Standing in his tux, Halstead turns around to face Ruzek and Burgess. His tie tied tightly and adjusted accurately around his neck, "Thanks again Voight for letting me off early." Hank looked up from the paperwork he was skimming through, "No problem. I trust you'll look after her during this get together," Hank rises from his chair and grabs his jacket draped around it, "I'm heading home. Olinsky and I have a long day tomorrow. It should be interesting."

Yesterday, Hank had managed to obtain a warrant for the arrest of their hit and run driver. They were notified that he was picked up by NYPD on a busted headlight. After his plates were run, they arrested him on the spot. The extradition was approved a few hours ago, and the two head detectives were set to head out to New York early the next morning.

Ruzek watched Voight head down the Intelligence stairs, "What made you want to go to this engagement party anyway?"

"Annie invited me," Jay pulled at his necktie, "Erin will be there and so will Landon." He continually yanks at his tie, "This thing is uncomfortable."

Burgess waves him over, "Here let me help."

"Kim, I knew there was a reason why we liked Annie!" Ruzek added, taking a seat upon the edge of his desk, "What are you going to do when you get there?"

Jay allowed Burgess to fix his tie, "I'm going to work my magic. I need to make my wife fall in love with me again," Kim finished up his tie and gently pat his shoulder, "Thanks Burgess. Erin usually does this type of thing for me. I can never get it just right."

Burgess opens her arms, and wraps them tightly around Jay. She rested her head against his shoulder, "You clean up nice." She tightens her arms around her best friend's husband, "Erin will surely fall for you dressed like that," she pulls back, "Good luck Jay."

"I hope you're right."

Ruzek throws an arm around his friend's shoulder, "Women are always right."

"You make a good point my friend."

"Alright," Kim claps loudly, "You should get going before you're late." She brushes a few strands of lint from the detective's shoulder, "The sooner you get there, the sooner you can whisk Erin off her feet and ride off into the sunset."

"She's been reading romance novels again," Adam explains in a whisper.

Kim elbows him, "I have not," her husband raises an eye brow, "okay, I haven't been reading it as often. They give girls ideas."

"Fictional ideas," Ruzek corrects.

"Alright lovebirds, I'll let you finish." Jay grabs his wallet and jacket, "I should be heading out. It's like a thirty minute drive and if I leave right now, I'll make good time." He saw the couple wave as he departed from the unit. Halstead walked down the stairs, and saw the usually busy precinct, slow and relaxed. It was a Thursday night. Most officers were off, and those who are currently on shift, were out on patrol.

Jay pulled his car keys out of his pocket, unlocked his vehicle door and hopped inside. He placed his jacket and wallet in the passenger seat, "Alright, the address," he opens up Annie's text, "here it is," he begins typing it into his GPS. Once he clicked submit, the estimated time of arrival placed him at his location a few minutes after everyone was set to arrive. Halstead pulled out of his parallel parking space, and merged into the rush hour traffic.

His knuckles tap mindlessly against the steering wheel as he drove along the wet pavement. It had just finished raining. Halstead merged into lanes, turned on and off of exits, and maintained a reasonable speed limit. The young detective debated on whether or not to turn on the radio, but when his cell phone rang, he postponed making his decision. His cell phone was connected to the speakers of his car, and by the press of a button on his steering wheel, he answered, "Hello, Detective Halstead."

"Hey, where are you?"

He recognizes Annie's voice, "I'm a few minutes away."

"Oh good!"

"Why," Jay furrows his brows, as he turned off on his exit, "What's going on?"

"Erin just arrived…and she's with Bunny and Landon. She still doesn't know you're coming, but she'll be fine with it. You're my friend too. I invited you because I wanted you here."

Jay smiles, as he pulls the car into the drive way, "I'm just pulling in. Whose place is this?"

"My soon-to-be father and mother-in-laws," Annie is outside, waving as Jay parks his car, "I'll go in with you. You're the last to arrive."

Halstead stepped out of his car and locked his vehicle as he walked away. Annie gave him an approved once over, "You clean up nice Halstead. Erin would be blind to not notice how handsome you look."

"Alright now, settle down with the flirting," Jay joked around, giving the woman a one-armed hug, "Clark may not be so willing to overlook your slight attraction."

She hit him with a giggle, "Come on, and let's go inside. I'm dying to see the look on her face when she sees you."

"We're not on the best of terms…at least I don't think we are."

Annie brushes it off, "You two are perfect for each other! I want my marriage to be like yours!"

"No marriage is perfect."

"Yeah, but if my marriage is half as great as yours and Erin's, I'll be grateful," Annie smiles as she pulls open the house door, "I know you, Bunny and Landon do not get along, but please try tonight, if not for me then for Erin."

Jay salutes, "I'll be on my best behavior."

The two walked inside, him following behind her, and her leading him into the dining room. At the sight of Jay, Bunny sighed, Landon rolled his eyes, and Erin shifted in her seat nervously. Bunny points to the empty chair beside Erin, "You're right there Jay," For the engagement party, there weren't as many people there as Jay expected. He knew Annie's wedding was going to be small, due to her lack of family, but for some reason, he still expected more people.

"Annie," Bunny called, taking the attention off of Jay, "What made you have your engagement party so late? Usually, an engagement party is months before the wedding."

"I wanted Erin to be there," Annie takes a seat between Clark and Erin. She casually squeezes her friend's hand, "I knew she was going to wake up. And I wanted her to be with me through the wedding process every step of the way."

Landon took a sip of his glass of beer, "So Jay, what brings you here?"
"I invited him," Annie interjects.

"Why?"

"…because he's my friend, my best friend's husband and it's my wedding."

"Is this really appropriate?" Bunny chimed in. She was in complete support of playing matchmaker with Landon and her daughter, but the moment Annie tried to do the same with Erin and Jay, Bunny had to voice her opposition, "Trying to play matchmaker at your own engagement party Annie…this time is for you and Clark, not them." She had a way of making it seem like she genuinely cared.

"I'm not playing matchmaker Bunny. All I did was invite two of my closest friends to celebrate one of the best times in my life."

"Is that all you're trying to do?" Bunny squints.

Annie nods, "It is."

Erin wants to sink down into her seat. She wants to hide her face, blink this dinner over, and snap her fingers to be home. This was awkward. She knew Annie was only trying to look out for her, but she had wished that she had at least gotten a warning.

"Your hair," Jay acknowledges, taking in the sight of his wife, "its lighter."

She twirls a strand, "Yeah, Bunny and I went to the hairdresser. Bunny suggested a change. I got it highlighted."

"It's different."

Erin shrugs, "I think that's the look Bunny was going for."

"You don't have to do everything she suggests."

"She's my mother."

"…and you're an adult." He adds. Jay continually forgets that the last memory Erin has is of her childhood. She's fully aware of being an adult, but it didn't make it any easier to go against her mother. He turned to face her, "I'm sorry. Ignore what I said. I don't want to ruin this for Annie."

"You're right."

He looks at her skeptically, "About which part?"

"Both," she smiles, bashfully. She shouldn't change herself. If she's not comfortable with it, she needs to stick to her true self, especially if she wanted to remember her new self.

The group, consisting of Clark, his parents, his sister, Annie, Erin, Jay, Landon, and Bunny began passing around the food dishes, and each person made their plates in silence. Clark's mother, Susan, poured each person a glass of wine and a separate glass of water; however Landon had come with his own case of beer. Clark's father, Jeff, began digging into his food, "So, grandchildren? What's the plan with that?"

"Clark doesn't want any children, and I'm okay with that. I have a child already who is keeping me on my toes."

"Yeah, and besides, Clara here will give you your grandchild," Clark leans over and pats his sister's bulging belly bump. She was recently engaged to her boyfriend of eight months.

Susan took a bite of her food, "Are you two nervous?" She swallowed and wiped the corners of her mouth, "Marriage is a big step…it's completely normal to be nervous."

"I am," Clark admits.

Annie turns to look at him, "You are?" she sets her fork down, "I'm more excited than anything."

"Like my mom said, it's normal."

"But I've never at one moment felt nervous about marrying you. I'm just excited and impatient because I'm ready to spend the rest of my life with you." Annie's voice grows in pitch, and Erin can tell that she's getting upset. Any time Annie was upset, her voice grew high in tone. Lindsay reached under the table, and took a hold of her best friend's hand, "Annie-"

"No Erin," Annie shakes her head, cutting off her closest friend, "Clark would you have told me that you were nervous if your mother hadn't have asked?"

Before Clark had a chance to respond, Jay cleared his throat with the sip of his glass of water, "Susan is right Annie. Nerves are a common feeling. You're making a lifelong commitment to someone that you vow to love. Erin and I were both nervous the day of our wedding. I know technically the bride and the groom weren't supposed to see each other, but we did. We gave each other a pep talk. We reminded each other on why we were getting married in the first place. She was my other half…my soulmate. And the only way to calm those nerves, were to remind ourselves of that. She's the love of my life, and even though we both felt those nerves, we never once regretted getting married."

Annie thinks his words are sweet. With Erin's hand in her hold, she squeezes her best friend's hand in return. Erin had definitely gotten lucky. Many women are looking for a man like Jay and her best friend was fortunate enough to find one.

The remainder of dinner continued with Jay and Erin passing lingering looks to one another. Landon sat quietly, drinking his beer since Erin deemed herself the designated driver of the night for him and Bunny. Once the meal ended, the group rose from the seats and decided to head into the living room for conversation and toasts.

Jay stepped back, looked at Erin, and waited for her to rise from her seat. When he noticed her outfit… a black dress that stopped at the top of her upper thigh, he had to take a double look. Halstead had only seen Erin dressed like that for undercover operations. She would occasionally use her sex appeal to get into the hearts of those offenders they want answers from or those defendants they want to arrest. He had never seen her dress up like that intentionally.

"What do you have on?" He's whispering. He doesn't want anyone else to hear the shock, disappointment and confusion in his voice.

"I didn't have anything to wear to this get together," Erin shrugs as she pushes in her seat, "Bunny went to the store and bought me an outfit," the young couple followed the remainder of the guests into the living room, "It's not really my style, but I didn't have anything else to put on."

Jay heard her words, and not one part of him was surprised by Bunny…except for the mention of it not being her style. That was the Erin he knew, and whether she knew it or not, he could tell that his wife was starting to shine through.

Halstead stood shoulder to shoulder with his wife. All of the seats were taken, and a part of him thought, or expected Landon to offer his seat to the only woman left standing, but he chose to remain seated and start on his third beer.

"I know your favorite book, your favorite song, your favorite movie," he's whispering to her as Annie and Susan gush over the details of Clara's impending baby shower, "you can always read it, listen to it and watch them again for the first time. You'll see why you fell in love with them." Erin turns to face him. Everyone else was preoccupied. Jeff was questioning Landon on how he knew Annie and Erin, while Bunny kept Clark busy with stories of her fast life. Jay used them being distracted to his advantage. He brushed a strand of hair behind Erin's ear, "If you think about it, our relationship could be like that…we could live the best time in our life over again, and you'll see why you fell in love with me."

Erin had to admit. Her husband had an exquisite way with words. He was attractive, and the suit did wonders for her attraction to him. Her heart did flutter at the smoothness of his voice, her cheeks blushed at the smile on his face, and she sometimes felt extremely mushy when she noticed the way he looked at her when he thought she wasn't paying attention. Dr. Rhodes was right…maybe she was scared about the life Erin Halstead was living and chose to be content with the life of Erin Lindsay. Lindsay needed to trust her decisions. She needed to give her husband a chance.

"What did you have in mind?"

He sighed and smiled in immediate gratitude, "Go on a date with me."

"Do I have to dress as ridiculous as I'm dressing now?"

"…of course not."

She spots Landon, laughing obnoxiously loud as he reaches for his next beer. Lindsay looks from the couch potato she's been staying with and towards her partner, her husband, "Yeah. I would like that."

"You won't regret it," he pulls her into a hug, "I promise." She didn't push him away. She was okay with it. She was okay that he didn't ask for one. He was her husband. He shouldn't have to ask for a hug. Erin had to put forth a bigger effort, and she was willing to try. It was the least she could do. She owed her old self that, and she definitely owed it to Jay.