A couple of months later….
Cooper
Andre Cooper had been in the team for a while and was now sitting in his thoughts in the bullpen. It was quiet Monday morning and after closing the last case on Friday, they were without a case. It was still hard to think that he really was there. He hadn't believed when he had been told that he would have an opportunity to work in CPD Intelligence. He hadn't been a cop for long, but he knew that Sgt. Voight was a legend and his team an elite team.
He didn't deny it, he had been nervous when he started to work with them. His assumptions had been partly right, Voight was kind of scary. Sergeant had given him a speech, telling he had to know his place but do his best at the same time. Listen to you teammates, learn from them. Detectives outrank you and more important, they know what they are doing, follow their lead.
What wasn't quite like he had assumed, was the team. He had waited for them being some kind of hard boiled super cops, who would probably first mostly ignore the rookie. And although they definitely were highly skilled professionals and when working their focus was strictly in the case, outside the case they were surprisingly relaxed.
Kevin had taken him under his wings on the first day. Cooper liked working with him, it felt easy. Upton and Burgess were both friendly and always ready to advise Cooper. Ruzek was an easy going guy, but maybe most short-tempered. Detective Halstead, although he was nice, was with his stern look and confident presence somehow imposing. He had told him to call him Jay or Halstead, but sometimes Cooper still called him sir, which seemed to amuse Upton.
Team dynamics were interesting. With Atwater and Ruzek in the same car it sometimes felt like being in a stand-up show. With Kim and Kevin the atmosphere was usually almost cozy. With Kim and Ruzek it could be anything, it seemed that their vibes changed almost weekly. When driving with Halstead and Upton he felt himself sometimes bystander, but there was something very intriguing in the way they worked. They were always in sync and their level of non-verbal communication was astounding. At first he had thought that maybe he imagined it, but conversation with Kevin had confirmed that everyone saw it but nobody quite understood how it worked.
At first he had thought that they were just very good work partners and maybe they really were, but there's something about them. He didn't know if they were lovers but after working with them for several months, he was quite sure that their bond was way more deeper than just partnership. But whatever they were, it seemed nobody verbalized it, so he certainly was not going to be the one to do it either. It wasn't his business and whatever they were, it didn't affect their work. Besides, if they were more than friends, it seemed to be okay to Voight.
Just as he had thought that, Voight came out from his office. They had a case.
Adam
After they had dived to the new case yesterday, everything had been hectic. Team was coming back to the office. They had been in a firefight and the suspect had been injured by bullet. Adam and Jay had given him first aid before the paramedics had arrived, so their clothes were blood stained. They headed to the locker room to change clean clothes.
Adam had just changed his clothes when he looked at Jay, who was still without a shirt. By chance his eyes hit Jay's upper chest. Oh f**k, was it? Holy hell, it really was. A hickey with a hint of teeth mark. Adam was distracted. He didn't know that Jay dated someone. Hell, he didn't even remember when his friend had last dated any girl. Sure, years ago Jay had had his share of one night stands, but Adam knew for quite sure that that had been history for two years at least. Adam was quite sure that except for that sorrow Camila thing, Jay's last relationship had been with Lindsay. But now he had a girl. Who it was?
"Dude, what is that?" Adam pointed with a wide grin on his face.
"What? Oh, that…" Jay looked at the spot Adam pointed out. Oh. He blushed a little. He had forgotten that. They had a celebration at Molly's with the team after they had closed their case on Friday. What could he say. Drunken Hailey was funny, but drunken Hailey was also wild. The memory of night put a smile on his face.
Adam interrupted his day dreaming. "That! That is a hickey. You stud, I didn't know you have a girl? Who is it? Did you pick her up after you left Molly's? Wait, that couldn't be then, you left with Hailey. Were you out on Saturday also?" Adam rambled.
Jay looked at Adam with a slightly amused look. Didn't he really know? At this point Jay had thought everyone knew. It had been last year when they began to date . Kim and Kevin had known it for a couple of months already. Jay and Hailey were quite sure that Voight knew. Platt for sure knew, her hints were so blatant. However, there was no reason to hide it anymore, they had already proved that they can do it. Be together and be professional.
"What? Why do you smile?" Adam was puzzled. "What's so funny?"
Just then Hailey entered the room, Kim following her. "Hey slowpokes, we still have a case to solve. What takes so long?" Hailey asked.
"Adam here wants to know if I have a girl", answered Jay, looking at Hailey.
Kim giggled. Hailey looked at Adam as amused as Jay.
"What? Why do you all look like that?" Jay here is the one with the hickey, look at him, not me. He has some wild biter chick, I wanna know who it is", Adam defended.
Hailey blushed. Oh. That was where this conversation had begun. Right.
"Well, he definitely has a girl, but I wouldn't call her biter chick", she interrupted.
Jay looked at Hailey and smirked, this was kind of fun. Kim still tried to bite her smile back.
"But now Jay and I have to go to interrogate a suspect, because like I said, we have a case to solve", Hailey continued quickly, grabbing Jay by the hand and pulling him out of the room after her. It was ok for the team to know about them, but she really didn't want to talk about their bedroom activities with Adam.
Adam was dumbfounded. Hailey knew Jay's girl? Wait? It couldn't be. Or could it? Nooo…. He surely had known if Hailey and Jay had finally got their shit together. It would have been a gossip of the year at the station because their relationship had been talked about since Kelton was still a superintendent. He would have noticed.
Kim could see how Adam started to put things together. It was kinda funny. She knew that Adam was an amazing cop, but when it came the relationships man could be sometimes confusingly unobservant. Well, their own bumpy relationship was probably an example of it.
Adam got his voice back. "Wait, is it Hailey? Is Hailey Jay's secret girlfriend?"
Kim laughed. "Come on, it isn't my business to tell you. All I say that you must learn how to be more observant if you want to pass the detective exam someday", she teased. "Let's go, Kev needs your help with surveillance tapes."
They walked back to the bullpen, Adam still with a confused look on his face.
"What's up man, why do you look so flabbergasted?" Kevin joked.
"Apparently Jay has a girlfriend who has a tendency for marking him. Hailey seems to know who she is…" Adam opened up.
"Oh, I'm sure Hailey knows…" Kevin couldn't bite his laughter.
"Yeah, yeah… It's her, isn't it? How do you know? You both know?" Adam looked at Kevin and Kim.
"Well, since the cat seems to be out of the bag. Yes, we know. To their defense, they didn't tell us, we figured it out ourselves", Kevin boasted.
"It wasn't that hard", accompanied Kim smiling.
Adam sighed. How had he not noticed? He looked at Cooper. "Don't say you knew?"
Cooper tried to look humble. "I wasn't sure, but I guessed."
Kim and Kevin chuckled. They loved Adam, but sometimes he just was, well, so Adam.
Adam sighed deeply again. This was unbearable, even the rookie had a better hunch. He guessed Kim must be right, relationships were something he didn't always understand.
Being in the middle of a case, they had to continue working. Adam's thoughts wandered back to Hailey and Jay. He was happy for them. Really happy. Hailey and him had their past, but it hadn't been serious. And even back then he had deep down known that whatever was between Hailey and Jay, was special. It was a miracle that it had taken them so long to get their thing together.
"I can't believe it took them so long. Glad we went to Molly's last Friday and had so many shots. Otherwise those two would be still pining after each other", he stated.
What he hadn't expected, others burst out laughing. He looked at them confused again.
Kevin survived first. "Last Friday? Try last year?"
Kim shook her head. "You know nothing, Adam Ruzek", she quoted hers and Adam's favorite series. "You really know nothing", she repeated and went back to her current files.
Adam raised his hands up. "I surrender. I admit, It seems that I really know nothing", he admitted laughing before returning to his work. They had a case to solve. He definitely was better doing that than understanding relationships.