#building relationships

[autisticlancemcclain]

The tears are the worst fucking part.

They always are. They come out when she’s angry or hurt and embarrassed, and they make her feel like a little girl, which only ever makes her feel worse. It sucks to feel like you can’t hold your ground in an argument because your eyes are burning and trails of tears are blazing hot down your cheeks.

But she didn’t even get the chance to argue.

“We’re not punishing you,” Shiro had said gently, guilt visibly lining his features as her first tear fell, which only made her snarl at him. “But your bond to your element could use some strengthening, Katie. It won’t take too long, I’m sure of it.”

Just a couple vargas, he has promised her. Gather the list of ingredients for the next few meals, and see how the exposure to a natural environment makes you feel, map out your relationship with your lion. Easy peasy.

Easy for everyone else to say. The rest of them seemed to bond with their lions like it was fuckin’ easy, snapping up their elemental control like it was second nature. Hunk was as solid as the rocks and earth he represented, and it showed in the way he was and the way he acted. Shiro felt like the awesome and incredible presence of the sky to everyone he met. Keith was the most fiery person she had ever met, probably. He acted like he was powered by a raging inferno, always moving, always flickering. Lance was —

Well. Lance was water, simple as that. Everything he did was as playful and stubborn as a running river. Even his expressions have the same practiced fluidity of them, like he grew up imitating the tide.

She supposes he did. She supposes it makes sense, that he is the one sent with her, to help guide her along, so to speak.

It still kind of stings.

“Could you stop fucking humming,” she snaps, glaring at her teammate.

He doesn’t even glance at her. “No.”

She rolls her eyes, tears making her breaths stutter, and wipes some of the wetness off her cheeks. It doesn’t really work, and mostly just smears it around, but she’s so bitter that she’s kind of beyond caring.

She hates this. She hates this stupid mission, she hates this stupid forest, she hates her stupid element, she hates that Lance will not stop fucking prancing around, and most of all she hates that she can’t figure this shit out on her own.

She hates that she has to be babied.

“Oh, hey, these are the sugarplums for the not-lamb stew.” Lance stops abruptly, gentle hand on her arm to stop her, too. She resists the urge to yank it away, desperately reminding herself that it’s not Lance’s fault she’s so angry, not his fault that humiliation burns through her, not his fault that she can’t get her shit together. She’s already snapped at him once — more than once, if she’s being honest — and he’s gracefully ignored it. If she keeps pushing, he’ll snap right back, and then they’ll both be miserable.

Plus, she doesn’t actually like snapping at Lance. He doesn’t deserve her lashing out, he’s only trying to help.

“You sure?”

Pidge looks at the small purple fruits , feeling a little helpless. She has no idea how Lance has distinguished them from the various other fruits and seeds hanging from the hundreds of other trees. She has no idea how the hell she’s supposed to memorize all of this garbage. How something as frustrating and unique and random as nature is supposed to be her element, the one thing that represents her, deep to her core.

It’s not fair.

“Yep!” Lance chirps. He crouches down, starting to pull at his laces. “The bark has more linear pattern structures, see? And the leaves are smooth, not serrated, and much darker than any other fruit trees we’ve passed. And it smells like plum jam.” To her great confusion, he pulls off his shoes as socks as he explains, only standing once his bare feet are on the backed earth and moss of the forest floor.

“You’re going to get a sharp rock to the foot,” she says, unsure as to why he’s decided to ditch his shoes in the places he probably needs them most.

He snorts, kicking his shoes to the side and turning to face her, making obnoxious kissy faces and poking at her relentlessly.

“Aw, is Pidgey worried for my health and well-being?”

She scowls, shoving him away. “Nevermind. I hope you get tetanus and lose your whole leg.”

Unfortunately, her threat only makes him grin wider. He blows her one last dramatized kiss before turning to the large tree, wrapping his sweater around the trunk, and using it to scurry up the tree almost faster than she can register. By the time it occurs to her to question him, he’s already ten feet in the air, shifting his weight to a steady enough branch.

“What the hell are you doing?” she yells.

Lance looks back down at her, raising an eyebrow. “…Getting…fruit…?”

“There’s fruit down here!” She gestures to the dozens and dozens of fallen but perfectly good plums on the ground, many of which she’s already scooped up and put in the bag Hunk gave her. “All the fruit-bearing branches are like thirty feet in the air, and the branches are way too thin! It’s too risky!”

“Well, Pidgeon,” he says, hooking his knees around a branch to hang upside down, shooting her a wink and a pair of finger guns, “that’s the fun part!”

Before she can yell at him again to get the hell back down, he’s flipped back upright, scurrying up rapidly thinning branches to reach the higher, juicier fruit.

Pidge heart pounds.

“Lance, get down here!” Her voice is reedy with panic, but he ignores her. “You’re going to get hurt, you colossal fucking dumbass!”

But no matter how loudly she cusses him out, he keeps climbing, barely even pausing to make sure a branch can hold his weight before using it to get higher. He climbs as easily as he walks, as easily as he shoots — like it’s second nature. Despite his ease, Pidge can fucking use her brain and see that as scrawny as Lance is, the branches are scrawnier, and he is going to fall and die and Pidge is going to have to watch it happen.

Just as she’s about to call backup, Lance forty feet in the fucking air and without even the distant thought of a rope, Lance ties his hoodie — filled with fruit — to his back, stands on a branch, and fucking leaps the hell off.

Pidge screams at the top of her lungs.

But instead of falling to his death, Lance lands on a branch jutting out from a neighbouring tree, maybe five feet below the branch he leapt from.

Pidge’s yell catches in her throat.

He’s fine.

He continues like that for the ten seconds it takes for him to make his way down, hopping from branch to branch like a chickadee, smiling so wide his brown eyes are nearly creased shut. He looks elated; the happiest she’s seen him in ages.

Slowly, some of her fear starts to fade.

“You fucking scared me,” she says harshly when his feet are back on the floor. Her heart is still galloping.

Lance shrugs. “I told you I’d be fine.”

“No, you told me risks were more fun, then you jumped down a fucking tree.” She accepts the fruits he hands her, replacing the less appetizing ones she already had in her bag. “Taller than your lion.”

“Yeah, because I’ve done it before.” He places the last sugarplum in the bag and then ties it shut, securing it to his back and then throwing an arm over Pidge’s shoulders. He starts walking in a random direction, and Pidge struggles to keep up with his wide strides.

“…Oh.” She supposes that makes sense. He looked comfortable as he climbed.

They walk for the next several minutes in silence. Pidge notices that the tear tracks on her face have dried, and the terror she felt for Lance earlier has replaced her anger, her embarrassment.

She wonders if that was the point.

“Hey, look at that.” He points to a small, budding yellow flower dotting the base of a tree. “That’s hairflower. They grow at the bases of confler trees, because the confler trees always host sodiko birds, which are their biggest pollinators. Cool, huh?”

“How do you know all this stuff?” she blurts, barely letting him finish his sentence. Some of her earlier frustration bleeds into her voice, but luckily it doesn’t sound too accusatory. “I don’t — we’re not even on Earth, but somehow you recognise all the random wildlife. Nature is supposed to be my element. I don’t — I don’t know why I’m struggling so bad when you have it so easy.”

Lance trips over his feet, slightly, stumbling. He removes his arm from her shoulders, stuffing his hands in his pockets. His shoulders hike up somewhere near his ears, hunching his posture.

Guilt churns in her stomach.

“Lance, I didn’t mean —”

Did she?

What did she mean?

“I’m not dumb,” he says quietly.

She swallows. “I know.”

“It’s — I’m not good at the classroom shit. I have to try really hard to understand what a textbook is telling me, and I never understand instructions that aren’t explained to me three times in four different ways. I can’t even begin to understand all the fancy shmancy engineer stuff you and Hunk do. I will not pretend to understand how Altean alchemy and magic works.” He looks at her finally, and hurt clouds his eyes, but his voice is steady, firm. Practiced even, like it’s not the first time he’s had to explain this. “But I’m not dumb.”

“I know,” Pidge repeats, quieter. She doesn’t know how to take back her words, to say them better. How to fix how she feels, honestly. Because it was a lie, her backtracking — she did mean what she said. It was a mean thing to say, a mean thing to think and believe, and she had allowed herself to think it, to feel it, to say it and believe it.

That’s not fair to Lance. That’s not fair to her friend.

It isn’t even true.

“I know,” she repeats again, firmer this time. “I’m sorry. I forgot. But I know you’re not dumb.”

He hesitates for a second, but then nods, accepting her apology. He puts his arm back around her shoulder.

“I’ve always been better at learning things I can do, physically, or things that I can see have a purpose. Like dance, or shooting, or learning the names of cool things like plants and rocks. I’ve always been good with names and faces. And piloting, too, I hope I’m good at that.”

She hates the doubt there, and hates more that she might be part of the reason. “You are. Good at piloting, I mean.”

He grins at her. “Thanks. You are too, you know. Even though all this element shit is a learning curve.”

She snorts despite herself. “Not to you. You’re the living embodiment of water, basically, you naiad.”

“Yeah, ‘cause I spend time in it. I go to the pool, like, every day. I don’t even play mermaids all the time. I do boring meditative shit, because apparently that’s what Blue needs.”

She looks at him in shock. She hadn’t considered that anyone other than Shiro really meditated, or that anyone else had to work towards working with their elements. Especially not Lance. “Really?”

He nods excitedly. “Yeah, man! I thought I was good, but when Hunk unlocked his earth weapon thingie, I asked Blue what was up and she said I just needed more practice letting elemental quintessence flow through me, whatever the hell that means. Apparently it’s easy to summon when you’re panicked, but if you want to do it on a more regular basis you have to learn how to recognise it, so you can call it.”

That makes sense, she supposes. But she still feels like she’s missing something.

“How the hell am I supposed to frolic around a forest between missions? There’s not exactly one in the castle.”

Lance shrugs. “I don’t know, genius. You figured out how to turn a magical lion invisible, can’t you puzzle out how to grow a garden in space or something? Aren’t you a science nerd?”

Pidge stills.

Oh, duh.

It’s such a simple solution — plant a garden. She used to have a garden, back home, that she and her mom worked on regularly. Her mom would show her how she genetically modified plant seeds, and then they’d monitor the new plants and plant traits together.

Suddenly she understands why Green is the lion of curiosity and science as well as nature — the two are linked, everywhere, even in her. She belongs in the forest as much as she belongs in the workshop.

She can do so many weirdo experiments. Isn’t that what science is, basically?

“I owe you one,” she tells Lance, walking again beside him.

He chuckles, adjusting the bag of fruit on his shoulder and nudging her with his elbow. “You owe me twenty. Now, come on, we have lots more stuff to gather. I’ll show you how to identify it.”

#i see too many fics in this fandom where pidge is a cruel asshole for some reason. not in this household. #yes she says stupid unfiltered stuff sometimes but she loves her friends okay #vld #voltron #pidge #pidge holt #lance #lance mcclain #lance & pidge #smart pidge #smart lance #pidge angst #lance angst #langst #hurt/comfort #building relationships #bamf pidge #bamf lance #brown-eyed lance #my writing #fic #longpost #autistic lance #autistic pidge

[buckaroo627]

I wanna say something. Coz I never saw anyone post anything about what I'm going to point out from the video.

@8:30 ..."there's still a lot of things that 'Buck and Tommy' have to learn about each other but also 'Oliver and Lou', and so you know we're building those relationships."

So building the chemistry.

I'm telling you, I don't like her character from the very beginning it was introduced from seasons ago. So if that one is gonna stay around Eddie,

then I want Tommy to stay around Buck. Coz I have these opinion that I don't want to see Buck hanging around Eddie when Eddie's dating someone. In a sense, when Buck started dating Natalia, I was like, I understand or I'm assuming why Eddie felt the need to do so when before Buck was single and his Tia Pepa arranged a date for him, he was 'No'.

So this building relationships, the characters and actors, is a good thing, coz I wanna see that chemistry playing there genuinely and not because it was being act out.

We really got lucky with Oliver and Ryan. I guess the tattoos helped too. Like, what are the chances that these two actors just coincidentally have tattoos around opposite arms and, what's the word? Ah, right, compliments each other. As well as their characters are like opposites in a way that fits together that building chemistry is not needed. Because the attraction is already present. And they fit perfectly. Even the way they smile, talk, laugh, stand together, and sleep even, and just staring at the other,

even that far apart,

This is a really really really s........l........o.......w burn. And I've been telling this since before, that it will be a beautiful story between them. The history has been told, now we await their future.

btw

I forgot to mention how Oliver's eyes look so green here. I know it's the surroundings, his shirt, his beanie (i forgot his word as well, had to search using bonnet lol), just the surrounding's color's effect.

But his eyes look so green.

#buck #evanbuckley #eddie #eddiediaz #oliverstark #oliver stark #ryanguzman #ryan guzman #buddie #911onabc #911series #911show #tommy kinard #lou ferrigno jr #slow burn buddie storyline #building relationships #building chemistry #Youtube

[herrmannhalsteadproduction]

500 Miles (Chapter Fifteen)

Summary: This is Part Nineteen of my series A Herrmann/Halstead Production. It is an AU where Christopher Herrmann's mom had an affair with Pat Halstead resulting in a baby. The series follows this OC character (Rebecca "Bex" Herrmann) as she grows up and gets to know her brothers and the various Chicago teams. It is very much an AU, just to underscore that. It doesn't follow the same timeline and characters will follow different paths.

Click here for the Series Rundown where you can find the links to read all of the previous installments (which I highly recommend you do so that this one makes sense.)

Rating: Teen and Up

Relationships: Christopher Herrmann & Original Female Character, Jay Halstead & Original Female Character, Will Halstead & Original Female Character, Jay Halstead & Will Halstead, Greg 'Mouse' Gerwitz/Original Female Character, Will Halstead/Connor Rhodes, Assorted OC Couples

Warnings: Angst, Emotional Conversations, Dealing with Past Trauma, Swearing, Discussions of Past Drug Use, Discussions of Addiction, The Return of the Fluff

A/N: To underscore my previous note, this is an alternate universe so things have unfolded differently. This will not follow the canon arcs exactly by any means. But I hope you'll still enjoy it!

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Thursday Afternoon

***

Bex

Bex got out of the Tin Can, her heart beating rapid fire in her chest as she looked around the parking lot. What if he didn’t show? They couldn’t figure anything out if he wasn’t actually—

Oh.

Her breath caught as she spotted Mouse getting out of his own car a few spots away. She waited as he looked around. Saw the moment he noticed her. The look of relief flashing over his face had a slow grin spreading across Bex’s own.

They were gonna be okay. She could feel it.

***

Mouse

Bex was here. Mouse stood there, shocked, as she smiled at him and he smiled back, helplessly.

She came.

There was still a chance.

***

Bex

She let Kol out of the car, following when he instantly trotted over to meet Mouse. The two greeted each other like long-lost friends; Mouse crouching down so Kol could jump all over him. You’d think it had been months instead of only a few days.

Maybe Kol could tell Mouse needed some extra snuggles. He definitely looked like he did. A tiny flicker of satisfaction curled through Bex over the fact that he looked as rough as she felt. What? It was kind of nice to know she hadn’t been alone in her struggles this week.

Mouse stood up once Kol calmed down. His smile had faded and he was giving her a carefully measured look as he kept a bit of distance between them.

“Come on,” Bex said, nodding toward the trail. This was going to be easier for both of them if they were on the move and doing something normal-ish.

They walked for a while; sneaking glances at each other as they went. Bex wasn’t sure if she should start or let Mouse go first. They didn’t have the greatest track record on either front.

Passing by the bench from their last chat, Mouse steered them toward the next one. Kol immediately wandered off the path to nose through the bushes and Bex watched him for a moment to make sure there wasn’t anything dangerous around for him to snarf up. She turned back to find Mouse staring at her.

Enough of this. She was just gonna dive in.

“I’m sorry,” she said…at the same time that Mouse burst out with, “I’m so sorry.”

His eyes went wide as he jerked back. “You’re—Bex, what? You—you don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

“That’s not totally true,” she said, shaking her head and sighing. “Part of me didn’t want to hear what you were saying last time and I—I don’t want you to think that I’m not taking your concerns seriously. About your sobriety or our relationship. About anything.”

“I know,” Mouse said softly. He stepped closer, taking her hand and nudging her over to the bench to sit down. “I know that, Bex, but—”

“No, just—let me go first this time, okay?” Bex twisted around on the bench to face him. “You said something before about me thinking that if I care enough about you—and us—that it’ll see us through anything. And you were kind of right about that. I grew up seeing it with Chris and Cindy, you know? They love each other so much and they’ve used that to power through everything life has thrown at them. They’re kind of my blueprint.”

“My blueprint was pretty shit,” Mouse said, staring down at their intertwined fingers. “I’m glad you had that though and I don’t want to—to ruin that for you.”

Bex squeezed his hand. “We promised honesty, right? So, I’m not going to lie—I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to stamp that belief out of me. It’s part of my core.” She smiled when Mouse huffed out a little laugh.

“But this week has been pretty eye-opening in a few ways,” she said, thinking over everything that had happened. “The truth is that I’ve never dealt with anything like what you’ve been through so I have a lot of listening and learning to do still and I’m working on it. And I’m going to check out those groups that Chuck told me about.”

Mouse’s head whipped up at that. “Yeah?”

“I meant it when I said I’m taking this seriously. I understand better now that it means looking out for myself as well and finding those other places of support.” She’d already narrowed down her list to a couple that looked promising to try first. “So, don’t worry about me being alone in it all if something happens.”

“That’s—I’m really glad to hear that,” Mouse said, taking a shaky breath. “Thank you.”

“If there was something else that became crystal clear this week it was that. For sure, neither of us is alone in this.” Bex shuffled closer to him on the bench, knocking her foot against his. “My support system was pretty good to begin with, but it definitely expanded a bit and I’m fairly certain yours, like, exploded.”

Mouse snorted. “You heard about Cindy’s visit?”

“Yup,” Bex said, grinning widely at him. “I would have paid good money to see your face when she showed up.”

“I swore,” Mouse said ruefully. “I didn’t mean to, but—it happened three times!”

“It takes a lot more than that to ruffle Cindy.” Bex leaned back against the bench, happy to see Mouse finally relaxing a bit. “Did it help though? Talking with her?”

He was quiet for a moment before answering. “It did,” he said. “I never would have thought—” Mouse shook his head “—it all ties together, you know? My group made me realize that I’ve been so focused on not going backwards that I haven’t let it sink in how far I’ve come. And how many people I have now. I feel like I’m finally seeing the whole picture.”

“That’s good,” Bex said. “I’m really glad to hear that.” It was a point she hadn’t been able to get through to him so she was so happy his group had been able to. There really was something to this ‘different people being able to provide help in different ways’ thing.

“Am I allowed to say my bit now?” Mouse asked, peeking at her sideways and she gestured for him to continue with her free hand.

He turned to face her, meeting her eyes as he covered her hand in both of his. “Bex, I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have given you an ultimatum like that. I was just—I was freaking out again. I’m sorry. I keep doing that to you and it’s not fair, but—you know, we were finally having the talk about everything and it felt like this huge step forward that there was no going back from and I—I—all I could think about was making sure you were protected. From it. From me.”

Bex blew out a breath. That was…a lot of stuff to unpack. “Okay, so first point because we really have to talk about this,” she began. “I have plenty of protectors, Mouse, and as much as I can appreciate it to a point…I don’t need another one.”

She steeled herself for the next bit.

“What I want is a partner,” Bex said. “And I’m really hoping that’s what you want too. If we’re doing this, you can’t make sweeping decisions for me. You just can’t. We have to be a team and talk stuff out. That’s not something I’m willing to compromise on. We both deserve that.”

“No, yes, you’re—you’re right,” Mouse said. “And I do—I want that. All of it.”

“Yeah?” Bex let out a shaky sigh. Apparently, she’d been expecting more of a fight on that one.

Mouse immediately noticed her wobble and nodded his head firmly. “More than anything,” he said, clearing his throat when his voice broke a bit. “And I’m—I’m sorry again for doing that to you. I don’t want that to be how we move forward.”

“Good, that’s good,” Bex said. “It won’t be then. And I mean, you talked about realizing how much progress you’ve made so look at how much progress we’ve made. That talk on Sunday—it was a necessary talk, right?” He nodded. “It was all things I needed to know and that you needed to bring up and that’s amazing. Sure, it kind of went shit-sideways for a bit, but we’re sorting that out.”

Bex let a smile spread across her face when Mouse shook his head, laughing quietly. They were sorting it all out. Slowly, but surely, they were getting there. As long as they could let themselves. “Finally having that talk though doesn’t mean we have to hit fast forward all of a sudden. We can keep things casual—” Mouse made a face. “—what?”

“I think that’s part of what’s feeding into all of this,” he said, freeing a hand to wave it vaguely in front of his heart and his head. “There’s nothing casual about the way I feel about you, Bex.”

How could one statement be ridiculously romantic and yet maddening all at the same time?

“I mean, you’re not alone in that,” Bex exclaimed, really hating how relieved he looked by her saying it out loud. He should know. How could he not know? “I don’t think either of us would be here if that was the case.”

“I wasn’t sure if you would be—here,” Mouse confessed.

“But you still came,” Bex couldn’t help pointing out.

“Leap of faith.” A little smile danced at the edges of Mouse’s lips. “Chuck said that’s what it takes sometimes when you’re, uh, trying to build something.”

“We both took one today,” Bex said. “It’s good—I think we’re on the same page again, yeah?”

Mouse nodded, but he chewed on his lip, something clearly still bothering him.

***

Mouse

Bex was right—they’d come so far and they’d talked stuff out and they were on the same page again and it was good…

What was stopping him from taking that next big leap?

Why couldn’t he stop being so fucking scared?

“I don’t think we ever stop taking those leaps,” Bex said gently. “It’s big and small ones all the time when you’re putting your trust in someone like this. Us still moving forward is another leap, but they don’t always have to be big ones. The point is that you’re making it. This can be enough for today.”

Wait—Mouse didn’t get it. Was she saying—

“It’s okay to not be fully ready, yet,” Bex continued. Mouse’s heart twisted in his chest when he realized she knew exactly where his thoughts had taken him. “I don’t want you to skip the steps you need just to jump ahead because you think we have to. Like we’ve reached an immovable milestone or something.” Bex squeezed his hand. “I know when we get there, it’s going to be amazing.”

“How can I ask you to wait even longer?” Mouse choked out. “I can’t keep making you—”

“Hey.” Bex pulled on his hands until he met her eyes. “You’re not asking, I’m offering. And you’re not making me do anything. It’s my choice. That’s an important difference, remember?”

“Bex…” He shook his head as his words left him and he tried to focus on accepting what she was offering him. What she was choosing to give him.

Time. Trust. Faith.

And the gift of believing he was worthy of all of that.

“I believe in us, Mouse,” she said, the most beautiful smile on her face. “I’m there, okay? And I’m willing to wait for you to get there too and we’ll take that freaking leap together.” She grew serious again. “The most important thing to me is that when we do, it’s because you’re ready. Not because you think it’s a step we have to take, but because you want this for you. For us. That’s all I need.”

Bex reached out to cup his face in her hands. All Mouse had to do was lean in a bit closer and he could kiss her. He wanted to. So badly. But it wouldn’t be fair to either of them to do that yet.

Not yet, but maybe…soon.

“It’s okay to take more time,” Bex was saying. “We’re doing this our way, remember? And the only people it has to make sense to is us.” She stroked her thumb over his cheek. “We’ll just keep figuring it out together. For every leap you’re ready to make, big or small, I’ll be here.”

Mouse did lean in this time and touched his forehead to hers. “Promise?”

She reached around to cup the back of his neck, holding him close. “Promise.”

In the space of one heartbeat to the next, when Mouse was seriously reconsidering his no-kissing-yet rule, Kol managed to come over and crawl half into their laps, reaching up to lick at their chins.

Bex leaned back, sputtering out a laugh. “Kol! You goofball!”

Kol barked, grinning at the two of them as he got back down and danced around in front of the bench.

“Someone was promised a w-a-l-k,” she said, shooting Mouse a sideways look. “We should probably do that before he gets even more squirrely.”

She got up and reached out a hand, pulling Mouse to his feet as well when he grabbed it. “Ice cream after?” she asked and Mouse marvelled at how normal it all felt again.

They’d had a horrible fight…but then they’d talked it out and—made a plan? And now they were moving forward? Simple as that?

It’s never as simple as that, an ugly voice in his brain said. You—

No.

Mouse stopped the voice in its tracks. Maybe it could be as simple as that. If he let it.

Time, trust, and faith.

“Ice cream sounds great,” Mouse said.

***

Thursday evening

*** Emery

At seven pm, the doorbell rang and Emery went to check the door cam before answering. She knew it was most likely Bex, who had texted that she was on her way over, but Emery wanted to turn that bit of safety consciousness into muscle memory.

Sure enough, Bex stood on her front porch, waving at the camera with a cheeky smile. Emery opened the door to let her in and Bex swanned inside. She kicked off her shoes while Emery locked up and then headed for the living room.

“Alright, let’s get this place party ready!” Bex had her hands on her hips as she cast a critical eye over the space.

And yes, Emery had asked her over so they could do some rearranging and make sure things were all set for the housewarming party on Saturday, but there was one thing that took priority.

“Spill first, move furniture later,” Emery said, herding Bex over to the couch. “How did the walk with Mouse go? What happened? Tell me everything.”

“Oof,” Bex chuckled, running a hand through her hair. “It was good, really good, don’t get me wrong, but it was a lot.” She didn’t sit down and motioned for Emery to get back up. “Let’s do this and talk at the same time. I still feel kind of wired.”

Emery leapt up, not about to argue if she was going to get all the (hopefully) juicy details and get her place party ready at the same time.

The whole story came spilling out of Bex as they pushed and shoved the couch and chairs around the room. On the one hand, Emery was so proud of Bex—and Mouse—for navigating all of that and working through things. It sounded like they were in an even better place which was great.

And yet—

“You still didn’t kiss?” Emery yelled, throwing her hands up. “Seriously? Oh, my god, I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

“Because it’s about you,” Bex laughed, rolling her eyes. “Yes.” Emery grabbed her hands, eyes wide. “Think of my stress levels, Bex. My poor heart. This can’t go on much longer. Just one little smooch to cut the tension, I’m begging you.”

“Em—”

“I’m two seconds away from pressing your faces together myself,” Emery declared and Bex shoved her away, still laughing and shaking her head.

“You’re ridiculous,” Bex said, trying to catch her breath. “Listen, I’m happy with how things are and so is Mouse so let’s not push anything, but this couch.” She pointed at the new arrangement. “What do you think? Happy with this?”

Emery huffed, wanting to poke at things a bit more, but not wanting to upset Bex who did actually seem okay with everything. Then she looked around the room and frowned.

“Oh, no, this isn’t—why did we move this here? This doesn’t work at all.” Emery turned to Bex who was giving her a flat look and she shrugged. “My bad?”

The two of them burst into giggles, leaning against the couch.

“Okay, let’s move it back, you weirdo,” Bex sighed, smiling at her.

"At least we have one way of exercising our various frustrations," Emery offered. "Since no one's doing any kissing." She dodged Bex's swat with a cackle. “I love youuuuu!” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Bex braced her hands on the arm of the couch with a grin and started to push. “Love you too.”

***

Friday

***

Bex

Work was heating up for Jay—Intelligence had some kind of big case in the works which meant no training for Bex which she wasn’t entirely upset about. Her muscles could use the break. Jay said they might swing by Molly’s before the night was over though so she’d at least hopefully get to say hi.

As it was, Molly’s was hopping. Bex moved around behind the bar in a carefully orchestrated dance with Otis, Chris, and Gabi. It was an all hands on deck kind of shift.

Currently, they were multi-tasking working the bar while arguing about who would tackle inventory on Monday.

“The kids are done with their day camps,” Chris said. “I gotta be home to help, especially since I’m working here that night.” He grimaced regretfully. “I’m sorry to punk out, but with Cinds being pregnant…I promise I’ll try to make it up to you guys somehow.”

“It’s all good, Chris,” Bex said, patting his shoulder as she moved behind him to grab some glasses. “I don’t mind doing it.”

“Suck up,” Otis muttered and Bex smacked him with her towel while Gabi laughed at them.

“Let’s all remember this moment the next time Otis wants a favour,” Bex teased. He rolled his eyes at her, sighing.

“I’ll help!” Shay said, leaning over the counter. The four of them turned to stare at her and she shrugged. “It’ll be fun.”

Bex did not trust that glint in her eyes. She was definitely up to something, but Bex willing to deal with whatever it was if it meant an extra pair of hands.

“That’s two,” Bex said. “One more would be awesome…”

Otis and Gabi side-eyed each other.

“There’s only one way to solve this,” Gabi said, sticking out her hand. “Rock, paper, scissors.”

***

Shay

Shay sipped at her drink, thoroughly enjoying herself as a brutal rock, paper, scissors battle unfolded between Gabi and Otis.

Gabi, of course, won.

No one had informed Otis he had a tell and they weren’t about to anytime soon.

She patted his arm as he leaned against the bar, pouting. He’d be fine. Shay was a wiz at inventory and she planned on beating all previous records to get it done early on Monday.

Then she and Otis would be free to ask some very polite questions about how things were going with Bex and Mouse. Or she could send Otis to take the garbage out if Bex didn’t want to talk in front of him.

In any case, she was going to get some answers.

It wasn’t being nosy, thank you very much, Julie—it was just friendly, familial concern. She wanted to make sure things were going well and were back on track and—

Okay, she was just dying to know how it was going, full stop. She was only human!

And if being not-nosy on Monday didn’t work out, she could always try and pull Bex aside at Game Night on Wednesday.

Speaking of…

“Hey, Bex,” Shay called over to her. “Did you ever figure out what we’re doing for Outdoor Game Night?”

Chris snorted when Bex sighed heavily. “Outdoor Game Night?” he chuckled. “How did that happen?”

“It’s a long story,” Bex sighed again. “And no, Shay, I have not. I’m still trying to figure out the least painful option.”

“Hey, what about that game you used to make me play when you were a kid?” Chris asked. “In the backyard?”

Bex’s face scrunched up as she thought back and then cleared suddenly as a smile bloomed on her face. “Bex Ball?”

“Yeah!” Chris grinned back at her. “Why don’t you do that one?”

“Chris.” Bex grabbed his arm, shaking it gleefully. “You are a freaking genius.”

“I am aware,” he said as he passed a drink over to Kelly.

“What are we talking about?” Kelly asked, sipping at his beer.

“Outdoor Game Night,” Shay said. Since they were going to be outside, they’d extended the invitation to whoever wanted to come. It was shaping up to be a good-sized crowd. “I was asking Bex what we’re going to do and now it looks like we’re playing something called Bex Ball?”

Kelly turned to Bex, raising an eyebrow at her. “What the heck is Bex Ball?”

“Mm-mm.” Bex mimed zipping her lips. “You will find out about the gloriousness on Wednesday.”

Shay and Kelly looked over at Chris who was silently laughing at his end of the bar.

“What’s Bex Ball, Herrmann?” Kelly demanded.

“You’ll find out,” Chris managed to say in-between his giggles. He wiped at his eyes. “Ah, heh. Yeah. You’ll see.”

Kelly looked over at her. “Well, that’s not terrifying at all.”

“We’ve been through worse,” Shay said, clinking her glass against his.

“Not helpful, Shay. Not helpful.”

***

Saturday, August 22nd

***

Bex

Bex looked around Emery’s living room, pleased to see it packed with their friends and family. The house-warming party was going great. Sam, Devon, Isaac, Kira, Malia, and Bex had all banded together to organize the food and drinks, plus they’d brought plenty of pictures and art for Emery’s walls.

Everyone else had taken the request to heart as well and now the shelves and walls of her new place were full of images of friends and family and love. Even Lexi Olinsky had stopped by with a gorgeous blanket she’d made that matched perfectly with Emery’s couch.

Emery was getting more comfortable around the extended friend group which Bex was happy to see. She and Kim and Hailey were currently drinking wine over by the bookshelf, talking about a thriller they’d all been reading.

Bex hadn’t thought that the Intelligence gang would be able to make it with how their work schedule had been, but they’d all managed to show up a few hours in.

Including Mouse.

Bex spotted him talking to Jay, Will, and Connor across the room and gave him a wave. He sent her a crooked little smile in return.

He’d already pulled her aside earlier, apologizing for the fact that he wouldn’t be able to make their walk tomorrow, but Bex had waved him off, reminding him they had time. She knew this case was pulling them into some late hours and honestly, she was just glad they’d been able to squeeze in stopping by Emery’s.

She and Mouse could reschedule their walk, but she really wanted Emery to have this night.

Something to shower her new start in the best vibes.

“Bex. Bex!” Isaac came up to her, tugging on her arm. “Come with me for a sec.”

“What are we doing?” She let him lead her Emery’s bedroom. Where Devon and Isaac’s bass were hanging out? “What’s going on?”

“Please let him show you this,” Devon said, more fondness in his tone than exasperation. “He’s been working on it all week and—well, you’ll see.”

“Remember the song you showed us last practice?” Isaac asked, taking his bass out of its case.

Bex nodded. It was still in the construction stage. She wanted any original for their band to be a group effort so she’d given them what she had and everyone agreed to tinker with it.

“I came up with a bass line,” Isaac said, eyes shining. “It gives it kind of a bluesier feel, but I think if we lower the vocals a bit for the opening, it’ll sound really cool.”

“We’ve been playing around with it and the tempo,” Devon added. “We think it’ll make it even more effective when you go full with the chorus.”

“Wow, okay, cool!” Bex sat down beside Isaac. “Show me.”

“Okay, it starts like this…”

***

Emery

Emery clocked Isaac dragging Bex off toward the bedroom. He’d been dying to show her the bass line he’d been working on and Emery was surprised he hadn’t grabbed her as soon as he’d arrived. He’d been sending her snippets as well. Emery had told him it sounded great—and so had Sam and Devon and Kira and Malia, but he wanted Bex’s input too.

Everyone agreed she’d needed space earlier this week, but it seemed like things were better so she couldn’t blame Isaac for not wanting to wait any longer.

It was pretty cool what they were all doing. She was just excited to have a small part of it. To be back in the middle of things.

Speaking of…now was the perfect time for something she’d been holding off on.

Emery watched as Mouse headed down the hall toward the bathroom and set down her glass, quickly weaving through the crowd to follow him.

***

Mouse

Mouse was heading into the bathroom when a pair of insistent hands shoved him, propelling him into the room. He spun around to see Emery there, locking the door behind them.

“Um….hi?”

“Hi,” she said briskly, crossing her arms as she leaned against the door. “Don’t worry, this shouldn’t take long.”

“And what is this? Exactly?” Mouse had no idea what was happening right now. He was trying to figure out where to stand—how to stand—should he be trying to leave? What could Emery want to talk to him about—oh, wait—

“Is this a shovel talk?”

“Oh. Buddy. No,” Emery said, stepping away from the door. “I mean, I totally would, but I don’t think anything I could come up with would beat the one you seem to keep giving yourself.”

Ouch.

But also…fair.

And it still explained nothing.

“I’m not going to keep you for long—” Emery paused. “—or do you have to pee real bad because I can step out—”

“I’ll survive,” Mouse burst out, more desperate to finish whatever this was than anything else. “Just, uh, say what you need to say, please.”

“It’s not bad, I swear.” Emery smiled at him and hopped up on the bathroom counter. “I know you’ve had about a million different people talking to you and giving you advice and I know we don’t know each other very well, but…Bex is one of my best friends. And I figured, if my two cents will help at all, then I might as well give them.”

Her lips twisted wryly. “If that’s—is that okay with you?”

Oh. Mouse felt his eyebrows wing up. “Uh, yeah, that’s—that’s okay,” he said, leaning against the short wall by the bath tub. “Shoot.”

“I think you and I are actually kind of similar,” she said. “We’ve both been through some serious shit. Different flavours of shit, but still shit nonetheless.”

“Nonetheless,” Mouse agreed, biting back a smile.

“And I know what it’s like to…be loved by Bex,” she said. “Different flavours of love…but love, nonetheless.”

Wait. “I don’t—she doesn’t—”

“Don’t even,” Emery said, giving him the most withering glare he’d ever been subjected to which was saying something. “We don’t have time to debate that, especially when you’re wrong.” She shook her head. “Listen, I’m just saying that I get it. For people like us? Who don’t have most of the normal touchstones that most of the people out there do? Being on the receiving end of all of the love that Bex has to give can be…overwhelming.”

Mouse didn’t say anything, couldn’t really, but he gave her the barest of nods to let her know he was listening.

“The kind of overwhelming that makes you doubt…everything,” she said. “And I’m not going to give you the ‘you’re worthy of it’ pep talk because I’m sure you’ve heard it, but also, I know it’s only something you’re going to be able to accept in your own time.”

Time. There it was again.

“But as someone who is working through the shit and is working on acceptance,” Emery continued. “I know how hard it is and I just—I wanted to say that I see you. I see how hard you’re working and I’m proud of you. And I hope you are too.”

“I, uh,” Mouse cleared his throat. “I’m getting there.”

Emery beamed at him. “That’s good,” she said, hopping down from the counter. “I’m glad you came tonight because…I want you to see me too.”

He cocked his head to the side, not sure where she was going with that.

“I meant it,” Emery said. “I know what it’s like to be lost and trying to not just rebuild your life, but to…find it in the first place. And how unbelievably terrifying it is.” She huffed out a little laugh. “But I’m doing it. Still scared like a lot of the time, but I’m doing it. And so are you. We might not be doing it alone, but it’s still hard fucking work. And we’re doing it. We’re getting there.”

She held up a hand. “High fives, dude.”

That surprised a laugh out of Mouse and he reached out to meet her for the requested high five.

This was one of the weirdest conversations he’d ever had—definitely the weirdest one he’d ever had in a bathroom—but he still appreciated. Nonetheless. Mouse smiled at her.

“Thanks, Emery,” he said. “And, uh, I’m glad.”

She raised her eyebrows in question.

“That you’re doing this.” He waved a hand at the bathroom, the house, the all of it. “It is hard and I do—I see you and, uh, I’m glad you’re here. You should be proud.”

“Oh, jeez. I—” She sniffed and lunged forward, pulling him into a hug. “Thank you.”

Mouse patted her back as she squeezed him tight. Really tight. “No problem,” he said. “Do you think, uh, could I maybe use the bathroom now?”

“Oh!” Emery sprang back, shaking her head as she laughed at herself. “Yes. Sorry. I’ll just—” She opened the door, pausing as she looked back at him. “I know you’re working through things in your own time and I don’t want to rush you or anything, but I do think you could consider kissing Bex sooner—”

“Emery!” Mouse shooed her out and she held her hands up as she back away.

“Alright, I’m going! I’m just saying—”

Mouse closed the door on whatever she was saying. He shook his head, dragging a hand down his face as he laughed under his breath.

He didn’t even really have to pee anymore.

But he was going to stay in here for a few minutes longer just in case.

***

Jay

He’d seen Emery follow Mouse to the bathroom and reappear after a few minutes later without him, looking incredibly pleased with herself.

Jay poured another glass of the wine he’d noticed her drinking and made his way through the crowd to hand it over to her.

“Oh!” She smiled up at him in surprise. “Thank you.”

“It comes with a price,” he said, holding it back before she could grab it.

Emery narrowed her eyes at him. “And what is that?”

Jay leaned in. “You have to tell me what you were talking to Mouse about in the bathroom.”

“Well, some of that is none of your business,” Emery said. “Let’s just say it was a…moment of solidarity.” Then her eyes sparked with a light that Jay knew meant he should just drop it and yet…

“Anything else?” he pressed.

“Yeah, I told him he needs to stop messing around and start kissing Bex—”

“Okay, nevermind—” Jay pressed the drink into her hand and escaped, her laughter chasing after him. He was hoping she was just pulling his leg, but knowing Emery, she’d absolutely said something along those lines to Mouse.

No wonder he was still hiding out in the bathroom.

Jay might join him.

***

Connor

Connor followed Will into his apartment, squatting down to greet Kol as Will locked the door behind them.

Emery’s party had been a great success and Bex had deemed her house sufficiently ‘warmed.’ She was staying over there tonight to help clean everything up so he and Will had the place to themselves. It had been a long week and they were more than ready to call it a night.

Connor was basking in the domesticity of it all while they took Kol out to do his business, talking about everything and nothing the whole time.

Will had been chatting away the whole ride home, telling Connor about everyone he’d had a chance to visit with and asking who Connor had talked to. They’d also gone through all of the pictures and art that everyone had brought and Will was halfway through planning a picture wall for the apartment.

“We should put one in your apartment too,” he said, as they got ready for bed. “Maybe on the far wall in the living room?”

“I’d like that,” Connor said around his toothbrush. Will grinned, easily deciphering his garbled response. They moved to the bedroom and started getting changed.

“I know I keep going on about it,��� Will said, shaking his head as he laughed at himself. “But it was such a good night, you know? I’m just—I’m so proud of Emery and how far she’s come. It’s amazing and I’m so happy for her. And Bex is turning a corner and I think Mouse is too? And did you see Jay tonight? I know they’re working that case and they’re all probably beat, but he was smiling and laughing—”

God, Connor loved him. He loved him so much.

Will stilled. “What?”

…and he had definitely said that out loud.

Shit.

“I’m sorry—”

“You love me and you’re sorry?” Will’s voice was strangled as his eyes kept getting impossibly wider.

“No, I—” Connor groaned, burying his face in his hands for a moment before daring to look back at Will. “I love you,” he said firmly. “I do. And I said I’m sorry because I know it’s kind of soon to be making declarations like that and I promised not to push you so if it’s too much, I understand and you don’t have to say it back, but I can’t—I’m not going to take it back because I do. I love you, Will.”

“You love me,” Will repeated, looking dazed.

“I do.” Connor’s heart felt like it was about to beat out of his chest as he waited to see how Will was going to react.

“You love me.” A slow smile started to spread across Will’s face as he walked across the room to Connor. “And there’s no takebacks.”

“No takebacks,” Connor confirmed with an answering grin.

“Well, that’s great,” Will said, snaking his arms around Connor’s waist and pulling him close. “Because I love you too.”

“Yeah?” Connor reached up to wrap his arms around Will’s neck, running a hand through his hair.

“Yes,” Will said emphatically. “I never thought I’d love someone this much, Con, but I never expected you either. I love you.” He leaned in for a kiss. “I love you.”

“No takebacks,” Connor reminded him with a smile, going in for another kiss.

Will toppled them both to the bed.

“Never.”

Click here to read Chapter Sixteen.

Click here to read 500 Miles on ao3:

Here is the tag list (let me know if you wish to be added or removed):

@sorry-i-spaced, @thegirlwhowishedeveryonelived, @ivyalmighty, @thewannabewriter, @lexhalstead3, @multifandomgrl08, @sensitivemallysix, @thebejeweledwatercat, @emme-looou, @trulylavandedarling, @onechicagochoicesbutterfly

#A Herrmann/Halstead Production #one chicago #chicago fire #chicago pd #chicago med #jay halstead #will halstead #christopher herrmann #oc character #rebecca 'bex' herrmann #a herrmann/halstead production #alternate universe #not canon #not beta read #romance #light angst #fluff #building relationships #shenanigans #team as family #family feels #friendship #healthy relationships

[the-growing-rose]

A THREAD FOR THOSE WHO FEEL ALONE 🙏🏾💕

#mental health #mental health awareness #mental health tips #dealing with loneliness #feeling alone #depression #anxiety #relationships #being social #social anxiety #coping with loneliness #mental health is important #positive words #social media #Twitter #building relationships #platonic and romantic #affirmations #self love #training the mind

[canichangemyblogname]

Writers: *we created a story that comments on modern identity— including gender dynamics, race dynamics, the illusion of binaries, and how society ‘others’ people— based on our own experiences. For scene setting, we’re gonna set the story in an alternate universe, the past, or a different country that wouldn’t—technically— experience identity in the way we’re gonna write about it. And for several of the characters, we’re gonna use visual queues that are well-known & noted symbolic codes for queerness in film and TV.*

Queer audiences: “Oh… these bitches gay.”

Someone with a degree in Twitter: “Nuh-uh! Sometimes, the curtains are just blue! They never even explicitly say these characters are gay! What? Can straight people not [insert something with a significant history in the LGBTQ+ community]? That’s homophobic! That’s reinforcing a binary! Gay as a social construct doesn’t even exist in [insert scene setting]!”

Me:

The writers: “Since y’didn’t get it the first time around: The girls are gonna kiss in the sequel.”

#their conclusions boil down to an assumption that cis het is the default #then they get offended #when the story actually follows through #even after it spends the first season establishing characters #building relationships #and establishing chemistry

[keystocompanionship]

"Instead of seeking new partners as a solution, focus on nurturing and working on the relationship you have. Through the fire of uncertainty, you can build something truly special."

- KeysToCompanionship

#love quotes #black love #relationship #companionship #keystocompanionship #building relationships #life quote #quoteoftheday #relationship quotes

[latter-ace-saint]

A message to adults

If a child in your acquaintance has a friend of a different gender, please do not tease them with "is that your boyfriend/girlfriend?"

Chances are that there is nothing romantic there and that you are witnessing a platonic relationship. Suggesting otherwise can harm that relationship. In fact, it can harm the chances of them forming any different-gender friendships.

And even if it isn't platonic, making a big deal out of it might harm any nascent romantic feelings.

If nobody is getting hurt, then just leave kids' relationships alone. If your input is desired, they'll ask you.

And if your input isn't desired, then you'll just have to deal with that.

#building relationships #for reference #platonic relationships

[companionplanting]

it is okay to ask for someone to be a little more quiet, or be gentler with their words, or not bring up "normal" topics. it's completely okay to have "odd" or "weird" boundaries like not going to certain places or not allowing certain songs to play.

it's okay to ask to feel safer and happier with the people you trust.

-🌺

#blurry 🌺 #companion_planting #setting boundaries #respecting boundaries #boundaries #respect #patience #building relationships #building trust #building confidence #healing from trauma #trauma recovery #trauma #healing from abuse #trauma healing #self healing #healing #mental disorder #mental illness #mental health recovery

[flupicc]

Do you water your seeds?

Plant your seeds, water them, and watch them grow.

You don't need a whole field to grow one flower.

#spilled thoughts #food for thought #networking #building relationships #quality not quantity #community

[linkzblog]

7 Ways to Keep Your Relationship From Falling Apart

Keeping love and romance alive in a long-term relationship can be challenging, even for the most committed partners. Even the happiest couples can find themselves falling out of love or losing their spark after the excitement of new love wears off. But all relationships go through ups and downs. It’s how you deal with these challenges that determines whether your love will thrive or wither away. Couples who are able to grow together rather than apart are able to do so because they take time to invest in their relationship, communicating clearly, being sensitive to each other’s needs, and learning how to give and receive love in healthy ways. When you keep communication open, build trust, practice gratitude and acceptance, and find activities that help you both grow individually as well as together as a couple — all while keeping faith in one another — (click here to get my free recommendation about keeping your relationship from falling apart)

Learn to communicate openly and honestly.

Many couples get so involved in their daily routines that they stop communicating at the level they did when they were first dating. Instead of seeing each other as individuals, couples who aren’t communicating well can see each other as part of their problem – which can lead to feelings of resentment and distance. If you and your partner are out-of-date with each other, you may be less likely to notice red flags that things are not going well. And, if you do notice something is wrong, you’re less likely to know how to talk about it. If you and your partner are out-of-date with each other, you may be less likely to notice red flags that things are not going well. And, if you do notice something is wrong, you’re less likely to know how to talk about it. To keep your relationship healthy, make it a priority to stay in sync, both emotionally and physically. Take time to talk with each other about your days, what’s going well and what could be improved. Schedule date nights and time alone as a couple. And, above all, never stop showing your love and appreciation for your partner. (click here to get my free recommendation about keeping your relationship from falling apart)

Don’t be afraid to show your vulnerability.

Everyone has insecurities, and in a loving relationship, you and your partner are there to support each other. You don’t need to pretend to be perfect all the time, and you don’t have to hide your feelings just to avoid burdening your partner. Don’t keep your feelings bottled up – instead, talk about what’s bothering you. Couples who are able to openly discuss their challenges are more likely to find solutions that help both partners feel heard and supported. Avoiding problems or pretending that everything is fine when it isn’t will only lead to resentment and pressure. Too often, couples repress their emotions, keeping their fear, doubt, and sadness to themselves. But this can actually lead to worse problems. By avoiding your fears, for example, you’re also avoiding the chance to learn how to overcome them. So, when you’re confronted with challenges that make you feel uncomfortable, you may feel helpless.

Don’t blame or judge – show empathy.

Couples often get caught up in pointing fingers and judging each other. This can lead to resentment and anger, which, in turn, only makes the problem worse. Instead of blaming or judging your partner, show empathy. This means truly understanding where your partner is coming from. For example, let’s say that your partner forgets to call you when they said they would. Instead of judging them or feeling hurt, try to see things from their perspective. Maybe they had a really busy day and just forgot. Or maybe they were too nervous to call you – and now they’re kicking themselves for letting you down.

Be generous — give the benefit of the doubt.

Many couples get into the habit of assuming the worst about each other. Maybe you’ve assumed that your partner is intentionally trying to hurt you, or your partner has assumed that you don’t care about them as much as they care about you. Withholding your trust and showing your partner that you don’t trust them does more harm than good. Instead, try to give the benefit of the doubt. Give your partner the opportunity to explain themselves, and try to see things from their perspective. Don’t assume that the worst is true. Instead, give each other the benefit of the doubt. This will help you avoid unnecessary arguments.

(click here to get my free recommendation about keeping your relationship from falling apart)

Together, find activities that strengthen your bond.

As a couple, you have certain values that you care about and that you want to pass on to your children, friends, and community. Couples who stay together for the long haul often find activities that bring them together around these shared values. These activities can include volunteering, attending lectures together, or even playing sports together. Whatever activities you choose, make them something that you do together – and make sure that they bring you closer together as a couple.

Take care of yourself – and show your partner you care.

Couples who stay together long term have partners who are able to take care of themselves. They have partners who are able to seek help when they need it, and they have partners who ask for what they need. Is your partner stressed? Are they finding it hard to cope with a work project? Or are they finding it hard to be alone with their thoughts? Are they needing more time with their friends? Do they want a break from their weekly routine? (click here to get my free recommendation about keeping your relationship from falling apart) Taking care of yourself isn’t just about brushing your teeth and getting your flu shot. It also means being aware of your partner and what they need at any given time. A partner who is able to take care of themselves is an empowered partner – and one who is less likely to push their partner away.

Conclusion

This article is full of advice on how to keep your relationship strong. All couples go through challenges, and it is important that you are prepared for when things get tough. By staying in close communication, showing each other empathy, and taking care of yourselves and each other, you can be prepared to weather any storm together.

#get your ex back #relationship #i love him #public relations #personal relationships #healthy relationships #building relationships #education #health & fitness #steve harrington

[sanjay-mohindroo]

"Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress." - Mahatma Gandhi

Sanjay Mohindroo Sanjay Mohindroo. stayingalive.in Explore the power of honest disagreement and its role in driving progress and fostering growth. Learn how to engage in constructive dialogue, embrace diverse perspectives, and build stronger relationships through respectful disagreement. #HonestDisagreement #ConstructiveDialogue #ProgressAndGrowth Embracing Diverse Perspectives: The…

View On WordPress

#Building Relationships #Constructive Dialogue #Diverse Perspectives #Healthy Conflict #Honest Disagreement #Learning From Others #news #Progress Through Debate #Sanjay K Mohindroo #Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo #sanjay mohindroo

[multilateralismforpeaceday]

Focus on the way to conduct effective diplomatic negotiations and addressing global issues.

The Conference diplomacy refers to the use of international conferences or summits as a means of conducting diplomatic negotiations and addressing global issues. These conferences bring together representatives from multiple countries to discuss and negotiate on various issues, ranging from economic and environmental policies to peace and security matters. Conference diplomacy can take many forms, from large-scale international summits, such as the United General Assembly or the G20, to more specialized conferences on specific topics, such as climate change or disarmament. These conferences provide an opportunity for countries to come together to share their perspectives, exchange ideas, and negotiate solutions to complex global challenges.

The goal of conference diplomacy is to reach consensus and agreement on a range of issues through negotiation and dialogue. While conferences may not always result in concrete outcomes, they can serve as important forums for building relationships, advancing agendas, and developing common goals among participating countries.

Conference diplomacy has been used to address a wide range of global issues, including climate change, nuclear disarmament, international trade, and human rights. It has also been used as a means of conflict resolution, with conferences serving as a platform for peace talks and negotiations. Overall, conference diplomacy is an important tool for conducting international diplomacy and addressing global challenges. While it has its limitations and challenges, it can be an effective means of promoting dialogue, building relationships, and advancing shared goals among participating countries.

#participating countries #conference diplomacy #multilateralism #emerging challenges and opportunities #addressing global challenges #building relationships #advancing shared goals #promoting dialogue #conflict resolution #peace talks and negotiations #peace process #international peace #peacemaking #diplomatic negotiations #peace and security

[herrmannhalsteadproduction]

500 Miles (Chapter Sixteen)

Summary: This is Part Nineteen of my series A Herrmann/Halstead Production. It is an AU where Christopher Herrmann's mom had an affair with Pat Halstead resulting in a baby. The series follows this OC character (Rebecca "Bex" Herrmann) as she grows up and gets to know her brothers and the various Chicago teams. It is very much an AU, just to underscore that. It doesn't follow the same timeline and characters will follow different paths.

Click here for the Series Rundown where you can find the links to read all of the previous installments (which I highly recommend you do so that this one makes sense.)

Rating: Teen and Up

Relationships: Christopher Herrmann & Original Female Character, Jay Halstead & Original Female Character, Will Halstead & Original Female Character, Jay Halstead & Will Halstead, Greg 'Mouse' Gerwitz/Original Female Character, Will Halstead/Connor Rhodes, Assorted OC Couples

Warnings: THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE CHAPTER! IT'S HAPPENING! BRACE YOURSELVES FOR THE MOST FLUFF TO EVER FLOOF! (also minor character injury, but he's fine, seriously.)

A/N: To underscore my previous note, this is an alternate universe so things have unfolded differently. This will not follow the canon arcs exactly by any means. But I hope you'll still enjoy it!

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Bex

The housewarming party had gone off without a hitch, but Bex and Emery had been so tired, they’d basically passed out once everyone left.

Sunday morning was spent finishing clean up—not that there was too much to do since Devon, Sam, Isaac, Kira, and Malia had stuck around to help tidy before heading home the night before.

Then the two of them got ready for the mini-housewarming party starting at noon.

Noon-ish.

It was hard arriving anywhere on time when you were herding four kids while you did it. Still, Chris and Cindy showed up an impressive mere fifteen minutes late.

“Oh, wow, Emery,” Cindy exclaimed after they’d all piled inside and were starting their tour. “I love what you’ve done with the place. Cozy, but not closed in, you know?”

“Thank you.” Emery beamed at her. “I had a lot of help though and I could use a little more.” She steered the whole gang into the kitchen and gestured at her fridge. “No one has given me anything to put on my fridge. Can you believe that?”

On cue, Bex dug out the kid-friendly art supplies from where they’d stashed them yesterday and held them up. “Who’s gonna help us fix it?”

Even Lee Henry, who was more teenagery than not lately, volunteered to help. Bex got them all organized around the coffee table while Chris and Cindy stayed in the kitchen with Emery to finish the lunch preparations.

Bex knew they were wanting to check in with Em to see how she was doing with everything and she was happy to give them the space to do that. Emery having more parental figures in her life was definitely helping her progress. Donna and Trudy had kept in touch after their girls’ night—to the point that Emery had a standing lunch date with both of them. Each one was neatly marked down on the kitchen calendar. With a little smile-y face.

It had taken awhile, but Emery was finally embracing having a whole gang behind her.

“Alright,” Bex said, crouching down beside Annabelle and Max. “What are we working on here? Is that a dragon? Nice.”

By the time lunch was on the table, they had a full fridge’s worth of masterpieces ready to go. Emery ooh’d and ahh’d over each one, letting the kids pick out their own magnets to hang them with before they sat down.

“I want to get my own house, just like Emery’s,” Annabelle declared through a mouthful of grilled cheese.

“That sounds like a great idea,” Chris said. “When you’re all grown up.”

Annabelle nodded. “When I’m ten,” she said decisively.

Bex pressed her lips together, trying to hold back her laugh at the look on Chris’s face. Annabelle caught it too and reached over to pat his hand.

“Don’t worry, Daddy,” she said. “You can come visit me.”

“Thanks, sweetie,” Chris choked out as Cindy patted him from the other side.

“Can I come visit too?” Bex asked her.

“Oh, yes, Auntie Bex,” Annabelle said. “…if you bring Kol.”

“Of course,” Bex agreed. Who was she to argue with priorities like that?

***

Will

Will and Connor had been home for about fifteen minutes when Bex and Emery came bursting through the door, arms full of bags.

“Hey!” Bex grinned as she swooped around them to the kitchen. “We brought stuff for dinner!”

“Tired of the new place already, Em?” Will teased.

“For your information, I was kidnapped,” she shot back as she followed Bex, laughing at the outraged squawk that got.

Bex poked her head back in the living room. “Excuse me for thinking it would be nice to cap off the weekend by having dinner together.”

“I think it sounds great, Bex,” Connor called out to her. She blew him a kiss and returned to the kitchen.

Will turned to his boyfriend. “You are such a suck up,” he whispered.

“Might be, but you love me,” Connor murmured back, waggling his eyebrows at Will.

“This is gonna be a thing now, isn’t it?” Will sighed. Not that he was in any way, shape, or form annoyed by it. A smile spread across his face as he leaned in for a kiss—

“Get your butts in here,” Bex yelled. “This dinner won’t cook itself!”

Will groaned and Connor laughed, giving him a quick peck. “C’mon,” he said, grabbing Will’s hand and hauling him toward the kitchen. “Our ass-isstance is required.”

“Ooooh, we have to break up,” Will groaned again. “That was terrible. Ugh. The worst.”

Bex and Emery overheard the last bit and made Connor say it again which started up a flurry of truly horrific puns that lasted until dinner was ready.

Emery and Connor stuck around for a movie afterward and Will had to admit that it was a nice way to cap off the weekend. He knew Bex had been apprehensive about all of the changes their family had been going through, but—

It looked like they were navigating their new normal just fine.

He and Bex waited at the door while Connor and Emery got their things together. After giving Emery a hug, he gave Connor a kiss. “Love you,” he whispered in his ear and Connor whispered it back. His stomach did a little flip every time he heard it. Will hoped that never stopped.

“See you at the coffee cart in the morning?” he asked as they drew apart and Connor nodded, giving him one last kiss before he and Emery headed out. Will locked the door behind them and turned to see Bex staring at him with wide eyes.

“What?”

“Will,” she said in a tone that seemed to indicate he should understand exactly what she meant by just saying his name.

“What?” he repeated. “Why are you looking at me like—” Oh. Maybe she—did she hear them?

“Will.”

Yeah, she definitely did. And that—that was okay. That was more than okay because he and Connor loved each other and he wasn’t scared or ashamed or trying to hide anything because it was all good. So good.

“Be-ex,” he sang back at her, grinning.

Then she screamed and jumped on him. “I’m so happy for you!” she yelled, nearly strangling him with her arms around his neck. “Tell me everything! Right now!”

He staggered over to the couch and dumped her on it, taking a breath. “Okay, fine.” Bex cheered as Will plopped down beside her, cheeks already hurting from how big his smile had become. “I’ll start at the beginning…”

***

Connor

Connor stepped into the elevator and pressed the button, avoiding Emery’s pointed stare as she followed behind him. He could still see her incredibly wide grin out of the corner of his eye though. It was kind of hard to miss.

“So,” Emery said slowly, drawing the word out to its full potential. “You and Will have a good night last night? Anything fun or interesting happen?”

He turned, taking in the gleeful look on her face. “It was nice,” he said. “A totally fine and normal night.”

The glee instantly dissolved into a pout as she grabbed his arm. “Connor, come on,” she begged. “Please? Who said it first? How did it happen? Details! Are you honestly not dying to talk about it?”

Connor lasted about fifteen seconds of pretending he wasn’t dying to talk about it when the doors to the elevator opened. “I said it first,” he blurted out before escaping into the lobby.

Emery squealed, chasing after him. “AND? Then what?” She looped her arm through his as they headed for the parking lot.

“Okay, fine,” Connor said before waving a stern finger at her. “But this stays between us.”

She crossed her heart enthusiastically. “I will be a freakin’ vault.”

Yeah, there was no way this wasn’t getting back to Bex, but Connor had a feeling Will was getting the same treatment at that very moment. “So,” he began, bumping shoulders with her while they walked. “We were getting ready for bed and Will was talking about what a great night it was…”

***

Bex

Bex yawned as she headed into Molly’s, wiping at the sleep out of her eyes. She’d been up late texting with Emery and comparing notes on the big Will and Connor ‘I love you’ story. It was obviously time well spent—no regrets—she was just going to need some serious caffeine to get through the day. She had no regrets about volunteering to help out Chris either, but…

Inventory was always so mind-numbingly boring.

“It’s too hot to be stuck in here doing this.” Otis arrived shortly after her, grumbling as he came through the door. “We should have minions for this sort of thing.”

“I mean—” Bex shrugged “—I think technically I am one of the minions.”

“Who’s ready to count stuff?” Shay came bursting in with a tray of iced coffees and a gigantic grin. Bex was already making grabby hands for one of the cups. Shay handed them out and then hopped up on a stool. “No one’s going to have as much fun as we are today.”

Otis peered at her over the top of his cup. “Why does that sound like a threat?”

***

Jay

“Gonna be a good day,” Ruzek declared as he strapped on his vest. “I can feel it.” He reached out a fist to Atwater and they did some sort of intricate bump-shake combination.

“Be even better if it wasn’t so hot,” Burgess groaned, pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

Ruzek snapped his fingers and pointed at her, eyes going wide. “We should get ice cream when this is done.”

Jay ignored the rest of their discussion—a heated debate over where they’d go for ice cream—and focused on getting his own gear on, not wanting to get distracted from the job ahead.

They’d been honing in on a group that was using clubs to test out a deadly new party drug. Yesterday, a solid tip came in from one of Olinsky’s CIs and today they were hitting the suspected base of the operations. Hopefully to shut the whole thing down.

“Hey.”

Jay looked up to see Upton standing before him, ready to go.

“You good?” she asked, tucking her hands into the top of her own vest as she watched him finish up his checks.

“Just about,” he said and she grinned.

“Good,” she said. “Hurry up. Word is we’re getting ice cream after this.”

***

Shay

Shay had a plan: Play it casual, keep the conversation going, and then slide a Mouse question in there, real smooth-like.

However.

They got ten minutes into working through the supply room with Otis griping about how hot it was the whole time and Shay found herself blurting out, “Bex! How are things going with Mouse?”

So. Not as smooth as she’d hoped, but at least it was a change of subject.

After a second of shocked silence, a tiny smile flitted across Bex’s face and Shay did an internal fist pump. That had to mean good news.

“Um, they’re—things are going great,” Bex said. “We’re still taking it slow, but I think we’re finally getting on the same page about things, important things, and—”

Otis groaned, banging his forehead on the shelf. “Please,” he said. “No relationships talk. Seriously.” He spun around to lean against the shelves and sighed. “I can’t deal with a full day of hearing about how amazing things are with you and Julie—” he pointed at Shay “—or how the unending saga of the Mouse and Bex romance is going—” he pointed at Bex “because while I am incredibly happy for both of you, I am also so incredibly, painfully single and I can’t. I can’t do it! I don’t need another layer of sadness added to this day. Inventory is bad enough.”

Shay exchanged a glance with Bex and they both stepped toward him, arms outstretched. “Aw, Otis—”

“No!” He raised his hands to fend them off. “No hugging either! It’s too hot for that too!”

“First of all, I turned the air conditioner on so it’s going to be fine in here soon enough,” Bex said. “Second of all, I think maybe we do need some relationship talk time, but focused on this whole stressful…tangle you’ve got yourself in.”

Shay had to agree. Dude was pent up.

He tried to argue, but Otis was no match for the combined persuasive powers of Bex and Shay. Soon enough, they were sitting in a loose circle on the floor of the supply room, sipping at their drinks as Otis detailed his romantic woes.

It was a lot of woe.

“Online dating got me nowhere,” he was saying. “And meeting people in person is hard with our schedules. Plus, I don’t think I make the best first impression, you know?” He frowned down at his cup. “No one sticks around long enough to get to know me.”

“They’re the ones missing out,” Bex said. She reached out to pat his knee and he snorted. “What? They are!”

“No, it’s not that,” he said, laughing a bit as he shook his head. “I, uh, there was the tiniest of moments awhile back when I was thinking about asking you out. When it looked like maybe things weren’t going to work out with you and Mouse.”

Hunh. Interesting. It would have been super weird, but Shay could almost see it? Bex seemed like she was trying to wrap her brain around it as well.

Otis looked up and saw her face, then started tripping over his words trying to explain it better. “Only because we actually know each other, you know? And we get along, right? We have a lot of the same interests and sense of humour and we already hang out with the same people.” He scrunched up his nose. “But then I thought about it more and realized it would be totally weird. Like, beyond weird. It was more of a last resort kind of idea than anything else? I rejected it pretty quickly—”

“Okay!” Bex cut him off, kicking at his foot. “I don’t need an extensive list of reasons as to why asking me out would have been a horrible idea. I’m gonna choose not to be offended by that because you’re right. Our sibling energy is way too strong.” She blew out a breath. “You must have really been grasping at straws to even consider it.”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Otis exclaimed. He slumped back. “Ugh. Relationship talk ban back on. This is making it worse.”

“No, no, no!” Shay scooted closer, ignoring the grunginess of the floor. “Listen. You are a great guy, Otis. You’re handsome, objectively speaking, you’re smart—”

“You’re funny,” Bex added. “And fun which are two different and important things. Plus, you’re a cool firefighter—”

“And a part owner of Chicago’s best bar,” Shay said, elbowing him until he cracked a little smile. “You’ve got a lot going for you.”

“And it’s not getting me anywhere,” Otis said, bringing them full circle. “I wish I could be like Severide or—”

“Ah!” Bex held up a finger. “That’s your problem, right there. Why are you trying to be like someone else? We literally just listed all of the reasons you’re awesome—all of the things that make you you. The right person is going to come along at the right time and I don’t think you should be trying to change yourself in the meantime.”

“Although,” Shay began and the two of them turned to look at her. “We could take some time to workshop your game a little bit—”

Otis instantly bristled. “My game is great, what are you talking about—”

Shay threw her hands up. “You just said—”

“I know!” Otis scowled at her. He crossed his arms and hunched in on himself, glaring at the two of the them before deflating. “Okay. Fine. What do you suggest?”

“Like I said, workshopping.” Shay snapped a pair of finger guns at him. “You’ll practice flirting with us—” She ignored his groan. “—and we’ll see if there’s any little things we can do to improve your approach.”

“Fine,” Otis grumbled, getting to his feet.

Shay exchanged a grin with Bex as they got up as well. She knew today was going to be fun.

***

Mouse

Mouse was loading up the last of the gear in the van when Burgess came over. She and Olinsky were going to be riding in it with him which seemed to be the usual set up on OPs lately.  He didn’t mind. Olinsky mostly kept to himself and Burgess was nice enough.

Even if she asked a lot of questions.

He could tell one was brewing by the way she was hovering and handing him things to load into the van.

“Hey, so,” she finally said, clearing her throat. “You and Bex were pretty smiley at Emery’s housewarming party. Are things…going okay with her? Now?”

Everyone on the team had been giving him lots of space lately—Mouse suspected Jay was running interference—but someone was bound to crack sooner rather than later and he didn’t mind that it was Kim. She’d been offering him a lot of quiet support all along.

He wasn’t ready to talk about it in detail though. Not when he was still figuring out those details with Bex and as much as they were in a better place, they weren’t…solidified yet.

“Yeah,” Mouse said, locking in the last of the gear. “It’s, uh, things are good. Better.” He flashed her a small smile and hoped she’d be satisfied enough by that.

“That’s great, Mouse.” Kim grinned at him, bobbing her head in a little nod. “I’m glad to hear it.” She pulled the van keys out of her pocket and twirled them on her finger before heading for the driver’s seat.

Mouse chuckled to himself and closed the side door. Then he turned around only to be nearly nose to nose with Olinsky. Mouse hadn’t even heard him walk up which was as disconcerting as it was annoying. Guy needed a bell.

“You know,” Olinsky said in that soft, mild tone he had. “I try to stay out of everyone’s personal lives.” He sighed. “But everyone keeps talking about them so I still hear things.”

“Uh…” Mouse froze, not quite sure where he was going with this. Was he supposed to apologize? It wasn’t like Mouse was the one who kept bringing this stuff up at work. He had a hard enough time talking about it with Bex.

Or maybe Olinsky was trying to work his way around to offering some advice? It felt like everyone else Mouse knew had put their two cents in at this point so why not Olinsky?

From what Mouse knew of the man, the conversation could go either way.

“So, you’re saying…” Mouse prompted.

“I’m saying I wish I heard less.” Olinsky stuck a toothpick into his mouth and stared off into the distance. A haunted look passed over his face. “So much less.”

Mouse opened his mouth to apologize when Olinsky clapped a hand on his shoulder, nearly sending him into the van. “Be good to Mini-Halstead.” Then he wandered to the front of the van. “Burgess!” Olinsky called out. “Gimme those keys.”

This day was shaping up to be weird as hell. Mouse shook his head, accepting a fist-bump from Jay when he passed by. Voight called for everyone’s attention at that point and announced they were moving out.

Mouse scrambled into the van as Olinsky started it up.

At least the OP would distract people from asking him any more questions.

***

Bex

“All I’m saying is that there’s making meaningful eye contact during a conversation and then there’s not blinking at all,” Bex said as she and Otis hauled bags of trash out to the dumpster. “It’s an entirely different vibe.”

The workshopping had been an enlightening experience. Otis wasn’t bad at flirting, not really, but he was a bit intense with his efforts.

“I was trying to show I was listening,” Otis said morosely. He chucked his bags in, waiting for Bex to do the same before closing the lid.

“I think what we need to do is find ways to help you relax more,” Bex said. He’d gotten all tense even pretend flirting with her and Shay. “And I had an idea…”

“I’m almost afraid to ask.” Otis’s eyebrows winged up as they headed back inside.

“What do you think about me asking around my art school friends and seeing if anyone knows someone who would be a good fit?” A more personalized search from a new pool of candidates might be helpful.

Otis shrugged as he thought it over. “I’ve liked all of your friends that I’ve met,” he said. “I’d be open to it, I think? I wouldn’t want to dive into a blind date—Shay, is that my phone? What are you doing?” He ran into the kitchen where Shay was sitting on the counter, scrolling through his phone.

“Mine is acting up and we need some tunes,” she said, holding it out of his reach as he grabbed for it.

“How did you even get it unlocked?” Otis poked at her and managed to find a ticklish enough spot to snatch his phone back.

“Easy. I got the passcode on the first try.” She snorted and leaned over to whisper at Bex. “It’s the year of the first Star Wars movie.”

“Well, not anymore, it isn’t,” Otis grumbled as he typed away furiously.

“Let me—let me see it again,” Shay said, trying to reach over his shoulder. “I was just getting to the good stuff.”

Otis fended her off one-handed and finished resetting his code.

Now that it was out there though, Bex needed to know. “What was the good stuff?”

Shay’s eyes lit up. “Oh, there was—”

Leaping over to the counter, Otis covered her mouth with his hand, shushing her. “Stop. Come on. No, Shay!”

She’d already wiggled out of his grasp and managed to steal his phone again, hopping off the counter and joining Bex. “He has a playlist on here called Happy Time Songs.”

“Hunh.” Bex looked between the phone and Otis. “I don’t know if we should know what’s on that? That feels kind of…invasive? I mean—”

“Oh, my god!” Otis exclaimed, face going bright red. “It’s not that kind of playlist, Bex!”

“I wasn’t gonna judge!” Bex held her hands up, trying not to laugh as Otis thunked his head down on the counter.

He kept his head down as he held out a hand for his phone. “Give it.”

Shay pouted, but gave it back to him. Otis stood up enough to lean his elbows on the counter and then he unlocked his phone, setting it down for them to see the screen.

Sure enough, there was the Happy Time Songs playlist. Bex steeled herself as she took a peek.

“Hey, these are all fun songs!”

Otis rolled his eyes. “Yes, because it’s my songs for when I want a little pick-me-up. When I want to sing along in the car and cheer myself up or whatever. Not what you gutterbrains were thinking.”

Bex tuned out the sniping he and Shay were doing since there was no actual heat behind it and scrolled through Otis’s list. An idea began to form.

“We’re in not bad shape for the inventory, right?”

Shay and Otis stopped their bickering and turned to her. “Yeah,” Otis said slowly. Suspiciously. “Why?”

She pointed at one of the songs. “Want to do something fun for Molly’s socials?”

***

Will

Will flopped down next to Connor on the couch in the lounge. The day had been their usual amount of busy and this was the first chance they’d had to take a breather. Connor shuffled, letting Will sink into his side as he scrolled through notifications on his phone.

Just as he was getting comfortable, Will was jostled by the vibrations of Connor laughing at something. “What?” He nosed his way up Connor’s arm to try and see the screen.

“Bex, Shay, and Otis made a little video for Molly’s Instagram account,” Connor said. He tilted the phone toward Will and turned up the sound.

Carly Rae Jepsen came blasting out of the speaker, singing about how much she really, really, really, really, really, really liked him. Bex, Shay, and Otis were doing a—he wasn’t sure if he could call it choreographed, but it was something definitely dance-like. They were bopping around Molly’s and clearly having way too much fun.

Will snorted. “Inventory’s going well.”

“Managing inventory and promotion,” Connor whistled. “Bex is a girl of many talents.”

“Very true.” Will nudged him. “Play it again.”

Shay’s face when she almost fell off the bar was worth seeing a second time.

***

Hailey

Stakeouts were not Hailey’s favourite part of the job. They were necessary, obviously, but she’d always rather be out in the thick of things. Taking action. There was no action yet though, so she just had to be patient.

They’d managed to get eyes inside the building thanks to Mouse and confirmed this was the place the gang was operating out of. But the ringleader, Arnaldo Jacobs, wasn’t there yet. The CI said he would be. Voight and Olinsky had faith in their intel so they were stuck waiting.

Her phone beeped and Hailey pulled it out to check the notification. And laughed.

“What?” Jay glanced over at her before returning his eyes to the building.

“Your sister shared some kind of new promo video for Molly’s.” Hailey showed him the preview image and Jay barked out a laugh.

“Okay, we’re definitely watching that later,” he said. Then he did a double take at the screen and frowned. “You and Bex are Instagram friends?”

“Yeah,” Hailey said, putting her phone away. “Why? You got a problem with that?”

“No,” Jay said. “As long as Bex didn’t strong arm you into friending her.” He side-eyed Hailey. “Did you even have an Instagram account before or did she sign you up?”

Hailey laughed, shaking her head. “She did neither of those things,” Hailey said. “She sent me a friend request though and that was pretty impressive because my account isn’t even under my name.” She’d tried asking her how she found it and Bex’s only answer was that she’d learned enough from hanging out with Jay and the Intelligence crew over the years that she was basically a detective.

Hailey was kind of buying it.

“She posts fun stuff,” Hailey continued. “It’s entertaining.” Bex had a level of playful energy that Hailey hadn’t had in her life for…a long time now. Their friendship didn’t make a lot of sense on paper, but Hailey was enjoying it. She hadn’t realized how much brightness she’d been missing in her life until she got pulled into surprise parties and after-training pizza and game nights.

And getting to know Bex was giving her an unexpected amount of insight into her new partner. Jay Halstead kept surprising her with each new layer she discovered—including ‘gigantic marshmallow of a big brother.’

Voight’s voice popped up over the radio. “Jacobs entering south side door. Take up positions.”

Hailey nodded at Jay and they exited the truck in one fluid motion.

***

Bex

“Bex!” Otis shoved his phone in her face. “Seriously?”

She pulled back a bit so she could actually see what was on the screen. Oh. Right. She’d shared their Molly’s video on her own profile and tagged Otis in it. With a little extra message.

“P.S. Ladies, this handsome man is single, believe it or not,” Otis read the caption out loud. “When he’s not fighting fires, you can find him over at Molly’s. Come say hi!” He lowered the phone and gave her a baleful look.

…maybe she should have asked before she did that.

“I thought it would be a fun little boost! If someone shows up, it’ll be a chance to keep workshopping! Flirt in a comfortable environment and all that.” She started hunting around for her own phone. “Do you want me to untag you?”

Otis sighed. “No,” he finally said. “But if anyone murders me, it’s on you!”

“I’ll vet them all before they get to you,” Bex promised.

“Vet them ‘all’, she says.” Otis rolled his eyes. “Like there’s going to be a crowd.”

Considering the fact that Beau had already shared it to his account, there might be. But Bex wasn’t going to share that little tidbit with Otis just yet.

“Inventory is officially done!” Shay declared as she emerged from the supply room. “Anything else need doing?”

“We might as well take care of the monthly health and safety checklist while we’re here,” Otis said, grabbing a folder from behind the bar. “I’ll do the fire extinguishers if you guys can check the emergency lights.”

“On it.” Bex saluted him.

Otis walked off to start in the kitchen only to return immediately. "So, I can't check the fire extinguisher right now,” he said. “Because there is a...squirrel. In the kitchen. Squirrel in the kitchen. Yup."

“Wait, what?” Shay rushed over to peek through the door with Bex hot on her heels. Sure enough there was a squirrel. Just hanging out on the counter.

“Uh-oh,” Shay whispered. “Make that two squirrels.”

“How did that even happen?” Otis squeezed in to peer over their shoulders. “Where did they get in?”

Bex looked around as much as she could from her position and her heart sank when she saw it. The back door was open a crack. “Look.” She pointed it out to the others. “We must not have closed it properly when we came in from taking out the trash.”

“Because someone was messing around with my phone,” Otis hissed.

“Why are we wasting time with blame when what we need is a solution,” Shay shot back.

The three of them retreated to the bar to regroup. Obviously, they couldn’t call anyone to help with this. They’d never hear the end of it.

“We need to get them out on our own,” Bex said and the other two nodded seriously.

Otis tapped the Health and Safety folder. “Only if we take the proper precautions.”

Five minutes later, decked out in aprons and hand towels from the supply room and armed with serving trays, they stood in front of the door to the kitchen.

“Ready?” Bex asked them. Otis rolled his neck and Shay blew out a breath, doing a little boxer shuffle before nodding. “Okay,” Bex said, raising her trays. “Prepare to shoo.”

***

Jay

The raid had gone off without a hitch. They got the supply. They got the crew.

They got Jacobs.

But they might have the opportunity to get even more.

Mouse had managed to get into the guy’s phone—turning his nose up at the poor security the whole time—and it was a freaking goldmine.

They’d suspected that Jacobs was working under the larger umbrella of the Righetti family and the texts on his phone confirmed it. In fact, he had a meet scheduled with Frank Righetti an hour from now. If they played their cards right, they could cast a much wider net with this case than they originally thought.

Voight was already on his phone chasing down a warrant while the rest of them started strategizing entry points for the new location.

It was a good day to aim high.

***

Otis

The squirrels were out.

The kitchen was a mess.

But the three of them were still alive and that was what mattered.

“I think one of them growled at me,” Shay said, voice dazed as she sat on the floor, slumped against the fridge. “Can squirrels growl?”

“I don’t think they were squirrels,” Bex said from her spot under the table. “I think they were demons.”

It had been a battle and a half. Otis had made some noises that he’d really rather forget. He grabbed the counter and pulled himself up off of the floor. “The most important thing,” he said, making eye contact with the other two. “Is that we never speak of this incident ever again.”

“Agreed,” Shay muttered and Bex lifted her arm for a truly pathetic thumb’s up.

He did a quick sweep of the kitchen and winced. It was kind of a disaster. “Okay.” Otis clapped his hands together. “I vote for some medicinal pizza before we tackle cleaning this up.”

“Oooh, yes, please.” Shay made grabby hands at him and he stumbled over to help her up.

“You know, Otis,” Bex said as she crawled out from under the table. “You keep making genius suggestions like that and I might skip straight to marrying you.”

“Always good to know the way to your heart, Bex,” he said, lending her a hand as well.

She leaned against him for a minute before patting his chest. “We need cheesy bread too.”

***

Mouse

The warrant came through just in time and they managed to snap up not only Righetti, but five of his inner circle as well. The six of them were currently being transported back to 21.

Mouse had the van repacked and they were returning to the precinct as well. Burgess and Olinsky were up front again while Mouse tinkered away in the back. Voight was in his car up ahead with Jay, Hailey, Ruzek, and Atwater bringing up the rear.

A solid day’s work all in all.

Burgess and Olinsky were talking through next steps while they were stopped at an intersection. Mouse was only halfway listening as he fiddled with one of their cameras. The van lurched forward—with Olinsky muttering about how they needed to get the fuel pump looked at—and then Kim gasped.

And then—

A screaming clash of metal on metal.

***

Bex

Bex was sitting at the bar, eating her pizza, when a shiver ran down her spine.

Weird.

Her stomach did a slow flip and her hand itched toward her phone. She gave in, picking it up to check for messages, but there were none. Which made sense. Everyone was at work or wrangling kids. If there was a problem, they’d let her know.

Right?

Right.

She shivered again.

Probably just needed to turn down the air conditioner.

***

Jay

“Jay!” Hailey interrupted their conversation to point through the window at something on their left. He followed her finger to see an ice cream truck coming down the road, driving erratically.

He laid on the horn, but it was too late.

Swerving the truck to the side, he hit the brakes which kept them out of the line of collision, but did nothing for the van. He watched in horror as the ice cream truck slammed into the side of the van, making it spin and rock hard on its wheels.

The point of impact had been near the back. Right where Mouse was usually stationed.

Jay scrambled out of his truck, hitting the ground running. He darted around Ruzek’s jeep which had skidded to a stop beside them. He could hear the other three coming up behind him, but they could deal with triage. He was focused on one thing.

“Mouse!”

***

Mouse

Mouse groaned. Through the ringing in his ears, he could hear Kim and Al calling out his name, but all he could manage was another groan.

What the—

Oh. Something hit the van.

His brain started to clear a bit as he began to take stock. He’d been thrown out of his seat by the force of the crash, but nothing felt broken. Bruised as hell, but not broken.

“I’m okay,” he called back to the others when they yelled his name again. “You?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Kim said. “We’re—”

“Mouse!” a familiar voice kept shouting his name, drowning out whatever she was about to say and then the side door was wrenched open. Luckily, the hit had been on the other side and that door could still open.

Jay stood there, white-face and slumping in relief at the sight of Mouse blinking up at him from the floor of the van.

“Hey, Jay.” Mouse waved at him. “Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

“Tell that to your bleeding head wound,” he said, leaning in to peer closely at him.

Jay made him stay put, checking him over for other injuries—apparently, he’d cut his arm as well—and forcibly stopping him from getting up until the ambos got there.

He kept relaying updates to Mouse as he got them though which was considerate enough. Turned out the driver of the ice cream truck had suffered a heart attack and passed out behind the wheel. Kevin and Hailey were helping him while Adam and Jay checked on Mouse, Kim, and Al.

Voight had seen the crash happen in his rear view and turned back around. He was busy directing officers to control the scene and shouting into his radio demanding to know when the ambos were arriving.

Multiple ambulances seemed a bit overkill to Mouse. Obviously, the truck driver needed one, but Kim and Al said they were fine. Mouse was a bit bloody, but he’d had worse. Slap a bandage on him and he’d be fine.

Jay and Voight disagreed with him so Mouse was keeping his mouth shut until the paramedics got there. They’d agree with him.

***

Two minutes later.

***

Mouse

The paramedics did not agree with him. Kim and Al had been given the all clear, but Mouse had to go to Med for stitches. Jay was laughing at him for pouting when Adam sidled up to them.

“Hey,” he whispered. “What do you think the odds are of getting free ice cream out of this?”

***

Bex

After scarfing down their pizza, the three of them got their second wind and finished cleaning up the kitchen before heading home. Bex had a shower and a little nap since she hadn’t bothered swapping out for her evening shift at Molly’s.

Shay and Otis were planning to swing by as well. The bar was basically the centre of everyone’s social life. Bex wondered for about half a second if they should be branching out more before she remembered that they were forcing her into an outdoor game night later that week.

That was a big enough branch for now.

She checked her phone as she was getting changed, but there were no answers from Jay or Mouse to her texts. They must still be in the middle of things.

Bex sent a follow up message saying they should stop by Molly’s when they were done and left it at that.

…but if she didn’t hear from them by eight, she reserved the right to hunt them down.

***

Jay

They’d been at the hospital for a couple of hours now because the ED was so swamped, Mouse kept getting bumped. He’d tried to tell Jay a few times that he could go, but Jay would just tell him to shup up and then go get them some more snacks.

Including ice cream because Jay was always a little shit at heart.

Jay might have also pulled up the Molly’s video that Bex had made with Otis and Shay to entertain them while they waited. It definitely hadn’t gotten old yet. They were also getting regular updates from the team on how processing the gang was going.

Finally, they were called back and Will met them in one of the rooms, apologizing for the hold up. He checked Mouse over quickly. The good news was that Mouse didn’t have a concussion and he was mostly only bruised, but he did need stitches for the cut on his head.

Jay stuck around while Will got to work. Today could have gone in a very different direction and he wasn’t ready to let Mouse out of his sight just yet.

He’d also had a lot of time to think while they were stuck in the waiting room. As much as he’d been trying to stay out of Mouse and Bex’s business lately, there’d been something brewing in him for the last couple of hours and Jay had to get it off his chest.

To at least know that he’d said it. Even if Mouse did nothing with it.

Maybe it was years of listening to Bex rubbing off on him, but this crash felt like a sign and Jay was going to take advantage of the fact that Mouse couldn’t run away to try and make him see it.

He leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Pretty sure the universe was trying to give you a kick in the ass today.”

“Hm?” Mouse quirked an eyebrow at him and Will tsked.

“Don’t move.”

Jay scooched his chair closer so Mouse didn’t have to turn to see him. “I’m saying things could have gone so much worse. You could’ve died without ever giving it a real chance with Bex.”

Will shot him a glare when Mouse made a wounded noise, but Jay kept going. He and his gut were back on track and he knew he had to say this.

“I know you’re worried about messing things up—”

“With good reason,” Mouse muttered.

“But think about it this way,” Jay countered. “You already have. Multiple times!”

“Jay!” Will’s head whipped around to give him an incredulous stare. “What the hell, man?”

“I’m going somewhere with this, I promise.” Jay waved him off and focused on Mouse. “You’ve already had things go sideways with Bex more than once now,” he said. “And you both worked through it to come out the other side better every time.” Jay was pretty sure their relationship was going to be Cindy and Chris levels of bulletproof at this rate.

“That’s not actually a bad point,” Will said, nodding as he focused on his stitching.

“If it was anyone else, maybe they would have walked away. A while ago. But this is Bex,” Jay said. “She’s special. She sees through the fuck ups and cares enough to take the time to work it out. It’s her Herrmann-ness. Always comes through.”

Mouse and Will both chuckled quietly at that.

“I’m not trying to brush off your worries,” Jay said. “But you guys have proven that you can survive the shit and today proved that the shit can come from any corner.” He scrubbed a hand down his face, shaking his head. “You almost got pancaked by a friggin’ ice cream truck. An ice cream truck, dude. You could have died and left nothing but a pile of broken bones and regrets. Think about that for a second.”

He tried to leave it at that, but he had one last point to drive home.

“You know she’s already there, man,” he said quietly. “And I know how hard this all is for you, but I think you’re there too. You just gotta go for it. Take the sign and go for it.”

***

Mouse

Mouse sat there, feeling a bit stunned by everything Jay had just laid out for him. Will and Jay were silent as Will finished treating Mouse; both of them clearly giving him space to think.

So he did.

All of the advice he’d received over the past few months swirled around in his brain—a lot of it echoing Jay’s words.

And Chuck’s.

A leap of faith.

He thought about Bex.

Laughing with her. Talking to her. Loving her. He had a chance to do that for as long as he could. Forever if she let him.

Everything that he wanted. Desperately. And he could have lost it all today.

Mouse’s heart tripped at the thought; somehow more scared by that than everything else he’d been wrestling with. He couldn’t let her go.

Jay was right. Mouse was—he was there.

He couldn’t believe what he’d almost let slip through his fingers.

“I could have died,” Mouse said slowly. “Without ever going on a date with Bex.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Jay exclaimed, sitting up in his seat.

Mouse stared at him. At Will who was putting stuff away on a tray, shooting little smiles back at him. He shook his head, feeling like his whole world had been turned on its side.

“I could have died without ever kissing Bex,” Mouse said.

“Okay,” Jay grimaced. “I don’t think we need a detailed list or anything like that.”

“Am I good to go?” Mouse asked Will. “I need to get out of here.”

“I need to get your discharge paperwork—”

“Wait.” Jay stood up. “What are you—are you saying—”

“I’m going for it,” Mouse said. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the flood of negatively the usually came when he stepped foot in this direction, but none of that came. All he felt was certainty. He felt good and right. He grinned at Jay. “Yeah. I’m going for it.”

***

Sharon

Sharon was doing a round of the ED when cheers erupted from behind the curtain of room three. She turned to Maggie. “What in the world is happening in there?”

Maggie raised an eyebrow at her. “You really want to know?”

“Is it going to result in me having a headache or extra paperwork?” Sharon gave her the eyebrow right back. Maggie shook her head which was a considerable relief and Sharon made a little ‘go on’ gesture at her.

“Okay,” Maggie grinned, leaning over the counter and lowering her voice. “You know Dr. Halstead’s sister, Bex…”

***

Bex

Slowly, but surely the whole gang was trickling into Molly’s. That and a few new faces that were giggling and checking out Otis from a distance.

Ha. Success.

She scoped them out as she took their orders; asking a casual question here and there. They didn’t scream murdery to her so she gave Otis a discreet thumb’s up when she walked by.

On her next round, she brought him back with her, closely tailed by Joe, and made some introductions. She grinned at Chris when she returned to the bar, ignoring his eyeroll.

“I’m adding ‘excellent wingwoman’ to my resume,” she declared.

“You made that happen,” he said, nodding at the happily chatting group. “So I’d say you earned it.” He elbowed her. “You also earned a break. What are you still doing here? You did inventory all day, you don’t need to stay all night on top of that.”

“Jay and Will and everybody are supposed to come by later,” she said. “I want to stick around for that.”

“Ah,” Chris said knowingly. “I wouldn’t want you to miss ‘and everybody’.” He cackled, dodging out of range of her swat.

The front door opened at that moment and Adam, Kevin, Kim, Al, Hank, Sam, and Julie came through. Sam and Julie made a beeline for where Shay, Isaac, and Devon were seated while the rest of them came up to the bar.

Adam took a look around before facing Bex. “Jay and Mouse not done at the hospital yet?”

Bex froze. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Oh.” Adam’s eyes went wide. “Oops.”

She crooked a finger at him and he tentatively leaned in until he was close enough for her to grab him by the front of his shirt. “Explain. Now.”

***

Jay

They were still cheering when Connor stepped into the room. “What’s going on in here?”

“Mouse is gonna kiss Bex,” Will said cheerily.

“Don’t say it like that,” Jay complained as Connor gave his own cheer.

Jay had Mouse wrapped up in a hug, happy about it all, but the enormity of the moment wasn’t lost on him either. “This is going to be weird as fuck, isn’t it?” He patted Mouse on the back before letting him go.

“Yeah,” Mouse said, with a sigh that was anything but regretful. “Probably.”

“I’ll survive.” Jay said. Meaning it. “I’m happy for you, man.”

Mouse returned Jay’s grin with a truly dopey smile of his own

All of a sudden, their phones chimed with a bunch of text message notifications. So did Will’s.

And Connor’s.

Hunh.

Jay pulled his out to check and—uh oh. “Someone told Bex what happened,” he said, scrolling through the messages. “We should probably get there sooner rather than later.”

“Connor and I are done,” Will said, snapping off his gloves. “We’ll come with you.” He had a sparkle in his eye that Jay knew meant he wasn’t about to miss out on whatever was going to happen next. “I’ll go get you discharged.” Connor followed him out, saying he’d grab both their things so they could leave quicker.

Jay shot off a message to Bex, letting her know that everything was fine and they would be there soon. He peeked over at Mouse who was slipping his phone back into his pocket. “Not gonna reply?”

“You already told her we’re coming, right?” Mouse shrugged, biting at his lip with a little smile. “I just want to see her and talk to her in person.”

Will was back within seconds and soon enough they were all free to go. Will and Connor must have taken some kind of crazy short cut after they left or broken every speed limit there was because they were waiting outside of Molly’s when Jay and Mouse pulled up.

“Ready to go in?” Will asked, bouncing a bit in his excitement.

Mouse still looked determined, but he was knitting his fingers together nervously. “Yeah, uh, I just—I need a minute, okay?” He shot Jay a look. “I’m not going anywhere. Promise.”

“No worries,” Jay said, clapping a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I’ll try and hold her off for that long.” He followed Will and Connor up the steps and into the bar.

Bex must’ve had her Jaydar dialled up to eleven because as soon as he walked through the door, her head whipped up and she was marching over.

“Is he okay?” she demanded, peering around him, trying to spot Mouse. “What happened? Where is he?”

Jay held up a hand. “He’s fine,” he said. “He needed some stitches for a cut on his head and he’s a little bruised up, but Will gave him the all clear—”

Bex grabbed his arm. “Where. Is. He?”

He sighed, sending out a silent apology to Mouse for the incredibly short minute.

“He’s outside.”

***

Mouse

He jumped when the front door of Molly’s slammed open and Bex came flying out. She looked around wildly before spotting him off to the side and rushing over.

“Mouse! Are you okay? Where are you hurt?” Her hands carefully fluttered over him, needing to check every inch. Needing to touch. Mouse let her, shaking his head at the rapid fire questions.

“I’m okay,” he said. “I got all checked out and all I needed was some stitches, but—”

“Are you sure though?” She frowned at his bandage. “Did Dr. Abrams see you? What about a concussion? Or internal bleeding? Or—”

“Bex, I swear.” He grabbed her hands to hold them still. “I was thoroughly examined, I promise. All I need right now is to talk to you—”

“We should go inside!” She exclaimed, trying to tug him toward the side door. “You need to be sitting down. You should rest! Have you eaten? I’ll get you some food—”

“Babe, please!” He pulled her back. Easily, considering she’d gone stock still.

Her eyes were wide as a slow smile spread across her face. “Babe?”

He could feel the flush travelling up his neck, but he held fast to her hands and returned her smile. Every bit of nervousness that had tried to find a way back in faded away. “Bex,” he said. “Please? I’m, uh, I’m trying to leap here.”

***

Bex

Her breath hitched as his words sunk in and she stepped closer, squeezing his hands in hers. “Wait. Really? Are you sure—”

Mouse let go of her hands and put his arms around her waist, pulling her in close. “Yes, I’m sure,” he said as she looped her arms around his neck. “I’m—Bex, I’m all in.”

“Well, that’s—that’s handy because I am too.” She laughed and he smiled down at her, oh, so softly before they both leaned in for a kiss.

The kiss.

One worth waiting months—years—for.

Mouse tightened his arms around her and a spike of heat ran down her spine. He kissed her like his life depended on it, like it was the last chance he’d ever get to do this, but—

It might be a last first kiss, but it was definitely the first of many, many kisses to come. Bex wanted to kiss Mouse for the rest of her life. She never wanted to stop.

Except they did break apart just then.

It was kind of hard to keep kissing when you couldn’t stop smiling.

Mouse touched his forehead to hers, eyes closed as he huffed out a laugh. “Don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that.”

Bex didn’t think she would either. “C’mere,” she said, tugging on his collar as she walked them backwards to get them off the sidewalk and out of plain sight.

Mouse slapped a hand against the wall of the bar to cushion her head when she met it, his other still at the small of her back, keeping her close. She put her arms back around his neck, pulling him down until their lips met again.

They kissed until Bex was dizzy with it. Mouse groaned when they finally stopped for air. “I had a whole speech I was going to give you.”

“You had a speech?” Bex pressed a kiss against his jaw. “I love speeches. Tell me your speech.” She began kissing her way down his neck and he melted into her.

“It was, uh, I was going to start with, oh, jesus, Bex,” he moaned out when she nibbled on him a bit.

“This is a great speech,” Bex murmured into his skin. “Five stars.”

He kissed her again, deep enough to steal her breath away. Then he hugged her tight, whispering into her ear. “I’m sorry I took so long.”

Bex nudged him back until he met her eyes. “I think it took exactly the right amount of time if this is where we ended up.”

Mouse gave her that crooked little smile before leaning in and kissing her senseless all over again.

***

Otis

As soon as Bex had gone outside, nearly everyone had raced for the windows, trying to get a peek at what was happening. Or tried to before Boden barked at them all to ‘sit their butts down.’

After a painfully long wait, neither Bex nor Mouse had come back inside.

“What do you think is happening?” Shay leaned across the table to whisper at him.

“Let’s give them some privacy, like the chief said,” Casey piped up and everyone boo’d quietly.

“Someone should probably check,” Gabi said. “Just to make sure they’re okay. Don’t you think?”

And then, for some unfathomable reason, everyone’s eyes turned to Otis. “Me?” He pointed at himself, just to make sure, and they all nodded. “Why am I the one going?”

“I mean,” Gabi shrugged. “We could rock, paper, scissors for it, but I think we all know how that’s going to end anyway.”

“I do not have a tell,” he grumbled at her. He tried to ignore the pleading stares coming from every corner of the room—all of 51, the weirdly large crowd from Med that had shown up, the Intelligence crew—even Chief Boden was failing at not giving him a bit of hopeful side eye.

“Fine!” Otis threw his hands up. “I will check, but if I get my head bitten off—”

“Just go!” Stella pushed him toward the side door. “I believe in you.”

He shook out his shoulders as he stood before the door and took a deep breath. Then he slowly pushed it open and poked his head outside and—oh, god, that was something he could never unsee.

***

Bex

The sound of the side door creaking open had them breaking apart and Bex looked over to see Otis leaning out of it with his eyes squinched shut.

“Did you need something, Otis?” she called out, finding herself sneaking a hand up Mouse’s shirt to stroke his back because she could touch now.

“Uh, just seeing if you were coming back inside to work anytime soon?” he asked, eyes still closed.

She laughed when Mouse silently shook his head and started peppering her face with kisses. “No,” she managed to get out. “I quit.”

“Alrighty then.” Otis ducked back inside.

***

Otis

“They’re fine,” Otis said shortly, working hard at not making any eye contact with any of the Herrmanns or Halsteads in the room. Or anyone really.

“Okay, but—”

“Nope,” Otis pointed a finger at Shay, cutting her off. “I’ve already wiped it all from my mind so that’s all you get. They’re fine.”

Chris raised an eyebrow at him when he came over and stepped behind the bar.

“Yeah, she’s not coming back in anytime soon,” he said. “I might as well help out.”

“Atta girl,” Chris said, shooting a grin at the side door and chuckling to himself.

“It’s about time,” Boden agreed from his spot at the bar.

Otis couldn’t argue with that.

Bex and Mouse were due for some happiness.

And they’d definitely looked happy.

Ugh.

His poor eyeballs.

***

Bex

As much as Bex would like to make out with Mouse forever, doing so against the side of Molly’s wasn’t exactly the best plan. And if they’d sent Otis out to check on them, it was only a matter of time before someone less easily deterred poked their head out.

“Okay,” Bex said, when they’d finally broken apart again. She ran her hands over Mouse’s shoulders and patted at his chest. “This is your chance to back out—” She pressed a finger to his lips when he started to protest. “—of going in there because there’s a zero percent chance that any of them will be able to be normal about this once we step a foot through the door.”

Mouse kissed her finger and flashed a grin at her. “I’m willing to risk it.” He grabbed her hand and led her inside.

Bex was right.

They were being super weird.

Stilted conversations were happening all over the room.

“Sports,” Shay was saying to Kelly who was heroically trying to keep a straight face. “What’s happening with those lately?”

“It’s hot,” Adam blurted out to Al and Kim. “So hot this week. Rain. Rain is a thing. That would be good.”

No one was looking their way with the exception of Capp who was staring directly at them with a big grin. “Did you kiss?”

Tony reached up to smack him upside the head.

Bex buried her face into Mouse’s shoulder and felt him shaking with silent laughter. She held up a finger before looking back out at the room. “You get one minute to be weirdos about this and that’s it.”

There was a moment of silence before the whole place erupted.

Everyone was on their feet, cheering and talking at once.

She turned to give Mouse an apologetic shrug, but he was taking all of the backslaps and teasing with a good-natured grin. And a tight grip on her hand the whole time.

This was really happening.

And it was already amazing.

Bex squeezed his hand. He squeezed hers back and then she let herself get swept up in the joy of her goofy, chaotic family.

***

Chris, Jay, Will, and Connor

They each found Bex during the enthusiastic celebrating and give her a gigantic hug. Staying silent, because they could barely hear each other anyway through the noise, but saying everything they needed to with one embrace.

Happiness.

Overwhelming happiness and love and support.

Always.

***

Mouse

After that first minute, things did calm down a bit. He joined the 21 gang and Jay gave him another bone-crushing hug. “No details ever,” Jay made him promise and Mouse solemnly agreed.

“I’ll take details,” Shay said as she bounced over with a cheeky grin. Julie managed to redirect her and the rest of the night was almost like a normal night at Molly’s.

Almost.

Now, he kept looking over at the bar and he knew what Bex tasted like.

He couldn’t wait to kiss her again.

And again.

A few hours later, when everyone was starting to head out, Severide and Casey came over to him and got about two words into a shovel talk before Bex appeared out of nowhere.

“No,” she said, giving them both a fierce look.

“Oh, come on,” Severide protested. “We just—”

“No,” Bex repeated, drawing a finger across her neck. “Don’t even.”

Casey laughed, pulling Bex into a hug and kissing her forehead. “I’ll keep an eye on him,” he said before herding Severide and the rest of the 51 crew out the door.

Mouse stuck around to help close the bar and walked Bex to her car. He’d called an Uber for himself since Jay had driven them here.

“You know,” Bex said slowly, fingers still tangled in his hair from when he’d pressed her against the Tin Can to say goodnight. “I could drive you home.” She kissed him slowly. “Maybe come upstairs.” Another kiss. “Stay for awhile.”

He lost himself in another kiss, almost willing to give into the idea before he pulled away and buried his face in her neck with a groan.

“Bad idea?” Bex asked quietly.

“No,” Mouse muttered. “Very good idea.” He popped his head back up and sighed. “But I really want to take you on a proper date first.”

“One could argue that we’ve been on quite a few dates,” she said.

“No.” Mouse reached up to cup her face, kissing her one more time. “I want to take you on a real one. Where we’re both on the same page and we both know what it means.”

Bex blushed. “Okay,” she said, leaning into his hand. “When? Tomorrow?”

“Yeah—wait,” Mouse’s face fell. “I promised Jay I’d watch the game with him and—”

“We don’t want to start this with you breaking plans with him,” Bex said, shaking her head and Mouse’s heart warmed at how she got that so completely.

“It wouldn’t feel right,” he agreed.

“Wednesday’s out because of Outdoor Game Night,” she sighed. “I promised Kevin and I want to make sure Sylvie has fun.”

“Thursday?” Mouse asked hopefully.

“I have to work at Molly’s,” Bex said with a rueful laugh. “I promised Chris because he’s got some sort of last hurrah of the summer thing planned with the kids.”

“Friday then.” Mouse crossed his fingers and Bex nodded.

“Friday works for me,” she whispered. “Wow. We’re really doing this.”

“All in,” Mouse said, kissing her once again.

Finally.

Click here to read the next installment - Game Night 3: It’s Bex Ball, Bébés.

Click here to read 500 Miles on ao3:

Here is the tag list (let me know if you wish to be added or removed):

@sorry-i-spaced, @thegirlwhowishedeveryonelived, @ivyalmighty, @thewannabewriter, @lexhalstead3, @multifandomgrl08, @sensitivemallysix, @thebejeweledwatercat, @emme-looou, @trulylavandedarling, @onechicagochoicesbutterfly

#A Herrmann/Halstead Production #one chicago #chicago fire #chicago pd #chicago med #jay halstead #will halstead #christopher herrmann #oc character #rebecca 'bex' herrmann #a herrmann/halstead production #alternate universe #not canon #not beta read #romance #light angst #fluff #building relationships #shenanigans #team as family #family feels #friendship #healthy relationships #minor character injury

[sarahboyerdigiexpert]

Elevate Your Sales Game: The Power of Social Selling" is a concise guide to leveraging social media for genuine connections and sales growth. It emphasizes building trust and relationships over transactions, utilizing platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to meet modern consumers where they are.

➦ https://cutt.ly/8wl2QmNg

#Social Selling #Sales Transformation #Digital Sales Strategy #Building Relationships #Sales Innovation

[lifewellness]

Building Meaningful Relationships

⭐ Unlock the Power of Connection! Ever wondered how meaningful relationships can enhance your life? 🤝⭐ Meaningful relationships can have an incredible impact on your personal and professional well-being. ⭐ Ready to transform your relationships? Check out the article below for practical tips on how to improve relationships with others: https://ak3b.short.gy/wE4gND

View On WordPress

#building relationships #healthy lifestyle #healthy living #relationship tips #relationships #wellness

[keystocompanionship]

7 Exciting Activities to Cultivate Creative Intimacy with Your Partner

Building and nurturing creative intimacy with your partner can greatly enhance the depth and connection in your relationship. Engaging in activities that encourage creativity and mutual expression can foster a unique bond, enriching the emotional and intellectual connection between partners. Here are seven stimulating activities to explore with your partner to cultivate creative intimacy:

1. Artistic Collaboration:

Collaborating on a creative project, such as painting, sculpting, or crafting, can be a profoundly intimate experience. Working together to create something visually striking and meaningful allows for shared vision, expression, and mutual inspiration.

2. Storytelling and Writing:

Engage in collaborative storytelling or creative writing exercises with your partner. This can involve taking turns adding to a story, writing love notes or poetry for each other, or even creating a shared journal where you both contribute thoughts, memories, and reflections.

3. Cooking or Baking Together:

Prepare a meal or bake a dessert together, embracing the opportunity to experiment and create in the kitchen. The act of sharing and combining flavors, textures, and culinary ideas can be a delightful and intimate experience that encourages creativity and teamwork.

4. Dance and Movement:

Exploring dance and movement together can be a powerful way to cultivate creative intimacy. Whether learning a new dance style, improvising movement together, or simply swaying to music in your living room, physical expression and synchronization can deepen your connection.

5. Photography and Visual Exploration:

Embark on photo walks, exploring your surroundings and capturing moments together. Experiment with creative photography techniques, framing each other in unique ways, and documenting shared experiences through visual storytelling.

6. Mindfulness and Meditation:

Engaging in mindfulness and meditation practices together fosters a deeper emotional and spiritual connection. Whether taking a meditation class, practicing deep breathing exercises, or exploring guided imagery, the opportunity for shared introspection and emotional vulnerability can be profoundly intimate.

7. Collaborative Music Making:

Explore making music together, whether through playing instruments, singing, or composing. Collaborating on musical expression allows for shared emotion, vulnerability, and creativity, fostering a unique form of intimate connection.

In conclusion, engaging in these seven activities with your partner can cultivate a deeper, more meaningful bond through shared creativity, expression, and exploration. By embracing these opportunities for mutual creativity, you can strengthen the emotional, intellectual, and physical intimacy in your relationship, fostering a deeper connection built on shared experiences and creative expression.

#keystocompanionship #companionship #relationship #love blog #building relationships #creative intimacy #what is love #life quote #creative love