COMPLETED | Stay

Chapter 5: Three and a Half Years

"Hey babe!" Cass called as she let herself into the apartment for the first time in two days.

"Hey, I missed you last night." Ryan said, wrapping his arms around Cass's tiny waist as she put her gun and badge in their usual spots on the side table.

"I missed you too." Cass said, laying her head back and resting it on his chest.

"I was thinking we make a dent in these boxes then order some takeout?" Ryan said.

"Sounds like a plan." Cass said, spinning in his arms so they were facing each other and placing a kiss on his lips.

"Did you have fun last night?" Ryan asked with a genuine smile on his lips.

"It was nice to get to know everyone away from work." Cass said. "How was the first day?" She asked, as the headed towards the mountain of boxes that sat in what was supposed to be their living room.

"Average, I'm trying to learn all the new names." Ryan said with a shrug.

"I feel your pain, I knew two of the guys before I started and now there's five more and the desk Sargent from downstairs." Cass joked.

"At least your not their boss, I'm getting people who work for me mixed up." Ryan said as he took some pots and pans through to the open plan kitchen.

"That must be fun." Cass said sarcastically. It was moments like this that she treasured, when they were having normal conversations, that made her realise her friends in New York were wrong and trying to turn her against Ryan.

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Cass had been working in Intelligence for around two months when Ryan had a bad day. They had been a semi-regular occurrence back in New York but Ryan had blamed them on his job and apologised the next day. And every time Cass had gone through the same routine, take the brunt of his anger, tidy up, run away to a friends couch, fight with them about going to the ED, go home to grab some stuff for Ryan to apologise with a bunch of flowers and she would fall back in love with him all over again.

"Hey babe, I'm home!" Cass called the same thing she did every day when she got home. She removed her gun and badge from her hip, expecting some sort of answer, when she didn't she turned and found him stood a few feet behind her. Staring into her soul. It was then that she realised a move from one city to another wouldn't fix their relationship. 

His hand hit and she fell with the force of it. The first slap, three and a half years ago, had been the worst and nothing would ever compare to that pain, both physically and emotionally. She hadn't expected him to be so strong but he was strong enough to stun her. She smashed back into reality as her back smashed the mirror above the table that was behind her. Cass had learned not to fight back long ago, it didn't help. If anything it made it worse. So when she felt the shape of her gun underneath her hand as she steadied herself, she left it there. There were a few more slaps but then they eventually turned into punches. Ryan had got good at ensuring that the bruises could easily be hidden from her cop friends long ago, with long sleeve tops. A few punches blurred into ten, a few insults blurred into twenty.

Cass was curled up in a ball on the floor and didn't realise he had stopped and left until a few minutes after he had done so. The pain was still pulsating through her body and she felt the all too familiar pain from her ribs as she struggled to breathe. She pushed the pain to the side of her mind as she did with all her emotions and made her way over to where they had put the medicines, swallowed a few pain tablets and began to tidy away the smashed glass from the mirror, tears still streaming down her face. Once she finished she reached into her pocket and found her phone still there, where she had left it when she left work.

"Halstead." Cass heard the familiar voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey it's Cass." She said, trying to control her voice.

"Are you okay?" Cass could hear the hint of panic in his voice and realised she hadn't done a good job at hiding the emotions in her voice.

"I'm fine." She assured them both. "Can I crash at your place tonight?" She asked tentatively.

"Of course, do you want me to come pick you up?" Jay offered, Cass was about to refuse but Jay heard her gasp when she moved slightly."I'm coming now, text me your address." 

"Okay." She said, knowing there was no use in complaining. She quickly sent him her address, leaving out the apartment number, before creeping into the bedroom to grab clothes for work tomorrow and something to sleep in. Ryan was passed out asleep, sprawled across their bed.

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"Hey." Jay said, pulling up to the curb next to where Cass was stood waiting for him. "Is everything alright?"

"Ryan's had a long day at work. We just figured it would be easier for him to sleep if I wasn't there." Cass lied, getting into the passenger seat of Jay's car with a wince. Her eyes met his as she gritted her teeth to cope with the pain.

"And that?" He asked.

"From the takedown earlier." Cass said, earlier that day she had gotten into a fight with a suspect, she guessed it was kinda lucky as it gave her a cover story.

"Right." Jay said, clearly not believing her. "Let me get Will to check you over." He said.

"Honestly I'm fine." Cass said with a reassuring smile.

"Cass..." He said.

"It's nothing, I swear." She said, her tone sharp.

"At least call Voight, take tomorrow off to let it heal a little." Jay said.

"Please just drop it Halstead." She said.