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Jay

"Hey baby," I hear as the front door swings open. Thank God, I have been so bored all day long. Plus I've been waiting for the last seven hours to see her beautiful face and kiss those gorgeous lips.

"Hey babe," I respond as she runs over to the couch to drop a quick kiss to my lips before dropping her very large teacher bag on the kitchen table. "How was your first day back at work?"

"So good, the kids all missed me and I missed them so much, it was just awesome to see them. I did have a few behavior problems with Oliver and Bella, but that's normal and it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle. It was still a really, really good day Jay," She says. I can't see her face, but I know that there is a huge smile across her lips. There always is when she talks about her kids.

I feel a pang of guilt. I'm the reason that she was out for so long, but I know not to say anything. She would shut me up so fast. I know that it was her choice to take the time off, but it won't stop me from feeling guilty about it.

"Well I'm glad, you deserved to have a good day," I tell her as she settles herself on the couch next to me, leaning into my side without the sling. I inhale her familiar scent, one that hasn't really changed since our college days.

"How was your day?" She asks.

"Oh just great," I say with only an ounce of sarcasm. Realistically, my day was the same as every other day has been for the past two weeks. Boring, boring as all hell. I do the same thing everyday, sit around the damned apartment as I try not to pull my stitches or strain my arm any further. It sucks, it sucks so bad. But the more I rest, the faster I can heal, and the faster I heal, the sooner I get to go back to work. But it was a pretty pain free day, though that may be at the hands of the very strong painkillers that they have me on.

"Alright," She says unsure, not buying it but quickly realizing that I don't really want to talk about it any longer. "Do you want to order pizza? Kick it back to our days at UIUC? And I also have to cut out about a hundred rectangles of paper and then staple them into books for the kids projects tomorrow and I don't know about you, but I'm not really feeling up to cooking,"

"I won't be super helpful with the cutting," I say, gesturing to my arm currently trapped by the sling, "but I can definitely pick up the phone and order a pizza,"

"Works for me," She says as she picks her head off my chest, quickly getting up from the couch as I grab my cell phone off the side table.

"You still like black olives and pepperoni?" I ask her as I hear her pulling probably mountains of paper out from her bag.

"Yep!" She responds as I stifle a bit of a laugh. That was something we always used to tease her about, all three of us.

"Sounds good," I tell her as I dial the number. I quickly order the pizza as Erin returns to the coffee table, a paper cutter and a pile of about a hundred papers in hand. Since moving in with her, I have much a greater appreciation for everything that teachers do. I guess I never really thought about it, but their days don't end at 3:15 like I always thought. Almost every single day, Erin either comes home around six or armed with a crap load of work that she still has to finish, most days, like today, being a combination of both. Most nights, she's up late into the night preparing projects for her kids or grading papers or just creating new things for her classroom. So, what I've learned, is that my girlfriend; she's a superhero.

Erin

We've both been waiting for this day for the past six weeks. The day that Jay finally gets to go back to work. He's been anxiously waiting around the house and yesterday, he finally got the clearance from Dr. Rhodes, his physical therapist, Dr. Charles, and the most tentative person, Hank Voight.

So today, I decided to get up early and attempt at making an actual breakfast. Attempt is the key word. What that actually means is that I accidentally set off the smoke detector after I got distracted and then Jay ran into the room in a panic, followed by a fit of laughter as he realized it was just me trying to make French toast. Very honestly, I don't know how I've survived on my own for so long, I guess some days are just better than others.

But we were still up early, so we rushed into getting dressed and decided to go out for breakfast to celebrate.

"You excited to go back to work?" I ask Jay as he takes a long sip of his black coffee. We went to a little place that we used to go to called Stella's. Old habits die hard right?

"You have no idea," He responds, his star hung around his neck and back in it's familiar place, his gun holstered on his left hip. "I'm just worried that Voight is going to baby me for a little while,"

"You really think that Hank would baby anyone?" I joke.

"True," He offers.

"Besides, even if he does, Hannah won't stand for any of that," I assure him.

"Yeah," He says, though I can tell he's a little out of it.

"Hey," I say, getting his eyes to connect with mine, "What's up?"

"Nothing," He assures me.

"Don't you dare lie to me," I say, my voice light even though he knows I'm not joking.

"What are we doing about the living situation?" He asks.

"What do you mean?" I ask, confused, "what situation?"

"Well, I've only been staying with you because I was recovering, I'm not recovering anymore," He tells me. Wow. I didn't even think about that, he's been living with me for so long I've kind of just adhered to it, it's become normal. But I know what he's saying, he wants to move out.

"You want to move out?" I question.

"It's the next logical step, right?" He says, seeming unsure, something that I selfishly feel good about.

"Well it is the next logical step," I say, deciding to take a little bit of a leap, "but when have we ever done things logically?"

"What do you mean?" He asks.

"Don't move out," I say slowly, hanging on to each and every word.

"What?" He questions. He doesn't look totally shocked, but he wasn't expecting me to say this, not today anyway.

"We already know that we love each other, we've loved each other since I was nineteen years old. Now we're just, making up for lost time right? Why not do it a little bit faster?" I offer.

"Are you asking me to move in with you?" He asked, an eyebrow cocked.

"I guess I am," I tell him. "Are you saying yes?"

"I guess I am," He says with that stupid smirk on his face. A huge smile spread across my lips and if he weren't two and half feet across that table, I would plant a huge kiss on those lips. "I'm all in Er, all in,"

"Here's to making up for lost time?" I offer as I raise my mug.

"To making up for lost time," He agrees before clinking his against mine, a sparkle in those big blue eyes.

Jay

"Hey ho, look who's back!" Ruzek says, giving me a slap on the back as I walk back into the bullpen.

"How was your break?" Atwater asks, "almost thought we were going to have to put you on disability,"

"Very funny guys," I say with a smirk, Hannah handing me a mug of coffee. I've already had two cups today, but with this job, you never can have enough caffeine. That's something I learned very quickly. But the celebrations are cut short as I hear the office door swing open.

"Halstead, get over here," He barks.

"Duty calls," I tell them all before rushing over to Voight office.

"Take a seat," He says from behind his oak desk. I quickly comply as looks at me with those stony eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm just happy to be back," I tell him.

"Not what I meant, are you ready to work?" He asks me.

"Yes, absolutely," I assure him. I don't think I've ever been more ready for anything.

"Good," He replies, "how are things with Erin?"

"They're good," I tell him. I keep it short and decide to keep the part about her asking me to move in out. Not that I think he'll kill me, he knows that I've been staying with her for the past six weeks, but that's something that she should get to tell him.

"Good. You going to hurt her again?" He asks.

"No sir," I respond quickly. I'm not sure of a lot right now, but if I'm sure of one thing it's that I will not screw this up again. I let her go once, I'm not letting it happen twice.

"Good, now get the hell out of my office and get to work,"

"Of course," I say, it being strangely comforting that he's still the same Voight even in the face of all this change.

"Oh Halstead?" He calls as I'm about to walk out the door.

"Yes?" I say as I look back at him.

"I'm glad that you're okay," He tells me.

"Me too,"

"So," Adam says as he spins towards me in a chair. "What are we doing tonight?"

"What do you mean what are we doing?" I ask as I look at him over my desk. It's been kind of a slow day, we didn't get any cases and Voight even let Al go home early to let him spend some time with Michelle. But all I really planned on doing tonight is going to back to our apartment and chilling out with my girl.

"It's your first day back, did you think we just weren't going to do anything?" Hannah adds in.

"I figured the immense teasing this morning was my welcome home," I joke.

"Oh if you thought that was teasing you have got another thing coming," Kim says with a big of a laugh.

"Anyway, we're taking you out," Adam reiterates.

"Seriously?"

"Yes seriously." Hannah fills in. "You didn't die and now you're back at work, that's something that we should celebrate,"

"Fine," I concede, not taking much pushing. I have missed hanging out with these guys and maybe a night at Molly's wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. "Just let me give Erin a call, I was supposed to hang out with her tonight,"

"Have her meet us there!" Kim encourages.

"Yeah we kinda like her more than you," Hannah teases.

"Yeah I kinda like her more than me too," I say with a bit of a laugh. "Hold on, let me give her a call," I step into the break room, knowing that if I make the call here I'll get mocked by the rest of the unit for anything and everything that I might say.

I dial her number from memory and listen as I wait for her to pick up. She picks up on the second ring.

"Hey babe." She answers, "you coming home soon?" Home.

"Not exactly," I answer.

"You backing out on me already Halstead?" She jokes.

"Very funny, you can't get rid of me that easily," I tell her with a laugh.

"Okay, what's up?"

"The guys want to take me out for drinks to celebrate my first day back and they've all requested that you attend,"

"I mean I guess so," She says, stringing the words out as she teases me.

"Molly's?" I ask, knowing that her answer will be yes.

"Of course, I'm still at school so it'll be a little while," She says.

"Baby you work too hard," I tell her.

"Yeah okay says the guy who got shot on the job two months ago," She says with a bit of a laugh.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll see you soon okay?" I promise.

"Alright, I love you," She says.

"I love you too," I tell her, "drive safe,"

"I will, don't get shot again," She says with a small laugh.

"I'll try my best," I tell her with a chuckle.

"Is she coming?" Hannah asks once I'm back in the bullpen.

"Yeah she's coming," I tell them all.

"Fantastic, let's roll out,"

Erin

My eyes flit over to the unit as soon as I push open the heavy wooden front door of Molly's Bar, the twinkle lights illuminating the room with a warm glow.

"There's my girl," Jay says as he comes over to me, throwing his arm around my shoulder and pressing a kiss to the side of my head.

"How was your day?" I ask as we begin making our way towards the rest of his friends.

"It just got a whole lot better," He whispers in my ear.

"You're here!" Hannah exclaims as she pulls me into a tight hug, her raven hair brushing against my shoulders. Since the shooting and the nineteen hours of hell that we spent together by Jay's bedside, Hannah and I have definitely gotten a lot closer.

"Well of course," I say as she releases me. "Hey guys," I say as Jay hands me a beer.

"Good to see you Erin," Kevin says as the other simply give me a warm smile. I've only taken a few sips, the conversation finally starting to flow as I feel my phone buzz in my back pocket. I pull it out to check it.

"Who is it babe?" Jay asks as he looks over at me.

"It's John," I say, extremely confused.

"Who?" He asks.

"Kat's husband," I say as I look up at him, he never calls me. Any communication we have is always either in person or through Kat.

"Well pick it up," Kim urges me.

"Okay, okay," I say, throwing my hands up in defense as I slide my finger across the screen to answer the call. "John, what's up?"

"Erin, you've got to get your ass up to Glencoe," He tells me.

"Why what's wrong?" I ask in a slight panic.

"Nothing's wrong," He says his voice staying calm, "Kat went into labor and she wants you here,"

"She's in labor?" I exclaim, probably a little too loudly and with a little too much excitement, getting weird glances from the rest of the group.

"We just checked in at North Shore, she's at five centimeters dilated and she wants to kill me, so get up here,"He says.

"Okay, give me an hour, I'll see you soon," I promise him. "I gotta go," I announce to the group. "My best friend is having a baby." I say kind of in disbelief.

"Wow okay," Jay says as the rest of the unit cheers around me. "Let's go,"

"You're coming with?" I ask as I grab my bag off the bar.

"I told you I was all in didn't I?" He says with that boyish grin.

"Okay then," I say as I look up at him. "Let's go,"

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I want to give a quick shout out to a guest reviewer named Sophia, thank you so much for your incredibly kind review, it made my day and really got me to sit down and write this chapter.

Please review!

-Addie