Reassure (Jay Halstead x OC.)

9

It had been a long day.

No, a long week.

Scratch that- it had been a long month.

But it was over- it was finally over.

They'd caught the dealers and their kingpin and now the officers of Intelligence and the 21st district as a whole, were breathing a shared sigh of relief.

The overtime was done, the endless hours of chasing dead-end leads, were done and the senseless deaths caused by the bad batch of heroine were finally being stopped and the perpetrators were in custody.

Jay took a minute to breath. For the first time in what felt like a long time, he breathed- in and out. His head lay gently balanced against his cool metal locker in the back room of the precinct. It was silent for the first time in days.

His head that had once been spinning with thoughts of dead drug addled teens and other unsuspecting addicts was now finally clear.

His arms braced his body against the cool metal of his locker- his badge hanging limply on it's chain around his neck and his eyes were closed.

All was dark and all was calm.

He hadn't been that stressed, that solely focused, that determined in a long time. Not since his last tour. But he was home now- right?.....so how come he still felt like he was at war?

The month that had just passed had been a dark time for him. While the nights got lighter and the days longer, in Chicago's early March - his only seemed to get darker then he cared to admit to anyone. Not his own brother, or friends or even Reign (whatever she was to him now).

She WAS his best friend growing up, and she WAS quickly becoming his best friend again. But now....now he felt like- like they were in a best friend limbo.

Stuck between; knowing each other to the uttermost any two people ever could know one another- and feeling like they were on the brink of something....further.

She had been picking up longer and longer shifts at the alibi while she waited for her arm to heal so she could pass her physical. Thank god, he thought, because he knew she was going stir-crazy not being on duty- doing what she did best, saving people- she didn't need any physical therapy to prolong her stay from firefighting.

It made him smile, there in the locker room. The thought that he could go back now and tell her all about how it was over- this horrible case was over. They'd barely seen one another that month- only over the phone every night before bed was when they had really spoken.

Now he could work on himself again, build back up. Stop the flashbacks and the nightmares. Even Reign didn't know about those and she knew everything about Jay. She knew him like the back of her hand and he knew her just the same.

His breaths evened as he stood, the cool metal against his warmed forehead. He pictured Reign's smiling face and his racing thoughts stilled like an anchored ship at night, laying on a calm sea.

She was getting him through. Just the thought of her.

-.-.-.-.-

He took a breath.

Put a smile on his face.

Checked the address on his phone one more time.

Then he leaned forward....

And he knocked on her door.

Shuffling and cursing could be heard from inside. A muffled "shit! Shit! Ow! Stupid couch!" Echoed through the old wood. Before the distinct lock click called for the door to swing open and his face to break into an even wider smile.