7. What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?

Wow, what can I say? I wasn't expecting all the feedback from the last chapter. First off, Thank You! I didn't have to greatest day at work so it was nice to see the reviews. You guys really want your "Scrabble" lol. And I promise eventually it will happen. And maybe not just in a dream this time...Crossover begins tomorrow night, friends! I can't wait. I really can't. If ya'll get a chance Google "The 27 Stages of Getting Addicted to a TV show" it's an article from the site Buzzfeed and is pretty much the most honest thing I've read in a long time...and it's good for a laugh. A laugh I needed after finding out Lifetime cancelled the only other show I watch "Witches of East End" Hope you guys like the next chapter.

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Hank Voight walked through the sliding doors and into the hospital in Orlando, Florida. Not exactly the place he expected to meet the rest of his team. He spotted Antonio Dawson standing down in the main lobby looking physically and mentally exhausted.

"What the hell happened, Dawson?" Voight asked walking up to him.

"It happened so fast, Hank" Antonio explained as Voight brushed past him and down the hall of the hospital to the surgical floor.

Kim and Adam came up from the cafeteria, each one carrying a stack of coffees. Kim handed Antonio his and he nodded as a silent "Thank You"

"Did he go too insane?" Ruzek asked balancing the coffee carriers in his hands.

Antonio shook his head "No, and we all know that's unlike him. We just gotta hope that Erin pulls through this"

Kim and Adam nodded and started walking down the hall. Kim noticed that Dawson wasn't following them and she turned to look at him. "Are you coming up?"

Dawson looked at his coffee and then at Kim. "Not right now, Burgess. Thanks for the coffee though"

Kim nodded and turned back to follow Ruzek down the hall to where the rest of the team was waiting for any news on Erin.

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Jay sat on the floor in the Surgical Waiting Room he hadn't even changed his blood stained clothes. He didn't care. All he cared about was if the doctors were going to be able to bring Erin back to him. He looked down at his hands that were still stained with Erin's blood and at the silver band that was still around his ring finger. He felt fresh tears burn at his eyes and slide down his cheeks as he twisted the band around his finger and he rubbed his hands together in a vain attempt to wipe the dried blood that covered his hands.

The sound of the doors opening tore Jay's gaze up from his hands and he was met with the face of Hank Voight. Hank took a quick view of the room and saw that everyone from the unit was sitting around the room. He looked across the room at Jay Halstead. He felt his stomach drop at the look of the man who was covered in the blood of the girl he thought of as his own child.

Hank Voight hated hospitals. He'd hated them ever since his wife had died and he made it a point to try to avoid them at all costs. That's what he knew his team would never understand. All of them were the best of the best, that much he knew. However, every one of them didn't understand the line between professional and personal. "It only leads to trouble" Hank thought as he took a seat in one of the few empty chairs that was in the room.

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Seven hours had passed since Erin had went in for surgery. The medics onboard the ship were by some miracle able to shock Erin's heart into a faint rhythm. They'd called in a rescue MedVac to life flight Erin the short distance to the hospital they were at now.

Seven Hours

420 Minutes

25,200 seconds

A Lifetime

That's how long it had been since the last time Jay Halstead had seen Erin Lindsay. Seven Hours since he'd been able to hold her hand the way that he did on the flight to the hospital. And hold her hand he did. The entire flight from the ship to the hospital. The only thing that had laid some calm on him other than being able to touch her was the sound of the heart monitor and the soft "beep, beep...beep, beep" that had echoed through his ears and brought some kind of peace to his breaking heart.

"Family of Erin Lindsay?" A surgeon in blue scrubs asked from the doorway.

"That's me...us" Hank Voight said standing up from his chair and walking over to where the surgeon was standing. "How's Erin?"

The surgeon looked around at the officers who were standing around waiting to hear news on Erin. He sighed before he looked at Hank and spoke "Miss Lindsay was brought in with life threatening injuries. There were 3 knife wounds and each one was deep and caused severe internal and external bleeding. Miss Lindsay was brought in with severe blood loss. The worst I've seen in 28 years in medicine. She went into cardiac arrest on the table twice. We were able to get her back and surgically repair the damage caused by the knife wounds. Miss Lindsay is in a medically induced coma. Her body has taken a serious amount of trauma in the last 24 hours and we're hoping that the medically induced coma gives her body the chance it needs to start healing itself. The next 72 hours are critical. I can't promise you she'll pull through this. It's out of my hands and beyond medical science. It's all up to her now"

Hank Voight nodded taking the information all in. "Can I see her?"

The surgeon shook his head. "As soon as she's brought to a room in ICU then you can go back. She's still in post op right now with her vitals being monitored"

Hank nodded and looked around the room. "That's it everyone. You all should go and get some rest. I'm sure Erin would want that. She wouldn't want this fuss over her"

Dawson, Ruzek, Burgess, Roman, Atwater, Olinsky and Platt all looked around at each other before Atwater spoke for the group "We're staying"

Hank Voight looked around at his team. He didn't really expect them to leave and that's what he took the most pride in when it came to his unit. They were always there for each other through the good and through the bad. Hank Voight simply nodded and walked out of the doors of the waiting room and down the hall.

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Olinsky looked at his watch and read the time, it was already 11pm. Closing in on almost 24 hours since the nightmare had begun. He took a drink of his coffee and looked out the glass doors at Jay who had been standing outside for the last hour.

Olinsky took another drink of his coffee and walked towards the glass doors and he walked through them as they slid open.

"You know, even Florida hospitals have horrible coffee" Olinsky said looking down at the cup in his hands.

Jay didn't respond. He just kept his eyes on the horizon.

"She's going to be okay, Halstead" Olinsky said. Trying to offer some peace to the young man standing next to him.

"This was my fault" Jay said his eyes not leaving the buildings he was staring at across the street.

"Halstead, it wasn't. How were you supposed to know that Lane had a connection to Erin's past? If it wasn't for you, Halstead...Erin would've bled out if you hadn't have been so quick to step in.

Jay shrugged his shoulders "If i'd have just been there sooner..."

Olinsky placed his hand on Jay's shoulder as a gesture of support. "You did everything you could've Halstead"

"I love her, Alvin" Jay whispered.

"I know you do" Olinsky said.

Jay turned his head away from Olinsky, he shook his head to rid himself of the fresh tears that were brimming at his eyes. "I can promise you this. If I ever cross Mike Lane's path again...I'll kill him. I can promise you that. I'll kill him"

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A few hours later Erin was taken into a Critical Care ICU room. Her surgeon had allowed a few visitors to go back. Hank of course was going first. Voight waited to be buzzed into the ICU area of the hospital. As soon as the doors opened he was swept back to memories of losing his soulmate. His wife.

Voight shook his head and walked down the hall. He glanced into each room as he made his way down to Erin's. Each room was filled with the same thing. A person in the bed and the person who loved them most asleep beside them.

Voight's steps slowed as he came to Erin's room. He took an unsteady breath and walked into the room.

Erin laid in silence. Sleeping. The tube coming out of her mouth was attached to the ventilator that was currently pumping life into the brunette beauty. She had various lines of tubing coming out of her: IV's, a PIC line, drain tubes form her surgery, a catheter and of course the vent that was keeping her alive.

Hank squeezed his eyes shut, in some effort that he'd wake up as if he were in a dream. He opened them and took the few steps to the chair next to Erin's bed and he took a seat.

"Hey kid, I don't even know what to say to you. I just know the Erin that I know is a fighter. She always has been. But I also know the vulnerable Erin. The one that only I see. The one who is even more beautiful than the fighter. I also know how hard it can be to be so strong all of the time. If anyone knows that. I do...You're as much my kid as Justin is. I don't tell you a lot but I'm so damn proud of you. I meant it when I said that you're about the best thing that's ever happened to me. But, I also want you to know..."

Hank's voice trailed off as he looked up at the machines that were monitoring Erin's vital signs. the sound of the blood pressure machine filled the room with a soft hum as it started up to take a reading.

Voight ran his hand down Erin's arm and took a hold of her hand "It's okay,' he said. 'If you want to go. Everyone wants you to stay. I want you to stay more than I've ever wanted anything in my life.' His voice cracks with emotion. So he stopped and took a shaky breath . 'But that's what I want and I could see why it might not be what you want. So I just wanted to tell you that I understand if you go. It's okay if you have to leave us. It's okay if you want to stop fighting. I won't be mad. I don't want you to ever worry that you weren't enough. You've always been more than enough, kid. I promise you that. Just know how much I love you...how proud..."

Voight wiped a tear off his cheek and held tight to Erin's hand "Always so proud"

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Voight walked the few steps into the room and sat down on the pew and looked around the room. The chapel was completely empty. He looked down at the carpet before looking up at the stained glass window of a cross.

"I know that you and I haven't been on speaking terms since I lost my wife. That was a real low blow you sent me when you took her. I swore I'd never step another foot in a church. I realize I am one of the last people who should be asking you for something...Just don't take Erin. Not yet. She's still a kid. She's my kid. And maybe in some divine intervention you crossed our paths so that I'd have her when I lost my wife. But you can't take her. You can't take her and have my wife too. Just give me a break this one time...I'm not ready to lose her"

Hank Voight ran his hands over his pants before he stood up and walked out of the chapel and down the hall.

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Jay stood outside of Erin's ICU room. He looked in the doorway at the dark room and at his partner laying in the hospital bed. There were tubes coming in and out of her body and hooked to various machines. Each one responsible for keeping the girl he was so hopelessly in love with alive. He walked the short distance to her bed and picked up her hand and held it. Careful of the IV line that was leaving her hand.

"Erin, I don't even know what to say. I've never bees so scared in my entire life. I am so mad. Not at you. but with myself. I made an oath to protect you and I couldn't even live up to it. I promise you that if you stay with me that I'll spend the rest of my life taking care of you. I will protect you and if I have to I'll kill the men who did this to you. I just need you to do what you're so good at and fight. You fight like you do with everything else in your life. You can't go anywhere. We've got a life we have to share together, "Scrabble" to play...babies to make. You can't leave me here alone. I can't do it without you, Erin. Please fight...please"

Jay sat down in the chair next to Erin's bed and kept ahold of her hand. "I'm so sorry Erin...I'm so sorry"

And that was it. He let go of all of the tears that he'd been holding back. He laid his head on his and Erin's clasped hands and he cried. Cried for the guilt he felt for not saving Erin. cried for taking down Smith and Evans instead of going after Lane like he should have, and he cried for the girl who was hooked up to the machines that were keeping her alive. He cried until he couldn't cry anymore. Until he finally gave into exhaustion and fell asleep. His head on Erin's bed. His hand holding onto hers.

What he was oblivious to was the gaze of Hank Voight in the doorway.

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