Aside from Pat Halstead's memorial night which was celebrated by closest family and friends, on which Jay and Will only interacted briefly, there was nothing interesting during the week. To Jay's disappointment, Will had not initiated the talk, and he intended to give Will as much space as needed. He struggled with his demons, with his own thought that he had lost Will once again, and got consumed with Will's words to be careful about his friendship with Hailey. Thankfully the case was relatively easy, family feud about drugs which ended in homicide. Hailey was back on the field. On the first raid, Jay looked at her uneasily.

"Be careful. Remember, bubble wrap," whispered Jay. Hailey rolled her eyes, but smiled.

"You too," she brushed her arm on Jay's back. She knew Jay had trouble sleeping, and the therapy session isn't an instant remedy. Hailey asked him about his session, to which he gave concise answer. He wanted to quit, but he knew he needed to do it. He didn't want to disappoint Hailey, and Will, if that still matters for him. He gave nothing more than a sad smile when she asked whether he's been sleeping well. She got it. She wanted to help, she tried to call him at night, recalling that he said it helped to talk about something else, but he didn't answer. Since the only time Jay didn't pick up her call was when he was apparently involved with Camilla, she felt uneasy. She talked herself out of doing more effort to reach out to him. If he needed help, he would ask, she reasoned. She watched Jay's back when he walked away.

"Is he okay?" asked Antonio, concerned.

"I don't know," Hailey prepared her gun. She cleared her mind, preparing for the raid.


One of the suspects was injured, and Hailey and Voight went to Med to get his statement. They waited near the nurse station when Dr. Rhodes treated him, and Will went past them.

"Sergeant Voight, Hailey," he greeted them.

"Will. You good?" asked Hailey. Will frowned, then realised that she asked about his migraine.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for the soup, it was really good. I heard you got hurt in the bombing, thanks for saving Owen," said Will. Hailey still had a bandage on her head, but tapes on her shoulder were gone.

"It's nothing," Hailey smiled. Will looked at Rhodes, then at the suspect, and finally spoke to Voight.

"Do you mind if I borrow her for a minute, Sergeant?" asked Will. Voight nodded, allowing him to. Hailey followed him. "How's Jay?"

"What do you mean?" Hailey was taken aback with Will's question.

"I… we had a fight," said Will. "I'm worried about him."

"Yeah, me too," said Hailey, her face conveyed worry over her partner. Voight called her. "Later, Will," she patted Will's arm, and went to the suspect's room.


"Hey, I saw Jay today," said Natalie when she entered the apartment. Will was playing with Owen. She smiled, kissing both his son and his fiancé, and grabbed a plate. Will had cooked dinner, and she couldn't be more thankful for a spouse who cooks. She plopped on the couch, facing pile of wedding invitation samples.

"Really? Where?" asked Will. He couldn't shrug off Hailey's worried face from his mind.

"In the hospital's parking lot. I thought he was waiting for you, so I told him you're not on shift until tomorrow," said Natalie. She knew there was something off with the brothers in the memorial service, but she wisely stayed out of it. After Jay blatantly shut her down, she understood that it would take time and effort for the younger, more stubborn Halstead to open up to her. Who was she kidding, Will is already stubborn, and he was the lesser of the two. She wondered how patient of a person her late mother-in-law-to-be was.

"Oh," Will sighed. There's no easy way to explain to Jay. He didn't have real reason to be angry at Jay, but he was disturbed that Jay was jealous at him.

"Will, talk to him," scolded Natalie. "I don't know what's going on, neither do I wanna know, but be a bigger person. Go, find out what's wrong with him."

"Wrong?"

"He looked like a zombie. A stark contrast to when I met him in the district, he looked content," Natalie poked Owen, playfully taking his toy.

"Alright, I'll go check on him," said Will, not looking forward to the conversation that was about to take place.

Will stopped on the way to grab some beer and food. They need it if they were about to have a heart to heart. He could tell it would be heavy, heavier than the talk they had when he was sick. However, it might be a push for them to head in the right direction to repair their brotherly relationship, once and for all.

He knocked on Jay's door after hesitating for a bit. He didn't know how he would start the conversation, or even what they were going to talk about. Come to think of it, he didn't even know why he walked out of Jay or whether he was angry. He just wasn't ready to continue the conversation.

Not hearing answer made him worried since Jay's truck is parked outside. He opened the door with his key, fully prepared to see a certain blonde detective in the apartment. He was grateful for Hailey's presence for Jay, even though he was wary of the implied nature of the relationship. However, he was not prepared for the sight in front of him.

Jay was lying across the couch, his face was pale and the place reeked of alcohol. Bottles of beer were scattered on the table, some on the floor. Jay didn't seem to be aware that Will had entered his apartment, which worried him. Will heard a soft gasp beside her. Hailey was there, her face paling seeing Jay.

"Oh gosh," gasped Hailey. Will's doctor instinct took over and he rushed inside to feel Jay's pulse. He nodded to Hailey when he felt one. "Thank God," she was about to cry. She went forward to feel the pulse herself. Will quickly remembered her story about an overdosed partner, and went to calm her down.

"It's okay," he patted her on the back. "Why are you here?"

"There's a case, he didn't pick up his phone," squeaked Hailey. Tears sprang from her eyes.

"Go, make an excuse to Voight. Just say he came down with something and I'm here. I'll let you know how he's doing," said Will. Hailey still looked at Jay as if he was a ghost. "Hailey, go! I'll take care of him!" Will snapped, pulling Hailey out of her thought.

"Alright," Hailey rushed outside. Will tapped Jay's cheek, checked Jay's pulse, temperature, and breathing. Jay opened his eyes. He went into defence mode, pulling Will and placing him into a chokehold.

"Jay!" Will was desperate, he dig his elbow into Jay's thigh. "Jay, it's me! It's Will!"

"Will?" Jay realised his surroundings, then released his hold on Will. Will gasped, trying to catch his breathe. Will was grateful it wasn't Hailey whom Jay attacked. Jay would never forgive himself if he attacked Hailey.

"Yes, it's me. You're safe, you're in your apartment," Will soothed him. He thought Jay was going to get a panic attack, so he was completely surprised when Jay cried. He grabbed Will's shirt and held on like his life depended on it.

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay. How many drinks did you have?" asked Will.

"I don't know," Jay managed to answer between his sobs. Will sat him up and pulled him into a bear hug, burying Jay's face into his chest. His memory floated to nearly thirty years ago, when he was five and Jay was three, when Jay fell from a swing. Jay had refused to let him go, crying on him until he fell asleep. This time, the source of pain was more complicated than a swing. They had hell of a tangled problem to solve. He rocked Jay back and forth. As much as Will wanted to know the cause behind the tears, it was more important to be there for him.

"Hey, Jay, you think you're up for a drink? I need you to drink some water," whispered Will once the sobs died down. Jay's hand was still grasping his shirt and he hadn't pulled away from Will. Jay silently shook his head, so Will waited. His own tears fell realising how broken Jay was.

"Wake up, Jay," Will tapped Jay's cheek when he saw his brother's eyes fluttered close.

"Will?" asked Jay.

"Yeah. You need anything?" asked Will softly. He brushed his hand against Jay's temple. Assessing the situation, he was relieved that Jay didn't get alcohol poisoning, at least, no obvious symptoms. Jay shook his head, still not moving.

"Alright," Will sank into the couch. If Jay wasn't peeling himself off him, he'd wait. He pulled Jay close and waited.


"Will?" Jay called. Will looked down and saw dark green eyes looking at him. They had been sitting on the couch for over an hour now. Will woke Jay up every time his eyes were closed, still wary because he had no idea how many beers Jay just had.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry," Jay looked at his feet.

"It's okay," said Will.

"I didn't mean to say that, it came out wrong," said Jay. "I'm happy for you, I really do. It's just…"

"You didn't say anything when I asked for the ring," Will sighed. "I thought… I mean, you weren't gonna propose to anyone at that moment, and I…" Will grabbed a bottle of water and gave it to Jay who greedily downed the water. "Slowly," warned Will.

"I get it, Will. It's okay. I know. It came out wrong, I'm sorry," Jay looked down, embarrassed.

"I don't want dad's approval of what I'm doing, and one stupid ring, to put distance between us. I've had enough being estranged from you," said Will.

"It won't. We're good. And don't let Nat hear you said that."

"She won't care. She doesn't want to have a big wedding, because she had one before."

"Point is, Will, I was angry. At life, not at you. Life happened, and you happened to get the better outcome than me. Which is totally fine, but I need time to accept that. I didn't forgive dad until his death, my fault. And I wasn't angry at you or at Natalie. Last time I held on to the ring, Erin left without goodbye. But when you have it, you get a fiancée. Life isn't fair, and I was angry at that," said Jay.

"How can I help you to deal with that?" asked Will. He took his phone to text Hailey.

"Nothing. It's my problem to begin with, I'm dealing with that," said Jay. Will looked at him disapprovingly. "I know you wanna help, but I want to deal with this on my own. I asked the therapist for help," said Jay.

"Alright. Tell me if you need anything," Will scooted over to hug Jay. "You know I'm really proud of you, don't you?" He ruffled Jay's hair affectionately. Jay nodded against his shoulder. "Come again, how many did you drink?" Will frowned, looking around the place.

"I don't know. I cracked open two or three, or four? I think," said Jay.

"We thought you had alcohol poisoning, lying dead there around beer bottles. You really had us worried," said Will, didn't realise the slip of his tongue.

"We?"

"Hailey and I. I just opened the door when she arrived. There's a case, she came to pick you up. She left, telling Voight that you came down with something," said Will, left out the part where she paled and nearly cried.

"She saw me like that," deducted Jay.

"Uh-huh," said Will. "Passed out around beer bottles. She was worried."

"I wasn't passed out, I was asleep. Haven't been sleeping well… I didn't throw away yesterday's bottles. Or the previous days'," said Jay. Will was now picking up bottles and cleaning the place. Jay looked at his phone; his eyes widened when he realised that Antonio called him, and Hailey called him multiple times.

"Don't even think about going to the field today. You can't drive, and besides, Hailey already told Voight that you were sick. Better live up to the story," said Will. He sat on the couch. "Open the window tomorrow, this place smells like a brewery." Jay didn't answer, but stumbled to the bathroom. When he came back, his place was somehow the cleanest it's ever been on the week. He played a movie on Netflix and dimmed the light. Will texted Natalie, telling her that he most likely would stay over.

"Come here," Will pulled Jay towards him when he realised Jay was nodding off. Jay used Will's thigh as a pillow. Will ran his hand through Jay's hair while still watching TV. Jay fell asleep within minutes. Will turned off the TV and pulled a blanket from behind the couch and put it over Jay. He had a double shift the next day; he needed all the sleep he could get.


I hesitated about this chapter because I'm not satisfied with it. It's too OOC in my opinion, but wanted to write some fluff. Next chapter will be better, promise!