Jay had woken up the next morning with a pretty unpleasant hangover. With Erin's permission, he had stayed late at the reception, long after Adam had gone up to his room to consummate the marriage, with Kevin and a couple of other guys, drinking quite heavily and even having a couple of cigars. What the hell, he thought, it had been a very special occasion.
"You don't look so good," was Clementine's first comment of the day when he came out of their hotel room's bathroom. She and Erin had both been asleep when he had snuck in there. Now they were both awake and out of bed.
The room had two double beds, which had meant that Clem had one to herself, much to her delight. At home she only had a single bed because her bedroom unfortunately wasn't very big. Erin hadn't bought the place with three people in mind, but she didn't want to leave after only recently having spent so much time, effort and money on getting it fixed up just the way she wanted it.
"I don't feel too good, Clem," he said. "But I'll be okay when we get down on the beach. The fresh air will fix me up."
"Jay has what is called a hangover," Erin said, coming over to him. "It's what you get when you're silly and you drink too much beer."
"Or whisky," he said before giving her a peck on the lips.
"Or whisky," Erin confirmed.
"That stuff seems horrible to me," Clementine said.
"It is," Jay told her. "Drinking is silly, and I shouldn't do it."
"So why do you do it?"
"Honestly, I'm not really sure," he replied, not wanting to say that doing silly things was fun. That was hardly what he wanted his daughter to learn.
"Clem, go and get yourself showered and brush your teeth, please," Erin said. "The quicker we get that done, the quicker we can go for breakfast."
Clementine went to the bathroom without a debate, offering Jay a private moment with Erin. "You okay?" he asked her.
"I am, yeah. You smell like a brewery."
"Sorry," he grimaced.
"It's fine, I'm glad you had a good time. Just don't come too close to me. And try not to throw up if you can help it."
"I'm not that bad," he assured her. "A fried breakfast and a few hours of fresh sea air and I'll be fine."
An hour later, they had eaten breakfast and gone down to the beach. Jay's fried food had been in contrast to Erin and Clementine's healthy affairs, but he had done what had needed to be done. His hangover was starting to feel a little better already.
Erin had asked Clementine if she wanted to learn how to snorkel, and since Clem had said she did, they had gone off to find somewhere to hire some gear. With them gone, Jay put the beach towel he had brought down on the sand and lay down on it. It was a January morning, but it was still pleasantly warm in the Bahamas. Feeling relaxed, he stretched out and closed his eyes.
A few pleasant minutes went by, and Jay felt like he was close to drifting off to sleep. He was totally at peace.
"What do you think, should I step on his nuts?"
There was no mistaking the Mexican accent.
"Hello, Raquel," he said without opening his eyes. "And hello, Z."
"Hey. Wasn't sure you were alive," Zelina said, confirming that she was indeed there as well.
"I'm not sure either," he said, eventually opening his eyes. He found both of the very attractive women standing over him, both in bikinis that didn't leave much to the imagination. To say the least, it was a pleasant sight for sore eyes. They were both holding masks, snorkels and fins. "Erin had the same idea as you for her and Clem."
"Yeah, we just passed them on our way here. Erin looked a lot healthier than you," Zelina said.
"I think our friend here can't handle his drink," Raquel said judiciously.
"I'll drink you under a table whenever you like, no problem," Jay said, making both women laugh.
"We'll leave you to die in peace," Raquel said. "We'll go further up the beach so we don't crowd your space."
Jay doubted any space was going to be crowded, since there were not many people on the beach. But he appreciated the sentiment. "Alright, catch you later. Maybe we can get together and grab lunch later?"
"Yeah, let's do that," Zelina said with a smile.
With that the women walked away, talking to each other in Spanish. They made quite the couple, Jay thought as he closed his eyes again. He faded out the sounds of other people having fun and listened to the gentle wave sounds of the sea. It was the kind of tranquillity that was impossible to experience in Chicago. For him, it lasted for about ten minutes.
"Jay! Jay! Are you coming in the sea?"
Clementine's excited voice made him sit up as she ran over to him. He saw that she was carrying the mask and snorkel that Erin had hired for her. Erin was walking over at a more leisurely pace, carrying her own gear and two pairs of fins. He didn't want to get up in all honesty, but he had to for Clem when she was so excited.
"Sure, I'll come with you," he said, getting up.
Clementine ran off down the beach, heading straight for the sea.
"Clem, don't go in too far!" Erin called after her.
Jay and Erin walked after her, side by side. He took Clem's fins to make Erin's load a bit easier for her.
"Bless her, she's having the time of her life," Jay said, watching Clementine go crashing into the sea.
"Yeah," Erin said contentedly. "We need to make sure we do regular family vacations. For what's left of Clem's childhood, I want her to enjoy things that I never got a chance to enjoy when I was that age."
"That's sweet, Er. We'll absolutely make sure that happens. You're such a good mom, you know?"
She looked at him. "You think so?"
"I know so."
"You're a great dad, Jay. As for me, I'm just doing my best. Clem! No deeper than that!" she called.
They reached the edge of the waves. Clementine had gone straight in, and was splashing around with the water almost up to her waist.
Jay walked in so that the waves lapped around his ankles, and stood there watching Erin call Clem over and teach her how to put on and use the snorkel gear and fins. No matter how much she played down her own parental abilities, Jay knew that she was doing an amazing job as a mom. The way Clementine responded to her, and how well behaved she continued to be was a credit to Erin as much as it was to him or to Kayla Braxton, their nanny.
"Are you coming in, Jay?" Clementine asked when she was ready to swim.
"I'll watch you from here, sweet pea. Have fun!"
And so he did. Under Erin's instruction, Clementine learned how to get comfortable with the snorkel gear, and how to enjoy swimming with it. She seemed to be having an absolute blast, which meant he couldn't stop smiling.
As he watched them, Jay found himself thinking that this was the best his life had ever been. He was looking at the love of his life, and his daughter. Everything was almost perfect. Marriage was the only other thing he could ask for now.
But was it a good idea to propose to Erin? That question had kept coming into his head since Adam and Kim's ceremony. On one hand, she obviously couldn't say yes if he didn't ask. But on the other hand he knew what Erin was like. Commitment scared her. The fact that it had taken adopting a child to force them into moving in together provided the evidence. Without Clem, he had no idea when that might have happened. What if he asked Erin to marry him, she freaked out, and it set their relationship back, or even ruined it? Was it worth risking all that? He didn't have an answer.
One way or another, he was going to have to figure it out. He was contemplating one of the most delicate things he was ever going to have to do. If he chose to do it at all.
A/N: Should Jay ask Erin to marry him? Or should he be content with the happiness they've got?
Next time, we'll get more insight into how Gonzalez's undercover operation came to an end. Obviously we know she got out unharmed, but were there any other problems?