A/N: Hey all! Thanks so much for your reviews on the last chapter! I'm so happy you enjoyed Trudy coming in swinging! I won't lie - I enjoyed writing that! I hope you enjoy this chapter and, as always, feel free to let me know what you think. =)
One Month Later
"Er? I'm home!" Jay calls into his apartment. "Are you here?"
He's greeted with silence as he hangs his jacket and tosses his keys on the counter.
"Guess not," he mumbles.
He plops on the couch and pulls up the real estate app on his phone yet again. Who knew it would be so hard to find a place that they liked in their price range and a location they liked?!
He scans through the properties and finds about five that he deems good enough to talk to Erin about whenever she gets back.
Soon after saving the last property, he hears a muffled thud outside the door followed by Erin's voice.
"Jay! I dropped my keys and my hands are full! Let me in!"
He hurries to the door, pulling it open to find his girlfriend clinging on to seven grocery bags, precariously balancing one row on top of the other.
"Geez, Er, why didn't you ask me to come help you?" he chastises her, grabbing her keys off of the floor and about half of the bags from her arms.
She shrugs. "I thought I had it."
He chuckles at her. She always was stubbornly independent. It's one of the things that he loved the most about her.
"How was your first day?" After some deliberation, they'd decided to stay in Chicago. Like Jay had said, their chosen family was there. Sure, there were people who were less than pleasant as well, but their friends would always be there for them. . . and that was about to be more important than ever.
"Well, Sergeant Michaels wasted no time in pulling me aside and making sure I knew exactly how he felt about Voight."
"Oh?"
"Oh yeah." He sets his bags on the counter and leans against it, miming sipping from a cup, imitating his new sergeant: "You come highly recommended from Sergeant Platt, Halstead, and I told her I'd be happy to take you on. She is a friend, after all. That being said, I know you come from Intelligence and working under Hank Voight and I want to make one thing very clear right now. We work by the book here in Robbery/Homicide. If that's going to be a problem for you, do us both a favor and show yourself out now." He sets the imaginary cup in the sink and spins on his heel before dropping the act and returning to help Erin put the food away. "But he's a decent guy, at least for day one. I can't really blame him for sitting me down right away to set his standards."
"How about your new partner? Who is it?"
"Her name is Upton. She's not a detective yet but wants to be, and she's been in the unit for a couple years already so I bet she's solidly by-the-book."
Erin stalls between items, turning to face him. "Think you can trust her to have your back?"
He can tell she's hesitant about the question. Erin's never been one to question a cop's reliability until they give her reason to. "You'll be the first to know if there's any reason to worry. I promise."
She smiles gently and pops up on her tiptoes to place a chaste kiss to his lips. "Thanks."
Jay nods his acknowledgement and they finish putting the groceries away and get dinner made.
Two Months Later
Erin steps out of the shower and winds the towel on top of her head before drying the rest of herself off.
As the steam begins to lift, she catches her reflection in the mirror and freezes, one hand hovering just short of the towel hook on the door. After a moment, she drapes her towel in its place. She smooths her now-free hands over her stomach, eying her side profile in the mirror, trying to imagine how it would look as it grows over the next few months.
At 16 weeks, she barely has a bump. She recons only she and Jay can even tell a difference. Heck, maybe even they're imagining it.
"Hey, are you almost re-" Jay begins, stopping short as he peeks into the bathroom. Seeing his girlfriend, he steps up behind her and wraps his arms around her middle.
She smiles softly as he smooths his hands over her barely-there bump and shivers softly at his touch.
"I can't wait to meet this little one," he says quietly, leaning down to plant a kiss where her neck meets her shoulders.
She says nothing at first but hums at his touch and leans back into him. They stand there for a moment, his scruff scratching her shoulder as they stare back at their reflection. "We still have so much to do."
"And we have plenty of time to do it," he assures her. He spins her so she's facing him and takes her hands in his. He drops a kiss to her forehead. "How about - after our appointment - we pull up some baby names and we start picking ones we like?"
"You don't have to go to work afterward?"
"For this? I took the whole day. This is our family, Er. I don't want to miss a single second."
Her chestnut orbs dance between his ocean blues. "You're amazing."
"I know," he answers cheekily, "but not as amazing as you."
She beams up at him, pulling her lower lip between her teeth. "Keep talking like that, you're going to make us late."
He quirks an eyebrow at her, tugging her flush against him and moving his hands to the smooth curve of her hips. "Not if we skip the talking." He waits only a moment before swooping down and capturing his lips with his own.
Her arms snake around his neck, deepening the kiss. He responds eagerly, his hands sliding down to cup her ass before scooping her off the ground and carrying her off to the bedroom.
"More boxes, as requested!" Burgess chirps, bouncing into Erin's apartment right behind Trudy.
"You guys are the best," Erin sighs, embracing her friends. After months of searching, she and Jay had finally found an affordable place to live in a safe neighborhood. She's sure she speaks for both of them when she says she's so glad they're getting to move before she gets too pregnant to help and also before the baby comes.
"You're welcome," Trudy says. "Now you sit yourself down and just tell us what needs to happen."
"Trudy, I'm perfectly capable of -"
"You're pregnant. Sit," the older woman commands.
"I'll let you boss me around when I actually look pregnant," Erin retorts. "But for now, I'm helping."
"Then don't come crying to me later when your ankles are all swollen up."
"Sergeant, I've seen Lindsay take a bullet to the shoulder and she didn't complain. I hardly think swollen ankles will do her in."
"Don't you think I know that, Burgess? I've known this girl since she was 16. She was a tough cookie then and she's only gotten stronger."
Erin simultaneously blushes at Trudy's praise and sends a sympathetic grin in the younger woman's direction. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Kim."
"So what's first?" Trudy asks, bringing them to the task at hand.
Erin points her toward boxes that need hauled down to her Jeep and they quickly get to work.