can't change what you don't know

i don't wanna sleep

After calming himself down, jay walked back into his daughters room with a genuine smile on his face, "how about we get you home?" He stood opposite his brother and placed a gentle hand on tatums head. Tatum nodded, "please" she laughed a little and began sitting up since she already had her shoes on. Will smiled, "take it easy remember?" He nodded as the pair made their ways to the door. Tatum nodded, "I will" she smiled as jay opened the sliding door. He nodded at the red head before leaving med with Tatum, slowly but surely, and getting safely into his truck. Jay grabbed his phone, "how about I phone Kelly and Stella and they can come stay with you at the house until I'm back from work?" He smiled sadly.

Tatum furrowed her brows, "work? You have to go back to the district? At this time of night?" She looked at the time. Jay smiled sadly, "yeah honey, I do" he rubbed her arm carefully. Tatum frowned slightly, "why..." she almost tensed up at the thought of not being with him. Jay tilted his head, he hates seeing the fear flash across her face, "well sweetheart, it's complicated but all I can tell you is that I have to go find Peter and your mom okay?" He rubbed her arm again. Tatums breathing picked up, "find them? I thought they'd be at home..." she shook her head in a flustered panic. Jay shook his head and grabbed her hand, "take big deep breaths tate, nice deep breaths okay? They're not at home, they've ran away but you don't have to worry about that. We're gonna find them and I'm not letting anyone hurt you again..." he squeezed her hand as her panic subsided.

Tatum nodded slowly, "I don't wanna sleep. Not alone anyways, can't I just come with you? I'll sleep in the break room..." She begged. Jay thought about it for a few seconds, maybe having her close and keeping an eye on her wouldn't be such a bad idea, "alright okay, shhhh, you're okay remember? I'm right here..." he rubbed her cheek since the panicked expression appeared on her face again. Tatum calmed down instantly, "thank you..." she whispered then rested her head against the window. He smiled sadly and began sir icing to the district, it was now 8:45pm and he had no idea how long he'd be there but as long as Tate was getting some sleep he didn't mind, he has pillows in the back of his truck and she still has the blanket so she should be okay.

                   Jay pulled up outside of the district and slowly unbuckled tatums seatbelt hoping he wouldn't wake her up but he failed as she slowly sat up, "sorry, I tried not to wake you" he smiled and passed her the blanket that had fallen down.  Tatum smiled back, "it's fine" she laughed a little and opened the door.  The pair headed into the district and up the bullpen stairs slowly since it hurt tatums bruised legs with every step, when they appeared at the top of the stairs everyone turned to look at them both.  Hank smiled sadly, "hey kiddo, you feeling better?" He walked over and gave her a gentle hug.  Tatum nodded and hugged him back, "yeah" she smiled thankfully.  Jay smiled and nodded to hank as Tatum walked over to see Kevin and hailey, "I thought you were taking her home?" Hank nodded in confusion.

                  Jay sighed, "she didn't wanna sleep alone, begged me to fetch her here instead so here we are" he smiled weakly.  Hank nodded understandably, "yeah no, that's fine. She can sleep in my office, the break rooms freezing" he nodded.  Jay nodded thankfully, "thanks Sarge" he smiled weakly then walked over to Tatum who was practically falling asleep while standing up.  He placed a careful hand behind her back, "c'mon tink, you can sleep in uncle voights office instead" he smiled sadly.  Tatum nodded as her dad guided her into Hanks office, she likes that nickname, 'tink' in reference to tinkerbell due to her petite height.  She laid down on the couch in Hanks office as jay pulled the blanket over her, hank was stood in the doorway just watching his detective being the great father he was destined to be.

                 Almost straight away Tatum was asleep so jay left the office and closed the door but no fully in case she woke up and needed him, "where are we so far?" He nodded to the team.  Kim nodded, "they were spotted moving downtown about an hour ago but after that we've lost them on all pods, the stores down the backroads don't have any pods so we're kinda stuck for the time being" she sighed quietly so Tatum wouldn't hear their discussions.  Jay nodded, "Cassies disappeared before, left no traces behind, if they've dashed out of state then we have no hope, they're goners" he folded his arms and shook his head.  Hank pointed to the board, "we've got eyes on the border, the task force working with border controls gonna notify us if anyone matching their descriptions try to leave" he nodded hopefully.

It was around 22:15pm now and the team were receiving false lead after false lead, jay was stood at Hanks office door watching Tatum sleep, he had no idea how he was gonna deal with keeping her safe when the man who done this to her was running around the sitting with the kids own mother. Hank walked up behind jay which almost startled the younger officer, "how're you holding up?" He nodded. Jay sighed, "I don't know, fine I think. How am I meant to keep her safe now?" He shrugged. Hank smiled sadly, "well, tomorrow we'll contact the attorneys office. Make sure you get full custody over her, then we'll keep on working the case but I'm gonna be honest with you jay, at this rate, i don't think we're gonna find them anytime soon. I think it's just gonna be one of those cases, they snooze, we snatch em. We'll make it work" he nodded towards the sleeping teenager.

Jay nodded, "yeah...I just hope she doesn't freak out. She's doing so well, I don't want some idiot to go ahead and ruin everything for her" he smiled sadly. Hank nodded, "we'll figure it out, sooner or later" he placed a hand on jays shoulder and smiled sadly. Jay nodded and took a deep sigh, "she's a Halstead alright, she was sat joking around with me before" hank laughed quietly. Before they could say anything else Tatum raised her hand and pointed to them, not even pointing in the right direction since her eyes were still closed, "that's because you're funny..." she groggily answered Hanks statement. Hank and jay just laughed and shook their heads, "have you been awake the whole time?" Jay leant in the doorway, hoping she hadn't been. Tatum shook her head, "I just woke up..." she yawned and kept her eyes closed, god, she's such a special and unique character...