AN: As usual and again: Thank You Guys! Your loyalty to and comments on this story mean so much, you can't even imagine how much!
This is gonna be a little shorter and lighter than the last chapters, but the follow-up one is already in the pipeline, so maybe it won't take me over a week to upload it this time!

Maria: Je suis très heureux que tu continuiez à lire et m'envoyer de si beaux compliments!

Oh, and before I forget it: This is an M-rated chapter!

Chapter Title "Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing but you)" by Bombay Bicycle Club

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Chicago PD, Fire or Med characters, only my OCs!

"So we are really doing this?"

"We are really doing this!"

"Oh my God!"

A laugh he hadn't known he was capable of escaped Jay's throat and he couldn't help but grab Rianne and whirl her through the empty hall that was to be their living-room/kitchen someday soon. While Intelligence was fighting an impending gang war and trying to solve the unfortunate death of a little girl his evening off looked like the starting of something big and important!
Within the last ten days things had become more detailed and serious about the warehouse conversion, but until the ink was dry on all the papers and they were holding the new keys in their hands permanently, his body had obviously been doubtful if it would really come to this. This was a huge step.
Their two signatures on one contract: Just some simple lines on paper but it meant much more. It meant that this was real! They were really in this together!
It seemed that just now all of him relaxed and the tension was channeled into that belly-deep laughter Rianne joined him in now. Maybe because she was feeling as excited as him or because she always pointed out she could spend hours just laughing about his laugh.

"God, having a front-row seat to you negotiating your way through this? It was seriously hot…" Jay looked at her out of blazing green orbs, like she was the most stunning thing in the world and it gave her goose-bumps.

He was right. She could drive a really hard bargain if she needed to. So Rianne had insisted that the seller finished up the jobs only half-done, like fixing the broken windows and the backstairs as well as demanding he give her the contact information on all his contractors, before accepting his offer.
Jay had been quite useful too and he certainly knew how to talk to workmen:

"The way you handled that contractor just now had me completely swooning. What does it say about me that I find bossy-Jay a complete turn-on?"

"Oh, I have a few theories about that…" He smiled his wicked smile and closed in on her mouth while still holding her in his arms.

"Yeah? For example?"

"That you yourself like to be bossed around every once in a while. Now kiss me like you just bought a house with your dream guy!"

This was a demand Rianne could not resist. Had she loved him shattered and broken she loved him even fiercer when seeing his self-assurance and cockiness shine through. Him being her rock to lean on and equal partner whenever she needed him was a heavenly feeling.
And Jay was actually right: Secretly there was nothing more sexy and calming than a man who knew what he wanted, what he was talking about and who took the lead on occasion. Of course she would never outright admit this to him.

There was something about their kiss that struck a match between them, spurred on by the major milestone this day represented.
Pretty soon Jay's hands were everywhere and nowhere all over her body, still clad in too many layers, as they were bumping into half-finished walls, only very slowly making it up the steps of a recently restored stair-well because they wouldn't let go of one another during their very own house-tour.
Upstairs the future green-house was probably the warmest room right now, with central heating not yet finished. It was still really too cold to be doing what they had in mind, but the fire and excitement burning between them made up for that.
It was also the only room with some kind of surface, in form of a potting counter, that Jay could put Rianne down on as he began to strip off her clothes at high speed. She thought she would come undone even before he had finished his task. The fact that he was so into christening this place right away, fuck the cold and the status of this house, was seriously hot. And it had been way too long! She had just gotten the go-ahead for such physical activities today.
He then took his time to let his eyes wander all over her body, as if to get reacquainted with each mole, tattoo, freckle and scar, especially the most recent ones, on it. Rianne felt the heat creeping up inside her reach her ears. When she couldn't bear it any longer she leaned forward to loosen Jay's belt and untuck his shirts, begging impatiently:

"Now take off all your clothes too!"

"But it's freaking freezing in here!" he protested weakly, kissing a small trail of burning hot caresses from her collarbone down to her breasts and up to her neck again.

"A) Only me being completely naked is a little unfair and b) if you're only half as turned on as I am right now, it won't be for long…"

Plus she just loved and missed the taste of his skin so much that she needed direct contact and nothing in their way.
Rianne put her arms around his neck, grazing her lips over his stubbly cheeks and ear while whispering:

"You know, the state of turned-on were you get tunnel vision and the burning tension that is coiling in your belly is making it hard to breathe and just the slightest touch could make you burst into a million pieces of lust and…"

She heard Jay swallow hard and growl: "Oh my god shut up!" his voice hoarse with desire, grim and determined expression in place when he pushed her away from him to make quick work with his shirts.

Then he kicked off his boots to be able to slip his jeans and boxers down completely in one swift motion. He always was so sexily unclumsy and sure of himself when doing this. Rianne shivered in anticipation while taking Jay in in all his glory, eyelids getting heavy with want: No doubt about it, she was seriously blessed.

When he slipped two fingers inside her hot core and found her unbelievably ready for him, Jay closed his eyes and groaned in agony. This kind of desire was killing him softly.

"Told you," Rianne smiled up at him, lids closing slightly and biting her lip.

Obviously she found the fact that he was blowing out air through inflated nostrils very amusing. She just knew she had him in her pocket, every time.

"I'm gonna love you so much and so often in this house, you will not know what to do with yourself," she rasped near his ear, letting her hot breath roll over his skin so that he was feeling the affect of that all over his body.

"You really have to shut the fuck up or this will be over in a second!"

He bit a kiss into her chin, making her wince with pleasure. But of course she loved that she had him right where she wanted him and wouldn't follow his plea directly:

"Is emotional intimacy turning you on that much Jay?" Rianne teased and bit his thumb that hovered over her mouth.

"You damn well know it is you little minx!"

She chuckled deep in her throat and laughed into his eyes, while pulling him closer with her legs wrapped around his waist.
Jay crushed his lips to the sound of that and pushed all the way into her, already concentrating hard to not spontaneously combust at the sensation of her body gracefully welcoming his back.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't stop myself…"

Still restfully aroused Jay held her tightly against him afterwards, appreciating the moment of pure satisfaction and blankness of mind. When they were together like this it was always pure feelings, no thinking and he hadn't completely fathomed the magnitude of how much he had missed that exactly until this moment.
He really had wanted to go slow and drag this out, but his desire for her and this connection had been a little too intense to let his mind control his body for long.

"Let's just think of it as an appetizer and continue this later…"

Rianne smiled against his skin and showered his face with little tiny and sweet kisses before she hopped down from the counter, entangling herself from him and searching for her clothes. With her gone the cold draught of the place was hitting his sweaty skin again all of a sudden.

"You good?" Jay watched her in between putting on his boxer briefs and pants, paying attention to the way she moved around the room, looking for signs of physical discomfort.

She stopped in her tracks for a minute and looked him straight in the eyes, anticipating his need for reassurance that he hadn't hurt her in any way:

"I'm very good, and I actually have another good thing to share with you!"

"Oh yeah? What is it?"

"I got my results back today!"

Rianne's trauma exam had been last Friday and after compromising to let him drive her there and pick her up afterwards, Jay had taken comfort in her letting him do this and eased into the fact that Rianne really seemed to be on the mend. He knew this was important to her and that she had been working her butt off studying and attending seminars on top of her usual work-load for almost two years. He actually had no doubt about it that she must have done well, but still:

"And?"

"I passed…" she said nonchalantly, while putting her clothes back on.

But she couldn't hide the big fat proud smile spreading over her face.
He was beside her again to pull her into a hug like lightning:

"Congratulations, that's awesome! Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I got… distracted?" Rianne winked. "But, if you're up for it I would really love to take you out for dinner to celebrate and then maybe "Molly's? We haven't been there for a while!"

That really was a no-brainer, especially as they now had two things to celebrate tonight.

Before they left and locked up behind them to get that promised dinner, Rianne turned around to take another look around, releasing a deep breath. Then she beamed up at him, taking both his hands and lacing their fingers together, her eyes sparkling into his:

"Jay? I… I want you to know that I'm really, really happy! I can't even tell you what all of this means to me!"

His heart not only skipped a beat, but the sudden lump of equal happiness in his throat was making it pretty hard to answer her. Of course he did it anyway, because she needed to know he felt exactly the same:

"If it only means half of what it means to me, then I think I have a pretty good idea."

Three weeks, an avoided gang war and a strenuous wire-investigation later:

Paintbrush and sponge still in her hand Rianne was critically taking in her artwork. Many walls in their home would stay rendered plain white, were made of exposed brick or even glass, but she had wanted to bring the color and calm of the ocean to their bedroom. So she had begun a mural painting in watercolor style. Jay had claimed he wasn't really the creative one and she should just do her thing as long as he didn't have to sleep in a princess-like pink and sparkly room in the end.
He on the other hand had rediscovered his love for building and fixing more practical things
In fact he had started some kind of mysterious project in their new home workshop with Severide and Casey that he was being very secretive about. She could keep her curiosity at bay for now, but seeing him handling tools and getting himself dirty in the process was seriously hot to watch.
Needless to say not only the green-house had been christened by now.
This home was gonna be special for them, she felt it in every cell of her body, deep down in her bones. And she wanted it to be and feel special for Jay too. It was to be the physical embodiment of them, of their love, of their future.
At the momen they were working like a well-oiled machine in general. Jay had begun to let her off the leash bit by bit, slowly trusting she would be fine again, and she gave it her best shot at being open about her recovery progress with him as well as learning to respect her boundaries and operating at a slower pace. Rianne was still struggling with indigestion from time to time as well as some lingering fatigue, but odds were that she'd be good to go back to work by next week.
This renovation project really had been her life-safer though. Otherwise she would have truly gone mad over the last weeks with nothing useful to do other than rest up.

Rianne guessed when they were on the same page Jay and her could be a real power couple. He knew people who knew people and could get them a guy for pretty much everything they needed, even on short notice, and she still had the time to oversee things and smooth-talk people if necessary as well as keep their finances in check.
Also she thought that since being with Jay the amount of people caring for her and showing up whenever one needed them had seriously increased. Sometimes it was honestly hard to remember anything before him. How it had been like.
She couldn't really believe that this thing between them had only started six months ago.
Neither could she believe that Andrea's birthday had gone by without her having some kind of emotional breakdown or else. Rather had she been feeling a little lighter all around and she had tried a different approach this year: Celebrate rather than mourn. Like it was tradition for her abuela. Rianne wondered why she hadn't been able to do and see it like that until now.
So that first Saturday in February she had had breakfast at their former favorite diner, gone to visit Andrea's grave to have imaginary conversations with him about her current life and later she had met up with Guilia and Nino to pour one out together for their brother. Jay had even joined them for dinner in the evening. And it had been okay. It had really been okay. Just some small tears here and there.

Actually Jay was doing a pretty great job in convincing her time and time again that she could absolutely share everything with him and it wouldn't change anything between them. Not the way he looked at her and not the way she felt about herself. Some fears really just existed in one's head sometimes, which of course didn't lessen the power they had.

"Happy kiss-aversary babe!" Two strong arms suddenly wrapped around her waist and a familiar nose nuzzled behind her ear, before soft lips pressed a tender kiss to it that made her giggle because it tickled.

"Wow - I didn't think you would be here this early!"

It actually was a rare occasion that Jay got home when it was still daylight outside. It couldn't be later than four p.m. could it? Their workers had just left for the day.

"Yeah… our plans got crossed, couldn't catch the kingpin of our investigation dirty so we had to break down the wire-room, give the case over to narcotics. Everyone got to go home early!"

Rianne knew he must be at least a little bit disappointed like he was with every unsuccessful investigation, but that he still had remembered the first one of their six-month-anniversaries got her elated somehow. She shouldn't have expected anything less from him though, he didn't forget these things. When she turned around in his arms to give him a proper kiss hello Jay was looking over her shoulder at her watercolor art on their wall.

"I like it!" he stated matter-of-factly, then kissed her temple, hugging her to him again.

"You do?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I? So, put me to work! I've got some energy left…"

She hoped he had some change of clothes still left here too. His dark-grey long-sleeve was far too fancy to go to waste over paint and spackle.

"You could start on tiling the downstairs bathroom, if you want? I'll come help when I'm finished up here, should only take another half hour…"

"Of course, Ma'am!"

"Oh, Oscar actually got the other toilet fixed today…"

Jay had to admit that it sometimes was a little cultural shock to return home in the afternoon or evening and instead of solving crime having to solve major or minor problems concerning construction work, make decisions on interior design, plumbing and electrics, hire or fire workers. Mostly it was a welcome distraction, but he sure was glad that Rianne currently had the time to fill the role of superintendent of this project and that he found he completely trusted her judgement. Things were coming together, although when looking at the rural state of the downstairs bathroom there still was a long way to go.

Instead of a cheesy (for Rianne's taste) classic Valentine's Day they had spent the last weekend working on their new home, which had proven to be a little of a juggling act as Intelligence had been living in surveillance vans and the wire-room for the last week. But somehow they had still managed to sneak away some hours and helping hands. Rianne had pretty much roped in every one of their friends who had had time and muscle to spare.

After a lot of thinking and weighing their options they had decided to give notice to move out of Jay's apartment by the end of March. That left roughly six weeks to pack up his stuff and get the new place up and running as far as basic needs went. Jay had been skeptical at first if it was such a good idea to live on a construction site for a while until everything was finished, but Rianne's argumentation that they wouldn't need to do the constant back and forth between both places, could save the rent and were probably too busy with their jobs to notice the workers during the day had eventually convinced him.
As they now had a lot of garage space themselves where they could put up Rianne's old furniture, there had also been no need to rent the storage unit for another additional month, so over the weekend they had cleared it out.
Kim and Rianne had not really been allowed to do much of moving things around for pregnancy-and still-in-recovery-and-not-supposed-to-be-lifting-too-heavy-things-reasons. Instead they had certainly enjoyed bossing the others around a lot though in a conspiratorial female way.

Jay had quickly realized that the times of living a quiet and sometimes isolated life were indeed over by merging his life with Rianne's.
In the last three weeks he rarely had come to their new place or his apartment without them having company. He suspected that this wouldn't change even if there was nothing more to work on and they would just live there. Little by little he got an idea of what it must have been like at Rianne's loft before: A social hubbub. And maybe he would have to get used to the thought of their house being a social get-to in the future.
Last week he'd found her eating take-out with Kev on the newly laid hardwood floor downstairs instead of working, because Atwater's girlfriend had broken up with him. Rianne had grown rather fond of Kevin since the Sara incident and already working on who to set him up with next.
Yesterday she'd been twerking with Stella to hip hop beats while cleaning up after the construction crew, who had just finished rendering some new walls. More than once she went over plans and orders with Casey and roping Jay in on the newest developments afterwards. And then one afternoon when he'd gotten off work early, she had surprised him with his brother showing up on his motorcycle, assuming Jay would rather have it at his own home now that he had the space for it, than having it stored away in his brother's garage.
When he had shown Will around afterwards, discussing Rianne's and his ideas for the place, his brother had stopped to look at him in a very touched way at some point:

"I'm so happy for you Jay. It seems like it's finally all coming together for you!"

He was right. Who would have thought this was possible a year ago, when he hadn't even really known Rianne and the impact she would have on his future.

"Is Oscar the Mexican guy who's always flirting with you?" he growled now over the task of evening out the tile cement on the future shower wall.

"He's not flirting with me!"

"Oh yes he is! It's so freaking obvious!"

"One could get the impression that you're a little jealous!"

Jay couldn't deny he was, at least a little. How could he not when he saw the looks the workers were giving her? So he was of course glad for every hour he got to spend there with her and them present, to let them see that Rianne was absolutely off the market and off-limits.

"One could get the impression that you either are totally oblivious of your charms or that you use them to get those workers to actually show up here on time everyday knowing you'll provide them with actual coffee and that radiant smile."

"As long as you're the only one who gets more than a smile from me it doesn't really matter which one it is, does it?"

Jay would have liked nothing more than to kiss her on that smart mouth of hers right then, but he had to concentrate on not messing up this tile row. He hated when things were at a weird angle.
For a while they worked in silence, with Rianne handing him the shiny light green tiles and him adjusting them very accurately. After finishing that row she suddenly snorted:

"Isn't it funny that we're tiling the bathroom wall of our joined home right now when you didn't even like me that much six months ago?"

"Well, I at least liked you enough to kiss you! Who knows where else we'd be today!" Jay flashed his teeth at her and was met with a mock indignant stare, followed by an indifferent shrug:

"It was a pretty decent kiss. So I think I'm okay with you bragging about making the first move for all our life."

"A pretty decent kiss?" Jay raised his right eyebrow at her, let his trowel fall back onto the floor and was in her space in a second.

"I remember it was a little more like this…"

He had her up against the wall in no time, her arms and legs automatically wrapping around his hips and neck to keep her balance. Jay grabbed her face with one hand, pulling her mouth towards his and smearing the remnants of the spackling compound he had on him into her hair and onto her cheek. Lips and tongues connected in a desperate way. Yeah, up until this day it was really easy to recreate that moment, the rush he had felt then and still felt. Only now he was sure he got her! This wasn't the back-room of Molly's, this was their own home! Sometimes it still felt so unreal.
Spurred on by her surprised squeal and the way she instantly engaged in her own special, dedicated way, Jay's hand wandered under the seam of her hoodie and top and reached as far as the swelling of her left breast when she drew in a sharp breath almost sounding a bit pained, and he withdrew his hand. To his surprise he already found one item of clothing missing. Jay pulled away a little so he could give her a curious look and didn't even have to ask what he wanted to know:

Rianne seemed a little annoyed and sighed: "Yep, guilty of not wearing a bra! It's just… damn it… my breasts just felt so tingly and tender to the touch this morning… so I was more comfortable that way. I've been working by myself most of the time anyway, so nobody saw anything if that's what you're worried about!"

"Hm… and is it a good or a bad tender?"

"A little bit of both?"

Rianne sucked in her bottom lip and looked up into his eyes with that wounded deer stare that was completely fake with only one mission: to wreck him. Deliberately touching the soft skin under her top again and watching her catch her breath while his fingertips circled her erect nipples, he swallowed hard as he felt himself straining against his jeans.

"We'll revisit this issue later or this cement will dry out," he rasped.

For a second she just nodded weakly and he let her down with one last kiss to her forehead. With a little throat clearing on her end Rianne immediately had her sass back on:

"Anyway, thanks for refreshing my memory on that, ehm… kissing thing!"

"Anytime darling, anytime," Jay drawled in a fake Southern accent that got her laughing and swatting at his behind to get more work done before it got too dark.

"Oh, I'm sure that's our food!"

Rianne grabbed some cash before she made her way down the stairs to get their delivery while Jay called after her:

"You want some wine with that?"

"You brought some?"

"Yeah, I thought to… mark the occasion…" she heard the wink in his voice and grinned stupidly to herself wondering when he would get tired of mentioning that this day was a special day for him, for them.

"Oh, qué detalle!"

When she opened the heavy metal sliding gate at the front entrance Rianne was a little surprised at the face she found there and her grin faltered a little: Not so much looking like the pizza guy. More looking like her boyfriend's blonde female partner, a resolute expression on her chiseled features, shivering against the cold outside despite wearing a thick red winter jacket. Their visitor didn't lose time with hello's:

"I'm sorry to barge in here like this, but I need to talk to Jay. I know he's here, I pinged his phone."

Nice having friends with the police, Rianne thought. Whatever happened to just calling one another?

2nd AN: In case you guys were wondering: I decided to absolutely ignore the pandemic for my story, even though we have reached 2020 in the timeline. I think fiction is a perfect escapism, so I am not weaving this into my place of happiness.