9. Show Me That Life Is Wonderful

Hey there,

I'm back home in Germany and have finally time to post a new chapter. This is quite a long one, so I hope you'll enjoy it. And thanks again for the reviews on my last chapter!

On another note: do I need to say anything about last episode's last minute? I don't know how many times I watched this scene already.

I still wait for the day when they sit down in one of their apartments (and not always Molly's) and talk about their future and their relationship (and say I love you...) but after such a long time of nearly getting nothing I'm fully satisfied with Skinstead for now. But at the same time I can't help but think that they only did this scene because Erin will find out she's pregnant before the season ends. I'm really just speculating here and I think it would be anything but creative to do this since they did it with Gabby at the end of season 3 on Fire last year...but somehow...I don't know...it would be typical for the writers to do this storyline towards the season finale. Guess we have to wait and see...some weeks (this hiatus all the time is another thing I'm not okay with) :D

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

9. Show Me That Life Is Wonderful

They were introduced with the case and worked on it together with the rest of the SVU team for the rest of the day. When Erin made herself a cup of coffee in the early hours of the evening, Olivia joined her.

″You want one, too?″ Erin asked her, already handing her the cup she just had filled with coffee.

″Oh no, thank you. I already had too much of this stuff today,″ she sighed, rubbing her temples.

″This is a tough one. Didn't expect it to be that tough to be honest.″

″It's crazy. I really appreciate that you guys are here to help.″

″No problem,″ Erin answered and sipped on her coffee.

″Really?″ Liv asked, raising her eyebrows.

″Yaah. I thought it would be more difficult, I really did. But it's different this time and for now I feel good,″ she explained and took a gulp from her coffee.

″Glad to hear that Erin,″ Liv answered and gave the younger woman a smile. ″Do you and Halstead have any plans for tonight? I thought we could might have dinner together somewhere.″

″Jay just told me some minutes ago that he wants to visit someone he hasn't seen in a while. An old friend or something. So what about a girls night today and having dinner tomorrow when Hank is here?″

″Perfect,″ Liv smiled and the two of them went back to their desks.

They worked on leads for another hour, put some more pieces from the old case and the new one together, before Liv called it a day for all of them.

″Erin,″ Liv came running when they were at the parking lot outside of the precinct as Fin had offered them to drive them to their hotel. They all stopped and turned around.

″What's up?″ she asked.

″Change of plans for tonight,″ she sighed as she reached the group. ″Noah's nanny just called me. She doesn't feel well and wants to go home. So the only thing I can offer you now is having some cocktails and snacks at my place.″

″I'm absolutely okay with that,″ Erin winked. ″Just text me your adress and I'll be there.″

″Awesome. See you later then.″

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Erin and Jay just wanted to take a short shower back at the hotel and then get ready for their 'dates'. But when Jay joined Erin in the shower, wrapped her arms around her naked body from behind and started to place longing kisses on her neck and her bladebone, they both knew that their shower would be anything but short...

″So, who is that stranger you're going to meet tonight?″ Erin asked after their shower when they were back in the bedroom and she put on her panties and her bra. He didn't say anything, just also slipped into his boxers.

″Jay?″ she asked again, dugging for a pair of socks and one specific shirt in the depths of her bag. She was quite curious as he hasn't given her any more details yet.

″Don't be so snoopy,″ he laughed and grabbed his jeans from the floor.

″I'm not...snoopy,″ she grinned innocently while she emptied the content of her bag on the bed. ″Damn it I forgot my socks!″ Jay couldn't help but laugh and shook his head when he saw the mess on their bed.

″Don't laugh at me.″

″I don't laugh at you. I laugh about you and your mess because this is typically you,″ he smirked.

″Charming.″

″I know I am, thank you,″ he winked and walked closer to her. ″But you know, I love my chaos-queen for being the messy person she is,″ he whispered and pressed his lips against hers.

″I'm not a messy person,″ she insisted. ″I was just in such a hurry to pack everything that I forgot them,″ she defended herself.

″So was I and I didn't forget anything nevertheless,″ he answered with still a teasing smile on his face.

″Lucky you,″ she said. ″Can I have a pair of yours?″

″Only when you promise me one thing,″ he grinned. She raised her eyebrows and playfully bit her lip with her teeth. ″What is it?″

″Write a list before you pack your things for Wisconsin next week. Just to be sure, you know.″ In response, Erin punched her fist onto his shoulder.

″What?″ he asked. ″Otherwise you're going to forget your underwear next time and I don't think I could help you with that,″ he laughed, took the four steps to his bag which was placed next to the closet, grabbed a pair of socks and threw it to her.

″You don't take bras with you? That's a disappointment,″ she chuckled, sat down on the edge of the bed and put on his socks.

″Looks like you'd have to walk around without underwear then,″ he murmured with a sneaky grin on his face.

″I'm going to write that list,″ she answered and tried her best to say it as serious as possible but she had to smirk anyway. She simply loved it when they were doing things like this. Teasing each other. Joking around. Being silly. And making each other laugh.

″Are you? You know, I wouldn't have a problem if you'd forget it,″ he said, came closer to her, softly pushed her back to the matress and leaned over her, his face only centimeters away from hers.

″I'm not surprised,″ she laughed before their lips met for an intense kiss. ″You're really good in avoiding things Jay Halstead, you know that, right?″ she said afterwards.

″What?″ he frowned.

″I asked you about that stranger and you start to do this. So, who are you going to meet tonight?″

″How to ruin a romantic, passionate moment,″ he sighed with a laughter escaping from his lips.

″You can't complain we haven't had any of that today already. Recently. Twenty minutes ago to be exact,″ she teased.

″You can never have enough of that,″ he whispered, kissed her again and got up. She did the same and put on her jeans and the shirt she had searched earlier.

″So?″ she asked him again while he also slipped into his shirt.

″I'm going to meet my uncle and my aunt,″ he finally admitted and looked at her, waiting for her reaction.

″I didn't know you have family here in New York,″ she said and also looked at him.

″It's my mom's brother Michael and his wife Susan. Will used to live with them when he studied here. I haven't seen them in a long time because things haven't been the easiest in the past. But as I'm here now I decided to call them and they invited me for dinner. I didn't ask you to come with me because I don't know how things will work out and I figured it's better if I'd go there alone. As I said, I haven't talked to them in a long time and I thought they'd maybe feel...uncomfortable if I'd bring you with me,″ he apologized. The last thing he wanted was that Erin thought he didn't want her to be around his family. He really wanted to introduce his girlfriend to his uncle and aunt but considering the fact that they haven't had any contact in years, it was just not the right time.

″Hey Jay,″ she said and touched his arm. ″It's okay. I understand.″

″Yeah?″ he asked her but her eyes already told him that she really did.

″Of course. You go and visit them and whatever it is, you'll try to work it out and then maybe I can also meet them while we're still here,″ she suggested and gave him an encouraging smile.

″Sounds good,″ he smiled back in response. He felt how the tautness, that has been there since she had asked him where he was going, fell from his body. He didn't even know where it had come from. Maybe because he had expected her to be mad. Disappointed. Hurt. Because he had feared she would maybe not understand his reasons why he didn't ask her to join him. But as he now thought about it: how could he ever have thought that she would not understand? If there was one person on earth who knew how hard it was to live in a damaged and complicated family and how hard it was to fix broken things, it was Erin Lindsay.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

″Hey there,″ Erin smiled when Liv opened the door of her apartment with having Noah carried on her hip.

″Hey Erin, come on in. Noah, say hi to Erin,″ she told her son.

″Hi,″ Noah said but then immediately hid his face on his mother's shoulder.

″Are you a bit shy?″ Erin asked the toddler. He turned his head to her and stared at her.

″No,″ he then said and giggled.

″He really isn't,″ Liv laughed and let him down to the floor. ″He just pretends to be so in the first second when he meets a stranger,″ she said and softly stroked Noah's hair.

″Noah what about you go to your room and play with your toys before bedtime?″ she asked him as she knelt down in front of him.

″Okay,″ he nodded and laughingly ran to his room.

″He's a cutie,″ Erin grinned as she watched the two-year-old sitting down on the floor in his room in between dozen of toys.

″Don't let this sweet face fool you. He's a sly old dog,″ Liv laughed. ″Is red wine okay with you?″ she asked and went to the kitchen.

″Sure,″ Erin answered and sat down on the couch.

″I hope you like pizza, because I already ordered,″ Liv said as she joined her on the couch and handed Erin one of the wine glasses.

″Who doesn't like pizza?″ she laughed.

″I don't know but I bet there are people,″ she shrugged and raised her glass. ″So, to friends,″ she said and clinked her glass with Erin's.

″To friends,″ she also said and took a gulp from her wine.

″Erin, I know you maybe don't want to talk abou it, but how have things been going since February?″ Liv asked the younger woman and placed her glass on the coffee table.

″Good,″ she answered, sipped on her wine again and then also put the glass on the table.

″Yeah? I always thought you'd call...″ she said and made Erin feel a bit uncomfortable.

″Uhm...you know...I wanted...but it's hard for me to lean on other people. It really is.″

″But it makes things easier.″

″Yeah it does,″ Erin answered pensively. ″I learned that throughout the past months. I have a great bunch of people around me in Chicago and I can't tell in words how thankful I am that they're always there for me. They are my family.″

″I'm glad you have them but I'll tell you again: you can always lean on me too if you need me,″ Liv said and gave her a little smile.

″Thank you. Really. I appreciate you're reaching out. It's just...I think I'm still in the middle of the process of learning to accept the help that others offer me.″

″Take the time you need, Erin,″ she winked. ″But...don't get me wrong here...I'd just really like to know how you dealt with everything. You know, what you went through, that can screw a person up for a long time.″

″As I said, I had my team and they were always there. Most of all Hank and Jay,″ she shrugged and decided to open up to Liv a little more. ″My birthday was a struggle. I didn't want to celebrate it as it wasn't a day that should be celebrated for me. And I didn't feel like celebrating and laughing and partying. I felt like crying, mourning and hiding already the days that led to my birthday. And when I woke up on the morning of my birthday and just wanted to hide under the covers for the rest of the day, Jay just simply held me and told me Nadia would want me to be happy. I tried to believe him but I couldn't. He somewhen got up and brought me breakfast and when he opened the curtains I saw that unreal sunrise outside. You know, I think I can count on two hands how many times there've been blue skies and sun on my birthday. I imagined Nadia watching from above and sending me the sun because she wanted me to be happy. This was her gift, her way of being there although she wasn't. And now I look like an idiot because I can't keep myself together,″ she said as she felt some tears falling from her eyes.

″Not at all,″ Liv answered and shook her head.

″I do,″ Erin answered back and wiped her tears away with her hand.

″Did you celebrate your birthday in the end?″

″Yeah, sort of. The day turned out to be better...and easier than expected. When I walked into the bullpen that morning all the others were already there and waited for me and then Antonio said: 'We all know you don't want to celebrate your birthday but we do. We want to celebrate the day you were born because we love you and we're happy that you're here and that you light up our lives every day.' I never wanted to cry in front of them but that morning it happened. I was an emotional wreck already but these words...that was too much. I mean, I can still remember them now because this was about the sweetest thing they ever said. So they all hugged me, we ate cake and in the afternoon we went outside and remembered Nadia in front of the district, laid down some flowers and lightened a candle. The sun was shining bright and I knew she was with us. In the evening we all went to Molly's and first drank her favorite cocktail and then mine. And yeah, I was able to celebrate my birthday with them. They all helped me,″ she ended her story and smiled.

″You didn't understate when you said they are your family,″ Liv smiled back in response.

″I really meant it. They are the most important persons in my life. And I don't know where I'd be without them,″ she quietly said and in the same moment someone was ringing on the door.

″That was about time,″ Liv sighed and got up. ″Noah, pizza's here,″ she called while she walked towards the door. Some seconds later, the little boy came running into the living room.

″Hi,″ he said as he stood in front of Erin and giggled.

″Hey,″ Erin smiled back. ″You wanna join me on the couch?″

Noah nodded in response. Erin helped him to get on the couch and he sat down next to her. Liv came back, placed the big pizza box on the table and laughed when she saw Noah sitting on the couch, eagerly waiting.

″Pizza is the magic word, right sweetie?″

″Piiiiiiiiizza,″ he smiled and reached his hands out for the box.

″Just a second Noah, we need your bib and tons of napkins first,″ she laughed and walked back to the kitchen. In the meantime, Noah crawled into Erin's lap and giggled when he stared into Erin's surprised eyes.

″What are you up to, buddy?″ she asked him and placed her hand on his small back.

″Sit here.″

″You wanna sit here? Alright,″ Erin smiled as Liv came back with the napkins.

″Well that's new,″ she laughed when she saw her son comfortably sitting in Erin's lap.

″What's new?″

″When I said he isn't shy I meant he's okay with strangers being around really fast. But this is a new kind of warming up to someone he doesn't know. Guess you have a new friend Erin,″ she grinned and sat down. ″Come on Noah,″ she said and reached out her arms for her son.

″No no no no,″ he answered and shook his head.

″It's okay, he can stay here,″ Erin said and grabbed some of the napkins and covered Noah's pajamas with them. Liv cut off a really small piece of pizza for her son and handed it to him. It didn't take long and he looked like he fell into a pot of tomato sauce.

″Now I know why you needed tons of napkins,″ Erin laughed after they'd all finished eating.

″I can't wait for the day when he's able to eat like a normal human being, not like a little piglet,″ Liv sighed with a laugh. ″Come on little man, we're going to wash this off before you touch anything with your hands,″ she then said and picked Noah up from Erin's lap. ″You can already say night night Erin because someone needs to sleep sooooo urgently,″ she told him and softly tickled him.

″Night night,″ he smiled and waved with his little hands.

″Night night Noah, have a good sleep,″ Erin smiled back and watched the two of them leaving for the bathroom.

Liv joined her again around twenty minutes later.

″Sorry for letting you wait. He insisted to hear his bedtime story.″

″No problem, I helped myself out meanwhile,″ Erin winked and pointed to her wine glass that was full again.

″Good choice,″ she said, grabbed her own glass from the table and took a gulp. ″As we couldn't finish our conversation earlier I have one last question if you don't mind. How do you feel about being back in New York?″

″I wasn't exactly excited when Hank told me. To be honest, I really didn't want to come. But it isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I think in the end he was right when he said it would be good for me.″

″I was also pretty sure that it would be good for you to come here and work on a non-personal case. That's why I asked for you.″

″It's not only that personal thing,″ Erin shrugged and tried to find the right words to explain her feelings. ″The season is different. It's the first time I'm here in summer and I realized that your city can be really beautiful. You know, on the plane Jay told me this time was going to be different and I didn't believe him. But then, we were here and for the first time I saw the beauty of this city and I knew he was right. Not only because the season is different but because...of him,″ she said a smitten smile surrounded her lips as she thought about Jay. Of course Liv didn't miss that.

″So you and Halstead, huh?″ she smirked, finally having the right moment to ask her about her partner in two ways.

″Yeah,″ Erin grinned from ear to ear and felt how her cheeks blushed.

″Knew it from the very first second I saw the two of you together.″

″Did you? We weren't together back then,″ Erin replied being all surprised. No wonder that Hank had somewhen found out about their secret relationship when even Olivia Benson, who was a stranger back then, had seen something when they weren't even together.

″Yeah, the way he looked at you, he cared about you and wanted to protect you from all the pain that case brought. The way you two interacted with each other. Even Rollins and Amaro asked me afterwards whether I know if there's something going on between the two of you,″ she laughed and took another gulp from her wine.

″Yeah...things have always been special between us, can't deny that,″ Erin also laughed and sipped on her wine. In the same second Liv's ringing phone interrupted their conversation.

″Excuse me,″ she said, got up and left the room for a moment. When she came back, she looked kind of worried.

″What's up?″ Erin asked.

″This was one of my CIs who needs to meet me asap. It's about the case, so it's important,″ she said and sighed. ″I know this is a big request but do you think you could stay here for a little while and keep an eye on Noah. I don't think he'll wake up and I'll make it as short as possible.″

″No problem,″ Erin answered without hesitation.

″Thank you,″ Liv said, grabbed her jacket from the wardrobe and left her apartment.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

While Erin waited for Liv to return, she spent the time with watching TV. Somewhen she heard some quiet cries coming from Noah's room and then he yelled: ″Mommyyyyyy.″

″Oh no,″ Erin said to herself, turned the TV off and went to Noah's room.

″Mommyyyyy,″ he still cried when she came into his room and he looked at her with big, confused eyes for a second and then continued crying.

″Hey Noah, your mommy will be back soon. Do you hear me?″ she asked him and softly rubbed his stomach and his chest to calm him down. It didn't help, the cries only got louder.

″Hey Buddy, come here,″ she said and picked him up into her arms. He hid his head on her shoulder and kept on whining. Erin covered a blanket around him and walked with him to the living room while gently rubbing circles onto his back. She sat down on the couch with him and kept on doing that until he slowly calmed down.

″Did you have a nightmare, huh?″ she asked him. ″I know they can be mean. But you don't have to be scared because I'm here and I'll protect you from all the monsters, okay? Just try to sleep again.″

It took some time until his sobs faded but somewhen Erin recognized that he had fallen asleep on her chest. As she didn't want to wake him up again immediately, she stayed in the exact same position for a while. Her own eyes got heavy in the dimmed light of the living room and Noah's warm body snoozing on her chest combined with his steady breathing made her even more tired, so after a while she also wasn't able to keep her eyes open anymore.

The next thing she realized was how someone touched her arm and whispered her name.

″Erin, wake up.″ Her eyes fluttered open and she suppressed a loud yawning. ″Did you have good sleep?″ Liv asked her and grinned.

″Looks like,″ she answered and rubbed her eyes with her hand.

″What was this little monster up to?″ she asked and pointed to Noah who still slept comfortably on Erin's chest.

″I think he had a nightmare or something. And then I brought him here and waited for him to calm down and we both fell asleep.″

″This was a really cute sight when I walked in here,″ Liv smiled. ″Would you mind carry him to his room?″

″Not at all,″ Erin smiled back, tried to get up from the couch as careful as possible and put Noah to bed in his room.

″Thanks again,″ Liv said as she closed the door of Noah's nursery.

″No problem. Did your CI tell you something helpful?″

″Yeah,″ she nodded. ″I think we can now take some major steps tomorrow.″

″Great, I can't wait to get that piece of shit finally off the streets,″ Erin sighed and checked her clock only to notice it was already around 11. ″Wow, I didn't know I slept that long,″ she laughed.

″Yaah, it also took me longer than expected. We'll have a better girls night next time, I promise,″ Liv winked and the two women sat back down on the couch and finished drinking their wine and talked about the case while waiting for Erin's taxi to arrive.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

It was around midnight when Erin finally came back to the hotel. She'd expected to find Jay asleep already but when she entered the room, the TV was flickering. He turned his gaze from the screen and smiled at her.

″Hey gorgeous.″

″Why are you still awake?″

″Wanted to wait for you,″ he said while Erin took off her jeans and t-shirt and slipped into some shorts and her sleeping shirt instead. ″Come here,″ he ordered and obviously wanted her to lay down right next to him.

″Give me a minute,″ she winked and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

″Did you have a good sleep at Liv's place?″ he asked her casually when she came back to the bedroom some minutes later and when she looked at him being all confused he started to chuckle.

″What?″ she asked and laid down next to him, instantly snuggeling onto his side, resting her head on his chest.

″Liv sent me a reaaaaally cute photo,″ he smirked.

″She did what?″ Erin asked and raised not only her eyebrows but also her voice. Jay grabbed his phone and showed her the photo where she was sitting on the couch with Noah resting on her chest and the both of them were peacefully sleeping.

″Look at that,″ Jay chuckled. ″Isn't that the sweetest thing ever?″ He couldn't hide the bright smile on his face because ever since Liv has sent him this photo about an hour ago all he thought about was that one day he'd maybe have a photo like this of Erin and their child. Actually he wished to have a photo like this one day and only imagining to maybe have his own little family with her somewhen made his heart beat a little faster.

″Oh cheeez, looks like I was pretty much out,″ she laughed when she saw the photo.

″Yeah, but still looking so cute,″ he grinned and placed a kiss on her hair.

″How did things with your family go, Jay?″ she changed the topic and hoped not to ruin the night with it.

″Good,″ he mumbled into her hair.

″Yaah?″ she asked and looked up to him.

″Yeah, we talked. A lot. And it was good. It felt good. It was easier than I thought it would be. Sometimes time heals all wounds I think,″ he said pensively. ″We also talked about you and they really want to meet you. Unfortunately they are going on vacation tomorrow but they promised to come to Chicago soon to visit us and Will of course,″ he smiled and Erin could tell from his eyes how happy he was that things have gone well.

″Glad to hear that babe. I'm really looking forward to meet them one day,″ she said and kissed him, not knowing that she would meet members of his family and learn something about his family sooner than she thought.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Hank arrived in New York on the following morning and also brought some new information from his CIs from Chicago. Until the evening they had almost finished the case. But just almost. One important piece was still missing but everyone was sure it was only a matter of time now until they'd walk Dan Miller into a cell.

In the evening, Olivia invited the three of them for dinner to her apartment. It was a fun evening with lots of laughters as Noah was in the middle of attention.

″Guess you're losing your girlfriend to a younger guy, Jay″ Liv laughed when Noah demanded to sit in Erin's lap for eating his dessert.

″So buddy, real men talk here,″ Jay said to Noah and the little boy gave him a skeptical glance. ″You can look at her as much as you want, but if you touch her, we're going to have a problem, alright?″ he laughed.

″No no no no,″ Noah giggled and made them all laugh even harder.

″I'm not sure whether that's the answer he wanted to hear Noah,″ Erin told him.

″Here,″ Noah said in response and gave Erin his spoon with ice cream.

″Thank you,″ she smiled and took the spoon. ″Sorry to break it to you Jay but this point goes to him. I mean, he shares his food with me. So watch and learn,″ she smirked at her boyfriend.

″I also do,″ he objected and twinkled to her.

″No. You only give me the things you don't like. That's not sharing. That's using your girlfriend as garbage can,″ she answered as dry as possible.

″Says the girl who does the same and doesn't share the delicious things with me either,″ Jay laughed and gave Erin a smitten glance.

″You pway with me?″ Noah asked Erin after they had all finished their ice cream.

″Noah, Erin's not here to play with you,″ Liv reminded her son.

″It's okay. Show me your toys Noah.″

″Yeeeees, come,″ he said, grabbed her hand and pulled her to his room while Liv and Hank started to do the dishes.

″You guys need another hand?″ Jay asked.

″No thank you, we can do that. You can join these two if you want,″ Li said and pointed to Noah's nursery.

″Okay,″ Jay shrugged and left the two of them alone. He had the slightest feeling that this was what they wanted anyway: being alone.

″You didn't say much this evening,″ Liv quietly said to Hank as he handed her the dishes and she put them into the dishwasher.

″Sometimes I just like to listen...and to watch other people interacting,″ he shrugged and gave her a smile.

″Yeah, that's quite interesting sometimes. You've seen what I saw?″

″Don't know, what did you see?″ he asked.

″Erin being that happy. The way I got to know her...I didn't expect to see her like this one day.″

″Life tried to break her several times and she was on the edge just as often but she fought back every time. She still has her bad days. But most of the time she's doing good.″

″I asked her some questions yesterday evening. How she feels about being back here and how she dealt with everything. She was surprisingly open, told me about her birthday and other things. I didn't expect her to tell me so much to be honest.″

″She's also making progress with that. Letting people in. Letting people comfort her. Accepting help. And yes, she's happy. Happier than she's ever been,″ Hank admitted.

″He's the reason, right?″ Liv said and pointed to Jay. Hank didn't say anything, just watched how the three of them played together on the floor in Noah's room. ″I mean, there are many reasons and she told me that all of you guys are her family and that you're always there for her. But he's the main reason, right? He makes her happy.″

Hank glanced to the nursery for some more seconds and saw and heard them laughing. ″He does indeed,″ he then said, turned around to Liv again and helped her to finish the dishes. ″After everything Erin went through in her life already she needed and still needs someone who shows her that life can be wonderful...and it seems like Halstead's pretty good at it.″

″You know her for a really long time already, don't you?″ Liv asked.

″She's like my daughter. She's my family,″ he said and as he saw the surprised and confused look on Liv's face he added with a smile: ″It's a long story.″

″Bet it is.″

″How about having a drink somewhere?″ he suggested while giving her the last plate.

″I'd love to, but I can't. I have Noah,″ she sighed.

″He seems pretty occupied to me,″ Hank smirked and started to murmur his plan in Liv's ear.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

″Hey Erin, you got a second?″ Liv asked while leaning on the door frame of the nursery.

″Sure,″ Erin answered and got up from the floor.

″I'm really sorry but...uhm...something came up again. The CI from yesterday just called, so I'll put Noah to bed now and then me and Hank will meet him. Is it too impudent to ask you and Jay to stay here in the meantime?″

″Absolutely not. I mean it doesn't really matter whether we're watching TV here or at the hotel,″ Erin winked.

″You're an angel, thank you,″Liv smiled.

She put Noah to bed and thankfully he was really tired already so it didn't take long until he was asleep.

″See you later guys. And thanks again,″ Liv said as her and Hank left the apartment. Erin watched them walking down the hall and then closed the door behind her and turned around to Jay who was just filling two glasses with wine.

″100 bucks that they aren't meeting her CI,″ she casually said as Jay handed her one of the glasses.

″What, why do you think that?″ Jay frowned.

″Because this seriously was the worst excuse ever two people could use to go on a date,″ she laughed, went over to the couch and sat down.

″Olivia and Voight on a date? No way,″ he shook his head and joined her.

″Oh, of course. Have you never seen how Hank looks at her? How he treats her and tries to please her?″ Erin grinned.

″No. I think you are seeing things no one else does. There's no way...simply no,″ he said and tried not to think about Hank and Olivia being romantically involved with each other.

″As I said, 100 bucks, are you in?″

″Even if they are on a date right now, they would never tell you, so we're never going to find out who was right.″

″I will find out, trust me. Come on Jay,″ she said and a playfull smirk surrounded her lips as she sipped on her wine.

″I don't have 100 bucks.″

″So that means the thought of them being on a date isn't out of this world suddenly?″

″What? No. I didn't say that.″

″You said you don't have 100 bucks. But if you're sure they meet this mysterious CI then you don't need to have 100 bucks because you would win,″ she chuckled and looked at him with a winning smile on her face.

″Maybe you're right,″ he finally admitted and let her smile grow with it.

″What? I couldn't hear you. What did you just say?″ she joked.

″When we did the dishes earlier I also had the feeling that they want to be alone. So, maybe it's not that much out of this world that they are...on a date.″

″Ha! See, I told you so.″

″It's just really hard to imagine. You know, these pictures in my head,″ he said and took a big sip from his wine.

″Who told you shall picture this in your head?″ she laughed. ″But thank you, now I have them in my head too,″ she said and also took a long sip to pour them down.

″Hey, I'm not the one who started with this whole thing,″ he chuckled, placed his glass on the table and leaned in to kiss her lips for the first time this evening as there was no way they would've kissed in front of Liv and Hank earlier.

″Wish we already were in our hotel now,″ he mumbled into her ear after the kiss.

″Keep it in your pants, Jay″ she teased him and giggled. At one point Jay had of course told her the full story of his' and Hank's conversation about Erin being off limits but unfortunately she now used it against him whenever she could. Much to her enjoyment and his disfavor.

″Not funny,″ he said, rolled his eyes and grabbed his glass again.

″We could play Scrabble,″ she suggested casually and as she did so, Jay almost choked on his wine and looked at her with wide eyes as if she was out of her mind. She had expected him to react exactly like that and started to laugh.

″I meant the game. You know, the one with the bricks and the letters where you have to build words and get points for them. You understand what I'm talking about? I saw it in the cupboard the other day, so I thought we could play,″ she said and still had to laugh hard. ″What were you thinking about though?″ she teased him as it was more than obvious anyway.

″Nothing, absolutely nothing.″

″Good, because for a second I thought-″

″Shut up,″ he said and placed a kiss on her lips before she was able to end her sentence. They fetched the game out of the cupboard, went over to the dining table and started to play that different kind of scrabble.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

They finished their case in the early afternoon of the following day. After finally finding the missing piece it all went down faster than expected. In the evening, the SVU team wanted to celebrate this success with Erin, Jay and Hank at a bar in downtown and the three of them would take a flight back home on the next morning as the next day was a Saturday anyway. As they still had lots of time left until the evening, Erin and Jay had decided to go back to the hotel and relax a bit.

″You know, we should make an advantage of the fact that we're still here,″ Jay said shortly after they'd both laid down on the bed next to each other. He softly tickled up and down her arm with his fingers and she has become surprisingly silent during the past minutes. Even now she didn't answer.

″Erin?″ Jay asked but was too lazy to lift his head up.

″Huh?″ she mumbled. Now Jay turned his head around and saw that she was more or less dozing.

″Are you sleeping?″ he frowned.

″Not any longer,″ she answered but kept her eyes shut.

″Didn't want to wake you up,″ he apologized.

″Well, you failed with that,″ she laughed and rolled to her side to look directly into his great blue eyes.

″Are you feeling good?″ he asked her as she looked quite tired.

″Yeah sure, why shouldn't I?″

″Because you just slept in the middle of the day. That's weird. More than weird. I'm not used to that,″ he explained and still scanned her.

″Yeah, that's because we usually don't have time to sleep in the middle of the day. But that's actually really nice,″ she yawned and stretched her body.

″So you're already in vacation modus, huh?″ he chuckled and kissed her forehead.

″Completely,″ she smiled at him.

″Great. Because I thought we could maybe use our free time here to be typical tourists. Do a bit of sightseeing. What do you think?″

″You mean like getting up and walking through the city for hours?″ she laughed.

″Yeah. Something like that. Fresh air and the warm sun will help my sleepy head to wake up,″ he smirked and started to tickle her waist.

″Stop it,″ she immediately said in between laughters and gasps for air. Of course he didn't let her go so fast so her only option was to literally jump out of the bed.

″Well that was fast,″ Jay laughed.

″I hate you.″

″At least you're up now,″ he winked, got also up and guided her to the bathroom for a quick shower.

After showering and getting dressed they strolled through the busy streets of New York, holding each others hand tightly, and it already felt like vacation. They went on top of the Empire State Building, enjoyed the sun in the Central Park for half an hour and then took the subway to Lower Manhattan and the financial district. They walked over Brooklyn Brigde and Jay had his hands wrapped around Erin's waist from behind as they watched the sun go down right next to the famous Manhattan skyline.

When they later sat in an Italian restaurant before meeting the rest of the Crew in a bar close by, they flirted, they joked, they laughed. Jay was satisfied to see that Erin apparently started to make peace with the city where so many things had happened and Erin herself felt good, almost lighthearted although she thought she would hate this city forever. And she knew whom she had to thank for it. Jay Halstead, her boyfriend, her soulmate. Her savior. He had the unique ability to show her that life wasn't as bad and ugly as she used to know it. In fact, every day he showed her a little more that life was actually wonderful...

Well yes, this was a lot of fluff, hope you liked it anyway! Please tell me what you think. The next chapter(s) will finally be about Wisconsin :)