Always Here: A Jay Halstead fanfic

Chapter Sixty Three

Harper looked beautiful. The green satin dress she was wearing brought out her beautiful eyes which put the sparkles on the dress to shame. Jay had only seen her one other time all dolled up like this, when they went undercover at the club, but he would gladly have her when she was at home in a t-shirt and sweats too.

Jay looked equally dashing to Harper in his suit. Sensing her nervousness because of how he could read her so well, he gently squeezed her shoulder. When they got to the corner, she stopped both of them, peering around it, analyzing the scene.

"What is this, a raid?" Jay asked with a small smirk on his face. She was a badass when it came to criminals but when it came to snobby people, she couldn't do a damn thing. "What the hell? Why am I doing this? This doesn't matter to me, it shouldn't," she said, turning around and dragging Jay with her. She felt out of place. She was a badass detective, she didn't need to prove herself to the snobby people she went to highschool with.

Jay loved the way she didn't care, she was too badass to show up to a stupid reunion and lie about who she was. She didn't care. "Well I think you owe me dinner for making me get all dressed up like this," Jay joked. "Fine, you pick the place," Harper pouted while Jay draped his arm over her shoulder.

"It's only fair," Jay said, having the smuggest smirk gracing his face that Harper wished she could wipe off but she couldn't, not wanting to violate any of their platonic boundaries that had been blurring significantly in the past few days.

"Here?" she asked, looking up at Jay confusedly, it was a high end restaurant, some place where you would meet someone important or go on an important date with someone. "I've been wanting to try it out," he said looking down at her. " And yes--I know about high end restaurants," Jay said, smirking as he looked down at her as they went in.

"So Voight got you into that prep school," Jay suggested as they sat at their table. The lighting was intimate, it brought out both of their faces very well, it captured the sparkle in Harper's eyes and the perfectness of Jay's features.

"Yeah, he had an in with the principal," Harper explained. "It was all good for the first couple of months, I was friends with some of the snobby girls. I was like one of them. It was like being undercover. But it doesn't take long for someone to find out that you don't belong, one of the girls found out my parents were junkies and all of a sudden I didn't have friends, I didn't have anyone and I couldn't do anything about it. I was lucky that I just had to spend my senior year there," Harper explained while Jay took her hand gently squeezing it.

Jay was angry, Harper didn't sign up for that, she didn't sign up to have shitty parents and he was so proud that she had pulled herself out of that life. "You're a badass, you would have beat them up wouldn't you?" he asked confusedly as Harper smirked at the compliment he had given her.

"That was part of the deal, I couldn't get into any fights, so I dealt with it," Harper whispered, remembering Hank's exact words, after school, Harper would be so angry she would punch through many walls of anger, that was one he took her to Charlie's gym.

Jay sighed, he knew she was strong, but there was only a limited amount of things a person could go through. She didn't deserve this. But, he admired her resilience even more. He offered her a small smile with the heart eyes he only had for her before eating his food.

"After high school you enlisted right?" Harper asked, wanting to know more about Jay. "Yeah, I wanted to be my own person, I was angry and upset at my dad so I joined the army hoping he would be proud of me, he never was but I'm glad I did, I learned so many lessons when I was over there," Jay said, reminiscing at the limited amount of good memories he had made overseas.

Harper's heart broke, even though he seemed to show no remorse as he talked about it, she knew what it was like to always want your parents to be proud of you, "I'm proud of you Jay," she said, her voice barely above a whisper as Jay looked down. Those words meant more coming from her than coming from his dad ever could. "Thank you," he whispered before turning to eat.

When they were done eating, they looked into each other's eyes longingly but they were the only ones that didn't know the way the other person looked at them because that was the irony of it. Harper wanted to lean in and kiss him but she couldn't. She couldn't let him know how she felt.

Jay wanted to do a number of things to her right now but he didn't want to send her running by confessing how he felt. As they got up, Harper could have swore she heard Jay whisper, "One day." She glanced at him, smirking as he paid for their food. "I thought I was going to have to pay," she teased.

"Well I wouldn't let you do that, I'm a gentleman," Jay joked while Harper shook her head. "Wow, Halstead finally decided to be a gentleman for once," Harper joked as they walked out. "Hey, don't be rude to the person who so generously paid for your food," Jay said, looking down at her with the eyes he only had for her.

"Come on, let's go home," he whispered against her hair, draping an arm over her shoulders as he saw the men in the bar next to the restaurant, eyeing Harper. She smiled looking up at him, before letting him lead the way.