21. Upgrade


"Catch ya'll on the flip side," Hailey said, getting up from her desk.

Ruzek looked up at her, confused. "Where you going?"

"Not here," she replied.

He waved around the room. "We're in the middle of a case."

"Platt's side projects apparently take first priority," Hailey explained, slowly for him. "See you tomorrow."

Kim chuckled, seeming to get the line of "Platt's side project's" and smiled back at Hailey. She shot Ruzek a nasty look at he dropped it.

Hailey changed at the 27th and slid into the passenger seat of a squad car. Where she had a coffee, bag of salt and vinegar chips and a chocolate bar waiting for her. And it was her favorite type of chocolate bar. Coffee order how she liked it, Favorite type of chips, favorite type of chocolate bar; she was in heaven. Other than being in blues and in a squad car. She looked at Officer Julie Tay, who sat in the driver's seat. "I think you may be an upgrade on my partner."

"We talking Burgess or Halstead because we all know I'm an upgrade on Burgess," Tay laughed as she started the car.

"Oh you know what I mean," Hailey said as she opened the chocolate bar. "But seriously, all of this is much needed and appreciated."

"Eh, I'm starting this shift fresh. I know damn well you've already been working for awhile. Figured you'd need a pick me up."

Hailey nodded. "That I do." And then dispatch came over the radio and the shift was on.

They ended up at Chicago Med for over 2 hours, dealing with a domestic dispute. The woman and her 8 year old daughter were severely beaten by the woman's boyfriend, leaving Hailey and Tay a lot of paperwork and one big mess that domestics tended to leave. Hailey hated domestics and if she was a betting woman she probably would bet that Tay had the same disdain for them as she did. Sometimes she felt sorry for the victims but when Tay explained that she had been to the address 5 times herself and the call log showed several other times, Hailey's emotions were all over the place. She did feel sorry for the kid though, that she really did.

Will came out of the doctors lounge and saw them in the hallway, just as they were about to leave. "Blues, Upton? Get a demotion I didn't hear about?"

She smiled at her regular partner's brother. "Nah. Overtime or something like that."

Will looked unconvinced. "Yeah, okay. Jay said you had been working a lot lately, but he didn't mention the beat again."

"Details," Hailey shot back.

"Give me a second," Will said. He returned literally a minute later. "Jay's been sending mail to my house lately. Something about never being at his own house to get the mail? Also doesn't want anyone to know he's living with you, pretty much?"

Hailey feigned ignorance. "I wouldn't know anything about that."

"Yeah, okay. Can you give him these bills? I think they are bills, anyways. Didn't look," Will said. "I was going to stop by the district later but you're here so I guess you can take them home with you tonight."

Hailey took the stack for mail and put them inside her jacket pocket. "Yeah, sure. Thanks, Will."


It wasn't until her after her shift, which was very interesting and full of adventure, that Hailey looked at the mail. She was sore, a little angry on how it ended and the little bit of a arguing that she ended up doing with the Desk Sergeant at the 27th of how to process charges on the second related domestic her and Tay handled. Tay had come up with some pretty creative charges and Hailey was impressed; the Desk Sergeant wasn't.

It was mainly bills but one envelope piqued her interest. It was addressed to Jay, but definitely with Will's address, and handwritten. And it had a lawyer's address in Omaha, Nebraska as the return label. She looked at the clock and saw it was 12:21 a.m. She had been working since 7 a.m. and she was too tired to deal with the mystery envelope.

When she woke up the next morning, she groaned. It was only 6 a.m. and the bed was cold. That wasn't super surprising though. Jay always woke up before her. She tried to remember if she saw any of Vanessa's shoes in the doorway when she came home but she was too tired to remember. So she put some of Jay's sweats and one of his t-shirts on and made her way downstairs.

"Surprised you are up this early. Voight told you to not come in early," Jay said, handing her a cup full of coffee.

Hailey shrugged and sat down on her island. "I'd sleep longer if I could."

Jay turned to the stove. "Do you want a loaded omelette?"

"Sure."

He grabbed another plate and put some eggs on it and put the plate in front of her. "You saw Will last night?"

Hailey ate a big of eggs and then answered. "Yeah, we had two ugly domestics last night. Don't miss that about the beat."

Jay put something in front of her and Hailey tried reading it and then really couldn't believe her eyes. "What's this?"

"According to this, I'm finally no longer married."

Hailey nodded. "Abby?"

Jay nodded. "I signed them."

Hailey pushed the papers away. "The only question I have about all this is, is why did she send the papers to Will's address?"

"She tracked him down the last time she wanted to see me, so I'm assuming she had his address. She never had mine. And I'm assuming her lawyer's probably advised against on sending them to a police station."

Hailey nodded. "I'm just glad she finally signed them."

Jay walked around the kitchen and pressed a kiss against Hailey's hair. "Me too, babe. Me too."

"Don't call me that."

Jay raised his eyebrows. "I'll call you whatever I want, babe."

Hailey drank her coffee slowly. "Jay Halstead, you are so lucky right now that I am actually not caffeinated well enough and very tired to kick your ass."

He leaned down and kissed her hair again. "And that's why I'll call you my babe, again."

"Payback's a bitch, remember that."


Hailey slowly walked up the stairs to Intelligence an hour or so later, coffee in hand, despite the fact that Voight told her not to come in until noon. Rixton just nodded at her and then nodded towards Voight's office. She just gave him a look of thanks. It was almost scary of well Rixton and her communicated on just looks. It would never be as good as Halstead and hers on body language, but it was getting pretty good.

She closed the door to Voight's office when she saw Platt in the corner. "Why do I feel like I am being called into the principal's office?" She half expected a phone call or something about her late night "conversation" with the Desk Sergeant over at 27th that didn't go over well.

"Julie Tay," Voight said.

Hailey sat down in the chair. "I like her. She's a solid cop. Real solid. I'd ride with her in a car for 12 hours over my partner, so that's saying something."

Platt smiled on the fact that Hailey would ride with Tay over Halstead and handed her a piece of paper. "She tell you she wrote the detective exam?"

"No."

"Scored very high," Platt said.

Hailey looked at the piece of paper. Julie Tay was now a Detective in the Chicago Police Department, pending the new assignment. "Not surprised. I'm guessing why you've been having me ride along with her is for a reason?"

Voight nodded. "Yeah."

Platt responded. "You're a good judge of police and character, Hailey. Vice and Counterterrorism both need people. Where do you think she'd fit in best?"

"Most people would use her brain and put her in Counterterrorism but I think she'd shake things up in Vice, in a good way."

Voight nodded. "I agree. I'll see what I can do to get her into Vice. You and Halstead good? Any problems?"

Hailey chuckled as she stood up, thinking back to everything. Her being partnered with Burgess, the divorce papers from Abby this morning, and the comment she made to Platt. She knew why Voight was asking; they were also never arriving at the same times anymore. Rixton was picking her up half the time to go workout in the mornings these days. "Yeah, we're good. Tay just provides snacks and good snacks at that, on patrol. Jay would never do that in a squad car."

Voight just shook his head. "Okay, maybe I'll agree with you there. You're still partnered with Burgess though."

Platt chimed in. "Burgess likes sour keys for snacks. Don't ask how I know that."

"Good to know," Hailey said, smiling. She was about to leave but then turned around. "If you hear anything from Sergeant Heller about last night, we just had a little disagreement about what charges should be pressed."

That got an eyebrow raise from both Sergeants in the room. "Oh?" Voight asked.

"Nothing big," Hailey replied and closed the door to Voight's office behind her.

When she got back to her desk, she had another coffee waiting for her. She finished the current one in her hand and chucked it in the garbage. She looked around for Jay and then looked at Ritxon, who just shrugged. Hailey smiled again. Jay Halstead definitely was competitive and was not about to be overthrown by a new Detective on who Hailey's best partner was. And Hailey was perfectly okay with that competition, as long as it got her coffee and good snacks.


Next- V; Voltage

AN: Just something that came together late tonight :)