Jay made a soft noise and Hailey's eyes shot open.
They'd gone to bed an hour before and she could not find it within her to fall asleep. She didn't know if it was general insomnia, being pregnant, or the fact that it was the first night in the new house, but she was struggling.
Hailey carefully rolled over to face Jay. He made another noise, so she reached out to gently brush her fingers through his hair.
"Shh," she breathed, "It's okay, it's okay."
Jay subconsciously leaned into her as she continued softly soothing him. Normally, his quiet noises at night didn't bother her – in fact, she always thought they were adorable – but tonight, when she was struggling to sleep, they were starting to get on her nerves, so she was happy when he finally calmed down.
"There you go," Hailey whispered, "All done, be quiet when you sleep."
She let out a breath and scooted back into her body pillow. She closed her eyes in a weak attempt to fall back asleep despite knowing in her gut it wouldn't work.
It wasn't that she wasn't tired, just that she couldn't really seem to turn her mind off. There seemed to be so much to do, and even just to think about, so it was like her brain was telling her she was wasting her time by being in bed.
She could finish putting all of Blake's clothes away in his closet.
She could organize the new office space.
She could hang pictures throughout the house.
She didn't want to wake Blake, though, and she really was comfortable at this exact moment, so she tried to count sheep and say the ABCs backwards and list off random pieces of furniture.
Yet nothing worked.
Hailey groaned and reached out for her phone. She wanted to throw it across the room when she saw another hour had passed without falling asleep. She couldn't help it and kicked her foot out in annoyance.
"Hailey?" Jay mumbled, "What's going on?"
"Sorry," Hailey sighed while placing her phone back on her nightstand, "I can't sleep."
"Clearly," Jay rubbed his eyes and sat up, "Come here."
"No, no, I feel bad," Hailey groaned shaking her head.
"You already woke me up, so let me try to help," Jay said.
"Jay," Hailey slowly sat up, "It's fine."
"Don't lie to me," Jay raised an eyebrow, "Now come on, I'll hold you and help you out."
Hailey let out a long breath, but gave in and moved toward Jay.
"Thank you," he said softly. He started putting pillows around them and adjusting all the blankets so he could lean back against the headboard with Hailey on his chest.
Hailey rested her head over his heart and tried getting her legs comfortable.
"Hey, hey, I got it," Jay gently tucked a pillow between her knees then covered them with the comforter, "There we go." He brushed his hand over her hair before beginning to rub the back of her neck, "We'll try this for a bit."
Hailey nodded and took a deep breath.
"I've got you," Jay whispered, "I'm right here."
Hailey closed her eyes and listened to his quiet voice. It was soothing, but it wasn't making her tired like she knew he intended.
"We're in our new house," Jay continued, "And we're going to really jump in these next few months to get everything ready for our baby girl, right?" He slipped his other hand down to her stomach and lightly brushed his fingers against her skin, "She's going to be so pretty, just like her mommy."
Hailey smiled slightly, "I think she'll look like you."
"You do?" Jay chuckled, "I don't know, I've always imagined her having blonde hair and these big, beautiful blue eyes."
Hailey shifted in her spot, "Yeah, she might still have blue eyes, but I think her hair will be a little lighter than yours. We don't want her to look like me, my hair is way too crazy for a baby."
Jay laughed and tangled his one hand within her hair, "It's not too crazy. I think it's pretty whether you have it up or curled or just normal. I like it. Plus, it's always soft."
Hailey blushed and just cuddled closer to him. He held on to her just continuing to lightly run his fingers over her skin and through her hair. Her eyelids became heavy and she became hopeful that she was going to fall asleep soon.
That was until Jay whispered, "Doing okay?"
Hailey groaned quietly, "Yeah."
"Yeah?" Jay repeated, "That doesn't sound like an okay sound."
Hailey couldn't help it and laughed weakly despite how annoyed she was. She tilted her head up, "I was almost asleep and then you talked."
"Oh," Jay chuckled, "Sorry."
Hailey let out a breath, "It's okay. Can you just go back to what you were doing?"
"Of course," Jay kissed the top of her head before slipping back into the rhythm he'd had before with his fingers going back and forth.
Hailey hummed in appreciation and let herself begin to drift off again. She loved the feeling of Jay's heart pumping under her cheek and the way his fingers danced along her skin. Again, she was just about asleep when Jay messed that up, but this time it was because he fell asleep.
Hailey tried keeping her eyes closed despite how distracted she was with the fact that Jay's hand was just resting on her back and not moving at all.
She gave in, though, and opened her eyes. "Jay," she whispered, "Jay?"
He didn't reply at all. Instead, he snored just the slightest.
Hailey sighed and sat up, "Seriously?"
Jay's hands fell to his sides and he shifted to get more comfortable in his sleep.
Hailey couldn't take just laying there anymore, so she carefully slipped from between Jay's legs and climbed off the bed. She groaned while placing a hand on her back before leaving the room.
The house was almost eerily silent as Hailey walked down the stairs. She flipped on the light in the living room and looked around. It was still rather empty, but at least the furniture was in the right spot. She made her way to the kitchen to grab the box of Girl Scout cookies she'd bought from Cara and slowly ate them. Jay didn't even like mint, so she figured it wasn't a big deal if she ate the majority of them on her own.
Hailey noticed the few boxes of family photos and decided that was going to be her 1am project. While taking a few short cookie breaks, she sorted through the picture frames and decided she was going to hang her new gallery wall by the front door again. She didn't plan on actually hanging the pictures up, but as it neared two in the morning, she was stepping back from the wall and admiring her work.
The baby kicked softly and Hailey put a hand over her stomach.
"Are you awake too?" Hailey said softly, "I hope you didn't inherit my insomnia because even though I have a hard time falling asleep sometimes, I really do like sleeping."
She smiled and returned to the living room to begin putting the photo albums on the bookshelf near the fireplace. Occasionally, she'd pause to open a book to a random page and tell the baby a story of the picture before putting it away.
When she was done, she grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen and looked out into the backyard as she finished off the sleeve of Thin Mints.
Kim always talked about how she loved her house because it was quiet at night. It wasn't that Jay and Hailey's last house was in the middle of the city, but they could occasionally hear traffic in the middle of the night or people walking around outside. The ten-minute drive to this new subdivision proved Kim right. It was much quieter now than any night Hailey had stayed awake in the old house.
Hailey set her empty glass in the sink and decided to go back upstairs to just check on Blake and Drew. She didn't want to wake them, she just needed to keep her mind busy especially since the baby was starting to flip around in her stomach – there was no chance she'd fall asleep any time soon.
Blake was sleeping on his front with his butt up in the air. Hailey smiled at him and brushed her fingers lightly over his back for a few minutes. She didn't think he ever slept in the same position two nights in a row. He just did whatever was most comfortable in that moment and that made Hailey pretty jealous that he could just fall asleep when he wanted.
Hailey kissed her fingers then touched them to Blake's cheek before walking out of his room to Drew's. She was surprised to hear noises that sounded like walking around on the other side of the door, though, so slowly opened it to poke her head inside.
Drew had a flashlight in his mouth and was moving all his books from a box to his bookshelf.
Hailey cleared her throat then whispered, "Drew?"
He looked up and spit out the flashlight, "Hi."
Hailey flipped the light on and stepped in the room, "What're you doing awake?"
Drew crossed his arms, "What're you doing awake?"
Hailey raised an eyebrow.
Drew blushed and gestured toward the books, "I'm unpacking."
"It's pretty late, sweetheart," Hailey said as she walked over to sit on his bed.
"I can't sleep," Drew admitted and returned to putting the books away.
"Why not?" Hailey asked.
"I don't want to be rude, Mom, but do you realize you're awake too?" Drew sighed.
Hailey laughed softly, "I do, but I'm pregnant and it's making it pretty hard to sleep right now. You are not pregnant."
"Being pregnant seems hard," Drew said.
Hailey put a hand on her stomach and nodded, "It is."
Drew leaned back on his hands, "I can't sleep because I'm too nervous."
"I'm sorry," Hailey frowned.
Drew shrugged, "It's okay."
"Well, it's not," Hailey shook her head, "You need to sleep."
"Don't you need to sleep?" Drew asked.
Hailey sighed, "Drew."
"You're forgetting that I'm smart," Drew looked around his room. He spotted the last suitcase he hadn't unpacked yet and crawled over to it.
"Well, I'm the mom and I'm the one who needs to be taking care of you right now," Hailey said.
Drew glanced up at her before unzipping his suitcase, "You're pregnant and you said we need to be a team. I'm being a team by telling you that you need to sleep too. If I need to sleep, that means you need to sleep."
Hailey smiled slightly, "Thank you for the reminder."
Drew smiled back then began pulling out his summer clothes.
"Drew, if we both need to sleep, then we should probably do that," Hailey said gently.
"Oh, I don't want to," Drew shook his head, "I told you – I'm too nervous. I'm getting way too tingly when I lay in bed."
Hailey glanced down at his bed that was perfectly made, "You laid in bed?"
"For a while," Drew nodded, "Then I got up and made my bed to give me something to do and then I started reading a book in my swing, but it was making me tired, so that's when I decided to put all my books away in my shelf."
Hailey let out a breath, "Well, let's try that reading thing again."
"No thanks," Drew grabbed his shorts and went to put them in his closet.
"Drew," Hailey weakly laughed, "It's really late."
"I'm okay," Drew shrugged, "I have things to do."
Hailey patted the bed, "Come lay down again. I can read to you."
Drew paused on his way back to his suitcase, "Even though it's a chapter book?"
Hailey smiled and nodded, "I'll still read it."
Drew's face lit up and he hurried over to his swing that Adam had set up earlier that day to grab the book he'd left on it. He came back to the bed just as Hailey was turning down the covers of it.
"Will you sit with me?" he asked.
"Of course," Hailey nodded.
Drew passed her the book before getting two of his blankets from his basket.
"Grab the weighted blanket too," Hailey told him.
"Good idea," Drew said. He grabbed it to cover himself in once he was in bed.
Hailey tucked him in then pulled one of the spare blankets over her legs. "Okay," she cleared her throat, "Where'd you leave off?"
"I just finished Chapter 4," Drew put his head against her side.
"You read four chapters tonight?" Hailey asked.
"It's an easy book," Drew nodded.
Hailey laughed, "You always blow me away."
Drew smiled up at her, "I like reading."
"And I'm so happy that you do," Hailey tried kissing his head, but couldn't quite reach down enough to do it.
Drew lightly touched her stomach, "Princess is big."
"And she's going to get bigger too," Hailey whispered.
Drew's eyebrows shot up, "Whoa."
"I know," Hailey let out a breath and rubbed circles on her stomach, "She's finally gone to sleep, so let's try to go to sleep too."
"If you say so," Drew sighed.
Hailey squeezed his shoulder then began softly reading to him. Drew had been right in saying that it was an easy book; before she knew it, Hailey had read three chapters. Around the middle of the fourth chapter she read, Drew fell asleep against her and Hailey was having a hard time keeping her own eyes open. She continued reading though until the book slipped from her hands and she fell asleep with her head against the wall.
Ten minutes after she fell asleep, Jay woke with a start down the hall. He quickly realized Hailey wasn't in bed with him, so he hurried out of bed and out of the room. The light coming from behind Drew's door instantly stood out to him in the darkness, and he debated for a second if Hailey was actually in there before deciding to just see what was going on.
He chuckled when he opened the door at the sight of Hailey and Drew curled up together on his bed.
Jay walked over and carefully adjusted Drew so he was laying down on his pillows. He then slipped his arms under Hailey's back and knees to carry her from the room stopping first to shut off the lights.
Jay gently placed Hailey on their mattress and covered her with the blankets. He put a hand on her stomach just as the baby was moving around enough that he could feel it.
Hailey's face scrunched up in her sleep and she began shifting on the bed.
Jay brushed his thumb over her pajama shirt and whispered, "Baby Bird, calm down, it's…" He looked at the clock on his nightstand and sighed at the fact that it was almost 5am. "It is way too late for you to be awake," he continued, "Mommy needs to sleep."
"Mommy's fine."
Jay looked up at Hailey's sleepy mumble and frowned, "Hailey, I'm so-"
"It's okay," Hailey rolled onto her back with a soft groan.
"Here," Jay said softly and helped her get comfortable around her body pillow. Hailey was so tired that she practically let him do whatever he wanted to her.
"There you go," Jay kissed her head. He climbed into bed next to her and began brushing his fingers through her hair.
Hailey mumbled something that neither of them quite understood, but Jay took it as a good sign because she didn't push him away. Soon enough, she was finally asleep and Jay was satisfied when she let out a low snore.
He laid down on his side of the bed as slowly as possible so to not wake Hailey. He grabbed his phone to send a quick text to the rest of Intelligence to tell them he wasn't going to come in until 9am. He wasn't surprised he didn't get a reply right away, but within ten minutes he heard his phone vibrate on the nightstand with replies.
~ It's definitely Sunday – Kevin Atwater
~ Were we going in today? – Kim Burgess
Jay bit his lip at the messages and shot back a reply before sinking into the mattress and easily falling asleep.
~ Sorry, long night in the new house, see you later, but seems like you two need some sleep too – Jay Halstead
~ Yeah, bit of insomnia here too. Talk later – Kim Burgess
~ Guilty. Night – Kevin Atwater
A/N: No cliffhanger for this one, just a small fluffy chapter to leave you on for the next couple weeks. Just a reminder, you probably won't hear from me for the next couple weeks on here since I'm gonna go on vacation and I don't think I can crank out another chapter before Saturday morning. It makes me sort of sad and I might try something, but a break could be good to regroup and refresh. As always, thank you so, so much for reading and supporting me – it really does mean so much to me. Talk soon!