Chapter Four

The Monsters out There

Hailey, sitting in her loungewear, glanced up as her husband walked into their apartment. "Hey," she greeted softly.

"Hey," he replied as he shrugged out of his jacket and threw the car keys onto the counter. "Are you okay?"

She nodded as he came over and sat down next to her on the sofa. "Yeah," she whispered. "It's just been one of these days, you know?"

Jay arched an eyebrow in slight amusement despite everything that had happened. "Wished you'd called in sick this morning?" he teased softly.

"No. However, I've had enough of the IA for a lifetime by now."

"If they claimed it was anything but a good shoot-," he began softly.

Hailey shook her head. "They didn't. They are fairly certain the matter will be resolved rather quick. There are witnesses and they back up our story. In order to protect my superior officer, I had to take out the shooter." She sighed and shook her again then turned to Jay. "I don't know what's going to happen now?"

Jay frowned, not sure what was on her mind.

She shrugged. "Is Voight going to blame me for Anna's death? Is he going to fire me? Punish me somehow?"

It was Jay's time to shake his head at his wife's reasoning. "He won't do that," he protested mildly. "If you really think that then you don't know him at all. You are a member of his team. He will always have your back."

"But I have been-," she began.

"-trying to tell him how to run his section?" Jay finished for her. "Given him a hard time lately?"

"Something like that," she admitted sheepishly. "So, is Will in some kind of trouble?"

"Isn't he always?" Jay replied with a smirk.

"I am serious," Hailey said.

"Looks like he's stumbled into something."

OOOOOO

A faint knock on the doorframe brought Hank out of a light slumber. He blinked tired eyes open just in time to see Samantha Miller smile at him as she walked into the room.

He sighed. His boss was the last person he wanted to see at a time like this.

"You know-," Sam began softly, "-this was not how I envisioned our celebration."

Voight was slow on the uptake, still pumped full of medication after the recent surgery. He grimaced and raised his hand for her to stop and rewind a bit. "Celebration?" he croaked.

"Yeah, you did it again, Hank. You set the records straight. While you managed to get yourself shot, your team busted into the largest stash house in Chicago. The evidence is solid. We have enough to bring down the entire Los Temidos organization. The DA will have their hands full for months trying to process everything. Chapman is livid about it."

A forced ghost of a smile settled on his lips.

"I left a bottle of champagne on your desk. We can share it when you are feeling better," she said. "You should get some rest. You are officially on medical leave, don't come back until you are ready."

"Actually," he began seriously, "I'd rather head straight back to my office."

Miller pursed her lips into a thin line of displeasure. "Hank, your CI just shot you in the middle of a lively trafficked intersection. Detective Upton shot and killed her to protect you from further harm. Media is all over the place. The PR department is trying to diffuse the situation but in the open world we live in nowadays the reporters will soon give your identity away. You need to lay low for a while, not only due to your injury."

"I pushed her over the edge," he whispered. "It is my fault."

"You are not responsible for her actions, Hank," Sam reminded him. "Anna Avalos chose to pull that trigger, she forced Detective Upton to take action against her. She got herself killed.

"It's much more complicated than that and you know it," he pointed out. "But I shouldn't be the one telling you that, it's usually the other way around."

"Get well soon, Hank," she said softly.

OOOOOO

Kim glanced up as she heard someone coming into the locker room. She pushed the metal door closed and nodded at Hailey who appeared next to her.

"And here I thought I was early," Kim said softly with a smile.

Hailey made a face. "I couldn't sleep. Figured I might as well head to work. I – uh – left a note and let Jay have his beauty sleep."

"So? You good?" Kim asked kindly, somewhat concerned for her female colleague.

The blonde nodded absentmindedly as she stuffed her jacket inside her locker, two doors down from Kim. "Yeah," she whispered.

"Are you sure?" Kim returned softly. "I heard it was pretty wild out there."

Hailey ran her hands over her tired face and sighed. "The last few weeks - no - the last few months have been pretty intense," she mused, her voice no more than a whisper.

Kim nodded, offering her friend and colleague a faint smile. "I know, I've had such a period in life myself recently." She shuddered as she thought back upon Roy Walton and how he looked at her, his eyes dead and cold, before he pulled the trigger, intent on killing her.

"I guess I was just-," Hailey shrugged, "-I don't know. We've all been living and breathing Los Temidos for quite some time. When that truck blew up in front of us, it felt like some kind of sick awakening."

"Yeah, tell me about it. For a while we feared the worst," Kim said. "We're all glad you found Voight when you did. Who knows how many bullets Anna could have put in him."

Hailey took a deep breath but Kim didn't seem to notice.

"How did he manage to find her so quick anyway?"

"You know Voight, he's got special methods," she replied cryptically.

Kim nodded thoughtfully. "I guess we all know what he is capable of. Sometimes, especially after being shot and left for dead by Roy Walton, it was one of the things that kept me going. Also, I knew you guys wouldn't stop looking for me."

/Flashback/

"Sarge!?" Hailey called out in surprise. She slowly raised her hands - one of them trailing downwards to her weapon - as her superior officer came walking toward her with his weapon drawn.

"Hailey, what are you doing here?" he said, his voice low and cold.

It was clear to her that he didn't want her there; didn't want anyone to know what he was doing. She wondered what kind of person he was - what kind of darkness that lurked deep within him - yet she was shocked by his actions. She didn't meet his eyes, she kept staring at the beaten man, sitting cuffed to the table leg. "Did he tell you where she is?" she heard herself ask.

He shook his head. "No," he replied resolutely. "Jay and the others, did they find anything?"

"No," she answered.

Then Voight turned around, heading straight for Roy Walton. "You are going to tell me where Kim Burgess is."

She sprang into action. This was wrong. She grabbed for Voight's arm but he swatted her away like she was a fly.

"Tell me," he demanded darkly.

"Sarge, stop!" she begged him.

/end of flashback/

"Hailey, are you in there?" Kim asked carefully.

She nodded. "Yeah. Like I said; I didn't sleep much last night, that's all."

Kim gently squeezed her shoulder. "Don't think too much about it. You did what you had to do."

OOOOOO

Kevin hung up his jacket and threw his keys on the desk as he walked up to the whiteboard. Everything related to Los Temidos had been erased and the board was blank and shiny, like a new chapter was waiting to be written. He sighed and rubbed his tired eyes as he wished it would be that easy to wipe the memories of the last couple of months' surveillance and secrecy surrounding their infiltration of Los Temidos as it was erasing it from the board.

Voight was at the hospital, Upton was being investigated by the IA, Burgess had felt preoccupied at times lately and Ruzek was trying to find a place in the small family of Kim and Makayla. If he scrutinized his own living of late, he didn't know what else he'd done but eat, sleep and work.

"Hey Kev," Jay spoke up from behind, nearly spooking him.

"Geez," he said, trying to control his breathing.

Jay's eyes twinkled as he placed a hand on his colleague's shoulder. "Didn't realize you were that jumpy," he apologized. "Besides, I wasn't that stealthy."

He made a face. "Nah, man. I guess I was lost in thought that's all."

Jay watched as he slapped a picture to the board and began to scribble something beneath it. "Curkola, huh?" he mused.

"Yeah. The more you read up on him, the more you begin to dislike the guy," Kevin replied softly. "Have you been talking some more with your brother?"

Jay shook his head. "No, I was heading over to Med, I just wanted to drop in here first. I heard from Platt that Voight came out of surgery somewhere around midnight and that everything went well."

"Yeah, I hope it stays that way," Kevin replied seriously.

Jay patted his shoulder again. "See you later."

OOOOOO

Hailey spotted her husband as she came up the internal stair from the locker room just as he was about to hit the road. "Jay," Hailey called out. "Jay, wait up. Are you going somewhere?"

"You don't have to come, Hails," he said kindly as he stopped and turned to her.

She nodded at Kevin as she followed Jay to the backdoor and headed downstairs again. When they were alone, she spoke up again. "I am sick of secrets, Jay. I can't take another secret."

"I am not keeping secrets from you," he reasoned. "I was just on my way over to Med."

As he started to walk again, she followed suit and fell into steps with him. "I know you think you know him after all these years of working together. You think you are part of his inner circle but he's a private man. He's going to run off on some vendetta, leaving everyone behind, when he decides it is needed" she said, trying to get Jay to see reason.

"I am not keeping secrets and this is not about Voight," Jay protested. "And it's not about Anna either."

"You know, no one knows what really happened to Escano," she pointed out seriously.

Jay fought hard not to flinch at the accusation in her voice. "What does it matter?" He found himself asking bitterly as he continued to walk, stepping into an elevator.

Hailey followed suit. "Anna murdered him," she stated.

Jay shrugged. "So what? Hails, Javier Escano was far from a saint. He's got the blood of at least ten people on his hands. Why are you so concerned about seeking justice for a monster like him?"

She swallowed.

"Why are we even talking about this again? I thought we'd agreed to let it rest? They are both gone now. Anna is dead. What is the meaning of dragging her name into the mud for no reason?"

"Hiding the truth is wrong, Jay," she protested.

"But sometimes it is the right thing to do," he pointed out.

They rode the rest of the way in silence and walked across the hospital foyer and into the elevator. As the doors opened and let them out on the third floor.

Hailey followed her husband silently down the hallway, past the nurse's station and into a quiet hospital room with a single occupant.

It felt surreal - looking at Voight now - he seemed older, frail, his skin white as porcelain. His brown eyes were closed, his left shoulder was swatted in bandages and his left arm lay draped over his torso. Machines monitored his condition as a drip hung from a pole next to the bed.

Jay hesitated as he took in the appearance of his boss.

Voight slowly blinked his eyes open. "Thought I heard voices," he whispered hoarsely.

Jay gave him a warm smile as he walked up to him with Hailey in tow. "Sarge," he said kindly. "You kind of scared us all to death."

He huffed disbelievingly. "It takes a lot more than a bullet to kill me," he muttered sourly.

Jay and Hailey shared a knowing smirk.

"I think we need to talk about safety when you get better," Jay said. "Standing in front of an armed woman without backup or bulletproof vest?"

"In the middle of a busy intersection," Hailey added, her tone slightly patronizing.

"I do hope you see the irony in this," Hank pointed out. "You two are young enough to be my children so stop acting like you're my parents. Now, what have you found out?"

"Found out?" Jay asked in confusion.

"You obviously came here to tell me something," Voight replied, trying not to let the impatience seep into his voice. "Complications? Did we not get all the assholes involved-,"

"We've arrested the top dogs of Los Temidos, we're right up their alley," Hailey assured him. "Patrols are in the middle of raiding several places associated to the organization."

"Then what?" Voight asked.

"Something else has come up," Jay said seriously. "Something we need your help with."

OOOOOO

To be continued