Chapter 37

"Oh God," Emma sighs and rubs her hands on her baggy jeans. 

"And you made fun of me at Herrmann's house when I was nervous," Jay teases her. They sit next to each other at a table near the shop window, waiting for Will. 

"It's not that I'm nervous, just with our schedules and Will's shifts it's hard to find some time alone. I don't want to bother you," she admits, turning to look at him. 

"Babe, you never bother me," he reassures her and removes her hair from her face. Her heart skips a beat as she hears the nickname Jay uses and her cheeks get a shade of red. Of course, Jay notices her sudden shyness and smiles. 

"Do you like me to call you babe, babe?" he teases her, and when she finally nods, he leans over and kisses her.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything lovebirds," Will's voice makes them stop, and they both smile shyly like two teenagers who've just been caught. 

"Good morning Will," they both greet him when he sits across from them.

"Did you guys, order?" he asks them as they look at the menu. 

"I wanted to, but Emma didn't let me, she said it was kinder to wait for you," Jay replies, making his brother laugh out loud. 

"Emma Spencer, you really are set to change my brother from a caveman to a civilized man," he tells her, making her laugh with him while Jay rolls his eyes. 

"He's still got a lot of work to do, but I see some improvement," 

"Oh my God Jay, don't let her leave," he tells his brother again, and even though they're joking, he means it. He can see how happy Emma makes his brother and he's grateful for that. 

"I don't intend to do that," Jay replies, wrapping his arm around Emma while leaves a kiss on the top of her head. 

"Oh God, get a room you two, and let me eat my pancakes," Will says, and everyone laughs again.

"What do we got?" Voight asks later in the evening as they gather on the crime scene. 

"Two GSWs to the chest, one in the head. Chipped. Gang intelligence's been here from the jump. Are we assisting them?" Jay replies. 

"I'm not sure. Gangs didn't call us here. All right, work the scene as best as they'll let you," he tells them, walking away as he goes to talk to Price. 

"Are you cold?" Jay whispers to Emma as they go to the witnesses. 

"Why Halstead, are you going to offer me your jacket in front of Voight?" 

"Oh stop, it's my fault I want to be nice" he teases her and before she can answer, shots are heard again and they run towards the sound. 

"Body!" Emma shouts as soon as she sees the victim on the ground. 

"We got him! Spread-out, find him!" Jay shouts and runs to check for a pulse on the victim. 

"We're too late. He's already gone" 

"Two generations fighting over one neighborhood. It's not good" Price says as he approaches them. 

"Yeah, it's called a gang war" Voight replies.

"Okay, this is the four-block section. Controlled by a new young faction of the GPs, but to say control is really an overstatement" Jay says the next day at the station after gathering enough evidence. 

"Yeah, these kids are wild" 

"They don't observe any rules or bylaws," Kim adds. 

"Will any of these young guns stand out from the crowd, make a name for himself?" 

"No, there's a lot of arrests for possession" 

"All right, so follow that. Listen, if there are kids out there dealing drugs that means that someone out there is controlling it somewhere. I mean, talk to gangs. Use what Intel they got," 

"Reaches out to a few of my CIs. If we're banking on the drug angle, they should have a name" Antonio tells them. 

"Okay, good. But let's move fast. We gotta find a kid who can sit down with Eddie Brackton before this wave gets ahead of us," Voight tells them.

Indeed that night they managed to find Eric Wilson, who was the young man in charge and persuade him to talk to Eddie Brackton to stop all this before more bodies were found. Voight with Jay and the two other men were inside the barber store where the conversation was going to take place, while the rest of the team was outside checking for anything suspicious. 

"Emma, are you seeing anybody?" Kim asks her and her eyes widen. She can't know that something is going on with Jay, right? She thinks and decides to hide it. 

"Why, do you have something on your mind?" 

"Yeah, actually, I do. A friend of Blair's will be here in a few days; maybe it would be interesting if you met him. From what Blair has told me, he's good, smart, and funny. They also go to the gym together so I'll assume he's got a good body too," she tells her excitedly, and just when Emma is ready to deny shots are heard and they hid behind the cars.

"Are you good? Anybody hit?" Voight asks as he walks out. 

"Yeah, no, all good. I was pinned down. I didn't have eyes," Emma tells him, trying to calm her breathing. 

"Help me! Help!" a female voice is suddenly heard, and Emma and Voight run straight that way. 

"5021 Henry roll in ambo to the 4400 block of South Whipple. Female victim. GSW to the abdomen" she says on her radio as Voight tries to stop the blood, which runs from the woman's wound. 

"I'm gonna get something to stop the bleeding!" Emma yells and runs inside a house. 

The image in front of her makes her heart break. Inside the house are the woman's frightened children as well as her sister who desperately asks about what happened. 

"Go home, I'll see you tomorrow at the district," Voight tells Kim and Emma as soon as the ambulance arrives and the girls are still shocked at what happened.

"Boss, the young GPs are taking credit for the shooting. Got a bunch of social media posts here. Idiots rapping about shooting up the barbershop. A retaliation hit. There's nothing specific though. We can't ID the actual shooter, yet" Adam tells them the next day. 

"And Eric?" 

"Uh, he's claiming he has no name and that no one's talking to him" Antonio answers. 

"The shooter's probably just some wannabe banger looking for attention" 

"But all wannabe bangers are looking for attention. That's the problem" 

"Ballistics came back. The gun used was a MAC-10, matches an unsolved homicide. I talked to gangs. They don't have any suspects," Kim tells them. 

"Hey, I may have something" Emma's voice is heard as soon as she climbs the stairs and Jay's face lights up as soon as he sees her.

"POD grabbed an SUV speeding west two blocks from the barbershop about a minute after the shots were fired. SVU's registered to an Isaiah Young," she continues. 

"Gang affiliation?" 

"Young GPs" 

"Bring his ass in," Voight tells them and they leave to find the suspect.

"Emms, are you all right?" Jay asks as soon as he starts the car. 

"Yeah," she replies simply and looks out of the window. 

"Emms" he tries to get her to talk and rests his hand on her leg. 

"They were so scared, Jay," she admits, and her voice breaks at the end. Jay squeezes her leg and waits to tell him more. 

"They were standing at the back of the house, their mom was shot. God, Jay, they're going to live without their mother because some people are stupid enough to start wars like this," she tells him and rubs her eyes. 

"I know, babe, I know. But we're going to put an end to this," he tries to reassure her, and eventually, Emma smiles sadly at him.

It turned out that the only reason Isaiah left the scene quickly when he heard the gunshots was because he didn't want to get involved. Buts he told them that he saw the victim with another woman, who turned out to be her sister, who lied to them about not seeing the shooter. Emma, however, managed after some hours to convince her to give them a description.

"I think this is him. It's the only bus Alyssa could have had eyes on that hour. But the kid never looks up," Antonio says after the girl's testimony and shows them a photo. 

"And he paid with cash, so we can't track a Ventra card" Kevin adds. 

"I've been looking into the clothes he was wearing, but they are pretty unspecific" 

"Everything about him is. He rode the bus two stops so I'm trying to track down the other passengers but chances are they didn't notice him either" 

"We got a clear shot of his phone?" 

"No, but he's a young kid, so I'm guessing he's on social media" 

"So run it with CPIC" 

"Yeah" 

They managed to find the ID of the shooter who turned out to be a man with the name Lamar Cook and was even identified by the victim's sister. But in the place where he was supposed to be, there were only 15 other people, including Eric Wilson, who knew all this time who the shooter was and was hiding him. Voight eventually persuaded him to tell them Lamar's address, so they managed to arrest him.

"Molly's tonight?" Kevin asks as soon as they finish their paperwork and everyone agrees. 

"I'll meet you there. I have one more thing to do," Emma tells them. 

"Yeah, me too," Jay agrees, and everyone leaves without asking for any further explanation. 

"Ready?" he asks her as soon as they are alone and head to Voight's office. 

"As I'll never be," she replies, and her smile gives him the courage to knock on the door.