Chapter Text
Hailey was standing against the wall of the hospital waiting room, her left foot nervously tapping while they were all waiting to hear news about Kim. Jay had stepped out to track down Emma’s family, Adam was wearing a hole in the floor outside of Kim’s room, Kevin was with Trudy, and Vanessa just sat, worry evident on her face.
She titled her head back against the wall and shoved her hands deeper into her coat pocket. Her legs were freezing in her still wet black jeans from pulling Emma out of the bathtub and giving her CPR. All she wanted was to go home and take the hottest shower she could withstand, but she had to know if Kim was okay first.
Her eyes were closed for a few minutes when she felt a hand on her shoulder and she jumped, before realizing it was Jay. He gave a her a tight-lipped smile,
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
She nodded at him and felt another shiver travel up her spine, pulling her jacket tighter around her body,
“Did you find Emma’s mom?”
He stepped closer to her to answer her in a low tone when he visibly saw her shiver again,
“We did. She’ll be here in a couple hours. Are you still wearing your wet clothes?”
Hailey gave him a look and nodded again,
“Yeah. I didn’t wanna leave just yet, not until we know if their okay.”
Jay was about to respond when Trudy turned the corner, and just shook her head, telling them that they had the all clear to head home for the night. Hailey instantly felt her eyes well up with tears and rubbed a hand over her face to try and keep them at bay.
Jay blinked away his own tears of sadness for their friends and put his hand back on her shoulder, turning her away from the rest of the team,
“Come on, I’ll take you home. We’ll get your car tomorrow.”
It was all Hailey could do to nod back at him and let him guide her out of the hospital and into his truck. He cranked the heat as high as it could go and reached into his gym bag, pulling out a hoodie and draping it over her legs.
They were quiet for a few minutes, the only sound in the cab of the truck were Jay’s blinkers as he drove the familiar route to her condo. He heard her sniffle, and then her cracked voice,
“What if I had helped Kim first? She was yelling at me to help the girl, but why didn’t I help Kim?”
He glanced over at her, burrowed in his passenger seat, her gaze focused outside on the streets passing them by and he could see the tear tracks on her cheeks,
“Hailey…”
He sighed, and he knew that nothing he’d say would make her feel better, but he knew he had to try,
“What happened to Kim and their baby, it was already done by the time you got there. You saved who you could – you saved Emma. She’s a kid. You gave a 14-year-old girl her life back when you pulled her out of the tub and did CPR.”
She sniffled again, and nodded at him,
“What if I had gotten there two minutes earlier? Kim wouldn’t have gone in that room.”
He shook his head and tried to focus on the road while taking another glance over at her,
“And then what? Daniel would have hurt you, and Emma would’ve still been in the tub, slowly drowning.”
She sucked in a breath and huffed, and Jay knew that face – she was on the defensive and ready to argue with him,
“I’m not pregnant, Jay! And someone else would’ve pulled Emma out of the tub, you would’ve gotten her out of the tub.”
He pulled up in front of his building and put the truck in park and this time turned his body to face hers. He reached over and put his hand on her shoulder, softly squeezing,
“Hailey. Playing the what-if game will kill you. You can’t do it. What happened tonight, happened and Kim and Adam will be okay. And for the record – I would’ve gotten you out of that room the same way Adam got Kim out, and someone else would have gotten to Emma.”
He felt her shoulders sag under his hand, and heard her sniffle again and he knew she was holding in the tears,
“I have leftover pizza upstairs. Let’s go eat.”
Hailey leaned her head back against the seat, and let the tears leak from her eyes,
“Can we ju-just si-sit for a min-minute?”
Jay nodded and kept her hand on her shoulder as she cried; releasing her grief for Kim and Adam’s baby and all that went wrong that day.