Sorry it's been a little while since I've updated this story, but I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! It is a little bit on the shorter side, but I wanted to get something up for you guys because it's been almost two weeks since I've updated on here.

I have not forgotten about TTAPOY, that one has just been a little bit harder to write for, but I've been slowly but surely writing another update and I'm hoping to have it up by the end of the week, hopefully sooner.

This is getting long, so I'm going to wrap it up, but as always, I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Erin

Today was brutal. All of it, every single moment. I had to sit there and watch for hours, not able to say anything or do anything while Kelly's lawyer tried to convince the judge that I was an incompetent parent. I can't even believe that this was the guy that I married, this was the guy that I fell in love with. All I want to do is go home and curl up in my bed.

Court was adjourned maybe a half hour ago and I stood outside the courtroom for five minutes, insisting to everyone that came for me that I was okay and they should all just go home. Then I pulled myself to a bathroom stall and cried my eyes out. I couldn't go home like that. Emma may only be twenty months old, but she can always tell when something is wrong. So I pull myself together, wipe the tears from my eyes and wash off the mascara running down my eyes. Get yourself together Erin. I take a deep breath before walking out of the bathroom, only to see Jay standing there waiting for me.

"I told you to go home," I insist, knowing that I won't be able to hide the tears, the puffy redness of my eyes a dead giveaway.

"I wasn't going to go home until I knew you were okay," He responds.

"I told you that I was fine," I tell him.

"And I knew you weren't," He responds simply ass he lays a hand on my shoulder, "and now that I'm looking at you I know you're not okay,"

"Would you be?" I ask, finally letting down a few of my walls.

"No, I don't think anyone would. I'm going to take you home okay?" He tells me. It's worded like a question, but I know that it's not one.

"Jay I need my car," I insist, reluctant to accept his help.

"I'll pick you up again tomorrow morning, it's okay Erin." He assures me.

"You sure?" I ask tentatively. I hate asking people for help and I know that I'm awful at accepting it when it's given to me.

"I wouldn't be offering if I wasn't," He says, "Let me take you home,"

"Okay," I concede.

"Alright," He says before pressing a soft kiss to my forehead, "let's go,"

"Here we are," Jay says as we pull up in front of my apartment building.

"Thanks," I say. As I place my hand on the door handle, I hesitate. "Jay?"

"Yeah?" He responds, looking over at me with those big blue eyes.

"Can you come up with me?" I ask. "I just, I can't be alone right now,"

"Of course," He tells me as he covers my hand with his, "Let's go park," I quickly direct him to the parking spot designated for my apartment number, before rushing to get upstairs. All I want is to see my baby girl.

"Hey," I say as I push through my front door, a strange sense of relief flooding through me as I see my babysitter Izzy playing on the floor with Emma.

"Hi!" She responds, perhaps a little too excitedly. "How did it go today?"

"As good as could have been expected," I say as I pull off my heels, my feet instantly thanking me.

"Same time tomorrow?" She asks.

"Yes," I tell her, "Was she okay?"

"A little fussy in the morning, but after her first nap she's been a perfect angel all day long," She responds, Jay standing quietly behind me as I do my exchange with Iz.

"Okay, I'm glad she behaved for you," I say as I grab some cash from my wallet and hand it off to her. "Thank you again for coming,"

"It's not a problem," She says as she passes a happily squealing Emma off to me. "Okay I'll see you guys tomorrow, bye Emmy!"

"Bye!" Emma yells over my shoulder as Jay let's Isabel out.

"Alright," I say, throwing my walls back up for Emma's sake. I talked with Jay on the way up here and he knows that I don't want to discuss anything vaguely trial related in front of her. I also don't talk bad about Kelly in front of her. He may be screwing me over right now, but he's still her dad and she shouldn't form an opinion on him down the line based on what I've said. "Dinner?"

"Let's do it," Jay responds. I know that he's a better cook than me and he's taken over my kitchen more than a few times and I don't doubt that tonight will be any different.

"Alright little miss," I say as I hoist her up too my hip, pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

"What are we cooking?" He asks, removing his jacket and rolling up the sleeves of his white button up, revealing his toned forearms.

"Whatever you can find, I haven't gone shopping in a little while," I tell him. "You know I'm not picky and she'll eat whatever as long as we cut it up small enough,"

"How's pasta?" He asks as he pulls a half empty box of penne.

"Yeah that'll work," I tell him. "Do you need any help?"

"Do you have basil by any chance?" He asks as he grabs a package of chicken from the fridge.

"You happen to be in luck, yes I do," I say as I come up beside him, pulling the pack from the side of the fridge. "What do I do with it?"

"Start cutting it up into ribbons, I'll tell you what to do when you're done,"

"Yes sir," I say jokingly, placing Emma back on the floor of the living room and letting her play for a little while longer. As the two of us cook together, Emma giggling in the background, it feels too domestic. Too normal. I hardly ever did this with Kelly, one of us was always working. But it's different with Jay, it's easy.

We finish cooking quickly and eat dinner at the island, Emma happily placed in Jay's lap and discussing anything other than the trial.

We're washing the dinner dishes as I hear my doorbell ring. Well I'm washing the dishes. I insisted after he basically cooked the whole meal, so he's just standing there playing with Emma and talking to me, but it works for me.

"Who could that be?" I wonder aloud as I wash the suds off my hands and dry them on the towel.

"I don't know, it's your house," He says back to me. I just know that there's a smirk on his face as those words leave his mouth.

"Very funny Halstead," I say as I swipe open the door. But as I take in the blonde woman standing in front of me, my heart stops in my chest. Oh God. Not today, I really did not need this today.

"Hey Erin," She says, "Why didn't you tell me you were coming back to Chicago?"

"How the hell did you find me Bunny?" I ask, deliberately not answering her question. The last time I saw my mother was over seven years, my call, not hers. When I left for New York, I changed my number and never looked back at the life I had before.

"Johnny say you walking into the building the other day," She tells me innocently. She has to want something, she always does. I know my mother better than anyone else does and she doesn't do anything without an agenda. I've tried to get her to change more times than I can count, but that's how she is. She doesn't want to be changed. Either that or she can't, I don't know and I don't care, I gave up on her a long time ago. "I guess I wanted to see if the rumors were true,"

"Yeah I'm back, now what the hell do you want?" I ask her.

"Can't a mom just come by sometimes too check in with her daughter?" She asks. God I could punch her in the nose.

"Not if that mom is you," I snap, probably a little louder than I should have.

"Erin?" Jay says. I kick myself internally as I hear his footsteps approaching. I didn't want him knowing this part of me, not yet anyway. Oh God, he has Emma. I never wanted her to know about my daughter, I knew that all she would be to Bunny is something that she would use against me.

"You had a baby?" Bunny questions as she the two of them come into view. "And what happened to the firefighter? I always knew you couldn't hold a man, how long is this one going to last?"

"Let's take a step back," Jay says, handing Emma off to me as he steps in front of me, his figure towering over both of us.

"And who the hell are you?"

"That doesn't matter, get out," He says as he goes to slam the door in her face.

"We aren't done here Erin," She yells as the door closes behind her.

"Who the hell was that?" Jay asks.

"That would be my mom, Bunny," I say reluctantly.

"Wait Hank was married before Camille?" He asks, confusion laced through the wrinkle on his forehead as he furrows his brow.

"God no." I say, bouncing Emma as I try to sooth her light whimpers. I completely forgot that I didn't tell Jay the entire, he thinks that I'm Hank's biological child. "Hank and Camille were my foster parents, that was my biological mom Benny Fletcher,"

"You never told me that you were adopted,"

"Technically I'm not," I explain, "I aged out of the system before they could legally adopt me, but in every other sense of the world, Hank and Camille are my parents. It's a really long story and I'll tell it to you someday, but I just want to ignore Bunny right now. I can't deal with, ever. But especially right now with everything going on, I can't do it," I tell him. The truth is, that every time I think of my mother, it just reminds me of how I could turn out. It scares the crap out of me, my greatest fear being me not being there for my daughter.

"Okay," He tells me as he lays a hand on my forearm. "We won't talk about it. Whenever you want to, just let me know. I got your back okay?"

"Thank you," I say gratefully. "Now I have to go give sunshine here a bath and get her down. You can head out if you want to,"

"I'm okay right here," He tells me. Thank God. I didn't really want him to leave, but I knew that Bunny's visit was going to leave us with a strange dynamic and I didn't want to force him to stay. But if he wants to, I don't have any intentions of pushing him out.

"Alright then," I say as I transfer Emma to my other side, "let's go,"

I know that this was a but of a filler chapter, but it was necessary to move into some other things in later chapters. Also, let me know if you guys would want to see more court scenes in the next couples chapter or just have a more abbreviated version and focus on the relationships.

Please review!

-Addie