A/N: Hello, hello – long time, no writing. With the new crossover that aired yesterday, I couldn't help but be inspired to write a little fic regarding Upstead and what happens after. If you haven't seen the new crossover, probably best not to read until you do as this is full of spoilers. This fic won't be too long – probably around three chapters. But I hope you'll like it regardless! Enjoy!

"Have you noticed anything weird going on with Jay lately?" Hailey asked, swirling the drink in her glass around.

Molly's was bustling and after a long shift, this was exactly what the two of them needed – time to just spend as friends, talking about anything but work. Though it seemed the one thing that had really been weighing on Hailey's mind lately was work related in a way anyway.

Kim furrowed her eyebrows and gave Hailey a strange look, utterly confused. "Weird? No. Why? Has he been acting weird around you or something? I haven't noticed."

"Weird barely covers it," Hailey sighed. "He's been fine when we're working a case, but the second we're in the car alone and I start talking or I suggest going for drinks after work he just… shuts me down. He's usually up for that sort of thing. It's unnerving. I thought something might be going on so I even asked Will when I was questioning that witness at Med on Monday, but he was just as confused as you are. I have no idea what's going on with him."

Things had been a little touch and go for the first few days after the infection case that had basically shut down the city. She'd just thought it was the fact that he'd very nearly had to infect himself, but then a week had passed and he was still being strange. It made no sense. Sure, that was probably something to do with it – she'd even had a nightmare herself the day after it all happened where she had been infected – but still, she'd expected him to talk about it, whatever it was.

Kim took a swig of her drink. "He's been normal around me. Maybe he's just not in the mood for drinks lately. I haven't seen him here at all in the past few days, and usually he comes here at least twice a week."

"I'd agree with you if Will hadn't told me that he and Jay had gone out for drinks after the case was solved last week."

Kim cringed.

Sighing, Hailey ran a hand through her hair and downed the rest of her drink. It was probably for the best that she just call it a night and head home. If she stayed and ended up drinking more, she'd just end up overthinking everything, and that wouldn't end well for her. Whether she'd done something wrong to offend him or whether something really was going on with him, there was no way she was getting an answer just by overthinking it at Molly's.

Shrugging on her coat – since Chicago had been getting cold at night lately, now that summer was coming to an end – Hailey said goodbye to Kim and waved goodbye to Herrmann and Kidd at the bar before heading for the door, thinking only of how good her bed would feel once she got to collapse into it. Rojas, her new roommate, for lack of a better word, was probably still out with Atwater like she seemed to be most nights, so she didn't need to worry about disturbing her at all.

Her hand was on the door, pushing it open, when someone pulled it open from the outside and she stalled, stopping dead as she stared at the person on the other side of the door.

"Jay."

He looked a little like a deer in headlights as he cleared his throat. "Hailey."

She did her best to give him a smile, even though seeing him had clearly taken her off guard. The fact that they'd just been talking about the potential of him not being up for drinks lately wasn't something that escaped her notice, and her shutting it down was now confirmed even more.

"I'm surprised to see you here so late."

Jay chuckled a little and toed the steps, the door still open. They'd moved so that he was standing on the highest step and her on the one below him. She was shorter than him – she was always shorter than him. "Yeah, last minute decision."

This was… awkward. Uncomfortable and awkward. And Hailey didn't like it.

"I better not keep you, then," she gave him a tight-lipped smile. "See you tomorrow."

Before Jay could so much as say anything else to her, Hailey had turned and walked away. Jay watched with furrowed eyebrows as she crossed the road and headed over to her car, wishing that he'd been able to say something a little more conversational and less awkward. As soon as she was sat in the car, she couldn't help but glance over at Molly's, feeling hopeful. But Jay was nowhere to be seen.

After Upton's confirmation that Rojas was going to fit just fine into Intelligence, Voight had seemed happy to pair Upton and Halstead back together. Though, as Hailey sat in the car with a very silent Jay as they drove from the scene back to the station, Hailey couldn't help but think that the conversation with Rojas would definitely have been much more interesting.

She glanced over him, watching as he drove, staring straight ahead at the road with a neutral look on his face. He'd barely said two words to her at the scene, though the scene had mostly been shooting and then questioning witnesses. But still… a silent drive home was one she wasn't a fan of, yet after the last week, it was one she was starting to get used to.

She didn't want to get used to it.

With a sigh, Hailey knotted her hands together in front of her. "Are you going to tell me why you're giving me the silent treatment lately, Jay? Or are you just going to keep me in the dark for as long as possible?"

Jay tensed up at the sound of her voice, but stayed silent.

"Seriously, Jay– can we just talk? We're partners. We talk. That's what we do, that's what we agreed. And I'd appreciate if we actually did just that. After everything that happened last week, I think that you owe me at least an explanation as to why you're being so cold."

Reluctantly, he cleared his throat. "It's just been a long week, y'know? I'm trying to pace myself. I'm still coming to terms with the fact that a whole apocalypse nearly happened a week ago."

His words weren't entirely lies. But, for the most part, what Jay was really worried about was the fact that Hailey had been threatened with death because of him. That he'd sent her to that apartment on her own, that she'd ended up covered in the victim's blood and put into quarantine because of his orders. That wasn't something he could forget overnight.

But even though he was half telling the truth, Hailey didn't believe a word of it.

"Yeah, you don't just give your partner the cold shoulder because you're coming to terms with that. Didn't we agree months ago that we'd talk even when the other one didn't want to? Didn't we agree that, for the sake of our job, we'd do that?" Hailey shook her head. "You're impossible, Jay."

It was like she'd reached right into his chest, grabbed his heart and started squeezing, and Jay couldn't find the words to reply to her, because she was right. They had decided that, but he was too far buried in his own blame to agree with her.

They drove the rest of the way back to the station in an uncomfortable silence.