Vanessa's life goes to s**t but the world doesn't stop spinning.
Her friends won't let her fall.
Filler alert!
Part 2 of the story is starting now, I have the next chapter ready, will post tomorrow or the day after!.
Enjoy.
When Hailey parks in the district's parking lot, Jay is waiting for her in her usual spot, looking passably annoyed.
Before she can get out of her car he motions her to stay put, that he is joining her in.
As soon as he settles in, he doesn't give her a moment to adjust to his energy and blurts"I tried calling you a dozen times! Can you not ignore me like that, please? I was worried!"
Hailey wants to counter him but knows better than being confrontational just now "I... We had to deal with something, I'm sorry, what is it?"
"I went over to your place earlier to check on you guys with what happened yesterday, but there was no one there... I kinda freaked out"
Hailey blinks a couple of times looking puzzled, then realizes what he means.
"Fuck yeah I'm sorry... when was it... The day before yesterday? We decided to stay longer at Kim's, I thought I told you."
"Well you didn't" he answers looking a bit hurt.
"I'm sorry it's just... there's been so much going on."
"Yeah right" After a short silence he continues "Well this is actually what I wanted to talk about, I feel like we've given this enough time and chances to figure stuff out, but in light of what happened yesterday, I was thinking... don't you think we should try another go at convincing Vanessa to come clean about everything? Cause I'm having a hard time justifying to myself what we're doing here. She's is out of the unit, we don't have anything, sounds like a loss to me."
"I know... I know yesterday was bad and trust me I'm also thinking about it non-stop, but to be honest, I feel like if she was ever about to break, it would have been in the very first 48 hours... maybe. I don't think she'll walk it back now. She is clearly ready to pay the price of not coming clean with it, even if I don't understand all her reasons, but maybe it's time we stop fighting this."
"So we just let her being chewed up and spit out by Voight and lose her spot, and we just all move on with our lives?"
"It's not what we're doing; I live with her, trust me I care, I see how it's eating at her, but I can also see how much she is trying to move past it, I'll keep on looking for an opening if any and if I see it I'll work it ok?"
Jay couldn't find anything more to add, they've fought about it, they've negotiated terms around it, they've circled back and forth all kinds of options, they've sometimes even agreed about some details but right now he couldn't think of anything more to convince Hailey...If only he could talk directly to Vanessa; but he knew that meant ripping through Hailey's massive wall of protection around the young woman, and he wasn't sure he had the right tools to do that just yet.
"So you were really worried hun?"
It took a sec for Jay to catch the subtle jokey tone in Hailey's voice.
"Not worried, I just don't like to sit in my car for nothing at 7 in the morning."
"Yeaaah right, get out of here !" laughing, they both exit the car and head for the bullpen in a lighter mood than any other day in a long while.
XXXXXXX
Vanessa had to come up with some made-up story for the girls to let her commute by train, but she needed to do this on her own, to find her rhythm in her new reality, and it wasn't like she didn't know her way around a subway.
With her demotion came a loss of privileges, or at least some perks like borrowing impounded cars from the district garage; not long after she had joined the unit, Voight had let her rotate on a couple of ceased cars off books since she couldn't afford one on her own and insisted to never mention it again until she could afford one herself, but now that was off the table, and she made peace with that too.
It's a little after 8 when dressed in her patrol uniform for the first time since she graduated from the Academy, she reports to the desk sergeant trying to look and sound ready and steady, even though she is stressed out of her mind.
"Good morning Sergeant Platt, where do you want me today?"
The desk sergeant took a few seconds to show explicitly how busy she was before answering
"So let me see... and correct me if I got this wrong, but your Sergeant upstairs played god and decided to kick you from your little Mount Olympus last night without notice and expected me to have a perfect spot to fit you by dawn the next day? Is that right ?"
"Hmm, I..."
"Well I don't have anything open right now on patrol, but I heard good things about you and paperwork, so at least today I need you running inventory on the ceased goods from last week, everything, guns, knives, drugs, cars, and money, you can start with that and I'll look onto a spot I can fit you."
"Thank you, Sergeant."
Platt stops for a second and observes the young officer in front of her, the morning was actually pretty calm considering, so she really takes a moment to observe her, and is actually surprised to her looking so collected, unnaturally so, she'd expect any cop being demoted to look at least a bit bummed about it, but Vanessa looked like... she was happy about it?
XXXXXXX
For the last hour, Kim was trying to focus on their new case but was distracted by the apparent distraction of Hailey that morning, her colleague hadn't sat down once at her desk, and when she saw Hailey going through the mail pile, her attention was definitely stirred, why would anyone in their right mind volunteer to go through the mail unless literally forced to?
"Looking for something?"
Hailey barely startled, answers looking around them to make sure no one can hear her "I'm looking for a good reason to snoop downstairs to check on Vanessa..."
"Huhu, and?" adds Kim knowing she doesn't really need an excuse to be downstairs at any given time.
"And ask Platt to... maybe go easy on her," she whispers.
"You sure that's a good idea? You know this could backfire a hundred different ways, Platt would chop your head off, Vanessa would hate it, and Voight..."
"Yes but we can not do anything, I think it's fair she eases back into the field as gently as possible, I'll just make up an excuse, say she's still not 100%, even Voight didn't clear her for field yesterday... Oh, that's gonna do it ! " she grabs a letter from HQ addressed to the Desk Sergeant that ended up in their pile.
"Well if you gonna do it anyway let me do the talking, you know she can't say no to me."
"Hey! Just say you think she likes you better!"
"Haha it's just I have a way with her is all!" throwing a last look around the room they discreetly hurry downstairs before shit gets real on their side.
XXXXXX
"What brings you two around ?" Platt asks without even looking up.
"We found a letter addressed to you, I thought I'd bring it personally so it's not lost in the wrong bracket again," announces Kim very seriously.
Now the sergeant bullshit radar is sounding off and she looks at the two officers with suspicious eyes.
"Ok then, thank you Detectives for this outstanding police work, don't know how this station would work without you two."
They look at each other, was Platt even in the right mood for this? Was she ever?
Leaving the heavy lifting to Kim, Hailey snoops around to see if she could catch a sight of Vanessa if she wasn't already out on patrol.
"So? What are you still doing here ?"
"Well we were just wondering how is Vanessa doing ?" tries Kim prudently with a smile.
"How is she doing? You mean since the last hour she started in patrol? What do you expect she is doing? Dismantling Cartels before lunch? "
"Ok I'm not gonna beat around the bush, we were wondering If you could make sure she is affected to a beat that's not tooo... too crazy, you see she is still a bit hurt from an incident last week so.."
"Oh! But of course, let me get out my non-dangerous Chicago map and find her the wonderland beat where the bad guys steal flowers in public parks. IS THIS THE BABYSITTER CLUB? You go back up deal with whatever it is you guys do over there and you let me deal with my people the way I see fit, what about that?"
Kim takes a step back and raises her hands to show she is leaving her in peace and both of them disappear upstairs knowing when to retreat when they obviously used all their luck with Platt for the foreseeable couple of years, they could not push it any further.
XXXXXX
"Hold on before you go fallen angel, we received your all-clear from the HQ from the shooting 10 days ago. Actually, it was delivered upstairs a couple of days ago but your people never check the mail so... there it is. "
Vanessa's breathing is stuck in her lungs for a quick second, but she rapidly regains her composure and just says "Oh good, thank you. Anything else?"