Finishing up the paperwork on the successfully concluded case meant that Jay arrived home an hour later than usual. He had sent Erin a text ahead of time to let her know, and she had said she would have Kayla make dinner late accordingly.
"I'm home!" he called out after walking into the house.
"Hey, we're in the living room!" Erin called back.
"Apart from me!" came Kayla's voice from the kitchen. "We have handmade pizzas for dinner. They'll be about fifteen minutes!"
"Perfect, Kayla, thank you," Jay said as he took his coat off and hung it up. He had heard nothing from Clementine, which was unusual. He went straight to the living room to investigate. He found her sitting on the couch they called Kayla's couch, sitting apart from Erin and Henry, who were on the usual one. She was timidly playing something on her iPad, seeming not wanting to be noticed. Something had obviously gone on.
"Clem?" he asked.
"We've had words," Erin reported. "When Kayla picked her up from school, she was told that Clem had been excluded from lessons all afternoon for fighting at lunch break."
"We were wrestling, not fighting," Clementine mumbled, not looking up.
"Yes, they were wrestling. I gave her a telling off about wrestling at school, and it's not going to happen again. Is it?" Erin asked, looking at their daughter.
"No," Clem mumbled, still looking at her iPad.
"Put that down and look at your mom when you speak to her," Jay said. He hated telling Clem off, but he recognised that it had to be done when she deserved it.
Clem put the tablet down and looked at Erin. "I won't wrestle in school again. Or anywhere, because I'm not allowed to learn."
Jay decided he would handle that one. Considering she had already had the riot act from Erin, he decided to go a different way about it. He sat down next to her. "Now, Clem, we know you want to learn to wrestle, but that's not the way we behave in this house. You know better than that. And you know you shouldn't be wrestling in school."
"I know," she said, now teary-eyed because she had let her dad down. "I just want to wrestle so much."
"Your mom and I will think about it," Jay promised. "But we don't have much money right now, and we can't reward bad behaviour. So before anything happens, you're going to have to prove you can improve your behaviour and never wrestle at school again."
"Okay, I won't," Clem assured him. "We weren't hurting each other anyway, it was just the teachers being stupid."
"Whether you think that or not, no more wrestling," Jay said firmly. And he let that draw a line under the matter, going on to ask her about the game she had been playing, before going over to the other couch and taking over from Erin in having Henry on his lap.
-----
Later, with Henry and Clementine asleep and Kayla upstairs in her room enjoying some down time, Jay and Erin had some precious time to themselves.
"So, I have some news," Jay said as Erin cuddled up to him and he put an arm around her.
"Me too, but you go first."
"Oh, hang on, look at this," Jay said. The TV was on, muted, showing a Chicago news channel. The big story of the day was the rumours that Dominic Boyd would be withdrawing from the Illinois gubernatorial election, which would make Bayley Martinez the governor. A breaking news graphic had just appeared at the bottom of the screen, beneath a shot of a podium. The news ticker said that Boyd would be announcing his withdrawal imminently.
Erin groaned. "Don't turn that on, Jay. I don't want to hear it. Just thinking about Martinez winds me up."
"She has that effect on people," Jay acknowledged, leaving the TV remote alone. "Okay then, my news. Raquel asked me to be her best man today. I said yes, so I've got a speech to write at some point."
"Oh, Jay, that's lovely. I'm so happy how close you guys are now. Raquel's got a gentle heart once you really get to know her. She and Z deserve every happiness, and I know you'll do your part in making it a special day for them.
"Yes. I've only done it once, so I'm a bit uneasy about having to put a speech together, but I'm sure it'll be fine. At least I've got until the summer."
"Yeah, you'll do fine. And if you need a second pair of eyes to look over it obviously I'll help you. Or Ruze will if you need a man to do it."
"Right," Jay smiled. "We'll need to get wedding outfits for Clem and Henry too."
"And for me," Erin smiled sweetly, not passing up the chance to get herself a nice new outfit.
"Ah yes, and for you," he replied, pretending to sigh about it.
Erin laughed before moving on to her news. "So, as you know I got called in to see Miller this morning."
He nodded. "About returning to work."
"Well, that's what I thought it was about. But it wasn't. It turns out that Miller is getting promoted a few months from now. The reason she called me in was that she wants to put my name forward to replace her as Deputy-Superintendent."
"Really? Holy shit," Jay breathed. "What do you think about it?"
"Mixed emotions, honestly," she admitted. "It's a great career opportunity obviously. But on the other hand, when Hank convinced me to come back it was because he was desperate for Intelligence to be kept in the family. He didn't want some outsider coming in and changing everything about the unit, ripping the heart out of it. Also, if I did move up the ladder, overseeing Intelligence would be one of my responsibilities. That would be hard, especially if you ended up being the sergeant in charge of it."
"That would be the other thing, wouldn't it? Who would take your place," Jay said as he tried to consider all of the implications of her potential promotion. "I'm not sure I want to go for it to be honest. I'm kind of happy where I am. But then who would get it? Ruze only just made detective, so he wouldn't be able to move straight up to sergeant. Same with Atwater. Gonzalez I don't think would be suitable, and no one else on the team has even made detective yet. We'd end up with someone new."
"That's what bothers me," Erin sighed. "But then again, we're talking about a big promotion, and a big pay rise for me. We need the money, Jay. We're mortgaged and in debt up to our asses. I want us to get out of that mess so that we can afford to buy nice things for the kids and we can afford vacations. And maybe we could afford wrestling lessons for Clem too, if she's dead set on it. I think I have to go for it, Jay. That is if you're okay with it?"
"Okay with it? I'm delighted about it, and proud of you that you're even being considered. You're amazing at your job, so you deserve it. I know you could do the job well."
"It's just what would happen with Intelligence that troubles me," Erin said grimly. "I don't want to leave it to someone outside the unit. I might have to ask Miller if she can work out Ruzek being put in charge of it, even though he's only detective rank. I'd have to speak to him too because it would mean he would be taking on the responsibility of a sergeant without the pay, until he's eligible for promotion."
"I doubt he'd have a problem with that. I know he has enjoyed being temporarily in charge while you've been off."
"I don't think he would either, but it's still not my decision to make without speaking to him." She looked at him and smiled. "Deputy-Superintendent Lindsay sounds good though, doesn't it?"
"Deputy-Superintendent Halstead sounds better. We need to get wedding planning at some point."
Erin nodded. "We do. Hank mentioned that to me the other day too. He's obviously keen to part with his money."
"Obviously," Jay said, grinning. "You know, I think we should open one of those bottles of wine to celebrate this promotion thing."
"I'm not sure we're celebrating necessarily. Miller is talking about putting my name forward, not guaranteeing me the job. I'm having to keep that in mind so as not to get ahead of myself. Although she did say she expects her recommendation to carry a lot of weight, which makes sense because she would be my direct superior. But I'll definitely say yes to wine. In fact, I'll go fetch it."
She wriggled free of his embrace and went through to the kitchen. While she was out there getting a couple of glasses and opening a bottle of wine, Jay winced at what he saw on the TV. Some media had gathered outside of a hotel that was one of Bayley Martinez's legitimate businesses. After she had made the deal with the FBI, all of those had been returned to her, along with her mansion. Not for the first time, Jay wished he could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation, so that he would know exactly what had been offered to who.
Currently, Martinez was walking out of the hotel to speak to the assembled press. While Jay and Erin had been talking, Dominic Boyd had given a short press conference to announce his withdrawal, and had walked out without taking questions, looking like a man who was destroyed. Martinez on the other hand, look like a cat who had gotten the cream, although she was trying not to show it.
"Oh god, her smug face makes me want to punch the TV," Erin said, walking back in with the wine. But she didn't ask him to change the channel.
"Pour us a drink, Er," Jay said, knowing it would take the edge off.
"First of all, I would like to thank Dominic Boyd for doing the right thing," Martinez was saying on the TV. "I do believe that he is an honourable man, and probably didn't have personal involvement in the electoral fraud. With that being said, electoral fraud was committed against me, and against the people of Illinois. We've all seen the footage and the CCTV pictures, and we've all heard the summaries of what the whistle-blower has said. Boyd's camp tried to steal the election, as I said, not only from me, but from the voters of Illinois. They should get the governor that they voted for, and they will. I will be delighted to become the first female governor of Illinois, the first governor of Illinois of Latin descent, and the youngest governor of Illinois. This election has had a messy conclusion, but thanks to Dominic Boyd's actions today, the right result has been delivered. I want everyone in this state to know that I will work to serve everybody, no matter how they voted. And..."
"Enough, Jay! I can't listen to it anymore," Erin said crossly. She was already halfway down her first glass of wine as he turned off the TV.
"Yes, that's enough for me too," he said. "So, in between all the talk of promotions, did you fix a date with Miller for your return to work?"
"I did. Monday."
Jay took a drink from his glass. It was a fruity red wine, and he liked it a lot. "That's great. Looking forward to you being back. How do you feel about it?"
"A bit nervous," she confessed. "It's been a long time, so I think it'll take me some time to get back into the swing of it. Still, I enjoy a challenge."
"You do," he smiled. "And in any case you'll slip right back into it like you never left. It's one of those things where looking ahead to it will be worse than actually doing it."
Erin kissed him on the lips. "Thank you, Jay. You're the best at supporting me."
"I do my best," he replied before giving her a second kiss.
-----
That evening, Kevin Atwater was at Bayley Martinez's house before she got home from the hotel. He was now used to making himself at home there. Although he technically didn't live there, he spent most of his free time there, and slept there most nights.
He was relaxing in the living room, browsing social media on his phone when she walked in, laughing delightedly as soon as she saw him.
"We did it, Kev."
"You did it," he corrected, standing up with a smile on his face. "Governor Martinez. I like the sound of that. I like it a lot."
"Thank you," she said sweetly before they started kissing each other passionately. "I couldn't have done it without you, you know?"
"I doubt that," he said frankly. "I think you can do pretty much anything you put your mind to."
"Thank you. But don't put yourself down. Behind every good woman is a great man. I think there's some kind of saying like that."
Kevin laughed. "Yeah, something like that."
"I was thinking, once I'm moved into the governor's mansion, I want you to move in too. You already pretty much live here. We should make it official."
He slipped his arms inside her suit jacket and around her back, pulling her to him. "You don't have to ask me twice."
-----
A/N: Erin wants to go for the promotion, but who did you think could take her place in charge of Intelligence if she left?
Bayley Martinez has gotten the job as governor, seemingly because her opponents tried to cheat. Do you think the story is as it seems? And do you think Kevin should move in with her?