When she woke up the next morning, Erin was sweating. She was really sweating, her clothes sticking entirely to her body and droplets of perspiration were falling from her forehead. Erin threw the cover off her hot body and ran towards her bathroom.

Obviously, she'd never had an inappropriate dream before. Especially one about somebody, some soldier, she had just met. She was embarrassed at herself, had her mind really went there when she was sleeping? She was just glad she was by herself in the apartment, she would have died if anybody saw her.

Erin let the shower run for a few seconds and stripped herself of her tank top she'd fallen asleep in. As soon as the cool water hit her skin, she felt like screaming with happiness. It was such a relief, the temperature a complete contrast to the hot fire erupting from her own body. She'd felt like she was on fire before she let the shower cool her down. Erin closed her eyes as the water ran the length of her back, over her ass and down to her legs and feet towards the plughole.

Minutes later, and when her body cooled to a more bearable temperature, she let herself step out of the shower. Erin grabbed the towel from the heater and wrapped it around herself, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Her cheeks were still flushed with color, she noticed. The mirror in front of her was steamed up, but Erin could still make out the dashes of red that hung on her cheeks. She drew a line with her index finger into the steam, so she could see her face properly. She laughed at herself for forgetting to take off yesterday's make-up: the black rings around her eyes were a giveaway. Erin reached for the wipes to take off the substance from her face. She threw away the wipe and walked back into her bedroom, unaware that the swipe she'd squiggled on the mirror had un-subconsciously formed the letter 'J' on the glass.

In the heat of sorting her flustered self from her inappropriate dream, she'd forgotten it was Saturday. And on this rare occasion, that meant a day off. Rather than rushing to get herself ready for a working day, she flung herself back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. There was so many productive things she could do with her free time: she could go to the gym, she could go to the food store, she could tidy the apartment….

It was then she remembered the text message that had pinged through her phone last night. Even if she had been half asleep, she remembered the soldier had texted her. And he's said he wanted to see her soon.

Erin reached over to the table at her bedside and picked up her cell. She hadn't remembered putting it on Do Not Disturb, but she must have because she stared at her screen for a second with wide eyes. Jay's name flashed up again, this time with a number 3 attached to it. She blinked, had he texted her a further three times after she'd fallen asleep?

Suddenly, she felt bad. He'd had the decency to text after their meeting yesterday and she didn't want to seem eager so she'd promised to reply in the morning. Apparently that was too long for him to wait and he'd texted her again. And again. And again. Erin used Touch ID to unlock her cell and it led her straight to the messages page. She scrolled up to look at the first message.

Mark is really being an ass. Can you come back? I'm gonna go demented..

Then

Are you alright? You didn't message to say you got home or anything. Anyway it was nice to meet you, Erin.

Then

Have I offended you or something? Seriously did you give me a false number?

She wanted to cringe, at the fact he'd triple texted and at the fact she'd also ignored him. He was right, she had totally ignored his text from the night before, and he didn't actually know she'd gotten home at all. She also didn't want him to think she'd given him a false number, she'd never do that. But he didn't know that.

Just the thought of him brought back memories of how she'd woken up this morning. How, in her dream she had been ravenous, claiming him as her own. How she'd felt the need to have him, have her way with him. She threw herself back onto the bed and laughed at her childish behavior. It was like she was a teenager again, and she cringed at herself for being so turned on at the thought of him in her apartment. In her bedroom. And in her.

Would it be totally inappropriate to call him? She had to respond to him somehow, and a text message didn't seem like enough. His messages had expressed concern for her, even though the two had just met. She needed to talk to him, apologize for the lack of response and perhaps just hear his voice.

Erin rolled onto her stomach, bit the bullet and pressed the call button. When she held the phone to her ear, she promptly regretted her decision. When they'd been in his room, she'd struggled to start the conversation. How would things be different now, especially given her inappropriate thoughts last night? As she contemplated hanging up the phone, the ringing stopped.

"Erin?"

She swallowed, hoping he didn't hear. "Hey,"

Jay didn't speak for a minute and Erin thought he didn't know what to say either. Then, a laugh. "Well at least you didn't give me a fake number. How are you?"

"Yeah I'm okay." She fidgeted with the threads on the towel she was wrapped in, still not sure what direction in which to take the conversation. "So I'm sorry for not replying-"

"It's cool, Erin. I shouldn't have sent those. I don't have any business weighing in on your personal life. I just wanted to make sure you got home okay,"

"I did," she chewed on the inside of her cheek. "I did," she repeated. "Thanks for checking up on me."

"Of course."

Erin couldn't see him, but she imagined he was smirking. He continued:

"What are you doing with your day, Miss Lindsay?" it was his voice that got her, it was almost as though his level of attractiveness was showing through his voice. His tone of voice was husky, and that was so damn hot to her. She closed her eyes in a bid to fight away the pictures she was dreaming up in her head.

"I have a fun day ahead of tidying the apartment and heading to the gym. The usual." She laughed, although in reality there was nothing she wanted to do less than cleaning and gyming. She'd prefer to spend the whole day in bed.

Her comments made him laugh and Erin heard Jay chuckle on the other end of the line. "Well if you get bored you know where I am," his tone was spirited, as though trying to get Erin to go and see him. As though he was reading her mind and knew, knew that she did want to go and see him.

Erin stared at the ceiling, thinking about his suggestion. Although she did want to go and see him again, she'd met the guy only yesterday. This Cops and Corporals recruit only required her to meet with him once a week.

She decided to keep him in the dark, smiling to herself as she thought about what to say. "I'll have to see if I can fit you in my schedule.."

Jay laughed again. "Okay, Erin. I guess I might see you later." He did the thing again where her name lingered too long on his lips. Even though she couldn't see it, she could hear it. And it made her want to go and see him even more.

Then she heard the phone hang up and she lay on her bed for a few more moments. If she was gonna make some sort of pathetic attempt to tidy the apartment, she had to start somewhere.

Walking over to the closet, Erin threw on a pair of yoga pants and a sweater. She was being hopeful, there was no way she was gonna tidy the apartment today. She made her way into the kitchen, she needed to eat. When she reached the kitchen, she practically threw her face into the cool temperature: being on the phone with Jay had caused the occurrences in her dream to circle around her brain. At the most inappropriate of times, when she was struggling to have a conversation with him anyway.

She took out ingredients to make a sandwich and put them on the counter. It was almost as though she hadn't eaten in days and she scoffed the sandwich down her throat in a couple of bites. She thought about going for a run, a run to clear her mind and to get some exercise. All she really wanted to do though was crash on the couch in front of the TV: it was her day off and she wanted to spend it doing things with little effort.

Fuck the running she thought and she made her way into the lounge. She loved when her days off coincided with re-runs of her favorite TV shows. She had an excuse to just lay and binge watch crap TV shows without having to feel bad about it.

Even as she tried to be engrossed in whatever was happening on the screen, Jay Halstead was still in the back of her mind. He'd texted her, he'd answered her call even after she was an ass and didn't reply, and he'd practically told her he wanted to see her.

Before she registered what she was doing, Erin ran back through to her bedroom and changed her clothes. She tried to tell herself that she was doing it for her own good, not for the benefit of anybody else but she knew she was lying. She replaced her sweats with black jeans and a shirt, one that had buttons up the front. Leaving two of them open accidentally on purpose, she made her way towards the car.

She found herself outside the refuge much easier than she had thought she would. Not knowing what courage had come over her, she exited the vehicle quickly and walked fast towards the door. There was nobody there to greet her this time, but she remembered the way to Jay's dorm.

It was when she reached his door that she became nervous. She shifted from left foot to right foot, not knowing what to say when she knocked. She'd joked that she would try and make time for him, now it was barely two hours later and she was standing outside of his door. She edged her ear towards the wood, trying to hear what was happening inside. She could hear laughter, and there was more than one person inside.

With a sharp intake of breath, she knocked on the door with her left hand. It took a second before she heard footsteps and then somebody came to the door. It was Mark.

"Ahh, the Detective! Back so soon?" Jay was right, Mark did sound like an ass.

Erin nodded and waved at him, trying to be polite. "Is Jay here?"

Mark didn't have the door open very wide, so it was difficult for Erin to see inside. For a second, he looked back inside the room and turned back to Erin with a cringe on his face. She didn't know what she was getting at, because he didn't verbally respond to her. Instead, he opened the door wider so Erin could see. She attempted to mask it when she felt the faint smile fall from her face.

Jay was in the room, he was perched at the top end of his bed. But the first thing Erin noticed was the girl sitting next to him. The girl she immediately recognized as a person from one of Jay's photographs.

It was Sara.

When he saw Erin at the door, Jay immediately jolted up from his slouching position. "Erin," he looked from her to Sara then back to Erin. Then he looked at Mark with his eyes wide and Mark just shrugged. "W-w-what are you doing here?"

She didn't know how to respond, perhaps he hadn't meant for her to visit at all. Perhaps it had been a joke. Because she was clearly intruding. Before she replied, she found herself studying that pair sat on the bed. There was something that bothered her about how close they were sitting, something that told her Sara wasn't just a friend.

Erin chewed on her lip as she thought of a reply. She had to say something that didn't make it seem as though she'd been desperate to come and pay him a visit. "I-I thought we could grab some food," she stared again at Sara. She was trying hard to avoid eye contact with Erin, instead looking everywhere except Erin's face. "But it's alright if I'm interrupting, I can come back another time." Erin didn't even wait for a reply from any of the people in the room, instead slowly padding her footing backwards and retracing her steps towards the entrance.

She tried not to run, but suddenly she wanted to be as far away from that room as possible. There was a lump in the pit of her stomach that hadn't been there before. When she'd made it down the stairs, she felt a somewhat familiar grip around her wrist.

"Where are you going?" His voice was husky as usual, and she fought hard not to look in his direction. If she did, he would know.

"I'm sorry Jay, I didn't mean to interrupt." Her voice was shaking so much and she hated that it was. Hated that he could probably tell there was a pinch of jealousy in her actions. Even though she probably shouldn't be feeling that way, considering she'd only met him the day before. She was pissed at herself that she felt so strongly.

Jay furrowed his brow and moved position so Erin was forced to look at him. it didn't help that he was standing in front of her looking so hot. His tight T-shirt highlighted the muscles on his body and the neck line was low so Erin had access to the top of his chest. Although she tried to fight her eyes away.

He sighed. "What are you talking about? You're not interrupting." He still held onto her wrist, as though to prevent her from walking any further away from him. He motioned his head towards the direction they'd came from. "Come back?"

Erin shook her head and ran free from him, she didn't want to outstay her welcome when she didn't have to. She kind of wished she hadn't listened to her heart and stayed home in the first place. When she got to the car, she didn't start the engine. She pulled her jacket further around her body and sat for a while in the quiet.

She didn't have the right to feel this kind of jealousy, did she? She had absolutely no involvement with Jay's personal life, and that was the way it was going to have to be.

When she was about to drive away, she felt a tap at the passenger seat window, causing her to jump.

He offered her a sympathetic smile, and he moved to open the door. She didn't protest, so he climbed into the seat beside her. He didn't speak right away when he closed the door, but Erin could hear his heavy breathing.

"Sara was a medic at the same base as me," he suddenly started talking, without giving Erin a warning. Not hearing the word 'girlfriend' made her pay attention, and she turned her face towards him. Jay wasn't looking at her yet, he was staring out of the car's front window.

He looked so deep in thought Erin felt optimistic. If the aim was for her to get him to talk, was she doing something right?

She watched as he took another deep breath in and continued. "I can't pretend nothing ever happened between us," he started tapping at the interiors, as though the story-telling was making him distressed. "We dated when we were teenagers."

Erin cringed slightly at the thought, but she had to take into account it was a long time ago. A lifetime ago, probably before Jay even became a soldier.

"And then she got together with my friend, Graham. And I was happy for them. Hell, I introduced them."

At the mention of another guy, Erin felt relief. But it was clear Jay wasn't finished.

"Me and Graham were in the same regiment, we went to war together. I came back, and Graham he… he didn't."

Erin noticed his eyes had glazed over and she immediately felt pissed at herself for jumping to conclusions. She had thought of herself whilst he had seen his friend killed on duty. She swallowed, not knowing how to reply. Instead, she offered her hand and placed it over his own. She realized immediately how tensed up he seemed, the veins in his hand were practically popping out of his skin.

"Jay," she hoped she could find some words of comfort. But she really didn't know what to say.

It took him a moment but he eventually moved to face her. "I didn't do this to get sympathy from you, Erin. I don't want sympathy, I don't need it. I figured for this to work, I have to learn to open up to people. To trust people. And this is me doing that."

Erin nodded.

"I just don't like talking about this kind of stuff with people, I guess."

"I get it. I get it, Jay. Thank you for telling me." She let herself intertwine her fingers with his own, it was her way of offering him a support. She noticed he didn't try to pull away. "If there's anything I can do…"

Jay smiled from one corner of his mouth. "You're doing it, Erin. You're doing it."

Erin returned his small smile, pulling her hand away slowly. "Hey if you ever need to get away from this place, away from Mark. I'm down to make you that mac and cheese."

"That sounds good." He moved to get out of the car, and waved goodbye. "I'll call you?"

She nodded and began to drive away. Clearly, she was doing something right and that made her feel good. Jay Halstead was beginning to open up to her, she'd heard the first story from his past. And that was the main aim of her constant meeting with him. Anything else that happened would be a bonus, right?

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