I'm sorry this chapter is pretty short and also not really that good in my opinion. It's kind of a fill-in between the last and the next one plus I can't really seem to get any proper writing done lately. So, a big thanks for staying with me and reviewing!

Chapter 34

"Kim, Adam! Thanks for coming!" She hugged both of her friends before letting them step inside of the apartment she had been sharing with Jay since they had first moved in together. As soon as her male colleague was out of earshot, grabbing a beer from the fridge and joining Will, Mouse and Kevin at the kitchen counter, she looked at her best friend with a big grin on her face. "Honey… you should at least hide the hickey on your neck and adjust your skirt if you don't want everybody else to know why you guys are late."

Kim's cheeks turned red as a cherry within a split of a second and all she could do was stare at her pregnant friend as she winked and went back to the rest of her guests in the living room. Without saying 'hi' to anybody else, she rushed to the bathroom to take care of whatever gave away the reason for her and her boyfriend's delay. "Erin!", she called as soon as she had checked on herself in the mirror. "Could you come here for a second?"

Chuckling, the detective walked over to their guest bathroom. "Can I help you with anything?"

The dark-haired cop stared at her with raised eyebrows. "I don't have a hickey and there's nothing wrong with my skirt either."

Erin gave her an innocent smile. "I know. But your reaction was worth it. Plus, it proved that my guess at the reason for you being late was perfectly right." With that, she turned around to go back to the others.

Kim froze on the spot for a moment, but quickly hurried after her friend. "You're lucky that you're pregnant and I don't want to hurt or scare my goddaughter. Otherwise, you'd SO be in for a revenge!" She tried to look relaxed when she saw Hailey, Taryn and Olive. "Hey girls!"

Olive glanced at her sister-in-law. "Is everything alright?" The hazel-eyed detective nodded with a smile. "Yeah, everything's fine. Kim just had to cool down because she had to hurry so much to get here halfway on time." Hailey looked back and forth between her two colleagues before grinning at her girlfriend, who seemed to have the exact same thought that she had. "Oh, yeah, I get that. Poor Kim… I guess you and Adam had to be really… quick."

The dark-haired woman turned bright red once again. "What is wrong with all of you? I feel like I've written something all over my face that only you guys can read."

The blonde detective shrugged her shoulders. "Well, kind of… you and Adam are way too easy to read. Like the other day when you came out of the interrogation room five minutes apart and there wasn't a suspect in there to interrogate."

Olive's eyes widened and she gasped: "You didn't?!"

The youngest one of the female cops groaned and buried her face in her hands. "If I didn't love working in Intelligence that much, this would be the perfect time to change units." Looking at the two detectives through her fingers, she begged: "Can we please agree that this stays between us?"

Erin chuckled and wrapped her arm around her best friend's shoulder as the other girls laughed. "Maybe you guys should be a little more careful or just move your 'activities' to less public places."

To Kim's great relief, Jay called for them to come over to the dinner table. He had prepared burritos for everybody and the first load was about to be ready to eat. When everybody was seated, Erin was presented with a gift bag by Kim. "This is from all of us. We hope you enjoy it."

She looked into the surprisingly light bag and pulled out a big envelope. Opening it, she found a voucher for a day at a spa with a special pregnancy program. "Wow, that sounds really cool! How sweet of you, guys! Thank you so much!" She showed the gift card to her husband with sparkling eyes.

He took a look at it and gave her a smile. "That sounds great, Baby. A relaxing day for my two favorite girls." He kissed her softly before starting to serve burritos to everyone. Just as they were about to start eating, Hailey noticed the additional chair. "Are we still missing someone?", she asked, looking at the birthday girl.

Jay automatically grabbed his wife's hand and squeezed it reassuringly, caressing the back of it with his thumb. They hadn't told their friends about their special guest yet.

Giving her husband a thankful look, Erin swallowed hard before a slight smile appeared on her lips. "Uhm… yes, we are missing someone. And I will always miss her, for the rest of my life. In fact, I've been missing her for the past four years. And she's the reason I haven't celebrated my birthday since." She glanced around the table and could see in the eyes of those who had known Nadia that they knew exactly who she was talking about. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "I know it might seem strange since she died four years ago, but the chair is for Nadia."

Nobody said a word for probably a minute, as if they had secretly agreed on a moment of silence to honor the girl that should have been with them. The ones who hadn't known her were waiting for an explanation, the others couldn't hide the tears that glistened in their eyes. Finally, Kim reached over to take her friend's free hand, smiling at her. "I think that's a great idea, Erin. She would have loved to be here with us and celebrate."

Squeezing her younger friend's hand, she nodded. "Thank you, Kim." She took her glass of water and raised it. "To Nadia. Now let's enjoy this delicious dinner my perfect househusband made for us, and then I'll tell you guys that didn't get to know her about her." She leaned against her husband's shoulder while everybody else raised their glasses.

"To Nadia. And to our birthday girl who brought us all together tonight. Happy Birthday, Erin!" Mouse clinked his glass with hers and everybody else followed his example. Then, without anybody expecting it, Taryn began to sing:

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday, dear Erin

Happy Birthday to you.

After the first few words, the others had joined her, and Erin could feel tears well up in her eyes. "Thank you, guys. Thank you so much! I'm really glad you came." She turned to Jay and gave him a loving smile. "And I'm glad that you convinced me to not ignore my birthday anymore."

She stood in front of the mirror, looking at her reflection. Two days ago, she had gone shopping with Kim because she hadn't known what to wear to the evening at the theater with Jay. After trying on a few flowy dresses and blouses that hid her belly, Kim had finally convinced her that there was nothing to hide and that she could very well show her baby bump. So, she had eventually decided on a cute dark purple jersey dress that went down to her knees and came with a matching bolero jacket. Her new pearl earrings perfectly matched her outfit, and since she didn't feel comfortable on high heels at the moment, she had bought a pair of black ballerinas to go with the dress. Her hair was flowing down her shoulders in soft waves.

"Wow! Baby, you look absolutely gorgeous!" He had come into their bedroom and couldn't help but stare at his pregnant wife. Moving closer, he carefully hugged her from behind and placed both of his hands on their daughter's current home. "If you catch me wearing a silly smile on my face all evening, it'll just be me bursting with pride that I get to have you by my side."

Her heart beat up to her throat when she covered his hands with hers and leaned her head back against his shoulder, turning her face to kiss the bottom of his jaw. "I just wanted to ask if I can go like this, but I guess that was enough of an answer."

He slowly turned her around in his arms and cupped her face to kiss her softly. "I'll have a hard time keeping all the other guys away from you since they will probably fall head over heels for you, but that's okay. There has to be a downside to being married to the most beautiful girl on earth." He locked his crystal blue eyes with her hazel ones. "At least it will be dark during the show so people will be able to focus on what's happening on the stage."

Smiling, she gave him another kiss. "You're exaggerating, Baby. But thank you anyways." Fixing the collar of his button-down shirt with her fingers, she rasped: "You know… sometimes I love it when you're all dressed up. I mean… you're always incredibly handsome and hot, but a suit just really adds to it."

He bit his lip when he felt a familiar heat rise up in his body. "Baby… let's save this kind of compliments for later. Now we're going to have dinner and a nice evening at the musical. After that, I'm all yours…"

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she blinked at him innocently while pressing her body against his. "I'll take you up on it." Letting go of him, she grabbed her purse. "Let's go, I'm hungry. And I'm really looking forward to the show.

A couple of hours later, they excited the auditorium after an amazing show. He had wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulder who was rather dancing than walking along to the exit music. He couldn't deny he had really enjoyed the show, but what he enjoyed even more was how much fun his girl seemed to have.

"Come on, Babe, why don't we paint the town…", she sang in a low voice, not minding at all that they were still inside of the theater with lots of people around them. "Baby, can we please buy the CD? I absolutely loved the show and the songs were so cool!" She gave him her best puppy look and pulled him towards the merchandising stand.

Chuckling, he followed her lead, her child-like excitement truly warming his heart. "Whatever you want, Baby!" He pressed a kiss to her temple as they stood in line to eventually purchase the cast album, a key chain and a refrigerator magnet. "I have to say, I heard before that the show is supposed to be really good, but I didn't expect it to be that good."

"It was absolutely amazing! I really, really loved it, Baby! Thank you so much for taking me here! I would have never expected to enjoy a musical that much!" She wrapped her arms around him to kiss him happily before going out to the parking garage. As soon as they got in the car, she slipped the CD into the played and started it. "I loved the cell block tango, the dialogues in there are so much fun! Even though we usually chase murderesses instead of enjoying how they killed their husbands." She chuckled at the thought.

"Well, I'm really glad you enjoyed it that much. We might want to try to go to the theater more often… once Gracie is old enough to stay with her granddad, uncle or godmother for a few hours." He reached over with one hand to caress her baby bump.

"That sounds like a great idea." Her hand joining his, she entwined her finger with his. "I really can't wait to be able to hold and snuggle her. I'm scared, but I'm also really excited to be a mom." Just as he parked the care in front of their home, she looked over to him. "Jay? Can we please promise to ourselves that once we are parents, we will never forget to also be a couple?"

Squeezing her hand softly, he leaned over to place a sweet kiss on her lips. "Of course we will, Baby! I can't wait for us to be parents. But I can't imagine ever seeing you as just the mother of my children. You are an amazing, beautiful, sexy woman that I love more than anything, and that will never change!" Looking deep into her eyes, he whispered: "And I think we should definitely do some couple things right now…"

It was the last day of April, and she had had a short day since she had only been teaching at the academy until the early afternoon and hadn't had to go back to the district for desk duty afterwards. Therefore, she had opted to go grocery shopping so they could cook a nice dinner together once her husband got home from work. She smiled while pushing the cart towards her car. If someone had told her a couple of years ago that at the age of 34, she would be all domesticated, married and waiting for her first child to be born, she would have laughed at that thought. After everything she had experienced in her early years, she would never have pictured her life like that. But she couldn't deny that she loved every part of it.

She had just placed all the grocery bags in the trunk of her car and brought back the shopping cart when her cell phone started ringing, showing the number of her best friend. "Hey Kim, what's up?", she asked cheerfully.

"Erin, hey… do you think you could come to Med? Jay…"

Her heart stopped beating at the mention of her husband's name and the familiar hospital in one sentence. "W… what happened?", she choked, feeling like someone pressed the air out of her lungs when she didn't get an answer. "Kim?", she shrieked, but she was still met with complete silence. Taking her phone away from her ear, she realized it had died down.