Shots

Blue Jay

"All set. Try to go the rest of the week without coming in again, okay?" Will's smile was perhaps the only thing Evie liked about coming to the hospital. 

The staff were all very good and she liked them well enough, but she always bolted out as soon as she could. Will though, she could stomach being around a little longer. She had told him once that she was sorry for being that younger sibling that couldn't stay out of trouble. He said that as long as she needed a big brother to patch her up, he'd be there. Will was a good guy and she could see that his brother was the same way.

"I'll do my best." Evie smiled back easily. 

Will clapped Jay on the shoulder and pats her on the head fondly before leaving to take care of other patients.

Jay watched her pull on her jacket with a thoughtful gaze. "He cares about you."

"He's a good guy," was all she said.

"He is," Jay agreed.

"I see that soft smile runs in the family." She hopped up from the bed and cracked her neck. "Must be a Halstead thing."

"Sure," he said, gentle and easy now that he'd seen her interact with others like a normal person. "Are we going to see your guy now?"

Evie sighed and looked at him for a moment before mentally putting away her fists. They were on the same side. She didn't need to be a fighter here. Chaucer didn't care who came to see him as long as they didn't damage his records. For being a genius, he thought of himself as beyond the law and scoffed at the idea that the fact that he obtained much of his information illegally would be enough to get shut down. "I'm necessary," Chaucer said often, and Evie agreed.She clicked her tongue and straightened. "Yeah, we're going to see my guy."

"I'll take you back after and you can get your car, okay?"

"Okay." They headed back out, Evie trailing Jay with a reluctance that she knew was now pretty much based on principle. She didn't involve others in her business when she didn't have to, but maybe she could start involving them for reasons other than necessity, like practicality and speed. What a revolutionary thought. Evie picked up her pace.

"Sorry to be so forceful." Jay apologized once they were on the road.

"Sorry to be such a pain." Evie offered back. "It's instinct and experience taking over logic and situation."

"Uh-huh."

"I'm always wary of involving regular cops because we rely on them to do the normal stuff and I want them to be able to do the normal stuff, not have to deal with larger and more complicated issues. But you Intelligence guys, I guess you do complicated all the time, so I might as well be up front with you. I was just pissed off earlier and I also try to keep my people off the grid, you know? They're all sort of non-existent and they like it that way. But I'll work with you."

"You are surprisingly reasonable."

"Sometimes. Other times I'm just ridiculously stubborn."

"Yeah, well, so am I."

"I think that's a cop thing."

"I guess." Jay drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Are your people like you? Or are they CI's?"

"CI's, I guess. Some of them are more legit. We're kind of like the Intelligence Unit, if nobody really knew about you. I get a lot more leeway that you do, I bet. I really shouldn't, but I have some, um, connections that smooth things over for us. And we bring down a lot of guns - big and small - so at the end of the day, the powers that be are more happy than unhappy."

"So you're a criminally involved crime-fighting unit?" Jay smiled faintly, amused by the idea.

Evie smirked right back. "You could say that."

"Okay then." Jay turned where she told him to. "How did you get into this extremely specific unit?"

She unbuckled her seatbelt as he turned the car off, rolling around various answers in her head. Jay didn't prompt her for an answer but let her think about it as they headed into the old bookstore they'd parked next to. "It's a long story," was what she finally said with an accompanying apologetic smile. "Maybe I'll tell you one day."

Jay just nodded, no doubt not expecting much of an answer anyway. "Who's this Chaucer guy, exactly?"

"That's me," Chaucer answered, appearing from behind a row of shelves. He ambled up and peered at Jay, scrutinizing him from behind his spectacles for several moments. "Can he be trusted with my books?"

"Yes," both of them said in unison, though they meant different things.

"Hmm," Chaucer hummed disapprovingly as he lead them to the back. "What's his name?"

"He's doesn't have one."

"Gotta have a name for the guestbook." Chaucer paused in front of the vault door designed to look like a wall with a fantastically weird mural on it. Evie still didn't know if those figures were supposed to be people or not.

"He's a cop, do you want him in the guestbook?"

"Is he gonna be reading my files?"

"Probably."

"Then he goes in the guestbook." Chaucer pointed at the table impatiently.

"Okay." Evie picked up the pen and signed her own name in the book before turning to the bewildered detective beside her. "Blue Jay. How's that?"

Chaucer turned to place his hand against a handprint on the wall. "Very nice. Put it down and I'll get your files. Does the name Ptocheia mean anything to you?"

"No, but I'll bet it means something to you."

Chaucer disappeared and reappeared with a thick folder off one of his many shelves. "Greek mythology. Ptocheia was the spirit of beggary."

"You have a bunch of Ptocheia hanging around?"

"Exactly." Chaucer slid the door shut and placed the folder in Evie's hands. "The only thing I have to give are words. They don't want those. So please tell them to go elsewhere."

Jay's eyes were wandering all over the place, taking in the sort of collection that Chaucer had.

"I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the info."

"You take your nice young police officer and have a good day, and I want those files back in pristine condition."

Evie leaned forward to give Chaucer a kiss on the cheek. "Always. See you later."

Jay made it all the way back to the car before giving her a look that was so full of questions that she had to laugh at the one that made it out of his mouth. "Blue Jay?"

"Too on the nose?" Evie couldn't contain her grin. "If it really bothers you, pick your own name next time."

"Blue Jay." He huffed a little longer before driving away. "You have very odd friends."

"Yep. Now take me back, please."

"Very odd. And you are very odd. What the heck is in that file? Where did that old guy get it? He's not some ancient hacker, is he? That would be very weird. Blue Jay? And what was with the random Greek mythology reference? Does he always do that? You clearly know him very well but I can't remember ever having seen that store before. Does any of this have anything to do with what we did this morning? God, this morning was a long time ago. I'm starving. Are you starving? Let's get food."

"Okay," was all she could say in between fits of laughter. "Whatever. I don't have anything planned for today. Should we get food for everyone? I'll pay. In compensation for being so odd and confusing."

"So weird. So hungry."

Evie started laughing again. Trust an action-packed morning to be the start of a beautiful friendship.