87. Sweet Life
Thanks for all your feedback once again :) I wanted to update earlier but sometimes life just gets in the way and ruins these plans. But here you go, enjoy :)
87. Sweet Life
After telling their team about the exciting and life-changing news, it was now on Erin and Jay to inform everyone else before those news could travel by themselves and their other loved ones would hear about Erin's pregnancy from someone else. They didn't actually care about those news spreading because soon enough Erin wouldn't be able to hide it anymore anyway but they didn't want family members like Will and Rylie to learn about those news from other nurses just because the moccasin telegraph between the 21st and the hospital was working at its best with cops and doctors regularly hanging out at Molly's. And so Erin made sure to spend the evening after getting the pregnancy confirmed by her doctor with Rylie right away, helping her to paint the walls in what soon would be her apartment. Meanwhile Jay texted his brother and asked him whether he was free for an evening with him, beer and chips provided and some sports channel running on his 65-inch-flatscreen and the older Halstead gladly agreed on his younger brother's offer, telling him that something like this was overdue anyway.
Equipped with paint rollers, brushes and some buckets of paint that Erin and Jay still had in the basement from painting the walls in their house, Erin and Rylie drove to Kim's old apartment after an early dinner, leaving the task of tucking Luke and Emilia in to Jay, who of course had no problem with that. It was a rare thing that he could bring them to bed on a weekday and didn't have to leave this task to Erin, so he fully enjoyed those evenings where he simply could be a doting dad.
″You take those buckets and I take all the other stuff,″ Erin said as they unloaded the trunk, giving the heavy things to Rylie to protect the baby that was growing inside of her.
″Okay,″ the young girl nodded and grabbed the buckets to carry them inside the apartment building and up to the third floor.
″You wanna give me a tour first?″ Erin smiled when they closed the door behind them. She of course knew Kim's apartment from spending evenings with her friend here but she wanted to hear about Rylie's plans, what she wanted to do with the place and how she wanted to change it to make it more hers, even with Kim's old furniture she didn't need anymore.
″Sure,″ Rylie smiled brightly and started right away with showing her the hallway that she wanted to paint in white so it would be light and welcoming, some pictures of her and Luke decorating the walls at some point. They went on to the small but fully equipped kitchen with a small booth that provided enough space to have meals, Rylie talking about her plans of painting the walls in lime. From the kitchen she guided Erin to the room that would be her bedroom and living room in one, telling her how she wanted to seperate those two areas with some curtain or shelf, the walls supposed to change from white to a light orange and white. All of the furniture that Kim has left were already placed in the middle of the room so they luckily didn't have to move them, only needed to cover them with some foil to protect them from the paint. The only room that didn't need painting was the small bathroom that she showed Erin next and last but not least, they found themselves in the other bedroom, the one Luke would hopefully move in to in a couple of weeks when this was a children's paradise in blue and white with some Disney characters on the walls.
″Where do you want to start? Luke's room?″ Erin asked.
″No, I still have time for Luke's room. I thought we could start with my room today, probably do the kitchen and the hallway tomorrow and Luke's room over the weekend when I move,″ Rylie suggested.
″Sure, let's get started then.″
The color of the room quickly changed into a nice and warm orange, Rylie and Erin talking about Rylie's job at Med, how she was back working in the ED now but still wanted to specialize into midwifery rather than becoming an ED nurse. She hasn't decided on anything so far because the online college classes she was already attending while also attending the online highschool classes were basics that she needed no matter in which direction her career was going. The blonde girl also told her how she was allowed to do more and more and how her job didn't only consist of emptying bedpans, changing diapers or running to the lab anymore, how she's earned all their trust which resulted in more responsible tasks.
″Enough about me now,″ Rylie somewhen laughed. ″Tell me something about your job that I don't know. Did you bust some drug dealers today? Or did you have a nice chase in the 300?″ The 21-year-old knew very well that everything that let the adrenaline rush through Erin's body were her favorite tasks.
″No, I didn't,″ Erin chuckled. ″And I won't do anything of this for a long time,″ she smiled, figuring that now was the perfect moment and the perfect time to tell her.
″Why not?″ Rylie frowned. ″I thought that's what you do for a living.″
″It is. But it's not what a pregnant cop should do...″ she said meaningfully and couldn't hold back a smile forming on her lips.
″What?!″ Rylie's eyes widened. ″You're pregnant?″
″I am,″ Erin confirmed with a big smile and Rylie had her arms flung around her faster than she could say anything else.
″Oh my God, I'm so happy for you,″ she hugged her. ″Congratulations, that's amazing news.″
″Thank you.″
″How far along are you? Is it a boy or a girl? When are you due? When did you find out?″ Rylie fired her questions at her.
″Ry,″ Erin laughed and touched her upper arm before she would get breathing troubles by speaking without interruption. ″Breathe.″
″Okay,″ she smirked.
″I'm almost eight weeks and the baby is due on 22 November, which turns out to be Thanksgiving. Of course we don't know yet whether it's a boy or a girl and we probably keep it a surprise,″ Erin answered all her questions. ″Oh, and I found out last Friday.″
″So that's where does mood swings in the last few weeks came from, huh?″ Rylie teased.
″Guilty as charged,″ she smirked.
″Geeee, when that's your mood while you're pregnant I seriously wonder how you and Jay made it through those nine months the first time and ended up still being together,″ she laughed.
″What shall I say? He pretty much loves me,″ Erin grinned.
″Believe me Erin, that's visible in every minute you two are in the same room,″ Rylie chuckled. ″The way this man looks at you with so much undeniable love and admiration...they can't even do that in the cheesiest movies.″
″Stop exaggerating.″ Erin's cheeks blushed a little in embarrasment.
″I don't″ Rylie said lightly. ″And you know what's the best thing? You look at him in the exact same way and it's adorable. And admirable. And somehow sad. Because now I want that, too, and I don't know how many people on this earth are truly blessed with finding their soulmate.″
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
When Will rang the doorbell of the beautiful, big house in Beverly around 8pm in the evening, the last thing he expected was Luke answering the speaker and then opening the door all by himself, with Crispin by his side.
″Shouldn't you be in bed, young man?″ Will asked as soon as Luke had let him in.
″Uuuhhm, no,″ he giggled.
″I think you should,″ Will disagreed with a smile and scooped the 5-year-old into his arms. ″Where's Jay? You hiding from him so you don't have to go to bed?″
″No no,″ Luke grinned mischievously. ″Jay's sleeping.″
″Sleeping?″ Will wondered and let the little boy back down on the floor.
″Yes,″ Luke nodded. ″I wanted to ask him to read me a story and then I found him sleeping on the couch. Come, I show you,″ he said and pulled Will with him to the living room.
″Look at that,″ Will whispered smirkingly when his eyes fell on the adorable scene in front of him. Jay was lying on his side, somehow uncomfortably with his arm under his head, Emilia snuggled into him in a similar position, just mirror-inverted, and sleeping as well.
″See, I told you,″ Luke whispered while Will pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jacket to snap the moment, sending it to Erin with the words: What did you do with these two? :)
″Yes, I see,″ Will whispered back. ″Come on, we let them sleep and I will read you a story, okay?″
″Yaaah,″ Luke beamed. ″Can you read one from the pirate book?″
″Sure,″ Will answered quietly.
″Can you also do the voices as good as Jay?″ Luke asked, his voice unfortunately not as quiet anymore as he was all excited.
″Of course he can't,″ Jay mumbled from the couch, giving his brother a lazy grin. ″But he's not so bad.″
″Well good morning Sleeping Beauty. I already thought I have to drink your beer all by myself,″ Will laughed and shook his head slightly. ″Is it still okay when I read you the story, Luke?″
″Yes,″ Luke nodded.
″Alright, then let's go,″ Will smiled and followed Luke upstairs.
With Will reading Luke a story, Jay had time to tuck Emmy in as well, the 14-month-old thankfully not waking up when he carried her upstairs and settled her in her crib. Since bedtime stories with Luke always took a certain amount of time, he could even go to the basement and bring up some beer and chips to his mancave and just after he'd turned on the TV on low volume, Will joined him and plopped down on the couch next to him.
″When was even the last time we had a men night out?″ Will asked and reached for the beer on the coffee table.
″I don't know,″ Jay shrugged, grabbing his beer as well. ″Probably that evening we where in Molly's a couple of weeks back?″
″Rather a couple of months back,″ Will laughed. ″It's amazing how these little people dictate your life and you're totally fine with it, isn't it?″
″Yeah,″ Jay agreed. ″I take an evening at home over going out for a beer anytime. And Molly's honestly was Erin's and my second home before we had Emmy. You would find us there almost every evening. And now we rather have fancy date nights when we find the time and our colleagues mark it in their calendar when we join them in Molly's because it's become that kind of a rarity.″
″Yep, the priorities definitely shift,″ Will nodded, taking a sip from his beer. ″Don't you sometimes miss it though? Just doing what you want? Going for a beer or a round of pool after work and not reading stories, changing diapers and cleaning all the mess up?″
″No,″ Jay answered instantly. ″No matter how stressful it can be sometimes, coming home in the evening is the best part of my day and I would never change it for anything,″ he explained and scanned his brother with a frown. ″Where is this even coming from?″
″Oh...nowhere,″ Will shrugged it off, ignoring the fact that his brother was a detective who made his living with reading people's gazes and figure out when they were lying, and he skillfully changed the topic to the new MLB season and the first games of the Chicago teams, him being a Sox fan and Jay being a Cubs fan giving them quite something to discuss and argue about in a brotherly way.
They were close to emptying their second beer, the bowl with chips having lost its content over the last hour as well, when Will changed the topic again, just when Jay actually thought about finally telling him the big news before the evening would be over. ″You remember mom's engagement ring and how she said the first of us who finds the one can have it?″ he asked with a hint of nervousness in his voice.
At first, Jay was slightly confused by the sudden change of topic but then suddenly this fitted perfectly to their discussion earlier, when Will had asked whether he sometimes missed certain things from his old life. His brother obviously had big plans ahead and he had to hide a smirk when the realization hit him where this conversation was about to go and played cool and casual so his brother wouldn't recognize it.
″Of course I do,″ Jay answered.
″Then why did you never take it? You found the one first and yet, you never asked for the ring,″ Will said.
″It was mom's ring, yes. But it was given to her by dad and when I proposed to Erin dad wasn't a person in my life I liked to think about,″ Jay explained. ″It didn't feel right to take a ring that was given to her by a man who turned out to be the reason she felt miserable for years. So I bought Erin a new ring...one that has nothing to do with the past.″
″Makes sense,″ Will nodded pensively and bit his lip, a clear sign that there was more on his chest but that he didn't find the courage to speak it out loud.
″Come on Will, spill it already,″ Jay laughed, finding amusement in his brother's behavior. Did the ginger really think he hasn't caught up on the reason for this conversation yet?
″Spill what?″
″That you want to have the ring...″ Jay said meaningfully, leaving the part to propose to Natalie out.
For a moment it seemed like Will was somehow shocked and at a loss of words but then he casually asked:″What makes you think I want the ring?″
″I make my living with putting together puzzle pieces so this wasn't really too big of a challenge,″ Jay laughed.
″Damn,″ he mumbled under his breath. ″But what the hell: would you be fine with it?″
″Absolutely,″ Jay smiled, giving his brother a pat on the back. ″So you are going to propose man?″ For someone who's always told Jay that he and Erin were moving fast, he now seemed to make sure to keep up with that pace by proposing after a little over a year of being together.
″Well...yes, I guess,″ Will smirked.
″You think she's ready for this? You know...not even seven months ago you crashed with us because she wasn't ready for Owen to call you daddy.″
″She is,″ Will nodded. ″We've come a long way since that and for what it's worth, this whole thing only made us stronger.″
″Are you ready for this?″ Jay dug deeper.
″I am,″ Will said without hesitating and Jay was sure he's seldomly seen his brother saying something with such certainty. It seemed like his older brother was really and finally ready for this next step in his life, leaving his wild bachelor years behind him once and for all.
″And there's no ulterior motive for that?″ Jay joked, trying to give his older brother a bit of a hard time because that was what younger brothers were for. ″Like that you messed up or she's pregnant or so?″
″There's not. I plan on doing it in June, when we're on vacation in Cancun because this has time. So no, I didn't mess anything up and she's not pregnant,″ Will grinned and gave his brother a punch on the shoulder.
″Too bad,″ Jay smirked.
″Sorry Jay, you have to wait a little before I make you an uncle,″ Will laughed.
″Well, I guess I have to accept that and for now be fine with becoming a dad again and making my brother an uncle for the second time,″ he said dryly but with this special, genuine grin on his lips.
″Did you just say you're going to be a father again?″ Will asked perplexedly. ″I thought Rylie gets Luke back soon, she's talking about it all the time.″
″I'm not talking about Luke,″ Jay smirked, giving his brother a little wink and only now the scales seemed to fall from his eyes.
″No way,″ Will smiled brightly, disbelief written across his face. ″Erin is pregnant again?!″
″Yes,″ Jay confirmed. ″Erin is pregnant and there's another Halstead coming around Thanksgiving.″
″Wow,″ Will breathed out. ″That's a real surprise,″ he shook his head. ″What happened to you guys not knowing whether you even want a second child?″
″Well, this turned into us deciding to try for a second,″ Jay chuckled.
″Seems like it was successful,″ Will laughed and pulled his little brother into a hug. ″Congrats Jay, I'm really happy for you and I can't wait to meet our new family member.″
″Me neither,″ Jay answered, his head traveling a couple of months forward and creating a picture of them all sitting around the table on Thanksgiving, Erin either still heavily pregnant and complaining how she was done being pregnant or her already holding their tiny newborn in her arms, those pictures making his heart almost jump out of his chest. Why did November have to be a lifetime away?
″Life's pretty sweet for both of us these days, isn't it?″ Will asked, eyeing his brother how his mind obviously was at some different place.
Jay looked at him, smiling as bright as a kid on Christmas morning before he clinked his bottle of beer with his brother's. ″Hell yes, it is.″
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
One week later
No unsatisfied toddler crying woke Erin up on the 12th of April, her 33rd birthday, and instead she was able to sleep in, which was urgently needed since she was still battling against insomnia during the night. This and her craving for chocolate were the only bad symptoms during this pregnancy so far as no morning sickness dared to make her miserable and her mood swings seemed to decrease, though still there and making everyone roll their eyes from time to time when she snapped at them for no particular reason.
″Come on Emmy, let's go to mommy and tell her happy birthday,″ Jay whispered and Erin slowly opened her eyes by the hushed voice of her husband to see him walking into the room, holding Emmy's hand, their daughter walking next to him with a present in her other hand.
″Hey beautiful,″ Jay smiled when Erin's eyes fell on them and a bright smile spread across her face by this adorable sight of father and daughter.
″Hey,″ she smiled back and ran her hand through her messy hair.
″Mama,″ Emilia babbled excitedly and Jay helped her to climb onto the bed.
Before naturally all the attention would be on Emmy in a second, no matter that it was Erin's big day, he quickly sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned in to give her a long birthday kiss. He'd already told her happy birthday last night, when they'd started her birthday with a steaming hot round of making love just around midnight but there was no harm in telling her these words again. ″Happy birthday again, babe. May this new year give you a lot of sweet things,″ he smiled, stroking over her stomach – or rather the sheet that covered it - shortly.
″Mama,″ Emmy said once more, making sure that their little moment was cut short, which made them both laugh and they were glad that they'd had their big moment last night.
″Yes, it's mommy's birthday today, Em. Can you say that? Happy birthday, mommy,″ Jay asked her and ran his hand over her head.
″No no,″ Emmy answered and tried to unwrap the present instead.
″Hey bug, that's mommy's present,″ Jay laughed.
″No no,″ Emilia said her favorite word again.
″But you can totally help me with that,″ Erin smiled and adjusted her position so she could settle Emilia in her lap and unwrap the present with her. Meanwhile, Jay pulled back the curtains to let the sun inside the room and then settled on his side of the bed so they could later enjoy some birthday cuddles as just the three of them. Or four in fact.
He had the day off since Teddy would fly into Chicago later and they wanted to go to the zoo together to enjoy a family day in the spring sun and then in the evening, Jay would take Erin out for a special candle light dinner, with a boat out on Lake Michigan, which she of course had no idea about. Luke has been staying with Rylie since yesterday evening as Rylie would work the weekend and therefore had him for two days during the week, although this wasn't as convenient as she couldn't spend too much time with him because he had to go to preschool. And only on Saturday everyone would come to celebrate Erin's 33rd with them, making this the first barbeque and garden party of the season. It seemed like this was becoming a new tradidtion: them hosting the first barbeque on Erin's birthday and the last on Jay's birthday in September.
″What's that, Emmy?″ Erin asked once the present was unwrapped and a frame was revealed. The backside of a frame in fact. She turned it around, her eyes falling on a beautiful portrait of Jay and Emilia, Jay sitting on the grass cross-legged, Emilia sitting in his lap, the both of the smiling brightly, their blue eyes sparkling at her. And of course their faithful dog was lying next to them, looking as adorable as always. It was that kind of picture that could easily be used for catalogues or other advertisements because everything about it was perfect, almost magical.
″Wow,″ Erin whispered, swiping her fingers over her two loved ones and not being able to take her eyes away from these perfect two people that made her life so much better every single day. ″My whole world in one picture. Thank you,″ she smiled emotionally and moved towards Jay so she could give him a kiss.
″Next year your whole world will include another person,″ Jay smiled. ″But I had no idea about this when we went to take the pictures three weeks ago while you had to work late.″
″Yeah,″ she nodded somehow absently and her mind seemed to be at a different place. ″Three years ago, this was the worst day of my life and I never thought I could be truly happy on this day ever again because how should I when I lost a loved one on exactly that day?″ she said quietly and completely off-topic, her eyes traveling from Jay, to Emmy, her stomach and eventually the picture. ″But here I am, three years later, blessed with my husband, our daughter and our baby on the way and I don't think I've ever been happier and life has ever been sweeter,″ she smiled, tears looming in her eyes.
″This is what Nadia would've wanted for you: smile, open your eyes, love and go on. And cherish her memory and let it live on.″
″Yeah,″ Erin nodded. ″Thank you, Jay. For this moment right now. For being here for me every single second of every single day. And for giving me our children. We've come a long way in the last three years and without you I could never be as happy now as Nadia would want me to be.″ She kissed him again, slowly and delicately and then snuggled closer to his side, Emmy for once not being a wild child and snuggling with them like an actual angel.
″I love you,″ she said as he wrapped his arm around her to pull her closer, Emilia basically lying on them so they could both cuddle with her at the same time.
″Me?″ Emmy asked. Another word to add to the list of words Emmy could say. This list grew longer by the week and Emilia talking was one of the most adorable things to witness. In addition, she was now also listening to orders, like when they said: Can you bring me your shoes please? They were sure Emmy was understanding a whole lot already and slowly but steady her variety of words started to catch up on the things she already understood.
″Yes, you of course, too,″ Erin chuckled and tickled her belly. ″I'm sure you are the most loved person in this room, squirt.″
″Baby,″ Emmy babbled, throwing another word at them she's caught up on in the last few days ever since they used it quite often.
″And the baby bean as well, yes,″ Erin smiled, her hand traveling to her stomach to stroke over it lovingly. ″So much love in one room,″ she added and gazed up to Jay, who gave her this heart-eyed glance back and pressed a kiss against her head.
They stayed in bed for a little while longer, taking advantage of Emmy being all cuddly this morning and only when she started to get bored, Jay tickled her belly or made other nonsense with her, which made not only Emilia laugh and giggle hearitly but all of them. Last year, when Jay'd surprised her with a trip to Lake Geneva, she'd thought this – her first birthday as a mom - was her best birthday ever, but this morning was already the best start to make this one even better as nothing could beat lazy mornings in pajamas, their bedroom filled with Emilia's laughters and the thought that next year this time, they would have a five month old baby to join the fun.
Having breakfast downstairs later, Erin immediately discovered a second part of her birthday present, another heart-warming, stunning portrait of Emmy and Jay, a much bigger one, printed on canvas and already hung up on the wall where she could see it many times every day. In addition, Jay, her househusband, had of course already baked a cake for her this morning, proudly telling Erin how Emmy had helped him and how he'd managed to clean up the mess, that baking with kid naturally caused, before she woke up. They all enjoyed the chocolate cake with cherries, even Crispin getting a few pieces since Emmy spread the crumbles of her piece of cake all over the floor, looking like the chocolate monster itself once she was done.
They made it to the airport just in time to pick Teddy up, her brother being one of the few people who did not yet know about her pregnancy since she wanted to tell him in person.
″Teddy!″ Erin waved as soon as her eyes found her brother in between all the other people that had been on this or any other flight that had landed at O'Hare recently.
″Erin,″ Teddy called back, making his way through the crowd and wrapping her arms around her as soon as he was close enough. ″Happy birthday,″ he whispered and kissed her cheek. ″I hope all your wishes will come true in your new year of life.″
″Thank you, Ted,″ Erin grinned. ″I'm so happy you could make it.″
″I promised, remember?″ Teddy winked. ″And now let me say hi to my niece.″
″Say hi to your uncle Teddy,″ Jay, who was carrying Emmy, said to his daughter and bounced her a little.
″Geee Emmy, when did you grow up like this?″ Teddy asked the toddler, Emmy being a little shy and hiding her head against her father's shoulder. ″You never looked like such a big girl when we skyped,″ he said but Emmy was still not warming up. ″She doesn't really remember me, right?″
″Not right now, no,″ Jay confirmed. ″But she will come along, believe me.″
″I can't blame her. The last time I met her in person she was six months old, so that's totally my fault,″ he answered with a smile.
″Yeah that's quite a bit of time you two have to catch up on,″ Erin smiled.
″Exactly,″ Teddy agreed. ″Let's get going then.″
From the airport, they directly drove to the Lincoln Park Zoo, so they could spend the next couple of hours there now that Emilia was old enough to be mesmerized by all the different animals. The sun was shining as they walked through the zoo, everything around them slowly starting to get green and some flowers already blossoming in all their different colors, all the little baby animals that had been born within the last days and weeks, melting their hearts with their cuteness and clumsiness.
″Hey Emmy, not so fast,″ Erin laughed when Emilia tried to run away and took off after her to pick her up from behind and swirl her through the air.
″Seeing Erin like this still gives me the chills,″ Teddy smiled as he watched his sister and niece laugh in a way that it could cure the world from all the bad things. He was walking next to Jay, who was pushing the stroller that Emmy most of the time didn't want to sit in. Once their little one got tired, this thing would save the day though. ″She's so happy and it's so pure and so real and just beautiful to see.″
″Yeah, these are the days,″ Jay grinned.
″Hey Ted, Jay,″ Erin waved. ″Emmy wants to see the baby goats, come on!″
″We're coming!″ Teddy called back, being sure that actually Erin was the one who wanted to see the little goats.
The children's zoo, where she could feed and stroke the goats and sheep and a shetland pony, was the highlight for Emmy and she was squeeking and babbling like crazy when her hands touched the soft fur or one of the cheeky goats gave her a little nudge.
″These two are my world,″ Erin said as she and Teddy watched Jay and Emmy surrounded by a herd of goats. Jay was kneeling on the ground, one arm wrapped around Emmy, his other hand making sure that she didn't accidentially put her little hands into the animal's mouth.
″I bet you're theirs as well,″ Teddy noticed the obvious.
″I hope so,″ she joked and then turned her attention away from her two favorites to her brother. ″You should come here more often. It's nice to have you here.″
″I enjoy being here. And right now I wonder whether it was a mistake to ever go to California. Not because I'm not happy there but because I'm so involved there that I don't want to leave and feel obligated to stay at all times. It feels great to be needed in such a way but at the same time, being so involved keeps me from spending more time with you.″
″California wasn't a mistake, Ted. You are the best thing that's happened to those kids and what you do there is so important that it makes it easier to accept the fact that we don't see each other as often,″ Erin said. ″And hey, maybe if we plan it early enough, we can meet more often? Like for example...Thanksgiving,″ she smiled.
″Thanksgiving?″ Teddy echoed. ″That's seven months away. I don't plan that far ahead,″ he laughed.
″What if I would give you a very good and special reason to plan that far ahead?″ Erin winked.
″What would that be?″ he asked curiously.
″Huh,″ Erin smirked mischievously. ″How about you becoming an uncle again around 22 November?″
″Erin, are you telling me that you're pregant? Is that what you're saying?″ he beamed and just like everyone else he had disbelief written all over his face. It seemed like no one, absolutely no one, had ever thought about the possibility of them adding another baby to their brood so soon.
″Yes,″ Erin nodded. ″That's exactly what I'm saying.″
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
With Teddy taking care of Emmy in the evening, Erin and Jay could fully enjoy their date night and the special gourmet candle light dinner Jay had organized for her birthday. The boat brought them out on Lake Michigan so they had a dazzling view on the skyline of their hometown, the sunset showing Chicago off in a very special light tonight, and they enjoyed one of the best meals they've ever eaten, Jay drinking wine along with his food while Erin sticked to water. Water that has never tasted better. Between their main course and dessert, they had enough time to go outside to have a little dance on deck, the enlightened skyline sparkling in the distance as they moved slowly and exchanged tenderness to Perfect, no other song fitting this evening better as it was all kinds of perfect and unforgettable.
Just like any other day, this evening of Erin's 33rd birthday, of being absolute lovebirds, of celebrating her special day as just the two of them, was over in the blink of an eye and reality already had them back on the following day, when Jay returned to work and Erin stayed home because Teddy was only in town for four days and she wanted to make the most of this time, not knowing when was the next time she would see her little brother and was able to spend some quality time with him again since his schedule was as crazy as hers.
They went to downtown and Navy Pier in the morning, Emmy having countless rides on the carousel with both, her mother and her uncle, and she simply couldn't get enough, and when they decided to leave the place, lots of big crocodile tears were shed accompanied by some unsatisfied screaming. Erin handled the situation just fine, she was used to it after all, and they went to downtown where they stopped by the Disney Store so Teddy could buy his niece a new toy in this children's paradise, no later than now the ice definitely broken between the two and the carousel was long forgotten.
In the afternoon, they picked Luke up from preschool and after a trip to the grocery store to buy all the things they needed for dinner and the party tomorrow – the grocery store once again providing to be the place for both, Emmy and Luke to throw a tantrum because Emmy didn't want to sit in the cart and Luke didn't get what he wanted - they spent the rest of the afternoon in the backyard with building sand castles or sand race tracks for the monster trucks in the big sandbox under the tree, that slowly started to get green, or seesawed with these two rascals that never offered them a dull minute.
″Seriously, how do you do that?″ Teddy asked when they sat down on the steps for a moment, watching the two kids running through the garden squealing loudly, making sure the entire neighborhood knew that the Halstead kids were out and about, Emmy falling on her knees several times to give her jeans grass stains for eternity. ″These two are quite a handful and exhausting, aren't they?″
″They are for sure not the most quiet kids,″ Erin chuckled. ″And sometimes I'm more beat in the evening after a full day with them than after a day plus nightshift in the bullpen.″
″I can imagine,″ he laughed. ″Like earlier in the store...how did you manage to stay calm?″
″I guess I'm used to it,″ she said somewhat sarcastically but still with a smile. ″No seriously, it only gets worse when I freak out as well so I better stay calm and try to ignore the glances from the other people who look at me either like they want to kill me because my kids don't behave or with a whole lot of compassion because my kids are a total nightmare.″
″Sounds like quite the challenge,″ he noticed.
″It's not always easy,″ she admitted. ″But in the end of the day I might go to bed with no energy left but I also go to bed with a full heart and that's all that counts.″
″You must have some superpowers or something,″ he winked, giving her a little nudge.
″You know, I think every mom has them in some way,″ she smiled. ″Well, not every mom...″
Teddy looked at her knowing exactly what she meant, who she was referring to. ″Every mom that has her huge golden heart in the right place,″ he said. ″You've always had that. A golden heart,″ he smiled at the woman who'd raised him, at least for a couple of years and of course this made her cheeks blush. Compliments always made her cheeks blush and she couldn't do anything about it.
″Well Ted,″ she smirked. ″I guess one reason why I can handle the challenges these two face me with every day is that you were quite the pain in the neck as well.″
″They're for sure absolute angels compared to how I was,″ he laughed along with her.
″Luke reminds me a lot of you,″ Erin smiled. ″But in a positive way. And although I don't know how I was like as a baby I would think that Emmy is a lot like me, a total whirlwind,″ she chuckled. ″A queen of stubbornness,″ she added with a sigh.
Teddy reached for Erin's hand and squeezed it, a warm smile spreading across his face. ″You are the most amazing woman I know, Erin. You went through so much already but you always came out on top of it. You never stop fighting and you're always there for the people around you. As much that I sometimes wonder whether you would forget yourself if it wasn't for your husband to make sure that doesn't happen. So if Emmy grows up to be like you, she will be one amazing woman and everyone around her will be very lucky.″
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
One week later
Erin was just finishing a report in the afternoon of this rainy Friday, doing all the paperwork for her colleagues being her main job now, when her work cell rang, an unknown number showing up. She reached for her phone with a sigh because she sensed that it had to do with their current case that was as brutal that she just wanted to turn back time to last Friday, when Emilia's tantrums had been the worst part of her day. Or to the weekend with her family. The birthday barbeque on Saturday had then been a big party to celebrate Erin's new year of life with almost all her loved ones, four kids, Luke, Owen, Emilia and Danny, running through the backyard while the adults tried to have conversations on the patio but were often interrupted by one of the kids's crying because they were fighting for toys. Teddy had returned to San Francisco on Sunday evening and since Tuesday, Intelligence has been faced with one of the hardest cases in months, one that needed to be solved but for the first time in a long time, it seemed like they weren't fast enough, the criminals always one step ahead of them, the unit not even close to find the real head of the snake.
″Erin Lindsay,″ she answered. Whenever she was at work, she only used her work cell, all calls to her private cell being transfered to this one, so her private phone could stay in the pocket of her jacket.
″Hey Erin, it's Maggie.″ Erin of course immediately recognized the voice of Chicago Med's head nurse and her heartrate doubled its pace as she wondered why the woman she called friend would call her on a Friday afternoon. She couldn't fight the feeling that the sweet life they'd lived in the last few days would come to an end soon. Rapidly in fact.
″Maggie,″ Erin breathed out nervously, her head already picturing scenarios where Luke had injured himself in preschool or any other catastrophe had happened to one of the people she cared about. ″What's going on?″
It's nothing bad. No worries, I'm just calling because..., this was what Erin hoped she would say, probably that it had to do with their case, but instead she confirmed Erin's apprehensions that what she had to say could change everything drastically.
″There was an incident with Rylie. You better come...″
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