AN: I hope you don't get bored by the storms calming down for a moment, but I felt like Jay and Rianne needed a break from extreme drama for a second. So the next chapter(s) are probably going to be a bit about them exploring a little more day-to-day-life and a perspective for their future together and of course Jay is still healing up from his injuries. I was somewhat amazed by his speedy recovery on the show.

As always a big shout-out, thank you and my appreciation for your support and comments! XO

Chapter Title "Hymn 101" by Ballroom Thieves

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the Chicago PD, Fire or Med characters, only my OCs!

On Wednesday Rianne hurried to get back to the hospital and to Jay, cursing herself for her time management.
Her morning had taken somewhat more hours than she originally established and now she was a little late for rounds at Med. She had wanted to hear for herself if Jay would be out of there soon or if there were further complications.

While Jay had been feeling better every day in general and his injuries were healing, he had spiked a little fever Monday night. It had went down pretty quickly in the morning, but nonetheless especially Will and her had been worried. Sometimes she still was not able to believe that they had gotten so lucky, so everything seemed pretty fragile. Every time she heard him talking to and looking at her with those soulful eyes it felt a little unreal after the state she had seen him in when he was rolled into the hospital just five days ago.

Jay and her had yet to figure out a lot for themselves and between them in the aftermath. For the time being though Rianne at least was just contend to sit and lie with him, keep him company and not give him any more grief about what happened and he seemed to feel the same. Besides of course wanting to get out of Med a.s.a.p. because he was convinced that nothing good ever happened in hospitals and any argument about that with him was pointless.

Yesterday evening she'd gone home for the first time, feeling like she needed to take care of some things, finally take a real shower and change into some other outfit to make her feel more like herself again.
Rianne had then spoken to her boss today and applied for more days of personal leave. Apart from wanting to take care of Jay and be there for him, make good on her intend to not walk away from this, she thought she should probably take Dr. Charles' advise and use the time to rest up herself, get her head cleared and not just carry on as if nothing had happened. It was the first time she had ever really asked for that: take time off work besides vacation days.
After her and Andrea's accident she'd been back on the job as soon as she could get out of bed again and was cleared by her superiors.
She had always just cried and suffered in silence after-hours and in the administered therapy-sessions.

Feeling actually pretty good about this new approach and herself, her mood was a bit damped by the scene she witnessed when she finally got to Chicago Med:

Jay was out of bed and fully dressed, his partner Hailey in the room with him.
Right when Rianne walked in she was helping him put on his thick black sweater-jacket, arranging it neat and carefully around his left shoulder. Rianne knew he couldn't really do it himself, because he was a little handicapped with the sling they had to put his arm in. Til further instructions from the medics he had to take the pressure off his shoulder with it.
But why did Hailey have to be the one to do it?

In general it had been really touching to see how well liked among his colleagues Jay was. There had been a constant flow of visitors and people sending him messages and asking about him. His unit had been there everyday, so of course had Hailey.
But how she was helping Jay now didn't sit right with Rianne. Something about the way she looked at him while she did it was a little too intimate for Rianne's taste. At the same time she was taken aback by that unknown feeling of jealousy. Until now this had always been no concern to her, not ever, although Andrea surly had had a way of being flirtatious with everyone from time to time. Rianne had never really asked herself why she hadn't felt that burning notion in her stomach until now. She didn't like it at all, especially since she actually couldn't say a bad thing about the blonde detective.

"What's up guys?" Rianne made her presence known casually.

Hailey stepped two steps back from Jay. This felt a little awkward, like Rianne had walked in on something she wasn't allowed to see, which was odd.

"Hey, right on time! I am a free man..." Jay seemed almost chipper and beamed at her from across the room.

Rianne was not so sure if this was his idea or if he really had been cleared by the medical staff. So she looked at him skeptically:

"D'you think this is a good idea?"

Jay rolled his eyes towards the ceiling: "I am going stir crazy in here."

"The man hates hospitals..." Hailey joined in, making Rianne feel a bit stupid and causing her to snap at Hailey:

"Yeah, I know the man hates a lot of things that are actually good for him, so what? Life's not a request program. What did the doctors say?" She purposefully just looked at the man in the room.

Jay knew what she was silently asking him with her eyes: 'Why didn't you call me right away?'

"You said you'd come around noon anyway," he answered a little warily.

"Yeah, right... Sorry, I wasn't here earlier, but I had to take care of something..."

Something that was rather a big thing for her she hadn't told him about yet.
Rianne hated to feel like she had to explain herself and that she somehow didn't do a good enough job at taking care of him. Maybe she already sucked at the girlfriend thing altogether? Somebody else was obviously just waiting around the corner to swoop in and do it for her.
So she was glad that Jay caught on to her confusion and inner conflict. He came to stand beside her kissing her temple and filled her in on all the news:

"Dr. Marcel said I am good to go as long as I take it slow and check in daily with him or Will and come back immediately with any kind of dizziness, fever or increasing pain. But as we have been working on getting me back on my feet constantly, we are feeling very positive about letting me go."

Rianne knew he was probably exaggerating to make her feel better and raised her eyebrows at him. Indeed the medical staff had made him leave the bed for little walks every day to help built his strength back up and get his circulation going.

"I can give him a ride home if you have to go back to work," Hailey offered quickly, before Rianne had even wrapped her head around the fact that Jay was ready to leave the hospital right now!

"Actually I just took the rest of the week off, so I am taking him home with me. But thanks for offering," Rianne forced herself to smile and grabbed Jay's right hand kind of possessively, yet she gave it her all to keep her tone towards Hailey civil.

After all the other woman just meant well. They had been through a lot together, so Jay almost dying must have had Hailey thrown for a loop as well.
Rianne looked up at him, studying his face:
He gave her his shy half-smile that made her weak at the knees every time, it was so sweet.
Jay must have seen her looking at the phone in his hand then, which she knew was not his private one. It was the one she had picked up from her bedroom floor last week. It made her immediately nervous and got her heart-rate up. That phone was a constant reminder of how and why it all had gone so terribly wrong and why they were here in the first place.
Without saying anything Jay suddenly handed it over to his partner:

"Hailey, would you get rid of that for me? I am applying for a new one once I get back on the job..."

Rianne's heart jumped up in her chest, inner victory fist held up high. This meant everything to her. She let him know she appreciated the gesture by gently hugging his side and he squeezed her waist back.

"Of course," Hailey sounded a bit astonished, but took the phone anyway and left with it:

"I'll leave you guys to it then... Feel better Jay, keep me in the loop."

On what? On his everyday status? Rianne thought not so, scolding herself at the same time for that bitchy thought. She really had to get a handle on feeling threatened by Hailey.

"What d'you mean by: 'I am taking him home with me'?" Jay asked her before Rianne started up the motor of her van.

He had been mock complaining about having to drive in that vintage, spluttering ride of hers, wondering if they would even make it as far as three miles in this thing, but he secretly liked that she had pulled up in front of the hospital for him, causing a bit of a scene. Getting himself into the car with using only one arm and hand because his left was in that stupid sling and still somewhat useless, his cracked rib not really healed either, had been a bit of an ordeal. Jay already hated to feel this immobile and that he couldn't even drive by himself. Knowing his impatience this would be one of the first things he needed to try though when he got the chance. Driving stick would probably be out of the question, but most cars, in his universe at least, were automatic anyway. He couldn't stand being that dependent on his fellow humans for longer than necessary.

Rianne didn't answer him right away and pulled out of the hospital driveway first, the three paper cranes hanging from her front view mirror shaking madly with the movement of the car. In general that van was pretty noisy. Not only because of the old engine, but because of all the nick-nack around and some stuff in the cupboards rattling like mad whenever one drove around the corner or over a pothole. Somehow it was also the most fitting ride for that woman next to him. Just as odd and certainly high maintenance, as well as very peculiar. Jay couldn't help but smile to himself imagining how their pairing must look to the world outside. Clean-cut police officer and ex-soldier riding off into the sunset in a hippie-dippie dream with a bohemian queen by his side. He never would have thought that it would allay his concerns about her well-being to that extent: But seeing her in today's colorful outfit, consisting of yellow corduroy paperback shorts over black tights, white top under a striped long woolen cardigan that reached almost down to the floor and some crazy-embroidered cowboy boots on her feet, ready to take on the world again, made him feel a lot better. As it had been constantly raining and slowly getting colder for the last few days her hair was hidden under a grey skater cap making her look all hipster-cute.

"What do you think it means?" Rianne just threw a sideways glance in his direction after she had reached S Ashland Avenue, her bangles dangling along with her paper cranes, when she changed gears.

She really was gonna make him say it.

"Does it mean that we are not parting ways at my front door?!" Here's hoping it did!

Man, maybe he really had abandonment issues like his brother had said. Jay felt like a little child that didn't want his mum to leave yet. Although thinking of Rianne as his mum was probably a little inappropriate.
But for real: He wasn't ready to be alone and just wanted her to stay with him, give him a bit of assurance that this was for real. Jay was mostly afraid of having to face the nights alone. His last one in the hospital had sucked pretty much already as he had been adamant to take as few painkillers and anti-anxiety pills as he had to. He wanted to keep a clear head nevertheless. But once that head started spinning it was hard to jump off that wagon on his own without any distraction. And as work and working out wasn't an option at the moment, there was only so much left to do by himself.

Rianne and him hadn't really talked about what would happen once he was released.
Jay never really asked anything of anyone, that was why it was so hard to say out loud. But he would have liked to ask so much of her. Jay wanted her to not only spent this night with him and help keep the demons away, but all the following ones as well. He couldn't really say that though could he? It sounded weak and clingy and he had made it as far as 34 just fine without someone constantly by his side holding his hand, hadn't he?

"It means we're going to pack up some stuff at your place and then I am keeping an eye on you at mine for the next few days, until I am sure you don't need a babysitter anymore!"

Jay didn't like the expression 'babysitter'. Otherwise he didn't dare to fight her plan. To recover with a view sounded real nice. Every fibre of his screamed "Yes!" at the top of their lungs, but he didn't say anything yet.

"And in case you were wondering why I'm not gonna stay at your place I guess the answer is pretty easy: Límon would be furious with me for bringing him to a home with no roof access and an empty fridge, so I guess you'll have to understand: My place it is, end of story!"

She was struggling to keep a serious face, but when Jay just looked at her with raised eyebrows she burst out laughing and reached for his knee to squeeze it:

"Just relax, I think he will show you the best escape routes out of there if you get sick of me!"

"I doubt that'll ever happen..." Jay really couldn't imagine that, he couldn't wait to discover all he didn't know about her.

"Just wait until you catch on to all my strange routines. We really have just been seeing little sequences of our lives until now, probably even behaving ourselves, so I'll guess this should be interesting..." Rianne mused.

Pulling up at the curb in front of his apartment she added: "But I am also kind of excited!"

She quickly got out of the car to come around his side and open the door for him, although he could do that himself just as well.
When he got out he pulled her in for a sweet kiss, having a better angle to do this now than in the car.

"Me too," he smiled into her bright eyes, just thankful for her candor and relieved they got the chance to do this together.

His apartment was extraordinary clean when they went in. Jay had almost been afraid it would look exactly the same as a week ago, where he'd wreaked a bit of a havoc in here, just sleeping and eating take-out in between working, worrying about his relationship, trying to come up with a solution about Angela and going to see her anyway. It felt like a lifetime ago, like he stepped into someone else's life.

Of course Rianne couldn't know how bad a state this place had been in, but she seemed to find it unrealistic that it looked this spotless after being empty for so long.

"D'you have a cleaning lady after all?" she commented when she took a look around.

"No, I guess Hailey … did a bit of tidying up when she came here to get me some stuff," Jay was embarrassed to admit that, but didn't wanna lie to her.

He had detected a little bit of a cat-fight in progress between Rianne and Hailey earlier at the hospital. This certainly would not help to cool things down.

"Ay, caracho! She needs to back off a little!" Rianne's eyes went wide and Jay thought any minute now he would see actual steam come out of her nostrils.

"Yeah, but she's my partner…" he tried to reason with her, beginning to search for a big enough bag to throw a few things in.

"Right, she's your partner at work! But I am your partner too now, you know? And I would like to think that I have more rights and access!"

"Do you now?" Jay watched her try to quickly reign in her temperament and felt his heart thump strongly in his chest:

"Is someone a little jealous?"

"Do I have a reason to be?" She positioned herself in front of him, hands on her hips, ready to go to war.

Jay put his hand to her cheek to stop her mind from racing. Then he softly spoke, trying very hard not to grin too broadly at her. He found it kind of cute how she still thought he would not see right through her front:

"You're the only one with an access-all-areas VIP-exclusive pass, scout's honor!"

"Good save!" She momentarily leaned into his hand, smacked a kiss on his wrist and then helped him get his stuff, so they could go get some rest.

Jay found that Rianne had prepared everything at her home for him, so the decision to take him there with her had not been a spontaneous one.
She did not do it in a loud and pretentious way, but there were small details in the loft that she had arranged, almost not mentioning them. She knew he would notice though and it felt just nice.
For example there were now two pillows and blankets on her bed, although he expected they would end up sharing one set anyway. A fresh towel was hanging beside the one she obviously used at the moment, there was an empty glass at the basin he could put his toothbrush in and she had cleared away some of her cosmetic stuff that was usually cluttering all the space, so he could put his few things up with hers too. There were even two empty drawers in her room for his clothes, so that he didn't have to live out of a bag for the time being. Rianne also had bought some sports magazines and some special motorcycle paper she must have seen him having earlier issues of. She'd arranged extra cushions and blankets on the big sofa, making sure he'd be comfortable enough when propping himself up in front of the TV. Thankfully Nate hadn't taken that away. He really hoped there were some good games coming up they could watch on that giant ceiling screen to pass the time.

Concerning that topic:

"What happens when Nate gets back?"

After putting his stuff away, Jay joined Rianne in the kitchen, where she was busy preparing something for dinner.

"I just know he's still shacked up in his family's vacation home according to Adam. Told him to call me as soon as he hears otherwise."

"Okay… what are you making there, it looks…"

"Healthy?" Rianne really was chopping a lot of vegetables.

"Yeah… thought you would nurse me back to health with comfort food, like…"

"Mac'n'Cheese, hm?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but as I guess Mac'n'Cheese is the only thing you can really cook, you make some for me one day. Today it's veggie day I'm afraid!"

Jay was pouting, but reached for her body anyway. He couldn't believe that she had caught him out on something he hadn't told her yet, again.

"Thanks for all the preparations, the magazines by the way - I really appreciate it," Jay ran his fingers through the fine hair in her neck.

"Yeah, I don't wanna risk you getting bored, so…" she hugged his torso and winked at him.

It seemed she was a little embarrassed by his gratitude.

"Why should I get bored if I get to watch you all day?"

"Ew, I think you're really getting better. You're all smooth and charming again…" she wanted to step out of his embrace, but he didn't let her, as best as he could with just one arm.

"But it's true! I am grateful that we get to really be together you know? Although there probably could have been a less dramatic way to do this…"

Really be together for their first 24 hours out of the hospital meant mostly: Catch up on some sleep.
Frustrating as it was for him, being used to depend on the strength and fitness of his body everyday, Jay was pretty wiped out after that first afternoon out of bed. Being up on his feet for longer than he had been in days had exhausted him.
So after having had an early dinner they had settled on the couch, lights dimmed, the city noise of Chicago softly crawling in through the open balcony doors. Rianne was a sucker for that early evening atmosphere in autumn and she loved a bit of crisp air around her nose while she was cosying up with Jay under some blankets. The color of the sky today was unreal, as the sun set and drenched everything in a dark orange, some purple blue rain clouds looming just above that light.
It was funny that her and Jay noticed on this occasion that they'd already developed some kind of habits with each other that had to be rearranged because of Jay's injury now. Normally Rianne always used to lie, sit or go on his left side.

They were both quiet, looking out at the spectacle of the sunset. Rianne was trying not to move to let Jay relax into her. Holding him in her arms without any hospital room restrictions or prying eyes around felt extremely precious in this moment. It got her all warm and tingling inside. He was a bit restless by her side, his brows furrowed, eyes opening and closing as if he was fighting sleep.

"Stop thinking so loud Jay, you're giving me a headache!" She had a hunch that he was sitting on something.

"Sorry, I just feel like there is so much to figure out, things spinning in my head and I think I still owe you some kind of explanation…"

The Angela topic indeed had been avoided up until now, at least in direct words. Rianne had felt like she needed to give him space to process, not push him. If he wanted to talk to her about it she was sure he eventually would:

"There is no rush. We can just stay in some kind of bubble for a while, heal over. You talk when you're ready to talk, I'll be over here. And if you wanna sleep all day instead it's fine with me too. It's alright to take a minute and press pause for a while." If only she would listen to her wise advise herself more often, she thought sighing.

"I'm afraid I'm not very good at this …" Jay sighed too, now finally closing his eyes.

"Me neither, so we'll learn together…"

Combing through his hair she noticed that it had gotten longer than he usually wore it and soft waves were fighting through them on his forehead. Smiling to herself she continued to run her fingers along them. This was actually really soothing for her too.

"What are you smiling about?" She had thought that Jay had dosed off.

"Just the fact that you actually seem to be a bit of a Curly Sue, when you don't get your regular cut…"

"Yeah, we need to do something about that…" he mumbled, turning even more into her, using her stomach as a cushion.

"Why we?" Rianne didn't get an answer to that anymore, because this time Jay was really fast asleep.