A/N: Thank you for the response on the last chapter! I'm glad you seemed to enjoy it. As I said before, this chapter is more Hailey-centric and somehow it ended up super long, the longest so far, so I hope you enjoy it. Also, how great were the new Med/Fire/PD episodes today? There's a line in here that was inspired by the Upstead scene at the end of PD (which I completely adored) – can you recognise which one it is?
"You know, I wasn't sure you were even gonna let me in when I showed up at your door earlier," Adam hummed, tipping his head back as he drained the first bottle of beer in his hand. "I was expecting a slammed door in the face. I was pleasantly surprised, though."
Adam had been over at Hailey's place for about an hour and a half, after having shown up a few hours after they'd both clocked off from work. It had been only a day since Jay's small outburst to Adam in the van. Adam hadn't said anything afterwards, nor had he said anything since – but the alcohol was loosening up his tongue, it seemed.
Beside him, Hailey furrowed her eyebrows and turned to look at him. "A slammed door in the face? What are you talking about, Adam?"
He cringed internally. So Jay hadn't told her about it.
Adam turned to face her a little more before speaking. "Yesterday, when you and Kev were undercover and Jay and I were in the van, Jay and I had a bit of a... talk. Or, really, I talked and he snapped."
His words had taken her off guard completely. He and Jay had spoken and disagreed in the van, all while Kevin and Hailey were working undercover? She pulled her knees closer to her chest as she looked over at Adam. His eyebrows were furrowed and lips were twisted ever so slightly. Hailey wasn't excited to hear him continue.
"What were you talking about?"
Adam cleared his throat. "You, actually."
Thinking it wasn't possible to be taken off guard anymore, Adam had just gone and done it. They'd been talking about her and Jay had snapped? The look on Hailey's face conveyed everything Adam needed to know – to continue explaining.
"I was saying that I was worried about you. That, after everything, I don't want you bottling everything up and letting it get to you. And that, since Jay is your partner, he needs to be looking out for you when I can't, he needs to have your back and that he needs to check in on you more often than he already does," he explained.
Hailey took a breath and nodded slowly, mulling over everything in her head before she replied. "I can handle myself, Adam. You know I can handle myself. And Jay has my back. He always does."
Chuckling a little, Adam nodded. "Yeah, Jay said that exact same thing, actually. Told me that I should mind my own business, that what you and him talk about when I'm not there has nothing to do with me."
Her lips quirked up a little upon hearing what Jay had said and she ducked her head and stared down at the couch for a moment. "So, what? You thought Jay would have told me about that and that I'd just decide that I don't want to see you?"
"Yeah, actually," he shrugged.
Hailey shook her head. "You don't need to worry about me so much, Adam. I know you like worrying, but you don't need to worry about me. Like I said – like Jay said – I can handle myself. I don't want to have to worry about you watching me over your shoulder every five seconds. I'm never going to be able to work like that – to live like that. And I appreciate the fact that you care, and I don't want to be taking sides here, but Jay's right. I'm not bottling things up. He's my partner. We talk about things together, things that I shouldn't feel obligated to pass on to you just because we're doing... this. Jay's still going to be my partner."
Adam pursed his lips and tapped his fingers on the outside of his empty beer bottle. He wasn't sure what he'd expected, really. But he hadn't really expected this. He'd more expected Hailey to take his side, if any. Yet, he knew Hailey. And this answer was so, inexplicably Hailey that he was surprised he didn't see it coming in the first place. He sighed and nodded.
"I won't hover, then. I'll step back."
"Voight said the other day that we need to leave our personal troubles out of it when we're working. And that means, when I'm working with Jay, or when I'm telling him things I'm not telling you, or when I'm in danger because it's my job, you need to accept that, Adam," she replied. "I hope you know that I do the same for you. I accept it for you. Now it's your turn to accept it for me."
Jay was sat at his desk, staring at a file on his computer screen, when Hailey appeared beside him. She jerked her head over towards the small break room off the bullpen.
"Can we talk?"
Furrowing his eyebrows, Jay obliged and stood up from his desk, following her into the room. She closed the door behind them before starting to make herself a coffee.
"What do you need to talk about?" Jay questioned.
"I was talking to Adam last night," she began, grabbing a mug from the cupboard. "And he told me about what happened in the van that night I was undercover with Kevin. About your conversation, about how you snapped at him."
Jay internally cringed and dropped his eyes away from Hailey and down to his feet. She wasn't making eye contact yet anyway, so he didn't feel too weird about breaking it. What he did feel weird about was being confronted by Hailey about it. He hadn't expected it. He'd expected Adam to just move on and forget about his small outburst – not to turn to Hailey and discuss it with her. To turn to Hailey and discuss Jay jumping to her defense.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," she hummed, clicking on the kettle to boil the water. She glanced up at Jay. "We had a talk about it, and I just want you to know I'm not mad at you for snapping at him. You were right to. Maybe not the part where you were crabby about it, but in your words, you were right."
Jay's eyebrows raised and he carefully moved his eyes up from his shoes to meet Hailey again. This time, she was looking at him, and it was like he could see everything she was about to say to him right when she looked at him. He just knew. One side of his lips twitched up into a small smile.
"I can handle myself, and what we talk about is our business. But Jay," she turned properly to look at him. "You've known Adam for a while. Long before you knew me, long before we started working together. I don't want to come between your friendship. So if me being with Adam is causing tension between the two of you, if I start coming between that friendship in any way, I'm going to step back. Because I can't have that on my conscience. I just can't."
"You don't have to do that–"
"No, I do," Hailey shook her head. "I do, Jay. And if it comes to it, I will."
Jay opened his mouth to say more but was interrupted by a knock on the door. It cracked open a little and Antonio stood in the gap.
"We've got a lead. Voight wants one of you to check it out with me."
Hailey, forgetting about her coffee, nodded instantly. "Yeah, I'll just grab my jacket and meet you downstairs."
She was out of the room before Jay could so much as utter a goodbye.
Hailey scrunched up her nose and chucked the remote for the TV down on the coffee table. There was nothing good on TV and she was just about to consider an early night when she heard the doorbell go. Frowning a little, she stood from the couch and wandered to the door, fully expecting Adam to be on the other side of it.
Instead, when she peered through the peep hole, she saw Kim.
Pulling the door open, Hailey furrowed her eyebrows. "Kim," she greeted. "I didn't expect to see you here tonight. What's up?"
Kim held up a six pack of beer. "Girls night?"
She smiled instantly and opened the door wider. So much for that early night. A girls night was... exactly what she needed, especially with all of the drama going on with Adam and Jay lately. She'd meant what she said to Jay earlier, too. That she'd step back if it got too much. And the more she thought about it, the more positive she became that it would get to that point between them.
Half an hour later, Hailey and Kim sat slouched down on the couch, a bottle of beer for the both of them and an empty box of Pizza laying on the coffee table in front of them. They'd been making small talk throughout their entire dinner and they'd ended up finding themselves talking about the abduction – Hailey was a little relieved, but also saddened, to hear that Kim had been woken up by nightmares a few times, too, but it was clear between the both of them that they were glad that they had each other to lean on in times like this.
Wanting to change the subject, though, and not planning to talk about a day she'd rather forget for the rest of the night, Kim turned to Hailey. "I hope you don't think I'm prying here, because I'm definitely not, but this is usually what girls talk about when they have girls nights, and please, don't think it's weird because I want to talk to you about my ex, okay?" She paused for effect. "But you and Adam– how do you feel about him? Is it serious?"
Hailey let out a soft sigh and turned to look over at the TV. It was muted but there was still some sort of house renovation program on. She focused her eyes on that while she tried to think through an answer, and the fact that one didn't come to mind immediately did set off an alarm bell somewhere in the back of her mind.
"Is it serious? I don't... I don't know," she shrugged a shoulder. "But Adam's a good guy. You know that. You know he always means well. I just... didn't expect this to be a thing for real, you know? I didn't want it to be a thing... until it was."
Beside her, Kim frowned a little. "Are you happy that it is?"
Hailey nodded instantly. "Yeah, yeah– I'm happy. I'm pretty sure Adam's happy... we're happy."
There was something in Hailey's tone that made Kim not want to believe her completely, though she couldn't put a finger on what it was, exactly. She cleared her throat and decided to bring up something she couldn't help but notice earlier that day in the bullpen. Something she was pretty sure everyone had noticed, other than the ones involved.
"If you and Adam are happy, then," she continued. "Then tell me – why did it seem like there was so much tension between Adam and Jay today? You could just feel it in the room. I'm surprised Voight didn't say something."
Hailey glanced over at Kim, confused. "Tension? What tension?"
With a chuckle, Kim explained. "They were just acting off around one another. And it seemed to me like you were kind of stuck in the middle of it. Did something happen between you three? Did Adam or Jay do something?"
At Kim's words, it's like the puzzle pieces clicked into place for Hailey – thinking back on it, there had been some obvious tension between the two of them, even though Hailey had tried her best to talk to the both of them in an attempt to try and get rid of the potential for any. But her mind had been too occupied with the new case that she'd not even had a second to think about Adam and Jay and their tension until Kim mentioned it.
Sighing, Hailey gave Kim a quick run-through of the events that had led to the tension – their conversation in the van, Hailey and Adam's conversation afterwards and, most recently, her conversation with Jay.
The realisation dawned on Kim pretty quickly.
She gave Hailey a knowing smile. "Are you always this oblivious, or is it just something new you're trying out with this case?" She teased.
Hailey gave her a look. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Jay's jealous, Hailey. He's jealous."
Eyebrows knotted together, Hailey shook her head. "That's– that's bullshit and you know it, Kim. He's just overprotective. He's just being an overprotective partner like he usually is. He just cares a lot. He does it for everyone."
Kim shook her head. "I've known Jay for years, Hails. I know the signs of when he's jealous and I know when he's just being a protective colleague. This is the former, not the latter. You just have to look a little deeper, dig under the surface a bit. Then you'll find it, Hailey."
It was taking everything in Hailey not to roll her eyes. Instead, she focused her eyes back on the TV in front of her. Kim chuckled beside her.
"Fine, don't believe me. But I'll be waiting for that I told you so."