8. Hangover
Jay was getting coffee for him and Antonio before they headed out to sit on a house they were interested in. It was not a normal Starbucks that they went to and it didn't have a drive thru but both him and Antonio desperately needed the coffee after a late night trying to get the search warrant to sit on the house. He had already had a couple coffees that day but he needed another shot of caffeine to keep him going.
He had a bulletproof vest on when he entered the Starbucks, one that said "Halstead, Intelligence Unit" on the front of it. He just had his normal service weapon on him, not his second weapon as well, like he usually had when he kicked a door down. He had just finished getting both coffees, and thankfully not too many odd looks to see a cop in the Starbucks, when he was approached.
"Jay Halstead?" The man said.
Jay tried to rack his brain on where he knew this man. He couldn't think of it. He was blanking. And then the vision of him sitting in a US Army recruiter's office, with that very man sitting across from him as he signed his life away on the dotted line, flashed in his brain. "Staff Sergeant Hall?"
Staff Sergeant David Hall held out his hand to greet Jay. "First Sergeant Hall now," he grinned as Jay maneuvered the coffee's to shake his hand in return. "Always thought you were a lifer."
Jay shrugged. "So did I," he said, referring to the fact that he thought he was going to do his 20 year bid in the Army. "So did I."
"Being a cop looks good on you," Hall said.
Jay just shrugged. "What are you doing back in Chicago?" The Army didn't have any Army bases near by so Hall had to be on leave.
Hall smiled. "Seeing my son. It's his birthday today."
Jay half smiled. "I guess today would make it the anniversary of my enlistment then, huh?"
"That was a good day."
Jay grabbed a card from his vest pocket and handed it to Hall. "If you're still on leave for a couple more days, hit me up and we can go get a beer for old times sake."
Hall took the card. "Absolutely"
Jay walked back to the truck slowly, thinking about all the years that had transpired since he had last seen then Staff Sergeant Hall at the Army recruiters office A lot of memories were starting to resurface. He opened the SUV door and handed the other coffee to Antonio silently.
"You look like you saw a ghost."
"Something like that."
Jay was the last one at the office, by design, working on some reports that he was somewhat behind on. Usually Hailey took care of the reports but he told her he would do it today. She left with an eyebrow raised and the look that said the conversation wasn't over with. He was almost done when footsteps coming up the steps surprised him. Kelly Severide was definitely a surprise.
"Voight around?" Severide asked.
Jay shrugged. "Haven't seen him in awhile."
Severide looked around the empty office. "Burning the midnight oil, eh?"
"Same could be said about you. What do you need Voight for?"
"Don't worry about it," Severide replied. "Let's go get a drink and catch up."
Jay started to say no but he also knew from experience that saying the word no to Severide about drinking wasn't really a possibility so he reluctantly signed off his computer. "I could use a drink."
Severide just looked at Jay. "This should be a good night then."
About three drinks in and two shots later, Jay finally opened up to Severide about what was bugging him. "Ran into my recruiter today."
Whatever Severide thought was bugging him, it wasn't that. Kelly honestly was erring more on the side of issues with Lindsay leaving or problems with Upton. He knew hat Halstead still had his Army related demons, as did a lot of former service members, but he didn't expect that. "When was the last time you talked to Mouse?"
Jay shrugged. "A year ago? He was spun up to Syria and I haven't really heard anything since." He sensed Severide's hesitation in asking the horrible question. "I would know if he died, because I would have had a visit from the casualty assistance officer as I'm his next of kin."
"Your recruiter say anything to you?"
Jay sipped the beer. "Saw the gun and the bulletproof vest and just said he would have pegged me as a lifer when I signed the dotted line."
Severide laughed. "I think a lot of people can say they thought they were lifers and only ended up doing one contract."
"That was it for me. I couldn't do it. Realized there was more to life outside of Ft. Benning."
The CFD Firefighter finally got the balls to ask the question he had been wanting to for awhile when Hermann passed them another two beers. "Why talk about this to me?"
The shrug was given as an answer. "You're a friend."
Severide was starting to get concerned for his friend. "Not that I mind drinking with you Halstead, but I'm sure your partner is willing to listen to you."
"Hails doesn't need to hear this shit about the Army."
And that's when Severide knew Jay was in deep with his partner. He called her by her nickname. So when Jay went to the washroom after another beer, Severide called Hailey Upton to come pick a very inebriated Jay up from Molly's. He thankfully had her number from a previous case where she had helped out Stella with something so he didn't have to go searching through Jay's phone. And thankfully Hailey answered on the first ring and got to the bar fast.
She walked in to Molly's in sweats and an oversized CPD t-shirt and her hair up as she was just planning on going to bed when she saw the firefighter's name on her phone. Severide spotted her immediately when she opened the door to the bar. "Oh thank God."
She sighed. "How bad?"
"He's pretty drunk. I haven't cut him off yet but if you weren't going to get here soon, I was."
Hailey looked at the CFD Firefighter. "Anything I should know?"
"Don't let him out of your sight." He would let Jay open up to Hailey himself about his Army struggles.
The next morning, she was up at 06 30 as she always was on week days. She silently got out of bed, ignoring the sleeping body of her partner next to her. She was a little hesitant of putting him in her bed with her but she also took Kelly Severide's words to heart- don't let him out of your sight. Her spare bedroom had no sheets on it as she was doing laundry and she also knew her couch made for a really shitty night sleep after drinking. So her bed it was.
She made coffee and ate breakfast, scrolled through the news and Jay still wasn't up yet. She was a little surprised so she went back into her room, this time making her footsteps a little louder. That didn't work so she grabbed a pillow and threw at him. She knew his instinct was to reach for a gun under his pillow but she also knew there wasn't one there so she wasn't worried.
She waited for a couple seconds until he blinked awake. "How's the hangover, sleepy?"
Jay sat up in her bed. "Where? What?" he was very confused at where he was. He had never been in Hailey's bedroom before- her house yes, bedroom, no.
"You just woke up in my bed," she answered for him, sitting on the corner of the bed.
He tried to put the pieces together, also realizing he had no clothes on, save for his boxers. "What happened?" He didn't think he slept with her but he also didn't remember and he did not want the first time sleeping with his partner to be under those circumstances. But she was also smiling with a mischievous look on her face, which made him even more confused.
"Severide called me. You were pretty drunk. Told me not let you out of my sight, which I agreed with. Which is how you ended up in my bed."
Jay rubbed his face with his hand, relieved to know that beyond drinking his face off, he didn't do anything momentously stupid. He had a tendency to do that when memories of the Army came up and alcohol was involved. "I ran into my recruiter yesterday while getting coffee for Antonio and me."
Hailey smiled as he slowly opened up to her. "I figured it was something like that."
"Thanks for picking me up last night. And not letting me sleep on the couch," he said, still sitting up in the bed. His back definitely would thank him later for not sleeping on Hailey's couch.
She handed him a Gatorade bottle that she had brought into the room with her. "Come on. I'll make you breakfast so you aren't as hungover today."
Jay slowly started to climb out of bed. "You're saying I can't mask the hangover with my good looks?" He joked. His head was pounding and he was definitely nauseous. This hangover was a bitch and he doubted Hailey would have any sympathy for him for the rest of today besides making him breakfast.
She laughed as she walked out of the room. "Not a chance, Halstead."
Next- I; "Irresistible."
