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Hailey subtly checked her watch, barely flickering her eyes down just long enough to catch a glimpse of the time. She didn't need an exact time, just an estimate so she could know if her session was coming to an end. She dreaded talking to the District psychologist and the hour-long sessions felt much longer than only 60 minutes.

This was her eighth session in two weeks. Two weeks since she arrested Booth and Voight ordered her eight mandatory sessions with the psychologist without much of an explanation. When she tried asking why, he just said she wouldn't be allowed back to work until she completed them. Normally, Hailey would've protested and fought against Voight's sentencing, but he made it clear many times that he would not let her back to work unless she completed all eight sessions. Not to mention that she chewed out Jay just a few weeks ago for not taking his time with the psychologist seriously and the last thing she wanted was to be called a hypocrite.

The sessions weren't all too bad, Hailey supposed. She did four last week and four this week and although it was a lot for each week since it felt like she was bombarded with questions, she wanted to get them out of the way and done with as fast as possible. It was an hour of her just talking, the psychologist listening, and occasionally the two talking about other things not related to Booth, which Hailey enjoyed. When she did talk about Booth, she couldn't lie and say that it didn't feel soothing and cleansing to talk about him and how she got to arrest him.

However, she hated these sessions at the same time. She barely knew this psychologist and, all of a sudden, she was expected to pour out details about her personal life and demons to this stranger. Also, Hailey felt extremely vulnerable when talking about Booth and she hated feeling vulnerable.

Hailey couldn't help but smirk a little when she remembered that this was her last session so it didn't really matter how much she hated them anymore.

The thought of this being her last session caused her to tilt her wrist and peek at her watch again and check the time. A second glance helped her pinpoint a better time and she only had about five minutes left in this session.

The very first thing she noticed when she came in for her first session was that there was no clock in the room. It took her all of two seconds to figure that having no clock in the room was done on purpose so stubborn, hard-headed officers like herself wouldn't get distracted by watching the clock carefully to count down the moments until their session would be over. Luckily, Hailey had a watch on her wrist and by the second session, she was confident she had mastered looking at her watch without the psychologist noticing.

By the fourth session, Hailey had mastered the art of being able to mindlessly keep up with conversation while thinking about other things, like she was doing right now. She'd start each session really trying and would really talk to her psychologist, but when she got bored or felt like she was being too vulnerable, she'd change the subject and zone out into thoughts of her own. She'd ride out the session best she could and the second it ended, she'd thank her psychologist and leave the session.

It was a mildly tedious routine, but again, Hailey smiled when she reminded herself that this was her last session and after this, she'd be back to work. She'd be back to work and that meant that Hailey had won and Booth had lost; everything he did to her and everything he put her through didn't stop her from doing her job.

"Well Detective Upton," the psychologist said, snapping Hailey back into a state of full attention. "It's noon."

"It is, already?" Hailey lied politely, obviously looking to her watch now and raising a brow with a friendly smile. "Didn't even realize."

"Time flies when you're having fun," the psychologist joked and Hailey scoffed, appreciating the sarcastic humor from her psychologist who definitely knew that Hailey didn't really enjoy the therapy. It didn't really take a psychologist to figure that out. Hailey decided to display some courtesy and didn't stand up right away like she usually would. "I'd be lying if I said you weren't one of my best patients."

"Really?" Hailey asked, tilting her head. She squinted her eyes with a little disbelief, though, and wondered if this was just something the psychologist told all of her patients.

"Yep, you're very easy to talk to and you took this seriously," the psychologist smiled, lifting a palm up and letting it drop on her lap. "That's really all I can ask of a patient."

"Well...thank you," Hailey said a little unsurely, not certain how to respond to that. She began reaching into her back pocket to grab the waiver for the psychologist to sign, but stopped when the psychologist continued.

"I'm proud to say that I think you're doing much better than our first session," she said and Hailey nodded, not doubting that. Her first session, she was a complete mess. "I think with some more long-term therapy…" Hailey flinched a little, but let the psychologist continue before shooting down the idea. "You could really get ahead of this."

"Thank you, really," Hailey said as diplomatically as she could. "But I'm fine. I feel much better and these eight sessions were all I needed."

Hailey stood up, as did the psychologist, and Hailey grabbed the paper from her pocket.

"I really think long-term therapy would be beneficial for you," the psychologist reiterated and Hailey had to stifle a sigh as she shifted her body position uncomfortably. "Not just with things regarding Booth, but later-"

"Please," Hailey said with a polite, but curt, tone. Hailey handed the paper out to the psychologist and she reluctantly took it, concern in her eyes. "I will be fine. I promise if I ever want to talk, you will be the first one I call. But, if you could just…" Hailey said, nodding to the paper she handed the psychologist. The psychologist gave Hailey a hesitant look and now Hailey couldn't stifle her sigh. "Look—I really appreciate it. But...right now...the only long-term therapy I need is going back to work and helping Intelligence put more people like Booth in jail."

The psychologist gave Hailey one more glance and Hailey kept her face firm, indicating she wanted that waiver of work return signed and the psychologist gave in, placing the paper on her desk and grabbing a pen. She signed the bottom of it and handed it back to Hailey, who gave the psychologist a soft smile.

"Thank you very much," Hailey said, folding the paper and putting it in her back pocket again. She grabbed her jacket from the chair and slipped it on. She headed for the door but quickly turned her head back to speak to the psychologist. "If I ever need to talk, I'll be back. Promise."

The psychologist just nodded, giving Hailey a flat smile. Hailey returned the expression with a forced grin of her own before she exited the room.


"What do we got?" Hank asked, putting his hands in his pockets to keep them warm as he walked over to the scene. Atwater and Ruzek hovered near the body while Burgess and Halstead were taking statements from nearby witnesses.

"Katherine Joy, 42, three GSWs to the torso and one that grazed her neck. This all happened about two hours ago," Ruzek answered, looking to Hank.

Hank noticed a tan line on the woman's wrist and looked to his two Intelligence members, taking his hands out of his pocket and pointing to his own wrist. "This a mugging? Her watch is gone," Hank said, looking around at the alley they were in.

"Doesn't sound that way," Burgess said, coming up to the three of them and Hank looked to her. "Witnesses said Katherine was with her 10 year old song, Greg, when a van blocked off that entrance of the alley-" Burgess said, pointing to one end of the alley. "And abducted the boy. Mom tried to intervene, and…" she trailed off, motioning to Katherine's body in front of them.

"They take her watch," Hank said, looking to the tan line on the wrist again. "And her son. Anything else on her missing?"

"No, purse still has her keys and wallet and it doesn't look like any cash is missing. This is really sloppy and just looks like an impulse thing," Atwater suggested and Hank quickly shook his head.

"The watch, maybe, and killing her, but you don't just randomly kidnap a kid. This was planned." Hank sighed and looked to Burgess. "Any witnesses get a look at the van?"

"Yeah, it was a red Ford, got a partial on the plate. William-4-2 and the last digit was 9."

"Good, run it. Where're Antonio and Al?"

"They're already talking to the husband," Ruzek answered.

"Hey," Hank heard a woman say and he quickly recognized the voice. He glanced back and saw Hailey jogging up to them after ducking under the yellow tape blocking off the scene. Hank watched as she came up to them. "Hey," she repeated. Burgess, Atwater, and Ruzek all replied but Hank shoved his hands back in his pockets and looked to Hailey.

"What're you doing here?" Hank asked sternly, but cautiously.

"I went up to the bullpen but couldn't find you. Platt said you guys were here on a case and I got here quick as I could. I'm here to work," Hailey answered eagerly.

"You haven't been cleared yet," Hank said in a low voice, as he saw everyone else watching and listening to the exchange between him and Hailey.

Hailey maintained careful and firm eye contact with Hank as she removed a piece of paper from her back pocket and handed it to Hank. He unfolded it and scanned through it, seeing the signature on the bottom from the District psychologist.

"Just finished my last session an hour ago," Hailey said as Hank looked at the signature. He looked up at her and tried to decide what to say, since he wanted to truly make sure she was ready to return to work, but Halstead ran up and interrupted their conversation with urgent news.

"Witness said he saw a guy who kept eyeing Katherine and Greg at a breakfast place they went to today and that he saw the guy follow them into a nearby store," Halstead explained.

"Got a name?"

"Omar Hernandez. And get this, called the District to run him and turns out he owns a red van."

"Hit it," Hank nodded and his officers began jogging over to their cars, but Hank spoke before they could get too far. "Hailey, you hang back. We need to talk."

Hailey's expression was shocked and Hank could tell she was clearly upset that he wouldn't let her go, but she regained control and played it off, just nodding as an answer. Her and Halstead exchanged a glance and she nodded to him.

"I'm fine, go," she said quietly and Halstead caught up with Burgess, Ruzek, and Atwater. Hailey hesitantly turned back to face Hank and released a small sigh. "What's up?"

"Not here. C'mon," Hank said, putting a hand on Hailey's shoulder in a comforting way. "Let's head back to the District and I'll catch you up on the case."

Hailey nodded, but Hank saw her roll her eyes in his peripheral vision and couldn't help but scoff a little at her resilience. However, her resilience wasn't what Hank was looking for when he wanted her to return. He was looking for her to be fine. More than fine; he needed her to be reliable with her head in the right place. A psychologist couldn't pick that out, but Hank could tell when something was really wrong with one of his officers and he hoped he would find nothing negative in Hailey that would prevent her from doing her job properly.


Hank leaned against the corner edge of his desk while Hailey stood in the doorway with her arms crossed and her face stoic. Hank smirked and sighed as he saw Hailey wasn't budging.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" she asked, remaining planted in the doorway with her arms still folded over her chest.

"C'mon in, take a seat," he replied, nodding to the seat in front of him. She exhaled sharply through her nose indicating her disdain at talking with Hank. It's not that she didn't like talking to Hank, but Hank knew Hailey was smart. Stubborn to the core like the rest of his team, but very smart. She was intuitive and observant and she knew why Hank pulled her aside to talk to her. She knew exactly where this conversation was headed and Hank probably figured she didn't want to talk to him about all of this.

After a few more seconds of clear reluctance, Hailey finally stepped in but remained standing. Hank kept his smirk as he nodded to the chair again and Hailey tilted her head.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," Hank said with a nod, raising his brows. "Seriously. Take a seat." Hailey bit her inner cheek and rolled her eyes a little, sitting in the seat across from Voight and crossing her arms again. "Why so stubborn?" Hank asked bluntly and Hailey gave a scoff with a crooked smile.

"Because I know exactly where this conversation is going and I know exactly where it's coming from," she said in a rigid, low voice. "I've had eight conversations like this over a two-week span." She gave a small shrug. "To be honest, I'm kinda burnt out."

"That was your decision to have all eight sessions in two weeks so don't use that excuse on me," Hank said, reminding her that it was indeed her decision to do all eight sessions in just half a month. Hailey's light expression turned cold as she swallowed nervously, not liking what Hank said. He sighed, looking down and then looking back up to her, talking in a gentle volume. "I'm not here to talk to you like you're some patient and I'm some psychologist. I'm here to talk to you like you're one of my detectives and I'm your boss." Hailey glanced down as Hank continued talking. "And my job...as your boss...is to make sure that you are OK to return to work. I told you to go to the psychologist not because I want to see what she says," Hank said, pulling out the paper and holding it up which caused Hailey to look back to him. He tossed the paper onto his desk with no care as to where it went. "I don't care if she thinks you're ready or not. I told you to go to her because I wanted it to be a time where you could...reflect while on a break. If you're ready to go after only two weeks, then that's fine. But I need to hear it from you." Hank shrugged. "And if you're not ready to return, then that is totally fine. Your spot will still be here when you get back." Hank furrowed his brows in concern and paused, reading Hailey's expression. She seemed to really be listening and Hank appreciated that. "So...are you ready to return and do your job properly?"

"Yes," Hailey confirmed with no hesitation. Hank nodded, not expecting anything different from Hailey.

"You sure?"

Hailey looked down and seemed to think of a better response other than a simple 'yes.' She creased her forehead and looked back up. "Sarge," Hailey said, uncrossing her arms and leaning forward. "You're acting as if something real bad happened during the sting with Booth. I mean…" she raised a shoulder and shook her head. "Sure it went a little sloppier than we anticipated. But we got him. I'm fine to return."

"I don't care about the sting and how it went down," Hank answered reluctantly, not wanting to tell Hailey why he was really talking to her. A confused look grew on her face and he sighed. "Halstead told me what happened between you and Booth. What happened on New Years Eve."

Hailey's face once again turned stiff and her eyes cold as she seemed to zone out, her mouth opening slightly, surprised by what Hank just told him. "Now don't be mad at Jay," Hank quickly said, already noticing that she was angry with Halstead for disclosing that information with him without her knowing. "I asked. I needed to know the whole story and I figured you weren't gonna tell me anything. So that's why I'm making sure you're really OK to return to work given everything that's happened. You reopened some pretty nasty wounds and I don't need them festering and affecting your work."

"I'm fine," Hailey snapped almost instantly.

"I know you're fine. I need to know if it's gonna affect your ability to work."

"It won't," Hailey responded instantly again and Hank nodded.

He stared at her for a few more seconds, seeing no falter in her firm expression and nodded once more. "Alright then. Let's get you caught up on this case then."