The past few hours had been a whirlwind, from getting the news that the FBI was starting their investigation into Roy Walton's death, from deputy Superintendent Samantha Miller's request, to the abuse case turned planned murder of a father to which one of the daughter's had been the mastermind behind the whole thing, as well as Hailey connecting with the other daughter. Darlene reminded Hailey of herself in a way. Whilst the terrible things that were going on in her house behind her own closed doors, she felt like she was the one that had to protect everyone. Even being the youngest, she felt and did grow up quickly.

And once again Hailey connected with the young teenager and got to the truth, she could tell something was wrong the minute Darlene confessed to the murder of her father, it felt too convenient. Nevertheless they found out the truth. The real truth. Candice was being processed and she wouldn't be getting out for a long time. Hailey was a good cop, she loved her job and wouldn't want to change it for the world.

That's if The FBI weren't breathing down her neck over Roy Walton's investigation. When Jay pulled her into their bathroom and told her that The FBI had planted a tracker on her car as well as 10 bugs, it was evident that time was running out. They would find something that would implicate her and Voight. But now Jay knew and him knowing would only implicate him as well as them.

She was tired of doing things Voight's way, not that his way had helped her in any way. Her insomnia, the bruises, her panic attack. Jay knew now, and as much as it scared her that he did, it was relieving because she wasn't carrying it alone; she had him in a real sad and twisted way because of the circumstances that stood in their way. Because trying to protect him only made things worse and now that he knows, that conversation they just had, a few minutes ago on the phone was possibly the most reassured she'd felt in a long time.

But of course the uncertainty was still there. The FBI would still be lurking around, for however long it would take them to find Walton's body.

The smile widened on Hailey's face as she heard the door open, it had been a few minutes, a few long minutes since she had talked to Jay. She thought he would be home a while before now. But she didn't care. All she longed for was his arms around her after such a long and tiring day.

"Hey." She smiled.

"Hey." He replied with the same smile.

There was something wrong though. Hailey knew Jay as well as she knew herself at times and she knew something was up. As much as he was happy to see her, something had happened.

"You want one?" Hailey gestured to the whiskey bottle in front of her on the counter.

"If you are," He nodded, taking off his jacket.

"Alright," She shook her head with a smile, drinks and a conversation being their staple. "I have to warn you though, I already had some before you called me."

"I think tonight's one night that won't be happening." Hailey smiled as she passed him another glass she filled with whiskey.

"Cheers." The two of them raised their glasses towards each other before taking a sip, Jay taking a longer one than Hailey, who immediately could sense that something was up.

"What's up?" Hailey immediately asked after putting her glass down.

"What'd you mean?" Jay asked, his eyebrow furrowing slightly as Hailey just knowingly smiled.

"You are a terrible liar," She simply said, a knowing smile on her lips, "Especially when you try to lie to me."

A soft graze of a smile appeared on Jay's lips. "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

"Well, that's why I have my detective star, isn't it?" Hailey said, with a teasing smile before it faltered and her gaze lowered to the kitchen counter.. "Not for much longer if today is anything to go by."

"Hey," Jay's voice caused her to look up, "Don't talk like that."

She just shrugged her shoulders at her fiancé's words, "Can't help it."

Jay pushed himself off the counter, walking towards her side. Once he stood in front of her, he gently took her left fingers in his hand, the exact same way he did before he got on his knees and proposed back to her first proposal.

"I told you we were going to be okay, didn't I?" he started, looking at their left hands entwined together. "I still believe that. Nothing is going to happen to you, Hailey and I know I can't promise it but I'm promising it anyway." Hailey felt a soft smile graze her lips at the sight of her fiancé. He always tried to make her feel better and reassure her even when he didn't believe it at the best of times, he always put her before himself. It was the best feeling being loved by him, even if at times she didn't think she deserved this loving and caring person that God had graced her with standing right in front of her.

"Thank you," Hailey smiled softly.

"Let's not talk about it right now." Jay changed the looming topic at hand, bringing Hailey's left hand to his lips where he kissed the back of it, her now curious expression changing to a more soft gaze at his action.

"Dance with me." The sudden suggestion left his mouth which caused Hailey to chuckle, shaking her head.

"Are you serious?" Hailey incredulously laughed. "I can't dance, Jay. And I'm pretty sure neither can you."

"I can!" Jay protested, Hailey giving him a look of disbelief at his answer. "I just don't brag about it."

"You? I don't believe it." Hailey jokes, causing Jay to roll his eyes.

"One, my mom taught me and Will when we were teens, a long time ago…. before everything. Two, I'm a gentleman, believe it or not. Three, I never found the perfect girl to showcase this talent to. Until you." Hailey found herself smiling, rolling her eyes and smiling again with her heart almost about to burst at the end of it.

Jay Halstead would cease to surprise her.

After choosing a song from her vinyl records, she decided on the song "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur. Smiling at the familiar sound of the song that filled their apartment. She had listened to this song more times since it came out that she would like to admit it, no matter what kind of mood shs was in. She just likes to dream about what her life wouldn't be if she wasn't single, a cop with not much of a social life. But now, she had Jay who had shown her so much more about her future and love than any relationship ever had.

It was a good omen in terms of how far she's come since she'd purchased the vinyl, even if there was the looming topic of an investigation over her head.

"Seriously Jay, you better not be lying about you being able to dance because I really can't and I don't want to step on your feet." Hailey rambled as Jay just smiled and pulled her to him by his hand taking her's. He placed both of her hands individually on his shoulders before wrapping his waist.

"I got this." Jay was very amused at the way his fiancée was so nervous but in his effort to do something nice for her after the day they had, he wouldn't tease her about it… yet. "Just follow my lead, okay?"

"Okay." Hailey replied with a nod, feeling reassured by his soft gaze.

The two moved around their kitchen in silence, listening to the soft music that played.

As the song continued, Hailey thought about her relationship with Jay. It seemed like every lyric was a staple of their growth, how they started as strangers to work partners, work partners to friends, friends to lovers and now lovers who are engaged to be married. It was amazing.

Hailey had never thought in a million years that she would've met anyone like Jay; someone that would love her for all that she is, her past, her present, her future, her mistakes, her decisions, choices; all of it. Every time she has given him an option to walk out he has never taken it, he has stuck by her throughout everything. Because he can't bear to lose her and honestly, if she were to lose him, she wouldn't know what to do, let alone carry on.

Hailey had moved her head towards Jay's shoulder now, resting it there as her hands lightly held onto his arms as his arms continued to rest on her waist as the song slowly and softly dwindled to a close.

Feeling a kiss to the top of her head, Hailey looked up, completely memorised by this person who had given her everything she could ever dreamed of having.

"So I was wrong, you can dance." Hailey started off causing Jay to chuckle.

"I told you." Is all he said with a knowing smirk. "Glad to know I can still surprise you."

Hailey only shook her head, with a smile on her face. "There has to be other secret talents I don't know."

"Maybe there is," Jay played along. "But, you're not going to find them all out tonight. What would be the fun in that?"

Hailey smiled again, letting go of Jay's arms. "Thank you for making me smile."

"Hailey, you never have to thank me." Jay's response was instant but soft. "If there is anything I do right in my life, it is giving you the best that you deserve because you do deserve the world and I'm just lucky I get to be the one to give it to you."

Hailey didn't have the words again. So instead, she wrapped her arms around him causing him to do the same to her, his arms around her waist and her's around his shoulders.

They pulled away again a few minutes later, Hailey's gaze turning slightly solemn as she recounted Jay's earlier words "Let's not talk about it right now" they still had to talk, because as much as he was trying to make her happy and she would love him forever for doing so, he was clearly affected by something that happened to him on his way home from the prison.

"Are you going to tell me what's bothering you now?" Hailey asked as Jay simply nodded, a sigh escaping his lips.

"Think I'm gonna need another drink for this one." Is all he said before moving towards their couch.

Hailey wordlessly nodded, having to get another bottle of whiskey to finish pouring into Jay's glass before carrying the two of them to the couch where Jay was waiting for her, his gaze on the coffee table, very distant as he only looked up to the sound of Hailey placing her glass on the coffee table, passing him his which he took without another word, taking a small sip.

"What happened, Jay?" Hailey sighed, his distant gaze causing panic to rise in her chest.

"North… pulled me over when I was driving home from the prison." Jay revealed, looking at Hailey who was sitting there wordlessly, unable to say anything. "To tell me that… Roy Walton's body has been found, and it's all because of me."

As Jay's head hung low, Hailey placed her hand on his shoulder. "What do you mean? All because of you?"

Jay took a deep breath, taking up his glass from the coffee table to take yet another sip of his whiskey before putting it back. "When I figured it out, I tracked Voight's GPS movements from the night we found Kim, that's how I came to the dig site where Voight was already waiting for me where he told me that it was the spot Roy was buried. You already know what happened next."

"I led them straight to him, Hailey. Now they have his body and it could easily trace back to you." Jay took another look at his fiancé who was still looking at him with a more thoughtful expression on her face. "This is all my fault."

"No, we're not doing that." Hailey's response was immediate. "Jay, this is not on you. The Feds… they're Feds, with all their resources they were bound to find a body, it was just a matter of time."

"You don't think I shouldn't have done it differently? If I wasn't hellbent to find out what was going on then we wouldn't be here right now." He wanted Hailey to shout at him, project the anger that he was feeling for leading North and The FBI right to it, the evidence they are about to obtain is bound to add more fuel to the fire, for Hailey, for Voight and for him.

"You know why you had to find out what you had to find out, Jay.." Hailey told him. "I wasn't myself. I wasn't sleeping, I was in a really bad way because of all of this. And not telling you was causing me more stress that I didn't even think of at the time, but it was. You would have found out anyway but you did it because you were worried about me and suspicious of Voight, leading you to find out about all of this."

"And I would never blame you for wanting to make sure I was alright." Hailey smiled softly, causing Jay to do the same. "Never."

"There's something else though," Jay continued as Hailey furrowed her eyebrows.

"What?" She asked.

Once again, he took a deep breath. "North… he gave me two options. He arrests us both and gives us his word he'll make a case."

"Arrest us both?" Hailey felt the colour drain from her face as her hand dropped from Jay's shoulder. "This is all my fault. What have I done?"

"Look at me, Hailey." It took one look for Hailey to look at Jay where he instantly saw the terror on her face, the quiver of her lips and her eyes filling up with tears. "That's not the only option."

"What other option could be worse than that?" Hailey asks, Jay's pupils sizing at her tearful voice.

"One that would stop this all for good," he says, causing her to look at him with confusion in her tearful blue eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"We take the person he really wants. Hank Voight." It couldn't be that easy.

Hailey was silent for a moment, and apart from taking a big sip of her whiskey, she didn't say much. She couldn't believe it, her mind was racing. Either she and Jay get arrested, Jay who should have never gotten involved in the first place, someone Voight and Hailey equally bought into their mess by the secrecy, her whole world, the love of her life being taken away. Both of them in prison jumpsuits for the rest of their lives, not being able to have the life they really want. Out of prison, free and together.

That was not an option she never wanted to pick, Jay was everything to her and he didn't deserve to be dragged down with her. This wasn't his fault. He had done nothing but love her and support her, and he wouldn't pay the price for the hand that was being dealt to them.

The choice was simple, it had to be option two.

"There's no way I'm living in a world where you're not in it, Hailey. If I have to take down Voight to make sure that never happens, then that's what I'll have to do." Jay's statement was even more reassuring that it was the right one.

They were both not living in a world where they would be locked up in prison, probably stationed away from each other because of them being cops and their life together non existent.

No, no way.

"Neither am I." Hailey responded and Jay looked at her. "We will do what we have to."

"We will." Jay promised and Hailey looked at him before she suddenly flung her arms around him, her head resting on her chest.

"I'm sorry that you have to be put through this, Jay." Hailey sniffled, the tears she was trying to prevent from falling earlier falling at a quick rate down her cheeks and into Jay's shirt.

"I would do anything for you, Hailey." Jay affirms, "And I'm not seeing you take the fall for something you couldn't prevent. Roy was dead before you walked into that warehouse, you know that right? None of this is on you."

"Apart from lying to one of my best friends and my fiancé?"

"Apart from that." Jay nodded but quickly added, "We know who's fault that is."

"Jay?" Hailey looked up from Jay's chest to look into his beautiful green eyes, eyes she would always be completely memorised and obsessed by.

"Yeah?" Jay looked down at her, smiling softly at her.

"I love you, you know that, right? So much." It would never appease Jay more than hearing her say those 3 sacred words, words that Hailey had struggled to say for a long time to someone she thought she loved but could never say it to them. And with Jay, it actually amazes him as well as makes him the happiest man on earth whenever she says it and it will never fail to put a smile on his face whenever she does.

"I know. I love you too. Very much." Jay replied causing Hailey to smile and she leant her chin up to press his lips to his which he happily obliged in her doing.

Because she could, and whatever happened, she would never get tired of kissing him, loving him, feeling him. Any of it.

Things were far from over but Jay and Hailey had each other, and the most important part out of all of this was that they were good and were always going to be good.

In the good, bad, ugly parts of life.

Their love was worth its weight in gold.