It's now the first week of August. The summer truly flies by when you're having fun and kept busy.
It's Tuesday night and everything was quiet at Jay's apartment. Kiera was in the guest bedroom, while Jay was at his desk in the living room. He was doing some research on an adoption website. Jay read that his apartment would have to be inspected and that another family member would have to be present during the court hearing. Then, Jay glanced over at her birth certificate and read her birth date. Her birthday was three weeks away on the 20th!
"Jeez, I'm gonna be on a time crunch." Jay said to himself.
He pulls out his phone to contact Will. He tapped on the contact and waited as the phone rang.
"Jay, what's up?" Will asked on the other end of the line.
"Hey, man. Are you busy?" he asked.
"My shift just ended. Why?" Will answered.
"You wanna meet up at the bar near my place? I gotta talk to you about something." Jay explained.
"I'm on my way." Will said, then the phone call ended.
Jay shuts down his computer, then gets up from his desk. He walked down the hallway to get to the guest bedroom, then knocks on the door.
"Come in." Kiera said on the other side of the door.
Jay turned the knob and opens the door to enter the room. Kiera was sitting at the little desk with her watercolor paints.
"What's up?" she asked, looking over the chair.
"Hey. I'm gonna meet up with Will for a little bit." Jay said.
"Okay. I'll probably be asleep whenever you get back." Kiera said.
"Night, champ." Jay said.
"Good night." Kiera said.
Jay leaves the apartment to walk to the bar that's down the street.
Kiera finishes her latest painting of a cherry blossom branch, then her phone starts ringing. She doesn't recognize the number so she declines the call. Not a minute later, she sees that the number left her a voicemail. Kiera was hesitant, but listened to the voicemail.
"Hey, Kiera. I wasn't expecting you to pick up since we had been disconnected for a long time. Anyway, it's your BFF, Cheyanne! It looks like we're gonna be roomies at Central Chicago University. Call me back as you can. See ya!" the voicemail said.
Kiera couldn't believe what she had just heard. She and her best friend are finally reuniting after all these years. She tapped on the number and the two friends started talking like they never left.
After a hard day at work, Will met up with his brother to take the edge off. They got their drinks, then sat down at a table.
"You doing okay?" Will asked.
"Yeah." Jay answered.
"How are things with you and Kiera?" Will asked, then took a sip of his drink.
"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." Jay said.
Will could tell that his brother sounded serious, so he put his drink to the side so that he can listen carefully.
"I'm listening." Will said.
"I'm looking into officially adopting Kiera and I need another family member to be present in court." Jay explained.
"Wow, that's a tall order. Are you sure about this?" Will asked.
"Well, her own mother signed over her parental rights to me and Kiera mentioned that they're not close with other family members. She needs me right now, more than ever." Jay explained, then took a sip of his beer.
"Then, you're doing the right thing." Will said.
"There's just one problem. Kiera's birthday is in three weeks and she'll be turning 18. So, I don't have much time." Jay explained.
"Just know that I'll be right there to help back you up. I got you, brother." Will said.
"Thanks, man." Jay said.
"Just out of curiosity, what would her full name sound like with our last name, if she chooses to take it?" Will asked.
"Kiera Anne Halstead. Huh, that has a nice flow to it." Jay said.
The two brothers finished their drinks, then headed home. Jay walks into his apartment, then goes to his bedroom. He could hear Kiera talking on the other side of the door. He quietly opened the door to find her talking on the phone.
"Oh, shoot. I didn't realize it was that late. I gotta go. We'll talk more tomorrow. Night." Kiera said into her phone.
"I thought you'd be asleep by now." Jay said.
"Sorry. I just about to when my best friend, Cheyanne called. Her and I are gonna be roommates at college." Kiera explained.
"She's the one that gave you the Priceless necklace, right?" Jay asked, briefly remembering her telling him about that.
"That's her! Maybe you can meet her before we move onto campus." Kiera said.
"Maybe. Well, it's getting late so you should get to bed." Jay said.
"Good night." Kiera said.
"Night, champ." Jay said, then shut the door.
He goes into his bedroom and got ready for bed. He gets underneath the covers and stares at the ceiling. Jay was reminiscing his favorite moments that he and Kiera had shared together. The memories played in his mind.
First, he thought of meeting her again after Michelle signs over guardianship to him.
Jay and Hank walk down to the lobby to find a teenage girl sitting on the bench.
"Kiera Ralston?" Hank said.
"Yes?" the girl responded.
"I'm sure you remember Detective Jay Halstead. He'll be your temporary guardian for the time being until the abuse case gets resolved. I'll leave you both to it." Hank said, then pats Jay's shoulder and went back up the steps.
It was just Jay and Kiera in the lobby. He clears his throat.
"It's, uh, nice to see you again, Kiera." he said, offering his right hand for her to shake.
Surprisingly, she didn't hesitate to shake his hand.
"Nice to see you too, Detective." Kiera said in a cordial voice.
"Please, call me Jay." he said.
"Sorry, that's just me being respectful." Kiera said.
Second, he thought of the night after the rescue dive at Kosher Lake.
"I just wanted to say that you were phenomenal at the lake. You're a champ, girl." he said, nudging her in the left side.
"Thanks. Just do me a favor and never scare me like that again. I'm not rescue certified." Kiera said.
"Hey, it's not my fault that my stupid fin got stuck underneath the car." Jay protested.
"You're just lucky that you had me as a dive partner." Kiera said as a comeback.
"Is that so?" Jay questioned, then took another sip of his water.
Third, he thought of the night of the Father-Daughter military dance.
Kiera walked out in her gorgeous attire for the evening. She tapped on Jay's shoulder and he turned around. His heart melts and he couldn't hold back tears.
"Why are you crying?" Kiera asked.
"You just look so beautiful." Jay said between his sobs.
Jay put the corsage on Kiera's wrist and she pinned the boutonnière to his suit.
"Shall we?" Jay asked as he held out his left arm.
"I'd be delighted." Kiera said as she slid her right arm through his left.
Reminiscing those three core memories made Jay feel asleep. The next morning, he woke up happier than he's ever been. He drove to the District and walked up to the Intelligence Unit.
"Good morning, everyone." Jay said.
"Morning." Hailey said, raising her coffee mug.
"What's up, man?" Kevin said.
After a few hours of work, Jay was in the mood for a cup of coffee. He couldn't take the smile off his face. Antonio got up from his desk and followed his partner into the break room. Jay was focusing on making his coffee.
"All right, man. What's going on?" Antonio asked to get his attention.
"What do you mean?" Jay asked, facing his fellow detective.
"You've had a smile on your face ever since you came in. So, what's up?" Antonio said.
Jay looked over to see the door was still open, so he shut it for more privacy.
"If I tell you, do you promise to keep it a secret? Dad to Dad." Jay asked.
"Maybe, depending on what it is." Antonio said.
"I'm looking into adopting Kiera." Jay finally said.
"Oh my god! Jay, that's awesome." Antonio exclaimed.
The two of them gave each other a bro hug.
"Wait! Why do you want to keep that a secret? Don't you want the others to know that you're adopting Kiera?" Antonio asked.
"Of course I do. But, I'm still going through the process and I don't want to get anyone's hopes up." Jay explained.
"I understand. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." Antonio said, then gave him a fist bump.
The two of them walked out of the break room. Everyone in Intelligence continued working on their latest case until they got a tip from CI, then they all headed out.
~~~~~~~~~~
A few days later, Jay took a day off from work to schedule his home inspection as it's part of the adoption process. An inspector has to come by to see if the apartment is a safe environment. Luckily, Kiera had planned to go shopping with Cheyanne to get stuff for their dorm room on the same day. So, Jay knew that would be the perfect window of time for the inspection to take place.
He had a couple of hours to kill before the inspection, so he decided to pay Michelle a visit. Even though Michelle signed away her parental rights, she's still Kiera's biological mother and Jay wants to see how she feels about him looking into adopting Kiera.
He drives over to her house and parks on the opposite side of the street. Jay gets out of his truck and walks over to the house. Then, he sees a "House For Sale" sign posted in front of the house.
Jay walks up to the porch and knocks on the front door. A few seconds later, Michelle opened the front door.
"Jay! It's nice to see you again." she said, offering her hand to shake.
"Nice to see you too, Michelle." he said, shaking her hand.
"Come on in." Michelle said, letting him inside her home.
Jay walked into the living room.
"You can have a seat." Michelle offered.
Then, Jay sat down on the couch as Michelle sat down on a cushioned chair.
"What brings you here?" she asked.
"I just came by to check on you since it's been a while since we last spoke. How have things been going for you?" Jay said to start a conversation.
"I'm making progress on my counseling sessions. I feel like I'm moving forward in the right direction." Michelle answered.
"Speaking of moving, what's up with the 'For Sale' sign outside your house?" Jay asked.
"Well, with Shane in jail and Kiera staying with you, I realized that I don't need this big house all to myself. So, I'm going to downsize and move into that safe apartment you showed me." Michelle explained.
"If you're going to move out soon, then Kiera will have to swing by to get her stuff." Jay said.
"Not till the end of the month, so she has time. How's she been doing with living with you and everything?" Michelle asked.
"We really hit it off. She's been good company and we've had some great times together." Jay said.
"Good, that's exactly what I wanted for my daughter." Michelle said.
"Michelle, the main reason why I wanted to come by was that I wanted to talk to you about Kiera." Jay said, sounding serious.
"Is everything okay?" Michelle asked in concern.
"Oh, yes. Everything's fine. I just, uh." Jay started to say.
He doesn't know how she's gonna react, so he said it straight forward.
"I'm looking into adopting Kiera, but I wanted to see how you feel about it because you're still her mother and I didn't want to make any rash decisions. I'll even try to see if you can be granted regular visitation if you want." Jay said.
Michelle was silent for a few minutes because she was gathering her thoughts on the situation. She knows that she still has some issues to resolve and she doesn't her daughter to know about them yet.
"I think that's a great idea." Michelle said.
Jay was taken aback by what he just heard. He was shocked that she actually agrees with what he wants to do.
"Really? Honestly, I wasn't expecting that." Jay reacted.
"I want what's best for my daughter and you're doing a great job of taking care of her. I'm glad I put my faith in you." Michelle said.
Jay showed a small smile, then glanced at his wristwatch to see the time.
"Oh, man. I gotta get going." Jay said, standing up from the couch.
"Okay. I appreciate you dropping by." Michelle said, standing up from her seat.
"No problem. Again, if you need anything, don't hesitate to reach out to me." Jay told her.
"I'll bear that in mind." Michelle said, then showed Jay out the front door.
Jay got in his truck and drove home. He had twenty minutes before the inspection, so he quickly skimmed his apartment to make sure that everything was neat and in its place. He doesn't want to risk anything going wrong with this inspection because it could ruin his chance of adopting Kiera.
Jay was waiting patiently by the door for the inspector. Then, there was a knock and he opened it to see a prim and proper lady in a suit and holding a clipboard.
"Hello." Jay said to the inspector.
"Good afternoon, Detective Halstead. I'm Inspector Bianca Frasier from DCFS." she said.
"Come on in." Jay said, welcoming her inside.
Bianca immediately started observing the moment she stepped foot in the apartment.
"All right, this shouldn't take long. You just need to give me a tour of your place and I'll ask you a few questions along the way." she explained.
"Of course." Jay said.
Then, he showed her every room in the apartment and Bianca was taking in every detail. She asked him questions throughout the tour. They walked back out to the living room and went over to the door.
"Well, Detective. I think it's safe to say that your place is a good fit for Kiera. You passed the inspection." Bianca said.
"Thank you so much." Jay said, shaking her hand.
"You're very welcome. Good luck with the rest of the adoption process." Bianca stated.
"Thanks. Have a nice day now." Jay said as he showed her out the door.
"You too." Bianca said as she walked out.
Jay went over to his desk to schedule a court date and hires an attorney. He breathed a sigh of relief when the date was confirmed on the website. He pulled out his phone and tapped on Antonio's contact since he's the only one that knows about the adoption. The phone rang a couple times, then Antonio answered.
"What's up, man?" he asked.
"I passed the home inspection and I scheduled a court date for the adoption hearing." Jay said.
"No way! Congrats, man. Since you're in the home stretch, does that mean you're gonna tell everyone else in Intelligence?" Antonio said.
"Yeah. I'll tell them tonight when we meet up at the bar." Jay explained.
"All right, I gotta go." Antonio said.
"See ya." Jay said, then the phone call ended.
Right on cue, Kiera and Cheyanne walked into the apartment with multiple bags in their hands. They walked through the living room and down to the hall to get to Kiera's room. They set down all the bags and started unloading everything.
"Wow. What did you do, buy out the whole store?" Jay asked as he leaned against the door frame.
"No." Kiera said.
Jay loudly cleared his throat to get her attention.
"Oh, right. Jay, this is my best friend, Cheyanne. Cheyanne, this is Jay and he's a Chicago police detective. I've been staying with him this summer." Kiera said, introducing the two of them to each other.
"It's nice to finally meet you. I heard a lot about you." Jay said, offering his hand to shake.
"It's nice to meet you too." Cheyanne said as she shook his hand.
"I'm gonna head out and meet the team for a little while. Will you two be okay by yourselves?" Jay asked them.
"Yeah, we'll be fine." Kiera said.
"We're gonna head back to my house to unload my stuff and my parents even said that Kiera can stay for dinner." Cheyanne said.
"That's nice of them." Jay said.
"It's in my family's nature. When we reconnect with someone we haven't seen in a while, we always have dinner with them." Cheyanne explained.
Jay smiled at how thoughtful her friend is. Then, he left the apartment and went to the usual bar that everyone in Intelligence meets up after a long day.
"The man of the hour." Antonio said when he noticed Jay walking into the bar.
He walked over to the table where the team was sitting at and he took a seat across from Hailey.
"I ordered your favorite." she said, handing him a beer.
"You know me so well." Jay said, then took a sip.
"Hey, guys. Jay has some news that he'd like to share." Antonio said to their attention.
Then, all eyes were on Jay and he let out a sharp exhale.
"I've decided that I'm going to adopt Kiera. I passed the home inspection and I scheduled a court date for the adoption hearing." Jay explained.
Everyone in Intelligence started to cheer for Jay and his decision.
"To Halstead." Adam said, raising his beer.
"To Halstead." all of them cheered, then clinked their drinks together.
"Let's get another round over here." Kevin called out to the bartender.
"Wait, how come you're just now telling us this?" Kim asked.
"I was still going through the process and I didn't want to get your hopes up." Jay explained.
"It's okay, we understand." Hailey said, placing her hand on his arm for comfort.
"Looks like you're not the only Dad in Intelligence anymore." Kim said to Antonio.
The team had a few more drinks, then called it a night.
Jay went back to his apartment. He carefully opened the door to Kiera's room to see that she's sound asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~
It's now the day of Kiera's adoption hearing. Hank allowed for Jay to take off early since the court hearing was scheduled in the late afternoon. Jay still hasn't told Kiera about it yet because he wants to surprise her. All he told her was to be ready by 4:00pm and to dress nicely.
Jay gets a phone call from Will and he answers it.
"Hey, man. Are you ready to do this?" Jay asked.
"Yeah, I'm leaving MED now. Ethan and I were able to switch shifts and I got approval from Ms. Goodwin. So, I'm heading home to get ready and I'll meet you guys at the courthouse." Will explained.
"Sounds perfect. See you there." Jay said, then hung up the phone.
He walks down the hallway and knocks on Kiera's door.
"Come in." she said on the other side.
Jay turns the doorknob and opens the door. Kiera is wearing her bath robe and was holding up two outfits from their hangers. One was a floral sundress and the other was a striped jumper.
"Hey, I need a second opinion. Which one?" Kiera said.
"Uhh, let's go with that one. I haven't seen you wear that yet." Jay said, pointing to the striped jumper.
"Okay. Can you please tell me what is going on?" she asked, while taking the jumper off the hanger.
"Just be ready to go, champ." Jay answered, then left to give her privacy.
He went into his bedroom to put on a suit. He stared at his reflection in the mirror and thought about how he'll officially become Kiera's father.
Jay walked out to the living room and sat down on the couch to wait for Kiera. A few minutes later, she walked out in her striped jumper with her hair curled and a little touch of makeup.
"You ready to go?" Jay asked.
"Yeah." Kiera answered.
They went down to the parking garage and got in Jay's truck. After ten minutes of driving, Jay pulled into the parking lot of the courthouse. He also happened to park beside Will's car and he got out of his vehicle to greet them. He was dressed in a suit as well.
"Hey, guys. How are you doing?" Will asked them.
He and Jay shared a bro hug, and gave Kiera a regular hug.
"Wow, man. You clean up good." Jay complimented his brother.
"Umm, what are we doing here?" Kiera asked with confusion.
"You'll see." Jay answered, then they started walking to the front door of the courthouse.
The three of them walked into the lobby and was greeted by Jay's attorney. They all shook hands and she guided them to the courtroom.
Kiera sat in between Jay and Will at the table, then the judge walked in with a piece of paper.
"Good afternoon, I'm the honorable Judge Maxwell. It's nice to meet the three of you." she said as she approached the table and shook their hands.
For the first few minutes, Judge Maxwell asked Will and Jay a series of questions about their occupations, home lives, and how they plan to love and provide for Kiera. Then, Jay swears an oath and signs the document.
"Kiera, do you agree to this adoption?" Judge Maxwell asked her.
That's when the realization hits her!
"Adoption?" she questioned, looking over at Jay.
He just gave her a sweet smile and a head nod.
"Yes, I agree." Kiera answered.
Judge Maxwell slides the adoption document across the table to Kiera. She grabs the pen and signs the adoption document. With both signatures, the judge approves it with a stamp.
Kiera is now officially a Halstead!
Will, Jay, and Kiera walk out of the courtroom with the attorney. Kiera was over the moon with excitement that she now has a new Dad.
"Kiera, you want your paperwork, sweetie?" the attorney asked.
"Yes ma'am." she answered, then held the adoption document in her hands for a few seconds.
"That is it, congratulations." the attorney told her.
"You're in charge of this." Kiera said, then handed the paper to Jay.
"Look at that." Jay said, showing the document to his brother.
"Kiera Anne Halstead." Will read.
The three of them shook hands with their attorney, then left the courthouse.
They got in their vehicles and headed to a steakhouse for a celebratory dinner. A waiter walked them to a table and got them started with some drinks.
"Here's to family." Will said, raising his glass.
"To family." the three of them said, then clinked their glasses together.
They had some good conversations before their food finally came and they started eating.
The sun had already set when they walked out of the restaurant.
"Thanks again for doing this." Jay said, giving his brother a hug.
"Of course. I'm happy now that I finally have a niece." Will said, then gave Kiera a hug.
"Be safe." Jay said as they got in the truck.
They got back to the apartment and they crashed on the couch. Jay and Kiera looked over at each other and he took her hand.
"I can't believe you did all that for me." Kiera said to him.
"What can I say? You will forever be my girl." Jay said.
Kiera moved closer, then wraps her arms around Jay to give him a hug.
"I love you, Dad." she said.
That made Jay hug her even tighter and happy tears swelled in his eyes.
"I love you too, champ." he softly said.