Thank you for the reviews. Keep them coming please!

G: Gentle

*Erin can't help but be amazed at how gentle Jay is with her, considering her rough past.

Erin woke up to the sensation of something touching her face. She frowned and tried to stretch to get away from whatever it was, but it followed her. She heard a soft laugh and opened her right eye.

"Good morning, gorgeous." She realized Jay was kissing her face. He pressed a kiss to her cheeks, her forehead, her chin, her nose, and finally her lips. She felt his hands come up to cradle her face and hold her there for a second, then he moved away. He leaned his head down to rest against her chest and she ran her fingers through his hair. "Did you sleep okay?"

"Mmhmm." She let her eyes flutter shut again. She felt the weight of his head lifted from her chest and then kisses on her face.

"It's time to get up, baby. We've gotta go to work."

"Five more minutes." She pouted.

"Nope." He sat up. "Come on, Erin."

"Fine." She sat up and rubbed at her eyes.

"You look like such a little girl." Jay teased.

"Bite me, Halstead."

"I would love to." He leaned forward and pretended to bite her, making her laugh. She rolled away from him and just as she went to get off the bed, he grabbed her and dragged her back over to him. He planted a long, deep kiss on her lips. As he started to kiss her neck, she pushed him away.

"Work." She breathed out.

"Sorry."

"Don't be." She winked at him and then got out of bed to get dressed.

LINSTEAD LINSTEAD LINSTEAD

"I'm starving." Erin complained later that day as she sunk down next to Jay in the break room. He had a sub sandwich and a bag of chips in front of him. Erin had gotten stuck going to ask a few questions in a neighborhood where a shooting occurred with Antonio, so she wasn't there when everyone else got lunch.

"Here." Jay broke his sandwich in half. He opened the top of it and pulled out all of the tomatoes and put them on his wrapper for her. "Turkey, cheese, pickles, and mayo."

"You're the best." She kissed his cheek. She loved that Jay was capable of remembering little things, like the fact that she hated tomatoes. He stood, which caught her attention. "Where are you going?"

"I only have barbeque chips and I know you don't like them, so I'm gonna get you some Doritos." He continued his journey to the vending machine.

Erin grinned. She really did have the best boyfriend ever.

LINSTEAD LINSTEAD LINSTEAD

The Intelligence Unit stood outside of the warehouse of a criminal they had been trying to bring down for nearly a month. Erin had him in handcuffs and she was leading him to the squad car, but he wasn't going down easy. He kept fighting her grip and he turned to face her.

"Get in the car." She ordered.

"Or what? You're nothing but a weak little girl. I could break you in half, even with these handcuffs on." He stepped forward to try and scare her, but Erin didn't back down.

Jay knew she had to do this, even though he wanted to step in so badly. She had to prove to this guy that she wasn't weak and that she could do anything that the rest of them could.

"Get in the car." She repeated.

"I've got guys on the outside still. I'll have to tell them all about the little girl who arrested me."

Jay finally came over. "Will you just get in the car? Nobody cares about your empty threats or your sexist remarks. We got you."

"Do you?" he laughed.

Erin laughed too, then kicked him in the knee, bringing him down further so that he was at her level. She kneed him in the crotch and then pushed him into the squad car. She slammed the door shut.

"You good?" Jay asked. She nodded her head. "Good job, baby." He held up his hand for a high five. Normally, she might have been concerned about the fact that he was calling her 'baby' on the job since they liked to keep their personal life separate from work, but she high fived him anyway. While she knew that he wouldn't ever let anything happen to her, it was kind of intimidating to try and stand up to men who towered over her in height and had a good hundred pounds on her.

Jay walked back over to the car with Erin. While hearing people say anything negative to his girlfriend made him angry beyond reason, he knew that sometimes he needed to step back and let her handle it. He knew she was grateful for that, and he would do anything to keep her happy.

LINSTEAD LINSTEAD LINSTEAD

"Two busts in a day." Ruzek cheered. "Can this get any better?"

"Just take him to the squad car." Erin said with a roll of her eyes. She was happy too though; Chicago was better off without these drug dealers on the street.

She turned to follow him out of the building when out of nowhere, she felt her body get slammed to the ground. Her ears were ringing from how hard her head hit the floor and she could see spots in her vision. Her chest felt like someone was sitting on it, and she realized that there actually was a man sitting on top of her with a gun resting against her forehead. She squeezed her eyes shut and then the weight was gone. She thought she was dead, until she heard a struggle and saw that Ruzek had tackled the guy.

She wanted to help, but she couldn't make herself move. She tried to reach for her gun in its holster. A shot went off and her breath caught in her throat as she looked to see if Ruzek had been shot. But the man who had taken her down was lying in a puddle of his own blood with a bullet in his forehead. His face was turned towards hers and she could see that blank, dead stare in his eyes.

"You okay, Linds?" she heard Ruzek's voice. "Lindsay, can you hear me?"

She groaned, bringing her hand up to her head. She touched the back of it and when she pulled her hand away, there was blood.

"What happened?" Antonio yelled as he ran into the warehouse. He saw one of the men they had arrested that was supposed to be brought to the squad car laughing on the ground, a man in a pool of his own blood, and Ruzek sitting over Lindsay.

"He was gonna kill her." Ruzek said. His voice shook as he spoke. "He came out of nowhere."

Antonio looked over his shoulder to where Atwater was standing. "Get him in the car." He gestured towards the laughing man.

"You got what you deserved!" the man yelled out. Atwater hoisted him up and yanked him out the door.

"What, Ruzek can't even take his own guys to the squad car?" Jay joked as he reentered the building.

"Jay." Antonio called out.

The man's smile dropped as soon as he saw the sight in front of him. "We've got an officer down; we need an ambulance." He called into his radio as he ran over. "What happened?"

Ruzek anxiously ran his hand through his hair. "I was taking our perp out and some guy came out of nowhere. He knocked her clean off her feet when he took her down and he slammed her pretty hard. He had a gun on her forehead and I ran and tackled him. I had to shoot him. He would have killed us."

"You were supposed to be watching her back!" Jay shouted. "This is on you. Why didn't you clear all of the rooms?"

"All of the rooms were clear." Antonio chimed in.

"Obviously they weren't or she wouldn't be hurt right now." Jay rarely lost his temper, but when he did, it was a little scary. "Baby, are you alright? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah." Erin said. "My head is bleeding."

"I can see that. It's okay. You're alright, you just hit the ground pretty hard."

"My ears are ringing. It hurts."

"I know. An ambulance is coming." Her eyes started to slide closed, but he slid his hand under her head and kissed her forehead. "Keep your eyes open for me, Erin."

"I know I need to, but it's so hard." She whimpered. "Ruzek?"

"Yeah?" he waited for the verbal slaughtering she was about to give him.

"It's not your fault. I wasn't paying attention. This is on me."

"I should have had your back."

"It's not your fault." She repeated. Her eyebrows furrowed as her face scrunched up in pain.

"What do we have here?" Sylvie Brett, a paramedic from 51, asked as she came in. "Erin Lindsay. Rare that we get to see you like this. I think you're the toughest one in Intelligence."

"She was tackled by that guy over there." Antonio pointed to the man on the floor. He was most likely the muscle in the group he was from; he was over a foot taller than Erin and probably around 300 pounds. It was a miracle she wasn't dead just from how hard he brought her down.

"Alright, we're gonna get you onto the stretcher. Detective Halstead, can you help me out?"

"Yeah." Jay lifted Erin gently and transferred her to the stretcher. He, Ruzek, and Antonio helped Sylvie and her partner Chili carry Erin out to the ambulance. When they exited the building, Voight saw them and raced over.

"What happened?"

"I'm going with her." Jay called as he climbed into the ambulance with his girlfriend. He held her hand as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

"Erin, how are you feeling?" Sylvie questioned.

"My head hurts."

"She said her ears were ringing. The back of her head is bleeding from how hard she went down." Jay listed.

"There are spots in my vision too." Erin threw in.

"Sounds like you've got a nice concussion." Chili said with a grimace. "Don't worry, we'll patch you right up once we get to Chicago Med."

LINSTEAD LINSTEAD LINSTEAD

Erin was released from Chicago Med with a concussion and a bottle of painkillers. Jay was relieved to find out that she was alright, but he couldn't believe that this had happened. Everyone agreed that the building had been cleared, so they were suspecting that the man had entered through a window in one of the side rooms.

As soon as they walked into the apartment, Erin went over to the couch and laid down. She could only feel a dull pain right now because of the painkillers, but it was much better than earlier.

"Let's go to bed." Jay suggested. He slid his hands under her body and carefully lifted her up. He carried her to their bedroom and laid her on the bed. He untied her shoes and threw them to the side, then pulled off her jeans. Once he knew she was more comfortable, he took off his own jeans and t-shirt and crawled into bed beside her. He set an alarm on his phone so he could wake her in a couple hours to check on her, just like the doctor told him.

He tried to pull her into his arms, but he stopped when he saw the tears running down her cheeks.

"What's wrong? Are you okay? Do we need to go back to the hospital?" he started to get out of bed.

Erin shifted her body across the bed until she was in his arms. He rubbed her back so he could try to comfort her, even though he didn't know what was happening.

"Thank you." She cried.

"What?" Jay asked in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that.

"I've never had someone take care of me before. Thank you."

Erin nuzzled her face into his neck. In her past, all of her boyfriends had used her for a punching bag, or for sex or drugs. Jay was the first man she had ever met who could be so gentle. The way he touched her, whether it was waking her up in the morning or putting her on an ambulance to get her head checked, showed how much he respected her and loved her. She didn't know any other words to say to describe it to him than to just thank him.

"I'll take care of you until the day I die. I know you've had some rough relationships in the past, but I'm not those other guys. I'm always gonna be here, whether you need someone to laugh with, or you need a shoulder to cry on. You're my best friend, Erin, and you're the woman I'm in love with. I've got you."

Of course, he understood without her even saying it. She wished he could understand just how important of an impact he had made on her life. She just didn't know that he wished the exact same thing.

Up Next… H: Hold Me