This is the last chapter of the story. I hope you have enjoyed my different take on season 5 with my two favorite detectives. Thank you once again for your amazing reviews. I am so thankful to all of you.

Chapter 15

In the office, Jay and Hailey didn't display their changed relationship openly, but they didn't try to hide it either.

Just like the days before, the atmosphere wasn't one to encourage romantic feelings anyway.

Hailey tried to talk to Adam, as she had discussed with Jay, but without success. When she approached Adam in the locker room, he tried to avoid her, wanted to leave right away. He immediately knew that she wanted to ask questions he wasn't ready to answer.

"Hey Ruzek," she blocked his way out the door. "What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Adam, come on. Something's going on here, and you are in on it."

"Nothing I can talk about," he answered reluctantly.

"Adam!"

"Seriously, Hailey," Adam insisted. "There's nothing I can tell you."

"You can't or don't want to?"

Adam just shook his head and moved past her, leaving the locker room without a further word.

Hailey waited a while before going back into the office, and with the others present she only shook her head briefly at Jay. Nothing.

And suddenly it all seemed to implode. The unit was investigating an illegal gun deal with Jay and Kevin working undercover with the two involved gangs. When they were in the office summarizing all that had happened, suddenly Trudy Platt came upstairs followed by two very serious and very official looking cops.

One of them, an elderly man in a suit, Starkey, addressed Al directly: "Bad news, Al. Grand Jury voted to indict."

The woman, Hale, added, "You're under arrest for the murder of Kevin Bingham. Stand up."

"We're gonna need your weapon and badge."

Everyone stopped what they were doing or saying, stared in shock at what was happening, only Voight managed to say something at all, "What? Are you kidding me? Handcuffs? He's got 30 years on the job."

"Weapon. And badge. Now."

Hale stepped behind Al, and once he had handed over badge and gun, cuffed him, and they walked him outside.

"I got this," Al muttered, trying hard to keep his composure.

The remaining members of Intelligence looked at each other, at their boss, who was just as horrified and didn't say anything.

Hailey and Jay sat down on Jay's desk close to each other, briefly exchanging a glance, then looked at Voight expectantly. He would have to say, to do something. But Voight just took his jacket and left.

"Would anyone please tell me what is going on here?" Jay said loudly. He looked from one team member to the other, his gaze finally resting on Adam. Jay raised his eyebrows.

Adam shook his head defensively.

"Adam, spill it," Hailey interfered, impatient, and the others agreed.

Kim looked at Adam slightly annoyed, "Adam, what's going on? Do you know anything?"

"Let's go downstairs," Adam said with a shrug – downstairs, where the cage was located, and where there were no cameras or microphones.

A few minutes later the unit plus Trudy Platt assembled downstairs; everyone looked at Adam expectantly.

"Adam, everyone has heard bits and pieces," Trudy started. "We heard that Al was arrested for the murder of Kevin Bingham."

"Who was the killer of Voight's son, Justin," Jay explained in Hailey's direction. "Bingham was never found…"

Hailey nodded. "Do we know…?"

"No, we don't," Jay interrupted, signaling her to be careful. "Adam, what do you know?"

"It's Woods," Adam said, clearly disgusted. "He's got it in for Voight, and Al's the victim."

"And how are you involved?" Antonio asked suspiciously.

"Because Woods had something on me, tried to blackmail me. I'll explain later, if you insist. I was supposed to give him evidence on all the bad stuff he thinks we are doing. To get to Voight. When Voight found out that he was after him and Al, I tried to get information from Woods, tried to anticipate his steps, so that we could do something to stop his crusade…" He shook his head. "Woods wants to punish Voight and uses Al."

"And what can we do?" Kim asked.

Antonio immediately took the lead. "One: We do our jobs. Two: I will check with Voight. Three: we will ask around, if we can find anything that can help Al."

"And Four: no more secrets among us," Jay added. "We need to stick together. All of us. We must be sure we can trust each other."

"Agreed," Hailey and Kim immediately answered, Kevin and Antonio nodded. Adam looked down, feeling guilty, and shrugged. "Yeah, okay."

What they found out was that Bingham had been murdered, his body had been found a while ago. They had suspected that Bingham was dead, now they had evidence. What they hadn't known was that there had been traces of DNA on Bingham's body, Al's DNA.

Remembering that night when the unit had tried to find Bingham, Jay was convinced Al was innocent, because the team – including Al – had been together. Only Voight had been missing. Jay didn't want to speculate if Voight had murdered Bingham. It was highly probable, especially since there were other stories of missing offenders, but he didn't care about that right now, it didn't matter. He was convinced everyone suspected as much, but nobody mentioned it. It didn't matter. If Woods had any evidence that Voight had done it, Voight would be the one in custody, not Al. Al was just collateral damage.

In the evening they met at Molly's, but hardly talked. They stood around a table, had a few drinks, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Jay and Hailey stood close to each other, leaning on to each other. All of them drank more than they should have, but tonight it didn't matter. Tomorrow they would try to figure out what they could do. Tonight, they would drown their sorrow. They confirmed once again to not keep secrets from each other regarding everything that was related to Al's arrest, they needed to stick together as a team.

It wasn't the right time for Jay and Hailey to tell the others about their changed relationship. If necessary, there would be a time to discuss it, but not right now. They behaved differently, though, and the others could see that things had changed. They were closer, touched more often and more caring, communicated via looks even more than before. And at one point Jay slipped his arm around Hailey's shoulders, while she leaned her head on his shoulder. The team didn't comment, it was fine. Perhaps they already suspected that they were a couple, perhaps they blamed it on the alcohol. Tonight, it didn't matter.

The next days things were going downhill even more. While Kevin and Jay were busy with their undercover work trying to make their respective gang members complete the gun deal, Al had his first hearing. This hearing didn't go well, he had to stay in jail.

When the unit asked Voight about updates, all Voight answered was that Al would be released in two days, when his bond hearing would take place, clearly unwilling to answer more questions.

In the meantime, the undercover mission was completed, the gun deal was prevented, all key players arrested.

Two days later, at Al's bond hearing, the unit assembled in court, all listening attentively to what was happening. Voight still showed a confidence that nobody could quite understand. Nobody had the slightest idea what he could have in store to get Al out of prison. On the other hand, Voight always managed to pull through, he always found a way out. So he simply had to have a solution this time as well.

But when the judge appeared, Voight's seemingly calm demeanor changed, he was clearly worried. And it turned out that he had all reason to be worried, because Al did not get bail, he had to stay in prison until the trial. A dangerous place for a cop.

Jay could see a nasty grin on Wood's face, and he would have liked nothing more than punch him right there. Of course, he didn't, and with the others he left the courthouse.

There had to be something they could do to help Al. Jay wanted to talk to his sergeant immediately, but Voight was gone before anyone even noticed. The unit just stood outside of the courthouse, clueless of what to do now.

"Let's go home, guys," Trudy suggested in the end." Let's go home and get back to work tomorrow. Perhaps with a fresh mind we can figure out something."

But it didn't come to that.

Jay and Hailey went home to Hailey's place, brought some take-out food, which they hardly touched, and both basically stared into space.

And suddenly their phones rang. Al had been stabbed and was in the ICU.

What happened next remained blurry in both their memories. They drove to Med, ran to the waiting room of the ICU, where they met the others, and they waited. They waited for what seemed to be hours. Waited for news on Al, for Voight to bring them good news. Nobody spoke a word.

Hailey was sitting next to Trudy Platt, with Jay sitting next to her for a while, but nervously pacing the room most of the time. Kim was crouching on a chair in a corner, alone, Kevin and Adam sitting together, Antonio pacing the room just like Jay.

When Voight entered the room, everyone immediately knew that the news weren't good ones.

"He's dead," Voight confirmed everyone's worst suspicion. "Al is dead."

Jay almost ran out of the room, needed to be alone, and Kevin followed quickly, heading into another direction.

Hailey was torn between following Jay, leaning on to him, and sitting in her chair, unable to move, unable to think.

Adam wrapped his arms around a sitting Kim, Antonio stared at the wall, Trudy and Hank embraced briefly.

Jay didn't know where to go, what to do. The unthinkable had happened. Al was dead! He wanted to run, to yell, to punch someone. Not knowing where he went, he reached a dead end, stared at a wall. And thought of Hailey. He had just left her alone. He turned around and ran back, ran into the room, didn't care for anyone but Hailey. He sat down in the chair next to her and pulled her in his arms tightly. They clung to each other, both trying to comfort the other without words.

It took a while before everyone was ready to talk again, Kevin returned too, stood in a corner.

Kim and Adam sat next to each other, and so did Jay and Hailey, Hailey's hand rested on Jay's leg, with his hand covering hers; everyone else was sitting or standing alone, dealing with the pain. How should they, could they deal with this?

Voight had the answer, his usual answer. Work. Find the killer. Find out why Al was killed, who was responsible.

Therefore, the unit headed to the prison in which Al had been stabbed, regardless of how they were feeling.

And perhaps it would help them deal with the pain.

The unit headed for the prison, in which *it* had happened, in which Al had been stabbed. Voight organized a room for them, from which they could work. And work began. They checked video surveillance, interrogated numerous people, and in the end found the killer. And found out who was behind this. In pursuit of this man the unit drove to his mansion, threatened his wife and mother-in-law, and in the end found him. The pursuit finished with Voight shooting the man, who was responsible for Al's death, on a roof top. Nobody was sorry a bit.

To Jay and Hailey these days felt like it passed within seconds, like everybody else they tried to shut off their emotions but couldn't do that. In fact they all worked even more passionately, aggressively and more focused than usually. The only thing that mattered was to find Al's killer.

When it was over, the unit met far away from everybody else on a parking lot. A cooler and bottles of beer, the only light coming from their cars. They wanted to remember Al on their own terms, outside of the official Chicago PD world, outside of official memorial services.

They stood together, sharing stories, drinking to Al. Jay noticed that there was some disagreement between Antonio and Adam, but before he could get closer, Kevin already interfered and calmed them down.

Hailey, who had been standing together with Trudy and Kim, approached Jay, seeing the tears in his eyes. She pulled him into a firm embrace, held him tight and caressed his hair. It didn't matter what anybody thought, they needed to go through this grief together. Jay accepted her comfort thankfully, and after a while he softly kissed her forehead. He felt that he was able to talk now, without actually crying.

"You know, this night is about Al, and I am going to do now what Al told me to do. I am going home, and I'm going to take care of my girl." Jay briefly looked at Hailey, smiled a sad smile at her. Trudy and Antonio raised their eyebrows, the other three smiled at them sadly.

"Al saw it before we did, you know?" Jay continued. "He knew more than anyone and was the best friend we could have. He made me realize what's important. Life's too short to waste your time finding reasons to not be with the one person you love. Al gave me a kick in the right direction. The best kick ever."

"We will never forget him," Hailey added. "He was always there for me, believe it or not. Never made a big thing out of it, but he was there."

She turned to Jay again. "And I will never leave you again," she said to Jay. "I won't make the same mistake twice."

"Twice?" Kim asked surprised. "When?"

"A few years ago. Al knew. But that's a story for another time," Jay said with a soft smile to Hailey.

The End

I will stop this story here. It was an experiment to write so close to the actual episodes, and it was more difficult than I imagined - I didn't want to re-tell the PD storyline just for the sake of it, I wanted to add my personal twist to it, with a different - closer - relationship between Jay and Hailey. I hope I didn't bore you with this.

And I wanted to include Al in the last bit - as a mentor and friend, which he has always been.

My next story will probably be a completely original Upstead- story. An idea is already in my mind, but it needs some groundwork before I can publish it.