Hi! So here is another story from me for this wonderful fandom. I wanted to get this out before the start of the New Year but I was burning the candles at both ends so to speak finishing up all my other stories so I decided the best thing to do was to take a little break and recharge and get into a good place to start this one.

So this is based on 3x11-A Dead Kid, A Notebook And A Whole Lot Of Maybe's. I found this episode with Jay and Ethan incredibly moving and I know that even though they didn't show it Ethan got a card at the end of that episode, I genuinely think he was Jay's Nadia. So I decided to do my own tweak on it and put them both through the whumper again. And so we have 22 chapters based out of one episode. Yeah...here we go again.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review.

I do not do private messages anymore. If you have a question then please stick it in a review and I will try to answer it in the next chapter notes.

I will try to update as soon as work allows me. Spelling and Grammar have never been my friends please keep that in mind too.

I do swear a lot in this chapter and in this story and so if you don't like that stop here. The usual pairings are the Season 3 pairings. Jay/Erin, Kim/Adam, Al/Meredith etc.

There will be TRIGGERS for child abuse in this story and in this chapter. Please consider that before you start reading.

Call It Paradise

Chapter 6-No Such Thing As Fair

When paint is sprayed on the Swimming Coach's car Hank realises that something more sinister is at play. And he now has to call Jay Halstead.

Hank was not having a good day.

There had been something missing, something big and crawling under the rock and he knows it, everything in him is screaming that it involves this Halstead boy too and he doesn't know what to make of that. He knows that if this was any of the kid and if his father was any other kid then he might be inclined to drag them both back in here and get out the truth, the whole, good bad and ugly mess but this was not a kid off the street.

There was something about Ethan Halstead that was giving him violent flashbacks to a teenage Justin, dark, broody, unaware that his actions had consequences or even worse just reckless enough to keep them going uncaring of who he hurt. The whole thing was a mess.

And now there was the car.

The kid had definitely done it. Burgess and Roman had been called to the address and seen the writing scrawled on the car and had acted the same way anyone else had seen that. The kid had been picked up by other rookie ten minutes later half out of his mind on the cheapest kind of cider that you could find and a bottle of scotch and had thrown up all down the side of the cop car before confessing he had done it. Hank was only lucky that he had gotten the kid this office before he had upchucked again. He had experienced with Erin and Justin in this regard but the kid had looked at him so pathetic and woebegone that he had not had the heart to yell rather to put him on the couch and let him sleep it off.

But now he was finding that it was making sense. The word was so insidious that it was hard to tell weather or not it was true or weather or not it was kids that had been playing around. But now that he was thinking about it he could not help but think that the pieces of the puzzle were being put together again and again and again.

Colin and Ethan were both Scholarship kids. They were both the children of single parents, they were both ripe for the picking. And listening to the Coach speak to Erin it was not hard to see where it was going. Of course the bitch of the thing was that there was no way to know without getting one of the kids to talk and that was not going to happen when one of them was dead and the other was passed out drunk on Hank's couch.

Ethan whimpered in his sleep and Hank sighed looking at the boy and feeling his heart hurt. He hated it when it was kids he really did, the whole nature of hurting a child was insidious to him, he could not understand it and personally he agreed with the old times gone by where anyone who assaulted a child was hung or castrated.

Sometimes he did miss the idea of lynch mobs.

There was a gentle knock at the door and it was Erin. Her expression reminded him of the one time his wife had stepped in dog muck and had accidently brought it home onto the carpet. Hank pointed a finger to his lips and then to Ethan and then stood up stepping out of the room.

"Antonio did a quick sweep but there's nothing that we can use so we are gonna have to kick him but Hank it feels wrong" she said in a hushed tone. "It makes sense too"

"Run me through it" he said though he didn't need her to do that, he had already been running it through his head while he attempted to put off what he knew was going to have to come next.

"Colin's a scholarship kid to a single parent who could never afford to put him through country day on her own, he's dependant on staying on that team to stay in school. There's no father figure and so Sanders starts grooming him. Colin can't take it anymore he gets really lost in his head and he starts a plan to blow up the school only he can't go through with it and he blows his brains out."

"Or someone does it for him. Gunpowder residue says the kid didn't shoot himself"

"Sanders?"

"I don't know…doesn't seem like the type to get his hands dirty. Look into his financials but your right if we don't see anything obvious then we are gonna have to kick him."

"And what about him?" she pointed at the door and Hank sighed.

"I don't know"

"Hank he knows way more than he is saying"

"I know that too"

"Hank what—"

"Doesn't matter" he said to her face. "I don't need to tell you the stories of everyone I handed out my card too. Just find me something that can keep Sanders here. I have to go and tell Jay Halstead"

Erin shot him a rather you but me look but then turned around. She was not happy and it was clear to tell but Hank didn't need to tell her that she was not alone in this. He too was staring at puzzle that had a very unhappy ending.

There was a pause where she stood there and then she went and Hank watched her go.

It was hard he thought looking at her, watching your children grow up.

Al was suddenly there and he raised an eyebrow.

"You know if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck"

"I know" Hank said not taking his eyes off the desk.

"You have got to call Jay Halstead"

"I know"

"Hank I know you feel bad"

"You don't—"

"The kid would have called you if he needed you" Al ruled. "And you know that. And there is a dead kid out there with a notebook and a whole lot of maybes. So get your head out of your ass and get your shit together and that kid's father back in and this time don't let either one of them leave until you get answers"

Hank nodded. Al was right of course but the truth was this was a part of the job that he never, ever got used to and if he did then he knew he would turn in his badge.

"Keep an eye on him and then…then I'll text you what I need you to do"

If he was right…Sanders wouldn't be able to help himself.

And that would be all the proof that Hank would ever need.

Jay Halstead met him in the car park.

"I know he's here" was all he said and Hank nodded opening the kids car door.

"Get in"

"No" Jay said as if Hank was being an idiot just for the sake of being an idiot.

"Get in now because before I take you to your son there's something you have to know"

Jay did as he was told looking nervous.

"What" he said flatly and Hank sighed passing him the file.

"That was found scrawled over Coach Sanders's car today, your son was found three blocks away so pissed he could barely stand and he openly admits that it was him who did it, and then he threw up and passed out with a speed that would have made your old man look good"

Jay stared at the file for a second and then a second longer and a second longer after that and Hank waited. He had a feeling that soon the explosion was going to happen and he knew that he was going to have to sit here and help the kid take it.

"I don't understand" Jay said flatly. "I don't…why would he write that word?"

"Because it's true."

Jay looked up at him eyes blown wide and horrified.

"I don't understand" he said again.

"Colin is a scholarship kid and he is dependant on the coach for his school, single parent, no father figure…work through the problem Jay you know that I am right, this is the missing puzzle piece. I don't think the plan was ever to bomb the school I think the plan was to take care of the coach and I think…God help me Jay but I think you and I both know that your son was in on it"

Jay stared at him his mouth working, trembling and twisting and then he looked down at the file and back up at Hank and he shook his head even as his eyes rapidly filled with tears. Hank had never hated himself more than he had done right now but God help him he sent off two text messages.

"Voight he'd…he'd tell me if that was the case I mean I know a lot of kids aren't close with their old man but I am, you know I am, I know…I would…no if this was happening to my baby then I would know I would know alright!" and with that he slammed out of the car throwing the file into Hanks lap.

"EJ is the only one who understands" he called getting out of the car and Jay stopped dead on the steps of the precinct Hank hurried to join him and he stopped by his side.

"Jay I am not saying…maybe Colin told him and he didn't know how to react but you gotta look at his like a cop and get that a lot of pieces of the puzzle are coming together now—"

"Voight if this was happening to my son I would know okay I would…I would know if this was happening I would because we talk Ethan and me and—"

He trailed off suddenly and Hank could see the moment that the truth had hit him. He knew that look in the same way he had gone back in time and thought about all the ways that he had been not seeing what was going on with Justin. He sighed and grabbed the kid by the shoulder.

"Jay you gotta talk to him man, I gotta know what's going on because I have to let the Coach go. And your son was kicked off the Swim Team two days before this started. You can be in the room, you can have a lawyer present but I have got to speak to your son and I can and I will arrest him for criminal damage if I have too"

Jay stared at him for a long time jaw working as he tried desperately to find an excuse or a reason or something that Hank knew was not there and then he turned and walked up the steps just as Ethan came down with Al looking very much as if he had fallen into a vat of vodka.

Hank regrettably, knew the feeling.

And then.

"Ethan"

Sanders.

Ethan Halstead jumped a foot in the air and then looked between his coach and his Dad and Hank saw the second that Jay knew.

"You gotta tell them that your making this up Ethan, actions have consequences. I would hate to have you thrown out of school"

And Jay reacted. Hank threw out an arm and caught him around the middle and pushing him backwards. Antonio got the swim coach out pronto which was a good thing all things considered because Jay had more muscle tone in his chest than Hank had in his whole body.

"Dad" Ethan said his eyes as wide as his father's had been seconds ago and Jay turned to stare at his son.

For a second father and son stared at each other and then Jay grabbed his son by the arm and dragged him into the empty office and slammed the door.

Hank sighed and caught Trudy's eye. Not for nothing was Trudy Platt the smartest woman (outside of his wife) that Hank had known and so there was no way she had not gotten what had just happened.

"You okay?" she asked him.

Hank shook his head.

"No" he said quietly. "Get ready to get that coach up and you know your friend at the school board?"

"You wanna burn down some schools?"

"Oh yeah" he said and Trudy grinned and then passed him a file.

"Denny Woods sacked him this morning, he knows by the way"

"Oh?"

"So he needs a department" she said passing him the file and then with a wink she was gone.

Hank stared at the file.

Well…he thought looking back at the empty door.

He did have some time to kill.

And so he opened the file and began to read.

And there you go, see you soon.

Next Chapter-In which Jay learns the devastating truth. Part 1. Significant Triggers for this and following chapters.