Overdue Debt

Just for tonight

When they came back out into the bullpen they were greeted by a social worker, "I'm looking for destiny..." she said with a tired smile. Jay looked at hailey in sadness, "over here" he smiled back while leading her over to the break room. He sighed before opening the door, destiny looked at him as he walked into the room with hailey and a new woman. She stood up and looked at the partners in worry, "hi destiny, I'm your social worker and I'm here to take you" she smiled. Jay and hailey had stood next to destiny automatically, destiny subconsciously moved behind jay slightly and they all noticed her discomfort. Hailey shot jay a disheartening look as jay grabbed her arm gently, "look it'll just be for tonight until we get your living arrangements sorted okay?" He said while crouching down slightly to meet her eye level. Destiny looked at jay with her crystal blue eyes and nodded sadly.

Destiny hung her head low and followed the social worker out of the bullpen, jay and the unit watched her leave as they felt useless. "Are you sure you want to take on this roll?" Hailey said to him as the girls went out of sight. Jay smiled definitely and nodded, "I just gotta figure it all out" he approved. The partners shared an understanding smiled and left to go home. When jay got home he immediately cleaned his apartment and set up the spare room so Destiny could sleep in it, he hadn't even talked to the social worker about it yet but the sooner he got his apartment up to scratch for a teenager to live in, the sooner she could move in with him. By 12am he had already made sure the place was spotless, he had put in fresh sheets and put everything away. The only thing he needed to do in the morning was stock up on food so the foster system would approve of his parenting skills.

The next morning jay got up super early and threw some work clothes on, it was 7am and he didn't start work until 8:30am. He grabbed his keys and drove to the supermarket, he bought various foods of all kinds, healthy and unhealthy so he could show he would provide her with a good nutrition plan. He bought three bags full of fresh, packed and canned food before returning back to his apartment to pack up. It was 7:45am so he took his time at packing everything away, he swept the perimeter of his apartment one last time before grabbing his badge and gun then leaving for work.

He ran upstairs and made it into the bullpen just in time, he saw hank about to give them the morning briefing so he quickly put his jacket on his desk and joined them. "Alright you know the score carry on with where we left off" he said before leaving his elite detectives to work. Hailey grabbed jays attention so he walked over to the break room to join her, "hey you needed me?" He said with a confused smile. Hailey finished pouring her coffee and nodded, "DCFS are wanting to place her into a group home, things are looking tight" she said with a sad frown. Jay smiled, "I've already got the apartment sorted, hopefully I can take her home today..." he sighed. Hailey raised her eyebrows, "jay you're gonna need food stock ups..." she started but jay cut him off. "Already done" he smiled at her. She chuckled at him and grabbed his shoulder, "wait one last thing, can you be there when I talk to DCFS?" He said before she left. Hailey turned around and nodded with a huge grin.

Destiny slept the night at a group home, it wasn't ideal for her and she didn't like it but what other option did she have...

Jay and the team were on their break so he decided to call DCFS an sort it out before it was too late, "hi this is detective jay halstead from the intelligence unit over at district 21, one of your social workers recently took in a teenage victim from one of our cases. I was wondering if I could schedule a meeting to arrange living conditions for the child today?" He said into the phone, he was alone in the downstairs office so he didn't have to talk quietly. There was a pause before the desk lady answered him, "and what would the meeting be regarding?" She said intrusively. Jay smiled to himself, "legal guardianship" he said confidently. There was another small pause before the woman spoke again, "how does 3pm sound?" The lady sighed. Jay smiled again, "that's perfect, if you could send her down to the station that would be great. The child's name is destiny grace" he replied back eagerly. The lady spoke about some other things but he didn't really need to know them so when he hung up he went to tell hailey the good news.

"Hey hails, I've got a meeting with her social worker at 3pm. I'd appreciate if you could sit in for it" he smiled while whispering it to her. Hailey flashed him a wide smile and nodded before they got on with their work.

Destiny spent the whole morning and afternoon in the downstairs common room with the rest of the kids, she didn't feel comfortable. There were kids and older teens all around her, it was pure chaos and it was driving her nuts. This clearly wasn't the life for her but she felt trapped.