Author Note: I had planned on getting this chapter out sooner but work has been crazy lately. Anyway here is the new chapter. Hope you enjoy! Thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites!

Chapter 9: Girl's Night & Two men and a little lady

In the last week or so things were getting better between Erin and Jay. He help Erin move into her new apartment which was only a few blocks from where he lived. Having Adam and Kim there to help with the move made things less awkward between the two. The laughter and conversations that flowed throughout the day between the two of them felt like old times. The move took most of the day and they only had a few boxes left to bring up.

"Kim and Adam are grabbing the last couple of boxes." He says to Erin as he enters the apartment. "Where do you want these?" Jay asks gesturing to the boxes in his hands.

"Umm, you can just set them in over there for right now."

Jay sets the boxes down. He takes the opportunity with the two of them being alone to talk to her. "You know we have an open spot in Intelligence if you're still interested." Jay says casually.

Erin looks up at him with surprise written all over face and the realization hits her face, "You been talking to Voight." She says in her raspy voice.

"He may have mention something."

"Listen, I appreciate the offer but I don't' want to make you feel uncomfortable or like you have to do this because Voight said something to you."

"I'm not doing this because of Voight. You're a great cop Erin and I've seen the list of people who want in Intelligence and I'd rather have someone I know and trust in my unit them some fresh face that I don't know."

"You trust me? After everything?"

Jay takes a step closer to Erin who is standing amongst the boxes in her living room. "Erin, I may understand what you did but that doesn't change the fact that I would still trust you with my life. We always worked well together no matter what was going on with us personally.

She smiles remembering the first time they cooled things off between them and says, "We'll always have each other's back."

He smiles back at her, "Always."

The two continued to stare at one another until they heard Adam and Kim arguing in the hallway and their eyes finally break apart. "So, Lindsay are you going to feed us, after all this manual labor or what?" Adam says as he and Kim enter the apartment putting the last of the boxes down.

Erin laughs and says, "Sure, I'll order a pizza."

"Before you do I want to say something." They all look at Jay waiting to see what he has to say. Jay looks over at Erin and says, "You're looking at newest addition to Intelligence."

"What?" Kim says. "You're coming back?"

Erin looks at Jay and nods her head. "Oh my god!" Kim says as she runs over to Erin and hugs her.

"Welcome back, Lindsay." Adam says as he comes and hugs her as well.

"Thanks, Adam."

Tonight was the first night that Nadia was going to sleep over at Jay's and he was completely nervous even though he had planning this night for a while. He wanted Nadia to fell completely comfortable at his place so he called Erin over a couple of days ago to help him set up Naida's room at his place. He found out from Erin what kind of room their daughter would like. He knew she was all about princesses and everything pink but Jay didn't know anything about that. Erin told Jay that her Disney princess was Rapunzel from Tangled. Jay found some pictures online for Tangled themed rooms. They painted her room a light purple and on wall Jay brought a wall decal of the lanterns scene from the movie. They had got her a dress up area with all kinds of princess outfits. The room was very little girls dream. Erin told him that their daughter was going to love what he did. He glanced around the room making sure everything was in place. This was going to be Nadia's first time seeing this room and he wanted to make sure everything was perfect. Closing the door to the bedroom it, he made sure the everything was set up for the rest of the night. Jay had brought the popcorn for the Disney movie marathon and the pizza would be coming soon. Will was going to stop by later to hang out for a little bit to get to know Nadia better. Now all he needed was his little girl.

A couple minutes later a knock sounded on his door. He got up from the couch and headed to the door. Jay pulls the door open and is greeted with the sight of his daughter and her mother.

"Daddy!" Nadia shouts as she drops her bag and she runs into his arms.

Jay grabs her and hoists her up into his arms and begins to walk into the apartment. Hearing her call him daddy would never get old. "Hey munchkin. Are you ready for our sleep over?"

She nods her head excitedly, "Yup. Mommy helped me back my bag and I brought my stuff animals to sleep with too."

He looks at her with a big small on his face, "Awesome." He realizes that he had completely forgotten Erin at the door. He looks to find that she had entered the apartment behind them and closed the door. She stayed in the background to let them have their moment. He turns to her and says, "Sorry we got caught up."

Erin laughs and says, "No problem. You both seemed really excited about tonight."

"That we are. We are going to have so much fun aren't we munchkin?" The little girl nodded her head as Jay continued, "And Uncle Will said he is going to stop by and watch movies with us. Doesn't that sound like fun."

"Yes! Uncle Will is so silly." She says looking at her mother.

"You are going to have so much fun with Uncle Will and daddy."

Jay sets her down. "Go and get your bag from your mom. I have a surprise for you."

Nadia eyes get big, "A surprise?"

"Yup. And your mom help me with it. So the sooner you go and get your bag the sooner we can see it.

Nadia runs over to Erin to get her bag. She runs back over to Jay and says, "I'm ready for my surprise now daddy."

Jay grabs her hand, "Alright, follow me."

They down a hallway leading to her bedroom. He opens the door to the room and watches his little girls eyes light up at the sight of her new room.

"It's a princess room." She whispers in wonder.

Jay bends down to her level and says, "Do you like it munchkin?"

She looks back at him and nods her head yes, "Thank you, daddy." She wraps her tiny arms around his neck.

"Your welcome." Nadia lets go of him and looks around her room at all her new toys, bed, dress up clothes.

Erin comes up to Jay lightly touching his arm bringing his attention away from Nadia to her. "You did good. She loves it."

He smiles at her and says, "I couldn't have done it without your help. No, this was all you." They watch their daughter as she checks out her room. "Hey, I have something for you." Erin tells him. She jesters for him to follow her out the room.

Jay turns toward Nadia who is busy taking her animals out of her bag and placing them on her new bed. "I'm going to talk to your mom in the living room really quick and then we can start our movie."

"Okay daddy." She replies without looking up from her toys.

He heads out the room and finds Erin leaning up against his kitchen island.

"What's up." He says as he approaches her.

She pulls a photo album out of her bag and places it on the counter. "It's Nadia baby book. Umm…there were so many times I wanted to call you and tell you about her but I just couldn't do it. So, until I was ready to tell you I decided to make you a baby book." She looks up at him and sees that he has tears in his eyes.

His eyes move from the book to her and then back to the book. He turns the pages of the book looking at the images in the book. He touches the ultrasound picture of his daughter and he sees a photograph of Erin holding Nadia as a baby.

He looks up at her at with tears in his eyes. She lifts her hand up to his cheek and wipes the tear away from his face. "I know this won't make up for what I did but I want you to know that you were never not on my mind during those three years. I was scared and I let that fear rule me an and I'm sorry."

He nods his head against the hand that is still laying on his cheek. "I forgive you."

Her mouth opens in shock, "Jay…I don't deserve your forgiveness." She says crying.

"You do. I have been meaning to tell you this for a while now. I want to put the past behind us and completely move forward. So, I forgive you and now you need to forgive yourself." He wipes the tears falling from her eyes. "You're here now and that's all that matters."

She nods her head and the two stares into each other eyes. The apartment door opens ruining the moment between the two. They break apart wiping their eyes as they do. They hear Will voice as he enters the apartment.

"Jay, you owe me, I just paid for your pizza." He says. Will looks between the two of them picking up on the fact that he may have interrupted something. Deciding not to make things weird he greets Erin. "Hey, Erin."

Hey, Will."

"So, where's my little niece at?" He asked setting down the pizza on the counter.

"She's still in her room." Jay answers.

"I should get going." Erin says as she grabs her bag. "I'm just going to say goodbye to Nadia."

Erin heads in the direction of her daughter's room. Leaving the two brothers alone.

"What's this?" Will asks looking through the book on the counter.

"Erin made me a baby book of Nadia."

"Oh…That's what I walked in on. You too were having a moment and I completely ruined it. Sorry." Will says sheepishly.

"It's probably good that you came in before anything happened."

Will smiles and says, "It was that good of a moment."

Jay shoves his brother smiling, "Shut up."

Before their conversation can continue they hear Nadia and Erin talking as they enter the room. The little girl is in her mother's arms yapping away about her new room.

Nadia stops talking to her mother as soon as she sees, "Hi, Uncle Will."

Will smiles at her, "Hey Nadia. Are you ready for tonight?"

"Yes! I'm so excited. We are going to play princesses and watch Tangled. It's going to be so much fun."

They all laugh at the little girl excitement. "I'm sorry I'm going to miss all the fun but you are going to have so much fun with daddy and Uncle Will."

Nadia hugs her mother tightly and says, "I'm going to miss you mommy."

"Aww, I'm going to miss you too. But you're going to have so much fun."

"Love you, mommy."

"I love you too." Erin says as she passes Nadia over to Jay.

"I'm going to take good care of her. Thanks for the book." Jay says taking Nadia from Erin.

"You're welcome. You be good for your daddy and Uncle Will."

"I'm always good mama." She says with a smile.

"I know, baby. Ok, I'm really leaving now. Bye." Erin says as she leaves the apartment.

Jay turns to Nadia and says, "What do you want to do first?'

Nadia tilts her head thinking. "We should eat some pizza and then play princesses and after that we watch Tangled and have popcorn."

"What the lady wants, the lady gets." Jay says bouncing Nadia in his arms as the head to the kitchen to eat.

A half hour later. Will and Jay are in Nadia's room wearing princess crowns and pink tutus as they sit in at the small table in Nadia's room waiting for the tea for their tea party. Will leans over to whisper to Jay, "Did you ever think this was going to be your life."

Jay laughs. "No. Not in a million years but I wouldn't change it for the world."

Nadia brings teacups over to the table. "It's not funny Uncle Will. You can't drink it till I get my other dolls ready for the tea party." She says in a serious tone so much like her mother.

"Okay munchkin." Jay replies.

Will laughs at the serious tone his little niece is giving them. Nadia puts her hands on her hips and says, "Uncle Will this is serious you can't start the tea party till everyone is ready."

"Uncle will is just being silly. I promise that he is taking this very seriously. Right Will?"

Will looks between his brother and niece and says, "I'm sorry Nadia. I just so excited about this tea party."

"It's okay. I promise we will start soon and then after the tea party it's movie time!"

Kim knocked on the door waiting for Erin to open it. She shuffled the bottle of wine in her hands and the takeout bags that were in her hands. Erin opens the door a second later.

"Are you ready for girl's night!" Kim says excitedly as she holds up the bottle of wine.

Erin laughs and lets her into the apartment. "You can set the food down on the counter over there." She says pointing to the counter in the kitchen. "And I'll grab the wine glasses." She sighs and says, "I can't tell you the last time I've actually had a girl's night."

"Me too. But I'm glad your back. I felt like we were just started to build a friendship before you left."

"I'm sorry that I left you guys so high and dry." Erin sighs as she fills the wine glasses. "I just needed to get out of Chicago and away from my mom."

Kim places her hand on top of the one Erin has laying on the counter. "You don't have to keep apologizing. I get wanting to escape. We all just really glad you back, especially Jay." Kim says coyly as she takes a sip of wine.

Erin laughs. "So, we're just jumping right into then."

"Hey. I have been waiting to ask since we help you move into this place. Seemed like you and Jay were pretty chummy."

Erin pulls plates from the cabinets, "Well, we do have a child together. So, we should try to be at least civil to each other." She begins to load the food onto the plates.

They grab the plates of food and the wine glasses and head to the living room. "Civil? You too were may more than civil. The banter between the two of you was like I was watching the old Erin and Jay."

Erin smiled thinking about what Kim said, "You think?"

"Oh my god! You still love him." Kim said excitedly.

"Kim, calm down. I'm not in love with Jay. I mean there is a part of me that will always love him but I'm not in love with him because I don't know even know him anymore. We both have changed in the last three years. We aren't the same people we were." She sighs, "I can't deny that there are still some unresolved feelings there but I can't risk what we built now. We finally are moving past him being pissed at me."

"Don't you think that Nadia deserves to have her parents together?"

"I don't think I can risk it. What if we break up again? I don't want that to affect Nadia." Erin pauses before she continues, "Plus I think he may have feelings for someone else."

Kim chokes on the wine she is drinking. She coughs and says, "What? Jay hasn't even dated since you left. Well except that incident when he was undercover but he was in a bad place at the time." Erin stops eating at Kim's words she gets ready to ask her more but Kim continues talking before she gets a chance. "So, who could he possibly be interested in?"

"Upton" Erin says in a whisper as she places her plate on the table and grabs her wine glass.

Kim starts laughing. Erin looks at her like she is crazy. "What! I'm serious. I have seen the two being all close since I got back."

Kim stops laughing and looks at Erin, "Their partners. Nothing more."

"Well, Jay and I were partners too and look what happened." She says drinking her wine. "When I showed up at Jay's sometime last week she was there and I saw the way she was looking at him. She definitely has feelings for him."

"Erin, that doesn't mean that he has feelings for her."

"Maybe? I don't know." She says shaking her head. "She was also pretty protective over him the first night I came back." She pauses, "I just can't shake this feeling that there is something there.

"Erin trust me. Jay doesn't have feelings for her beyond friendship."

Erin shrugs her shoulders. Tired of being the center of the conversation she decides to ask Kim some questions. "Enough about me. What's going on between you and Ruzek?" Erin says with a smile.

Kim sighs, "Things are complicated between the two of us." She picks her wine glass off the table and takes a big drink.

Erin turns toward Kim placing her wine glass on the table. Sensing something more is going on with her friend. She moves closer to Kim. "Hey, what's going on?"

Kim closes her eyes and looks up at Erin with tears in her eyes, "Umm…we were going to have a baby." She pauses before she continues, "A case went bad and I umm had a miscarriage." She says crying.

Erin pulls Kim into a hug and lets her cry. After a few minutes Kim pulls away. "Sorry for crying all over you."

"Kim, its ok."

"Things have kind of been hard for me lately but I'm trying to get back to my old self. It's just hard. Ugh…I didn't want to turn this girl's night into a sob feast."

"Hey this is what girl's nights are supposed to about. Friends talking with one another about what going on in their lives whether good or bad.." Erin tells Kim. "If you want to cry we cry and if you want to laugh we laugh."

"Thanks." Kim clears her throat. "I think right now I want to laugh."

"Okay then let's find some cheesy romantic comedy to laugh at."

Also can we have some ice cream?" Kim asks with a small laugh.

Erin smiles at her and says, "I can do that. I got some mint chocolate chip in the freezer. How about you find a movie to watch while I grab it."

Kim nods her head and turns on the TV while Erin grabs the ice cream from the kitchen. Kim settles back into the couch. Erin comes back with two bowls and hand one to Kim. The two settle in for a night of laughs.

The movie credits rolls on Tangled as Jay looks down at the little girl sleeping on his lap with her mouth slightly opened. She fell asleep toward the end of the movie. Jay continues to stroke his daughter's hair.

Will looks over at his little brother and smiles, "It's so surreal seeing you with a kid."

"Man, I honestly never thought I would have kids but now here I am playing princesses, having tea parties and watching Disney movies."

Will turns toward his brother and says, "So, I gotta ask. Does Erin being back bring up any old feelings? I mean you were pretty devasted when she left."

Jay sighs, "I'm going to go lay her down and then I'm going to grab a beer because I'm going to need one if we are having this conversation."

Jay gets up from the couch and heads to his daughter's room. He lays her down in her bed and kisses her forehead before he shuts the door to her bedroom. He heads to the kitchen and grabs and a beer for him and Will.

He heads back to the couch and hands Will a beer and sits down, "When I first saw her again I can't deny it brought about a lot of unresolved feelings. But we both have changed. We're not the same people we were three years ago and it's not just us we have to worry about."

"I get that. But Jay you loved this girl and when she left she shattered your heart. You never got closure." Will sighs, "What I'm trying to say is if there was a chance to rekindle things would you do it?"

Jay takes a drink of his beer and says, "I don't know. I still have feelings for her but I don't want to risk things not working out between us now that Nadia is in the picture."

Will nods at his brother. He hesitates before he continues, "I get you being worried about Nadia but don't you think that maybe you owe it to her to try and be a family?"

Jay sits there drinking his beer pondering the question his brother asked.

Reviews are welcomed!