Jay and Erin spent the rest of the afternoon together, just enjoying each other's company. They talked a little, about random and unimportant things. Jay helped Erin out of bed when she finally had enough feeling back in her legs to walk. He held onto her while they did a lap of the room. She liked him being there.

It was late in the afternoon when they let her leave the hospital. She was stiff and sore but otherwise fine. They told her to take it easy for a few days and just take Tylenol for the pain. She was to call them if she got sick but otherwise she could do what she wanted. They'd call her in three days to let her know if the transplant looked like it was sticking or if they needed additional bone marrow. So far they said it looked good.

Jay carried her bag as they walked out the hospital together, on that first night they ordered room service for dinner. And for the next three days they pretended they were on vacation. It was the first time they'd left the city together without work as a back drop. It was kind of fun, they went on a tour of the Budweiser factory and Jay even managed to get them tickets to a baseball game. As much as she could Erin pushed the stuff with her dad and Casey out of her mind, she tried not to think about them and to just enjoy herself. By the time she got the call to say she could leave she was ready to go home, and get back to her real life.

Back at the unit there were a handful of jokes about the two of them going away together. They smiled nodded and threw back the smart comments when they had them. No one had any idea what had actually happened. The bruising and slight hobble Erin had when she stood she blamed on a fall, said she slipped and landed flat on her arse. That lead to another round of jokes and playful ribbing.

The weeks and months trickled by in leaps and bounds, and crawls. Sometimes time went quickly other times it dragged. Erin tried not to think about Casey, she didn't have any right to know how she was. If she phoned her dad he'd tell her but she didn't want to do that. They weren't her family; she wasn't a part of their lives. If Casey had just been some other kid she would have helped them as well, her donation had nothing to do with the kid being her sister. She'd learnt long ago family wasn't made of blood; it was made from the people in your life, from people showing they cared. They weren't her family, Jay was her family, Voight was her family, the guys in the unit were her family. With time she forgave Voight for keeping her father from her, it changed their relationship a little but they moved forward. She grew closer to Jay though, he was the one she talked to when she needed to get it all out.

Six months later a letter arrived for her in the post. The address was hand written and the envelope looked like it had come from a stationery set. She knew who it was from even before she opened it, seeing the envelope was enough to make her heart skip a beat. Sitting alone in her apartment she opened the envelope. Two sheets of paper came out, one a letter, the other a drawing.

Dear Erin,

The letter said in the loopy writing of a child.

Thank you for the bone marrow. Dr Mark says I'm in remission again and I get to go back to school when summer is over. I'm going to be in third grade. I drew you a picture. It's of you and me building a sand castle. Can you come and visit? I want to give you a thank you hug.

Love Casey

Erin smile at the words and gazed at the drawing, it was a good drawing. The castle was detailed, and they both wore matching outfits. Casey had drawn both of them with long brown hair, and blue swim tops and yellow shorts.

She loved the letter, she was glad to hear that Casey was better, that the transplant had worked but she wasn't sure about visiting her. As much as she loved the little girl, she couldn't visit Casey without visiting her father. She wrote back to her.

Dear Casey,

I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. Thank you for the drawing, I love it. I can't come to visit but we can keep writing if you want.

Love Erin

Before she posted the letter she went to the book store and bought another book.

Two months later another letter arrived from Casey, this one had a drawing, and a school photo in it and again Casey asked Erin to visit. She wrote back again saying she couldn't visit, and sent a photo of herself with Jay, and another book.

A few months later another letter came, Casey told her all about school, and her friends and what she was doing, and again asked her to come visit.

"What do I tell her?" Erin asked Jay, "I don't want to tell her the truth, she loves her dad and I don't want to change that but I can't see him, I can't go over there and be a happy family or something."

"Do you want to see her?" Jay asked, "If you didn't have to see your father would you want to see her?"

"Yeah," Erin said, "I wouldn't mind seeing Casey again."

"Maybe she could come here?" Jay offered, "She's healthy now, she could come here and you won't have to see your father."

"Maybe," Erin said as the thought began brewing inside of her.

AN: Sorry that part was kind of short. I had planned to end the story there but I will be writing one more part after this one. I hope you're enjoying the story, I'd love to hear from you.