𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 || 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐠𝐨 𝐏𝐃 (𝐔𝐩𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐝)

Chapter 17: 'Suspicions'

Hailey

Shoving my car door open and swiftly slamming it shut, I made the short journey towards the entrance of the 21st District.

My heart was already racing, there was no doubt that my unusual last-minute appearance would be noticed by non-other than Trudy Platt.

It felt like yesterday when I had accidentally spilt my coffee all over her, now that I think about it, I'm still not sure if she has forgiven me...

As I step inside, the swarms of different officers and ranks glide past, this is unfamiliar to me, everything seems a lot busier and much more productive than what I would've seen had I arrived earlier.

Surprisingly, as I made my way past the front desk, no sarcastic or smug comment was thrown my way. Am I hearing this correctly? Well this was a first.

I throw a quick glance over my shoulder and like magnets our eyes connect together. Sergeant Trudy Platt gazes back at me, her eyes slightly narrow in concentration almost as if she is trying to assess the true reason behind my irregular punctuality.

Further adding to my baffled state, no words leave her mouth, not even a single sound. I want to question it all, but I can't seem to bring my mind to find the right coherent structure of a sentence to make that possible.

So, instead, I tread my way elegantly up the small set of stairs after buzzing myself up to the bullpen and away from the strange situation I had previously found myself in.

Reaching the top, the three heads of my other colleagues seem to be drawn to my presence, all focus is on me as I come into view and make the journey towards mine and Jay's conjoined desks.

As I sit down, I realise the glances being thrown my way are all on the questionable side. It's understandable, I can't believe we had been this reckless already. Jay and I needed to sort out some kind of game plan, after all, keeping this relationship lowkey was absolutely necessary for the both of us, especially under our current circumstances.

We needed a chance, an opportunity to prove to our boss and co-workers that us being together would not affect our capability of working effectively as partners.

Great start so far!

Before I had the chance to explain myself, Voight came strutting out of his office with his usual stoic expression layered across his face.

His eyebrows scrunched as he took sight of the empty desk belonging to my partner. Much to my disapproval, his eyes landed directly on mine in an attempt to search for an answer he was quite obviously looking for.

After a few seconds, I opened my mouth to speak but was cut short as the familiar buzzing sound echoed through the bullpen, followed by the fast-paced footsteps of the missing detective as he thankfully took the spotlight away from me.

Voight stared at Jay, holding a judgemental look, edging him closer into an excuse for his 'somewhat unusual' behaviour.

Although, as I took sight of the handsome detective, he didn't look remotely bothered by our bosses lingering look, and despite the intimidation devoured in the form of a stare, he kept his features expressionless as he made his way towards our desks.

The bullpen was enveloped in an uncomfortable silence, the small taps of Jay's keyboard highlighted the only noise heard through the room. Voight was still stood in the same position, but his thoughts were loud and nerve-racking.

I could feel my left leg gradually begin to bounce underneath my desk as I tried my hardest to glue my concentration onto a few forms that I needed to fill in. This didn't look good at all from someone else's perspective, especially our bosses, and the last thing either of us wanted was to be doubted on how well we can do our jobs.

Overpowering. The silence was dreadful and as each individual moment passed my anxiety grew, it may have only been around ten seconds in reality, but this felt like an eternity.

He must know something.

Strangely, after waiting so long for Voight to sputter his thoughts, nothing was said about the lateness of the both of us. Instead, he simply commanded a few instructions of what we needed to get done today.

Contrasting between two opposite emotions, I was ultimately feeling a huge sense of relief, but at the same time was entirely on edge. This wouldn't be the last, it wasn't over, all it did was buy the both of us some extra time to figure out how to approach this situation.

Once he had returned to his office, I glanced up at Jay, only to find his eyes already glued to mine.

I was expecting his face to be at least partly concerned, but instead he looked perfectly normal. Clearly our sergeants odd behaviour and lack of confrontation hadn't bothered him in the slightest.

I raised a questioning eyebrow at him, to which he immediately responded to with his signature smirk and an eyebrow of his own raised - mimicking me.

After breathing out a chuckle, I broke eye contact and turned my attention back to the paperwork in front of me.

For around two hours, everyone was extremely silent. It had never been this awkward before in the bull pen, but I certainly wasn't going to be the one to break it.

Then again, I didn't have a chance to, as Ruzek decided he had gotten bored of the 'no talking'.

Although, that was self-explanatory, considering he couldn't keep still for long, and most definitely struggled to maintain his inappropriate jokes or sense of humour.

"Okay, this is weird right?" he started, looking around at us all. "Yeah, this is definitely too awkward for me to handle." Ruzek finished as he lifted his hands slightly in an exasperated manner.

"Yeah, I personally agree with Ruz." Kevin nodded, looking around at us all. His face was blank, but his eyes were wide, definitely not liking this growing tension between the team.

"That's a first" Kim chuckles, clearly trying to ease the mood slightly. It worked, at least it did for Jay and I as we both started to quietly laugh alongside each other.

It was soon cut short as Adam swivelled around in his chair behind me - causing me to look over my shoulder. He had a large mischievous smile on his face as I turned to face him, to which I rolled my eyes at before letting out a sigh of boredom.

Maybe if he could just get to the point, or not ask at all? That would also be very nice.

"Soo..." He drawled out, innocently connecting his eyes between mine and Jay's.

He must have seen the irritated look worn across my face, as his mood began to decrease from giddy to serious.

"Uhm.." He cleared his throat, "So, Kim, Kev and I are heading to Molly's later, you guys joining us?" Ruzek asked, changing the subject.

I turned back around to face Jay. As I caught his attention, I shrugged, thinking it might be good for the both of us, and just as I had thought, he had the same reaction and answered.

"Yeah man sure, we'll be there" Jay announced, sending me a soft smile, before getting up and heading into the break room.

A/N

Hey guys! Thank you for being so patient.

Updates will be coming more frequently, if all goes well. I've had my time full with exams, but I'm off school until early September and therefore I am trying to get back into my writing.

Please go check out my other Upstead AU, 'Finding Her Anchor'. You can find it in on my profile :)

Hopefully you liked this chapter, is there any scenes you may like to see? If so comment! I'd love to hear your ideas.

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