Reassure (Jay Halstead x OC.)

21

It was now now days after Pat died. It was over 48 hours since Reign had seen Jay. She had been driving herself crazy knowing that she would be off work for the next week while she recovered her shoulder and, more importantly, knowing that Jay was nowhere to be found.

She had called and texted him dozens of times. Lip had even called and texted him, then Kev and V had, Ian had, Debbie had.....and so had Will. Will had been desperately looking everywhere for his brother too.

He was just as worried as Reign, spending his first two grieving nights with her in the early hours of the morning at her kitchen table waiting with bated breath for his brother's return.

They had hugged, shared countless coffees, laughs and cries as they reminisced on Will and Jay's dad with story after story. Their memories seemed to be like broken faucets, coming out in drips until a pipe had suddenly burst and their shared love for Pat spilled out in tales across the breakfast table, the lunch table and now the dinner table too.

Midday that stretched to midnight meetings at a tactical war council meeting with no real enemy. An alliance built in tears and lukewarm coffees.

The intelligence team had been briefed had all been taking time between picking up his hours, calling Jay's phone in shifts. Voight had cleared him for the next two weeks and had given Reign and Will explicit permission to use any force necessary to stop him returning to the precinct any time before that period was up. Voight needed his detectives alert and ready.

At around five am, two days, 21 hours and a few minutes after Pat had died Jay finally inched his way back into his and Reign's kitchen. With swollen, red-ringed eyes, a pale face and an all together unkempt appearance. His stubble had worsened to the itchy stage, his hair was matted and sweat-stuck to his forehead and his clothes were dirty and wrinkled.

He came upon his brother fast asleep, head on the table, phone by his face and two coffee mugs half drunk, abandoned.

"They've been like this for two days," Debbie spoke softly as she materialised at the bottom of the staircase making him jump slightly, he turned to face her with a weary expression. "Jesus!..." he whispered, whiskey still lingering on his breath, "Sorry Debs. You gave me a fright."

"Well you gave us a fright....you worried them" she threw a hand towards Will's sleeping figure "...all of us were worried....a lot- are you okay?" Debbie asked and he shrugged, he didn't know how to reply to the young girl. "I'm....i'm getting there Debs- where's Rei?"

"I think she's out back." She replied "Will's not been to work and neither has Rei cause of her arm- they've both just been glued to their phones here...waiting for you."

"I hate doing this to them..." he mumbled to himself and his captive audience of Debbie, "I should wake him up, send them to sleep properly." He whispered and she nodded again, "why are you up so early?" He asked and she shrugged. "The baby keeps kicking me, I can't sleep."

"Need anything I can help with Debs?"
"I'm okay Jay, gonna go for a walk....i'll lock up behind me-tell Rei you're back." She told him and he nodded at her a slight air of understanding and thanks settling over the air between the two. This was after all a conversation taking place in his home that he had welcomed her into, rent free in her time of need. And here she was, wise in some areas beyond her mere years of 15- helping him a grown man.

Quietly she left the house, the lock clicking behind her.

He drank in the image of his brother peaceful and restless all at once, he imagined that Reign was in a similar state hair wild, clothe disheveled and skin pale.

"Will." He softly shuck his brother's arm until the redheaded man slowly came around and blinked his sore eyes open. Then he shot up as if shocked. "Jay! Oh Jay, man....you scared us."