Author's notes:

My lovely, patient readers. What can I say? This is actually the longest I went without updating since I first started this fic. My klutz-y self sliced my index finger on a razor last week, so typing was out of the question for a while. We're all healed up now and good to go though. I actually had to read my own fic again to remind myself we're we left off and the finer details of the plot. This one was a tough one. Both to do justice and to write because, my heartttt! This one is shorter than usual, but now that I can type, I've been dying to get something out again. I'm also hoping to attempt a chapter a day again, finger's crossed! Hope you enjoy. Happy reading!

"Sooooo…." Jay began, parking up outside Janik's café, his eyes in front of him at the door of the café.

"So?" Erin's eyebrow quirked upwards expectedly.

Jay laughed awkwardly not knowing what to say next. His initial thoughts had been to strike up a conversation, wanting to fill the silence with her calming raspy voice. It had been so long since he had heard it, and now that she had returned and her voice now filled the peaceful silence in the air, he just wanted her to continue speaking. God knows, it probably would not be too long before it, and she, were taken away from him. His heart clenched at the thought, but he shoved it to the back of his mind not willing to bring himself down unnecessarily when he still didn't know how long it would be until she was gone.

"We don't have to talk Jay," Erin giggled slightly at her ex-boyfriend's incessant need to fill the silence. She would understand if they were in an awkward place, but she thought they had made significant progress since her return, and that they were now in a place where they could sit together in comfortable silence.

"I know," Jay replied, sheepishly scratching his eyebrow, "but we're good talking…" he hesitated a while before adding the second that he struggled with on whether he should hold back or not, "besides, we don't know how lucky we are to have you here with us… might as well take advantage whilst we know you're still here" he explained.

Erin bit her lip, chewing on it furiously as she frowned. She knew when she arrived in Chicago that she would eventually have to return. In fact, she knew but she had initially hoped she could return to the Big Apple as soon as possible having felt incredibly anxious about seeing all the familiar faces in Chicago all over again. It was one face, the one that now sat next to her, that had her particularly anxious. In all her years away, Erin had yet to get over her former love. He was, and in her eyes always would be her soulmate and the love of her life. She just knew she was not his. So, the idea of seeing him again, the idea of all the renewed pain and bringing up of painful memories at the sight of him had filled her with dread. But once she had actually arrived and seen him, spoken to him and worked with him, she felt herself sliding back into old routines - she felt herself getting comfortable. And now the idea of leaving was the one that had her insides filled with dread.

"Yeah..." she eventually drawled; her voice low. Luckily, her phone ringing was enough to distract them both and allowed her to not say much more.

The photo that lighted up her phone was enough to confirm Jay's suspicions on who the caller was. He tensed at the sight of the image, his hands clutching at his knees, the nails digging in as a silent rage began igniting in his stomach and growing by the second. Jay knew this much: had an inexplicable dislike towards Erin's caller. It was the why that he was still unable to pinpoint.

Erin quickly rejected the call before turning her ringer off and placing her phone in the glove compartment. Jay felt a sense of relief and gloating wash over his body and he tried hard not to let it show in his voice as he spoke.

"Not important?" he questioned.

Erin waved her hand dismissively in front of her at nothing and no one in particular.

"It's just Nate….my partner. I'll call him back later. We're on a stakeout right now, can't be distracted right?" she said with an easy grin on her lips.

Jay returned the gesture, though he felt his smile was tighter, not as easily formed as hers. She had said the stakeout was important. It wasn't because she was here with him. She would call him back later.Hewas important to her. Important enough for her to return his calls. Maybe more important thanNatedeserved to be, a bitter voice inside Jay's mind sneered. All the while the detective questioning her partner's motives and why he was absent now when she so clearly had been struggling.

"Right," Jay muttered in reply.

Erin thankfully did not catch on to Jay's shift in mood and continued to speak.

"I have a good feeling about this one you know. Like we'll finally get some answers. Maybe once this whole case is wrapped up and fingers crossed when Hank wakes up we can do a celebratory dinner."

Jay's eyes lit up slightly at the sound of food. He had always loved eating, but he knew how much of a foodie Erin truly was despite her being a hopeless cook.

"Dinner at the Purple Pig? It's got the dump!" he teased.

She laughed wholeheartedly at the memory his words incited, the sound music to his ears.

"Man, how I've missed those truffles. My mouth's watering just thinking about it."

"Tell you what, let's finish up this stakeout and we can see if we can get someone down in patrol to collect some and bring them back to the station for lunch. I'm pretty sure I have a few IOU's with the patrolmen. I can probably twist someone's arm."

"Jay Halstead. Always knows a guy, always comes in handy," Erin said laughing at his resourcefulness.

"You know it! Not just a pretty face you know," he laughed flashing her a grin.

"Pshhht," Erin playfully scoffed at his cockiness, sticking out her palm and using it to playfully cover his face. As soon as her palm made contact with his skin, she immediately removed it, afraid she had crossed a line. Luckily, Jay hadn't flinched. But for Erin, her fingers felt like they had been set ablaze, tingles revibrating though them and she was unable to shake the feeling.

She interlocked both her fingers and clasped her hands on her lap to so as not to let Jay see her fingers shaking or to see just how much she was affected by him.

"Please! Are you going to deny it? You know you loved these rugged good looks," the words flew loosely out of his mouth before he could stop them.

The air grew thick for a moment, as the two stared at one another, baby blue's clashing with hazels, both searching each other's faces. Jay bit his lip immediately, acknowledging only now the repercussions of what he had said. Heat rose to Erin's cheeks, as she blushed at the memories his words had brought on. Of course, she had loved those rugged good looks. She still did. Though his face had matured and become leaner over the past five years, he was still as handsome and as attractive as ever. Erin could feel the gravitational pull toward him, and it took everything within her to restrain her body from inching closer to his.

She was the first to look away from the two and clear her throat, breaking the silence and the trance between them.

"I…" Jay let out a croak, his throat incredibly tight and dry.

He did not have a chance to get his words out though as his radio crackled to life, effectively cutting short his sentence.

"Jay, Russo's arrived!" Hailey's voice sounded through the static.

Jay and Erin looked at each other frowning. Indeed, a car had pulled up across the road from them and from where they were sitting, the passenger looked suspiciously like Russo.

"Where's the rest of the team?" Jay questioned, confusion evident in his voice.

The other half of intelligence who had been sent to tail Russo at the Walmart lot were nowhere in sight. The plan had been for them to notify Hailey, Jay and Erin when Russo started to make his way over to Janik's. But evidently, they had failed to do so and now Jay could see by the look on Erin's face that she was feeling as blindsided and surprised at Russo's unannounced arrival as he was.

"I'm not really sure, heck if I know" Hailey muttered, before he heard her dialling Ruzek through voice command.

Jay kept his eyes peeled on the blue Camry that Russo was seated in all the while, not wanting to miss a thing. Besides him, Erin had caught on, having pulled out the binoculars from the glove compartment and now looking intently through them. Russo had yet to leave his vehicle, but Jay could see from here that the man was hesitant and on edge.

"Damn it!" Hailey's voice sounded again through the radio bringing Jay on high alert. From the tone of her voice, whatever she was about to say wasn't going to be good.

"Upton?" Jay questioned, keeping his tone professional knowing other police could very well be listening in on their signal.

"Target swapped plates in the lot before the team arrived. The others are on their way but we have to be extremely cautious, he's smart and he's covering his back. We can't afford for him to see us and for our cover to be blown."

"10-4," Jay replied into his radio before he set it down against the gearbox.

"I wonder what he's waiting for," Jay muttered, beginning to grow impatient, his leg bouncing rapidly up and down as a sign.

He was usually really good at stakeouts, but right now, he just felt for an urge to have this case wrapped. Maybe it was the personal aspect to it, or that fact that there was so much riding not just for the team on this one, especially for Erin, that his frustrations grew.

"He's probably not going to leave before Granger arrives. Might be a good thing to hit two birds with one stone, but it looks like he's taking precautions. First with the stolen plates and detour and changed time and now this… he's covering his back in case of a setup."

Jay nodded. Of course he was. When Erin put it like that, it seemed like the simplest thing in the world.

"He's calling someone," Erin spoke, her eyes still glued to behind the binoculars.

"How much do you want to wager it's Granger?" Jay asked.

Erin let out laugh, eyes still trained ahead.

"I think me, you and wagers aren't a good idea. Besides the Purple Pig is already set for lunch, I mean after that, you'd have to give me a pretty good incentive to bet against you, especially when we both know the odds are in your favour."

"Right," Jay chuckled.

Just then, Russo ended his call and stepped out of his car. As he slammed the door shut, his jacket shifted enough to allow Jay to see the gun strapped to his hip.

"He's armed," Jay stated before he repeated his findings into the radio to inform the others.

"Hold off on doing anything until Granger arrives," Hailey commanded. "Unless he starts shooting then you have the OK to do what you need."

"Got it," Jay replied.

"We're ETA seven minutes out," Burgess's voice now sounded through the radio.

"10-4. Set up at the back entrance just in case when you arrive. Atwater, Rojas you two position yourself at the side road. Erin, once Antonio arrives, you both overwatch from the roof across the road."

"Got it Boss," Atwater's voice sounded, and the rest of the team voiced their acknowledgment.

It was at that point Erin noticed Russo's strange behaviour.

She nudged Jay's shoulder, indicating with her chin for him to follow her gaze.

Jay's eyebrows creased as he stared at Russo, walking with one had against his holster, his eyes peering into every car he passed. He went back and forth between the side of the road he had parked up on and Erin and Jay.

"Hailey, are you seeing this?" Jay questioned.

"Yeah…" Hailey replied.

"Is he…"

"He knows we're watching," Hailey caught on. "Jay we can't blow this cover, this might be the only lead to Granger we have."

"I know," Jay replied. He knew how important it was that this meeting go ahead and Granger arrived. There was no point taking Russo into custody alone when he had no connections to Barratt and was clueless.

"You can't let him see you and Erin, Jay," Hailey's voice grew desperate as Russo got closer and closer to his GMC.

She was parked on the opposite side of the road, her car facing Jay's and she knew it would be mere moments before their cover was blown and this whole operation came crashing down.

"I don't have an invisibility cloak here Hailey, I'm not sure what you want me to do here."

"Distract him!"

"How?" Jay questioned.

There was a brief pause.

Russo was now a car length away. Jay could hear the hesitation in Hailey's voice before the word's rang clear.

"Kiss Erin," she finally said.

Author's note:

DUN DUN DUN. It was meant to be longer and a few more things were meant to go down in this chapter but I'm drained and like I said, I really wanted to get this chapter out. Hopefully, I'll write up another tomorrow. Apologies for the code issues.