The positive response to my story has brought me so much joy. Knowing that people are reading and enjoying what I write, encourages me to keep working on this story and keep posting.

So I wanted to quickly thank everyone who's reading and taking the time to comment!

Chapter 8

"Hailey!" Elias the kitchen help greeted me with a big smile on his young face when I walked into the restaurant. "The sun has risen!" he called out, placing his hand on his chest humorously before returning it to the broom he was sweeping the floors with.

"Hello Elias, good to see you too," I chuckled as I walked through the dining room to the private rooms in the back.

In the office, I quickly changed into a white button-down shirt, which I despised, before I headed to the kitchen.

My dad was kneading dough when I walked in. I hadn't been on the best terms with him recently. After I had brought the restaurant back from financial ruin, he had quit drinking and there hadn't been any violent incidents with him anymore. Not to my knowledge at least. Since I'd moved out, I didn't have full insight into what was happening at my parents' house anymore, but I never saw any bruises on my mother. After the robbery, however, the situation had shifted. My dad had been bedbound for a few weeks after which he could only take up work slowly. His injury had made him feel weak and inadequate, and he took his frustrations out on my mother by yelling at her because she was in his way or fussing over him too much. This made me worry that he might revert back to his old ways. Nonetheless, I still held out hope that once he was completely healed his temper would even out again.

"Good morning, Honey!" my mother greeted me as she walked out of the freezer room, carrying a big crate. She looked as beautiful as ever with her long, blonde hair twisted up into a messy updo, and her cheery eyes glistening in the same colour as mine.

"Hey Mama," I smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek as I took the crate from her.

"What happened to your forehead?" she gasped and reached out towards my forehead.

My dad looked up from his dough curiously.

I'd forgotten that they hadn't seen my injury yet. I had done accounting work from home but hadn't been back at the restaurant.

Avoiding her hand, I walked over to a counter and set the crate down. "That happened on Wednesday, and it's not a big deal," I reassured her. If I told her the details of what happened, I might end up telling her about everything else that had taken place since, and I didn't have the time or energy to do that at this moment. "I'll be in the office for a bit," I said to change the subject and decided to retreat to my office work instead of prepping in the kitchen with them. If they needed my help, they'd tell me.

A few hours later, shortly before opening time, the kitchen staff and the waiters working that day started trickling into the restaurant and to my office to check in and collect their weekly paychecks.

Zoe, one of the waitresses and my friend, came rushing into the office just a minute before everyone's shift started, tying her dark locks up into a ponytail as she walked.

"Dead on time, every time!" she exclaimed happily and a little out of breath. "I'd say that's a talent if you asked me."

"Yeah, you could call it that. You know what would be even better? If you were dressed and ready in the dining room when the shift starts," I winked at her and laughed.

She grabbed the envelope I was holding out to her and walked backwards towards the door. Pointing to her forehead, she quietly mouthed, "What happened?"

"I'll tell you later," I grinned, "now go, go!"

As Zoe turned to hurry off, she ran into one of the chefs, Andrew. She laughed and apologised while skipping past him. Andrew ignored her and walked towards my desk with an annoyed expression on his angular face. He rarely ever spoke, and his black eyes never smiled, so neither I nor Zoe was surprised by this interaction.

"Hello, Andrew," I greeted him and handed over his envelope.

He nodded but stayed put where he stood. His intense stare sent an unpleasant feeling through my body.

"Do you need anything else?" I asked, shifting slightly in my chair.

He shook his head and turned to leave, shooting one more glance over his shoulder back at me before he headed down the hallway.

Andrew had never been likeable, but today his presence was outright unnerving. I let out a loud breath to clear my head and expel the uneasy feeling from my body.

Thinking over what my next task was, I tapped my fingers on the table. Remembering, I headed to the main room to grab the chalkboard stand and write that day's specials on it. When I positioned the stand outside of the restaurant, I saw a patrol car parked across the street. I found that odd and decided to check back later to see if it was still there.

Sure enough, when I glanced out of the window half an hour later, the patrol car was still parked in the same spot.

I smiled to myself when I came up with an idea.

Five minutes later, I crossed the street and walked up to the patrol car, carrying a huge aluminium takeaway container and three cardboard boxes. Standing on one leg while balancing the containers on my knee, I knocked onto the window of the driver's side of the car. The window rolled down, and a young cop in uniform with dark hair and eyes stared back at me with a slightly uncomfortable look on his face. His partner in the seat next to him wore a similar expression.

"Hey there," I greeted them with a grin, "any chance Intelligence told you to keep an eye on the restaurant?"

The two cops shared a glance, not knowing what to say. The one in the passenger seat shook her head to which the man shrugged his shoulders. I interrupted their silent interaction.

"Ok," I read his name tag, "Caswith, I'll take that as a yes. And since you're watching the restaurant to keep an eye on me, you might as well do that while driving me to the precinct."

Caswith was about to argue when I handed him one of the smaller cardboard boxes.

"You may take this as a bribe or as a simple thank you for driving me. Your choice."

He opened the box and showed its contents to his partner. Her eyes lit up with excitement. Then she regained her composure and shrugged casually.

"Yeah, I guess we could do that," Caswith concluded.

I beamed and climbed into the back of the patrol car.

Shortly after, I ascended the front stairs of the precinct and walked up to the front desk. I placed the containers onto the desk and was greeted with a glare from the desk sergeant.

"What's this?" she inquired, unimpressed.

"Hello," I started, feeling my self-confidence shrink away under her stare, "I'm not sure if you remember me, I..."

"I remember you, Goldilocks," she interrupted.

"Oh, okay. I was wondering if Intelligence wanted some lunch."

She raised her right eyebrow.

"I brought you something too," I quickly handed her the second small box.

Surprise flashed across her face as she took the box from me and looked inside. When she didn't recognise the content, she glanced back at me and raised both eyebrows.

"They're loukoumádes. Greek doughnuts," I explained.

"Doughnuts," she huffed. "Because I'm a cop?"

Her questioning gaze was intimidating. I didn't know how to respond to that and was very glad when she picked up a dough ball and tasted it.

"Mmmm, this is really good!" Suddenly, she seemed like a different person. "Come on, I'll walk you up myself. The team will be happy to see you," she quickly grabbed two more loukoumádes, before she walked around the desk.

In the bullpen, all members of the team sat at their desks, immersed in their work when we walked up the stairs. Only Jay was missing.

Adam noticed us first.

"Hailey!" he called out, then paused, taking in Sergeant Platt's affable demeanour with confusion.

She saw his bewildered look and scowled at him. "I'll be downstairs if you need anything," she told me and turned and walked away.

"What was that?" Kim blurted out. "Why was she nice to you? It took me months of hard work to get a smile out of her when I started working here."

"I just brought her some food," I stated casually but proudly.

"Do you think I never tried that? I brought all kinds of foods as offerings to try and get on her good side. Nothing worked!"

"Maybe you just never brought her loukoumádes," I suggested, teasingly.

"Loukou-what?" Kevin got up from his chair to inspect the containers I had brought.

"Loukoumádes, Greek doughnuts," I explained again. "I also brought a big dish of Moussaka. Family recipe of course. Thought you guys might want some lunch."

"Definitely! I'm starving!" Kevin exclaimed happily, taking the containers off my hands and headed to the break room with Adam trailing closely behind him.

"Those two are always eager for some lunch. Even at 3 am," Kim told me, chuckling. "Thank you for the food, that's very nice of you." She gave me a pat on the shoulder and followed the guys to the breakroom with Vanessa who smiled at me thankfully.

"Hey, what's going on?" Jay walked out of the hallway leading to the locker rooms. At first, I saw the excitement on his face at seeing me, but then his brow furrowed. "How did you get here? We agreed that I'd drive you to and from the restaurant."

"Relax, I had patrol drive me. Did you really think I wouldn't see them?" I asked, amused.

His face relaxed, and a smirk formed on his lips, "I did tell them to be covert about watching you. Guess I should have told them that their target is a detective in the making."

I wasn't annoyed that he had made someone keep an eye on me even though I had told him that wasn't necessary. He had my best interest in mind after all.

"Thought you had to work all day?" he questioned.

"I've finished my morning chores, and my presence at the restaurant isn't needed until later in the day, so I have some time to spare. Come on, I brought food," I said, nodding towards the break room where the rest of the unit was setting up the food on the round table.

As we walked over, Jay placed his hand on the small of my pack. "I've missed you," he murmured into my ear.

"Jay, it's been four hours," I chuckled.

"I know," he shrugged his shoulders and sent a quick smile my way.

A little while later, everyone was sitting around the table and on the couch, tucking into their food. Apart from the occasional, "Mmm," and "This is so good," the room stayed quiet at first.

"Have you made any progress in finding Wright?" I asked no one in particular.

"No, Wright is a ghost," Vanessa responded with a hint of frustration in her voice. "He has no phone or address that we know of, doesn't use his credit cards, his social media hasn't been touched in months. He has gone completely off the grid."

"We've talked to a few people he used to run with and also a few CIs, but either no one wants to tell us anything or they actually just don't know anything," Jay filled me in.

"We have video footage of the car driving away last night, but the driver was wearing a ball cap, so we can't get a hit on facial rec," Kim added.

"That's a bummer," I replied, pondering. "Where is your Sergeant?"

"He's meeting up with an acquaintance at the FBI to see if they can be of any help," Vanessa answered. "But we don't have much hope on that front."

"We still have a few angles we can try though. Don't worry, we'll find him," Jay placed his hand onto my knee, hoping to reassure me.

Silence fell throughout the room again as everyone felt disheartened.

"Eating this just reminded me of this robbery that happened in Greektown a few months ago," Adam remembered, studying the dough ball he had taken a bite out of. "Apparently this young woman working there locked a robber into the freezer room after she'd managed to grab his gun from him."

I straightened up slightly in my seat and shot a glance over to Jay. The corner of his mouth twitched up slightly. He caught my eye, and I gave him a look asking him to let this play out and not say anything just yet.

"Yeah, I remember that. Ruiz responded to that call and told me about it," Kim chimed in and Kevin and Vanessa nodded, also remembering.

"I saw the offender when he was in lockup. He was a big dude. Close to my size," Kevin told everyone.

Adam laughed, "I wish I had responded to that call. I would've paid money to be the cop that got to open the freezer and arrest the guy. The owner of the restaurant had better give that girl a huge raise! She sounds bad-ass!"

"Yeah, she's amazing," Jay mumbled, gazing at me intently. I stared back, losing myself in his green eyes. His expression was so full of admiration and fondness that I almost forgot to breathe, feeling my heart flutter. I smiled at him, hoping that he could see the same emotions in my eyes.

"Wait, what?" I heard Kevin ask.

"No way!" Kim exclaimed, and Vanessa started laughing.

"What? What's happening?" Adam asked confused, taking a little longer than the others to catch on. "Ohh! No way!" he repeated Kim's words when he understood.

I shrugged my shoulders a little shyly, not sure of what to say.

"Well, spill it! We've only heard the story through a bunch of people but never first hand!" Vanessa begged excitedly.

I recounted the events of that night as best I could, going into more detail than I had when I had told Jay about it. Enjoying the extended version, he also listened curiously.

"The way you handled that situation is mad impressive. I like you," Adam concluded, shaking his index finger towards me when I was done telling the story.

"We all do, Adam," Kim told him, smiling at me.

"Might as well join the unit, you'd be a welcome addition," Kevin joked.

"I would need to sign off on that, Atwater," a raspy voice called from the doorway.

"Sarge! Any luck with your contact?" Jay greeted Voight.

"No, we just can't seem to catch a break on this case," Voight told his team, the frustration in his voice was evident. He tapped his hand on the doorframe and headed into his office.

"Come on guys, back to work," Kim got up and started cleaning up the remnants of lunch.

"I'll drive you back to the restaurant," Jay said when the breakroom was back in order and everyone returned to their desks.

When we parked in front of the restaurant less than five minutes later, Jay reached over to me to run his hand through my hair, "This time you'll actually stay in the restaurant until I pick you up after your shift, yes?"

"Yes, I promise."

"Thank you. This case is giving me a really bad feeling. It's very rare that we can't come up with any leads," Jay stared out of the windscreen, contemplating.

I stroked the back of his neck, trying to shake him out of the sombre mood.

"I'll be careful, and you will find Wright soon enough. I'm sure of it."