He catches her studying him and he quickly tucks his phone back into his pocket.

"Was that Hailey you were texting again?" Trish questions.

He looks down, sheepishly. "Yeah."

"So what are you two again?

"I told you, she's my partner..." He states simply, as if he's not totally understating how she's the most important person in his life.

"Just your partner? Seriously? In these past few weeks I've known you, you text her an awful lot for someone who is apparently just your coworker." Trish says.

"Well, we're friends too. It's just because she's away. We have a lot to catch up on, between our cases here and the ones she's working on there…" he tries to fumble all the best excuses.

"I just want to make sure I'm not coming into the middle of something. I'll be the first one to say I think men and women can just be friends, I have plenty of male friends who are just that… but it's just not seeming that way with you two and I haven't even seen you guys together yet."

Jay doesn't know what to do. If he was looking for a quick out, Trish was now offering it to him on a silver platter with seemingly no hard feelings. Him and Hailey have made up since their fight on the phone the night he met Trish, but there's still some tension between them. Tension that might mean maybe they aren't ready yet to take that next leap. And then there's Trish who has been fun and sweet and doesn't have the trauma of carrying the job and cases and past that he and Hailey do. Maybe he's just practicing self-preservation, but the words are coming out of his mouth before he even realizes.

"I swear, we're just friends. We haven't done anything, we're just really close because we're bonded so closely on the job. That's all."

Trish still eyes him up like she's still not sure she entirely believes him, but she accepts the answer… and all things considered with everything going on in his life, that's all he can ask for at the moment.


Things had gone much easier than he thought, probably because she knew it was inevitable all those months ago. In retrospect, she knew more than he did. Sure, Jay had known he was in love with Hailey and hopeful things would come to fruition for them, but when he met Trish in the bar that night, he thought maybe it wasn't meant to be. If it was, Hailey wouldn't be in New York extending stays and he wouldn't be resorting to old ways and picking up girls in bars. But really he was just more in denial and in fear than he thought, and Trish knew the whole time, knew more than the two blind partners who had known each other for years. So yes, today was easy.

Trish handled it well when Jay tried to break up with her as gently as possible. She wasn't happy, she definitely did really like him, but she understood. She always did. Which is probably why she never fully trusted Hailey when her and Jay were alone together. She knew it was only a matter of time before the illustrious Halstead and Upton duo got their shit together and would figure out they were just wasting time not being with each other. Trish wished Jay well and told him he knew where to find her if things didn't work out between him and Hailey… she also told him she knew that would never happen though. So a permanent goodbye it was. Just another blip in his story on his path to Hailey. A path he had been walking on for years and was finally ready to take a rest, reflect on the journey, and create a new road together.

It was a little late when Jay texted Hailey that he was on his way over, and she seemed surprised because she knew he had prior plans and that they had actually had a slow week for once without a troubling case potentially bothering him. She told him okay though and that was the only extra push Jay needed to know he was making the right move. He barely knocked on Hailey's door before she was already pulling it back open for him. She smiled when she saw him, as did he, but hers held a hint of confusion in it.

"Hey! Everything okay?" she asks him as he lets himself in and she closes and locks the door again.

"Yeah. Everything's good, very good. Probably best it's been in a while actually!" he grins as he grabs a beer from her fridge and takes it to the living room to join it with her drink.

"Yeah!?" she asks surprised, clearly intrigued by what he means.

They moved to the couch at this point and Jay takes a sip of his beer with a grin. He's the most confident he's been in years, maybe ever.

"Yup!.. hey, how upset were you when I told you about Trish?"

"What?" she gasps in surprise again, wondering where the heck this is all going now. She hasn't had a sip of her drink since Jay arrived and she's starting to wonder if she may need it.

"I'm serious. You were upset, right? I could tell. I know you better than anyone, Hailey. But you wanted me to be happy. And I get it, because that's all I want for you too… but the thing is, you're what makes me happy, Hailey."

"Jay…" she shakes her head slowly, really confused now and not wanting to rip open old wounds. She finally grabs her drink on the table and gulps.

"I broke up with her tonight." Jay says simply.

"What? Jay, why? I thought you really liked her? She was good to you."

"I did, and she was… but she wasn't you, and she'll never be!"

Hailey blinks slowly. "I don't understand… I thought we agreed maybe we were better off just as friends."

"No, no, we didn't. We had a fight because of our fears of ruining things between us, trying to push the other away rather than deal with heartbreak or rejection from the one person who always understood us… and I let you run and ran myself, but we were wrong, Hailey."

"Jay…" Hailey whispers and shakes her head again, her emotions starting to get the best of her.

Jay takes the drink from her and grabs her hand. Pulling them closer to each other, their knees now touching from the angle they're sitting.

"Tell me that if I hadn't started dating Trish while you were in New York that we wouldn't have gotten together when you got home?"

"I don't know." She says softly.

"You do. Because you wanted to. And I wanted you, too. We just screwed it up, but we can fix it now. I've seen how good we can be together, and it's even better than what we have now."

"Is this about that dream again? Because I'm starting to get concerned, maybe you should talk to the doct…" she doesn't finish before he interrupts.

"No, this isn't about that. It's like you said last year, we're good together. You know we are!" he rubs her thumb gently back and forth with his.

"I thought we were, but these past few months… I don't know, maybe we are supposed to just be friends. You know, you gain something, you give something else up…"

It's Jay's turn to shake his head. "Maybe, but not always!"

"It's been a long time since I saw you as just my partner, but…"

She tries to finish, but Jay lets go of her hand to cup her face and pull her closer, leaning in to do what he's wanted to do for years. He silences her by pushing his lips to hers, not relenting until he feels her start to melt into him too. They're both taken back by the sparks, knowing they were there simmering under the surface forever, but surprised how powerful they feel now. Destiny's changed, from this moment forward they both know they'll never be the same again. They pull away slightly, their lips tingling, before Jay kisses her a couple more times and tugs away gently to let her catch her breath and thoughts. Hailey laughs, lifting her fingers to her lips, touching them in awe. Jay can't help but grin himself.

"What's so funny?" he asks.

"Never thought you'd be the one to make the first move." She teases.

"Well, you're the only girl I've ever cared about getting it right with. Had to be sure, ya know? Plus, if you weren't ready and I moved too fast, you pack a hell of a punch!"

"Shutup!" she chuckles.

"Okay." And he leans in and kisses her quickly again. "I'm serious, Hailey, I'm all in. I always have been with you and I think we're finally ready." He says when he pulls back from the kiss and she smiles.

"Me too!" she hums.

"Good."

The boyish grin on his face gets wiped away when she surprises him and kisses him this time. She runs her hand along his face and into his hair, tugging on his short strands gently, then wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him closer. Jay groans when he realizes just how tightly intertwined they are, and when he feels her tongue brush his he thinks he's going to explode. It feels familiar, but different, and he's just happy to be at this point finally. He slides his hands from her waist, moving them under her ass and lifting her onto his lap, feeling her instinctively wrap her legs around him. After another minute, he stands with her still tangled around him and walks them to her bedroom. They barely break their kiss as he maneuvers them onto the bed. Hailey breaks away first, stripping Jay's shirt over his head and flinging it to the floor. She's breathing heavy and the smile on her face only emphasizes the added flushness to her lips from their kissing.

"So, you actually going to sleep in my bed tonight?" she raises her brow, teasing, referring to him bringing drunken her home a couple weeks ago and gentlemanly lying her down and staying in the guest room to make sure she was okay.

He gives her a cocky grin. "Hell yes…" he says as he grabs her legs and yanks her closer, causing her to yelp. "Although I can't promise how much sleeping we'll be doing."

He silences her laugh with another kiss and there's not much talking after that. It was a good thing he didn't promise, because there was barely any sleep had that night. But it didn't matter to either of them, especially when their work alarms went off far too early and they woke up entwined with each other. This was how they were always meant to wake up—together, and not even a lack of sleep could hinder their feeling of giddiness. It was still like a muscle memory for Jay… he just hit snooze and pulled her even tighter against him. This was as good a reality as any…


[A/N: They finally did it, and DID it, lol! Hope the wait was worth it and let's see where this leads next. Thank you so much for all the love, I've enjoyed reading all of your thoughts & theories thus far!]