Hi, so here is another chapter, I took some time off went to my new planning book and this story is now officially fifteen chapters.
Please bare in mind TRIGGER WARNINGS for this chapter.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
Please Read and Review.
5 CHAPTERS LEFT!
Call It Paradise
Chapter 10-How Did We Get Here?
In which Ethan gives his statement and the rest of the case unfolds. And an arrest is made. Will also makes an appearance via phone.
The entire time his son made a statement Jay was sat on the floor his head in his knees.
The woman…Erin came and sat with him at one point. She didn't look at him, she didn't stare at him, she didn't point fingers at him or ask questions but her support was there and it was silent, one partner supporting another. Or Jay supposed that would be the case…he had never really had a partner before…at least not the way that cops were supposed to partner each other.
It reverberated around his head and his brain like a warning. Ethan giving his statement to the cop called Antonio Dawson who Jay had heard enough about to know that he was too good for this job and that his teeth hurt just by looking at him.
"It was more…he just…touched me really"
"It was more…he just…touched me really"
"It was more…he just…touched me really"
He didn't think that he was ever going to be able to not hear those words again.
Erin reached out and put her hand on his arm and he wiped his eyes sticking his head back on his arms so that he didn't have to look at her. Most of Ethan's answers were the same that he had been giving Jay and he didn't know if that made it better or worse. He was a cop he was supposed to know what sold and here he was unable to see if they could make a case out of his son or if they even needed his son to make a case because Ethan was repeating, nearly verbatim what he had told Jay.
"What was Colin planning?"
"To make a bomb"
Erin rolled her eyes. Jay could feel it from here.
"I told him! I told him it wouldn't work! I told him that…that it was dangerous! I told him that it would…I don't know…he was just…Dad he was desperate…he just…and it wasn't to kill anyone, he just…we looked at it online and I knew that he could make a small one, the idea was just to bomb his car, scare him…make it clear that we would make his life hell if he tried to get us out of school…take back some of the power and make him feel as scared as we had been and…and I backed out at the last second"
Jay sighed looking up and wiping his eyes again. He didn't know what was going to happen when it got out that two teenagers were making a small charge online learning it from one of the school computers but he was sure as shit gonna put parental controls on everything he could when this was over. He had been so focuses on the outside dangers that he had never considered what the inside dangers were. As a parent you were supposed to trust your child's teachers not…not imagine them…and then your son building a bomb to scare them…
He shook his head this time leaning back against the wall and not bothering to wipe his face.
He didn't care what he looked like.
"So what was the plan?"
"I don't know. Colin was supposed to not…I think…maybe he wanted to go ahead…
"And then the other kid?"
"All I know is one reached out to Colin, We were supposed to…see him…to get back at Coach yesterday morning but…but I backed out. I didn't…I didn't want to go. I just…I didn't want to go…and now Colin's dead"
Erin made a small noise and Jay turned blankly to look at her.
"People like this are worse than the worst" was all she said. Jay nodded not really hearing her. He didn't know what to say to that.
"Ethan" Antonio said finally. "Did your Dad tell you what might happen if we didn't find the other boy? Did he tell you what to say?"
Jay was half on his feet before the words sunk in and Erin yanked him back downwards with a clatter.
"You know he has to ask these questions" she hissed at him. "You know that and better one of us than a DA on the stand"
He knew it.
Didn't mean he didn't think how nice it would be to sink his fist through Antonio Dawson's jaw. Never mind that the coach…God when he got a chance to get at that coach….
Actually that was a thing.
"Listen when we get this man in the building—don't leave me alone with him?"
Erin grinned but it showed her teeth so Jay didn't know what to make of that. Her touch on his shoulder was kind though and it warmed him through the layers of his clothes, his skin and his own inadequacy.
"Dad didn't tell me what to say, but I know that you are going to so just say it"
"Ethan…there might be another boy out there…there might be. But I think that your coach put two and two together and came up with the right number, I think he knew that the only two people that could identify him as the monster that he is was you and Colin, I think he lured Colin there with you and the intention was to kill you both"
He didn't have to look up to see that his son was shrugging.
"Pretty much what Dad said" he said quietly and Jay nodded at Erin to confirm that yeah…that was pretty much what he said.
"Okay" Antonio said quietly. "I am gonna get another soda do you want one?"
"I'd like to get out of here"
"Nearly there kiddo…nearly there"
And here came the hard part.
He pushed himself to his feet and then grabbed his mobile.
"Can you sit with him for a second? Just…just tell him that I had to give my statement and that I will be with him in five. I need to make a phone call"
Erin nodded and then he was gone out the side door down the stairs where he made it to the outside world and bent over heaving. There was nothing left in his stomach to throw up anyway but that didn't mean his stomach didn't give it a good shot.
He waited until he was sure and then he rang Will.
"Halstead?"
"It's me"
"Jay I don't mean to be rude but I get three hours sleep most nights and—"
"I need you. It's Ethan"
There was a pause and then when Will spoke his voice was tight and Jay knew his brother was up, had put on his coffee maker and was looking up plane tickets as he spoke.
"What happened?"
Jay scrubbed a hand over his mouth and then.
"I…I don't…I can't…"
"JAY"
"He…are you sitting down?"
"Oh God" Will said and his tone was taught and tight. "Oh God what is happening?"
"Don't interrupt me, I need to get this out in one go"
And then before his brother could say anything he launched into the story.
He tried to get it all in. Ethan, the mood swings, the moodiness that he had ignored, the lack of friends, the aversion to school, everything he had chalked down to being a normal teenager, he then switched to Colin, to this morning, to the Coach, to everything that had happened, to the bomb, Ethan's confession, to what was happening next, to the fact that he had been fired, to everything, everything and anything and all of it. He talked and talked and talked and talked until he didn't think he had anything left in him to talk anymore. Will did what he was told and was silent and then when Jay paused and told him his voice wet and ragged that it was okay for him to say something his older brother took in one deep breathe and then another and then breathed out as if he was controlling what he was feeling, as if he was picking up the scattered thoughts in his brain one by one like pieces of floating paper.
"Okay" Will said quietly. "Okay"
"Did you not hear what I just said?"
"I did and I am trying to be very calm because right now I want to break something and I will not turn into our father for a paedophile like your son's swim coach."
There was a pause and then Will did another deep breathe and then. "Okay I am gonna come back"
"Thank you"
"And I am gonna be there when Ethan has his medical—"
"I haven't told him he needs one"
"Jay"
"I know I just…he's been so brave this whole time and I don't…Will is there anyway that you can do this?"
"You want me to check for anal fissures on my fifteen year old nephew?" Will deadpanned and Jay vomited on the floor even though it was just bile. He couldn't help himself. Will always had a unique way of getting his point across and right now he was as raw and blunt as Jay was, right now he was suffering as Jay was.
"Did you have to—"
"Jay listen to me I am gonna make some calls, get him to Chicago Med and then ask for a Connor Rhodes, he's just started he's done work with kids overseas in these situations actually a lot of them worse. Some irritating nurse will make a crappy comment that he's a heart surgeon but he's good and right now you want someone that I am guaranteeing you can trust. I don't know what the Shrink department is over there but don't let anyone push you out of the room if you don't wanna go. Wait until I get there and listen to what Ethan says, you have to listen to what he says because sometimes…it's the little things with cases like this you know? I am gonna get on the Red-Eye and I am gonna come and be with you okay and then we will get Ethan through this together" there was a pause and Jay could see Will nodding to himself over the phone without him even having to be there.
"Okay" he said finally. "I just…Will I swear if this guy doesn't do life then—"
"Oh please" Will said with all the scorn of an older brother. "Doesn't matter if he does life or three weeks. You know as well as I do that men like that don't last long in prison and you know if for a reason, besides…we can always bribe someone on the payroll to look the other way"
Jay pulled the phone back and then stared at it.
"You do realise" he said putting the phone back to his ear. "That the CIA probably heard that don't you?"
"Please, CIA if they are listening in and I don't believe in conspiracy so I don't think that they do, but if they are I guarantee they agree with me. Besides, the average guy doing life doesn't have time to pay his families health insurance, believe me I am more open to bribery than you are"
For a second Jay wondered just how the fuck this was his life.
"Okay" he said finally. "I am going to hang up now. Please do not commit a felony on the way down"
"I'll call when I'm back. Listen…Jay…all…seriousness…I am here with you okay…I am right here with you, I am not going anywhere okay? And we are gonna get that boy through this together"
"I know"
"Love you"
"Love you too" he snapped his phone shut and sighed dragging in more cold air into his lungs and then he nodded to himself and turned to walk back up the steps when he saw it.
It was two patrol officers, the same as before. Blonde Ken and the Brunette Barbie and Jay knew who they were dragging into the precinct.
So he didn't go up through the back door, he went through the front followed and then.
"Hey"
Saunders turned and Jay smiled and his fist came out before anyone knew what was happening even Hank Voight with his all powerful mind reading process.
Well…it wasn't like it was his gun.
Somehow Jay didn't think that was going to hold as the official excuse.
But he was a father…and right now that was all he had.
But the question remained.
How on earth did it come to this?
And there you go, see you soon for the next final five chapters!
Next Chapter-Jay sees red, Ethan sees green, Will sees a good looking doctor and an SVU detective is there to help as well, Meanwhile Erin finds the final puzzle piece.