A/N: This is my first time uploading a fic onto here! I'm really excited to write this story and the upcoming chapters will somewhat follow along with season 7. This story is also being cross-posted over on ao3 (under the same username). I hope you all enjoy it!

A bag of frozen peas.

A bag of freaking frozen peas is what Mallory Johnson threw across the island table towards Jay Halstead's face. He dodged the bag, catching it in one hand before it landed on the floor with tiny little green dots scattering across it. It wasn't like the nasty bruising underneath his left eye didn't need a twin under his right one. Or for him to even pretend why Mallory had thrown the bag at him instead of handing it to him. He knew far too well the reason was he made a promise to his childhood best friend that he wouldn't show up battered and bruised whenever she was coming over.

So much for that.

Jay was not one for breaking promises, but he also wasn't expecting to get punched in the face while working today. Mallory gave him exactly a three-second warning that she was in their condo waiting with beer and pizza for the one night in which-and he quote- "let me complain about everything and don't say a single word, please for the love of everything."

"This?" Jay held up the bag, waiting for Mallory to acknowledge that she could've Mallory while she started to close his freezer door. "This is all I have in there?"

She crossed her arms and gave him that look. That one single damn look of Mallory daring him to say one word about how he never kept a cold pack in there. Especially with his job. "You don't have anything in there that would even help."

"Not even ice? Ice would be nice," he mumbled, jumped off the barstool, making his way towards the couch. Jay didn't want Mallory grilling about what happened while he was on the job. He just wanted to rest for once-and not at Molly's either. He wanted to eat pizza, drink beer, and listen to her complain.

"Ice isn't going to fix that, ya know. Even if it would, you don't deserve ice." Mallory drew her knees to her chest, resting her chin against them. Her hair falling across her shoulder and blocking out the painful look hidden in her eyes.

"That's cold, even for you."

"Shouldn't have got smacked around today."

Mallory watched the way the blue faded into black around the corner of Jay's left eye. Part of her wanted to deck him in the other eye, make him realize just how careless he could be from time to time with his job. How the worry he managed to put his best friend through was too much stress. Where the only thing Mallory should've been worried about was a five-year-old sticking a crayon up their nose. Not that Jay might not make it back home one night.

There were many things Addy knew about Tyler's job. It wasn't like it was a kept secret between the two of them. But there were also a handful of things she knew she would never be told or understand about his job. Addy had learned from an early age to not ask questions that she didn't want answers to and vise versa.

"Staring at me isn't going to make it go away any faster." Jay leaned his head against the back of the couch. The pizza was tempting him to throw his ice pack across the room and grab a slice. "Frozen peas isn't going to work either."

Growing up together, Mallory knew the ins and outs of the Halstead household. How Jay and his dad never saw eye to eye or the fact that he favored his mom a little more. The way he threw a curveball when pitching, but refused to play after high school. She knew Jay enlisted in hopes of trying to get on his dad's good side, but it only made things worse. Mallory held her breath when Jay finally returned and joined the police force.

It didn't make things complicated between them. Mallory would stand beside him no matter what-and sometimes that was the problem.

"Neither is not placing it on your face, Jay."

Jay sucked in a breath when Mallory placed her hand over his and pressed the bag closer to his eye. Jay didn't have the energy to count the amount of times Mallory was there to patch him up over the years. From when they were just kids on the playground to now.

She was there beside him through thick and thin. Covering for him when his parents thought he had been out partying in their junior year of high school. Breaking up random bar fights before he enlisted. Becoming his roommate for a short time once he moved back to Chicago, and once again, when she needed a roommate after getting a teaching job. It never failed that wherever Jay turned around, Mallory was right there. She was always waiting to catch him time and time again before he slipped too far. In some ways, Mallory was kind of like his mom made over. He knew it the moment they became friends back in middle school. She had a bigger heart than anyone he ever knew, and Jay loved her for it.

"Gonna tell me how this happened?" She asked, jabbing her finger into the side of his shoulder a couple of times. Hoping that maybe it would cause him just as much pain as it did seeing him with a black eye.

Jay's lips turned downwards as he shrugged. "Line of duty."

"Line of duty, my ass," she smacked him on his shoulder. Her dark brown hair fell to the side of her head while she shook her head at him. "Line of duty is getting shot, or-ya know, not getting shot or coming home with a black eye. Which you've managed to not have both happen this year."

Jay winced at the words. He had heard them way too many times to keep up with. Not just from Mallory, but from his brother, his sergeant, and his team. But it was Mallory's words who kept replaying in the back of his mind. Big heart and a big worrier. She had been that way since he met her. That was never going to change at all. It didn't matter how many times Jay would reassure that he was fine, or it was nothing more than little scratch. Mallory wouldn't take his word until she saw he was safe.

"Is that my sweatshirt?"

Mallory glanced down at the faded navy Chicago Cubs sweatshirt she threw on after she came home from work that night. Of course, it belonged to Jay. And no way in hell was she was going to admit that she had managed to steal another one of his shirts while he was working a night shift a couple of weeks ago.

Nope, that was not going to happen. She wasn't going to make Jay understand how it made her more comfortable staying in the condo they shared when he wasn't there. As if it was Mallory's way of making sense to all the random noises outside their building. Jay still hadn't budged on bringing in a dog into the mix, for he was paying a majority of the rent, but Mallory knew eventually she would sneak one in someday.

"Last time I checked," she moved her hands into the sleeve to warm her frozen fingers, "finders keepers, losers weepers-and you are a weeper, Jay Halstead."

"Don't go quoting it to me, Mal," he smirked, shaking his head before he reached for the beer sitting on the coffee table. God bless, Mallory, for at least having the beer on the table before he got home.

"Maybe if you did your laundry instead of leaving it for me to take care of, then your clothes would still be in your closet," she shrugged, pushing her bun back on top of her head. "Plus, you're almost thirty-three and still getting in fights with the bad guys."

Jay barked, almost spilling his beer onto the couch. "Getting in fights with bad guys is putting them way away. You know this."

Mallory pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth, gnawing on it while she glanced at him. Jay had seen the look in her eyes way too many times. Too many times growing up, with the little creases running across her forehead and the way her hand dropped from his to knot them up in the ends of his sweatshirt sleeves.

She was thinking.

She was worrying about him.

It wasn't often he came back to their condo with a black eye or a bloody lip.

"Yes, but getting hurt isn't part of the job." Mallory's gaze settled on the Chicago skyline. The bright lights of other high rises, taking her mind of where the conversation was going.

"Mallory," he tossed the bag of peas onto the coffee table, reached for her bottle to hand it to her. "You and I both know what this job entitles."

"Doesn't mean I like it," her lips pressed against the cold glass. What she would give to make Jay have any other job besides the one he had right now.

"I know." Jay turned his body towards her. "But you know I'm safe, everyone is safe at the end of day."

Mallory's gaze flickered to Jay's bottom lip before meeting his gaze. His knee brushing against hers in a way she was used to so many times, but this time was different. The way he glanced up at her with the intense look in his eyes. Trying to calm her down without saying much more about what happened. Knowing even one slip of the reason for his black eye and Mallory would shun him until the end of the week.

But for Mallory, it was the same day.

Different story as always.

She knew this.

"One of these days," Mallory whispered just enough for Jay to hear over the soft hum of the fridge, "you're going to get in over your head, and then what? Who's going to save you?"

"I'll have you rescue me," Jay's lips turned into a small smile. "Like I always do, we have each oth-"

The knock on the door echoed through their place, cutting through Jay's words, and leaving Mallory wishing the moment wasn't ruined between them yet again. The knock came again, and they whipped their heads around towards the front door. Mallory raised one of her eyebrows in a way that made Jay roll his eyes.

"You expecting someone?" He asked, pushing himself off the couch. "Is that why you're in my sweatshirt to keep them away?"

"You sure it's not for you, someone to help lick those battle wounds off you," Mallory knocked his elbow with hers. "We both know that's what you do, right? You find someone to help ease the pain."

"Only cause you're a pain in my ass most of the time."

The knock turned into pounding the closer they got the door. If Mallory didn't know better she would've guessed it was someone who had the wrong address. Jay put his hand up, almost forcing Mallory to stand behind the corner of the hallway between their bedrooms and their front. Not that she wouldn't have stood there on her own without Jay being all protective. At least someone had her back if it was someone she didn't like. Not likely, but still nice to know.

"Open the damn door, Jay."

Mallory's eyes went wide as she took a step out from behind the wall. Tyler glanced back at her, worry lines creasing across his forehead and his Adam's apple bobbing while he swallowed. Both of them knew the sound of that voice better than they knew each other's after all these years. Mallory didn't want to believe who she thought it was, but there was no way in hell she was going to stand behind the wall now.

"Jay, open the fucking door."

Not with Savannah on the other side of that door. Jay was going to need more backup than just her beside him if he wanted to make this little altercation out alive.

Jay focused his gaze on the door handle, the knocking becoming more fierce on the other side.

"Just open it before she makes more of a scene, please," Mallory poked him in the back. "We both don't want to deal with her, but-please."

The last thing Jay wanted to do was open the door to Savannah Perkins standing on the other side. The real thorn in his side that seemed to never go away no matter how hard he tried. He almost made Mallory promise him to move out of this condo into a different one just so Savannah wouldn't know where they lived. He almost did it, too, but eventually, Savannah stopped trying to come, and Jay put it out of his mind.

"Maybe she'll go away," Jay glanced back at her with pleading eyes. The kind that were asking her to deal with Savannah instead of him.

"Open it already," Mallory pleaded, balancing herself against the wall. She mentally counted along with Jay's movements as he turned the doorknob.

One...before an explosion of Savannah hit their lives again.

Two...maybe she got tired of knocking and decided to leave. Maybe Jay wouldn't open the door.

Three...Jay swung the door open, blocking Mallory's view from everything.

"About damn time." Savannah greeted him with a smirk before shoving a baby into his hands. "Listen."

Nothing good came from when Savannah started a conversation with listen. Mallory took a step around Jay to lean against the other wall. With a direct view to the doorway, she saw a baby carrier dangling from her arm.

"She's yours."

"What?" Jay and Mallory said at the same time, causing Savannah to glare towards Mallory before turning her attention back to Jay.

"She's been yours for the last six months. I don't want her, all the paperwork to sign her over to you is in this bag." She shoved a baby bag onto Jay's right shoulder. "I know this isn't how this works, but I don't know what else to do. I just can't put into her foster care knowing she's yours. I know you'll try to find her. But she's no longer mine as of right now."

"Savannah," Jay's voice echoed down the hall. He felt Mallory's hand reach for the baby and the bag, and nudge him with her shoulder out the door.

"Go, I'll keep this one calm for now," she smiled in hopes that maybe Jay would catch on to keep his cool.

"Savannah, wait."

Jay stood there as she curled her hands into fist and turned to face him. She was still the same Savannah with the fiery red hair and deep green eyes. The same person he had fallen in love with four years ago and called it off almost a year and a half ago, after he found out she had been cheating on him. He would have given the world to be anything that Savannah wanted. It just wasn't enough in the end. He had come to accepted it and moved on.

"How do I know it's mine?" The words leaving his mouth before he realized what he had asked.

Savannah laughed. The kind of laugh he heard people who thought he was lying while undercover. The same one that made Jay want to punch a wall. "You mean, how do I know she isn't Sam's?" He winced at those words. "Believe me, Jay, if it was Sam's, this whole thing would be so much better. But she isn't his, okay?"

"And I'm just supposed to believe that?"

"Yeah, you are," she crossed her arms. Jay stood a little taller at her words. There was no way he could let Savannah just walk away like this after dumping a baby into his life. "His paternity test is in with those papers, believe me, he wanted a test too. It's not his and that leaves only one person within the last two years."

"Lawyers, Savannah. It needs to go through court and be done right."

"It needs to be done right for you," Savannah tossed back at him. "It needs to be done to Jay's standards or else it's not good enough. I signed over my parental rights and like I said earlier, all the paperwork is there."

"Savannah-" The elevator door dinged open and Jay watched her step in.

Then she was gone again.

Savannah had dropped a six-month-old baby off at his door, claimed it was his and then left. Jay stood there, listening to the elevator descend to the ground floor. He needed his feet to agree with him to move towards the stairs. Take them two at the time and stop her before she had the chance to leave him with a baby that possibly wasn't even his. His mind was running with every possibility of how it could not be his. The legal system would want to take charge on how to go about getting parental rights being signed over. There was no way she could do it without telling him first.

"Dammit," Jay kicked the elevator door. "Dammit, Savannah."

Just like that, everything he had ever known was now flipped upside down on its head.

"Jay," Mallory spoke softly, pulling him back to reality as he turned to her face. The baby played with a lock of her loose hair, tugging on it before sticking it into her mouth. "For as much as I hated Savannah, which is still a lot by the way-I think she's telling the truth."

"W-w-what?" He shook his head. This had to be some kind of fever dream. Maybe he did really pass out at the scene earlier and he was just now waking up. It was the only thing making sense with everything that just happened.

"She wouldn't have gone through all this trouble to cross her T's and dot her I's if she wasn't sure," Mallory said, handing him a piece of paper. "And she did just that."

"Paternity test." Jay rubbed his hand across his forehead. Savannah was telling the truth on it not being Sam's. For once in her life, she told the truth to him. Not when he asked if she was cheating on him or if she still loved him-but the moment it came to his child, she was truthful.

"You'll need to get one to make sure, but look at the paper, Jay."

He blinked a couple of times at Mallory before he looked down at another piece of paper.

A birth certificate.

Charlotte Halstead

December 7

Savannah Perkins

Jay Halstead

Jay forced his gaze from the paper to Mallory and the baby, Charlotte. There was no mistaking the big blue eyes looking back at him belonged to him. The chubby cheeks that turned into a smile as Mallory spoke softly to her, and tickled her tummy. Charlotte was his and he could not deny it.

Damn Savannah for dropping this on him.

And damn Mallory for being right about it.