27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Hailey draped a blanket around Jay's shoulders and put a hand on his lower back before they climbed up the stairs to bed together.

He mumbled his thanks, still trying to shake the chills.

"Let's get you to bed", she whispered as she opened her door.

She realized that Vanessa had already been in here and had a glass of water, thermometer, Gatorade and Tylenol already set out on Jay's side of the bed. I lucked out with this girl, she thought.

She pulled the blankets back and eased Jay under, tucking just the sheets over his shoulders gently.

"I'm cold", he whispered.

"I know, but you have a fever still. You're going to overheat if you have more blankets", Hailey said sympathetically as she cupped his cheek.

"Not exactly how I imagined getting in bed with you on your first night back", he said jokingly. Hailey snorted in laughter.

"Same. But I'm here now. We'll have lots of time to explore once you're feeling better", she replied.

"You're okay? How are you feeling?" Jay asked as he rolled over in bed to face her.

"I'm okay thanks. Still feel a bit drained, but it's been a stressful week so looking forward to just taking it easy", she smiled.

"You sure you want to sleep in bed with me? I'm still contagious until these antibiotics kick in", Jay said hesitantly. The last thing he wanted was to give Hailey strep.

"Of course Jay, I'm not worried about that just sleep okay?" Hailey said quietly as she gently ran her thumb over his cheek bone.

He smiled and closed his eyes as Hailey went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. She came out a few minutes later to find him snoring already. She quietly turned off the lamp on her night stand and crawled in next to Jay.

Their sleep that night was pretty intermittent. Jay was up tossing and turning every so often, uncomfortable with his fever, alternating between hot and cold.

When he was too hot he would whip the blankets off and sprawl out. She didn't really need the blankets then either, it was like sleeping next to her own personal furnace. She would dab a cool cloth on his forehead every so often and wait for him to fall back asleep. Then half an hour later he would get the chills again and curl up as close as possible to her. She let him rest his head on her chest as she put an arm across his back, pulling him in for a snuggle. She would rub his back every so often to keep him asleep and that seemed to work for a while.

Morning rolled around and Hailey yawned as she tried to wiggle out from under Jay. Who had conveniently fallen asleep against her side and on her chest. She almost didn't want to move him, the way his breathing was she could tell he was in a deep sleep, one he most definitely needed. So she stayed that way for a little while, running her hand along his spine and up through his hair. Feeling his cheeks and forehead, it felt like his fever had finally gone down, which was a relief.

Around 8:30 she felt him start to come to. He slowly raised his head, which was now more against Hailey's stomach because she managed to wiggle up in bed to have a coffee and watch the news.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" She asked.

"A bit better actually", he confirmed, the pain in his throat starting to subside.

"Good. Let me check your temperature before you have anything to eat or drink okay?"

He nodded as she stuck the thermometer in his mouth and waited a minute. "99.6. Still a bit feverish, but not too bad."

"I need to shower", he said, wanting to wash away some of the sickness.

She smiled, "Okay. There's a towel in there for you."

He got up slowly, evaluating how he was feeling, which was a lot better than the last few days.

He came back out shortly after, feeling fresh, and more like a functioning member of society, even though he still felt a little achy.

With just a towel wrapped around his waist, Hailey felt her own cheeks getting a bit warm. She bit her lip to contain herself, He's sick right now, must control your thoughts. Even though all of the thoughts she had right now were dirty, and involved Jay losing the towel.

"I see you staring Hailey Anne", Jay smiled devilishly as he pretended to drop the towel.

"Jay Halstead the second you are feeling 100 percent, we are 100 percent going to be doing hot things in this bed other than have fevers."

He winked at her, before raising an eyebrow and chuckling, causing a bit of a coughing attack.

She winced, getting up to hand him a glass of water.

"Did I kill the mood there?" He asked after he caught his breath.

She scrunched her nose, "Just a little bit. But on the bright side, we can still spend the whole day in bed."

"Oh?" Jay questioned.

"Resting", Hailey stressed, and followed it with a cute dimpley smile.

"That sounds good to me", he smiled back weakly.

Just as he was finished getting dressed, albeit back into different track pants and a hoodie, Vanessa knocked on the door.

"Come in", Hailey said.

Vanessa came in with a tray full of breakfast goodies, putting a smile on their faces.

"Room service", she joked, carrying in some oatmeal and smoothies.

"Thanks Vanessa, I could have done this", Hailey said genuinely.

"Mom and Dad are back and not feeling the greatest. Soooo", she smiled. Jay laughed at that.

"Mom and Dad huh", Hailey said sounding amused.

"Vanessa has really taken to calling us her parents since you've been gone", he explained to Hailey.

"I think that means we're supposed to be taking care of you then", Hailey laughed.

"I know I know. But, believe it or not you guys I did fend for myself for many, many years. It's nice to finally have people in my life that I can call family, and you both have done so much for me. The least I can do when you guys aren't feeling well. So this is just me looking after you", Vanessa said almost tearfully.

Hailey and Jay were quiet for a second, just listening intently. They were both lucky to have Vanessa.

It was Jay that broke the silence first, "V you don't owe us anything, you are part of this family now. But this, he motioned to the breakfast, is greatly appreciated", he gave her a gentle smile that Hailey nodded in agreement with.

"Good. Plus you need to take more medicine now, with food", she handed him his pills, and he proceeded to dig in to the oatmeal.

Vanessa got up to leave as Hailey called her back in, "You aren't joining us for breakfast?"

She didn't really expect them to ask her to join them.

"Thought you two lovebirds might want some alone time", she said mischievously.

"First of all, that is not in the cards for today", Hailey said motioning to Jay's medicine and thermometer sitting on her nightstand. He chuckled and nodded in response.

"Secondly, I need to tell you both my wild story of how I got home. Come join us, plus after we can check if there are any good Saturday morning cartoons on", Hailey barely said through laughter, Jay unable to hold his giggles in either.

"Alright, alright, let me go get my coffee", Vanessa said as she returned a few minutes later and took a seat on the armchair in Hailey's room.

Jay had devoured his oatmeal and moved on to the smoothie by the time Vanessa was back. "Mmmm, this feels good on my throat. Thank you", he told her, feeling hungry for the first time in a few days.

"You're welcome", she smiled. "You feeling better?"

"A bit yeah, thanks for taking one for the team yesterday", Jay replied.

"Any time Halstead", they raised their coffee and smoothies to each other and clinked in the air.

"Okay, so… we thought you were going to be stuck in New York…?", Jay started.

"Right", Hailey said setting down her coffee.

"Will called me the other night after we talked", she said motioning to Jay who nodded.

"I was freaking out, naturally. I mean in hindsight, we definitely just had colds. Still lingering. But OA was super sick… like way worse than me. So we were nervous."

Jay and Vanessa nodded at that, agreeing with the obvious turmoil happening in the world right now. Although Jay had the slightest twinge of jealousy at her recounting her time in New York with her partner there. But Hailey was here now, taking care of him.

"So we went and got tested, thankfully we were both negative. I asked Will what I should do. He said he was hearing rumblings from the CDC about quarantining and shutting down travel the whole bit. You remember his friend from the CDC who came to Chicago in the fall back when that flesh eating bacteria was here?" They all shuddered at that, not happy memories.

"Yes", Jay replied, unsure where this was going.

"Well, he called in a favour", Hailey stated.

"I'm confused", Vanessa replied, Jay nodded in agreement.

Hailey laughed. "Turns out, she was flying into Chicago to meet with public health here about all of this. Soooo, Will did some smooth talking and managed to squeeze me on the CDC's plane."

Jay laughed. "Of course he did."

"Wait you flew on a private plane here?!" Vanessa laughed incredulously.

"Ya, what a turn of events huh. I had to fly in full hazmat gear basically and get tested again before I was allowed on, but I wasn't going to complain about that", Hailey smiled.

They spent a few minutes laughing at that, of all the ways she could have got back here, Jay did not think it would have been on a private jet with the CDC.

"So long story short, I owe Will a biggg favour", Hailey said candidly.

Jay smiled, even though he was thinking that it was him that owed his brother a big favour. He would be forever grateful that Will got Hailey out of New York just in time.

True to Hailey's word that morning, her and Jay spent the rest of the day in bed. They went on a Sons of Anarchy binge and didn't move much other than to go to the bathroom and grab a bite to eat. Jay was asleep on and off because he still wasn't feeling the greatest, curled tightly against Hailey for much of the afternoon. She would occasionally rub his back if he was restless or talk to him when he was awake.

They finally got to have a nice meal together, well Hailey had a nice meal with Vanessa more like it. Jay ate some scrambled eggs, and he was finally feeling a lot better at night since the antibiotics had kicked in. His fever had finally broken too.

They got a call from Voight later that night, informing them that the decision had been made to shut things down for two weeks. Not just strictly because of Hailey coming back from New York, but all of them were going to quarantine, out of precaution. Even though they were essential workers, their unit was not deemed essential at the moment.

At first they were a bit stressed about that, but after talking it over amongst the three of them they were happy that everyone was healthy, they were safe where they were and saw this as an opportunity to spend some quality time together and recharge.

Vanessa poured herself and Hailey a glass of wine and they all sat together in the living room.

"None for me?" Jay teased.

Vanessa laughed, "Not until your antibiotics are finished. I think we're going to have tons of time to day drink over the next few weeks it looks like."

"True, cheers", Hailey raised a glass to her younger friend.

The three of them watched a movie by the fire, with Jay eventually finding his way to leaning against Hailey and falling asleep. She had his head cradled against her chest, Vanessa gently throwing a blanket over him.

"Hey, Kevin is going to come over", she whispered to Hailey.

Hailey raised her eyebrows at that, curiously. Initially she didn't connect the dots.

All it took was for Rojas to give one smirk back for Hailey to realize what she had missed while she was in New York.

"What?!" She mouthed stunned, then looking down towards Jay. Suddenly in a panic that Kevin was going to discover her secret too.

Rojas fluffed her off, "Kev already knows about this", she motioned to a sleeping Jay.

Now Hailey was even more perplexed, "I'll explain later", Vanessa told her as she saw the glow of Kevin's headlights pull in front of their house.

Hailey didn't really have time to move or adjust herself or Jay so she accepted that Kevin was about to full on walk in on them.

To his credit, Vanessa opened the door and let him in, being careful not to wake Jay. Kevin stepped in the house giving Hailey a big smile and pointing to Jay snuggled up against her, making a heart with his hands. So cute, he mouthed. Hailey laughed and rolled her eyes.

"He's still sick, we're trying to let him sleep", Vanessa explained in a hushed voice.

Kev nodded then headed carefully behind the couch to give Hailey a hug.

"Welcome back Upton. Glad you're home safe and sound", he said as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and neck.

Hailey's right arm came up to meet Kevin's, as that's the only body part she could wriggle free at the moment.

"Glad to be back", she whispered.

"What's wrong with Halstead?" Kevin asked.

"Strep, his fever's finally gone. He's exhausted though", Hailey replied, while double checking by lightly touching her hand to his forehead.

"Mmm, that's no fun. I'll leave you two to rest", Kevin winked, earning another eye roll and smile from Hailey.

"Ya, we're gonna talk about this later", she said pointing to Vanessa in the kitchen.

"You guys okay? You need anything before we go upstairs?" Vanessa asked, changing the subject.

"I'm okay thanks, I'm going to let him sleep for a while longer then we'll probably go up to bed, call it an early night", Hailey whispered. The fact that Jay was out cold during all of this really showed how much he needed the sleep.

Vanessa gave a thumbs up and disappeared upstairs with Kevin.

Hailey finished the movie and sat quietly with Jay for a while before reaching for her phone. She swore under her breath when she realized she had a few missed calls and messages from Will. She called him back right away and was surprised to hear him out of breath like he had been crying, sounding stressed- more than he had been all week.

"Hailey. I need your help."

Another cryptic ending, don't hate me! I'm having a bit of writers block but hopefully you guys will be happy with this chapter and the ones to come! I'm thinking I will wrap this up in a few chapters, but I'll have to see what I come up with. Thank you so much for the kind reviews and messages. Hope everyone is happy and healthy & enjoying the last weeks of summer. – K