Chapter Text
December 28, 2020
“Are you sure you're ready to come back to work?” Hailey asked Jay as she shut the passenger side door to his truck. It had only been a week since Mouse passed away, but the man was determined to go back to work and get caught up on any cases he left behind. Jay wasn't one for lounging around the house, so when Sunday rolled around, and all the holiday excitement had passed, he was more than ready to sit across from his partner and start working on what he did best: solve cases.
“Hailey, for the millionth time, yes.” He chuckled as he flung his duffle bag over his shoulder. “You know I hate laying around the house, so I might as well just get back to work. And I probably have over a dozen cases that I haven't finished.”
“You have seven. I did what I could when they wouldn't let me go into the field.”
He grinned as he opened the district door for them to enter. “What would I do without you?”
“Drown in all that paperwork.”
Hailey nudged his side with her elbow, knowing he actually hated paperwork, and that was the least she could do for him while she wasn't fully cleared to work in the field. She could do the small things, go to someone’s house for questioning, go to a scene, and go on a chase here and there, but doing anything excessive, like a raid, was off the table. It killed her watching everyone get ready for a raid, but when her lungs started to burn after a run or she lost her breath after climbing up one too many stairs, she was thankful she had a few more weeks of physical therapy to build up her stamina.
They continued their banter into the district lobby and were headed towards the stairs to the bullpen when the one and only Trudy Platt yelled out to them.
“Halstead, over here.” She motioned to the detective, barely looking up from her morning newspaper. Jay signaled Hailey to continue on as he stopped at the desk.
“Yeah, Sarge?”
Platt sat her glasses on top of the paper and made eye contact with him. “I’m sorry about your loss. Mouse was a good guy and one hell of a tech. I would gladly have him fix my computer over one of the knuckleheads upstairs.” She motioned to the bullpen where Adam and Kevin, the knuckleheads she was referring to, often begrudgingly came from when her mouse didn't work or she accidently spilled coffee on her keyboard and the keys didn't work. The district had a few ITs, but Trudy didn't like them, either. “I want you to know if you need anything, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks, Trudy. I'll let the knuckleheads know that.” He grinned as she shook her head.
“No, I will when I tell them this keyboard is worse than the last. It's like they try to find me the worst one to ruin my day.”
The couple chuckled as they restarted their journey to the bullpen where Kim and Kevin arguing over coffee creamer while Adam was speed walking in the hallway leading to the bullpen, phone fixed to his ear.
“Double homicide on Grant. Looks easy and not our type of case but Voight is requesting us.” Adam ended the call and grabbed his coat off a nearby hook. Kevin and Kim continued their bickering as they also grabbed their coats, speed walking after Adam.
“Are you going?” Jay asked Hailey as he slipped on his coat. He grabbed her coat, awaiting her response.
“If there's no running, I'm all in.” She grinned at him as she grabbed her coat, ready to go to their first scene together in weeks.
The case was solved rather quickly, as it wasn't a challenge for the highly specialized unit since there was DNA left all over the place and the killer did virtually nothing to cover his tracks. It wasn't a heart racing, fast paced first day back like Jay hoped it would be, but solving the case early gave him time to catch up on his remaining cases.
Jay stretched his arms over his head before settling a case file in front of him. “At least I got half of these old cases done.”
“Hand me one.”
“No, Hailey. You did enough of my work, already.” Jay slid the remaining files out of Hailey’s reach.
“Do you want it to be an early day, or a day where everyone leaves and you procrastinate the remaining ones until it's 8pm and you hate yourself for not doing them.”
Jay watched as the truth spilled out of her mouth. It was a common practice that he avoided paperwork until it was almost too late. He reluctantly put a file in her outstretched hand and watched her happily start working on it. She also hated paperwork, but when she was on desk duty and that was the only thing she could do, she came up with a system that made the boring work fly by and had Platt describe each one as ‘nearly perfect’. He leaned back in his chair and watched how swiftly she moved the pen across the paper or how quick she could type when needing information from the online system. He didn't think he was staring that long, or that it was too noticeable, until she dropped her pen and looked at him, tilting her head in confusion.
“What are you looking at?”
Jay leaned towards her, his chest resting on the edge of the desk, and whispered, “Just your cute self doing a great job.”
He smiled at Hailey as her cheeks grew rosy and she started grinning like a schoolgirl. No matter how many sweet things Jay could say in their time together, she always felt giddy when he said them.
“Get back to work, goof.” They chuckled as Jay finally opened the folder and began working.
“Or,” Adam piped up from his desk, hearing most of their conversation, “Halstead can finish the cases tomorrow and we can blow off some steam at Molly’s.”
“I like that idea.” Jay grinned as he watched Hailey’s jaw drop. “What’s it gonna hurt if i dont turn in these files right now? ”
“Uh, you will when Platt doesn't see you drop them off at her desk.”
Adam shrugged, “Then we’ll use the back door so she doesn't see us. I’m ready for a beer and I'm sure Jay could say the same.”
“I’m ready for three.” Jay stood up, dropping his pen on the open file. “Come on, Hailes. You’ve been doing paperwork almost all day and I know you want a beer, too.”
Hailey watched the men as they started packing up their desk, discussing what beer they were going to drink first. It was only four pm, and she wanted to finish the paperwork, but Jay was right, a beer sounded really good right about now. Reluctantly, she closed the file she was working on, locked her computer and stood up. “You’re finishing these files by yourself tomorrow.”
“You don't mean that.” Jay winked as he handed Hailey her thick blue coat. She chuckled as she shrugged it on, Adam already on his way to the locker room to grab his bag and leave.
“That case definitely should have belonged to Robbery Homicide.” Jay said after gulping down half of his first beer. The whole unit was crowded around a table meant for four people, but they did it so often that none of them minded the fact they were basically sitting on top of one another.
“You know Voight cant say no to Miller.” Kim joked as she brought her nearly full bottle up to her lips. She was nursing her beer as she had to relieve the babysitter for Makayla and promised she would be home no later than six, but she couldn't resist a Molly’s get together.
“Yeah, but she did give us a pretty good serial killer case for Christmas.”
“I can't believe i missed it.” Jay chugged another decent sized portion of his beer, almost ready for a new one within minutes of arriving at the bar. “But I needed the time off. It was good for me.”
Hailey looked up at Jay, who was to her left, and smiled at him as she gave him a soft squeeze on the thigh. He responded by wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her closer, closing the small space they had in between them.
“It looks like we need another round of drinks.” Hailey motioned to the near empty bottles the boys were handling. “Kim, do you want to help me get drinks?”
The officer nodded her head before they made the short journey to the bar, weaving in and out of groups of people. Despite it being a Monday, there was a large number of people who also decided it would be a good day to blow off some steam at Molly’s.
“When’s your girl coming back full time?” Kevin asked, finishing off the rest of his beer.
“Hopefully within the next week or two. She’s dying to go on a raid.” Jay smiled to himself, thinking back to the numerous times over the past few weeks of her hilariously whining that she was now too good at writing reports that everyone wanted her to do theirs, and it had to stop.
“You’re telling me. She threw a cup at me when I told her we confiscated millions of dollars worth of meth in a lab we raided.” Adam mumbled as the others laughed.
Jay put his bottle up to his lips. “Hopefully she’s happier when i give her a ring.” He tilted the bottle so the last remaining drops of alcohol could hit his lips. While doing so, he grinned as the realization of his words hit each one of his friends individually.
Kevin was the first one, giving Jay a big smile and laughing as he smacked his arm. Adam nearly choked on his drink and attempted a smooth recovery with a fist bump and hidden coughs. Vanessa, pinned between the wall and Kevin, just smiled and nodded her head as she and Kim were told the big news two days earlier so they could help plan the proposal since all of his ideas were too cliche, including hiding it under her pillow and putting it in food.
“When are you gonna pop the question?” Kevin asked, unable to quit smiling. He had supported the two since day one, not only dating, but partnership overall and he was excited to see them take the next step.
But before Jay could answer, the table watched the two women walk in their direction, arms filled with the brown bottles of beer they love so much. All of them quit talking, and if it wasnt for the loud music and sounds of conversations happening near them, Hailey and Kim would have assumed something was wrong, but the nearby noises distracted them and they werent caught off guard by the sudden silence from their table.
“What were you guys talking about?” Hailey asked, sliding onto the bar stool next to Jay. All of the boys looked between them, trying to come up with something quick to say before Vanessa piped up.
“Adam was saying how you threw a cup at him.”
“And I’ll do it again, raid or not.” She jokingly winked at Adam as he rolled his eyes. The night sailed on with funny stories and friendly conversation, with nothing more being mentioned of Jay’s plans, especially to the only member of the unit who had no idea they existed.