So, first off, in case you also watch Chicago Med, this contains spoilers from last night's episode, so if you haven't watched, don't read!

Second, this was born out of a lot of frustration about the said episode and the need for something to fix it, for lack of a better phrase. I get that some people may say to move on, but we're entitled to our opinions. This is also freshly written and if there are mistakes, my apologies.

Usually, I would put this in the collection Every Melody is a Memory, but I felt it deserved its own thing.

Inspired by Get to You by Michael Ray. Don't listen if you don't want to bawl your eyes out.

"I was just wondering, are you still holding onto mom's wedding ring?" Will asked.

"Yeah of course," Jay answered. "Why wouldn't I?"

The words had haunted him, still. He had tried to school his features when Will asked. He didn't have to be a detective to fully understand what Will was asking him.

It had been a punch to the gut for sure and it didn't help that it was so close to the dates that would forever be burned into his mind. The first was the day Abby walked back into his life and the second was the day Erin walked out.

There was a part of him that was dreading this moment. He never had the strength to put it back in the safety deposit box. In his mind, that ring was one of the last links he had to Erin.

"Oh," he answered, realization dawning on him. The sheepish look on Will's face sent the knife further into his heart.

"I'm just trying not to be a knucklehead," Will said.

Jay had to bite his tongue and not crush his brother's dreams. Just two weeks ago, Will had called, expressing his worry about what happened to Owen and his nanny. Jay hated to tell Natalie no when she asked for his help in finding her son. They caught the bastard that did it, so he had no problem with making some calls. The second time Will called that day was to tell him thank you.

He supposed he couldn't be a hypocrite. Will was wanting to propose because he and Natalie were in a good place. But Jay thought he was jumping the gun, even if that was exactly what he was going to do a year ago with Erin.

"Okay, uh," he paused. "Come on in, I'll go get it,"

The steps he took towards the safe in his closet were the heaviest he had ever felt. Heavier than when he walked down the hallway after his mom passed away, his brother and father not there. Heavier than the times he had to walk into churches in his old military uniform to honor fallen soldiers. Heavier than when he walked away from Erin after she made the call they were no longer partners.

He was glad his back was to Will because he didn't want his brother to know how bad this hurt him. Will was the golden child in his father's eyes, still was. His mom was the only advocate he had growing up. She told him before she died that while Will was her son, Jay was her baby. She said that parents don't pick favorites, but she had, and it was him.

Now here they were, and he was about to give his brother the ring he had dreamt of giving to Erin. The last link to both his mom and Erin would be gone.

He could feel Will's presence behind him, watching him. The safe was in front of him now and he just stared at it, his hand positioned above the keypad. Even the passcode was bringing back painful memories.

3524. EL and CH. Erin Lindsey and Catherine Halstead. The two most important women in his life.

"Jay?" Will asked. Jay didn't move, he felt frozen in place. He slowly lifted his head to find his brother staring at him, a concerned look on his face.

"I, I can't," Jay whispered, trailing off at the end.

"Hey, Jay," Will said. "It's fine."

His eyes snapped back to his brother after trying to avoid him.

"What?" he stuttered.

Will took a deep breath, motioning Jay to follow him. He did, his head down as he followed his brother into the living room of his apartment. His legs had him collapsing onto the couch while he heard the door of his refrigerator open and shut and the distinct clink of two beer bottles.

Seconds later a bottle appeared in his line of vision, which had been the floor as his arms rested on his knees, back hunched over. He wondered if it was obvious he was avoiding his brother.

"I shouldn't have asked," Will said, his voice becoming softer.

"It doesn't matter," Jay began before getting cut off.

"Yes it does," Will said more forcefully. "I shouldn't have expected you to hand it over, no questions asked. I certainly didn't."

Jay shook his head, wanting his brother to shut up.

"Jay, listen to me, damn it!"

The bite in his brother's words had his head shooting up, a cold look on his face. He didn't get it.

"I get it," he said, reading his mind. "We both know that you would always propose with Mom's ring. It was always yours. It was always Erin's."

Jay kept his eyes on his brother. Even after the years spent not talking, his brother knew him just as well as he did growing up. Jay could say the same, and he could see that Will was regretting asking in the first place.

"Mom wouldn't want it sitting in my safe for the rest of my life," he said.

"But it won't be," Will said.

"No, Will don't do that," he shot back and standing up. "She is never coming back."

He could see his brother open his mouth, wanting to say something but holding it back.

"What?" he asked. He was in no mood to deal with this.

"No, it's not necessary."

"What were you gonna say?"

"Just," Will began, pausing to take a breath. "Planes work both ways."

Jay wanted to slug him, but he stopped. He had a point. There was nothing stopping him from going to Erin. It had been a year. But at the same time, it had been a year. She could be seeing someone, she could have moved from New York. There were a million things that could have happened in a year, Jay knew that well.

"Go get her."

Jay looked up at Will, finding a soft, apologetic smile on his brother's face. Without a second thought, he was heading back to his room, grabbing the black backpack that sat on the floor of his closet. He wasn't sure what he packed, but as a last thought, he reached for his phone, dialing a number he had come to memorize over the years.

"Hey," he asked. "Are you home?"

"Jay!" Will yelled, poking his head in the room. "Got you a flight. Leaves from O'Hare in two hours."

Jay nodded at his brother and before heading out the door and to New York.

It wasn't her alarm or her phone that work her up, but rather the banging on her door. Erin groaned as she rolled over, her eyes blinded by the harsh light coming from her phone as she checked the time. 3:23. Whoever it was better have a damn good reason for waking her up this early.

She had been so tired after the week she had that she didn't think to grab the sweater by her bed and attempt to cover herself. They were just going to get to see her in the loose tank and shorts she wore while giving them a piece of her mind.

He exhausted state even had her forgoing a glance through the peephole and she quickly unlocked the door.

"Can I help you?" she said, but when she took in the man standing there, all the fight left her.

"Umm, yeah," he responded, shifting his weight.

"Jay, umm, what are you doing here?"

"Can I come in? This isn't a conversation for the hallway."

Erin hesitated before nodding, opening the door wider and letting Jay step into her loft. He set down the backpack and jacket he had on the floor and stood rooted in place. She eventually turned to walk further into her place, heading towards the kitchen to make herself some tea.

"Do you want anything?" she asked out of habit. He had been here for all of one minute and she felt herself righted again. Why did he do this to her?

"I'm good, thanks."

She nodded, pouring the hot water she just heated up into the mug.

She caught him looking around, and not at her, and took the chance to study him. It had been a year since she last saw him, since they slept in the same bed. She blamed that on the reason she now had to take melatonin to sleep on nights when cases didn't exhaust her.

He looked thinner and more muscular if that was possible. She heard, rather read, about his brush with the media a few months ago, when they thought he shot that girl. There wasn't much else she knew, other than they apologized and cleared him of the shooting. She could also see the tension he carried in his shoulders, probably whatever brought him out here in the middle of the night.

"So, Will wants to propose to Natalie," he began. It was an off way to start a conversation after not talking for months.

"That's great," she said, a questioning tone in her voice.

"I want to be happy for him, hell I am, but I can't help but think back to last year."

His statement again confused her, but she let him be. She could tell he needed to get this all out of his system.

"I had to see you," he said, turning around to face her. There was regret and sadness all over his face. His hands were shoved into his pockets, his right fidgeting with something inside.

"Why Jay? It's been a year, and yes I got your calls and texts, and I couldn't respond. Hearing your voice would be too much and I needed a clean break, and," she rambled but he cut her off.

"I was going to propose to you."

If she hadn't been holding her mug, it would have dropped to the ground. This wasn't happening, she was dreaming. Jay was not standing in her living room and telling her he was going to propose to her.

"I had the ring, even though I didn't have a plan. You were going through so much and at first, it was going to be on impulse. But when Will questioned me, I thought better about it. I had pulled the ring out after you turned and walked away outside the district. I realized that it was not ideal. But I still wanted to be there for you, I still want to be there for you, Erin. That ring was going to be my promise to you to never keep any secrets and to always have your back. To love you and protect you, even if you give me crap about it. I can't help it, Erin, my world starts and ends with you, and it always will."

There were tears in her eyes when he finished, and she hadn't realized how close they were standing to each other until she could feel his hot breath on her face.

"Will came over tonight, asked for our mom's ring," he said softly. "I couldn't give it to him. Because not only is that the last link to my mom, but that's the ring I was going to use."

Erin couldn't speak, but she could tell she was crying now when his hand came up to her face, his thumbs brushing away the tears.

"I love you, Erin. Always will."

She couldn't hold it in much longer. Without a second thought, her arms wrapped around his neck and her lips crashed onto his. It still felt so familiar a year later, like nothing had changed. They were still Erin and Jay, bickering over the wet towels she left on the floor and his driving habits.

His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her tighter as he deepened the kiss. In doing so, her bare thigh hit something sharp coming from his pocket. The grunt that came from her had him pulling back.

"Are you okay? Did I hurt you?" he asked. Erin couldn't help but smile at his concern, and then only smiled wider when she remembered thinking she would never get to smile because of him again.

"Yeah, but what it in your pocket that is so sharp?"

Jay looked down and Erin could see the blush on his cheeks from this kiss deepen at the realization. He looked back up at her, a sheepish smile on his face. There were no words exchanged as he pulled the object from his pocket and her hands flew to her mouth, a gasp escaping her.

"Jay…," she trailed off, but he shook his head.

"I'm standing by what I said, and because of that, I'm not going to show it to you. But for now, this is my promise to you. We will get back to the place we were, when everything was right. There were no ex-wives and problematic mothers standing in our way. And who knows, maybe a year from now, I'll show you what's in this box."

The tears were back but Erin saw Jay had some of his own. She nodded softly and leaned up to kiss him again. Her hand moved to wrap around his own and the box in it. It was then that she could feel everything falling back into place.

"Let's go to bed," she said and he nodded, following her once again. The box went to the coffee table while she shut the lights off.

While she settled under the covers, he stripped to his boxers in record time. She loved the smile on his face when he saw her sitting in bed, waiting for him.

"I do have one question," she asked as he crawled into bed.

"What's that?"

"How did you know where I was?"

"I called Hank," he answered, settling onto his side. Without any word, Erin slid into his arms, head resting on his bare chest.

"I also asked him if you could come back."

She looked up at him then with questioning eyes.

"The heat's died down. Your mom hasn't popped up in months. He doesn't see why you can't come back, but he's not sure how many favors he has left. There's a lot happening I will fill you in on tomorrow but I guess…"

"Yes," she said. It was the right thing to do. The past year has been hard and a lot was put into perspective.

"Yes?" he repeated in disbelief.

"I'm ready to come home."

"But you are home, to me. Because I felt at home the minute you kissed me."

Erin wasn't going to call him on the cheesiness of the statement, but he was right. She hadn't felt at home in the last year, and in the last 20 minutes, she had. And it was all because of the man lying next to her, the one who had never given up.