Jay threw his dress shoes and a tie into of his suitcase and zipped it up, praying that he had everything he needed for the weekend and wouldn't have to listen to his mom nag about how he needed to be more organized. He already knew he was going to have to listen to her nag all weekend about how he needed a girlfriend; he didn't need to hear her complain about anything else. He looked at his watch and sighed, knowing it was time for him to get on the road before he was late to his brother's rehearsal dinner.
He threw his bags onto the passenger seat of his truck and began heading north to Wisconsin. He hadn't seen his family in months and as much as he didn't want to have the "girlfriend" conversation again, he was excited to get away from Chicago for the weekend. While he loved his job in Intelligence during the week, weekends lately had been rough and usually consisted of third-wheeling Erin and Severide or Ruzek and Burgess at Molly's. God, he needed a girlfriend. He'd tried to find one, really. He tried to reconnect with Allie but the spark was gone, he'd gotten a few girls' numbers at Molly's, and he'd even asked Erin to set him up a few times. But every date he went on, he found something wrong with the girl. Usually, it was that none of them were Erin Lindsay.
The sound of his phone ringing broke his thoughts and he smiled when his partner's name flashed on his screen. "Hey, you. I'm on my way to Wisconsin." He answered, keeping his eyes on the road. He had thought she was with Kelly and tried to hide the surprise in his voice.
"Oh my god, I forgot! I'll let you go, drive safe. And have fun! I'm sorry I didn't come say goodbye!" she began to apologize, and he laughed.
"Er, it's three days. I'll be in the office on Monday. And you don't have to hang up."
"I know it's only three days, but how am I gonna survive Molly's without you tomorrow night?" she frowned as if he could see her face.
"You have Kelly. And besides, I won't be having too much fun, just getting hounded by mom about why I don't have a girlfriend yet." He was confused about her Molly's comment, but it made him smile.
Erin cringed at the mention of Kelly's name and sighed. "Yeah. Right. I'm really letting you go though, because you need to pay attention to the road. Text me when you get there?"
"Of course. Don't have too much fun at work without me today," Jay said, reluctantly hanging up his phone and turning up the radio.
xoxoxoxoxo
Erin hung up her phone and sighed. She had called to tell Jay that she'd broken up with Kelly, but she didn't need him to be her therapist when he should be paying attention to the road, he wasn't even that good of a driver with no distractions. Erin couldn't believe she had forgotten his brother's wedding was this weekend; with all of her problems with Kelly she had become a terrible partner. She replayed their quick conversation in her mind, and just then realized his "girlfriend" comment and smirked. She would love to meet Mrs. Halstead; according to Jay, she was always busting his balls and seemed like someone Erin could really get along (and make fun of Jay) with. Then she had an idea.
"Hank?" she stood up from her desk and walked into her pseudo-father's office. "Are we getting a new case today?"
"Nah, using the day to catch up on paperwork. What's up, kid?" Hank looked up from his desk.
"I finished my paperwork last night. Can I have the day? Pleeeease?" she begged.
Hank looked at her suspiciously and nodded. "Stay out of trouble."
"You're the best." Erin smiled and grabbed her coat from her desk, running out of the precinct and to her apartment.
xoxoxoxoxo
A few hours later, Jay pulled into the driveway of his childhood home and was greeted by his niece and nephew running out the door. "Uncle Jay!" they screamed in unison, jumping into his arms as he got out of his truck.
"Hey Emma! Matty! What's up?" he asked, smiling. It was good to be home. He put the kids down and grabbed his bags from his truck, heading into the house, where he was greeted by his sister and dad, who were sitting on the couch watching a baseball game. As bad as it sounded, he was slightly relieved that his mom wasn't home yet and couldn't start the girlfriend interrogation. He settled in quickly, grabbing a beer from the fridge and joining his family on the couch.
A few hours later, Jay was in the middle of playing Headbandz with Emma and Matty when his mom came home. "Jay!" she gave him a hug and went into the kitchen to put down the grocery bags and he mentally prepared himself for the questions that were coming. He walked into the kitchen to help unload the bags and his mom wasted no time. "So you're here alone?" she asked, but before he could answer, there was a knock on the door.
"Jay! Someone's here for you!" he heard his dad call from the foyer. Confused, he walked out of the kitchen and was met with a familiar pair of hazel eyes.
"Er?" he tried to hide his surprise but failed miserably, pulling her in for a hug.
"I've been a pretty shitty partner lately. Plus, I owe ya one," she whispered in his ear. "Sorry I'm late, babe, I had to meet with a CI this morning for Voight," she said louder, so his mom could hear.
Mrs. Halstead looked away from the refrigerator where she was putting the groceries away and looked Erin up and down. "Jay, she's beautiful. How much did you pay her?" she joked, but became serious quickly. "Now introduce me to this gorgeous woman!"
"Erin, this is my mom. Mom, this is Erin, my-" Jay paused, unsure of what to call her.
"His girlfriend." Erin finished for him, and Jay beamed.
"Erin? Jay talks about you every time he calls! But he never told me you were his girlfriend! I was getting worried." She chuckled, and Jay turned bright red.
"Oh, he talks about me all the time?" Erin smirked and raised her eyebrow at Jay, who shook his head.
"Let's bring your bag upstairs," he told her, taking her hand.
They walked into Jay's childhood room and he shut the door behind them, looking at Erin for an explanation.
"I just figured I owed you one because of my high school reunion, you know? You made it a little obvious how much you were dreading telling your mom you were still single, and I didn't feel like being assigned a new partner today anyway," Erin explained.
Jay smiled. "What about Kelly?"
"What about him?" Erin shrugged and Jay raised his eyebrow. "We broke up. That's what I called to tell you when I realized I forgot about the wedding. Hence me being a shitty partner way too caught up in my own problems."
Jay tried to hide his smile when Erin said she and Kelly broke up, but his lips curved upward anyway. "Er, you're definitely not a shitty partner. You spent your morning driving to surprise me in Wisconsin. You HATE Wisconsin."
She shrugged. "But my partner needed me." 'If you only knew how much', Jay thought.
"Well let's go back downstairs so you can meet the rest of my crazy family. Prepare yourself," Jay warned, opening the door and leading them back downstairs.
xoxoxoxo
"Erin, come on! The limo to dinner is leaving in ten minutes!" Jay banged on the bathroom door.
"Give me thirty seconds!" Erin yelled from inside the bathroom, where she was finishing pinning up her hair. She couldn't see Jay, but she knew he had just rolled his eyes.
Finally, the door opened and Erin stepped out, causing Jay to gasp. "Wow," he choked out. His partner looked beautiful, in a tight teal dress that brought out her eyes and showed of her amazing figure.
"Put your tongue back in your mouth, Halstead," she joked, punching him on the shoulder and walking past him, down the stairs. He just shook his head. Pretending to be Erin Lindsay's boyfriend was going to be the death of him.
xoxoxoxo
Jay stood in the doorway of the restaurant, watching Erin as she played a game on her phone with Emma and Matty. Emma must have said something funny, because Erin threw her head back and laughed and the little girl beamed. Jay's heart swelled in his chest and he had to remind himself that they were only pretend-dating.
"She's a keeper." Jay heard a voice behind him and turned to see his brother standing next to him, catching him staring.
Jay nodded. "You're telling me."
"How'd you meet?" Will questioned.
"Work. She's my partner in Intelligence." Jay explained shortly, not wanting to go too far into detail. Knowing Erin, he thought she'd have an entirely different story drawn up in her mind and he didn't want anyone to question their relationship. As if she had heard them, Erin came walking over to Jay and put her arm around him.
"Talking about me?" she raised her eyebrow jokingly.
"Just letting my little brother here know he hit the jackpot. Seriously, I've never seen him so happy," Will told her, causing Erin to blush. She felt Jay pull her closer and smiled.
"Trust me, I'm the lucky one." She smiled up at Jay, and his heart ached when he remembered she was acting.
xoxoxoxo
The rest of the rehearsal dinner had gone by smoothly, with Erin winning the heart of every relative she met and Erin and his mom ganging up on him every chance they got. As much as he wanted to be mad, one look into Erin's shining eyes or at her dimples, and he was reminded of why he could never stay mad at her.
Erin fell asleep in the limo on the way home from the restaurant with her head resting on Jay's shoulder and a sleeping Emma on her lap. Jay looked down at two of the most important girls in his life and sighed. He wished more than anything that this weekend was real, but he knew Erin was hurting after breaking up with Kelly and she just felt like she needed to pay him back for her high school reunion.
They pulled up to the house and Jay woke Erin and Emma up. "Uncle Jay, can you carry me to my room?" Emma asked, rubbing her eyes.
"Of course, peanut." He answered, lifting the little girl off of Erin's lap and bringing her into the house.
"Are you going to marry Erin?" Emma whispered in his ear once they got to her bed.
"What? Emma-" Jay didn't know how to respond to the little girl.
"Because she's prettier than a princess and I want her to be my aunt." Emma said simply, before rolling away from Jay and closing her eyes. "Goodnight, Uncle Jay."
Jay just shook his head. "Goodnight, Em." He shut the lights off and walked into his room, where Erin was going through her suitcase. She pulled out a pair of pajamas and walked over to Jay.
"Unzip me?" she asked him, and shuddered when his hand touched her back and chills ran through her body. She quickly got changed and went into the bathroom to take her makeup off. She looked at herself long and hard in the mirror and she had to admit; she looked happier than she had in a long time. It had to be because she had finally broken up with Kelly, right? She didn't have feelings for Jay. She couldn't, she told herself. He was her partner and Voight had strict rules against that. She sighed and went back into Jay's room, where he was laying in bed and crawled in next to him.
"You better not be a cover-hog, Halstead," she said, smirking at him.
Her voice broke him away from his thoughts and he rolled over to face her. "Stay on your side of the bed, Lindsay," he warned playfully. She jokingly tore some overs off of him, then rolled onto her back and quickly fell asleep. Jay watched as her breathing evened out, then tried to get some sleep himself.
xoxoxoxo
Jay woke up the next morning to find his body entangled in Erin's in the middle of the bed and all of the blankets on the floor. As if on cue, Erin picked her head up and looked around. She made a face at Jay and began to laugh, "Well, I guess we both lost. Neither of us can stay on our sides or keep covers on."
Jay just shook his head. "I guess we're not good at following rules,"
Erin immediately knew where he was going with this conversation. "Jay-" she started.
"I know. We can't," he sighed, getting up and leaving the room to shower. Erin groaned and silently prayed he wouldn't have an attitude all day now. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door and Emma and Matty walking into the room, both carrying blankets and stuffed animals.
"Everyone here wakes up so early!" Matty whined, climbing onto the bed with Erin.
Emma followed her twin brother, "Because Uncle Will is getting married today!"
Erin laughed at the disheveled kids who were now cuddled at her sides. "Well, good morning to you guys too," she said as Emma grabbed her phone to reopen the game of Candy Crush they had been playing last night.
"Where's uncle Jay?" Matty asked.
"He's in the shower-" Erin began to say, as the door to the bedroom opened and Jay walked back in. "Just kidding, he's right here," she looked up, smiling at him.
Any ounce of annoyance Jay had from their previous conversation melted away the second he saw Erin's dimples and his niece and nephew laying at her sides.
xoxoxoxo
Jay felt like he had déjà vu as he banged on the bathroom door again, this time because they were about to be late to the wedding where he was the best man. "Erin! We need to leave!"
"Thirty seconds!" she promised, putting on her final coats of lip gloss and mascara.
She swung the door open and once again Jay gasped. "You are killing me," he told his partner, who walked out of the bathroom in a tight black strapless gown.
She just rolled her eyes and took his hand. "You don't look too bad yourself. Let's go, we're gonna be late, remember?" she laughed at his eye roll and led him down the stairs.
xoxoxoxo
"Dance with me." Erin walked over to Jay and pulled him out of his chair.
"Er, I don't dance." He told her, but he was already being pulled towards the dance floor.
"Come onnnn. This is my favorite song," she begged, as Cop Car by Keith Urban came blasting from the DJ booth. They made it to the dance floor and she threw her arms around his neck and he pulled her close. No one could deny how well their bodies fit together.
"I never did thank you for coming. You've made this weekend so much easier." Jay began, looking down at her.
"Don't mention it. This is the only place I could imagine myself right now." Erin smiled, looking back up into his blue eyes. The thought of normally being stuck in the back booth at Molly's with Kelly right now made her sick. She felt Jay's body tense up. "Are you okay?" she asked, noticing how his eyes had darkened. She turned her head to see what he was staring at.
A beautiful woman had just walked onto the dance floor and was staring at Jay with equally dark eyes. "Jay?" Erin tried again to get his attention before it clicked. That had to be Allie. Erin had never met her, but she'd heard plenty of stories. Jay and Allie had tried to get back together a few months ago and it hadn't gone well. Erin could feel the pain in Jay's eyes and without thinking, she pressed her lips to his.
Jay was shocked when he felt Erin's lips against his, but he quickly kissed her back. Nothing had ever felt so right and he quickly forgot the stare down he was having with Allie. Erin deepened the kiss and opened her mouth, allowing Jay better access. They kissed until neither could breathe and Erin pulled back.
"Wow." Jay gasped. Erin didn't say a word; she just took his hand and led him off the dance floor and into an empty hallway.
"Was that Allie?" she asked, looking deep into his eyes. She had no idea why she suddenly felt jealous and territorial, Jay wasn't even hers.
Jay nodded. So that was why. "Tell me that's not the only reason you just did that." He prayed he was wrong.
Erin bit her lip. "It was. At first." She looked around, trying to find words. "But she's not out here now, and I would do it all over again."
Jay beamed. "As much as I would love that, maybe we should talk?"
Erin sighed. "When we get back tonight. You know this is going to be a heavy conversation and I don't want to ruin this wedding. We're having so much fun."
Jay sighed right back. "Right." Heavy conversation. That didn't sound fun at all, especially because Jay knew how it was going to end.
Erin cupped Jay's cheek in her hand. "We'll figure it out. But for now," she took her hand off his face and used it to pull his tie to pull his face down to hers, "let's go, boyfriend," she planted a soft kiss on his lips and led him back out to the dance floor, leaving him shaking his head. Only Erin Lindsay, he thought.
xoxoxoxo
Jay sat on his bed and waited for Erin to come out of the bathroom. His hands were shaking and he was terrified of where this conversation was going to go. Erin walked into the room and Jay started to make room for her, but she sat right down on his lap, surprising him.
"Where do we start?" she asked quietly.
"Er, I don't really know what there is to talk about." Jay started. "I like you, hell, I love you. And I hope you like me. And I think that should be enough for us to try and figure this out."
"God, Jay. I hate that you're even questioning if I like you. I'm sorry I ran from it for so long, but tonight, the thought of Allie ever having you made me sick. I could only imagine what Kelly and I did to you, and I'm so sorry. I didn't even realize-" Tears began to fall from her eyes and Jay wiped them away.
"What are you saying, Erin?" He asked sternly, trying to redirect her rambling.
"I don't know, Jay. I guess I'm saying I like you. A lot. And I just realized it, and it scares the living hell out of me." She looked so honest and vulnerable in that moment and Jay fell in love with her even more.
"So what are we going to do about it?" He was terrified to hear this answer.
Erin leaned forward and passionately kissed his lips. "This," she whispered. She kissed him for a moment before pulling back, "And I guess I have to call Hank in the morning."
Jay smiled so big that Erin thought his cheeks were going to break. He lay down, pulling her on top of him. "Don't you dare leave my side of the bed tonight, Lindsay," he said, kissing the top of her head.
