Liz ran her hands through her hair shaking the head, "Today was a hell of a day. Hell of a day!"

"So, drink to forget." Meg laughed, her black hair pulled up into a high ponytail.

"I don't want to forget."

"You said it was a hell of a day..."

"Yeah okay, but it's just something you say. I delivered two babies!"

"You have so many problems." Meg shook her head taking a big bite of the pizza in front of her.

Hailey laughed at her friends. Liz had her eyes bright with the excitement of the day. She had been an obstetrician for years, but she never stopped getting excited about what she did every day.

"What about you, Hails? Do you have something to tell us?" Liz turned to her with a feline smile from behind her beer.

Hailey shrugged indifferently, "I met a guy."

Liz brandished her beer with enthusiasm, "Oh oh, Halstead's brother!"

"You met a… What? I can't believe it!", Meg jumped on the stool, "When? Who? And?"

"You're making it bigger than it is." Hailey sighed giggling.

"C'mon! You haven't dated anyone in years!"

Hailey snorted as she took another slice of pizza.

"Yeah, well, there is no need to remember all her mistakes." Liz slapped Meghan's hand.

"I was just saying…" She nodded with conviction, "So? Can you tell me something?"

"Yeah, uhm…we went for a drink, it was fine."

Liz and Meg gaped at her, waiting for her to continue. But Hailey didn't really have much to say.

They went out for a drink, it was fine.

"And…? C'mon!"

"And nothing more. Jay was nice and funny."

"You didn't like him… Ah, Will told me he could be your type…"

"You two talking about my personal life is a little terrifying."

"Yeah, yeah." She brushed her off with a wave of her hand, "Go ahead."

"Yes, no. He was cute, but I guess neither of us wanted anything more."

"Hailey, honey." Meg sighed forgetting the pizza in front of her, "We know your last stories weren't exactly..."

"Yeah, they didn't end well, but…" Liz backs Meghan.

"That doesn't mean it can't work with someone else!"

Hailey sighed slowly trying not to assault her friends.

She knew they spoke for her own good. It was just that she wasn't really interested in a love story. She had relied on the wrong men in her past. And she now she wanted to focus on work - less disappointment, more focus. It was her motto for the past two years.

"It's not that I didn't like him. But I just think…just now we're not interested in a relationship, neither of us."

"So you liked him!" Liz smiled triumphantly.

"He was..." Hailey weighed her words carefully, "Nice and smart, yeah."

"Now let's talk about something interesting, finally! Tell us about him!"

"Completely different from Will!" Hailey laughed thinking about the difference between the two brothers, "He has green eyes. And the freckles."

Meg leaned across the table listening to her, "Freckles? This is really interesting."

"Will has freckles!"

"Yeah, no, not as many as Jay! Freckles everywhere!"

Liz's eyebrows reached her hairline, "Everywhere?"

"Everywhere, on his face!"

"You're blushing! God, she's blushing! " Liz leaned towards Meghan laughing.

"I'm not…it's not true!" Hailey gasped a few seconds before bursting out laughing and hiding behind a slice of pizza. She was definitely blushing, she knew it very well.

"You're so interested in him!"

"Call him!"

Liz and Meghan jokingly pushed her.

"No chance. I don't have his number. "

"You haven't... Sorry, but haven't I taught you anything in these years of friendship?"

Meg put a hand to her chest in shock.

"He has mine and he hasn't called me, so..."

"He's a Detective, he had been busy, I guess."

"A Detective? Oh god, this man is getting better!" Meg ate her pizza in silence, while Liz looked at her giggling.

Maybe they were right, maybe he has been busy. Maybe that was why he hadn't called her yet. Or maybe - and this was more logical - it was true that he had asked for her number for professional reasons. Maybe just like her, Jay wasn't looking for anything.

Hailey shrugged and feigned a selfless laugh. She was fine like that, whatever was going on in her life, she still had her job.

She smiled gently at her friends letting her date with Jay slip into a part of her mind that she hoped to forget.

"Tell us about these two babies you delivered, c'mon."

...

Hailey turned her coffee over in her hands, staring out the window. The day was about to end and she couldn't wait to take a long hot shower and get into bed. She only had one more appointment then she would be free to go home.

She loved her office, she had a perfect view of her favorite time of day: the sunset. That day was the first sunny day and, at that moment, the sun was a ball of fire on the horizon.

It had been a week since she'd seen Jay and, not that she really counted the days, but he had never called her back. It would have been easy to get his number, she would have just had to go to Med and ask Will, but she really didn't really want it.

Meg slowly opened her office door, "Hey, I have half an hour to spare. Do you want to go down for a coffee?"

"Too cold." She raised her steaming cup shaking her head, "I just made coffee, have some."

She waited for Meghan to pour herself a cup before giving up and confessing what had been troubling her for hours.

"Okay, I…I'm feeling stupid. But I wonder, why didn't he call me?"

Meg stared at her silently, her eyes narrowed in two slits against the sun.

"I mean, honestly, I thought it went well. I thought well enough at least to go out one more time. Why am I so denied with men?"

Her friend laughed slightly as she sat down on the couch, "You're not denied, you know. You're just overreacting. And you really like him."

Hailey shook her head, "It's… it's not like I know him that well. He was interesting, though."

"You can't analyze him, you know it. You can't analyze all the men you date."

Hailey stared at her feeling a pang of discomfort in her stomach, "I don't want to analyze him! I'm saying he was an interesting and funny man. But maybe I'm not enough for him."

"You don't suck, Hails. He is a cop, you said so, he has surely been busy. I think he will call you." Meg stood up stretching her arms over her head, "And if he doesn't, well, worse for him."

"Yeah, this is what I keep telling myself..." Hailey sighed looking out the window, "I don't know."

"You think too much, honey." They were silent for a few seconds, before Meg continued, "You don't seem to be you - so insecure. Do you want to see him again? Just ask Will for his number and call him."

It was all so simple for Meg: think and act. And honestly, Hailey had always been like that too: she thinks and acts. But now, did it make sense? Did it make sense to jump in and take risks? She was no longer convinced.

They were interrupted by her last appointment of the day and, before she could think about Jay again, she was already returning home braving the cold of the Chicago evening.

...

"Upton."

She answered the phone with a sigh and leaned back in the chair. She had had a hellish morning and now she was just waiting for Meg to finish the last session to go to lunch. She had slept little that night, and now she was tired. And it seemed like it never wanted to stop snowing. The burning sun of the previous day was only a distant memory and Chicago seemed asleep under a blanket of snow.

"Uhm, hi. I have this business card that says psychologist and behavior analyst. But you know, I thought I dated just a psychologist."

Suddenly the voice on the other side of the line caught all of her attention. She sat up straight as if she had just been shocked and, really, she didn't need to ask who had just called her.

"Jay, hi." She took a slow breath before getting up and closing the door of her office.

"How are you?"

"I'm…fine, what about you?"

"Eh, I'm gonna say the same." Jay laughed with a low laugh, "What are you doing?"

"I'm at work, Jay."

"Yeah, and I was thinking…" His voice faded and she heard him scream something away from the phone, "Ah, sorry. I could be on my lunch break and…I don't know, would you like a lunch?"

Hailey was silent for a second. She shouldn't leave Meg alone, but she really doubted she would mind.

"It's freezing outside."

Jay laughed again, "My car has a heater, you know?"

"Yeah, well, I really can't give up on this offer."

"I'm happy to hear that, Hailey. Is it okay if I'm at your office in twenty minutes?"

"It works for me."

Jay had called her back and god, was it so wrong to feel happy about it?

...

"God, it's really freezing out there."

Hailey set their lunch down on the center console of his truck before clutching her hands between her thighs, closing her eyes and enjoying the warm wind in his car.

"Yes and I've been in a van all night. I thought I was going to freeze to death." Jay chuckled beside her, brushing his hair off the snow before grabbing his Mac and cheese.

"Why didn't you want to go sit inside?"

"Too many people."

Hailey saw him squint his eyes slightly against the light outside the windshield before looking at her, "But if you prefer, we can go inside."

"I'm fine here." She sank a little deeper into the seat, "Do you have a headache?"

Jay chuckled again, squinting his eyes in her direction.

"Oh oh, look at her as she analyzes me."

Hailey pulled her hat deeper over her ears, hiding her embarrassment behind her hands.

"I've been suffering from headaches for years, I recognize the symptoms."

"I'm fine." Jay shrugged and chewed slowly, "I've had a hard week."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really, Hailey."

Not for the first time, Hailey noticed how good her name said by him. And maybe this awareness surprised her more than it should have.

"Just saying." She buried her nose in her Mac and cheese and they ate in silence for a few minutes.

Chicago was immersed in white snow and it seemed to have no real intention of stopping and the world outside his car seemed to crystallize - magical and scary at the same time.

"So, we want to talk about you, behavioral analyst? You didn't tell me."

"Yeah well, not like we really talked about our jobs, Detective."

She underlined her last word, causing a low laugh from the man sitting next to her.

"Touchè."

They looked at each other for a second, and with the white light all around them, his green eyes seemed even lighter.

Jay closed his eyes for a second while breathing deeply, "Okay. I think I owe you an explanation, after the other night you know."

Hailey looked at him silently, giving him plenty of time to weigh the words to say.

"I was in the Rangers, two tours in Afghanistan." Jay took a deep breath and Hailey cut him off before he could continue.

"Jay, you don't owe me any explanation."

"I know, but I want to. I wasn't…I don't like talking about it. There are some things that…no thanks." Jay broke into a bitter laugh that made her a little doubtful.

"Okay, that's not a big deal to me."

"Yes, no. It is for me, though." Jay shifted in his seat, "The last relationships I had, didn't - Listen, I just wanted to tell you. Not as if I could hide from you that there is something wrong with me, right?"

"No." Hailey shook her head violently, "There's nothing wrong with you."

"Yeah, whatever." Jay cut her off with a shrug of the shoulders, a veil of indifference had fallen on his face hiding his true expression, "I didn't want to make this lunch weird. I wanted to call you earlier, but I had a case and..."

"Yes, I wanted to too." She nodded completely sincerely.

"And what stopped you?"

Hailey laughed heartily, "I didn't have your number, Jay!"

His embarrassed expression only increased her amusement.

"So, Detective, where do you work?"

"Uh, 21st district, Intelligence - you know, the coolest and smartest ones."

"Yes, I bet it." Hailey laughed heartily and it seemed absurd to spend most of her time laughing with this man. It was natural and spontaneous and it seemed the shadow he had in his eyes until a few moments ago had finally vanished.

"I've never collaborated with anyone from that district. I have been a consultant for the police several times, but never there."

"You're missing the best then."

Jay smiled at her, warm and welcoming. And not for the first time, her heart beat faster.

I really cannot believe everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed the first chapter. It was something I wouldn't have expected, it was incredible. Thank you all :)

And thanks to my one and only one-cpd. The one who bears me and supports me :)