8. Chapter 8

You guys, I'm back! Sorry for the extended absence, school was quite busy for a while there. Being done exams inspired me to write some more, & I plan on updating again soon. Thank you for all of the nice comments and messages on my stories lately. I really love all the Upstead stories out on here as of late as well. Happy Holidays to you all! -K

Chapter 8

Over the next few weeks, Hailey had noticed a change in Jay. His behaviour had become a bit odd, he was more distant than usual. She had tried to talk to him to make sure he was okay, they had made so much progress lately. She would hate to see it go down the drain. But every time she brought it up, he brushed her off. So, she let it go.

Their case of the week was a troublesome one. They found a girl who was kidnapped years before and held in captivity, having a child with the man in the process. Burgess was taking it hard. So much so that she looked ill for days, out of sorts and pale as a ghost.

"She alright?" Hailey whispered to Adam, nudging him towards Kim.

He looked thrown off by that comment at first, Hailey thought it was strange, almost as if he was hiding something. She didn't think he would be weird about the two of them anymore, Hailey knew they always had a thing.

"Yeah, she's okay. Just taking this case hard you know?" Adam bounced back quickly.

"Understandable", Hailey left it at that and walked away.

The rest of the week was quiet in Intelligence. The team was working away on their own things, Rojas and Hailey were paired together most of the time. She didn't get much of a chance to talk with Jay, who had mostly been partnered with Kim. Friday came and Kevin gathered the team together in the bullpen.

"Alright, it's been a long few weeks, who is down for Molly's tonight?"

"Me", "Hell yes", "Let's go", rang out from around the room. Even Voight nonchalantly nodded and confirmed his attendance. Everyone was agreement, until Hailey realized, all but Jay spoke up.

"You're gonna come out for a drink right?" She looked up at him as he was sitting on the edge of her desk like he always did. She saw the hesitation before he hid it again and lied.

"Ya I think so, have to run an errand first though", he replied.

She didn't push it, but she knew something was up.

"Okay cool, see you there!" She got up to put her coat on and walked downstairs with the rest of the team, chatting to Vanessa about their day.

Jay watched on as he stayed up in the bullpen for a few minutes after everyone left. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He rubbed his temples and tried to pull himself together. No one knew what he had been up to for the last few weeks and he wanted to keep it that way.

The team ended up having a blast at Molly's that night. Karaoke was involved, Platt did her usual "Oh no me, I couldn't" act but then somehow ended up on stage singing her heart out to Bohemian Rhapsody. Everyone was killing themselves laughing, even Voight.

As the night went on and more drinks were had, the rest of the team trickled in, as well as most of 51. At first, Hailey didn't really realize everyone that was missing until she did a mental checklist. She had sent Jay a text but he never got back to her.

"Kim didn't make it out?" She asked Kevin and Adam, who quickly answered for her.

"No, she wasn't feeling very great today. Thinks she came down with a bug", Adam replied.

"Oh, that's not good. She did look a little pale today", Hailey and Vanessa said sympathetically.

"And Halstead?" The guys asked Hailey back.

She shrugged her shoulders and checked her phone to see if had replied to her. She was surprised to see that he actually did text her back. She opened it and raised her eyebrows.

"Hails, I've been sick a few times since coming home from work, not going to make it out tonight. Tell everyone I say hi!" She read out Jay's text.

"Ahh, that's too bad. Maybe him and Burgess have the same thing. Makes sense, they've been working together a lot this week." Kevin added, the rest of the group nodded along.

Hailey had a weird feeling about this, but that did make sense. If Burgess was sick, it wasn't totally unbelievable that Jay picked it up too.

"Ya guess so, that's a bummer", Hailey deflected and played it off. But deep down she knew something was going on with Jay and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

"Aww okay. Do you need anything? I can come by after Molly's?" She texted him back.

"That's alright, I'll be fine. Don't want you to get sick", he messaged back instantly.

Hailey sighed, stubborn Jay. "Okay, if you say so. Let me know if you need anything. I'll check on you later."

"Thanks, have fun", he ended the conversation.

Hailey put her phone away, not completely convinced that he was telling her the truth, but she decided to let it go and have fun with the rest of the team.

"Jay alright?" Vanessa inquired privately.

"I think so, just needs to sleep it off. I'll check on him tomorrow", she confided in her roommate, who at this point knew the nature of their partnership. Not romantic, but close.

"Sounds good. So now that we solved the missing Jay and Kim mystery, I think we should do some shots", Rojas smirked, Hailey laughed at that.

"Oh to be young again. What the hell, it's Friday", she agreed.

Elsewhere at Molly's, a smug Adam texted Kim a message after learning about Jay.

"Darlin, looks like you've been saved by Jay. He's not here either because he came down with something, so everyone bought that you're sick too." Adam chuckled at the timing of it all.

"Excellent. Well, not great that Jay's sick, but you know", Kim sent back with a wink face.

"You think Jay's actually sick though?" Adam replied, seeing how Hailey weirdly reacted to the text from her partner. And how they had been acting a bit strange with each other all week.

"Not sure, he seemed fine today. But you never know, these things can come on quickly. Could have been something he ate too." Kim reasoned.

"That's true. Hailey's still here so there goes our theory on that." Adam laughed as he sent that text back.

"Lol. I think the jury is still out on that one. Get off your phone though, have fun, see you later!" Kim ended their conversation and Adam went back to the table to have drinks with everyone. Thanks to Jay, their secret was still safe, for now.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, the team enjoying themselves. Voight even paid their tabs. All in all, a great time. Hailey had so much to drink that she forgot to text Jay when she got home to see if he was still okay. She went to her bed and passed out right away.

The next morning, she woke up after sleeping in a bit. Surprisingly feeling okay considering the night they had. Rojas was nursing a bit of a hangover herself, when Hailey went downstairs to the kitchen and found her waiting for the coffee to be ready.

"Ouch", they laughed together.

"Plans for today?" Hailey asked.

"You're looking at it", Rojas motioned to her pyjamas and Netflix turned on in the living room.

"Gotcha", Hailey chuckled.

"You? Jay?" She said suggestively.

Hailey tried to fight a smile, she was allowing herself to be a bit more open with Vanessa about their situation. If there truly was one, she didn't even really know right now. But she knew that Vanessa knew something was up. Perks of living with another observant cop. She wasn't exactly trying to be dishonest.

"Ya, I'll probably head over there later. I messaged him a while ago to see how he was doing but no reply. Probably still sleeping if he isn't feeling well."

"Probably, it's still early. You're welcome to join me and my Christmas movie binge for the time being", Rojas offered, to which Hailey agreed.

They spent a few hours watching movies and drinking coffee with one another when Hailey decided she was going to pull herself together for the day. Still radio silence from Jay, which made her a bit nervous. She felt especially guilty after she checked 'Find my friends' to see his location at his apartment. Maybe he was actually sick, he was a bit off yesterday, more so than the rest of the week.

Vanessa had fallen asleep on the couch so Hailey quietly got up and went into the kitchen to make some soup to bring over to her partner.

She was about done when she heard Vanessa yawn behind her.

"Smells good, what are you making?" She peered over her shoulder to inspect what was in the pot.

"Making Jay some chicken noodle, still haven't heard from him. He must really be sick", Hailey said checking the time.

"Ahh, not good. I'm sure he'll appreciate that. Nothing better than homemade soup when you're sick", Vanessa replied, not mentioning the nervous energy she was picking up off of Hailey.

Hailey smiled, returning to the simmering pot, giving it a quick taste test to see if it was ready. She went upstairs to get dressed and head over to Jay's.

On the drive over she tried calling him but still no answer. It was 3 in the afternoon and very unlike Jay to be radio silent for this long.

She pulled up to his apartment to find his truck parked outside where it normally was, and his phone still showed that he was inside. She didn't really like spying on him like that, it felt weird. But, she wanted to make sure he was alright.

She brought the food upstairs and knocked on his apartment door. Nothing. She tried again, and again. Her soft knocking became a little bit louder.

"Jay it's me. I've come to take care of you. Brought you some soup, open up", she said.

Hailey couldn't see this, but Jay was leaning with his back on the other side of the door.

"I know you're in there!" Hailey yelled out a little bit sassier this time. He could hear the frustration in his partner's voice.

Jay's heart hurt hearing the dejection in Hailey's voice, masked as annoyance. He didn't want to be doing this to her, he knew it was wrong. But he didn't want her to get tangled up in this mess he had created for himself either.

"Jay I don't care if you're sick. I will spoon feed this to you if I have to…"

He smirked at that. And he wished so badly that he was brave enough to open the door right then and there and let her in, tell her what was really going on. That he wasn't really sick last night, that he had gone to help Angela with some grocery shopping. Maybe she would give him advice on how to fix it like she always does. But he didn't, he froze. He let himself watch her through the peep hole just stand there, holding her ground, knowing that he was keeping something from her but trying to get through to him anyways. It broke his heart to see her standing there in his hallway so unsure, biting her bottom lip. The habit she does when she's nervous or thinking really hard. If he had to guess, right now she was probably halfway between storming off or kicking his door in. Then she mumbled her last thing between the doorway.

"Alright, I made you this chicken noodle because it's your favourite. So I'm going to leave it here for you. Call me when you're ready to talk." He looked out through the peep hole and saw her leave the pot of soup at his doorway and pause for a second before turning back down the hall. He waited for her to disappear down the stairwell and watched her drive away from his front window before quietly opening his door and taking the soup inside. There was a note on top.

"I know you aren't sick. Or maybe you are. I don't know. Either way, whatever is bothering you, you know that I will always be in your corner –H."

He bit down on his bottom lip and let out a big sigh. What was he doing?! His partner came over here and brought homemade soup thinking he was sick. She was even prepared to take care of him. He didn't deserve her, and she certainly didn't deserve this.

Jay slowly ate some of the soup, and although he wasn't sick, it did make him feel a lot better. Her cooking always did. He waited a few hours before texting her, revealing a little bit of the truth.

"The soup was really good thanks Hails. I want to be honest with you right now, but I'm just not ready to talk about it yet." He nervously hit send and waited, getting a reply back a few minutes later.

"Anytime. You know that you can talk to me about anything. I just want to make sure you're okay?" She replied back.

"Things are okay, I'll see you Monday", he closed off the conversation before she could pry anything else out. He was trying to keep his head above water and wanted to talk to Hailey about everything, just not now.

The rest of the weekend went by and Jay didn't hear much from Hailey. He knew she was trying to give him some space and he appreciated that. That was until he saw her car parked across the street from the baseball diamond Sunday afternoon.

He said good bye to Angela and Bobby, and slowly walked towards Hailey's vehicle. He sighed, she knew.

Hailey looked on at Jay, shaking her head, and rolled down her window when he approached her car.

"You following me?" He said in a way that sort of sounded like flirting with her.

"Wellll, that's what happens when you keep lying to your partner", she said sassily.

"I lied to you?" Jay tried once more to keep his walls up, but Hailey wasn't having it.

"Last week you said she was an unwitting so I did my due diligence. I know who she is, but the question is does she know who you are?"

"No, she doesn't. But it's okay, I know what I'm doing."

"Jay…", Hailey shook her head, the disappointment on her face was killing him.

"Hailey, I'm just trying to help out a family that got screwed."

"If she finds out who you are, we're all screwed. You gotta walk away", she stared at him sternly, they were having a separate conversation with their eyes compared to what was coming out of her mouth. Her real thoughts were that she was worried about him.

"Okay", he agreed somewhat reluctantly and went to turn towards his truck.

Hailey was about to say something else when she heard her phone ping.

"Hold up Jay, it's Voight. Body in Inglewood, he wants us on scene."

Jay nodded and tapped her vehicle, "Okay, I'll meet you there."

Hailey agreed and rolled up her window, shaking her head profusely once Jay could no longer see her. What was he doing?

They didn't have much time to talk about anything else as soon as they arrived on the scene together. And it was a gruesome one, stomach turning even. They processed the body and split up to look into this murder. Hailey and Jay turned to leave when he whispered that he had to leave.

"What do you mean? We have work to do", she said confused.

"It won't take long, let's not talk about it here", he said, trying to keep things private.

"Okay, do what you gotta do", she told him, even though she did not like this. Not one bit. He left quietly and Hailey was left to deal with questions from Voight.

"Where did Halstead go?"

"He had to step out and take care of something. It's personal", Hailey covered for her partner.

"Something you want to tell me?" He inquired suspiciously.

"Jay's going through a few things, he's working it out", Hailey replied carefully.

"Something you don't want to tell me?" Voight changed his question.

"Ya, but it's not my place to share. Not yet anyways", Hailey smirked, knowing that not much got by their boss. But she needed to protect Jay on this one.

Voight looked suspicious, but knew Hailey always had Jay's best interest at heart. So if she was fine with him stepping out, he wasn't going to question it- for now.

Meanwhile, Jay raced over to Angela's house. The text he received from her was cryptic. His suspicions were confirmed when he peered inside her living room window and saw blood on the carpet. His adrenaline spiked as he kicked the door in and yelled around the house for her.

He made it as far as the kitchen before he felt something heavy strike him in the back of the head, and then everything went black.