Archive of Our Own

Jay’s laughter rings through Hailey’s head, so she takes a hard swallow of whiskey to ease the pain it brings her.

They just worked together for four days and even solved a case together.  She and her old team and her friends from 51 and her ex-husband.  They did it.  At times, the stress of the case got to them, but they were able to do it without getting at each other’s throats.  No one yelled.  No one directly brought up the past.  No one cried.

At least, not in front of each other.

Maybe she cried at night in her hotel room beneath the heat of her shower, but she refused to let Jay or Voight or even Kevin see her cry.  She works for the damn FBI.  She is stronger than this.

And yet the sound of her ex-husband laughing in Molly’s is enough to make her want another glass of whiskey.

“Stella,” she says, interrupting what Lizzie is telling her about her tai chi classes, “Can I-”

“Yeah, of course,” Stella replies, the bottle of whiskey already in her hands.

“Thanks,” she breathes.  Stella’s barely pulled the bottle away before Hailey already has the glass to her lips.

“You doing okay?” Stella asks quietly, her eyes drifting down the bar toward where Jay is sitting with Kelly and Adam.

Hailey catches her gaze and gives her a stiff nod.  “I’m fine,” she sighs, “Just tired.  This one was…draining.”

“I don’t know how you do it,” Lizzie butts in, “But you were bad ass at the airport yesterday.”

She laughs softly and murmurs, “I don’t know about that.”

“Um, I do,” Violet says as she sits on Hailey’s other side, “When I grow up, I want to be you.”

Hailey manages to laugh a little louder at that and shakes her head.  “Thank you, but, from what I saw of you handling all those victims, you two are the real heroes.  I feel like I know a lot, but then you two showed up knowing everything about chemicals and lungs, and I realized I should have paid a lot more attention in chemistry class.”

“Speaking of,” Lizzie began, “Do you guys have the option to take classes about different chemicals in the police academy?  That guy, Halstead, that you used to work with really knew a lot earlier.”

Hailey’s ears burn, and she quickly averts her eyes to her whiskey glass as to avoid Stella’s gaze.  “Uh, no, no, we don’t.  He just…he used to work in the army, and he’d make some sort of bomb that required him to know a lot about that…stuff.”

Lizzie hums and nods before taking a sip of her drink.  “Interesting.  Kind of hot too.”

“Hot?” Violet repeats, “A guy knowing about chemistry and being able to make a bomb is hot to you?”

“Is it not to you?” Lizzie counters, “You’re not just a little turned on by smart guys?  Especially when they have a niche?”  She turns to Stella and says, “Come on, help me out.  When Severide’s talking about arson and burn patterns, doesn’t that make you want to just take him right then, right there?”

Stella laughs slightly, and Hailey looks up at her.  “I guess, yeah, but what about you and Dr. Frost?  I thought you two were a thing.”

Violet immediately shakes her head, and Lizzie is now the one blushing.  “We, um, we’re not really…”

Hailey feels bad for her, but she’s also glad the heat’s been taken off of her.  And when Stella shoots her a quick wink, she’s even more grateful for her friend.  The truth is, she did think Jay’s knowledge of chemistry was hot.  Anything he did was hot to her, even now.

When she first looked up to see him standing above her, her heart had stopped, and it continued to do so whenever she got a glimpse of him back in the bullpen.  Watching him back in his element reminded her of why she fell for him in the first place.  It wasn’t just seeing him in command again, but seeing him smile and tease his friends and be fired up about something positive.  For the past four days, he was acting like the Jay she fell in love with, not the one she divorced.

And that hurt the most.

She’d long accepted that he had needed to leave Chicago to heal.  Her gut knew that he could not have become what he is now by sticking around the same environment that ate away at him.  However, she still struggled with accepting that he had to let go of her, as well, to do so.  She didn’t want to think that she did anything wrong in loving him.  She had always supported him, so the thought that that support had broken him in some way terrified her.

Because of that, she was terrified to have a true conversation with him.  They’d discussed their case and basics of their situations to give background to why they had stake in what was going on, but beyond that…nothing.  She didn’t feel like asking more questions and begging for more answers.  She needed to move on.

She’d tried.  She left Chicago and had gone on dates and made new friends and got a new job.  Some would say she was thriving, and, most days, she believed she was.  But seeing Jay again felt like a setback.  It messed with her head and made her feel like nothing had changed.

“I’m going to get some air,” she breathes while pushing back from the bar.

“Do you need company?” Stella asks as she slips her coat on.

“Give me ten?”

“Yup.”

Hailey pulls her hair out of her coat and makes her way out of the bar.  She was grateful for Hermann to invite them all out to catch up, but there were a lot of people in that small place, and she needed some space to digest all that had occurred over the past few days.

She needed to drive back to Detroit tomorrow morning, and she’d rather get all her processing done now so that she can just zone out for the six hour drive.  She didn’t need to be thinking about Jay when she could be listening to her latest audiobook.

The curb felt like ice through her jeans as she lowered herself upon it, but part of it made her feel alive.  She was okay.  She’d survived this first trip back to Chicago.  She really had been the best choice out of everyone to send here, and it’d worked out in the end.  They could finally put an end to it all.  She knew she’d be asked to come out here again because of the work she’d done, and maybe that’d be okay.  She might even volunteer next time it comes up.

Seeing Jay hadn’t been ideal, but maybe it gave her some sort of closure.  He was alive, and she was glad about that.  As disappointed as she’d been in him, she wouldn’t ever want something terrible to happen to him.  He had his memory and all his limbs, and that was good enough.  Even better, he had his smile back, and she was happy for him.  It’s what he seemed to have wanted all along.

She blows out a long breath and leans back on her palms, tilting her head up toward the sky.  The cold air soothes her heated skin.  Moving to Detroit gave her similar weather as to what she grew up with, but nothing could beat the wind in Chicago.

The door opens behind her, and she’s actually surprised that Stella’s coming out this soon.  There’s no way ten minutes had passed already.

“Hey, go back inside.  I’ll head out.  I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Hailey’s eyes shoot open, and she spins around to see Jay lightly jogging down the steps of Molly’s with his hands in his pockets.

“Seriously, Hailey,” he says, “It’s freezing out here.  Go inside.”

“I don’t…I’m not out here because of you,” she replies, “I’m just…here.”

Jay raises an eyebrow then repeats, “Well, it’s freezing.  You shouldn’t be out here for long.”

“It’s okay,” she insists, “I wanted some quiet for a minute.  I’ll head back in there when I’m ready.”

Jay sucks in a breath as he studies her before he sighs and turns around.  Hailey turns back toward the street just as she hears the door close behind her.

Add that to their small list of conversations this week.

Part of her wanted to call him names and get mad at him for the way he was acting.  He didn’t have to follow her out here and pretend to be some sort of hero by inviting her back inside.  He then didn’t have to just leave her here in the cold, even if that meant admitting he was right.  He didn’t even bother asking her why she needed quiet; it’s not like they were at a club or some crazy party.  It was Molly’s with their friends; they’d had nights like this dozens of times over the years.

However, tonight was not like it’d been in the past.  She wasn’t with Jay anymore, whether that be as a friend, girlfriend, or wife.  Things had changed over the past few years, and she assumed that the way Jay treated her needed to change as well.

The thought brings tears to her eyes, and she angrily wipes them away.  She’s supposed to be leaving her tears for her hotel room, not outside a bar, and certainly not in a place where Jay could walk up on her.  If she’s planning on going back in there, and she is because she cannot let him win tonight, then she needs to pull herself together.

The door opens again, and she groans quietly.  Stella asking her if she’s okay is sure to push her over the edge, and she absolutely does not need that right now.  She’s trying to stop crying, not let more out.

But instead of Stella settling next to her on the curb, it’s Jay, and, this time, he has a glass in one hand while his other is curled up in a fist.

“I got you a Sprite and some Excedrin,” he says gently, holding out his offerings.

“What?” she breathes.

“Figured you have a headache starting,” he explains, “Whenever you have a headache, you start off by saying you need quiet, so-”  He shakes his fist and raises the glass slightly.

“Jay,” she whispers, and now the tears are spilling over her cheeks and burning her skin, “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, I did,” he insists.  He opens his hand to reveal the two white pills then adds, “They’re from that sort of blonde paramedic.  She was pretty insistent I take them from her, so hopefully they’re not laced with something.”

Hailey’s almost shocked at the laugh that bursts from her, and it brings a similar smile to Jay’s face.  She lightly shoves his shoulder and says, “They are not laced with something, you idiot.  She just likes you.”

Jay’s eyes widen, and he lets out a shocked laugh.  “What?”

“Yes,” she says with a nod, clearing her throat, “She likes you.  She told me she thinks your knowledge of chemistry is hot.”

“Well, huh.”  Jay turns on the curb and looks out at the street.  “Interesting.”

Hailey shakes her head before wiping at the tears on her face.  “Do you like her back?”

Jay glances at her and chuckles, “No.  Definitely not.  She’s, like, nineteen.”

Hailey laughs harder and shoves him again.  “She is not.”

“She’s young,” he chuckles, “Too young for me.”  He looks down at his hands then holds them out again.  “Come on, take the Excedrin and have some pop.  I’ll drive you back to your hotel or order you an Uber, whichever you’d prefer.”

She softens next to him and gently pushes his hands away.  “I don’t have a headache,” she says gently, “I…I just needed a break from all the talking in there.”

“Oh,” Jay says, breathing in slowly, “Uh, okay.  Sorry.”

Hailey follows his eyes as he looks out at the street, and she spots the blush on his cheeks.  A part of her feels like this must be what she looked like when she’d assumed he was stalking her four days ago when they’d first run into each other.  She’d been wrong then like he was now, and it hadn’t felt good to be off about the person she once knew like the back of her hand.

“It was a good guess, though,” she says quietly, “I did - I do - say that I need quiet and dark places when a migraine’s coming on, and my head is still sore.”  She reaches over to pry the pop from his hand and takes a slow sip of it.  She lets the carbonation sizzle on her tongue for a moment before blowing out a breath and setting the glass between the two of them.

“I’m sorry about that, by the way,” Jay murmurs before looking at her.  She raises an eyebrow, and his fingers come up to just barely brush over the cut on her forehead.  “I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough.”

“Don’t be,” she says with a shake of her head, “There’s nothing you could have done.”

Jay shoots her a look, and they both know that if he showed up just thirty seconds earlier, she probably would not have gotten hit, but how was he supposed to know it was her or what was about to happen?  He wasn’t, and so she doesn’t blame him in the least for what had happened.

He turns back toward the street and blows out a sigh.  “Could have been faster with a lot of things, but here we are.”

Hailey’s stomach twists, but she nods.  He doesn’t need to elaborate any further for her to know what he’s talking about.  This time, she does blame him for the aftermath.  Even if she’s not necessarily angry at him for everything that had happened, she knows that a lot of the blame for their failed marriage does rest upon his shoulders.

Staring out at the street, she breathes, “Here we are.”

They remain silent for an immeasurable amount of time.  Hailey knows Stella should have come out here by now, but it’s just her and Jay and their thoughts in the glow of Molly’s.  She actually doesn’t mind, though.  There’s something comforting about being in Jay’s presence again without any pressure to talk.  They can just be, just like they use to when they were together.

“Why Detroit?”

Hailey hums and glances at Jay.

“Why Detroit?” he repeats.

“Um.”  She lets out a breath and watches the air puff into a small cloud of condensation.  “It was a chance with the FBI, and I’m still in the field, which is what I wanted for now.  All interrogations and desk work is appealing, but I’m not quite ready for that.  I still have some fight left in me.”

Jay chuckles and nods.  “Yeah, you do.”

She smiles out at the street then sighs.  “Plus, it’s not too far away.  I can still come back if I need to, and I don’t need to get a plane ticket to do so.  The weather’s pretty similar, and there’s a lot to do.  I actually have a house; no more apartment life for me.”

“A house?  Look at you, Ms. Adult.”

Hailey laughs, and she catches Jay’s smile widen out of the corner of her eye.  “I know,” she says, “I own a lawn mower and everything.”

Jay laughs with her and gently nudges her with his elbow.  “Very cool.  Are you actually in the city then?  How’s that work?”

She shakes her head.  “I’m about half an hour outside the city in the suburbs.  Well, it’s half an hour on a good day.  The traffic’s kind of insane, especially in the winter, but whatever.”

“They don’t call it the Motor City for nothing,” Jay says.

Hailey smiles and shakes her head.  “No, they don’t.  They’re pretty intense about it too.”

“Yeah, I noticed the Chevy,” Jay chuckles, “Did they make you get rid of the Jeep?  Was it a requirement of working there?”

“No, I actually sold it before moving.”

Jay’s laugh seems to fade slightly, and he nods at her confession.  They’re no longer joking around, and the admission makes her glance at him again.  Something resembling pain has crossed his face as he stares out at the cracked concrete.

Without giving much thought to it, she scoots closer to him and angles herself so their knees bump together.  “It’s not your fault,” she says gently, “It’s just a car, and it was getting old.  Even if I stayed here, I would have had to trade it in at some point.”

“I know,” Jay sighs, “It’s just…weird.”

Hailey can’t stop the smile that ghosts across her face.  “I think that’s a good way to put a lot of things that happened this week.”

There’s a beat, then Jay looks over at her and asks, “So do we lean into it?”

She raises an eyebrow.  “How so?”

“Clear the air,” he explains.  Before she can respond that they certainly don’t have enough time to do all that and that it really is cold out here, he quickly shakes his head and says, “Not about…about that stuff, but about us and what we’re really up to now.  The stuff we missed out on the past few years that we would have told each other back when we were just friends.”

When they’d stay out late after a case and share a beer.  When he’d show up with a bottle of tequila to her apartment.  When she’d bring pizza to his.  When they’d take the long way back to the district just for an extra five minutes of peace together.

“When we were friends,” she repeats quietly with a nod.

He nods with her, and holds her gaze for a moment before blurting, “Are you seeing anyone?”

A shocked laugh escapes her, and she turns back toward the street.  “Oh my god.”

“Come on,” he chuckles, “Tell me.  I’m dying to know.  It’s what I’ve wanted to know the most - now and back then.”

When they were friends.

Her smile widens, and she jokingly sighs before looking at him.  “Currently, no.  I have been on a handful of dates and dated two guys for a couple months each, but I am not currently seeing anyone.”

“Okay, gotcha, gotcha,” Jay says, trailing off slightly.

“Are you?” she asks with a nudge to his side.

He scoffs and picks up the glass of pop between them.  “No,” he simply answers before taking a sip.

She watches him swallow his drink then says, “That’s it?  That’s all you’re going to give me?  If we’re going to pretend we’re just friends again, then I’m going to be just like I was back then and push you for all the details.”

Jay smirks and shakes his head.  “There’s nothing to tell.”

“Bull.”

He laughs and sets the glass down.  “I swear, Hail, there’s nothing to tell you.  I came back from Bolivia, spent two weeks in Seattle with Will, then came here to go undercover.  I’ve been playing it a lot safer than before.  No sex, no dating, not even a single kiss.  I promise you.”

For a brief second, she’s stunned.  When she first met Jay, he’d jumped right into a stupid, dangerous relationship with someone he later claimed to be his CI.  Because of her and how it’d impacted him, she’d forced him to go to therapy to work on his PTSD.  After that, lines continued to blur for him, but nothing was ever as bad as his relationship with Camilla.

Until his last case.

Maybe this meant that he’d learned his lesson in Bolivia.

“So you…you haven’t kissed anyone-”

“No.”

They stare at each other as the truth of that statement sinks in.  Her ex-husband, whom she divorced over two years ago, whom she hadn’t even seen in over three years, hasn’t kissed anyone since they said goodbye at O’Hare.

“Oh.”

She manages to rip her eyes from his to stare back out at the street.  His confession sits like a rock in her gut.  She almost doesn’t want to believe it.  He’s a good looking guy.  Kind.  Smart.  Funny.  Quick thinking.  Loyal.  Any girl would kill to have him - as evidenced by the paramedic inside who’d known him for barely a week.  He’s probably run into dozens of girls since their divorce and probably had the chance to kiss, or do more, with them all.  Yet he chose not to.

He’s blaming it on the job, but there was something in his eyes that tells her there’s more than that - like he didn’t want to see anyone else even if the job wasn’t a factor.  She’s not sure how she feels about that.

She’s moved on, in a way.  Nothing has stuck, but she’s at least put herself out there.  She’s had sex - that was fine for what it was - and she’s kissed many guys - even if she didn’t enjoy each one - which was all that she was supposed to do.  She was supposed to keep living her life.  She was supposed to find herself again.

Maybe she has.  She’s certainly happy again, and her job doesn’t control her life.  She has friends that want what’s best for her, both here and in Detroit.  She doesn’t just run to forget, but she runs because she’s training for a marathon.  She goes to yoga classes and drinks wine and binge watches reality TV.  She feels like herself - even if her heart hasn’t quite gotten pieced back together yet.

The truth is, seeing Jay this week has been painful and scary, but it was exhilarating at its core.  He’s brought out a fire in her that she hasn’t felt in a long time.  She never wanted to feel like a man completed her, but there was something about being around Jay again that felt right, especially because he felt like her Jay - not Voight’s.

Before Jay left, he had gone through something she wasn’t quite sure either of them would truly be able to explain.  His mental health had declined so far that neither of them could do what they needed to bring him back.  He needed professional help, and, instead, he’d fled the country.  It was a long and painful road, certainly worse than had he stayed and maybe even gone into some sort of rehab facility, though he would have hated that maybe even more, but it somehow worked and gave him his light back.  She doesn’t think she can continue holding that against him forever.  She doesn’t want to hold his path to recovery against him because at least he did it.  At least he’s Jay again.

“What’s your apartment like?” she asks quietly.

He turns to her quickly in question, and she forces a small smile on her face when she looks back at him.

“Questions that friends ask, right?” she reiterates.

He chuckles and shakes his head.  “Uh, it’s pretty crappy, honestly.  Just a studio, and it’s right near the L, so…”  He trails off and runs a hand over his face.

“So if there were girls, they wouldn’t be staying with you?” Hailey gently teases.

Jay laughs and nods.  “Exactly.  It’s just an undercover thing, but it does the job.”

“But what about now that it’s over?” Hailey asks, “If the department set it up for you…where are you going next?”

“Well, the case isn’t officially closed yet,” Jay reminds her, “I still have to do all the paperwork.”

Hailey raises an eyebrow and tilts her head to the side.  “That’s not really how it works, Jay.  You…You’re supposed to be wrapping up the apartment when you’re no longer undercover and don’t need it anymore.  Most people can’t wait to get out of those things.”

He shrugs and turns back toward the street.  “Maybe I’ll go under again.”

“No,” Hailey insists, reaching over to turn his chin back toward her, “No, you can’t.  You know you need to wait it out a few weeks, at least.  It’s too risky-”

“I’ve done riskier things than living in a crappy, UC apartment, Hailey,” Jay bites back, and her heart sinks.

“Jay,” she breathes.

He shakes his head and grabs the glass of pop again.  As he takes a long drink, he closes his eyes, and his jaw tightens.  For a moment, he looks like he did before he left for Bolivia - the hardened, scared version of him that was searching for something solid to hold on to.

“Hey,” she whispers, “Look at me.”

He swallows the pop hard, then sets the glass down.  There’s a beat before he looks at her again, and the Jay she’d fallen in love with is staring back at her through the green eyes she knew she could never forget.

“Maybe it’s not as risky as what you’ve been doing, but you need to ease back into the real world,” she says quietly, “You need to take a break.  You came back from Bolivia and gave yourself two weeks before throwing yourself into this job.  Take some time to yourself.  Go visit Will; I heard you have a new nephew that I’m sure would love to meet his Uncle Jay.”

He smiles at the mention of his nephew and nods slightly at her words.  Clearing his throat, he shifts to one side and leans into her for just a moment as he pulls his phone out.  “He’s cute.  Has Natalie sent you any pictures?”

“No,” Hailey says, even if it’s not quite the truth.  Natalie wasn’t the one to send her pictures, that was Will, but she did see the ones they posted on Facebook announcing the birth of little Andrew Halstead.

Jay passes her his phone and says, “Feel free to flip through.  That’s everything they’ve sent me.”

She smiles at the pictures of both the baby and Owen.  “Will adopted him now, right?”

“Yeah,” Jay answers, “So, actually, I have two nephews to go visit.”

“See?” she says while passing his phone back, “You have other things to do than work.  Go travel and hang out with your family.  I’m sure they miss you.”

Jay’s shoulders move slightly, and Hailey’s not sure whether he shrugged or it’s because he was leaning again to return his phone to his pocket.  “Maybe,” he murmurs, “I don’t want to bother them.  He has a family now; he doesn’t need his little brother mooching off of him.”

“Wouldn’t be mooching if you stay in a hotel,” she tries, “And certainly wouldn’t be mooching if you offer to watch the boys while Will and Natalie go out for dinner.  All parents appreciate a date night.”

Jay smiles up at her.  “Yeah?  How do you know that?  Are you a nanny on the side?”

There’s a slight sting that surges through her at his words.  She only ever imagined being a parent with Jay at her side.  She wasn’t quite sure she’d be a good mom, but for a brief while, she’d thought she could do it if Jay was the father opposite her.

She chooses to ignore that, though, and says, “I babysat Makayla a few times before I moved so that Adam and Kim could have a meal or when they were trying to figure things out with his dad.”

Jay hums, and there’s a slight teasing glint in his eyes.  He had to have felt the same surge of pain and wanting at his question, but, like her, he’s chosen to move past it.  “How’d she do?  Could you get her to go to sleep on time or were you being the fun aunt who let her stay up too late?”

She laughs and shrugs.  “A little bit of both, but that’s for Makayla to know and everyone else to never find out.”

Jay laughs with her and shakes his head.  “Knew it.”

Smiling, she grabs the pop and takes a sip of it.  “And what kind of uncle are you going to be?”

“The best kind,” Jay answers quickly, “When I was out there with them last year, Owen and I had a great time.  We played video games, I taught him how to slide in baseball, and we ate a ton of candy.  Will and Natalie were thrilled.”

Hailey laughs again.  “I’m sure they were.”

Jay breathes out slowly as the smile settles on his face, then he says, “Maybe I will head out there for a bit.  It could be fun.”

“It would be,” Hailey assures.  She squeezes his arm and adds, “They need you back in their life.  Don’t be a stranger.”

He glances down at her hand, and she quickly pulls it back just for him to shake his head.  “I’m okay with it,” he says quietly, “I always have been.”

A smile flickers over her face, and she nods.  She’s been trying to watch her hands at work.  She’s always been expressive and wouldn’t even think before reaching over to grab someone to get their attention.  However, not everyone’s like that, so she’s been doing her best to keep her hands to herself.  Being around Jay, though, and being something resembling friends again seems to have reverted all those efforts, much like everything else.

“What about…” Jay trails off and takes a deep breath.  His eyes study hers for a moment before he says, “What if I’m not a stranger with you, too?  Maybe we keep this friend thing going for a bit, and I come visit you out in Detroit?”

She raises an eyebrow.  “You’d do that?”

He nods quickly.  “Yeah, of course.  I want to check it out.  Plus, you can show me your house and that lawn mower you’ve got.”

Her lips curve up, and she looks down at their feet.

“If that’s okay with you,” Jay continues, “I don’t want to overstep.  I’m sure Will can show me his own lawn mower.”

Hailey laughs softly as she shifts her feet around until her tennis shoe nudges his boot.  When she returned to Chicago to see Jay here intertwined within her case, she didn’t expect to let him back into her life.  But sitting here with him in the glow of Molly’s, she finds that she’s enjoying talking to him and being his friend again.  Maybe there is a world where this week was supposed to happen, where they were supposed to reconnect and open their friendship back up.  Not once did she feel like she couldn’t trust him as they worked, and she’s leaning back into that trust right now.

He may have hurt her, but he’s healed now, so maybe she should try to do the same.  They have much to talk about - she can’t ignore that - but in order to do that, they’re going to have to be somewhere a lot more comfortable than a curb outside a bar on a winter night.  If they don’t start dating again, maybe they could return to that friendship that once meant everything to her.  It’d at least bring her back some of that peace she experienced this week, and that was a feeling she didn’t lose again.

“Yeah,” she says softly, lightly kicking at his shoe before looking back up at him, “You can come to Detroit.  There’s a couple bars that I think you’d like.”

Jay smiles back at her and nods.  “I’d like that.  It’s been a while since I enjoyed my bar company.”

Hailey laughs and grabs the glass of pop they’d been sharing.  Once she finishes the last of it, she nods back to Molly’s and asks, “Should we head back in there?  That bar company isn’t the worst.”

He jokingly sighs and looks behind them.  “I guess.  Maybe I did miss hanging out with Adam.”

Hailey shoves his arm, and they’re both thrown into a fit of laughter.  “Be nice,” she warns.

“Oh, I’ll be nice,” Jay chuckles.  He takes a second with his hands on his knees before pushing himself to stand with a quiet groan.

“Getting old?” Hailey asks as she accepts Jay’s hand and stands with him.

“You’re ruder than I remembered,” he counters.

“It’s what friends do,” she replies.  Stepping back and dropping his hand, she studies him for a moment then says, “But seriously, are you okay?  That’s new.”

“Uh, I mean, maybe you were right in saying that I don’t need to be doing all this undercover stuff anymore,” he says, rubbing the back of his head, “I wasn’t medically discharged or anything like that, but I was thrown around a bit - everyone is - so when it comes to running around Chicago and taking down people coming after yo-my friends, I’m a little sore after.”

Hailey raises an eyebrow, then nudges his left arm.  “Maybe you’re the one who needs to take that Excedrin.”

He chuckles and opens his fist where those two white pills are still sitting.  “I prefer Tylenol for this.  Maybe that paramedic has some I can have.”

Hailey smiles back at him and crosses her arms.  “I’m sure she’d love to hand it over to you.  Probably even rub out any of your sore muscles.”

Jay scrunches his nose and shakes his head.  “Too far.”

“Oh, it is not,” she laughs, “Come on, you need to get back out there.  Why not start with the girl fawning over you at the bar?”

“Hailey,” he warns, shaking his head, already stepping backwards toward the steps.

She shoots him a teasing smirk and shrugs despite the fluttering in her stomach.  She has to admit that she doesn’t love the idea of her ex-husband seeing anyone else, even if it’s been years since they were together, but maybe that’s because he’s been acting like her old friend, and she’d never really liked when he’d talked to other girls back then either.

He studies her for a moment, and if he catches those butterflies in her gaze, he doesn’t say anything.  Instead, he lets out a breath and smiles slightly, turning to invite her to walk in front of him.  “I gotta ask, though, were you nervous to date again?”  She glances at him over her shoulder, and he raises his hands in surrender.  “Asking as a friend,” he clarifies.

“Uh-huh,” she murmurs before stepping up toward the door.  “I guess I was a little, but for reasons that might take a little too long to explain now,” she offers.

Jay nods in understanding.  “Makes sense.”

“The first couple dates were…weird,” she continues as she walks into the bar, “But maybe I was just getting my feet back under me, I don’t know.  One of the girls I became friends with at work is also divorced, and she said I needed to consider the first guys as practice before the real thing happened.”

“Practice,” Jay repeats with another nod.  He closes the door behind them then unzips his jacket.  “Well, I guess I should get a little bit of that in before I head out to Detroit then.”

Before Hailey can ask what he means, he lightly sets his hand on her back, then makes his way over to the bar where she’d previously been sitting.  She watches as he smiles at Lizzie and offers her back the pills she’d given him.  In reply, Lizzie laughs softly and shakes her head, patting the seat beside her.  He must say something about being sore because she then sets one hand on his lower back and the other on his arm.

Jay chooses that moment to let his eyes drift behind her toward Hailey, and a quick smirk passes over his face.  He winks then focuses back on Lizzie next to him.

Those butterflies Hailey felt earlier begin to burn in her gut, and she can’t help but scoff slightly despite the shocked laugh teasing at her throat.  He’s doing all of this on purpose before visiting her in Detroit.  She’s not quite sure she’s ready to consider what the implications of that are, but she thinks she may be ready to hear him out.  Even when talking to another woman, he’s still clearly her Jay - the one she’d fallen in love with and originally wanted a future with.  He’s back, and she’s happy for him, and maybe that means she’s ready to be happy with him again.

Even if it’s just as friends.

For now.

“You’re cool with this?” Stella asks as she walks over to her still watching her ex-husband from just inside the door.

“I think so,” she admits softly, “He said it’s practice, so I’m sorry if he breaks her heart.”

“She’ll be okay,” Stella assures, “You’re the one I’m worried about right now.  I know you said you moved on, but-”

“But maybe that was all just practice,” she finishes under her breath, “Just a way to pass the time and grow up more.  He said he’s going to come visit me in Detroit, and I…I’m letting him.”

Stella makes a sound of understanding and turns to watch Jay and Lizzie with her.  “Did you two talk out there about what happened?”

“Not really,” Hailey admits, “But I think I’m ready to hear him out.  It’s not going to be easy, but I’m ready to meet him where he’s at, especially since he’s willing to do the same for me.”

Stella smiles and gently nudges her arm.  “I’m glad to hear that.  At the very least, you’ll get your closure, right?”

Hailey nods and watches Jay laugh at something Lizzie told him.

If anything, she hopes she’ll get even more than closure when he comes to Detroit:  she hopes she’ll get her fresh start.

She maybe even hopes that Jay will join her as she does.