BOOK EIGHT
There was a lot going on in the lives of Jay Halstead and Erin Lindsay. Pregnancy was one thing of course. Three months in, Erin now had a bump, and was experiencing weird cravings the likes of which Jay had never known before. One night, he had seen her go through an entire tub of ice cream that was intended for two people to share. It had actually been a remarkable feat, he supposed.
Work had been extraordinarily busy. The fact that Erin was now on desk duty didn't help, as he was put in charge of the operational side of the team, but then had to report everything back to her when they got back to the bullpen. It didn't make for efficient operation in his view, but she was the boss and that was the way she wanted it. At least the team had its full compliment of staff now, with Zelina Vega almost back at full fitness after the shooting. She had recently returned to the police academy, where special provisions had been made for the fact that she was so far behind the rest of her class through no fault of her own.
The stress didn't stop at the 21st, either. With a baby on the way, there was no way the apartment they were living in was going to be big enough. Erin had originally bought it to live in alone. Now it housed her, Jay, Clementine, and quite often Kayla Braxton too. It was already too small for that, with Kayla having to fold the couch out into a bed and sleep there when she was required to stop over. Before the baby came, they absolutely had to already be living in a new place that could house the entire family properly. Considering that they wanted to buy a place, and therefore had needed to arrange a mortgage, they had to find somewhere they liked fast and get the process moving. The bureaucracy was going to be a nightmare, even with the mortgage provider in place.
That was why Jay found himself with Erin and Clementine in an empty four bedroom house on a Saturday afternoon. The real estate agent had just shown them around, before going outside to let them have a second look around by themselves. It was the fourth house they had seen, and unlike the first three, this one felt like a contender to Jay. It wasn't too far away from downtown for work, wasn't too from Clementine's school for Kayla's morning and afternoon school runs, and it wasn't in a bad neighbourhood. It was also spacious, and had a decent-sized garden. Those were the plus points. The down sides were that it wasn't in the best condition. The kitchen and both bathrooms were serviceable, but badly needed replacing, and the decoration needed a lot of work. The price was also high for their budget, despite the owner wanting a quick sale. They were coming to realise that they couldn't afford everything they wanted in the current climate, and without the luxury of waiting, they were going to have to make compromises.
"What do you think of it, Clem?" Jay asked her.
Clementine took off her baseball cap and scratched her head while considering the question. "I like it, and it would be sick to have a garden again. But the kitchen is from the seventies. It's nasty."
Jay really disliked the habit she had picked up of using the word sick to describe everything good, but now wasn't the time to have another conversation about that. Her comment about the kitchen made him laugh. "I think it's from the nineties, Clem, but I get your point."
"It is crap," Erin conceded. "I like the layout of the place though, and I like the location. The problems it has aren't things that can't be updated. This might be the one, Jay."
He was starting to get the same feeling himself. In his mind, he pictured himself, Erin, Clem and their son or daughter outside, playing in the garden. It was a wonderful mental image.
"Let's look around again," he suggested.
Clementine tore off up the stairs. "Mom, can I have the room at the top?"
It had taken a couple of months before it felt like it came naturally for Clementine to use the words mom and dad instead of Erin and Jay, but they were now past that point and it felt like it had always been that way. As far as all three of them were concerned now, Clem wasn't an adopted child, she was theirs plain and simple. She hadn't forgotten about her birth parents of course, there were still days when the loss hurt her a lot. But now she was at least safe in the knowledge that she had a mom and dad who loved her just as much as those who had been taken from her.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Erin said on the way up the stairs. "We've not decided to buy the place yet. But if we did, you can have that room if it's the one you want."
"I would want the biggest one but I know you guys are going to have that one," Clem said from inside 'her' bedroom.
"Yes, we are," Jay said with humour, walking in there to join her. "This one is nice though, right? Look at that view."
The room they were in had a perfect view of the garden, which had tall trees at its bottom end to block out the view from the garden of another house that backed on to it.
"It's nice," Clementine said. "Can I decorate it with Cubs and WWE stuff?"
"WWE stuff? Where has that come from?" Jay asked, looking at her.
"It's her new thing," Erin said. "They watch it when she goes to Ruth's house."
A Puerto-Rican girl called Ruth had become Clementine's closest friend in school, and they had started socialising outside of school too. For the time being only with Clem going to Ruth's place because Erin and Jay's apartment was too small.
"Wrestling is awesome," Clem said. "Ruth and her sister always watch it. Now I like it too."
"Why does no one tell me anything?" Jay said good naturedly. The truth of it was he was happy for Clem to have an interest other than baseball as he hadn't been totally comfortable with her level of obsession over it.
"Will you watch it with me, dad?" she asked, looking up at him eagerly.
How could he say no to something like that? "Of course, Clem. And I'll do better than that. When they're in town, I'll take you to a show."
"You will? Awesome! You're the best! I can't wait for that now."
"I think thank you is what you meant to say," Erin said gently. Manners was one thing she was strict on.
"Thank you," Clementine said seriously.
"Okay, let's look around the house before that real estate guy locks us in here," Jay said.
They ended up spending another fifteen minutes walking around, going into each room and talking about what might be possible to do with them. By the time they were ready to leave, Jay felt like he and Erin had both made a decision.
"Shall we put an offer on it?" he asked her.
"Yes, but not right now. Give it a couple of hours and call them. It looks better. I'll let you handle the finances though. You're better at that kind of thing than I am."
Jay gave her a peck on the lips. "I'll take care of it."
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That evening over dinner, Erin, Jay and Clementine were telling Kayla about the house that they had viewed, and were hoping to buy. When all was said and done, their new place would be Kayla's home too. A full time live-in arrangement would make things better and easier for all four of them. Five once the baby arrived.
"My bedroom is at the back, and it has a sick view of the garden," Clem announced loudly.
"It has a nice view," Erin corrected. She didn't like the 'sick' thing any more than Jay did.
Clementine pressed on regardless. "Mom and dad's room is at the back too. So that means your room will be on the front, Kayla. And my brother or sister will be too. Why aren't we finding out if it's a boy or a girl?" she asked Erin.
"We've talked about this, Clem. We're not finding out until the baby is born. That's how me and your dad want it."
"Sucks," Clementine said quietly.
Jay knew she meant well. Her complaint was due to excitement. She wanted to know if she ought to look forward to being a big sister to a brother or a sister.
They chatted for a few minutes more about the house, and Kayla agreed to go on a second viewing with Erin in the eventuality that they had an offer accepted.
"Speaking of offers, I guess it's time to call the real estate agent."
With all three of them watching him excitedly, Jay took out his phone and called the number that he had saved earlier. It didn't take long for him to get an answer. Erin listened intently to his side of the call.
"Richard? Hi, it's Jay Halstead. We met at 822 Mill Lane earlier."
"I'm doing good. Listen, Erin and I have talked things over, and we want to make on offer. The house is on the market for $525,000. That's more than we've got in our budget. We were looking to spend $450,000 as our top limit, but since we like the place so much we're willing to push ourselves to £475,000. We have a mortgage in place and we're ready to move ASAP, so that will get your client the quick sale they want."
"Yes, come back to me. Thank you."
Jay ended the call and looked at Erin. "He didn't sound favourable to that. But I didn't expect him to."
"You're going to let them re-negotiate to half a million?" she guessed. "I love business Jay. We should see business Jay more often."
"Half a million. How do you guys afford that on two police salaries?" Kayla asked. Then she realised the question might be inappropriate. "Sorry, not my business."
"It's fine," Jay said. "The simple answer is by selling my place that I'm currently renting out, selling this place, and taking on a bunch more debt. Honestly, we're going to be in a rough position financially, but we'll manage somehow."
"It's going to be our forever home, so we'll do what we have to do to make it work," Erin said. "And if we really struggle, like, really struggle, I can ask Hank for help."
"Absolute last resort," Jay said.
"Does Uncle Hank have a lot of money?" Clementine asked.
"Yes. But that doesn't meant it's okay to borrow from him. You should always pay your own way in life, Clem," Erin said.
Jay never got tired of seeing her in mom mode. She was so good at it. Then his phone rang. It was the real estate agent.
"Fingers crossed," Erin said, waiting to hear Jay's side of the conversation again.
"Jay Halstead," he said, answering the call.
"Oh, they did? Right. Right. Okay. Give me a few minutes to talk with my fiancée and I'll call you back."
"Rejected?" Erin said as he hung up.
"Yeah, but we all knew that would happen. He said the vendor told him they're not going to sell for a cent less than $500,000. I could tell by his tone that he was trying to say that if we offer that amount, we've got a deal."
"It's $25,000 less than the asking price," Erin said positively.
"It is and it isn't. They probably wanted half a million the whole time. This way we think we've got a good deal and so do they. That's how this nonsense works. Bottom line, do we want to buy that house for half a million?"
"We're not going to get anywhere bigger or better for the money, we've discovered that already," she said. "So, yeah, I say let's do it."
"Clem?" Jay asked, purely to make her feel included in the process.
"I'd like to live there," she said, smiling.
"Okay then," Jay said, clapping his hands together ones to emphasise the finality of the decision. He made another call.
"Yes, hi, Richard. We've decided to offer $500,000, but we cannot go any higher. It's this offer or we walk away."
Erin studied him for his reaction to whatever was being said on the other end of the call. The seconds seemed to last for minutes.
"Okay, thank you. Yes. Thank you," Jay said, keeping an excellent poker face. He ended the call.
"Well?" Erin demanded.
A big smile appeared on his face. "We're buying a house. He said he was authorised to accept an offer of that amount."
"Yes!" Clementine cried in delight.
"Congrats, guys," Kayla beamed.
Erin hugged Jay and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm so happy. I love you, Jay."
"I love you too, Er. And I'm very happy. But let's keep in mind there's still a hell of a lot of work to do before we're in there."
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A/N: Jay and Erin are buying a house! It'll be a place that their growing family can actually fit in, but they are putting everything they have into it. Will they be able to make it the home of their dreams, with barely any money left to spend on it?