A Linstead Future

3

"Mommy!" The little boy screamed, running up to Erin's side.

"Rosa, will you...?" She started, pointing at the little boy but talking to the woman he had been playing with.

"Mommy?" Jay asked after Rosa had picked the boy up and walked across the lobby of the hotel.

"Yeah... I have a son. His name is Benjamin," She answered as she looked away from Jay.

"And how old is he?" Jay continued to question her.

"I'm so sorry, Jay," Erin put her head in her hands.

"Please, God, don't tell me he's three. Please do not tell me that," Jay stood up. He started pacing, knowing exactly what she was about to say.

"He's three, and he's yours," She quietly replied, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Jay stopped pacing and sat down, placing his head in his hands as well. 

"I don't know what to say," Jay started.

"Please don't be mad," Erin begged.

"I'm not mad. I can't be mad. I'm just sad. If you would have told me you were pregnant when you left, or whenever you found out, I would've done something. I would've come for you. I would've...I would've been there. I missed three years of his life...THREE YEARS because you were too selfish to tell me I have a son," Jay explained calmly. His voice did raise a little bit, not from anger, but from hurt.

"Jay... when I found out, my first thought was that you would've loved having a kid, that you would be a great dad. But you would've hated New York and I didn't want to uproot you just for a baby, and I wasn't ready at the time to tell you. Then, when I was 5 months pregnant, it seemed stupid to tell you then. Fast forward to his birth and to his birthdays to follow - it seemed like a bad time to tell you. I should've, I really should've... but I couldn't bring myself to," Erin continued to cry.

Jay couldn't muster up any more words to explain his feelings, and it hurt him to see her cry, so he pulled her into a hug and, over her shoulder, he watched his son play.

Half an hour passes and Erin finally calms herself. Jay and Erin talk for another hour or two before Jay finally asks, "Can I meet him?"

"Uh... yeah, yeah," Erin replies, a little flustered. She wasn't expecting things to go so smoothly. She waves to Rosa, who she had explained to Jay was the "nanny" that helped Erin get her life together in New York.

Rosa brings Benjamin over and hands him to Erin.

"Benny, this is your daddy," She whispered to him, grabbing his hand to wave to Jay.

She set him on the ground and let him walk to Jay. 

As he walked over to him, she looked up into his eyes and saw the joy and excitement in his eyes, but most importantly, everything she had stolen from him over the past three years. 

"Who else knows about him?" Jay asked, wanting to know if anybody knew and hadn't told him.

"I told Kim yesterday, whoever she told... but other than her and the people in New York, nobody knew. Not even Hank," Erin admitted, ashamed of her actions.

"I can move to New York, I want to be with him, I want to be there for him, for you..." Jay started.

"No, no, no. You can't move to New York..." Erin responded.

"You can't tell me what to do, especially not now..." Jay continued.

"No, I'm not, I'm just... I was talking to Hank last night after you left the hotel room, and I decided I'm moving back. He said I could have my old job back, and I am under no legal obligation to work for the FBI anymore, so I planned on coming back," Erin explained.

After he had left and she took Benjamin up to her room, she knew there was only one thing left to do. She had to tell the only real father figure she had in her life that he is a grandfather.

The news was harder for Hank to hear, and he definitely gave Erin an earful about it, using a few choice words explaining the cruelty of what she had done. But in the end, he was just as happy about it as she was. He held Benjamin, played with him, and even cleared out a room just for him in his house. 

Erin knew that the adjustment moving back home was going to be hard on everyone and was probably going to bring several fights along with it, but she couldn't wait to be back in Chicago.

She was going to get to watch her son grow up with the father in the picture, something she hadn't thought was going to happen, so easily if at all.