The Other Way Round

5

*TW// mentions of rape at the end as we go over 5x18 "Ghosts"*
-

It was day two of the stakeout and they were both starting to get insanely bored. The previous day they had spent it watching intently out the window watching the bakery for any activity but today they had relaxed a little and before they got there, Jay had picked up a pizza.

"What are you doing?" Hailey had asked when Jay stopped the truck in front of the pizzeria Bartoli's.

He shrugged his shoulders as he stepped out of the vehicle. "I'm hungry."

She glanced at the center console and at the time displayed on the screen. "It's eleven, did you not have breakfast?"

"Who has time for breakfast?" He questioned and then shut the door, leaving her sat in the truck as he disappeared and entered the joint.

As Hailey glanced at the cameras she sat into the chair. She then looks at Jay, standing by the window and picking up another slice of pizza. "So we've worked together how long now?" She asks, making Jay take his gaze away from the street below.

Jay scrunches his face up, trying to figure out where she was going with her question, why she was even asking it in the first place and how long they had been working together. "I don't know, six, seven months? Why?" He asks, putting his attention back outside the window.

Hailey leans forward and tries to grab a slice of the pizza from the box but Jay swats her hand away and mumbles under his breath, which makes an amused grin grow on her lips. "You're seriously gonna keep that whole thing to yourself? You can't eat that whole thing, it's huge."

Jay raises his finger to stop her talking. "First of all, you have never seen me eat pizza, I'm very capable of eating this whole thing. And secondly, I was going to offer you some before you tried to steal one."

"It's food."

Jay shrugs it off and slides the box across the windowsill so she could grab a slice. "So we've been partners six, seven months, what was the next part of that conversation?"

Hailey finishes what was in her mouth before nodding, continuing where she was going. "We've known each other this long but all I actually know about you is that you're a slight stubborn pain in the ass that hogs pizza."

Jay widens his eyes, glancing around the room before locking his gaze on hers. "What else is there to know, that's exactly who I am."

She shakes her head. "Tell me something I don't know."

Jay furrows his eyebrows. "Like what?"

"I don't know," she chuckles, having been hoping he'd just say something but the more she thinks about it the more she realizes that would never have happened. "Did you have any weird nicknames growing up?" She asks, jumping straight in with the first thing that came into her head.

Not "what's your favorite color" or "what are your hobbies" like a normal person would ask when getting to know someone they work with, Hailey goes with probably the most personal on the list of get-to-know-you questions and she mentally kicks herself for that one, but rather than make a comment on it, Jay answers.

"I didn't, but my brother did. He was always called Ginger Spice, including by me." He replies, looking back out the window.

She nods, going off of that. "Well what was it like growing up Ginger Spice?" She asks, watching the side of his face as it turns up into a grin.

"I'd say hell, but that would be a very generous understatement," he says, keeping his focus on the bakery opposite. He then shakes his head. "No, it was fine. Bit rocky a couple years back but we're better now."