Chapter Text
The day after Gael was arrested, Vanessa woke up to the sound of her alarm as normal. For just a moment before she opened her eyes, she could forget everything that happened with the case. That didn't last long. Soon, she remembered the look of betrayal on Louis's face when he saw her in her bulletproof vest, and how he refused to look at her in the bullpen even as she poured out her soul to him.
She slid out of bed and headed to the bathroom, glancing briefly toward Hailey's bedroom door, which was closed.
Interesting. Hailey was almost always up by now, and was usually downstairs making toast by the time that Vanessa was finished getting ready in the bathroom. The few times that she wasn't usually indicated that she'd been caught up at the precinct, or that she was sick. But that only happened a total of three times. Vanessa brushed off the thoughts suddenly racing through her head. Her friend probably just slept in. It happened to everyone.
Even so, she couldn't shake the sinking feeling in her stomach.
When she'd finished getting ready, she headed downstairs. Normally, she headed straight to the kitchen, but today, she walked through the living room first. No Hailey there, or in the kitchen. Her sloth mug (a gift from Vanessa) was mostly empty on the counter, with dried coffee staining the inside. Vanessa didn't remember that being there before she went to bed...
She went over to the cupboard to retrieve the bread, pausing when a piece of paper tucked under the toaster caught her eye.
Came in late last night, didn't want to wake you. Heading to NY for a bit. Car is all yours. Remember to water the plants. Stay safe, watch your six, don't redecorate without me. - H
Since when did Hailey have connections in New York? Vanessa tried to remember if she'd ever talked about where her parents or family were living now, but all she could recall was a mention of Greektown, and something about one of her brothers living in Indianapolis, but that was it.
It was probably fine. Hailey was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
Vanessa just didn't like how abrupt and unlike Hailey this was.
How many times had she woken the blonde up in the middle of the night? At least ten, mostly out of clumsiness. And even though they didn't talk about it, ever, Vanessa had been woken up by Hailey. Twice. Regardless, they were comfortable with each other by now, at least Vanessa thought so. So why was her roommate suddenly being so secretive?
Vanessa resumed her breakfast routine, pouring herself some orange juice (she wasn't the one with the patience for their tired old coffee maker) before sitting down at the counter. It felt weird being here without Hailey sitting next to her. It was too quiet, and frankly quite boring. Recently, they'd been watching an episode of The Good Place every morning before work, but there was no way that Vanessa was about to move forward without her friend. So she sat there, her mind working a mile a minute.
Something didn't feel right.
Voight assembled them all that same day, his arms crossed over his chest, his jaw set. "I'm sure all of you are aware of the absence today. Hailey has been put on loaner for the FBI for a few weeks. Just because I take measures for all of you does not give you the authority or the responsibility of making those decisions for me. There are some lines that you cross that cannot be uncrossed, and I do not want any of you straying into those waters. Let this be a message to all of you."
"That being said, we have another case."
And just like that, it was like Hailey had never been there. The group filled the duties she usually performed seemingly without much thought, even though Vanessa knew she wasn't the only one who kept staring at the empty chair across from Jay.
There was something missing in the precinct, like some of the warmth had been sucked out of the room. Ruzek and Atwater weren't trying to dump Hailey's pens all over her desk anymore, and Kim was definitely less chatty.
Jay was hyper-fixated on the case, more than Vanessa had ever seen him, and she knew that it was because his partner wasn't there. He was probably the closest to Hailey, since they'd been partners for so long, and losing that connection even for a minute must be hard.
Vanessa had never noticed before, but Hailey really did change the group. Even though she could get extremely intense and focused, she also (unexpectedly) one of the biggest goofballs in the unit. She was extremely attentive, with contagious amounts of energy, and impossible to stay angry at- pretty much a golden retriever. When she wasn't around, the whole group felt flat.
She couldn't help but wonder what Hailey had done to aggravate Voight. Clearly going to New York was not her choice. Part of Vanessa knew, in the back of her mind, that her roommate had probably had something to do with Gael's arrest. It seemed too convenient that patrol just happened to catch someone as elusive as he was with three bricks in the trunk of his car.
The case took almost two days to resolve. They worked almost around the clock, rotating out to sleep, but no one left the building. Once they'd caught the person who'd been dealing contaminated cocaine, Vanessa was finally able to go home. Not that home was any better than the precinct lately. She could barely look at the photos of her and Hailey that sat on the bookshelf.
After fixing herself a mug of hot chocolate, she sat on the couch and put in one of the Star Wars movies. Halfway through, she pulled out her phone, her thumb hovering over her roommate's name. She stared at the screen for at least ten minutes, debating what she should say. Sending a meme, even though it would be on brand for them, seemed to impersonal. Writing a paragraph seemed too intrusive. Finally, she settled on something simpler.
missing you a lot, roomie. stay safe.
and thank you.
Her text went unread for at least a week, and even then, she didn't even get a reply for some time after that.
miss you too.