A/N: Hey all! Sorry for the delay in uploading! My schedule exploded on me a bit last week.
Thanks to you all for your kind reviews on the last chapter! I loved reading your guesses on what was bothering Erin. One of you guessed correctly! You'll soon see who :)
Please be aware the beginning of this chapter happens before the end of the last one. Hopefully it's not too confusing!
I hope you enjoy and, as always, feel free to let me know what you think!
Erin wakes up when it's dark out, feeling incredibly queasy. She pulls herself off the couch and bolts for the bathroom.
She knew she was coming down with something. She'd nearly fallen asleep at work every day this week.
Good thing she'd told Jay she wanted to spend tonight on her own. Hopefully he wouldn't catch this… he's such a big baby when he gets nauseous.
He'd tell her that he's fine, that she should go to work so Voight didn't find them out, but his big puppy dog eyes would be begging her to stay home with him.
She'd be tempted to oblige him, too… which is why she stops halfway through composing a text to let him know she's sick.
If he hears it from her tonight and she decides to stay home tomorrow, he'll want to also take the day off to come take care of her. If he doesn't hear about her being sick until he gets to work, there's no way he'll be tempted to leave early. She erases what she'd started typing and closes out of the app.
She feels a little bad keeping this secret from him, but they've managed to keep their relationship a secret from everyone else for four months.
She makes her way to bed, pulling her pillows out of the closet on the way since Jay isn't here tonight. She situates them around herself, creating a fluffy nest. Maybe she'll be lucky enough to sleep off the worst of this stomach bug.
She wakes up again only an hour later… and then an hour after that. Luck is not on her side.
After her fifth trip to the bathroom in as many hours, she texts Hank to let him know she needs to stay home.
She shuffles around a drawer in search of a thermometer. She doesn't feel like she's running a fever, which is weird, but she wants to check.
The device beeps at her. It reads: 98.7; a perfectly normal temperature. Weird. She tosses it back in the drawer and goes back to bed.
When she wakes up again, the sun is approaching its peak in the sky. Her stomach rumbles, and she's thankful that the nausea seems to have subsided.
She chances some food, eating slowly just in case her stomach turns on her again. This really is the strangest stomach bug she's ever had.
Then a thought dawns on her. Maybe it's not a stomach bug.
No.
It can't be.
An hour later she stares at the three sticks on the counter.
They're all in agreement.
Her phone dings, signaling a text from Jay.
Jay.
He's going to be so excited!
She responds to his message, inviting him over.
She really can't wait to tell him.
Images of him cuddling their baby bloom in her mind, of his nose wrinkling in disgust when he has to change a dirty diaper.
Would he want a boy or a girl? Or will he just be excited to be having a family?
She tries to envision the surprise on his face when she tells him this evening.
The image she gets instead, however, is the face Bunny's dirtbag boyfriends would get when she told them she was pregnant. Most of the time, it was a lie, a ploy to try to get a man with money to marry her. Still, rarely were the men excited. Most of the time, they were gone the next morning. A couple of them even beat Bunny after she told them.
Erin knew Jay wouldn't beat her. . . but what if he left her? What if all of their talk about someday was just a lie?
She shakes her head, trying to snap out of it. Jay loves her. He wouldn't leave her. He wants a family with her...
Right?
As her sobs begin to subside, Jay loosens his grip. He brushes a strand of hair back behind her ear.
"Talk to me, Er," he pleads.
She sniffles, wiping at her eyes. "I love you," she rasps.
"I love you too," he responds, giving her another squeeze. "Please tell me what's wrong."
"Nothing - nothing's wrong…. I just don't want you to leave me. Please don't leave me, Jay."
"Leave you?"
"Promise me."
"I could never… Erin, what's going on?"
She pulls her lips between her teeth, looking apprehensively up at him.
His eyes are searching hers worriedly, begging her to let him in.
"I'm pregnant," she blurts finally. "I - I know it's way sooner than we talked about, and I'm sorry, I must have missed -"
His brain catches up to the news and he cuts her off, pressing his lips to hers in a searing kiss.
"You're serious?" he asks when they break for air, his blue eyes dancing with excitement and adoration.
She nods, returning his smile as the last of her nerves dissipate.
"You're incredible. I love you," he gushes, planting another kiss on her lips before moving to her stomach. "And I love you already."
"There's no way they can hear you this early," Erin teases.
"I don't care. They'll get the message eventually. . . Holy shit, Er, I'm gonna be a dad. You're gonna be a mom. We're gonna be parents. Oh my god."
"We should move in together," Jay proposes over supper. "Among other things, but I want to be there for you every step of the way. You can move in with me or I can move my stuff here."
She shakes her head. "We can't stay here."
"Why not? Your apartment is larger than mine."
"No, not that. We can't stay in Chicago."
"Okay, so where do we go?"
"Somewhere where Hank doesn't try dragging me into his world and somewhere Bunny can't keep popping back into my life and pretending to be my mom."
"Anywhere but here, essentially."
"Exactly."
They begin their search for new jobs and a place to live right away, carefully hiding it all away as soon as they get to work. Their facade stays strong with no one catching on until a month later when some jagoff blows up Med on the day of the First Responders 10k Run.
Burgess's niece is caught in the explosion, so tensions are already running high. Intelligence never takes it well when a case affects one of their own.
Even moreso than their teammates, Erin and Jay are more on edge than normal. Neither of them has to ask the other why. They're both imagining how they'd feel if it were their kid injured in the explosion.
Thankfully nobody seems to notice as they work through the case.
They finally figure out the guilty party and move in to apprehend him. Erin puts a hand on his shoulder, her other hand hovering over her firearm.
But the guy responsible moves too fast. He pulls a knife and holds it to Erin's throat.
Jay does his best to keep his cool. If he listens to his heart right now - which is pounding, by the way - he's going to act irrationally and give them away. Worse yet, he could spook the guy and cause Erin and their baby harm.
He can't chance that.
He holds his gun steady, doing his best to ignore the voice in his head suggesting he do any number of crazy things to disarm the bastard holding a knife to his girlfriend's throat. He wants to protect her - her and their baby - above all, and he's ready to do whatever it takes to make sure Erin comes back to him safely.
Thankfully, just as he's about to lose it, Peter Mills emerges from behind a curtain and slams the guy over the head with a halligan, knocking him out cold.
Erin slips out of his hold as he falls to the floor and Jay rushes to her side, stopping just short of throwing his arms around her. His Adam's apple bobs as he looks her over, relief evident in his eyes.
"You okay?" he asks, gripping her shoulder.
"Yeah, fine," she responds with a look that says not here before she steps around him and they all get back to work.