Jay looks up from the computer sat in his lap when he hears his name being called from the bedroom door. He sends Hailey a smile as she walks over to the bed where he was.

She attempts to peak over his shoulder, despite being able to see what he was doing from the doorway. "Whatcha doing?" She asks anyway as she sits down beside him.

Jay sighs, looking back to the screen. "Boring adult things," he replies, looking back over to her - then giving her a quizzical look, "Aren't you supposed to be getting ready to go to work?"

Hailey groans, throwing her head back against the headboard. "I really don't want to deal with that again today."

Jay can't help the slightly amused tone of voice come over him as he lowers the laptop screen, not moving it from his lap though. "I think that's the first time I've heard you say that." He remarks.

She nods, putting her hand up slowly. "Yes it is the first but in the next week and a half it won't be the last time I bring up how much I hate this guy." She says quickly, and Jay can clearly hear the frustrated meaning behind her words.

"What does he do wrong?" Jay wonders.

Hailey subtly shakes her head. "I think the correct question is what doesn't he do wrong," she cut in, "And he does a lot of things wrong."

Jay folds his arms over his chest. "Name one."

She looks directly to him with her answer ready on her tongue without a moment of hesitation. "He's insanely sexist."

There's a pause before Jay nods slowly, turning his head away for a brief second. "Well that's one." He mumbles before having his attention ripped back to Hailey when she sighed audibly.

"He's constantly up mine and Kim's ass about everything, and if we dare do one thing he doesn't like then he'll either bench us or snap at us in front of everybody - because he deliberately waits until we're downstairs and in front of all the patrol to have a go at us, even if what we did wrong was hours before that," she groans, "Yesterday he took me into the office and basically screamed at me for probably a solid fifteen minutes because I wrote a word on the board in the wrong place."

Jay goes to say something but gets stopped by Hailey carrying on about the temporary sergeant in place in intelligence whilst Jay was on medical leave.

"He's unbelievably ignorant and insanely arrogant at the same time, he's so biased and racist, not to mention he does not have the brightest clue on what an acting sergeant is supposed to do. But it's not like I can speak up to him about his actions because it will get back to the Ivory Tower and put another dent into the reasons why I'm an 'incapable person' to lead the unit, but the only dent I actually have is the transfer to the New York bureau as a disciplinary action but that was like fifteen years ago."

Jay sighs slowly, a small smirk appearing on his face as he speaks. "Look if any one, if any unit, could get through with working with a guy like him, it's intelligence and it's you."

Hailey nods, staring out into the bedroom. "I just wish Kevin could have met him, he would have handled him on the first day."

He can't help the small chuckle escape his lips at that, knowing that would definitely be something Kevin would do against the guy, both of them knowing how much of fight he had put up against the person who went after him a few years back.

There's a quiet pause before Hailey shakes her head. "It's just guys like that, people like that, with their heads so far up their ass you can see it through their throats, make me scared for Macie. I don't want to think about people looking at her funny for something she loves just because she's a girl, or putting her down, benching her, screaming at her for fifteen minutes for something out of her control just because she's a girl. Perry never would have done that to Ruzek, or you, or Kevin, or any other male cop that walked into that bullpen. He does it to me and Kim because we're women and he's stuck in this mindset of women can't be cops, they can't be a leader, and I dread to think of someone doing that to Macie because I would have thought that by now people would have changed."

Jay shrugs. "Some people never change. You could lay out all the facts to them, but they don't shift their mind. All you can do is prove him wrong, prove that you can be one badass cop, that you are a badass cop," he tells her, gaining a smile from her in return, "And Macie knows she doesn't have to take shit from anyone, she knows not to listen when people tell her what she can and can't do, and to fight and prove wrong when people push and insist she can't do something."

Hailey pauses before slowly nodding her head on the headboard. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"I know. I always am." He replies quickly, a small smug look written on his face.

"And you immediately ruined it," Hailey rolls her eyes, beginning to scoot off the bed again, speaking up again when she was off the bed, "I've gotta go to work."

Jay watches her go to the door. "Have fun." He joked.

Hailey turns her head over her shoulder and shoots him an unamused look as she walks out of the door. "Go back to doing your boring adult things."

Once he can hear her walking down the stairs he leans over to his side, slightly lying on the mattress of the bed as he calls out after her. "I love you!"

Despite the annoyed sound to her voice he can tell she has a slight smile on her face as she speaks. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, I'll see you later."

************

"So how are you doing?" Will asks as he walked through the door into the kitchen, following behind his brother, when he came for their daily drink.

Jay looks over his shoulder and gives his brother a thumbs up and a nod. "I feel great."

Will gives him a skeptical look, leaning forward and placing his arms against the marble island counter top. "Are you sure? You got out of the hospital four days ago with a major concussion after a blow to the head."

Jay grabs two glasses from the cabinet and places them down on the island before going over to the fridge and grabbing the drink. He replies with his back still turned on Will. "It was a small scrape on the back of my head."

"A small scrape?" Will repeats, his voice an inch higher than normal as he raises his eyebrows in disagreement. "You're on a two week furlough."

Jay cuts in, putting his empty hand out in front of him. "It's not a furlough, it's a medical leave of absence."

Will shrugs his shoulders. "You are just proving my point further."

Jay then shakes his head, pushing it off. "I'm fine." He insists.

The two brothers then fall into a silence as Jay pours the two drinks before sliding one of the glasses across the marble top to give it to Will. When Will raises the glass to his lips is when he breaks the silence, keeping his gaze in the liquid in the glass and not looking up to his brother.

"Livvy was asking about you, when you were in the hospital," the red-head blurts out, causing Jay to perk his ears up sharply, "She said she wanted to see you."

Jay knits his eyebrows together. "Why are you telling me this?"

Will still had his gaze locked on the glass in his hand. "You should know."

There's a paused beat before Jay speaks up again, curiosity filling his voice. "Then why didn't she?"

"She had violin practice the day I took Macie to see you and then she was picked up by Nat from school the day after," Will replies before finally looking back up to his brother, "I'm gonna take her here though, when she stays with me again after the weekend."

Jay gives himself a breather as not to sound too eager on the thought of Olivia willingly wanting to see him, but he's not sure that works. "What makes you think she wants to now?"

Will shrugs, a small smirk on his face as he takes another sip of his drink, responding once he put his glass on the island top again. "She was worried when you were in the hospital, worried about you and how you were doing, if you were gonna be okay. Seems like she'd still be okay with coming over to see you now if you ask me."

************

Jay was surprised he had managed to get all of them into the truck. It had been a tight squeeze, making for a very interesting drive over to where he was filled with all sorts of complaints but after it had taken him twenty-five minutes trying to re-install the car seat at the back there was no way he wasn't picking them up from school.

He offered to pick all the kids up from school when word had got to him that Stella's parents had something urgent come up and Kelly's mom wasn't going to be back into town until that evening and wasn't able to pick them up either.

Macie had been really excited to learn Nate was able to come over for dinner and that she was going to be able to sit up front of the truck because she was oldest of the four.

Before they were able to venture back home, all three of the Severide-Kidd brood requested to see their parents, who were on shift. Jay had tried putting it off, knowing the firehouse was in the opposite direction to where he was meant to be going but once the youngest of the bunch started to get emotional about not being able to see them he caved, turning the truck around and allowing all four of the kids inside to let out a cheer.

Once they arrived Jay parked opposite the street to the firehouse and had to shout after Ben to stop him from jumping out of the car and on to the road.

He got out and freed Tara of the restraints of the car seat before telling both Ben and Nate to come out of the already open door which lead to the pavement rather than the road, leaning over and noticing Macie had already let herself out, Jay realizing she had a door that didn't have the child lock on.

Halfway across the road, the youngest noticed her father sat outside on the apron with Casey and she tried squirming herself out of Jay's arms, letting out a frustrated scream when Jay managed to stop her just before she fell. They got on to the other side and Jay let the three of them go, knowing there was no way to stop them beyond that point.

Jay and Macie walked up together as the other three ran ahead, throwing themselves into their father's open arms.

He can't help but thank god for Kelly actually being here in this moment, and not on call, and he dreads to think what the kids would have been like if squad was out on call.

Kelly sends Jay a questioning look, surprised they had showed up. "What are you guys doing here?" He asks, giving all three of the kids still clinging on to him a wide smile.

"Sorry, but I don't think they were going to make it to mine without seeing you and Stella." Jay apologizes as he and Macie finally reach them.

Then he notices the empty space where the ambulance normally is, meaning they were out on call at the time, making it even more lucky none of the trucks were out too.

Kelly looks back up to Jay, pointing over his shoulder into the firehouse. "Stella's in her office."

Jay managed to part the kids from Kelly and get them to go inside the firehouse, Jay leading them through to the battalion chief office to find Stella inside working on the computer. He taps on the glass in the door and it makes her look up, slightly surprised before a smile washes over her face too at seeing her kids waving through the window excitedly.

The three of them have a similar interaction with their mother as they did with Severide before the bells ring out inside the firehouse, calling out for truck, ambo, and squad, making it so Jay took the kids out to watch the trucks roll out into the street in amazement.

Ben calls out loudly when the squad truck turned on to the street and gets a small wave from Kelly before it disappears down the street.

After a minute Jay managed to convince the kids to go back to his truck. Nate complained at first, saying he wanted to wait for them to get back, but Jay knew they would be standing there a very long time and he had to get them back home and fed in time for Kelly's mother to pick them up so they could stay with her until Severide and Kidd were off shift tomorrow morning, so he got them situated in the car again and took them home.

************

"The only one missing is Olivia." Hailey joked as she walked into the living room to find Jay sprawled out on the couch with all four of the kids watching a Christmas movie per Ben and Tara's request. Jay had chuckled at their request, exclaiming how it wasn't even Halloween yet but after Nate and Macie agreed they wanted to watch a Christmas movie too it was hard to say no.

It was now nearing eight pm and the three of them were still waiting to be picked up by their paternal grandmother. Kelly had texted fifteen minutes ago saying she was on her way but didn't know how long she would be.

Jay turns his head to look at her, sending her a smile, unable to do much else because of the fact he had Tara cuddled up into his neck, snoring quietly in his ear. "I think that would lead to chaos." He whispers.

"They're exhausted, what did you do to them?" Hailey asks with a smile imprinted on her face at the sight.

Jay shrugged one shoulder, taking a look at all the kids once again. They were exhausted, some of them more than others though.

Tara was fast asleep lying on his chest, her head rested between the back cushions of the couch and his neck, and she had been out for almost an hour now. Ben had just fallen asleep, he had been trying to fight it the last half-hour, curled up in between Jay's legs, his head rested in his lap. Macie and Nate where lying on their stomachs on the floor, looking up to the TV to be able to see the movie, Mae inching her head closer to the floor every minute and allowing her eyelids to close for longer periods of time every time they blinked.

"Clearly running around like lunatics all afternoon tuckered them all out," Jay says, noting toward the two younger kids passed out on top of him, "How people with more than one kid handle that every day is baffling."

Hailey nods, knowing that they were close to being one of those families with more than one in the past - but it hadn't worked out. "I don't know how they could do it," she says, shaking her head slightly, "Although this seems pretty worth it."

Jay nods immediately but slowly, as not to move so much and risk waking both Tara and Ben up. "Oh it is."

sorry that ending was so abrupt i just wanted to get it done and up for you because it is already late. it's just it was my younger brother's birthday yesterday so my older brother and family came to the doorstep (they couldn't come in because of the world rn) and they ended up staying there a lot longer than i thought and by the time they left all i wanted to do was sleep.

Also let me know about what you think happened to Kevin. I want to know how horrible people think I really am xD