Help Me Heal

Chapter 10

Hank quickly left the living room to intervene in the awkward standoff that was developing at the front door. Seeing Erin again after so many years made him feel a whole raft of emotions. He had missed her greatly and it was great that she had chosen to come and see him. But at the same time it hurt that she hadn't contacted him in all the time she had been in New York. Also there was confusion. Why had she decided to show up unannounced?

"Hank! Hey," Erin said as he approached the door.

"Erin. It's... a surprise to see you. Kalinda, this is my foster daughter Erin. Erin, this is Kalinda Rai, a detective from Intelligence."

"A detective from Intelligence, huh?" Erin said, looking at Kalinda for a moment. Hank knew it was blatantly obvious that wasn't why Kalinda was at his house at this time of day.

"That's right," Hank said, brushing past it. "Come in. You're letting all the warm air out of the house."

"Nice to meet you," Kalinda said to Erin, obviously and understandably feeling awkward.

"You too," Erin said unconvincingly.

Hank studied his foster daughter as she took her coat off. Her hair was long and had blonde highlights in it that had seen better days. She was carrying a few extra pounds compared to how he remembered her too. She hadn't been taking good care of herself recently.

"Hank, I'm going to take off and let you two catch up," Kalinda said.

"You don't have to do that," he responded quickly.

"I think I do. Have a good night, and thank you for the meal."

"I feel bad that I've broken up... whatever was going on," Erin said.

Kalinda put her coat on in record time and made ready to leave. Hank figured the fact that she had spilled the second glass of wine was a good thing now that she was going to drive home. Originally he had hoped that she might stay the night.

"Sorry about this," he said to Kalinda. What else could he say?

"Nothing to apologise for," Kalinda assured him. "I'll see you in the morning. Again, nice to meet you, Erin."

"Have a good night," Erin said, now in a slightly less abrupt tone.

With that, Kalinda made her exit. Hank felt bad that she had felt the need to hurry out of his house. He too was a bit shocked by the turn of events.

"Was I rude to her?" Erin asked, a little regretfully.

"Uh, yeah," Hank said, showing his annoyance. "Hopefully she won't take it personally. It's... good to see you though. Have to say I'm surprised, after all this time and hearing nothing from you."

Erin looked guilty, which Hank had to admit to himself had at least partially been his intention. "Sorry, Hank. I guess I took it too literally when you said not to look back."

"Well, yeah, I didn't mean never speak to me again."

"I did miss you. Of course I did. I missed Jay, too. And Intelligence. In fact I missed Chicago as well."

"Let's go sit down and you can tell me what's brought you back. How about a drink? There's wine going spare now that Kalinda's gone."

"Wine would be nice," Erin said, following him through to the kitchen. "Sorry I spoiled your night. Of all the people to end up dating a colleague, I would have expected you. Not even a colleague, come to that. You're her boss."

"I'm hearing judgement, Erin," Hank said in a tone that advised caution on her part. "And for your information we're not dating."

"Sorry, again. Not making the best impression after not having seen you for so long am I? It's hard to turn FBI mode off. Guess I'd better find a way to do that pretty quickly."