Desolation

Chapter 2

He stared out of his window, a steaming mug of coffee in his hand and a deep frown on his face. The last case just tore at him and wouldn't let him sleep. A young mother of two had been tortured by an unknown offender and was then brutally murdered and thrown into the river. Her two children were bound to her and drowned. He knew that there was nothing he could have done to save her and her children, things like this sadly happen and it's his job to find out who committed this awful crime and to give his best to try and prevent things like this. It just bugged him, that he and the rest of intelligence were unable to catch the murderer. The whole case was lined with one dead end after the other and there was no finish line ahead. Heck, they didn't even have a suspect at this time!

He sighed and stepped away from the window. Placing the mug in front of him, he sat down at his small coffee table and opened the papers. Even though he had to start early today, he needed to read something good for a change. To take his mind away from the horrors he dealt with every day. But instead of reading, he started daydreaming.

They were sitting right next to each other in her kitchen, both still too tired to say anything useful so they kept quiet. Yet, it was a comfortable silence, only interrupted by the sound of cutlery on a plate or a mug being set down. Hank sent them home just over three hours ago and told them to get some rest. Of course their sergeant knew they would be back in under five hours, just after a quick nap, shower and breakfast, but he wanted them to get at least a couple of minutes to sleep. Erin had dark shadows under her eyes and her hair in a messy bun, she couldn't be bothered to fix up her makeup or hair.  And frankly she just didn't see why she should apply makeup to catch an offender. Jay loved that about her, she was her own woman and stood her ground bravely and secure. He grabbed one of her hands that wasn't busy shoveling pancakes in her mouth and brought it to his lips. "God, I love you so much, Erin. Thank you for being you!", he said and kissed her hand gently before looking at his sleepy girlfriend and partner again. Her eyes were wide open now and she smiled brightly. 

"I love you too, Jay. Way more than beating you in the shooting range.", she joked and leaned over to kiss him. "But where did that come from so suddenly?"

He shrugged his shoulders  but never broke eye contact. Jay was extremely comfortable around Erin, there was no need to hide his feelings or be ashamed for them. He let go of her hand and cupped her cheek. "I just do and I wanted to tell you. In a way we say that not often enough. We deal with so many unfinished stories everyday, yet I leave the house without telling you what you mean to me. This will stop now.", he promised sincerely and stroked her face with his large hand.

Jay was jerked out of his memory by his ringtone. It was this annoying standardized tone that he kept wanting to replace but forgot every time.

"Halstead", he answered, not bothering to check the caller-ID before picking up the phone. Only his friends and fellow officers from the district had this number and they were used to his rougher tone in the morning.

"Jo Jay, a patrol car found an abandoned car less than a mile from the river. Voight wants us to go and check it out. Pick me up in 10?",  Adam barked. Clearly not a morning person either. Jay could hear cluttering in the background and heard Kim swearing. "You alright, darling? Ah Jay, I gotta go and check out what happened there. See you!" And with that Adam hung up before Jay could even answer.

That's very typical, just as he thought about having a slow morning, work calls and the day gets anything but slow. Like a storm, Jay rushed his morning routine and hurried out of the apartment in under seven minutes. He was pretty sure, that Adam would still be sitting at the kitchen counter, spending precious time his fiancé rather then getting ready for work. Jay smiled to himself. He would do exactly the same. No, he would have done exactly the same. But his love was across the country and wanted to have nothing more to do with him.

He was happy for Adam and Kim, though, they struggled but found each other again after a long and heartbreaking split up. 

Jay got into his car and drove off to Adams place. He was just glad, he had the mind to pour himself some coffee in his portable cup otherwise he might not be able to survive Adam this early in the morning.  Even though he hated the metal-mug, it was just annoying carrying that thing around the entire day, he didn't want to use a plastic cup just to throw it away after one use. His environmental consciousness forbade that.