A Blessing in Disguise 5 | COMPLETED

Real

The intelligence team, along with the FBI agents, stood in the front yard as the bomb squad continued to diffuse the explosive . A few feet away from the rest of the group, Jay was leaning by the side of his truck with his eyes staring down at his hands.  He was going through his phone, texting Hailey, calling her, and leaving her a lot of messages, but there was still no reply. 'Was Hailey ok? Was she so busy digging up information about Vanessa that she didn't get to look at her phone? Or was she so close to finding Vanessa that she turned her phone off?' A lot of questions formed in Jay's mind and all of it were a mix of good and bad, he decided to listen to his good thoughts since he knew Hailey was a strong woman and he respects the choices she makes for herself. Jay took a deep breath and looked up from the device's screen. He was met with the sight of OA talking to Maggie which immediately led him to wonder if Hailey was somehow avoiding him because she got another job and didn't want to say goodbye. But, it couldn't be true. It just couldn't. She would never leave him that way, especially knowing how much it hurted him the last time that happened.

After a while, the officer in the bomb suit came out of the house. The person held the bomb on both his hands, but there was no cautiousness in the way he held it. Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched as the person made his way towards sgt. Voight, SAC Castille, and the rest of the team. Noticing this, Jay shoved the phone back to his pocket and joined the group.  "The bomb was a fake," the man informed the group of people. Everyone had a surprised look on their faces, especially OA. "He made it look real and he made it good. Anyone could mistake this for a real one," the person added. Sgt. Voight nods and says, "Thanks." The bomb squad member nodded and walked away from the group. "So, the other bomb that we think is in the district was just a scare?" Jay asks. Everyone seemed to silently agree to what Jay said. "I'll call Trudy," Kim says as she takes her phone out and distanced herself from the group. "Alright. Adam, you, Kim, and Kevin searched through every corner of this house. I want to know anything that looks important. The rest of us will get back to the district to dig up this guy's past," Sgt. Voight says. "And we'll get our paperwork sent here," Isobel added. Taking note of their superiors' orders, everyone hurried and went their own ways.

While the three officers of the intelligence team were still at the house searching for any leads, the rest along with the FBI agents were back at the district. They were all searching and looking through every file they could find on Clinton Barnes. OA was sitting at Hailey's desk since they knew she had the day off, and Maggie was seated right behind him. Jay was at his own desk. It was weird for him to glance up from his computer screen and to see OA's face. He was still curious as to what OA could've given Hailey in that brown folder. Everytime a file was taking a while to load, Jay would glance up at OA, hoping that he would telepathically know what Jay wanted to know from him. To his dismay, the FBI agent didn't seem to notice his stares. OA wouldn't know what was bothering Jay like Hailey did; he wasn't Hailey. When this thought came to him, he just realized how much he misses the blonde's presence. He misses looking up at her working face when she was doing her work opposite him. He misses someone knowing what was making him fall off his rails. He misses when Hailey gave him reassuring gestures that made him feel that he made the right decision. Jay misses Hailey and it shows.

"Hey, you ok?" Jay suddenly heard OA's voice directed at him. His head snapped to face OA and merely gave the other man a nod.  "Yeah. I'm good, man." Based on OA's expression, Jay knew he didn't give a convincing performance. "Alright, then. I'm gonna get some coffee. You want one?" OA asks Jay. "I'm good," Jay replies. OA then turns to Maggie and asks, "Hey, want some coffee?" Maggie shakes her head without looking away from the computer screen.  OA nodded and made his way to the break room. Jay's eyes didn't leave the sight of Hailey's empty chair in front of him. His mind suddenly began to weigh the pros and cons of going up to OA and asking him about Hailey. However, as he thought about it more and more, the pros and cons slowly lost their significance. He just wanted to know if Hailey was safe. Making up his mind, Jay stood up from his chair and made his way to the break room.

Meanwhile, OA has just finished filling up his coffee into a mug. He turns around to head out, but is immediately met with the sight of Jay heading for the break room. Even with just a slight glimpse of Jay's expression, OA knew that Jay had an agenda coming into the break room. "Hey," OA greeted . Jay nodded as his response to the greeting and with no hesitation asked, "Do you know Hailey?" A few seconds passed and a sudden twinkle emerged from the FBI agent's eyes. "So you're the partner." Jay was immediately confused at what OA was trying to imply, but he just says, "Yeah." A smile immediately grew on OA's face as he set his coffee mug down on the counter. "She talked about you- about missing you," OA says. Jay was taken aback by this information as he never really heard it before. Hailey never told him that, maybe it was because this happened even before they got together. "You sure you ok?" the taller man's eyebrows furrowed at the sight of the distressed expression on the brunette. "Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to ask something if that's alright?" Jay politely asks. "Yeah, sure," OA replied. "What was in that brown folder?" Jay blatantly asks. Another look of realization sparked on OA's face as he realized the car following Hailey was her partner all along. "I can't tell you that," OA replied. "Why?" Jay asks as he gets annoyed by OA's reply. "Because I owe it to her and she told me not to," OA says. Jay got frustrated at OA's answer again. He took a deep breath to try and calm himself down. He then calmly says, "Look, I'm her partner. I just wanna know if she's in a safe place right now, so if you know something, I wanna know." 

Even with Jay's calm voice, OA still saw the determination and worry in Jay's eyes. He knew Jay was not going to leave this break room until he gave him what he wanted. He sighed, but before he could form a word, someone knocked on the doorframe. This made both men turn toward the door. "Guys, we have some news," Isobel says to the two men and walked away, giving them the choice to follow her or not. Jay looked back at OA, hoping to get a different answer than before. "After," OA replied as he moved towards the door. Jay nodded with satisfaction and followed suit. As both men got out of the break room, they immediately saw the three officers of the intelligence team at each of their respective desks. The pair  immediately assumed that the news was about the case. Isobel watched both men as they prepared to listen to her announcement. Once they had settled, Isobel opened her mouth to speak. "Officer Vanessa Rojas was not taken by William Jackson. She was instructed by the FBI to go undercover to help identify a major player in the game and she has been undercover for a few weeks now. Right now, I just got a call from the FBI task force here in Chicago. They told me that Officer Vanessa Rojas hasn't made contact with her FBI field agent that was in charge of taking care of her. This agent also hasn't seen Vanessa in two weeks. They are not sure yet if she is in trouble or not, but they are doing their best to figure out what happened to her." Jay immediately knew that this had something to do with Hailey. He didn't know how he knew, but just knowing this gave him more determination to find out where the blonde was.