, returned his voicemails or texts. He was hurt, to say the least.

"What happened?" she asked, playing dumb.

Jay gave her an exasperated look before replying indignantly. "Really? This is how we are going to play this? Just ignore it?"

"It never happened, because it never should've happened." Her tone brooked no further argument. Jay, however, pressed on.

"Well, I like you-" He started, but Erin cut him off before he could finish his confession.

"What the fuck for? Halstead, I'm not even nice to you," she almost snorted. He really had some weird understanding of their relationship, but she had no problem clearing it up for him.

"Halstead, we're not friends and we certainly never will be anything more. We're partners. We don't fuck. So all of this," she gestured wildly with her right hand, "whatever you think it is, it just isn't."

"If this is some kind of defense mechanism, I'm not going to be deterred by it. I know you have trust iss-" Erin interrupted him again. He was overstepping and she was definitely not going to stand for it.

"I don't have trust issues, Halstead," Erin seethed, emphasizing his diagnosis of her, "you don't know me."

"I know I don't. We've been partners for, what, three years? I don't know anything about you." He'd tried to get to know her, he truly had, but she would always deflect the topic away from herself.

"And you don't need to. We're partners, not 12 year old girls. If you want it to stay that way, drop it!" Why was that so hard for him to understand?

"I don't want another partner." Jay almost sounded like a hurt puppy, but her patience was wearing thin.

"Okay, then you need to stop right now. I don't want anything to do with you outside of work, got it?" she snapped. Jay shut his mouth, realizing he was on thin ice. Thankfully, a moment later they got a call about a robbery ten blocks away; neither of them could wait to respond.

This can't be happening, Erin thought as she stood across the street from her apartment complex, her eyes watching the building being swallowed by flames. It was reduced to it's original brick shell. The roof and several floors had collapsed in on the structure. Just by looking at it, she could tell that everything she owned and was gone.

The entire day, (heck the past two months since the hookup with Halstead) had been horrible, and now this? She had turned onto her block, only to be met with the sight of fire engines and ladder trucks. All she had with her was her purse, badge, and gun.

"Excuse me?" she asked an elderly black gentleman a few feet away, "W-what...how did this start?" She was surprised at her own uneasy voice.

"Electrical," the man mumbled, obviously in shock. He likely was a resident of the building as well, although she was sure she'd never seen him before. For a split, paranoid second, she had wondered if she'd turned her curling iron off.

Erin didn't even wait for the fire department to explain anything, she knew there was no way she could salvage anything, let alone that she could stay there. By the time the fire department put out the flames, there would be nothing left but ash and rubble. Her first thought was going to Voight's, before she remembered she couldn't. She swallowed hard, knowing whom she would have to ask.

A few minutes later, Erin Lindsay entered his apartment complex. It was slightly strange being back, but she really didn't have a choice. She felt pathetic for it. How had her life turned into such a mess? And now she didn't even have anywhere else to go.

He would know soon anyway, she rationalized as she made her way to his door. They would have to talk eventually, so maybe this wasn't as inappropriate as it felt. Maybe this was the push she needed. If only she wasn't so scared.

When she reached his apartment door, she hesitated for a second before gathering all her courage and giving three strong knocks: surely loud enough to wake up anyone sleeping in the neighboring apartments.

Jay groaned wondering who on earth was at his door at 11:00pm. He shuffled his bare feet to the door, cursing to himself at the rude awakening. Looking through the peephole, he saw familiar golden locks. He unchained the door and pulled it open, "Erin?"

"Can I come in?" Erin looked up at her partner. She could practically feel the courage deserting her.

"Yeah, sure." Jay stepped aside to let Erin in. She walked in and stood off to the side as he closed the door behind him. "What's going on?" Her eyes were bloodshot and the tip of her nose was red, a clear sign she had been crying.

"You haven't seen the news?" Erin watched him flick the TV on and turn to the local news. Headlines ran across the screen: Electrical fire takes down apartment building leaving twenty families homeless. Jay's eyes widened in shock, he needed to sit. Once he settled into the couch cushions he turned his attention to partner, "Are you okay?"

Erin gave him a small shrug and pushed off where she was leaning against the wall, "I'll live." She took a seat in the armchair that was from across from the couch. "Can I use your laptop? I'm going to see if I can book a hotel for a few-"

Jay quickly shook his head and put his hand up to stop her from speaking, "Nonsense, you can take my bed. I'll crash on the couch until you get things in order."

Erin let out a grateful sigh but shot him a look, "One condition: You stay on the couch. We are not having a repeat of last time."

"Oh don't worry; it won't happen again." Jay scoffed.

Erin folded her arms over her chest, "You're damn right it won't," she gave him a promising warning. The room fell silent for a few minutes.

"Hey Halstead," she called out to him in a quiet raspy voice "you know Voight is deep undercover, has been for a few months, so thank you." She hadn't been too nice to him in recent weeks and she knew he was being kinder to her than she probably deserved.

Jay gave her a soft smile, "It's no problem, I know you'd do the same for me."

Erin only smiled at him in response.

After another bout of quietness Erin let out a yawn. He looked over to his partner who looked exhausted. "Are you going to go to bed now?"

Erin gave him a short nod and looked down at the pair of jeans and blouse she'd been wearing all day. "Do you, um... have anything I could wear?"

"Yeah, follow me." Jay stood up from the couch and walked with his partner to his bedroom. Jay pulled open the second drawer of his dresser. He rummaged through the neatly rolled up tshirts. He picked out an olive green Army Strong tee. "It was a little snug on me." Jay glanced at Erin's petite frame, "Might be a bit a big on you though."

Erin took the t shirt and held it up to her chest, "Thanks. It should be fine."

"Okay, I'm going to use the bathroom then I'll be out of your way."

Jay made his way to the bathroom while Erin took the opportunity to strip off her blouse and shimmy into the t-shirt. Jay was right, it was a bit too big on her. Erin nestled into the bed, covering her legs with the sheet that was bunched up from when Jay had laid in it last. It smelled like him too.

When he came out of the bathroom a minute later, she was fast asleep.