"April." The nurse looked up from the computer. "Let's get a CBC, CMP, and chest X-Ray for the gentleman in three, and get someone to take over - I'm leaving soon."

"You got it." She went over to Natalie to relay the information while Willa made her way to the doctor's lounge to call a cab to take her to the airport for the flight Connor had managed to secure her. Jay walked in as she was finishing up the call. She held up a finger to indicate that she'd seen him and would only be a moment.

"Half hour? That's perfect. I'll see you then. Bye." She placed the phone back in her locker and closed it before turning her attention to Jay.

"Detective."

"Doctor," he greeted. "You got time to take these out?" He gestured to his hairline, where the stitches were still intact.

"Sure," she said and led him back out to the ED. She had him sit down on the bed in one of the treatment rooms while she looked for a pair of scissors and antiseptic in the cart.

She met his eyes after wiping the area as best she could with the antiseptic. "Ready?"

"Go ahead." She snipped the thread, then gently pulled at it with tweezers, watching as it slipped out of his skin. She could feel his eyes concentrated on her, and for a moment, it felt like she couldn't breathe properly. In reality, she knew she was just nervous being around Jay, but at the very least, she had something to do with her hands.

"About the other day," she began, her voice shaky. "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

To Willa's surprise, he smiled. "It's okay."

"It's not," she countered. "I got bad news and took my frustration out on you, so again, I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "Bad news makes people act out; I get it." She put the tweezers down and looked at the healing cut.

"Looks like you're only going to have a small scar, barely noticeable."

He nodded. "Where are you going?" Willa frowned. "I overheard the last part of your conversation."

She took off her gloves. "New York," she relented. "I'm going to see my Dad."

Jay stood and put his coat back on. "Is he okay?" She tossed the gloves away and grabbed the tablet from the bed where she'd placed it earlier on.

She hesitated. "He's fine, but the administrator at his care facility called to say there'd been an incident, so I decided to go see him." Jay didn't say anything, but she could almost see the wheels turning inside his head, trying to understand what she was saying.

They left the treatment room together and happened to bump into Will at the nurse's station. He studied his brother's hairline.

"Looks good," he complimented. "Well done, Dr. Atticus."

"Thank you, Dr. Halstead. Excuse me." She walked over to one of the computers to update Jay's file but remained acutely aware that he kept looking in her direction despite chatting to his brother.

April came over. "Why does Jay Halstead keep looking over here?"

Willa pulled a grimace. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"I think he likes you," she teased.

"And I think you're crazy."

She put her hands up as a sign of surrender. "Okay, but I still think he likes you."

She chuckled as April wandered off to help Dr. Choi with a patient. She looked at her watch and nearly had a heart attack when she saw the time. Willa sped off to the doctor's lounge to grab her things but didn't have time to change out of her scrubs, so she'd have to do that at the airport. She raced back into the ED, shouting her goodbyes to everyone before she ran to the parking lot to catch her cab.

"Willa!"

She spun around to see Jay jogging out of the ED. "Jay?"

He caught his breath for a moment, eyes almost panicked. "Why don't I take you to the airport? Save you the cab fare."

Her heart pounded at the prospect of being alone with him in a confined space. She didn't mean to feel the way she did, but there was something irresistible about him, and for some unknown reason, he seemed to take an interest in her. It didn't make sense, but she wasn't about to start complaining.

She gestured to the cab that had just pulled up. "It's already here, and I bet you need to get back to the District."

He shook his head. "It's a slow day." He approached the cab and spoke to the driver through the window for a moment. She saw him slip the driver something that looked suspiciously like a twenty-dollar bill, only for it to drive off. He came back with a big grin taped to his ridiculously handsome face.

"What did you do?"

"Told him you found another ride."

She started off towards his car, parked close to the entrance. "If I didn't know better, I would call this predatory behavior."

He took her weekend bag from her and placed it in the backseat. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," she said and climbed into the passenger seat. She took in the smell of his car, of him. Worn leather mixed with the smell of gunpowder, and though she couldn't be sure it was actually gunpowder, it smelt like him, and she wanted to keep breathing him in as he drove towards the airport.

She caught him staring at her. "Keep your eyes on the road, Detective, or I might never get into a car with you again."

He turned his eyes back to the road in front of him, but he smirked nonetheless. "Can't have that."

"No?"

"No," he confirmed. For the next long while, it was quiet between them, only the sound of cars flashing by and soft music from the radio broke up the silence. She looked out the window and occasionally over at Jay - she found it hard to keep herself from fidgeting and even harder to not reach over and touch him.

"You said your dad's in a care facility." She had waited for him to ask but desperately hoping he wouldn't. She'd always been a terrible liar.

"He is."

"How come? If you don't mind me asking."

She hesitated. This was never a fun story to tell and one she hadn't to her last two boyfriends, not that Jay was her boyfriend. "He has paranoid schizophrenia and had a major psychotic episode when I was fifteen. He was never the same after that, so when I went to Med School, I made the decision to admit him to a long-term care facility."

He nodded. "I'm sorry."

Willa shrugged. "He's been sick my whole life; I've learned to deal with it."

"Still, that can't be easy." The rest of the ride was quiet, but Willa didn't feel inclined to say anything or keep the conversation going. She was just glad to be in his company.

He finally pulled into the airport's short-term parking lot, they got out, and Jay took her bag from the backseat and handed it to her. "I'll walk you in."

"You've already done enough. Go home."

His terrifyingly blue eyes turned serious. "What if I don't want to?"

Her breath caught in her throat. He was so close she could smell him. Her fingers twitched from wanting to touch him, but in the end, she just smiled. "I guess you better walk me in then."

He smirked and followed her into the building, waited for her outside the bathroom while she changed out of her scrubs, walked her all the way to the security gate where he could take her no further, and they had to part ways. "This is it."

He nodded, the faint smile on his face dropping. He reached into his inside pocket and pulled out his business card, then took a pen from his other inside pocket and scribbled something on the back of it.

He handed it to her. "What's this?"

"My card, cell number is on the back," he explained. "If you need anything, even just to talk, call me."

She looked at it for a moment. "Thank you," was all she said in the end. She sneaked a look over Jay's shoulder at the departure board. "I really have to go."

His shoulders slouched. "Okay," he said. "Stay safe, and I hope your dad's doing better by the time you get there." She stood on her toes and gave his cheek a kiss, his scruff tickling her chin as she did. He was smiling when she returned back to the ground.

"What was that for?"

"You were nice to me," she answered nonchalantly. "Drove a near-total stranger to the airport."

He chuckled. "The least I could do after you fixed me up," he said, gesturing to his pink raised scar and the yellow-green hue surrounding his mostly fading black eye.

The disappointment settled in her stomach as she realized that she had to leave. "I better go," she announced. "Bye, Detective." She grabbed hold of her bag and walked off to the security checkpoint, daring a glance over her shoulder where she found his back walking away from her. While waiting to put her things on the conveyor belt, she got her phone out and typed a message.

I didn't really want you to go. W.A.

Jay was smiling down at his phone when he walked back up the steps to Intelligence. He couldn't quite believe that Willa had texted him mere minutes after he'd given her his number, nor could he believe that she'd admitted that she didn't want him to actually leave. It seemed surreal to feel like this so soon after his heart had been broken, but there was something magnetic about Willa, and he didn't know how to stay away.

"What are you smiling at, Halstead?" Kevin inquired as Jay placed his phone on the desk and slipped his coat off.

"Nothing," he muttered, despite knowing it would only solicit more questions.

"Is it the Doc you left Molly's with the other night?" Adam chimed in.

Hailey walked into the bullpen from the breakroom. "Wait, Mystery Blonde is a doctor?"

"Mystery Blonde?" He dared ask, glaring at them.

"Well," Hailey began, shrugging, and sat down in her chair. "You disappeared with a blonde woman without saying goodbye the other night," she explained.

"I did know she was a doctor," Adam admitted. "She patched him up."

Jay groaned, hating their prying eyes. "I drove her home, that's all," he told them. "And she just took my stitches out."

"So, that's where you disappeared to," Kevin muttered. "Took you forever."

Jay didn't want to talk about Willa with them, but it was clear that they'd been paying more attention than he gave them credit for. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about her even when she'd snapped at him and told him to leave her alone. He knew she was reacting to something stressful, and even though he didn't know it at the time, she had a good reason.

"Wait," Hailey said, sitting up straighter in her chair. "Is that why you took forever getting the stabbing victim's statement at the hospital the other day? Because Mystery Blonde was there?"

"He was in surgery," Jay reminded them. "And her name is Willa."

Kevin frowned. "What about Will?"

"No, Mystery Blonde's name is Willa Atticus," he said through gritted teeth, hating the moniker.

"That's not confusing at all," Hailey noted, and Jay smiled, remembering that he'd made the same comment when they were introduced to one another. "But you should invite her to Molly's tonight."

"Yeah, man, we'd love to meet her properly," Adam added.

"Can't," Jay said. "I just dropped her at the airport."

"You drove her to the airport?"

"Drove who to the airport?" Antonio asked when he came up the stairs into the bullpen with Alvin trailing behind him. Jay groaned as his colleagues filled them in on what they'd been discussing, and he found himself wishing he could go back and not say anything to them about Willa at all.


Author's Note: Someone on Tumblr asked if this story would include smut and I'll you what I told them: I'm not sure. I've never written smut before and I'm not sure how to go about it. It will definitely be implied or a 'fade to black' situation, but I can't promise full-on smut. I hope that's okay. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so be sure to leave a review and let me know what you think. Follow me on Tumblr at itscapokaybye.