Chapter 25

They were casually laying in bed together later that night, clothes strewn haphazardly about the room wherever they had fallen in their haste to remove them. Hailey lay on her stomach, her head turned on her pillow so she could see Jay's face. He was lying on his side facing her, one hand absentmindedly massaging up and down her bare back. She was practically purring in contentment, her eyes closed to savor the feel of his soft fingers tracing across her skin. She loved these moments with Jay. They didn't need to be talking or making love for her to feel connected to him. Just simply lying with him like this made her feel happier than she ever had in any other relationship. His fingers suddenly stopped their movement and her eyes flipped open to meet his.

"Why'd you stop?" Hailey asked. She had been enjoying her backrub.

"I want ice cream," Jay said out of nowhere.

"What?" Hailey said, flabbergasted by this sudden change in their casual evening in bed, and also by the fact that Jay, one of the healthiest eaters she had ever met, wanted ice cream.

"We were at a barbecue, it's beautiful out, I have a taste for ice cream," he repeated, expanding on his thought process this time.

Hailey couldn't help the laugh that came all the way from her belly. God, she really loved this man.

"Come on, are you telling me you don't want ice cream?" Jay asked with a smirk, knowing that he had never seen Hailey turn down anything sweet in the four years he had known her.

"I don't want to leave this bed," she admitted, snuggling her pillow closer to her chest.

"Fine," Jay said, suddenly tossing the covers off of himself and rolling off the bed and up to a standing position. "Ice cream in bed, I can work with that." He shuffled through the clothes on the ground to find his boxers and pants, Hailey enjoying the view of his bare bum as he searched. He pulled his clothes on, finding his t-shirt last, and then turned back to face Hailey. "What flavor do you want?"

"Hmmm, chocolate," Hailey said after pondering for a moment. "Anything with chocolate. And you better not get something boring for yourself like strawberry."

Jay laughed. He did like strawberry ice cream, and he knew Hailey knew that. She was always making fun of him for eating so healthy. When he did eat dessert, which was rare, it tended to be fruit-based. He climbed back onto the bed, one hand holding his weight on the bed while the other hand slid back to Hailey's bare back. He leaned his head down and planted a soft kiss on her lips before pulling away again to stand back up.

"Banana it is," he joked, boyish grin on his face as he headed for the bedroom door while Hailey tossed a pillow across the room at him. He dodged it with a laugh and then disappeared out of the room. Hailey heard the sound of keys being gathered and then the front door opened and closed and she was left alone in her apartment.

As she lay, naked and alone in her bed, she realized this was the first time she had been alone in her apartment in weeks. They were always here together, except for when she had gone to get groceries earlier in the day and had left Jay here alone. Despite having lived here alone before and only having Jay here the last couple of months, she found it surprisingly lonely from the very first moment without Jay. The bed felt colder without his naturally warm body beside her, and every little creak in the building made her realize how quiet it was without him here as well. Hailey used to like spending some time alone, would even crave it some days after work, but now she wanted nothing more than for Jay to return as quickly as possible.

Lucky for Hailey, she was distracted by the ringing of her phone. Thinking it was probably Jay, she quickly grabbed the phone from the night stand, but she was glad she looked at the screen before hitting the green button as the name flashing across the screen was not that of her partner, but Vanessa, and it was a video call. She had forgotten all about the fact that Vanessa was supposed to call her tonight. Hailey quickly scrambled over the side of the bed, reaching for something to pull on over her naked body. Her fingers found Jay's flannel from earlier in the day first, but she didn't waste time trying to find her own, not wanting to miss Vanessa's call. Instead, she pulled Jay's shirt around her and quickly did up the buttons as she accepted the call, sitting back against the pillows, her bare legs still covered by the blankets.

"Hey, sorry did I wake you?" Vanessa said immediately. Hailey realized her hair probably looked quite mussed from Jay's fingers roaming through it, and she had taken several rings to answer the call from her bed.

"No, no," Hailey said, not sure how else to explain, so instead she went on. "It's so good to see you!"

"You too, Hailey," Vanessa said, warm smile on her face. "I've really missed you."

"I miss you, too," Hailey said. "When are you coming back? Kim and I are struggling to control the man-fest at work without you."

"I don't know, Hailey," Vanessa said. "I'm hoping we'll be able to wrap this case soon, but my sergeant is already talking about having me slide into another one right after this. I'd be able to keep the same undercover story and everything for it so it would be kind of perfect."

"You're really okay with staying undercover for that long?" Hailey asked, thinking back to her days undercover working the Booth case the first time around. She had been under for about two months and that had felt like forever. Vanessa was already hitting the four month mark on this case, so Hailey couldn't even imaging adding onto that.

Vanessa shrugged her shoulders in response. "I'm pretty good at it," she admitted. "And you know my background, there's no one else that has less commitments outside of work than me, so it seems a shame for me to say no and have someone else try to come in who has a family outside of work. It wouldn't be fair."

"You can't focus on that, Vanessa," Hailey argued. "You have people who care about you, family or not. And undercover takes its toll on everyone. That's a long time to commit to being someone else. I just don't want you to lose who you are along the way."

"Well, I haven't agreed to anything yet," Vanessa said, heeding her best friend and mentor's words.

"Good, just promise me you'll think about it before you decide," Hailey said. "I will support you no matter what, I just want you to be sure you know what you're signing yourself up for."

"You're too good to me, Hailey," Vanessa replied. The two women had gotten close during Vanessa's time in Intelligence, and with her living with Hailey, their relationship had almost become that of sisters. Vanessa was young, only two years out of the academy, and while Hailey wasn't old by any means, she was nearly eight years older than Vanessa, putting her in the role of protective older sister.

Hailey and Vanessa were quiet for a moment, reflecting on how their relationship had changed from when Vanessa had first joined Intelligence to now. "So, tell me what's new with you," Vanessa finally went on. "Catch me up on everything with you and the unit. I miss everybody."

Hailey filled her in on the situation with Kevin first. Vanessa had been sent on her undercover right after everything with Doyle and Atwater so Hailey knew she had worried about him. Vanessa was visibly glad that everything had worked out for him. She and Kevin had been close while she had been in Intelligence, owing to their very first encounter together when they had both been undercover.

Once she had covered Kevin, she switched to Kim and Adam, telling her about Kim taking in Makayla and everything she knew about their situation.

"And you know Voight, nothing ever changes with him," Hailey rounded out the group, having covered everybody except her and Jay.

"I think you missed one there, Hails," Vanessa said, smile on her face. "If I remember correctly there was another guy in the unit, always followed you around with puppy dog eyes, occasionally got himself shot. Kinda hot, too, what was his name?"

Hailey rolled her eyes at her old roommate's antics. "I'll make sure to tell him you thought he was hot," Hailey replied, stalling for time while she thought about how to tell Vanessa the latest developments. "He's good, too," she went on, biting her lip nervously. "Actually-"

Hailey's sentence was interrupted by the sound of the apartment door opening and keys getting tossed on the table inside the door. Jay's voice spread through the apartment, coming in through the bedroom door so Hailey was certain that Vanessa could hear him.

"I'm back!" he called. "I got chocolate as requested and no fruit, so you better make this worth the calories and let me eat it off you or something!"

Hailey felt her skin flush as Vanessa's eyes widened on the screen and her face split into a grin. Hailey bit her lip, trying to cover her embarrassment, but also hide the smile on her own face that Jay's idea had caused.

"Hailey Upton, did you forget to tell me something?" Vanessa asked, shock but also giddiness evident on her face. As Hailey had told Jay, Vanessa had been the one to really make Hailey realize her feelings for her partner and had encouraged her to act on those feelings a number of times.

"I was getting there," Hailey said in response, covering her face with her hand.

"Oh my god, that's why it took you so long to answer the phone," Vanessa said, putting all the pieces together. "Look at your hair, and I know you like your flannels but that is definitely a man's shirt. My god, how did it take me this long to figure out that you clearly just had sex."

"Vanessa!" Hailey warned, embarrassment back in full force again, her cheeks flushing as she ran a hand through her unruly hair to try to tame it.

Jay popped into the bedroom doorway then, locking eyes with Hailey. When Hailey hadn't responded to him and he heard the light sounds of conversation from the bedroom he remembered that Vanessa had been scheduled to call today.

"Sorry, did I spoil it," Jay said with a smirk.

"Jay, come here so I can see you!" Vanessa shouted from the phone. "I have to see it to really believe it!"

Despite Hailey's continued embarrassment, Jay found the whole situation amusing so the boyish grin stayed plastered to his face as he obliged Vanessa's request. He padded across the room and set the bag of ice cream on the nightstand before settling himself back down in his spot on the bed, tilting his head so it was almost resting on Hailey's shoulder as he watched his face appear on the camera. Vanessa squealed in delight at the sight of Jay and Hailey finally together on Hailey's bed.

Jay and Hailey couldn't help but laugh at the young girl's enthusiastic support of their relationship. "Hi Vanessa," Jay greeted her after her squeals had died down a bit.

"Hi Jay, it's really good to see you, but you gotta go now so Hailey can tell me every last detail," Vanessa said quickly, swatting at his face on the screen as though she could reach through it to physically move him.

"Good luck with that," Jay said with a knowing glance at Hailey. He knew how tight-lipped she was about private matters, and he assumed she categorized her romantic relationships as one of those especially private matters. He slid off the bed though, knowing that Hailey would have to fill her in on at least the bare minimum of their relationship. "I guess I'll go put the ice cream in the freezer for now."

"Sorry, Jay, I need details first and then feel free to lick it off of her, or whatever you said you were gonna do," Vanessa teased through the phone. Hailey couldn't help but laugh at that and she smiled at Jay as he retreated from the bedroom with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Hailey turned her attention back to the phone, bracing for the inevitable twenty questions from her young friend. She wasted no time and didn't disappoint either.

"Ok, spill. I need all the details. When did this happen? How did it happen? What made you two finally get your acts together?" Vanessa fired off a million questions at her, eager to get all the exciting information.

Hailey obliged, grudgingly at first, but the more she talked about Jay, the more she realized it was nice to have someone to talk to about her new relationship other than Jay. She hadn't really talked to anyone else about it even though the team now knew. She found it nice and a little therapeutic to reflect on how far she and Jay had come in a few short months. She could hear the tv on in the living room and she knew Jay wasn't an eavesdropper anyway so she felt free to talk about things with Vanessa despite the fact that the man she was talking about was in the next room.

By the time they hung up almost an hour later, Hailey felt like a new person. There was no doubt she had been happy just doing this new thing with Jay, but talking it all out with Vanessa and hearing her words of encouragement and excitement about their relationship added a new sense of confidence to Hailey about it all. They ended the call with Vanessa promising to call again as soon as she could, probably in a few weeks.

Hailey set the phone down on the night stand, plugging it into the charger noticing the call had drained a lot of it. She climbed out of the bed then, Jay's flannel hanging down to her mid-thigh, and picked up her underwear from the ground, pulling it on before she continued across the room and out to the living room. The room was dark, the only light coming from the sports highlights playing on the tv. She wasn't able to make out Jay until she got closer. Then she spotted him lying down on the couch, sound asleep.

She debated letting him sleep there since he looked so peaceful, but the thought of sleeping in the bed without him was unappealing. She knew she could have joined him on the couch, but she wanted a good night's sleep which she knew she wouldn't get anywhere other than her comfy bed. So, selfishly, she crossed the rest of the way over to the couch and crouched down in front of him, running her hand gently through his hair.

"Jay," she said quietly, trying to softly coax him from his sleep. She continued to stroke her fingers through his hair and whisper his name until his eyes flickered open sleepily. "Come to bed," she whispered once he was awake.

"I'm allowed back in there now?" Jay teased groggily.

She smiled at his mocking, leaning forward to plant a kiss on the corner of his mouth. "If you'd rather sleep on the couch feel free," Hailey said, standing up. She turned away from him and headed back towards the bedroom. The creak of the couch told her that her ploy had worked. She had no intention of sleeping alone.

Jay caught up to her just inside the bedroom, his hands reaching out for her waist to turn her around to face him.

"We never ate our ice cream," he said, mischievous glint back in his eye as he pulled her closer against him.

"Aren't you a little tired?" Hailey asked, her hands naturally wrapping around his neck.

He shrugged in response. "I could bounce back," he insisted, though the sleepiness was still evident in his eyes.

She smiled up at him, standing up on her toes to give him a soft kiss. "How about we save the ice cream for tomorrow when we're both awake enough to enjoy it," she suggested.

He agreed quickly enough, hunching down to capture her lips with his own again. The kiss only lasted a moment and they broke apart to finish getting ready for bed. Hailey traded Jay's flannel for a t-shirt of her own, not bothering to find any pants to pull on over her underwear. Jay headed into the bathroom, emerging a few minutes later with freshly brushed teeth and stripped down to his underwear. He tossed his clothes in the hamper on his way to join Hailey in the bed, immediately wrapping his arms around her, her back pressed against his chest.

"Did you have a good talk with Vanessa?" Jay asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Yeah, I really missed talking to her," Hailey said, not going into any details about what she had told Vanessa about them. She knew Jay wouldn't mind, whatever she had told her friend; it had all been positive anyway. "She's almost done with this case but they're probably going to have her stay under to work on another target."

"That's a long time under," Jay commented, reiterating the worries Hailey had voiced to Vanessa on the phone. She couldn't help the smile that came to her face to think about how similarly she and Jay thought about things.

"Yeah, she's gonna think about it before she agrees to it," Hailey said.

"Good," Jay replied. They went quiet for a few moments, just enjoying being back together in bed like this. Jay rolled Hailey ever so slightly onto her back as he raised himself up on his elbow so he could see her face. He leaned down once again to capture her lips, this time letting it last longer, though with no sense of urgency.

They were lazy kisses, neither of them feeling the need to go any further but also neither of them wanting to stop. They finally broke apart again after several minutes and Jay planted one last kiss on her jaw as he let her roll back onto her side. He settled down against her again, his face nestling up against her hair, smelling her coconut conditioner.

"Good night," Hailey said, setting her hand on top of the arm he had wrapped around her.

"Good night," Jay replied. "Love you."

Hailey smiled again, though Jay couldn't see it. "I love you, Jay," she replied. She could almost feel his smile against her hair. They were both asleep in minutes, wrapped in each other, feeling perfect contentment.