****

"They need to know Hank!" Erin insisted. Her conversation or rather one sided argument with Jay yesterday made her realise that keeping Sophia a secret was absurd.

"Erin." His voice was low and warning.

Jay had kept his daughter a secret for a reason and Voight wasn't about to go against that. Hank had been there for the small Halstead family since he found out about Sophia, he never questioned Jay's reasons for keeping Sophia away from his work, Voight knew if he had the same opportunity he would have kept Justin away too, it might have even saved his life.

"He's living a lie Hank! You have to see that." Erin hissed. No matter how many times she thought about it or how many times she tried to see the situation in Jay's perspective she still couldn't understand.

Erin took one last look at Voight before she left the office. Voight jumped from his chair and with long strides reached the door of his office.

"Guys. You need to know something." She declared as she stepped from Voight's office. She looked around as she wondered how Jay hadn't just wanted to tell his 'family' about his daughter

"Erin. It's not just Jay you're going to hurt." Voight warned again. He stood in the doorway office and watched Erin as she began to talk to the detectives and officers who were all conversing curiously.

Erin shook her head. They had to know.

"What is it Lindsay?" Ruzek asked from his desk where Burgess and Atwater gathered whilst Olinsky's head appeared from behind the storage cabinet.

She took a deep breath, glancing at Voight one last time. He just shook his head. It was her grave. "Jay- he - he's been hiding something from you. Something big" Thinking about her words Erin corrected herself slightly "Well- small actually." Now or Never. "Jay's got a kid."

Adam had thought it was a joke at first and immediately started to laugh but that soon stopped when he noticed the annoyed glare Voight held from his office. "You're serious?"

Erin nodded. "Yeah."

"Wha-when?" Burgess stumbled across her words. "Is he on paternity leave?" She checked, automatically assuming that the reason behind Jay's absence was in fact due to the birth of his child.

"No." Erin shook her head and lifted her cell from her back pocket. "She's 5, she's beautiful, she's so much like Jay." She smiled sincerely

"5? A little girl," Atwater cut across this time. "Man , I did not see that one coming."

Jay Halstead had hidden his daughter for 5 years, he had made friends, made enemies, he shared both the good times and the bad times with the people but the one thing he didn't share was the fact that he had a 5 year old daughter.

Scrolling through her photos Erin found the picture she had been looking for. "Here."

The picture was one of Erin's personal favorites. It was a picture of both Jay and Sophia.

"What's her name? What is she like?" Adam asked. He tried to imagine his friend's daughter, he imagined someone who rolled her eyes despite only being 5, he imagined her to have a grin that went on for even and lastly he imagined her to have the 'always right' attitude Jay possessed.

"Her name's Sophia Grace Halstead." Erin smiled.

"And you knew?" Burgess asked skeptically.

Erin shook her head frantically. "Not until the other day." Erin smiled to herself before she continued. "She's so bright!" Erin exclaimed. "She mispronounces words and mixes things up. She calls me 'Pretty lady Erin."

"I bet Jay taught her that one." Ruzek retorted earning himself a smack around the back of the head from Burgess.

Erin rolled her eyes at the officer. Her smile now faded into a straight line. "The robbery a few weeks ago? It wasn't just a robbery. The intruder, he tried to kidnap Sophia." Erin stated sadly.

"That's why Jay got so heated up on the case?" Atwater guessed.

Erin nodded.

"So where's Jay been?" Burgess asked, they all knew Jay was supposed to return to shift today but where had he been?

Erin looked to Voight but he offered no support. Her head moved back to the team. "Sophia fell from a climbing frame, broke her arm, had a concussion. I didn't know about her then." She cut across herself. "Anyway- when Jay didn't come back to work I went to his apartment and there she was calling for her daddy."

"So you had no idea?" Burgess asked. "Is her mom around?"

"I didn't have any idea. No." Erin took a breath. "As for her mom, she abandoned them when Sophia was a week old. Now. She's back on the scene and wants full custody."

Voight shook his head at the female detective. She had gone too far.

The sound of the step creaking caught Erin's attention. Her head snapped towards the stairs as she caught sight of Jay. He heard her. Every single word. And he wasn't happy.

"Jay." Erin was shocked by the abrupt appearance of her partner. She knew he didn't want the unit to know about Sophia. "They had to know, Jay."

Jay continued up the stairs, ignoring the questioning glances from his colleagues as his eyes narrowed, to Erin first and then to Voight. Jay knew Voight would never betray his trust, he was the closest thing to a grandfather Sophia had and he knew deep down Hank adored Sophia. If Jay had to bet Hank would be the first one to stand up for Sophia and protect her from harm.

"So you thought you'd tell them?" Jay whispered. His arms elevated as he indicated his co-workers who were all around him, looking serious but pale.

"Jay, they needed to know." Erin tried to argue.

Jay wasn't having any of it as he advanced towards Erin a finger jabbing in her direction. "Not from you."

He began to walk towards the stairs and Erin tried to stop him. "Jay, don't be like this. Please."

"It wasn't your secret to tell, Erin. That was up to me. Soph's my daughter." Jay's eyes were now furious as he snapped his body around to face Erin. "I'm- I'm going to clear my head." He murmured as he headed back down towards the front desk.

Erin's face pleaded but Voight shook his head. "Let him go, Erin. You got what you wanted."

****

Needing to clear his head, Jay decided to talk to the principal of Sophia's school and find out the name of the kid who had hurt his daughter. It was hard to keep track of the number of criminals Jay had arrested, and any one of them could have had a son who was angry that Jay had put his father in prison. The only way a young 5 or 6 year old kid knew how to

get back at Jay was by hurting Sophia and the thought that his job had been the cause of this, of his baby girl being injured, deeply saddened Jay. Being a former ranger in the military, Jay knew full well how to control his emotions, but whenever it came to Sophia, he couldn't control himself. His daughter was the ONLY reason, the ONLY person, who without even knowing it, had been the reason Jay had been so focused on getting back from Afghanistan alive, because without her, without the knowledge that if he died, Sophia would not have a father, Jay would never have been able to make it back in one piece.

Jay got into his car, and gunned the engine to life, before driving off to Sophia's school, which was right near his apartment. He parked his car and then headed into the brown building. He knew the principal well. She was the wife of a friend of Jay's from the army, who had been killed in Afghanistan in the same explosion that had messed with Mouse's head badly.

Sandy Jacobs met Jay right outside her office door and ushered him into her office. She closed the door behind him and motioned for him to take seat in front of her desk while she sat behind her desk.

"It's been a while, Jay," Sandy smiled brightly. But in her eyes, Jay could still feel the sadness she held from losing her husband years ago.

Jay nodded, a small smile on his lips. "Yeah, I've just been super busy these last few weeks."

"I'm not surprised, seeing as you're known to be one of Chicago PD's finest cops," Sandy responded. "How's Sophia doing? I haven't seen her back here yet."

Jay sighed. "That's actually the reason for my visit here, Sandy."

Sandy Jacobs cocked her head to one side, pressing her lips together, her eyebrows raised in anticipation for Jay to continue.

"I thought Sophie was ready to come back to school, I spoke to her this morning," Jay finally went on, leaning forward slightly, his body tensing slightly at what he was about to say next. "She didn't want to come back just yet, something, or rather someone, frightened her way too much."

Sandy looked alarmed, even sad, at the what Jay was saying. "Poor girl," Sandy sighed unhappily. "My guess is you're here to find out the name of the boy who pushed her off the climbing frame?"

Jay nodded once, his jaw clenched. "I would appreciate if you gave me a name."

Sandy remained quiet for a second before also leaning forward. "I know you, Jay. I've known you since I married to Aaron. And when he died, you were there for me. So, I owe you this, and since I care for your daughter's well-being, I'm going to violate the student-principal confidentiality and tell you the name of the boy. However, I would caution you not to do anything that could potentially get you stripped of your badge."

"I appreciate the advice and your help, Sandy. Trust me." Jay smiled again, and Sandy nodded her head, a tiny smile appearing at the corner of her own lips.

"Lewis Benbeneck."

****

"You better not be messing with me," Jay said, his tone dangerously low and threatening.

"Come on, man! I've never let you down before," His CI, a guy that went by the name Iago, practically squeaked out.

Iago had been a computer analyst for one of Chicago's top companies but shortly after his employment had been terminated when he was caught supplying confidential information to the most high level and notorious criminals in Chicago.

The situation had been similar to Mouse but Jay knew Iago would never live a crime free life though he had turned a blind eye knowing the information he continued to supply him with was worth much more.

Jay sighed. It was true, Iago had been CI for Jay since he had arrived in Chicago.

Without a warning, Jay's CI scrambled. At first, it didn't alarm Jay, he knew what would happen to him if he got caught ratting on one of his own.

Jay just let out a sigh. He would have to relieve Connie's mom of her baby sitting duties soon enough. After his meeting earlier that morning with Mrs Jacobs Jay just wanted to hold his daughter tightly, to inhale her scent and ruffle her hair.

Jay decided to head back but when he turned around to head to his SUV he never expected a fist to connect with his face. Stumbling back Jay lost his bearings for a second, he was pushed into the wall before an arm wrapped around his neck.

Jay couldn't understand, usually he would have been prepared for anything but not today. As Jay's vision began to blur he could have sworn his life passed by, he remembered the time he and a group of friends jumped into Lake Michigan because they thought it was fun. He remembered the day he signed up for the military. He remembered the day he met Amanda and he remembered- the most important thing in his life, Sophia.

It took Jay all his strength but he managed to pull himself free from the choke hold and lunged at the man, pushing him to the very same wall he himself had been thrown against before.

The attacker was tall, really tall. His hair was dark. His face like a fist as his features crumbled.

This man was far too strong, stronger than Jay had been trained to fight. This man was definitely not a mugger. He was tall and broadly built, Jay was fairly tall and muscular too but nothing compared to this man. This man was more a beast than a man.

Jay's fists seemed to move automatically as he punched the dark haired man.

But, he was still too strong.

It was only when the dark haired attacker swung for Jay he noticed the standard military tattoo. This time Jay had managed to duck out of the way. Shaking his head Jay cleared his head and kicked the man, knocking him to his knees. The attacker now catching his breath as his hands and knees stuck to the floor Jay kicked him in the ribs.

"What do you want?" Jay groaned in pain.

The attacker didn't respond as he pushed himself up from the floor, his face angry. Jay and his attacker stood face to face, Jay's body was heavy as the last few days of exhaustion began to take a toll on him.

The attacker didn't stop there, he curled up his fists and with a leaning posture his boot lifted and knocked Jay straight in the chest making him double over in pain. If Jay's head hadn't been throbbing madly and bleeding, he could have sworn he heard the faint cracking of ribs when the attacker's boot had hit him in the chest. The pain that radiated instantly confirmed his suspicions, as he dropped to the ground, weakly trying to wrap his arm around his injured chest.

The man now stood above the CPD detective and young father and instead of walking away, he decided to take another go and slammed his foot to the side of Jay's already cut and concussed head. The force of the kick had thrown Jay into the wall and the strength with which he hit the wall jarred his broken ribs more, causing him to collapse once again, his body burning with intense pain. Jay coughed up blood as he tried to move. That surely was NOT a good sign, he hoped he wasn't bleeding internally, but with the brute force and power that the man had kicked him with, anything was possible.

Jay was slowly losing consciousness and he tried his best to shield his bruised and battered body from the blows, but he was too weak due to sufficient blood loss. His natural instinct would be to get up off the floor and fight back but the blow to the chest had been too much, even for him.

Thoughts ran through his mind at lightning speed. He thought of his brother, of his team, of Erin. He thought of his daughter, Sophia, he thought of her smile and her giggle as his heart raced and then slowed, as he tried to hold onto consciousness. But it wasn't long before the darkness slowly overtook him. But not before he heard his attacker's menacing threat.

"Not gonna be able to protect your angel for long, Halstead."

With one last vicious kick to Jay's ribs and head, the attacker departed. And Jay let the darkness envelop him into its sinister embrace.

****

Erin had dropped Sophia to Connie's house on her way to work whilst Jay went to solve the problem of Sophia's accident. She had agreed to head straight to work to prevent confusion, Jay had encouraged the idea but to Erin it felt too soon and Jay respected that. Since Jay had heard her telling the unit he had been dodging her calls.

She was now sat filling the long overdue paperwork at her desk. She looked towards the empty desk, it was supposed to be Jay's first shift back today after his three week leave of absence.

When Jay left the unit she assumed he would go straight to Sophia's school to talk to the principal but that was 3 hours ago now. Something wasn't right and she intended to find out what.

"Hey Lindsay. Is Halstead coming back?." Ruzek asked innocently earning a slap around the back of the head from Burgess.

Erin took no notice of the comments and instead picked up her cell and called the familiar number. The dial tone continued and continued until it reached voicemail. "Jay Halstead, sorry I can't get to the phone right now. Leave a message and I'll see if I wanna get back to you." BEEP.

Now she was certain, something was really wrong. Fear and apprehension clouded her mind.

Hank had just returned back to his office from the break room when Erin decided to see if he knew where Jay had gotten to. Jumping from her desk Erin practically barged into the Sergeant's office not bothering to knock, she ignored the questioning looks her colleagues sent her way and closed the door behind her.

"Come in," the gruff voice said sarcastically but Erin didn't care for the satire. Knowing Jay's whereabouts were much more important than Hank's sarcasm now.

"Hey Hank. Have you heard from Jay since he left? I mean, he was going to meet someone but that was 3 hours ago-" Erin asked, her voice was panicky.

Hank remembered back to a few weeks ago when Erin had been in his office with curiosity in her eyes but now he could see that it wasn't the case this time as concern laced the detective's features. "No, I don't know where Halstead is, Erin. " He shook his head, but the fear and concern for her partner was evident on Erin's face and in her eyes.

"But-"

The ringing phone on Hank's desk interrupted the pair. Hank gestured for Erin to leave but she didn't and remained stood with arms crossing her chest.

"Voight." He answered gruffly whilst staring at his detective who remained stood in the bullpen office.

"Hank Voight. This is Caroline Parker, Connie's mom. Uh Jay told me to call you if there was ever any problem? " A soft female spoke unsurely as if debating whether or not her call had been a mistake.

Voight was instantly alarmed and Erin, who was watching carefully had instantly known something was wrong. "Is everything okay? Is Sophia okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Sophia's perfectly fine- well she's being an angel really but Jay mentioned he'd be picking her up to take to her Uncle Toni I think?" She spoke unsure if the information she had received from Sophia's father was correct. "Anyway he said he'd be here two hours ago..."

"Jay's not picked her up?" Voight cut across the mother.

"It's not a problem, though. I just wanted to make sure everything's okay - usually he'll call to warn me if-" The woman reassured that Jay's late, or very late arrival hadn't been trouble to her.

"No..No... I'll get one of my colleagues to pick Soph up." Voight offered before he set the phone down and leant back in his chair. His rough hands ran across his face as he let out a deep and thoughtful sigh.

"Where's Jay?" Erin's voice shook. Hank remained silent, and that was all Erin needed to confirm what she had been dreading the most this morning.

Jay Halstead was missing.

****

"Hi ma'am, I'm Kim. This is Ruzek. Voight sent us to pick Sophia up?" Burgess offered, she hadn't really been sure what their Sergeant had told the woman.

"Oh yes of course. Come in." The woman greeted as she ushered the two officers into her home. Looking back across her shoulder she called. "Sophia?"

The sound of tiny feet hitting the wooden floor caught the pair's attention. Looking passed Caroline Parker, Ruzek and Kim caught sight of the young girl. Ruzek smiled at the young girl, she was the mirror of Jay. The bright blue eyes were unmistakable though he noticed how they glimmered in green against the light. The light brown hair bright, the shade only slightly lighter to Jay's, though hers had been tied up in two ponytails and her bangs were spread carelessly across her forehead.

The young girl stopped behind Caroline, her head peaking from behind the woman's legs.