21. Chapter 21

Hi! First, thank you so so much for all the nice reviews-it literally made my day to read them! So I already have most of this story written but would people be interested in/want to read individual stories surrounding Linstead/Kate after this is done? There are about 10 or so chapters left (there may be more I'm not 100% sure yet) so never fear but I thought I'd float the idea early to gauge interest. Let me know if that's something you'd be down for!

One of Hank's age-old mantras, 'Criminals never take a day off' rang true Christmas Eve. On the 23rd, Intelligence caught a major case from a string of recent robbery homicides that the appropriate department had yet to foil. As always, the Ivory Tower delegated the task to their best and also least favorite unit, adding insult to injury by requiring them to work through the holiday until the job was finished.

After an all-nighter from 'Christmas Adam' as Ruzek referred to it, into Christmas Eve, the unit was spent. They were closing in on the offenders but could not seem to pinpoint their exact location. Jay had fallen asleep at his desk and Atwater in the breakroom, using Mr. Shark as a pillow. Hank, as the boss, excused himself and Kate at two in the morning to retreat to his house for a bed. While Erin and Jay had been extremely skeptical, the little girl made it through the short night in Erin's old bedroom without a single nightmare, surprising all three adults.

Kate spent Christmas Eve with Sergeant Platt, doing last minute shopping for Mouch and making sure the district was in working order before many of the officers would be on furlough. The holidays tended to bring in a whole bunch of crazy, so Platt commandeered Ruzek to watch the little girl while she manned the front desk for a while. After finally warming up to Adam over the summer, Kate found the young officer incredibly hilarious and loved getting him to read stories in funny voices. She liked to remind him on a regular basis that 'Off-cer Kim' was way too nice to be with someone like him, constantly earning snickers from Atwater, Olinksy and Burgess.

The unit was short-staffed, as Burgess had taken the week to visit her sister and Atwater was taking care of his family, so Erin and Jay were barely able to sit down. The case was finally reassigned to Robbery-Homicide at 11PM Christmas Eve, Intelligence having done all the legwork and apprehended six of the key players. After passing off their files, Hank finally dismissed the team for the next two days.

"What are you still doing awake?" Jay asked, poking his head into the breakroom to find his little girl wide awake, reading a book that appeared to be about how things worked.

"Daddy!" Kate exclaimed, jumping up from her seat at the table and springing into his tired arms, "You done?"

"We're done." Jay sighed, burying his face in her hair and inhaling deeply, "And tomorrow is Christmas so we can spend all day together, how does that sound?"

"Good." Kate nodded, resting her head on his shoulder, "I'm a little sleepy. But guess what. My tummy doesn't hurt that bad!"

"That's great news, kiddo. But I bet you're tired because it's really late." Jay carefully placed the books she was reading into a bag and hoisted it onto his opposite shoulder, "What were you reading about?"

Kate smiled, "I'm reading a book about science," she informed him, "Cause science is very important and is everywhere."

"You are so smart." Jay grinned, heading into the bullpen. "Ready, Er?"

"Mommy!" Kate grinned at her mother, who was switching off her computer, still clad in her vest from a raid earlier, "We going home?"

"Yes we are, baby." Erin smiled tiredly at her little girl, running a hand over her tiny facial features, "We're going to bed soon, too."

"Tired?" Jay asked Kate, waving to Olinsky on his way out. She nodded, placing her head back on her father's shoulder.

Lindsay yawned. "I'm exhausted," she mumbled as they headed for the locker room. Jay carefully set Kate on the bench and shed his vest, helping his tired girlfriend take hers off too.

"Ready for bed?" He asked knowingly, undoing the Velcro straps on her vest after he had already changed.

"Uh huh," she nodded and yawned again, "Let's just go home."

Halstead rolled his eyes. He knew she was so tired she could barely function, but sometimes it was just too funny. "You're not driving," he informed her, taking her car keys out of her hands.

"Jay, we took two cars today." Lindsay made a grab for the keys but missed.

"It'll still be here when we get back," he reassured her. "Come on, you're in no condition to drive."

"I hate it that you're right," she muttered, scooping up Kate and trailing after her partner to the car.

"I can carry her."

"No, it's fine." Lindsay buried her nose in her daughter's soft hair and inhaled deeply. After placing Kate into her car seat, she ungracefully slid into the backseat of her partner's car.

He turned around in the drivers seat. "You're not coming up?"

She shook her head, holding Kate's hand, who had fallen asleep the minute she was placed into her car seat. "I need to lay down," she told him, stretching out on the backseat.

"Aren't you glad you're not driving?" he smirked, and started the car. "But are you alright?"

"Yeah, just exhausted." she repeated, closing her eyes and listening to the hum of the vehicle.

"It's Christmas." Jay glanced at the clock on the dashboard that displayed 1:04AM in offensive white lights, "We worked straight through Christmas Eve."

"Santa didn't put presents out." Lindsay's eyes snapped open. "Shit Jay."

"It's fine." Halstead said calmly, pulling onto the street. "She's passed out. I'll do it when we get home."

Lindsay recoiled. "That's fine." she breathed, closing her eyes again. "Thanks."

Within minutes, she was asleep, still holding Kate's tiny hand in her own. Jay glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled.

"Babe." A soft voice floated around Erin's head as a cool hand rested on her cheek. "Wake up."

Slowly, her eyes fluttered open. She was still in the car, but Kate was no longer in her arms. "What time is it?" she mumbled.

"Just after two in the morning." Jay looked slightly concerned. "I couldn't carry you both to bed without hitting your head on the car. Are you okay?"

"'m okay," she yawned, stumbling out of the car and into the cold and dark night, shivering as the wind whipped against her cheeks.

Jay pulled her close to him as they made their way up the steps to the apartment, Kate in his arms. "Merry Christmas, babe." He kissed her forehead.

"I love you." Erin murmured, melting in his embrace. "Can you eat a cookie?"

"And I'll put the presents out." Jay smiled. "Come on, you need to go to bed."

Erin rolled over, resting her head on her partner's chest. She didn't wake up, but he did. Jay slowly opened his eyes, glancing down at his girl, her mess of brown locks splayed across his upper body. He craned his neck to catch a glimpse of the clock and nearly did a double take. It was almost eleven and the family had slept in five hours more than normal. Jay settled back against his pillow, lazily running his fingers through Erin's hair, inhaling the scent of her shampoo.

A soft sunlight peeked through the shades, casting a strip of light onto the hardwood floor. After a few more precious minutes lying in bed, Erin shifted and opened her eyes. "Merry Christmas, babe." Jay smiled. "Feeling better after a good night's sleep?"

She nodded, stretching her arms out and wrapping them tighter around his torso. "Merry Christmas," Erin mumbled, snuggling in closer to Jay's shoulder.

He kissed the top of her head. "It's eleven."

"Eleven?" Erin looked up at him with wide eyes. "Hank's coming over in an hour! Kate hasn't even been in to wake us up?"

"Why would she do that?" Jay looked quizzically at his partner who appeared to be getting more worked up every second.

"That's what kids are supposed to do on Christmas." Erin shed the covers and poked Jay in the ribs. "Come on."

"Er, she was up until one last night." Jay pointed out, lazily getting out of his comfortable bed. "She's also on medication that makes her exhausted."

"Which she was supposed to take at eight." Erin tied her hair up and headed out of their bedroom, snatching one of Jay's hoodies off his dresser to guard against the morning chill.

"I'll text Voight and make the coffee," Jay called after her, heading for the kitchen.

She turned around and eyed at him with a surprised look. "Aren't you coming? It's Christmas, Jay."

He sighed and followed her out of the bedroom and into Kate's, forgoing the coffee for the time being. "Hey Squirt." Jay called softly, pushing open her bedroom door.

The little girl was lying in bed, still asleep. She had her arm wrapped around her stomach, still in her shirt from the night before. Jay had attempted to change her into the pajamas, but only managed the bottoms before the little girl stirred.

"Her stomach was bothering her." Erin told him, heading for the kitchen to get Kate's medicine.

"How could you possibly know that?" Jay watched as his girl returned with a glass of water and Kate's meds in record time, "She's asleep."

"She's got her arm around her stomach," Erin whispered as she followed her partner into her bedroom, "Which means she probably woke up because her stomach was hurting but she fell back asleep."

Jay raised his eyebrows, impressed with how in tune his partner was with their little girl. "Good morning Kate." Jay sat down on her bed and ran his fingers over her cheek.

Slowly, Kate's eyes fluttered open, hazel orbs locking on her father's baby blues, "Is it Christmas?" she asked, yawning slightly.

Erin nodded and grinned, "Merry Christmas baby."

Kate started to sit up, and winced in pain. "Does your stomach hurt?" Jay asked and Kate nodded timidly. "Lie back down, kiddo. Mommy's got some medicine for you."

Kate did as she was told and Jay propped her up with a few pillows so that she could swallow the pills, "It's eleven, so we're a little behind on you taking your meds which is probably why you're hurting," Erin explained, handing her little girl the medications. "We slept in a bit."

Kate took each of her pills. "Are we going to Sergeant Voight's house?"

"He's coming here," Jay told her as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, "We're going to have Christmas lunch with him and then later Uncle Will is going to come over for some dessert."

"Is Danny coming?" Kate asked excitedly, pushing herself up. Erin sat down on the bed, and the little girl climbed into her lap. "I haven't seen him in so long!"

"I don't think so baby. He and Olive might be with her sister, I forgot to ask Hank," Erin murmured, running her fingers through Kate's soft hair. "Did you sleep well?"

She nodded, "I didn't have a nightmare," Kate smiled brightly, realizing that she had actually made it through the night, "In two nights!"

"You're right. You slept right through Santa's visit, too." Jay's eyes twinkled as his little girl's lit up. She had forgotten that Santa was supposed to come.

"Santa came?" Kate looked up at her father incredulously, "Really?"

"Of course he did," Erin told her, giving her shoulder a tickle, "Do you want to see what presents he brought?" Kate nodded eagerly. Erin took her little girl's hand and led her to the living room, pointing out the various presents that Jay had displayed the night before. He had even remembered to take a few bites out of the carrots that Kate set out for the reindeer. Hank had thought to bring her by the apartment to set out the milk and cookies, knowing that she would probably be asleep when the family returned home. While Erin and Jay had been disappointed to miss it, Kate's excitement made them grateful that Hank had thought ahead.

"Santa must have been up late last night." Kate looked eagerly at all the presents, in awe of everything around her, "Even later than us."

"I bet he had a lot of coffee last night." Jay started the coffee maker and leaned against the counter, watching his little girl experience her first real Christmas.

"Do you want to open your presents, baby?" Erin asked, beaming as she watched her daughter look curiously at the various wrapped gifts, "I know there are a bunch with your name on them."

Kate nodded slowly, holding Erin's hand and Tiger with the other. She took a step closer to the tree, astounded by the boxes and bags, all wrapped in festive holiday paper with bows and ribbons. The little girl could not believe how lucky she was. "How about this one?" Erin bent down and picked up a box that was wrapped in green paper with bells on it. Kate regarded it intently before bursting into tears, dropping Tiger and Erin's hand to cover her face. "Oh, baby, what's wrong?" Erin asked, crouching down in front of her daughter, "What is it?"

"Does your tummy hurt?" Jay asked, squatting beside his partner, placing a hand on his girl's back. Kate shook her head and sniffed, hands still over her eyes. "What's going on, Squirt?" He reached out his other hand and tucked her hair behind her ears, "Talk to us, kiddo."

"Is…this real?" Kate choked out, removing one hand, eying her parents with watery eyes, "I don't gotta leave?"

Erin and Jay felt their hearts shatter simultaneously as they realized what their little girl was afraid of. She was so overwhelmed with the amount of love that she received and was terrified of losing it. "Never," Jay replied vehemently, tears threatening to spill over, "You're going to be with Erin and me forever. I promise."

"I know it's a lot to take in, baby, but it's real," Erin promised, "You're ours and we're not letting you go." She wiped her eyes and then her daughters, "I know how you're feeling but trust me, we love you."

At that, the little girl wrapped her arms around her mother's neck and held tightly, tiny body molding to her side. Jay enveloped his girls in a hug, in awe of how the three of them fit together so perfectly. While he loved how he and Erin were like two pieces of a puzzle, the addition of his baby girl was the piece he never knew was missing.

A knock at the door drew the little family back to the present and Jay quickly rose to answer the door while Erin scooped Kate up in her arms. "You might need a shirt, Halstead," Hank said gruffly after Jay pulled open the door, shirtless. He luckily had the foresight to put on some sweatpants before waking up Kate, but his face turned beet red nonetheless.

"Merry Christmas," Jay choked out, opening the door wider so Hank could come into the apartment. He carried a big shopping bag and a cooler and was dressed in a classic holiday sweater.

"Merry Christmas, kiddo." Hank smiled at Erin, pulling her into a hug after setting the cooler on the counter and the bag on a chair, "And to you as well, little miss."

"Sergeant Voight!" Kate exclaimed, leaning away from Erin to wrap her tiny arms around the older man's neck. "You came for Christmas."

"Wouldn't dream of missing it." Hank accepted the little girl from his almost daughter, balancing her on his hip, "What did Santa bring for you?"

"I didn't check yet," Kate informed him, "We slept in."

He chuckled, "Well, it has been a busy few days." Hank turned to Jay, who had quickly donned a t shirt, "The steaks are marinating in the cooler."

"Awesome." Jay placed the food Hank had brought into the fridge and poured his boss a cup of coffee.

"Do you want to open presents, baby?" Erin asked, her eyes twinkling as the little girl nodded excitedly. "Okay, go ahead."

Hank set her down but Kate instantly grabbed his large hand, "Come on, Sergeant Voight!" She led him over to the Christmas tree, "Look, these are the ornaments that I made, and these were the ones that Daddy made when he was little."

"Wow." Hank mused, examining the carefully made popsicle frame that made a wreath, "You know what?" He held up a hand and headed for the large shopping bag he brought. Hank reached in and produced a shoe box, handing it to Kate.

"What's in here?" Kate asked, carefully removing the lid of the box, "More ornaments!"

"Mm-hm." Hank lifted out one of the ornaments, "And do you know who made them?" Kate shook her head, looking up at Hank curiously. "Your mom."

"What?" Erin looked up from setting the dinner table. "I did what?"

"You made ornaments, Mommy." Kate held out one of the carefully made clay angels, "Look."

Erin glanced into the box in surprise and looked at her father figure in awe. "Justin and I made these. Before I came to live with you." She held it up incredulously, "You saved them?"

"Camille did. I just found them in the attic." Hank told her, smiling softly, "I thought you might like to have them, now that you have a tree of your own."

"Hank," Erin swallowed thickly, at a loss for words, "Thank you."

"Merry Christmas, kiddo." He kissed the side of her head, "Now, I think Kate has been patient enough. Do you want to open some presents?"

"Yes please." Kate grinned and picked up the box that Erin had suggested earlier. "This one?"

"Go ahead, baby." Erin cleared her throat, placing the ornament back into the shoe box.

To Jay and Erin's surprise, Sergeant Platt had helped Kate make Christmas gifts for her parents, having brought the little girl to a paint-your-own pottery studio. Kate decorated mugs for Erin, Jay and Hank, without any of them knowing. Jay and Erin decided that Kate would like a Lego set, and she was absolutely ecstatic with the prospect of getting to build things. Along the same lines, Hank bought the little girl a kit to build a miniature ecosystem, since she had been extremely interested how the weather works. He also gifted a stuffed lion as a friend for Tiger, Mr. Shark and Giraffe, who had not been put down all day.

Following Christmas dinner, Kate settled in Hank's lap, listening to him read a variety of Christmas books that he discovered in the attic. Danny and Olive spent the holiday with Olive's sister which was a great disappointment to the little girl but the joy of the holiday overshadowed her missing her friend. "I remember this one," Erin murmured, leaning against Jay on the couch, "This used to be my favorite."

"The Mitten?" Jay asked, glancing at the Jan Brett book, "It was my favorite too."

"We should read it," Kate determined, passing the book to Hank, "Sergeant Voight, can you read it?"

"Alrighty." Hank accepted the book and cleared his throat in preparation.

"Wait!" Kate exclaimed urgently, abruptly looking at her parents, "I just 'membered something!"

"What is it, Squirt?" Jay asked, his arm gently around his girlfriend's shoulder as she cuddled against him.

"Yesterday, Sergeant Platt made Woo-zek read me stories," Kate said seriously, "And we read 'Over the River and Through the Wood'." The little girl looked expectantly up at Hank, "It's actually 'bout thanksgivin' and grandparents. And he said that 'cause Erin is my mommy, that makes you," she reached up at tapped Hank's chin, "my grandpa."

Hank widened his eyes and glanced at the couple seated on his sofa. Erin smiled widely and Jay nodded, a huge grin breaking out across his face, "You know what, I think Ruzek is right."

"Even though Uncle Al says he's not right 'bout much," Kate nodded and looked up at Hank, "Can I call you Grandpa Hank?"

"I would love that," Hank beamed and kissed the top of his granddaughter's head.

Eeeeep couldn't resist throwing the "Grandpa" in there as a little Christmas present for Hank :) Also the phrase Christmas Adam to describe the 23rd of December is probably my favorite holiday pun. Apologies to all but I simply could not help myself from including it.