Hailey Upton had been sleeping like a baby, but Jay's phone pulled her out of a deep sleep. It wasn't work. That much was clear. If it was work, her phone would be ringing too. Well that wasn't necessarily true, but practically speaking, it was true. She leaned across his sleeping body, careful not to wake him, and checked his caller ID. Erin Lindsay.

Hailey decided not to answer, she was doing her best not to be that crazy jealous girl. She'd already nearly started a brawl at work, and from what Jay told her everyone already thought she was a bitch. She didn't need to add jealous to that list. Still, Erin was pushing her buttons. Calling him this late was borderline inappropriate. If she were still in Chicago a 2am call would almost always be about sex. Unless, it wasn't. Jay was a police officer after all, someone could be dead.

Unsure of what to do Hailey decided to be a grown up. She wasn't going to be that crazy chick going through her boyfriend's phone while he was asleep, he hadn't given her any reason not to distrust him. So, she did the next best thing. She sent Erin a text from her own phone.

Hey Erin. He's asleep. If it's an emergency, I'll wake him up.

There was two minutes of silence. If it was 2am here, it was probably 3 or 4 in New York, and Hailey wondered if Erin was simply drunk dialing. She shut her eyes, intent to go back asleep. She didn't get the chance before her phone chirped with a text message.

It's not an emergency but it's important. Don't wake him. I was just leaving him a voicemail before I lost my nerve. Don't worry.

More professions of love no doubt. But she held back the venom building up in her. Erin had history with him. They had a life together. Jay even wanted a future together. Constantly bickering with her was only asking for trouble, eventually it would go too far.

I'm NOT worried. Hailey sent the three-word text and went back to sleep. She wasn't going to be baited.

Sanderson shook her head with distaste. Erin had been sitting in the old van with her for five hours now debating about whether she should call or text Jay. Sanderson had been adamant that Erin apologize, sincerely this time, about everything. Her shrink had said the same thing, although SHE said it would be for her own benefit. Erin had thought them both silly, but she didn't say so.

"That's kinds bitchy," Sanderson said as Erin showed her the text. "I'm not worried, like you're not real competition for her so she has nothing to worry about."

Erin nodded. "Right! She's a fucking bitch man. We actually worked together for a while and she seemed kinda bitchy then but not THIS much."

Erin knew calling Jay was a mistake. Especially this late at night. It was booty call hours and any regular person would assume she was either drunk or looking to hook up. Jay was all the way in Chicago, so sex was out of the question but being drunk at 3 am was totally logical.

Erin hated stakeouts. Being alone with her thoughts had never been a good thing. She made bad decisions and sitting for hours with nothing to do only reminded her of that fact. Sanderson was a good companion, she at least made the night bearable, keeping up small talk and listening to her bitch about how poorly her Chicago trip had gone. It had been a disaster as far as she was concerned, Jay had rejected her, Hailey almost kicked her ass, and she'd come home without any encouragement whatsoever that she could patch things up.

The entire office had been waiting for the news and when she told them she expected their pity. Instead they all seemed encouraged, and not at all surprised. Mahoney actually told her that things were good. Jay had let his anger out, NOW he could heal. Vause had even reminded her that she was playing the long game and that in the grand scheme of things, this one trip meant nothing. Erin didn't agree with any of this. They hadn't seen Hailey in that coffee room with him, all wide eyed and open, wearing her heart on her sleeve. Jay ate it up. She knew she wasn't going to be able to compete with that, so she'd gone to therapy to learn how to express her emotions properly. Or at least to learn how to fake it. Although the damn therapist only wanted to talk about Nadia, and Bunny. She wasn't interested in helping her with Jay at all.

"I didn't know you guys partnered up," Sanderson said surprised. Partners, even ones that didn't get along that well, generally never walked away as enemies. There was an unwritten rule that you made nice, and when you walked away you kept it professional and didn't air your dirty laundry.

"For a bit," Erin explained. "In fact, the day I did what I did, she was there."

Sanderson shook her head. "And she didn't stop you? She let you sink your whole career over a guy?" Sanderson wasn't a fan, but as her newly minted partner she was obligated to take Erin's side.

"In her defense it probably wasn't about Jay. She let him spiral for a while too, I guess. THEN she fixed him. I don't think she would have let HIM do what she let ME do, but she obviously doesn't give two shits about ME."

Erin had been feeling sorry for herself since she'd gotten a call from one of the girls on patrol back home tipping her off about Jay and Hailey's big night out. She'd gotten a sneakily snapped photo of Jay looking super handsome in a suit, and Hailey looking annoyingly gorgeous in a purple dress. Apparently, they'd been at some fancy restaurant. When Erin googled the place, she saw it was extremely beautiful and incredibly expensive. At first, she'd been encouraged, they'd gotten busted by a boss and should have been reprimanded and split up. That was the rule if two cops who were riding together hooked up. Voight had ignored this rule, but only because he loved her. The love birds had apparently wrote a flawless report, and played the politics perfectly and walked away clean. In fact, the Deputy Chief was now a fan and had apparently been singing their praises. Some rich billionaire was so happy that he donated a Brink's truck, and Jay and Hailey were getting the credit For that as well. Now all the bosses knew their names. Instead of fired, they'd likely get promoted, and they sure as hell wouldn't get split up.

The whole thing had made her sick. She couldn't do anything from New York. Hailey had her hooks in deep, and Jay, still broken up over what she'd done, had been ripe for the picking. Erin's spy in patrol even sounded as if SHE were on the Hailey bandwagon. Apparently, Hailey had helped her find some missing flashlight or something, saving her an ass chewing. Erin would have simply swiped the officer another one, but helping her look for the damn thing seemed to buy some crazy admiration.

Sanderson wasn't convinced Hailey's act, or refusal to act, wasn't malicious. "Still. That's pretty shitty. And texting you from HER phone, not HIS. She's not stupid. You were right. She's Yoda."

Erin could only nod. She hadn't expected Hailey to even know about her late-night call to Jay. But of course they were in bed together. And Hailey had been sure to let her know that, being sure to rub her nose in it. Hey Erin, he's right here asleep in my bed, I'll wake him up for you, he's really tired after all the sex we've been having. Of course he was there, she was on top of things. Why wouldn't she be? If Erin managed to get another shot, she'd play it the same way, the exact same way. It didn't win you any friends, but it definitely fucking worked.

Hailey stared at the woman before deciding not to say anything. She was already being labeled a crazy person and proving people right wouldn't help. Instead she kept walking plastering on her best blank stare.

Someone laughed in the distance and she heard a groan. "Tell me that's not them. Tell me you guys didn't just let me eye fuck THAT guy right in front of her. How come you didn't say anything? You trying to get my ass kicked?" There was laughter in the distance as Hailey followed Jay upstairs. "Hey, I told you to keep it in your pants," Trudy Platt said casually.

"Ignore that," Jay said softly. "Let them have their fun. Eventually they'll move on to something else."

Hailey was starting to sense a pattern. Nobody had been asking her questions about Jay, but there was definitely a vibe in the air now. Women were avoiding her when she was with him. Usually she'd get a little casual chit chat. These days she was invisible when she was with him. According to Jay, they were all afraid of getting the Kim Burgess treatment. When Hailey told Jay she resented the implication that she'd simply fly off the handle for no reason, he only nodded and smiled.

Having the best first date of her entire life ruined by murder and gossip was more than a bit annoying. Hailey had expected a nice quiet little hole in the wall. Somewhere the two of them could blend in and a have a nice quiet romantic evening. Instead she'd gotten beautiful, fancy, and expensive. When she saw the tall office building she didn't know what to expect, but when she stepped off the elevator the place took her breath away. The night view of the city skyline alone left her speechless. The dinner itself was nice, delicious if not extremely over-priced. Ultimately, the combination of being dressed up, Jay looking extremely handsome in a suit, and being so excited from the kiss he'd unexpectedly given her, had made the night almost perfect.

Murder had thrown a wrench in the plan. Jay had mentioned them going to a bar to hear some live music, and maybe dancing a little, although he admitted he wasn't very good at it. She had been looking forward to that when their phones rang and informed them of the murder a few miles away. If that wasn't bad enough, the victim turned out to be the son of some rich society type and that brought out absolutely everyone, including the white shirts. She'd wanted to go home and change before they went to the scene, but they were expected ASAP.

That need to save time had been the source of all her recent woes. Although Hailey realized they would have eventually been busted anyway when the chief suspect at the time stopped being an idiot and given his alibi. Showing up to the scene in heels and a dress had only complicated things. Things had gotten even worse when the ranking boss on the scene, Deputy Chief Noel James had taken an interest.

That had nearly been a disaster. James had been waiting for them to make a mistake so he could blackmail them into being his stooges. She had handled the report, Voight's words echoing in her mind, the paperwork is how they get you. She spent the better part of two hours perfecting the thing, going through several drafts to be sure it would suit any story they wanted to tell. It was damn near perfect. She'd been worried when they met him in his office, but Jay took the lead there. He decided the best way to subvert the guy was not to engage him at all. Every time the guy said a word, Jay simply responded Yeah, huh. Surprisingly, it worked like a charm. It worked so well she'd used it herself. Together they had the guy licked, and most importantly they managed to beat him without pissing him off and making him an enemy.

Now the rumor was he had been so impressed he wanted to take them under his wing. The fact that she and Jay were dating had been flatly ignored by everyone once a huge donation had rolled in. Voight was still silent on the matter but Hailey expected him to speak up soon.

"That's easy for you to say, they all think you're a stud. I'm a psycho."

Jay laughed. "You're MY psycho though. I dig it."

Most guys would have found something patronizing to say. Lie to her about her NOT being looked at that way. Ensure her that everything was fine. Jay wasn't that guy. He told her the truth. Even when it was hard to say. Even when it sucked. She appreciated that.

He opened the door leading upstairs and stepped aside to let her up. He was doing a lot of that these days. Treating her like a girl instead of a cop. Well that wasn't exactly true. He was treating her like HIS girl, who happened to be a cop. At the murder scene on date night he'd even opened her car door and helped her out of the car with everyone watching. She hadn't thought about that until later. It was the sort of thing she wanted her boyfriend doing. But It wasn't exactly what she wanted her partner doing. She would have to figure out exactly WHAT she wanted and express that in a nonthreatening way. Complaining about being treated nice wasn't exactly a good girlfriend trait, so she needed some time to figure it out before she said anything.

"Hailey, Jay, right on time," Voight said as they stepped into the squad. "We've been called to offer some back up for the guys over in District 31. It's mostly just a show of force but vest up anyway. We're rolling in ten."

Hailey looked across the room at Kim Burgess who seemed disinterested in doing any official police work. She was flipping through her phone. She liked Kim, and the idea that she had made the young cop into a cautionary tale bugged her a bit. It would be good for other cops to see them together as friends.

"Kim," she said quickly. "Let's go vest up."

Kim looked a bit confused and Hailey wondered if she had heard a word of Voight's speech. She rebounded fast, standing up and quickly shoving her phone in her pocket and heading towards the stairs.

"Yeah, let's go," she said. She took the stairs with a hint of a smile and Hailey wondered what had her in such good spirits. She wanted to ask, should have asked, but her blow up made that inappropriate. You can't be in people's faces about their business after you specifically told them to stay out of yours.

As they walked down the stairs Hailey could see the eyes watching them. As far as everyone knew they were on the outs. She had to fix that. If Kim noticed the stares she didn't let on.

"You busy tomorrow night, we should grab that drink so I can apologize proper," Hailey finally allowed herself to say. She'd been turning it around in her brain all morning. Making peace.

Kim turned to her with a furrowed brow. "Apologize for what?"

Just like Kim, putting it in the past. Or at least pretending to for the sake of making peace.

"The thing in the squad. I feel like I owe you an explanation," she said as they made their way to the locker room. Kim lead the way but didn't turn to face her.

"You did already, we're good Hailey. 100%."

"I know," she said as she stepped inside and head to her locker. "But what happened, it wasn't cool. And I'm guessing it made you uncomfortable. You didn't deserve to be talked to that way."

Kim finally nodded. "It was kind of harsh. A bit embarrassing too I guess." She finally turned to look at her. "But you were right. I should have been minding my own business."

That may have been true but it was still no excuse. "No, you were just being a friend. You had to sense that thing with me and Erin was gonna go south pretty quickly." Hailey sighed. "She makes me feel so inadequate that I flew off the handle and lashed out."

It wasn't the sort of thing she was used to admitting out loud. How other people made her feel. She was used to pushing that stuff down and putting on a strong face. Always being emotional could be a problem for a woman on the job so she trained herself early to avoid displays of emotion all together.

Kim clearly wasn't expecting the admission either, she stared, her brow furrowing again. "Why? She's gone."

"I still feel like I'm in her shadow though. Compared to him and her, me and him aren't unique. I mean Jay and me are partners, but so were they. We're not covering new ground me and him. Jay wanted to marry her Kim. And the second she found out about that she came back for him. And seeing her in the squad, and with him running off the way he did. It freaked me out. Then everyone is telling me to give him a minute." She shook her head. "It just got to be too much for me to compartmentalize. I lashed out at you, then her. It was wrong and I'm sorry."

Kim, ever the good friend, walked over and gave her a hug. A tight hug that allowed Hailey to admit she actually was forgiven.

"I understand. I forgive you. Its complicated."

Hailey chuckled. "Not really. I love him Kim. I mean I'm really head over heels in love with him and it terrifies me. I mean Erin's a problem, but not a big problem. I'm so protective because I know how fast something can go bad and he can be gone. That sometimes translates to me acting like a bitch. And I'm sorry. But that's what it's about. Protecting me and him. Not you. Never you."

Kim smiled. "Thanks for telling me that. I know how it goes against your instincts to say these things to anyone but him."

"Yeah," she said making her way to her locker to grab her vest. "Its not something I do. But we're friends and if I can't tell you I can't tell anyone. I can't promise you I'll always behave when it comes to me and him, but I promise I'll apologize after."

Kim laughed. "Deal. And since we're being honest. Tomorrow night is bad. I gotta go shopping. Adam asked me to dinner. I know you're long passed him but he's technically our ex, so heads up."

Hailey nodded, not sure if she were allowed to ask questions. "Adam's a great guy. Have fun."

"He's okay. Not exactly serious relationship material but he makes me happy." She turned to her own locker and operated the lock. "He's happy for you and Jay. A little jealous but that's just Adam being Adam."

"I need to apologize to him too, for lying. I'm on fire this week," she said with a laugh.

"Don't bother. He gets it. I told him he was always gonna lose to Halstead anyway. Everyone could see you guys were on that path. Honestly, he should have stayed completely away in the first place." Kim pulled her locker open and dug out her vest. "So I'm helping him drown his sorrows. He's taking me to that place Jay took you."

Hailey's eyes popped with surprise. "Really? I didn't know you guys were back together that way."

Kim shrugged. "We're not. But he thought he should go to a place like that at least once and said that if he does it should be with ME. So we're going. I gotta buy a new dress tomorrow though."

Hailey smiled mischievously. "You should probably stop at Victoria's Secret while you're shopping. If he takes you to that place and you have any feelings for him at all, you're gonna sleep with him after."

Kim shook her head defiantly. "Nope. Not having sex with him afterwards. I already told him."

Hailey laughed out loud. "You are so having sex with him Kim. Absolutely positively. I know Adam, he's got a sexy guy thing working in his favor. You're gonna fold like a lawn chair. Without question. I mean, the moment I got to that place with Jay all that waiting stuff I was doing, it all went out the window."

Kim looked at her wide eyed. "No. You didn't. You slept with him? I thought you were strong." She had told Kim repeatedly that she and Jay weren't sleeping together, she had even assured her they wouldn't for a long while. After all that, Kim seemed absolutely floored by the admission. Although it could be because Hailey didn't typically share at all.

Hailey nodded. "So did I. I said to myself make him work for it girl. But you saw how good he looked, and that place. Ten minutes in I said forget about all that he's getting lucky tonight. And you and Ruzek. You guys got sparks girl. You're toes up by night's end, without question."

Kim sighed heavily. "Damnit. Now I gotta buy new underwear." She looked at Hailey with curiosity. Apparently calling the evening off or trying to fight against it weren't even real options. "Want to make that beer a shopping trip? Two hours tops."

Hailey nodded quickly. She could do shopping. Especially for Kim. She was a great friend and it was time to return the favor. "Yeah we can do that."

Hank Voight could see the look annoyance on his team's faces. They were all just standing around, waiting for something to happen and the guys from District 31 were keeping all the important tasks to themselves. His team had been relegated to doing crowd control, a job for rookie patrol officers. Hank knew this was some sort of power play. A political move by the commanders over in 31, designed to show the CPD at large that they had juice. Enough juice to have the famed Intelligence Squad back THEM up. Hank didn't take the bait, and the team knew that making a big deal out of it was a losing battle. Head to head, stats to stats, they could put any team on the force to shame. Everyone knew Intelligence got things done, often by any means necessary. A reputation like that was useful, but it came with a price. It often made them targets, and fighting needless battles wasn't a good long-term strategy.

"Even got YOU guys standing around out here huh?" Voight didn't recognize the voice. It seems everyone knew him, but as the years moved on, he was seeing fewer and fewer familiar faces.

Hank didn't bite. The moment he spoke out of school it would be halfway around the city. "Hey, I go where they tell me. Stand where they say stand." He looked at the cop and studied the face. He didn't recognize him. He was a young guy, thirties with black hair and a muscled frame. Hank didn't recognize him, had never even seen him around before. Confident he wasn't going to cause offense he extended a hand. "Hank Voight."

The cop shook it eagerly. "Sergeant Jim Addams. Narcotics."

Hank nodded quickly. "Okay, yeah, you worked with Kenny Rixton. He mentioned you a few times. How's he doing?" That was a lie, Kenny had never mentioned this Adams, but it was the quickest way to make some cops feel at ease around him. Telling them that he'd heard of them often softened them up and defused any macho tension in the air.

Adams bit quickly. "He's good. Kenny's a good cop. He's loaned out right now on some assignment the boss didn't go into, but last I saw him a few weeks ago he was doing good."

Hank had reached out to Kenny to see if he were interested in getting back into the unit. With Al gone he was still down a man. Rixton had been interested but was deep in the middle of something that could take six days, or six months, depending on how it played out. He told Hank to keep him in mind but advised him not to wait. Hank was still deciding on what to do.

"What's this operation, any idea. They brought us down here for back up, which is fine, but nobody told us what it was about."

Adams shrugged. "From what I gather its some kidnapping thing. A bunch of bodies got found in a building. Kids still missing. The guys at 31 says they got it, but I'm not so sure. They drug us down here. And YOU guys. It might be too much for them."

Again, Voight refused to speak out of turn. "If they say they got it," he shrugged.

Adams shifted his weight on his feet nervously. "The reason I came over, I need to fill a spot in my unit." He seemingly thought about that statement and changed his mind. "Well, I will need to fill a spot soon. A couple of my detectives got involved. Both great cops, really solid detectives. But I'm concerned this personal relationship will become a thing that gives me a headache."

Hank stared at him without speaking. He had a pretty good idea of where this was going. The moment the Halstead and Upton thing went public he had been fielding calls from half the department looking to poach one or both of them. Halstead was an up and comer, Hank knew he was on track to run his own unit one day. Hailey had the sort of experience that would land her in one of the big offices. Hank was going to suggest that one or both of them take the next Sergeant's exam. With this situation with DC James, they would surely both be quickly promoted.

"I was wondering," Adams continued, "If you were looking to swap. Both my people are really solid like I said. Detective Quincy is ex-Army like Halstead, used to kicking down doors. I was grooming him to be my number two. And Detective Pruitt, she's smart and focused. Knows the city, knows the players, the bosses. A swap may solve both our problems."

Hank looked across the field at Halstead and Upton. They were standing together but Hailey was pointing at an adjacent building and Halstead was looking in that direction. They weren't a problem, and he didn't anticipate them becoming a problem. That wasn't Hailey's style.

"My cops are on point. They won't be a problem, and if they become one, I'll talk to them then. You should probably do the same. Sit them down, tell them you disapprove of the relationship, but you won't make a beef as long as they keep the distractions down. I can tell you for an absolute fact that if I try to transfer one, the other would look to follow. They're that close, and they work that well together. I never have to worry about either of them because they take it upon themselves to self-mediate."

Adams didn't look convinced.

"Look, if you're trying to get rid of one of them, send me the file and I'll take a look at it, it might be a good fit. But if this is about something, maybe, possibly, being a problem, one day in the future. I say you let it play out." Hank looked at Adams. "You know, my daughter in law told me that something like 50% of people date someone at work. And like 20% meet their spouse at work. I know I was brought up in a different time when this sort of thing was taboo, but stats don't lie. You put people together for hours and hours every day, they get close. It's only natural. My first instinct is always to yell and scream and ship someone off." He shrugged. "But sometimes you see two people together and you know they're supposed to be together. My detectives, I get that feeling. I'm not going to shake them up. And besides, the bosses already got their eye on them. They'd shoot down any transfer they didn't come up with themselves."

Adams seemed to contemplate it. "So you're suggesting I talk to them. Tell them I don't approve, but as long as they keep it professional and don't make any problems, I'll overlook it. And that should probably be enough to keep them smart about it."

Hank nodded. "Yeah, that's how I would play it. First real problem you have with them, you sit them both down and tell them you already talked about this. Tell them next problem they have you'll be expecting one of them to transfer out if they can't figure it out. That'll put them on the straight and narrow. And if not, one of them leaves on their own accord and you don't have any drama from the team."

Adams nodded. "Yeah, I can see that."

"Boss," Hailey said in her best serious tone. She looked at Adams and nodded. "Sergeant Adams," she said with a nod.

"What's up," Voight asked.

"I'm not sure what's going on here. But there's something hinky about this building across the street. I swear there's someone up on the roof watching us. I can't shake it, it's giving me bad vibes."

Hank knew better than to risk ignoring something like that. If it turned out to be nothing, that wouldn't cost anyone anything. But if she were right, and things went sour, someone could get hurt, or worse.

"Okay, take Halstead and go check it out," he said. "Keep it off the radio and keep your heads up."

Adams gave Voight's arm a pat. "I'll get a couple of my guys to back them up. I'll send them in around back your guys go in the front." He looked at Hank's detectives. "Give them five minutes to get in position."

Halstead nodded. "Yeah, okay. We've been staring at the building so we're going to walk down the block and come up on the other side of the street."

"Be careful," Voight said firmly.

"You should have told US, we would have taken lead," Lieutenant Donovan of the 31 said to Voight and Adams. Hailey hated the politics but she understood where this Donovan was coming from. He'd purposely kept them in the background to show everyone he had things in hand and here comes Intelligence and Narcotics, cowboys as they were often called, to blow the case wide open. "This was OUR case."

Voight only nodded. "Sir it still is your case. We took these guys into custody and handed them off to your guys immediately. We kept it off the radio so as not to tip them off. They were on the roof, heavily armed. We weren't sure if they were going to start shooting or not, so we went."

Sergeant Adams pointed at the building. "Sir from that vantage point they could have taken out a dozen of us before we even realized what was happening. We couldn't tip them off that we knew they were up there and if we came to you, we know you would have ordered us to go anyway so we did. We got the offenders in custody ready to be interviewed by your guys and you can chalk this up to successful operation."

Donovan didn't like this. He wanted the glory. Hailey almost laughed at how ridiculous this was. They should have been celebrating instead of arguing over who got the credit. Donovan looked at her and she realized she was on his shit list too. She relaxed her face, wiped away her expression.

"You should have come to ME, I'm ranking cop on scene," Donovan continued.

Jay looked at him with his cool expression. "Sir we only even looked over there in the first place because YOU were looking in that direction. We thought you wanted us to go over there so we told Voight and Adams."

Hailey loved him so much at times like this. He was always thinking. Always keeping a cool head. "Yeah, you looked up at the roof, then you looked at us and we thought you were giving us the go ahead and make your move. We didn't realize we jumped the gun. We're sorry, that's on US, not on Sergeants Voight and Adams. We thought you were giving us the 'go' signal."

Donovan was staring, looking at them both with suspicion. He thought it was a trick. Hailey didn't want to press it, with him being so on edge he was likely to blow the story up out of spite. They stood in silence, Voight, Adams, Donovan, her, Jay, and Adams' two detectives, Quincy and Pruitt.

Donovan finally decided it wasn't a trick of some kind and got with the program. "No, I wasn't giving you the order to move. I was saying wait for my signal. You almost blew the whole thing."

Hailey saw Detective Pruitt, a tall thin brunette with striking green eyes and perfect features fight off a smirk. Beside her, her partner, Detective Quincy sighed with exasperation. He was just as attractive as Pruitt and judging by the close distance in which they were standing, they were clearly intimate, probably a couple.

"It was a misunderstanding Lieutenant. We can write it up that you DID give the order and put it behind us. If you want to see my cops reprimanded, we can write it up just how it happened and go from there."

Donovan scoffed. "Don't be so rigid Sergeant Voight. There's no need for a reprimand. It was good work. Damn good work. They got a little anxious and jumped the gun. But lives were at stakes. Cops lives. Just write it up as having gotten the order and let's move on."

Voight nodded. "Understood," he said as Donovan walked away. Voight looked at Hailey his brow arched. "Go back to the house and write this report. Get it right. Donovan won't jam you up about it if you mention him as much as possible. You make him look like a rock star he'll defend it with his dying breath. Just don't be stupid." He looked over at Adams. "Give my detectives a few hours and I'll send you a copy of their report and you can move forward accordingly."

Adams nodded. "Absolutely," he looked over at Hailey. "Good job today, and nicely done Detectives."

"That Quincy and Pruitt were good cops. They moved solid always knew where the other was, what they were thinking." Jay pulled off his shirt and tossed it on his messy floor. It was barely ten o'clock, but it had been a long day. A really long day.

"They're a couple. I could tell right away," she said with confidence. "Then Pruitt and I got to talking and she confirmed it. She's pretty cool. We're gonna get a drink."

"Yeah, I was talking to Quincy and I heard one of the other cops talking about it too. You and me, and those two. The cop said Quincy and I were hogging all of the spotlight and all of the women. Quincy got kind of bent out of shape."

She unclipped her gun from her waist and sat it on the nightstand beside the bed. She laughed a bit as she got undressed and got ready for bed. "I don't think Voight is going to say anything to us. I've been waiting and nothing. And that Pruitt text me and said her boss gave them a speech about her and Quincy not being a problem. Apparently, he talked to Voight. He said as long as they don't become a distraction, he won't give them a hassle. I assume that's how Voight's handling me and you."

Jay pulled off his pants and Hailey's mind immediately went to sex. The excitement of the day, the adrenaline rush, had made her really edgy and sex was just the thing she needed to dull that edge.

"Okay, no drama. We can manage that. Relationship disagreements done in private. Cop stuff still on the table." He yawned, stretched and climbed into bed. His eyes focused on her as she undressed and realized he must have been thinking the same thing. Sex. She liked the thought of it, the anticipation made her body respond. Something in his face shifted and he tossed his head back and sighed.

"Erin called me last night. Left me a message. Remind me to let you listen to it later." He had gone all day without mentioning the message but she'd agreed not to make a big deal about it. Erin was far away. Still him telling her about it, and being willing to let her listen to it, eased her nerves.

"Erase it. I was awake when she called last night. I text her and offered to wake you if it was important. She said it wasn't." She smiled. "And since you're so honest and trustworthy, I plan on rewarding you accordingly."

Jay laughed nervously. "You knew, and you didn't say anything about it all day?"

Hailey climbed into bed beside him, she hadn't bothered putting on her bed clothes, they were coming off anyway. "I trust you. It's HER I don't trust. Besides you tell me everything important. The war, your feelings, your ex-wife. It's the only way we work. Trust."

Jay smiled then his eyes squinted with interest. "There's one thing I haven't told you. One thing I've been holding back."

She smiled knowingly. "Yeah, huh?"

"Yeah. I love you. Always have."

Hailey's heart melted. She had so wanted to hear that. "You're already getting lucky tonight. Keep talking and I'm bound to get really kinky."

"In that case, I've got a few more secrets I can let you in on," he teased before shutting off the lights. Before she got lost in the moment she leaned into him and whispered into his ear that she loved him too. Almost immediately a weight lifted off her chest and like magic she knew she was ready to make this man her own.

A/N: I'm ending this story here because I couldn't find a realistic way too keep Erin in the mix and I feel like I've told the story I wanted to tell. Rarely do I do sequels but I love these characters so much that I think I may start another story with them, a little less complicated POV wise, but 'In Universe' of this story. Thanks for all the love. I started this on a whim, sitting around with nothing to do so I started writing. I uploaded it on a whim and decided to keep going. Thanks for all the love.