Trudy POV
Jay and Kim were upstairs alone.
Trudy watched the Intelligence gate like a hawk, and maybe, maybe, was a bit too snappy with the new recruit of the week as a result.
But she had gotten the message off Voight last night.
"Halstead and Burgess on stakeout."
He wasn't a man of many words when it came to work but he was to the point, one of the things she appreciated when working with him. She appreciated the unspoken agreement that he would keep her in the loop. Even if Intelligence was his unit, they lived in her house. And she knew that he knew that she cared.
When she had gotten to work fifteen minutes ago, dealing with the sub-par night Desk Sergeant that had been on duty and adding more paperwork to her pile, she had noted that all of Intelligence's cars were in the lot out back. Which meant Halstead and Burgess were back.
And none of the other Intelligence members were in yet. It was still early.
Far too early to be dealing with the recruit and with all the paperwork from the night before that was giving her a headache in record time.
Which was why she was taking a breather and walking up to Intelligence to deliver case notes, if anyone asked.
Really, she was hoping to separate the pair, maybe catch Halstead in the corridor or corner Burgess in the locker room and find out what the hell was going on.
Work romantic flings meant complications in their line of work.
And Trudy, and Voight, needed to know about complications to make the right decision for the team.
She also didn't want to see either party get hurt.
Trudy approached the bullpen with slight apprehension but found no one there.
Trying to keep up her façade of doing actual work, she made her way to Voight's office to drop off the files. Halfway across the room she heard the gate open behind her and she looked back to see Kevin Atwater coming for work.
"Hey Serge. Good morning."
Usually, but like hell would she admit it, she was always happy to see Atwater. She didn't like to play favourites wither her patrol units, but Atwater and Burgess had been top of her list. This morning though, he was getting in her way of an investigation of her own.
Giving up, she turned and greeted him like every other morning. He left his jacket at his desk, called a greeting back to Halstead who had heard a voice and appeared in the doorway of the break room before heading back in. Burgess' voice came through in a greeting too.
Suspects located.
Trudy felt like rubbing her temples, her cover was blown. Kevin made his way by her before stopping and turning back to ask about a case that he was working on.
Trudy could have kissed the man. She could now look over his shoulder while he talked and get a perfect view into the break room, and right onto Halstead and Burgess.
She had to hold a straight face as Jay made coffee for the pair, sat down at the table, handed Kim her mug and she drank it.
Burgess was notoriously particular with her coffee. On the very rare occasion, after particularly bad cases when Trudy would make coffee for them, Kim would move the mug around but not drink it.
And yet there she was, drinking the coffee. Things were getting serious between them.
Trudy could see spot the signs of an all-night stakeout anywhere and they were obvious in the dark circles under Jay's eyes and the slack way Kim lay her head in her hand while they talked in low tones.
What caught Trudy's eye the most though was the contented smile on Kim's face. Something that Trudy hadn't seen since her early days with Ruzek.
Like she was happy again.
Like she had let down those walls of hers and let someone in again.
Trudy decided as she answered Kevin's questions that she didn't need to go full on interrogation with Kim to find out what was happening. It was evident in the scene before her.
In the ease of their interaction, in the way that Jay never took his eyes off her, in the way Kim laughed.
Her verdict on the case? Burgess and Halstead were a good couple. This wasn't just a fling. This was serious.
Jay's POV (The night before)
There were only three photos on the evidence board behind Jay's desk, with little or no evidence and only theorised connections.
It wasn't looking good.
The team had spent the past fortnight trying to establish motives and connections between a seemingly clean-cut millionaire and the murder of a young gangbanger.
So far, nothing.
Nothing that could form a case that would stand in front of a judge, but enough to leave a bad taste in everyone's mouths.
They had tried everything, squeezing the suspect's employees, bombarding their CI's for information, Voight had even paid the millionaire a visit to try and rattle him and they came up with nothing. It had given everyone a headache.
Voight sighed in defeat, a rare occurrence, that signalled to Jay that this case was on it's way to being one of their equally rare unsolved cases.
"Alright, so we got absolutely nothing, that's what you're telling me?" The Sergeant asked, devoid of patience.
The team looked at each other tensely with a few exasperated sighs thrown in, Jay's own included.
"Afraid so, Serge." Kevin spoke for the group.
But the case felt like a thorn in Jay's side. The kid who had been murdered had turned his life around after getting out of juvie. Jay wanted justice, he didn't want to give up so soon, for the case to be closed so easily.
"Why don't we go old school, sit on him until he slips up. It'll happen eventually." Jay suggested.
"But it would have to be in-house." Hailey argued. Jay looked at his partner, she was right, the connections the suspect had were far reaching and they couldn't let any other unit in on the operation.
"Yeah." Jay nodded. "So, we sit on him." He reiterated, not seeing the problem.
Ruzek shuffled his feet and glanced quickly at the clock, making Jay do the same. It was then that it clicked, Hailey had mentioned going to meet Ruzek's family that night, and it was already 8.45pm.
That meant that they would, really, rather her not having to go on some all-night stakeout with Jay.
Jay briefly consulted his computer screen to check the day.
It was a Friday.
He had lost track of time, it wasn't like he had much of a life outside of the unit anymore. And with the way that Kevin and Antonio were avoiding his gaze, he assumed they both had plans for a nice Friday night too.
"I can do this solo boss. I mean it is a long shot and there's no point in everyone doing extra hours for nothing." Jay tried to cover for his partner.
Voight shook his head, "No, you need backup if things start kicking off."
The silence from his partner, his team, were deafening for the half a second it lasted until Burgess spoke, "I'll go."
Voight nodded, "Good. Okay. Jay, Kim, you two get set up. The rest of you clear out and go home. There's nothing else we can do right now." He paused, looking directly at Jay. "This probably won't turn anything up."
He was warning him to not get his hopes up but Jay knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't at least try.
"I know." He told Voight.
His Sergeant just nodded and left Kim and Jay to get set up.
And that was how Jay found himself along in his car parked in an upcoming area, alone, with Kim Burgess. For the years they had been on the same team but they rarely got to work together as their own team, never really got to bounce off each other in undercover operations or slog through case files together.
"Thanks for this Kim."
"Are you kidding? What better way is there to spend a Friday night?" She smirked at him before breaking into one of her smiles that could always light up whatever room she was in.
"Molly's probably packed right now." What he'd give for a cold beer.
Kim shrugged, "I do love that place and the people but sometimes it gets a bit…claustrophobic. That's why I liked that place we went to, sometimes it's nice to get away from it all."
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "Yeah it is." He was going to suggest they go again together before Kim spoke up.
"And there he is." She said, leaning close to Jay to get a photo of the suspect entering his house on the long lens.
The smell of her perfume blindsided him for a second before he recorded the time in the log, "Suspect is entering the building, 9.58pm."
It was only with the few seconds after the fact, in silence, as Kim checked the photos, that Jay was glad he hadn't brought the bar up again. He didn't want her to think he was making a move on her.
He wasn't. It wouldn't be a date. He just genuinely had enjoyed hanging out with her.
He didn't want to disrupt what he liked to think of as their newfound friendship.
But that didn't stop the sudden images that filtered through his mind of what it would be like to date Kim. Her bright smiles directed at him. The ease they had with each other, but the total trust too. Nights out together. Eyes locking crossing the Bullpen. Walking home together to a place they could call home.
"And now we wait?" Kim asked, sitting back in her seat, and interrupting his snowballing train of thought. He refocused on the case, pushing all shifting perceptions about Kim from his head.
Or as much as he could when he was sitting beside him.
"And now we wait." He said.
"1.05am. Lights on in the downstairs window." Jay recorded, stifling a yawn. He had never particularly liked stakeouts.
"Ah, sounds like you need the backup coffee." Kim said, leaning back to rummage in the backseat.
"Coffee?" He asked, perking up.
"In her roundabout way, it was one of the things that Trudy gave me advice on. Always have back up coffee." She said, pulling out a flask, "This should still be warm." She went about pouring two mugs.
Jay sipped on his coffee, before moaning in pleasure. "That's it. You're officially my favourite person. Ever."
"And you say I'm the coffee addict." She grinned, sipping on her own drink. "So, you don't want the chocolate I brought too then?" She asked.
"Burgess you're killing me here. There's chocolate too?"
"I like to enjoy my stakeouts." She shrugged before pulling chocolate from her bag and handing him a slab.
"I'm bringing you on all my stakeouts from now on." He told her.
He was rewarded by one of her smiles.
"3.36am. Still no movement." Jay said as Kim took pictures of the house just in case.
"The house next door definitely could be a stash house." Kim said.
After the coffee and chocolate rush had dwindled an hour ago, they had started the game to stay awake and alert. Come up with plausible and implausible stories for the area, anything to keep them thinking and not nodding off.
"Yes. The thousand-dollar floral arrangement around the door is what gives it away." He deadpanned.
"Okay, but I bet they don't have kids. Who has time to flower arrange with kids running around?"
"People who hire help. Look at the area we're in." He pointed out.
"Cab rolling up." She said quietly as they sank into their seats, seeing two passengers get out and head into the house three houses down.
"They could be having an affair."
"Yeah she rushed him into the house pretty quick." She agreed.
"If her husband is home, we're going to be dealing with a domestic not our actual case." He mused.
"The suspect might be paying off his neighbours to have affairs and to create diversions for him." Kim said, nearly poking Jay's arm in excitement talking about their suspects.
He rolled his head to the side on the headrest and looked at her with his eyebrows raised, "You need more coffee or something?" He grinned.
She sighed, "Yeah I know. I never said I made much sense when I'm tired."
"Are you a morning person or a night owl?" He asked, mentally adding it to the random things he had learnt about Kim Burgess that night. Along with the fact that hated donuts, loved running, hated that she didn't work directly with Platt anymore and that she loved watching 80s movies.
"Neither? Both? I like sleep." She offered as they both yawned. "I like being up early, getting up before the city wakes up. It's quiet, I like it."
He nodded, "Yeah that's a good time of the day. I like nights, once I'm not alone. I'm not up for staying up late alone. Sleep sounds good right now though." He laughed.
"Gotcha." Kim said with tired glee as she caught the interaction on camera.
"5.27am. Suspect is having confrontation with young woman. About 5ft 6, slim build, blue jacket. He puts her back in the car she arrived in. Driver wearing sunglasses."
They watched as the suspect went back inside.
Jay let out a breath he had been subconsciously holding the entire night, "At least we got something."
"Yeah. We can definitely work with this. We'll run facial recognition when we get back to the precinct." She said. "Productive stakeout." She nodded, pleased with their night.
"Good night too." He smiled at her before he pulled out to drive back to the district building.
After they got back to the district, had more coffee to get through their debrief, watched as the rest of the team got settled and ready for the day, Jay relaxed into his seat at his desk.
He was only resting his eyes for a few seconds.
"Hey there partner, don't go slacking off on me now." He smiled automatically as Kim's voice appeared at his ear.
"Never." He told her as she placed a picture on the desk in front of him.
"We got a hit on the woman." She told him, giving him a break from the headache inducing job of tracking down car plates on no sleep.
"Yes! I could kiss you right now." He said, thinking the sooner they got this information to the team the sooner they could sign off and go home and get some rest.
"Hey, save the extracurricular activities for out of office hours." Kevin called with a laugh as he set up the evidence board.
Jay scoffed, he hadn't meant it literally. But it was too late, the sudden daydream popped into his head. What it would be like to stand up, place a hand gently at the back of Kim's neck and just…kiss her.
"Oh shut up Kevin." Kim laughed back at her friend, stirring Jay back to reality. Kim was still standing beside him. "This is a start right?"
"Yeah, this is awesome Kim." He reassured her.
"Great. We can pass this over and then I'm going home." She smiled through her yawn and disappeared back to her own desk.
Jay tried to pretend he didn't miss her presence beside him immediately or when he got into his car to go home and the passenger seat was empty.
Author's Note: I have no idea what a working week looks like for American police so let's pretend this all makes sense okay?
Also Trudy is now my favourite character to write, she's as intrigued as I am now about the new couple.
Thanks for reading, have a great day :)