Five months have passed and Casper is now eight months old, the age where Jay can finally start training him for the tasks he should perform as a service dog.
Although difficult, Jay has managed to keep Casper a secret from the rest of his team. But with the annual first responder picnic coming up, Jay figures it is the perfect time for him to introduce Casper to the rest of the team. Jay knows that his team has been suspicious as to why he has been declining going to Molly's, but he was not ready for them to know that he has gotten a dog until now.
With Casper now eight months old, Jay is now letting him out of the cage for longer periods of time since he is no longer teething. He is still on the smaller side of forty-five pounds, but is growing enough that Jay's not worried about it. He is no longer going to the vet every couple of weeks to receive his puppy shots. Jay has kept a strict schedule of training him, so he would be ready to start learning the tasks of being a PTSD service dog for Jay's needs.
"You're going to meet the rest of my team soon," he tells the dog. "Do you think I did the right thing by waiting so long?" he asks. Casper just stares at him with his head cocked to the side. "I know," Jay answers, "You want to go on your walk." Hearing the work walk, Casper gets excited, running back and forth between the door and Jay.
Laughing at Casper's antics, Jay gets up to grab what he needs to take Casper on his walk. Clipping on his leash, Jay leads Casper into the Chicago night.
The following Saturday, Jay packs Casper into his truck so they can head to the park where the picnic is. When they arrive at the park, Hailey walks up to his truck greeting the two, "You ready for them to meet him?" she asks Jay.
"I've had him for five months now," is Jay's only answer as he gets Casper out of his truck. As Casper gets out, Hailey noticed that he doesn't have the leash wrap on Casper's leash.
"Jay, his leash wrap?" she questions her partner.
"Not ready for them to know that yet," he answers. "Besides, we don't know if he's going to work as one."
"Yes, but he needs to learn to not be distracted by people petting him," she argues.
"And he needs to be a puppy too. Hailey, he's eight months, not eight years."
"Jay, you've read what I have. He needs to learn from an early age to not get distracted from people petting him."
"I know, but they'll see what it says and find out."
"Jay…"
"This is the first time I've taken it off."
"Okay, but you know they won't judge you."
"One thing at a time, Hailey."
Hailey and Jay start walking into the park where the rest of their team is, "So," Hailey starts, "when are you going to start teaching him the tasks?"
"Sometime this week. Do you want to come over when I do? I mean you're the one who knows what to do."
"Okay, let me know when you are going to start," Hailey answers as they walk up to the rest of the team.
"Hey, who's this?" Vanessa asks when she sees Casper walking up at Jay's side.
At the same time, Adam asks, "When did you get a dog?"
"He's gotten so big," Kim comments. "How old is he now?"
"Um, this is Casper, about five months ago and he's eight months," Jay tries to answer the questions in the order he was asked.
"Casper? Like the ghost?" Adam asks before he realizes what Kim said. "Wait, you knew Kim? And you didn't say anything?"
"I found out by accident," Kim tells him. "It wasn't my news to share," she adds thinking of how short Jay got when she found out about Casper.
"He had the name when I got him," Jay informs Adam. "He was three months old and was already used to his name, I wasn't going to change it and confuse him."
"So what made you get a dog?" Adam asks.
"Will thought it would be good for me to have company; and, he knew someone who was having a hard time finding a home for Casper since he was the runt of the litter."
"So this is why you kept disappearing during the day?" Kevin asks, finally joining the conversation.
"Yeah, he needs to be let out during the day."
"Halstead," Voight voices, "is this why you had to leave early some days?"
"Um, yes, Sarge. I needed to take him in for his puppy shots," Jay answers nervously.
"If you told me that was the reason you needed to leave early to begin with, I wouldn't have given you such a hard time," Voight answers, surprising Jay. Hailey gives Jay a knowing look at this statement.
"I still don't understand what made you get a dog, let alone a puppy, with our hours," Adam states.
"Adam, stop," Hailey orders her ex-boyfriend before he can get Jay worked up. "Casper has been good for Jay. You can't tell me that you haven't noticed a positive change in him in the past five months."
"Well, he never comes to Molly's anymore," Adam pointed out to her.
"Sorry, man," Jay apologizes. "He's in a cage most of the day. I don't want to keep him in there longer than I have to."
"That only proves my point about getting a dog with our hours," Adam defends.
Although loving the attention that he is getting from his human's team, Casper can sense that Jay is getting agitated by the man talking to him. Abandoning the attention he is receiving, Casper goes back over to Jay, licking his hand to get his attention.
Noticing that Casper is licking his hand, Jay pulls it away before bending down to his level. Focusing only on Casper, Jay calms down, ignoring the rest of the world.
After the small interrogation by Adam, the rest of the picnic is a peaceful event. The police department have their softball game versus the fire department, winning by two. They then play the staff from Chicago Med's emergency department, surprisingly losing by three runs.
With all of the first responders of Chicago together in one place, it is a surprisingly calm event. Darren Ritter of Firehouse 51 brought his dog, Tuesday, and Will brought Kohl with him. Casper saw the other dogs, but could sense that Jay was getting agitated anytime Adam came near him, so he stayed close by Jay.
Jay wanting Casper to get some exercise, pulled out the ball that he had brought for Casper and started a game of fetch for the puppy.
Hailey, who had taken a seat with the ladies of the intelligence unit, second watch of Firehouse 51, and the day shift of the emergency department of Chicago Med, was discreetly keeping an eye on the two. Since getting Casper it has been like Jay is a whole different person.
"Hey, Hailey. Are you still with us?" Stella Kidd asks, pulling Hailey's attention back to the group.
"Yeah," Hailey answers, looking back to the group. Once she is sure they are no longer paying attention to her, she goes back to her thoughts of Casper and Jay. The Jay she met when she first joined intelligence was closed off and then silently struggling through his PTSD by himself. After some time he was able to work through some of his demons, but it seems that having Casper has really helped, even if they haven't started training him for the tasks that are specific to Jay.
Hailey's not the only one to notice a change in the detective and former Army Ranger. Ethan Choi walks up to Will, wanting to see how getting the dog has helped Jay. "Jay looks happier," he comments.
"Yeah," Will answers. "I don't know what it is about that dog, but Jay's changed. Since he got him, I've been seeing more and more of my brother before he went to war."
"There's something magic about how an animal can help emotionally," Ethan states.
"And I'm pretty sure that, that dog adores my brother," Will laughs. "The way he gets when Jay gets home. It's like he hasn't seen him in years; no matter how long it's been. They could be apart for five minutes or five hours and that dog will act in exactly the same way. And Jay is just as happy to see him."
"Maybe they saved each other," Ethan suggested.
"Yeah, maybe," Will muses. "Excuse me," he pardons himself as he makes his way over to Casper and Jay with his own dog.
The next time Hailey glances over at her partner, she sees that he's not alone and is now talking with his brother. Seeing that she's been caught by the older Halstead brother, she gives a small smile in his direction which he returns before she turns away. The meaning of the smile deeper than what an outsider would think. The smile meaning: We did good, Jay's going to be okay, and thank you for having his back and being someone he can lean and depend on. Hailey knows that Jay can depend and lean on his brother, who will have his back, even if he doesn't realize it yet. And Will knows that Hailey will watch out for his baby brother, both off-duty and on, even if they are not officially partners at the moment.
A/N: So I don't normally do these, but I wanted to ask what you all think so far and if you would want a chapter solely from Casper's view?