Relapse

Analyzing the World.

Erin's POV:

I sat in the lobby of the dance studio, waiting for Nadia to come out. It'd been two weeks since I'd gotten out of rehab and every hour of every day of those two weeks Nadia had been asking me to sign her up for dance lessons. Today, I'd finally caved. Nadia came running out of the room she was in with a huge smile lighting up her face. 

"Did you have fun?" I asked, smiling.

Nadia nodded "Did I do a good job?" she inquired.

"Of course you did sweetheart," I praised.

Nadia got her shoes and jacket on and we made our way out to the parking lot. I buckled her into her car seat and headed back to Hank's house. 

"What are we having for dinner?" Nadia asked from the back seat.

"Well, your dad and Henry are going to meet us back at the house after Henry's tee-ball practice and he's going to take you out to eat."

"Are you coming to?" I could hear the hope in Nadia's voice 

"Not this time sweetie," Nadia only responded with a dejected oh.

I'd been trying to talk to Jay over the past few weeks only to be blown off. He would come to hang out with the kids when I wasn't around and then leave as soon as I got back. Occasionally we would exchange small talk, but Jay would quickly come up with a reason he had to leave. Tonight, Jay said he would pick up the kids at 6:30 and take them out for a quick dinner. I figured he wasn't ready for the whole family dinner thing and I didn't really want the awkwardness of sitting across from him, nor was I invited to do so. Besides I had a meeting with my probation officer tonight at seven anyway. 

We arrived back home and I quickly helped Nadia change out of her dance clothes and into a white ruffled top over jeans. I had her sit down so I could re braid her hair that had come mostly undone. Every time I ran the brush through her tangled hair she winced a little. After brushing it out, I gently intertwined her strands of hair and tied off the braid with a black hairband. I heard a knock at the door and hurriedly zipped up Nadia's puffy, navy blue coat. 

I carried Nadia downstairs and saw Jay and Hank exchanging small talk at the door. Henry came and hugged me, I said goodbye to Nadia and watched my ex-partner leave without a word.

Jay's POV:

We'd just finished dinner and I was buckling Nadia and Henry into their car seats. Like usual, as I drove Henry was incoherently talking at a speed faster than I thought possible. I simply agreed with everything he said. Sometimes it was like Henry was driven by a motor. I realized I hadn't heard from Nadia in a while, so at a red light I turned back to check on her. I saw her curled up in her seat head leaning on the window asleep. I smiled at the sight of her peacefulness. Though she surely didn't talk as much as Henry she usually had a serious expression on her face analyzing the world so it was nice to see Nadia relaxed. 

Throughout his constant stream of words Henry let out a yawn. I decided to drive around for a little while, hoping to get both kids to fall asleep which I figured Erin would be okay with.  I turned left instead of the right I would normally take to drive the kids back to Voight's.  I noticed Henry's boisterous energy slowly decline as he talked to me. That was until his words stopped altogether and the only sounds from within the car were the click of the turn signal and two pairs of steady breathing. It was nearing eight when I decided to return the kids back home. I parked the car in the driveway and gently unbuckled both kids before easing a sleeping Nadia out of her seat. My plan was to pass Nadia off to Erin and return back to the car to collect Henry. That was of course until Henry's eyes popped open and he clambered out of the car. I sighed as he immediately began to talk again. I held a finger up to my lips alerting Henry to be quiet and nodded to his sleeping sister in my arms. 

Henry knocked on the door to the house and Voight answered the door, and carefully took Nadia from my arms. He placed her down on the couch and I saw Erin emerging from upstairs. I decided to bail before we could start a conversation. It wasn't that I was necessarily avoiding Erin. I just didn't necessarily know what to say to her. 'Hey, I forgive you for joining a drug trafficking ring and leaving our kids for months on end. Also, did you know the night you ran off to New York I was going to propose to you?' Neither of those options seemed very appropriate. Henry kicked off his shoes and I was quickly saying goodbye to him when he saw his mother and darted around me presumably to greet her. He never got that far though, as he slipped on his socked feet and landed on his arm with a sickening crack.

A/N

I'm sorry it's been a while since I updated. I've been pretty busy with school which will be wrapping up soon so hopefully that will mean more frequent updates. I wanted to thank everyone for the 1k reads it means a lot to me that you are taking the time to read this. I am hoping to get another update out by the end of the week. Thanks again.