The Meaning of Family

The Call

Hailey had been working in Intelligence with her husband for close to a year when she got a call from Natalie Manning. She excused herself and went into the break room to answer.

H: Hey, Natalie, what's up? Is everything okay?
N: Hi, Hailey. Is this a bad time?
H: No, we're just doing paperwork, what's going on?
N: your mom's name is Elaine, right?
H: um, yes. Is she at med? What happened?!
N: she's not here anymore, she brought your sister in and signed over custody.
H: I'm sorry, she brought my what in? Nat, I don't have a sister. Something's not right here.
N: you didn't know about her?
H: Nat, does it sound like I knew?
N: I'll have April run her DNA to be sure, but your mom brought her in and left transfer of custody papers with us. She's yours now.
H: okay, I'm coming down there. Please run the DNA to be sure. Um, what's her name?
N: Ava. She's pretty beat up, poor thing, and completely terrified, but she's adorable. I'll see you soon.
H: okay, thanks, Nat. Bye.

Hailey went over to Jay and led him down to the garage. "What's up?" He asked, watching his wife in concern. She looked scared.

"Apparently I have a sister, a toddler that's my sister, and my mom just left her at med with signed papers, leaving her in my custody. She was just left there, beaten and afraid!" Hailey ranted and Jay stood there for a second, trying to process everything.

"Since when do you have a sister?"

"Since barely 4 years ago, according to Natalie. She's running her DNA, but she needs me down there. Ava's terrified," Hailey rubbed her face with her hands, clearly stressed.

"Okay. Let's go down to Med and see what the DNA results say, then go from there. If she really is your sister, do you want to take her into our custody?"

"Yes. If she's been hurt bad enough for my mother to take her to the hospital, she needs a loving, stable home. She needs us, and I hope you're okay with that."

"Of course I'm okay with it, Hails! We have a spare room, we can get things for a toddler fairly quickly if we need to. It's up to you if we tell the team, but if we do, I know they'd help us," Jay had his hands on her shoulders and was watching her expression.

"Okay, you're right, we can do this. I don't want to tell the team yet, let's just go to med," Jay followed her back upstairs and she went into Voight's office, gave him the short version of what was going on, then she and Jay left to go to Med.

Hailey was shaking when they got there. Jay gave her a minute to breathe and texted Natalie that they were there. Once she was ready, they headed inside and found the brunette.

"What's the verdict?" Hailey asked, chewing her lip nervously.

"You're going to be an amazing big sister, Hails," Natalie pulled her into a hug and looked at Jay. He looked pretty calm considering the situation.

Hailey stepped away from Natalie and wiped her eyes. She was terrified but there was no way she'd be leaving the hospital without the little girl. Ava deserved safety and love, something Hailey hadn't known much of us a child.

"Are you ready?" Jay asked, kissing his wife's head.

"I think so. Gosh, Jay, we have to get so much stuff for her. Set up a bedroom, clothes, toys," Hailey was starting to panic but Jay stopped her and held her.

"We've got this, Will and Natalie can help, too, and if we were to loop the team in, they could help. For now, let's meet Ava, find out how long she'll be in the hospital, then we'll figure out what we need to get," Hailey nodded into his chest and took a deep breath.

"You're right." Moments later, they were entering the room the small girl was in. April had already briefed them on her injuries, and she'd told the girl who would be coming in and that they weren't going to hurt her.

Hailey gasped as soon as she saw the toddler. Ava was small, but that didn't shock her, Hailey had been a small child as well. She had messy, dirty blonde curls, the same tan skin as her sister, and striking blue eyes. She was covered in bruises, her lip was split, her left eye was swollen and bruised, as was that side of her face, her left arm was in a full cast and a sling, and she had broken ribs. It was completely heartbreaking. She also had a concussion that they were monitoring and bruises on her neck.

She was watching them with caution, clutching a stuffed bunny in her bad hand and her right thumb was in her mouth. They could faintly hear the sound of her sucking it as she got nervous.

"Hi, Ava, my name is Hailey, and this is Jay," Hailey slowly went and sat down, giving the girl some space. Jay followed the lead of his wife.

"Sistew," Ava whispered, watching Hailey closely. She was clearly getting tired.

"Yeah, kiddo, I'm your sister! And I can't wait to bring you home with us when we can. I would have brought you home with me a lot sooner if I had known about you," Hailey didn't want Ava to think she hadn't cared. Ava nodded slowly.

"No huwt?" She asked, voice muffled around the pacifier.

"No hurt, we will never hurt you," Jay spoke softly, but she still jumped a little and whimpered in pain.

"I'm sorry, Ava, I didn't mean to scare you," Jay felt absolutely horrible as she nodded and hid her face in her bunny.

"It's okay, Ava, Jay is my best friend and I married him. He is so nice and he will never, ever hurt you on purpose. He helps me when I'm scared and have bad dreams about our father hurting me," Hailey was hoping to calm the little girl down, which thankfully worked and she relaxed as her blue eyes slipped closed; she was asleep.

"I wasn't a huge fan of men I didn't know when I was little, so don't take it personally. She just needs to know you won't yell at her or hurt her," Hailey grabbed Jay's hand and squeezed it. He nodded and stood up.

"Let's go talk to Nat while she's asleep and get a time line," Hailey followed him and they found the girl Jay's brother was dating.

"Hey, can we talk in Ava's room?" Hailey asked and she nodded and followed them back to the room they'd been in.

"How'd the meeting go? Natalie asked.

"As well as expexted. She knew who I was but she was scared. Um, what are we looking at for timing of her release?" Hailey asked.

"Because of her injuries and concussion, we want to keep her for 3 or 4 days just to monitor her and her ribs. She's also got a severe UTI we're hoping to treat. Your mom gave us some information on her; allergies, medical needs, shot records, etc. I put it over here with the bag that was left for her. The short version is that she's allergic to penicillins and bees, she has an epi pen for the bee allergy. She's current on her shots for her age except for a couple that we'll give her later when she wakes up with your consent. And she wets the bed, so y'all are going to want to get diapers for night time. We actually have her in a pull up right now because of her UTI and her injuries, I didn't want her to worry about getting to the bathroom when she can hardly walk. It says she's prone to accidents anyway, which I suspect has a lot to do with the trauma she's experienced. And then there's the abuse and her emotional distress from that," Natalie sighed, looking over at the sleeping child.

Hailey and Jay nodded slowly and Hailey started crying. "I wish I'd known about her, I would've found a way to get her away from the abuse sooner!"

Jay pulled her into a hug. "It's not your fault, Hail. Not at all, so please don't start thinking this way. It won't help anything. What matters is that she's going to be safe now and we won't let anyone hurt her again. Ava is safe now."

Hailey nodded into his chest but it took a while for her to stop crying. Natalie stayed and talked to them about what they needed to get for Ava— car seat, clothes because she didn't have much, a toddler bed, baby monitors, food she'd eat, a jogging stroller so they could bring her on their runs, sippy cups, and kid medicine/toiletries. They both got a little overwhelmed, so Natalie got her laptop and she and Hailey got on Amazon and went to town. Within an hour, they had a toddler bed, baby monitors, a stroller, and sippy cups ordered. Jay got info on the car seat that was best and went to get that with Will when he got off, then ended up buying two for just in case, which Hailey laughed at, but it really wasn't a bad idea. Hailey planned to go pick out bedding, toys, and clothes at Target in the morning, then to get some decorations Hobby Lobby so they could give Ava's room some personality. She just didn't want to leave Ava for too long, but she would be having a session with Dr. Charles first thing so Hailey would have some time to get what was needed.