Help Me Heal

Chapter 36

A couple of days later, the Voight Detective Services office was a hive of activity. The computers and telephone equipment had arrived, and the I.T. company were on site working on installing it all. Erin was there to supervise, while Hank busied himself with putting together the office chairs and the desk for the reception area. Building flat pack furniture wasn't something he enjoyed at all, but he did happen to be good at it.

After finishing the desk, Hank went through to the canteen to grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. Walking in there reminded him of Kalinda spending over half an hour cleaning the place for him – something that he had greatly appreciated, as had Erin when she had learned about it, although she had told him off for letting Kalinda do it.

That night had left Hank with some good memories, specifically Kalinda riding him while clad in a incredibly sexy leather attire. It had also left him with thoughts about their future. Kalinda's description of living somewhere warm and beautiful overseas, making money by owning a boat and running scuba charters from it appealed to him a lot. He pictured himself as the captain of the boat, while she handled the diving side of things. He pictured them owning a beachfront house with a stunning view to wake up to every morning. What better way could there be to enjoy semi-retirement?

The only problem was that it would mean moving away from Erin. Now that they were rebuilding their relationship, he felt like he didn't want to do that. It was something to think about over time, given that it would be at least a couple of years before he was ready to leave Voight Detective Services to Erin.

He looked at his watch. More immediately, any time now, he had Alexa Bliss showing up to see her new workplace. He hoped it would give him something akin to a second chance to make a first impression, since he had made himself look an asshole in the diner that day. Erin had made that perfectly clear, so his first act was going to be apologising to the feisty blonde who had impressed him enough by putting him in his place that he had decided to hire her on the spot.

As he left the canteen, Erin came over to him.

"How's it all going?" he asked her.

"Pretty well. As you can see, they're working on the cabling, and on setting up the server. That'll all going to take them the rest of today and into tomorrow, when they'll also get onto our desktop machines."

"Good," Hank said. "I've just finished putting the reception desk together. Hey, I want to talk to you about something Kalinda said to me."

She looked at him carefully. "Nothing bad I hope?"

"Oh, no. Not at all. We were talking and she asked me if this, Voight Detective Services, was my dream. I explained that I'm not much of a dreamer, then I asked what her dream is. She talked about living somewhere hot and beautiful, somewhere like Antigua maybe, where she would own a boat and run scuba charters from it. She used to be an instructor."

"Yeah, she talked about that the other night at dinner. So, are you telling me you're going to move away?" There was some defensiveness in her voice, which showed that she didn't want him to go. She wanted him around, to stay in her life. That meant a lot.

"No. I'm telling you it's something I've been giving some thought to. I don't want to move away from you, Erin. We've started over, and it's going very well. What I was going to ask you was how practical you'd think it would be for Kalinda and I to have a place overseas and live there for a couple of months a year, let's say during Chicago's winter. Not being around for that does sound good."

"Wouldn't work with Intelligence," was Erin's first comment. That was definitely true. Kalinda would have to quit policing to make that kind of schedule work. For that reason, and the fact that through the open door to the reception area he saw Alexa Bliss enter the building, Hank decided to park the subject.