The Soldier and The Spy: Jay Halstead- Episode 3

Chapter 3

Present Day

The guy in front tipped the boat just enough so water started to flood in and as he righted himself and saluted the camera, the smooth sounds of the titanic soundtrack floating through the background Jay couldn't help but laugh. His two friends quickly followed suit and the final one to go under, the one that had to represent him gave such a bemused look of resignation right before he slipped beneath the waves that he instantly understood the comparison- just as he did with the first man being Mouse and the second Tess. It was such a perfect analogy of the trio's relationship that he saved the video to his camera roll so he'd be able to watch it later.

"Tess send another TikTok?" Kev asked, looking over with a smile from his spot behind the wheel.

"Yeah. I'll send it to you."

She'd taken to sending them throughout the day, memes too, pretty much anything that amused her and since he reserved opening them for in private, which occasionally included while enroute to or from a scene his partner had come to be just as fond of them as he had. And had been sworn to secrecy to the fact that Jay sometimes, alright most of the time allowed himself to be dragged into participating in some of the different trends, mostly the physical ones that involved helping her to complete some ridiculous acrobatic feat. Strangely though, except not, his phone never dinged, even when he checked the ringer. He'd just look and see the notifications, sometimes three, sometimes seven, once thirteen.

He loved every one. Loved anything and everything that made him feel like Tess was still the same woman he'd always known, that she still loved him the way she always had. And as bad as it sounded, and God he knew it sounded bad, coming home to find her crying over him had helped. He and Kev had been in the area, well an area near her area but his partner hadn't minded when he'd asked to stop and pick up some flowers. He'd grown used to the request, and to making pit stops so Jay could drop them off, though when he'd popped in last week he hadn't expected to find her laying in bed crying as she listened to Leanne Rimes 'I Need You'. On repeat.

While high.

She'd always loved the song, so much that he'd made it a point to dance with her to it every Valentines Day but still to find her crying over how much she loved him, how much she'd missed him and how happy she was to back with him... Well, he'd had to make another stop to buy his partner his own little bouquet for making him wait nearly thirty minutes so Jay could kiss away all her tears and get her laughing again.

One of the things he had always loved about Tess was her strength, her resilience, but he'd also loved the way she'd relied on him. And maybe it wasn't fair but he still wanted that, wanted to be needed. Cause if she needed him... maybe she wouldn't leave again.

"Look at you looking all in love."

"Shut up."

"What? I'm just saying it's nice seeing you so happy."

"Uh-huh." Kevin grinned and even though Jay rolled his eyes he couldn't help but match it, though it soon turned into a smirk. "And what about you? How're things going with Vanessa?"

"I don't know what you talking about- we're just friends."

"Right. Just friends."

Kev smiled but shook his head so Jay let it drop, silence filling the car once more. It was Vanessa who'd learned that Till had half a dozen parking tickets in front of the same little strip mall in the neighborhood where they'd been snatching kids so Voight had sent the four of them to check it out. Why he hadn't sent just Hailey and Vanessa, or Kim and Adam and left him with Tess he didn't know, except that his Sergeant probably wanted to see what she was like without him around. And maybe to make sure Jay was still going to follow his orders when she was. And he would. So long as those orders didn't contradict hers.