Sorry I haven't posted one in such a long time…these past few weeks have just been hectic! Hope you enjoy this next chapter – I have another one in the works!
Chapter 11
Halstead didn't really know how to reply. "Hi?" he said, almost as if asking question. Before he could say anything else, Voight stepped through the door frame and stopped when he was next to Jay. He turned to him and said, "Blackhawks game?"
"Yeah, I haven't caught any of their playoff games so far," Jay replied, trying to smile and appear calm. Voight turned his focus towards Jay's living room, and Jay began to think that he was off the hook with Voight and the whole baby thing.
He was wrong.
Jay tried to move to the kitchen, but Voight pinned him against the wall, punched him in the face, and then pushed him face-first to the floor. When Jay tried to get back up, Voight kicked him in the chest. Jay gasped as pain began coming from his rib cage area. He fought with Voight and managed to get himself standing again.
But he wasn't prepared enough.
Voight delivered another blow to Jay's face, and then sent him to the floor again after punching him in the throat. Jay fell against the wall, grabbing his rib cage in pain. He could feel blood coming from his nose and mouth. He looked up, trying to catch his breath, and saw Voight still standing next to him. "Don't you ever, ever, go near Erin again. I'm blaming you for putting her in her current situation. You should have followed my orders in the first place. I don't want you as Erin's partner anymore. You can switch with someone." After he was finished talking, he walked out Jay's front door, slamming it closed behind him.
Erin was in the process of putting her clothes and toiletries into her duffel bag when she heard loud noises from the front of the apartment. She thought Jay had just dropped a glass or something. But she realized that something else was up when she heard a low, domineering voice, and heard the door slam.
She opened the door slowly, gun in hand. "Jay?" she called out. She heard a faint, weak voice calling out from the down the hall. "Erin."
Erin ran down the hallway, and then sprinted towards Jay yelling, "Oh my God! Jay! What happened?" She dropped to the floor next to him and saw his hands grasping his rib cage. And his bloody face. Erin began to cry because she was so scared. "Do you need to go the hospital?"
"No, I don't think so," Jay grunted. "My rib cage just hurts like hell."
"Here, let me see," Erin offered, and after Jay removed his arms, she felt along his rib cage. "No breaks as far as I can tell. Probably just some bruising. Did someone kick you? Who was in here?"
"Voight," Jay blurted out, still lying on the floor.
Erin gasped. "What?" It was all a façade, Erin realized. Voight wasn't really on board, and he was never going to be. "Oh my God, Jay, I'm so sorry." She helped him up and over to the couch, and got some wet towels to clean off his face. Once his nose had stopped bleeding and Jay started to look like himself again, Erin said, "It's a miracle you don't have a black eye."
"I'm glad I don't have one," Jay replied monotonously. He looked at Erin as she wiped the last bits of dried blood off his face. "Voight said that he doesn't want me as your partner anymore."
"That's nonsense!" Erin replied, surprised. "I'm not going to let that happen."
"What if he just does it anyway?"
"Then I will talk to him," Erin said, realizing that going the simple talking route hadn't worked earlier in the day. She sighed and said, "You shouldn't have had to go through this. You didn't deserve this at all."
"I can handle it," Jay said. "I don't care what Voight says. I love you, and we're going to be a family, and he shouldn't have the right to interfere with us."
Erin kissed him. "Love you too," she replied.
Jay asked, "Can you stay here tonight?"
"Oh, I'm staying here," Erin replied. "I want to give Voight a piece of my mind if he comes 'round here again…wait, did he know I was here?"
"Nope," Jay replied with a sigh of relief. "But don't get yourself all worked up. It's late."
"We need to report this. I am not going to stand by and watch him order us around and treat you terribly – and beat you up – just because we got together when he didn't want us to."
"Why? Wouldn't Voight just get even angrier?"
"I'm willing to take that risk. Since my fears of Voight coming after you came true, I want him to know that he crossed the line."
"How did you know that him coming after me was a possibility?" Jay asked, curious.
"Ever since he took me in, he was always super protective of me when I was in relationships with guys. I'm sure he threatened at least one of them. But the bottom line is, he didn't want me getting hurt."
"And he views this as a situation where he needs to be protective?" Jay continued.
"I guess so," Erin said, sighing, as she sat down on the couch next to Jay. "But I don't need his protection anymore. I can make my own choices.
"He doesn't seem to fully get that while I'm grateful to him for taking me in and helping me rebuild my life, I don't need his protection anymore. I'm not sixteen anymore, you know?" Jay nodded, so Erin continued, "But you understand what it means to be independent. You get me…which is why I trust you much more than Voight nowadays." Erin paused, as if having some realization, and Jay asked, "What?"
Erin gave him an oh no look. "We have to go to work tomorrow."
"Let's just call in sick. Have a day where it's just you and me," Jay suggested.
"I would love that, but…wouldn't Voight know that we weren't really sick?"
"You could say that you've got really bad morning sickness, and I can say that I got drunk last night and I need a day to recover from the hangover."
"Wow, really creative," Erin acknowledged. "But I've found that the best way to deal with Voight is to deal with him head on, not avoiding him."
"Then work tomorrow it is," Jay conceded. "But I still want to be your partner."
Erin gave him a friendly punch in the arm. "Are you kidding? I'm not going to listen to him, let alone sign off on a partner change. He can't separate us, no matter how hard he tries."