A/N: I hope you've enjoyed this story! When I first started writing it, I hadn't decided yet whether it would be Jay or Hank's funeral that Erin returned for, so I decided to continue the ambiguity until the end, even once I'd decided that it would be Jay. I felt like the story needed an epilogue to be complete, tie up loose ends, and answer questions, so here it is.

Dear Erin,

Seven years and forty-three weeks. That's how long it's been since I walked out of the bullpen, no idea that it was the last day I would ever be able to call you my partner. Not a day of those seven and a half years has gone by without me missing you and wishing that things could have been different. I've loved you every single day of those seven and a half years.

I tried to move on. I thought I loved Hailey, and I told myself that I was doing the right thing by marrying her. But even then, deep down, I knew that I still loved you and that I always would. I was lying to myself, and in the process, I hurt Hailey. I think that she always knew, or at least suspected, that my heart never fully belonged to her, but that doesn't make what I did any better.

I should have gone after you when you left Chicago. That will always be one of my biggest regrets in life. The other one is never having the chance to ask you to marry me, to call you my wife, to have a family with you, to grow old together.

I ran away from Chicago because I was afraid of what I was becoming. Without you there to keep me grounded, I was becoming someone that I didn't recognize. I panicked, so I joined the Army, but I knew that, before I went overseas again, I needed to see you one last time.

I'll never forget the look on your face when I was waiting outside your apartment when you returned home from work that night. I'd dreamed of seeing you for so long, but I was scared that I'd be too late. The look of hope and disbelief on your face told me otherwise, though. I knew then that, just as I'd never stopped loving you, you never stopped loving me.

That night that we spent together was the best night of my life. Holding you in my arms again, breathing in your scent, staying up all night talking…it was what I'd dreamed of for so many years. You have no idea how badly I wanted to take you to your bed and make love to you that night. It was all I could do to hold myself back, but I knew that it wouldn't be right. I was still married to Hailey and, even though both of us knew our marriage was over, I couldn't do that to her. Or to you.

Saying goodbye to you the next morning…I felt like my heart was breaking all over again, but at the same time, I was happy; happier than I'd been in years. Just knowing that you still loved me, that was enough to make me feel invincible. When you promised that you'd be waiting for me and that you'd wait as long as it took for me to find myself again…I felt like the luckiest guy on earth.

I hope that you never have to read this letter, but there's just something about this mission. I have a bad feeling about it, and if something happens, I don't want to leave you without telling you, one last time, that I love you. I never stopped loving you, and I never will. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Erin Lindsay.

Love,

Jay

Erin sat the letter down on the bed next to her, wiping away the tears that had fallen. A package had been waiting outside her door when she'd arrived home earlier this evening, and inside had been this letter, along with all of Jay's things. The letter had been sent back to Hailey, along with the rest of Jay's possessions that he'd had with him.

The envelope the letter had been in hadn't been addressed, which was likely why it had been sent to Jay's ex-wife. The seal had been broken, and Erin knew that Hailey had likely been the one to break the seal and reading it, likely assuming that it was addressed to her. She couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for Hailey to read a love letter Jay had written to Erin, especially when he'd wrote of the night he'd spent in New York after rejoining the Army.

She wouldn't have blamed Hailey had she thrown everything in the trash, but she hadn't. Instead, she'd packed it all up, along with the rest of Jay's possessions that she'd still had and mailed it all to Erin. She'd included a short note in the package.

Erin,

I thought that you should have Jay's things. I know he'd want you to have them. He's always belonged to you; I know now that I was only ever borrowing him until he could return to you.

Hailey