Chapter 47

"So you and Jay are going to live together," Kim teases Emma the next morning while the two of them are in the computer room listening through the wire that was in Darius Walker's office. 

"Nothing stays a secret here, does it?" Emma asks with a smile, but her cheeks get a soft shade of red, which makes Kim laugh. 

"With Platt as a Sergeant, you can't hide anything," she replies, and they laugh. 

"So how is the moving going?" 

"Well, we're almost done. Luckily the house already had furniture and we've managed to get all my stuff and some of Jay's. Today we're going to take the last boxes and we're probably going to stay there," she informs her and Kim gets excited. 

"If you need help tell me... We'll definitely come as soon as you settle down to see the house," she announces, clapping and Emma continues to laugh at her reaction. 

"Of course," she assures her, and before they say anything else, something suspicious from Darius's conversation gets their attention.

"Boss, we intercepted a lot of chatter on Walker's wire. We are going through it all now. Good news, we found his heroin supplier, a guy named Mateo Garcia," Kim informs Kevin and Voight as soon as they arrive at the bullpen. 

"Garcia from the Latin Players? Walker's supposed to be at war with them" 

"Sounds like they made peace" Voight observes. 

"Well, Garcia's insisting on meeting Walker in person as a sign of good faith" 

"Okay, we got a time and a place?" 

"Yeah, today at 5:00. I'm not sure where yet. There's a lot of code and a lot of addresses. They mentioned Ashburn, but more recently he's been talking about his bakery on 21st Street," she replies. 

"All right, let's sit on the bakery" 

"Okay" 

"We wait for Garcia to arrive, observe the exchange, and arrest everyone in sight," Voight says, and within a short time, they're scattered in their cars and watching the shop. 

A young man working at the bakery carries a bag from one house to another as the team discreetly follows him. And since they don't know the contents of the bag, Kevin and Vanessa are running to check it out. But they quickly realized that what he was carrying not only wasn't drugs but some pies he wanted to give to an older man. Something that made them realize they were wrong and had to go to the other possible address. 

"Deal's going down on Ashburn. Let's move," Emma tells Jay and Kim and Jay stars the car. 

"All right, Jay, we are pulling up on 19th Street. Looks quiet around here," Kevin says on the radio as they arrive at the address. 

"Copy that. Nothing yet," Jay replies, and then a car appears in the alley. 

Within minutes the exchange takes place and Darius's man shows the money to the supplier, making the team run towards them. Finally, they manage to catch Darius.

"Ready to take my last things at our place?" Jay asks Emma as soon as they're done with their paperwork and Kevin interrogates Darius. 

"Ready" she replies and gets up from her desk thanking him for bringing her bag from the locker room. 

"Wait a minute," she says abruptly as they reach the stairs and her gaze falls on the young police officer who leans on a desk waiting to hear the news about Darius. Jay turns to look at her curious to see what's happening. 

"Hey, Vanessa" Emma's voice makes the girl turn towards them. 

"Emma we said right?" she asks, wanting to confirm her name, and Emma nods. 

"Yeah... You did a good job today," Emma says sweetly, and after smiling at each other she goes towards Jay. 

"What was that?" he whispers to her as they walk down the stairs and Emma shrugs her shoulders. 

"I like her," she says, and Jay smiles with her kindness.

"So that's it?" Emma asks as soon as both of them put the box they hold on the floor. 

"Is it really our house? We are going to stay here tonight?" she continues, unable to believe there are only two boxes left to unpack, and Jay laughs. 

"Yeah. Unless you want to go to sleep in one of our apartments" he teases her, and Emma hits him on the shoulder. 

"In your dreams Halstead," she replies, and Jay bends down to kiss her. 

"Will's coming tomorrow?" 

"Yeah... Cindy and Christopher?" 

"I don't know they said they'd call me... Kim also said they want to come with the others. It'll be good for Adam to spend some time with all of us," Emma says and Jay nods. 

"When are we going to be alone?" he complains as soon as he hears the list of people who want to see the house and Emma rolls her eyes. 

"So with what box do you want to start with? One has things for the kitchen and the other I don't know what it is but it has your name on it," she asks him, pointing to the brown boxes on the floor. 

"I think I have another idea," he replies and begins kissing her shoulder. 

"No way Halstead. We have work to do. You said you wanted us to stay here from today, and if you don't want Will to come in tomorrow and have him empty boxes, I suggest we start," she reminds him and Jay sighs dramatically. 

"It sounds tempting" he teases her, giving her another kiss. 

"Jay..." 

"Okay, okay. I'll continue with the glasses and the dishes" he announces and picks up the box intended for the kitchen. 

"Fine, I'll see what's in here," she points to his box, and Jay shrugs his shoulders despite the weight he carries. 

"It has probably some photo albums that I found in my dad's house" 

"So, I'm going to see photos of little Jay? Then I'm definitely going to unpack this box," she teases him, and Jay rolls his eyes as he leaves.

As soon as Emma is left alone she kneels on the floor and opens the box looking forward to seeing pictures of Jay while he was still little. The content she sees, however, catches her off guard, and for a few seconds, she forgets to breathe. Jay's life while he was in the army is packed in the box in front of her. Inside she can see the military hat that accompanies his formal uniform, some frames with medals, some photos, and papers. She takes a deep breath and lets the curiosity overwhelm her as she grabs the hat in her hands. She observes all the details it has and then slowly leaves it next to it. Her fingers touch the photos that are there and a smile forms on her face as soon as she sees the younger version of her boyfriend. The only pictures she'd seen with Jay were the ones he had in his apartment. And since there were very few of them, she takes her time and looks at them one by one. After seeing them all, she carefully pulls out all the frames with the medals, and even though she doesn't know their meaning, she feels proud of Jay. But what catches her attention is Jay's dog tags at the bottom of the box. Her fingers caress the carved letters with her partner's details on the metal surface when Jay comes into the room.

"Doesn't it seem strange to you that Will bought us dishes? He could have...." he says, but his sentence is cut in half as soon as he sees his girlfriend among all these objects. Memories fill him immediately as soon as he sees it all and his breathing accelerates. 

"Eventually, it didn't have photo albums inside," she tells him as he approaches her and sighs. He thought he'd left this box somewhere she couldn't find it. 

"You never told me you had so many medals. I only saw the one you had in your apartment," she tells him, pointing to the frames next to her.

Jay still doesn't answer but kneels next to her on the floor. One look around him and it's enough to fill his head with all the voices he was trying to forget. Emma's hand on his shoulder is enough to ground him. 

"I'm not proud of most of them," he admits without explaining more, and Emma can only imagine some of the things he saw and did. 

She nods her head, and her next moves catch Jay unprepared. Emma gets up from their place on the floor holding two of the frames along with his dog tags and heads to their large bookshelf. She places one frame on one shelf next to a small jar and the other on another shelf next to some books. She carefully places the dog tags on the corner of the frame. 

"I'm proud of you, Jay," she sweetly tells him, making him tear up. He gets up and approaches her unable to say anything and wraps his arms around her petite body. 

"Thank you," he whispers as he rests his cheek on her hair. 

No one made him feel as safe and loved as Emma did. Emma rests her head on his chest. His heartbeat is now one of her favorite sounds. They pull away for a while looking into each other's eyes and then Emma kisses him tenderly on the lips. 

"Take me to our bed, Jay" she whispers to him against his lips and Jay doesn't need to hear anything else. Our bed, he smiles as soon as he hears her and lifts her in his arms. He starts climbing the stairs while Emma giggles with the change in his mood. 

This was their life from now on, and they were happy to see what would come next.