25. Yellow


"You know, yellow really washes you out," Hailey told the person sitting on her front steps as she walked up the drive. Tammy had given her a drive to her post-op appointment. Thankfully Dr. Caussin had cleared her to go back to desk duty but she had another week left of sick leave left and she was going to use it. It was somewhat nice to actually not be at work. And rather than go to work even if she was cleared, she figured she'd come home and make dinner, considering it was 4 pm. She felt good enough to attempt cooking with one hand. Tammy said if she got in a bind, to text her and she'd come over and bail her out.

He shrugged. "Not my best color. Reminds me too much of the Navy. Ran out of clean laundry though."

"Shame. You must be Mouse," Hailey said as she got closer.

Mouse stood up. "Staff Sergeant Greg Gerwitz. What gave me away?" He knew that was a dumb question given she was a highly trained Detective in a large city police department.

"The scar above your eyebrow that's still healing, the Army rucksack beside you and the fact that other than a couple of my nephew's nefarious friends, know one knows my address outside CPD," Hailey said, opening the door and letting Mouse in.

"Nice deduction," Mouse said. He put the rucksack down.

Hailey closed the door behind her. "Why show up here instead of Jay's apartment that you do know the address for?"

Mouse shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. "Went to the hospital and saw Will first. He said to show up here first."

She laughed. "So that explains how you know where I live. Does Jay know you are in town?"

He sat down on the bar stool that Hailey ushered him to. "No. I got released from Walter Reed this morning and I still have quite a bit of leave time before I have to go back to Benning."

Hailey went to the fridge. "Beer?"

Mouse shook his head. "Still taking painkillers."

She found that reason as acceptable but as someone who had collarbone surgery recently, she also drank while on painkillers. "Orange juice or water?"

"Orange juice, please," Mouse replied.

Hailey poured him a glass which took a lot longer, given one arm and gave it to him. She also poured herself a glass while at it. "So, where are you staying if you haven't told Jay?"

"Well I knew he was living with you so I was going to crash with my sister's," Mouse grimaced as the thought of that. "But Will made it pretty a non-starter that I stay anywhere other than his apartment. So I guess with Will."

She was surprised and not really surprised so she sat down on the other side of the island and faced him. "Why come back to Chicago?" She figured it was a rather personal question to a person she had just met but it was Jay's best friend.

Mouse just drank the orange juice. "Well it was between coming back here and hoping people would take me back in or go back to the barracks at Benning. Not a hard choice."

She smiled. "Yeah, I get that. No girl back at Benning?"

"Nah. There was someone but she got deployed right around the time that I deployed to Iraq and even though Kuwait and Iraq are in the same continent, it's not easy to keep in contact."

Hailey drank some of her own orange juice. "I could see that."

"So what's new with you guys. I see that you are clearly injured. What happened?" Mouse asked.

Hailey chuckled. "Force of gravity won over."

Mouse winced. "Ouch. So how's the team? I know what happened with Lindsay but Jay hasn't exactly shared much since I left. Not that we've really talked given my many spinups."

Hailey took a deep breath, deciding how much to share but decided that Mouse had spent a good year or two in the unit, he deserved to know. "Well, Atwater is on a long term undercover so we have a guy covering him. Kenny Rixton, you may have met him?"

"Yeah, I met him for a week before I left. Seemed like a solid dude."

Hailey nodded. "We really like him actually. Kim and Adam are still the same old, same old, I guess. Still going in circles around each other. Vanessa is new, she lives here actually. She's pretty young, Voight pulled her out of a long term undercover, straight out of the Academy. Trudy and Mouch finally got married. And Voight is Voight."

Mouse didn't want to ask the question but he had to know. "Olinsky and Antonio?"

"Antonio is living in Puerto Rico with his sister," Hailey's voice told Mouse there was more to the story but she wasn't willing to go there. "And Al…"

Mouse sighed. "What happened?"

"He was shanked in prison."

Mouse almost dropped the glass he was holding. "Prison?"

"He took the fall for Kevin Bingham's death."

Mouse was starting to put it all together. "Wow, Kevin Bingham. I thought they'd all get away cleanly."

"All?" Hailey asked. To be honest, she never asked questions, although she had heard somethings about that night from people when Olinsky died but for the most part she didn't want to know.

"Voight, Olinsky and Lindsay," Mouse answered. "Voight killed him and Lindsay moved the body."

"I didn't know you knew that much."

Mouse winked. "People always underestimated what I knew and did not know in that unit. Helped."


Twenty minutes later, Jay burst through the door, in a rush. He stopped suddenly when he realized why Hailey told him to come home early tonight. He literally stood in the doorway and then laughed. "The yellow makes you look like you want to do Navy PT. You enlisting in the Navy now?"

Mouse stood up. "You asshole," he said as he gave Jay a hug. "Hailey said the same thing as you as well about the color, although she said it washes me out."

Jay shrugged. "The truth. What are you doing here?"

"Got released from Walter Reed this morning and well, I'm here. Crashing at your brother's place for awhile," Mouse explained.

Jay looked at Hailey who just shrugged and then back at Mouse. "Well, okay, then. Glad you're back. How are you feeling?"

"Feeling like I spent six weeks at Walter Reed, the second time."

He rolled his eyes, even though he knew the truth about Walter Reed stays. He had stayed there himself. "Still can't believe you are back in town, man."

Hailey spoke. "Pizza or spaghetti for dinner?"

"Spaghetti," Jay and Mouse said in unison.

"Spaghetti it is," Hailey said as she stood up. "Jay, you're going to have to help me." In the past month, Vanessa and Hayden had done most of the cooking. As well as Tammy cooking crock-pot freezable meals at her house and bringing them and putting them in Hailey's fridge, even when not asked. It was a game of if Tammy could sneak in and put some meals in the fridge or freezer before anyone noticed. So far, Jay had cooked three meals. That was it.

Mouse smiled. "I've had too much hospital meals so home cooked sounds amazing."

She smiled back at him. "Can't guarantee you how good it will taste after he's done helping me but it will be home cooked."

"Hey! I can cook," Jay said, defensively.

She looked at him. "Yeah, how come you're cooking skills haven't been displayed in the past month? Would have been a perfect time."

Mouse just laughed. "You guys are perfect for each other."


Next- Z; Zero

AN: Almost done this :(