The Other Way Round

2

Hailey followed Jay with her eyes as he stood from the booth and left the bar before glancing back to the table full with people she didn't know. She had only been in Intelligence a week and was still in the "getting-to-know-you" faze with everyone. Jay was the only one she somewhat knew and even then he was practically a stranger. Everyone else watched him leave, Will made a joke about how the so-called minute Jay was going to be was actually going to be a lot longer and then they returned to their normal conversation.

She tries to join in as much as possible but her head kept jumping back to Jay. It had been a weird case and he had seemed distracted, really distracted. So after a few minutes had passed and he hadn't returned, Hailey excuses herself from the table and slides through the crowd taking over the floor in the bar. The moment she pokes her head around the large wooden door she sees him standing there, staring at his phone. She shuts the door and slowly approaches him, crossing her arms over her chest as the Chicago weather lets out a strong gust of wind that sends a chill down her spine.

Jay looks up at the gust and then catches Hailey stood there in the corner of his eye. "What are you doing out here?" He asks as he gradually puts his phone back into his pocket.

She shrugs, avoiding his eyes for a beat. "You've been out here a while," she says before tilting her head to one side and shooting him a soft smile. "I just wanted to make sure you're alright."

Jay nods. "I'm fine," he replies, making a gesture to his phone. "Erin's not picking up, she's probably in the car or something. She'll be here."

Hailey points to the entrance door. "You wanna wait inside then?"

Jay looks up and down the street before leaning up against the brick wall. "I'm just gonna stay out here, wait for her."

She takes a step forward, watching him for a moment. She didn't buy that he was fine but she didn't know him well enough to question it or to get an answer out of him, so she just bobbed her head. "Are you sure you're fine?" She tries once more, reaching the limit and in response she just gets a slow smile from Jay.

"I'll meet you back in there." He says and Hailey takes the hint given to her, backing off and going back inside the bar.

She returns to the booth and gets raised eyebrows from everyone, but Will is the only one that says anything.

"He didn't go down on you, did he?" Will asks and immediately shakes his head when Adam snorts on the other end of the table and the redhead sends a glared dagger toward the officer. "You're a grown adult."

Adam waves his hand, catching a chuckle in his elbow before shaking his own head. "I'm done."

Hailey takes her seat again at the head of the table. "He'll be back in a minute."

xxx

The following morning the unit was called in early for a private word before their shift started and Voight dropped the bombshell about Erin moving away to New York. Hailey had watched Jay's face drop to the floor at that and everyone else's eyes sunk. Hank then read out the slight change to the partner assignments, Hailey being put with Jay. Voight called Hailey into his office after and spoke to her about possibly transferring over to Intelligence in more of a long-term basis now there was a bigger spot open, and she told him she would have to think about it.

Hailey sat back that day, letting the unit process the news on their own without interfering because she barely knew Erin, had only worked with her a week and everyone else in the room had a lot of history with her, so it wasn't her place to tell them how to deal with the loss. The day was slow luckily, giving everyone the right space to deal with the anchor thrown down on top of them.