Normally, Hailey wasn't the kind of cop who did well under the restriction of light duty. Sitting on the sidelines wasn't her jam; it was boring and it made her antsy. But being on IOD for a few days after the whole cabin incident before fully returning to normal duty hadn't been the worst thing in the entire world — she'd gotten to spend more time than she usually did with Jordan. Extra time, however, also meant that there were more minutes during the day where her mind was left to its own devices. And for Hailey, having a wandering mind was always potentially dangerous.

Or healthy and good for her, as her old therapist had repeatedly reminded her and pointed out. Allowing memories, even painful ones, to surface and sometimes ruminate was a better alternative to suppressing them. It's the only way you'll grow and move on from them, she'd been told.

Therapy wasn't something that Hailey had wanted to go to, but rather hadn't been given a choice in the matter after the incident with Ronald Booth on New Year's Eve. It had been a necessity in order for her to get cleared to return to work, and she'd mostly loathed every second of it. Opening up to people had a tendency to burn Hailey in the past. Remaining guarded was how she'd learned she could survive.

It wasn't until Garrett had disappeared that she'd opted to return to therapy on her own.

It had been for Jordan's sake, she'd reasoned then, never admitting she needed it for herself, no matter how much talking about the more intimate details of her life with a trained professional seemed to help. Despite all of her training, Hailey hadn't know how to tell her four year old what'd happened. How Garrett had been murdered in an undercover operation. How she hadn't been able to protect him. How she hadn't even been able to pin his death on Booth because they couldn't find Garrett's body. How the man who'd stepped up on his own accord to fill the shoes of her little girl's absent father, was never coming home.

She'd eventually managed though, in a roundabout way that was as kid-friendly as could be. But Jordan still asked questions about it, and about Garrett, from time to time. It made sense; Hailey hadn't lied about anything, but she'd left a hell of a lot of the details out, with good reason. In all honestly, she couldn't imagine ever telling her the full story. There were just some things that Jordan didn't need to know. But with each year that passed, as Jordan grew older, smarter, and more curious, she realized that one day she might have to. With their history, with her line of work, with how abnormal parts of Jordan's life were, there was a bound to be an abundance of questions that Jordan would ask that Hailey would never want to answer.

"Mom?" Jordan had caught Hailey sitting on the couch with her laptop on her lap, staring out the window rather than at its screen. March 10th, and it was still snowing. "What are you doing?" She asked curiously while plopping down on the couch next to her, glancing at the document her mother had open.

Hailey lowered the lid of her laptop as she turned to face her daughter. "Boring adult stuff," she answered, ruffling Jordan's hair. "How's the homework?"

"Finished," Jordan responded, following up with a second question as she looked from the computer to Hailey, "What's a 'last will and testament'?"

Hailey stiffened, shutting her laptop completely. She'd been stuck on and staring at Article VII of her Last Will and Testament document for the past hour and a half, which was what happened every time she went in to edit that section. "Nothing you need to be worrying about," she assured her with a soft smile, gently tapping the tip of Jordan's nose with her index finger.

Jordan matched her smile with a little smirk of her own as she changed the subject with yet another question. "Can we go get ice cream?"

Hailey's finger shifted to point towards the window, raising an eyebrow. "It's snowing, babe," she said, stating the obvious fact they both already knew.

"Exactly," Jordan said, her smile growing. "That's the best time to get ice cream. There are no lines."

Hailey laughed and shook her head, amused. She couldn't argue with that. She narrowed her eyes playfully then. "Alright, but only if we get to go to Kilwins."

Jordan narrowed her eyes right back at Hailey and leaned her face in close to hers. "Only if I get to have a double scoop."

Hailey paused for purposes of suspense. A cute, momentary stare down before she pecked her nine year old on the forehead. "Fine. Go put on your coat and shoes."

"Yesss!" Jordan clenched and shook her fists, a gesture of enthusiastic victory as she sprung up from the couch and ran off to do just that.

Hailey waited until she was out of sight to open her laptop back up. Her eyes focusing on the screen, she reread Article VII for the umpteenth time:

ARTICLE VII

NOMINATION OF GUARDIAN

Should it become necessary to appoint a guardian of the person of a minor child, I nominate _, of _, _, to serve as Guardian of my surviving child who is a minor at the time of my death.

Hailey stopped reading there, her fingers finding and hovering over the keyboard.

Jay Halstead, she eventually typed in the first blank. Chicago, Illinois, she typed in the second and third.

She saved and closed out of the document then, heaving a sigh of relief as she shut her laptop once again. While her actions definitely warranted a conversation at the very least with the man whose name she'd just typed, the thing that had been weighing on her was finally done.

"You're not even ready!" Jordan had returned with her snow boots on, wearing a puffer coat and a beanie. In her hand was a tiny drawstring bag, the kind used to house jewelry.

"Sixty seconds," Hailey said, setting her laptop on the coffee table as she rose from the couch. She grabbed her blue puffer from the hallway coat closet, then slid her feet into a pair of her own snow shoes. "Whatcha got there?" She asked, nodding towards the small bag in Jordan's hand.

Jordan looked down at it, turning it over in her hands before holding it out to the older blonde. "It's for Jay," she told her. "Can you give it to him tomorrow at work?"

Hailey cracked an inquisitive side-smile as she took the bag from her and looked it over before sliding it into her coat pocket. "Sure. Can I know what's inside?"

Jordan bit her lower lip and shrugged her shoulders. "I made him something. To make up for a few weeks ago…"

"That's very sweet of you," Hailey commented, reaching a hand out to cup one of Jordan's cheeks.

"I don't want him to not come around again because of it," Jordan admitted, her eyes falling to the floor.

Hailey's smile fell at that, her expression suddenly growing serious. "Hey," she started, shifting her hand from Jordan's cheek to her chin. She tilted it upwards slightly, the little girl's hazel eyes following the movement to meet her mother's bright blue ones. "That's not gonna happen."

Jordan could tell by the look in Hailey's eyes and the tone of her voice that her words were a promise. After a beat, she nodded.

"Let's go get you your double scoop of ice cream in twenty eight degree weather," Hailey encouraged, wrapping an arm around Jordan's shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of her beanie-clad head.

A smile broke through Jordan's melancholy expression as Hailey squeezed her into her side, following her lead out of the house.

––––––

Hailey was the first person to arrive at the precinct the following morning, seconded by Jay who entered with a coffee for each of them in hand.

"Morning," he announced his arrival, setting the to-go cup down in front of Hailey on her desk.

"Morning," she echoed. "Thanks." Hailey grinned as she looked over at Jay's desk and nodded her head in the direction of it, where there was already a to-go cup of coffee waiting for him. Beside it, was the drawstring jewelry bag Jordan had given her yesterday. "Beat ya to it though," she teased.

"Damn it…" he sighed, albeit lightheartedly. "Well, you can never have too much coffee on a Monday morning…"

The entertained smile remained on Hailey's face as she watched Jay double fist the coffees, finishing one off and tossing it into the trash before taking a sip of the other. "What's this?" He asked, picking up the bag as he noticed it.

"Don't know," Hailey admitted. As tempted as she had been to peak at whatever was inside of it once Jordan wasn't around, she'd refrained. It was for him, not her. "It's from Jordan," she added as he started to open it.

Jay's eyebrows raised as he pulled a homemade letter bead bracelet from the bag. The colored beads alternated three colors: black, blue, and clear with silver sparkles, and the letter beads spelled out JAY. "I got a bracelet," he said. "With my name on it." Jay held the bracelet up for her to see, clearly amused, but also touched, by the gift he'd been given.

Hailey suppressed a laugh. "You don't have to wear it," she insisted. Although, it was cute.

"Whaaat? Of course I'm gonna wear it," Jay told her, also insisting.

Hailey looked at him with a hint of adoration in her eyes as he slipped it onto his wrist. Jay tended to remind Hailey of Garrett in that way, always doing the kind, thoughtful thing because that's just who he was, not because he felt forced or obligated to.

It was just one of the many reasons why she'd written his name down yesterday despite the fact that she hadn't yet discussed any of it with him, and all the more reason why she had to tell him what she'd done.

"Hey, Jay…" Hailey started, her eyebrows knitting together in the center of her forehead. He looked up at her and they locked eyes and for half a second, she froze.

Was now really the best time for this conversation? Probably not. Then again, was there really a 'best time' to have a conversation surrounding what the fate of her kid would be if something ever happened to Hailey? Definitely not. But it was a necessary conversation to have — one she owed Jay if she was going to keep his name on the page of that document. The last thing she wanted was for their lives to be like some Lifetime movie if something ever did happen to her. Hailey didn't want Jay to find out what her wishes were after she was already gone, especially if they weren't ones he didn't want to be a part of.

"What's wrong?" Jay asked, his expression matching hers as he sensed her shift in demeanor.

Hailey shook her head, refocusing her eyes on Jay's. "Nothing's wrong, um… There's just something I—"

Just then, both of their phones went off. Hailey sighed and picked hers up off her desk and read the incoming text. Jay pulled his own from his back pocket and did the same.

"It's Voight," Hailey said, easily pushing the previous thoughts from her mind, pulling herself back together, and switching into detective mode. "We've got a case."