"Uncle Greg is going to babysit me", Terry screamed through the whole house, while his parents prepared for going out.
"This is gonna be a hell of a weekend."
Jay and Erin looked at their five year old son in surprise.
"Wooohh who told you something like that?", Lindsay wanted to know, recognizing the pre-schooler looking at his father.
"Daddy", he giggled, running to the living room with his lego toy.
Erin reproachfully glanced at Jay. Her view saying, that she was ready to kill him.
"You better watch your language, detective Chuckles junior or I'm coming for you", she hissed and rolled her eyes.
To Jays luck it knocked on the door, so they had to interrupt their discussion.
Terry ran to the entrance and opened.
"Mommy! Daddy! Uncle Greg is here!", he screamed.
"Hey, buddy", Mouse ran his hand through Terrys hair, before he showed the toy he hid behind.
"Look, what I got for us."
Terrys eyes widened when he recognized a lego train.
"Did you bought that for you or for him?", Jay joked, being punched by Erin seconds later.
Mouse just smiled, raised and lowered his shoulder, before he helped Terry to unwrap the box.
"You know what? That set has over 600 pieces", Greg explained to Terry.
"Looks like a long night for you", Jay joked, patting on his best friends shoulder. Thats when Erin walked closer.
"Listen, Greg. Make yourself comfortable. You can eat everything you're going to find in the fridge."
"Except my pasta and my garden salat."
"Jay!", Erin shouted, getting her boyfriend to be calm.
"Don't take him for serious. Just feel like you're at home. I left our phone numbers on the counter. Just in case something really important happens. Bed time is around 10. Terry knows the rules. No candy after he brushed his teeth. If you want, you can read him a good night story. We still stuck at the story with the big red barn."
Greg seemed a little overwhelmed, but finally nodded bravely.
"We might be back between 10 or 11 o clock. You're going to sleep in the guest room."
"Erin, I…."
"No discussion", Jay interrupted Mouse, knowing that he already wanted to ask to be driven at home..
CPDCPDCPDCPD
"This was fantastic. We should repeat this", Erin gave Jay a long kiss on their drive home, after they had to stop in front of a flash-light.
"You better wait until we get home", Halstead joked.
"I've probably missed to tell you, but Greg was fired after his first day of babysitting as a high school student."
"Wait, what?"
Erin looked at her boyfriend in shock and let go of his grib.
"You've got to be kidding me", Erin answered, when Jay moved his hand.
"Come on. This was years ago."
"What did he do?"
Halstead remained in silence.
"Jay!", Erin forced him to answer, while he rolled his eyes.
"He forgot to take care of the oven, so one of the neighbors called 911 what alarmed the fire station. It's not even worthy to talk about it. He had learned from his mistakes."
Erins eyes got wide.
"Tell me, you're joking."
"Erin."
"Alright, we're going to drive home."
"Don't you think that you are overacting?"
"Overacting? Says the guy that leaves his 5 year old son with a pyromaniac."
"This is hilarious. It's years ago."
But Lindsay already turned into another street that would directly lead them to their apartment.
"You know what? Forget what I've said. I can't believe that you're really that ignorant."
"Ignorant? We're talking about Mouse here. You treat him like he killed somebody."
Erin didn't respond.
She just kept driving, until they reached home where she parked the car in the garage.
"You should have told me earlier."
"And that would have changed what? Greg belongs to my best friends for a reason. I would give my life for him. And you know why? Because he carried me on his back through one of the most dangerous places. He could have let me die in the dirt. But instead that he risked his own ass to save me. He can be messy sometimes. But I'm sure that he's the best god father that Terry could have get."
"I hope you're right."
Finally Lindsay was the first one who entered the house.
"Seems like everything is fine. No broken window. No firefighters."
"Jag-off", Erin whispered until she stopped and couldn't help but smiled, when she recognised two people lying on the couch.
Terry was sleeping next to Mouse, who had protectively wrapped an arm around him, while snorring.
"Look at that", Jay smiled, removing a self-painted picture that said „To Mommy and Daddy" and included a little boy holding hands with two grown-ups.
With Terry not able to write, it was obvious that Greg was the one who had encouraged their son to paint it.
"Seems like someone needs to excuse", Jay smile, while Erins face turned red…