Love in the 21st ~ Jay Halstead

Twenty Three

"Anybody want to tell me what the hell just happened?" Hank's voice came from behind where I was stood, still watching the stairs that Jay had disappeared down just moments ago, praying that he would come back up.

"I, um, I'm sorry." I shrugged pathetically turning to face them, everyone's worried eyes on me other than Adam who was watching Nick with a scowl on his face.

"Hey Sarge we got a- oh, are we uh, interrupting something?" Kims voice made me jump as her and Roman appeared by my side.

"Hey, you okay?" Roman asked quietly holding onto my arm lightly as he spun me round to look at him.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine Sean." I smiled small, wiping under my eyes to try and get rid of the remaining tear stains. "What have you got anyway." I changed the subject ignoring the unbelieving look in his eye.

"We went round to the address Trudy gave us, it was empty but there were nine files hidden away in a cabinet." Kim said pulling a bag of her shoulder and dumping it on Adams desk.

"These are all files of foster kids in Chicago." Adam said pulling files out of the bag.

"That'll be because Matilda Hughes worked for child services." Kevin said looking up from his computer.

"Look at this." Adam said standing from his desk with a file in hand that he handed to Olivia. "Ellie was put in foster care in Chicago before she got moved to New York." He said as Olivia read through the file.

"She was last registered with the Tomlin's." Liv said before looking up with a confused face. "According to her file she never left."

————

We've been digging through all of the case files that Kim and Roman had found and realised that all the files had the same thing in common, every child had been placed with the Tomlin's before they had fallen of the map.

"So this Matilda was what? Placing kids with the family so they could be sold on?" I asked nobody in particular as I ran my hands through my hair looking to the stairs in case Jay had decided to come back which he hadn't.

A burst of hope went through my chest as I heard the gate buzz from down the stairs holding my breath I couldn't hide the disappointment as Rollins and Kevin came into view.

"So we went to Matilda's office and spoke to her boss turns out that Laura Tomlin died eight years ago, Matilda never told anybody so the CPS had been sending kids to the father with no knowledge that he was on his own." Rollins said as she pinned a picture of a man and a woman on the board.

"Alright, Platt, Ruzek head to the Tomlin's place and see what's going on." Hank said nodding at me and Adam.

With a nod I sighed and grabbed my jacket from the back of my chair slipping it on before making my way out of the bullpen without waiting for Adam.

"You okay?" Adam asked as we were on our way to the Tomlin's home.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I shrugged avoiding eye contact until he reached over and squeezed my hand that was resting in my lap. "I'm not fine Ruz." I sighed sadly. "I messed up Adam, he's gunna hate me forever." I muttered leaning my head back against the rest.

"He doesn't hate you Kyles, he'll come around, trust me when I say you're more important to him than you seem to think." He smiled sympathetically before he pulled over. "This is it." He nodded to a three story old fashioned house sitting on the corner of the street.

Knocking on the door we were met with no answer, so I knocked harder by still nobody came to the door.

"Platt." Adam whispered making me turn to look at where he was peeking through the window. "We got two kids tied to chairs in there, they've got tape over their mouths." He muttered pulling out his gun as he headed to the front door, pulling my own gun out I watched as he kicked the door through quickly rushing in and clearing rooms as he went.