A/N: Hi! I've been wanting to write this one for a while, so here's a post 5x07 oneshot. :)

"Who is that?"

"It looks like Luis."

"Hailey."

"What's he doing?"

"Upton."

Hailey tore her gaze from Jay near tears in front of her as he knelt over Luis's broken and bloody body, "We're good."

Kim raised an eyebrow and gave a pointed glance toward Jay.

Hailey ignored her to pass her rifle to Kevin then knelt next to Jay. "Give it to me," she whispered.

Jay hesitated then handed her his gun.

Hailey held it up to Kim who took it while still holding her concerned gaze on Jay. Hailey then slipped her hand under Jay's elbow and tugged softly.

Antonio put a hand out as well, but Hailey just shook her head.

"He," Jay's voice cracked and he reached toward Luis again.

"You need air," Hailey said and pulled again.

"I'm fine," Jay breathed shakily.

Hailey stood and used both hands to pull at the back of Jay's shirt until he stood. Kevin took a step toward her with his hand out to help, yet Hailey just pushed passed him still gripping the back of Jay's shirt as he stumbled along with her.

"Upton!" Hank yelled across the warehouse.

"We need air," Hailey called back.

The sound of sirens outside became louder as Hailey helped Jay down the many flights of stairs. He was shaking against her hand and was panting. When Hailey brought herself to look at his face, all she saw was pain clear as day through the sweat and dirt.

"Come on," she whispered when they had one staircase left, "I've got you."

Jay shook his head and tried breaking her grip with a sharp yank.

"No," Hailey snapped and turned around to face him as he leaned against the railing, "We're going outside. Now."

Jay stared at her, his lips pursed as he debated turning and running back up the stairs to attempt to fix what had been broken, but he knew deep down there was nothing he could do to fix this. Luis was dead. He was dead. It was on Jay's hands.

But Hailey's face slowly morphed back to concern. The flash of anger that had crossed her face in that brief moment when he'd tried to get away was gone. Her eyes were filled with pity again.

"Let's go," she said simply. She put her hand out, "I want you to get fresh air and water."

Jay stepped forward, but avoided her hand as he walked down the stairs.

Hailey took a deep breath and followed him outside.

They were immediately swarmed by three other officers asking what had happened and what they should do. Jay tried brushing them off to no avail and couldn't make his way through them.

"That's enough," Hailey pushed the younger man away, "Out of our way." She gripped Jay's arm and dragged him to where she'd left her car parked near Voight's.

She popped the trunk and pointed to it, "Sit."

"I'm fine," Jay said weakly.

"Sit," Hailey repeated without moving.

Jay groaned quietly before following her direction.

"Jacket off, you need to breathe," Hailey said. She walked to the passenger side of her car to grab her water bottle and baby wipes she kept in the glove-box. When she returned, she was surprised to see that Jay had actually listened to her and his jacket was laying next to him.

Hailey pushed the jacket to the side so she could sit next to Jay and pulled out one of the wipes offering it to him.

Jay said nothing as he grabbed it and wiped down his face.

Hailey took notice of the slight tremor in his hand and the soft huffs that were still escaping his lips.

Jay dropped the wipe to the ground then titled his head back.

"Water?" Hailey asked.

Jay glanced at her before grabbing the bottle from her hands. He quickly uncapped it and sloppily finished the rest of the water sending a few streams dripping down his chin.

Hailey watched him toss the bottle next to the wipe. She just raised an eyebrow and slowly nodded.

Jay tried standing, but wavered and sat back down. He put his head in his hands and started taking several deep breaths.

Hailey frowned and looked around as she pulled her vest off. No one was paying attention to them and she was grateful. Jay needed his space; he clearly needed air…so she stayed quiet. They sat in silence for a while; neither completely knew how much time had passed.

Jay couldn't stop thinking about Luis and his dead body and what he was going to tell Camilla. It was one of the worst, if not the worst, things about his job – telling people their family member was gone and never coming back.

He didn't dare think about holding his gun up to Hailey.

Hailey stared at her feet swing from her car. She was kicking herself for letting this case affect Jay so deeply. She knew in her gut that it was too personal for him and now here they were.

She didn't want to think about how he held his gun to her.

"Hey," Hank said gruffly as he approached, "You okay? Are you hurt? Another ambulance is coming."

Jay looked up and shook his head.

Hank took a step forward, "Halstead."

"I'm fine," Jay shrugged, "I'm fine."

Hank turned to Hailey and she understood his silent question.

She stepped down from the trunk and picked up the empty water bottle and baby wipe, "He's had water and cleaned off. I'll drive him back to the district."

Hank breathed in then nodded, "See you there."

Once he was gone, Hailey lightly hit Jay's arm, "Let's go."

Jay nodded and got in the passenger seat.

When Hailey was settled inside the car, she stole a glance at Jay to see him staring out the window waiting for her to drive. She bit her lip before reaching over to turn up the air conditioning and face all the vents toward him. She easily found a classical music station on the radio then began the drive back to the district.

Jay smiled slightly. "What're we listening to?" he whispered.

"I like to listen to this when I'm stressed," Hailey said, "Is that okay?"

Jay chuckled and nodded, "Yeah, it's okay."

Hailey smiled as she drove. He had said something that wasn't just 'I'm fine.' She was tired of hearing that lie.

She found her fingers lightly drumming along with the music on her steering wheel. She never learned how to play the piano and would have loved to because she thought it was the most beautiful instrument, so pieces that featured it were instantly her favorite.

Jay heard the soft noise and dared to look at her out of the corner of his eye. Part of him was actually shocked that she wasn't pushing him further. He appreciated the silence. He didn't want to even think about what had happened let alone talk about it.

They hadn't been partners long, but Hailey was concerned about Jay. She didn't want to keep that concern inside. She wanted them to talk. She needed to know that he was going to be okay.

So when she parked the car at the district, she said softly, "Can you tell me how you really are?"

Jay closed his eyes briefly then turned toward her, "I'm fine; thanks for the concern."

"Jay," Hailey breathed.

He waved his hand slightly, "Thanks for the ride, but I don't feel like talking right now."

"I think we should talk," Hailey tried.

Jay unlocked the car, "Thank you for driving me. I'll see you tomorrow."

Hailey put her hand out as Jay slipped from the car, "Jay, we-"

"Not now," Jay shook his head.

Hailey took a deep breath, "Okay. I…I'll call you later."

Jay hesitated then nodded, "Okay."

Hailey relaxed slightly with a small smile, "Thank you."

"Yeah," Jay hit the top of her car, "See you."

"Bye," Hailey watched him head over to his car. She rubbed her face then started the engine again to go home.

In her apartment after showering and eating a peanut butter sandwich, Hailey settled on the couch with her laptop.

ptsd strategies

how to help friend with ptsd

soldier ptsd

police officer ptsd

make bad decisions with ptsd

She spent a couple hours reading through article after article about PTSD. She wanted to help Jay. She needed to help Jay.

She also knew she needed to acknowledge that he had held a gun to her. He could have hurt her, but he didn't. It was alarming and it was scary and it caught her off-guard, yet it did end sort of fine. She didn't have a bullet in her and Jay had managed to pull himself out of his headspace.

She wished she knew what had stopped him. Part of her suspected that it was her voice and calling out his name, but she didn't know if she was enough to break through his barrier.

Hailey shut her laptop only to pick up her phone and choose Jay's name from her 'favorites' list.

The phone rang and rang until she did hear his voice…

"Hey, you've reached Jay Halstead, leave your name and number and I'll get back to you. Thanks."

Hailey closed her eyes in frustration before saying, "Hey, it's Hailey. Was just hoping we could talk. Call or text me, it doesn't matter. Okay, hope you're okay, bye."

She groaned and slid down on her couch. She should have expected that.

Maybe he was just getting some air and trying to process what had happened.

It's what she tried repeating to herself as she climbed up the stairs to her bedroom.

He wasn't going to self-destruct. He was just getting air. He needed air.

When she shut off her lights and got into bed, she hated that her heart stuttered and caused her throat to get stuck in her throat.

He could have hurt her; he didn't, but he could have.

The adrenaline of the moment that had seeped into her deep dive of PTSD was wearing off.

She breathed deeply to steady herself. She was fine. Everything was fine. Jay was going to be fine.

Her skin felt hot amongst her blankets, so she shoved them all to the bottom of the bed.

She needed air.

Hailey hurried out of bed to throw open her windows and let the cool breeze enter her bedroom. She closed her eyes to soak it in for a minute until she felt calm again.

She slowly returned to climb into bed and pulled the bottom sheet on top of her as if to protect her feet from monsters under the bed. Rolling onto her side to face the open window, she breathed in slowly and deeply until she fell asleep.

The air helped.

It had helped them both that day.

A/N: Sorry, another note, but if you're interested, I have built off of this story in a couple ways… classical music in "Helping Hand," peanut butter sandwiches being part of Hailey's comfort food in "Their Thing," and a mention of Hailey searching strategies for PTSD in Chp30 of "We Can." I think that's it. I also wrote about Jay's POV for this moment a bit in my oneshot "Underlying Truth" based on 8x08, so it's not related to "We Can," but still, it's there if you want. Anyways, thank you for reading :)