[A/N: An additional final scene for episode 7x18. I'm sorry for the long delay in updating this, but it wasn't easy for me to wrap my head around filming and the season ending so abruptly. Hope my other stories made up for it, but I know I wanted to get this out before the show returned for Season 8. Finally we're almost there! Hope this was worth the wait and as always thanks so much for the support!]


After Hailey's conversation with Voight, if you could call a one-sided berating that, she went down to collect her flight details from Platt. Voight was sending her to the FBI in New York to try to straighten her out after her latest screwup. She was completely dejected and still hadn't fully processed yet that she was being forced away from her home, her team... Jay... for a few weeks. The older woman took one look at her and tried to give her some advice, but Hailey just couldn't stomach it at the moment. She politely thanked her and told her she'd see her when she was back. Trudy watched her stumble down 21's stairs out into the blistering cold and felt pity for the young detective. It was a fine line working in Intelligence and over the years she'd witnessed even the most righteous police teeter into the darkness of it at some point. This was just Hailey's turn.

Once Hailey was away from Platt's prying eyes, she quickly made her way to her car. All she wanted to do was go home and get disgustingly drunk while throwing her nicest business-casual clothes into a duffel, then pass out to try to forget everything that had transpired over the day, week, and past few months. She knows she's gone down a darkened road, but everything with Cam and Darius then Jay getting shot again, and now Vanessa losing the only person she considered family over the years... it was all too much. There needed to be justice in this world and there was entirely too little of it. And as much as she thinks about the above, she knows there's one person she HAS to see in this moment. One person who could ever pull her back from the brink if she actually let him. So before she could talk herself out of it she found she was already en route to Jay's without even consciously realizing it.

She pulled up to his complex a few minutes later and took a little more time with her thoughts. She could easily just call him and tell him that she's being sent away for a few weeks, but she finds she needs to do this face to face. The need to see him before she leaves is overwhelming. And if anyone deserves a full explanation as to why Voight was sending her on this little assignment, it was him. So with a deep breath she makes her way up to his apartment and holds it as she hears him coming to the door. When he opens it with that little smirk on his face upon seeing her she almost breaks down. He's going to be so disappointed...

"Hey! Was waiting for your call, figured you might need a drink after today. How's Vanessa doing? It sucks they're not giving Luis the deal."

He says to her as he lets her in and they start walking to his living room.

"Yeah, um, about that... Luis got the deal." She says hesitantly.

"What? How'd that happen?" the surprise on his face showing.

"Patrol caught Gael with the drugs in his car..."

"Woah! Didn't think a man like him would be that stupid."

"He wasn't..."

Hailey lets the sentence hang. She watches Jay stare at her waiting for an explanation. He's the last person in the world she wants to disappoint. She doesn't even care that her sergeant is upset with her, buther partner, she's not ready to face those eyes that normally look at her so tenderly. She doesn't think she'll be able to forgive herself if that changes.

"Jay, I have something to tell you..."

She clasps her hands tightly in front of her waist as she watches his furrowed brow and questioning eyes. It takes her back to that night in the hospital when she almost told him she loved him. Only this time she knows he knows it's something more somber.

"Okay?..." he responds softly.

"Voight's sending me away for a few weeks. To the FBI. In New York."

"What!?" he exclaims, his face blanching as he nervously rubs the back of his neck.

"He wants me to focus on getting my head back on straight and remembering that it's not always right to cross lines, even if it brings justice to those who deserve it."

Jay's still looking at her with tenderness, but there's also a sense of sorrow in his eyes. She knows a part of him is going to blame himself for not stopping her from going this far, but honestly the route she was on there was nothing he could have done.

"Hailey, what'd you do?" He quietly whispers.

"I got Luis to tell me about the traps he installs in Gael's car and then I planted his dope in it."

She says it straight, right to the point. And her heart almost breaks when she sees his face turn sad.

"Hailey, you planted evidence, that's official misconduct! What did you say to me last year, 'you can go to prison!' What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that Luis deserved the deal and Gael deserves to rot..."

"Yeah, I get that, but Hailey, what happened? Your moral code was the strongest out of any of us. I don't want you to lose yourself. I don't want to lose you..." he says it with such quiet anguish she thinks she may break.

"Jay, you don't get it. You weren't there. I was in the Observation Room when Vanessa tried to talk to Luis. He was the only family she knew for years and he no longer wanted anything to do with her. He told her he couldn't be her person anymore... and I don't know, after everything that happened this year, something inside me broke even more and the rage took over. I did it for Vanessa. I would have done it for any of us..."

She doesn't realize the tears that started to fall until she feels Jay wrap his arms around her. He pulls her in tight and she buries her head into his chest, seeking the comfort she so desperately needed from the only person she needed it from.

"I get it, but you're my person, and I wish you would come to me instead of bottling this all up. We could have figured out a way together. Just like Darius... promise me you won't do these things without talking to me first. There's always a different choice. We'll get through it together. Promise me!"

He tucks her head firmly under his chin as she nods into him. And they just stand there tightly holding each other in the middle of his living room. Minutes or hours could have ticked by and they wouldn't have known the difference. Finally after a while Hailey feels him start to pull back and look down at her.

"So how long are you gonna be gone for?"

He swallows thickly while asking and she knows he's not okay with her being away. It's in that moment and that moment only she regrets her decision of taking Gael down. It's going to cost her time with her partner, this amazing guy that she loves more than anything. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, maybe this trip away will be just what she needs to finally confess.

"I don't know. Voight just said a few weeks..."

They slowly and regrettably pull away from each other completely. It just now hitting them both this is their last night together for a bit.

"Alright, well, this calls for goodbye whiskey. I'll go grab my good stash." He feebly jokes attempting to lighten the mood.

"I actually should go. Flight leaves in the morning and I still have to pack. And tell Vanessa."

She starts walking to his door and he follows closely behind. She doesn't want to leave, but she knows she has to. He pulls her in for one last hug and they each hold on a little longer than they'd like to admit.

"I'm really going to miss you..." he tells her with such sincerity.

"I'm going to miss you too!" She says while trying to stop her lip from trembling.

"Don't come back a Yankees fan, alright? Then I'll really have to find myself a new partner." He smiles at her and she can't help but laugh.

"Only if you don't take any bullets while I'm away!"

"Nah, I only save that for when you're around to save me."

"JAY!"

She hits his arm as they both crack up. It's refreshing to know that no matter what they'll be alright. They decide to end it on the light note, but Hailey swears she hears his voice again faintly as she's walking down the stoop.

"Please come back to me, Hailey..."

It's so soft she thinks she must be imagining it. Maybe it's the wind... as she enters her car and waves to him as he stares at her longingly and making sure she's safely inside it, the countdown to her return to him has already mentally started to play in her head...