Chapter 8: Unit

Hailey perked up on Jay's lap, listening. When the voices rang out again, they quickly scrambled to their feet. Jay draped his jacket over Hailey's shoulders again and helped her limp to the door where the two of them stilled and quietly listened, barely daring to breathe.

"Call out!" The voices came closer and became clearer. "Hailey! Jay?"

Both detectives expelled the breaths they'd been holding in their lungs in the form of big sighs of relief, and their shoulders visibly relaxed as the tension they'd been carrying crumbled off. Their unit had found them. They were safe.

When they heard their Sergeant's voice call out for them again, they banged on the door, "In here, Sarge!"

Hailey and Jay beamed at each other, and Jay reached out and took hold of the bolt on the door, but instead of pulling it back, he halted his movement and looked back at Hailey. Quickly, he brought his hand up to the side of her face, cupped her cheek, and leaned in to cheerfully press his lips against hers once more, making her heart flutter with elation. When he pulled back, they looked at each other with sparkling, joyous eyes, and Jay swiftly gave her a few more pecks until they heard the bolt get pulled back on the other side of the door.

Jay did the same on their side, and the door opened to reveal Voight and Vanessa standing behind it.

"Are you okay?" Voight demanded to know with fear in his voice as soon as he saw his officers. "There's a trail of blood on the stairs!"

"That's only partially my doing, but I'm fine. We're fine," Hailey reassured him quickly.

Voight and Vanessa gave her and Jay a quick once over to make sure anyway.

"Guys, we've got them," Vanessa informed the rest of their team over the radio.

The relieved responses from their colleagues came in quickly.

"A paramedic needs to have a look at her. A ricochet grazed her ankle, and she could also use a space blanket. It was freezing in here," Jay noted and adjusted his jacket around Hailey's shoulders.

Vanessa's eyes curiously followed his movements and observed the way his hand lingered on his partner's shoulder before they moved up and connected with Hailey's gaze. Her eyebrow twitched up ever so slightly in an inquisitive manner, and since Hailey was still high on a rush of endorphins after what had just happened between her and Jay, she couldn't hold back the smirk that formed on her lips. Trying to hide it, she quickly bit her lip and briefly looked down at her feet, but Vanessa hadn't missed it, and her second eyebrow joined the other far up on her forehead as excitement flashed across her young face.

"Alright. Let's get you two out of here," Voight agreed. "There's an ambulance waiting outside."

"Come, can you walk?" Vanessa asked Hailey attentively and draped Hailey's arm over her shoulders and wrapped her own arm around her friend's back to help her walk up the stairs.

They had taken just a few steps when Vanessa leaned in close to Hailey. "Finally," she whispered into her ear.

Hailey reacted with an amused eye-roll and a sweet simper. "Your observation skills are impeccable. You should consider becoming a cop."

Vanessa chuckled and gave Hailey's waist an excited, little squeeze.

They began to ascend the stairs, and Hailey noticed the substantial amount of blood on the steps. Asher must have been hurt badly.

"What happened?" Voight asked, relieved to see his officers safe and unharmed, but the agitation and concern hadn't left his voice just yet.

"Everything was going well until the fourth member of the robbery crew showed up," Hailey answered as she climbed one step at a time, evading the drops and little pools of blood. "Unfortunately, he recognised me from when I arrested him a few years ago. I don't remember his name, but I know where to look. That's when things went sideways."

Voight and Jay followed close behind the two women. "Why did it take so long for you to get here?" Jay inquired.

"We weren't ready to go mobile, Jay. You knew that," Voight replied as he walked next to him with his thumbs hooked into his vest. "We were trying to catch up to the SUV, but then your GPS cut out."

"Asher Hansen made us hand our phones over," Jay explained. "What about Hailey's necklace? We tried to give you hints about where we were going after we knew you didn't have the GPS to follow anymore."

"The signal cut out once the distance between the transmitter and the receiver became too big," Vanessa responded to Jay's question.

Hailey turned her head to look back at her partner. "We have to go get the necklace. It may not have transmitted anymore, but we should have a recording of everything that happened."

Jay nodded and addressed Voigt as they reached the top of the stairs and entered the big hall. "Then how did you find us?"

"First, we tried locating the SUV through PODs and traffic cameras, and we did find it an hour after we'd lost you, but we weren't able to track it back to a specific location," Voight recounted the events. "Then your phone's GPS turned on again."

Jay's eyes snapped away from the green paint splatter on the wall from when Hailey had thrown the can and met his sergeant's. "The idiots took the phones out of the box!" he laughed bitterly.

Voight nodded. "We tracked your phone to a vet's clinic where we arrested the cousin and the driver in the parking lot. The bag and the watch were in their car. Drake and Asher Hansen were arrested inside. They were forcing the vet to treat Asher's injury at gunpoint."

"You already arrested the guys!" Hailey interjected, surprised by the good news.

"Yeah. Everyone we found at the clinic is at the station right now except for Asher who's at Med. Finding the fourth offender shouldn't be difficult once we have his name," Vanessa added. "Was anyone else there during the buy?"

Both detectives shook their heads.

Jay ran his hand over the back of his head. "Aw, man. I'm glad that everyone's in custody, but I really wish I had been the one to slap the cuffs on Hansen," he sighed.

"You can arrest the last guy," Hailey told him with an encouraging smile.

"True," Jay agreed and returned her smile. "What happened after the arrests?"

"We traced Asher's burner phone to its last location which was this warehouse," Voight concluded.

"Hailey! Jay!" Kim's voice echoed through the warehouse as she came running towards them out of the wide aisle where they had met with Hansen. "Are you okay? We were so worried about you!"

She reached them and placed her hand on Hailey's shoulder. Her eyes immediately found the makeshift bandaging on her ankle.

"We're alright," Hailey reassured her with a comforting smile.

"I'm so glad," Kim sighed and pointed her thumb behind her. "I found your necklace, bag, and shoes by a crate over there."

She held them up, and Jay took the necklace from her to inspect it. "Doesn't look damaged," he determined. "Let's hope it recorded everything."

The group made their way across the warehouse to a different door than the one Hailey and Jay had entered through. Kim held it open, and they were met with a gush of cool evening air and bright blue lights that flashed across the wide parking lot in front of the warehouse and bounced off its walls and the police cars parked there. The sun was just setting behind the horizon and tinged the sky in a warm, orange light.

An ambulance was waiting close to the exit, and Vanessa brought Hailey to the paramedic who greeted her and made her sit down so he could tend to her injury.

Adam and Kevin came jogging around the corner of the warehouse. Both glanced at Hailey sitting in the back of the ambulance with worried looks on their faces, but when she gave them a thumbs up, relief washed over their faces.

"I'll be right back," Vanessa told Hailey and joined the rest of their unit with Adam and Kevin a few feet away from the ambulance.

Jay quickly filled in Kim, Adam, and Kevin on what had happened and answered a few questions. When Voight spoke up to instruct everyone on what their next steps would be, Jay looked over to the ambulance to check on Hailey and found her watching him. A smile formed on his lips, and Hailey mirrored his expression and bit her bottom lip shyly.

What had started as a fairly simple case, had brought their partnership into new and unfamiliar territory, had tested their mutual trust and teamwork, and had ultimately led them into a highly dangerous and life-threatening situation. And yet, all of those factors combined had ended up creating just the right circumstances and state of emotions to finally push Hailey and Jay over the lines and walls they had drawn and built up and had led to a truly special and magical moment.

As Hailey and Jay studied each other from a distance and were once again caught in each other's gazes, neither of them knew what would come next for them. But the first step had finally been taken, and they had all the time in the world to figure it out together.

If you're reading this, I appreciate that you stuck around until the end of this story! I hope that means that you enjoyed it.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to tell me what you think and give me feedback.

N.