Jay is finally back to active duty and he couldn't be happier. It was a nice reprieve for a little while, but his antsy-ness was threatening to topple over. His first week back they caught a trafficking case. It was awful. Adults and kids alike. These evil bastards didn't discriminate. The team had been working on it for two weeks now and it had taken its toll on all of them. Just when they were at wit's end, they got a tip on who one of the mid-level groomers could be. He ran a strip club in the Loop and Jay and Hailey drew the fortune of getting the overnight stakeout of his Friday shift. They had already been sitting in their undercover car for hours, monitoring the footage and audio Kevin went in to setup the day before.

It was pushing the wee hours of the morning now and they were both tired. They had already gone through their typical motions of most stakeouts: evaluating the case and situation, discussing random and silly subjects, teasing each other, even managing an agreed upon snack to share, but now they were in their fading zone. Jay kept stealing glances at Hailey, she looked like she wanted to close her eyes, but she was still the prettiest thing he'd ever seen. Sometimes she would catch him staring and give him a small smile in return, a playful response on the tip of her tongue, but being held back… for reasons they both understood. When he caught her wanting to rest her head against the window, he broke the silence again.

"So what's the first thing you want to do when we wrap up at dawn? You want some coffee?" he teases.

"I want you….to get me to my couch. And then I want coffee. And then I want waffles. And then I want a nap for 8 hours. And then I want to go to the range and try out those new 44 mags before we're back to work." She bites back grinning.

Jay just stares at her, not even able to formulate words at the moment. He has that weird sense of deja vu again, only this time he can actually envision the scene… Hailey saying almost those exact same words to him as she lays wrapped in his arms in bed, them discussing a slow morning. It's so vivid that he feels he can reach out and touch it and he wants it to be true so bad. Why does this keep happening to him? It's just cruel at this point.

"Jay? Earth to Jay? You okay?"

He blinks to see Hailey waving her hand in front of his face and the sound of her voice drifts him from his fog. Unfortunately, they're still in the undercover car on the job and she's just his partner.

"What? Uh, sorry! I just spaced out for a minute." He meekly says.

"Yeah, I could tell. You sure you're good? You seem to do that quite a bit since the injury." she questions, concern evident in her voice.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine! I was just thinking how your nap may have to only be like a four hour one if you want to get to the range before we have to get back here. Also, I am not making you waffles today, but I'll gladly order some from the diner." He joshes.

"What? You trying to tell me I'm not worth the homemade waffles?" she jokes back.

"NO!" he exclaims. "Just saying I think I'm going to be needing your couch too." He grins.

She rolls her eyes. "Okay. I guess you deserve a nap at some point too."

They hear their suspect enter his office once more to make a phone call and both of them go silent again to pay more attention. Their surveillance seems to get a little more active from there and before they know it another couple hours have past. Soon enough their suspect is leaving and heading to his car, officially ending their assignment for the moment.

Once they get back to Hailey's apartment, they both want to crash, but Jay lived up to his promise of ordering them a diner breakfast. The two settle onto her couch and start digging into their meals. They're ravenous, so there's absolutely no gracefulness at all to how they're scarfing down their meals, but neither seem to mind. Hailey's appetite is one of Jay's favorite things about her, even if he does tease her for her sweet tooth. He loves that she's never going to be one of those girls who holds back and acts like two bites of salad are the most fulfilling things in the world. She's so unapologetic all around and it's always been so refreshing to him. He finishes before her, because let's face it, her appetite will still never in a million years match his, and just takes her in and smiles as she finishes up hers. Once their stomachs are satiated, they lean back further into the couch cushions.

After a little more silence, Hailey breaks it. "You know what this case reminds me of? That one my first year on the team, when we had only been partners a few months and came across the selling of children under aliases on the dark web?"

Jay nods in memory and realization. "Oh yeah. That one was brutal!"

"Yeah… I thought it was never going to end, that we'd never catch them, just like this one."

"But we did, and just like that one, we will with this one too. We're close, Hailey, we almost got them. They're not going to get away with this anymore."

"Yeah." She agrees, biting her lip reflectively. "You remember what that case also was? The first time I instinctively touched your shoulder as you found something on the computer and you got so freaked out." She laughs.

"I did not!"

He says defensively, smiling along with her because he does remember that. A little too well. He remembers it was the first time a woman had touched him like that since Erin left, aside from Kim on occasion. Which he never thought anything of with her, but for some reason with Hailey, it was different. It triggered something in him. He wasn't blind back then, he may have been messed up in the head, but he was well aware of how attractive Hailey was and that scared the crap out of him. It was fine if he could keep her at a distance, but he was finding it harder and harder to do with how much she tried to be there for him. She was tough, but gentle with him. And she always seemed to have his back. So when he felt her hand on him, so intimately almost, he knew it was going to be harder to ignore that he actually liked his new partner. He wished he could hate her, he wanted to, but she made it impossible. And soon after that moment, months later, they had a friendship and bond he never had before… and with that he started to realize he liked his partner. Now here they are, four years later, and still can't seem to get it right.

"You totally did! I remember I pulled my hand away so quick. God, we were so awkward back then!" she's still laughing, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Well, in my defense, it was the first time a hot girl touched me in a while, so I may have gotten a bit nervous when my new partner suddenly got all handsy." He teases.

She rolls her eyes at him.

"You're so…" she starts to say and goes to shove him when he interrupts her.

"You know what I also remember about that case?" he asks gently.

"What?" she responds, genuinely wondering.

"How good you were with the kids. You were so soft and soothing to them, they felt so safe around you. That was when I knew I had hit the partner goldmine. All tough and stern with criminals or when one of us was being a dumbass, but a ball of mush when necessary, too."

She stares at him, in shock of the openness and sincerity of his compliment. He even notices her blush slightly.

"Yeah, you too. Those kids adored you, most do… kids, that is!" she catches herself quickly.

He grins at her. "Well, it's just cause we make a good team." He bumps her shoulder with his.

"That we do." She agrees.

They stare at each other for what feels like an eternity. Smiling softly, when finally Hailey turns away and reaches for the TV remote, switching the morning news on. They fall into a comfortable silence again. A few minutes pass and Jay notices that Hailey is trying her best to stifle her yawns. It's not very long after that she lays her head down along the one end of the couch and slowly raises her legs up to rest, slightly moving them near and almost into Jay's lap. She glances over at him right as he does her.

"Is this okay? She whispers. "I just really need to close my eyes for a bit."

He gives her a soft smile, and gives her foot a quick rub. Never in a million years would he be able to tell her no and he's just completely over the moon that she's back to feeling this comfortable with him.

"Of course." He murmurs back.

She looks content with his response and cuddles into the couch pillow even more. It's probably barely a minute later when he realizes she's out like a light. He spends a while watching her, angelic looking in such a peaceful sleep. He can't resist pulling her legs further into his lap and rests his arms gently on top of them. It's in this moment he knows what he has to do. What he should have done six months ago. Assured the most for the first time since he woke up in the hospital, he rests his head back contentedly himself, and closes his eyes. He too drifts into a peaceful sleep… with dreams of a world where Hailey was his!


[A/N: Here we are, chugging along just like Jay and Hailey. I think this is my favorite chapter, I so loved early Upstead. Thank you so much for continuing along on this journey!]