9. Chapter 9

Jay awoke with a stiff feeling in his bandaged hand. He slowly stretched his fingers out in an attempt to relieve some of the tension. Erin was sleeping soundly beside him. He glanced at the clock across from Erin and sighed quietly. It was barely three am; Jay hadn't been asleep for long. Erin, on the other hand, had pretty much fallen asleep as soon as her head had hit the pillow.

Their disagreement over the note Erin had received hadn't totally dissipated. Jay had agreed to drop the issue (in front of her, at least) and Erin hadn't been in the mood to do anything other than sleep. Jay didn't mind. It was preferable while the case was ongoing to avoid as much physical contact as possible. He'd made out with her a few times but he was really trying to make sure nothing progressed further than that. Everything had gotten far too complicated over the last couple of weeks.

This simple mission to befriend a potential victim had turned into a ridiculous tangle of lies and half-truths. Olinsky was telling him to get closer. Ruzek was warning him off Erin. Voight was basically telling him to get closer and warning him off her. How was he meant to know what to do?

Not to mention the fact that Erin seemed to really like him and it had been a while since Jay had connected with someone so quickly. But Erin only really knew Jason Moore; a guy who didn't exist and was made up of random facts that Olinsky had cobbled together.

Jay lay awake in the darkness, listening to Erin's rhythmic breathing and trying to chase away the pain in his hand. Eventually he decided to get up for some water to take with his painkillers. He lifted himself out of the bed as slowly and quietly as he could and tiptoed to the kitchen. He turned on a light switch and looked for a glass.

Erin's apartment was really nice for a student but he figured that Voight probably was paying for it. He would do anything to keep his only child safe. He didn't know that much about their relationship but from the way Erin made it sound, they seemed to be relatively close. Jay hadn't seen Erin around the precinct much since he'd started there but, from what he'd heard, it seemed like she was a frequent visitor.

Jay peered out of the window by the kitchen and looked for the unmarked police car that was tailing them. He spotted it and gave a small nod. He didn't know the unit who were in the car but he was grateful for their presence. However, he wondered if they had to do reports and if Voight ever saw them. He wasn't quite sure how Voight would react if he knew he was reported as having slept over at Erin's.

He drained the last of his water and rinsed out the glass before turning out the kitchen light again and making his way back into Erin's bedroom.

Erin was still asleep and Jay was extra careful not to wake her or put too much pressure on his injured hand as he climbed back into the bed.

He tried forcing his eyes shut and listening to Erin's steady breathing as he willed sleep to come. A few minutes later, he was awoken by a soft movement beside him and a warm figure moving close to him. He opened an eye and peered down at Erin's body pressed gently against his. Jay adjusted his good arm and placed it softly on Erin's back.

He fell asleep with a small smile on his face.

"You look like you haven't slept." Dawson commented as Jay walked into the precinct.

"I bet he does." Jay heard Ruzek mutter a little louder than necessary. Shooting Ruzek a look, Jay shrugged off Dawson's comment and sat down at his desk.

"Is Voight in?" Jay asked, fighting the urge to yawn.

"He's talking to Mouse." Antonio replied. "Did you get anything last night?" He heard Antonio ask him.

Jay stared at Antonio in shock. "Did I get any?"

"Information," Ruzek supplied. "Did you get any new information?"

Jay pulled out the bagged note he had taken from Erin's apartment and showed the other two.

"Is this the only one?" Antonio asked.

"Erin said she'd gotten a few but this was the only one I saw in the apartment. She wanted me to get rid of it. She said it wasn't a big deal."

"It's worth looking into. If she's telling the truth and she's getting these because it's a joke, then it's not a problem. But I'm willing to bet that whoever pushed this note under her door is connected to our case." Antonio handed the note back to Halstead. "We'll get this sent for fingerprinting once we show it to Voight."

"Hey, you can't go up there!" Sargent Platt's voice rang up from below the stairs. Antonio, Adam and Jay all turned towards the staircase; Jay's hand hovered over his holster in case he needed to use it.

"He's expecting me!" Erin's voice replied as they heard the gates shut and footsteps coming up the stairs. Ruzek grabbed Jay by his jacket and dragged him behind the filing cabinets where Olinsky's desk was hidden.

"Stay down!" Ruzek hissed. Jay crouched on the floor and felt the soft thud of his bag hit him as Ruzek threw it off his desk and towards him. Jay saw Antonio flip the whiteboard over so that their current case was hidden. Ruzek stood in front of the filing cabinets to block Jay further from view.

"Hey guys!" Jay heard Erin greet the two men in the office. He saw a glimpse of her as Ruzek moved to give her a quick hug. "Is my dad here?"

"He's in a meeting," Ruzek pointed towards the closed office door.

"Okay, I'll wait here." Erin said. Jay heard the sound of a chair rolling out. "What's been going on?"

Ruzek and Antonio muttered between each other and Erin let out a confused chuckle.

"Sorry I asked?" She said. "Hey, Ruzek, when am I going to meet this new girlfriend of yours? Uncle Al told me she's an officer here?" Erin asked.

Jay's mind flitted towards Burgess – or as Erin knew her – Felicity.

"Yeah, Kim. She's out on patrol right now."

"Are you bringing her to the police picnic?" Erin asked.

Ruzek gave a shrug. "Yeah, maybe. Are, uh, are you going?"

Erin nodded. "Sure! I'm here to ask my dad if I can bring someone actually."

Jay's breath caught in his throat.

"Oh, a friend?" Antonio asked.

"Uh, yeah. This guy from one of my classes." Erin frowned. "Do you think my dad'll freak out?" She asked.

Ruzek and Antonio were back to making muttering noises. Jay was panicking in his hidden corner.

There was no way they could get away with this. It was one thing to convince Erin he was someone else, but it was impossible to convince a whole precinct to go along with the cover.

Voight's door opened and Erin smiled brightly at her father.

"Dad!" She exclaimed cheerfully. Voight gave a quick look at Jay's desk before looking back at his daughter.

"You sound like you want something," he said with an eyebrow raise. "Don't you call first?" he asked.

Erin rolled her eyes. "I get it; it's a taste of my own medicine. I don't call you enough, blah, blah." She gave her father a hug. "Can we talk in your office?"

Jay heard Voight's office door close and then saw Ruzek's face peering down at him.

"That was close," Ruzek sighed as he helped Jay to his feet. "You should probably stay back though until she leaves."

Jay raised his eyebrows and let out a deep sigh too. That had been a little too close for comfort. There was also the worry that he didn't know what prompted Erin to visit her father instead of calling him. Maybe she had received another note…

The door to Voight's office opened a few minutes later and Erin strode out of the office. She walked towards Antonio and Ruzek, the latter of whom was still standing in front of Jay's hiding spot.

"Guess he's not in a great mood." Erin commented. "Anyway, I'll see you guys at the picnic!" She flashed a grin at them both before descending down the stairs.

When they heard the gate slam shut, Ruzek turned around and offered his hand to Jay, pulling him up from under Alvin's desk.

"You good?" Adam asked. Jay gave a nod. "Hopefully she didn't give him any bad news." Adam eyed Jay pointedly before returning to his own desk. Jay had only just got to his own seat when Voight appeared at his doorway.

"Halstead." He beckoned. Jay gave a concerned glance over to Ruzek before making his way to Voight's office.

Voight was standing in front of his desk with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. When Jay closed the door, Voight stared at him for a few moments longer before speaking.

"Erin wants to invite someone to the picnic." He told him. "A friend in one of her classes that she says she wants me to meet. I am assuming she means you."

Jay shrugged. "She hasn't mentioned it to me."

"First of all, Erin's never brought any of her friends to the precinct picnic. If she doesn't mean you, can you think of anybody she could mean?"

Jay gave another shrug. He hadn't heard or seen her hanging out frequently with anyone else out of class other than himself. She had her tutoring sessions with Kenny but he'd never seen her mention him outside of that. The friends he'd met when he had first started tailing her had seemed to drop from the radar. Erin still texted her friends Anna and Alison, but it seemed Alison had been spending a lot of time with her new boyfriend, and Anna was doing an internship somewhere.

"So that brings me to my second point. I've been trying to stop her from coming to the picnic but she comes every year. She judges the chili cook off and she thought it was weird when I told her not to come this year." Voight explained. "If I can't get her to stop coming and if she does mean that she wants to bring you, it means you can't come to the picnic next week. You understand that, right?" Voight pressed.

Jay nodded. He had figured that it was where the conversation had been headed.

"I'm sorry, Halstead, but we can't get the whole precinct in on the operation we're running here. That goes for Roman and Burgess too. I'll let you break that news to them." Voight rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You'll have to come up with an excuse with Erin."

Jay nodded again and Voight sighed.

"Jay, is there anything I need to know?" He leant forwards in his chair. "About you and Erin?"

His eyes met Jay's in a steely gaze. Jay wasn't sure how to answer that question truthfully without Voight reacting badly. He knew there was no chance in hell that Voight would ever agree that Jay's course of action – even though it was on Olinsky's encouragement – was the right way to have played the case. At least not when everything was so up in the air.

"No, sir." Jay replied firmly. Voight considered his answer for a few moments before sighing; this time in what Jay thought might be relief. Voight made a move to dismiss Halstead but Jay suddenly remembered why he was there. "Sir, what if we break the case before the picnic?" He asked tentatively.

Voight gave him a look. "Is there anything you think can break it for us?"

The note under Erin's door had breathed life back into their operation. Voight was incensed that someone was actually showing up at his daughter's door to scare her and now everyone in the unit was working even harder to figure out how legitimate the threat was and revising old leads.

The note had been sent to forensics for fingerprinting and Mouse was trying to see if he could get into the security cameras at Erin's apartment.

Jay was looking through their suspects list, hoping to see a face that jumped out at him. Someone he'd seen hanging around the apartment or on campus when he had been with Erin. So far, he was having no luck. Erin's name flashed on his screen and he excused himself to the break room to answer it.

"Hey," he said. "What's up?"

"I just got out of class. I thought we'd try and get some studying done for our midterm seeing as we didn't through much the other night. Can you meet at my apartment in thirty?" She asked.

Jay looked at his watch. "Yeah, I can be there." He hung up and walked back to his desk to grab his bag and jacket.

"Going somewhere?" Ruzek asked when he saw Jay gathering up his stuff.

"I've gotta meet Erin for a while. Tell Voight I'll try to be back later to catch up on some work." Jay explained. Ruzek said something but Jay was already walking down the stairs and he didn't quite hear him.

"Hey Halstead!" Roman's voice called across the parking lot. Jay turned around to see the grimace plastered over the officer's face. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" Jay asked. Roman huffed.

"Is it true Burgess and I can't come to the picnic because of you?"

Jay dipped his head apologetically. "Yeah, I wanted to tell you in person but-"

"But Ruzek got there first." Roman balled his hands into fists. "What the hell, man? Are you serious?"

"I don't know what you want me to do. Voight couldn't dissuade Erin from coming so we can't go. Look, I can't go either." Jay held up his hands; secretly hoping that Roman would remember Jay was injured and not hit him. He seemed to be taking the picnic pretty seriously.

"I don't care about if you can go or not. I was planning to enter my grandfather's chili recipe for the cook off and now I can't. I spent three months preparing and practicing for this."

"I'm sorry, man. If I could help, I would. You know that if Erin sees you there then this whole operation goes down." Jay explained. "I'm sorry you can't come but I owe you one. I'll put in a good word for you with Voight once this is all over." Jay clutched his car keys tightly.

"Do you know how hard I had to work to get that rec-" Jay couldn't bear to face the angry officer anymore and so he quickly clambered into his car. He gave Roman an apologetic wave before driving off to Erin's.

He hoped the team was making good progress on the case. The sooner it was over, the sooner he could stop lying and, clearly more importantly, Roman would be able to enter his grandfather's chili recipe.

"YES!" Mouse's cheer rang through the office. Ruzek and Antonio's heads popped up with interest.

"Got something?" Antonio asked as he came over to Mouse's desk.

"I finally got through to the security cameras in Erin's apartment." Mouse explained as Voight came out of his office and also made his way to Mouse's desk.

"Can you access anything from the last few nights?" Voight asked. "Maybe see who left that note?"

Mouse shook his head. "Not yet. I've only managed to get through to the live feed. What floor is Erin on?"

"Her apartment number is 3B," Voight said. "It's the third one past the elevators and there's a staircase on the right. There should be a camera near the staircase that should get her door."

Mouse flicked through the camera feeds. Some of the apartment numbers were hard to read. Ruzek and Antonio watched along, trying to make out some of the numbers to help Mouse find the right camera.

"Wait, there's Jay!" Ruzek pointed at the screen where Jay was coming out of the elevators. The Jay on Mouse's computer monitor walked off the screen and Mouse rotated through some more cameras as he attempted to find him again.

Mouse finally caught up with him as he approached a door and knocked. "This must be it." Mouse said as he made a note of which camera number he was viewing through.

The four men watched Jay as he waited outside the door. The door pulled open and Erin appeared with a big grin on her face.

Ruzek snuck a glance towards Voight and a sudden sense of dread appeared in the pit of his stomach. Jay had no idea they had gotten through to the security feed and were watching him.

Go straight inside. Ruzek willed the filmed versions of Jay and Erin. Just walk inside and close the door.

Instead Erin leant against her door frame and looked up at Jay who was smiling back at her. There was no audio on the video but they seemed to be animatedly talking about something and Jay was pointing to his bandaged hand.

Go inside. Go inside. Ruzek held his breath. Should he try and distract Voight? Maybe nothing would happen but he could sense that Voight was also deep in thought about something.

Voight's jaw set as he watched his daughter take a step closer to Jay and wrap her hands around his beck, pulling him towards her in a firm kiss. When Jay pushed Erin into her apartment and slammed the apartment door behind him, Voight slammed his own fist against the desk.

"GODAMMIT!" Voight yelled across the office. Ruzek couldn't bear to catch his eye and Antonio stood silently with his head down. Mouse seemed to be trying to will the footage to erase itself.

Voight stared at his team in fury. He pointed a finger at Mouse.

"You get me feeds from as far back as you can go. We're going to nail this bastard." Ruzek had no idea if Voight meant the guy sending the threats or Jay.

Suddenly, Voight was pointing a finger at him.

"Ruzek, get Jay back here," he spat furiously. "NOW!"