A guest bedroom at Clementine and Alexa's house wasn't where Jay had intended to have the conversation he was about to get into. However, he had learned to go with the flow when he felt confident enough to bring up a difficult subject.

"That was a lovely evening, huh?" Erin asked him when she returned to the bedroom from the bathroom and closed the door. They had already said goodnight to Clem and Alexa, who were now in their own room. Jay was already in bed, currently sitting up.

"It was. When Alexa served me a single chicken breast and some veggies, I was wondering what else I was going to need to eat afterwards. But it was way more filling than I expected it to be."

"Right?" she said, coming over to the bed and starting to undress. "The girl can cook. It was delicious! The wine went well with it too. Most of all I enjoyed the company. Every time I'm around Clem now I wonder how we spent so long at odds with each other."

Jay grimaced. "That was unpleasant, and it never made sense. At least it's in the past now, and here we are about to sleep in their house." He waited while Erin got into bed, then he bit the bullet. "I'm going to put something out there that I've been thinking about a lot. Honestly, I'm not even sure how I feel about it, so I want to talk about it with you and find out what you'll say about it. That might help me come to my own conclusion."

"Okay," Erin said as they both lay down, facing each other. Lying like that to talk before going to sleep was common for them.

"After we're married and everything, would you consider looking into adoption?"

Erin's eyes widened in surprise, which was the reaction he had expected. "You've been thinking about adoption?"

"Yeah, I have. You've been perfectly clear about never going through pregnancy, and I totally respect that. You're the one who would have to go through it, and it would be your body needing to recover from it. But that doesn't have to mean we can't raise a child. The thought I had that got stuck in my mind was that we could give a kid the kind of childhood that I never had. I'd love to be able to do that. And also I've been thinking that we're both working so hard to make WWE even more successful, but for what reason? We've already got more than enough money so that we would never have to work again, and we've got nobody to leave the company to. Sorry, I'm throwing everything at you really quickly. Time to let you get a word in."

"There was a lot there to unpack, Jay," Erin said carefully. He was well aware that it was an understatement. "Something as big as adoption, coming out of nowhere, you're going to have to give me some time to think it through before I can tell you where I'm at with it."

"That's fair enough," he said without hesitation. Of course he would have liked her to have a well-thought out, well-reasoned response to put forward straight away like she usually did. But she was right, potentially adopting a child required a lot of thought. As he had told her, he had more to do himself.

"For now, why don't you tell me what else you're thinking about it?" Erin suggested. "Positives or negatives. Because there are obviously negatives to consider too."

"Of course. And I have thought of a couple of negatives. The main one is I don't know if I'm cut out to be a dad. It's one thing to say I'd like to give a kid a good life, but am I capable of actually doing it? I don't know. And is it fair to go in for adoption if I'm not totally sure about that? Probably not."

"You're right. Totally right," she said, and he could tell she was impressed that he had thought that through.

"Also, having a kid would change our relationship. That's inevitable. But do we want it to change? Would it change for better or worse? I'm not sure on any of those questions."

"Neither am I, Jay. For right now, I think it's something for us to think on and re-visit after the wedding. Right now that needs to be our focus as it gets closer. Is that fair?"

"It's fair. If you do want to talk about it again though, you know, talk to me about it. That sounded super awkward, huh?"

She gave him a delicate kiss on the lips. "Not awkward at all. One thing I want to say is that regardless of what we eventually decide on this, the fact you brought it up for discussion shows me a hell of a lot. I love you so much."

"Love you too, honey," he said, feeling awkward as usual in the face of praise. "Like you said, we don't know what we're going to decide, but I will say this: You'd be an incredible mom."

"You really think so?"

"I know so."

"That's something else to consider then, I guess. For the record, I believe you'd be a great dad too."

Jay wasn't sure about that either, but he knew it had to mean something that they believed in each other. Maybe they would be parents one day.

The next morning, during their flight back to New York, Jay and Erin were reflecting on their visit with Clem and Alexa. Unusually, they were not at the table working. Instead they were sitting together on the couch.

Erin had started the conversation by saying she was glad he had talked her into accepting the offer to spend the night because it had definitely been the right thing to do.

"For sure," he said. "It was nice to have a look through Clem's photo albums with her. Although the vast majority of them were from wrestling shows when she was younger, small independents and then some from NXT, there was a vibe to the conversation like I was being taken into a confidence if that makes sense?"

Erin smiled at him and imparted some of the wisdom that he always appreciated. "That's because you were, Jay. Clem's a private person. She hardly ever uses social media, and as far as I know she doesn't often talk to people about herself or her life. Sharing her memories with you is a show of trust. A big one. Personally and professionally, that's a good thing."

He nodded, appreciating the trust that had been shown in him. He understood why Clem felt that way about him. Since taking on the role as her agent, he had helped her craft the Final Boss character, gotten her in for the knee surgery that had hopefully solved her chronic pain, and he had been responsible for her fiancée getting signed to WWE. Knowing Clem as well as he did by now, the latter was the thing she probably appreciated most.

"How did you get on with Alexa? We didn't have a chance to talk about it last night."

"It was a pleasant evening. I enjoyed having a lengthy conversation with someone other than you. Don't take that the wrong way."

"I know what you're saying," Jay assured her. "We've already talked about you wanting to make some friends. Do you think Alexa might be one?" He hoped the answer would be positive since that was what he had been trying to cultivate.

"Maybe? I'm encouraged, let's say that. It'll take time of course, but we were at ease talking to each other. I complimented her on her acting ability, and asked her why she thinks she's picking it up so well. Her answer was very interesting. She said she reads the scripts for her segments, and due to her past work experience she knows what emotions, facial expressions and so on she would expect to see if someone were really in the situation that is being portrayed and saying the things that are written."

Jay found that interesting. "So she goes out and acts out what she would expect to see if she was a viewer?"

"Right. It's an interesting approach."

He laughed. "Exactly what I just thought. She is a talented actress, no doubt. If she can keep making progress with her promo work, she really could be a star. She's got a great chance because she has Clem to learn from whenever she wants, as well as easy access to the PC."

"And you, Jay. Don't forget your own importance. She has you to learn from. In fact she told me she feels like she learns the most from you because you're such a good teacher."

"She told you that?" he asked, surprised by how much it meant to him. He felt it to his core.

Erin put an arm round him and cuddled up to him, probably having seen some kind of reaction on his face. "Yes, she did. As I've said many times, if only you could see yourself the way other people see you. Alexa, Clem, Raquel, me. Hell, all of the women."

He didn't know what to say to that so he just cuddled her and kissed her on the top of the head. The moment lasted a minute or so before Erin sat back up. She knew he would feel most comfortable with conversation moving on, so that was what she did.

"You know someone else I'd like to get to know better? Maya."

Jay couldn't help himself laughing. "Good luck with that. You never know what you're going to get when you talk to her from one time to the next."

"That's unusually negative for you, Jay," she said, studying him in a way that made him feel a bit guilty.

"In all honesty, Maya makes me uncomfortable. She's very temperamental and that's not my kind of person as you know."

"That's fair enough, but as you know it's not right to judge people without knowing what they're going through or have gone through in the past. What if Raquel had taken that attitude to you? In fact what if I had taken that attitude to you?"

Jay was figuratively backpedalling, suddenly facing fairly strong pushback from Erin. That was rare, so he knew he had to take it seriously. And he had to admit she had a point. He had strongly disliked Zelina Vega for some time for unfairly judging him, yet he was doing the same thing with Maya.

"You're right, I'm an asshole," he mumbled, coming to the realisation as he said it.

"No, you're not an asshole, you're just not being as considerate as you usually are. Remember that Maya is clean from pain pills. While that's great, it means she's often going to be in pain with the toll wrestling takes on the body because she can't take anything. She's also unable to drink because she's a recovering alcoholic, when we both know drinking is commonplace among wrestlers. Plus who knows what else that happened in her past that makes her volatile."

Jay nodded slowly, trying his best to try and imagine what life might be like for Maya, battling through all that for the sake of doing a job she loved and providing for her family. It was admirable, and deserving of respect.

"Sorry if I was a bit harsh with you there," Erin said, putting a hand on his knee.

He put a hand on top of hers. "No, you were right. You called me out on my BS when it needed to be done, like I did with you and Clem when you needed your heads knocking together. Thank you. I'll keep this in mind next time I approach Maya. Usually I tend to stick to business with her. Next time I'll be sure to ask her how she's doing instead."

Erin gave him a kiss on the cheek, the gesture telling how much she appreciated his maturity. "I'm going to have a sit down with her too for a proper conversation. That's something I should have done sooner given the issues we've talked about. I should be more pro-active in making sure she's okay, even if that's technically Severide's job in talent relations. Jay, it's weird being the boss of someone who was your favourite wrestler before you had any serious responsibility with the company."

"I can't imagine how that feels," he replied honestly. "But you're doing great with it. Your idea to have a sit down with her is a good one. You know what might be better? Why don't you invite her out to Eagle's Nest one night? Her and her husband who's name I've forgotten."

Erin's face lit up with one of those gorgeous smiles. "Now that is an idea. His name is Sam by the way, and their son is Noah."

"Thank you. I'll try and keep that in my brain this time."

"I'm going to speak to her and make that offer this coming Monday," Erin decided.