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Jay, Will, and Hailey had been watching the Hawks game when the package was delivered. Jay had held it up and showed the return address to Will who immediately began to laugh, even when Jay shot him a dirty look, while Hailey looked between the brothers, slightly confused.
Jay ran a hand over his face. “What the hell is this?”
Will was failing miserably at hiding both his grin and the laughter that filtered through it.
“It’s an Aunt Ida special,” he choked out.
Jay had pulled out the red sweater and held it up, his brow in a resigned, deep, deep furrow. The jingle he heard when he took it out was from the now evident small metal bells that were stitched to the embroidered green Christmas tree on the front. Presents had been painted in puffy fabric paint under it, and there were lights painted on in what had to be glow-in-the-dark colors. The tiny googly eyes that had been glued to the painted dog’s face made it look horrifying, and the whole thing smelled like it had been soaked in pine-sol cleaner.
Will held a hand to his face, still laughing. “Looks like Aunt Ida heard about aromatherapy.” The whole thing was absolutely horrible.
“Aunt Ida should hear about gift cards,” Jay muttered under his breath. He put the sweater down to pull out the paper that had remained in the box. Dear Jay, I hope you like the sweater. Giving you boys Christmas gifts and getting the picture of you with them is always the highlight of my year. I’ve got email now so you can send it on the computer. Maybe this way it won’t take so long. Much love and Merry Christmas, Aunt Ida
He looked to Will. “I’m assuming you got yours…”
“Uhhh, there was a package.” He smirked. “I’m just not exactly sure where it is right now. Brought it to work and well…it’s a busy place but I’m sure it’ll turn up.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it will too.” Jay glared.
Hailey looked pointedly at Will “Oh, it better.” Then. “This is going to make an amazing picture.” She wasn’t even trying to hide her grin. “Besides, it’s not so bad, right? I mean….well…it was obviously made with love and that’s the important thing. Right?” She resorted to biting her lip, trying hard pull a serious face but it was an absolutely lost cause.
“Oh you like this kind of gift?” Jay teased hotly, holding the sweater out. “Good to know. I haven’t done my shopping yet.”
Her eyebrows shot up as she recoiled at the thought but it was too late. She knew she was going to get something purposely horrible that she’d have to pretend was fantastic. Well, shit. She rolled her eyes at him and chuckled at his play.
Another shift had ended later than it was supposed to and now Hailey and Jay were heading down the steps, and on their way to a quick dinner. Their discussion had begun before they left the bullpet as they were putting on their coats and pushing in their chairs.
“Y’know it’s not polite to stare,” Hailey admonished him with a wink.
He walked over to her and gave her a quick kiss. “Punish me later,” he teased. “But for once I’m not staring at you. Check it out.” He gestured and moved over to Kim’s desk.
“Seriously?” Hailey huffed in amazement. “Haven’t we been here the whole time?” Immediately her cheeks flushed pink as she remembered their stolen break in the locker room.
“Almost,” Jay smirked. “But it was obviously enough time for Platt to make her move.”
They stood looking at the newly defiled family pictures that Kim had recently put up beside her desk. A red and white felt elf sat on her desk with a marker.
“I’m telling you, it’s Sarge,” Jay stated, crossing his arms at his chest.
They’d gone back and forth about it for two minutes now. Hailey shook her head as they descended the steps to the gate and stepped through. “There’s no way.” Hailey stood firm. “There’s no way Platt would know what an ‘elf on the shelf’ is much less be the tiptoeing around and putting it in all those...positions.” The past few days had found a little stuffed elf in various positions all around Intelligence.
Jay stopped as an idea landed. He sighed and put a hand to her shoulder. “Okay, listen. You’re so sure about this, what would you say to a little bet?”
“A bet?” she repeated.
“Yeah. Like,” He drew out the word. “…my sweater. You win, I’ll wear that sweater out somewhere.”
“To Molly’s! For the Christmas party!” Hailey grinned as she interrupted, eyes bright and oh so wide. She was absolutely gleeful about the possibility.
“Easy there.” He smirked, and put a hand up. “Okay, but if I win, then you have to wear it. To.the.party.”
He grinned as her face fell at the thought. “Your idea,” he reminded her with a chuckle.
“Shut up.”
The bet was settled and all throughout the week Hailey kept trying to catch the person involved. Voight had balked at putting cameras in the bullpen, even if temporarily, and no one was talking about what if anything had been seen. She’d tried to finagle the information from her team, then from Trudy, over drinks, casual talk at the front desk, and once even by text. If Platt was involved with the elf she certainly wasn’t going to admit it.
It turned out she totally was.
“Sarge?”
Hailey had come upon Trudy Platt standing beside her desk. She’d run back upstairs to grab her forgotten phone and had found Platt there, moving something around her keyboard. When Trudy looked up, Hailey caught the flash of red and white in her hands and groaned loudly.
“Jeez, Upton, way to ruin the fun.” Trudy scowled and hugged the elf to her chest. “I thought you were gone.”
Hailey was trying to find her words as the look of surprise hung on her face while she took a few steps toward her desk. “Forgot my phone.” She mumbled and stepped around Platt to grab the phone from her drawer. Dumbly, she held it up to show her.
She’d only taken a few steps back toward the stairs before she turned, unable to keep it inside. “Jay and I had this bet and---really??” She was hanging on to a thread of hope that there was another person involved, that Platt was maybe just helping this one time. That she wasn’t really the elf-master.
Trudy didn’t have time to answer as bootsteps came up the stairs and Jay appeared, looking between the two women, one of whom was holding the elf. The beginnings of a smile began to creep across his face when Trudy killed it five words.
“You said she was leaving.”
Hailey whirled around. “You knew?!”
“Jay, I don’t want to go to the party like this,” Hailey called out from behind the closed door of her bathroom.
He sat on the bed, waiting for her to come out. Even though she couldn’t see it, his smirk was on full display as he chuckled through his answer. “A bet’s a bet, Hailey.”
“I want it on record that you cheated. You had inside information.”
“Hey, I told you it was her.” He chuckled. “Not my fault you didn’t want to believe it.” He bounced lightly on the bed a few times.
A moment later the door slowly opened. “Okay, I mean if you’ll be okay with everyone seeing me like this…”
“Oh I’ll be fine with it.” He laughed. She’d given him so much shit about wearing the sweater that he was going to be absolutely delighted to see her wearing it in public, even if it was itchy and ugly. Besides, he’d already planned his mercy offering and thrown a t-shirt in his bag in the truck for her to change in to at Molly’s.
But as the door opened wider he immediately changed his mind. He most definitely was not okay with everyone seeing her like this. She stepped to him with a smirk, wearing the ugly sweater…and absolutely nothing else.