If Jay and Mouse had any idea of what was to happen on the drive home to Jay's they would never have turned down Ruzek's offer to have a drink at Molly's.
This would never have happened, and they would be walking into work tomorrow like nothing ever happened, but unfortunately that just wasn't the case.
Jay looks over at Mouse, who is leaning back in his chair as he throws an elastic band ball up in the air, catching it, and then repeating. Jay smiles as he looks over at his friend if that's what Mouse was to Jay.
Since surviving Afghanistan together, Jay had begun to see Mouse in a different way, and if he was honest, it scared him to death.
Jay throws a pen at Mouse from his desk "are you still coming over for a beer and to watch the game Mouse?" Jay laughs as it hits Mouse on the chest. Mouse chuckles as he stops throwing the ball and looks over at Jay with a glint in his eyes.
"You bet your ass I am, might need to put the fireplace on too if the weather keeps going the way it is" Mouse points out as he gestures towards the window. Jay swivels in his chair to get a look; Mouse was right it was snowing down like no tomorrow.
"Not scared of a little snow are we?" Jay winks playfully.
Mouse dramatically gasps and points at his chest with an affronted look "me, never!" he says in an all serious voice before laughing.
Antonio huffs out a laugh from where he sits at his desk watching the two adults banter back and forth playfully. Jay sticks his tongue out at Mouse before looking over at Antonio.
"You're still coming over, right? You can get a lift with us too, and I can drop you home if you didn't want to crash in the spare guestroom" Jay asks raising an eyebrow.
Antonio smiles "And miss the game and a few beers? Hell yeah, I'm still coming over, I'll drive my car and crash the night but I've gotta run a few errands tomorrow, plus it saves you from having to drive me back here in the morning" Antonio smirks. Jay chuckles and gives Antonio a thumbs up.
Ruzek walks in with his usual swagger "You guys coming to Molly's tonight, Kim, Al, Erin and I are gonna have a few drinks and watch the game" he asks sitting down at his desk.
"Nah, not tonight, we're just gonna catch the game from mine" Jay replies.
Ruzek groans out "Party poopers," he says while looking over at the three of them who just smile in response.
"Man this weather is a bitch am I right?" Ruzek states as he hikes his legs up on his desk, crossing them at the ankles. Antonio nods "It's gonna be freezing out there" he agrees.
They all sit there for the next hour finishing up paperwork before standing up and heading to the locker room to get changed and ready to leave.
Jay grabs his jacket from his locker shrugging it on, before grabbing his keys and wallet waiting for Mouse and Antonio to do the same.
They all got their gear ready and headed downstairs.
"Drive safe guy's" Lindsay smiles, waving goodbye, heading out with Al, Kim, and Adam. Jay waves goodbye to Platt and the rest of the team as they head out the doors into the cold air.
Antonio swears when he steps through the precincts doors as the cold wind hits him like a thousand tiny needles.
"It's gonna be a cold one tonight boys" Antonio groans. Jay nods in agreement "We'll have to order some hot takeout" he chuckles, unlocking his car.
After getting in and waiting for Antonio to start his car up, Jay pulls out of the parking lot as Mouse cranks up the heater in the passenger seat beside him. Jay looks in the rear view mirror to see Antonio's SUV behind him.
They had been driving for about five minutes, and Jay was getting pretty worried about how hard the snow was coming down.
"Stupid weather is making the roads slippery and hard to see through the goddamn windshield" Jay mutters turning his head lights up brighter.
Mouse looks over at Jay "We're coming up on the bridge, which means we're only ten minutes away from your place, cold beer, hot takeout, and a warm fireplace" Mouse smirks as Jay moans in delight.
"Can't wait to sit on my damn couch" Jay smiles.
They were halfway across the bridge when it happens.
Mouse is fiddling on his phone when he finds something on his phone and starts to crack up laughing.
"Oh man, do you remember this!" Mouse smiles, turning his phone so Jay can look at what is on the screen.
All it took was for Jay to take his eyes off the road for a second.
Jay glances at the screen seeing the photo of himself, holding two eggs up against his eyes and a sausage in his mouth turned up like a smiley face.
The photo was taken halfway through their tour in Afghanistan when their squad got treated to an excellent breakfast after coming back from a tough mission.
Jay laughs out loud and glances back at the road only for his eyes to widen in horror.
"SHIT" he shouts out only to slam on his breaks as a deer runs out in front of the car. Jay swerves to miss it, but the road is too slippery from the layer of ice for the car to gain purchase.
Jay tries to control the vehicle, but it keeps sliding across the ice before flipping and rolling.
Jay swings his arm out to make sure Mouse doesn't fly forward and hit the dashboard just as the airbags deploy.
The car continues to flip before coming up right and smashing into the side of the bridge and through the wall before stopping.
Jay groans in pain as he opens his eyes, it takes a second for him to remember what happened before he swears and glances at Mouse who is looking at him with wide eyes.
"You okay?" Jay asks ignoring the warm liquid trickling down the side of his face as well as the pounding in his head, the pain in his left arm and chest which was making it harder for him to breathe.
Mouse nods slowly as he unbuckles his seatbelt and watching as Jay tried to do the same but his belt jammed during the crash. They can hear Antonio in the background calling in the accident before he runs over.
Antonio stops in front of the crumbled car, eyes widening "fuck, guys don't move" Antonio continues to swear as the car sways back and forth from where the back of the car is hanging half over the bridge.
Jay blinks back the blurriness from his vision as he takes in their position. Now that Antonio has told them to stay still he can feel the car swaying back and forth and the sound of the metal groaning.
Antonio quickly runs to see how far the car was hanging over the edge.
"Shit, fuck, fuck" he whispers as he sees how far it was hanging over the edge and then down to the dark, frozen waters below.
Mouse and Jay look at each other with matching expressions of horror. "We're alive, Mouse; that's all that matters right no-" Jay gets cut off as the car begins to groan louder as the cold winds pick up.
Jay knows he only has a matter of seconds to get Mouse to safety as it is evident he isn't getting out of this car anytime soon if his crumbled door and jammed seatbelt were anything.
"Get out! Mouse you have to get out now!" Jay shouts at Mouse to get his attention from where he is looking at the flashing lights in the distance.
Mouse's head swivels around to stare at Jay in terror "are you kidding me! There's no way in hell I'm leaving you!" Mouse snaps. Jay smiles sadly, looking at Mouse for what is probably be the last time as the car starts to tip backwards, the bridge was crumbling from the weight of the car.
"I'm sorry Mouse, but I can't let you die" and with that Jay quickly leans over Mouse shoving his door open with as much might as he can manage before pushing Mouse out onto the concrete as the car slips off the edge.
The last thing Jay sees before the car goes over is the look of complete and utter horror on Mouse's face and the sound of Antonio and Mouse screaming his name.
Antonio screams out as he sees Mouse shoved from the car onto the road, car falling backwards off the bridge with Jay still inside. He quickly grabs Mouse, who was about to jump over the bridge after Jay.
They both scream out for Jay, watching in horror as Jay and the car smash through the ice into the dark water below, before disappearing altogether.
Jay closes his eyes as he feels the car fall through the air before breaking through the layer of ice covering the dark water below.
Water gushes in from all sides. Jay gasps as the cold water encase his body and the pain throughout his body and his lungs as the water enters his mouth and nose.
Jay's last thought before he blacks out from the water is knowing that he'd saved Mouse and that Mouse and Antonio were safe. He had fulfilled his promise to himself of keeping Mouse safe.
Mouse doesn't know how long he síts there staring down at the dark water where the love of his life has just sacrificed himself to save him, but it seems like forever.
Yes, Mouse meant the love of his life. Ever since the two of them had met, there had been a spark between them.
At first, Mouse just thought the spark meant they were going to be great friends but half way through their second tour together when Jay had saved his life he knew that spark meant something more than just friends, but he wasn't stupid enough to risk his and Jay's friendship to act on his feelings.
When they were both honourably discharged from the army, Mouse's feelings only grew stronger as he fought with everything he had to keep Jay from crumbling in front of him, it was tough, but they both came out from those dark times.
But now, as Mouse looks down at the water, he feels empty inside, he didn't even register that there were ambulances, fire trucks, and their team was all here.
Mouse just sits on the ground as his mind slowly detaches itself from his body. It was one of the coping mechanisms that both he and Jay shared.
When they were both captured by the enemy in Afghanistan and tortured for a month, they had found a way to detach themselves from their body so they wouldn't have to feel the pain.
That is how their team had found them, covered in blood from various wounds littering their body, staring at each other from where they got chained on opposite sides of the room with blank eyes.
If Mouse weren't in a daze, he would have noticed divers jumping into the water below. Mouse is brought out of his daze by the team as they all surrounds him.
"I can't do this without him" Mouse croaks out as he sobs in Erin's arms blinking himself back from his daze.
Erin cried as she clutched Mouse, Jay was her partner, and he held the team together like glue. Stopping Hank from crossing the line too far most of the time, putting a smile on everyone's face with his witty remarks and banter with the team.
He was like a son to Al and Hank even though Hank wouldn't admit it, and a brother to Antonio, Ruzek, and Atwater, Erin had feelings for him, but she knew deep down the person he reciprocated those feelings for was the man in her arms.
"We've got him!" They hear Kelly Severide shout as they are pulled from the water and up onto the bridge. The team's heart raced as Jay got brought into view.
He isn't moving. His lips are blue, and his skin has gone from a soft sun kissed tan, to a pale bluish tone. Jay got blocked from their sight, once again as get's surrounded by a flurry of paramedics.
"No pulse, start compression's!" One of the paramedics calls out as they began pumping Jay's chest as he gets loaded into the back of the ambulance and then the doors are shut behind them as they speed off towards the hospital.
Mouse starts to panic when he loses sight of Jay "I need to get to Jay!" He snaps at the Paramedic, who is checking him over and keeping him from going after Jay.
"Well it seems you've only got a few scratches, I don't know what happened, but it's a miracle you left that car with just scratches" He comments.
Mouse frowns looking down "Jay protected me, he put his arm across my chest to stop me from hitting the dashboard and window…god we were crashing, and he protected me instead of himself, the stupid bastard" Mouse sobs scrubbing his hands across his face angrily.
"Well for what it's worth, you have a great friend, and I will pray for him to be okay, now make sure you get those cuts cleaned" and with a few more orders they are allowed to go to the hospital to check on Jay.
Will is leaning on the counter talking to April when the doors swing open, and there are shouts of orders and the patient's stats.
"Male, twenty-nine years old, the car crashed and fell into the water, approximately under water for three and half minutes. Pulse is weak and crashing, head trauma and multiple broken bones!" the paramedic calls as they rush him into the room.
Will can't see the man's face as he's got surrounded by doctors.
Will goes to walk in but is pushed back by Connor, who had been the first to run over when the man was wheeled inside on the gurney.
"Will, please…You can't be in here" Connor apologises.
Will frowns, not understanding what was going on but before he can ask, a nurse moves out of the way of the patient, and Will catches sight of the patients face and his blood runs cold. It's his baby brother Jay laying on the bed.
Will pushes Connor, trying to get past him to his brother's side but he is held back by security. He can hear someone shouting distantly not realising he's the one shouting as he fights against security.
"JAY! LET GO OF ME! HE NEEDS ME! I CAN HELP GODDAMN IT JUST LET ME GO!" Will screams as he's led away by the security so the doctors could do their job.
The last thing he hears before he's led out is Nat yelling "He's crashing!".
Nat looks at Connor with wide eyes. She knows that if they don't save the man whose heart is collapsing on the bed, then their co-worker would never forgive them.
April continues compression's on his chest before Connor instructs her to stop, he glances at the heart monitor and swears softly.
"No pulse" he stated as April yells for a crash cart.
The team all run inside the hospital and look around for any news on Jay; they can hear someone screaming and shouting from somewhere close.
Maggie walks over to them, sighing.
"He's in with Connor, and they're doing the best they can, now I know it's a hard time but can you please try and get Will to calm down" She pleads.
She leads them into a room where they see Will handcuffed to a railing, tears streaming down his face as he tugs on the cuffs. Antonio quickly walks over, and Will stops tugging at the handcuffs as he approaches.
"What happened to my brother" Will cries as he takes in Mouse's cuts and bruises.
Mouse goes over and sits down next to Will to explain what happened.
"We uh, we were driving home and laughing you know? Jay uh, he was worried about the weather and uh I assured him we'd be okay" Mouse sucks in a breath before continuing.
"It's all my fault, I was just trying to take his mind off the weather, and I was going through my phone, and I found a picture of him from our army days. He took his eyes off the road for a second and then next thing I know he's swearing, swerving and throwing an arm across me so I wouldn't smash my head. We started rolling before coming up right and crashing through the bridge wall" Mouse chokes on his tears as he recalls the events.
Will sucks in a breath as he settles down and watches Mouse struggle to tell him what happened.
"We uh, the back of the car was hanging off the bridge and Jay's um, the door was crumbled, and his belt jammed. He was shouting at me to get out, but I wouldn't because I couldn't leave him…he means everything to me, we wouldn't have survived coming back to the states if we didn't have each other. The next thing I know, he's smiling at me like he'd never see me again telling me he can't let me die. Then he's pushing me out of the car onto the road as it went over the edge, the stupid son of a bitch" Mouse cries as he clutches his chest, struggling to get breaths in, thoughts of losing Jay flooding through his head.
Meanwhile, Dr. Rhodes was fighting to keep Jay alive "everyone clear!" Connor orders as he rubs the defibrillator together before pressing it against Jay's chest.
Jay's back arches, but nothing happens
"Have the OR on standby" Connor calls to one of the nurses said in the background. "Round of Epi" Connor orders, waiting for the defib to charge while Natalie continues to pump air into Jay's lungs.
"Come on Jay" she whispers looking up at the heart monitor.
Connor looks at April "start compression's and don't stop" before looking over at Reese "where's that other round of Epi!". Reese registers the Epi "Epi's in" she states pulling back so Connor could put the paddles against Jay's chest.
"Clear!" Jay's back arches again and to everyone's relief the heart machine starts beeping, and Jay's chest starts to rise and fall.
Connor lets out a breath of relief as he glances around the room looking at the relief on everyone's faces.
"Get him upstairs; we need to worry about his head trauma and broken bones, most importantly on keeping him breathing" Connor orders as they wheel Jay to the elevator.
Natalie walks into the room where Jay's team and Will are before nodding to Steve the security guard to take Will's cuffs off. Will rubs at his raw wrist when the handcuffs were taken off.
Everyone surrounds Natalie, asking if Jay was alright.
"He crashed after he came in, now Jay's stable at the moment, and he's on his way to the operation room. I hate to say this, but nothing is sure yet…We don't know the extent of his head injury yet; there's a chance he might never wake up. On top of that, Jay has multiple cuts, a broken arm, collarbone, and multiple broken ribs" She finishes with a sigh as she took in their crumbling expression and tore streaked cheeks.
Natalie looks at Hank and Al, who were standing in the corner with matching frowns.
"He's a fighter, and we're all praying for him" she addressed the room.
Mouse gets up and walks out of the room; Lindsay goes to follow him, but Will shakes his head.
"If he's anything like Jay, which those two are creepily alike, then let him be alone for a while," he says as tears roll down his cheeks at the news of his brother.
Mouse walks into the hospitals bathroom and quickly walks over to the sink to splash water on his face. He looks at himself in the mirror.
"It's all your fault your worthless piece of shit; you put him in this position! If you hadn't distracted him from watching the road when he wasn't comfortable driving in the first place, he wouldn't be upstairs in the OR fighting for his life!" Mouse hisses at his reflection before swinging his arm at his reflection shattering the mirror and continuing to punch it over and over again, not caring about the pain or the blood flowing freely from his hand.
"I love him; I can't live without you, Jay. I can't. I remember the vow we made back during our second tour. 'If one of us doesn't make it home then the other shall follow, together we stand, divided we fall.'" Mouse recites the vow as he sinks to the floor looking at the shard of glass littered all over the bathroom floor, some covered in his blood.
Mouse leaves the bathroom and starts to walk up to the operating rooms to find Jay. But from the state he's in, covered in his blood that is still pouring freely from his hand, he gets quickly intercepted by a few nurses who were walking in the hall.
Mouse shrugs them off as he continues to look for Jay.
"Sir, please, let us help you" one of the nurses ordered as she tries ushering him into a room to fix his hand.
Mouse growls at the nurses, mind flashing back to when he and Jay got captured, and they had taken Jay away from him and all Mouse could hear was Jay's screams of agony as Mouse fought against his captives.
Mouse lashes out against the hands gripping him, thinking he was back in Afghanistan.
"Get off me! Give me Jay back you stupid pieces of shit! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" He screams as he continues to fight them off, the last thing Mouse feels before he fades into the blackness was a sharp pinprick of pain in his neck.
The nurses sigh as they watch Brian and Nathan lift the troubled unconscious man onto a gurney before wheeling him off to get his hand stitched up.
Connor sighs as he finally left the operating room a few hours later. Jay had crashed a few times before they finally got him stable enough to stop the swelling in his brain, cast his broken arm, drain his lungs of fluid and reset his broken collarbone and wrap his four broken ribs.
The man was nothing but a fighter; any ordinary person would have died on the way to the hospital, but Jay fought hard.
Unfortunately due to the swelling in Jay's brain they had to put him in a coma and on a ventilator to breathe for him so the swelling could reside on its own and to give his lungs time to heal. There was no way to tell if he'd even wake up due to how long he was gone for and the swelling in his brain.
"Bring him up to ICU," Connor tells the nurse who was waiting for instruction, she nods and with the help of the other nurses he gets wheeled away.
Connor makes his way downstairs to the waiting room after cleaning up. He frowns at the cornered off bathroom in confusion as he passes it on his way to tell Jay's family and friends the news.
Once he walks into the waiting room, it was a flurry of questions that everyone one asks all at once. Connor holds his hands up to quiet them all down.
"Alright, Alright, first things first, he's alive and stable at the moment, now it wasn't easy, I'll be honest here, we lost him a few times on the table…we only just managed to bring him back. Now his injuries are quite extensive, he has a broken arm, collarbone and four broken ribs and we've drained the fluid from his lungs, but unfortunately Jay hit his head pretty hard during the crash which caused his brain to swell.
Now we have that under control and the swelling should start to subside on its volition; Jay is currently in a coma and a ventilator which is essentially breathing for him. Due to the fact we lost him for a while, and the time he was under water for there's no saying he'll wake up the same until he wakes up. I truly am sorry, but it's a waiting game now" Connor finishes as he rubs his hands together uncomfortably at the tear-stricken faces in front of him, even the stoic Hank Voight has watery eyes at the news.
Antonio storms out of the waiting room, angrily wiping at his tears.
Will chokes out a sob as he kneels on the floor clutching his hands against his chest trying to compose himself.
"God how is Mouse gonna take this" Ruzek frowns looking down at his hands as he tries to hold back his tears but to no avail. There was a chance once one of his best friends would never wake up again.
"From the way, he acted earlier; it won't be good" Atwater states.
Atwater glances up at Connor's confused face.
"I bet you were wondering what happened to the bathroom on your way here, Mouse uh, punched the mirror and cut his hand up real bad before heading to the OR looking for Jay. Mouse kind of flipped out and attacked a few nurses who tried to stop him and fix his hand, but he went in a daze must have been triggered by them stopping him from finding Jay" Kevin finishes, and Connor's eyes widen in response.
"So where is he now?" he questions.
"Sedated in room 104, with a stitched up hand getting some well-needed rest because I have a feeling once he's up, there won't be much sleeping happening" Al supplies.
Will lifts his head up, and Connor sucks in a breath at the complete and utter look of devastation on Will's face that greets him.
"When can I see my brother?" he sniffs softly.
Connor looks around the room before settling his eyes back on Will. "He can't have any visitors at this moment in time but how about you all go home and get a few hours rest, have a shower and something to eat and then come back in the morning and you'll be able to see him, but only two at a time" he suggests.
They all begrudgingly agree and head home all except for Erin and Will, who were adamant that they couldn't leave Jay, and they needed to be here for when Mouse wakes up, and Antonio comes back from wherever he had disappeared off too.
Meanwhile, Antonio was outside at the hospital sitting on the snow covered ground as he cries into his leather jackets sleeves before lifting his hands to his face to muffle his sobs. He doesn't know if he can cope if he loses Jay. The kid had grown on Antonio since the day they met.
For Antonio, it wasn't a normal occurrence for him to warm up to people but a few minutes after meeting Jay the kid had wormed his way into Antonio's heart.
Jay was like the little brother he never had, and to hear that Jay might never wake up, never joke around with him, never have a beer and watch a football game. Never look at him with brotherly love, never smile at him, never see those blue eyes sparkle with happiness and never do anything with Antonio again was crushing him inside.
Antonio doesn't know if he'd be able to continue working in the unit if Jay wasn't there. It just wouldn't feel right, and he knows for a fact that Mouse would stop working there as well if Jay never comes back.
Antonio just can't get the crash out of his head. The panic and utmost terror he had felt watching Jay's car flip and then watching and not being able to help as the car went over the edge into the dark, frozen waters below and disappeared as if nothing ever happened.
Antonio shakily pulls out his phone, typing the password in before going into the contacts and clicking Jay's personal phone number.
Antonio shakily holds the phone against his ear as the phone rings before Jay's voicemail filled the silence.
"Hey, you've reached Jay Halstead. Sorry, I can't reach the phone right now, but if you leave your name and number, I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Cheers" Antonio hangs up before the beep to record a voicemail could record a message.
Antonio continues to call Jay's phone just to hear his voice, crying into his hand.
A week had passed since the accident, and Jay still hasn't woke up and was on the ventilator which was breathing for him. The team and Will had visited Jay every day and even Voight surprisingly came in every second day to see how he was doing.
Atwater was right, Mouse didn't take the news of Jay's condition well, he had cried for hours before stopping and just staring at the wall.
After he had got released, he was allowed to visit Jay and just ended up never leaving Jay's room, using the bathroom in Jay's room to shower and brush his teeth and use the toilet.
The hospital had relented and put two extra beds in Jay's room, one for mouse and the other for Antonio. Antonio was beside Jay's bed every day all day until he was forced to go home to shower, get something to eat, but he was only ever gone for two hours before he was right back at Jay's side and Mouse's.
Jay's heart gave out again twice during that week due to the amount of stress it was under, making that officially the eleventh time his heart had stopped since the accident.
Mouse and Antonio had declared they would not be returning to work for Chicago PD if Jay didn't wake up. Antonio and Mouse would occasionally talk to Jay about anything or everything when they weren't just sitting there in silence.
Erin would visit as often as she could, Kim and Roman had taken up Jay and Antonio's places for now, and some tech guy had taken up Mouse's spot until or if they decided to come back.
Will also came in every day, to sit by his brother's bedside when he wasn't busy working in the hospital.
Jay had shown no signs of getting better besides the swelling dissipating a bit. The doctors were worried about his recovery because Jay had gotten Pneumonia on top of his current condition from being in the cold water for too long and they were constantly in and out of his room in a flurry of white coats and burgundy and blue scrubs.
A few more weeks had passed, and the swelling in Jay's brain had finally subsided, but he still had pneumonia.
The team couldn't visit as much as they wanted anymore because they were currently working a large case on a crazed serial killer who was killing taxi drivers all around Chicago but Antonio and Mouse had still not left Jay's side much to the hospitals persistence.
Mouse had found a deep respect for Jay's best friend Antonio who hadn't left Jay's side for more than two to three hours a day.
Mouse had even ended up telling Antonio how he felt about Jay.
Antonio had smiled knowingly at Mouse with a kind, soft expression "I knew how you two felt for each other after seeing you two together for more than a few minutes. I know love when I see it kid, and you two have a strong connection" Antonio had said as he leant over Jay to squeeze Mouse's hand and then Jay's.
"You think he feels the same?" Mouse asks timidly, glancing up at Antonio, who's seated on the other side of Jay's bed. Antonio looks up from where he's been looking at Jay's heart monitor that continuously beeps, keeping them both calm.
"I know, so" Antonio replies with a smile.
A month and a half after the accident, Jay was finally taken off the ventilator and allowed to breathe for himself. The doctors still didn't know if he would wake up yet.
Mouse and Antonio had finally been forced from the hospital during week three, so they begrudgingly left and moved into Jay's apartment because it was the closest to the hospital.
Two months had passed since the accident when Jay finally showed signs of waking up, at first it was a twitch of the finger, a flicker of movement under his eyelids, a small shake of the head before his baby blues finally opened.
Mouse and Antonio had been coming back from the cafeteria with Will when the three of them entered Jay's room before all three of them dropped their coffee cups and rushed to Jay's side as they saw him moving in the bed.
They all call out to him softly, and a few seconds later Jay's baby blues open and blinks at them blurrily from where they surround him. Jay tries to talk, but his mouths to dry so he groans softly, blinking to clear his vision.
Jay feels a straw pressed against his lips which he immediately sucks on greedily and is rewarded with cold liquid to soothe his dry mouth and throat.
When the straw gets pulled away, and his vision had cleared a bit, he finally sees Antonio, Will, and Mouse all grinning at him.
"Wh-what happened?" Jay croaks out, voice husky from disuse.
The three of them sigh in relief simultaneously at the fact that Jay is, in fact not brain damaged.
"You were in a car accident and your car fell into the frozen water. You've been in a coma since" Will announces as he looks down at his baby brother. Happiness is flooding him, and Will thanks whoever was listening upstairs for letting his brother live and come back to them.
Jay nods as it all comes back to him in flashes, driving home with Mouse, Antonio behind them, the weather getting worse, swerving to miss a deer. The car, rolling before coming up right and smashing into the wall of the bridge, being stuck, the car about to fall off the bridge, shoving Mouse to safety then falling into the water.
Jay looks over at Mouse and relief floods his system "You're okay, thank god" he croaks out.
Mouse lets out a hysterical laugh before leaning over, not caring that he has an audience, smashing his lips into Jay's, who moans softly and kisses him back.
They pull apart when Jay's monitor starts to pick up because he needs air. He smiles dopily at Mouse.
"Ain't that a great way to wake up, better be the way I wake up for the rest of my days" causing the three of them to laugh happily at Jay.
The door opens, and a flurry of nurses and Connor came in and started to check Jay's vitals and ask him questions to which Jay answers respectfully. They remove his catheter and check him over.
Connor looks at Jay who looks tired but alive and happy.
"You're a damn miracle, Jay, no one should have survived what you went through, but somehow you did, and I'm glad" Connor smiles as he squeezesJay's non-injured shoulder softly.
"How long was I out for?" Jay asks looking around the room, smiling softly at Antonio, Will, and Mouse, who has happy tears falling from their eyes as they all looked at him.
"Three and half months, you're injuries were pretty serious, and we were worried you wouldn't survive or wake up, but we're damn happy to see you awake and talking" Connor grins softly.
"Shit" Jay curses quietly.
"Why aren't you two at the station?" he asks raising an eyebrow at Mouse and Antonio, who shuffle their feet glancing at each other before shrugging.
"We vowed not to go back to work if you weren't there" Antonio answers.
Connor chuckles "These two idiots didn't leave your side for a whole month before the hospital finally forced them to leave but they came in every day you were out from the start of visiting hours till visiting hours ended. Will wasn't much better; you're team came as often as they could to" Connor states.
Jay looks over at the three of them a soft look on his face.
"You guys didn't have to that you know, I appreciate it, but I was probably a boring person to have a conversation with, I bet I didn't say a lot" Jay winks.
Antonio laughs "We made up for you not talking, I'm surprised you still have ears because we're sure we talked them off" Antonio joked, just happy to see Jay awake and joking again.
Jay was released from the hospital a week after waking up, just to make sure he was stable enough to leave. His pneumonia had cleared, and the team had come in a few time during the week, they had all been over the moon to see him awake and kicking again, even Voight had a large smile on his face as he hugged Jay.
Jay had asked Connor when he could go back to work, and Connor had said not for two weeks because they would have to take his cast off and check up on his broken ribs and collar bone.
Jay had frowned and sulked for a bit until Mouse cheered him by assuring him that they could spend those two weeks together.
Jay told Antonio to go back to work because he'd be there as soon as the Doc said he could, and Antonio had looked at Jay with pure glee "you got it, brother" before following the team out after bear-hugging Jay and ruffling his hair which had grown longer.
After Jay had left the hospital, he was adamant that Mouse stops at a barber so he could get a haircut to get rid of this 'stupid mop on my head' as Jay liked to call it. For the two weeks, Jay had until he could go back to work. Jay and Mouse had grown, if possible, even closer now that they knew each other's true feelings.
Mouse woke Jay up every morning with a kiss just like Jay had asked when he had first woken up in the hospital.
Today was the last morning of Jay's leave before he went back to work since he got the all clear yesterday when he got cleared for duty and his cast got taken of his arm.
Mouse rolls over, looking at Jay, who was sleeping soundly.
Mouse smiles contently, watching his boyfriends chest rise and fall softly reaching over, he trails his fingertips softly over Jay's smooth chest.
Jay had lost a lot of muscle tone since the coma, but he'd been at the Gym the past week building some of it back up, and he'd have the rest in no time. Mouse didn't care what Jay looked like as long as he could hold him in his arms at night, then Mouse was happy.
Mouse trailed his fingers up from Jay's chest and neck to trace Jay's features softly. Mouse trailed a finger across Jay's cheek tracing his jawbone before, running a thumb across Jay's soft pink lips.
Jay wakes to the feeling of fingers running across his face softly. He playfully bites Mouse's thumb softly when it runs across his plump lips.
Jay opens his eyes and smiles at Mouse softly "morning" he says huskily, to which Mouse grins in response.
"God, I love your morning voice" he smiles, leaning over to kiss Jay. They kissed softly for a few minutes not caring about morning breath just happy to be here alive with each other.
"And I love you," Jay murmurs shyly looking down at their entwined hands. It was the first time they had said 'I love you' since officially becoming boyfriends, they had said it plenty of occasions in the past, but they had both thought it was brotherly love.
Mouse's eyes light up in adoration as he hears those three words and watches as Jay's cheeks flush crimson, looking away shyly. Mouse grins as he grabs Jay's chin, turning his face towards his own.
"I love you too" before kissing Jay hard. That morning they laid in bed all day making love to each other for the first time.
"Don't ever leave me again" Mouse whispers, tear rolling down his cheek. Jay kisses away the tear, before cupping Mouse's face and kissing him, putting every emotion he feels at that moment in time into the kiss.
"Never" Jay promises.