Work Text:
But on a Wednesday in a cafe, I watched it begin again
Begin Again - Taylor Swift
Hailey throws the last bit of her things in the box before closing the lid on it. She lets out a breath as she takes in the, mostly, empty squad room. Intelligence was between cases for once, it was Kim and Adam’s off day and Kevin was spending most of his time studying for the detectives exam.
Even Voight was off doing god knows what; but she didn’t care about that. From this day forward, she wouldn't need to care about Hank Voight ever again.
The only body in the squad room was Torres, finishing up paperwork at his desk and trying his best not to stare at her. She knows he wants to say something; but he won’t be the one to break the silence.
She had opted to do this now - to not draw any more unwanted attention to herself. Sure, she had made a scene when she first came to Intelligence - depending on who you asked - but she wanted to leave quietly.
For the past seven years, this place had at first become a home to her until it eventually became a place she could barely stomach entering. The thing - or person - who had made it a home gone, leaving an aching hole in her heart she never thought would be repaired.
Then there was almost ten months of radio silence.
Until the day Jay came home.
Hailey freezes in the doorway, dropping her gym bag at her feet. It couldn’t be real - it wasn’t real and yet, it was.
Jay Halstead stands in the middle of her living room. For the first time in ten damn months.
“Hey, Hails.”
It was him , his voice, that damn nickname and all the warring emotions she’s gone through over the past ten months that sends a shock straight to her system. If she was being honest, she’d given up most of the day that she’d ever see him again.
“Jay,” she barely breathes out, because she can barely fucking believe it.
It hadn't been easy; but Jay and Hailey had made it work. They’d found their way back to each other over the last few months. And that Tungsten band had found its way back on her finger.
The two of them are just sitting on their couch, Chinese takeout on the coffee table and some movie neither of them are really watching anymore.
“I love you just as much as the day I first put this ring on your finger,” Jay says, sliding the ring onto her ring finger for hopefully the last time.
She stares down at the ring now and is reminded of exactly why she’s doing this. She heaves the box into her arms and turns around, about to head towards the steps when Torres finally opens his mouth and stops her in her tracks.
“So you really are leaving us?”
“I’m taking a leave ,” Hailey says, throwing him a glance over her shoulder.
“I know that,” Torres lets out a sigh. “But you’re packing up your desk and sneaking out of here like a ship in the night.”
“Just how I like it.”
If she was being honest, she just wanted to sneak out without Voight looming over her.
She smiles. Torres is good and he has a chance to become even better, to be a good cop; she just hopes and prays that Intelligence doesn’t take him down before he has a chance.
“Maybe I don’t have any plans on coming back,” she responds, softly.
Though she should have known she wouldn’t get out of the twenty first that quietly. A familiar sharp voice cutting through the lobby as the intelligence gate slams shut behind her for the final time.
“You’re going to do great, you know” Trudy says, leaning across the front desk, her eyebrow in an arch as she glances over Hailey.
“You getting soft on us, Sarge?” Hailey quips, but she’s smiling, knowing that while Trudy Platt may seem like a hardass to just about everyone else in the district - she saves a softer side for Hailey.
That same soft side, she first saw when she was just a scared little kid, whose parents' restaurant was robbed.
“I’ll deny it every time.”
Hailey walks down the last few steps until she’s fully standing in the lobby, not that far from the front desk. She stares up at Trudy and takes a breath. “Thank you, for the nudge.”
Trudy just shrugs. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Except there’s a smirk on her face and a knowing spark in her eyes. Trudy had been the one Hailey went to when she needed advice on what to; where she could go from Intelligence - the only other person Hailey trusted to have her best interests at heart.
“Are you ready to go?”
Hailey turns her head to see Jay standing in the doorway of the twenty first, hands in his pockets. “Yeah.”
Jay walks forward and takes the box from Hailey’s hands.
“Take care of her chuckles,” Trudy says, shooting Jay a knowing look. “Wherever the two of you end up.”
Hailey may be packing up her things and walking out of Intelligence for the last time; but she’s still technically a Chicago PD employee - who is taking full advantage of the saved up leave she has.
She may not know exactly where she’s gonna end up; but she knows she’s not coming back to Intelligence. More than willing to put the entire place behind her. Sure it’s given her a lot of good; but it’s given just as much, if not more bad.
“I’m not screwing this up again, Sarge,” Jay says, a firm tone to his voice, as he wraps his arm around Hailey’s shoulders and she smiles.
“Right now, we’re just getting out of the city for a while,” Hailey tells Trudy. “Figure out where we go from here.”
Hailey and Jay were retreating to Wisconsin; to the Halstead cabin for the next week, maybe longer, just to have time to themselves. Put their heads together and figure out the natural next steps would be for them.
Call it a second honeymoon.
“I have some thoughts,” Trudy says, pulling Hailey’s gaze towards her. “But I’ll keep them to myself for now… no need to sway you.”
“Do you mean any more than you already have?” Hailey asks her with a raised eyebrow.
“I just sent an informed email to a detective looking for the next steps in her career. It’s what I would do for anyone else in the same position.”
Hailey just chuckles, knowing that Trudy wouldn’t put that much effort in laying out other squads that had openings or a Sergeant exam study booklet for just anyone. But she appreciates it all the same.
Jay leans forward. “We do have a long drive ahead of us.”
They wave their goodbyes to Trudy and walk out of the twenty first together, for what is probably going to be the last time.
“Are you sure about this?” Jay asks her as he leads her to his truck. There’s a hesitancy in his voice as if he’s still scared he’s gonna lose her again. That all of this is gonna crumble beneath them again.
“I have never been more sure about anything else in my life, Jay Halstead,” she responds, firmly. She knows leaving Intelligence; putting the squad, the district and Hank Voight behind her is the best decision she can make. “Except marrying you.”
Jay smiles then, and it lights up his eyes. He leans down and presses his lips to hers. “I meant what I told Trudy that I’m not messing this up again. I’ve lost you once, and i –”
“Jay,” Hailey says, cutting him off. She reaches forward and cups his cheek. “I know. I believe you.”
He opens the back door of the truck and places her box of things on the seat; before moving to open the passenger door. Hailey bites back the quip about being able to open her own door and just lets him have it.
This time.
“You would make a great Sergeant, Hailey,” Jay says as soon as he slides into the driver’s seat.
“Has Platt gotten to you too,” she grumbles; but there’s an underlying smile in her tone. She reaches over and clicks her own seat belt.
Jay clicks his seat belt and starts the truck. “Maybe a little; but even if she hadn’t . I know how great of a cop you are, how great of a leader you could be. Any squad in the city would be lucky to have you.”
“I don’t even know if we’re still gonna be in this city,” she responds almost immediately and suddenly wants to take the words back, afraid she’s said too much, too soon.
“You?” Jay questions, tossing her a look. “Leave Chicago?”
Hailey just shrugs. “I can be a cop anywhere,” she turns her head and looks at him. “But I don’t get you anywhere.”
He seems taken aback by her admission and maybe she’s a little shocked too; but for a couple months there, before Jay came back, she was seriously considering leaving the city. Too much of it reminded her of him, the ghost of Jay everywhere she looked and she just couldn’t do it.
“You have me, Hailey,” he grabs her hand and gives it a squeeze before he shifts the truck into park. “Wherever we are.”
Hailey turns and looks out the window as Jay pulls out of the parking lot. “Isn’t that part of the reason we’re going to the cabin?”
“To find our ways back to each other , and figure out our next steps in our careers,” Jay heads down the normal route that will lead them to the highway. “I always thought Chicago was your home.”
“You’re my home, Jay Halstead.”
That much is true, she knew it was the second she first kissed him, knew it when she slipped that band on his finger, knew it with the ache in her chest when he left. Hailey didn’t care where she ended up, still in Chicago or somewhere completely different, a place where they could begin again without any ghosts lingering over them, as long as she had Jay by her side.
Her partner for life.