The following morning, Hailey awakes to a thundering pain in her skull.

It's unfamiliar to her, considering she can count the number of hangovers she's ever gotten on one hand, but she recognizes it clearly. She groans and digs her face deeper into the pillow. Her mouth is dry, and she can hardly hear her own thoughts through the pounding happening in her head.

And to top it all off, she knows she had to work this morning.

Her arm reaches out to her right side, blindly searching for her phone. Instead, her first comes in contact with something solid and she freezes.

Hailey always sleeps on the left side of her bed. She always leaves her phone charging on the right side of her bed; the closer it is to her, the better she'll hear it when it goes off in the middle of the night. Her phone isn't there, but apparently something else is.

She hears a low moan after she freezes and her head pops up off the pillow quickly to see Jay, his eyes closed in pain (and exhaustion). He's lying on his side, shirtless and the bed covers are riding extremely low. Hailey can feel herself paling (as if she wasn't already before because she's definitely hungover as hell). Her wide eyes dart around the room to notice she isn't in her bedroom at all and one quick look downwards, she realizes she isn't wearing any of her clothes… or pants.

"Oh my god," she mumbles and watches as Jay's eyes fly open.

To her horror, a slow grin spreads across his facial features. "Oh, you're awake," he says nonchalantly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "How are you feeling?"

Hailey is still unable to speak; she continues to stare at him.

Jay furrows his eyebrows. "We had a pretty crazy night. Can you remember anything?"

Of course, she couldn't. And just trying to remember makes her head feel like it's going to pop right off.

"Jay, what the hell happened last night?"

Her voice surprises her; it's horse and groggy and her throat feels like she smoked a dozen cigarettes last night.

The sun outside shifts and the rays blind her through his window; she hastily tries to cover her eyes, but the exertion is literal pain.

"You don't remember anything?" She takes a peek at his expression after hearing the humour in his voice. Jay is smirking and she wants to strangle him.

"No, Jay, I can't remember anything," she snaps. "I feel like I consumed all of Molly's liquor last night and I think I'm dying because everything hurts. And now I'm waking up in your bed with no pants on, so tell me, what the hell happened?"

Jay has the audacity to start laughing.

"I don't know if I should say anything. Watching you panic is pretty cute," he replies, lifting himself off of the bed. Hailey is slightly relieved to see that he is wearing pants, but that does little to ease her nerves. But then she gets distracted looking at his sculped chest and ab muscles and that only fuels his amusement further. He's smirking because he's remembering her comments about his muscular body the night before.

Hailey shoots him a venomous glare and whips back the covers, praising the gods that the shirt she's wearing is long enough to keep her decency intact. "I'll show you cute when I kick your damn ass, Jay Halstead," she sasses as she also gets out of bed.

She's hit with an instant wave of nausea and she knows its game over.

She doesn't get a chance to listen to his smartass or give another one of her own before she's storming past him and into his bathroom. She kicks the door shut behind her but doesn't get the opportunity to lock it. God knows he's seen her in worse conditions, but this felt much too personal. As she's busy spilling her stomach contents, she feels him come up behind her and gather her messy blonde locks behind her and out of her face. She can feel him rubbing her back gently and she's so angry that he let her drink as much as she did.

Her sickness finally ends, and she slumps against the cool tile floor.

"You were saying?" Jay quips and she doesn't have the energy to punch him in the face. "Something about kicking my ass?"

She hears him snicker and leave the room, but she can't find it in herself to move. A minute later, Jay crouches down in her line of vision with a cold glass of water and two Advil tablets. He raises an eyebrow when she doesn't move and so she eventually sits back up to take the medication and hydrate.

"How in the world did I drink that much?" She asks desperately, grabbing onto his bicep to help her up. "And why the hell do you look so good?"

Jay reaches under the sink cabinet and pulls out a toothbrush still in its package. "Well, you and Severide were hitting it pretty hard."

Hailey groans, "Severide," she moans.

"You guys were pretty cozy too," he adds offhandedly. He tries to look nonchalant, but Hailey can see right through him.

She raises an eyebrow. "Not sure what your tone is implying Jay, but Severide is taken."

Jay rolls his eyes. "Yeah, I know that," he replies softly. He hands her the toothbrush and makes his way back into his bedroom.

Hailey quickly rips open the package and brushes her teeth; she's definitely going to need some more information on what just happened. When she makes her way back into Jay's room, he's rummaging through his drawers for a clean shirt, already dressed in his jeans. She sits on his bed and stares unabashedly.

"What?" He says self-consciously when he turns to face her.

Her brain still hurts and she's starting to think it's because she's remembering the night before. "Did I call you muscular yesterday?" She asks, cringing.

A smirk appears on Jay's face. "Why yes, you did. Thank you; I appreciated all the compliments from yesterday."

Hailey groans loudly. "What else did I say?"

"You also called me pretty, but I already knew that."

"You're an ass, Jay Halstead."

She silently watches as she puts on a clean shirt.

"I told you you're pretty too," he says, suddenly flustered.

She finds his nervousness adorable. "Well, I already knew that."

He rolls his eyes but there's still tension in his shoulders. "Come on, we can pass your place so you can change."

Hailey nods, even though her limbs are screaming at her to not be moved for the next seventy-two hours. She grabs her jeans from the night before and quickly puts them back on. Jay is waiting by the door; phone, wallet and keys in his hands, along with Hailey's purse from last night.

She sends him an appreciative look before taking it and making her way outside. Their drive is quick and quiet and as Jay drops her off, he promises to be right back and ignores her questioning protests.

Hailey takes the quickest ten-minute shower possible and changes into a new pair of black jeans. She's about to change into a new shirt but as she's looking into her mirror, decides she actually looks really good in Jay's shirt. It's long-sleeve and black and she tucks the front into her jeans, rolls up her sleeves and she's ready for action. She shoves her phone into her back pocket and grabs her olive-green bomber jacket and heads for the door.

True to his word, Jay is patiently waiting for her to get ready. As she gets into the passenger seat, she's delighted to see he's holding a steaming cup of hot coffee out for her. She smiles and her eyes roll back into her skull because it tastes so good.

Hailey casts a look towards Jay and catches his smirk. "What's that look for?" She asks, lightly hitting his shoulder.

"I'm just noticing you didn't change your shirt," he replies, but he can't drop the smirk.

Hailey rolls her eyes. "I was lazy and rushing. Also, this outfit looks really good," she defends herself. "And if you're going to say that this shirt looks better on me, anyway, please remember I have a gun and absolutely hate clichés."

"Are you kidding me?" Jay raises an eyebrow. "I look way better in that shirt than you do."

Hailey smiles, satisfied with his answer.

As they pull into the district, he pauses before he exits the truck.

"There is one thing I do want to mention," he says, hesitating slightly. Hailey furrows her brows but waits for him silently. "I don't know if I should be saying anything at all. But Will got in my head and now I can't stop thinking about it," his hand is running through his hair and she hasn't seen him this distressed in a long time.

Hailey is more confused than ever.

"I was jealous last night," Jay blurts out. He turns to look at her and continues, "I saw you with Severide and I never thought anything of it. And then Will throws me a hypothetical if you were to go home with him and I kind of lost it."

It's a lot of information to take in at once.

"Will said what?"

Jay brushes it off. "Anyway, it got me thinking. And then last night—"

"What about last night?" Hailey raises a curious eyebrow.

"You said you could see it in the way I looked at you," he replies softly. They're still in his truck and he's avoiding meeting her eyes, but Hailey is turned in his direction, fully invested in his words. "It got me thinking. Maybe I…"

Hailey has literally never herd him express his feelings like these before. Especially about her.

"Maybe you what?" She urges, eyes wide.

He finally glances at her and breaks into a nervous chuckle. "Maybe there's something here that I'm overlooking?"

"Between us?" Hailey questions innocently.

God she's so hungover.

"I'm really bad at this," he groans, turning away again.

"No, Jay," Hailey protests, grabbing onto an arm to pull him back towards her. "Please, finish."

He focuses his green eyes on his grinning partner. "I was jealous, and I honestly have no reason to be."

"Jay," she laughs. "What are you trying to say?"

Jay groans because he seriously sucks at this. "I like you, okay? And I don't know exactly what that means, but I know I don't ever want to see you with some other guy and have to wonder if you'll be leaving with him."

Hailey sends him a small smile. "You don't have to worry about that," at Jay's questioning look, she continues, "the only person I want to go home with is you, Jay,"

Jay looks at her with so much adoration in his eyes, she's momentarily overwhelmed.

"Wow," she adds, "this horrid hangover is turning out so much better than I was expecting."

All she receives is a wink from Jay but it's enough to keep her satisfied until they hit Molly's at the end of shift.

PART TWOOOOOOO AS REQUESTED

actually took me a while to write and im sorry if the ending sucks I HAD SO MUCH TROUBLE WITH IT

im also working on an upstead+erin thing so look out for that!

anyway enjoy & don't forget to review!