"Upton."

Hailey looked up from the report she had been finishing up, meeting the eyes of her boss as he gestured for her to come to his office. She stood, unsure as to what he wanted. Their most recent case had been surprisingly straightforward, and with Rojas settling in, their conversations about her had become increasingly rare.

"Boss?" She'd paused at the open door.

"Close the door." He instructed, and she did as she was asked before moving to sit across from him. He watched her for a moment, remaining silent just long enough to frustrate her with it before speaking again. "The indictments have been handed down. We have a trial date."

Hailey frowned. She didn't need to ask what case, she'd known it was coming, but over the past few weeks she had been trying to push it out of her mind. "When?"

"November 4th." Voight elaborated. "All charges consolidated. One trial, and as he was taken into custody here, the trial will be here."

"The witnesses?"

"The plan is to stagger their re-entry into the city. It makes it easier for them to return unseen. With Dalton in custody and his organisation disbanded, the threat has been downgraded, but there is still a threat."

Hailey nodded. "When will she be back?"

"It hasn't been decided yet." Voight didn't need to ask to know who she was talking about. "She'll need to go over her testimony with the prosecution, so we're looking at late October at the latest.

"Two months." Hailey stated the time period. The same time period it had been since her friend left. "Where will she be staying?"

"That's still being confirmed." Voight answered. "With the media interest on them in particular, that won't be easy."

"They're doing well." The blonde smiled. "In Seattle. I spoke to Ava last night."

"You're calling her Ava again?"

Hailey laughed. "She said it's too weird only being called Maddie and asked if I could call her Ava for a little bit."

"It's confusing for witnesses." Voight nodded. "Is she still planning on leaving the program after the trial?"

Hailey nodded. "I think so. She wants her life back."

"She understands that's a risk?"

Another nod. "She said she's willing to accept it. That she's already had to sacrifice one life, she won't sacrifice another."

"And the rest of the family?"

"They're sticking together on this one."

Voight nodded. "If she chooses to stay here, I'm willing to protect her and her family for as long as they need."

"Thank you."

"She's your family." Voight stated what Hailey had always felt, but never really verbalised. "So she's this unit's family too. It won't be easy, though."

Hailey looked down to her hands before facing him again. "Any idea how long the trial will last?"

"They're expecting months." He answered. "A lot of charges, a lot of witnesses. You need to go over your testimony, check your reports, make sure everything is in order. Don't leave anything to chance."

"I'll go over everything again."

"Get Halstead to do the same.

"Will do."

He paused. "How's Rojas doing?"

"Pretty good." Hailey confirmed. "She seems to be getting used to being part of a team."

Voight nodded. "That was all for now."

Hailey stood, not needing to be told twice, and made her way back to her desk, meeting Jay's curious gaze as she made her way back.

"What was that about?"

"Trial date." Hailey fell into her chair, watching him. "We need to go over everything."

"I thought it would take longer."

"So did I."

"You ready for it."

"You don't need to worry." She knew he wasn't asking if she was ready as a cop. "It's been a long time coming."

"He'll know who you are, if he doesn't already."

"It'll be about time." She sighed. "I'm ready for all of this to be over."

Jay nodded. "You'll let me know if you need anything? These long term cases can be a lot."

"I will." She smiled. "I'm good though." She let out a sigh. "I wouldn't be surprised if the trial gets delayed."

"Why?"

"The FBI and NYPD are probably still arguing over who was at fault when Dalton got away the first time. They need to have the entire story straight before anything goes ahead."

"All these years and they're still trying to pick a fall guy?"

"Seem to be." Hailey shrugged. "Stevens even asked if I would go over my statement and make 'corrections'"

"She asked you to lie?"

"Not in so many words." She pointed out. "She never liked that I was clear in my statement that I wasn't there when he got away, that I was getting Chloe out of the area, so she asked me to think back to the arrangements made on the day and decide who screwed up."

"Did you do it?"

Hailey nodded. "Yeah, I went over the statement, confirmed nothing needed changing."

"Did you let Voight know?"

"No need. I handled it. If it had escalated I'd have mentioned it."

"When was this?"

"Day after Ava went to Seattle."

Jay thought back to the day in question, his frown deepening. "You weren't even working that day."

"She came to my place." She hesitated, seeing his face. "Jay, it's not a big deal, I handled it."

"What the hell was she playing at?" He continued. "If you had changed that statement and claimed anything that wasn't true, she could have torn apart this whole case."

"I know." Hailey stood, moving closer to him and placing a hand on his shoulder, leaning down slightly. "I didn't change anything. It's fine. She just wants the conviction."

"She could have blown the whole case."

"Jay..."

"You guys!" Hailey instinctively rolled her eyes at the sound of Atwater's voice. She knew exactly what was coming next. "You're not undercover any more, you don't have to make out in front of us, we know you're not dating."

"Are you going to get bored anytime soon?"

Atwater was grinning when Hailey looked up to him. "Nah." He shrugged. "You started it with the flirting."

"When were they flirting?"

"When they were..."

"We were not flirting." Hailey scowled, not wanting Rojas to be brought into this teasing. "We were playing a part."

She watched as Atwater turned to Rojas, mouthing 'they were flirting' to the newest member of the unit.

"I saw that."

-Ghosts-

"How'd it go?"

Ava sighed, sitting next to her uncle and resting her head on his shoulder the way she had when she was a child. "He's worried about my mobility."

"Is it serious?"

"There's still a little pain stopping me from properly raising my arm. Usually it wouldn't be a problem but..."

"This could affect your career?"

"Possibly. He's not willing to clear me for surgery, which is fine because I'm not going to be back at work for a while, I just..."

"You wish you were back at your hospital with your own doctor?"

"Kinda." Ava admitted. "It's stupid, they wouldn't do anything differently. At least there I could consult, though. I feel so useless here."

"Hey," He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, giving her a comforting hug. "There's nothing useless about you, kiddo. You've been amazing your whole life. Your mom would be so proud."

"I miss her."

"Me too." He admitted. "That'll never go away, and I'm okay with that now. She was my little sister, maybe it's not meant to go away."

"It still hurts. Every day."

He nodded. "Even worse that you've spent years unable to really talk about it, right?

"Yeah." She felt a stray tear fall. "Dr. Charles was great, but he was never who I really wanted to talk to about it."

"You know, you can talk to him about it now."

"What's the point?"

"It might help him understand."

"I've told him enough."

"You've told him the bare minimum." John pointed out. "You said so yourself, and you said yourself there's already been too many secrets between you, isn't it time to change that?"

Ava sighed. "It's not really a conversation that can be had over the phone anyway."

"We're not going to be here forever, mouse." John pointed out, taking a moment to glance down the hallway in the direction Matthew had disappeared for his own appointment. "You can always talk to him when we go back for the trial."

"What if I do that, and he uses it against me?"

"Maddie," John frowned. "He cares about you. Admittedly he hasn't been the best at showing you that, but it was clear to me that he cares for you. It's okay to be scared, but do you really want to go on with your life wondering what could have been? Take away all excuse he had not to trust you, and if he still doesn't prove himself, walk away."

"Matty said something similar."

"He's right." John decided. "Besides, who else is going to best understand your feelings over not being able to do your job?"

"Good point." Ava conceded. "He does know the job." She hesitated. "How do I move past it though? Not just what he did himself, but how do I get past knowing that he is the son of the man that..."

"How did you manage it before?"

"I didn't." It was hard to admit, but she knew she had to. "I tried not thinking about it, sometimes it was easy, but it was always there, and when he did everything that... He reminded me a lot of his father."

John's entire demeanour changed. "If he is anything like his father you forget about him caring for you and stay away from him."

"I know." She nodded. "But in most ways he's not, it's just sometimes..." She felt her uncle relax a little, his protective instincts calming as she spoke. "Sometimes he goes too far, and it scares me."

"Too far how?"

"Making reckless decisions, taking unnecessary risks. I see him do those things at work and I wonder if he'd do the same outside of work."

"Has he?"

"I guess it depends on your perspective." Ava sighed. "I need to talk to him about this, don't I. To move forward."

"Sounds like it."

"Feels like there's something else added to the long list of things I need to talk to him about every day."

"You don't need to rush it."

Ava nodded again, and they both turned at the sound of a door opening down the hallway, followed by a somewhat excited voice. "Guess who doesn't need crutches any more!"

-Ghosts-

The face of the little boy was haunting, yet Connor couldn't seem to stop himself from going back to the image repeatedly. The vacant eyes and subtle pout a saddening sight, what looked like a cut visible on the familiar nose. After what he'd managed to find out the past few weeks, he couldn't help but question how the injury had come about.

"Who's that?"

He jumped, quickly stuffing his cell back into his pocket before turning to Natalie. "No one."

"You know it's creepy to look at pictures of random kids, right?"

He sighed. "Alexander Downes."

Her brow furrowed in confusion, so he gave her a minute to put it together in her head.

"Ava's dead brother?"

He nodded. "I don't know how anyone could see that picture and not suspect that something was wrong in that house."

"People choose not to see a lot of things." Natalie reminded him. "That doesn't mean they don't notice." She watched him for a moment. "Have you been obsessing over this since she left?"

"Not obsessing." He denied. "I've just been reading up on what happened to her parents. One of the articles said the manner of death for them is listed as undetermined."

"Murder-suicide and they can't prove it." Natalie verbalised what had been playing in his mind for a while now. "It's tough."

"There was also an article that said the two children that weren't in the car with them witnessed everything."

"Ava?"

Connor nodded again. "She never told me she saw the whole thing."

"No wonder she's always been so closed off. That trauma..."

"I can't expect her to talk about it." He had come to the conclusion weeks before. "Not something like that. It could end up being too much for her."

"If she wants to she will."

"If she talks to me at all."

"Why wouldn't she?"

"She hasn't contacted me once."

"Have you tried contacting her?"

"She doesn't have the same number."

"Doesn't she have the same email, though?" Natalie queried. "Maggie said something about getting a few emails." She hesitated. "I think she said Ava, anyway."

"She said Ava had emailed Goodwin."

"No." Natalie shook her head. "This was definitely her."

Connor sighed. "I guess I'll ask her."

He wanted to believe Natalie was right, but he struggled to believe that Maggie wouldn't have mentioned it to him, and with the doctor's recent memory issues, she made quite a few errors these days.

"Couldn't you ask Hailey, too?"

"I have been, she's not really giving much away."

"But she knows where she is?"

"Yeah." Connor nodded. "She definitely knows, she just won't tell me anything."

"Have you asked her if she'll pass a message on for you?"

"No."

"Maybe you should."

"She'd only refuse."

"Isn't it worth asking?"

"I guess." He shrugged, already prepared to write the idea off considering how much Hailey disliked him nowadays, but then something occurred to him, and he decided it was worth taking a chance.

-Ghosts-

She frowned at the stack of newspapers in front of her. It had been a long time since she had left, and she knew she had to catch up on everything. She sometimes still longed for the days where she could embrace not caring, ignore the news and get back to a book, but that was many years in her past, and it wasn't where her life was any more. Now she had friends that liked to discuss every detail of every story, who had saved her newspaper after newspaper, mailing them to a PO Box for her sister to collect for her, and sent her list after list of news links since she had left.

If she wanted to be able to follow their conversations on the rare occasions they got to all spend time together (an unfortunate side effect of them all being constantly moved around to different places), she had to start reading.

It took her half an hour to find something that interested her, and she had been halfway through the article about yet another narrowly averted store closure when her husband interrupted her and her attention was taken from the papers.

"Have you seen this?"

He was holding up another paper, one she was sure would likely be in the stack in front of her somewhere, but it wasn't the front page being shown to her. "Where did you find that?"

"The Bardens."

"The Bardens are here?"

"Across the street." He moved forward, sitting beside her, the paper resting on his knees, still open on the page. "Good to have people we know here."

She nodded, her eyes trailing back to the page. She hadn't seen the image in a long time, it was different to the ones that had been on the missing persons posters years before, but she knew it all the same. She'd taken it.

"This can't be in the paper."

"It is."

"It could get them killed."

"They've probably been moved."

Her eyes skimmed over the page, taking in some of the words. "Three of them?"

He nodded. "It doesn't say which three."

She reached out, tracing the faces in the picture. "They're okay."

Her husband nodded. "They're okay."