"I hate you."

Jay barely got a word out as the petite blonde stormed past him. It wouldn't be the first time he had heard those words come out of her mouth, so he was genuinely confused as to what he did this time.

"Well good morning to you too," Jay replied, closing the door as she wandered in. He heard the duffle bag drop before he even realized she had one. In the span of 30 seconds, Hailey had all but stormed in, dropped her bag at the door and sat down on his couch, the death stare never leaving her eyes.

"This is your fault," she told him, her finger pointing in his direction. Jay was growing confused with every passing second, and he was sure his partner was getting irritated.

"I'm showing symptoms," she finally answered, rolling her eyes at him before falling deep into the couch. "And it is your fault."

"Umm, how?" Jay asked, only to get a death glare once again.

"Really?" Hailey asked, standing up to walk his way. "Because you have been the only person I've been in close contact with that could have made me sick!"

He shut up then, realizing that she was right. Will had made Jay get tested, perks of being related to an ED doctor and while he didn't know yet if he had tested positive or not, he was quarantined to his apartment. But considering the fact that the day before was spent at a stakeout for close to eight hours.

"And now that I'm showing symptoms and I've been around you, I have to be quarantined, so Vanessa kicked me out of my own house! All thanks to you, Jay Halstead!"

Jay had never seen her so angry, let alone at him. Sure, she had been ticked at him before, but not like this.

"I'm sorry?" he told her, the statement coming out like a question.

"Ugh," she mumbled before turning around to sit back down on the couch. "Do you have water? And food?"

"Yeah," he told her. "Not enough for the two of us, though."

"Well you should fix that problem," she shot back, picking up his remote to turn the TV on.

It was all he could do not to question everything going on right now. Minutes earlier he was thinking that he would be spending the next week alone in his apartment, and now, because of him, it seemed that Hailey was joining him for the foreseeable future.

"Halstead!" she yelled.

"What?" he replied, trying and hopefully succeeding at keeping his voice calm.

"Where is my water?"

Jay just sighed. This was going to be a long week.

It was the first day that Hailey was here, well technically second, but she had fallen asleep on his bed and now he was just waiting for her to wake up. Jay was still trying to figure out how he ended up sleeping on his own couch, but the only answer was that she was very persuasive, and he would do whatever she asked.

This wasn't going to end well, he knew it. She was too much like him, not being able to do their jobs was an actual form of torture, and he knew it was only a matter of time until they went crazy.

There was an upside he supposed, and that was getting to spend the foreseeable future with Hailey and only Hailey. Things had changed, for better or for worse he didn't know, but at some point, their partnership had gone from friendship to something that he couldn't label. His feelings for Hailey had changed to something he hadn't felt in a long time, maybe ever. It was different and changing and he knew he should do something, sooner rather than later if the past few months said anything.

Before he did anything, he needed more coffee after realizing it had gone cold. Will had told him many times how uncomfortable his couch was, but now he truly believed him. He had been awake since five am, and it was already close to nine.

As he stood up, he heard his bedroom door open, causing him to stop, waiting to see his partner emerge from his bedroom. But he wasn't prepared for what she was wearing, or rather, the lack of.

"Hey Jay?" she asked. Gone was the irritation from her voice from yesterday, replaced with what he guessed was embarrassment. "Is there a trick to getting the water hot in the shower?

His brain recognized she asked a question, but all he could focus on was the towel wrapped around her body. Somehow, his white towel was shorter on her than he expected, until his brain processed that she had basically folded it in half before wrapping it around her body.

"Jay?"

He snapped out of it then, his mind somehow remembering the question she asked before he started thinking about how long her legs looked or how soft her skin felt.

"Uhh, yeah," he stuttered. "You just gotta turn it all the way and then adjust it."

"Thanks," she smiled at him before disappearing back into his bedroom. The sigh he let out was loud, and he was sure she heard it as well. He was going to be in for a long week if this was an everyday occurrence, because even while she was his partner, he was still a guy, and the thought of a woman he wasn't involved with currently in his shower did things to him.

"Shit" Jay muttered under his breath before getting more coffee. "This woman is going to kill me."

The third day wasn't much better.

Once again, he was up early, and as much as he wished he could sleep in his own bed, he wouldn't make Hailey sleep out here on this uncomfy couch. But they had managed to get through multiple documentaries and had already ordered more groceries, both of them thankful Vanessa and Kevin volunteered to pick them up. They were sprawled out on the couch watching some crime docuseries Jay couldn't remember when Hailey piped up.

"Do you think they're a thing?" she asked, making him look down at her. At some point between the conspiracy theory show she put on and the one the documentary they just finished, she had decided to lay down on the couch, a pillow against his leg where her head was.

"Who?" he replied. "Vanessa and Kevin?"

"Yeah. It makes sense for Vanessa to bring the groceries since it's the least she can do considering she kicked me out," Hailey rambled, even while Jay knew she didn't mean any of it. "But it's weird for Kevin to stop by with her. He doesn't live nearby us, or you, so he would have to go out of his way to pick her up, and the groceries, and then stop by here."

"Maybe they're a thing," Jay mused, causing Hailey to sit up to look at him. This whole quarantine thing was making him see Hailey differently, even while he already knew her well, there were little things here and there that were new to him. Besides the obvious about how he now knew she liked to sleep in slightly oversized shirts and shorts, or that she had to drink water before she could have her coffee. But he noticed things that her hair was always in a messy bun when she was lounging around, or that if he looked hard enough, she had faint freckles all over her legs.

"I would know if they were a thing," she told him, folding her legs under her as she faced him. "I live with her!"

"Hails," he began. "They're both cops. I think they could hide it from us."

"Yeah, but," she started before groaning in frustration. "I hate you."

"So, you've said," he shot back. He knew she didn't mean a word of it; she was just frustrated at the situation. But as he looked over at her, smiling to let her know he knew she didn't mean it; he got a soft smile back before she laid back down.

"You know I've never said this, but I always thought it was weird that Voight has male-female partners," she told him.

"I did too," he replied. "He made a comment one time about it, back when I first joined. Now it doesn't really faze me."

"If I didn't know any better, I would say that he's trying to set us all up."

Jay just looked down at her, relief spreading through him when he realized her attention was on the TV. Hailey wasn't wrong, because even while partnerships in the past year have been more flexible that he'd ever seen in Intelligence, everyone always found themselves back with what they were comfortable with: Kevin and Vanessa, Adam and Kim, and of course, him and Hailey.

"Maybe," he mumbled, his mind trying to focus on the show when in reality all he could think about was his partner lying beside him.

"Jay?" he heard, the voice soft and anxious. "Jay?"

He groaned, or at least he thought he did, before he opened his eyes to find blonde waves hovering over him. The concern and fear in Hailey's eyes were alarming, but as his mind was still groggy with sleep and the memories that haunted him in his sleep.

"Hailey?" he finally asked, his voice sounding foreign to him. He felt her hand on his forehead, and while he would normally jump at the cool touch from her fingertips, it was welcome.

"You're burning up," she said softly, the tone a change from the near permanent frustration that had taken over since she temporarily moved in. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he mumbled, trying to sit up. He tried to shove the blanket off of him, the heat suddenly becoming too much, but his arms felt heavy and his shoulder was stiff. It was then he realized his head was pounding and his chest felt tight.

"You don't look good," she said. "Jay, look at me. You were yelling in your sleep."

"I was?" he asked, and that's when he saw the fear really come out of Hailey. One second she was in front of him, and the next she had disappeared back into the bedroom. He could faintly hear her on the phone, and he assumed she was calling Will.

"Yeah, he's awake, no cough. I think he was having a nightmare, but it doesn't seem like he remembered it."

Her words registered in his mind, the scenes from his dream coming back, memories good but mostly bad about a time that seemed so different from now. Afghanistan seemed like it was both yesterday and ten years ago simultaneously, but regardless, Jay knew he would never forget that time in his life.

"Jay?" he heard, causing him to slowly turn towards her. "Do you think you can make it to the bed?"

All he could do was nod, taking her outstretched hand to help him off the couch. Jay felt her hand on his lower back, and he tried to focus on that as he felt his eyes falling shut.

"Sit," he heard her say and he did. The rest was a blur; he realized she was pulling his shirt off, her hands on his shoulders trying to push him down into the bed, gently, her fingers brushing through his hair. It was a change from the Hailey he was used to seeing and the one that had made an appearance in the past few days. This was a different side than he had ever seen, and it reminded him so much of his mom.

"I'll be outside if you need me," she said, her hand resting on his forehead before she turned to walk away. Using what little strength he had, as he realized it would only be seconds before he fell back asleep, he reached out, grasping her hand in his. She turned back to him, her eyes silently asking what else he needed.

"Can you stay?" he asked. "Please?"

Jay expected her to argue but was surprised that all she did was nod before walking to the other side of the bed. He turned towards her, his hand reaching out to grasp hers once more. It dawned on him that for the first time in a long time, he felt safe, he felt protected when he was arguably at his most vulnerable, and that was something he would never take for granted, especially when Hailey was around.

The next two days seemed to fly by. Jay was feeling better, Hailey miraculously hadn't gotten whatever he had, and Will had been bugging them nonstop. He could tell he was feeling better, he and Hailey both could, when Jay had gone off on his brother last night.

In the back of his mind, Jay knew that Will was just concerned, especially with everything going on outside of Jay's apartment. But there were people that needed Will's help more than his brother, and he was also determined not to go back to Med right now.

"Jay," he heard Hailey say, causing him to turn around to find her in the doorway. Since the night he got sick, she had let him back into his bed, and while she had protested about sleeping on the couch, he wouldn't let her. He wasn't about to subject her to the pain that came with sleeping on that couch.

"Yes?" he answered as he finished pulling his shirt over his head. At some point, their boundaries with each other had become looser. No longer did she seem to care if he could tell she wasn't wearing a bra, nor did he mind if she saw him walk around in just his underwear. It should have been weird, especially considering they weren't even together, but it wasn't, and it felt oddly comfortable if you asked him.

"I think you should let Will check you out," she said.

"Why?" Jay replied. "There are people that need his attention more than me."

"He's worried about you," she told him. "So am I."

"Hailey, I'm fine," he said, the words coming out harsher than he intended. This was all getting to him, he could tell, but he wouldn't let himself get frustrated at her. Hailey was just trying to help, because she cared about him, but he was fine, he felt better than he did that first night, a hopeful sign that whatever that was had cleared up.

"Damn it, Jay!"

His head snapped up to her, that fear he saw days before back in her eye. But she was trying to manage it, trying to not let it get to her or let him see. Either way, she was failing.

"I don't get it," she said. "How do you continue to let these things happen, continue to let yourself get hurt and not let anybody help?"

"Hailey," he tried, but that only spurred her on.

"After everything that has happened in the past few months, hell in the past year, and I would have thought that you would have learned by now that your actions hurt more than just you. Other people get hurt."

"I…" he tried again.

"You cannot keep doing this to yourself, to your brother, to me! We can't take it anymore, I can't take it anymore, okay?"

Jay just stayed quiet, hoping this time she was done. Her hands were on her hips as she tried to control her heart rate. It wasn't until now that he realized everything she had said was true. A lot had happened over the past year, leaving his brother, his team and his partner concerned and worried about him more than once. But above all of that, he realized something else. The entire time Hailey had ranted, there was never anger in her eyes, only fear. Fear of losing him, fear that she wouldn't have him as her partner, as her best friend, maybe even some fear she was afraid to admit to the both of them.

Instead he didn't say anything, just walked towards her. The closer he got, he realized a few tears had escaped her eyes, and Jay wasn't sure Hailey herself realized she was crying.

"I'm sorry," he said, his hands reaching up to touch her face as it hit him. His whole world was literally in the palms of his hands. He never really thought about how true that statement could be, as cliché as it could be sometimes. But now, as he cradled Hailey's head in his hands, all of the fears came back. She was afraid to lose him because she loved him, and that fear wasn't one sided. The panic he felt when he saw her in those scrubs, in that isolation tent months ago returned. He had seen what that bacteria was doing to people, and it had been him that sent her into that woman's house. They had both almost lost each other too much, that now, surrounded by each other for the past six days, that was their breaking points.

"You can't keep doing this," she whispered, vulnerability laced in her voice. "Not to me, please."

"I won't," he told her, shaking his head to emphasize his point. "You mean too much to me to lose you."

"Same," Hailey replied. "Every single time you put yourself in harm's way, this fear takes over, the kind that makes me wonder what the last thing was I said to you, or if I should have said more."

"I get it," he said honestly. "I've thought about it too. And I'm sorry, for everything and every fear you've had because of me."

Hailey just nodded, or as much as she could with his hands still holding her.

"I do have one question though," he asked, his mind remembering that moment as he realized she had the same look on her face now that she did back then. "What were you going to tell me at the hospital?"

She sighed, trying to look down but she couldn't. Maybe it was because of him, or maybe because she was ready to bare it all.

"I was going to tell you I love you," Hailey said, her words not as much of a shock as he expected. Jay had an inkling that was what she planned to tell him, but even as those words left her mouth, he wasn't surprised, or shocked. It almost felt normal, like this was an everyday thing for them, that life had always been this way.

"What stopped you?" he asked, needing to know why she didn't tell him. She simply shrugged before replying.

"I don't know," she told him. "Maybe it was the interruption, that we couldn't go back to the moment. Or maybe I thought that you needed closure from the case first. Or maybe I was scared."

"Scared of what?" he interrupted, causing another shrug from her.

"Scared that you don't feel the same way."

Jay just shook his head, because he definitely felt the same way. Even while he realized he hadn't said those life changing three words back, he knew how he felt about her, that the feelings he had for Hailey went deeper than anything he ever felt before, because what they had was unlike anything he ever had before.

"Hailey," he began, his thumb swiping away a few more tears that escaped. "I love you too."

She smiled then, and he could see the fear melt away from her eyes, replaced with nothing but love. It felt like a weight was off his chest, relieved that she now knew how he had felt for a long time. And he could see that she felt the same way, that the last wall surrounding their hearts was broken, gone.

Words didn't feel right in that moment, that speaking would somehow break this spell they found themselves under. He tilted her head back a little more, his lips finding her forehead as her hands grasped his wrist. Her body had moved closer to his and every single nerve in his body was suddenly assaulted by Hailey, but in a good way. As he pulled back, he saw the emotional exhaustion settle in, even as the emotions coursing through them were all good.

Taking her hands in his, Jay walked backwards, pulling her along towards his bed. Without a word, he sat down before falling back into the mattress, the motion taking her along with him. Seconds later, she was snuggled into his side, his hand playing with the ends of her hair as her own rested over the scar from the bullet. As they fell back asleep at ten in the morning, nothing else mattered in that moment. The chaos of the world outside disappeared as their breathing evened out, and somewhere in the back of their minds, they wondered whether this was supposed to happen, that the fear of this virus and everything else was wrapped up to lead them to where they truly belonged.

Short little something amidst all that is happening in the world. Hope everyone is staying safe! Talk to your family, your friends and don't let social distancing get the best of you.

In the meantime, since all of my classes are online and season seven was sadly cut short, I will be making an effort to post/update something each Wednesday so we can all still get our fix of our favorite show and characters. If there is anything you want to see from me, leave a comment or message me! My inbox is always open!