Jay Halstead keeps butting heads over cases with Riannes Torres, a DCFS social worker. She has been through her own rough personal trauma. When they find themselves drawn to each other despite their differences an interesting journey begins. Will th...
"Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great."
(Roger de Bussy-Rabutin)
One hour time difference, 2 hours 44 minutes flight time, 733 miles, one big secret, one major information, one relationship status update apart...
It was always quite shocking to experience that everything could change in an instant. Everything. And then there was only a before and an after. And the tricky thing right now was that Jay and her were on different sides of that "after".
Whereas Jay was well up in the air and on his way to a new, possibly dangerous, adventure by now, as well as a potential reunion with his female partner, who might or might not have feelings for him, Rianne was still completely at a loss on how she wanted to handle their 'seriously life-altering' news.
At first she had thought that she needed the quiet of their own home to process, maybe get busy with some more packing or unpacking boxes, distract herself, get into some kind of routine or just sit down and think for a while, she had made her way back to the new house. But after drying her leftover tears and fixing up her face a litte, she knew she couldn't possibly stay. Just being there, taking in the traces of Jay's and her hurried first morning together before they had parted ways and gone to work as usual, only to be faced with some major change of plans a little later, didn't feel right. She couldn't be on her own right now, not when she knew she would be alone here for the next few days. Rianne knew she was in jeopardy of curling up into a ball, feeling sorry for herself, shedding some more scalding hot tears and missing her boyfriend, when he hadn't even been gone for long. It was way too quiet, no workers around today, no friends, no Jay, just her and... her and this little, their child inside of her. It was the weirdest thought, the strangest concept that there was something occupying her body that she couldn't see and not yet feel. No one could, but Rianne had actual proof of it in cold print.
She could have paid Will a visit again, because he already knew. Just not that he had to keep the secret for a little while longer than he had probably anticipated when she had left the hospital earlier.
But no, she desperately needed a woman's point of view, a woman's mind similar to hers. And someone who had no double loyalties. Who first of all was her friend and not in any way related to Jay or his baby growing inside of her.
This crisis here practically screamed 'Major BFF-alarm'! She knew Stella was working at Molly's tonight, so that was where she went.
***
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"Oh hi, gorgeous! Feels like I haven't seen you in ages!"
This was really great! Her and Rianne hadn't had much time to really talk these last few weeks as they both had been incredibly busy. So Stella was elated when she unexpectedly saw someone with a bright yellow knit dress, a colorful scarf and a very messy curly bun walk into the semi-crowded bar this Thursday night. And Rianne seemed to be alone. Just perfect, because there was just so much she wanted to tell her best friend. About Cruz' wedding and the impossible scene at the firehouse only just before the festivities (where some protestors had chained themselves to the firehouse doors), she wanted to share the progress on 'Girl's On Fire' and so much more. But when she really looked at her friends face, after she had pulled her into a long hug, she instantly knew that Rianne hadn't come here for idle chit-chat.
