The Truth Can Sting

Part 7

Will had to leave for work so he didn't even get chance to say bye to lily, once she was changed into her work clothes she slid back into the living area to meet jay. "Where's Will?" She said sadly.  Jay smiled, "he had to go, early shift" he said back while opening the door for her.  She grabbed her badge and gun then walked out of the front door, she headed down to his car and jay followed suit.  They drove to work with minimal chatter, when they got to the district lily froze and grabbed jays wrist tightly before he could get out.  He turned around concerned but she spoke before he could, "I don't think I can do this jay..." she said while turning pale.  Jay closed the door to sit back down and grabbed her hand.  "Yes you can, you're strong. You can get through anything" he reassured her as she relaxed at his touch.

             She paused for a second and nodded doubtfully.  They made their way into the district and Trudy called lily over, "halstead, come here" she said.  Jay and lily looked at her wondering which one she meant, "lily, sorry jay" she said as jay went to wait at the gate for his younger sister.  "Yeah?" Lily said trying to put on her best fake smile, trudy smiled thinking everything was okay.  "You've got another letter, someone's gained a fan" trudy said and joked while handing her another envelope.  Lily smiled weakly and accepted it from her hand, if only that was the situation.  "Thanks sarge" she said before turning to walk over to jay.

             Jay noticed another letter in her hand, "another one?" He said while getting angry at the thought of Alex stalking her. She looked at the letter and nodded before they slowly made their way up into the bullpen. The unit noticed them and they all greeted the siblings, "hey guys" hailey said with a smile. Lily barely smiled back and jay waved at her, before they could sit at their desks they headed over to voights office and knocked.

"Come in..." Hank shouted from his desk without looking up.  Jay and lily quickly made their way into his office and she immediately sat down on the couch, hank looked up noticing something was wrong.  He looked at lily who was sat with her legs crossed and her hand fiddling with her lips while she stared off into the distance, then he looked at jay in confusion.  "Everything okay?" He said even though there was clearly something going on.  Jay shook his head and sat on the chair opposite his boss, "we've got a situation..." jay sighed and discreetly directed his eyes backwards to let Hank know it was about lily.  Hank nodded and gave Jay the go ahead to explain, "I'll start from the beginning...Lily had a drug addiction when she was younger, it got worse over the years so she left and went to LA to stay in a rehabilitation centre..." he carefully explained.

             Hank looked at jay in shock, she was so well put together, no one would have guessed that she had an addiction.  Jay nodded in confirmation, Hank shot his attention to lily who was looking at the floor in embarrassment.  Jay took a deep breath and continued, "she met a guy named Alex, they started dating then things got bad..." jay said while looking over his shoulder at lily to make sure she was okay.  Lily interrupted him, "he was just a distraction, well to me anyways..." she admitted while avoiding eye contact with either of them.  Hank nodded and looked at jay waiting for him to explain further, "he got abusive when she started to come clean, me and Will only found out last night..." jay said while looking at Hank to let him know that they also had no idea. 

             Lily looked down even more embarrassed as jay finished the story.  "She broke up with him before coming back to Chicago and he's found her.  He knows where she is..." jay said while sliding the first letter over the table to Hank. Jay turned to face lily, "you got the second letter?" He said while grabbing her hand for support, she nodded and gave him it.  "Can I open it?" He said double checking that she wanted his help.  She looked away and nodded, the truth was she was too scared to open it herself. 

             He turned to face Hank again and gave him a worried look before ripping open the envelope, a piece of paper and a key ring fell out onto the table.  The clink of the metal chain gained Lily's attention and she watched what he was doing, jay pushed the key ring aside and scanned the piece of paper.  Just like the other there was only one line of writing on one side, jay scrunched up his face as he read it.  He let Hank read it next and he had the same reaction as jay, lily sat up straight as she waited for them to pass her it. 

            Jay hesitated to give lily it but he did anyways, she grabbed the piece of paper and read it, to their surprise she didn't really have much of a reaction to it.  She re read it again to double check she read it right the first time.

  'I know you miss me :)'

            She gave Jay the paper back and jay handed it to Voight, lily realised there was a key ring they hadn't looked at yet so she grabbed it before the two boys could see it.  Her face turned pale as she stared at it, she felt the room spinning and she was about to collapse until jay grabbed her arms to secure her, "lily? Can you hear me?" Jay said worriedly noticing she was in a daze.  Hank got up to make his way round to the other side of the desk, he sat on the table next to jay and looked at her with worry.  Lily didn't answer jay so Hank spoke out, "lily?" He said while snapping his fingers to get her attention. 

             She snapped back into reality and looked at her boss and jay in fear, jay took the key ring from her hands and examined it.  On one side was a picture of her body battered and bruised while she was laying down asleep, barely covered up by some bed sheets, and on the other side was a typed out note.

'remember this night?'

             Jay grew angry, Hank grabbed his shoulder to calm him down while taking the key ring from his hands to examine it himself.  Hank grew red in rage and disgust.  Jay had moved to sit next to lily since she still looked pale, he held her upright and he could feel how vulnerable she was. 

               "This is our case, we will get him. I can promise you that..." Hank said while grabbing the letters and leaving the siblings in his office. He walked out and pinned the letters, the photo and the key ring onto the chalk board, he explained Lily's situation leaving out some small personal details to give lily some privacy, the team were disgusted. "We don't stop until we find Alex, give lily some justice" Hank made himself clear.

Lily had gone to sit in the break room and the rest of the unit were cracking on with the case. Jay kept checking in on her every now and then, it got till around 4 pm and lily felt overwhelmed. She walked out into the bullpen, "hey jay, I'm going to get some fresh air..." she said while making her way down stairs. Hank seen her leave so he walked out of his office, "where's she going?" Hank questioned Jay. "She needs some fresh air" jay answered him. Hank nodded and jay smiled weakly, they both got on with their work thinking nothing of it.