A/N: Woohey, I'm back with another chapter, and it's a long one! I don't really know why I wrote this, just had an idea for a case and also... we've never seen Hailey get shot on the show ;) Anyway go ahead and read!

Same disclaimer as always.


"Downstairs is clear," Jay said in a low voice.

"Copy, I'm going upstairs," Hailey replied, just as quietly. Her gun held out in front of her, she started making her way up the stairs, slowly and steadily.

"Right behind you," came Jay's voice from behind her. His hand landed on her shoulder to make sure she knew he had her back.

Once at the top of the stairs, they proceeded down a hallway, at the end of which there was a door. Hailey pressed to the wall beside it, allowing Jay to throw it open for her.

She aimed her gun and stepped into the room, watchful as she made her way through it. Jay followed behind her, keeping his gaze at the hallway behind them; they hadn't cleared the other rooms yet.

This one had dark blue walls and a white canopy above the bed. Hailey moved to round the bed and check for people, when Jay heard it. A quiet, rapid beeping noise. He knew with absolute certainty, like a punch in his gut, what was about to happen.

"Hailey! Get down!"

Without thinking twice, he grabbed her arm and pulled her backward, throwing himself on top of her to knock her to the ground.

Simultaneously, there was a deafening noise. The ground shook around them, and Jay could feel intense heat against his back as flames shot up from the explosion. Shrapnel rained down on them, and he squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth until it was over.

xXxXx

There was a ringing in Hailey's ears that wouldn't stop.

She ached all over, and found it difficult to breathe. The wind had been knocked out of her as Jay landed on top of her, and her lungs still protested the abuse. There was smoke in the air that didn't make it any easier on them, either.

At least the smattering sound of shrapnel hitting the ground around them had stopped.

Jay rolled off of her, then, his movements slow and careful. Hailey sat up, taking in the scene before her.

Where the bed had just stood, there was now a gaping hole in the floor. Flames licked the edge of it, consuming what remained of the bed; the headboard, and one or two wooden legs.

Hailey couldn't believe she was uninjured. That was one hell of a bomb. If Jay hadn't knocked her out of the way —

That's when her shocked mind remembered that Jay had taken the brunt of it.

"Jay! You okay?" she asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

He was sitting on the floor next to her, his head down, breathing hard.

"I'm okay," he said, raising his head to look at her. He squinted as though he was plagued by a really bad headache. "Are you?"

"Yeah, thanks to you," she breathed, her eyes roaming across his body to search for injuries. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

Jay grimaced. "Ah... I think... my back."

Hailey, on her knees, scooted around him to get a better lock at his back. There were some small patches of blood across his back, but what concerned her was a piece of wood that was buried right below his shoulder blade.

Without another word, she touched her radio and spoke into it; "5021 Henry, I got an officer injured, we need an ambulance to our location, stat. And... roll bomb squad on that too."

"Hailey?" Jay asked confusedly, trying to look over his shoulder at his back.

"Jay... you don't feel that?"

"I mean, it hurts," he admitted. "Feel what?"

"Uh, there's a piece of wood in your back," Hailey said carefully.

Jay looked pale. "Oh."

There was a silent agreement between them that it would be best to not pull it out.

"We should probably get out of here, huh?" she asked. "In case he rigged anything else."

Jay just nodded. Hailey got to her feet so that she could help him up, and was struck by a sudden wave of dizziness. "Whoa," she mumbled, frowning with confusion. "What's going on?"

There was concern in Jay's eyes as he gestured at his forehead, and when she touched a hand to her own, it came away spotted with blood. The adrenaline must be preventing her too from feeling the injury.

"Alright, come on," she said, wrapping an arm around Jay's back and using the other to help pull him up.

Jay groaned as he straightened; a move that Hailey had no doubt was very painful. She slung his arm across her shoulders and supported him down the stairs.

They didn't have to wait very long for the ambulance and backup to arrive.

"We haven't cleared the house," she told the officers as the EMT's had Jay sit down on a gurney. "There was an explosive device in the upper south bedroom that I— that I set off. You should wait for bomb squad."

The officers nodded.

Someone was pulling at her arm. "Let me check you out." It was Sylvie Brett, Hailey realized then. Both her and Foster where there. "Come on, sit down on the rig."

"Oh, I'm fine," she said. "It's just a scratch."

"I'm sure it is," Sylvie said compassionately, "but Jay won't let us leave until we clear you."

Hailey rolled her eyes. Of course he wouldn't. So she nodded and followed her to the ambulance.

Jay was sitting up on the gurney, and he'd taken his shirt off. Foster seemed to be cleaning his wounds, because he looked uncomfortable. He watched Hailey as she sat down inside the ambulance. Sylvie used a flashlight to shine in her eyes and asked her to follow it as she moved it from side to side.

"Okay, good news, Hailey," Sylvie said with a small smile. "No concussion."

She picked something up that she then used to dab against Hailey's forehead. It stung a little, but not too bad. She doubted she would even need stitches.

"Head-wounds can be scary because they bleed a lot," Sylvie explained, "but it doesn't look deep enough that you'll need to get stitches."

The blonde paramedic proceeded to place a butterfly stitch above the cut.

Hailey snorted at them thinking the same thing. "I could've told you that," she joked, and tapped Sylvie's arm friendlily. "Thanks." She hopped out of the ambulance and turned toward Jay. "I'll see you at the 21st, okay?"

Jay nodded and gave her a small smile, realizing from her stern tone of voice that she was telling him to listen to the paramedics and get himself checked out. "Okay."

Hailey smiled back as Sylvie closed the doors and the ambulance drove away.

xXxXx

A couple of hours later, Jay joined them in the bullpen. The only sign of his injury was the way he held himself; a bit stiffer, straighter.

"Hey," Hailey said softly as he approached their desks. He nodded to greet her back.

"How you doing?" she continued, genuinely concerned.

He gave her a reassuring smile. "All good, Hailey," he said.

Voight excites his office, then. "Jay," he said. "You alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Jay said quickly, waving it off, before he raised his voice to speak to the rest of the team. "Where are we at with the case?"

"Bomb squad said there was one more explosive device in the other bedroom," Ruzek explained, "this one also under the bed. They were rigged to explode when a certain pressure was applied around the bed."

"So the question is how he knew that he was wanted by the police," Burgess continued. "Early enough to have time to rig the IED's."

"Alright, we got anything on his history, background, family?" Voight asked, his arms crossed as he listened to the briefing.

"Both parents are dead," Rojas replied, "but he does have two sisters."

Atwater nodded. "Yeah, Sarge, and his sisters are clean, but he popped in our registers for assault at a local BLM rally."

"So it was a hate crime?" Voight deduced.

Kevin nodded. "Correct. His sisters were there but they tried to stop him."

"Wait, hold up a sec," Hailey said slowly. She frowned as the pieces were coming together in her head. "He is arrested for assault after his sisters try to stop him, and he plants the bombs under the sisters bed." She throws her arms out. "What if he wasn't expecting police to come through that door? What if the targets were his sisters?"

They were all quiet for a moment. It was a horrific thought to process.

Jay was the first to speak up. "That does make sense. A bomb under a bed isn't exactly the most effective way to target first responders — you'd go for a door, or something."

"So... we're saying he goes after his sisters for trying to stop him at that rally?" Rojas sounded disbelieving.

"It checks out," Ruzek suddenly said, looking at his computer screen. "His sisters refused to testify in his favor, which presumably landed him two years in prison."

"Which we know he was just released from," Kevin filled in.

"Okay, so this was revenge against his sisters. Question is, was he alone in all this? And where were his sisters when Jay and Hailey hit the house?" Voight said. "Kim, Adam, I want you to follow the leads, see where the bomb materials came from. Kevin and Vanessa, check out this BLM rally, see if anyone else got popped and released alongside him. Find out if he's alone in this." He turned toward Jay and Hailey. "Hailey, Jay, you need to track down the sisters and take them into protective custody."

Hailey nodded, and looked to Jay, who was already looking at her. He nodded back to her. "Let's track their phones."

She took a seat by the desk and started typing. It didn't take them long before they found a location and was on their way. What they had not expected, however, was to find the phones lying on the ground by the side of the street.

"Damn," Jay swore quietly.

"They're gone," Hailey said darkly. "He took them."

So they had no choice but to return to the precinct.

Fortunately, Kevin and Vanessa had better luck. They'd found out that their offender, Trent Michaels, had been with two other guys when he started the fight that got him arrested. The two guys had been released with only months between each other, and one of them had an LKA.

They didn't lose a second rushing over there. If Trent had his sisters, and truly wanted to kill them... then they were short on time.

Fully geared and with their guns at the ready, Rojas and Atwater went around the back of the house. Jay and Hailey stood on opposite sides of the door frame, Jay getting ready to throw the door open. Burgess and Ruzek were also ready to charge inside with them.

"We're in position," came Kevin's quiet voice over the radio.

Jay looked to Hailey, who have a short nod, and he kicked the door open.

"Chicago PD!" Hailey called out, slowly entering the house with her gun held out in front of her. She felt Jay's hand on her shoulder, following her as she moved through the lower floor.

Kim and Adam has followed them inside but diverted up the stairs to the second floor.

Hailey walked through a wide doorway into a large room. Just like the rest of the house it was empty of furniture and had an old smell about it. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls, with leaves and dirt littering floor.

In the middle of the room, however, sat two women, tied up with rope, their backs pressed against each other. They're eyes widened as they saw them, but their mouths were taped over.

The offenders were nowhere in sight.

Hailey quickly moved towards them, while Jay lagged behind, keeping an eye on the surroundings.

"Hannah and Sarah Michaels?" she whispered.

They nodded at her. As Hailey got closer, she could see that their faces were streaked with tears.

"We're with Chicago PD," she told them softly, "we're gonna get you out of here."

Hailey put her gun away — she was almost by their side, close enough to touch them, reaching down to untie the knots on the ropes, when she heard a clicking noise. She looked up, to the right, and saw that two men had entered the room, both holding guns that aimed at her.

Raising her hands slowly, Hailey glanced over her shoulder and saw that a third offender was approaching Jay, cautiously, as they were both aiming their weapons at each other.

"Better drop that gun, dude," he hissed, "or my partners are gonna drop your partner."

Jay's eyes flickered to Hailey, and then to the two guns that were aimed at her. He pressed his lips together and turned the gun is hands, so that he was holding the barrel, unable to do any damage with it, and lowered it to the ground.

"Your turn, lady," said one one of the other guys, whom she recognized as Trent.

Hailey nodded, her mind racing to form a plan. She slowly reached down to her holster for her gun—

"Wait," the third man barked. "Don't move." He glared at Trent. "Are you crazy? She's a cop, bro, you think she won't drop us both in a millisecond if we give her the chance?"

Could she?

No. The third one holding Jay would kill him before she could. Unless... she had to trust Jay to handle himself. He could take down the third one. She just had to give him a warning— some kind of signal.

The man shook his head and looked back at Hailey. "No, I'll take the gun from her." Slowly, he started walking towards her, a gleam in his eyes that made her feel nauseous. His lips twisted into a cold grin. "She makes a move on me... you shoot the hostages," he said threateningly as he got closer and closer to her.

Hailey raised her head to looked over his shoulder at Trent. "You'd really do that? Kill your own sisters?" she asked him. "They are your sisters, man. Your family. You don't want to do this."

She took an automatic step backward as the man approaching her raised his gun again. "Oh, trust me. We want to do this."

Hailey noticed, then, without looking away from the approaching offender, that the small step has actually brought her closer to the sisters.

"Oh, yeah?" Hailey raised her eyebrows, desperate to stall for time, as she took another small step away from him, closer to the sisters.

She knew what she had to do.

"What about us?" She gestured toward Jay. "Me and my partner? You gonna kill us too?" She tilted her head. "That'll land you in jail for the rest of your lives. You'll never get out."

"Shut up," Trent growled.

Hailey looked at the man still closing in on her. Her words seemed to have made him hesitate, for he had slowed down, and his eyes were flickering uncertainty back at Trent.

"Trent didn't tell you the plan, right? At that rally?" His widening eyes at her words confirmed her theory. He froze where he stood. "Listen to me, man— you went down because of him, not his sisters. If you walk away now, we can help you. We only want Trent."

"Don't do it, man," Trent said warningly. "That bitch is lying to you!" He loaded his gun with a sharp click.

"Hey!" Jay called out angrily, but Hailey knew it was too late. Trent was going to shoot her, or his sisters, no matter what they did. She looked over at Jay, who was looking at her with wide eyes, struggling against the guy holding him. Hailey gave him the tiniest hint of a nod, and then she drew her gun. Simultaneously, she took one more step towards the sisters, putting her between them and Trent. She quickly pulled the trigger, and the offender that had been approaching her dropped to the ground. In a split second, Hailey fired her gun at Trent and instantly spun around — without looking to see if the bullet hit its target — throwing her body over the closest sister, just as a second gunshot rang out.

Trent's bullet, meant for his sisters, hit her in the back of the vest.

She felt it absorb the blow, catching the bullet by spreading its impact across her shoulders and down her spine. It knocked the air out of her lungs, and sent overwhelming pain shooting through her back, neck and even her arms. It was bad enough to momentarily blinding her. Hailey felt her legs buckle and she went to her knees, pressing her hand to the floor for support as she struggled to catch her breath. She blinked against the black spots that were dancing in front of her eyes, and the next thing she knew, she was on her back on the floor. Hailey groaned; the pain was so intense, cutting through her body so sharply that for a second, she wondered if the bullet had gone through the vest.

"Hailey!"

Jay was suddenly beside her, looking distressed. She felt as though a small eternity had passed since she was shot, but in reality it must've been mere seconds until Jay was by her side.

"I'm okay," she wheezed, her battered lungs still having a hard time catching up amongst the shock of the sudden impact that had struck them. "I just— just gotta... catch my- my breath."

"Did it go through?" Jay said worriedly, his hands on her arm as though he was wanting to turn her over and check for himself.

Hailey managed to shake her head slightly, and took in a sharp, shallow breath. "Don't think so."

She turned her head to one side, and saw that Jay had dropped Trent. Beyond the bodies, she saw that the rest of the team was entering the room, their guns raised.

Jay turned his head, too, at the noise that they made.

"Hailey?" Rojas called out as she saw her roommate on the floor, her eyes wide as they looked to Jay.

"She's okay," Jay said, and looked back down at Hailey, adding more quietly; "I think."

She gave him a weak smile before briefly closing her eyes. The pain was still very present, making it hard for her to focus on anything.

"Is this floor clear?" Hailey heard Burgess ask.

"No, they snuck up on us before we could clear the last room," Jay replied. "That's the room they came from."

Hailey heard several pairs of feet shuffling in one direction. Another noise became clear to her when the shuffling died out; the sound of stifled crying.

Hailey opened her eyes and followed the sound. She saw that the sisters were still tied together, and the closest one, then brunette who she recalled was named Hannah, had her eyes fixed on where Trent's body was lying. And she was crying.

"Jay," Hailey said, lifting her hand an inch from the floor to pull on his sleeve. "Jay, free them."

She was surprised that he hadn't done that already. But perhaps, after seeing her get shot, he had been wanting to go to her first. God knows that's what Hailey would've done.

Jay looked reluctant, but after Hailey reassured him again that she was fine, he got up and started untying the sisters.

"It's okay," he mumbled to them, "you're okay now."

Once their hands were free, they pulled the tape off of their mouths.

Sarah, who sat facing away from everything that had gone down, spun around, scanning the room. Her eyes, too, widened as they fell on their brother's body.

"You killed him?" Sarah cried, staring accusingly at Jay.

Hannah, tears still streaming down her face, put a hand on her sisters arm. "Shhh, Sarah," she whispered. "He didn't give them a choice." She nodded toward Hailey, then, who had managed to push herself up onto her elbows. "She took a bullet for us, sis. They saved our lives."

Hailey couldn't help but smile. Despite the pain, despite the ache in her unsatisfied lungs; the fact that both innocent sisters would walk out of there alive was a good day.

Jay knelt beside her again, an arm around her back to help her sit up. She started pulling at her vest to get it off, as Jay radioed for an ambulance.

xXxXx

Hailey was sitting on the rig of the ambulance as the EMT pulled up the back of her shirt to get a good look at the damage. She hissed as he started poking around the place where the bullet hit.

"All right, you'll have some severe bruising for a while," the EMT explained, "but the vest did its job. No internal as far as I can tell, and nothing broken. You were lucky it missed your spine."

Hailey nodded. Lucky was definitely one of the many things she was feeling at the moment.

"That's not what I would call it." Jay had stepped up to the ambulance, and he averted his gaze until the EMT pulled her shirt down again.

"Excuse me?" Hailey said, surprised by the sharpe edge to her partner's voice. She shrugged on her jacket, grimacing as the bruised muscles in her back protested the movement.

"That was a pretty dumb move, Hailey," Jay said angrily. "Two guns on you, one on me— how could you possibly think that opening fire was the right call?"

Hailey frowned. Those words hurt, especially coming from him. "That's not fair, Jay. I made a call, and it was the right one."

"Well, your call put both of us in danger," he snapped. "I mean, why would you risk your life like that?"

Hailey got to her feet. She was starting to get angry; she didn't need a lecturing from Jay, of all people, on risking her life. "That's pretty rich coming from you," she said sharply and hopped down from the rig, flinching as the impact with the ground sent a wave of pain radiating up her back and neck. She squeezed her eyed shut until it passed.

A hand landed gently on her back. "Hails?" Jay's voice was significantly softer now.

She opened her eyes, and looked up at him. His eyes were filled with concern, and something like regret. "Look, I'm sorry, I... you just really scared me, Hailey." He looked at her with an expression of vulnerability, and she felt her anger fade.

"Yeah, well, I know the feeling," she said quietly. "How do you think I felt when you took the hit for me this morning?"

Jay tilted his head, and he thoughtful. "I guess that's fair."

"This is the job, Jay," she said softly. "And if I have the chance to save someone... I will."

Jay nodded. "I know." He sighed. "I appreciate the way you trusted me to handle myself in there. And... I'm sorry I doubted you. It's just, when I saw you get shot..." He didn't finish the sentence, but the look in his eyes grew more intense as they met hers.

"I get it," she said. "You didn't see the situation the way I did. I probably would've reacted the same way, if it were you. In fact, I already have." She looked down at her hands. "When I found you shot, in that basement with Angela..." Hailey couldn't finish the sentence either.

"Hey," Jay said softly to get her attention. When she didn't look up, his fingers reached up to touch her chin, tilting her face upwards. "We're both okay, right?"

"Yeah." She gave him a small smile and tilted her head. "And we're always gonna be good."