DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Chicago PD, Fire or Med characters, only my OCs!
AN: As I announced at the beginning of the story: it is loosely inspired by events of season 7, here's the part where everything began to get really difficult for Jay... I hope you have fun reading my take on things!
Rianne had been helping out Trudy on the farming project since before the weekend. Cleaning up the old factory area with the help of many volunteers had been going well for the last six months. DCFS had granted Rianne permission to summon some of her colleagues to lend a helping hand after-hours to get things done more quickly. Now they actually could start to get kids and teens here and teach them how to grow things from the ground up. To start off her week she had brought two kids along today she thought would be perfect for this sort of work and who would maybe find a place they could regularly come to and do something useful in their free time instead of getting into trouble on the streets.
She had not expected to be running into Jay there today as well. It seemed Trudy had spread the word throughout her department that every muscle was welcome. And Jay probably was the best candidate concerning that matter.
Looking at a kind of different Jay than the drunk one from two nights before, she couldn't help but be impressed once more by the way he carried himself: His arms were half bronzed and half white, where the hem of his olive t-shirt slightly rode up. With all that freckles and muscles, the veins showing on his under arms, Rianne felt like she had another heat wave coming when she saw him carry sacks of soil over to Trudy. And then he stopped by her raised bed and stood really close behind her. Trudy wasn't really paying attention.
She could feel the heat radiating from his body and held her breath, when Jay touched her back, keeping his face upright, acting as if he was just marveling at her work on the plants over here.
"Mrs. Torres Delgado…," he murmured.
"Detective Halstead…" she cleared her throat.
"Saves me a text bumping into you here actually. Feel like swinging by my place tonight? You look like you could use another shower after this," he slipped his fingers under the hem of her top and ran them in tiny circles over her back. "I think my water pressure can just about keep up with yours…" Jay whispered just right behind her ear. She hated him for making her feel totally at his mercy and that he was so smoothly placing innuendos like he just did, reflecting back to the last time they'd seen each other naked.
Even though they had talked about not keeping their fling or whatever this was a definite secret, it felt like they were doing something forbidden and inappropriate because this was a working environment.
Rianne shivered at his touch and watched out for who was watching them, before she turned into Jay, deliberately reaching behind him for some plants, making sure her body, especially her breasts, made full contact with his torso for a moment. When she looked up at his face she saw amusement there, making his lips twitch and laughter lines appear near his eyes. Every time she was amazed how that transformed his otherwise often sombre and serious features. It was fun to begin to understand and read his little signs and tells.
"Does someone want to make up for Saturday night?" She teased.
"If you let me?" His cheeks were a little flushed thinking back to that.
"I'd love to, but I'm not sure I can. I have this late seminar and I don't know when I'll be off," she said in a low voice. For a split second she saw disappointment flicker in his eyes, but before they could hash this out further they were interrupted: "Halstead! Get over here!" Sergeant Platt, looking a bit out of character today in her wide working shirt and the sun hat, suddenly called over to them: "You have to help me spread some manure!"
"Oh crap!" Jay looked a little disgusted, stepping away from Rianne, leaving her suddenly feeling very cold.
"Yeah, it's turkey crap to be exact!" Platt loved to boss her boys around, but was kind of nice about it today. She winked at Rianne and she laughed out loud, catching a glance at Jay's shocked and not really delighted face thinking about the prospect of digging into actual animal droppings.
His radio then began crackling and he immediately took it out from where it was attached to his belt and began turning on some knobs. "Saved by the bell," he smiled and winked, looking not really too sorry. He turned the radio to the right channel to be able to listen in more clearly. The voice on the other side reported shots fired just four blocks away in North Lawndale. Trudy told him how to get there when he looked at her questioningly. He nodded at both the women and turned away, ready to face a new case, all the flirtation and laughter wiped away. It was like a switch to working mode had been turned on. Little did they all know that the following hour should change several lives and especially Jay's in the long run.
Rianne watched him hurry away to his car, answering the radio call as he went and felt her heart pounding in her chest. Was this what this would look like if she kept doing this with him? Just one radio call away from possibly never getting to see him again? She felt her face loose color and tried to get back to work.
"So, I see that coffee break thing between you two went well..." She should have known Trudy would not keep quiet about what she seemed to have been picking up from Jay's and Rianne's vibes.
Rianne groaned and rolled her eyes at the older woman: "Get outta here Trudy! If you still want help with that turkey crap you keep your comments to yourself. And by the way I am not paying you any match-making fees."
Platt just smiled knowingly and Rianne brushed off the anxiety that had threatened to well up inside of her.
"Hey, just checking in. I don't know if this is something we do, but I heard what happened today when you answered that call. Hope you are doing okay…"
She must have heard on the news or from someone else, as she was well connected in the city through her work. News like these traveled fast. Jay was tempted to beg her to call off her plans for the night and come see him. But he had to stay sharp and focused, being with her would just distract him and he felt in order to solve this case he had to keep his rage and anger bottled up together, so he'd be aggressive and decisive enough to do whatever was asked of him. He was frustrated that their suspect, delivered by the newest and not yet approved facial recognition system, hadn't cracked yet, even though he'd not been gentle with his interrogation. But at least they had someone in custody after just one day. He would get him to confess the next day, he would make sure of that.
Those two boys Jay had stumbled upon when he answered that call in the morning, had just been innocent kids, wrong place, wrong time. They'd been shot in the head at close range while they were playing a game of playstation at a gang stash-house. He could save another young boy who had been hiding in the bathroom-stall, just a wall away from where it all went down. Who on earth could be gruesome and ruthless enough to just shoot them because they would maybe tell someone about stolen goods or a drug deal gone wrong? They had just been kids. Nine years old. Jay had to suppress flashbacks to similar images that existed in his head. Images of the war, of other innocent children, caught between enemy lines.
"I'm okay."
He texted, which of course was a damn lie, but he didn't know what else to say.
Rianne was on her way to the gardens again the next day, this time with a colleague of hers. When they passed the quarter where the shooting had taken place yesterday, Rianne noticed Jay's truck parked on the curb near the little community church.
"Wait, can you quickly pull over here? I'll be just a minute!"
Like on impulse these words spilled out of her, she hadn't even thought this through. Her colleague Martha was a little confused, but did as she was told and stayed in the car. Everybody knew that this was a street corner in steady hands of one of Chicago's gangs, so one had to tread carefully here.
Rianne jumped out of the vehicle and kept her eyes open. There was a beneficial car-wash going on. Obviously the people from the neighborhood were raising money for the proper burial of the boys that had been shot yesterday. Often these families couldn't afford something like that — it was a shame really. In front of the little church people had placed flowers, letters and candles, it was a sight of mourning and pain that gave her the creeps. Sadly not the first memorial sight she saw for children.
First she recognized Atwater showing a picture around to bystanders. He waved at her when he saw her and raised his eyebrows in question, probably wondering why she was here as this was not her usual area of work. But when she mouthed "Jay?" at him from a distance, he nodded and pointed behind him. Jay was talking to some folks a few feet further down the street. Rianne gave Kevin the thumbs up and walked on, not really sure what she wanted to say once she had reached her destination.
Before she could though, Jay must have mysteriously sensed something in his back and turned around. He looked straight at her, surprised and stern. She could see he hadn't shaved and therefore was sporting more stubble than usual, dark shadows under his eyes and even deeper frown-lines on his forehead indicated that he hadn't been so okay at all. At least not that okay to be sleeping comfortably. She knew that face on herself all too well sometimes.
He walked to her with three easy steps of his long legs clad in dark denim. She feared that this had been a terrible idea and that he would even be mad at her for coming here and disturb him while he was working, but it was not quite like that.
"Hey, I'm sorry, but…" she started holding her hands up to prevent a tirade from him, but he waved her off.
"What are you doing here?"
"I was on my way to the gardens with a colleague of mine and I saw your truck, I just - I don't know, I guess I needed to see for myself that you're okay."
Jay nervously looked around for who was watching them interact and then motioned to Kevin that he'd be somewhere. She couldn't figure out what their sign language meant exactly. Then he put his hand in her neck, gently making her walk along with him:
"Where's your car?"
"Over there…" she pointed in the direction of their company car with her colleague waiting for her in it.
Jay was in a rush and on a roll she noticed and felt even worse for coming here. This was something she had wanted to prevent from happening. She didn't want to care, but she could not seem to stop it. The only thing keeping her from feeling completely stupid was that Jay's thumb had brushed against her skin a few times while he was steering her away from the scene. When they were halfway back to the car and finally behind some truck and a house entrance that shielded them from view Jay stopped and his expression softened a bit:
"Look, I appreciate your concern and I'm sorry for being so short with you yesterday by text, but there's a lot at stake here and I can't be distracted. And you're a big distraction!"
He tried to smile apologetically and Rianne felt like the clingy girlfriend she never wanted to be. She wasn't even his girlfriend and yet…
"I get that and I am so sorry. I don't know why, but I had this bad feeling…," she trailed off when suddenly Jay's hand cupped her cheek:
"It's okay, really. I don't think anything less of you right now!"
She frowned at him, not really sure what he meant by that. Sensing her confusion her elaborated:
"Don't spin this in the: 'I don't wanna be clingy so next time I'll back up even more and pretend that I couldn't care less about what and how this guy is doing' thing… I can see the wheels in your head spinning right now! I just don't wanna get you mixed up into this. And everyone here has their eyes out on what the police is doing and I don't want them to know you're associated to me. Just in case this goes sideways, and gang stuff more often than not does."
She couldn't do anything but look at him dumbfounded. Why did he figure out what she was thinking? This wasn't even the first time he'd been right about her… Reminding herself to keep breathing she managed to not blush like a teenager because she felt so exposed.
Jay thankfully didn't have more time to spare and decided to just quickly kiss her on the spot where his hand had been holding her face and murmur an:
"I'll call you as soon as this is over and don't worry," near her ear.
When she joined her colleague in the car again Rianne was not really less worried about Jay. She didn't really know why exactly she had that uneasy feeling, as he certainly had seen more of these cases than he could count and had been dealing with them on his own, but something turned her stomach into knots about this.
"Are you dating that hunk?"
Martha asked and winked at her. Rianne quickly had to remind herself to not go off on her, because it felt absurdly inappropriate right now to be making small talk, but how could she know what was going through her mind?
"I don't really know yet…" she answered honestly and watched Jay's back disappear through her window when they drove off again.
As you may have noticed that I've been able to update pretty regularly: I have a lot of this story mapped out already, so there is more to come. Stay tuned ;-)