Chapter Text
Hailey woke up to a splitting headache and a pounding on the front door. She’d had a little too much wine the night before, and washed it down with a couple of glasses of whiskey as she had the day off and had intended to spend it in bed.
She swung her legs out of bed and grabbed the glass of water she was thankful she’d remembered to put on her nightstand, draining it in one go. She grabbed one of Jay’s hoodies off the chair and pulled it on as she walked towards the door, having slept wearing much less than she usually would have because of the early summer heat. She pulled down her sleep shorts that she was wearing underneath so that they were actually visible and it didn’t look like she was answering the door half naked.
"I’m coming!" She shouted as the knock came again, just as she moved the empty glasses and half drunk bottles over to the kitchen so that wouldn’t be the first thing whoever was at the door noticed.
"Give me a minute." She muttered under her breath. She combed her fingers through her hair to make sure it wasn’t a tangled birds’ nest, and opened the door.
She didn’t know who she was expecting on the other side, but a young woman holding the hand of a little girl was not it.
The first thing Hailey noticed was that they didn’t look related. The woman was clearly young, though given the fact she seemed to be wearing business attire she could well have just looked young for her age. She was tanned with soft brown eyes and had long and jet black hair, tied back in a long ponytail.
In contrast, the little girl was pale with a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks and nose. Her eyes were green and her hair a light reddish brown, and despite the fact Hailey was sure she had never seen her before, there was something that was so familiar about her.
It was clear that the woman hadn’t been expecting Hailey to answer the door, as she looked stunned, glancing down at the phone in her hand, presumably to check she had the right apartment.
Nobody spoke for the first few seconds, and the silence seemed to stretch out until it was almost uncomfortable as all three of them stared at each other. "Uh, hi?" Hailey said after a moment, deciding to bite the bullet. The thought running through her mind was that the sooner whatever this was had been dealt with, the sooner she could go back to bed.
"Sorry, I think I must have written down the wrong address." The woman apologised, looking down at her phone again and trying, unsuccessfully, to subtly look behind Hailey to see if there was anyone else in the apartment. "I’m looking for Jay Halstead’s apartment."
"Uh, no, you’re in the right place." Hailey shook her head a little, trying not to show just how surprised she was by someone asking after Jay. "I’m Hailey. His wife." Hailey pretended not to see the woman glance towards her left hand, looking for the wedding ring that had been hidden away since she took it off a few weeks ago. Feeling self-conscious of the missing ring, not for the first time, she moved her hand so that it was resting on the inside of the door frame.
"Oh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise he was married." She stammered. She had to be young, Hailey thought as she apologised again, maybe early to mid twenties at most. Even if there had been any resemblance between them, Hailey would have been surprised if she was old enough to be the girl’s mother. "Is he here? I’m sorry, I really need to speak to him and this is my last resort. I’ve been calling him but he didn’t answer any of them."
"Don’t worry, it’s nothing personal. He doesn’t answer mine either." She muttered to herself, taking a deep breath before actually answering. "Jay’s currently on deployment with the army in Bolivia. The reason you’ve not been able to contact him is because he’s been outside the wire for the last few days and isn’t due to be reachable for another two minimum."
"Oh." She sighed. "Crap."
"Anything I can help with?" Hailey asked. The woman must have been a CI of Jay’s. He’d only passed a few over to her when he left, and if he’d flipped her right before then Hailey definitely wouldn’t have known anything about her. She didn’t look like a CI, but that didn’t exactly discount her. There wasn’t a single other reason Hailey could think a random woman would be on her doorstep at quarter to eight in the morning asking to speak to her husband.
"Um, I suppose you can if you’re his wife?" She looked down at the little girl, who was looking up at Hailey with an expression she couldn’t quite read. "I’m from DCFS. Katherine was transferred over to us in Chicago two days ago so we could release her to Mr Halstead’s care. Ms Lindsay has very thorough paperwork, which is clear that in the event she is not able to care for Katherine here, then she needs to go straight to Mr Halstead for him to take custody. I’ll have to check with my boss, but if you’re his wife I guess it’s the same thing."
It was like Hailey’s brain was buffering as she tried to process the information that had just been thrown at her. The fact she’d spent the previous night drinking to spend the day in bed recovering probably didn’t help. "I’m sorry, I’m going to need you to explain that. From the beginning."
The woman put her hands on the little girl’s shoulder. The little girl looked up at Hailey, and in that moment, looking down into her pale green eyes, Hailey knew exactly why they were looking for Jay. "This is Katherine. Mr Halstead’s daughter." The words echoed in Hailey’s ears and she stepped aside to invite them in. Her hangover could wait. She had more important things to deal with.