A Blessing in Disguise 5 | COMPLETED

Maybe

After hearing the news that one of their own was missing, the team got to work. They started to dig through the case that Vannesa was working on. As Jay was busy typing into his computer, he felt a tap on his shoulder. His head quickly turned to its direction and he was met with OA's tall figure. His guarded demeanor around OA immediately dropped. "Hey, you ok?" he asks. "It's Hailey," OA whispered. The expression on his face was telling Jay to keep this talk between them. Jay nodded and he stood up from his seat. On their way to the break room, OA started second guessing himself. 'Maybe I'm just overthinking it. Maybe she's fine. Maybe Hailey didn't find Vanessa yet.' All of these thoughts were now of no use as he realized that he had no way of backing out from telling Jay his worries. He knew that this time he wouldn't be coming out of the break room without telling Jay anything. "What's wrong?" Jay asked as they took a seat around the table. "The file you saw me hand Hailey. It was Vanessa's. I owed her a favor when she saved my life back in New York, so when she asked my help in this, I didn't hesitate to give it to her," OA explained.

Jay's eyes widen at his sudden realization of the situation at hand. 'The brown unmarked folder that I saw was Vanessa's. Hailey went to find her. The person she was looking for was now presumed missing.' As Jay thought about it more, the odds of Hailey being alright were decreasing. Hailey might also be missing along with Vanessa and this was the second time that this happened in Jay's watch. 'How do I keep losing her?' A hand on his shoulder immediately pulled him out of his thoughts. "We'll find them. You'll get Hailey back,"OA said with confidence yet he wasn't quite sure himself; he just knew Jay needed to hear those words even if they were empty promises. "Yeah, you're right." Jay was determined to bring her back home. Alive. A plan started to form in Jay's mind. If they find Vanessa's whereabouts, there is a chance that Hailey could be there too. But, if she wasn't... his thoughts halted with that. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like when his anchor suddenly disappears. "Jay, one step at a time," OA's voice snapped Jay out from falling into a dark pit. "One step at a time," Jay whispered to himself, then he looked at OA. "Let's get back to work."

The two men got out of the room and directly sat in front of their computer screens. As hours flew by, the faces of the people in the bullpen became more depressed and tired. They were running out of leads to follow up on and they weren't getting any new ones. "Oh, no," Kim's head snapped up from her screen as a realization hit her. "What is it?" Adam's concern was the first one raised. "Lizzie," Kim says like she didn't want it to be true. Her day was so busy that she didn't think about what could happen with Lizzie. She immediately got up from her seat and rushed downstairs. "Hey, where are you going?" she hears sgt. Platt's concerned voice in her ears. She looked at her watch, she still had more than half an hour and she needed to calm down before she could get behind the wheel, so she walked up to her desk sergeant. "It's Lizzie," she bluntly said. "What about her?" sgt. Platt asked, genuinely confused and concerned at the same time. "Vanessa might be missing and by the way Jay's been acting, I think Hailey might be too," Kim shared her concern. "She'll be dismissed from school soon and I wanted to pick her up." "No," sgt. Platt's objection shocked Kim. "What?! Why not?" "I'll do it. Get your ass back upstairs, you're needed more here than picking her up," sgt. Platt ordered.