Later that night, Jay and Erin were tangled up on Erin's couch mindlessly watching reruns of Grey's Anatomy. Erin was lazily drawing circles on Jay's chest as Jay played with her hair, both of them fighting sleep.
"I don't wanna go to work tomorrow, it's been so dead. It's like Chicago's criminals are taking a break," Erin mumbled.
"Are you complaining about being able to sit at your desk and stare at me all day?" Jay asked.
Erin rolled her eyes. "I could do that in bed though…"
"Please, Er, if we were in bed, you'd be doing more than just staring at me," he countered.
"Don't flatter yourself, Halstead. I'm exhausted," Erin yawned as if she needed to prove her point.
"Let's go to bed then," Jay suggested, a smirk on his face.
"And sleep," Erin emphasized, getting up from the couch.
"Fine, you need to be well-rested for tomorrow night anyway," Jay sighed, turning off the TV and following her into the bedroom.
"What's tomorrow night?" Erin asked, confused.
"Well… my sister and her husband are attending an event at Hotel Monaco and I kinda told them we would babysit Emma and Matty…"
"Are you serious!?" Erin exclaimed, a huge smile breaking out on her tired face.
"I mean, unless you don't want to…" Jay joked, laughing at her excitement.
Erin threw a pillow at her boyfriend. "You just made my night. They're, like, the only perk of dating you."
Jay rolled his eyes as he turned off the lights and got into bed next to Erin, hitting her with the pillow that she'd thrown at him. "Are they now?" he asked, pulling her into him.
Erin let out a content sigh as she nestled into the crook of Jay's shoulder. "Maybe your body heat is a close second," she mumbled, her breath hot on his skin.
Jay couldn't help but laugh. "I love you, you brat," he placed a kiss in Erin's hair and tightened his hold on her as he began to drift off to sleep.
"I love you more," she whispered, already half-asleep herself.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
During another slow day in Intelligence, Erin was practically bouncing off the walls of the break room as the end of the day neared.
"Jeez, Er, are you excited about something?" Jay asked sarcastically as he filled their coffee mugs.
"I'm so bored, I've reorganized the CI files like five times. I even offered to help Platt with inventory," she whined, "I just want to go home and eat and see Emma and Matty,"
Jay laughed at his girlfriend as his heart swelled at how excited she was to spend time with the two most important kids in his life. "One more hour. Come on, you can help me clean off my desk."
Erin groaned. "I would rather stick needles in my eyes, Halstead. Your desk hasn't been cleaned in like two years, there's probably live animals in one of the drawers,"
"Fine, no niece and nephew for you," Jay shrugged as he began to walk out of the break room.
"Okay, fine!" Erin took two huge steps to catch up with him. "I'll get the garbage can,"
Forty-five minutes, seven banana peels, four empty coffee cups, and one clean desk later, the day was finally over.
"You're not driving for at least another year after making me do that," Erin informed her boyfriend as they walked out of the precinct to her car.
"Come on, it wasn't that bad!" Jay protested.
"Halstead, we found paperwork from a case from 2013!" Erin laughed. "But it was nice to see that you started saving pictures of us in 2013 as well,"
Jay felt his cheeks redden. Of course Erin had found the picture that he'd printed out of the two of them from his first night at Molly's with the team. He had just said something stupid and Erin was laughing at him and smacking his arm as he beamed at the camera that Burgess was pointing at them. It'd been in his desk since his second week in Intelligence and quite honestly he'd forgotten about it until Erin found it under a pile of papers and banana peel today.
"It's always been you, Lindsay," he reached to his side and wrapped his arm around Erin's shoulders, pulling him into her.
Typically Erin would have replied with a sassy remark, but she knew he was right. No matter how much she had tried to fight it, he was it for her. It had always been them, so she just sighed contently and rested her head on his shoulder as they took the final steps towards the 300.
When they reached the car, Erin resumed her spot in the drivers seat as Jay slid into the passenger seat. "What time are the kids coming?" she asked excitedly.
"Probably like an hour?" Jay guessed, checking his phone. "My sister's event starts at 7 so they'll drop them off a little before that."
"What does Uncle Jay have planned?" she asked, raising her eyebrow as she began to drive to Jay's apartment.
"Food. I always sugar them up when they're at my place, my sister hates it," Jay chuckled at the memories.
"Food sounds so good," Erin moaned as her stomach growled.
"I didn't say anything about you getting food," Jay joked.
Not taking her eyes off the road, Erin reached to her side and slapped his arm. "Watch it,"
Jay lifted his hands up in mock surrender as he laughed. "Fine, Er, I guess we'll share our food with you. But only because we love you,"
"Nice save, Halstead," Erin rolled her eyes as she pulled into a spot in front of Jay's building and the couple got out of the car.
"There are leftovers from last night in the fridge or we can order pizza or something before they get here," Jay looked over at Erin and realized she looked unimpressed. "Unless you want what the kids are eating? Chicken nuggets and French fries?"
Erin's eyes lit up. "For a second I thought you weren't going to offer that to me,"
"You are a child," Jay laughed. "Let me guess, you want to make your own sundae for dessert too?"
"Chocolate ice cream, rainbow sprinkles, whipped cream, and a cherry," she winked at him as he unlocked his apartment door.
"You know I can tie a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue?" Jay raised his eyebrows and smirked as Erin walked past him into his apartment.
"Well I guess that takes away the theory that only good kissers can do it," Erin challenged, matching his eyebrow raise.
Jay's jaw dropped at her comeback. "Take that back, Lindsay," he warned, following her into his kitchen and trapping her between his body and the kitchen counter.
"Or what?" she asked innocently.
"Don't make me prove myself to you," Jay mumbled as he brought his face closer to Erin's.
"I dare you," Erin stood on her toes to close the distance between them and hungrily crashed her lips to his. Jay's hands found her waist and lifted her onto his counter, their lips never disconnecting as Erin tugged at the hair on the nape of his neck. Jay was doing a pretty good job proving himself when there was a knock on the door.
"Fuck," Erin whispered, trying to catch her breath.
"Still want them to come over?" Jay groaned, pecking her lips a final time before leaving the kitchen to answer the door.
Erin hopped off the counter and took a deep breath to pull herself together then followed Jay to the door. The apartment was quickly filled with squeaky voices and happy giggles.
"Erin!" Emma screamed, running across the apartment catapulting herself into Erin's arms the second she spotted her.
"Hi sweet girl!" Erin lifted her off the ground, resting her on her hip.
"Hi Erin!" another voice called out and Erin looked down to see Matty hugging her knees.
"Hey bud!" she reached down with her free hand to ruffle his hair.
"What am I, chopped liver?" Jay asked as he closed the door and turned towards his girlfriend, niece, and nephew. Emma squirmed out of Erin's arms and ran over to Jay with Matty following close behind.
"Are you guys hungry?" Jay asked, leading them back into the kitchen.
The twins nodded. "Chicken nuggets?" they asked simultaneously.
"Obviously. Erin wants some too, do you think we should share with her?" he asked them, winking at his girlfriend.
"Of course!" Emma exclaimed, giving her uncle an are-you-stupid? expression and Matty nodded in agreement, causing Erin to stick her tongue out at Jay.
"I'll cook them, why don't you guys go into the living room and play?" Jay suggested.
The twins eagerly nodded. "Let's go, Erin!" Matty yelled, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the hall; Jay's heart swelling at how much they loved her.
When Jay finished cooking dinner, he carried trays into the living room to find Erin simultaneously building a Lego tower with Matty and braiding Emma's hair while she played CandyCrush on Erin's phone. The twins were getting along, which was rare, and neither was fighting for attention because somehow seemed completely focused on both of them. He just shook his head, amazed. Whenever he babysat alone, trying to play with them usually resulted in a screaming match between the two kids about who Jay liked more or who Jay was paying more attention to. The three playing on the floor looked so happy that Jay hated to interrupt them, but he gently cleared his throat to make his presence known and lifted up the trays of food to show that he had dinner. Erin and the kids climbed up to the couch and he put the trays of chicken nuggets and fries on his coffee table then took a seat next to Erin; Emma climbing in Erin's lap and Matty climbing into Jay's. They were all starving and the food disappeared quickly.
"Dessert?" Matty asked eagerly as he swallowed his last French fry.
"Ice cream," Jay answered, earning wide-eyed grins from his niece and nephew.
He went to stand up to go back in the kitchen when Erin stopped him. "Sit, you cooked dinner. I'll bring this stuff into the kitchen and bring you out ice cream," she smiled, picking the trays up off the table.
"We wanna help!" the twins declared, getting off of the couch and following Erin down the hall, once again causing Jay to shake his head at how much they loved her.
Erin dropped the trays into Jay's sink and opened the freezer, taking out cartons of chocolate and vanilla ice cream. She grabbed sprinkles from the cabinet and whipped cream and cherries from the fridge.
"What kind do you guys want?" she asked the twins.
"I want vanilla and Matty wants chocolate," Emma answered for both of them. Erin got bowls out of the cabinet and scooped their ice cream for them before handing them the bowls to add toppings.
"Be careful," she warned, "You know how much Uncle Jay hates messes." The words left her mouth but were not heard by either child as Emma picked up the whipped cream and squirted it into her brother's mouth, getting it all over both him and the floor. Erin burst out laughing as she grabbed a towel to wipe the mess when she got an idea.
"Hey, Em," she whispered quietly. "I'm gonna get Uncle Jay's ice cream ready then you should go see if he wants some whipped cream?" she winked at the little girl who's face lit up when she realized what Erin was saying. Matty caught on too and began to giggle mischievously as he added sprinkles on top of his ice cream.
Erin scooped a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream for her and Jay to share then motioned for the twins to follow her. Clearly too excited to formulate any type of plan, both kids ran in front of Erin and Matty jumped on to Jay's lap to hold him still.
"Hey bud, where's your ice cream?" Jay asked, confused. Before Matty could answer, Emma climbed up the side of the couch and held down the top of the whipped cream bottle, spraying the dessert all over her uncle. Erin stood in the hallway, hand over mouth, trying to silence her laughter as tears rolled down her cheeks from laughing so hard. Before Jay could even process what had happened, both twins had climbed back off the couch and ran over to Erin for high-fives.
"You are so dead," Jay stood up with a huge grin on his face, chasing Erin down the hall and back into the kitchen with the twins following close behind. He stuck a finger into the open vanilla ice cream and smeared it all over Erin's face as Erin defensively threw a handful of sprinkles towards him. Within seconds, Emma and Matty joined in and the kitchen turned into an all-out food fight.
"Okay, okay, I surrender," Erin spit out a few minutes later between laughing fits, throwing her hands up in mock-surrender as a cherry hit her in the eye. Matty was hiding behind her as Emma crouched behind the counter, trying to eat her ice cream and throw sprinkles at everyone at the same time.
"About time," Jay laughed, wiping a handful of whipped cream out of his hair and putting down the carton of ice cream he'd been holding. He looked around his kitchen that looked like an ice cream shop on steroids and shuddered.
"Do you want help cleaning up?" Erin asked, still laughing.
"No way, you'll just make it worse," Jay smirked, knowing what Erin's idea of cleaning up was. He'd had to pick her boots and wet towels up from the middle of his floor one too many times for him to believe her when she promised to clean anything up. "Go put a movie on for the kids, I'll meet you out there,"
Erin nodded and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "Yum, chocolate," she smirked, wiping the excess dessert off his face before leading the kids back into the living room.
When Jay returned to the living room forty-five minutes later, he found all three passed out on the couch with Peter Pan playing in the background. Erin was sitting up with Emma sleeping on her right shoulder and Matty on her left. He was about to join them when there was a knock on the door, signaling that his sister was here to pick up her kids. He woke up his three sleeping beauties by kissing them each on the forehead before answering the door to let his sister in.
Once Jay's family left, Erin made her way back into his apartment and collapsed onto his couch. "That was exhausting," she said, but with a smile on her face showing that she'd enjoyed every minute of it.
"You're great with them, I think they like you better than me," Jay made his way over to her, two beers in hand.
She graciously took one from him and took a long sip. "No way, they adore their Uncle Jay. You're going to be a great dad one day, ya know,"
"And you're going to be an amazing mom," Jay sat down next to Erin, pulling her into him.
"I hope our kids have your eyes," she told him, lifting her head up to look at him.
Jay couldn't help the goofy grin that broke out across his face. "Our kids," he repeated, half convinced that he imagined the words coming out of his commitment-phobe girlfriend's mouth.
Erin rolled her eyes. "Yes, you dork. I know I'm all over the place but this is new to me. You have to know that you're it for me."
"Well that's good, because I think you might be it for me too," Jay was still unable to wipe the smile off his face as he pressed his lips to hers.
"Love you," she mumbled between soft kisses, completely unsure of how she'd gotten to this point in her life but so thankful she had.