Taking part in a parade in such cold weather was a long way from ideal, but Erin had tried her best to ignore that. The fallen officers deserved to be honoured for losing their lives for no other reason than being brave enough to serve as police. Erin was proud to have been asked to take part.

Nonetheless, when the parade was complete and it was time for those involved to go their separate ways, she welcomed the prospect of getting to her nice warm office, where she could enjoy a cup of hot coffee.

"Erin! Erin!"

It was a woman's voice calling to her, coming from behind her and to the left. She turned, not immediately putting a name to the voice. Once she saw who was jogging towards her though, she knew exactly who it was, and it made her smile.

"Erin! I knew it was you."

"Hey, Britt! Long time no see. What on Earth are you doing in Chicago?"

Dr Britt Baker was a pretty woman in her thirties with long dark hair. She had been Erin's dentist during her time living in New York. The two women had discovered that they lived on the same block, and had become friends. Such was life, they had slowly lost touch after Erin's move back to Chicago, which Erin felt great regret about the moment she saw that it was Britt who was coming over to speak to her. Nonetheless, they shared a hug as if no distance had ever come between them.

"I'm in town for a dentistry conference, just over there." Britt pointed to a nearby building. "We came out to watch the parade, and I figured I should keep an eye out for you just in case you were on it. And sure enough, there you were. I'm sorry I've not kept in touch very well. You should get Facebook or something."

Erin cringed. "I hate social media, you know that. But you're right, we should do more to keep in touch. It's a shame you're at the conference, we could have gone for coffee and had a catch up."

Britt looked at her watch. "Well, they gave us an hour for lunch. There are fifty minutes left. Let's go find somewhere."

"Great!" Erin said happily.

"There's that smile. One of the best sets of teeth I've ever worked on."

Erin chuckled. "Thanks, I think. Come on, let's go get that coffee. You've not got much time, and I'm freezing."

A few minutes later, they were sat at what had been the only free table in the first coffee shop they had come across. It was a small table for two, near to the door to the bathrooms. But it was warm, and there was good coffee on offer. That was all that mattered to Erin, who was shivering now that she was out of the cold.

"So, Britt, tell me what's new with you," she said, using the hot cup to warm her hands.

Britt launched eagerly into her news, talking about moving her dental practice to a newer, better location, and about a man she had been dating for the past few months. All in all, she had nothing but positive news to report.

"Listen to me talking about myself for so long," she said after about fifteen minutes. "What about you, Erin? Last time we talked on the phone, you had gotten back with Jay. How is that going? Is it still going?"

"It's still going," Erin was happy to say. "In fact, there's so much to tell you. Where to even start, that's the hard part. We adopted a daughter."

"What?" Britt cried excitedly.

"Yep. You'll remember the mall shooting of course. I was there that night, trying to help people in the aftermath."

"Yeah, I did message you the day after to ask if you were okay. Understandable why you didn't reply though. It must have been a horrific time."

Erin shook her head, surprised to hear about the message. "Sorry, Britt. I honestly don't remember reading a message. But I guess that's not a surprise, there was so much going on. I went into a store to check for survivors, and I found a couple dead behind the sales counter, and there was a kid's foot sticking out from under it. I feared the worst, but I got down on the ground to look, and there was a terrified eleven year old girl hiding under there named Clementine. Her parents had been murdered right in front of her. It turned out that she had no other family, so Jay and I took her in. We were able to make it permanent, so she's now our daughter. I love her so much, Britt. Before adopting, I couldn't have even come close to explaining what it's like to have a kid. She means the absolute world to me."

"Oh, Erin," Britt said, wiping a tear from her left eye. "That's so heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time. What you guys have been through, I can't even imagine. And what you've done for that poor little girl, that's incredible. How is it working out for you all?"

"Jay and I are really happy. Clem is too, although she has bad days of course. Sometimes we'll find her in her room crying about her parents, and we have to comfort her. We've hired a nanny too, who's literally the best. Costs a lot, but she's so worth it. We'd be lost without her, with the hours we have to work. We'll be working her even harder soon."

Britt's eyes widened above her coffee cup as she sipped from it. "You're pregnant?" she cried.

"Oh. Maybe not the best way I could have put that. No, I'm not, not yet. But we've started trying. Only just started."

"Jesus, Erin. You, settled down with a man and a couple of kids, I'm surprised. Surprised in a good way."

Erin thought about that while sipping her coffee. "I'm surprised too. I could always see myself settling down with a guy, when the time and the guy were right. But I never saw myself being a parent. I guess you never know where life will take you, though. Once we adopted Clem, my maternal instincts kind of switched on. When Jay asked me if I wanted to try for a baby, I'm sure he thought I would say no. But I had actually been waiting for him to ask; waiting for the time to be right for him."

Britt laughed. "And does he know that now?"

"No," Erin said with amusement of her own. "It shocked him when I said yes, which made the moment all the more special. I loved seeing his reaction. And do you know what? I'm like eighty per-cent sure he's getting ready to propose to me."

"You think so?" Britt asked, her eyes wide again in delight.

"I do. And I think he's wary because he thinks I'll say no. Don't get me wrong, I understand why. It hurt him a lot when I left for New York. When and how it happened was awful to be honest. I feel so bad for hurting him like that, and I'd never do it again."

Britt took a sip of her coffee, a thoughtful look on her face. "You know what you could do?"

"What?"

"You could propose to him."

Erin laughed, then realised that her friend was serious. "Wait, for real?"

"Of course for real," Britt said.

"Is a woman proposing to a man even a thing?"

"It's not the 1970s, Erin. Of course it's a thing. If you want to stop him having to worry about proposing to you, you do it instead."

Erin took a moment to consider the idea, but she knew it wasn't something she could decide on that quickly. "I'm going to have to think about that."

"Of course. But I definitely think you should do it."

Yes, maybe I should, Erin thought.

A/N: A bit of a shorter chapter, but I decided to get one in from Erin's point of view since a lot of people wanted it. I hope you enjoyed it.

A catch up with an old friend has given Erin an idea that she otherwise wouldn't have had. Do you think she should take it upon herself to propose before Jay does?