Chapter 35

"I can't believe I let you bring me with you," Jay says as they park the car in front of Herrmann's house. 

"Oh, come on, you'll be fine. If you're lucky enough, Kenny's going to let you play with his cars," she teases him and gives him the bottle of wine while she holds the bag of chocolates for the kids. 

"Funny... How many kids do you say they have? I don't even remember if I've met them before" 

"Five, different ages. They'll like you. You don't have to worry, if you think about it technically, they're not even my biological parents," she tells him again, laughing at his nervousness. But before Jay can say anything else, Emma rings the bell and Cindy opens the door smiling. 

"Just in time. Come in it's cold outside," she tells them, and they follow her.

"Guys, Emma and Jay are here!" she yells at the others, and Jay is surprised that she's so relaxed about his presence. But his attention quickly focuses on the steps heard from the stairs and suddenly four children are on Emma. He can't contain himself and laughs at how quickly the silence has been replaced with voices. 

"Emma, what happened to your face?" 

"Emma, you need to see my new game!" 

"Emma I got an A at my math test!" all the kids say at the same time, and Jay smiles more as soon as he sees the big smile on his partner's face. She really belonged to the family. 

"Okay, okay, that's enough. Let her breathe, you'll tell her everything on the table," Cindy tells them, and eventually the children walk away. 

"Don't I have a hug from you?" Emma complains and looks at the boy standing a little further away; who as Jay assumes is the eldest son of the family. 

"You wouldn't let me even if I tried to avoid it" 

"Nice face" he teases her as soon as they pull back.

"You should see the other one," she jokes, and Cindy sighs. 

"Emma..." 

"Okay okay, I'm stopping. But I'm fine. Where's Chris?" 

"Mom made him make the salad. What did you bring?" 

"Kenny!" Cindy is surprised at her son's curiosity, but the two detectives laugh. 

"Oh, I almost forgot. These are for you," she says and gives them the bag, and then shows Jay 

"And the wine is for the grown-ups" 

Everyone's eyes are now on Jay who gives the bottle to the hostess with one hand and rubs his neck with the other. 

"Emma, you brought a boy," Annabelle whispers, but Jay manages to hear it and laughs, while Emma blushes. 

"Yeah, I did," she says after a while, exchanging shy smiles with Jay as if they were teenagers. 

"Do you want to meet him or are you going to be rude and you won't introduce yourself?" she asks them, and that's enough to make them run towards Jay, saying their names.

"Well, it took you a while," Christopher says as they sit around the table referring to Jay and Emma's relationship. 

"Christopher! Leave them alone," Cindy says socked. 

"What, I'm just messing with them... it's good news," he smiles at his wife and then gets serious while he looks at Jay. 

"But now that it's official, I think I need to clarify my position. If you hurt her Halstead, even Voight won't be able to find your body!" 

"Christopher!" this time it's Emma's turn to be amazed at everything she hears. 

"It's okay. But I don't intend to hurt her, I would never forgive myself if I ever hurt her, she already means too much to me," Jay says and looks at Emma as they smile at each other, with their hands tangled together under the table. 

"Gross!" Max grumbles, and everyone laughs.

"The food was really good," Jay says as soon as they finish eating and gives Cindy his plate. 

"Thank you, Jay. I'm going to go get the dessert. Emma can you give me a hand?" she asks her, and Jay looks at the girl, scared to be alone with Christopher and the kids. 

"Of course," she replies, and gets up, but before she leaves, she leans over to Jay. 

"I'll be back in a minute, don't worry," she whispers, following the older woman. 

"So, you and Jay?" she teases her as soon as they're alone in the kitchen. 

"Yeah" 

"And? How do you feel about that?" 

"I'm... very happy," she admits, and Cindy smiles with her response. 

"I'm glad to hear that. Does Voight know?" "Not yet. But we agreed that we'd be honest with him and tell him. I mean, it's all happening fast. One minute we're just partners, and the next we're kissing and we're called a couple. Are we crazy? Are we in a hurry?" 

"Well, that's the meaning of being in love. It makes you crazy. Besides, you and Jay have been acting like a couple almost since you met, you just made it official," she replies, and they return to the dining room. 

"Where's Jay?" Emma asks as soon as she sees Christopher only with Annabelle and Lee Henry. 

"The boys wanted to show him something in the living room. What, don't look at me like that, I didn't do anything to him," he tries to defend himself when his wife looks at him with one eyebrow raised, while Emma heads to the living room.

But what she sees catches her off guard. Jay lies on the floor with the boys, who show him their collection of cars and tanks, while he explains to them what he knows about their engineering. With the corner of his eye, he sees Emma standing on the wall and they smile at each other. What if they were in a hurry? What if everything seemed to happen fast? They were in love, and that was enough.

"Ugh, I can't believe the days have passed so quickly," Emma complains the next day while they're at their desks waiting for Voight's CI to show up. 

"I hear you. I feel like I haven't slept for days and yet all I've done all weekend was sleep," Kevin agrees with her. 

"What did you do?" 

"Blair stayed at my house," Kim says, referring to her new boyfriend, and her cheeks blush as soon as she realizes what she said. 

"Don't say anything else," Kevin teases her, and turns to Jay and Emma. 

"What about you?" 

"Home. I tried to avoid going out while the bruises were still intense" 

"Yeah, I didn't do anything special either. I only saw Will," Jay says casually since they had agreed not to reveal anything until they first announced it to Voight. 

"Hey, Lexie's here with Adam. Put the wire on them and let's go," Voight says as he shows up in the room and they start working.

That same night, a few hours later, they managed to successfully finish their undercover work and arrest LeMonte along with his crew while they were supposedly selling drugs to Adam. And just as Voight had promised, this was the last job Lexie would work undercover for them since she wanted to go back to Ohio and help her mother who was sick.