When Erin woke up the next day, the bed was empty and the sheets beside her were cool to the touch. Only the dent in the pillow where Jay's head had been reassured her that she hadn't imagined the previous evening.

The following days fell into a quiet routine. In the morning, Jay would be up before Erin to make coffee and breakfast. While Erin ate in the kitchen, Jay would shower and get ready for the day. Erin would then spend the day on the couch working on the laptop Hank brought her while Jay would spend time reviewing case files at the kitchen bar. At lunch, they would order food in. The two would quietly move around each other in the apartment, never far apart but also never in the same room for long. At the end of his work day, Hank would show up with dinner and stay for a while afterwards. Jay returned to sleeping on the couch, and while Erin was disappointed, she didn't want to upset the quiet comfort that had developed between them.

On the third day, Erin felt ready to tackle the task of bathing. Just the previous afternoon, Will had checked out her stitches and declared while they needed to stay in for at least another week she had healed well enough for a quick shower. As Erin turned away from the linen closet with a fresh towel, Jay handed her a pile of familiar looking clothes. The pile included a few t-shirts, some underwear, and her favorite pair of yoga pants.

Jay's voice was rough when he spoke. "This is everything that was still in the drier when you left."

Immediately, her eyes filled with tears.

"Jay…" she started.

"If it's all the same to you, I'm not ready to talk about that yet."

Jay quickly turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Erin standing in the hallway hugging the pile of clothes to her chest.

On the fifth day, Antonio showed up at the door.

Erin immediately pulled him into a hug. Antonio had always felt like an older brother to her. It wasn't until he showed up that she realized how much she'd missed him.

"It's getting suspicious that you're missing so much work," he explained when Jay asked why he'd come over. "Voight put me 'undercover' until we figure something better out."

By the following Sunday, Erin was officially tired of the small talk and pleasantries with Jay. Erin sat on the couch with the laptop as she had done for the previous seven days, however, this time she was not working. Instead, she was waiting for the opportunity to corner Jay into talking. Hearing the refrigerator open, Erin knew this was her chance. Blocking the doorway to the kitchen, she took a deep breath and gathered her courage.

"Do you hate me because I left?" she blurted out. That wasn't how she planned to start this conversation but now that the words were out there, they hung in the air between them.

Jay paused in his perusal of the contents of the fridge. "Erin, I don't want to talk about this until you're feeling better. "

"Well I'm ready to talk now."

The anger built inside Jay. When he turned to face her, she could see the fire in his eyes along with the sadness.

"Fine!" he shouted, "You want to talk? Start by explaining how you could just walk away. You ripped my heart out Erin, and took it with you. And you never looked back!"

"You ripped my heart out first!" Erin yelled.

Both Erin and Jay were breathing heavily. The staring match that followed was charged with emotion. When she regained control of her breath, Erin spoke quietly. "Everything about our relationship from the very first day of our partnership was about having each other's backs. Even at my lowest, we were still there for each other. Then, in a time when we clearly needed each other, you shut me out. The night you left, the sound of the front door shutting felt like you were shutting the door on us. And then every time I tried to talk to you about it after, nothing. So when the opportunity was forced on me to leave, part of me was relieved to leave all the painful encounters with you behind. But you know what?! Being away didn't make it hurt any less!"

"Erin, it wasn't that I was trying to keep you out, I was unraveling at the seams and just trying to keep all of the ugliness from that time of my life in. Obviously, I did not handle things well the first or even the second time around. That's probably the one good thing that came out of you leaving. Voight forced me to see a psychologist, and I feel like I'm actually getting somewhere this time."

"That's good Jay."

Through his confession, she had slowly gravitated to him. Now that the fight was draining out of her, she felt tired again. Unable to resist the urge, she leaned into his chest drawing strength from him. Jay wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.

"We really screwed this up this time didn't we?" he asked. Erin nodded into his chest.

"Do you think there's any chance of fixing this, fixing us?" As soon as the question was out of his mouth, Jay wished he could reel it back in. But it was too late for that.

"I'm not sure…" Jay felt his heart drop at her words.

"…but I'd like to find out."

With a large sigh of relief, Jay dropped a quick kiss to the top of her head.

"Okay, then." He said.

"Okay, then." She echoed.

Author's Note: Hey, sorry for the delay getting this chapter out. I wanted to make sure I did justice to their emotions and kept putting off writing. Just a warning, there's only ONE chapter left.