Chapter 12
Jay pulled into the parking lot and sighed. He wasn't how to prepare himself for walking into work to a boss who had punched him the night before. But he had promised Lindsay that he would just confront the problem, so he slowly got out of the car, wincing in pain. His ribs still hurt. And just to add to his problems, he now had a black eye.
Which everyone would be asking about.
He walked into the precinct lobby and tried to dodge past Platt, but was caught halfway up the stairs. "Halstead," he heard Platt say. Shoot, Jay thought. He turned around slowly, walked down the stairs, and stopped in front of Platt's desk. "What's up?" he asked, trying to sound enthusiastic.
"Lindsay told me you had something to report," she replied monotonously.
Jay looked around, and after seeing that there were a lot of people around, he leaned forward and told Platt, "Not now."
"Something to do with Voight? Did he give you that black eye?"
Jay nodded silently and walked towards the stairs. He could feel Platt's eyes just staring into his back as he entered the passcode on the keypad to the intelligence unit. He walked up the stairs, and as he tried to make eye contact with Erin (who was sitting at her desk), Antonio was the first look up and say "Good morning." But he didn't quite finish because he pulled a face when he saw Jay's black eye.
"What happened to you?" Antonio asked. "Get in a fight or something?"
"Not exactly," Jay replied as Erin looked up. He sat down in his desk chair and looked down to find a bright red transfer form on the top of his paperwork files. "What?" Jay said quietly. He sighed again.
"What is it, Jay?" Lindsay asked across the aisle.
Jay, without saying anything, lifted up the red form so Lindsay could see it. Suddenly furious, Lindsay stood up, yanked the transfer form out of Jay's hand, and proceeded to turn on her shredder. As she was feeding the red paper into the shredder, Antonio started walking over to Jay and Lindsay. "Erin, what are you doing?" he asked suspiciously.
"Shredding this form," Erin replied, still turned towards the shredder.
"That's a transfer form. For Halstead. Why are you shredding it?"
Erin didn't reply, and Jay took the opportunity to scan the room. Voight wasn't in yet. "Because we knew it was coming," Jay said just loud enough for Antonio and Erin to hear. Erin whirled around in surprise. "Jay," she said, with a hint of anger.
"What?" Jay said, defending himself, "He's not in yet."
"Who are you talking about? Voight?" Antonio asked, "Transfer forms need the boss' signature. Antonio saw the looks on Jay and Erin's faces, and then had an aha moment. He crossed his arms as he said, "You knew this was coming. You knew Voight was going to try and make Jay transfer. How?"
"Say what?" said a low, slightly suspicious voice. Antonio, Erin, and Jay all turned around to see the man they didn't want to see standing at the top of the stairs.
Voight.