Reason Number Eight: Because he convinced her all right.

It had been the conclusion of their first two weeks as partners. Erin had been apprehensive at first when Hank had warned her that she would be pairing with someone other than him or Al. Apprehensive, but eager. She knew how easy it was for others to assume she had gotten where she had based upon the merits of Hank. Part of her didn't care; she knew she deserved what she got. Her skills and intuitions on the street were unparalleled compared to the other police her age, male or female.

Another part of her, however, relentlessly whispered she wasn't good enough in her ear. Another part of her would always be the undersized, underfed, unkempt kid in the back corner of the class who would grow into the teen who couldn't be left alone with money, or liquor, or pills, or men. The one who others always assumed the worst of, and could barely hide their shock when as an adult she didn't succumb to every statistic to which she should have belonged.

Halstead. Jay Halstead. That was all Hank told her at first. While a large part of her knew Hank would never partner her with a slouch, Erin couldn't fight the need to prove herself to her new running mate.

Their first day together replayed in her mind as they collapsed in their chairs behind theirs desks across from one another at the precinct.

Jay Halstead slowed his bike to a stop outside of the 21st District building. He pulled his helmet off and took a moment to take in his new workplace.

"Nice bike." A husky voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Thanks." Jay called out in reply, but whoever said it didn't bother to stop. He took a deep breath as he dismounted his bike and headed into the building.

"Hi, I'm Jay Halstead. Could you point me in the direction of the Intelligence offices?" Jay questioned as he stepped to the front desk.

"So you are Jay Halstead." A female's voice stated more than questioned from behind the desk, eyeing him up and down. "James Halstead III, sniper, Army Ranger from Gangs…"

"Yea, that's me." Jay interrupted the woman, not one to enjoy the listing of his achievements, "But everyone calls me Jay."

"Hmm. You are not what I expected."

"Alright?" Jay responded apprehensively, taking in the sergeant, as she made no attempts to hide her sizing up of him.

The woman leaned across the desk that separated them and motioned for Jay to do the same. He took a quick glance around the room before leaning in, with their faces inches apart, her voice dropped to a tone of deadly confidence. "You're getting the cream of the crop, partner wise, kid. Don't even think about any funny business and don't screw it up."

"Jay, you're here, good!" a familiar voice called out.

"Tony, what's up?" Jay grabbed his friend's hand, instantly moving away from the woman.

"I see you've met Platt", Antonio smiles.

"Everyone is upstairs." Platt responds, "I'm keeping my eyes on you." She warns Jay as Antonio turns his shoulders towards the stairs.

"I'll buzz you in. You can get authorized later after I introduce you to everyone." The older detective smiled, taking the steps two at a time.

"Sorry, kid, its time for you to break one in. Don't worry he comes highly recommended from Antonio."

"I'm not worried. As long as he can keep up." The same husky voice Jay heard earlier responds.

"Jay Halstead, this is Hank Voight, your new boss and Erin Lindsay, your new partner." Antonio states as they approach the duo.

"Thank you for the opportunity, Sir." Jay's hand reaches towards Voight's before the older man strongly clasps it in his own.

"You come highly recommended. Don't mess it up." Voight responds eyeing Halstead up and down. "I trust you'll show him around." He turns towards the female detective, voice noticeably warming as he does so.

Jay's eyes can't help but widen as he takes in his partner for the first time.

"I look forward to working with you." He smiles as he offers his hand to the petite brunette.

"Let's go get you settled in. This will be your desk, that's mine." She points to the two desks directly across from one another, ignoring his outreached hand. Jay can't help but notice how bare her desk is and is relieved he kept his pictures at home. "Leave your helmet here."

"So Voight seems nice." Jay attempts small talk as he follows Erin.

"He's like that to everyone."

"Not you."

"I'm special." She deadpans.

"I'm starting to get impression, yes."

Erin gives Jay a sideways glance before motioning towards Platt. "We need to get my partner here in the system."

"James. Erin, I love that jacket." Platt smiles towards Erin earning a side eye from Jay that Erin merely shrugs off.

"Smile." Platt calls to Jay, snapping a picture before he was completely ready. "Sign here, place your hand here…" Platt puts Jay through the mini orientation, while Erin leans against the desk observing her new partner in silence.

"Let's go to the shooting range." Erin commands after Platt is done putting Jay through the ropes. "I'll drive."

"Ok" Jay moves to the side, allowing Erin to lead the way and follows her to the car. The ride is mostly silent, but not quite uncomfortable. Jay keeps subtly glancing at his new partner, assessing her size and age.

"Antonio says you're from gangs." Erin states more than questions as they arrive at the range.

"Yep, what did you do before intelligence?"

"Just did my time, waited for my chance."

"You been here long?"

"Six months." Erin responded quickly, not exactly sure of the small talk with her new partner. "You, in gangs?"

"Nine months." He confirmed with another glance.

"And before that you…" She began, eyes never leaving the road.

"Was on the beat a little. Before that the Army, I was a Ranger."

"You see action?" Erin questions, making eye contact with Jay for the first time.

"More than I'd like." Jay responded honestly, hoping to cultivate more than short conversation with his new partner. Erin kept her eyes on Jay for a little longer before exiting the car. Jay followed close behind and moved to open the door to the gun range for his partner as they entered the building, noticing Erin flinch as he did so.

After signing in, Jay grabbed a pair of goggles and earmuffs for each of them. The pair moved in perfect stride to two openings next to one another.

"Here, Erin…"

"Listen, there's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it." Erin started as she abruptly turned towards Jay, his large frame making slight but electric contact with her own. "I may be a female, but you aren't going to treat me like I'm helpless. We will have each other's backs because that's what partners do. I didn't get here by sleeping my way up. I'm good police. So no kid gloves, and holding doors, and carrying my things. We are partners. I know they don't let women in as Rangers and you are used to working with men, but you are lucky to have me."

"My turn?"

"Your turn."

"You've been practicing that for awhile?" Jay smirks

"Might have ran it over once or twice in my head on the way over here." Erin smiled in spite of herself.

"The opening doors is habit, and is probably not going to stop. Ever. But its not because I think women are inferior or helpless, but because my Mom raised me that way. I may not have worked with women as a Ranger, but that doesn't mean that I have anything against it. In the army, my unit was my family; we got to know each other like brothers. So when I'm making small talk it is because you are my unit now, my family, whether you like it or not."

"You're not hitting on me?"

"You would know if I was hitting on you."

"You're full of shit." Erin laughs.

"That might be true, too. But honestly, I'm looking forward to working with you. And to prove that I will not treat you any differently because you are a woman, I will kick your ass at this target practice."

"100 bucks says you won't." Erin challenges, seemingly accepting Jay's word.

"You're on."

"Everyone else is gone for the night, you two can leave when you are done with your paperwork." Voight's voice tore through the room as he exited his office. He snuck a warm smile to Erin. Jay was positive they managed to have a conversation without saying a word.

"See you, Hank." Erin finally responded before Hank turned to Jay.

"Not a bad couple weeks, keep it up." He nearly growled at Jay before making a beeline to the stairs and out of the intelligence offices.

"I think he likes me." Jay joked once he was sure Voight was out of earshot, "I mean more than he likes you, that's for sure."

"Shut up." Erin smiled in spite of herself and her partner's hundredth attempt for her to explain the relationship she had with their boss.

"Freedom for you, huh? I don't know how you manage the paperwork and action so well. You need to teach me your ways, partner."

Truth be told, despite Erin's lack of quality education due to her lackluster childhood, she was smart – and a good writer. The paperwork flew from her pen as quickly as the bullets flew from her trusty glock 19.

"I still have some things to do." She confidently lied, "I'll keep you company for a bit."

"Any way I can convince you to help?" A boyish grin over took his face as he motioned towards the pile of paperwork overtaking his desk.

"Ha." Erin responded before busying herself with busy work at her desk. Once she was confident Jay was engrossed in his work she began to steal glances towards her partner.

She didn't know what to make of him at first, red filled Erin's cheeks as memories of misinterpreting his kindness for ulterior motives filled her mind. Jay was solid, that's for sure. Antonio wasn't wrong. They had only been partners for two weeks, yet they already moved as one. He was good police and an even better partner. But Erin would be lying to herself if she didn't admit that was not the only thing she noticed about Jay.

Jay was handsome in a way Erin wasn't used to appreciating: strong but not overpowering, masculine but boyish, professional but silly, experienced but pure. Somehow Erin was sure that he saw all of her every time he looked at her – even the parts she kept locked away. Yet, there was no sense of judgment leveled at Erin from Jay, not even about her relationship with her boss that to an outsider could no doubt be viewed as scandalous. Erin felt fully seen and fully embraced by Jay at the same exact time – something she had long resigned to being reserved for mentors – not peers.

Jay was kind. Erin saw it when he would help elderly women with their bags, and make small talk with the kids who filled the neighborhood. He treated everyone with respect, and demanded it in return. He looked for the counsel of Al and Antonio, but trusted his own instincts.

He was kind and strong and handsome and accomplished. It was almost like he was too good to be true.

"Are you sure I can't convince you to do a couple of these?" His voice pulled her from her thoughts, "I see you looking over here, totally jealous of all this fun I'm having."

Scratch that. He was kind and strong and handsome and accomplished and annoying. Oh so very annoying.

"I did my work, Jay."

"Yours, mine, and ours. Isn't that the saying?" He flashed a confident smile. "Can a guy at least get some coffee?" He asked, pulling an empty mug out from behind a stack of papers.

"I'm not your work wife." Erin responded while rising from her desk to grab his mug.

"Thank you." Jay earnestly responded as she disappeared.

Thoughts of her new partner continued to fill Erin's mind as she busied herself in the break room, preparing two coffees.

"You don't have to do that." Jay appeared in the small room moments later, "I'm sorry I know the work wife thing is a touchy subject."

"You can ask me to make you a coffee, Jay, we're partners. That's not weird." She responded passing his mug to him, ignoring the sparks when their hands touched.

"Sugar?"

"Already in there, with a cream."

"You remembered." He smiled before taking a sip, "delicious. Thank you."

"Hard to forget someone pouring half the container into their mug." She teased as they made their way out of the room.

"Always had a sweet tooth since I was a kid. I used to get those giant pixie sticks after baseball. You know the ones that are like the size of a five year old? I used to get one of those after every practice and chase it down with a giant slurpee. Mom had to tell the people at the snack stand to stop selling to me." He laughed at the memory before returning to his seat. "How about you? Any vices for mini Erin?"

The question was innocent, but the answer was not. "Let's see what you have here." She changed the subject effortlessly while making her way to his side, "you need to start using short hand, this is taking too long."

"You'll help?" His hopeful smile nearly made her heart jump.

"Just this once, I don't want to get stuck on desk duty because my partner is writing a novel about the man with the weird porn." Erin teased while picking up the pile, "This was a week and a half ago, how do you remember all of this?"

"Take my chair." He slides his over to for her before grabbing an empty one for himself, "I remember everything, I'm good with details." Jay explained before sitting in the new seat.

Two weeks and the chair already smelled like him, Erin thought as she lowered herself into it. "Everything?"

"You run before work every other day and only write in blue ink which is so annoying by the way." He commented before passing her a blue pen from his desk, "You don't like mayonnaise, or when I put on the classic rock station in the car. You like Dunkin Donuts coffee more than Starbucks, but treat yourself to a latte from Starbucks every Friday."

"Anything else, Creepy?" Erin questioned, turning towards her partner as they sat together behind his desk.

"You call me Jay when it's just us, but Halstead when the others are here. You don't smile during hard cases, especially during ones involving children. You rock in your chair when you are bored. And you would rather drink my soda at lunch than order your own."

"I don't drink your soda."

"Yes you do, every day."

"Hm." Erin thought for a moment before conceding, "Sorry."

"Don't be. I just started to order a size bigger than usual." He smiled in return. "So teach me your tricks so we can get the hell out of here."

And she did, knowing full well a slow partner would make for a slow team. And there was nothing Erin hated more than being stuck inside this office when she should be out doing good. Jay picked up quickly, and in under an hour they worked through the pile together.

"I owe you." Jay exhaled as he leaned back after signing the last file. "Thanks, Erin."

"Consider it a repayment for all the soda." She teased leaning back into his chair.

"Yea, sorry if that freaked you out. I can't help it."

"No, that will come in handy for sure." Erin yawned. "Ready to head out?"

"Give me a minute."

Erin watched as he moved around the room, returning the chair he had borrowed and washing out their mugs in the break room sink.

It took all night but she figured him out. Jay was the walking embodiment of the promise of hope and peace. Things Erin Lindsay knew since her kindergarten teacher would read fairy tales while perched atop her white rocking chair were not meant for girls like her. But somehow Jay didn't know. He already knew how she liked her coffee and all of her quirks, but he didn't know she would never get what he had. It wasn't meant for girls like her. But somehow, she could shake the feeling that Jay was. Meant for her that is.

"That wasn't too bad." He effortlessly commented as he placed the last of the files in the cabinet. "Here's your jacket."

"Thank you."

"I'm happy I was able to convince you." He smiled while turning off the lights.

"Me too." Erin agreed before her mind could convince her to do otherwise.

"We've had a great start these past couple weeks. I think we've got something here, partner." Jay commented while holding open the door of the precinct.

"You might be right." She smiled before walking to her car.