This was an anon prompt from tumblr : "I hope you're taking linstead prompts: Jay finds out Erin is pregnant before she does :-/ I'd love to see how you do this" I'm currently hold up in bed with the flu so I hope I did it justice!
Erin entered the darkened room tentatively, carefully balancing her weight between her feet so as to be prepared if someone came charging at her, gun draw in her right hand, held out in front of her, flashlight held above it with her left hand, breath slow and steady. She could hear Jay moving further down the hall behind her. They'd come upstairs to clear the bedrooms while Kevin and Adam cleared the main floor. So far the house appeared empty.
Erin stepped fully into the bedroom so she could check the far side of the bed and the closet. Silently she stepped closer to the bed. The sudden slam of the door behind her made her turn quickly on her heals. Her flashlight caught the features of a tall, broad shouldered man lunging towards her. Erin fired a shot at him but her reaction time was too slow and the shot went wide as her assailant took her too the ground, his shoulder pounding into her ribs as they hit the floor. Her head hit the floor hard making light burst behind her closed eyelids. Her gun slipped from her hand and slide across the floor.
Sharp pain from the impact made her inhale quickly. Through the haze of pain she could here her team shouting in the background and quickened footsteps moving in her direction. She pushed the pain down and struggled to free herself from under her attacker. A quick upswing of her knee made contact with his groin and she was able to shimmy out from under him as he hunched in pain.
Erin scrambled towards her gun but felt herself pulled back abruptly by her hair. The assailant began pounding his fist into her abdomen. Erin grabbed at the hand fisted in her hair and yanked her body down, twisting towards him quickly, forcing his wrist to crack with pain. He yelled out and released her hair. Erin delivered a solid kick to his groin and when he bent forward cracked his jaw with her knee.
The door behind her burst open, splinters of wood flying as Kevin broke his way in. Someone flipped on the light and her assailant was quickly tackled and secured by her three partners. Erin grabbed at the bedpost to steady herself and clutched her side, trying to steady her breathing. The warmth of a familiar hand landed gently on her back.
"You good," Jay asked, trying to keep the panic from his voice. She'd kill him if he fussed over her too much while on the job. Erin nodded stiffly.
"Yeah, he got a couple good shots in, just need a minute." She breathed out, watching Adam and Kevin escort her attacker not so gently out of the room.
"He's a pretty big guy," Jay observed, impressed by the obvious damage Erin had inflicted on her attacker.
Jay handed Erin her fire arm to holster. Erin nodded her thanks as she awkwardly put her gun away. Jay noticed the slight shake in her hand, shallow breathing and pale skin.
"Maybe we should take a swing by med on the way back to the district, just to make sure nothing's broken?" Jay hedged.
Erin shook her head no, dismissing his concern. "I'm good. Just need to catch my breath. Think he knocked the wind out of me. We should go, I want first crack at interrogating that asshole." She said, shuffling her way to the door.
Jay blew out a breath but didn't fight her. He made a note to keep a close eye on her the rest of the day and followed her down and out of the house. As they approached the car Erin passed him the keys and made her way to the passenger side.
"You sure you don't want to go to med?" He tried one last time, looking at her over the car. Erin just glared at him before sinking down into the car.
Erin sat with her head resting against the cool glass of the window while Jay drove. The pressure on her lungs had let up a bit but her stomach still felt the impact of the repeated blundering it endured. Her head was throbbing too. She closed her eyes and tried focusing on something pleasant to distract from the pain.
About half way to the district Jay turned to ask Erin if she wanted to stop and grab a coffee. There was no response. He reached his hand across the seat and shook her leg gently.
"Erin," he called out but still got no response.
His heart beat quickened as he felt for a pulse and checked to see if she was breathing, only slightly relieved when he found positive signs of both. Jay flipped on the lights and stomped on the gas, quickly making a u turn and heading for med. He radioed ahead to let them know he was coming in with her. Jay gently shook and called Erin's name repeatedly as he drove but she didn't come to.
Jay screeched to a halt in front of the emergency entrance of the hospital. Will met him at the door with a gurney and several nurses. They quickly lifted Erin out of the car and began assessing her while wheeling her into an exam room.
After filling them in on what had happened Jay paced the hall. After what felt like an eternity Will finally came out to update him.
"How is she?" Jay asked nervously.
"Still unconscious. She took a pretty nasty blow to the head and there's some swelling. Once it goes down she should wake up. She's got a couple cracked ribs and some pretty nasty abdominal bruising but it doesn't look like there's any internal bleeding. We're just waiting for her blood work to come back but we'll be admitting her, at least overnight, to monitor that head wound." Will informed Jay.
"So, she'll be okay?"Jay asked carefully.
"Yeah, I think so. You can go sit with her if you like," he added, placing his hand on his little brother's shoulder.
Jay nodded his thanks and headed to Erin's room. He'd sat for a long time, his hand in hers, stroking her knuckles and watching the slow rise and fall of her chest, willing her to wake up and give him shit for bringing her here, when Will slid the glass door to her room open.
"Hey," Will greeted Jay quietly. "Can we talk for a sec?"
Jay gave Will a puzzled look but rose to his feet and followed Will out of the room and down the hall to the doctors lounge. Once inside Will checked to see they were alone then closed the door.
"Have a seat," Will said, motioning to the chair.
A chill ran down Jay's spine and his chest tightened. This couldn't be good. "I'll stand thanks," Jay always felt more in control on his feet and if Will was going to deliver some bad news Jay needed to be ready for the blow.
Will shook his head at his brother's stubbornness and blew out a breath. He wasn't quite sure how to share what he's just learned or how Jay was going to react to his news.
After a few moments of staring at each other Will looked away, squared his shoulders and looked back at Jay and begain. "Erin's blood work came back." He said flatly. "It's standard protocol to test patients blood for a variety of things,"
"Will I'm not an idiot, I know this. Just spit out whatever it is you need to say,"Jay interrupted impatiently.
Will nodded, "Erin's pregnant. Blood test indicated about five weeks along."
Jay stood silent, his brain had been bracing for the word cancer, or permanent brain damage or some other horrid words he wanted to rip from the English language and protect Erin from. They'd fought long and hard for what they had, no way could he accept the possibility of something cutting their always short.
"Jay?" Will questioned, breaking Jay from his trance. "Did you hear what I said?"
Jay's eyes focused back on Will as he let the announcement seep in. Pregnant. Erin was pregnant. Not condemned to a state of permanent unconsciousness, not dying. Pregnant. She was pregnant. Jay's eyes went wide.
"A baby," he whispered, wonder in his voice.
"Yeah, that's what the word pregnant means," Will teases, watching his brother's reaction closely. He didn't know if he was going to be buying cigars to celebrate with or helping Jay drown the reality that he was stuck raising an ankle biter with Molly's most expensive bottle of scotch.
"A baby," Jay said again, testing the word on his lips.
"I assume you guys weren't planning on this?" Will asked.
"I, umm, we weren't not not planning," Jay stammered.
Will looked at Jay confused.
"We talked about it, she went off her birth control last month. Her doctor said we should give it a few months before we started trying. We figured it would take awhile," Jay explained. He sat heavily on a chair and blew out a ragged breath, expelling all the panic he'd been holding in when he was expecting bad news.
"So... this is a good thing then?" Will tried.
A slow smile spread across Jay's face and into his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, it it."
Will smiled back at him but just as quickly as it had spread, the smile on Jay's face vanished. "Wait, is it okay?" Jay questioned, jumping to his feet. "She took a pretty hard beating today. Is the baby gonna be okay?"
Will stepped forward and grabbed his little brother by the shoulder, trying to contain Jay's panic before it got to far out of hand.
"The baby should be fine. I'll do an ultrasound, we'll have a quick peak. Fortunately being so early the baby's pretty insulated in there and we didn't see any internal damage when we checked her abdomen before. That's a good sign." Will assured him.
Jay nodded but didn't seem convinced. "We should get back," he said abruptly, suddenly overwhelmed by the need to be close to Erin and their baby.
""Let's go," Will said, opening the door for him.
Jay took the seat next to Erin and scooped her hand between his. It seemed so small in his now. He glanced over at her midsection, covered by the hospital blankets. Somewhere beneath them, hidden deep within her still flat belly, there was a tiny little life growing. A life he'd helped create.
He looked up at Erin's face. She looked peaceful sleeping there. Some of the colour had returned to her face. He thought about how he was going to tell her about the baby. She may need a minute to adjust to the news. She was still skeptical she'd be a good mom and she'd created some kind of check list of things she wanted to do before they started trying. Jay felt a bit bad that list would be put to the side now, but he'd do what he could to make it up to her.
Will set up the ultrasound machine while Jay was lost in his thoughts. "Ready?" Will asked pulling back the blankets covering Erin's stomach.
"Yeah, I guess," Jay shrugged nervously. God he hoped the baby was okay.
Will gave him a reassuring smile, lifted Erin's shirt and squeezed ultrasound gel onto her abdomen. Jay saw red as he took in the bruising across her stomach and ribs. He started imagining the payback he'd give the asshole who'd put those marks there.
Between that and a few moments of watching Will moving the wand around and staring at the screen with a furrowed brow Jay felt like he was going to explode.
"Well?" He barked at his brother, desperate to know what was happening.
"Patience there papa bear," Will teased. "Ah, here we go." Will turned the screen towards Jay. "Like I sad it's early so there's not much to see but see this little bean here," Will said pointing to a blotch on the screen, "that's my new niece or nephew," he stated, smiling proudly.
Jay stared at the monitor intently then down at the wand on Erin's lower abdomen and back up at the screen. He tried to wrap his head around what he was seeing. He looked up at his brother.
"Everything seems fine," Will confirmed.
Jay smiled softly. Everything was fine. Their baby was fine. Baby. The full impact of the word hit him. Jay was going to be a father. In eight short months there'd be a mini Erin wrapped up in his arms. It was an overwhelming idea but one that made him excited too.
Will cleaned the gel off Erin and covered her back up.
Jay squeezed Erin's hand and pressed his lips against her knuckles. He wasn't expecting her fingers to tighten around his. He looked up to see her eyes flutter open then squint as they confronted the light in the room. When she finally focused on him he gave her a heart stopping smile, excited to share their news with her.
Except the words wouldn't come out. She'd been disoriented and in pain and it didn't seem to be the right time. Then they'd moved her up to a room and she'd drifted off to sleep. Now at two am she'd woken him from his uncomfortable spot in the chair by her bed to get his help going to the bathroom.
As he helped her settle back into bed he decided he'd better tell her before one of the nurses let it slip out.
"How you feeling?" He asked by way of conversation starter.
"Not too bad, they better let me go home in the morning," she grumbled.
Jay smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. "About that, there's something they didn't tell you."
Erin stared at him, "What?" She demanded. "Why not?"
"I asked Will to let me tell you," Jay confessed. "I wanted to earlier but you didn't really seem..." his voice drifted off.
"Jay," Erin said, lacing her fingers through his nervously, "Whatever it is, please just tell me."
Jay looked up to see fear and uneasiness in Erin's eyes. Instinctively his hand cupped her cheek. "No sweetheart, it's nothing like that," he soothed. "I, umm, well when they did your blood work" he stumbled, resorting to how Will told him.
Erin's hand came to rest over top of Jay's on her cheek. "Baby please just spit it out," she pleaded.
"We're, you're pregnant," he said on an exhale.
He waited for her to process his words and watched her face intently. Her eyes went wide and intuitively her hands flew to her tummy.
"He punched me.." she began, panicked.
"It's okay, the baby's okay. Will had a look while you were out. Everything's fine," he said calmly.
"It is?" She asked disbelievingly.
"Yeah, he showed me," Jay said confidently.
"You, you saw our baby? Without me?" She tried to school her features but Jay could see the disappointment in her eyes.
Jay suddenly felt guilty, she was right the first glimpse of their baby should have been something they'd shared together.
"I'm sorry, but we were worried, with your injuries..." he apologized.
Erin raised her hand and stroked his cheek. "It's okay." She soothed. "I would have done the same." She smiled softly at him. "Wow," she breathed out a moment later. "I wasn't expecting that."
"Yeah, it was a bit of a surprise for me too," he admitted. Jay couldn't read the expression on Erin's face. "Are... are you okay with this. I mean we talked about it but I know you had a plan..."
Erin ran her hand back and forth across her stomach. "You think I'll be an okay mom, right? You don't think I'll mess it up to badly, do you?" Her voice full of doubt.
Jay placed his hand over the one Erin had on her belly and waited until she looked him in the eyes. "Erin you're gonna be an amazing mom, no one has a bigger heart than you."
She nodded but he could tell she still didn't fully believe him. "Well at least we know he's gonna have the best dad," she said leaning forward to kiss him softly.
"She," he corrected her.
"What? There's no way to know that yet," she scoffed. Jay just shrugged at her. He was already convinced it was a girl.
Slowly a smile stretched across her face. "Hey," she said shyly, squeezing his hand.
"Yeah?" He asked, God she was beautiful when she smiled like that.
Erin's eyes filled with tears as her smile grew wider. "I have your baby growing inside me," she said, voice full of wonder.
"So I've heard," he laughed happily, they stared at each other, excitement in their eyes before Jay shifted closer and pulled Erin into his arms. She lay her head on his shoulder, turning her head to bury it in his neck.
"A baby," she whispered again in awe.
"Umm," he murmured into her hair. "Our baby." He corrected her.
Erin's arms squeezed him tighter. "Our baby," she repeated.
Jay was sure he'd never heard sweeter words spoken.