A/N: Last week ended on a bit of a sad note, so I'm hoping this one will be a little happier? Maybe? Hopefully? Let me know what you think and have a nice week!


At the district, Hailey worked closely with Kim and Vanessa sharing what they had learned from Hannah at the hospital. She spoke quietly, but clearly to them and took over any of the work that needed to be done on the computer. Whenever anyone asked her if she needed to go home, she denied them and assured that she was okay.

The coldness in her eyes, particularly when she'd look at Jay, said differently.

Kevin caught on to her expression, but didn't say anything until he was with Jay in the truck driving to where they believed Rick could potentially be hiding.

"You gonna tell me what happened between the two of you?" he asked as Jay turned out of the parking lot.

Jay scoffed and shook his head.

"Something clearly happened," Kevin added, "And we can all tell, so you two-"

"It's really none of your business," Jay snapped.

Kevin rolled his eyes and turned further in his seat to say, "Like hell it isn't. I get that you two have some thing starting and I'm happy for you both, but this fight – if that's what it is – has dragged its way into work and now it could affect me, so it is my business."

"I'm still just as good a cop as I was before…before this happened," Jay mumbled, "So you don't have to worry about me."

"Like I said yesterday, I do worry," Kevin said, "You need to be careful. You're both recovering."

Jay pursed his lips together while staring out at the road. Perhaps Hailey had been right in saying that he'd been trying to hide her. He'd thought he was protecting her and trying to keep her safe and happy, but it must have been coming off wrong. It felt like a knife to the stomach.

And on top of that, there was the Coral mess.

In truth, he could barely remember what it even felt like to kiss Coral. What he really could remember was how it felt to almost kiss Hailey. Her lips so close to his and her eyes that bright blue. She was beautiful. He wanted it to happen again, but now he didn't know if it ever would.

Glancing at Kevin, he sighed because he knew it wasn't his fault. It never had been; he shouldn't have gotten so pissed earlier and even now. However, he really didn't feel like baring his soul right now in the middle of a case, so he mumbled a quiet, "Thanks."

Overall, he knew Kevin was right. They were recovering separately especially now that they weren't living together. They needed time, and now they had a lot of it.


It was just past one in the morning when the case was finally closed. Whether it was Hailey being back or the thought of the kids in danger that led them to solving the case so soon, they weren't sure. They were just all exhausted.

All the kids were safe and in the hospital being treated with their parents by their sides. Rick and his wife were in holding cells where they couldn't touch another kid again. All the tears and frustration over the past forty-eight hours were worth it for that moment of satisfaction.

What wasn't worth it was Hailey still avoiding Jay. She was polite at work and generally acted as if nothing had changed between the two of them, but he could see it in her eyes. In fact, everyone could see it.

Jay spotted Adam whispering to Hailey in the break room before they all ate dinner. He looked like he was comforting her, which worried him. He really did want to keep everything between the two of them, but then again, everyone knew he'd had a brief thing with Coral at the bar, so it didn't seem to really matter.

On the other hand, Kim approached him around eleven to ask him if Hailey was okay. Looking in her eyes, he had a feeling she would catch a lie, so he shrugged and told her something had happened at the hospital. It was then that he realized everyone was still talking about them behind their backs because Kim nodded almost knowingly like she had talked to either Adam or Hailey about what had happened. That was frustrating.

He briefly worried that he was going to grow more frustrated if Hailey chose not to go home with him. He hadn't wanted their small amount of drama spread out in front of everyone, and this would just set him over the edge. However, he couldn't find it in himself to approach Hailey and ask what she wanted to do. He knew he hurt her – that was obvious – but he couldn't exactly think of how to fix that right now. Approaching her and asking her what she wanted to do was getting in the space that she clearly wanted.

Then she followed him to his car in the parking lot.

Under the overhead lights, she stood at the tailgate of the truck and quietly asked, "Mind if I hitch a ride?"

He let out a sigh of relief to himself before turning to face her and say, "Of course. Hop in."

A smile quickly passed Hailey's face, and she hurried over to jump in the passenger seat.

"Cold out there, huh?" Jay whispered once they were both settled. He turned on the heat before backing out of the parking space.

"Yeah," Hailey breathed.

Jay looked over at her to see her staring out at the passing lights. He frowned and turned the radio on.

Whereas having a beer with Hailey and being silent was comfortable, this felt awkward. He kept mulling over what he could possibly say to her, but he also didn't know where she stood. Maybe she was having a PTSD moment because of Hannah. Maybe she was pissed off at him. He knew which was more likely, but he didn't want to admit it.

He could blame Coral, but really Coral didn't do anything wrong. She'd talked to him. There weren't any rules against who she could talk to. Then again, there weren't any rules on who he could talk to.

He hadn't done anything wrong either.

He'd simply talked to a nurse in a hospital. A nurse who he'd actually kissed months before. She had seemed like a nice person, so who was he to write her off for good? Hailey was the one who was pissed off that he'd met someone while she was dating. It felt very backwards in his head, so he focused on all of that while finishing the drive to the apartment.

It didn't necessarily make him feel better, in fact it made him kind of hate himself to put this all on Hailey, but anger felt better than being sad, so he pushed away any regrets and kept telling himself that Hailey was the one who'd done something wrong.

Even when he parked, he kept telling himself that he hadn't messed up. He hadn't done anything wrong. He was okay. He'd kissed a girl and then talked to her. Everything was fine.

Hailey seemed to have come to some conclusion on her own as well because she walked ahead of him and rushed to the elevator so that it closed just as he approached.

Yeah, Jay was pissed off now.


Jay woke up two days later thinking he had something to do, but there wasn't anything written in his calendar, so he ignored the feeling and got ready for work.

He hadn't talked to Hailey since driving her home after the case, but he was still rather annoyed at her. He came to the conclusion that he'd messed up by not telling her about Coral, and yet he couldn't find any moment where it would have been good to tell her. He also couldn't come up with a reason that he would have needed to. They weren't dating (but they lived together). They hadn't kissed (but they almost did). They were just friends (but they did say they'd eventually date). It all just felt like a giant circle he couldn't escape.

Being angry was easier than apologizing right now, so he stuck to that.

It wasn't until he got to work and noticed Kim cleaning up a stack of papers from Hailey's desk that he realized what he'd forgotten: Hailey's cast was coming off today.

"Crap," he breathed.

"You good?" Adam asked while stepping around him at the top of the stairs.

"Um," Jay breathed and glanced to Voight's empty office, "Tell Voight I needed to take a personal. I'll be back later."

He didn't wait for an answer before running back down the stairs and out the garage. He needed to get to the hospital and didn't care who he ran over to get there.

Being mad at Hailey was stupid. He was an idiot. If he was her and had talked about maybe dating him…he would have been rather disappointed upon finding out he'd kissed a girl that she'd then run into several times since then. It all made sense just like it always had.

He loved her. He loved Hailey. He needed to fix his mistake.


"Hailey Upton," he gasped out upon reaching Med, "She's here to get a cast removed. I'm her…I'm her friend. I'm here for support."

The nurse behind the counter raised an eyebrow and seemed to argue, but then Coral walked over and said, "Down the hall. Second door on the left."

Jay turned to her and didn't know what to say. Here she was, the person who was unknowingly caught in the middle of him trying to date Hailey, and his mind went completely blank. After kind of trashing her in his head for the past few days, he partly wanted to apologize to her, but that also felt kind of silly to do because – again – she didn't do anything wrong, and he really didn't even think he'd done anything to her either.

So he just nodded and walked past her to Hailey's room. Sucking in a breath, he knocked on the door before sticking his head inside.

"Hailey," he said softly.

She looked up from sitting on the exam table and blushed bright. "What're you doing here?" she asked.

"I made a promise to be here when you got your cast off," he replied and stepped in the room, "Are you…are you okay with me doing that?"

She licked her lips then slowly nodded.

Jay swallowed a lump in his throat while walking closer to her.

"How're you?" Hailey asked quietly.

He weakly laughed and shrugged. "You?"

"Kind of miserable," she admitted, "I…I'm sorry for the other day."

"Don't be," Jay said, "I'm the one who's sorry. I should have told you about Coral. It was wrong to keep what had happened from you. I had just thought that it didn't matter, but that was wrong."

"No, no, you were right, it didn't matter, it shouldn't," Hailey interrupted, "It was while I was dating…dating him, so…" She shrugged. "And if I remember correctly, I had even told you she was cute," she added.

"She doesn't matter to me," Jay all but pleaded, "She's just some girl. You-"

"Hello!"

A doctor stepped in the room with a rolling cart and waved at them. "My name's Dr. Bernstein, I'm the one who put the cast on you, but you weren't exactly awake when that was happening," he said with a kind voice.

Hailey turned toward him and tried to smile back. "Hi," she said.

Bernstein seemed pretty old as if Hailey was going to be one of his last patients ever, but he seemed nice enough and Jay didn't want to cause any more drama than already existed within the room. In fact, he really wanted the doctor to leave so that he could finish telling Hailey that she was the only one who mattered to him, so he preferred that this finished sooner than later.

"Ever had a cast before?" Bernstein asked Hailey as he looked at the cast on her wrist.

She shook her head and stared at the small saw next to him.

Jay followed her gaze then slipped his hand on top of her left one. She glanced up at him and bit her lip. "It's fine," he whispered, "I've had tons removed. It doesn't hurt."

Bernstein glanced at Jay and nodded. "Nothing to be worried about," he said, "It can't cut you. It'll vibrate just enough to break apart the cast, but even then I'll need to crack it and cut the cotton off of you. You're not the first to have a cast, and you won't be the last, so we've got this down. I promise you."

"Thanks," Hailey breathed.

"All right, here we go," Bernstein began.

Jay kept his eyes on Hailey as the doctor made quick work of getting her cast off. She frowned as the black wrapping with gold designs was cut away, but stayed quiet the entire time. At one point, she winced when the cast cracked and he stepped closer so her arm was pressed to his chest when he whispered, "You're good. It's safe."

She nodded and leaned into him as Bernstein pulled her cast off of her.

"You're free!" he said.

Hailey's face scrunched at the section of her arm that looked rather small and dry.

"Don't smell it," Jay joked, "It's gross every time."

Bernstein laughed and cleaned up his supplies. "Would you like to keep the cast?" he asked.

"No, thank you for taking it off though," Hailey said while slowly examining her wrist. She winced when she bent it causing Jay's hand to shoot up to her back and rub small circles attempting to comfort her.

"Nothing makes me happier," Bernstein replied with a smile, "Coral already walked through your recovery plan?"

"Yes, thank you," Hailey repeated.

Jay glanced to her at the mention of Coral, but she still wasn't looking at him which made him nervous all over again. Again, he rubbed his hand over her back before sliding it up to rest on her shoulder.

"Well then, Hailey," Bernstein began, "It was a pleasure working with you. I hope that wrist treats you well." With a wink, he walked from the room pushing his small cart.

The second the door was closed, Hailey mumbled, "This is disgusting."

Jay chuckled and squeezed her shoulder gently. "Washing it helps, and lotion will be your friend. You'll be back to normal in no time."

Hailey nodded and examined the spots on her wrist where the incisions had been made to place the pin inside.

"Hailey," Jay said softly, "Earlier-"

"Right," she interrupted with a sigh, "Um, I'm sorry for being so closed off. I guess I wasn't expecting it and-"

"Hailey," Jay repeated, "Can you-"

"You should go for it," she finished, "I want you to. You and I…we need space right now. I think I realized that the past few days. What I went through was traumatic for the both of us. We need to be better on our own before we can even attempt to be…whatever we can be. I know we had said last week that we could eventually date and maybe that can still happen, but you can't be tied down to me waiting for me to be ready. You need to stop seeing me as some victim too. I'm still me, Jay, and now that I'll be returning to work, you can't hover over me thinking I'm going to break. Obviously we'll still see each other and you're still my friend, but that's all we can be right now."

Jay stared at her in disbelief. He couldn't believe what she was saying – not when he was just about to tell her that she was the only person he wanted. He loved her and now she was 'setting him free' as if that's what he wanted.

It hurt his stomach.

Hailey slid off the examination table and stood in front of him for a moment before wrapping her arms around him and hugging him gently. "Thank you for taking care of me," she whispered into his shirt. He could hear tears in her voice, which just caused his own eyes to tear up.

Placing his hand on her back to hold her close, he quietly said, "You don't need to do this."

"I do," she sniffled, "We do. It's your turn to date someone else."

"Hailey-"

"Please."

Jay squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

"I'll be okay," she whispered while slowly stepping backwards. Her fingers gripped his shirt as she blinked her eyes quickly. "We'll be okay," she added, "We need this."

Jay sucked in a breath and grabbed her left hand.

Hailey squeezed his fingers before tugging her hand away and leaving him alone in the hospital room.

He breathed slowly trying to figure out what had just happened. It was like she broke up with him, but it somehow hurt worse than any break-up he'd ever experienced. She really just walked out on him and told him to try and date someone else.

They weren't even dating, and she broke up with him.

He rubbed his face and replayed the entire conversation – one-sided as it be – in his head. Looking at the closed door, he couldn't believe it had just happened. She was gone, and he didn't even know for how long. He was just expected to live his life without her after doing just the opposite.

Hailey was his girl, and now she was gone.

It wasn't fair.


When he walked out of the hospital room a few minutes later, Hailey wasn't anywhere to be seen. Coral, on the other hand, was sitting at the nurses' station going through her computer. She looked up when he began walking toward her and smiled widely.

"Hey!" she said, "I didn't realize you were still here."

He nodded slightly and looked over at the elevator.

"So," Coral continued and cleared her throat while standing up, "I was wondering if you'd ever want to grab a drink. When we first met, we hit it off, right? Maybe we can see if we can take it further than that dark hallway."

Jay blinked and looked over at her. She was staring at him with her big brown eyes and suddenly she wasn't pretty or cute anymore – what she was was not Hailey. Not that he'd been attracted to her before, but now he certainly wasn't. He didn't want anything to do with her.

"I-I'm sorry," he said as he stepped backwards. He shook his head and added, "I can't go out with you. I'm sorry."

Turning on his heel, he didn't wait to hear what she had to say about that as he walked to the elevator. In all honesty, he didn't care. She wasn't Hailey, and he had no interest in talking to her right now. All he wanted was to figure out how to get Hailey to realize that she was the only person he wanted.

Maybe she was right that they needed a little bit of space. He'd thought all along that they were going to have to take things slow, but taking things slow didn't have to mean staying away from each other. It just had to mean being careful and mindful of what the other had gone through.

If anything, he could give her the time she wanted. That would at least give him his own time to figure out what he was going to say to her once that time was up.


Work dragged by upon returning to the district. He couldn't focus on any case or piece of paperwork for longer than ten minutes. Hailey was really the only thing on his mind.

He hated even just being there. He felt like he could be doing more productive things, but anytime that would cross his mind, he'd remind himself that Hailey asked for time and he needed to give that to her. The thought of that last hug she'd given him in the hospital room kept him sane.

It only got worse when Kim stood up near 3pm and announced she was leaving for the day.

"Lucky," Adam muttered while loudly clicking his pen.

Kim laughed softly as she slipped her coat on. "Very," she said, "I'm gonna go hang out with Hailey."

"Why?"

Jay's voice was loud in the nearly silent bullpen causing everyone to wince and spin around to look at him.

"She got her cast off today," Kim said while fixing her hair from her coat, "So I'm treating her to a manicure."

Jay slowly nodded as he stared at her.

"Text me if you hear from that CI," Kim told Vanessa before walking down the stairs and leaving the district.

Adam glanced where she had just disappeared then stood up and walked toward Jay, kicking his chair as he passed him. He nodded toward the break room and cleared his throat.

"Subtle," Kevin snorted.

Adam held up his middle finger over his shoulder as he stepped into the break room.

Jay sighed, but still got up and followed him. Closing the door behind him, he said, "Yeah?"

"Did you know she was getting her cast off?" Adam asked while pulling out the jar of pickles from the fridge.

Jay hesitated, but figured Adam already knew, so he mumbled, "Yeah."

"And that's where you ran off to earlier?" Adam guessed.

Again, Jay admitted, "Yeah."

Adam nodded and opened the jar before turning around to lean against the counter. Popping a pickle in his mouth, he asked, "So why are you two fighting?"

Jay turned red, but managed to roll his eyes and say, "We're not fighting," in an effort to ward off this inevitable conversation.

"Okay," Adam scoffed, "So you were just miserable for the past couple days, butt yourself into any conversation about Hailey, ran out of here to be with her at the hospital, and then came back here right after just to continue to be in some sort of depressing mood? Did I get that right?"

Jay shook his head and looked away.

"I know Kevin told you to give her some space," Adam said, "I was there for a bit of that conversation. Is this about that?"

"Why do you care?" Jay countered.

"Because we're sick of this," Adam sighed and gestured toward him, "You being all pouty is annoying. And if you remember, I made it pretty clear to you when she was first attacked that I care about her. If you two are going through something, I'm worried that she's alone."

Crossing his arms, Jay chewed his bottom lip and shifted his gaze to the floor. He debated his words for a moment before giving in and saying quietly, "It's not really the Kevin thing. She…she actually said we needed space today. She found out about Coral."

"Who the hell is Coral?" Adam asked.

Jay cracked a smile and said, "That nurse from the bar a couple months ago. The one I kissed."

"Oh." Adam nodded and ate another pickle then asked, "Why's she care about that? She was dating that dick then."

"Because Coral was then her nurse while she was in the hospital and I didn't tell her," Jay said while dropping onto the couch, "I kept it from her. I really didn't want her to know. I didn't think it was important, but…"

"But it was," Adam finished. He frowned as he placed the pickles back in the fridge. Clearing his throat, he said, "Listen, I probably would have done the same thing as you-"

Shooting him a glare, Jay said, "That really doesn't help."

"Hear me out," Adam said with a hand up. He sat down at the table and continued, "That being said, I probably also would have listened to her asking for space. Not because I was giving up, but because she asked for it. You've already pissed her off once by guarding her from something; let her control this and decide when she's ready to move on. Pushing her to get what you want isn't going to make this go any faster."

Jay slowly nodded then sighed and sank further into the cushions. "You're right," he mumbled.

Smirking, Adam said, "Thank you." He watched Jay for a moment before standing up and walking to clap him on the shoulder. "Find something to keep yourself busy just in case this lasts a while."

Jay rolled his eyes, but he knew Adam was right. It sucked, but it was true…he did have some decent ideas every once in a while.

Waiting until he was alone in the room, he groaned quietly and rubbed his hands over his face. The whiplash of emotions he'd felt all day were wearing on him and he hadn't even had dinner yet.

Thinking of dinner, he thought of Thanksgiving next week and how he first thought he'd be spending the day when November came around a couple weeks before: making the turkey with Hailey, bringing her over to Will's apartment, eating way too much food, continuing their movie marathon, and then stumbling into bed after practically falling asleep together on the couch. It had seemed like a really good way to spend the holiday, now it felt completely out of reach.

Thanksgiving was the start of his favorite time of year, and he'd really been looking forward to spending it with Hailey in a new way. Maybe next year.

He pulled himself off the couch to return to work. This could be the thing to distract him for the next few hours before having to return to his empty house.


As he walked into his apartment, he tossed his keys onto the entryway table before going into the kitchen. He heard something get knocked over, but ignored it while getting dinner ready. He laughed to himself as he prepared the chicken, remembering Hailey's comment about eating it all the time. It was true, but oh well. It was chicken, it's not like he was eating junk food all the time.

Once he'd made chicken parmesan for one, he brought it into the living room to eat it on the couch while watching TV, but then he noticed the picture frame he'd accidentally knocked over. He set his plate of food on the coffee table before going to fix the picture. Without even turning it over, he knew what it was: it was one of his favorite family pictures he had, taken the night of Will's high school graduation party.

On that day, his dad had grilled more hot dogs and hamburgers than any of them thought possible, his mom had baked a ton of cookies and cupcakes, and he and Will had attempted to decorate their backyard which consisted of tying balloons to pretty much everything they could. He hadn't been looking forward to the party after seeing how stressed Will's friends' families had been, but somehow his parents had pulled it off with very little fights, if any. It all came together as the perfect family day. It had been a lot of fun when all was said and done.

In the picture, the four of them were sitting at a picnic table in their backyard right before the sun set, so the lighting was pretty good. His dad had actually built the table they were at.

The memory of that flashed through his mind again, so he held the picture up further to get a better look at it. He could definitely remember his dad spending weeks building it upon the request of his mom. He'd loved doing stuff like that – when he wasn't working on cars, he was building something else. It actually put him in a good mood most of the time.

Smiling at the picture, he set it back down on the table next to the cabin painting Hailey had given him the month before then retuned to the couch to eat his dinner and watch the news. He was almost finished with his chicken when his head snapped back to look at the family picture and Hailey's painting.

It's when he realized how he was going to spend his time until Hailey was ready to talk again.


For three days, Jay went to work, tried his best not to think too much about Hailey, then came home where he avoided thinking about Hailey by making something for Hailey. In truth, he couldn't stop thinking about her. He wondered how she was, what she was doing, and if she needed anything. She would be returning to work the following Monday which just made him nervous.

He didn't know what to expect. He hoped they'd be partners again, but Voight could change anything now that Vanessa had joined them and wasn't going anywhere. If he was the sergeant, he didn't know what he'd do.

In his gut, he knew he was going to be overprotective. He already had been overprotective, and it had pissed off Hailey. He knew he needed to cool it, but it wasn't going to be easy – not after seeing her crumpled on her hallway floor beaten half to death.

He tried distracting himself, though, by building an easel. It wasn't easy – he'd needed to get a lot of wood from the hardware store that he'd then needed to cut there before lugging it home – but it was satisfying. After getting the hang of the blueprint he'd found online, it felt like a puzzle he was determined to finish.

Even though Hailey hadn't asked for an easel, he needed to make one for her. The painting she'd made him was one of the top gifts he'd ever received – it was certainly the most thoughtful – so she deserved a nice, homemade gift in return. He was calling it her housewarming gift.

That was, of course, if he was ever invited over to her apartment.

He had to be. He would be. It was going to happen. He just needed to be patient.

The patience paid off on that third night when it was pushing midnight and he was putting the first coat of stain on the easel when his music stopped from a text. Assuming it was Voight or someone else from the unit, he groaned and dropped onto the couch before grabbing his phone.

It wasn't anyone from work, though, well…not in the way he expected.

~ Are you awake? ~ Hailey Upton

His heart stopped beating for a quick second as he sat up to reply.

~ Yeah ~

~ You okay? ~

~ Are you able to come to my place? ~ Hailey Upton

Jay sucked in a breath as he stared at his phone. He wondered why she could be asking, but nothing good was crossing his mind. Swallowing his fear knowing what he needed to do, he replied:

~ Of course. When? ~

~ Soon ~ Hailey Upton

Jay was out of his seat and throwing on a pair of tennis shoes the second her message flashed across his screen.

She was back. His Hailey was back.

Maybe, just maybe, they were going to be okay. They were going to figure this Coral thing out. They were going to figure each other out. Everything was going to be okay.

He ran out of the door not even realizing she'd sent him one more text:

~ I miss you ~