Three Years and One Lifetime

9

A/N: This was by far the longest and hardest chapter to write so far. It's a bit heavy and emotional, but necessary. It'll get brighter after this, I promise :)

Two days later, Hailey's doorbell rings just as she's getting out of the shower. She quickly wraps a towel around herself and goes to swing open the door, revealing Natalie on the other side. 

"Well I'm guessing you're not leaving anytime soon" comments Natalie, eyeing Hailey's current state of undress. 

"Of course not" says Hailey, in a tone of 'do you think I'm insane?!'. She steps aside to let Natalie in. "Thanks for taking Jaiyana by the way, I don't know what shape I'm going to be in after this conversation. Plus, I have no idea how long this will go on for and I don't want to be dragging her late into the night..."

"No problem", reassures Natalie. "I'm always happy to take her. Owen will be happy to have a playmate." As if on cue, Jaiyana runs towards the door. "Aunt Nat!" she squeals, ramming into Natalie and wrapping her tiny arms around her legs, almost knocking her down. "Hi Ana!" Natalie gushes, trying to stabilise herself while Hailey looks at them, amused. 

"Come on little munchkin, let's go get your stuff so you and Aunt Nat can get out of here."

...

Hailey pulls up to his apartment an hour later. Jay swings open the complex door, clearly having just got home from a long day in intelligence. He's still wearing the exact same clothes he would've wore three years ago. It could have easily been 2019 again, except they weren't talking after a long day of work, they were talking to sort out the circumstances regarding their daughter. 

"This is just part of the thing, so-"

"What thing?"

"It's the thing that works between us. Bad case, one of us doesn't want the other one around, the other one stays anyway, we talk, we feel better and we're able to go to work the next day. It works."

Jay was thinking the same thing. 

Hailey pulls herself out of the flashback just in time to step through the front door and walk into the living room. The formerly empty photo frames had been filled with some old childhood photos of him and Will, as well as various photos of Jaiyana, which Hailey had just sent him a day ago. She notices a small picture in the corner. A selfie of them together back in intelligence. She gulps as she takes a seat on the sofa. 

He takes a seat next to her and the two remain silent for several seconds, avoiding eye contact. 

"Where's Jaiyana, by the way?" he asks, breaking the silence. He didn't expect her to be here, given what they were going to be discussing. He just needed an ice breaker. 

"With Natalie" replies Hailey. 

"Natalie Manning?" asks Jay, remembering the doctor who was his brother's ex-fiancee. 

"Yeah. She was the one who treated me during that bio-terrorism case so we were acquainted, and I knew she was a single mom, so I contacted her after I found out. She's really been there for me."

Jay feels a little stab in the heart. He should've been that person who was there for her. He's thankful towards Natalie though, for being there for Hailey and his daughter. 

They remain silent for a few more seconds before she starts again. 

"So, what do you want to start with?" she asks, looking him in the eye. 

"I guess...I want to understand what happened back then," he says before breaking eye contact and looking down at his hands. "So that maybe we won't make the same mistakes this time around" he proceeds.