Hailey felt the air being hit out of her before her head hit the wall. Gasping for air and trying to stay awake she heard Erin pop a few more shots towards Victor's direction. After catching her breath Hailey took a few more breaths to try en get rid of the dizziness from hitting her head before getting back up. That is when Erin turned around to ask her if she was okay. Hailey nodded "Yeah, let's go get…" Before she could finish more bullets came their way, this time from both Viktor and James. "Jimmy is down," Kevin informed them over their combs. More bullets came flying around. "Viktor is down too," Kim informed the team, and that is when James decided it was time to make a run for it. Both Hailey and Erin took off after him, followed by Kim who was not far behind.
"Chicago PD, James Stone stop" Hailey yelled after him. James kept running and took a few wild shots backwards, giving Hailey and Erin just enough time to duck, Kim was too late and caught a bullet in the vest. She fell to the ground gasping for air just like Hailey did. Taken off guard both Hailey and Erin stopped in their tracks. "Go..Go.. I got her" Erin yelled to Hailey before she started running again. Erin rushed towards Kim, opening her vest and checking if it didn't go through, which it luckily didn't. "It is okay, it didn't go through, try to take a deep breath." Erin encouraged her. That is when Adam and Kevin came running towards them, wanting to kneel down and take care of Kim. "No, I got her, go after Hailey she is still in pursuit of James," Erin ordered.
Hailey was struggling to keep up with James, he hadn't fired again but it probably wouldn't take long before he did again. She yelled again for him to stop running, which he surprisingly did. Hailey realised this too late and stopped a little too close to him for her liking. James noticed her mistake and took advantage of it. Lunging forward and dismantling her from her gun. "Game over detective," he said pointing her own gun at her. Without hesitation Hailey jumped at James, tackling him down to the ground, in the process her gun went off grazing her lower arm. Hailey hissed and pulled herself back together coming at James. He was taken by surprise by Hailey's actions but didn't hold back either, resulting in a fight between the two of them. Both punching and kicking each other hard, not realising how close they were to the waterfront until it was too late and they both fell in.
Kevin and Adam had followed in Hailey's direction, they came into view just as Hailey and James hit the water. While both men came closer to the waterfront Kevin spotted Hailey's gun on the ground and picked it up. James' gun was nowhere to be found. When Hailey came up she was couching up the water she had taken in, James took advantage of the situation by pushing her back underwater again. "James Stone put your hands up now," Adam yelled from the waterfront. James ignored him and kept a heavily struggling Hailey down underwater, while Adam kept yelling at him to let Hailey go, Kevin was ready to jump in the water. Then James pulled his gun from his pants and aimed it at them. Without hesitation Adam fired at James, hitting him in the shoulder. At that Kevin jumped in the water and pulled James to the side handing him to Adam to get arrested. Immediately after going back in to pull Hailey to the side as well. She hadn't come up yet. "This isn't good man," Adam told Kevin when he spotted some blonde hairs. "Right over there, there she is," Adam pointed and Kevin dove back in to get her up as well.
Kevin handed a lifeless Hailey over to Adam who pulled her completely out of the water. He put her down on the ground, got her jacket open and pulled her bulletproof vest off before he started chest compressions in combination with mouth-to-mouth right away. It took a few rounds before Hailey started to stir and cough up the water she had inhaled. Confused and still a bit out of it Hailey was pulled into a sitting position to make it easier to cough the water up. It didn't take long and the scene was covered with both police and the FBI and a couple of ambulances. "I don't need to go to the hospital, I am fine," Hailey protested knowing this was a lost cause. Both she and Kim had to get checked out at med, before they were allowed back in the precinct, Voight had told them. They both obeyed and 30 minutes later they both were checked into the ER.
Kim's check-up was pretty quick, with no broken ribs or internal bleeding, just a few bruised that would heal with time. Hailey was a whole other story. Her lungs sounded good, she seemed to have coughed up all the water she inhaled. She did have a slight concussion from hitting her head against the wall and the bullet that hit her had gone deeper into her vest than expected and bounced off of her sternum. "You are lucky here, Hailey," Will told her when he cleaned the wound the bullet had made on her chest. Hailey shrugged, still reeling from today's events. "Can I go home soon?" Hailey asked him. Will took a deep breath, he knew she hated hospitals as much as his brother did but given the circumstances, he preferred to keep her overnight. "Given your concussion and the fact that you almost drowned today I would like to keep you overnight for observation, especially since you are living alone right now" He answered. Hailey sighed, she had suspected this would happen and it hurts to realise that if Jay was still alive she might have gotten to go home tonight. How much she wanted to go home and crawl into her bed, she was too tired right now to fight it. "What if I stay with her tonight? Can she come home then?" Hailey heard Erin say when she walked into her room. Will looked as surprised to see her as Hailey had earlier that week. "Yeah, sure. If you are okay with that Hailey?" Will responded. "All is good as long as I can sleep in my own bed tonight," Hailey said, making them all laugh.
Not much later they got back to her apartment, Erin had picked up take-out on their way home since they hadn't eaten much all day. "I am going to take a shower first before we eat," Hailey said after showing Erin the guest room where she could stay the night. Hailey showered as quickly as possible since feeling the water under her skin gave her shivers. A side effect of today she thought, after the shower the exhaustion really hit Hailey. She put on some sweats and went straight for bed, forgetting about dinner, within minutes she was fast asleep. Glad to be in her own bed, relieved the target was off her back, happy she got Jay's killer, but still sad he wasn't with her anymore.
6 months later
It had taken Hailey another month before she was ready to get back to work again. And a few more weeks to go back in the field again. Her concussion and bruised sternum playing part in this as well. She remembered the ultimatum she had once given Jay to start talking to someone in order to deal with his traumas and decided that was what she might need as well too. Going into therapy hadn't made her loss any easier but she learnt to handle it better. Slowly Hailey had adjusted to her new normal without Jay.
When Hailey was a child, she never believed she could have a happy ending. Even as an adult she wasn't sure, that was until she met Jay. The feeling of being able to have a happy ending grew, even more, when the two of them started dating, and she believed she had actually found it when they promised to spend the rest of their lives together. Until tragedy hit, wasn't a happy ending not supposed to last? Hailey missed Jay deeply, but he made her believe her happy ending was possible, in honour of him she decided to keep fighting for her happy ending.
- The end.
