Hailey is sitting on her couch with a glass of wine in her hand that has long been forgotten. A sniff sounds through her apartment, the aftermath of her crying.
Again.
Over Jay.
Jay left.
He left with a "I love you with all my heart" and that was the last she saw or heard of him. Not a phone call, not a message, not an email, not even a letter – to be sarcastic.
She could not stand it anymore, it has been almost an entire year. She had great anticipation and excitement as the date drew near when Jay would be back, but that day just came and went, and no Jay. She even started thinking that he was killed in action, and no one bothered to tell her.
Hailey even went as far as phoning the base and talking to his CO, only to find out that Jay's time of break has been moved up as per his request and there is no other date set.
It was at that moment that Hailey started to realize that there is a possibility that he is not coming back.
He is not coming back to her.
Hailey does not even bother to check the time as she puts her glass down and leaves her apartment, without even pulling on her thick jacket.
She steps out into the winter snow blanketing the city and gets into her car.
She can't do this anymore, she can't do it alone, that is all that is going through her mind as she drives and not before long, she finds herself standing at a front door in the dimly falling snow.
Hank Voight's house.
Yes, Voight was mostly the cause of her distress last year, the thing with Roy and then the thing with Anna. They two of them were definitely not on good terms then, but then Jay left, and things changed.
After Jay has been gone, she had gotten to know Voight better and have even grown close to him.
During the day, Voight always teams up with her and she always rides with him, and she is sure that Voight has done so on purpose. Has Voight seen what is really in her heart in her mind, that she is really struggling that badly?
She has tried her best to hide it from everyone and she is sure that she had been successful, mostly.
Now, during the day is one thing, it is Voight looking after a member of his team, but after hours, now that is another thing entirely. Maybe Voight is only worried about her and trying to do something so that it does not impact her work but what state she is in after work and on her free time is her problem.
Hailey spends a long time standing in front of the door in the cold with her arms wrapped around her as she is thinking these things over.
Raising her hand slowly, Hailey gives two knocks.
Despite her hesitations, Hailey has settled on the fact that Voight is a safe place for her to go.
Not too long and the door opens cautiously with a surprised looking Voight coming into view. It is about midnight, no one should be at his door without phoning first with a problem.
"Hailey?" Voight questions as he tugs his gun away behind his back.
Voight takes in Hailey's appearance, not properly dressed for the outdoors, definitely not in this weather, which leads him to believe that she left from wherever, in a hurry. He also notices the absolute obvious, her puffy eyes and red nose. She has been crying.
She's got her arms wrapped around her to try and fend off the cold and yet Voight takes a few seconds before saying anything.
"You alright?" Voight finally asks.
A sad expression passes over her face like she is going to start crying again and then she shakes her head in silence, hoping that Voight gets the message.
"Come in." Voight steps aside and lets Hailey enter.
As soon as Hailey is inside, she covers her face with her hands and starts sobbing.
"Hey." Voight closes the door and then turns Hailey to himself, pulls her head onto his shoulder and embraces her with the other arm.
"It's ok." Voight comforts her as he gives a rub on her back.
Hailey's pulls her hands away from her face and then returns the hug as she sniffs to try and stop the tears.
"Hailey, it's alright." Voight doesn't have to ask what is wrong because he already knows about what is going on in her life. It was only a matter of time before it all came crashing down.
Moments later Hailey slowly pulls out of the hug.
"Come sit down." Voight places his arm around Hailey and leads her to his living room where she takes a seat on the couch.
"You want something a drink, scotch, coffee…?"
"Coffee." Hailey whispers as she wipes her eyes.
Voight disappears into the kitchen and then sometime later appears with two cups of coffee.
"Here."
Hailey takes the cup in silence and then slowly sips it with her elbows resting on her knees.
Voight sits down where he was seated before Hailey showed up at his door, on the couch over to the left of Hailey.
"You want to talk about it?"
Hailey merely shakes her head and keeps quiet as she stares at the floor with blank eyes.
"Ok." Voight gives her the space she wants. It seems like she doesn't want to talk about it, she just wants to have company, in silence.
Picking up the tv remote, Voight switches it back to what he was watching. Some criminal investigations program, who would have thought?
A few minutes later, there is movement as Hailey sits back, turns and then pulls her legs up with her shoes hanging off the couch.
This is no way for her to make herself comfortable in her boss' house, but she is cold and trying to warm up.
Luckily Voight got the hint that she does not want to be interrogated, questioned, or be having a conversation. She just wants the company. So far Voight has not spoken one word to her or looked into her direction even, and that is perfectly good with Hailey, she does not want to draw attention to herself any more than what she already has.
A few times Hailey thinks about leaving as she is probably intruding into Voight's private life by sitting on this couch in the middle of the night but every time, she convinces herself just a few more minutes as being here is actually making her feel better.
About a half an hour later, Voight looks over to the other couch and finds Hailey fast asleep, still holding the empty cup.
Voight looks at Hailey, he knows that she has not been sleeping well, the bags under her eyes gives her away every single day, but everyone has just gotten used to it and no longer mentions it.
He knows that Hailey has been struggling with what has been going on in her life, but he was not sure if she wanted any help from him. He tries to help as best he can without making it obvious, but her showing up at his house in the middle of the night, shows how desperate her situation has become.
Voight gives it a few more minutes before he gets up and silently takes the empty cup out of her hands. He can see that she is cold by the way she is was huddling before she fell asleep.
Not wanting to deprive her of any sleep, he decides not to wake her and make her leave. He then disappears down the hall and returns with a duvet cover that he softly places over Hailey.
Voight then switches off the tv, then the lights and then disappears upstairs to his own room.
The next morning, Voight comes downstairs perhaps expecting that Hailey woke up at some point and went home but instead he finds Hailey exactly where and how he left her last night. Still sitting up, her head resting against the backrest and the duvet covering her.
This is probably the most sleep that she has had in days, so Voight softly makes his way past her into the kitchen.
Switching on the kettle, Voight hopes that it wakes her because it might be even more awkward for Hailey if he was to wake her up too, after she slept on his couch.
When Hailey wakes up, she feels warm, and she feels rested. She has not felt like this in a long time and so she does not even open her eyes but try to get a few more minutes of this great feeling.
Hailey's mind then catches up as she remembers going to Voight's house, drinking coffee, watching something on the tv and then nothing, well waking up feeling warm.
Opening her eyes, Hailey finds herself still sitting in the same position on Voight's couch with a duvet cover over her with the morning sun coming through the curtains.
"Ah crap." Hailey pushes the duvet cover off her on her way onto her feet.
"No rush." Voight enters the living room from the kitchen with two cups of coffee.
"Sarge, I'm so sorry, I did not mean to….." Hailey immediately starts apologizing. Coming to Voight's house in the middle of the night is one thing but to fall asleep on his couch is another.
"Hailey, it's fine." Voight stops and assures her and then hands her a cup.
"Thanks, Sarge." Hailey takes the cup feeling awkward. She just woke up on her boss' couch, the duvet cover that he covered her with is still half over her legs and he has already handed her a cup of coffee. Talk about being caught unprepared.
Hailey sits on the couch drinking her coffee as Voight takes a seat at the dining room table and pages through the morning paper.
When Hailey's cup is finished, she holds onto the empty cup.
"Better?" Voight asks as he looks over to Hailey.
"Yeah." Hailey gives a nod without making eye contact with Voight. She feels slightly awkward, she is not sure if she should leave now or stay or wait for Voight to tell her it's time to leave.
Their attention is drawn when Voight's phone starts ringing.
"We've got a case." Voight gives her the location as he goes into the kitchen to place down his cup.
"I'll meet you there." Hailey gets to her feet, places the cup down on the coffee table and heads for the door as she feels this is now a good time to leave.
"Hailey." Voight stops her just before she opens the door.
Hailey turns and looks at Voight and she expects him to tell her to fold up the duvet and make the place neat where she slept, or perhaps to take her cup to the kitchen and that he is not cleaning up after her.
"You come over whenever you need to, ok, you're always welcome."
Hailey gives a nod after a moment's hesitation as his invitation catches her off guard. "Thanks Sarge."
With that, she is out the door.
Neither she nor Voight mentions anything when they show up at the morning's crime scene and they never talk about it.
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