Hailey followed Jay with her eyes as he stood from the booth and left the bar before glancing back to the table full with people she didn't know. She had only been in Intelligence a week and was still in the "getting-to-know-you" faze with everyone. Jay was the only one she somewhat knew and even then he was practically a stranger. Everyone else watched him leave, Will made a joke about how the so-called minute Jay was going to be was actually going to be a lot longer and then they returned to their normal conversation.
She tries to join in as much as possible but her head kept jumping back to Jay. It had been a weird case and he had seemed distracted, really distracted. So after a few minutes had passed and he hadn't returned, Hailey excuses herself from the table and slides through the crowd taking over the floor in the bar. The moment she pokes her head around the large wooden door she sees him standing there, staring at his phone. She shuts the door and slowly approaches him, crossing her arms over her chest as the Chicago weather lets out a strong gust of wind that sends a chill down her spine.
Jay looks up at the gust and then catches Hailey stood there in the corner of his eye. "What are you doing out here?" He asks as he gradually puts his phone back into his pocket.
She shrugs, avoiding his eyes for a beat. "You've been out here a while," she says before tilting her head to one side and shooting him a soft smile. "I just wanted to make sure you're alright."
Jay nods. "I'm fine," he replies, making a gesture to his phone. "Erin's not picking up, she's probably in the car or something. She'll be here."
Hailey points to the entrance door. "You wanna wait inside then?"
Jay looks up and down the street before leaning up against the brick wall. "I'm just gonna stay out here, wait for her."
She takes a step forward, watching him for a moment. She didn't buy that he was fine but she didn't know him well enough to question it or to get an answer out of him, so she just bobbed her head. "Are you sure you're fine?" She tries once more, reaching the limit and in response she just gets a slow smile from Jay.
"I'll meet you back in there." He says and Hailey takes the hint given to her, backing off and going back inside the bar.
She returns to the booth and gets raised eyebrows from everyone, but Will is the only one that says anything.
"He didn't go down on you, did he?" Will asks and immediately shakes his head when Adam snorts on the other end of the table and the redhead sends a glared dagger toward the officer. "You're a grown adult."
Adam waves his hand, catching a chuckle in his elbow before shaking his own head. "I'm done."
Hailey takes her seat again at the head of the table. "He'll be back in a minute."
xxx
The following morning the unit was called in early for a private word before their shift started and Voight dropped the bombshell about Erin moving away to New York. Hailey had watched Jay's face drop to the floor at that and everyone else's eyes sunk. Hank then read out the slight change to the partner assignments, Hailey being put with Jay. Voight called Hailey into his office after and spoke to her about possibly transferring over to Intelligence in more of a long-term basis now there was a bigger spot open, and she told him she would have to think about it.
Hailey sat back that day, letting the unit process the news on their own without interfering because she barely knew Erin, had only worked with her a week and everyone else in the room had a lot of history with her, so it wasn't her place to tell them how to deal with the loss. The day was slow luckily, giving everyone the right space to deal with the anchor thrown down on top of them.
In her week working in the unit she had noticed Jay was never the most chatty of people, but today, after being told of Erin's sudden departure, he hadn't said a word and he kept it that way all shift. When everyone started heading home he disappeared quickly, was in and out of the locker room in a heartbeat.
For the next few hours her concerns about how Jay was taking the news kept growing. He had ignored her couple of texts and after a bit of digging she was standing on his doorstep.
Jay opened the apartment door, a look of surprise written all over his face. "What are you doing here?" He asks and it reminds her of the night before when she had met up with him outside Molly's.
She shoots him an innocent smirk. "I texted your brother asking him for your address," she replies, gaining widened eyes from him in return. "That's not really weird is it?"
There's a short nod. "Just a little bit." He says and Hailey lets out a short and shy laugh. Jay steps out of the way, signalling for her to come in. She hesitantly does and once he's shut the front door again he quickly walks past her and toward the small kitchenette. "You want a beer?"
Hailey takes a pause from looking around the apartment and meets his furrowed eyebrows. She hums. "Uh, yeah."
Jay takes one from the fridge and steps over to her, handing her the cold drink and then makes his way back over to the couch again. Hailey slowly follows, gently putting the beer on the coffee table and resting her hands in her lap.
"Jay," she says, getting his attention up from picking at his beer label, which given the little bits of balled-up paper spread across the coffee table and floor and the half missing part on the bottle he had been doing it a while. "I want to make sure you're okay. I know I don't know you great but you've seemed off today."
Jay leans back into the couch cushions and he seems to sink into them. "I'm okay, Hailey."
"I'm sure you are but I want you to know you can talk to me, whenever about whatever." Hailey says and Jay bobs his head along with her words.
He looks like he wants to say something then, his mouth opens for a second but then he snaps it shut and continues to pick at the bottle. He does it a few more times before actual words come out. "I - I just can't believe she'd leave like that." He mumbles, not taking his gaze away from the glass in his hands.
Hailey's face falls when she hears the emotions in his voice. She might still be new in the unit but it was obvious to everyone passing by that Jay and Erin had the most history out of everyone. There had been a lot of... something there.
She slowly sits back but doesn't say anything and they sit in silence a little longer. Eventually though she looks over and saw how he had just balled up the last piece of label so she says the first thing that came into her mind, blurting it out without thinking.
"This isn't going to be one of those awkward partnerships is it? Given, you know, that night? Because I can just ask Voight for someone else if you would prefer, I'm fine with that."
Jay looks up from the bottle and sits forward. "No, you don't have to do that. It was only one night, no strings attached, it's fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
Hailey asks one more time and Jay says his same answer through a slight chuckle. She nods and grabs her beer back off of the coffee table. "So if we're gonna be partners, answer me this one thing: when did you know you wanted to be a cop?" She asks, diverting the conversation on to anything else to distract him, take his mind off of what had happened.
Jay sits back into couch, allowing the cushions to swallow him once again. He quickly stares at the beer bottle before bringing his gaze back up to meet hers. "I was in the army. When I got back home I guess the one thing I missed was that feeling of being the hypothetical good guy. And on this job you're not always the good guy, but the feeling you get when you are and when you close one of those specifically haunting cases... I love it."
Hailey allows her curiosity get the better of her, her eyebrows knitting together. "Where did you serve?"
"I did two tours in Afghanistan," he replies before taking the final swig of his beer, placing the empty bottle on the table by his feet. "What about you, when did you know you wanted to be a cop?"
She leans into the back of the couch beside him. "When I was a kid my family's diner got robbed and my dad ended up in the hospital. The cop that responded was Platt-"
Jay cuts her off with wide eyes. "Platt? As in Trudy Platt? The sarcastic one that works at the 21st?"
A smile grows on her face. "Is there a different Platt?" She asks jokingly.
Jay shakes his head, blowing it off. "Sorry, continue." He tells her and for the first time all day, Hailey sees a hint of a genuine smile on his own lips.
She nods, carrying on from when she had been interrupted. "Anyway, the cop that responded was Platt," she stops and stares him dead in the eye, trying not to smile as she added extra emphasis on her words, "Trudy Platt," she adds in, gaining a chuckle from Jay in return as she clarified something that didn't really need clarifying and then her voice returns back to normal as she finishes up. "And I don't know, the way she commanded the room and caught the guy who did it, it made me want to do it."
Jay trails back. "Wait, just quick because I need to know, what was Platt like back then?"
Hailey's eyes narrow. "What do you mean? She was Platt, Platt doesn't change," she says and they both fall into a soft laughter. Jay agrees and once the laughs die down, Hailey looks over to him. "One more thing, you're not gonna be one of those partners that catches feelings and makes things awkward, are you?" She asks, suddenly realizing the context of why she was here in the first place and she quickly shakes her head when she sees his face fall. "I'm sorry, that was the worst timing to bring that up, I shouldn't have said it."
Jay shrugs it off. "It's fine, Hailey," he reassures, briefly glancing down to his hands before back up to her. "And no, I'm not gonna be one of those partners, just as long as you promise not to one of them either."
Hailey nods her head once. "I promise not to one of those partners."
Jay's face lights back up again, the smirk reaching the green reflecting in his eyes. "Well then, Hailey Upton, I'm looking forward to being your partner." He extends his hand.
She takes it, shaking it with a returning smile. "Likewise."
-
thank you so much for reading this one, and i'll see you all next week! have a great week x