Friday morning, Hailey had been in the bullpen for a couple of hours before the unit came in. She needed to make sense of the discoveries from the day before. And most of all find more and write down her evidence to be able catch the main suspects from their case. Just as Hailey went to get her printed copies for the file she was building, the team started getting in. She put all the evidence she collected in a folder and put it on Jay's desk including photo's of Liam, Lucas and Landen as the main suspects.
"Upton my office now." Voight called Hailey immediately after coming in. "What's up sarge." Hailey asked while coming into his office and closing the door. "Everything okay?" She knew he was referring to yesterday, her asking for personal time was uncommon. "Yeah, I am okay." She answered, not wanting to get in depth about how she was actually doing right now. "Hailey listen, I am getting worried about you, please don't shut us out, or else I will pull you from the case. If you don't want to talk to me, then at least talk to your partner. The way the two of you are able to get through the hard stuff is special you know that right?" He asked, Hailey knew she should get everything out now, but also felt like there was one more thing she needed to be doing first. "I know, I will talk to Jay when I am ready." Hank nodded, "Just remember, all I want is for my people to be safe." With that Hailey stood up to leave Voights office, she knew where he was referring to, "I know sarge, but I can handle it."
Not really paying attention when entering the bullpen she bumped into Jay, who just came out of the break room holding coffee. While most of the coffee stayed in his cup, Hailey caught everything that came out on her shirt. "Oh shit, I am sorry." Jay reacted looking at his partner. Hailey took a step back and looked down at her shirt. Even though it was something stupid, she felt tears well up in her eyes, this was too much. She quickly mumbled something to jay and walked past him towards the locker rooms.
Hailey really enjoyed a good cup of coffee during the day, she didn't like smelling like it all day. Luckily she always had some spare shirts in her locker. Quickly she took the now cold, wet shirt off and reached for a new shirt. She winched while reaching up, her torso was still bothering her today. "Hails, are you... woah what happened to you?" Jay asked while pointing to her chest and abdomen. Hailey hadn't heard him come in, she tried to hide the bruises but it was too late. She pulled her new shirt over her head and sat down on the bench. Jay did the same. "I.." Hailey was trying to find the right words to tell him. "I almost got hit by a speeding motor vehicle yesterday, but when I got pulled away I slammed in another." She mostly whispered. "It looks painful? Did you see a doctor?" Jay asked in concern. "I have an appointment in half an hour, I guess I just hoped it wouldn't be feeling this bad in the morning, but it is worse, barely slept last night." Hailey confessed. She didn't see the point in telling anything but the truth now. "Do you want me to drive you?" Hailey shook her head. "I can take care of this on my own.." she saw his expression change, but continued "... there is something else I need you to do for me. I have put a file on your desk this morning, including all information I was able to collect about our case. I need you to keep digging, get enough evidence to close it.." Jay looked confused but nodded. "There is something else, there are things in the file, I didn't tell you about, because I couldn't. I just don't really know how, I wish I did, I wish I had the strength to let you in, but I can't, not vocally. That is why I wrote it down. It is time you know. All I am asking you is to read the file, find more evidence than I already did. But don't go asking around or chasing the bad guys, because then you will put me in danger." She told him. Then she got up and headed towards the door, leaving a confused Jay behind. Just before she reached for the door Jay spoke. "Be safe.." "I will, and I will let you know when you can come into action." She responded.
Hailey left the doctors office around noon. She had expected to be done sooner, but the doctor had asked her a waterfall of questions before he started the physical exam and concluded with a scan. Luckily there was no internal bleeding but there was some significant bruising. Doctors orders were to take it easy for a couple of days and to avoid any blows to her torso as well. Just as she was about to get in her car, she got a text from Liam asking her to swing by his office. How badly Hailey just wanted to go back to work, she knew that this might be her chance of finding the evidence she needed as well to get out.
Hailey's confession earlier that day worried Jay even more. Still he decided to keep his word and opened the file she had put on his desk, wondering why he couldn't let anyone in on it just jet. While reading he slowly started putting the pieces together. Hailey was dating, whom she believed was the main suspect of their case. She had been able to draw a picture of the remaining part of the organization. She had identified Jane Doe as Norah Willis, a former nurse who disappeared about a year ago, and she also had found more information on Leah Jones and how both of them collected to her suspects, Liam Howard, the head of the organization and the guy Hailey was dating, Lucas Miller and Landen Taylor Liam's accomplices. Not only that, Hailey had gathered and written down a great amount of evidence, more than enough for warrants Jay thought, but he did as promised and worked hard to find more. Reading Haileys file made him feel a lot, he hated knowing his partner was in the middle of all of it. He really wanted to go out and get after the guys, just like Hailey predicted earlier.
When Hailey arrived at Liam's office, she didn't know what to expect. "Hey babe" he greeted her by pulling her close and giving her a kiss. "Hey, missed you last night." She answered and kissed him back. "I am sorry, things took a little longer than expected. Have you thought about my proposition to work for me?" Hailey took a step back, reconsidering what she should say, but before she could answer Liam continued "Why don't you work with me today, as a try-out and decide after what you will do." "I would like that" she answered. Liam smiled "Good, come with me" they left the office and went in the warehouse where Hailey went the day before as well.
Liam explained to Hailey what he wanted her to do. And made her get started. Most of it was indeed exactly as he said the day before, administration of what went in and what left the warehouse and with whom. Not much to find here Hailey thought after an hour of work. That is when things started to change, people started coming into the warehouse, leaving Hailey wondering who they were and what they were doing here. "They are here for the vehicles, I need you to talk to these people and let me know which car the guy with the leather bag wants." Liam told Hailey. "Thanks, do I talk to them about the car specifics? Because then we might have a problem, I don't know anything about that." Hailey admitted half jokingly. "No, they know al the specifics, just small talk." Liam said as he returned to his office.
Hailey organized her desk and headed down to the people in the warehouse, she talked to a few before she met with the man with the leather bag, he didn't seem like any other people there. They talked for a bit, mostly small talk until he asked her which car she would pick, a red pick-up truck or a black SUV. "The black SUV" Hailey answered, "Okay the black SUV it is then." Hailey nodded, "Shall I let my boss know you made your decision?" Hailey asked. The man agreed and Hailey left to get Liam
"Hey, the man with the leather bag would like to get the black SUV." Hailey entered Liam's office. He looked up and smiled "I hoped he would, want some coffee as well?" he asked in response, "Yes thanks, how do we continue?" Hailey asked, while Liam gave her a cup of coffee. "Landen will finish the deal on the car, while Lucas makes sure the car is ready to leave. I just need to bring them this." Liam continued while he pointed at some files and a small box. "What is in the box?" Hailey asked while peeking in. "Just some gadgets to add to the car." Liam told her before he gave her a kiss and left his office. Hailey had seen enough of the contents of the box to know that this was the exact evidence they needed to close the case. She finished her coffee and texted Jay. "3 Deep dish" with her current location. Then she followed Liam to the warehouse, that is when she started to feel off. She ignored the feeling and continued to follow Liam into the warehouse.
Jay was relieved when he finally heard something from his partner. She had added a little note in the file with a safe word "deep dish" Her location was less than 10 minute form the district. "Sarge, Hailey just texted the safe word and her location." Jay told his Sargent when he rushed into his office. Voight immediately got up and followed Jay out of the district. On his way out he instructed Burgess and Ruzek to come as well. The four of them headed towards the warehouse, on the way there Kim pulled up the blueprints of their location and came to the conclusion that is was huge. They decided to go in quiet and try to isolate the suspects before making themselves known.
Most buyers had left the building by now, except the buyer of the black SUV, they were still finishing up on his deal. "Hey babe, what are you doing here?" Liam greeted Hailey. "I want to be with you, Hailey said as she pulled herself up on the table and watched the men work." She noticed it got harder to focus, she started wondering if it was the air or if he had put something in her coffee. Just as they were about to finish the deal by handing the buyer the keys to his new card they heard some noise coming from behind them.
"Chicago PD, put your hands where I can see them" Jay called out. Liam reacted quickly, pulling Hailey in front of him as a shield while putting a knife near her throat. Hailey felt the entire world was moving slower than usual, she hadn't noticed what happened until it was too late. The man with the leather bag immediately dropped his bag and put his hands up fearing for his life, while Landen tried to hide and Lucas started to run. both were caught quickly, Adam chased Lucas and caught him before he reached the door, while Kim came up behind Landon. "Get down on the floor and hands where I can see them." Kim told him before she slapped the cuffs on him.
Jay and Voight kept their eyes on Liam and Hailey. Hailey felt panic come over her body causing her to come into action as well. She tried to get her hands between the knife and her body, the two got into a fight, which Hailey surprisingly won. She got him to the ground, and managed to pull his hands behind his back. "Jay cuffs" she asked, to which her partner came into action and handed them to her. "Babe? What is this?" "I am not your babe, I am Hailey Upton, a detective with the Chicago Police department and you are under arrest" "What, You played me? You little..." Liam started to protest and try to get away from Hailey, but was stopped by Voight who got him to shut up, while taking away.
"Hailey, you are bleed..." before he could finish Hailey stumbled "Hospital, drugs". Hailey said while she still sat on the floor, stunned, feeling even worse right now, not sure if she could stand up. When she looked at her hand she saw that they were covered in blood. Before she could was able to find out where it came from Jay had already taken off his blouse to cover her wrist, leaving him in his t-shirt. "Hails you are shaking, come let's get you to med."
At the hospital they run some test on Hailey, turned out Liam had indeed put something in her drink, nothing life-threatening, after an hour she started to feel better and was told to sleep it off. Her wrist needed a few stitches and after that she was released from the hospital. Not long after found himself at Hailey's place. "I owe you an apology" she said while handing him a drink. "Hailey, You don't.." Jay started. "Just let me finish, I feel like I need to. I met Liam a couple of months ago in a bar, we clicked, it was fun but there were red flags. At first I thought I imagined it, but they became to obvious to ignore, there I wanted to end things with him. That is where Voight came in, Liam and I had run into him just before. Voight had Liam on the radar for dealing bad dope, but there just wasn't enough evidence, he withheld me from ending it with Liam but convinced me to go undercover. He got al the paperwork in order and I stayed. Until today Liam didn't even know I am a cop. He didn't even know my real last name, that is how I could do it, get the evidence we needed to build a case against him. Everything went pretty smoothly, that was until Intelligence caught the drug related murder cases. Liam his behavior started to change, he was angered quickly, got more nervous and we got in some heated conversations. He never got physical, except Wednesday morning. He was furious, took it out on me and that got me my split lip." Hailey paused for a bit. "I do have boundaries and I wanted to quit after that, I made clear to myself I would never allow myself to stay in an abusive relationship, no second chances. Still we were so close to finish this case, that I just couldn't quit, not yet anyway. Then Thursday there was a breakthrough and I knew this could be it, so I decided to give it a few more days. Turned out I only needed one more day. Most of this you already knew I assume you read the file, as I asked. And I am sorry I didn't let you in on this, you are my partner." Hailey concluded her story. "It is okay. I felt hurt at first, but I think I understand now." He told his partner. Hailey smiled. "I am just glad to be home, in my own home and that I can sleep in my own bad. Will you help me clear my under cover apartment tomorrow?" Hailey asked, Jay nodded in response after which he pulled Hailey close. She laid her head on his chest, finally feeling able to breathe again, she was safe.
This is the final chapter of my story.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
I would love it if you would take the time to leave a review and tell me what you thought of it!
Until next time! :)