Sorry for not updating in a while, I've been crazily busy recently. Anyway, here's a continuation of chapter four by request. Since it's been a while, I do recommend you reread chapter four (like I had to do haha) just so your memory is refreshed. I hope you like it!

They drank through the night, and all the while Erin tried not to look at her partner as though he was going to slip away any second. She found herself taking in all his features as though she'd never seen him before; the curve of his nose, the slight twitching of his lip when she said something bordering on flirty, the way his freckles burned under the bar lights. Everything suddenly felt so limited.

They left the bar late, and as they strode through the cold and towards her car, Erin looked down at their swinging hands and tried not to flush as the back of their hands grazed each other. Jay didn't react.

Just under the alcohol limit, Erin drove the two of them home, silently deciding that she'd bring Jay to pick up his car from Molly's in the morning. Right now she was tired and needed to escape from the day's events, if only for a few hours.

As Lindsay moved them through the strangely desolate streets, she didn't need to tell her partner that he was staying at her place tonight. She guessed his apartment was still packed into organised boxes, so everything would be easier if he just crashed on her couch for the night. That's what she told herself; that it would be for ease. But maybe she just wanted him close. Maybe she needed to check he wasn't getting ready to leave again.

"Hey, do you mind if we make a quick stop somewhere?" Jay uttered, his voice cracking slightly.

She didn't mind at all.

There was a frost to the air that bit through Jay to his core. It was times like these that a leather jacket proved wholly ineffective. So he simply shoved both hands into the side pockets and pushed the temperature from his mind.

The ground crunched beneath his feet as he strode through a place he'd become so accustomed to. Rows and rows of gravestones haunted the depths of his mind, the reality of death hitting him like the icy Chicago wind.

Before long, he found the piece of carved stone that stole the air from his lungs.

It read: Ben Corson 1999-2007.

It should've read: Ben Corson, the boy taken before he had a chance.

Ben Corson, too young for this.

Ben Corson, unprotected.

Snow trudged around the gravestone and crunched as Jay stepped an inch closer. The wind was burning now; burning the skin of his face and the tips of his fingers and the beating muscle inside his chest.

Biting a lip, Halstead dragged out his phone from his back pocket and looked at the empty screen. Not a text or call from Allie. It truly was goodbye.

He swallowed the bile in his throat and gripped his hair and a pull of frustration. He couldn't protect Ben. He'd let down Allie.

His hand dropped limp at his side as he fought back the tears.

Just then, he felt a warmth encapsulating his fingertips. A glow to ice storm. A light at the end of the tunnel. An ounce of hope in his darkness.

He didn't even hear her approaching, yet he was so glad she did. Erin wasn't looking at him, instead down and at the words before them both. He felt her thumb circle a spot on his hand as their fingers interlocked and she drew closer.

Their bodies pact side by side, they blew out puffs of icy air simultaneously and waited through the cold.

He didn't speak much; there wasn't a lot to be said. He nodded and 'hmmm'd at words his partner spoke but his heart wasn't in it. So he followed her out of the car and into her apartment, then sank into the couch beside her and accepted the beer she offered. He drank meaningless sips and felt the exhaustion of the day set in.

"I'm glad you stayed, partner." Erin finally said when her beer was empty.

He smiled. He was pretty glad too.

When Lindsay lifted her body from the couch, he felt the loss of warmth.

"Well," She started softly, breaking through the intimate silence. "I'm calling it a night."

"Can I ask you something?" She stopped halfway to her room and turned back around and nodded after a few seconds. "Why did you ask me to stay?"

He watched her breathe out and pause her entire being for a second. Everything disintegrated and all that was left was an intimacy that scared the both of them.

She darted out her tongue to the bottom of her lip, and she took a few steps closer to her partner. She twiddled her fingers together before she found the courage to speak again.

"Do you remember that night at my reunion? We went to the hotel bar." He nodded. He never forgot. "And I said 'maybe one day'... And you said-"

"Definitely." He finished for her, the ghost of a nostalgic smile dancing across his lips. She flashed him a saddened smile at that.

Erin paused again, thinking it might take all night for her to get out what she wanted to say.

"Well, I meant it." Lindsay said, shocking herself a little with the strength of her words.

So did I, Jay thought. But Erin looked pained and on the verge of saying more so he kept his mouth shut.

"And I don't know if 'one day' is gonna be tomorrow, or in a year... Or maybe even ten years. All I know is that I don't want to miss it. And that's selfish, I know. But you should know that I'm waiting, okay?"

And he nodded. Because he was too.

"Erin," He called her name before she slipped away into the night. "Do you love him?"

She gave him a sad smile and for a single second, Jay thought his partner was coming closer to him. Instead, she replied boldly and held his gaze for an everlasting second. "No."

And maybe that was all Jay needed for the hope of One Day.

Not my best, but I hope you guys still found it enjoyable!