A Linstead Future

1

It had been three years since Jay Halstead had seen Erin Lindsay. In these three years, Jay had moved on, found new love, found new passion, and found a new best friend; all of these happened to be one person, Hailey Upton. 

Jay continued to work for the Chicago PD while Lindsay went on to find new work for New York's FBI. She was forced to work here for her mother's freedom; however, her mother got seriously sick and passed away a week ago. Because of this, Erin was granted two weeks to return to Chicago to bury her mother there, and grieve the death.

Lindsay Arrives in Chicago

Hank Voight had heard about the passing of Bunny and knew Erin was coming into town, but he failed to inform the rest of the team, including Jay. He thought it would be better if she showed up by surprise, rather than making him stressed about her arrival. 

It was a normal day in the office, everyone was placed at their desks, doing their normal jobs - same thing, different day. Jay sat at his desk, filling out paperwork from the happenings of the day before. As he got up to go to the copier, he noticed something in his peripheral; he couldn't believe it, he wasn't sure what he saw was correct so he turned vigorously to see if it was true. And damn, it was; Erin walked up the stairs and passed everyone to Voight's office. The door closed slowly as the image of Erin and Voight hugging faded as the door shut.

Everyone could hear murmurs but had no idea what was happening. They only thought that she was back visiting, with no idea what for.

Jay returned to his desk, grabbed his coffee and downed whatever was left.

"Was that...Erin? Did my eyes play tricks on me?" Upton asked Halstead. "What is she doing back here?"

"I'm not sure, she didn't tell me she was even coming. But yeah, she is here," Jay said, with disbelief rolling off his tongue.

 "She didn't tell me she was coming back either," Burgess stated, "I'll ask her when she comes out."

About 30 minutes went by before the door of Voight's office opened up and everyone's eyes turned to Erin.

"Hey..." Erin lightly smiled, her eyes were bloodshot red, like she had been crying for the last few hours.

"Hey, Erin. What's up? What are you doing here?" Burgess asked. Everyone's ears glued to the words ready to leave her mouth.

"Bunny passed away yesterday. I'm here to bury her and 'grieve' as the department requested. I got two weeks so you guys will probably be seeing a lot of me." Erin explained.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Jay questioned.

"I didn't know I was coming until yesterday and had to make plans. I've got a whole other life I have to take care of. I've got people coming from New York in the next few days to prepare for the funeral in 4 days. I had a lot on my mind, I'm sorry I didn't tell any of you guys," Erin tried explaining between sighs and tears. 

Everyone could tell she was stressed to her max and didn't want to do anything more to stress her out.

"Voight, I'm going to take the day off to see if my friend is doing okay," Burgess demanded as she wrapped her arm around Erin and walked her out.

They walked out of the precinct and to Burgess' car. "I've missed you, a lot has happened since you've been gone," she stated.

"I know, same here. You don't even know the least of it." Erin laid her head back on the headrest, closing her eyes, tears rolled down her cheeks and landed on her shirt, forming a little wet spot.

"The least of it? What's happened?" Burgess interrogated, nosily.

As they chatted in the car, Jay sat at his desk, going over everything that had happened with them, how it all ended, and how his life was going right now - she had to show up when his life was finally making sense again.

Jay got up from his desk and ran to the bathroom, he had to rinse his face off in attempts to cool himself down from the anger, the rage, the love that he had for Erin. He dried his face off and pulled out his phone and texted Erin. A number he wasn't sure was still hers because he hadn't used it in 3 years. 

Jay: Hey, can we talk? I know you're have a tough time and thought maybe we could chat?

Unbelievably, she still used the same number and actually responded to his text message.

Erin: I'm with Burgess right now, as you know.

Jay: I know, maybe after I get off work?

Erin: I guess, I'm staying at the Marriot Hotel, room 421.

Jay: I'll be there around 7, is that okay?

Erin: ok. See ya tonight.

Erin looked up from her phone and at Burgess, "how do I tell him?" 

"You just have to come right out and say it, the full truth, Erin." Burgess advised.

Jay put his phone away and returned to his desk. He started going over what he was going to say that night and what he was going to ask her.

"You okay?" Upton asked.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go talk to Erin tonight at her hotel if that is alright?" Jay was requesting permission from her because he didn't want to lead her on nor lie to her.

"That's fine, no worries. I'm just going to head to the bar and grab a few drinks with everyone. I'll find something to wear to the funeral, too. Let me know if you want to talk, Jay, I know her coming back is probably bringing back a lot of feelings." Upton replied.

"Yeah, yeah, it does," Jay admitted, "but I'm okay. Just confused, but I'll be fine, thanks babe." 

The day flew by as 7 o'clock quickly approached and Jay began to get really nervous. He had been racking his brain all day, thinking about what he was going to say. He arrived at the hotel and walked into the lobby. Jay quickly found the elevator and hit the "up" button. He hopped on and hit floor 4. Every second in the elevator felt like 10 minutes; his anxiety was off the charts. He didn't know how this was going to go.

As he hopped off, he looked dead ahead and saw the numbers 421. This was it - this was her room.

He knocked three times and patiently waited. A few minutes went by, so he knocked again. As he was beginning to think he had the wrong room and was about to turn around and leave - the door opened.

"I'm sorry it took me so long, I was in the shower and lost track of time," she lied.

"That's okay, it's not a big deal. Can I come in?" Jay asked, starting to walk inside.

She put her hand out and stopped him.

A/N - Hey y'all. I got word from a little birdie that I should write more linstead stuff so here it is. Let me know if you want me to continue this one or if you want something else. Also, comment what you think about this!