Please Remember Me

Chapter Fifteen

Jay dragged Erin to the break room.

The picture he saw on the board of the little girl, Hadley Mae. She looked exactly like Erin but with his eyes. When he saw it, he instantly knew. That, that little girl. Hadley Mae. Either was related to him somehow. Or there's something Erin hadn't told him.

He was just hoping that it was the first answer. Erin followed Jay into the break room and as they sat down. Hailey started talking quietly to Adam out in the bullpen.

"Am I the only one that sees it or what?" Hailey asked Adam who clearly wasn't interested but he was a good friend of hers and she was bored waiting for Antonio to come back so they could go check out a lead with his CI.

"Sees what" Adam asked but didn't even lift his head from the file he was looking at. Hailey walked over to the board before taking Hadleys picture down and putting under Adams nose. He stared at the girl for a few minutes before his eyes widened. He looked up at Hailey, then at Kim who came over.

"I'm not the only one who sees this right?" she said as she gave the picture to Kim who had the same reaction as Adam. She traced her fingers over the picture, then they all looked up at Jay and Erin who were both still sitting on the couch.

"This looks exactly like a replica of Jay and Erin's features. Or am I blind?" Kim said to her friends who both nodded.
"Maybe Erin was pregnant when she took off? Then had the baby but didn't tell Jay? The resemblance is shocking. I'd be surprised if she wasn't their daughter or even related to them" Hailey said. Adam just nodded. He was probably confused and they couldn't blame him. So were they.

"If she was their cousin or something, wouldn't that mean that Jay and Erin sleeping together is incest?" Adam asked curiously as Kim burst out laughing and Hailey whacked him over the head with her file.
"I'm seriously asking!" he said as the girls continued to have their laughing fit at Adam who was always the most confused guy on the planet but it made him so lovable.

Erin and Jay had been sitting on the couch in silence for quite some time, before Erin started to speak.

"So, you dragged me in here...?" she said quietly, not in a cocky tone just softly stating facts.
"You know why I brought you in here. We had the same reaction when we saw that picture. Erin, did you. Did we have a kid together and you didn't tell me?" Jay said as he looked at his partner. Praying that she would just say no so then he could forget about it.

"Yes, we did." Jay's heart stopped for a second. He couldn't believe it. He stood up and paced the room with his hands on his head.

"What the hell Erin? Why didn't you text or call? Or say anything??" Jay moved closer to her, so he was standing over her. Everyone watched from the bullpen, eager to witness the drama unfold but also wanting answers for themselves.

"Jay let me explain..." Erin started to speak softly before she was cut off again,
"No Erin. No more explaining. Tell me everything that happened while you were away, or I'm walking out that door and you'll never see me again" he threatened and as Jay motioned the door. He threw his arm over for her to look at the place he was pointing to, she flinched at the movement.

Jay softened and moved back a little. Aware that he was scaring her.
"Jay. When I left I had no idea I was pregnant and I didn't find out until just before she was born. I knew it was yours because I was already so far along and by the time I left I only had like three more months. I didn't feel sick, I didn't even notice until Bunny said something about my clothes or something like that. My friend Clara from DCFS took her from me as I asked her to deem me an unfit parent. I had no job raising a kid, she would've been deprived of life while I was spiraling. It wasn't fair on her. So I met the family she was going to, lovely parents. And I'd take her back once I was feeling better, I guess I kinda forgot until I saw that picture on the board. She really looks like you doesn't she..." Erin's voice trailed off as Jay processed what she just said. They had a kid together. Him and Erin, had a daughter somewhere in the world that had been kidnapped. And would wind up dead if they didn't find her soon.

They both walked out into the bullpen with eyes on them, their friends probably heard what they were saying.
"We know you guys heard" Jay said as he sat down at his desk. Beginning to search through the sources again to see if they missed anything the first time.
"Aren't you any more nervous or something? Knowing it could be your kid out there?" Adam asked as Hailey elbowed him and gave him a look. Erin looked up sympathetically from her laptop,
"I'm worried. I really am. But worrying right now isn't going to do any good. We have to focus on finding her. Finding all of the kids that were kidnapped" Erin said in a cool tone. Jay smiled at her. He remembered once she said "if I ever had a kid get kidnapped I'd be incoherent", he smiled to himself. Glad she was calm and knew to keep working.

They all kept working for a while until Adam stumbled across a car waiting outside an alley on a video tape, green SUV and out came seven kids from the building adjacent. Seven. Not ten. Seven.
"Guys, I have something. But you're not going to like it" Adam said before everyone rushed over to check what he had found. Their hearts dropped.