One moment they're raiding a warehouse and the next, they're stumbling across a body with a pool of blood beneath their head on the concrete. Hailey stares at the lifeless man that lies in front of herself, Atwater and Miller, the way his body is positioned on the floor reminding her all too well of a night not too long ago when she'd shot a man twice in the head and killed him.
It was a good shoot. Hailey knows this. She knows this. But she's no stranger to crossing lines or going off book either, and she knows that is exactly what her and her Sergeant had done with Roy Walton.
The guilt and shame had wrapped their hands around her quickly since that night, holding on to her with a vice like grip and they hadn't let go of her since.
She can't pull her eyes away from the body before her now. The sight of it with its blood and bruises that cover this unknown man's face looking much too familiar. It causes Hailey to fall to the floor on her hands and knees, chest and shoulders heaving with each quick breath she takes to try and calm herself down.
Her arms shake as she tries to push herself up and stand back on her feet, but she ends up right back on the floor, her heart pounding relentlessly as the face of Roy Walton fills her head again and her Sergeant's voice echoes in her ears.
"I didn't want you to come here. I didn't tell you to come here."
"I am telling you to get the hell out of here."
"The right thing? Are you kidding me? You wanna talk about the right thing?"
"You wanted it, didn't you?"
"Now you know! Now you know. This is what it feels like."
Atwater and Miller share a look of concern behind her before Sam holsters her weapon and kneels in front of Hailey, staring at her with a worried gaze.
"Detective?" Sam calls out quietly as she tilts her head at the blonde.
Hailey doesn't answer her, just stares out straight ahead, eyes unblinking and her entire body shaking now as that night plays over and over in her mind. Her Sergeant yelling, raising his gun at her, telling her too many things that she tries to remind herself aren't true.
"Detective Upton?" Sam calls to her again, reaching out her hands toward her slowly. "Hailey? Are you with us?"
"I'm sorry…I'm sorry," Hailey mumbles through heavy breaths, shaking her head quickly from side to side, but still, she doesn't meet the woman's eyes.
"Hailey, it's okay. It's Sam," she says, carefully setting her hands on Hailey's shoulders. "You're okay, you're safe. Officer Atwater is with us, too. Do you remember where you are?"
The sound of heavy footsteps is heard from a distance, causing a resounding echo to bounce off the concrete floor and walls of the room.
Sam looks up, glancing over the top of Hailey's head to see Jay and Voight entering the room with their weapons drawn. The pair lower their guns when they realize they've stumbled across their colleagues, and then Jay steps toward Hailey when he sees his partner on the floor.
"Hailey?" He calls out with worry as he approaches her, and Sam lifts a hand in signal to stop.
"Wait!" She says quickly, shaking her head at him. "Something is wrong. Just – just wait, okay?"
Jay comes to a halt and nods, waiting a moment before he starts walking again, taking slow steps toward Kevin and standing beside him, and then he looks back to his partner.
"I didn't wanna do it. I tried…I really tried…" Hailey mumbles again as she lifts her eyes slowly from the space in front of her to Sam's face.
"You didn't wanna do what honey? What did you try?" Sam asks her softly, her motherly instincts in full force as alarms start sounding off in her head. She keeps her eyes on Hailey's and squeezes her shoulders gently. "Hailey, tell me what happened. It's okay. You're safe. Talk to me honey."
"I didn't wanna kill him," Hailey whispers, shaking her head again.
Sam turns her head, looking up at Jay and Kevin with wondering eyes, but they both shake their heads and shrug their shoulders at her, both as clueless as she is.
"Kill who, honey?" Sam presses when she looks back to Hailey.
Jay glances between his partner and his Sergeant, a gut-wrenching feeling beginning to settle over him, and when he meets Voight's eyes, he knows. He knows even before the next words slip past Hailey's lips in a defeated whisper of few syllables.
"Roy Walton."
The words are still too shocking though, too unexpected that the nearly silent sound of a feather falling to the ground could be heard throughout the room as no one speaks.
Sam glances over the blonde's head to look at Voight, her own heart beginning to race now as she starts piecing together the broken sentences that Hailey has managed to stutter out.
"He found him. He – he…" Hailey starts to say a moment later, but the words get stuck in her throat, and she cries out a desperate moan as tears cascade down her cheeks in a seemingly never-ending flow.
"Hailey, stop!" Voight calls out gruffly, taking a step toward the two women still on the floor.
"Back off, Hank," Sam orders in a calm, but chilling tone as she lifts a hand and points a finger at him. He sighs heavily, but stays where he stands as Sam sets her eyes back on Hailey's face another moment later. "Who found him, Hailey?"
Hailey shakes her head, whimpering as the tears continue to come and go, and Sam squeezes her shoulders again.
"Hailey, honey, you gotta tell me. It's okay. Tell me what happened," Sam says, her voice soft and sincere and encouraging, and then Hailey tilts her head, whimpering once more.
"I – I tried to stop him…I tried to do it right. I – I wanted to do it right and he – he said it was okay. That we – we would bring him in…" Hailey cries out.
"Hailey, stop talking!" Voight yells out again, making Hailey jump, but Sam ignores him, squeezing the detective's shoulders again to keep her attention.
"Tell me honey. Tell me what happened," she says.
"Sarge found him," Hailey finally breathes out and Voight hangs his head behind them, running a hand over the back of his neck. "H-he beat him…he was gonna kill him. I – I wanted to do it right. I – I wanted to arrest Roy, but he wouldn't let me. He – he had him cuffed and he went to take them off and…and then Roy reached for his gun."
"What happened next, Hailey?" Sam asks her.
"Roy was gonna shoot him. I saw him, I…h-he would've shot him and I – I had to. I had to," Hailey cries, staring back at Sam with red, puffy eyes, pleading and desperate for her to understand.
"You shot Roy because he reached for Voight's gun?" Sam asks.
"I had to. I – I had to," Hailey cries out again.
"Hailey?"
She finally meets Sam's eyes, a mix of beautiful amber-green that somehow brings a sense of both comfort and relief as she stares back at her.
"Did anyone call it in?" Sam asks carefully despite the voice in the back of her head that tells her she already knows.
Hailey shakes her head slowly, then whispers. "He – he wouldn't let me."
"Where is Roy's body?"
"I don't know," Hailey says, shrugging her shoulders as she drops her eyes back to the floor. "He told me to leave. That he – he got it, that I had to go home."
Sam's jaw tenses, the anger and disappointment evident on her face as she looks up and glances at the men around her. Her eyes catch Jay's face, a tight jaw just like her own and his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
"Are you kidding me?" Jay asks then, his voice quiet and in near disbelief as he looks over at his Sergeant, and then he's shaking his head and sneering, a maniacal chuckle escaping him as he shouts, "Are you kidding me!"
Hailey looks up at him as he walks toward Voight, squaring his shoulders with his head held high as he moves across the room in quick strides. She quickly recognizes the look in his eyes and the redness spreading over his face and down his neck, and it's as if a switch is flipped.
She pulls herself up from the floor in an instant and scurries after him, reaching for his arm. He's determined and pissed, and she can't exactly blame him because she's angry too, but she can't let him do what he's about to do. Not for her.
She tugs on his arm and steps around him, standing directly in front of him now and putting herself between her partner and their Sergeant. The irony of it makes her nauseous given she had done the same thing just a few days before when she found her Sergeant and Roy and put herself between them, too.
"Hailey," Jay breathes out, shaking his head, his eyes pleading with her as she lifts her hands to his chest to try and hold him back.
"No," she whispers.
"After everything he's done to you? He deserves – "
"I know," Hailey nods, pressing her palms hard against him when he tries to step around her to get to their Sergeant.
"Then why are you protecting him?" He grinds out.
Hailey slides her hands up his chest to his cheeks, holding the side of his face with a gentle grasp as she shakes her head at him, her eye never leaving his.
"I'm not. I'm protecting you," Hailey tells him. She steps closer to him, standing as close to him as she can, their tac vests and gear bumping against the other's. She keeps her hands on his face, angling it down just slightly as she stares up into his eyes and says, "You can't do this. Please don't do this."
He tenses his jaw even tighter, breathing heavily and quickly as he looks between her and Voight, and then back to her.
"Please," Hailey whispers, her thumbs brushing over the stubble of his face and her eyes glistening with new tears.
He breathes out another heavy sigh, then nearly growls in frustration as he nods at her, mumbling, "If you weren't here..."
"I know," she says before she pulls her hands from his face and sets them on his upper arms, squeezing him tightly. "But he's not worth it. Your career isn't worth it. You gotta back up, Jay. Come on."
He lets her push him back a few more steps and turn him around, and then she grabs onto his arm again and leads him back toward Kevin.
"Halstead?" Sam calls out as she stands to her feet.
"Ma'am," Jay says with a nod.
"Take Hailey home," she says definitively, leaving no room for argument.
Jay nods at her again and glances to his partner beside him, gesturing to the door and the pair of them head across the room. He stares down their Sergeant as they pass him, a chilling look of hatred and disgust in his eyes that has Voight breathing out a heavy sigh and dropping his head once more.
Hailey and Jay make their way out of the room and down the stairs, Sam's voice echoing behind them in a disappointed bellow, "Tell me you didn't actually do what I think you did."
The thirty-minute drive back to Hailey's apartment is quiet and tense, neither her or Jay uttering a word the entire time.
Hailey stares out the passenger side window, her head fuzzy and her chest heavy with the guilt of what happened. She knows she should feel relief because at least now the truth is out there, but she doesn't. She just feels the guilt and the shame tightening their hold on her, a crushing ache rushing through her because she knows what comes next.
She's about to lose him. Her partner. Her best friend. The love of her life. She's about to lose it all. She knows the second the truck stops outside her building, she is going to lose the one thing that means everything to her.
She tries to hold back her tears, she doesn't want to break down in front of him again, but it proves to be a much more difficult feat when moments of them begin playing in her mind like a film reel that she can't turn off.
"It's been a long time, since I saw you as just my partner."
"I want you, and then I want coffee. And then I want waffles."
"I love all that. I love you."
"I don't know how to do this, but I want to. I want to so badly. I wanna be with you. I wanna learn to do this. I want to be better."
"Then we'll figure it out because I wanna be with you too."
"I'm not going anywhere Hailey."
"I do. I love you, so much."
The sudden stop of the truck a few minutes later pulls Hailey from her deep reverie, and then she sees her apartment building through the window. Jay sets the gear into park and although he doesn't say anything, Hailey can feel his eyes on her, waiting for her to take the lead.
"I'm sorry," she tells him, knowing she needs to say something even though I'm sorry doesn't feel like nearly enough for what she owes him.
"For what?"
"For disappointing you again," she says quietly, sniffling and trying to hold back the fresh tears that fill her eyes.
She doesn't look at him. She can't, just keeps staring down at her hands in her lap and twisting mindlessly at a loose string of fabric on her shirt.
"Hailey," he breathes out, shaking his head beside her.
She closes her eyes at the sound of her name coming out of his mouth as another sharp ache rushes through her chest.
"It's okay. I know," Hailey says before he can say another word. She nods to herself as she unbuckles her seatbelt and reaches down between her feet for her vest. "You don't need to be nice about it, Jay. Just – just go."
She holds her vest tightly in one hand, opens the door with the other, and then hops down from the cab. She closes the door behind her and makes her way to the front entrance of her building, walking quickly and ignoring Jay's voice calling after her.
She just can't stomach the thought of looking at his face and seeing the disappointment in his eyes.
Jay stares after her from the driver's seat, trying to figure out what just happened when a honking horn pulls him from his thoughts. He realizes he's still parked in the street and waits for the impatient driver behind him to pass around him before he finds a parking spot and kills the engine.
He heads inside the apartment building and takes the elevator to the fifth floor, then makes his way around the corner and down the hall to Hailey's door. He has a key, but after what just happened outside, he doesn't want to intrude on her space, so he raises a closed fist and knocks twice.
He hears a groan from inside the apartment, and then silence and guesses she's staring at him through the peephole and trying to decide whether to open the door.
When the door doesn't open after another moment he raps his knuckles against it twice more and waits.
"Hailey?" He calls out to her, breathing out a heavy sigh. "Please open the door."
A few more moments pass and when the door doesn't open, he reaches for the keys in his pocket, but then comes the turn of a deadbolt and the click of a handle, and then the door swings open.
Hailey stands in front of him with red, tear-filled eyes, her hair free from its tie and hanging down over her shoulders as she leans against the door.
"Can I please come in?" Jay asks her quietly.
"Why?"
"What do you mean why? Don't you think we should maybe talk about what just happened?"
"What is there to talk about, Jay? Now you know why I haven't been acting like myself, why I haven't been sleeping. You know the truth now."
"So what? We just brush it under the rug and pretend everything is fine now? You just had a panic attack while we were on a raid, Hailey. You really don't think that warrants a conversation of some kind?"
"No, I don't. I don't wanna talk about it," she says, shaking her head and staring up at him with eyes ready to spill over with her tears. "I don't wanna talk about it because I don't wanna have to watch you leave when we're done."
Hailey steps further inside her apartment and goes to close the door, but Jay reaches out a hand and presses against it, stopping it halfway.
"You still don't get it, do you?" Jay asks.
"What?"
"I'm not going anywhere, Hailey," he tells her with a shake of his head. "And if you think what just happened changes that, you're wrong."
She stares back at him with furrowed eyebrows and slightly parted lips, slowly shaking her head as if in disbelief of the words he's just spoken to her.
Jay breathes out another heavy sigh as he pushes open the door wider and steps inside the apartment. He closes the door behind him, then steps toward her, placing his hands on her shoulders and staring down into her sad blue eyes.
"I'm not going anywhere. I told you that once before. I meant it then and I still mean it now, and if I need to say those words to you every single day for you to believe them, then I will," he says, squeezing her shoulders and staring at her with glistening eyes as he tries to hold back the tears threatening to fall.
"I'm…not…going…anywhere," Jay says again, annunciating the words.
Her hands shake at her sides as she stares up at him, her chest aching and head spinning, and she's not sure if she's dreaming or if it's just some terrible, mean trick.
"I – I don't…"
Jay tilts his head at her, his eyes soft as he doesn't look anywhere else, but at her.
"Is that why you asked me to marry you? You thought I would leave you once I found out?"
"Yeah," Hailey mumbles, nodding slowly. "I – I thought I was gonna lose you and I guess I just panicked."
"You're never gonna lose me, Hailey. I'm in this with you. I'm not going anywhere," he tells her.
Hailey shakes her head, then lifts a hand to her face to wipe at her eyes as her tears begin to fall. "I don't want this to come back on you though. I couldn't – I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you because of me."
"We're not just partners at work, ya know? I've got your back through anything and everything," Jay says.
"Good or bad. Right or wrong," he continues a moment later, a smirk spreading out over his face. "For better or worse."
"Stop," Hailey says, shaking her head again.
"I do plan on marrying you some day. Might as well get some practice in on the vows," he grins softly at her.
"Really? Because I thought we were over five minutes ago. I'm a mess, Jay. I – "
"I'm serious. I would marry you tomorrow, but I don't want the rest of our lives together to start because of Voight and his dirty tricks."
Hailey nods, wiping under her eyes once more as she sniffles. "I really am sorry. I should have told you when I got back that night and I – I should have…"
"You don't need to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong. This isn't on you. It's on Voight," he tells her.
"How are you not mad about this? About what I did?"
"It was a good shoot, Hailey. And it wouldn't have even happened if Voight hadn't gone off book. I'm just – I'm just hurt you felt like you couldn't tell me. You know I would have backed you. You know that, right?"
She nods, sniffling again. "I wanted to tell you, I didn't wanna keep it from you, but I didn't wanna drag you down with me. I didn't want anything to happen to you."
"Nothing is gonna happen to either of us. It's gonna be okay. I promise you, it's all gonna be okay. We'll figure it out together."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," he confirms, smiling another soft grin at her and says, "I think we should move in together though."
"What?"
"I'm going to spend the rest of my life with you, Hailey. Pretty sure I knew that only a couple months into this," he says, gesturing a hand between them with that same sweet smile on his face. "I'm going to propose to you one day and it'll be because we both can't wait to make things that much more official than they already are between us. It won't be because one of us is scared we'll lose the other."
"I like the sound of that," she tells him with more tears falling from her eyes as she stares up at him, and then a smile slowly spreads over her face. "Since when are you the logical one?"
"I have my moments," he quips back with another smirk as he drops his hands from her shoulders to set them on her waist. "So, what do you think? You wanna live with me?"
"Yeah," she breathes out, nodding slowly. "Yeah, I do. I – I don't wanna be without you."
He smiles at her words, ones she'd spoken just days before when she had proposed to him in that very same living room. He lifts a hand to the side of her face, cradling her head in his palm when she leans into him, and then says the same thing back to her that he had said then.
"You're not gonna be."
She smiles at him, a real and full teary-eyed smile that stretches out over her face as she looks up at him, and then he grabs one of her hands and leads her over to the couch.
They spend the next few hours cuddled against one another, watching re-runs of The Office on Netflix to keep things as light as possible, and he gets her to eat a slice of pizza when he orders them dinner a short while later.
They change into comfier clothes and end up back on the couch for a while longer, both cuddled closely together with the television still playing lowly, but neither are watching now.
Hailey snuggles into Jay's side, clutching tightly to his shirt covered chest as he keeps an arm around her, his fingers drawing circles on her upper arm while his other hand rests over hers on his chest.
"I'm sorry that I – that I…"
"What is it?" Jay asks her, angling his head to look down and meet her eyes.
"I'm sorry if it seems like I keep doubting you," she breathes out. "I need you to know that it's not you. It's me, it's all me and my issues and I need you to know I trust you completely. I just – I…"
"I know," he nods, squeezing her hand. "And it's okay. We'll figure it out, remember? We'll take things one day at a time and we'll figure it out together."
"I really thought it was over between us. I thought that was it and you were gonna – "
"Never," he tells her, shaking his head and lifting his hand from her arm to the back of her head to run his fingers through her hair. "You're stuck with me, Hails."
"I wouldn't wanna be stuck with anyone else," she mumbles as she snuggles in closer to his side with her head against his shoulder.
She holds onto him tightly, clinging to him for dear life, afraid he could disappear at any moment if she's not somehow constantly touching him.
He squeezes his arm around her small frame before he surprises her and pulls her into his lap. He wraps his arms around her waist, squeezing her against him as he settles his hands on her back.
"I'm not going anywhere," he tells her once more, staring into her eyes as he says the words and hoping she sees that he means them.
She nods, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding him close as she drops her head over his shoulder. She closes her eyes as he buries his face into her neck, his lips pressing against her skin softly and his arms squeezing around her.
She can't help breathing out a heavy sigh of relief.
She didn't lose him. He's still here. Still with her.
She didn't lose him.
"You've had a long day. What do you say we get you to bed?" He suggests a few quiet moments later.
Hailey nods against the side of his head and as she moves to get off his lap, Jay tightens his hold on her and stands from the couch with her in his arms. She squeals in surprise at the sudden maneuver, gripping tightly to his shoulders, but he just squeezes her once more.
"I got you," he says against her ear, the double meaning of his words not lost on Hailey as he carries her into the bedroom. He sets her down on her side of the bed, tucks her in under the covers, and presses a kiss to her forehead before he says, "I'm gonna make sure everything is off and lock up for the night. I'll be right back."
She nods and watches as he leaves the bedroom, breathing out another heavy sigh as she turns on her side in the bed and waits for him to return.
He does a few minutes later and climbs into the bed beside her, reaching for her immediately and pulling her against him. He wraps his arms around her and buries his face into her neck again, his warm breath below her ear making her relax instantly as she settles into his embrace.
"I love you," Jay mumbles against her skin as they both tighten their arms around the other and tangle their legs together.
"Love you too," she whispers back. "I love you so much."
"Not going anywhere," he tells her once more before he presses another kiss to the side of her neck.
He slides a hand down her back and slips it beneath her t-shirt, dragging the tips of his fingers in slow circles until the ministrations over her skin lull her to sleep.
They wake the next morning still wrapped up together the same way they fell asleep, legs intertwined beneath the sheets and hands gripping tightly to one another.
Hailey stares at him, unblinking and unsure of what to say after the events of the day before, but Jay just kisses her on the forehead and squeezes her against him. He buries his face into her neck again, whispering words of affirmations against her skin, words he knows she needs to hear until he's sure she knows he means them.
"I love you…it's gonna be okay…I'm right here…I'm not going anywhere…"
She tightens her arms around him, nodding against him and pressing her lips to his shoulder, and he squeezes his arms around her once more.
They finally drag themselves out of bed to get ready for the day and drink some coffee in the kitchen before they make their way out of the apartment.
Jay drives them to the district, his hand intertwined with Hailey's on the center console between them, holding tightly and squeezing her fingers against his own.
He parks the truck in the lot at the district a short drive later and catches her staring out the window at the brick building in front of them.
"It's gonna be okay, Hailey," he assures her again with another tight squeeze of their joined hands.
She turns her head to look over at him and nods, squeezes his hand, and then they get out of the cab and make their way inside. He leads her up the back stairwell to the bullpen and when they enter the room, a look of surprise comes over both their faces.
Kevin and Adam are already at their desks, seemingly waiting for them. The way they both perk up when Hailey and Jay enter the room evidence enough of the fact. But what catches them off guard is the sight of Trudy Platt standing at Hailey's desk, leaning against the edge of it with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Good morning, detectives," the woman greets them with a stoic face that immediately puts them both on edge.
They glance at one another quickly as they move further into the bullpen, and then Trudy locks eyes with Jay and tilts her head to their Sergeant's office.
"Just me?" Jay asks with a raise of his eyebrows.
"Just you," Trudy nods.
He glances over at Hailey once more before he steps away from her and makes his way to the office. He stands in the doorway, the look of confusion on his face only intensifying when he doesn't find Voight behind the desk, but Sam Miller instead.
"Good morning," Sam says with a polite tone and a pleasant smile before she nods in his direction. "Please close the door and take a seat."
"Trudy, what's going on?" Hailey asks, turning to face the desk Sergeant when Jay closes the office door. "Jay had nothing to do with what happened. It was me! I – I did it, not him! He didn't even know – "
"Hailey," Trudy says, pushing herself off the desk and setting her hands on the blonde's shoulders. "I know. Everything is gonna be okay. Just gotta be patient and let them talk, okay?"
Hailey looks back to the office, wishing she could read the lips of whatever words Miller was dishing out to her partner, and then she glances back to Trudy when the woman gives another squeeze to her shoulders.
"Trust me," Trudy whispers, smiling softly at her.
Hailey sighs heavily, but nods, the tears coming quickly, but they don't fall from her eyes. She won't let them. She steps away from Trudy and sits down in Jay's chair, waiting what seems like a lifetime until the office door finally opens and her partner steps out, the Deputy Superintendent following behind him.
Jay holds a folded-up piece of paper in his hands and there's a blank expression on his face as his eyes look everywhere, but at her. She stands to her feet, wanting to reach out and touch him, but she keeps her hands at her sides and watches with bated breath as Sam walks to the center of the bullpen.
"Sergeant Voight is no longer with the 21st district," Sam announces, glancing between the faces around her. "He has decided to take an early retirement as advised by me. Detective Halstead has been named his successor and will be acting as such under Sergeant Platt's supervision until he has successfully completed and passed the sergeant's exam."
She looks around at each of them, those amber-green eyes lingering on Hailey for a beat longer than the others in the room, and then she continues.
"I know Intelligence is short-handed so I will be requesting Officer Rojas and Cooper be detailed back to the unit as soon as possible. The reasons behind Sergeant Voight's early departure from CPD is no one's concern. However, if you do have any questions regarding this decision, you are to come to me directly and only me. Am I understood?"
A round of nods are made, no one able to speak at the sudden onslaught of information that has just been delivered to them.
"Good," Sam says with a nod of her own. "I have routed all of Intelligence's calls for the next two days to Robbery-Homicide and Narcotics to allow some time to process all of this, as well as for strategy to be put in place by your new leadership."
She glances around at the members of Intelligence and Platt, nodding once more and then says, "I'm available if you need me. Take care of each another."
Sam gives one last soft smile before she makes her way through the bullpen toward the stairs, leaving the group to themselves.
"Well," Adam sighs a few moments later as he stands from his desk and walks up to Jay. He claps a hand over the man's shoulder, nodding his head at him. "Sooner than we expected, but you're the right man for the job, brother."
"Thanks Ruze," Jay says quietly with a single nod.
Kevin follows suit a moment later, approaching Jay with a smile and a fist bump, giving words of congratulations, and then asks, "What's the plan bro?"
Jay sighs, shrugging his shoulders. "I have no idea."
"We'll figure it out," Hailey says as she walks up to the three men. She glances at each of them, her eyes landing on Jay as she says again, "We'll figure it out together."
Jay smiles softly at her, knowing the words mean more than what they appear to in that moment, and then he nods again and says, "Yeah, we will."
"Well then," Trudy sighs from behind them. The four of them turn to look at her and she hooks a thumb over her shoulder to the office behind her, nodding at Jay. "Let's go then Sergeant Chuckles. We've got a lot of work to do."
Jay shakes his head, an amused smile on his face as he breathes out a heavy sigh and nods again. He glances at Hailey briefly before he passes the folded-up piece of paper in his hands to her, and then he follows Trudy into the office – his office.
Hailey stares after him for a moment before she looks down at the paper in her hands. She unfolds it, her eyes quickly scanning over the handwritten words scrawled across the page.
I told you once that this unit would be yours one day. Do it right, Jay.
Tell Hailey I'm sorry.