Work Text:
Jackie is quiet the first time she comes home with Erin. She had been put into their lives to protect Erin, Danny insisting his own partner protects Erin, that Jackie keeps his sister safe. She’s still quiet now, a few months later, after the relationship slips from fake, a cover to protect Erin, to real, a relationship built on love and trust.
Erin settles first, then Jackie. They share a quiet family dinner, Jackie blushing a little when Erin’s daughter asks a couple of questions about life as a woman on the force, then about her family and her relationship with her mother. It had been easy to answer the questions about her work, but the questions about how Erin and she got together were harder.
Then, when it’s her birthday, Jackie opens the door to Erin alone, the woman’s smile soft. Erin had brought food and wine. They talk, laugh, kiss, live like they aren’t a cop and a lawyer for a little while, like it’s not difficult to love so openly when Danny is so clearly afraid they will cut him out their lives. They won’t. They both know that but Danny doesn’t.
So Jackie comes home for more dinners, talks and teases Danny, kisses Erin proudly, learns to fit into the space she has as Danny’s best friend and Erin’s lover, as a second mother to Erin’s daughter. Jackie’s laugh is soft and proud when Erin’s daughter comes home from school with top grades, determined to prove herself.
“That’s my girl Nicky.”
She speaks the words so honestly, so warmly, that Erin grins.
“Our girl.”
She corrects softly.
“That’s our girl.”