ᴀʟᴡᴀʏs | ᴊᴀʏ ʜᴀʟsᴛᴇᴀᴅ

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚒𝚡𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗.

✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*

Jay watches Kim lead Jules into the break room, significantly calmer but still distraught. It breaks his heart to see her like this. The most upset he's seen her was when her husband left, and that was not even close to right now. Her only daughter – her only family. And he's determined to keep the promise he just made.

"This is your fault, y'know," Austin's voice cuts through the tense silence, filled with utter contempt as he glares daggers across the room.

Glancing back over his shoulder, Jay arches an unimpressed brow, "Excuse me?"

He uncrosses his arms, advancing towards the detective with an angry finger pointed in his face, "If you weren't so busy making moves on her instead of protecting her—"

"Back up," Jay interrupts, facing him fully and standing tall. "Whatever you think happened between me and Mia doesn't matter. I don't care how you feel about me; all I care about is bringing her home safely. So, if that's not your main concern, there's the door. Otherwise, shut your mouth and sit your ass down."

Austin clenches his jaw, eyes ticking to the right where Kevin stands with raised brows and an arm extended towards the break room. When he glances back to meet Jay's narrowed eyes, daring him to say another word, he exhales a disbelieving laugh. Shaking his head, Austin raises his hands in a defensive gesture before he makes a show of sidestepping around Jay and moving in the direction Atwater indicates.

Shoulders still rigid, Jay rubs his eyes with his thumb and pointer finger, feeling uncomfortable under the weight of his friends' obvious stares. The silence doesn't linger long before Antonio pipes up from where he stands at his desk, "I just heard from my C.I., got an address for the foster brother."

One of the leads they've been working on was looking into Daniel's past as Samuel Jennings. A warrant got his juvenile record unsealed, revealing a string of petty crimes stemming from his life in and out of foster homes. His mother was a drug-addicted sex worker who went away for shooting her boyfriend in front of Daniel, landing him in foster care at age nine. He never stayed in one home too long, either moving due to behavioral problems or abuse. At the age of sixteen, he attempted to sexually assault his foster sister, which sent him to juvie until he turned eighteen and promptly changed his name. The only constant throughout his life was his foster brother, Trent Fuller. They lived in the same house for the longest time out of any of his families and kept in touch after, Daniel even lending him money to feed his drug and gambling habits after getting steady gigs as a programmer. Luckily, Fuller has a consistent record and is currently on parole – all they have to do is find him, given that his listed address was a bust. And Antonio just so happens to have a connection within the same few blocks Fuller has been arrested for drug possession.