The Monday Hailey was going to turn in her papers and step down from working for the foreseeable future, Robbery-Homicide showed up in the bullpen to pass over a case. Three stores in the area had been broken into at closing; the owners had been brutally murdered and any of the day's earnings were stolen.

Filing the papers away in her desk had been easy. The look on Jay's face when she walked into Hank's office to offer the lead was borderline funny – even Vanessa looked slightly shocked.

Hailey pushed them to the side though. She didn't care. She wanted to work. She needed this case. For one, the idea that some crazy-minded disgusting people were absolutely ruining others' lives horrified her and it needed to end. But also, what was more full circle than making her final case one in which she was the lead detective for something Robbery-Homicide couldn't solve on their own?

She needed this.

It had taken her a total of fifty-six minutes to connect the victims – all were a part of the LGBTQ+ community and were very politically vocal on their personal social media accounts. Each store's Facebook page had been receiving a variety of threats for the past month from a far-right extremist group. The issue, though, was that the members of the group were actually smart enough to lock down their accounts enough that it was not easy to figure out who they were.

She found herself staying later than her usual 3pm. Jay picked up Drew and Blake everyday for a week from school and daycare so she could focus on what was happening.

It was early Saturday morning and Hailey was picking out her clothes for the day so she could attempt to wrap up the case and intercept the next attack with Intelligence when her stomach twisted.

She cleared her throat and ignored the bubbling feeling growing as she slipped her jeans on.

Jay walked in their bedroom carrying a softly crying Blake, "Will said he just left, you almost ready? I have a bagel for you."

Hailey nodded and wiped her forehead, "Is he okay?"

Jay glanced at Blake and chuckled, "Yeah, he's fine. I said 'no' to him grabbing the knife from my hand when I was…" he trailed off to watch Hailey lean over to steady herself on her knees and take several deep breaths, "Hailey."

She coughed then her eyes widened and she covered her mouth in time for her to hurry into the adjacent bathroom where she emptied her stomach in the toilet.

Hailey steadied herself against the toilet and gasped for breath.

Jay hurried in the bathroom and set Blake in the empty tub to hold Hailey's hair back, "Hey, it's okay," he used his other hand to rub circles on her back, "Breathe through it."

Hailey reached up to grab tissue to wipe her mouth off, "I'm fine."

Jay nodded, "Take a minute though."

"God," Hailey slowly sat down on the tile, "So…morning sickness?"

Jay chuckled and sat behind her, "You think? You don't feel gross?"

"I feel disgusting," Hailey shook her head, "But, yeah, it's not like when we had the flu last year. I think I'll be able to function in a minute or two."

"Good," Jay kissed the back of her head, "We can wait it out."

Hailey let out a soft groan as she leaned back into him. Her head was resting against his shoulder as she relaxed and let the sick feeling leave her.

"Mm-mama. Mama."

Hailey laughed softly and turned against Jay to look in the tub, "Hi, little baby."

Blake reached for her and giggled.

Hailey smiled as she lifted him into her lap, "Are you going to be good for Uncle Will today?"

Blake grabbed her hair and twisted it between his small fingers.

Jay kissed Hailey's head again, "We're going to have another one of him."

Hailey laughed, "We are – a little baby that maybe will be obsessed with your hair instead."

Jay smirked, "I don't know. Sticky fingers in my hair all the time? Not something I want."

Blake looked up at Jay and burst into a loud laugh.

Jay raised an eyebrow, "What? What're you laughing at?"

"I think he thinks you're funny looking," Hailey said, "I know I do."

Jay laughed and squeezed her back against him, "Shut it."

"Never," Hailey laughed.

There was the soft sound of feet and they both looked up in time to see Drew rubbing his eyes in the doorway.

"Hi, honey," Hailey said softly, "Good morning."

"Good morning," Drew mumbled.

"Hey," Jay reached out and lightly patted his leg, "Did you have a bad dream?"

Drew shrugged and yawned while sitting down next to him, "I'm just tired."

"I see," Jay gently pulled him closer, "Well, we're waiting in here for Uncle Will. He's gonna watch you today."

"It smells in here," Drew pressed his face in Jay's side.

Hailey blushed slightly and scooted closer to the toilet to flush it, "Sorry."

Drew yawned and shrugged.

Hailey turned toward him just to watch him. He was curled up in Jay's side and it warmed her heart more than she could put into words. He still didn't like when they'd touch his hair unexpectedly and would push them away when he was overwhelmed, but he'd become so much more comfortable with them over the past year. He was willingly letting Jay hold him just because he was tired. He wanted to feel Jay and Hailey breathed shakily at the image in front of her. Blake seemed to be a Momma's Boy, but Drew was a Daddy's Boy no doubt. She wondered who the baby inside her would gravitate toward more.

The doorbell rang and Drew groaned as he blinked his eyes and woke up from the slight daze he'd just fallen in.

"That's Uncle Will," Jay stood with Drew against him and reached a hand out to help Hailey up, "You feeling okay?"

"Yeah," Hailey cleared her throat and passed him Blake, "Hold him while I brush my teeth?"

"Course," Jay smiled and bounced Blake, "Let's go have breakfast."

"Can I have waffles?" Drew asked while they walked downstairs.

Jay chuckled, "Yeah, go wait at the table."

"Can I carry Buzz?" Drew grabbed Jay's shirt.

Jay looked at Blake, "What do you think? Will you let Drew hold you?"

Blake babbled and covered his face.

Drew smiled, "That's a yes."

"Sure," Jay laughed and carefully passed him Blake, "Gentle, be gentle."

"I know," Drew rolled his eyes and carried Blake to the kitchen.

Jay opened the door for Will, "Thanks for coming."

"No problem," Will said while stepping inside, "Always down for babysitting my favorite nephews."

"Pretty sure they're your only nephews," Jay closed the door.

"Better be," Hailey laughed as she came down the stairs, "Hi, Will."

"Hey," Will smiled, "How're you feeling?"

Hailey's face fell slightly and she looked to Jay, "What?"

Will raised an eyebrow, "Just wondering…are you…are you sick?"

"No," Hailey shook her head, "No, sorry, I…sorry."

Jay watched amused then put his shoes on, "All right, let's go, Hails."

She rubbed her face before shoving her own shoes on her feet and walking past them to the kitchen.

Will looked to Jay, "Is she-"

"Don't," Jay chuckled, "Just ignore her."

Will started to smirk and touched his stomach, "Jay?"

"Don't," Jay repeated and squeezed Will's shoulder. He followed Hailey to the kitchen to see her kissing Drew's head and giving him a quick hug. "Everyone's going to behave?" Jay asked.

"I am," Drew nodded quickly.

Jay laughed and squatted next to him to poke Blake's stomach, "And you?"

Blake responded by grabbing Jay's nose and laughing.

"Yeah," Jay chuckled softly as he stood, "Be good."

Hailey grabbed the bagel Jay had prepared for her off the counter and smiled at him, "Let's go wrap this up."

Jay nodded and, with a last goodbye to Drew and Will, grabbed Hailey's hand and led her out to the truck. "You ready?" he asked once he started driving.

Hailey took a deep breath, "Yeah, I need this to be over."

Jay glanced to her once he realized she wasn't going to say more and said, "Care to elaborate?"

Hailey smiled slightly and rested her head back, "I've been sort of getting excited at the thought of staying home with Blake and seeing Drew more. I'm going to miss working so much, but Jay, our kids are so damn cute."

He laughed, "They are."

"And I want to spend time with them," Hailey continued, "This case isn't over yet, but I think it's brought me closure. I'm being a detective for a robbery-homicide case again. Can't be a coincidence."

Jay smiled with a nod, "I've liked seeing you lead a case again especially one that has resulted in so much pain for the victims' families."

Hailey shook her head, "It's been horrible. I still don't get how people can be so awful to others and want to murder them because they love someone of the same gender. Disgusting."

"I know," Jay grabbed her hand and squeezed it softly.

"It'll be over soon," Hailey took a deep breath, "It has to be. We're so close."

"I think it'll work," Jay nodded.

Hailey smiled at him then started eating her breakfast, "I hope so."

Kim held out the iPad with the live stream from the hate group, "I'd say ten minutes."

Hailey nodded and looked at everyone, "All right, let's get in position. Kim and I will cover the back, Vanessa and Kev take the side entrance, and Jay and Adam at the front. Try not to shoot if you can help it, but-"

"No promises," Adam said.

Hailey breathed in, "Yeah."

As everyone split up, Jay stayed back and grabbed Hailey's arm, "Are you sure you want to stick around?"

She held his eye contact for a moment then nodded, "Yeah, I'm good. It'll be fine."

Jay wanted to fight her. He wanted to tell her to turn around and run back home, but she was clear this past week. She needed the closure this case was bringing her.

"Okay," Jay whispered. His hand slid down to hers and squeezed it before pressing a quick kiss to her forehead and turning to follow Adam and Kevin to the front of the store.

Hailey closed her eyes briefly and hurried after Kim. She was going to be fine.

She was going to be fine.

Drew passed Will a crayon, "I have a secret."

Will smiled, "Do tell."

"You have to keep it a secret too though," Drew said.

"Oh," Will set the crayon down and held out his pinky, "Dude, come on."

Drew laughed and linked his pinky to Will's quickly, "I think I'm making a friend."

Will's eyes widened, but he knew his face was lighting up, "That's great! What's his name?"

"No, it's a her," Drew corrected, "It's Rosie – the other different girl in my class. We go to Mr. King's room together to talk and she's nice."

"That's really cool, bud," Will said and picked up his crayon again, "But why can't we tell your mom and dad?"

"Because I need to know for sure that Rosie's a good person," Drew shrugged and returned to coloring his picture of space, "What if she's mean? Then I have to tell Mom and Dad that I made a mistake and was friends with a bully. That would not be good."

Will lightly shoved Drew's arm, "That's silly. They would never be upset or mad that you became friends with someone who ended up being mean."

"But wouldn't that mean I'm a mean person too?" Drew asked.

"As long as you don't do mean stuff," Will shook his head, "Not at all. A lot of people make mistakes and that's okay. Making friends is tough."

"I'll say!" Drew sighed, "It's a lot of thinking. It makes me nervous."

"Why're you nervous?" Will sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"She's pretty much a stranger," Drew shrugged, "Duh. I have to be careful about who I let in my life."

Will chuckled, "All right, bud."

"Are you laughing at me?" Drew asked quietly.

"Oh, no, no, not at all," Will said, "I just think it's interesting how you think. You and I are different people."

"Obviously," Drew smiled a little, "You're old."

"I'm old?" Will laughed, "Drew!"

Drew blushed, but tried not to laugh, "Yeah?"

"I am not old," Will said.

"You're older than my dad and my dad's old," Drew bit his lip over a smile.

Will shook his head and grabbed Drew to hug him to his side, "You're something else."

Drew let out a laugh and pushed him away, "Stop."

"Never," Will smirked and stood, tossing Drew over his shoulder, "We're gonna fight this out."

"No!" Drew laughed harder, "No wrestling!"

"I think we're going to wrestle," Will laughed and carried Drew to the living room, "You need to be taught a lesson about what old means."

Drew couldn't stop laughing as Will dropped him on the couch and started tickling him, "I'm good! I'm a good kid!" He tried rolling away, but Will's grip on him was too strong and he got lost in his fit of laughter.

Hailey gasped for breath as Jay ripped at her bulletproof vest. Her eyes were filled with hot tears and her hands were shaking from their spot on the ground.

"Come on, come on!" Jay yelled and threw her vest behind him.

"I-I wasn't shot," Hailey panted, "I wasn't shot."

"You were thrown," Jay snapped, "Stop talking!"

His hands slipped under her shirt and ghosted over her stomach before moving them to her back to search for anything out of the ordinary.

Two minutes before, he had turned the corner behind the counter in time to see one of the offenders, a man twice his size, sneak up behind Hailey and quite literally lift her over his head and toss her into the wall so he could run past her.

He had felt his heart drop as she crumbled to the floor. He couldn't even pull the trigger on his gun; all he could think about was Hailey and their baby.

It didn't matter though because Kevin had beat him to it and quickly shot the man, so all Jay had to do was run over to Hailey and make sure she was okay.

Hailey groaned and tried rolling away from him.

"Stop," Jay breathed and held her still, his fingers gently pressing along her sides.

"What are you even looking for?" Hailey asked through her teeth.

"I have no idea," Jay swallowed. He looked around at the destruction of the small store. He could hear an ambulance in the distance and nodded to himself.

Hailey squeezed her eyes shut at the pain radiating from her back. Her current position was not at all comfortable. She needed to roll over, but she was terrified the baby had already been hurt and that rolling onto her stomach would make things worse.

Vanessa was suddenly on Hailey's other side brushing her hair back, "Hey, what happened?"

"He through her," Jay said and started standing, "Can you help her sit up? I'm carrying her out to the ambulance."

Vanessa nodded and slipped an arm under Hailey's shoulders.

"I'm fine, I can walk," Hailey said despite the tears that began falling down her face.

Vanessa and Jay made eye contact then quickly got Hailey into Jay's arms. Vanessa followed Jay outside keeping a hand on his back because she could tell he was starting to lose any sort of calm he'd had.

"Jay!" Adam called out behind him.

Jay ignored him and stopped outside the ambulance just as Sylvie came around the front. "You need to take her," he said.

"Was she shot?" Sylvie asked.

"No," Jay breathed shakily, "She was thrown. She-"

"Jay, we're answering the call for gunshots," Sylvie opened the backdoor and started pulling out her medical supplies, "I can look at Hailey-"

"She's pregnant," Jay snapped, "You need to help her or I'm taking this damn car myself and bringing her to the hospital."

Hailey whimpered in Jay's arms and tucked her head further into his chest.

Sylvie took a deep breath then nodded, "Okay."

Will paced the living room while soothing Blake in his arms, "Shh, shh, you don't need to cry."

Drew came in from the kitchen and held out a teething ring, "Here you go."

"Thanks, bud," Will took it from him and slipped it in Blake's mouth, "There you go, you're okay, yeah, everything's okay."

Drew sat on the couch to watch. He pursed his lips then pulled his feet up on the cushions, "Uncle Will?"

"Yeah?" Will continued walking circles around the coffee table.

"This happens to all babies, right?" Drew asked.

Will chuckled, "Yeah, everyone used to be a baby and we all have teeth, so this happened to everyone."

"Huh," Drew nodded, "I wonder what it was like for me. I got my teeth before my real parents decided they didn't want me. I hope they were nice to me like you and Mom and Dad are to Blake because this crying business is annoying."

Will bit his lip and stopped walking to look at him.

Drew didn't seem to notice though and just shrugged before picking up the book he'd abandoned a few minutes ago and continued reading it.

Will took a deep breath then stepped over to lightly squeeze Drew's shoulder.

Drew glanced up at him, "Yeah?"

"I am really glad you're in my family," Will said.

Drew smiled, "I'm glad I am too. I think it's cool that I have a real uncle now and we even have the same last name."

"We do," Will sat next to him with a soft chuckle, "Are you happy?"

"Most of the time," Drew nodded, "Sometimes my head hurts, you know? But my mom and dad help me out."

"Good," Will nodded, "That's really good."

"Yup," Drew flipped the pages of his book, "I can read to you if you want."

Will smiled, "Sure, I'd like that."

"Cool," Drew cleared his throat before beginning to read.

"Hailey, can you relax?" Natalie asked softly.

Hailey swallowed and blinked against the tears still burning her eyes, "I-I'm trying, but…"

"It'll be okay," Jay whispered in her ear. He squeezed her hand he had gripped between both of his, "Whatever happens, it'll be okay."

"You don't even believe that," Hailey's voice cracked, "That's why we're here."

Jay brushed her hair back, "I…We'd rather be safe than sorry, right?"

Hailey held back a sob, having grown more and more nervous since Jay had lowered her onto the stretcher in the back of the ambulance half an hour before, and nodded. She focused on Jay's hands and the way his right thumb was rubbing against her knuckles slowly. It seemed to have a mind of its own because it was strangely calm compared to the rest of Jay.

Focusing on it worked, though, and soon enough she took a deep breath and relaxed enough for Natalie to begin the internal ultrasound.

"There you go," Natalie said, "All right, we don't know how far along exactly, right?"

"Four to five weeks, maybe six," Jay answered without looking away from Hailey's eyes, "The doctor didn't do an ultrasound last time because she didn't think she'd even be able to see anything."

"Okay," Natalie nodded, "Hailey, how're you feeling?"

Hailey just shook her head and tensed up again.

"Hey, hey," Jay whispered, "No, come on, it's okay, everything's okay," he released one of his hands from hers and rested it on his head so he could lightly stroke his thumb over her hairline, "Breathe, you're okay."

"But is the baby?" Hailey choked out.

Jay sat up enough to kiss her temple.

Hailey hated that he didn't answer. She closed her eyes and turned her face toward him.

When her body had connected with the wall, the pain was immediate. It felt like she had been hit by a bus. Her first thoughts weren't even the baby because the fireworks that had exploded behind her eyes distracted her from everything real in the moment. It was only when Jay had turned her onto her back that she realized the danger of what had just happened. She was terrified the impact had jostled the tiny, tiny baby inside her enough to ruin everything she had been dreaming about for the past few weeks since she'd learned she was pregnant.

A soft, quick sound filled the small room and Hailey's eyes shot open.

Jay looked over at the screen connected to the ultrasound wand inside Hailey and saw a black and white picture that didn't make much sense to him. What he could make out, though, was the small grey circle toward the top.

Natalie smiled, "And there it is – a strong heartbeat. Everything is looking good."

"Oh my god," Hailey whispered, "Oh my god." She let go of Jay's hand and covered her face, "Oh my god."

Jay weakly laughed and found his own eyes tearing up for the first time since he'd watched Hailey get thrown into the wall, "That's the baby?"

"Yes," Natalie smiled, "Congratulations."

Hailey pressed her hands into her eyes and breathed again, "Oh my god."

Jay chuckled and kissed her forehead, "It's okay. Everything is okay."

Hailey nodded and uncovered her face to look at him, "We're okay."

Jay smiled and set a hand on her stomach lightly, "You're both okay."

Hailey finally smiled and tilted her head up enough to press her lips to his. She had been right all along: she was going to be fine. Thank god.

A/N: Hi everyone! I know it's been a while, but I needed to take a break for a bit because of some *comments* so this is a gentle reminder that you do not have to read my story. If you don't like my AU version of Hailey, ok, cool :) but you don't have to tell me that every chapter.

Maybe some of you are new here and that's awesome! Welcome :) But with that, I'd like to point out that this story is connected to my other story "We Can" as well as a truckload of others. In case you need some backstory, Hailey and Jay have adopted two kids – a now 8yo named Drew that has autism and a now 9 month-old named Blake that was born 5 weeks early addicted to drugs. These experiences have affected both Jay and Hailey and have contributed to Hailey deciding to stay at home with her kids now that she's pregnant.

Do I think Hailey on the show would ever stop working completely because she gets pregnant? Probably not (I actually wrote this in my 2nd ever oneshot that's in this universe called "What Would You Do?" and I recommend you read that one if you want to see where Jay and Hailey stood originally on kids), but this isn't the show. Please let me write my AU future fic in the way I see fit. I'm always open for story prompts, but not when they involve telling me I'm wrong for writing a story I made up. Yes, I try to keep the characters' personalities very close to the show and I follow the events up through S7, but I know this is an AU story and I'm cool with it. I hope you all are too, and if you're not, thank you for starting this story with me, maybe you'll like my stories not as AU or you can peace out, up to you. I'm just here trying to have fun with people who do like this story.

Also, if you want to be mad about a PD storyline, maybe focus that anger at the actual show (like umm where's Vanessa and why has Kevin had a total of like 10 lines in the past three episodes?) and not people like me who are just writing for free online. Just saying.

All right, I'll step off my soapbox for now. Thank you for listening :) I hope you liked this chapter because this story is far from done. ~ Beth