A/N: Wow. Thank you so much for such a lovely response to this first chapter – I absolutely wasn't expecting it, but I really appreciate it. It's definitely pushed me to write this second chapter and post it sooner than I'd planned, so I hope you enjoy it just as much. Thank you very much for reading, reviewing, favouriting and following!

"I got your favourite," Jay hummed, pulling some of the take out from the bag and sitting it on the bench. "Figured a bit of comfort food might help."

Hailey raised her eyebrows at him and took a sip of the tequila she'd served herself up only moments before he arrived. It'd been a few hours since their talk at the district and Jay had done exactly what Hailey had said – not rushed through his work in order to get to their conversation faster. The sun had been set for a good half an hour by the time Jay finished up, and after getting the food and actually getting out of the district, it'd been later than he'd intended, but Hailey was still wide awake when he'd arrived, as expected.

It'd been a while since they'd had a good talk like this, just the two of them in Hailey's home. They'd had drinks together at various Chicago bars over the past few weeks, but there was nothing that beat the privacy of ones home for good conversation, and Jay instantly knew that Hailey deciding to invite Jay into her home to talk was a good thing – it meant she actually wanted to talk.

"How do you even know what my favourite is? I've never told you."

"Yeah, but we've eaten together enough times for me to just catch on to the one you order and eat all the time," Jay shrugged, chucking the empty paper bag in the trash. "I notice these things."

Hailey nodded slowly at him as she grabbed the food he'd gotten for her and popped open the lid. Jay was right – comfort food was a help. That and the tequila and Jay's company? She was in good hands.

"So," Jay started, sitting down on one of the stools and opening up his own dinner. "This is one of those things you talked to me about a while back. One of those things that we do. Where you don't want me here, but I stay anyway and you talk so you can go to work tomorrow."

"Is it now?" She raised an eyebrow at him before starting to eat.

Jay nodded. "Yeah, it is. So... let's talk," he suggested. "I know you don't wanna hear this, but we are all worried about you. I'm worried, and I know that Kim's worried, too, even though she's not saying anything. Antonio, Kevin, Voight. Hell, Adam's worried most of all."

Hailey frowned and moved her food around with her fork for a few moments as she pondered over a reply. "It's nothing, Jay. It's nothing– really, I've been through worse. Being abducted, beaten... I've nearly died before, and this wasn't it. This was just... a bump in the road, y'know?"

Jay decided against speaking and figured he'd just let her do all the talking until it felt right to jump in. She was the one that needed to get all of this off her chest and Jay was going to be the one to listen when she so obviously needed it. Even though she was acting like it wasn't a big deal, Jay could tell that she was trying to convince herself of it as she spoke about it. She had been through worse, he knew that, and he hated the fact, too, but even the smallest things still hurt.

"I wasn't even worried about myself," she muttered, still playing with her food. "I was worried about Kim– I told her to go or we'd both die, and she just... didn't. And when he came back into the room and saw she was gone, he could have killed me so easily... but all that mattered was that Kim was safe. That she was out there, lighting that fire. My life didn't even flash before my eyes..."

Internally, Jay winced. He hated hearing Hailey talk about her life like it meant so little to her when it meant so much to him. His eyebrows were furrowed on his forehead, and the food in front of him was pretty much forgotten as he listened to her speak. He wasn't going to ruin the mood by shovelling food into his mouth when Hailey was getting everything off of her chest.

"When I had him, when I had my chains around his neck... I could have killed him. I could have so easily killed him– I wanted to kill him for everything he'd done..." Her voice shook a little as she spoke. "If Adam wasn't there, with Antonio, I think I might have."

Unintentionally, Jay found himself reaching out a hand to rest on top of hers.

"Hey. You didn't. They got there, they stopped you. You didn't."

Hailey met his eyes. "But I wanted to."

"But you didn't, Hailey. Wanting and doing are two different things."

Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, Hailey picked up her glass of tequila and drained the rest of it. She hadn't intended on putting everything, or nearly everything, out there in the open, but she had. She trusted Jay more than she trusted anyone, even Adam, and for some reason she felt so comfortable around him that she could just speak and speak and know she was being heard. Not everyone was like that, and she appreciated that Jay was.

She didn't need to tell him about waking up in the middle of the night, feeling like her hands were still weighed down with those chains, like she couldn't move. She'd had dreams like that before. They would pass, in time, and Jay didn't need to be weighed down by them, too.

"You were right about the food helping," she murmured, voice quiet.

Jay smiled a little, lips quirking up to one side. "I'm always right."

"Not always, but I'll give you sometimes."

"Oh, just sometimes?"

"Mmhmm," she smiled up at him and had another mouthful of food.

It didn't bother Jay that Hailey had changed the subject onto the food– he wasn't going to push her. He was never going to push her with these things, especially because he knew she already trusted him enough to share these things with him. If she wanted to talk more, he knew she would feel safe enough to. He wasn't going to be the kind of friend that would push her until she spilled everything. She'd told him before that she'd asked Adam to give her some space, so Jay figured he'd do that, too– but just with the talking.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes, both of them making their way through the takeout and drinking tequila– though Jay decided against the drink, not wanting to have to leave his car at her place overnight. Hailey was almost finished her meal when she spoke again.

"Thank you," she glanced over at him. "For coming over. For... being here."

Jay smiled. "Any time, Hailey. Any time."

"I don't think I realised how much I wanted the company until I got it."

"It's our thing," he shrugged. "You don't want me here, I stay anyway. I don't want you around, you stay anyway. We make it work. We talk it out. Then we go to work tomorrow and we do our jobs better. We work better as a team."

Hailey let out a breathy laugh and nodded. "Yeah, sounds about right."

Jay smiled. "I mean it though, Hailey – any time you need me. I'll be here. Any time."

"Same goes for you."

The following morning, before most of the team had even gotten in, Hailey stood in the kitchen of the bullpen stirring a coffee when she felt arms wrap around her from behind. She smiled instantly at the feeling of Adam pressing a kiss to the back of her head.

"How you feelin'?" He asked, twirling around to lean on the cabinets next to her. "Get a good night sleep and all that?"

Hailey chuckled. "Yeah, I'm good. Slept as well as can be expected," she mused. She'd ended up having a later night than planned, staying up and talking with Jay for a while, and surprisingly the nightmares hadn't been as bad afterwards– they were probably fading like she'd thought. "How about you, though? You seem chirpy this morning."

Adam shrugged. "I don't know, just got a good feelin' about today, y'know? Good day for this case, good day for this team." He stepped closer to her. "Good day for us."

"A good day for us, huh?"

Adam nodded, a cheeky smile making its way onto his face. "Yeah, good day for us. I've just got a good feeling," he grinned down at her. "Before I forget– I was thinking last night, if you ever wanna talk to me about what happened... you can, you know? You just let me know."

Jay's face and their previous conversation flashed through Hailey's mind and she shook her head. "I appreciate that, I do. But I'm good," she assured him. "No talking necessary."

"You sure?" Adam raised an eyebrow. "Talking usually helps."

Hailey nodded. "I'm sure. This was just a bump in the road. Nothing I can't move on from," she explained. She'd told Adam things before, things she'd never really shared with anyone before, and while she trusted him, for some reason she just wanted to keep this between her and Jay– the conversation, her thoughts, everything. It just felt right. She cleared her throat. "Now, you said today's gonna be a good day... so let's go make it one and get started early, yeah?"

Adam grinned and quickly pecked her lips. "Hell yeah."