Jay's eyes wander up and down, taking in every inch of her bare body as she lays out before him on her bed. Erin's blush burns her cheeks and chest under her intense gaze. It's been a long time since anyone has looked with such reverence, such desire; it's an overwhelming experience. Erin watches, fascinated as his fingers flex between each unbuttoning of his white shirt - she's been imagining ripping it off him since the first day she saw him - the material falling off his arms and dropping to the floor softly, and Erin takes a moment to appreciate the definition of his abs and the glorious v-shape of his muscles that travelled down under his black slacks, enticing her with what was to come. He moves to unbutton his pants and Erin watches with the same intensity as he pushes those and his boxers down to the floor, his impressive length making her throat dry at the sight.

The smile Jay gives her is equally sweet and sinister as he crawls over the top of her, leaning down and kissing her thoroughly, Erin's combing up his back and looping under his arms, pressing him further down onto her. Jay's mouth moves from her lips to her neck, kissing and sucking along her pulse as she moans. "God, I love that sound." he murmurs against her skin.

One hand moved down the side of her body slowly, and Erin sucked in a breath when his hand moved between her legs. He began kissing his way down her body, his mouth soon joining his hand at the apex of her thighs. "Jay, please." she moaned, feeling him grow harder against her leg at the way she moaned his name. His eyes stayed on hers, piercing as her hands grasped at his hair and his mouth descended on her. "Oh, fuck, Jay!"

Erin shot up in bed, breathless and clutching her chest as she looked around the moonlit room. Jay was downstairs, not in her bed. Not under these covers making her entire body explode like fireworks.

"What the fuck was that?"

"I have to say, Halstead, I'm impressed." Voight gruffs.

He and Lang stood side-by-side, staring at the investigation board that Jay and Erin put together. They'd pulled every resource they had overnight to gather as much information as they could about John 'Johnny' Evan Pugliese. They'd worked into the early hours of the morning, only stopping when Jay's eyes started to droop, the medication Will had administered earlier in the day finally hitting him. He'd insisted he would be fine to drive home, but Erin had been adamant he stay and rest on the couch.

She couldn't get back to sleep after that dream, her mind conjuring images every time she closed her eyes of the man sleeping in her downstairs living room - of what might happen if she were to walk down the stairs, if he was still awake, if they both let themselves give in to the privacy of the night. The dreams had taken her by surprise, but she'd chalked it up to having seen his half-naked body in the hospital today. The man clearly took care of his physique, and she'd be a fool to not appreciate it. When she finally got up in the morning to take a much-needed cold shower, he was nowhere to be seen when Erin came downstairs. Jay didn't return until just before she and Charlotte were ready to leave, in a fresh suit with his hair slightly wet from his morning shower and a coffee for Erin in hand. She took one look at him - half-dried hair glistening slightly and those damn aviators hanging from the open top button of his shirt, giving her the slightest glimpse of his tan chest - and knew her dreams weren't a one-time thing; this particular image of him would be haunting her fantasies when she closed her eyes tonight - that she knew with certainty.

"Just doing my job, sir." Jay's voice broke Erin out of her daze. She seriously needed to get her shit under control - fantasising about her daughter's CPO in the middle of the workday was not ideal for productivity. Or her sanity.

"It's good work. A real, viable suspect for the first time in four months," Lang says, "Now we just need to figure out where this son-of-a-bitch is, and what his plan is- if it is him doing this."

"The thing that's still not making sense is the political angle." Erin says, "I mean, if he wanted to get revenge for what happened to Charlie, why not just go after my family? Why try to take down my career as well?"

"You're one of the most powerful people in the Police Force, Miss Lindsay. He probably wants to discredit your ability to do the job, that way if he makes a move on Charlotte or someone else in your family, it creates more doubt; if you can't keep your own daughter safe, how could you possibly keep an entire city safe?"

Erin tensed, and Jay scooted closer to her slightly, his pinky grazing the side of her palm where it clutched the table they were both sitting on the edge of. He knew how much she worried over that exact possibility - of the public doubting her ability to implement change, of her own competencies in protecting her daughter. And though it wasn't Lang's intention, he had just taken a white hot poker and stabbed right through an already deep wound.

"No one's gonna get the chance to think that, because we're not going to let Johnny get close enough to hurt Charlotte, or mess with your career." Jay states, the firmness of his voice helping Erin settle.

Voight looks between the two of them, Jay's eyes on the board despite the piercing heat of his boss' eyes. He knows what Voight is thinking, but he refuses to give the man the opportunity to speak his mind - he'd be way off base, and it would only serve to make this situation tense and veer them off-track. The focus needed to be on finding Johnny, on protecting Charlotte and Erin.

"We need to verify the facts first, make sure this is Johnny's work and not some kind of distraction tactic." Voight finally speaks, "We need to make sure we're not chasing down fake leads while the real perpetrator takes advantage of the situation."

Johnny's been three months ahead of them, likely having planned his moves for years. Erin moving back to Chicago gave him an easier opportunity, but he'd had plans in place well before she changed hers. Jay had never felt so certain before. This was all because of Johnny, it had to be; if not, they were back to square one, and Jay wasn't sure he'd be able to cope with that, he knew Erin wouldn't be able to. This was a lead, after three months they were finally getting somewhere, finally a step closer to figuring this out.

"I'll get my guys on it," Lang offers, "Intelligence can start building a timeline, look into known associates and any kind of political connections Johnny could have."

"And what about us?" Erin asks.

"You need to step away from this, focus on your work and your kid, and let us handle this." Lang says.

"David-"

"This isn't up for discussion. Right now, Johnny doesn't know that we're onto him, and we need it to stay that way. He's clearly got eyes on you, all his little pranks and threats indicate as much; if he realises that you're looking into him, you'll take away the one advantage we have. Right now, he's comfortable because he thinks he's unknown to us; the more at ease he stays, the better chance we have of him slipping up and giving us a way to find him and figure out his game plan. So, for the sake of this investigation, I need you to step back and not give away our lead."

Erin gritted her teeth, nodding at him. "Fine. Are we done?"

Lang nodded, Jay and Erin following him as they began to exit the office space, only for Jay to be held back by Voight. "I need a minute."

Erin gave them a funny look, but Jay simply nodded. She glanced at Voight, his eyes not leaving Jay's. Jay took a step back, standing before his boss as he waited until Erin walked out of the room.

"What's going on?"

"You tell me," Voight says, grabbing a folder from the table and handing it to Jay.

Jay frowned as he looked through its contents. Clippings of Jay and Charlotte - at the park, outside the Lindsay residence, as the museum where he'd taken her last week. The further he got into the files, he realised these weren't just photos of him and Charlotte, they were photos of him and Erin during the day along with articles. "Why the fuck are magazines writing about us?"

"There's rumours going around that you're Charlotte's new daddy." Voight grits out.

Jay rolls his eyes when he sees the headline in question - Replacement Daddy for the Lindsay's? The double meaning in that headline was not lost on him. "This is ridiculous. Since when did tabloids care about the goings on of the Superintendent?"

"Since she's become one of the most outspoken Superintendents in recent history, not to mention the amount of attention all these riots are generating."

The protests that had started when Erin first took office had subsided some, but now that more and more elected officials had started speaking out against Erin's proposed reforms to the Force, they had seen an uptick of activity from certain 'radicalised groups'. While Erin had been doing well in gaining public approval, and even winning over some of the younger politicians and more officers, there was still push-back; and while those voices weren't as many as they had been when Erin started, they were loud enough to generate more attention and scrutiny on not just Erin's work, but her personal life as well.

"I'm not sure what the point of this is, Sarge." Jay asks, waving the folder in front of his boss.

"I need to know if there's any truth to this." Voight says, "I gave you this job as an opportunity to prove you were ready to come back to work, that you were taking your recovery seriously. If you're not upfront with me right now-"

"Seriously?" Jay scoffs, "Are you really going to believe gossip rags?"

"I wouldn't have paid it any mind if I hadn't just seen how close you two are." Voight glances down at the hand that had been brushing Erin's. "Not to mention the way these pictures look - if I didn't know better, I would think you were her boyfriend, not her CPO."

"Because Erin asked that I treat her like a friend, at least when we're around Charlotte. Erin doesn't want her daughter to be scared every time I'm around, thinking that she's in some kind of danger; and Charlotte's a great kid, why wouldn't I be close to her? Just because I like hanging out with the kid doesn't mean I'm trying to take her dad's place." Jay huffs, "And Erin and I have developed a friendship because we're spending everyday together - it makes a work relationship a lot easier when the two of us are getting along. But Erin's friendly with all of us - I don't see you asking Antonio or Atwater if they're fucking her."

"Because unlike them, you and I have been in this situation before," Voight snaps, "I've seen the way you and Erin look at each other. You seem to forget how close you came to fucking everything up for all of us-"

"Believe me, I know. There is not a day that goes by where I don't think about everything that happened. I am taking this opportunity seriously. I'm not stupid enough to risk my job again. And I would never do anything to compromise Charlotte or Erin's safety." Jay takes a breath, doing his best to calm himself, "There is nothing going on between me and Erin, is that clear enough for you?"

"I don't want your objectivity to be compromised here, Halstead. All of this," Voight points to the board, "shows me just how valuable you are to this case, to my team. You saw something no one else did - that's the Jay Halstead that I've always known. But it also shows me just how invested you've become in this, maybe too invested. If for any reason you think you might be compromised, you need to tell me. Am I clear?"

"Crystal." Jay grits out, "Are we done here? Because I have to drop Miss Lindsay for her next appointment."

Voight nods, and Jay stomps out of the room, barely resisting the urge to slam the door shut behind him. The nerve of Voight to insinuate that his closeness to Erin and Charlotte had blinded him from being able to do this job. Had he not been professional, followed every rule to the letter? What did he have to do to earn Voight's trust again, to earn his belief in Jay's readiness to be part of Intelligence again?

"Everything okay?" Erin asks when he reaches her.

"Fine," Jay says, pressing the button to call the elevator, "Just wanted a status report."

"And for that I had to leave the room?" Erin frowns.

Jay shrugs as they step into the elevator, his frustration at a near-tipping point. Erin could see how tense his body was as he stood slightly in front of her, his focus on the light indicating which floor they were on above the doors. His neck muscles bulged just slightly, his shoulders were hunched back and hand was splayed out by his side like he was fighting the urge to ball it up into a fist and take a swing at something.

Against her better judgement, Erin steps forward and reaches her hand out to rest on his shoulder. She doesn't miss the way his body tenses further before he relaxes under her touch.

"Are you okay?" she whispers.

"... Yeah."

"Jay-"

"Erin, please. Don't." He sighs.

She takes a beat, nodding to herself, "Okay, then." her hand drops from his shoulder when Jay steps out of her grasp. The doors open a second later and they continue on their way, the picture of professionalism. But she doesn't miss how quiet Jay is during the car ride uptown, or how tense he remains throughout the day.

"Jay?"

"Yeah, munchkin?"

"How do I get a brother?"

Jay almost drops the knife he's using to cut Charlotte's afternoon snack. What was it about this kid that had him almost injuring himself in her vicinity? It had been a week since the initial incident, and it was much too soon for any kind of repeat performance. Setting the knife on the island bench, Jay rounded the other side and sat on the stool to Charlotte's right, watching her as she tried to complete a child's sudoku book he's found online. "I'm not sure I understand what you're asking."

"Katie said she's getting a baby sister, she showed us a picture of the baby in her mama's belly for show-and-tell today." Jay hid his laugh in a cough. He could only imagine the kinds of questions every child in Charlotte's class was asking their parents this afternoon, "And I really want a baby brother, how do I get one put in my mama's belly?"

"Oh. Well…" Jay pulls his phone from his back pocket, quickly shooting Erin a text. Have you ever explained to Charlotte where babies come from?

"I don't know if I'm the right person to tell you about that, Charlotte. I was the baby brother, so I'm not entirely sure how you get one." Jay says.

His phone buzzes on the island. Excuse me? Jay sighs, typing back quickly, That's what I was afraid of. He returns his attention to Charlotte once more, thankfully still focused on her sudoku. "Who can I ask, then?"

Jay shakes his head. This girl never gave up. If she didn't have an answer, she asked everyone she knew until she got one that satisfied her. "Maybe we should wait for your mom to get home, she might know." Charlotte nods, and when no questions follow, Jay returns to cutting up the fruit he was preparing for the little girl.

Should I be worried? Erin's text has him smiling like a fool. Terrified, he replies. Just what I need today *eyeroll*

Jay's smile grew as he thought about this evening - the potential conversation headed Erin's way was very much amusing to him. He had no idea how he would go about explaining the reproductive process to a child, and he was glad that it wasn't his responsibility just yet. He felt a little bad for Erin - not just because having the birds and bees talk with a kid was likely very difficult, but because today had already been pretty stressful for her; there'd been a protest outside her office over a new set of initiatives and community de-escalation programs that were being implemented in communities; when Jay had left her with Antonio to go pick up Charlotte, it had taken an extra twenty minutes to get through the crowds.

He was so engrossed in his imagination that he almost missed it. The red dot flickered briefly in the corner of his eye, so quick Jay thought that maybe he'd imagined it. He turned his head to the right, bending forward to get as good a view as he could of the living room windows. And then he saw it - the glimmer in the window so brief he would've thought he was imagining that too. His instincts kicked in at the right moment. Jay jumped onto the bench, his body sliding across the small space as his arm wrapped around Charlotte's front, the little girl screaming as her body fell with the chair and Jay, crashing to the floor just as the first bullet pierced the glass, puncturing the kettle, the pop had tears bursting from Charlotte's eyes.

"Don't get up!" Jay yelled as he held Charlotte to the floor, the little girl whimpering as he tried to get a view out the window. Another quick succession of bullets whizzed through the house as he pulled out his phone, "This is Detective Halstead, badge number 51163." He rattled off the address as another bullet came through, the shots growing more rapid. He started to shuffle across the kitchen floor, pulling Charlotte behind his body as he did so. "Be advised there's a civilian and plain-clothes officers on the premises. We're taking fire, I need backup to our location now." He heard gunshots outside, the difference in sound made him think it was the security detail parked outside the house - how had they not seen a shooter approaching?

A single shot hit the wall where Jay and Charlotte were ducked, pushing through and landing in the wall on the opposite side. The whizzing of this shot was different, and Jay took a minute to look around as shots continued to ring out. The slug in the wall in front of him stuck out slightly, it looked longer than the ones that were shooting quicker, smaller bullet holes cracking the island bench and cupboards. The security detail outside were dealing with the shooters, but there was another. That was the dot Jay had seen, the flicker of light that refracted the window. "Sniper," he murmured through the line, "Advise your men, there's a sniper in the area!" He yelled through the phone as the faint sound of sirens approached. The shots started to subside, Jay tucking Charlotte against his back as he opened the camera app on his phone, trying to get a look outside the window. He could see a figure moving rapidly, likely standing out the sunroof of a car, or the bed of a truck; someone was driving them around, a moving target for the security detail to focus on while a sniper took shots from somewhere in the distance, free of the worry that someone would be focused on them.

"Jay," Charlotte whimpered, tugging at his button-up, her hands little body tucked under his jacket, "I'm scared. I-it's loud."

Jay glanced behind him where Charlotte's face was pressed into his back. His heart broke at the sight, the cries he felt wetting his shirt as she clinged to him for dear life. "I know sweetie, it's gonna be over soon, okay? I'm gonna keep you safe, I promise."

"I-I know." Charlotte said, so softly he almost missed it over the popping bullets hitting the kitchen's surfaces.

"I need you to stay down like you are now," Jay says, doing his best to keep his voice calm, "But when I tell you, you're gonna crawl to your mum's and shut the door. You're gonna crawl under the desk and stay quiet until I come get you, okay?"

Charlotte pulled his jacket tighter, "I-I don't wanna! I don't want you to go!" she cried.

Jay rolled over so he was facing her. It wasn't the best idea, giving up his line of sight, but he needed to get Charlotte somewhere safe so he could keep the shooter distracted long enough for help to arrive. "Charlotte, sweetie, I need you to do what I'm asking, okay? I promised you I'd keep you safe, didn't I? Well this is what we need to do. I know it's scary, but I know you can do this. You're a strong, brave girl, just like your mama; I'm gonna come and get you as soon as it's safe."

"Promise?" Charlotte says.

Jay manages a small smile, sticking his pinky finger out to her, "I promise."

Charlotte's trembling hand reaches forward, her pinky wrapping around his for a quick second before Jay's twisting his body to get another look out the window. The bullets are slower now, the shooters likely running out of ammo. He hasn't heard any responsive shots in a while, which has him worried the security detail has been injured; if that was the case, there was nothing stopping the shooters from breaching the house. Erin wouldn't survive if something happened to her daughter, and Jay didn't think he would either.

"Okay, I'm gonna go with you until you get to the office, okay?" Jay explains as he tries to pinpoint where he first saw the light come from. If he can figure out what building the shooter might be in, then he can get Voight to send the unit there. "Time to move, Charlotte."

Jay slowly scoots his body back until he feels Charlotte start to move, the little girl crawling quickly towards the door of her mom's office. Thankfully the halfway gives them an obscured line of sight from the snipers, and Jay just hopes that whoever else is shooting out there focuses on the kitchen like they had been; no doubt having seen Jay and Charlotte sitting at the counter before they'd started their attack. The office has no windows, making it the best option for Charlotte to stay hidden from sight. As soon as they reached the door, Jay watched her as she nervously stood, her wide-eyes frantically moving around the room, as if she doubted her safety in the confined space.

"Stay under the desk until I come back." Jay repeats the instructions, waiting for Charlotte to nod and start to move towards the wooden desk towards the back of the small room. "Don't open the door for anyone, okay? Even if someone says it's me, you stay under the desk and don't say anything. I'll come in and get you, I promise."

"O-okay." Charlotte says. She reaches the desk and Jay does his best to give her a reassuring smile, "You're doing so well, brave girl. It's gonna be over soon." He waits until Charlotte starts to get under the desk before he closes the door.

With Charlotte tucked away, Jay focuses back on the situation at hand. It's been maybe five minutes since the first bullet, and they're starting to slow down, but not enough for Jay to make it across the kitchen without being hit. He hasn't noticed a sniper bullet in the last few minutes, and the sirens are much louder; they can't be more than a minute away. He just needed to hold down the fort for a little longer. He lifted slightly, moving into a crouching position so he could move quickly, and pulled his weapon from the holster, ignoring the way his hands shook slightly. He could feel the panic encroaching, but he refused to let it take over - this wasn't like the last time. He wasn't going to lose anyone today. Not a chance in hell.

The buzzing of his phone in his pocket forced him back to reality, stopping his mind short before it could wander to darker places. "Halstead," Voight yelled "Is Charlotte-"

"She's fine." Jay says, "She's scared but she's safe. The shots are less frequent, I'm gonna try to get outside and see what's going on."

"Burgess said they're three minutes out, wait for backup."

"It's too much time, Voight. We can't risk someone breaching."

"And I can't risk you going out there on your own. You don't have backup, you have no way of knowing how many shooters are out there, or where they're positioned. You'll be a sitting duck."

"I'm a sitting duck in here, too!" Jay whisper-yells, wary of Charlotte hearing him through the door, "There's a sniper, Voight. At the very least, I can draw their fire away from Charlotte."

Voight was silent for a moment, Jay knowing the way to convince him was through the girl he considered his granddaughter, "... Fine. But you wait for Intelligence to arrive before you go chasing anyone down. Am I understood?"

Since there was no chance of him leaving Charlotte anyway, it was an easy compromise, "Got it." He ends the call, not giving Voight a chance to reconsider. Shrugging off his jacket, Jay moves down the hallway toward the kitchen again, The bullets are coming much slower, and he sits for a moment, timing out the patterns. There's about fifty seconds between each spray of shots, and he waits for the last one to pierce the wall of the hallway behind him before he makes his move. He holds his jacket against his front - giving the illusion of shielding someone underneath - and runs across the entryway of the kitchen, through to the living room. Shots fire into the room, but Jay's already diving for the floor before he can get hit. He uses the furniture for cover as he moves towards the front door. There's a decent gap between the lounge chair he's currently crouched behind and the door he needs to get out of. It's a risk, but it's just as risky to stay where he is; now that the shooters know what room he - and assumedly Charlotte - is in, they've got a central area to focus on; it doesn't matter if they're shooting less to conserve bullets, eventually they're going to hit him if he stays where he is.

Jay takes a few deep breaths, centering himself and taking a moment to beg the universe to get him out of there without injury; his brother would never forgive him if he got rolled into his ED again, and he promised Charlotte he was coming back for her; he had every intention of keeping his promise. The shots ceased again and Jay made his move, running for the door just as the next round began. The bullet hit the door as he pulled it open, and Jay was never more thankful to be quick on his feet. He took another moment, a few more deep breaths, trying to keep his heart steady and his mind clear. Jay moved around the exterior of the side of the house silently, sticking to the wall. He heard the sirens approaching from down the street.

"We have to go!" A voice yells. From the lighter pitch, Jay guesses it's a boy, no more than twenty.

A deep, gravelly voice directs, "We haven't completed our objective."

"I'm not waiting around for the cops to get here, he told us not to get caught!" the boy yells back.

"We were instructed to compromise the perimeter and obtain the targets." The other man says, his voice loud without yelling, an authoritative undertone present.

"I'm not waiting around to get shot up by cops," the boy says, "Hold onto something."

Jay pokes his head forward to peep around the corner, getting a glimpse at the rusted black pickup truck stopped on the street directly in front of the house and the man standing in the truck's bed. Jay can see the tattered patrol car across the road, no doubt containing two now-deceased officers. The squeal of tires burning against the asphalt fills the air at the same time the siren comes into view, flashing lights coming around the corner. Jay steps forward as the truck peels away, running out to the street to try and get a glimpse of the licence plate. The man standing in the truck of the bed stares at him, heterochromatic eyes piercing through the black mask and a jagged scar poking out on his neck where the fabric had slid up.

The truck rammed through the gates at the neighbourhood entrance and turned the corner just as five police cars drove up the street, two cars following the path the truck had taken. Kim was the first out of the car as soon as they reached the house, weapon in hand at her side as she approached Jay.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, I think so." Jay panted as he raced back toward the house.

"Halstead, wait, we need to secure the area!" Antonio called after him, but Jay didn't listen. He moved as quickly as he could through the house and to the office.

"Charlotte? It's Jay." He opened the door slowly, moving cautiously through the room so as not to startle the little girl hiding under the desk. He heard her soft whimpers, and as he rounded the desk and bent down he saw Charlotte curled up in the furthest corner of the desk; her little hands were clamped over her ears and her eyes squeezed tightly shut as she cried.

Jay reached out carefully, Charlotte jumping and letting out a small scream when his hand touched her knee. Her eyes opened wide as she took him in, "It's okay. It's all over." Charlotte scrambled towards him, her arms wrapping around his neck and her face pressed against his sternum as tears wet his shirt, "I got you, sweetheart. You're safe."

Jay's grip on the trembling girl in his arms is steady and strong as he stands, keeping her head tucked against his chest as he makes his way back outside. He notices how her body tenses as he opens the front door and his heart breaks a little further - he hates that she's scared, that she's fearful of things she wasn't before; a small piece of her childish innocence was damaged today and he hates that.

"We're just gonna go outside okay? It's safe, and you can meet all my friends from work, you remember I told you about them?"

"T-tony and Kev?" Charlotte mumbles.

Jay manages a small smile, a brief rush of relief at hearing something from her, "Yeah, Tony and Kevin are here, and the rest of Grandpa Hank's team as well. They're gonna help us catch the people who did this, and they're gonna help you safe, okay?"

"Okay." Charlotte says softly, "I-I trust you."

Jay feels his heart swell at her words. It means a lot that she trusts him, especially given all the ways he's let down the people closest to him over the last few months. Having Charlotte's trust feels hopeful, like maybe things aren't as bad as they feel.

"Charlotte!" Erin's voice echoes through the air as she jumps from the passenger seat of Voight's car.

Charlotte sits in Jay's lap in the back of the ambulance, refusing to let go of her friend while the EMTs check her and Jay over; Jay had a slight flesh wound from a bullet that grazed him at some point, but thankfully Charlotte was unharmed.

"Mama!" Charlotte cried as Erin rounded the ambulance door, swooping her daughter into her arms. She held Charlotte tight against her as her daughter cried, a few tears falling down Erin's cheeks despite her best attempts not to; she was expected to keep her composure, but right now she didn't care that she was these people's boss. The only thing that mattered was her baby.

"Are you okay?" Erin murmured against Charlotte's cheek.

"I-I was scared, but Jay promised it would be okay. It was." Charlotte replies, "He kept me safe."

Erin smiles tearfully down at her daughter as she wipes away the tears from Charlotte's eyes with her thumb. Hank clears his throat, stepping forward to see the little girl and Erin allows him to take Charlotte from her arms.

"Give us a moment?" Erin asks Hank, tilting her head towards Jay. Hank nods and walks around the ambulance doors, the last thing Erin hears is him telling Charlotte he wants to introduce her to his team. She glances around, making sure no one is within view of them.

"Erin, I'm so sorry." Jay starts, standing up from the Ambulance and taking the few steps towards her, "I don't know how the hell we missed them, but-"

Erin lunges towards him, her arms wrapping around his waist so tight it knocks the air out of his lungs. Jay tenses momentarily, one arm cautiously coming around her shoulder as Erin sniffles. "Thank you." She says, "Thank you for keeping her safe."

Jay's heart clenches his chest, and he squeezes her shoulder, savouring the moment, "Always."

A/N: Hey everyone! Long time, no see …

I'm doing my best to get back into updating, and trying to get some fics completed before the year is up. I'm going to do my best to make that happen, but I make no promises.

I know this chapter was a bit all over the place, but I hope you all enjoyed it - I've done my best to edit/proof-read but it is 1:38 am so if there's any errors blame it on the sleep deprivation lol

If you're still here and still reading, please leave a review and let me know your thoughts :)

Reviews truly do help to motivate writers, especially in fandoms like ours where other content is practically non-existent these days.

Hopefully I'll be back with another update soon. Thanks for continuing to read and for those who messaged asking if I was still around, don't worry - I'm not leaving any time soon! Thank you for your support. Until next time …