Silent Screams

Worried About Ethan

"Wake up. Come on, buddy. We're late." Jay shook his small shoulder. Every morning he struggled with waking his son.

"I wanna sleep." he mumbled wearily, turning his back to his father and closing his eyes again.

"You know exactly what I'm doing if you don’t get up." Jay grinned, started a tickle attack. A little while later he held Ethan in his arms "Get dressed. We have to leave soon."

Ethan sighed. If he had not asked his dad to stay awake because of the hockey game, he would not be so tired now. The process was still the same every morning. Getting dressed, having breakfast, packing school stuff and then they drove to school.

"Who picks you up?" Jay asked for safety, looking through the rearview mirror.

"Megan." Ethan replied.

"Correct. When and where?"

"At the school fence at 3 o'clock in the afternoon."

"Alright. Have fun at school."

"Bye dad!" Ethan said, giving him a high five.

CPDCPDCPD

"Oh come on. I was serious." Jay grinned and trotted behind Erin into the break room.

"I'm supposed to be alone with 2 Halstead men in North Wisconsin, where there might not even be running water?" Erin asked suspiciously.

"Uh ... there's running water."

"Yeah? I don’t know, Jay. Nature isn’t quite mine. I’m a city kid."

"That doesn’t matter. I’m not saying we’re moving to North Wisconsin permanently. Only staying for a weekend. The cabin and nature are great."

"You want to tell Ethan we’re together, right?" Erin stated, placing her coffee mug on the table.

"Don’t be so worried ... Ethan will be happy."

"It's not about Ethan, it's about not being allowed to be together. We violate Voight's only and most important rule."

"Erin, I want to be a couple. I don’t want to hide anymore."

"I'm thinking about it."

At the same moment Jay's cell phone rang. The display showed the number of the babysitter. As soon as Jay answered the call, Megan chattered in panic, "I've searched everywhere. I don’t know where he is!"

"Megan, stay calm. What's happening? What about Ethan?" Jay asked and Erin looked worriedly at her partner.

"He ... he's gone. Disappeared. He wasn’t there when I wanted to pick him up, but I was also 30 minutes late," she stammered.

"Stay there. I'm on my way." Jay ended the conversation and stormed off.

"Jay! What happened with Ethan?" Erin shouted after him.

"I don’t know. He's gone," Jay said in panic, grabbing his jacket, which hung over his chair.

"And then you go alone? We'll come with you." Antonio said.

CPDCPDCPD

"Megan! Now, calm down, what happened with Ethan?" Jay asked, as the rest of intelligence gathered around the young student.

"I wanted to pick him up, but I had a little car breakdown, so I was here 30 minutes late. Normally, Ethan is waiting right here at the school or the playground, but he wasn’t there. I searched everywhere. He's gone." she cried.

"Maybe Ethan went home by himself?" Adam mused.

"Okay. Send Roman and Burgess to the apartment. They should also search the way to school." Voight said and Adam disappeared to make phone calls.