Chapter 2
After a day filled with an intense arrest (and a manhunt around an abandoned warehouse), Erin was exhausted. As soon as she finished her paperwork at her desk, she signed and dated the forms and walked into Voight's office to give him her forms. Erin checked her watch – it was almost 7 pm. "I'm out of here," she said as put the forms in his Paperwork basket on the front of his desk. "I'm exhausted."
"Alright, Lindsay," Voight said as he looked up from his own paperwork. "You take care. See you next Monday."
"See you Monday," Erin replied as she walked out of Voight's office. As she was reaching to grab her coat, she had a sudden rush of nausea, but it wore off after a few seconds. Whew, she thought to herself. She didn't want to throw up in front of the entire Intelligence Unit.
"Goodnight y'all," she yelled to everyone at their desks. "Goodnight," everyone, except Jay, replied in almost perfect unison. She took a quick look around and realized that Jay was immersed in his paperwork. And she was the first one to leave. Oh well, she though, it's Friday and I'm going home to sleep. She checked that she had everything she needed and she walked down the stairs, and buzzed herself out of the upstairs area. She was less than five feet from the door when she heard "Lindsay," in a monotonous, serious tone behind her. Erin stopped and chuckled lightly in annoyance. Platt, she thought, I really just want to go. Even so, she turned to face Sargent Platt.
"What's up?" Erin asked in the most enthusiastic tone she could.
Platt looked down at some forms as she said, "You Intelligence people are up there late tonight."
"Made an arrest a couple of hours ago," Erin replied as she leaned against the desk. "Tons of paperwork."
"I see," Platt said as she looked up to make eye contact with Erin. "I need your assistance with something."
"With what, exactly?" Erin said, not wanting to get wrapped up in some elaborate search during her weekend.
"I heard Burgess might be doing some work with you guys next week, so as a generous person I'm asking if you would keep an eye on her. I don't want her to get intimidated by all the guys in Intelligence and you're the only girl up there right now."
Erin smiled lightly. "No problem, sarg," she said. "I can teach her how I hold my own ground amidst all those guys."
"Sounds good. Goodnight Lindsay."
"Goodnight, sarg." Erin sighed as she left the building and headed for her car. She looked down at her phone just before putting the keys in the ignition and saw a text from Kendra. It had come in 15 minutes ago.
You want off the books? Come in within the next hour. That's the only time I'm free until next Thursday.
Erin immediately unlocked her phone and texted a quick reply. She did a quick calculation in her head and deduced that going at normal speed it would take her 10 minutes to drive to Lakeshore. Be there in 10, she typed and hit Send. She threw her phone onto the passenger seat, and pulled out onto the street, and headed for Lakeshore.
It took Erin less than five minutes to find a parking spot in the Lakeshore parking lot. Visiting hours would be over in less than 30 minutes, so there weren't many people in the lot except for the surgeons, nurses, and doctors that would be doing the night shifts. She walked through the ER to the main reception area, and saw Kendra walking out of the entrance to the Outpatient Care Area. There's really no one in the lobby of a hospital at 7:30pm, even in Chicago, Erin thought.
"Hey, thanks for doing this," Erin said as she approached Kendra. They shook hands.
"No problem. Anything for my best friend." She smiled and motioned for Erin to follow her into the Outpatient Care Area.
"In here," she said as she pointed into the third examination room they came to. Erin stepped inside and sat down on the bed. She leaned her head against the wall next to the bed in frustration. "Ugh," Erin said out loud.
"What's going on, Erin?" Kendra asked as she pulled out some medical tools.
"I just felt like I was going to throw up again," Erin replied as she sat up again.
"Again? How often have you been feeling like this?"
"I've thrown up four times this week. And felt sick twice today."
Kendra took Erin's pulse and blood pressure. She also put the back of her hand to Erin's forehead. "No fever, and your pulse and blood pressure are a little above normal, but that's probably because you just got off work. Any other bad signs?"
"Not other than stomach ache, nausea, and vomiting," Erin said. "I'm really hungry right now though. A bit more than usual the past couple of weeks."
Kendra pulled a urine sample cup out of the cabinet. "Alright, Erin, I'm sure you've done one of these before. If this doesn't come up with anything, then we might run a blood test. Okay?"
"Okay," Erin said. She hopped off the bed, took the cup, and went to the bathroom. She handed it to Kendra a few minutes later, who handed it to a nurse. "It'll take about 15 minutes to run the tests. So, have you been experiencing any of these symptoms at work? I know you work long days."
"I've taken Advil every single time, so I think that tides my nausea over until the evening or the next day."
"Has anyone noticed you're not one hundred percent?"
Erin was about to respond no, but then she realized that somebody had seen.
Jay.
"Uh, well, my boyfriend has. But he's kept it quiet, thank God," Erin smiled slightly. "I don't like to attract a ton of attention to myself."
"Okay," Kendra replied. They talked casually for what seemed like forever to Erin until there was a knock on the door. Kendra turned around, said thank you to the nurse who was holding two slips of paper. Great, Erin thought. There's probably something on there that solves my problem.
Erin observed Kendra as she shut the door, put on her reading glasses to read the two pages, then flung the pages down on the table and pulled off her glasses. Kendra sighed as she looked at Erin.
"What?" Erin asked nervously.
Kendra put her hand on the edge of the desk on her side of the room. "Look, Erin, I don't know how to say this lightly, so I'm just going to tell you."
Kendra paused, waiting to see if Erin gave a response. She didn't give any, only a tilting of her head. Oh my God, Lindsay thought to herself, what's wrong with me?
"Erin, you're pregnant."
Erin took a double take. "What?"
"Your test came back with abnormally high levels of hGC. I'd say you're about five weeks along."
"Erin?" Kendra asked.
Erin couldn't respond. She was trying with all her might to stop herself from crying her eyes out. She couldn't believe that this had happened. Shoot, Erin thought to herself.
"Erin," Kendra repeated herself. "It's going to be okay. I assume your boyfriend's the father, correct?" Erin nodded in response without looking up. She had her head in her hands. "Look, Erin, this is off the books, like you said. No one's gonna know until you tell them. Alright?"
Erin got up off the table with tears in her eyes. She sniffed as she grabbed her jacket and bag, and she stopped before the closed door. She turned to face Kendra. "You know what I could really use right now? That I shouldn't have?"
"What?" Kendra asked, trying to smile a little bit. She was willing to play long with Erin's attempted humor.
"A pint of beer," Erin replied with a sigh.
Kendra chuckled, and said as Erin walked out, "And Erin, you'll need to get an ultrasound around 10 weeks. Just to make sure everything's okay."
"Call me next week, and I'll see when I have a day off," Erin replied as she walked out. "Oh, and thanks Kendra. As much I didn't want to hear what I heard, I appreciate it."
"No problem, Erin. Have a good night."
"You too." Erin exited the hospital and walked to her car.
It was almost 8:30pm now. As soon as she got in her car, she pulled out her phone. 1 Missed Call from Jay Halstead. 3 Text Messages from Jay Halstead.
Erin reluctantly unlocked her phone to view Jay's texts. They read, Erin, are you okay? Sorry I didn't check in when you left.
Back at my place now. Wanna come over?
Erin, please call me. I'm worried that you aren't responding.
Erin sat in her car for a few minutes, just thinking over what she was now faced with. She had to find a way to tell Jay that he was going to be a father.
Will he dump me? Erin thought suddenly. He won't, he'll support me, another part of her brain said. Then, she tried to think logically. He has a right to know.
After that thought, she pulled out of the parking lot, exited the Lakeshore complex, and headed out into the night.