19. Stealing Cinderella

Thanks for the reviews you guys! I hope that you're enjoying your weekend and whatever you're doing, I hope that it's bringing you joy. Hope that you enjoy this chapter.

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Jay walked back into the ER after he'd finished talking to Erin. He gestured to the nurse at registration that he was ready to be buzzed back to the exam rooms. When the nurse hit the button to open the doors, Jay walked through.

He made his way down the corridor to the exam room that he was looking for and he opened the door. "Erin's on her way"

"I told you not to call her" Hank Voight said from his bed. "It's not that big of a deal"

Jay sighed and he walked over to the empty chair beside Voight's bed. "I wouldn't really call a mild heart attack "No big deal""

Jay sat down and looked at this phone "Besides, I don't think you'd want to deal with Erin if I didn't tell her"

"She doesn't need the stress of coming here" Voight said laying his head back against the pillows.

Hank wasn't sure if it was the Nitroglycerin tablets that the nurse had given him, or the pain meds that they'd put in his IV. But right now he was feeling pretty good for a man who'd just had a mild heart attack. In fact, he was feeling better than he had in a long time.

"You didn't need to come back in my office. I would've been fine" Hank said turning his head to look at Jay. "Why did you?"

"I needed to talk to you about something" Jay looked down at his shoes and away from Voight's gaze.

"What about?" Voight asked.

"It's not really the time to discuss it" Jay stumbled over his words as he kept his eyes on his feet.

"You're back with Erin aren't you?" Voight said simply.

Jay didn't need to answer. His silence spoke volumes. He didn't have to even look up to feel Hank Voight's gaze burning into him.

Hank sighed and laid his head back. "Halstead, let me ask you something. Do you think that this is good for Erin. This whole back and forth that you two do?"

Jay turned his gaze up to Voight laying on the bed and furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

Voight cleared his throat and looked at Jay. "I think we need to have a little man to man chat. I'm asking you if YOU think that Erin is in a place where she's even ready to be in a relationship"

Jay nodded and kept his gaze on Voight. "Of course"

Hank shook his head and looked away from Jay "See, this is the problem Halstead. You are too distracted by the idea of Erin to really see what's going on in front of you"

Jay sighed and shook his head "I can't believe that after everything this is how it still is between us. I thought by now we'd have some kind of common ground or understanding"

"It's not about common ground, Jay. It's about the fact that I need to be about to trust that If Erin is going to be with you, that I can trust that you're going to take care of her. To know what it is that she wants and what it is that she needs" Voight kept his eyes on Jay as he spoke.

"I do. I know exactly what she needs" Jay assured.

Voight shook his head "Halstead, if you think that Erin is okay, then you're blinded by whatever feelings you have for her. Cause she's not fine, son. She needs help that you and I can't give her. As much as we both want to"

Jay looked away from Voight and ran a hand through his short hair. "What is it that I have to do to prove to you how much I love her? Protect her for a living? Did it. Save her life? Did it. Save your life? Just did it. I don't know what I have to do to win with you. If you don't want us working together, that's fine. I'll move to another district"

Hank shook his head "It's not about any ot that, Halstead"

"Then what is it?" Jay asked

"Halstead..." Voight started

"No...Tell me. I just find it funny that I'm good enough to be her partner and work with her every single day. I'm good enough to go undercover with her and save her life when she was dying right under my hands. But I'm not worthy of being her boyfriend...or her husband" Jay was pissed by this point. He didn't get what it was that made him not good enough for Erin in Voight's eyes.

"Did Erin ever tell you about how I met her?" Voight asked.

"What?" Jay asked raising an eyebrow at Hank.

Voight looked at Jay and repeated his question. "Did Erin ever tell you about when I first met her?"

"Yeah she was a teenager" Jay said folding his arms over himself

Voight shook his head "No, that's not the first time"

"What do you mean?" Jay asked.

"She was six. I was a lot like you Jay. When I first started out as a cop. Dealing with kids like Erin, who are basically raising themselves...it changes you" Voight turned his head to look out the window.

"She was six?" Jay asked sitting back in the hospital chair. His mind filled with thoughts of a six year old Erin, running and playing and happy.

Voight nodded and kept his gaze on the windows "Yeah, we'd gotten a call from Erin's school about some bruises that the teacher had seen on her. As with any case, we had to go investigate it. So they sent me. I knew when I pulled in the driveway that no adult was there. So, I go and knock on the door and a few seconds later this little girl answers the door. Four foot tall long chocolate brown hair and these beautiful brown eyes that had so much trust in them. She had this dress on that had Tinkerbell on it and was already so sassy"

Jay smiled as he thought of Erin as a kid. "Sassy? Who'd have ever guessed"

Voight nodded "I knelt down so I was level with her and I noticed that she had this bruise on the top of her collarbone and it went down under her dress and these faint lines that looked like hand prints around the top of her arms. I knew even at the age of six she was lying to me to protect her mom and dad"

"Did you arrest them?" Jay asked. He couldn't help but feel guilt and anger that he wasn't around to have protected Erin then.

Voight nodded. "After I went to the station, they filed the warrant and we went and got him. Of course he denied it"

"Then what happened?" Jay asked.

"The city dropped the charges. He went home and I got a call at 3:30 in the morning later that night that he'd come home drunk and that he'd put Erin in the hospital" Voight shook his head and kept his gaze on the windows.

"What did he do?" Jay asked. He swollowed hard. He didn't really want to hear the answer, but he needed to know.

Voight's breath shook as he looked back at Jay "He fractured some of her ribs, broke her arm. that scar...you know the one that's on her shoulder blade? That's from a lit cigarette that he'd burned her with"

Jay sat forward in his seat "What?"

Voight nodded "Yeah. I could've protected her. I should've protected her. I missed the chance when she was six and I wasn't going to miss it again. When she came to live with me before she turned 16 I knew that was my second chance to make her life right"

Jay sat back in his chair. "What does this have to do to me being with her? If anything you should know that I'd never hurt Erin...Nor would I let anyone hurt her"

"I know that. It's just..." Hank sighed

"What?" Jay asked

"I'm not ready to let her go. I know she's 28, but I look at her and I see that six year old little girl that I should've protected. It's a dangerous job we have, Halstead. And I know how she feels about you. If you marry her and something happens to you while you're on duty, do you not know what that would do to her?" Hank's voice trailed off as he looked away from Jay.

"Nothing's going to happen to me, Hank" Jay assured. He wasn't used to having these kinds of conversations with Voight. He wasn't really sure how to respond to his boss who was laying in the hospital bed next to him.

"I just want her taken care of, someone who's going to support her and her dreams, someone who is going to love her the way that I loved...love Cam..." Voight's voice broke as he thought about his late wife.

He missed her, God how he missed her.

"It's ok" Jay said putting a hand on Voight's shoulder.

Voight cleared his throat and shook his head and turned his head to look at Jay. "I'll kill you if you hurt her. Do you understand me? And if you ever raise a hand to her, God won't even be able to save you"

Jay nodded his head "Yes sir"

Hank was about to respond when the door to his room opened and Erin came in.

"What happened?" Erin asked walking up to the bed.

"Damndest thing, mild heart attack" Voight said throwing his hands up.

"What? How did this happen?" Erin sat down on the edge of Hank's bed.

Voight shrugged his shoulders "Just a lifetime of bad habits catching up with me"

"What are they going to do?" Erin asked her eyes moving from Voight to Jay who was still sitting in the chair next to Voight.

"They're going to take him up to the cath lab. Do an angioplasty and put a stint in if they need to" Jay answered.

Erin exhaled shakily and nodded as she looked back to Voight. "You ok?"

Voight nodded "I'm fine. It's going to take more than a heart issue to slow me down"

Erin's eyes welled with tears as she looked at Voight.

"Hey, none of that" Voight said "It can't be too serious or they'd already have me back there"

Erin took a deep breath and wiped the few tears as they slid down her cheeks.

Jay sat back in his seat as he watched the two of them. It was then he realized the kind of relationship that the two of them had. He always understood from day one that Erin and Hank had a close relationship, but it took seeing the two of them right now to really let it sink in for him. He was the man that Erin considered her father in every aspect of the word. And she was his daughter, maybe not by blood, but love.

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An hour later two nurses came to take Voight up to the cath lab for his angioplasty.

"You guys are welcome to wait in the cath lab waiting room" One of the nurses said as they released the brakes on Voight's hospital bed.

"How long will this take?" Erin asked the nurse.

"Once they start it will take anywhere from 45 minutes to three hours. It just depends on how much needs to be fixed" the nurse explained as they started to wheel Voight down the hallway.

"Okay" Erin nodded her eyes welling with tears for the second time that night.

"His vitals are really strong. So that's good news. And he's in the best place that he can be. We're going to take good care of him" The 2nd nurse assured as Erin and Jay followed behind them down the hallway.

Jay draped his arm over Erin's shoulder and pulled her to him as they walked down the hall to a set of double doors that led to the cath lab.

"Well, this is where we leave you" The nurse said as she stepped out of the way for Erin and Jay to come around and talk to Voight.

Erin stepped away from Jay and walked around to face Voight. "We'll be here when you get back"

Voight shook his head "It's late. You guys need to go home and get some sleep"

"We're staying" Jay said making his way behind Erin to face Voight.

"Don't think that you get to use my heart attack as a personal day, Halstead" Voight said looking from Erin to Jay.

"I'm off tomorrow" Jay said.

"Do you ever work?" Voight asked "Seems like you're always off these days"

"Well, if you'd let me and Erin partner back up then I'd have a more regular schedule" Jay shrugged his shoulders as if to make a point.

"Nice try, Halstead" Voight said.

"We'll see you back at your room" Jay reached down and gave Voight's shoulder a squeeze and stepped back so that Erin could talk to him.

Voight looked up at Erin and raised his hand to hers as Erin's eyes welled with fresh tears "I'm fine"

Erin nodded "You're my family"

Voight squeezed Erin's hand "Just about the best thing that ever happened to me"

Erin forced a smile as she squeezed his hand back. Hank's words were the same thing he'd said to her when she'd come back to his office after her run in with Bunny a few months back.

"It's about that time" the nurse said as she stepped back up to Voight's bed and pressed the button to open the double doors.

Voight gave Erin's hand one last squeeze and let go. She watched as they wheeled Voight down the hall until the double doors closed behind him. Erin turned around and came face to face with Jay. The tears she was fighting to keep from falling slid down her cheeks freely.

"Hey hey come here" Jay said pulling Erin into his arms.

Erin buried her face in Jay's chest and cried. She wrapped her arms around him and clung to him.

"Baby, it's ok" Jay soothed as he rubbed Erin's back as she cried into his chest.

"I don't know how much more I can take" Erin tightened her arms around Jay. Almost afraid that if she'd let loose of him, he'd leave her too.

"He's going to be just fine, Erin. They're going to take great care of him and he's going to be back to being a pain in our ass in no time" Jay assured as he kept rubbing Erin's back.

Erin pulled her head back and wiped her eyes. She looked down at Jay's shirt and saw her make up smeared acoss it "Oh no. Your shirt"

Jay looked down and ran his hand over the front of it "It's fine. No worries"

Erin nodded as she rested her head against Jay's chin and closed her eyes.

Jay placed a soft kiss of her forehead before pulling back "Let's go in the waiting room"

Erin nodded and followed Jay into the waiting room.

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An hour had past and there was still no word on Voight and his procedure. Jay and Erin were the only two in the waiting room and they'd taken a seat on the couch that was against the wall. The overhead lights in the waiting room had been turned off and the only light filling the room were from the table lamps from the other side of the waiting room and the TV that was currently playing an episode of "I Love Lucy"

Erin had slipped her shoes off and was curled up under her sweater her back resting against Jay's shoulder. She'd been texting Justin about Voight since he wasn't able to leave basic training to come to the hospital.

Every so often Jay would feel Erin's head droop forward as she'd start to nod off. He turned his head and looked at her. "Erin, baby get some sleep"

Erin shook her head and sat up. "I'm ok. I'll just go get me a coffee"

Jay felt Erin move to stand and he grabbed her gently by the hand. "No, get some sleep. If anything happens I'll wake you up"

Erin looked down at the ground and then at Jay before she sat back down on the couch and curled up next to him. Erin tucked her feet up on the couch and spread her sweater out over her as Jay raised his arm so that she could rest her head against his chest. Jay slowly traced his arm up and down Erin's shoulder and he soon felt her body relax as she fell into a slumber. He reached down to brush the hair off of her face and over her shoulder and that's when he saw the scar that Voight had been talking about earlier. It was small and faded...a perfect circle.

Jay felt his stomach turn for the girl laying in his arms. If only he'd been able to have protected her from her father. What kind of man does something like that to his own child? He couldn't help but think about if he and Erin had a family, what he'd do if someone ever hurt his child like that. There'd be no place for them to hide. No place that he wouldn't find the bastard and kill them.

Jay silently hoped that this would be the last bump in the road for Erin. He wanted her to get better, he needed her to get better so that they could truly look at starting a life together. And for her to get through, Hank Voight was going to have to pull through.

Hank's earlier conversation had been playing through Jay's mind all night. Had Voight's run on speech been the approval that Jay'd been looking for? Had Hank finally realized that Jay wasn't going anywhere? Did Voight now see that this was it. This is real, this is forever for Jay?

Jay hoped that it was, but even if it took him leaving to go to another unit, he'd never leave Erin. He was the man in her life to protect her now. He didn't care if it was from Erin's biological father, from Bunny or a criminal, the people who have hurt Erin weren't going to be in her life. He'd make sure of that.

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Hope that you guys liked this chapter. After today I am FINALLY off for a couple of days. HAPPY TIMES HAPPY DANCE so I'll try to get an update or two in on my days off. Since it's freezing where I live and supposed to snow, I don't think there will be too much of me leaving my house. lol. Please feel free to review if you'd like. Also, Chicago P.D. is FINALLY new this week. I've missed it so much. I'm not going to make it through the Winter Hiatus lol.