"Dawson? Dawson!"

Finally she jerked out of her haze, meeting the Chief's dark, concerned eyes. His gaze had been on her for the past few minutes, but she hadn't even realized it. Severide was standing a few feet away, leaning against a wall, tears shimmering in his eyes just waiting to be released.

"Yes.", Dawson replied weakly, forcing herself not to avert her eyes as she stood in front of the Chief, tired, worried and with a headache that almost made her want to curl up in a corner and die.

"You need to go get that looked at." The Chief's voice was soft, but firm at the same time. He gestured to her head that was partly covered with dried blood coming from a little cut on top.

"I'm fine, the paramedics already - " She broke off mid-sentence, realizing that he wouldn't believe her in the least if she told him that the paramedics had already thoroughly inspected her head wound. They had been focused on Shay mainly and Dawson had made damn sure that it stayed that way, telling them that she was fine whenever one of them tried to get a closer look at her.

"I need to be here when Shay get's out of surgery.", Dawson pleaded, hoping that he would understand. The ambulance crash had left her partner unconscious and she wasn't able to think about getting some blood cleaned off her forehead before she knew that Shay was alright. It could wait.

Before Chief Boden could respond, however, Casey came running down the hallway, stopping in front of them. "Dawson!" His eyes quickly scanned over her, his expression turning even more concerned at the sight of the blood on her forehead. "The others are on their way.", he said to the Chief while his worried eyes were still resting on Dawson who was averting her gaze.

"Good.", Chief calmly said, briefly turning his head just in time to see Severide punch his fist against the wall. "Take Dawson down to the ER.", he told Casey before walking over to the distraught lieutenant of Squad 3.

"Come on.", Casey softly said, putting an arm on Dawson's back to comfort her and make her go with him.

"I'm fine.", she muttered quietly, but gave up her resistance, knowing it wouldn't get her anywhere with the Chief and Casey. They walked towards the elevators without speaking a word and then stood next to each other, waiting for the doors to open. She noticed the worried side glances he kept giving her right before the elevator opened. Two nurses stepped out, accompanying an older man in a wheelchair, leaving the elevator empty for Casey and Dawson. Once inside, she leaned against the wall, closing her eyes for a second and bringing up a hand to her throbbing head as Casey pushed the button for the first floor.

"You alright?" He hadn't missed the fact that she had closed her eyes and was now holding her head. She looked exhausted and hurt like he had never seen her before and it made him inwardly cringe. He didn't know much about the accident, only that some idiot had hit the open ambulance with his vehicle, but what more was there to know? There was no reason or logic behind this, it should have never happened. How could someone drive their car into an ambulance that was right there, in front of everyone's eyes?

"Ya.", Dawson replied with a light nod, still using the elevator wall for support. His voice sounded as if it was coming from far, far away although he was so close. Almost as if her ears were stuffed with some kind of cotton that only let muffled sounds through. Casey took a step towards her and she slowly lifted her head a bit, her tired eyes meeting his worried ones. A sudden dizziness overwhelmed her from one second to the next and in an attempt not to fall down, she reached her hand out and found Casey's jacket, clinging on to it. She blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the unwanted faint feeling but the world around her slowly started to fade, no matter how hard she was fighting it.

"Dawson?"

Her fingers held on tighter to Casey's jacket before her muscles relaxed and she passed out. Luckily, he saw it coming and was standing close enough to catch her before her body could hit the gray, hard floor of the elevator.