19. Storm
Hailey was making a quick dinner when Jay came through the front door. "Dinner is ready if you want any."
Jay looked at his phone. "It's 5. You've never made dinner this early," he commented.
She shrugged as she dished her own plate of chicken stir fry that was mainly leftovers thrown together to make something eatable. "You're on your own tonight. Thankfully you have dinner that I made so you won't starve."
"I can cook," he said defensively. "Where are you going?"
"Patrol for 34th division."
Jay just looked at her. "It's a fucking snow storm and when was the last time you did a patrol shift?!"
Hailey took a bite then paused on the answer. "Don't remember. Platt offered me overtime and given what I've already worked this week, it's pretty sweet overtime for a six hour shift on patrol."
Jay had to give her that. "Except it's the 34th."
"Platt said she called over to the Sergeant over there and gave me a good partner for tonight. Some beat cop named Julie Tay?"
He laughed. "She's good police. She was partnered with Burgess for a month."
"Huh." Hailey pondered that. Coming from Jay, Tay had to be good police and a recommendation from Platt went a long way in Hailey's books. She thought about shooting Burgess a text to ask about Tay. "I gotta run."
"Have fun and stay safe," Jay said. "It's going to be a disaster with all that snow."
Hailey sat in a patrol car with Julie Tay. They hadn't said much to each other when Hailey walked into the 34th in patrol uniform but Hailey liked Tay's attitude when Tay just smiled, seeing Hailey's vest that read "Intelligence."
To: Kim Burgess
Sitting in a patrol car with your former partner. What can you tell me about her?
From: Kim Burgess
Tay? She's good police. Tell her I say hi.
"Burgess says hi," Hailey said.
Tay smiled. "You checking in on me?"
Hailey shrugged. "Only because I don't sit my ass in patrol cars in districts I don't know with cops I've never met."
Tay laughed a little. "It's okay. I would be doing the same if I were you. Tell Burgess I say hi back and I miss her ass."
"I only texted Kim now. If I was really worried, I would have called Kim the minute Platt told me who I was riding with. But Platt said you were good police and if Platt says you are good police, I believe her."
Tay nodded. "I appreciate that. So why is your ass sitting in a patrol car in a different district?"
Hailey looked at the window at the snow and questioned every life decision. "Platt offered me overtime. Time and a half, actually."
"Damn. I'd be doing the same thing too."
"I guess you've had a lot of people call in sick?"
Tay nodded. "Yeah, flu has been running through our district like crazy. We've had two guys come in from 27th for the morning shift, and our desk Sergeant was going crazy trying to find people to cover. Guess he called Platt."
"Happens," Hailey said. "I've done my time on patrol and I know what its like to be short manpower."
Dispatch came over the radio. "Robbery in progress at…"
Hailey was already on the radio although she had to momentarily remember that she couldn't use her normal dispatch call sign. "3401, please be advised that we are in route."
Tay flipped the lights and started driving. "You almost used your 21st plain clothed officer call sign, didn't you?"
"Yeah," Hailey laughed. "It's been a little while, okay?"
"You're good. I got your six."
Jay was sitting at home, watching Netflix. Vanessa was shockingly at home, already asleep. She was spending more and more time at her boyfriend's, Ben's, lately. He still wasn't sure why Platt wasn't asking the more rookie officers like Atwater, Ruzek and Rojas to do patrol at a different district than offering a Detective time and a half to do it. But as he learned time and time again, Platt and Voight had their reasoning for doing things they way they did them. Obviously this was one of them.
He had gotten a couple texts from Hailey over the night. She said Tay was a solid cop and it was a busy night on their beat. They had responded to a robbery in progress, a domestic and found a body that they turned over to Area Homicide. And she was three hours into her shift.
And then the door opened. Jay looked at the time. 12:15 a.m. On a Friday night, now Saturday morning. He knew Hailey was still working so there was only one other person that crashed here.
"You sneaking in?" he asked the person, knowing who it was.
Hayden Upton appeared in the living room where Jay was watching T.V. "Uhhhh."
Jay turned to Hailey's nephew. "I know your curfew is 11 p.m., no matter what at Tim and Tammy's so I'll bet you quite a bit of money that you told Tammy you were crashing here tonight. You went over to a girl's house, her parents kicked you out because it's midnight and you ended up here, thinking you could sneak in without anyone noticing."
Hayden shrugged, knowing he was caught. "Pretty close."
"I'll give you credit for copping to that. Just think a little harder before you try sneaking into a house where three cops live. Bad business man."
"I didn't think about that."
"We all get a little jumpy when there's noises in the middle of the night," Jay said. Especially him.
Hayden nodded. "I'll re-think my strategy, next time."
"Might be wise. And might be wise to remember that your curfew doesn't change between houses," Jay was totally bullshitting on that and he was going a little over the line parenting Hailey's nephew. He usually left that up to her but… he had also been a teenage boy once.
"Noted."
Again, Jay had to give the kid credit for not talking back and just accepting the lecture Jay was giving. "What's her name?"
"Lauren. Where's Hailey? I didn't see her bag by the front door."
Kid was also very perceptive. "Working."
"Huh."
Jay rolled his eyes. That same "huh" that both Hailey and Hayden did. Drove him up the wall. "Go get some sleep."
Hayden turned and went to his room and Jay turned off the TV and wrote a note for Hailey for when she came home that Hayden was over. And then he put the coffee on the automatic timer because Hailey had forgotten to do that. She had a Keurig for awhile and then it broke and she never got around to replacing it. He was tempted to stay up until she got home but he figured she would kick his ass for that. Instead he just looked out the window and watched the snow fall, thinking how crazy it was that this was his life right now.
Next: T; Treadmill
AN: Not super happy with it but hey, I wrote something. And can you tell I've been re-watching previous Chicago PD!?
