A/N: Hey! I'm sorry this took longer than I wanted to get out, I was just hit with a nasty headcold and did basically nothing for a solid 72 hours. I hope you still like it though :) Also! Thank you all for the super nice things you said on the last chapter, it really meant a lot to me :)


Hailey held Jay's hands while she bounced on the exercise ball in the small room at Med used for the birthing class. She laughed softly and said, "I think we'll just need to have one of these at home, Drew would love it."

Jay smiled shaking his head, "He'd definitely find a way to either hurt himself or Blake."

"Eh, they'll be fine," Hailey shrugged.

"Does it feel good then?" Jay asked.

"I mean, I don't know," Hailey looked down at her stomach as she bounced, "I'm not in labor right now, but I guess she was right – I could see how the bouncing could at least distract me."

Jay nodded, "All right, I'll make sure to get one then."

"Well, she said the hospital will have some," Hailey said.

"My wife isn't having a baby on top of some exercise ball other women have also had their babies on," Jay shook his head, "Not sanitary."

Hailey laughed, "I'm sure they wash the balls after. And besides, she's not going to come shooting out of me while I'm on here."

A woman nearby overheard and stopped bouncing with her own husband to say, "Girl, you'll want her to come shooting out of you. I was in labor for fourteen hours with my last baby and pushing for close to three. That's why I'm here, I need to figure out how to make this one come out faster."

Hailey smiled slightly, "You…you had to push for three hours?"

"Almost three," the woman corrected, "It was not fun. Natural too. I don't know how I did it."

"Oh," Hailey cleared her throat, "I didn't know that could happen."

The woman nodded, "Most painful three hours of my life – actually, most painful day of my life. I'll probably do an epidural this time just to avoid that again."

"You're going to scare her," her husband said.

"No, no, it's okay," Hailey stopped bouncing, "I want to hear."

"Hailey," Jay whispered.

"She's not coming out of you, so what do you care?" Hailey asked, "I want to be prepared."

"Here," the woman carefully stood then walked over to give Hailey her phone, "Put your number in and call yourself so you have mine too. I can answer anything you'd like."

"Thank you so much," Hailey tucked her hair behind her ear before doing just as the woman asked, "I'm Hailey by the way. This is Jay."

"You're very welcome, Hailey," the woman smiled, "I'm Cecily and my husband is Eddie."

Jay waited until Cecily and her husband walked away to whisper, "You really want to hear horror stories of someone giving birth?"

"Yeah, I do," Hailey grabbed his arm and started bouncing again, "I want to know everything that could happen. The nurse was talking about birthing plans, right? I want to start writing mine."

Jay sighed, "Fine, yeah, okay."

"Thank you," Hailey tilted her head to the side, "I just want to be prepared."

"I know," Jay nodded then took a deep breath, "It's just a little scary."

Hailey swiftly kicked him in the leg, "Scary? You can call this scary when you're the one shoving a baby out of you, until then you need to be cool."

"Sorry, sorry," Jay rubbed his leg, "You make a good point."

Hailey raised an eyebrow, "Jay."

He quickly stepped out of reach of her feet, "I'm just saying, I don't like ever seeing you in pain and the scary part sort of is, like you said, not knowing what's going to happen. That's why I like coming here even if you don't."

Hailey blushed and looked around to make sure no one heard him, "It's not that I don't like learning, I just don't like being so vulnerable."

As the word left her mouth, Jay's phone rang. Hailey closed her eyes at the ring tone telling her it was someone from work.

"Sorry, sorry," Jay repeated blindly waving at everyone who was now staring at him, "It's just-"

"Answer it," Hailey breathed.

He nodded and pulled out his phone, saying "Hello?" as he walked out of the room.

Hailey blushed when she noticed some people started whispering while still staring at her. It was exactly what she didn't want people to do while in the class.

After quietly bouncing for a minute without Jay, she stood to roll the ball away.

"Are you leaving?" the nurse asked.

"Um," Hailey glanced out the door where she could see Jay now texting on his phone, "I think so. My husband probably has to go to work."

"Oh, are you sure?" the nurse turned to grab some pamphlets, "We were going to discuss epidurals today. It's a pretty big conversation."

Hailey felt her stomach drop as she looked down at the papers in the nurse's hands. She hadn't given epidurals much thought because she knew it would make Jay uncomfortable, but now after hearing Cecily say she was considering one…

"Hey, I need to go," Jay said as he jogged back in the room toward Hailey, "But someone's gonna be here to take you home in twenty minutes."

Hailey looked up, "Why can't I just leave with you?"

"Big homicide," Jay shook his head, "I need to get there right now and the rest of the team's on their way too. I texted Will and Severide, one of them will drive you home."

"Severide?" Hailey asked.

Jay nodded, "Yeah, for Stella." He kissed her forehead, "Be home tonight. I'll text you."

Hailey watched him run from the room and sighed. She turned back to the nurse, "Well, I guess I'm staying."

"Perfect," she smiled, "Let's get you set up over here and then I'll get everyone else to clean up too." Hailey followed her to the yoga mat she'd been sitting on earlier with Jay as she said, "Whether or not you want an epidural is completely up to you, but I think everyone needs to hear the pros and cons before making their final decision."

"Of course," Hailey breathed and sat down with the nurse's help. She silently accepted the pamphlets and started skimming through them as the nurse began wrapping up everyone else on the balls.

All the information thrown at her was good and the nurse was clear that she wasn't trying to sway anyone either way, but it help Hailey in any way. She was still worrying about Jay and how he'd react while also thinking of herself and the pain she would be in and then there was the recovery process for either option she chose. She left feeling torn and scared.

The baby started kicking as she left the room, it was like she knew her needed a reminder of why she was going to give birth. Hailey smiled at the feeling and rubbed her stomach where she could feel the tiny feet pressing against her.

"Hey!"

Hailey looked up to see Stella waving at her near the entrance to the hospital. She waved back and walked over, "Hey."

"Thought you could use a girl day," Stella smiled.

Hailey laughed softly, "It's okay, you can just take me home."

Stella rolled her eyes, "Will said he's with Blake, I plan on using that to our advantage."

"Are you sure?" Hailey asked.

Stella crossed her arms, "And are you really going to deny me ice-cream?"

Hailey smiled, "I can't fight you on that."

"Thank you," Stella put her hand on Hailey's arm and led her out to her car, "Everything go well?"

Hailey waited until Stella started the car to say, "Sure."

Stella glanced at her, "What the hell's that mean?"

Hailey shrugged, "It was fine. Jay left early for work, but he was there for the important stuff."

Stella slowly nodded, "And what's that?"

"We were just practicing labor positions with one of those exercise balls," Hailey explained, "It was actually pretty comfortable and I think I'll use it."

"Well that's good!" Stella said, "And what about after he left?"

"Oh," Hailey blew out a breath, "The big thing this week was beginning our birth plans, so she talked to us about epidurals."

"Sounds like a god-send," Stella laughed, "If there are drugs out there that prevent me from feeling pain, I want them."

Hailey smiled a little, "You'd do it?"

"Yes," Stella nodded, "I know there are some risks and whatever, but if I want to feel my strongest bringing a little baby into this world, the only thing I want to be focusing on is him or her, not the pain they're bringing me because it's really not their fault that it hurts."

"Huh," Hailey rubbed her stomach, "That makes sense."

"But if you don't want one," Stella started, "Go for it; more power to you, I will not judge."

"Thanks," Hailey said softly.

"What's Jay think of it?" Stella asked.

"We haven't talked about it," Hailey shook her head, "But I don't think he'd be for it. He doesn't like needles."

"Wait," Stella held up her finger, "You're going to decide what to do to your body while you're bringing a human into this world solely because your husband has a fear of needles?"

Hailey opened her mouth to respond then blushed.

Stella smirked slightly, "Hailey, I love you and I think you're amazing, so know that this is coming from the heart when I say you don't need to consider Jay's feelings in this one. He put the baby there, but the birth part is all you. You need to make this decision based on your thoughts. Jay needs to, and I think he will, accept your choice. Just think about it. If you decide you still don't want an epidural after going through everything, awesome, but consider more than just your husband's comfort levels."

Hailey let Stella's words sink in then slowly nodded, "Thank you."

"Of course," Stella smiled at her before pulling the car into a parking spot, "You ready for ice-cream?"

Hailey laughed and unbuckled her seatbelt, "I thought we'd never get here." She followed Stella into the shop leaving the epidural pamphlets on the passenger seat.


Drew sat at the kitchen table writing a list of places to go in Chicago.

Hailey leaned over him to set a glass of milk in front of him, "What're you doing? Can you put it away for dinner?"

"In a minute," he answered.

Hailey put her hand on the back of his chair to read the list, "Aquarium, zoo, Navy Pier, museum, park, movie theater…what is this?"

"Places Dad can take me when we spend time together," Drew explained. He finished writing 'fossil hunting,' then put the list in front of Jay's chair.

Hailey smiled, "That'll be fun."

Drew nodded, "I got a whole day with just you, so Dad said him and I can do something just us this weekend. It's only fair."

"Of course," Hailey turned back to the counter to grab the pan of lasagna.

"When's Dad coming home?" Drew asked.

"Um," Hailey set the food on the table then glanced at her phone, "He doesn't think he'll be home until late tonight."

"Oh," Drew frowned. He stared at the list he'd made, "How will I tell him about our plans?"

"You can tell him tomorrow," Hailey said picking up Blake to put him in the highchair.

Drew sighed and tilted his head up, "Fine."

"All of those sound fun though," Hailey smiled. She put a piece of lasagna on his plate then started cutting up a piece for Blake.

"Yeah," Drew poked his food, "I'm worried he's going to disappear again."

"What?" Hailey looked up.

"Don't you remember?" Drew asked, "Dad had to leave for nine days."

"I remember," Hailey put her fork down, "But that's not going to happen again."

Drew crossed his arms.

"It won't," Hailey shook her head, "Dad's a sergeant now, right? So no more undercover."

Drew stared at her then shrugged and started eating.

"Honey," Hailey started.

"Fine, fine," Drew waved his hand, "I'll believe you."

"Dad loves you," Hailey said softly.

"Well, I know that," Drew sighed, "But he has an important job and when he has to randomly work late, I don't like it. We have a schedule."

Hailey sadly smiled, "I know. It's hard. It's just tonight, though, okay?"

Drew nodded a little and ate another piece of lasagna.


Hailey woke up close to one in the morning to Jay slipping into bed. She rubbed her eyes and mumbled, "Hey."

"Hey," he whispered, "Sorry, I tried being quiet."

Hailey shook her head and flipped around to face him, "You okay?"

Jay pursed his lips, "No."

Hailey pushed up on her elbows, "What happened?"

"It's a big one," Jay sighed, "Killed a whole family today in Gold Coast, but the reason we got called because it's similar to one that happened a week ago in North Centre and then the week before that in Beverly."

Hailey's eyes widened, "So three?"

"At least," Jay nodded, "But we couldn't get it to fit together. None of the families have anything super obvious in common besides being pretty wealthy."

"I'll say," Hailey shook her head, "Do you need to go in early tomorrow?"

"You mean a couple hours, yeah," Jay yawned, "I'm sorry for bailing earlier."

"No, it's okay," Hailey grabbed his hand, "It happens."

"Was class okay?" Jay asked scooting closer to her.

Hailey smiled slightly, "You should sleep."

"No, no, I want to talk," Jay said.

Hailey laughed, "You look exhausted and will be up and back at work soon, sleep."

"Fine," Jay easily closed his eyes and pulled the blanket over him.

"Goodnight," Hailey kissed his forehead.

"Night," Jay breathed before quickly falling asleep.

Hailey sighed and cuddled close to him until she fell back asleep too.


He was gone before Hailey woke up. She didn't hear him leave, but found two notes on the counter next to Drew's lunchbox:

Probably another late night, I'll text you when I can. Love you.

Have a good day at school, buddy! I'll make sure to stop in your room tonight and say goodnight.

Hailey sighed putting the note to her in the drawer.

"Mom," Drew said while walking in, "Where's Dad?"

Hailey pasted a smile on her face and said, "Work, but it's okay! He left you a note, look." She passed him the small paper and watched him read it.

Drew frowned, but put it in his pocket. He went to sit at the table and noticed his list from the night before still sitting on the table. He groaned and slipped down in his seat.

Hailey noticed it as well and let out a breath, "I'm sorry, honey. Tomorrow."

"Well," Drew sighed, "I'll just bring it in my room and when he comes home, we can talk about it."

Hailey tried to smile, "Yeah, that…that should be a good idea."

Drew nodded and scratched his legs over his jeans.

Hailey grabbed out the cereal and milk, "Ready for breakfast?"

"I don't have a choice," Drew mumbled.

Hailey put his breakfast together and kissed his head while placing it in front of him, "I know you're bummed-"

"Yeah, my dad's disappearing on me," Drew said.

"Drew, it's okay," Hailey sat next to him, "This happens with Dad's job."

"I haven't seen him since yesterday morning," Drew shook his head, "That's a pretty long time to go without seeing someone important."

"But he's going to try his hardest to be home for tomorrow, I just know it," Hailey poked his side, "He misses you too."

"Promise?" Drew asked quietly.

"Absolutely," Hailey nodded. Blake began crying upstairs, so she stood, "Eat your breakfast, I'll be back down in a few minutes. It'll be okay."

Drew watched her walk away then grabbed his list from Jay's spot at the table. He smiled slightly and put it in his pocket next to the note Jay had left.


Hailey had hoped Jay would be home at a decent hour that night, but suddenly it was close to midnight and she'd read all the articles about epidurals on the first page of Google on her phone and he still wasn't there. She fell asleep right before Jay sent her a text:

This is killing me. I miss you all. One lead seems like progress and suddenly we're at square one. We'll try for tomorrow. I'm leaving the office in ten.

She was so tired that she didn't even wake up when he came to bed.

Hailey understood. There were many nights when she was working where she would have to come home at ungodly hours only to nap and then run back out.

Drew was harder to convince and was beginning to get extremely worried, and a little angry, that he hadn't seen Jay in so long.

"I miss my dad," he said as they walked up to the school the following morning and saw a dad hugging his two kids before they ran into the building.

"I know you do," Hailey turned him to face her, "But he's doing important things right now. Some families were really, really hurt and he's trying to figure out who did it."

"Which is fine," Drew groaned, "But Cara gets to see her mom and dad."

Hailey frowned because he was right. Kim and Adam were taking turns coming home early to relieve their babysitter which just made Drew jealous when he'd noticed as they played outside after dinner.

"Dad loves you," Hailey said.

"I know, you keep promising that," Drew sighed, "Whatever. Bye."

"Doo!" Blake waved his hands.

Drew softened slightly and bent down to give Blake a hug in his stroller before hurrying toward the front doors. He stopped then ran back to hug Hailey quickly, "Sorry."

She laughed softly, "Thank you. See you later."

Drew nodded, "Bye." He ran back to the school and quickly went inside.

Hailey took a deep breath then turned with Blake to go back to the car and hope for Jay to get a break in the case.


When Jay first left during birthing class, Hailey understood he had a job to do and that carried over into the first twenty-fours without him. The second twenty-four hours, she was still fine, but only just starting to get worried like Drew because there was no reason she could think of that he wouldn't be coming home until midnight. By the start of the third day, she'd had enough.

She packed a lunch for him that she brought to the district with Blake determined to have an in-person conversation with her husband who she'd only talked to during brief middle-of-the-night whispers and short phone calls where he'd say he was coming home soon only to take that back an hour later.

"Halstead, he's not here," Trudy greeted her when she entered the building.

Hailey sighed and closed her eyes in annoyance, but still said, "Fine. I'm still dropping off his lunch."

Blake waved at Trudy and showed her his small stuffed dog.

"Hi, buddy," she smiled before leaning over her desk toward Hailey, "They caught a hard one."

"I'll say, he's barely home," Hailey shook her head, "Drew's getting upset too."

"He really is trying," Trudy said, "Everyone else goes home hours before he does. Whenever I talk to him, he just says that he's trying to finish up so he can get to you all sooner."

Hailey sadly smiled, "Thanks."

"I'll buzz you up," Trudy said.

Hailey nodded and headed toward the stairs. Once upstairs, she took in the silent bullpen and briefly missed it, but then Blake began talking to his dog and her heart instantly warmed up as she remembered why she had stepped back in the first place. She didn't have any regrets, especially as the baby flipped around in her stomach. She placed the lunch on Jay's desk smiling at the pictures that were there. It was then that she noticed the open case file next to the computer.

Her fingers lightly brushed over the papers, but she shook her head and stepped back. She didn't work here anymore, she shouldn't get involved in Jay's cases.

"Dada!" Blake gasped and pointed toward their Christmas card picture on Jay's desk, "Da! Dada!"

Hailey laughed and held the picture up to him, "Yeah! It's Daddy and, look, it's Drew too and you and Mommy. We're all here. It's our family."

Blake smiled and touched the frame. He babbled softly, occasionally saying, "La, la, la," which Hailey took as him saying, "I love you" – at least, that's how she and Jay had been interpreting it.

She didn't know what Jay would say to her about looking through his work stuff, but she thought back to Stella's comment the other day about not worrying about Jay's comfort when she was in pain. Epidurals and labor was much different than just missing Jay though.

Hailey shook her head and put the picture back on the desk, "Let's go, baby boy," she told Blake. She started walking back toward the bullpen until a word on the whiteboard seemed to light up in the corner of her eye.

Dog Walker

One of her first cases in Robbery-Homicide involved a woman who was murdered by her dog walker.

Hailey frowned and stepped closer to study the board. She ignored Blake tugging at her hair as she followed Vanessa's handwriting.

The entrance to the bullpen buzzed, so Hailey quickly took a picture of the board and headed toward the stairs.

"There you are," Trudy said, "Everything good?"

"Yeah," Hailey smiled, "Buzz was just looking at the pictures on Jay's desk."

"All right," Trudy tossed a file on Kevin's desk then walked with Hailey down the stairs, "I'll talk to Jay and see if he can head home a little earlier today."

"I'd appreciate it," Hailey took a deep breath.

"Any plans for the rest of the day?" Trudy asked.

Hailey thought to the picture of the board she'd taken on her phone, but just shrugged, "Not really. I was thinking of buying an exercise ball to sit on."

Trudy raised an eyebrow, "For what?"

"Labor," Hailey nodded, "It's supposed to help."

"How fun," Trudy walked back around her desk, "Well, you enjoy that, and I will tell your husband to leave before it's pitch black outside."

Hailey laughed, "Thank you. Say 'bye,' Buzz."

Blake waved again and blew Trudy a kiss.

Trudy smiled, "Bye, Buzz."

Hailey kissed his cheek then carried him outside. Once she was putting him in his car seat, she whispered, "Daddy will be home soon, I promise."


Drew sat at the table drawing while Hailey continuously zoomed in and out of the picture of the whiteboard on her phone. She was doing her best to transfer all of the information into a notebook, but it was proving more difficult than she imagined.

Her phone rang causing her to jump from losing her concentration.

Drew looked up, "Is it Dad?"

Hailey glanced at the screen then smiled, "It is." She answered the call then put it on speaker phone, "Hi, Dad, I have you on speaker phone."

"Oh, hey," Jay laughed quietly, "Hi, everyone."

"Dad!" Drew lunged over and picked up the phone, "Dad, are you undercover again? I'm getting very worried about you."

"No, I'm not undercover," Jay said, "I've just been really busy."

"Well, I hate it," Drew pursed his lips.

"Drew Alexander," Hailey hissed then tried grabbing the phone, but Drew just stood up and walked to the living room.

"I'm sorry, buddy, I hate it too," Jay replied, "Sometimes the boss just needs to stay late and now I'm the boss."

Drew sighed, "I thought being the sergeant would be cool, but it's become a pain for me. I've been wanting to make plans with you. You said we could have a whole day together and I'm very worried you're not going to complete that promise."

"I will, Drew, I will make sure to spend an entire day doing fun stuff with you," Jay said.

"When?"

The second the word 'Saturday' came from the phone, Hailey shook her head and groaned. Drew was going to hold him to that and with a case like this, Jay couldn't guarantee he'd be home for it.

"Perfect!" Drew knelt next to Blake playing with his cars, "Buzz, Dad said he'll hang out with me on Saturday, you should be jealous of me."

"Honey," Hailey walked over, "Give me the phone."

"Mom," Drew pulled back, "I'm talking to Dad." Despite how serious he was, he still had a small smile on his face from Jay's promise.

"I know," Hailey sat on the couch, "But can't you share?"

"Drew, can I talk to Mom?" Jay asked.

Drew bounced against his heels lightly, "But…but I miss you."

"I miss you too, bud," Jay said quietly, "So, so much. I'm really sorry I haven't been home. You have no idea how hard this has been."

"I bet I do," Drew nodded, "Dad, I haven't seen you in exactly eighty-one hours and four minutes."

Hailey's eyebrows shot up, "How do you know?"

"Dad dropped me off at school eighty-one hours and four minutes ago, duh," Drew answered.

"Don't be sassy," Jay said.

Drew blushed, "I'm sorry, but I'm telling the truth."

Blake pushed himself up to stand and pull and Drew's arm, "Dada? Dada?"

"Hey! Is that Buzz?" Jay asked.

"It is," Hailey smiled and pulled Blake on her lap, "He wants-"

Blake burst into a loud babble and waved his hands around like he was telling Jay a story. Hailey's smile only widened as she listened to him and Jay's soft replies to show he was listening.

When he quieted down, Hailey laughed, "What a story."

"I know!" Jay chuckled, "Sounds like he had a busy day."

"He did," Hailey kissed Blake's head, "We dropped off your lunch and then we went to the store."

"Did you buy anything?" Jay asked.

"She bought a giant ball," Drew answered, "It's pretty cool. I wanted to bounce on it, but she said it belongs to her and Princess."

"Ah," Jay laughed, "That's from the class, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Hailey smiled, "I thought it'd be a good idea to get one for home."

"How are you and Princess doing?"

Hailey sucked in a breath at Jay's question. It felt different now than when he'd asked in the middle of the night after she'd found him in bed once she came back from using the bathroom. They weren't exhausted or sleep-deprived now, at least she wasn't, she couldn't say the same for Jay.

"We're good," Hailey said softly, "We've been taking it easy and…" she glanced over at the kitchen table, "We've been working on a puzzle."

"No you haven't," Drew interrupted, "You've been doing something on your phone."

"A puzzle on my phone," Hailey said through clenched teeth.

Drew's eyes widened and he shrugged.

"Fun," Jay replied, "Maybe you can show me later. I'm going to leave tonight at nine when everyone else does. I talked to Trudy and she said it'd be best if I actually slept tonight."

Hailey laughed quietly, "I agree with her."

"Where do you sleep?" Drew asked.

"Well, I've been coming home," Jay said, "I leave you those notes in the morning. I've been coming home super late and leaving really early."

"Yeah, but…" Drew looked down at his hands then lightly scratched his arms.

"What is it?" Hailey lightly rubbed his back.

"Drew?" Jay's voice came through the phone laced with worry.

"But are you saying 'goodnight' to me?" Drew asked so quietly it was barely above a whisper, "I stay awake as long as I can and you never come in my room."

"I…I haven't," Jay admitted, "Drew, I am really sorry. I should have been going in your room even if it is late at night, I just didn't want to wake you up."

"Last night I stayed awake until 12:53am," Drew said.

"Drew," Hailey breathed, "No, that is way too late. Is that why you've been so tired?"

"Maybe," he shrugged.

"Well, I will come in tonight, okay? I'll try to be home before 9:30," Jay said.

Drew nodded and passed Hailey the phone.

She took it off speaker phone as she walked back to the table, "Did you make any progress today?"

"Sort of?" Jay sighed, "We're still missing the connection between all three. I highly doubt it was three different crews."

Hailey looked down at her notes, "What about the dog walker?"

"What?"

"I-I saw on the board today that you had a dog walker in mind," Hailey explained.

Jay hummed then said, "Yeah, we did, but the Gold Coast family didn't have a pet and the Beverly family had a cat."

"Oh," Hailey frowned and tapped her notebook, "Huh."

"Any ideas?" Jay jokingly asked.

"Um," Hailey flipped through her pages.

"I'm kidding," Jay chuckled, "Your only job is to make a baby."

Hailey tried to smile, "Well-"

"No! No!"

Hailey looked up quickly, "Drew?"

"Blake's eating a lego!" Drew yelled.

Hailey ended the phone call so she could run over and fish the lego out of Blake's mouth.

"You are bad," Drew shook his head.

Hailey sighed and looked at him, "You need to be more careful with your legos. Dad and I have told you to keep them higher up."

"He got it from under the couch," Drew groaned, "It's not my fault. He's the one eating toys."

Blake coughed then smiled at Hailey.

She shook her head before hugging them both to her sides, "We need to work together, right? And be nice to each other and be very careful with little toys."

Drew lightly pushed her away, "Fine."

Hailey put her hand on his back, "Drew."

He shrugged, "I'm just frustrated."

"I know," Hailey said softly, "But Dad's coming home tonight and you two can plan your special day."

"That is true," Drew watched Blake play with Hailey's hair. He smiled slightly, "I'm sorry you almost died, Buzz."

Blake looked at him and replied by blowing a raspberry.

Drew laughed and poked him, "Mom just said be nice."

Blake giggled then blew a raspberry on Hailey's cheek.

She gasped and held him up, "Hey! You're too silly!"

Blake kicked around laughing and reaching for her distracting her from her case notes on the table until he began yawning.

Hailey stood up glancing toward the table, "Drew, can you clean up everything while I get him ready for bed?"

"Yeah," Drew hurried over to the table.

Hailey watched him put all his paper and markers away then brought Blake upstairs. She stopped to look into the empty nursery with a smile.

"This is your sister's room," she whispered to Blake, "Are you excited to meet her?"

Blake rubbed his eyes and put his head on her shoulder.

Hailey stared at the empty wall where she had been thinking of hanging the baby animal pictures. She then nodded to herself before bringing Blake to his room knowing what she was going to do once both boys were in bed.


When Jay slipped into Drew's room, his reading lamp was still on, but he was barely awake on his bed.

"Hey, buddy," he whispered as he knelt down.

Drew sleepily blinked at him then smiled, "Dad."

"Yeah," Jay chuckled. He turned off the lamp, "How're you?"

"I missed you," Drew yawned.

"I missed you too," Jay said, "But I'm going to work harder to come home on time the next few days, I promise."

Drew nodded and turned on his side.

Jay tucked the blankets around him, "How about you sleep now?"

"I'm tired," Drew whispered.

Jay smiled, "You look it." He kissed Drew's forehead and stood up, "Goodnight, buddy."

Drew waved slightly and closed his eyes.

Jay glanced in Blake's room to see him sleeping as well before going into the nursery where he light was on. He was expecting to see Hailey hanging pictures up or planning out the furniture, he wasn't expecting to see her bouncing on a ball staring at pieces of construction paper on the wall.

"Uh," Jay cleared his throat, "Hey."

Hailey's head snapped to him and she smiled, "Hey!"

"What're you doing?" Jay laughed.

"Solving your case," Hailey pointed to the wall.

"What?" Jay stepped further in the room to get a better look at the colored papers - some of them had stick figures on them like mugshots and driver's license photos while others were drawings of crime scenes. There was red and black writing on the wall as well connecting the papers with arrows and notes. "Is this…"

"I couldn't help it," Hailey shook her head, "I figured you could use some help."

Jay put his hand on the wall, "Is this washable?"

Hailey nodded, "If not, we have more paint."

Jay sighed, "Hailey, you really shouldn't have done this. How'd you even get all of this?"

She held up her phone, "I took a picture."

Jay shook his head, "Hailey."

"Come on," she groaned, "Jay, my specialty has always been Robbery-Homicide. Let me help you."

He pursed his lips and looked back at the wall.

Hailey stood up and hugged him, "Please." She lightly played with his belt, "Didn't you miss me? Let's spend time together by solving a case just like before."

Jay bit his lip and gazed down at her.

"Please," Hailey whispered, "I may have made some headway."

Jay glanced back at the wall then sighed, "What do you think about the nanny angle?" He pulled his jacket off, "They're all from the same company, but each nanny is above the age of fifty."


They worked through the night adding information to the first wall and creating family trees on another. Even when Blake woke in the middle of the night crying that he was thirsty, Jay brought him into the nursery and they took turns holding him as they worked until he fell back asleep.

"Okay, but what if we assume he knew her before he hired her?"

"Have you checked her background?"

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Wait, wait, look, Vanessa talked to the sister who said something about a jeweler. That has to be something."

"Let's just start at the beginning again."

"The thing is, they had to have been in each house to know where the cameras were."

The sun was just starting to come through the windows and their adrenaline was fading when Hailey stood up from staring at a mess of financial information they had printed out and taped near the light-switch.

"I thought you'd said the Gold Coast family didn't have a pet," she said.

Jay turned from writing next to the window, "They didn't."

"But two months ago they spent close to five hundred dollars at Paws and Remember," Hailey tapped her writing, "They had a pet. They had a pet!"

Jay's eyes widened and then he hurried to their wall of possible theories, "What if they all used the same pet sitting business? I know we originally thought dog walking, but if all three families were traveling frequently, they had to have put their pets somewhere."

"There can't be that many high-end dog kennels around," Hailey grabbed her laptop.

"Kennels for sure, but companies that have people actually stay in your house?" Jay sat next to her ball pointing his marker at a section of the wall, "Whoever went inside knew where the cameras were and how to work them."

Hailey steadied herself on the ball as she furiously searched the internet. She finally laughed and showed him the screen, "Found one!"

Jay watched her scroll through the website for a minute then shook his head saying, "We still need a motive, and why would you suddenly decide to murder a family you hadn't worked for in months?"

Hailey let out a soft gasp, "Because they're accusing you of killing their three cats and their dog."

"What?" Jay sat up on his knees.

Together, they watched a video that was linked to a news article from the month before. It led them to other random reports that somehow seemed to be swept under the rug preventing them from becoming real cases with the police department.

Jay glanced to his watch, "Hails, I need to go."

She nodded, "Go, finish it, I can take pictures of everything and send it to you before cleaning up."

"Thank you," he kissed her quickly then bent down to kiss her stomach, "And you too, little bird."

Hailey laughed and put a hand on the side of his face, "See you tonight?"

Jay smiled, "Yeah, see you tonight." He grabbed his coat, shoes, badge, and gun from where he'd left them earlier in the corner and hurried out of the house.

Hailey took a deep breath and looked around the room before standing up, "Do you think we did it, baby girl?" The baby shifted around in her stomach and Hailey laughed, "Yeah, me too."


A/N: The goal was not to make a super long chapter, but it happened so…oops. It's definitely not over though and I have more planned, so I hope you'll stick around. I also wanted to say that my last Upstead Week story from Sunday ("Kiss Me on the Sidewalk") has a future Halstead family scene in it if you wanted to check that out – those of you who guessed or assumed it was them, you were very right :)