Three Years and One Lifetime

1

Will Halstead has precisely 10 minutes before he is supposed to meet up at Molly's with everyone for a holiday celebration. He didn't want to be the last to arrive while everyone started the party without him. Except maybe his brother... most likely sitting in the corner alone with a beer. 

He sighs, remembering the happy guy his brother used to be. 

He had a rough time getting over the Marcus West case, struggling for at least a solid  month and a half before Hailey...before whatever happened between the two of them. Whatever differences Will had with his brother in the past were discarded as Jay spiralled further into depression. He practically dragged Jay out of his beer bottle filled apartment and forced him to stay at his house. Will's forever grateful that Voight actually let Jay keep his job. It's the only thing stopping him from drinking every night. Although days off...well...there were good and bad days. 

What was he supposed to bring anyways? He walks down the isles, scanning the shelves. He hears something drop next to him and reaches down, intending to retrieve it for whoever dropped it. 

He stops when he hears the voice. 

"Jaiyana Trudy Upton do NOT throw your water bottle like that". 

Upton? No that can't be- 

"Will?" 

The two make eye contact. He watches as the surprise on her face fades, and is replaced by an expression that likely mirrors his own; a perfect mixture of recognition and shock. 

A little anger rises in Will's chest on Jay's behalf, but he's done some thinking over the last three years about what must have happened between the two of them to send her running so abruptly. To give up her entire career and life in Chicago just to put some distance between them. Will had only met Hailey a handful of times. But from what he could tell, Hailey and Jay had such a solid partnership. Whatever happened between them, she had a good reason for leaving the way she did. 

"Hailey? What are you-"

He spots a little girl running down the isle towards them, maybe two or three years old. She stops in front of him, bends down, and retrieves the water bottle at Will's feet with her tiny fingers before hiding behind Hailey. She peeks her head out to the side, clearly curious at the man standing before her mother. 

Two facts hit him at once.

One: Hailey is a mom. That little girl is practically a mini Hailey, down to the exact same shade of dirty blonde hair. But her eyes... And two: those eyes...

The same green eyes he's looked into everyday growing up.

Will's body goes into a state of shock, or pretty close to it. If only doctors could perform CPR on themselves, because at this point his heart is about to arrest in approximately 5 seconds. He can barely move his lips enough to form words. "Is she-"

"Her name is Jaiyana Trudy Upton. She's my daughter." There was some slight emphasis on the 'my'. 

"Hailey, that's not fair. You have to tell-"

"He knows." Her voice trembles a little. 

"What?" Pure disbelief clouds his face. 

"I said, he knows." 

The fierceness of her words and the pain deep in her eyes shuts Will up. He can't think of anything in reply to that. He watches helplessly as Hailey scoops his niece into her arms and begins to walk down the isle towards the exit. All the while the little girl watches over her mother's shoulder, staring straight at him.

They didn't even take their shopping trolley. 

A/N: Jaiyana is pronounced (J-eye-ah-nah). You guys can probably figure out why Hailey gave her the middle name 'Trudy', but I'll reveal more on the story behind the first name later on :)