Thrilled and terrified. It had been 43 days since Erin had felt that exact combination of emotions. Last time she had been walking down the aisle, now she was simply walking down the ramp of the medical clinic. The only major difference was the bandaid on her elbow. She got in her car and drove back to work, trying to compartmentalize as she went. With a deep breath and a sigh she settled behind her desk.
"Lindsay, my office, now" Voight barked as he rushed across the room.
"Uh-oh, what did you do?" Halstead asked as she put down her pen.
"I have no idea" Lindsay muttered as she got up and headed for Voight's office, making sure to shut the door before sitting down. "What's going on?" She asked when he continued to read the file in his hands.
"We might have a new case, a big one" He informed, looking up a moment later.
"How big?" She questioned, siting up straight in preparation.
"Undercover for a month big" He answered confidently.
"A month?" She asked, so shocked she stood up. How could he even consider her for that kind of thing?
"Just during the days, we'll cover your tracks and figure it out so you can still be home every night and for weekends" Voight explained, wondering why she was taking it so badly.
"But…" She started, pacing back and forth in front of his desk.
"It's a great opportunity to get on top of all the robberies that have been happening recently, you just work as an administrative assistant at a pawn shop we know to be dealing stolen goods" He added, trying to convince her that there was the potential for considerable gains.
"I can't" Lindsay answered, finally calm enough to sit down again.
"It's an office job, you won't be in harm's way" He reiterated.
"I can't risk it" She concluded after considering it for all of five seconds, it was so far from being a good idea that she didn't even need to consider it.
"I know you're married now and that you've been working hard to put family first but we need you on this one" He said, it was his last opportunity to get her to agree without making it an order.
"It's not that" She replied, shaking her head. The timing couldn't be any worse.
"Then what?" He demanded, watching her carefully. It was tempting for her to lie, or refuse without justification but the longer she thought about it the more important it became to tell the truth.
"I might be pregnant, I was at the doctor not meeting a friend for lunch" She confessed, taking an hour long lunchbreak was so unusual for her that she felt the need to clear it with him first.
"Oh?" He questioned, raising his eyebrows accordingly. "I didn't know you were…"
"Well. Yeah" She answered vaguely adding a nod at the last second.
"Okay. When will you know?" Voight asked, trying to remain calm even though it was a sudden and unexpected revelation. He was starting to feel the slightest bit of pride fluttering in his chest.
"Tomorrow" She answered trying not to let her anxiety show.
"I'll get Burgess to do it. It'll be good experience for her" He decided.
"Alright. I'm sorry" Lindsay said
"Don't be, this is what you want. Isn't it?" He asked
"Yeah, absolutely" She answered, quickly but not very genuinely.
"You don't sound very sure"
"It was my decision" She said sharply. This had been her plan, she'd spoken to doctors and worked out dates. She just hadn't expected it to work quite so well.
"But you're married" He reminded, implying that Kelly was somehow responsible. First he'd convinced a sceptic to believe in marriage and now he might be about to get his wish for another child as well.
"He doesn't even know" She corrected quickly.
"Alright" He accepted, now he just had to trust that the time he'd had to raise her was sufficient. That and the fact she was an adult who needed to make her own decisions.
"I'll get back to work" She said, getting up and leaving his office before he could say anything further. This had to top the list of their most awkward conversations.
"How was your day?" Kelly questioned the moment she walked through the front door.
"Good, how was yours?" Erin replied, hanging her coat and removing her boots.
"Awesome, I took Shay ice skating again. She loved it" He beamed, while he loved doing things as a family it was great to have a father daughter activity.
"Cool. Where is she?" Erin questioned moving through the lounge room, looking for Shay.
"She was right….oh" He said as he scanned the room and realised Shay was no longer playing with her farmyard animals.
"Shay" She called and within seconds found the cheeky toddler, her giggles giving away her hiding place.
"Shouldn't have taught her hide and seek, she doesn't seem to understand that the game ends" He said as he followed them into the kitchen.
"What do you want for dinner?" Erin asked looking to the cupboard for inspiration.
"Shay?" He asked, waiting to see if she had any ideas.
"Pizza!" Shay answered straight away. Erin couldn't help but smile, she certainly took after her father.
"Alright, but you have to brush your teeth properly" She decided after seeing the longing look on her husband's face, he wanted pizza just as badly. "And you have to help this time" She added looking at Kelly.
"I help by playing with Shay" He answered with a cheeky grin.
"Well Shay can play right here" Erin said, placing Shay on the floor before handing over her phone. The toddler deftly found her way to her favourite game and got to work sorting the coloured shapes into the right boxes. Kelly pulled open the cupboard and followed Erin's directions to the best of his ability. Apparently 'put the pineapple on that one' wasn't specific enough. "You realise you were supposed to cut those" She commented as he placed yet another pineapple ring on the pizza.
"Really? We don't normally have to cut it" He questioned, though it did look odd.
"We normally buy chunks of pineapple but somebody didn't read the label" She replied sprinkling cheese on the other pizza.
"It could have been you" He said, attempting to shift the blame.
"No, I took Shay to the bathroom" She reminded.
"Fine, I'll cut them up" He complained, reaching over for a knife.
"No, leave it, I like them. They look kind of like a flower" Erin said as she stopped his hand.
"If you say so. I like giving my wife flowers" He chuckled, putting the knife back before kissing her quickly on the cheek.
"I'm pretty sure I wanted to kill you last time you gave me flowers" She remembered.
"True. Oven?" Kelly asked as he picked up the tray.
"Yep" She nodded opening the oven door so he could slide the tray in. "Record time" She added when she looked up at the clock.
"What now?" He questioned as he set the timer.
"Now we check to see if Shay's set a new high score" She laughed turning to see the spot on the floor empty, phone discarded.
"Shay" He called. Erin joined in and they searched methodically through the kitchen and dining room. No matter how quiet they were they couldn't hear her giggling.
"Where else could she be?" She asked when they'd looked everywhere and still hadn't found her.
"Laundry?" He suggested, it was the only room they hadn't searched.
"But I always leave the door closed" She answered, moving towards it anyway.
"I might have left it open when I got my shirt this afternoon" He cringed, it was the one room they hadn't bothered to baby proof. The door was ajar, both panicked they were going to find her eating washing powder and rushed in.
"Shay" Erin half scolded as she saw her toddler sitting in the laundry basket, a fluffy black cat on her lap.
"Mama tat" Shay replied, patting the cat roughly.
"Yeah, cat" She said as she pushed the animal away and picked Shay up. "Daddy said he was going to stop it getting inside."
"Daddy tried" Kelly replied, baffled as to how the creature continued to get into their house. It would mysteriously appear at least once a week, never asking for anything, just walking around as if it owned the place.
"Well just get it out and wash your hands, dinner will be ready by now" Erin instructed, dusting cat hair off Shay before taking her to the bathroom to wash her hands thoroughly. They ate dinner in relative silence. Erin had thoughts of her own to contend with and Kelly was still trying to figure out their fury invader. "Can you run her bath so I can have a shower?" Erin requested as she packed the leftover pizza into a container. Kelly was still trying to get Shay to eat her crust instead of just sucking on it.
"Sure" He nodded. Shay refused to bathe without her crust sucking away on it right up until she dropped it and it got soggy. The she threw it across the room and demanded another. Kelly was able to substitute a teething toy of a similar shape and settled Shay to bed with it.
Erin knew something was wrong the moment she stepped out of the bathroom. He never usually sat waiting on the end of the bed looking concerned.
"What is it?" She questioned. All she wanted was to crawl in to bed and sleep but whatever he was going to say was already more important.
"Your phone rang" He answered looking up at her.
"And?" She asked.
"It was the doctors with your test results" Kelly informed. She couldn't tell if he was angry or not, he just looked hurt.
"And?" Erin repeated nervously.
"They wouldn't tell me" He concluded.
"Kelly…" She started but was cut off.
"What test?" He demanded standing up to move towards her.
"I don't want to talk about this right now" She said carefully, looking up into his stormy blue eyes. Before he could say anymore she pushed past him and got in to bed.
"Erin, please, I thought the doctor's thing was over"
"I'm sorry" She apologised, laying back and pulling the blankets up to her chin.
"I looked through your phone" He admitted softly.
"Why would you do that?" She asked, slightly offended by the way it indicated the lack of trust he felt.
"Because I'm worried about my wife, the mother of my child, who keeps going to see doctors but won't tell me why. Six calls to the doctor this week" He justified, facing her from where he sat on the edge of his side of the bed. Clearly distressed.
"I was just trying to get an appointment at late notice" She explained wondering how she could convince him without telling him the truth.
"What for?" He needed to know, punching the bed to emphasise how serious he was.
"I will tell you as soon as I know the test results" She answered.
"I wanted a marriage based on honesty" Kelly said harshly.
"Whatever happened to trust?" She questioned before rolling over. He continued to seethe, both internally and aloud, but she pretended to be sleeping. It was incredibly hard not to just tell him. She didn't want to face how crushed he would be if the test was negative. The conflict was better than getting his hopes up. Potentially for nothing.
"Katie is coming to live with us" He added right before she fell asleep.
I only got out half of what I had planned for this chapter, and it's not my best writing – too much dialogue or something, lacking flow. But you have to read tomorrow because Erin will be finding out if she's pregnant!
