After work, Jay and Erin had parted ways to go home and prepare for their dinner date. Jay's preparations hadn't taken long – a shower, a shave, and putting on some smart pants and a new shirt. That was all it took for him to feel at his best.

With still more than half an hour to kill before he needed to head out to pick up Erin from the apartment she had just moved into, he had time to call Jess and apologise for the way he had spoken to her that morning. The more he reflected on that, the worse he felt about it. He had given a very poor account of himself, so he wanted to make amends. His plan was to apologise, then offer to meet her for coffee or go out for drinks sometime, assuming she still wanted to talk to him at all.

The piece of paper with her number on was still in the pocket of the jeans he had worn to work. He went and fetched it, then added Jess Sutton into his phone's list of contacts. It felt odd typing her name in while thinking that she was his sister. His brain still hadn't processed it properly. It probably wouldn't until they started to get to know each other, he imagined.

Sitting down on his bed, he took a deep breath for confidence and tapped the icon to call the number. He didn't get nervous often, but he could feel it in his stomach as the ringing sound started.

"Hello?" Jess said.

"Jess, this is Jay."

"Oh, hi," she said, sounding surprised. Her reaction hadn't seemed negative, so that was good.

"How are you?" he asked awkwardly.

"Okay, you know. How about you?" The awkwardness was mutual. Jay decided to get the apology done, figuring it would help.

"Uhm... I wanted to say I'm sorry for how I reacted to you this morning. When you told me you're my sister, all I could think of was my dad cheating on my mom and it made me really angry. I took that out on you, and that was wrong. What my dad did is not your fault, obviously. No doubt I came across like an aggressive asshole, and I'm neither of those things, so I'm very disappointed with myself. Could we maybe... start over?" he suggested. Starting over really was a theme lately. Overall, he felt like he had delivered the apology and explanation quite well. But his verdict wasn't the one that mattered.

"Thank you for the apology," Jess said sincerely. "You did go off at me, but at the same time I did show up at your job and drop a bomb on you out of nowhere. Unfortunately I had no other way to contact you. When I left, although I was upset, I hoped you would change your mind and call me. You have, so I'm happy. Starting over works for me."

"Great," Jay said, smiling. "I wonder, would you like to meet me for coffee one morning, or go for drinks in an evening at some point?"

"Sure. How about tomorrow night?"

He didn't have any plans that clashed with that. "Tomorrow night works actually. You can pick the place. Drop me a text and let me know when and where?"

"I'll do that."

That would have been an opportunity to end the conversation if Jay wanted to, but now that he was talking to her he wanted to continue. "Sounds good. So, are you doing much tonight?"

"Working on a project at the moment. Taking this call has made me take a much-needed break."

Jay felt intrigued. "What do you do for work?"

"For my actual job, I'm a crime scene cleaner. I also run two YouTube channels. I'm working on a video right now."

It all clicked into place for Jay. He knew where he had seen Jess before. She worked on the city's crime scene cleaning team. Intelligence would call them in from time to time, for example when they busted a drug lab. Trained in hazmat, the crime scene cleaners would come and remove any and all dangerous chemicals and substances from a location before completely cleaning it until all traces were gone. Only then would the location be handed back to its owners. Of course, Intelligence were long gone by then.

He could now remember, not long before he had left Intelligence to go to Bolivia, walking out of a house with a half-assed meth lab in the basement and seeing two people from the clean up team starting to put their yellow coveralls on. One had been an overweight, balding man. The other had been a very pretty, eye-catching black woman. Jess, he now realised, now very thankful that he hadn't given her anything more than a brief, admiring glance on the way to his car.

"I've seen you before," he told her. "Had that on my mind since this morning. Remember seeing you outside a pathetic meth lab we busted a while back. It was in a basement. Couple of dropout losers has been running it. One of them had painted a mural of a woman with her... a bare-chested woman on the wall."

Jess laughed. It was a nice laugh, a relaxed one, showing she was getting comfortable talking to him now. "With her tits out, you can say it."

Jay laughed also, liking that response.

"I remember that place," she went on. "Sorry, but remember seeing you there. Can just remember thinking they'd done a better job with the mural than with the meth lab. It was a real amateur job."

"Right?" he said. He wanted to talk about her job a lot more, and to find out more about whatever her two YouTube channels were, but at the same time he didn't want to distract her from her work for too long. "Jess, I've get ready to go out on a date. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

"A date? Who's the lucky woman? Or man?"

"Woman. Her name's Erin. We work together and our history is complicated. We're starting over. I'll tell you about it tomorrow."

"Been doing a fair bit of starting over myself lately. I'll let you go, Jay. Goodnight and good luck."

"Thank you. Goodnight," Jay said, and ended the call with a smile on his face. It had been a really positive conversation. His apology had gone well and had been accepted, and they had both discovered that they could talk to each other without it being awkward. It now felt a little more like he had a sister, and it was a nice feeling. The thought came to him that he needed to get in contact with Will, but that could wait. It was time to turn his full attention to the date with Erin.

Parked up outside of Erin's apartment building, Jay felt happy in a way that he hadn't experienced for quite some time. He was going on a date with her. Some time ago, he had accepted the fact that he would never see her again, let alone be with her. He had even married Hailey Upton, although he now realised that had been a mistake. But the moment he had set eyes on Erin on the day she had returned to Intelligence, all of his feelings had instantly burst to the surface. He loved her. There was no doubt about it in his mind. There never had been.

Erin emerged from the building, wearing a sleeveless red dress and matching high heels, carrying a small clutch. While living and working in New York, she had gotten more muscular, more toned. She was at peak fitness, and he also really liked her shorter hair, finishing above her shoulders with some light highlights in it. The sight of her made him gasp. He had heard things described as breath-taking before. Until now, he hadn't realised it could happen literally.

"Good evening," Erin said theatrically as she got into the car. "You look handsome tonight, sir."

"Erin, you're beautiful. There's no other word I could use. Holy..."

She beamed at him. Her smile had always knocked him dead, and that hadn't changed.

"Well that's quite a reaction. I guess I picked the right dress to wear."

"It's not just the dress, although it is a sexy one. I'm going to be the envy of the restaurant walking in with you on my arm."

"You've added more charm to your game, and more confidence too I've noticed since I've been back. It's very attractive."

Jay wanted to say to hell with it and go inside with her. He was aching for her, and their first date hadn't even started yet. Play it cool, he thought, in regard to her comments.

"I do try," he said, starting the car's engine. "Hope you're ready for some Italian food?"

"I sure am. I could eat a horse."

Jay laughed. "Don't think they have horse on the menu. The place we're going to is small, but the food is meant to be delicious. A friend of mine, Rob, knows the owner and chef, Laura. He eats there often and says her cooking is out of this world."

"Then I'm even more eager to try it. Although it's the company I've been looking forward to."

"Me too," he assured her.

There was comfortable conversation between them on the ten minute drive to the restaurant, where Jay was able to park out front.

"Molinaro's Ristorante," Erin read from the sign, in a passable Italian accent, at least to Jay's uneducated ear.

"That's the place," he confirmed.

They got out, and Jay held the restaurant door open for Erin to enter. It was only wide enough for one person at a time, ruining his hopes of walking in with her on his arm. Nonetheless, he was proud to be seen with her. Any hot blooded man would envious.

Inside, Jay saw that the place was indeed small. It was lucky he had taken advice to make sure he made a reservation. There were a grand total of ten tables in the place, and nine were occupied. The empty one was in a back corner, beside a window. A nice place to sit and eat.

With the restaurant being so small, only one server was needed to cover the whole place. He was a smart-looking young man, who approached them. "Good evening. Do you have a reservation?"

"We do. Jay Halstead," he said.

"Welcome. Welcome. Please, your table is this way."

Jay motioned for Erin to follow the server, then he brought up the rear, still feeling proud to be with her as he saw two different people glance at them.

"Would you like me to take a drink order now, or would you like a minute?" the server asked politely.

"I'll take a Coke," Jay said.

Erin considered for a moment. "Bring me a red wine you recommend to try," she requested.

"Coming right up," the server said and walked away.

"Jay, I love intimate places like this. Perfect choice, if the food is as nice as you were told."

"I'm glad you like it," he said, smiling.

"I hope he brings good wine. We've got a lot to talk about."

"That we have," Jay said, settling in.

They started with how their previous relationship had ended when Erin had disappeared to New York, ghosting him in the process. She gave her reasons, and while Jay still didn't really understand why it had been necessary, he had already got to a place where he wasn't holding it against her. That was the only way this renewed attempt they were making at being together would stand a chance of working.

"Deep down, I always knew I'd made a mistake," she said over their first course. "Deluding myself that I had moved on and that I was happy in New York worked for a while, but, it might seem convenient for me to say this now that I'm sitting here on a date with you, I missed you. I missed Hank. I missed working for Intelligence. When he called me and asked me to come back, I didn't give him an answer right away, but I did decide immediately that I had to say yes."

Jay had been eating delicious bruschetta while listening to that. As nice as the food was, he savoured her words more. She had been open and honest with him all evening, and what she was saying was music to his ears.

"It was the right decision to come back, and I'm so glad you did. That morning the other week when you walked into the bullpen for the first time, I swear to you my heart skipped a beat. I felt it happen."

Erin clearly liked what he had said, but she giggled. "I didn't sleep a wink the night before. Must have looked like death."

"Not to me you didn't. In that moment, I sat there realising something I've known all along. There's one person in this life for me. One person I truly love, and that's you. I feel it every time I look at you, with every fibre of my being."

To Jay's surprise, Erin teared up briefly before blinking them away. "That's... I don't know what to say to that. It's by far the most powerful thing anyone has ever said to me. I love you too, Jay. And I'm not just repeating that because you said it so convincingly. You're married to Hailey though. There's no way you didn't tell her you loved her too."

"Of course I did," Jay said, maintaining his openness. "I told Hailey I loved her, and at the time I said it, I thought I meant it. The fact our marriage fell apart so quickly shows it was never truly the case."

Erin wasn't eating now, studying him carefully. "And how do I know we won't be in the same situation a few months from now?"

That was a fair question, Jay had to admit, given what he had just told her. It was also a tough one to answer convincingly. "All I can say to that is the way I felt about Hailey doesn't compare to how I feel about you. At the time, I was telling myself it did. Maybe even deluding myself that it did. But no, you're the one I want to be with, and if that's something that can happen, I'll get my divorce done as quickly as possible and never look back. Believe me on that, please."

"That's as much as I could ask for, Jay. While you were talking just then, I had such an intense feeling or instinct, telling me not to blow another chance with you. We're a mess, Jay. But we can be a mess together."

Jay felt on top of the world. This wasn't just a date now, it was the start of a new relationship. This time, he wouldn't let it fail. He smiled at her and managed to find some humour for the wonderful moment.

"Maybe we might not even be a mess one day?"

Erin laughed. "Let's not get carried away."

A/N: After a shocking start, it proved to be a very good day for Jay. A positive conversation with Jess and an even more positive one with Erin.