The Other Way Round

3

As Hailey rounded the corner she saw Will take his brother in for a hug so she pulls back, staying put as not to interrupt the moment. A beat later the doctor parts and whispers something to Jay before taking off out of the door. When he leaves, Hailey slowly walks over to where Jay was stood looking through the window into the ICU.

"Hey, I just heard-" she goes to say something but gets cut off by Jay as he quickly brushes his hand against her shoulder and walks past her.

"I'm fine, thanks." He deflects, walking away from her and down the corridor she had just came through.

She calls his name and stops him before he could disappear around the corner. "Look, I didn't see you exchange fire but I've got your back."

He subtly shakes his head, extending his hand out as a way of telling her it was fine. "Just tell the truth, I've got nothing to hide."

Hailey nods and looks to him sadly when she notices the slight red-rim around his eyes. He was taking this whole thing really hard. She knew deep down he knew this whole thing was an accident but in the month and a half she had known him she also knew that he would have that guilt sitting on his shoulders. She had come to realize Jay was very much wired through the heart, she had seen it, seen him, and she knew this incident would be getting to him.

"When are you meeting with the shooting team?" Hailey asks.

"Twenty minutes." He replies, giving a forced half-smile as he throws one hand into the other.

She returns the small upturn in the corners of her lips. "Good luck." She offers.

He didn't need the luck, the whole event couldn't have been prevented and the facts pointed to that. He handled it the right way, anyone could see that, there was no way the shooting team wouldn't see it. This whole thing was a freak accident, a one in a million chance. She just wished he'd properly get that through his head so he wouldn't feel at fault.

"Thanks." Jay says before turning back around and disappearing around the corner she had come round a minute before.

He needed his space and she wasn't going to push, so she stayed rooted to where she was stood and just watched him walk away.

xxx

"So how are you settling into Intelligence?" It's the first thing Kim asks her when Hailey walks into the officer's apartment.

Hailey nods, looking around the apartment before putting her attention back onto Kim. "It's better than Robbery-Homicide, I'll tell you that much. Don't get me wrong, I loved being there, but you don't get that rush like you do in Intelligence, and it's not always the same case over and over again."

Kim points toward the couch, telling Hailey to make herself comfortable. She had invited Hailey over as a way of trying to get to know her better because in the six weeks she had been in the unit, Kim hadn't really spent that much time interacting with her. Kim then glances over her shoulder. "Do you want a drink?"

Hailey shakes her head. "I'm fine, thanks." She replies, making Kim turn back around.

"And what about your partner? I know he can be a hassle sometimes." Kim questions and it makes Hailey chuckle, as she walks over to the couch and sits down beside the detective.

"He's great," Hailey answers honestly because up until now she had never had a partner quite like Jay but Kim's question opens up the door to one of her own and it gives her the perfect opportunity for it. Hailey leans into the couch hesitantly and gives the other officer a curious dip in her eyebrows. "Speaking of Jay, this case really seemed to rattle him but he won't say much, you know him better than I do, do you know why?"

She shrugs. "I think anyone in Jay's situation would have been rattled," she answers and Hailey bobs her head along as she takes in the information. "One thing you need to know about Jay is that he doesn't talk about his feelings, usually keeps them bottled up until something happens. Yes the case bothered him and understandably why but we'll never find out the real reason behind it."

Just then Hailey's phone starts buzzing in her pocket and when she takes it out and flips it around to see the screen she smiles at the caller ID, lifting it up to show Kim. "Speak of the devil." Hailey jokes, answering the phone and bringing it up to her ear. "Hi, Jay."

"Hailey," his voice comes through nervously and in an instant the smile on her face is gone. "Can I talk to you quick?" He asks.

She nods her head despite the fact he wouldn't have been able to see it. "Yeah, of course."

He stammers. "Where- Where are you right now?"

As Hailey replies to her partner's question she unconsciously looks around the apartment again. "At Kim's."

On the other end of the phone Hailey can hear Jay shake his head quickly and sit up on something. "Oh, sorry to interrupt. Don't worry about it."

"Jay."

"No it's fine, it's just a dumb question anyway, it can wait until tomorrow. Have fun with Kim and I'll see you at work."

Hailey's too slow to say anything else, the sound of the call being hung up cuts her short and she pulls the phone away from her ear, staring to it with a deep dent in her eyebrows, watching the brick intently.

When Kim speaks up it brings her attention firmly off of the phone. "What is it?"

Hailey looks up to Kim and shrugs, not entirely sure herself. "I don't know."

Kim asked what happened and Hailey explained it, down to the nervousness in his voice and shift in his seat and after a beat Kim just blows it off. "That's just Jay, if I were you I'd get used to the weird interactions over phone calls."

Hailey tried to laugh it off and just ignore the phone call but it wasn't working. Something in her gut told her there was more to that phone call than Jay was letting on and the thoughts took over that night, she couldn't focus on anything else but it wasn't like she could barge over there at 2:30 in the morning to ask him "what was that phone call about?". She managed to finally fall asleep about four, only to have her alarm go off two and a half hours later for her to get ready for work. When she got to the district she was suddenly caught off guard the moment her foot stepped on to the bullpen when she found the room had been rearranged, desks scooted across the floor, now facing each other. She pushed it away and her first pit stop was Jay's newly placed desk and luckily he was already there so she perched herself on top of it and lowered her voice.

"What was that last night?" She asked.

Jay looks up and pulls up the corners of his lips into a half-smile. "Good morning to you too."

"Morning," she quickly says before circling back, leaning down so she was slightly closer to him. "What was that phone call? What did you want to talk to me about?"

Jay shakes his head, blowing it off with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't remember, sorry. It was probably irrelevant anyway."

She didn't want to insist on him telling her whatever it was that drove him to call her last night so she slowly stands up, giving him the option to tell her if he'd like but Jay stays quiet, pointing to the desk opposite his when she looks around the room nervously, unsure on where it had been put. She didn't have any of the distinguishing props sat on hers just yet, she had been meaning to bring something in to put beside her monitor but hadn't got around to it.

Hailey gives Jay an thanking smile as she shrugs her jacket off of her shoulders and puts it on the back of the chair before wandering off into the break room to grab herself a cup of coffee to wake her up more and to fight of the exhaustion from having stayed up most of the previous night. When she returns, Jay's focused on writing something up on his computer so she moves on and drinks her coffee in silence while warming up her own monitor and waiting for the rest of the unit to show up.