Jay opened the door, his face looked depressed, but when he saw Hailey he lit up.
"Hey."
"Hey," she smiled. "Look, i had this whole speech planned..." She looked down at the floor. "Can I come in?"
Jay stepped back making a little room for her, but her body still brushed his as she stepped into the room. Her breath quickened. Keep cool, she told herself.
"Want a drink?" Jay asked.
"Sure."
"So, fill me in. What's going on at 21?" He looked at her expectantly.
She was confused. Why was he acting like nothing happened? Maybe that's how he wanted to play this?
"Um. Good. We brought down a drug smuggler this week. What have you been up to?"
"Oh, you know. Staring at the wall. Watching ESPN. Waiting for you to text me back."
She sighed. There it was. "Look, I'm sorry, I just thought maybe after what i told you, you might want some space..."
Jay stepped closer to Hailey, their bodies lightly touching, he leaned down and she felt his lips brush her ear. "After what you told me, having space between us is the farthest from what I want," he whispered.
She gently put her hands on his chest and pushed him away, taking a step back. She took a deep breath.
"Look, man. We've got to talk."
Jay sighed, flopping down on the couch. Here it comes again, he thought. The 'we have to put the team first' bullshit.
Hailey sat next to him.
"Jay, listen. You know relationships within the district are complicated... And even more so within intelligence. There's always the potential of favoritism effecting your judgement or a relationship not working out that creates an awkward atmosphere afterward. It's just more drama on top of a romantic relationship."
Jay looked at the floor. Of course Hailey would put the job first. She was a great cop, he hadn't expected any less from her. Still, a little part of him had hoped.
Hailey continued. "So, if we're going to do this, we have to draw a serious line between our personal life and our work life."
Jay's head snapped up. Did he here that correctly?
"You mean you want to..." He looked at her, hopefully.
She nodded. "I cant spend the rest of my life wondering if I missed out on something incredible." She said softly, not meeting his gaze.
He gently brought his hand to her cheek, and turned her face to his. "I want this, Hailey. I want you." He told her, his voice hoarse with emotion.
"I want you too, Jay." She whispered, and their lips met. Jay leaned back into the couch, pulling her on top of him, their kiss deepening. His hands ran up her sides, slipping under her shirt, but she stopped him. Pulling away, she placed her forehead against his intimately. "I want to do this right." She told him. Jay wrapped his arms around Hailey and just held her for a long time, neither of them speaking.
Finally, Jay broke the silence.
"Hailey?"
"Mhmm?"
"I'm all in."
She picked her head up off his chest and gave him the biggest smile, then dropped a quick kiss on his lips. "I know."
She got up off the couch, gathering her things. "I've got to go, I'll stop by tomorrow." She promised.
"I can't wait." He said sincerely.
Hailey drove home feeling giddy with excitement. Her heart was finally in the right place. But now how was she going to handle this in the workplace?
The next afternoon Jay was sitting around his apartment hoping Hailey would show up when his phone buzzed. Grabbing it, he saw it was a text from her.
'Sry, can't make it today. Triple homicide, West End. Voight wants us working overtime."
Jay groaned. Of course. And he was sitting at home being useless.
Meanwhile, Hailey had just arrived at the crime scene.
"Victim's are the family of Assistant District Attorney Stanfield." Voight told her grimly.
Hailey sighed. The wife, mother and son of the ADA had been killed in cold blood. There was going to be a lot of long nights to catch this guy.
Days passed, Hailey managed to text Jay, trying to keep him updated. On Thursday, she walked up the stairs to her desk at noon after another dead end in finding the Stanfield family's killer.
And sitting at his desk, engrossed in a stack of paperwork, was Jay Halstead.
Hailey smiled. "Hey, you're not supposed to be back till Monday."
Jay looked up. "Hail, i gotta do something. I'm going crazy in my apartment... All by myself..."
She looked around, noting no one else was in the room, and walked over to him.
She sat down on the desk, leaning in close to him she whispered, "I missed you."
His face broke out into a grin, and he slid his hand up her thigh.
"Halstead?"
Hailey jumped off the desk, spinning around to see Adam looking confused. If he had noticed Jay's hands on her he hid it well.
"I thought you weren't back till Monday, man?" Ruzek said as the rest of the team filed up the stairs.
"Well, i figured I could at least use my eyes to help you catch this bastard." Jay said, holding up his stack of papers. "And I got something."
Holding up a paper, he turned to the team. "First I was looking at all the recorded death threats against Stanfield, specifically calls to his office. Now, this number called him 30 times last month, but never left a message. Always at 8:09pm. Every day."
Halstead walked back to his desk, picking up another paper. "Now, I've been looking into details of Stanfield's recent cases, and 2 months ago a mob boss he put away was sentenced to death by injection and his time of death was..." Jay looked at the group expectantly.
"8:09pm?" Voight asked.
"You got it." Jay smiled. "Now, I've been looking into that mob boss, Alejandro Guerra, and he's still got a brother on the outside. Here's his address," Jay said, handing a paper to Voight.
Voight clasped him on the back. "Good to have you back, Halstead."
Jay's day of digging through paperwork paid off. The brother had hired a hit man to kill the ADA's family as revenge for Alejandro.
"He took my family from me, so I took his from him," Salvador Guerra spat at Voight during interogation.
"Well, I have a feeling you'll see your brother again soon," Voight said with a smirk.
Hailey went home, exhausted after the long week. She dropped down onto the couch and ordered Chinese food. When she heard
a knock, she grabbed her wallet and opened the door, and there was Jay holding her takeout.
"Geez, Halstead. Been off of work so long you had to get a side job?" She questioned, motioning to the bag he held.
"Nah, i noticed the extra egg rolls when I followed the guy in and figured it was yours," he stepped closer to her in the doorway, leaning in. "I'm a very good detective, actually." He said with a smile.
He followed her into the apartment, sitting at the island.
"Well, if I'd known you were coming I could've ordered you something," she laughed.
"Aren't the extra egg rolls for me?" He said mischievously.
She passed him some egg rolls.
"That was some good detective work you did today," she told him.
He nodded. "I just had to get out of that house... All I kept thinking about was how I'd rather be where you are."
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Aw, how sweet. What do you want?"
"What! I was being sincere!" He laughed, acting offended.
"Oh c'mon, Halstead. That sounds like a cheesy line. 'I'd rather be where you are.' You should've waited to use that till now," she said, jumping of her stool and walking to the bathroom, "when I say I'm going to take a shower." She turned at the door, winking at him before entering the bathroom and closing the door.
Did she just invite him to take a shower with her? Jay jumped up, kicking off his shoes. He pulled his shirt over his head as he walked down the hallway, standing outside the door he heard the shower running. Putting his hand on the knob he turned it -
The door was locked.
"Hey! That's not fair!" Jay said loudly.
Hailey's laugh came from the other side of the door. "You should've waited to use your line..."
Jay put his shirt back on and sat on the couch, waiting patiently. Finally, Hailey emerged, her hair wrapped in a towel, wearing a large hoodie and sweatpants.
Jay looked at her outfit. "Sexy." He joked.
She sat down across from him.
"Look, Jay. I like you a lot. I want this to work... And I don't think we should rush into anything physical."
He nodded. Putting on a frown he said, "so no sleepovers?"
Hailey smiled gently. "We can have a sleepover... Clothing mandatory."
Jay sighed. "Fine, but I'm under protest," he said, acting upset, but Hailey saw the twinkle in his eye.
As Jay followed her back to her bedroom he said, "so how long we talking? 2 weeks? 2 months?"
"The more you ask the longer it's going to be." She said, crawling into bed next to him, she settled her head against the fabric that covered his chest.
"Night, Jay."
"Goodnight, beautiful."