I wake up to sunlight streaming through the window in my room and Lucy curled into my side, her head resting on my chest, shallow breaths escaping her. That's when I notice it, Jay's arm bridging over Lucy's tiny body and wrapped around my waist. I blush slightly and carefully tuck his hand around Lucy as I roll over. After her meltdown last night, everything had been relatively eventful. She slept soundly through the entire night and hopefully didn't have another nightmare. The clock reads 8:04, I've slept much later than I usually do. Pulling the covers back, I grab the clothes I'll need for the day from my closet and a towel from another one near to my bathroom. I slip into the bathroom, the cold tile feeling foriegn against the bare soles of my feet. I pull the door closed behind me and slip out of my clothes, discarding them mindlessly in the hamper until laundry day.
I reach into the giant glass box and turn the handle and wait for the water to flow. The hot water hits the tile at the base of the shower with a thud and steam begins to rise from the floor. Almost too hot to stand it, just the way I like it.
I climb in and a certain calmness falls over me. I just take a moment to relax, absent to any outside distractions. I finish up quickly, out of habit I guess. I scrunch my hair in my towel before wrapping it around myself and drying myself off. I opt to air dry my hair, as not to wake the two of them up with the hair dryer. I pull on my jeans and slip a purple t-shirt over my head before exiting the bathroom and grabbing my phone from my bedside table on the way to the kitchen. The forgotten pizza lays abandoned from last night. I grab the box and toss it into the fridge, we'll eat it at some point. you I grab a mug from the bottom shelf of a cabinet and pop a pod into the top of my coffee maker.I hear a click as the little spike breaks the seal on the top of the pod. I press the lit up button and the hot water begins to flow through the machine, dark liquid we all know and love coming out the other end. When the cup is finished brewing, I wrap my hands around the cup and the heat from the coffee seeps into my hands. I'm about to take a sip when Jay walks through the bedroom door.
"How'd you sleep?" I say, turning towards him.
"Pretty well," He says with a yawn as he beelines towards the coffee machine. "Although you kick in your sleep Lindsay." He says with a smirk.
"I do not!" I exclaim, "It must have been Lucy!"
"Oh no, don't go blaming the child, you definitely kick in your sleep,"
"What are you talking about? No one has ever said anything about me kicking in my sleep!" I shoot back.
"Oh okay," He starts, "Tell that to the bruises on my calves." He pulls up the bottom of his sweatpants up to his knees to reveal several round purple spots. I cringe at the damage I've apparently inflicted.
"Oh," I say, "okay so maybe I do kick in my sleep. Sorry Jay," I say sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it Lindsay, I mean you probably injured me worse before," He says with a smirk as I whack him on the shoulder. "See what I mean?" He says with a look of fake hurt on his face.
"Oh shut up Halstead, you know I can do worse, consider yourself lucky," I say with a smirk. He scoffs at me and turns around to make his coffee. I know we're flirting and I know we shouldn't be, but I can't help it. It feels so natural. I find myself gazing off into the distance as little feet find their way into the kitchen.
"Good morning Luce," Jay says as he pulls her into his side for a quick hug.
"How'd you sleep sweetheart?" I ask, pulling myself back to reality.
"Pretty good I guess," She replies with a straight face.
"Alright," I say, trying to switch the subject around a bit. "So I was thinking that maybe we could make some breakfast and then we could go shopping to get you some new clothes. What do you think?"
"Can we make pancakes?" She asks, the first signs of a smile beginning to grace her face.
"Of course we can!" I exclaim, maybe a little too enthusiastically, but I know I've done the right thing when a big smile spreads across her face.
"You sure you want Erin to cook?" Jay jokes.
"Oh shush I can do pancakes," I scoff. He looks at me questioningly. "Seriously!" I retort back. "Okay I know I'm not the best cook, but I can make a mean pancake," I say.
"Alright whatever you say," He says, throwing his hands up in surrender. "I'm going to go jump in the shower," He starts. "Luce keep an eye on Erin, make sure she doesn't burn the building down," She responds with an enthusiastic nod as I roll my eyes at my partner.
"Alright girly," I say as I lift her up onto the island and plant her with her legs hanging off. "You ready to make some pancakes?"
She looks at me nervously before saying, "You aren't going to start a fire right?"
"No sweetie that was just Jay being silly," I say as I grab the pancake mix and a bowl from some cabinets. I hear her breathe a sigh of relief behind me.
"Should we put anything in our pancakes?" I ask as I turn to face her again.
She crinkles her brow for a second as she considers this.
"Do you have chocolate chips?" She asks.
"I think so let me check," I turn back towards my pantry and bit down slightly on my lower lip as I search the shelves for the yellow bag I'm looking for. I spot it behind a bag of flour that may or may not have exploded a little. "Luce look what I found?" I say as I do some bizarre little dance from the pantry back over to the island. She responds with a little giggle and a clap of her tiny hands.
"So my dear, do you know how to make pancakes?" I ask.
"Um not really," She says, "but my mama always let me stir."
"I bet you're the best stir-er in all of Chicago!" I say as she grins back at me.
I put the mix, water, and finally the chocolate chips into a glass bowl and then hand Lucy a spoon so she could stir everything thing together. I grab a pan from beneath the stove and spray it with a can of cooking spray and grab a plate from the cabinet to put the finished pancakes on.
"Lucy do you know how to tell when you should flip the pancakes?" I ask as I pour the first round of batter onto the sizzling pan.
"Nope, how do you do it?" She asks.
"You can see them right now, but pretty soon you'll see these little bubbles on top of the pancakes. When they stop popping and stay bubbled, you know it's ready to flip." I say.
"That's cool," She says. "When will the bubbles get here?" She asks, staring very intently at the pan.
"Just watch they'll come, you've got to be patient." I stifle a laugh as she trains her wide eyes on the cooking batter.
"I see them!" She exclaims as the first remnants of bubbles begin to fill the pan. "And they're staying bubbled!" She says excitedly.
"And what does that mean?" I tease.
"We can flip them!" She says with joy in her eyes.
"You are exactly right my dear," I say as I begin to flip the pancakes. "And look at that we have some perfect pancakes!" She giggles and we repeat the process a couple more times until we've used all the batter.
We're putting the last of the pancakes on the plate when Jay emerges from the bedroom.
"Well they smell good," He says with a smile as he rubs his hair down with a towel. He's wearing the same outfit from yesterday so I assume we'll have to stop by his apartment.
"See I can make pancakes!" I say as I grab three plates from the upper cabinets and three forks from a drawer.
"Yeah Jay, Erin can make pancakes," Lucy says, a little bit of sass shining through.
"Alright, alright, let's try them before we get crazy." He says as he sits down on one of my bar stools.
Lucy places a pancake on his plate and hands him a fork. He takes a bite and she stares him down waiting for a reaction.
"They're actually really good," He says as he swallows.
"Yes!" Lucy exclaims as she reaches back to high five me. My heart swells at the little things that can make her happy. We all sit down to breakfast and make mindless conversation, mostly led by Lucy rambling about anything and everything. A lot of her conversations didn't make any sense, but I'm glad she's at least talking more now. She barely said two words last night. After we had finished eating, Jay cleared the dishes and took the duty of washing them as I took Lucy back to the guest room to re dress her in what she had on yesterday.
I slipped my shirt off her tiny body and pulled yellow top and little jeans back on her.
"So Luce we're going to go shopping now to get you some new clothes that you can wear while you're staying with me, sound good?" She respond with a nod of the head. She didn't have any shoes on when we found her, but Jay grabbed a pair of pink flats from her room on the way out. I grab a brush from my bathroom and gently brush through her red waves. When we're done, we come back into the kitchen and see Jay closing the dishwasher.
"Hey Erin, can we head to my apartment on the way out today? I was just going to run up quickly," He says.
"Yeah no problem, you ready to go?" I ask as I grab a pair of grey converse from near the front door.
"Yeah, you?" He ask.
"Yup," I say as I tie the laces on my shoes. "and miss Lucy here is all set aren't you?" I say as she gives an enthusiastic nod.
"All right then, let's go," He says as he crosses the room to grab Lucy's hand. She happily reaches up and curls her little hand in his. I grab my keys from the dish near the front door and my small bag from the hook on the wall. Jay and Lucy walk out the door as I flick off the lights behind me. We make the trek down the four flights of stairs and into the crisp autumn air. My car is parked a block or so down from the front door and as we're walking down there, Lucy reaches over with her free hand to grab my hand. I smile down at her as we arrive at the 300.
"Er, we don't have a car seat and I don't know if holding her is going to go over real well," Jay says as he opens the back door of the car and slides her in.
"I guess we'll have to just put her in the backseat and I'll drive really carefully. Can you sit with her?" I ask as I circle around the front of the car and open the driver's door.
"Yeah no problem," He says as he gets in.
"Alright then let's go,"