Macie's Story

16

(February 23rd, 40 days old)

Hailey felt her pace slow down as she reached the top of the steps. There was still a slight ping in her abdomen the closer she reached the top but she pushed it aside. The change in her movement catches the attention of Jay, who comes to a stop and he looks over his shoulder, sending a concerned look.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

She steps up a stair, moving to stand on the same one as him. "Yeah, I'm fine."

He edges his chin forward slightly. "Hailey, if you've changed your mind-"

She cuts him off quickly, shaking her head. "No, I have to come back to work, I can't stay at home anymore, I just sit there worrying about getting a phone call."

Jay feels his face fall and his eyebrows knit together, a sinking feeling in his chest upon learning that. She hadn't said anything before. He turns more to the side and lets his feet slip down to the stair below so he is more eye level with her. "What?" He whispers.

Hailey tries to blow it off and continue climbing up the stairs as if nothing had been said but while they had the privacy of the back stairwell Jay reaches up and grabs hold of her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

She lets out a sigh and feels her shoulders slump forward. "It's just things have been going so well recently, it's hard not to have a nagging feeling in the back of my head telling me something's gonna happen, that's all."

Jay squeezes her hand again and sends his fiancé a reassuring smile. "Hey, nothing is gonna happen, we're gonna get to bring her home in six weeks, nothing's gonna change that, I promise."

She returns the smile and nods her head, seeming to be taking in his words but gets cut off from saying something when one of the patrol officers rounds the corner and stops suddenly in his tracks.

"Oh sorry," he says after almost bumping directly into them before he quickly sends Hailey a smirk. "Good to see you're back, detective Upton." He adds as he walks behind Jay, carrying on his path taking the stairs two at a time.

Once the stairwell goes quiet again, Jay tilts his head to one side. "C'mon, we better get upstairs."

By the time they reached the top of the stairs and walked through the side entrance to the bullpen, Hailey could already hear the all-too familiar ringing coming from the desk. It sounded like any other phone on the planet, but at the same time Hailey swore the ones upstairs had a distinctive, loud sound, she could hear it a mile away.

The ring from the phone sat on the desk opposite hers let out its shrill and made Jay groan slightly as he sat forward in his chair to answer it. He lifted the phone to his ear, silencing the noise and looked back to the computer monitor in front of him.

"Oh, hi, Sarge." He greeted down the phone.

Hailey couldn't hear the sergeant on the other end, but after a quick glance over her fiancée's shoulder she found the office behind him empty, so it had to be Platt calling him and by the way Jay's face dropped it couldn't have been good news. "What? Again?"

She felt her gaze fall on him again and watched as his shoulders moved up and down as he let out a sigh.

"When's she gonna let it go?" He asked. He paused for a second before he began to stand up from the desk, leaning over so as not to pull on the cord as he replied. "Okay, I'll be right down." He brought the phone down and hung up the call.

Hailey queried her eyebrows. "That lady back?" She guessed.

He nodded slightly. "You wanna make a bet on what she's here for this time?" He asked.