Chapter Text
They make it long enough for the nurses to come in, changing his bandages and giving him supplemental pain medication, and for him to drift off to sleep before her phone goes off.
She squeezes his hand and then steps into the hallway.
“Upton.”
“How is he doing?”
Huh. Only about two days too late for him to be asking this.
Her boss had stood silently in the doorway of his office while the military officers had told her what they could about Jay’s injuries.
Even by his usual standards, his expression had been unreadable.
He’d disappeared back inside, closing the door behind him for once, just as Trudy had helped her to her feet.
The rest of the team have all been texting. Asking for updates, checking on how she’s doing, and offering to help wherever they can.
Voight has been radio silence.
“He’s stable.” she says tightly. “Going to be hurting for a while.”
“Lucky he wasn’t killed.” he says, tone flat. “Bolivia is a dangerous place.”
She bristles at the unspoken message behind his words.
That he’d done this to himself by choosing to go to Bolivia.
By leaving Intelligence.
“He’s never been one to stray away from danger.” she says, trying to keep the anger from her tone. “But he’s also smart. Capable.”
He grunts, either a reluctant agreement or a petty denial.
“We’ve got a case.” he says after a moment. “I know you’re busy, know you want to stay with him but this is big. And we’re already short.”
Because of Jay.
Is he actually implying the level of sheer asshole that she’s reading in between the lines or is she putting words in his mouth because she’s still pissed at him for driving Jay away?
For breaking him until he’d fled to Bolivia to put enough distance between them that he could find himself again.
It’s probably a little bit of both.
Voight hasn’t exactly been shy about the fact that he feels like Jay left him in a bad spot, disappearing without a whole lot of notice the way that he had.
That he’d felt like Jay was running away from something.
Leaving Intelligence short-handed in the process even though Dante had literally just joined them, filling an open spot on the team that had been there for two years since Vanessa left to go back undercover.
“I’m not leaving him.” she says, shaking her head. “I’ve got my laptop. I can run pods, search records and write warrants for you guys but I’m staying here.”
“I need you in the field.” he counters. “Need your experience.”
She scoffs.
Everyone in the unit other than Dante has been on the job more than a decade and at that point, the one to four years that Hailey has on Kevin, Kim and Adam aren’t as earth-shattering as Voight seems to believe.
All four of the officers in the unit have damn good instincts and quite frankly, at least one if not all three of the musketeers should have made detective by now.
Jay has been doing what he could to encourage each of them to consider taking the exam the last couple of times that it’s come up but with Voight picking a new fight with the brass or finding another way to bring the unit under intense scrutiny every couple of months it just hasn’t happened yet.
They can still more than hold their own in the field and when it comes to tactical experience – well let’s just say she hadn’t just been trying to reassure her husband or ruffle his feathers when she’d told him that Adam has really come into his own in that area since Jay left.
Has been confidently demonstrating that he’s learned the lessons Jay had spent so much time the last decade trying to teach him.
They all have.
Voight may be their Sergeant but Jay has been quietly showing thema better way to police.
A way that didn’t rely so heavily on blackmail and favors to make the consequences of their actions go away.
That didn’t involve carrying the threat of those consequences coming back to find them later for the rest of their careers.
While each of them have been tempted by the allure of cutting corners like Voight often does, the last year has shown her that they were paying attention.
That Jay has made an undeniable, irreversible impact on their careers and how they see the job.
They don’t need her there.
However big Voight insists this case is, there’s only a small handful of circumstances that would actually be major enough to force her to leave her husband’s side right now.
And every single one of those Voight wouldn’t have beat around the bush asking about Jay’s condition and insinuating that he’d deserved what had happened to him before telling her that she was needed.
He would have told exactly what was going on the moment she’d first answered the phone.
“With all due respect.” she growls. “If you can convince Trudy that you need my expertise more than my husband needs me, I’ll come in. Until then, please don’t call me again until Jay’s home from the hospital.”
She ends the call, shoots off a quick text to Trudy, warning her that she might be getting a call from Voight – though she’s pretty sure she’s right about the nature of the case and that he won’t risk pissing off the formidable desk sergeant – and then drops her head back against the wall just as a familiar mop of red hair rounds the corner.
She’d convinced Will to go grab some coffee or something after Dr. Livingston had left, giving her a few minutes alone with her husband while they waited for pain meds.
He hands her a cup of coffee, frowning at the look on her face.
“My boss is a special brand of stupid.” she mutters, inhaling the scent of the glorious treat. “Oooh you got the good stuff.”
“Figured we could use it.” Will answers. “Do you need to leave?”
Her phone dings and she fishes it out, reading a text from Trudy.
‘Stay with Jay. The rumors of urgency have been greatly exaggerated.’
Grins and shoots back a quick thanks before pocketing the phone again.
“Nope.” she chirps. “I’m still on ‘watch Jay sleep’ duty.”
A tired grin spreads across his face.
“Oh good.” he says. “I thought I might have to actually look at his ugly mug.”
“William.” she says, opening the door and gesturing for him to enter the room. “That is one sacrifice that I will always be willing to make on your behalf.”
His laugh is breathy and quiet to avoid waking his sleeping little brother but she feels lighter anyway.
Jay’s going to be okay.
And so will they.