Random Acts of Violence
In a city like Chicago, the police are not strangers to the term "random acts of violence." They're among the hardest crimes to solve as they come unprovoked and without motive or reason. The things about these "random acts" is that they hardly ever are. Misdirected sure, but random? Seldom. The terminology is more commonly used to label acts that are just too disconnected to properly explain. Or, at least, too disconnected to make an explanation worth the effort it would take to find it.
They're almost never truly random.
People don't just get bored and decide to shoot up convenience stores. Not without the influences of further factors anyways. People watch movies when they're bored. They surf the internet, lie in their beds and stare at the ceiling, go for runs, party with friends, put in overtime. When people are bored, they play three hours worth of solitaire on their iPhones. They don't initiate hostage situations or mass shootings. Not just because they're bored.
That's why police officers and lawyers search for motives. At least, the good ones anyways. If death and taxes are the only two things in the world that are completely certain, people having reasons is a close third. Even if the reasons are twisted or ill-conceived, they exist. They always do, in some form or another.
So no. "Random acts of violence" don't exist, not truly. They're scarcely more than a concept, a term, a label for when a motive can't be found. But whether it's mental illness, a dark past, a vendetta or a need to be heard, there's always a reason. Even if it's hard, or impossible to decipher.
Everyone has a reason, everything has a purpose and everyplace has a meaning. The trick is to pay attention, to everything, to every detail. It's all important. What did they do and why did they do it? What doesn't seem right? It's the smallest things that make or break a case. They're were you find or lose a motive. The hints are there, if you're looking closely enough.
Just remember to pay attention. It's not random. It's all for a reason.
Chapter One: Let Me Take You Into The Light
(Let the Sparks Fly – Thousand Foot Krutch)
Dr. Natalie Manning walked through the ER at Chicago Med, stopping casually outside one of the rooms. The room contained her close friend Will Halstead, his brother Jay and Jay's partner Erin Lindsay. Will was stitching up a small bullet wound in his brother's left arm, as the two siblings bickered back and forth.
"I thought it was against protocol to work on family," the doctor teased as she leaned slightly against the doorway.
Will smiled at the appearance of his fellow doctor. "Are you kidding? The ER's been so quiet today I'm starting to worry. Besides, I'm nearly off shift anyways."
"You've still got an hour left." Will frowned at her remark, causing his brother to chuckle slightly. The doctor Halstead pulled the stitch he was making extra tight, making Jay to wince and stop laughing.
"Well someone's got to stitch him up," The doctor retorted. "Might as well be me. Who else would put up with him?" Jay frowned in mock hurt, but said nothing.
"Hey Natalie," Erin interjected, ignoring the two Halsteads. "How's baby..." she paused for a minute, trying to remember the name. "Owen?"
Natalie nodded in confirmation. "He's great. Well, I mean, he keeps me up all night and I swear he's constantly hungry, not to mention he's always crying for some reason or another, but," her face lit up at the thought. "he's my little angel."
"I can tell," Jay muttered sarcastically, earning him a sharp slap from Erin on his good arm. The male detective leaned away from her with a face of mock-hurt, causing his brother to growl.
"Will you stay still for ten seconds?" he grumbled, turning to Natalie with a still bright smile. "Animals these two."
Natalie laughed. "I could finish up for you," she offered in a somewhat condescending tone. "Or I'm sure Maggie would love to help out."
Will shot her a don't-you-dare glance before turning back to his stitch-work. His fellow doctor smiled at his annoyance, before bidding the three farewell with a quick "try not to kill each other."
Jay groaned once the female doctor was out of ear-shot. "I can't believe you haven't asked her out yet."
Erin glared at her partner. "She just gave birth to the son of her dead husband. I think that forgives him waiting a bit."
"Thank-" Will began.
"Although not too long," she interrupted while shooting a knowing glance at the doctor.
Will stared at her in disbelief. "Like you're one to be talking. How long did it take for you two to get together?" The two detectives both opened their mouths to object, but he cut them off with a quick "Besides, like you said, it's complicated with Nat."
Jay threw his head back, staring at the roof in exasperation. "You're impossible."
"There." Will blurted as he cut off the last stitch. "All done. I'll grab you your forms and then you two can be on your way," the doctor quickly explained before rushing off. "I'm very busy today."
"I thought you said you were so not-busy that you were almost concerned!" Jay called out, but his brother was already out of earshot, or at least, he pretended to be. "Look at him ignoring me. I knew he didn't care," he grumbled in a joking manner.
Erin laughed under her breath. "He cares," she corrected. "I mean, look how he took the time to stitch you up personally."
"Nah, he just didn't want Dr. Rhodes to do it. Heaven forbid I spend any time with the guy. I might not come out of it hating him as much as Will does. Then who would he rant about him to?"
"Dr. Rhodes? Those two are still going at it?"
Jay nodded. "Those two are worse than me and Voight." He laughed at the glare Erin shot him. "Seriously, they are. Will can't go a single night without telling me how much of a 'stuck-up-wealthy-know-it-all' the guy is. His words not mine."
Erin sighed. "Well if you and Hank can learn to coexist I am sure Will and Rhodes can figure it out."
"When I said worse than Voight and I, I meant seriously worse."
Erin rolled her eyes. "Speaking of Voight, he'll probably want to know when we'll be back. I'll call him and let him know we'll be back within the hour." She paused. "Unless you wanted me to take you home..."
"I got shot in the arm, not the gut. It's not even my good arm, besides, have you seen how much paperwork I have to do?"
"I warned you what would happen if you didn't stay ahead of that. You know, you're the impossible one, not your brother," she sighed. "I'm going to call Hank. Stay put." With that, Erin Lindsay wandered off to find a quiet place to make her call from, leaving her partner waiting. He wasn't kept waiting too long as she returned less than a minute after leaving.
"Jay," she began staring down at her phone. "I'm not getting any signal. That can't be right."
Her partner perked up with confusion. "There's always been signal around here. We're not by anything that would block it. You're sure it's not just your phone?"
She shrugged. "Try yours."
Jay pulled out his own cell, quickly noticing that it too lacked all signal. "What the hell?" he mumbled. "I-"
He was cut off by the sharp, undeniable sounds of three gunshots. Instinctively, both detectives reached for their guns.
"Ten bucks says it's a signal jammer set up by whoever fired off those shots," Jay cursed under his breath, tossing back on his kevlar vest (which he'd discarded while getting his arm stitched up). "Someone needs to get out of its range and call for back-up."
Erin nodded. "It probably is a signal jammer, but first we need to confirm." Jay shot his partner a doubtful glance. "We just need eyes on whatever's happening- or some kind of idea what we're dealing with."
"How's a hospital shooting for an idea?"
"Jay," she chastised. "It's best to be sure."
Jay sighed, grudgingly accepting her proposal. "Fine," was all he needed to say and the two were ready to go. Keeping low, and maintaining as much cover as possible, they headed out into the main entrance to the ER. The room was empty, eerily so and the two detectives immediately knew something was up.
They spotted a few faces, scared people huddled up and hiding in rooms or behind desks. Although, they really looked more startled than scared; confused and curious more so than anything else. Maybe worried, but far from the terrified they would be if they'd actually seen anything. The detectives figured this out almost instantly, causing Erin to motion to them to stay put and keep quiet with basic hand gestures.
The people were just nodding in understanding when someone cried "Oh thank god!" Both detectives turned to the source of the voice. It was emitting from the doorway of a nearby room in the form of a middle aged woman. "Hurry. Come quick."
They both gave the confused people one last gesture to remain hidden and silent before lowering their weapons slightly and hurrying after the woman as she retreated off down a hallway. She lead them to a small room containing a middle aged man, the woman who lead them to the room and a younger woman (most probably in her early twenties or late teens) huddled up around some figure. The youngest woman wore a cast on one arm, presumably the reason the group was at the ER in the first place.
"This nurse," the man began to explain as he back away from the figure. "The gunmen knocked her out when she tried to stop him." The figure was revealed to be Maggie, a nurse Jay knew well enough as she was close to both his brother and (especially) Natalie.
Erin instinctively crouched down to examine the unconscious women who appeared fine except for the blood clinging to her head and face.
"Alright, catch us up," Jay instructed the clearly panicking family as calmly as he could. "What exactly happened?"
"It all happened so quick," the young woman explained in a shaky voice. "It was just us, this nurse and a doctor, Dr. Manning. They were getting ready to discharge me- you know prescribing pills, recommending taking it easy and such- when a man just barged in. He started demanding that they go with him, but the nurse was having none of it. When he tried to take Dr. Manning with force, she tried to stop him and- oh god- he hit her with his gun. Please tell me she's okay."
Erin sent a quick nod of assurance to her partner. "It looks like no more than a concussion, but we should be getting her checked out," she explained. "Jay, someone needs to get word out, We can't have new patients arriving at a hospital with a gunman running around.. Ambulance's need to be redirected.
Jay nodded. "First, tell us what happened next. Did he just leave with Dr. Manning?"
The young woman shook her head. "I screamed when he knocked out the nurse and- and that must've drawn the attention of this nearby doctor because he rushed in to see what was wrong. The man with the gun- He threatened to kill Dr. Manning if they didn't take him where he wanted to go. The male doctor was hesitant, but that's when the gunman fired off his weapon. After that, the doctor just listened."
Jay looked around the room, noticing three small bullet holes in one of the walls. "No one else was hurt though? The shots just went into the wall?"
The young woman nodded. "He just wanted to scare the second doctor into listening to him." She was starting to cry now. "The gunman- he'd completely lost it."
"So it's just one gunman though, with one gun. A handgun? Like mine?" Jay inquired, gesturing to his own firearm.
The man nodded. "But he's dangerously unstable. Even I could tell he wasn't really in his right mind...and he's got two hostages. Maybe even more now."
"The second doctor, what did he look like? Was he this man?" Jay asked, trying to remain calm, as he showed a picture of his brother on his phone.
The man nodded frantically. "Yeah, that's him. The shooter had him and Dr. Manning lead him off, telling us if we didn't stay put he'd come back for us too. My wife went out to find cell service- to call the police- and that's when she came back with you two. I wish I could tell you more, but it just- it all happened so fast."
Erin sighed. "Well I can promise you he won't come back. He just meant to scare you."
"Erin, you need to get them out of here," Jay instructed as matter-of-factly as he could. He was already checking outside to see if the coast was clear. "Get them to Mouse. See if you can get a sketch and ID the guy."
"If you think I'm letting you chase this psycho on your own you're crazy," Erin objected. "What happened to never going anywhere without back-up?"
"You said it yourself- someone has to call out- get ambulance's redirected and get back-up."
"It'll only take five minutes. Then we can go find this guy. Together."
"We may not have five minutes Erin and you know it."
"Well then I should go. With your arm-"
"I'm fine Erin. It's my left arm, and its barely a graze."
"It's more than graze-"
"He's got my brother, Erin!" Jay snapped. "And Natalie." Erin, while still noticeably tense, relaxed slightly. She understood her partner well enough to know he wasn't going to leave without his brother. "I'm not wasting five minutes if I don't have to." He turned back to the family. "Where'd the gunman tell the doctors to take him?"
"I- I don't know," the older woman stammered.
"Think!" Jay barked before calming himself slightly. "What'd he say? You had to have heard him tell the doctors where he wanted them to lead him."
"Uh- He said- a name- Charles, I think. Yeah. That was it. Charles."
"As in Dr. Charles? Or as in a first name?"
"It was definitely Dr. Charles," the young woman chimed in.
"That's got to be the psychiatrist right?" Jay asked Erin hopefully.
She shrugged hopelessly. "It's a big hospital Jay and a common name. Could be any number of people...but I suppose it's as good a place to start as any...if you're mind's made up. His office isn't far from here," she said, quickly giving him directions to the doctor's office.
Jay nodded in appreciation. "Get them out Erin," he instructed before taking his first step out of the room. Erin stopped her partner, however, by grabbing his forearm and making him face her.
"I'll be coming in after you in five minutes. Try not to do anything stupid until then."
He nodded. "You either," was all he said before rushing off.
Erin watched him leave before turning back to the family and a still unconscious Maggie. "You," she gestured to the man. "Help me carry her."
"He's not here!" The gunman shouted at Will. "I told you to lead me to Dr. Charles! Or do I have to remind you why you're doing this?!" In this rage, the man grabbed Natalie and spun her around, so she was in front of him and they both faced the other doctor. He jammed the gun, hard, against her temple to make his point.
"That's not necessary!" Will blurted instinctually. "This is his office. He's probably just with a patient right now."
"Then take me to him!"
"It's not that simple," Natalie explained, her voice tense with nerves. "Dr. Charles consults all over the hospital. He could be anywhere. I could page him, but with those shots you fired off earlier- the whole of Chicago PD is probably bursting into the hospital as we speak."
He shook his head. "The service is jammed up."
"What?" Will spat. "Are you crazy? Ambulance's need to be redirected. Someone needs to be able to call out."
"I'm sure someone will...once they get out of the range of the jammer field."
Will took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He ran through his options in his head. The police would be here eventually, surely someone would get far enough to make the call. Think. He thought to himself. What would Jay do?
He froze. Jay. Jay and Erin were in the hospital. They were fresh off the job, armed and ready to go. They'd figure out what had happened right? They'd be here soon. I just have to stall.
"Natalie's right. If you want to get Dr. Charles here, then you're best bet is to have us page him."
"However," Natalie added as she began to develop what Will's plan was in her head. "You tossed our pagers into a trashcan as we walked. We'd have to go back and get them."
Enraged by the seemingly harmless comment, the man pushed Natalie into Will so hard she nearly knocked him over. "Do you think I'm an idiot!?" he cried as he waved the gun around like he was experiencing his own personal earthquake.
"Of course not," Natalie assured him. "But it's the only way."
"Who do you have out there? Swat? Or a soldier? I know one of your fellow ER doctors served over seas. Is he waiting outside to kill me?"
Will put his hands to show he meant no harm. "There's no one out there. Tell you what, you send Dr. Manning to go get the pagers and I'll stay here as you're hostage. If she doesn't come back, you can kill me."
"Will..." Natalie whispered, concern both on her face and in her voice.
He grabbed her hand reassuringly, but kept his eyes secured on the gunman. "Unless you want to wait around all day to see if Dr. Charles will come back- which he may not- you really don't have any other options here."
The man snarled, thinking on it for a moment. "Fine," he decided. "You have five minutes then your friend's brains are going to become very good friends with the wall."
Natalie nodded in understanding, turning briefly to pull Will into a tight hug. "Don't do anything stupid untilI get back."
"Don't worry about me," he replied before lowering his voice to a barely audible volume. "Find Jay. Get out."
Natalie nodded before taking her leave (with the permission granted through a nod of the gunman's head) to go retrieve the pager. She shot her friend one last concerned glance before hurrying off down the halls.
"You better hope she comes back in time," the man snapped, bitterly.
It's not her I'm counting on, Will thought to himself as he stared at a nearby clock. Time was already running out.
"Natalie?" Jay called out, as loud as he dared.
The doctor sighed a deep breath of relief, rushing down the hallway towards the detective. "Jay. Thank god."
"I heard gunshots. The gunman- he's supposed to have you and Will as hostages," he said, clearly confused.
"Yeah. I mean- he does. How did you-" she froze. "You ran into the Emersons. Did you see Maggie? Is she okay?"
Jay nodded. "It looks like it's just a concussion. Erin's taking her to get help."
"There's a jamming field up, Jay. You have to get word out. Patients need-"
"Erin's got it," he interrupted brusquely. "Natalie. Where is Will?"
The doctor snapped to attention as though, in the panic of the moment, she'd completely forgotten about her objective.
"He's still with the gunman. Will convinced him to let me go and retrieve my pager," she explained, waving her pager (which she must've already retrieved), purposefully, in the air. "I got five minutes to return with it. Jay, your brother told me to find you. You have to do something. I don't know who this guy is, but he's willing to kill get a chance to speak to Dr. Charles."
"You don't think he's bluffing?" Jay clarified.
"He looked pretty serious to me when he slammed his pistol into Maggie's head."
"Pistol whipping isn't exactly the same as murder."
"Jay," she urged. "He's serious. I can feel it in my gut." She took a deep breath to collect herself. "He's with Will in Dr. Charles' office. I'm supposed to be back there in under two minutes. I need to go," she blurted, turning to rush off.
"No way in hell am I giving him another civilian hostage," Jay insisted, grabbing her arm to stop her. "I think one's enough. Don't you?" Natalie frowned, clearly eager to return to her friend, despite the threat of the psychotic gunman. "Look. Here's what I need you to do; you need to get a hold of Dr. Charles. See if you can't find out who this man is and what he wants. I also need to you to meet up with Erin. I'll have my earpiece in, so if she can figure out how to get the signal jammer offline she'll be able to talk to me with information. In the meantime, you need to stop her from approaching Dr. Charles' office. From what I've gathered a cop showing up could spook this guy into hysteria."
"Aren't you a cop?"
"I'm also a brother," Jay said with a knowing smirk. "Now go!"
"Ah ha!" Ruzek cheered triumphantly. "I win again!"
"You cheated bro," Atwater protested as his fellow detective gathered up the two fives that had been placed on the desk. "I saw you take an extra shot when you thought I wasn't looking."
Ruzek frowned. "Who me? Never," he chirped with a grin, fanning his ten dollars as though it where several hundred. "Double or nothing?"
"No way man," Atwater argued further. "Give me back my five. I ain't playing trash basketball with a good-for-nothing cheater."
"You're just jealous of my skills," the detective sang as he victoriously spun around the trash can (now full of crumbled up paper "basketballs").
"You definitely cheated Ruzek," Olinsky chimed in, causing Ruzek (who had forgotten his old partner was there) to nearly jump straight out of his skin. "So give Atwater back his five and get back to your paperwork before I tell Voight what you two have been up to."
Ruzek grumbled to himself as he returned the bill and slumped down in his chair. Just as he was turning back to his paperwork, Dawson and Voight came marching up the stairs.
"I would've gotten him to confess to the whole deal if that lawyer had shown up five minutes later," Dawson muttered.
"He shot a cop, Dawson," Voight reminded the detective. "Doesn't matter if it's just in the arm, we won't even a confession to lock his ass up. Trust me, he won't be seeing the sunlight anytime soon."
"I still hate lawyers."
"Who doesn't?" Ruzek chirped from his desk.
"Any word on Erin and Halstead?" Voight asked casually. "Is he taking the day off?"
"For a scrape like that?" Dawson teased. "He better not be. I just hope that man knows how much paperwork he's making us do because he can't dodge bullets."
"I'll take that as a 'you don't know?'" Voight repeated.
Olinsky shook his head, confirming the sergeant's hypothesis.
"Well let me know when you hear from them," he declared before beginning to head into his office. He stopped short in the doorway, however, when Mouse came bursting in, panic filling his voice.
"Sarge!" He called out. "I just got off the phone with Lindsay. Someone's opened fire at Chicago Med. So far there's only one injury, but the gunman's got two hostages: doctors Halstead and Manning, and not only did Jay go after him alone, but the guy's got some sort of signal jammer up and all communications are out within the hospital... I gotta call and get the ambulances-"
"Mouse!" Dawson blurted. "Slow down. We can't keep up."
"There's a psycho with a gun on the lose at Chicago Med. They think he's after Dr. Charles, but they're not sure. Jay's in there alone, well- I mean- Lindsay's going back in now, but- you have to get over there." By the time the bumbling tech finished, however, the entire team was already racing down the stairs with Voight demanding he text them any important details. Dawson stopped briefly to put a comforting hand on Mouse's shoulder.
"It's going to be okay."
"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled to himself as Dawson rushed away to join the rest of his team. "Of course it will be. It's Jay..."
So that's chapter 1 of Random Acts of Violence. I hoped you guys enjoyed it. I know it was kinda slow this chapter, but I made it longer than usual in hopes of compensating. Oh! I watch all 3 Chicago shows (like religiously) so, for this fic, they will all be in it, but it will still be majorly CPD so if that's that only show you watch you should still be fine. This story will also be divided into parts with each part having its own song and each chapter having a different line from said song. There should be about 5, but no guarantees.
For any of you who are curious; sorry I dropped off the Earth. It was due to a mixture of life and laziness and lack of motivation (the 3 L's). I'm back now with a new chapter every Sunday. Real quick; before the season 3 premiere I put up half of a two shot. I'm basically done part 2, but I kind of assumed no one would care (since the actual episode aired and all). But if you do want me to finish that up I can post it. Just let me know.
Sorry for the long note. As always, hope you enjoyed (let me know if you did- or didn't), and I'll see you all next Sunday with Ch 2!
Next Chapter:
Chapter Two: There's Nowhere to Hide
