"So you know you have to tell Voight and the guys, right?" Lindsay said, forking a piece of pancake and waving it in the air.
Halstead sighed, "Yeah, Lindsay, I know. I've still got some time before I leave."
She shrugged and chewed on her pancake, "Yeah, but Voight won't be happy if you wait until the week before to tell him."
Halstead avoided answering by taking a sip of his coffee.
Lindsay kicked his shin under the table.
"Ow!" He jumped, spilling coffee on his hand, "What was that for?"
Halstead wiped up the spilled coffee and licked the drops from his hand.
Lindsay's lip curled, "That's gross, number one. Number two, you can't avoid telling Voight and the rest of them. You need time to adjust, but so do we."
Halstead smiled wryly, "You gonna miss me, Detective Lindsay?"
Lindsay laughed into her mug of coffee, "What do you think?"
"I think you're gonna miss me," Halstead smiled, forking some eggs.
"I'm not confirming anything," Lindsay rasped, "But I still think you should tell everyone sooner rather than later."
"I will," Halstead promised, pulling out his wallet, "Finish up. We better get going."
"I thought I was supposed to treat?" Lindsay asked, leaning back in her seat.
Halstead shrugged, dropping a few bills on the table, "You can throw my going away party."
"Not fair," Lindsay protested as they got up from the table, "There'll be booze there and that's expensive."
Halstead grinned as he held open the door, "I want the good stuff too. It'll show me just how much you'll miss me."
Lindsay's hand brushed his side as she walked past, a habit that she'd developed to make sure he was near her during raids.
"Oh so if we're basing the quality of the booze on how much I'll miss you you're getting purple wine in a box," she laughed, walking to her car.
"Joke's on you, Lindsay," Halstead laughed, "Purple wine in a box is my favorite."
Lindsay laughed as she got into her car, pulling away a few seconds later.
Halstead climbed into his car and followed her to the precinct, a smile on his face the whole way. Lindsay had the unique ability of getting him to forget about his current predicament.
"What do we know about this guy?" Voight tapped the mug shot taped to the white board.
"Rap sheet a mile long," Ruzek offered, "Started when he was 14, shoplifting, underage drinking."
"Escalated to rape and assault by the time he was 20," Atwater finished.
"This piece of shit's only 23?" Al asked, flipping through the file sitting on his desk.
"Yeah," Voight said, "And I want him off the streets. He's involved with the gangs and we don't need another murder for no reason."
"Well where is he?" Lindsay asked, tossing her grenade paperweight from hand to hand.
"He have any family?" Voight growled.
"Brother and father are both dead," Antonio said, reading from his computer, "Mom is in the area."
"Al, Ruzek," Voight pointed at the partners, "Go, find out what you can."
Olinsky and Ruzek pushed away from their desks and traipsed down the stairs.
"The rest of you," Voight said, "Find out as much as you can on Hayes."
He turned and stormed into his office, slamming the door shut behind him.
Antonio raised his eyebrow, "He's taking this one seriously."
Lindsay nodded, "We need this guy off the streets."
The squad room was quiet save for the sound of frantic typing.
Lindsay looked around quickly and rolled her chair over so she was closer to Halstead.
"Go tell him," she whispered.
Halstead looked at her, "Are you crazy? He's pissed off at the case right now. I'm not bothering him with my stuff."
Antonio and Atwater watched curiously as the partners bickered silently.
"He'd want to know," Lindsay whispered back, "Seriously, go tell him."
"No," Halstead whispered angrily, "Give me time to process. I'll tell him by the end of the week."
Antonio smiled to himself when both Halstead and Lindsay pushed away from their desks and went into Voight's office, Halstead dragging his feet a little.
"Hey, Atwater," Antonio called, "Looks like our girl won that fight."
Atwater grinned, "I'll add it to the tally."
He pulled open his desk drawer and took out a pad of paper. Antonio watched as he added a tally mark under the "Lindsay" column.
Lindsay practically shoved Halstead through Voight's office door and stood next to him.
Voight looked up, "The only reason you two should be in here right now is to tell me that you found Hayes."
Halstead shook his head, "Yeah, we didn't find him. Not yet anyway."
"Then why are you in here?" Voight leaned back in his chair and then immediately leaned forward, "You two'd better not be hooking up. I warned you about that."
"Yeah, we know," Halstead grimaced.
Lindsay glanced quickly at Halstead, but didn't say anything. Instead she nudged his leg with her foot and tilted her head towards Voight.
Voight frowned, "What the hell's going on here?"
Halstead coughed, "I… got called back from the reserves. I'm supposed to be in Virginia on October 20th."
Voight slowly leaned back in his chair, "Well, shit, Halstead."
"Gee, thanks," Halstead said wryly, "That was definitely the reaction I was looking for."
Voight narrowed his eyes, "What the hell do you want me to say, Halstead?"
Jay shrugged, "Am I still gonna have a job if I come back?"
"When," Lindsay jumped in immediately, "When you come back."
Halstead glanced at her, a smile playing on the edges of his lips.
Voight noticed Halstead's reaction, but didn't say anything.
"Of course you'll have a job, Halstead. I don't make habits of getting rid of good detectives."
Halstead nodded, "Thanks, boss."
"You gonna work up until you leave, or you want the week before off?" Voight asked.
"Haven't thought about it," Halstead shrugged, "Can I get back to you?"
Voight nodded, "Yeah, you can. Now both of you, get back to work."
Lindsay and Halstead nodded and headed back to their desks.
"I'm glad you told him," Lindsay whispered before they sat down.
"I guess I am too," Halstead whispered back.
"Hey!" Antonio called, "What was that about?" He jerked his thumb in the direction of Voight's office.
Lindsay looked at Halstead and widened her eyes, asking the silent question, 'Do you want to tell them now?'
Halstead shook his head slightly, and said, "Nothing. Just, uh, something Voight needed to know."
Atwater raised an eyebrow, "Are you two…you know?" He whistled.
Simultaneously, Halstead and Lindsay made exclamations of denial.
"No! Are you kidding me? Voight threatened my balls if I slept with her. I like my balls right where they are."
"Seriously? I have a boyfriend!"
Atwater held up his hands in surrender, "Alright, alright, sorry."
Antonio snorted, "You gotta learn, Atwater."
"A toast!" Lindsay grinned, "To Ruzek for that spectacular take down of Hayes."
The team all lifted their shots into the air and chimed, "To Ruzek!" before downing the alcohol and slamming the shot glasses back on the table.
Ruzek grinned, "It was nothing."
Atwater laughed, "Yeah sure, 'cause tackling the guy after sliding down an awning after climbing out the second floor widow is nothing."
Burgess grinned, but there was mild fear in her eyes, "That's what you did to take him down?"
Ruzek scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah. I kind of did it and then thought about it later."
"Idiot," Burgess said, shaking her head, one hand sliding under the table to squeeze Ruzek's thigh.
Lindsay squeezed out of the booth and grabbed Halstead's arm, "Let's go grab the next round."
Halstead heaved a pretend sigh and followed her to the bar, "You know, you've become much bossier since you found out about my leaving."
"Pft," Lindsay scoffed, "Not a chance. Besides, I wasn't bossy to begin with."
She held up six fingers to let the bartender know how many drinks she wanted.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Halstead muttered under his breath.
"Are you going to tell everyone?" Lindsay asked, passing three mugs of beer to Halstead and taking the remaining three.
Halstead heaved a real sigh, "Why the hell are you so intent on me telling everyone? I literally found out three days ago."
Lindsay lifted one shoulder, "I don't know. We're a family. Shouldn't we all know?"
She had a point.
Halstead nodded, "Okay, I'll tell them now. Unless, of course, you want to do the honors?"
"It's your news, Halstead," she smirked, "Wouldn't want to step on your toes."
"You were plenty happy to step on my toes at the undercover gala last month," Halstead called to her retreating back.
Lindsay tossed a smile over her shoulder at him.
Halstead waited for everyone to be halfway through their beers before he cleared his throat.
"Uh, since we're all here," he started, "I have an announcement."
The rest of the team stopped talking and looked at Halstead. Lindsay reached over and touched his side, reminding him that she was there.
"Uh, a couple of days ago, I got…" Halsted paused, "I'm going back to the Rangers."
"What?" Antonio said, beer stein halfway to his lips.
"I got called back from reserve duty," Halstead explained taking a sip of beer.
"When do you leave?" Burgess asked, a frown on her usually happy face.
"The 20th," Lindsay interjected.
"Oh, so you knew about this?" Antonio said, laughing.
Halstead snorted, "Only because she snooped in my place when she came to get me for the crime scene."
He purposely left out the fact that it was the next morning at breakfast, thinking they might get the wrong idea.
"Shit, man," Ruzek ruffled his hair, "We're going to throw you a hell of a going away party."
"Lindsay's got the booze covered," Halstead laughed, bumping her shoulder with his.
"Ass," she shot back, smiling.
Antonio stood up from his seat, "I'm proposing another toast," he held his half finished beer in the air, "To Halstead. Come back in one piece, because man, we can't go through Lindsay breaking in a new partner again."
Antonio's toast spurred laughter all around and an indignant, "Hey! I'm not that bad," from Lindsay.
"To Halstead," they all chimed once the laughter had died down.
"Thanks, guys," Halstead said quietly.
Damn, was he going to miss them.
A/N: Whoo! I'm so proud of myself for getting this finished in time for tonight. I am having a BLAST writing this. So now, everyone knows that Jay is heading back to the army. Next chapter he's probably going to be leaving. I haven't thought about how many chapters this is going to be, but I would say more than 5, maybe 10.
Again, I was totally blown away by the reviews for the first 2 chapters. I really appreciate them. I would love it if you guys could drop a review on this chapter. It would totally mean the world to me.
And, just 3 hours until CPD! Thank God because I need some Linstead in my life. My inbox on tumblr (thewintersoldierdisaster) is always open for chats. In fact, I relish them. So come talk to me =)