Hi friends, guess what?! We now have some ART to go with this fic! You can check it out over on my tumblr: livinginwriterland. Hope you enjoy it, along with this new chapter. Also, heads up: there might be a few weeks coming up where it may take me longer than a week to update this fic due to some life stuff I've got going on, but I'm going to do my very best to still get new chapters posted on Tuesdays. Just know that even if it's late, it's still coming, and I appreciate you all so much for continuing to follow this story. Xo, happy reading!

"I love you?"

The words almost sounded foreign as they left Jay's lips in the form of a question. Going from 'asshole' to 'I love you' wasn't really what Jay had expected. Then again, the more time he spent with Jordan, the more he learned that kids were truly full of unexpected surprises. If nothing else, she kept him on his toes.

Jordan tilted her head inquisitively, uncertain of Jay's questioning tone. "Yeah," she said, going on to explain, "Sometimes me and my mom say Σ'αγαπώ, instead of I love you in English."

Jay met her words with a small smile as he pictured this interaction in his mind. Hailey didn't speak a whole lot of Greek around him — she really had no reason to — but he could imagine what her voice would sound like saying these words to Jordan. To him —

He stopped himself from furthering this train of thought right then and there; this wasn't the time nor the place.

"Try it?"

Jordan's words pulled Jay from where he'd been at: momentarily living in his head. "Try what?" He asked.

"Try saying I love you. In Greek," Jordan prompted, looking at him expectantly. Off his returned expression of uncertainty, she added, "Don't you want to be able to… what's the word," she thought out loud, breaking eye contact to look around the room in thought, her facial features scrunched until she landed on it. "Impress. Don't you want to impress her?" Jordan's eyes landed back on Jay's then.

Jay was the one to tilt his head at Jordan now as he studied the expression on her face. It was one of simultaneous total seriousness and complete innocence, which kind of actually made sense since the question itself had been entirely unprompted. It was just another thing out of her mouth that had caught him completely off guard, and something he definitely had his own questions about.

Like — was it really that obvious?

"What makes you think I want to impress your mom?" He went with instead.

The tiny blonde didn't even have to think before answering. "Because you're a boy."

Jay's eyebrows raised with amusement. He didn't even bother trying to suppress his somewhat awkward laugh. "I'm sorry, how old are you again?"

"Nine," Jordan replied, matter of factly.

"Right." The detective nodded, shifting in his chair. "You know way too much for a nine year old. Anyone ever tell you that before?"

"Yes." Jordan said, speaking the single word just as practically as the last. She yawned in between thoughts, fighting to keep her eyelids open as they started to grow heavy. "You didn't answer my question."

"Which question?" Jay asked, purposefully procrastinating.

"Why do you people always do that?" Jordan huffed. "My mom does it, too — answers my questions with more questions because she doesn't actually want to answer all of my questions." A monitor beside Jordan's bed beeped as her heart rate began to elevate.

"Okay, okay," Jay said, reaching to place his hand over her forearm in an attempt to calm her. The numbers on the monitor began to drop back to normal as he explained, "It's kind of an adult thing."

"Adult things are annoying," Jordan deadpanned.

"A lot of adult things are annoying," Jay agreed, his small smile returning.

She looked down to the hand on her arm then, reaching to push up one of Jay's sleeves as her eyes caught a glimpse of a blue bead underneath it. Her face lit up at the sight of her creation on his wrist. "Hey, you're wearing the bracelet I made you."

"Since the day your mom gave it to me," Jay told her. "I love it."

"Really?" Though she brightened even further, there was a hint of insecurity in her voice.

"Oh yeah," Jay insisted. "Really, really. Maybe you can teach me how to make one sometime."

"That would be fun," Jordan said with a grin, before yawning again. She slid her hand down some so that it was resting on top of Jay's as she asked, "If I go to sleep, will I die?"

Jay's expression immediately shifted to exude a confident seriousness as he shook his head. "No way. I wouldn't let that happen." Off her despondent look, he offered, "You can sleep if you're tired." He flipped his hand over so that he could told her tiny one in his own and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Jordan sighed heavily, gripping Jay's hand a little tighter. "But I want to see my mom first. I always see her before I go to sleep," she stated. And it was the truth — even if Hailey couldn't be there physically to say goodnight before Jordan went to bed, she always made a point to FaceTime her and Amanda from wherever she was while working to do so. "How come we can't go see her before she wakes up? Is that an annoying adult thing?"

Jay raised his eyebrows as the nine year old plead her case to him, finishing with a question he wasn't sure how to answer. It was probably more like a doctor rule than an annoying adult thing, he considered. Like Hailey, Jordan had also suffered a trauma, and she was apparently sicker than she presented, too. But, as long as she was stable and could get out of bed long enough to transfer herself into a wheelchair, Jay really didn't see why they couldn't go pay Hailey a quick visit.

"Why don't we ask the doctors? See what they think?" Jay suggested. At least that way if Jordan had to be let down in her request, he wouldn't be the one having to do it.

"Okay," Jordan nodded.

Jay gave her hand another comforting squeeze before letting go of it and standing up. He clocked the way she tensed at the loss of contact and her eyebrows knitted with worry. "I'll be right back," he promised. He hesitated for a moment before leaning over to press a kiss to the top of her head.

"Okay," Jordan repeated, instinctively cracking the slightest of smiles.

Jay stopped briefly as he reached the doorway, casting another reassuring glance mixed with a smile over his shoulder before descending down the hall.

"She's really just sleeping?"

Will Halstead had parked Jordan's wheelchair just off to the side of Hailey's hospital bed.

Standing next to Jay on the other side of the room, both brothers watched as the little girl gripped the armrests of her wheelchair with both of her hands, as if she were doing so to keep herself from reaching out and touching Hailey.

Nodding, Will took a couple of steps forward. "She is. We gave her some medicine to sleep while she was in surgery, just like we did for you. It's takes some time for that to wear off. You can hold her hand though, if you'd like."

"It won't hurt her?" Jordan asked, hesitant. A part of Hailey looked peaceful laying there in her hospital bed. Like, almost normal, Jordan thought. But the cuts and bruises on her face, the bandage wrapped around her right arm, and the various wires she could see protruding from places like her arms and somewhere underneath her hospital gown gave her pause.

"Not at all," Will said.

After a moment of skepticism, Jordan placed her hand face up on the bed and carefully slipped it underneath Hailey's. As she softly wrapped her tiny fingers around it, Hailey reacted, her own fingers doing the same. Jordan straightened with intrigue, leaning in to take a closer look at her mother before looking up at Will. "She moved. She held my hand back."

"Cause she knows it's you," Jay said before Will had the chance to speak, stepping up to stand behind Jordan's wheelchair. He stared at Hailey's face as Will checked her vitals and looked her over.

"She could be starting to wake up," he pointed out. "Hailey? Can you hear me?"

Hailey's forehead creased, her eyes fluttering under closed lids.

"Mommy, I'm right here. Everything's okay. You can wake up now," Jordan encouraged, like she was the adult in the situation.

Knowing what the both of them didn't, Jay's heart silently broke at her innocent words. He shot a quick look at Will, who matched his look with a repentant one.

Jay returned his focus to Hailey's face then, green eyes searching for blue. He didn't realize he'd been holding his breath until she blinked them open, slowly and only part of the way at first, but it was something.

"Mommy…" Jordan said again, leaning in as far forward as she could.

"Welcome back," Will said, grinning.

"Hi," Hailey breathed out in a whisper, turning her head to look at Jordan. She looked her nine year old over as best as she could, taking note of the scratches on her face. There was no glass in her chest though, and she was smiling at her through tear-filled eyes. Hailey's own eyes misted over as she decided, "You're okay."

"I'm okay," Jordan echoed, then turned her head to look up at Jay behind her. "Jay's okay. We're all okay."

Jay caught his eyes wanting to wander back towards Will's again. He refrained from letting them though, instead forcing a smile and keeping them on Hailey. "Hey there, Partner," he said. "You had us all pretty worried there for a second." There was a playfulness to his tone, but really, Jay had been worried for a lot longer than a second. If he was being honest with himself, it still hadn't completely faded and probably never fully would.

Hailey looked up at him, her own smile weak yet genuine, exhaustion written all over her face. "You can stop worrying now," she told him. Not even after having a brush with death via nearly bleeding out in the middle of the street was enough to rid her of her default 'I'm fine' demeanor.

"Yeaaah. Not gonna happen," he retorted, shaking his head. He would always worry about her. Because he loved her. Jay moved around Jordan just enough so he could reach Hailey's shoulder and place a hand on it. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Even in her groggy state, Hailey easily decoded his words and tone of voice for what they really were: an informal apology. If she could've moved her arm to him, she would have. "Jay—" was all she was able to get out before Will interrupted.

"I'll give you guys some time together," Will said, having finished checking all that he needed to before being able to confidently leave Hailey's bedside. Moving to excuse himself, he added on the way out, "I'll be back in little a bit."

Jay watched his brother leave, hesitating for a moment before giving Hailey's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Hold that thought…" he told her, before following in Will's footsteps. "Will!" Jay called out, catching up with the doctor in the hall.

"Yeah?" Will spun around and stopped in his tracks.

"That's it? You're not gonna tell her about Jordan?" Jay asked him, trying and failing to cover his emotions.

Will closed the distance between them and lowered his own voice as he spoke, an indirect way of encouraging his younger brother to do the same. "Of course I'm gonna tell her, but she just woke up from major surgery, Jay."

"And Jordan has a 'giant tumor in her chest' that isn't getting any smaller," Jay shot right back at him.

Will wasn't blind to the heads Jay's comment turned. Taking his arm, he led him off to the side and down a corridor that was a bit more desolate and offered a little more privacy. The last thing he wanted was for the wrong person to overhear and for Hailey to find out this way, and he doubted Jay wanted that for his partner and her little girl, either.

"Jay," he started again, then stopped. Jay's eyes were glossy with tears. "I know all of this is scary," Will continued, adjusting his words from what he'd initially planned to say. "But once Hailey knows…" He shook his head, the rest of his sentence dying on his lips. He thought for a moment longer, sighing with regret before settling on, "I'm just giving her a few minutes with her daughter before I go in there and change her whole world."