Robbery-Homicide?
Of all the places she could have worked, Robbery-Homicide?
Shut up you idiot, that's not important he internally shouts to himself as he watches Hailey, or rather Detective Upton, talk to his boss.
She mentioned how she had been after the crew responsible for the last three weeks and it gets him thinking. Was that why she was stressed at the bar that night?
She had never told him she was a cop, like how he never mentioned how he was one either. They didn't leave much time to exchange stories on what they did for a living, in the bar they spoke about the alcohol and back at her place they didn't exactly do much talking.
In the corner of his eye he could see Erin giving him weird looks but he couldn't focus on that. All he could focus on was the way she was speaking to Voight.
"I'm from Robbery-Homicide, there's been a robbery and a homicide here. So I'd appreciate it if you vacated my crime scene." She says before walking off into the scene and Jay can't help but slight smirk pull at his lips as he watches her walk away. She had had the confidence to do what most cops would cower away from, she spoke up to Hank Voight, told him off, and she did it without a hint of hesitation. He had never seen a cop do that so confidently before.
At the smirk Erin gives him another weird glance and he quickly wipes it off his face and clears his throat, looking to Voight and waiting for something to be said but nothing is, he just looks around to his two detectives with bewilderment.
xxx
As the case went on, Hailey, or Detective Upton, came over into Intelligence to work it after the commander signed it off. Luckily Alvin was there to beat the awkwardness that would have been there if they had been left in that surveillance van alone but by the end of the day Jay decides to bite the bullet and go over to clear any dirty air that might have been around them.
He ended up following out of the district behind her and as they both made their way over to their separate cars Jay calls out her name, making her turn on her heels and put her phone back into her pocket. He takes a brief take over his shoulder as he walks over to her and then shoves his hands into his jacket - the same one that two weeks ago Hailey had run her hands all over before sliding it off and throwing it to the floor, doing the same with his shirt as he lifted her into his arms and took off up the stairs. Jay shakes his head subtly to rid himself of the thoughts of that night, this was neither the time or the place.
Hailey leans against a car Jay presumes is hers, waiting for him to speak.
"You never told me you were a cop." Jay speaks through a lifted eyebrow.
She nods, glancing down to the floor before tilting her head to one side and meeting his gaze again. "Yeah well we weren't exactly in a rush to share life stories."
To do other things, yes, but maybe not that.
Jay shuffles on his feet. "Look, Hailey, as fun as that night was - and believe me, it was really fun - I wasn't really in a great headspace, I had a lot going on."
Hailey shakes her head softly, blowing it off. "You don't have to explain it."
Jay goes again, the words a little more spit-fire. "I don't want you to think though that I was using you for some kind of stress relief, because that's not what it was, and I certainly don't want you thinking-"
She puts her hand out to stop him. "Jay, I get it. What we had was fun but that's exactly it, we had it. We can't do it again. Voight offered me a place in the unit and I - I don't date co-workers."
His chin jerks forward. "You got offered a job?"
She nods again. "A temporary one, yeah."
Jay furrows his eyebrows. "Are you gonna take it?" He asks, digging his hands deeper into his pockets.
She shrugs. "I'm gonna have to think about it."
Before he could say anything else, Adam shouting his name from across the parking lot grabs his attention. He spins and sees Kevin and Adam flicking their wrists trying to pull him across.
"C'mon we're going to Molly's!" Kevin shouts, making Jay roll his eyes because they had been hinting at this surprise party there for weeks so much so they had just straight up given the whole thing away unknowingly.
Jay looks back to Hailey. "I've gotta go otherwise they won't stop," he says, gaining a smile from her in response and he starts walking backwards. "It was nice working with you, Detective Upton."
"And you, Halstead." She says, giving him a final smile before turning around to get into her car, Jay doing the same to meet up with the guys.
xxx
"So we saw you over there talking to Upton, you know her or something?" Adam asks as they sit down at the bar in Molly's.
Jay quickly shakes his head. "No, I was just talking to her, said how it was nice working with her, you know, normal human interactions. Treat how you want to be treated."
Adam's eyebrows furrow. "Well in that case I'd like to be treated better."
Jay taps his shoulder. "Then if I were you, I'd start being nicer to everyone you meet and you'll get it back, it's not my fault I treat you like an ass, it's yours."
Kevin interrupts the conversation before Adam could whip one back and hands over two glasses to them both, keeping one behind for himself. "Alright, enough of that," he says to the two of them before putting his gaze solely on Jay, raising his glass. "Happy birthday."
The glasses clink together and they all take a sip of their own drinks before Adam pipes up again, dropping his glass to the top of the bar. "I've just got one more question about Upton."
Jay brings his hand up and rubs the bridge of his nose, wishing his friend would just let it go. It was already awkward knowing that the girl he had a one-night stand with might be coming to work in the same unit where both he and his ex-girlfriend work, and now his friends were getting involved. The last thing he wanted was to let it slip that they had slept together.
"It looked like you were having more than a "it was nice working with you" conversation, are you sure you don't know her?"
Jay's eyes narrow. "That is the exact same question as last time and I already answered you. No, I don't know her, I told her it was nice working with her and then she said how Voight offered her a temporary job and then you two appeared so I said good night." He says quickly and then spots the two pairs of widened eyes staring back at him and that's when he notices his mistake. "I don't think I was supposed to say that bit."
Kevin is the one to focus on it verbally. "She got offered a job?"
"No!" Jay says way too quickly before shaking his head. "Yes, maybe. Look I don't think that was supposed to be known so will you two please just let it go?"
"Is she gonna take it?" Adam questions.
"Clearly not then," Jay mumbles to himself, glancing down to the bar before bringing his gaze back up to Adam, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know, she said she had to think about it and I'm now begging you, will you just let it go? If she found out I was the one that let it slip she'd probably kill me. She looks like the type of person that would do that."
Kevin and Adam slowly nod and seem to drop the conversation but before either of them could even think about bringing one thing up again, Erin came in and joined them at the bar, handing Jay over a box and he doesn't think he'd ever been so thankful for her entry in his life. When she takes off again and Jay returns to the bar, the guys seem to have dropped that conversation and instead question him about the current state of his relationship with Erin, as to which he puts a ban on all talk about relationships, more specifically his, for the rest of the night, which Adam and Kevin groan at it at first but follow, not bringing up either Erin or Hailey for the remainder of the night.
-
ok so some info going forward, please read all of below if you intend on reading this fic :)
1. if you haven't been able to figure it out just yet, this fic is a canon divergence/au type of story where, as said in the prologue, jay and hailey meet under different circumstances before the credit union meeting in 4x21. their first meeting (and other things ;)) happened after the events of 4x18, when jay found out about the not signed divorce papers with abby and when he breaks up with erin.
2. a warning very quickly: there will be a lot of jumping around in this fic. this follows the canon timeline, episodes are the same, just with a little spin on some. but due to this there might be large gaps between chapters because unless there is maybe a "hidden" scene in an ep i could write about i don't really want to waste you time covering over the events of an episode when simply you could go and watch the episode for yourself. it would probably be quicker that way. for example, and i'm not guaranteeing this it is purely an example, there might be a gap between "rabbit hole" (5x10) and "ghosts" (5x18) unless i could slip in a scene here and there in the events of let's say, "profiles" (5x16)
3. as stated in the description, there will be mentions of linstead in the earlier chapters, as you are probably aware. i will not be using this fic as a platform for hate toward linstead, i will not be taking part in any bashing toward other ships, and as stated in the description there will be mentions of upzek in the later chapters as the fic follows it's canon timeline. like i said before, this story follows the timeline of season 5 to the present and will include the good, the bad and the ugly (actually no if i'm being honest i quite liked upzek while it lasted, and it was definitely not something i saw coming)
4. going on from the last point, any hate toward any ships mentioned, linstead, upstead or upzek will not be tolerated. we're all here to have a bit of fun and maybe for a distraction. i personally don't give a shit if you like my fic or not, to each their own, but if you feel the desperate urge to hate on it say it straight to my face on PM's. i don't want people who have just happened to leave comments getting into rows with other ship stans for what they said or who they ship.
5. this fic is upstead from start to finish, there will be no random turns halfway through with realisations and shit. it won't happen. upstead from beginning to end.
6. chapters will get longer as time goes on, i'm just still trying to figure out what goes where and that's why chapters are shorter. currently they are averaging 1400-2000 words, but i am hoping as more time goes on and as i get into the groove of it more and start getting to episodes where there is a lot more upstead potential to write that the chapters will become my average 2000-3000
and i think that's everything. thank you so much for reading this chapter :)