Macie's Story

21

(March 11th, 56 days old)

Jay pushed the apartment door open and stood to the side, allowing Hailey to step inside first. He follows in behind her, closing the door until it lets out a quiet click and he disregards his boots and keys. With the clink of the metal hitting glass, Hailey spins on her heels, shaking her head.

"What are you doing? You've still got hours left on your shift." She asks.

He shrugs off his jacket and puts his hand out to take hers. "I'm not leaving you, Hailey and besides I've already spoken to Voight and he's signed off on it so it's too late anyway," he then shakes his hand to draw her attention to it. "Jacket?"

She looks down at his hand and removes her own coat, handing it over and Jay hangs them both up as Hailey kicks off her own shoes. Without saying another word, she made her way over to the couch and sat down. Jay watched her carefully from the archway in the foyer until she made herself comfortable on the couch and that's when he made his way over to her.

"How are you feeling?" He wonders.

Hailey turned her head to meet his gaze. "Better, the codeine is actually working thankfully."

Jay placed the palms of his hands on top of the couch and his head tilted to one side. "Can I get you anything?"

She pauses for a beat, thinking about her answer before she points her finger over her shoulder. "Can you get the pump, it's in my bag by the door?" She asks, earning a nod in return as Jay stands up straight again to go and retrieve it.

"Remember what the doctor-"

"Pump and dump, I remember."

Jay can feel his eyebrows crease and he doesn't step away from the couch just yet, instead just looks down at his fiancée with a slightly confused look. "I don't think that's what she called it."

"That is exactly what she called it." Hailey smirks.

He doesn't choose to argue about it further and as he steps back to the door to collect Hailey's bag, he can hear her chuckle quietly behind him. He grabs the strap of the bag and picks it up from the floor, turning on his heels. He throws the bag over the back of the couch and drops it down next to her, allowing her to grab the pump out of it and then he picks the bag back up, putting it down beside the bedroom door.

When he turns back to face her, Hailey notes the concerned look on his face.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He questions.

She nods. "Yeah, I'm fine." She replies.

Jay takes a step forward closer toward the couch. "It's just you've been quiet since we left Macie," he says as he comes to a stop at the arm of the chair. There's a small sigh that comes from Hailey as she puts her gaze down, fiddling with the machine in her lap to keep her hands busy. Jay steps around the arm of the couch, sitting himself down on the other side of the sofa to his fiancée. "Hailey, whatever it is, you know you can tell me about anything."

"I know." She says.

Jay leans forward slightly. "So what is it?" He wonders.

He watches as her shoulders rise fast and fall slowly as her hands still seem to play with the pump, pressing down on a couple of the buttons before she purses her lips. "I've just been thinking about what Isla said, how Mae's only gotta do one more thing before she can come back home, how she could even be home after the weekend. I can't wait for her to come home, that's all I've wanted since the day she was born, but I... I'm just a little scared about when she does are we're by ourselves, we're not gonna have the help from the nurses if we don't have any idea what's upset her and I guess I built up the idea that we'd still have another few weeks to start being more independent with her while she was still in the hospital so we had that support there in the last case scenario, and now we might not have that little extra time. If she can maintain her blood sugar all weekend and she doesn't have another apnea episode, we'll have her home by Wednesday, and there's still quite a lot of things we still need to get for her."