Slapping the snooze button, I cast a bleary eye towards the early morning light filtering through my blinds. For a moment, I wondered why I was awake when my body was telling me to ignore the fact it was a few minutes before six in the morning and to go back to sleep. Despite my deep protest, Voight gave me the day off and I had the option of coming in on my own accord to fill out the paperwork as long as it was done today.
My head pounded further as I leaned against the bed rest to allow myself to wake up and in an effort to note how much alcohol I had consumed last night to numb my thoughts about going undercover. I had always believed I would feel better knowing Ronald Booth was behind bars for everything he had done. Yet, I held this lack of satisfaction he wasn't paying all his dues. My old partner was still out there somewhere—dead or alive—and I held Booth responsible for his disappearance.
With a yawn, I finally pulled myself out of bed; my body protesting every step I took towards the bathroom. I ignored that ache as I brushed my shirt over the goose egg on my head, which revealed even more bruises dotting across my arms, shoulders, and back. I couldn't help thinking that even though they would fade and stop hurting, the ones inside wouldn't be fading away so quickly.
Although I blamed Booth for what he did, I blamed myself for getting Garrett in the situation in the first place. I longed to go back to New Years' Eve 2014 when I tried to go after Booth myself. We were both drunk, which made the situation even more dangerous than it already was.
I was confident I could get the information I needed to nail him, but Booth had other ideas. Before I knew it, he had me pinned and was pulling down my pants. When I tried to fight him off, his knuckles collided with every part of my face. I thought this was it-I was going to die alone. Then through blurry vision, I witnessed a scuffle and Garrett's voice telling me he was here and everything was going to be okay as He led me to the car. He drove me to the hospital and made sure I was safe and taken care of. When he didn't show up to pick me up after being discharged, that's when I knew. I wanted to go looking for him but my boss wanted me on a plane back to Michigan.
Sighing heavily, I had always regretted not fighting harder. Garrett had risked his life for me, and I had done nothing to find him until it was too late.
I shuddered at the thought, my guilt enveloping me as I finished undressing and stepped into the warm water of the shower. I stayed like that for several minutes before absently lathering my hair and body. I only rinsed off when the water grew cold and pulled me from my thoughts as I finally turned the knob and wrapped a towel around my body.
Even though I rarely spent much time on myself in the mornings, I hurried and dried my hair and walked back into the bedroom. To keep myself from thinking too much about how guilty I felt or what steps to take next, I focused on getting ready for the day. I pulled on a red sweater and a pair of dark jeans before grabbing my keys, badge, and gun off the nightstand and made the ten-minute drive to the office.
When I arrived, I parked in my designated spot and was relieved no one from Intelligence was here yet. My luck continued as I walked through the front door to see Platt helping someone already so I was able to buzz myself upstairs. Although a lot of the time there was one of us was here finishing up paperwork, it looked as if I was alone this morning.
This was the first time I had officially been back to the office since I had come back from being undercover. I felt a major deja vu when I had been with Jay. I knew it had been wrong to continue seeking Booth. However, I knew I couldn't let him slip away again. I was just glad the same thing didn't happen to Jay as it did for Garrett.
Grabbing a report from my desk drawer, I busied myself by writing down everything from where we met with Booth in the parking lot, to the scuffle in the stairwell. I left out how I wanted to kill Booth for everything he had done and instead put my actions as self-defense.
Just as I was finishing up my report, I heard the subtle buzz and click of the gate leading to Intelligence. My mind went through a guessing game of who it was as I stood up from my chair and walked over to Voight's office. When I turned around to walk back, Adam was placing his coat over his desk chair as he glanced over at me with the same concern Jay had given me last night after he had come over to check on me.
"Did you need something Ruzek?"
"Just wondering how you're doing. You bolted out of there pretty quickly last night."
"Not sure I had much of a choice. Voight wouldn't let me leave unless I promised I got checked out at the hospital. Thanks for the concern."
"Yeah." Pulling out his chair from the desk, he lingered around immediately sitting down. "Look, Hailey. We've all been through things around here, so if there's anything you need."
"Thanks. I'm good though." I stated quietly as I backtracked towards the stairs. "Tell Voight I came by to fill out that report from yesterday."
"Sure."
I nodded my appreciation before walking down the stairs. I managed to pass Kim with only a brief greeting before making my way to the front door. I had my hand on the door when I heard Sergeant Platt calling out to me. Trying not to lose my cool, I took in a deep breath and spun on my heels as I walked back towards the front desk.
"Upton, just the person I needed to see."
"You do know I'm not working today. So if it's a case, give it to Ruzek. He just came in." I drummed my fingers on the desk, very eager to start heading home.
"I figured you wouldn't be." She stated in her usual fashion as I started walking away. "From what I heard, you did some good work, but that's not actually why I called you over here." I followed her gaze toward the conference room where a woman with black curly hair sat on the floor with a little girl with blonde hair. "It seems as if you have a very eager visitor sitting in the conference room."
"Did she give a name?"
"Let's see. She said her name was—" Platt scanned the visitor's log until she got to the bottom of those who had signed the piece of paper. "Eliza Harwell."
"Thanks," I stated, suddenly realizing how familiar that name seemed to me.
"Yeah, don't mention it." She called out as she picked up the phone next to her while I walked towards the conference room.