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Jay walked into the district and couldn’t believe how little had seemed to change in the almost a year he had been gone. His original plan had been to surprise Hailey with the fact that he was back by waiting for her at home, but after a shower and a nap, he had decided surprise her at the district and hopefully intelligence wasn’t knee-deep in a case so he could take her out to dinner. He went to get Platt’s attention, but saw her back was to him, and she seemed to be yelling into the phone.
“ I swear to god if I have to come down there in person in order to get your participation for this heads are gonna roll. I don’t care what your rank is…” he heard her screaming into the phone and decided now is not the time to say hi.
Whether he was hoping for it, or it was sheer luck, Jay was still able to scan in on the palm reader.
He wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he entered the bullpen for the first time in so many months for the absolute chaos he witnessed before him was not that. Everyone looked busy and focused on whatever the task at hand was. The whiteboard was almost completely blank, except for a few random words that gave Jay the clue they might’ve been investigating a kidnapping.
“It’s been 17 hours. How do we still have no leads?” Voight shouted as he slammed down a file.
“ it’s not for lack of trying Sarge.“ Ruzek said as he walked over to the board. “We know she was heading to the gym but she doesn’t pop on any cameras and her phone is turned off.”
At this point, Jay was extremely curious what kind of case they were working. He had never seen the team look so determined, but almost scared at the same time.
“Hey guys. What kind of case you got?” Jay asked. He had expected happy reactions from his former teammates, not the look of horror from Kim, confusion from Adam & Kevin and almost anger from Voight.
“ I guess Platt was able to get through after all.” Torres commented
At that moment Platt walked up the stairs “Well the last person I spoke to was completely useless. He refused to give me any info on Jay because of Opsec.. Hi Jay… so I’m going to try Will and see if he knows another way to get in touch with… oh shit Jay.” Platt said once she realized the person she had been trying to reach for the last few hours was not only in Chicago but directly next to her.
Jay was confused at this point. “Guys what’s going on?”
“Jay come in my office”
“What’s going on?”
“ Dude.” Ruzek said as he put his hand on Jay shoulder. “You might wanna listen to Sarge and go in his office”
“ I don’t need to go in his office. Someone just tell me what’s going on? Where is Hailey?” he asked as a feeling of dread settled in his stomach. Where was his wife? Why did everyone look so concerned?
“Jay if you won’t go in my office at least sit down”
“Tell me what’s going on now! Guys you’re freaking me out.”
Jay knows everything was probably explained to him in full detail but he only heard certain words.
Hailey.
Kidnapped.
No leads.
“You guys need to let me help.”
“Jay in case you’ve forgotten you are a civilian now.” Voight said “You left”
“Hank, check your ego we need all the help we can get. At the very least he can help you here in the bullpen. If you kick him out he’s going to be pacing in front of my desk and quite frankly, I don’t want that. Let him help, I’m going downstairs to see if any of the vests for the ride along program fit him.” Trudy said if she walked off down the stairs.
“All right tell me everything we got so far.”
Six hours later the team had figured out where Hailey was being held and was breaking down the door to the auto shop. Once Trudy had found an extra vest that fit close enough Voight had oked Jay tagging along. As they cleared the location Jay opened the door to the bathroom and saw Hailey lying there with her eyes shut.
“I found her. Guys she’s here.”
Hailey opened her eyes slowly.
“Hailey baby it’s ok. We got you. Oh my god Adam get an ambo.” He shouted down the hall to Ruzek.
“Dreaming again.” Hailey half mumbled to herself.
“No Hails you’re awake and I need you to try to stay that way. Please stay awake.”
Next was the absolute chaos as Kevin and Dante got the kidnappers into cuffs and paramedics rushed in to tend to Hailey. Jay climbed into the ambulance with them and held Haileys hand the whole way to med.
Several hours later after Hailey had been discharged from med and Jay was in full mother hen mode. Jay placed two mugs of tea on the night stand. “Do you need anything else? Some more food? You want some more nesporon on your cuts?”
“Jay I’m ok but I could use a cuddle. I’m sorry your surprise got ruined.”
“Hails, you don’t have to apologize for getting kidnapped at work.”
“Still it did sound like a nice surprise.” Hailey said as she looked at the flowers Jay had bought for her that he had moved into their bedroom.
“Yeah. I was imaging you’d be all shocked. Run into my arms, I’d pick you up and you’d wrap your legs around me. Maybe cry a little. It was going to be very rom-com.”
“Did you do that with an ex when you came home from Afghanistan?”
“Not an ex but I did surprise my mom.”
“Ohhh I bet she loved that.”
“God she was crying so hard. I think I still have the video on my iPad.” Jay got up and pulled the device out and placed it to charge. After a minute or so the device came to life and he was able to find the video.
Hailey watched as a 19 year old Jay in fatigues walked into what she recognized from photos as the Halstead home. She watched as he walked into the living room where his mom had his back to him.
“Hey Mom, Will said Dad’s grilling hamburgers for dinner. Do you think I can get cheese on mine?”
“Yeah of course Jay just go ask him. Oh my God Jay. Oh my god oh my God when did you get home?”
“I got back to days ago I thought it would be fun to surprise you.”
While still not letting go of Jay, Kathy Halstead’s attention, then shifts to the person behind the camera. “ will did you know about this?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, he help me plan the whole thing”
“Oh, that was so cute.” Hailey said. “You were adorable.”
“I’m not sure if that was a compliment.” Jay said with a playful smile on his face.
“Oohh I see what you’re doing and I would kiss the crap out of you right now if I wasn’t so sore.” Hailey saw the look in Jay‘s eyes and she said this “hey none of that right now. I know we have a lot to talk about and some stuff to work out. Tonight though it’s going to be happy that we’re back and we’re together”
“Ok”