"What a call was that." Shay walked into the firehouse common room along with Gabby, both of whom were exhausted. "Seriously, Gabby, what a charm you have with the men we rescue."
Gabby rolled her eyes laughing, but she felt a little sick inside. She and Shay had responded to a call in a gang-ridden neighborhood. One of the victims was a man shot in the stomach, but he was well enough to harass Gabby by handing the brunette. Gabby reacted by punching the man, she knew it would be wrong and perhaps unethical, but she wasn't going to let anyone harass her while she was working.
"How was the call?", Casey asked approaching both of them. Her gaze was locked on Gabby.
"It could have been smoother." The brunette replied forcing a smile. "A douchebag got shot in the stomach, but he was well enough to put his hand on me."
"Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?", Casey asked very concerned. Since Gabby had arrived at the barracks, she had been sad and crestfallen. She wasn't the smiling Dawson everyone knew and loved.
"No, I'm fine." Gabby replied by forcing a smile. "I'm just going to take a shower."
Under the concerned gazes of Casey and Shay, Gabby made her way to the locker room. She felt awful and insecure since last night. First it was that unknown woman at the bar indirectly threatening her, and then it was Jay at the police station talking and laughing with that blonde Gabby didn't know.
"Why am I thinking about that?", the brunette asked herself, shaking her head. "Jay and I broke up a while ago. What's going on with you, Gabriela?"
Jay didn't know exactly how it all happened. It all went too fast. A second before he could respond, the car he and Upton were in was filled with a firefight between the suspect they were looking for and a rival gang. The criminals were arrested on the spot, and at that moment, Jay woke up in the hospital dizzy from the anesthesia.
"Hey, welcome back." Hailey got up when she saw that Jay was waking up.
"Hailey?" Jay muttered feeling lost. "What happened? Why am I in the hospital?"
"You got shot in the arm and you fell to the ground, you ended up hitting your head hard on the car mirror and you came here unconscious." Upton lowered his eyes as he remembered the earlier scenes. "Fortunately the shot was grazed."
"Jay, how are you?" Voight asked entering the room.
"As well as possible, Sergeant." Jay muttered groggily. "I'm a little dizzy and sleepy from the anesthesia, but okay. What about Phillips and the gang? Have they been arrested?"
"Don't worry about it, Halstead. We've got it covered." Voight stated. "As soon as you're discharged, go home and take a few days off. That's an order."
Jay huffed in annoyance, but had to accept it. After Voight left, awkward silence filled the room between Hailey and Jay.
"Do you remember what we were talking about before everything happened?" Upton asked hoping Jay could answer and clear up her doubts about the woman named Gabriela.
"I remember, but honestly I'm not in the right frame of mind to talk about this with you, Hailey." Jay sighed tiredly. At that moment he wished Gabby were there instead of Hailey.
"We're partners, I thought we could trust each other." Upton insisted.
"Hailey, we're just partners on the job. Outside of it, we're just friends." Jay explained slightly changed. He didn't like Hailey's attempt to meddle in her life. Gabby was just his thing as he was just Gabby's thing.
"Got it. Okay." Hailey felt her voice choke and slightly tremble with anger. Things weren't turning out the way she thought they would. Jay was aloof and distant from her. "I'll let you rest. Good recovery."
"Hailey..." he sighed when he saw that Hailey had been upset with the way he had responded to her.
Jay knew that Hailey wasn't to blame for anything, but he was irritated that he hadn't had the opportunity to talk to Gabby sooner and in a way, he blamed Upton for it. If the blonde hadn't been clinging to him when Gabby arrived that morning, he would have been able to talk to the younger Dawson.
"Casey was very worried about you." Shay commented as she finished signing the inventory. Both had been at the Med after leaving a stabbing victim there.
"Really?" Gabby hummed absently playing with a pen. "Didn't even notice."
"Come on, Gabriela. Tell me what's going on." Shay demanded putting down the inventory. "The whole day you are silent and you look sad. The whole firehouse noticed it."
Gabby knew that eventually she would have to open up to Shay. However, she didn't want to hear the same scolding that she had heard from Antônio the night before about the mysterious woman who had threatened her, and, mainly, she didn't want to hear the speech that Jay was a bastard who lied to her.
"Today I went to the police station to look for Antonio." Gabby counted and Shay looked at her curiously. "Don't ask me why, Leslie, brothers don't need a reason to go see each other."
"I disagree with that when you have a cop brother." Shay narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "But go on."
"Anyway, I went looking for Antônio at the police station, and I found...". Gabby hesitated before continuing. Remembering Jay smiling with that blonde hurt. "I found Jay there."
"That bastard who had the audacity to lie to you?" Shay asked angrily. "I should have known it was because of that asshole you were like this early on and... Wait! Does that mean you... you're over Casey? Normally you'd be down for him, but you were sad for him. From Jay?
"I don't know what I feel anymore, Shay." Gabby let out a sigh. "On the one hand, Casey still has space in my heart, but that space is now shared with Jay. It's been two months since I broke up with him, and even then, I was never like this when Casey dumped me a year ago."
"You are torn between the two." The blonde noticed. "You just don't want to accept that, Gabby. And that's okay. That should be normalized. But you know there's going to come a time when you have to make the choice, right? It's either Jay or Casey. "
Gabby silently reflected on Shay's words. She knew the blonde was right, but she was afraid that if she chose one of the two, the other would get hurt. She didn't want to hurt Matt, her love since her first day on the job at 51, and neither did Jay, her second love since they both met unexpectedly at Molly's.
"Dawson, Shay, the rescued patient is going to be fine. He's had internal bleeding, but his condition is stable." Warned Maggie.
"Okay. Thanks, Maggie." Shay thanked her.
"Hey, Maggie, is you?" Upton approached cautiously. Gabby's stomach turned at the sight of the blonde there.
"Yes it's me." Maggie nodded. "You must be Jay's partner, right? Don't worry, I'll call you if Jay has any changes in his condition."
Gabby gasped. What do you mean Jay was in the hospital? And why didn't Antonio warn her about this?
"What do you mean Jay is in the hospital, Maggie?". Gabby asked without containing the desperation in her voice. "What does he has?"
Hailey looked at Gabby in disgust. She didn't like the brunette wanting to know about Jay's status. Shay caught Hailey's glance at Gabby and glared right back, as if daring the detective to say something to Gabby in front of her.
"Oh, Gabby, I thought you already knew." Maggie said worriedly. "Jay was grazed in a shootout earlier today, but he's fine. He's just under observation and a little dizzy from the anesthesia."
"Where is he?" Gabby asked hurriedly. "I want to see him, Maggie. Please."
"He needs to rest now, Gabriela." Upton responded by butting in. "He just woke up."
"He needs someone on his side." Gabby snapped. "And that someone is me. Maggie..."
"He's in room 311." Maggie replied by looking at the computer. "And you have to...
Gabby ran to Jay's room before Maggie finished speaking.
"Back to the firehouse." Maggie muttered worriedly.
"Don't worry, Maggie." Shay laughed. "I'll explain to Boden."
Hailey huffed irritably taking one last look at where Gabby had gone. She didn't want to imagine what could happen in that hospital room.
Jay tossed and turned in bed, unable to go back to sleep. The effect of the anesthesia had worn off. The images of the shooting had come back in his mind and now he could remember what happened. He heard knocking on the bedroom door, but tried to ignore it. If it was Hailey, he wasn't interested in talking to her.
"Hailey, I want to rest. Please don't push." Jay asked putting the pillow on his face.
To his exasperation, the bedroom door opened, but the voice wasn't Hailey's as he thought it would be.
"Are you sure you don't want a private nurse today?" Gabby asked locking the door behind her and leaning against it sensually.
"Gabby..." Jay murmured in disbelief that what he wanted so much had come true.
And here we are with chapter 4. I tried to create a cliffhanger in the last chapter, lol, but I think I failed a little bit.
At the end of it all, Jay was fine, just grazed, but he'll recover soon. Obviously Hailey is pestering Jay even in the hospital, it wouldn't be the insufferable and nosy Hailey we know in fanfic if she didn't, would it?
We had some bad moments for Gabby in this chapter and we saw how much seeing Jay with Hailey affected her deeply. And for those who thought they wouldn't have Dawsey, they were wrong lol. Gabby still loves Casey, but on the other hand, she loves Jay too. Gabby finds herself unable to choose between the two and with that, a big cliffhanger will happen in the next few chapters before the first cliffhanger that is scheduled to go in chapter 6 or 7 (yes, I ended up changing that part a little bit, but we will have a moment that will break them all in One Day).
Responding to reviews:
@Sarrabr4: Nosy Hailey is not the Hailey we met in One Day, right? LOL. For now Matt will stay in the friend zone. Really Gabby needs to reconnect with Jay first before things develop better in the story xD.
@Writersblock2014: Hahaha, this mysterious blonde can be confusing at times, but soon it will be shown about her. Poor Matt, we want to protect him and see him happy with Gabby, but the moment of happiness will soon come :). Join the attraction and longing for Gabby and Jay and in the next chapter fire and gasoline will mix :)