A/N: Sorry if this doesn't make sense, or if you feel it's stupid.
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Jump Chapter 7
…I just shake my head at him as we walk to the waiting room. As we sit down I find myself wondering 'Why is he talking to me? Why is he saying full sentences directed towards me? Is it the situation? Or did something else happened?'
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Erin's POV
We're joined by the rest of the unit, soon after we sit down. We're there for a couple hours, before Kevin comes out.
"She's here." He says in an excited voice. Everyone stands to congratulate him; patting him on the back or taking turns giving him a hug. I just stay seated, and watch them, from the outside looking in. It's almost like one of those movies, where something happens, and one person takes a walk, and they pass this house, with this family all smiling and happy inside, making wish they had that. I smile at them, as I stand up. I give them one more glance, before I start to walk away. I'm standing outside booking my uber, when I hear the doors slide open. I look up and see Jay
"Hey Kevin was asking where you went." He says
"I didn't want to intrude."
"I told you earlier, you're Still a part of this unit, a part of this family."
"I don't feel like I am Jay, and I know it's no one's fault but mine, but I can't pretend like nothing's changed."
"Did you already book your uber?" He asks
"No, why?" I ask confused by the random question
"Take a ride with me?" He asks, and I continue to look at him as he looks down at his feet.
"Aren't you going to go see the baby?" I ask, causing him to look back up at me
"No we can't see her until tomorrow." He answers
"Come on Er. I'll take you back to your place after." He adds
"Ok." I say after a few moments, and he gives me a smirk. We walk to his truck in silence, and it continues into the first couple of minutes into the drive.
"Where are you taking me?" I ask
"Always so impatient." He answers with another one of his smirks that make my stomach flip
"We're almost there." He says, and then we go back to being silent. After another ten minutes, we stop, he parks the truck before getting out, not saying a word as he does, and I follow him.
"Jay what are we…" I start to ask before I realize where we are, and I gasp, tears instantly coming to my eyes.
"Do you remember this place?" He asks
"Of course, this is where you brought me for our first official date. God I haven't been here since that night."
"I came here a few months after you left, Voight said I needed to make peace with you not coming back, he said it was just time for you to move on. I wasn't ready, so I came here, and replayed that night in my head. I've been here so many times since that day, I've lost count. But that first day, I looked around and noticed all the changes, the difference in the landscaping, the new sculpture, the large crack that runs down the walkway and to the fountain that now takes the place of the table we sat at for our first official date." He says and I think he's done so I ask
"but wh
y'd you bring me here tonight?"
"Still being so impatient." He says with a slight chuckle before continuing. "You didn't let me finish. As I took in all the changes, I also relished in the things that hadn't changed, like the view of our city's skyline as you called it that night, or the view of the moon, and the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks here. I stood right here." He says coming to a stop "In the same spot where we kissed until we couldn't breath. Where I then stood with you standing in front of me; my arms wrapped around your waist, yours arms lying gently on top of mine. You were leaning back into me, your head on my chest, and I kissed your neck as we looked out into the darkness that hung over the lake…..This place has gone through changes both good and bad, " He says and looks down at his feet again like he was at the hospital
"I remember that night too, but you're rambling, and I don't understand why you brought me here?"
"You said that you can't pretend like nothing's changed. Well no one's asking you to pretend. But Er, you can't go the rest of your life focusing on things that are irreversible, things that you can't change back. Some of us have changed relationship statuses." He says sighing
"Others job titles, or positions, but the people that matter most are still here, we—they still care about and love you, that hasn't changed, and it never will. We've all made mistakes, and things have changed, but we—you can't let that keep you from living your life, and being with the ones you care about the most. People that you…that you love Er." He finishes just as we get to his truck.
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Jay's POV
I look over at her from the other side of the truck trying to gauge her expression, and for the first time I can't read her. I open the door and hop in, and I see her doing the same on the passenger side. I start the car but keep it in park, seeing if she wanted to talk before I take her home. She doesn't say anything, and I figure I should just let her think. So I put the car in reverse; pulling out of the parking spot before driving off. We get to her apartment building about ten minutes later. I park right in front of the stairs leading up to the door of the lobby. We just sit there for a few minutes, she's looking down at her hands as she fiddles with a string hanging off her shirt. Then she starts to speak just above a whisper
"I..I guess I just felt like this awkwardness, how everyone has been acting is the new normal, I thought that this is how things were going to go from now on, I assumed that everyone still hated me for what I did."
"Well you know what they say about assuming…" I say causing her to give me a confused look
"What?" She asks
"It makes an ass out of you and me." I say seriously before chuckling, and she gives me a smile that makes her dimples cave in ever so slightly, and she lets out a giggle, something that I've only ever heard her do with me.
"Here I was thinking you were going to share more of the wisdom you've been giving me for the last hour." She says, causing me to chuckle a little more. I take a few moments before becoming serious again.
"You know what I haven't been able to stop thinking about since you met me at the café that one day?"
"What?"
"When you said just because I wanted to save my badge doesn't mean I stopped caring about you, that I stopped loving you."
"Yeah what about it?"
"I've really been thinking about it a lot more tonight, since you said it wasn't your family anymore actually. Cause the unit never stopped caring about you Erin, they were hurt, we all were, some a little more than others, obviously, but we—they didn't stop caring about you, or loving you." I tell her and she looks down at her hands sitting in her lap. I take a deep breath before saying "I never stopped loving you." Just above a whisper. I see, out of the corner of my eye, her head snap up from where she was looking at her hands. I cautiously look over at her, her eyes wide as she stares me. My heart is racing, and my palms are sweating as I wait for her to respond.
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review. Thank You.
