The next night, Hailey arrives at Jay's for their training session a little earlier than planned, so she can talk with Jay about what happened at the fireworks without Will there. No matter how good Jay got about opening up to both her and Will, Jay is still somewhat closed off to his brother, maybe the fear that he is going to see his brother differently if he really knew what was going on inside his head.

"Hailey?" Jay questions when he opens the door. "Did I get the time wrong?" he asks noting that she is an hour early.

"No, I just wanted to talk about last night before Will gets here."

"What about last night?" he asks as he lets her into the apartment.

"Just wanted to see how you were doing. We didn't get a chance to talk after," Hailey comments as they walk to his couch where Casper is laying on his nest of blankets that Jay keeps for him.

"There's not much to talk about. Fireworks are a trigger, but I can't avoid them here. It's almost impossible," Jay tells her.

"But did having Casper help?" Hailey asks.

"Yeah. At first… it felt like I was back in Afghanistan, caught in a firefight. But when Casper came over to me- it was like… it just made me know I was safe, in Chicago. Like my sense of touch overpowered my PTSD. I don't know if this makes sense, but it's how it felt," Jay tells her.

"No, no. It makes sense. I'm glad this is working for you,"

"Me too."

"Now, what Casper did last night was without training. So I think that once we start on that, it can only improve," Hailey suggests hopefully.

"When are we going to start training him for that? I mean since we decided to push it back some," Jay asks curiously.

"Well, we're nearing the final step of this task, I was thinking in the next week or two, if that's okay with you."

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Casper is your dog and this is training for the both of you. I don't want to do something if you think it will be too much for either of you."

"No, I think we'll be good. And if not, we can just stop."

"That sounds good. Do you want to talk about anything before Will gets here?"

"No. I mean, there's nothing going on other than what we already talked about that I don't really want Will to hear."

"Okay. I want to ask you something before Will gets here," Hailey tells him.

"What's up?"

"Do you think Casper is helping?" Hailey asks.

"Yeah, I mean last night would have been a lot worse, had he not been there. And I haven't had as many nightmares in the last few months. Why?"

"I just wanted to see what you thought. I've noticed a change in you– a good one. So has Will, and last night, before the fireworks, Kim said that you looked lighter, happier, and less haunted," Hailey tells him.

"What did you say to her?" Jay asks, afraid his secret slipped.

"That you suffer in silence, but dogs have magic healing powers," Hailey smiles.

"Thanks, for not telling her."

"Jay, that's not my news to tell. They aren't going to find out from me," she promises.

Jay just looks down and nods.

Hailey turns on the sports highlights to cut the tension.

A half an hour later Will arrives after his shift at Med. Hailey jumps right in to show Will what they are doing. She stands up so Jay can lay on the couch. "Jay, pretend you're having a nightmare," she orders him.

Jay does as he is told. It takes a little nudging, but Casper does what he should, by laying on top of Jay and putting pressure on him.

They reset and run through it for half an hour before deciding to take a break to eat.

"So how did you do with the fireworks last night?" Will asks. "I would have come over and sat with you, but fireworks make people stupid and Med needed all hands on deck last night."

"It was okay," Jay answers. "Ruzek more or less forced the team to see the fireworks together at a park."

"Did something happen?"

"I started to have some flashbacks or maybe a panic attack, but Casper kept me focused," Jay tells him.

"He did good," Hailey adds. "The both of them. Casper was able to keep Jay distracted and that is without training him to ground Jay."

"So having Casper around is helping?"

"Yeah, it's like he knows when I need him."

"Dogs have good instincts."

"So since Casper did so good with Jay last night, I was thinking we could try the grounding technique," Hailey tosses out there.

"Okay, how do we do that one?" Jay asks.

"I was thinking to start out– have you sit on the floor and sink into yourself. That way Casper can start out where it's easy to see that you look distressed."

"Okay, you know what you're doing better than me," Jay replies as the three of them are walking to his living room.

Jay sits on the floor and bends his knees to his chest wrapping his arms around his legs and placing his head down on his knees. Hailey then uses the training treats to get Casper to get Jay out of his ball.

Casper nudges at Jay using his nose to push at him until his arms loosen and he can get to Jay's face and lick him. Casper is praised by the three humans.

They repeat this several times over the next hour before going back to laying on top of Jay while he is pretending to have a nightmare.

Casper transitions between the two tasks well. Working on this task for another half an hour before deciding to call it quits for the night.

Hailey leaves first, knowing that the two brothers need to talk about why Jay didn't want Will there the night before.

Once the door shuts, Will asks, "Are you going to tell me why you asked me not to come last time?"

"Hailey and I talked about it," Jay starts.

"Do you want to tell me what the two of you talked about?"

"I was embarrassed, that's why I didn't want you to come."

"Embarrassed about what?"

"I have to pretend to have a nightmare for this last step," Jay says like it explains everything while petting Casper.

"You didn't want me to see you pretending to have a nightmare?" Will guesses.

Jay nods, "I didn't want you to think of me differently because of that."

"Jay, you're my little brother. I'm never going to think of you differently. You've been through so much in your life, I'd be surprised if you didn't get nightmares. And you're stuck with me, I'm not leaving you again," Will adds, knowing his brother's unspoken fear.

"Hailey said almost the exact same thing," Jay comments.

"Great minds think alike."

Jay gives a smile so small, that it is practically undetectable. Will doesn't notice, if Hailey hadn't left yet, she might have just seen it. But he smiles because he is finally starting to see: no matter what happens, his brother and partner are always going to stick by him.

A/N: I'm going to try to post for this fic in the middle of the week, since "A to Z" is posted on Saturdays so they are a little spread out for the readers who read both stories. Stay safe and healthy.