Chapter 19

By the time Erin's last day in Intelligence had rolled around, everyone in the unit was engaged in a full on (friendly) battle with each other. With money involved.

Erin and Jay had continued to let the unit stew over what the gender of their baby was, keeping the most recent picture safely hidden in Jay's apartment. In one corner of the whiteboard normally used for putting up case info, there was a table drawn with multiple colored white board markers. The titles of the two columns read It's A Boy! And It's A Girl! Erin and Jay had privately agreed that they were surprised at how everyone had chipped in $20 to the 'betting war.' Whichever side won was going to win some serious cash – and to make the betting war even more tempting, all the cash was stored in a plastic baggie right below the table. The table was written as follows:

It's A Boy!

Ruzek

Antonio

It's A Girl!

Olinsky

Sumner

Burgess

Atwater

Voight

Voight had been the last member of the group to make a bet, since he was still warming up to the idea of Jay and Erin becoming parents. And, because Erin had insisted on it, Burgess and Atwater had been allowed to bet.

And nobody wanted to mess with her prenatal hormones.

At the end of the day, Voight stood at the front of the room and said, "Well, there's $140 here, let's find out who gets it, shall we? Come on up here Erin and Jay."

Erin and Jay smiled at each other, knowing who was about to win some big cash. "Jay, would you like to do the honors?" Erin asked as they moved up to the front of the room.

"Nah, you do it," Jay insisted. Erin nodded, and after a few seconds of silence, she yelled, "It's a boy! Ruzek and Antonio split the pot!"

The next thirty seconds were filled with laughs, cheers, and cries of disappointment. Antonio and Ruzek split the pot at the front of the room, and after smiling, Ruzek said, "Actually, we had a secret plan ourselves." Erin and Jay became confused as they put all the money back into the plastic bag.

"We want you guys to know that we totally support you and your baby," Antonio began, "So, we all agreed before this betting war started that in the end, all of the money would go to you guys."

That last agreement had been what had convinced Voight to chip in.

Erin's eyes watered up as she took the cash from Antonio and said, "Thank you guys. This is so sweet of you. Thank you." Everyone clapped as Jay gave Antonio and Ruzek a hug.

After Voight dismissed everyone for the day, Erin walked into Voight's office. "What's up?" he asked.

"I have a couple of things I want to say before I go on leave, so hear me out?" Voight nodded, leaning back in his chair, so Lindsay continued, "First, I want you to give Burgess a chance to be in Intelligence, so I'm requesting that she be my temporary replacement while I'm gone.

"And second, I want to make something clear." Erin leaned closer to Voight's desk and said, "If I hear that you try to destroy Jay's career while I'm gone, I swear I'll never talk to you again." And with that, she sped out of Voight's office to get her coat, seeing a speechless Jay on the other side of her desk.

"Ready to go?" Erin asked, "I'm pooped."

"Yep, let's go," Jay said. He kept quiet while he was still in the office, but he was slightly mad at her for talking to Voight about him. Again. Cause he had heard what she had said.