LONELY

Jay working in the Intelligence Unit was tough. His schedule was even more unpredictable than before and when he was working a case, I barely saw him. On the upside, I had somewhere to go when he was working. I was always welcome at the district building, and Trudy and I had actually bonded a little bit.

I spent more time with Eva as well, since her dad was on a similar schedule. She showed me how to get to her mom's bakery from both my school and the district and we often met up and walked there. If Jay was working a case, Mrs. Dawson would know about it and invite me to stay at her house. It was a working system.

"Hey, Gracie, grab your bag," Jay said, poking into the break room where I was doing some homework.

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked him. He chuckled.

"Nothing's wrong, you goof. We're going on an adventure," he smiled, winking. I groaned. Adventures were never a good thing when it came to my big brother.

"Why are there so many stairs?" I complained. "Where are we going?"

"Quit whining," Jay teased. "You're a dancer, you can handle it."

"Yeah, I'm a dancer, not Jillian Michaels. We don't do stairs," I coughed. I was so out of shape.

"Next time, we'll take the elevator," Jay promised, giving me a pat on the back. "For your maiden voyage, you needed the full experience."

"You're so kind," I mumbled. He just kept laughing at me.

"This is it, good old 304," he smiled, unlocking the door. I looked at him curiously. We went inside and he encouraged me to look around.

The apartment was spacious enough. There was no furniture in it, so I wasn't sure what we were doing here, but other than that it looked nice. There was a separate kitchen area from the living area, which wasn't the case currently.

I wandered down the hall to see the apartment had not only two bedrooms, but three, which was very intriguing. One was hardwood while the other two had this God awful purple carpet. Again, they were spacious enough.

"How do you like it?" Jay asked like a child on Christmas. He was so excited.

"It's nice. I don't like the purple carpet, though. It's weird," I pointed out. "Who's moving in?" I asked him, peeking out the window. The view was really nice.

"Well, if you like it…we are," he smiled. I whipped my head around to face him.

"A three-bedroom, Jay?" I questioned. I didn't think he had the money for this. Jay nodded, smiling.

"One for you, one for me, and a spare in case you want to have a friend sleepover or we need extra storage space," he explained. "You get your own closet, your own bathroom, and we can even get rid of the purple carpet if you want," he chuckled. I tried to wipe the tears away, but I couldn't get them before Jay caught me.

"Hey, what's wrong," he pulled me towards him, rubbing my back. "You can keep the carpet if you love it that much," he teased.

"Thank you," I choked out. "You didn't need to completely uproot everything for me."

"We needed a bigger space, Gracie," Jay crouched down so he could look me in the eye. "You're my little sister. I would do anything for you," he promised, holding out his pinkie. I took it and he pulled me into a hug.

"So you like it?" He asked me. I nodded.

"I love it," I smiled, high-fiving him. He did a good job.

"What color do you think you want to paint your room?" Erin asked me, pouring herself a cup of coffee. I didn't have school today, so I just came in with Jay this morning instead of hanging out at the apartment. It was still pretty early, but not too bad. I brought things to keep me occupied.

"Probably just white. I can put some of those paint design stickers on it if I want something fancy," I pointed out.

"That's a good point," she nodded as Jay came in. He ruffled my hair and pointed at Erin.

"That stuff will kill you now, apparently," he argued as he grabbed a cup of his own. "I saw an article online," he added. She just rolled her eyes.

"Well," she sighed, "that is last on the very long list of things I am concerned about," she pointed out to him. Jay held out his mug to her and gave her his puppy dog eyes.

"Please," he begged, and I tried my best to hide my giggling. He was such a child.

"Caitlin was asking about you," she whispered to him, trying to make sure I couldn't hear.

"Who's Caitlin?" I teased him. Jay just glared at Erin and mouthed 'thank you' to her. Erin chuckled.

"None of your business," Jay smiled back, turning towards Erin again. "Tell her I say 'hi,'" he mentioned.

"Hi, or hi," I continued to torment him. He was starting to blush.

"Hi," he confirmed. "Enough from you," he warned.

"So there's no interest on your part," Erin deciphered.

"Super sweet," Jay pointed out. "But it's my loss," he concluded, sipping his coffee.

"Hey, have you guys seen Voight around?" One of the techs – I think his name was Sheldon – interrupted.

"No, why?" Erin asked him. Sheldon just shook his head and walked out. Erin and Jay shrugged it off and started to walk out, but Erin stopped him.

"You," Erin pointed at Jay, "I am never setting you up on a date again."

"What, why not?" Jay protested. I burst out laughing.

"'Cause you don't know a good thing when you see it," she argued, finally walking out.

"Dude," I laughed. He just shook his head.

"Shut it," he warned and I turned back to the book I was reading. I would definitely have to talk to Erin later and get some dirt on this dating thing my brother was doing.

It wasn't long before the team was pulled away to go deal with something and I was left alone again. Eva was "working" at the bakery today, so hanging out with her was out.

Is the shop open? I texted the owner of the dance studio, Zak. He responded almost instantly.

If you want to make a few bucks and do inventory, He responded. I chuckled. Zak knew a lot about my home situation and even though I wasn't legally allowed to work for him, he was always quick to give me credit where credit was due and give me some spare cash for helping him out.

No school and Jay is working. You just might have a deal, I texted him back. I looked and there was a brown line stop right down the street. I could be there in an hour.

"What's up, munchkin," Zak greeted me as he let me in. "You ready to work hard tonight?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry I haven't been around," I apologized. The concussion put a damper in my rehearsal schedule.

"Don't worry about it. Does your brother know you jumped ship to come here?"

"I'll send him a text," I promised. I meant to leave a note, but I forgot. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just go through the new shipment of shoes and line 'em up in the store. Parents are going to want to start buying costumes for the holiday recital and we need to be ready," he explained.

"What's Brooke up to?" I asked him. Usually, she helped him with this stuff.

"She's taking it easy," he smiled. "We just found out we are having a baby," he explained.

"Congratulations!" I cheered for him. "How far along is she?"

"Five weeks," he nodded. "She's with her mom today so she can tell her. She'll be back later this week."

"That's amazing, Zak," I smiled. I was happy for him. He and Brooke were going to be amazing parents.

It took me about two hours to finish all of the inventory Zak wanted me to and by the time I finished, the first round of dance classes were starting for the day. I wasn't allowed to do much work while classes were going on, mainly because of the whole illegal labor thing. Fortunately, it was a family dance studio and a lot of people were familiar with the fact that I helped Zak and Brooke out a lot, particularly with busy work. I had been mistaken for their daughter on multiple occasions and honestly, there have been times when I wished that were true.

"Grace, your phone is ringing!" One of the girls who worked at the front desk, Hannah, called to me. I must have left it there while I was working earlier.

"Thank you," I whispered to her. As soon as I saw the name on the caller I.D I knew I was in deep shit.

"Hello?" I whispered, walking outside. Please don't yell at me, I begged in my head.

"Gracie? Where are you?" Jay yelled from the opposite line.

"I'm at the studio. I meant to leave a note and then Zak told me to text you, but I completely forgot and I am so sorry," I rambled into the phone. I hoped he wasn't too mad.

"Gracie, you can't just go running off like that anymore!" He scolded. "Where is the studio? I'm coming to pick you up."

"Why? Jay, I'm fine, and it is better than sitting at the district," I complained.

"Grace, I need you to be at the district right now," he said quietly into the phone. "I need to talk to you."

"Why? What's wrong?" Something really bad must have happened for him to get so serious. I could hear him sigh on the other line.

"Gracie…" he trailed. I could tell he really didn't want to do this on the phone, but I wasn't really giving him much of a choice. "Jules died."