Under Different Circumstances

Chapter 43

Chapter 43

By Monday morning, Jay had decided to return to work. I knew that there was no point in trying to argue against it, so I drove him to the station before I went to the academy, picked him up in the evening, and continued doing so throughout the week.

He didn't enjoy being stuck behind his desk because he was missing out on most of the action, but at least he was back on the job and working cases with his unit.

I had no trouble picking up my routine at the academy again, and after a few days of answering various questions in between classes and during the lunch breaks about what had happened, the recruits moved on to a much more interesting topic, namely, the start of our firearms training.

On the evening before the first day at the shooting range, Jay went through everything he'd taught me about guns and shooting a few months prior, and the next day, I managed to impress our instructor with my knowledge and accurate aim which helped me climb back up on the scoreboard after my mediocre score of 70% on the test I had taken on the Friday after Jay had been shot had bumped me down a few places.

Each day, Jay regained more and more of his mobility and along with it his independence. Soon, he didn't need me to drive him or help him with his daily tasks anymore, and life reverted to how it had been before the shooting, exempting the occasional nightmares and my weekly visits to see Doctor Charles with Jay.

After Jay's stitches were taken out, Voight allowed him to leave the station again for tasks during which no altercations or physical action were to be expected like examining crime scenes, talking to the pathologists, or interviewing witnesses. This improved his mood drastically in contrast to the slightly irritable temper he'd sometimes come home with while he was on desk duty.

As soon as we'd resumed our previous routine of switching between our places every few nights, we'd also begun to move Jay's things to my place. I had made room for his clothes in my wardrobe and dresser and enjoyed seeing his sides slowly fill up. Eventually, more of his clothes were at my place than at his, and stacks of moving boxes had collected in my spare bedroom.

I had never known what to do with the extra bedroom in my house and had left it empty except for a yoga mat and some equipment for my workouts. When I had told Jay that he could do whatever he wanted with the room, his eyes had lit up.

"Man cave?" he'd asked fervently, and I had laughed at his excitement and shrugged.

Within a few weeks, the move had come to the point where we had nothing left to do but wait for the unit to get a day off to help us move the heavy furniture.

It was Sunday noon, and I had just finished taking a shower after going for a run when my phone rang.

"Moving day!" Jay called into the speaker after I had picked up. "We finished the case quicker than we thought, and Adam and I are currently on our way to rent a moving truck for the day."

Excitedly I bounced up and down on the spot and beamed from ear to ear. The day had finally come.

"That's awesome!" I gushed. "I'll make my way over to your place right now!"

"Perfect. Everyone else should be arriving there soon too," Jay informed me. "See you in a bit."

"Bye," I said and ended the call, hurrying to get ready.

I arrived at Jay's place before everyone else and prepared by putting stickers on every piece of furniture indicating where it would go. Jay didn't own a lot of furniture which had made it fairly easy for us to work out which pieces would find a place in my house and which would go into storage. The majority of his living room furnishing would go into Jay's new man cave except for the shelf which would fill up an empty wall in my living room and the painting of the motorcycle which we'd already hung up in my foyer.