His Forever Flame

31. Valentine's/ Spring Break

The rest of January passed by quickly. Lauren got a substitute positon at one of the elementary schools, and Jay returned to work. Lauren had been skeptical of him trying to rebuild the trust with Erin and be partners again, but she trusted him.

Valentine's Day was coming up, and Jay was planning a big surprise for her. Lauren knew he was up to something, but she just wasn't sure what. She'd tried getting hints out of him of what they would be doing, but he wouldn't budge.

He ended up taking her to the cabin for the whole weekend. It had snowed again and they stayed curled up inside most of the weekend in front of the fireplace watching movies and talking. They talked about everything, but especially names for their twins. Lauren was still in awe that she really was carrying not one but two babies.

On Saturday night, Jay made her a romantic dinner by candle light in the living room. He had soft music playing and a dozen of roses on the table. Lauren wore a red strapless maternity dress; Jay was blown away by her beauty. She was truly glowing. They had dinner, and then danced.

He played her favorite love songs; H.O.L.Y by Florida Georgia Line and From the Ground Up by Dan and Shay and they danced in front of the fire. He gave her charms for her bracelet. One was for teaching, one said mom to twins, and the other two were their birthstones with the promise to get the twins birthstone when they arrived. It was the best Valentine's weekend she'd ever had.

Two weeks after Valentine's Intelligence caught a big case. They were trying to prevent a gang war when a body had turned up at the beginning of the week. They were working as much as possible to try and solve it and Lauren missed the time she'd had with Jay, but she understood.

Ever since right before Christmas, Erin had been trying to get back into his good graces so they could be partners again. She did everything by the book, everything she thought he would do. Jay had noticed how well she'd been working with her partners each case. He knew she was striving to get him back as her permanent partner.

When they'd caught a small lead for this case on Tuesday, he agreed to a trial run to see if they could work together again. Voight agreed to it and sent them out to check out the lead. Erin even let him drive. Conversation was kept to the case and what the other thought about it. Their lead ended up being a dead end, but Jay agreed to finish working the case with her.

They seemed to work well the rest of the week. Erin said and did all the right things and it was almost like when they first became partners. She asked how Lauren and the babies were doing and she told him a lot that he looked really happy. He told her he really was, that Lauren made him really happy. Erin told him she was happy for him. Erin knew she had earned his trust back, she just had to get him to admit it. This had been the best week ever working with him again. She knew she had him right where she wanted him.

On Friday, they'd caught a solid lead on their suspect. They rolled up to the scene and Voight dished out orders. Jay and Erin were taking the back and working their way towards the others. Erin was behind him and they were clearing rooms, hearing the others do the same. Jay was going to be super pissed if this lead turned out to be a dead end as well because he was getting sick of all this overtime.

It was great because he'd started putting some back to take off when the babies were born, but damn he missed being home with his wife. They came to the last room before meeting up with the others. Jay was looking one way; Erin the other. Just before he would've walked right into the guy who was hiding in the corner, Erin yelled his name.

Jay ducked ready to fight and heard Erin fire. Before he could back up, the guy dropped. Jay was breathing hard. That had been too close; all he could think about was what would've happened if Erin hadn't been there. He might not be going home to Lauren tonight and that was just not possible.