A Blessing in Disguise 5 | COMPLETED

Little Brother

The sirens of ambulances and firetrucks grew louder as they neared the scene. The ambulances parked where the blonde woman and the brunette man stood. "Hail, I'll come with you," the man was about to follow the woman into the ambulance until she placed her hand on his chest. "No, Jay. I think it's better if you stay. I wanna find this man and I'm gonna make him pay for everything he's done." There were a few moments of silence as Jay felt hesitant to leave her alone. As he thought about it more, her words gave him more reason to stay. He wanted what she wanted too. He, badly, wanted that man to pay for what he did to Hailey. "Alright," he replied to her as he watched the paramedic place an oxygen mask over her face. He helped the blonde up the vehicle and shut the doors. His emerald eyes met her ocean ones through the small window and then he watched the ambulance drive away. After a few hours, the sun began to set and the intelligence team was finally finished looking over the leftover debris from the fire caused by the explosion. Sadly, they didn't find anything that could help them solve the case; nonetheless, they were still happy to have found their missing friends.

In one of the treatment rooms in the emergency room of Gaffney Medical Center, Hailey sat on a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. "Will... when can I go home?" she questioned her redhead doctor. "Hailey, you just got here," Will replied with an amused smile. "Yeah, and I already miss my bed." A chuckle escaped the redhead. "Sorry to burst your bubble there, but you need to stay for a couple more hours until the drugs in your system get fully flushed out and...  you also need oxygen to aid your breathing." A mischievous smile accompanied his reply as he taunted his good friend. The blonde just sighed and shook her head as her reply. "How's my brother?" Will asked, not wanting to keep the air dead between them. "He's probably happy." A soft smile appeared on Hailey's face as visions of Jay in front of her as she exited the building flashed across her mind. "Wait—" A sudden confusion in Will's voice made her smile disappear. "Which brother are you talking about?" Her azure eyes widened, "What?" "What?" the redhead replied with the same confusion in his voice. The side of his lips curled and that gave everything away. "Will! That's not funny!" Hailey scolded, but still managed to let out a little laugh. "Oh, come on. You were all grumpy and it was funny seeing your face all so..." He tried mimicking the expression she gave him. "Yeah, well, that's cause of you," she teased back. "Ha, Really? I thought it was my little brother being—" His pager suddenly beeped by his side. "Hey, sorry to cut this short, but I gotta go. I'll see you later." "Sure, doctor," Hailey tried to make it sound as annoying as possible. Will shook his head before leaving the room and Hailey's mind to think about what he just said.

'My little brother' The little brother that she needed to make up for abandoning him, not trusting him, scaring him. 'Damn, why did I even do that? What was I thinking going rogue on him? Was he really happy to see me or was he going to be mad once we get home?' Her being crumbled at the thought of her parents' little dance repeating for her. She knew that she did something bad, so she needed to pay for it. A few hours had passed and Hailey's mind was still circling around her grim thoughts. "Hey." A brunette man's arrival pulled her out of her spiral. 'Jay. He's here.' She started to take her mask off, but was stopped by fair hands, "Hey, no, keep that mask on. After everything you've done, you need a little breather." A nervous chuckle escaped her as she kept her mask on, while the man sat by her bedside placing a duffel bag by his side. Although he was by her side, he still didn't notice her anxiousness. "You know if you keep this up, you'll be beating my personal best with hospitals," Jay commented. "Well, I won't be since the only time that we're coming back here again is for flu shots," Hailey masked her emotions as she gave her take on his comment. "No, seriously, I'd rather take a bullet," Jay slightly shook his head. "No. We're not letting that happen again. No more repeating any more of those moments." Hailey replied. "I can always try." Hailey rolled her eyes at him. Then, her dreaded moment happened, silence fell between the two and Hailey's mind started swirling down its black hole again.

In what seemed like a comfortable silence for Jay, he knew that something was off, but he couldn't say what for sure. His eyes studied Hailey in the stillness of the room and he saw it. He saw what was wrong as he could see right through the smile plastered across her face. "Jay..." Hailey said before he could even ask her what was wrong. "I'm sorry."  His emerald eyes grew at her words. 'Why was she saying sorry?' "I shouldn't have gone rogue. I should've told you what I was doing—" Jay immediately stopped her with his gentle voice, "Hailey." His hand found hers as he wanted to make sure that the reassurance and the comfort he wanted to show passed onto her. "You don't have to be sorry. You were just doing what you do best, being protective towards the people you love. That's why Rojas is in the other room with Atwater. It's the very reason why I'm still alive and breathing right now." His gentle touch travelled up to her face as he cupped her cheek. She nodded her head as his thumb drew circles on her cheek. Hailey then shifted her weight to give her boyfriend a grateful hug.