Hey everyone :) on my main story I talked about a oneshot I scrawled down (I actually had this idea for a while because it's in a very small way inspired by my own complicated life and this is what happened while I was supposed to study...), so here we go. It turned out to be a little too long for a oneshot, so I decided to split it up in five smaller chapters which I will post in the days leading to Christmas! :)
And no worries, I will of course keep on working on my other story and will update it as soon as I can but for now I hope you'll enjoy this one :)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Additional note: this story does not take place at any specific time or year and it doesn't include any happenings from the show.
1. Best Friends
Carrying a sixpack of beer, a bag of spicy jalapeno chips and two packages of gummy bears in his one hand and balancing two giant boxes with deep dish pizza and salad on his other hand, it was quite a struggle for Jay to knock on Erin's door without dropping either the beer and leaving a mess of cullet on the floor in the hallway or losing control over the boxes with their delicious food he balanced on his other hand, leaving an indefinable mash of tomato sauce, cheese and lettuce on the doormat in front of her apartment.
After finally managing to knock on her door without that it ended in a bigger catastrophe, Erin opened the door, giving him her famous eyebrow-raise when she saw him standing there, looking like he was slightly overstrained.
″Are you the delivery guy?″ she grinned, eyeing the pizza boxes and the salad box that was placed on top, which was a plucky but yet very unstable construction, wobbling dangerously already.
″Sort of,″ he grinned back and was more than glad when he could hand Erin the boxes with their food before he followed her into her apartment, this well-known place he spent quite much time at.
He placed the sixpack and the packages with snacks on the coffee table in the living room before he made himself comfortable on the couch, preliminary reports to the Cubs game that was about to follow already flickering on the TV. Their home team was playing in the World Series, so needless to say that they were beyond excited, like the whole city was in fact. Chicago's inhabitants were only dressed in white and blue these days and it was a city of ecstasy and no matter whether it was going to the supermarket, going to the pharmacy or the gym, there was only one topic everyone, literally everyone, talked about at the moment: whether the Cubs could let the magic, the unbelievable, happen.
″Watcha think, will we win tonight?″ he asked while grabbing two bottles of beer and opening them before leaning back into the cushions of her couch.
″I somehow doubt it but I for sure hope so. I mean we have to, right?″ she asked and joined him, putting two plates and cutlery, their pizzas and the salad on the coffee table as well before she sat down right next to him, reaching for her bottle of beer instantly.
″Yup. No win and it'll be over,″ Jay said and handed her one of the bottles.
″Jeeez, not sure whether I can watch this without dying through to anxiety,″ she laughed. ″So we better drink some of them before the game starts. Cheers,″ she added and clinked his bottle with Jay's.
″Cheers,″ he echoed. ″To the Cubs.″
After the cold beverage had run down their throats they pitched into the pizza and the salad and fell into a comfortable silence while enjoying Chicago's most famous dish. Erin had to grin a little by the fact what a proud Chicagoan she was, sitting on her couch in her living room that was decorated with a Cubs flag, wearing her Cubs shirt, eating deep dish pizza, waiting for the game to start so she and her best friend, who was wearing a Cubs shirt and a hat as well, could cheer for their team and curse the other team. Just like they did whenever they had the chance to do so. Which was pretty much every time Muriel, Jay's fiancée, was out of town for the weekend to visit her parents, family and friends who all lived in Montreal.
Jay's been her partner at work for a little over a year now and during that time they've become best friends. She trusted him with her life and when there was one person on this planet she could talk with about literally everything, it was him. This gentle, always caring and ever protecting man who always had her back. In the beginning it had been strange for her to be so open towards another person as she was usually a person who kept everything for herself and rather buried her feelings and emotions inside of her than talking about them openly. But with Jay it had been different. He had a way to always make her feel better, to make her more open only with his presence and his calm attitude. And she knew the same applied to him. When something was wrong he came to her to talk it off his chest, when there was something that was supposed to be a secret for quite a while it was her whom he was always telling it first, even before his brother. So it was Erin who he'd asked whether she thought Muriel would like the ring he'd picked and it was also Erin who'd been the first to know about his and Muriel's engagement back in July. It was Erin who constantly asked him how the preparations for his wedding next spring went. And it was Erin whom he'd asked to become his ″best man″ or however one called it in this case. But she'd declined. Not because she didn't want to be his best man, maid of honor or whatsoever, but because she was sure that Muriel didn't appreciate it.
She couldn't say that she disliked the 28-year-old smart Canadian with the curly brown hair, fluent in English, French, Italian and Spanish, not at all. She had absolutely no problem with her but she was sure that this didn't apply to Muriel. Thanks to her job she was pretty good at reading the expressions on people's faces and reading their minds, their thoughts they didn't speak out loud and so she knew that there wasn't much sympathy for Erin on Muriel's side. Which she could even kind of understand.
Due to their jobs, Jay was constantly spending more time with Erin than with Muriel. In addition, the whole unit regularly went to Molly's together after rough cases, which happened to be pretty much once a week, and Jay spending the evening in Erin's apartment to watch whatever game was on TV also tended to happen quite often. But this also had to do with the fact that Muriel spent most of her weekends in Montreal, away from her fiancé.
At some point Erin had asked Jay whether they should better stop doing this as she didn't want to give Muriel too many reasons to get unnecessarily jealous and also didn't want to give her the wrong impression. The impression that something was going on between her and Jay, that she had feelings for her partner which she clearly didn't have, but Jay had said that it was okay and that Muriel couldn't blame him for spending the weekends with friends when she was the one who traveled up to Canada fairly often and rather spent her weekends with her friends in Montreal, maybe somehow expecting him to join her every time. At first Erin had felt quite uncomfortable with this whole situation as she didn't want to be a sticking point in Jay's and Muriel's relationship, and had been undecided whether spending so much time with Jay was a smart idea. But then again it was always just so nice to spend time with him, so funny and so damn easy, so she'd decided to keep on watching the games with him whenever Muriel was out of town.
″Damn this was delicious,″ Jay interrupted her thoughts and rubbed his stomach satisfied.
″You really ate the whole pizza,″ Erin noted with a hint of disbelief in her voice, eyeing the empty pizza box. Not a single crumb was left.
″Was hungry,″ he shrugged, smirking innocently.
″Yeah, I guess so,″ she chuckled. ″You want some of mine, too?″
″Naah, I'm full. This would only end up in a mess because my stomach is about to burst.″
″I'm not surprised,″ she laughed and got up to bring the dirty dishes to the sink. ″You want an Ouzo? This might help,″ she called from the kitchen.
″Only if you drink one with me.″
″Did I ever let you drink alone?″ she asked and joined him on the couch again a moment later, handing him the small glass with the clear liquid.
″Not that I know of,″ he smirked.
″Cheers to that.″
″Cheers.″
″Uaaah,″ Erin sighed and grimaced after the alcohol had burned down her throat. ″This is digusting and everytime after drinking it I ask myself why. Just simply why.″
″Ey, you suggested it, so don't you dare to complain,″ he laughed.
″Alright, guilty as charged,″ she winked. ″No time to complain anyway, the game is about to start in a few minutes,″ she added, motioning her head to the TV.
″How about a little bet though? You think they'll lose, right?″
″Well, I'm not super optimistic, so yeah, I kinda prepare myself that the deal's done after this one,″ she shrugged.
″Lindsay, I really like your optimism all the time. It's seriously your best attitude,″ he teased her and slightly shook his head.
″I know, thanks,″ she smirked.
She was used to bet with him, it was basically 'their thing' and they did it whenever they had the possibility to do so and mostly their bets occured during their drives in the 300. And mostly the betting debts were about who was the next to buy the other a drink in Molly's or who was the one to invite the other for lunch at Chipotle. They weren't really creative but food was always a good betting debt. ″So what about the bet? What do we bet about? Lunch on Monday?″
″Nooooo, not this time,″ Jay said and acted like he actually had to think about the betting debt although it was obvious that there was already an idea in his head. ″Of course I say we'll win tonight. So in case I'm right, you're coming to the Halloween party in Molly's next week,″ he smirked mischievously.
″Jay-″ she protested instantly. The Halloween party Fire Station 51 hosted in Molly's was a never-ending debate between the two of them. Jay wanted to go and tried his best to convince Erin to go there, too, but she really didn't want to go. She wasn't the kind of person to dress herself up in some freaky costume. She wasn't a Halloween person. In her opinion people made a way too big deal out of it. But Jay was really resistent with his attempts in trying to make her go there and she even considered going there just that he would stop bugging her about it.
″Come on, you're sure that they'll lose, so you actually have nothing to lose, right?″ he winked, a winning smile covering his features.
Erin narrowed her eyes as she glanced at him and bit her lower lip with her teeth. He had a point. Unfortunately. And she had no argument against it. Which didn't happen often. Usually she was the one to always have the last word in a discussion.
″Okay,″ she agreed. ″But if I'm right, I'll not go to the Halloween party...but I'll pick your outfit,″ she said and now she was the one to wink playfully and grin cheekily.
″Deal,″ he nodded and reached for her hand to shake it.
″Is it wrong that I now somehow want them to lose just because I have such an hillarious, embarrassing outfit for you in my head?″ she chuckled.
″Yep, that is utterly, completely wrong, Lindsay,″ he said all serious before a grin flashed over his face yet again. ″I can't believe you rather see me in an embarrassing outfit than you see the Cubs win tonight.″
″I have to set priorities, right?″ she smirked before the joke in her voice disappeared and turned all serious instead. ″What about Muriel though? Doesn't she want to spend Halloween with you or go to that party with you?″
″She's going to Montreal,″ Jay shrugged, taking a sip from his beer, giving Erin the impression that he didn't want to talk about it if possible. But she cared about him so she couldn't deny the fact that she felt bad for him that the woman who was supposed the be his fiancée would leave him alone again on the following weekend.
″Again?″ Erin asked and raised her eyebrows. She knew Muriel loved her family and had a deep connection with all of her people from her former home but going there almost every weekend when her fiancé was in Chicago wasn't the nicest thing to do and she wondered whether Jay felt as neglected as she expected him to.
″Yeah,″ he nodded. ″She really misses her family and her friends. It's still not easy for her to live here.″
Yeah, but that's still no reason to go there every damn weekend, Erin thought but decided not to speak it out loud. Muriel and Jay have been together for three years now and as far as Jay had informed her, Muriel's trips to her hometown have increased immensely during the last few months. Erin couldn't help but think that it maybe had to do with her. But then again, when someone was jealous because their fiancé spent to much time with his female best friend, wouldn't they do everything to spend more time together than apart?
″Why don't you go there with her?″ Erin asked instead.
″I was there with her last weekend to celebrate a late Canadian Thanksgiving,″ he answered, keeping his gaze focussed on the screen. ″And she's going to some wellness hotel with her girlfriends anyway. One of them celebrates her 30th birthday in this fancy hotel somewhere in a more rural area of Quebec so she won't actually be in Montreal and there's no reason for me to go there.″
″Okay, then a Halloween party is definitely a lot more fun,″ she said, scanning the features of her best friend sternly for a moment. Talking about Muriel, the woman he would marry in some short months, something in his face had changed but she couldn't describe what exactly it was. And maybe she was just reading too much into it anyway, was seeing things that weren't actually there or was interpreting this situation and his behavior wrong. But maybe, just maybe, something was off. Maybe her best friend was going through a rough time. Maybe he needed her more than ever now to talk it off his chest.
″Jay,″ she said quietly. ″Are you happy?″
He turned his head around to her, his eyes meeting hers, and whatever she'd seen there before, it was gone now, his famous smile covering his face, his eyes sparkling in the light of the living room.
″Yeah, I am,″ he answered and Erin just needed to look at him, to hear his voice to know that he was being all honest with her...
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review and let me know what you think! Next chapter is called "Halloween".
