Chapter 2-An Afternoon in June

This is a chapter full of firsts. This is my first one-shot fan submitted story based on the first prompt I received and it shall be a follow up to the first FanFic I ever wrote. I loved the idea sent in by WhyDoIWrite and I hope you guys enjoy it.

WhyDoIWrite: "What about a prompt where Jay faints out of nowhere with everyone at med watching and classic Will freaks out."

Let's dive in.

Inhale…exhale….inhale…exhale… The Riverwalk was becoming Jay's favorite place to run. Ever since that night in November, everything was centered around getting back to normalcy. Whether it was relearning the route to work, or getting back into a decent, Jay approved running pace, pre-brain surgery way of life was the lofty goal. Over the last few months, things were falling back into their normal rhythm. He was successfully re-certified to carry a gun and was two weeks into returning to work. Everyone gave him a hard time about his lengthy absence, in a total loving way, but Jay absorbed it all. It was great to just settle back into things, laugh with the group, and play a role in solving the criminal mysteries in Chicago. Sure, there were moments of memory slips and rest was a nagging requirement, but gone were the days of check-ins and mental exercises.

Today was a rare day off and Jay used it to his advantage. He slept in till 9am, a very uncharacteristic thing for him to do, and opted to head downtown to run along the Riverwalk. On this hot and humid day in the city, a weaving run around the river sounded refreshing. The pathway skirts the water's edge, creating ninety degree turns and shade under the numerous bridge above, a challenging yet fun element. Jay found the first couple of miles rather easy. It was early June now and the city was thriving. Water taxis and tourists boats speckled the water, offering a gentle breeze and misting as they passed the walkway. People were fishing off the railings on the pathway and children were drawing shapes and letters on the concrete. Jay had his earbuds on blast, but made sure to smile and wave to those on his route. Summer was an exciting and brief time in the city and it was always a delight to see it alive and bustling. It was around mile three that Jay's music was interrupted by an incoming text message from Voight.

"Got a case. Here's the address." It was a business in the Loop, not that far from Jay's current location. He sighed as he responded he'd be there soon. While there are several pros to being a detective in the city of Chicago, its' unpredictable schedule was definitely a con.

…

"What've we got," Jay asked as he slipped under the tape? A collection of odd looks were all he got.

"Car trouble," Adam asked, scanning Jay's sweaty appearance and workout attire?

"I was in the area and just wanted to head over. I'll change when we get back." Adam smirked while Kim and Hailey rolled their eyes, allowing Jay's explanation to pass. Voight was the one to break up the questioning.

"Great, crime scene is over here." Antonio rounded the corner of the business at this point, scrolling through his note pad as he spoke.

"Victims are Craig and Sheila Hines. Both in their 50s and have owned and operated this convenient store for twenty-five years. Store was going to be turned over to their kids in a couple of years. There have been some gang issues in this area for a couple of weeks. Business owners refusing to pay them protection money, with vandalism or arson crimes a couple of weeks later.

"Any patterns," Kim asked? Antonio shook his head.

"Nothing that immediately stands out. Only one gang really controls this area so it's likely different people from the same group are committing these acts. No charges have been made yet."

"Murders in those other crimes?" Another head shake response.

"This is the first." Jay turned away from the group and scanned the whole scene. Crime scene techs were brushing for prints, snapping photos of the scene, and analyzing shattered pieces of glass. Medical examiners were zipping up body bags and gently placing Mr. and Mrs. Hines on the gurney, destination their cold, dark slab for answers. This part of the job never got easy: witnessing the overturning of people's lives. Someone told Jay once that when that moment gets easy and accustomed to, it was time to hang up the badge. Shaking his head, Jay rotated to face the large crowd. A shrunk, interesting person three rows deep caught his eye.

"Any descriptions of the perp?" Everyone stopped their debates to notice Jay a couple of feet away from them.

"Um…the Hines did file a police report for the run-in a couple of weeks ago. Described the person as tall, long haired, underweight, and a tattoo on his right cheek." Jay turned to face Intelligence.

"Guy over my left shoulder, three rows back." Antonio and Kevin nodded after a moment, confirming Jay's suspicion. Jay slowly walked towards the crowd, making sure to scatter his focus on various people, hoping to not spook his intended target.

"Sir, can I talk to.." But Jay didn't get to finish because the target took off running.

"Shoot," Jay muttered under his breath. He shouted for people to move as he locked in on the guy a block ahead of him. Adam and Kevin were not too far behind, shouting for Jay to go as they split off in different directions, hoping to form a blockade for the perp. The run became a tunnel vision sprint. Jay ignored the cars crossing the street and all but leapt over people in the street. Every stumbling block was giving the perp that much more of a lead. Jay shortened the gap to a few yards when Kevin came out of nowhere and tackled the guy to the ground. Jay breathed a sigh of relief as he slowed to a walk, beginning to notice weakness in his arms and legs.

"I think you broke my arm," the suspect cried, Kevin clicking the cuffs a little tighter.

"Shut up, don't run next time," he replied as he forced the guy upright and threw him in a now present cop car, ordering the driver to transport the perp to Med. Adam jogged by at this point and noticed a day dreaming Jay, hands resting on his knees.

"You good?!" Jay jolted before looking over at Adam and nodding.

"Yeah, haven't gone that fast in a minute." Adam laughed before patting Jay's shoulder, noticing a pale complexion on him.

"You don't look so hot." Hailey pulled up in the truck at this point, rolling the window down to ask if everyone was good.

"Yeah, let's go to Med," Jay replied as he opened the passenger door and climbed in. The ride over was a congested twenty minute journey. Jay used the time to close his eyes and practically inhale the cold air blasting out of the vents. There was the smallest of headaches beginning to creep in but Jay chose to ignore it, telling himself that everything was fine.

"Maybe you should get checked out," Hailey confessed as they pulled into the ED bay.

"I'm fine, just tired."

"Almost nap time," Hailey jokingly asked? Jay rolled his eyes, silently wanting this stage of the recovery to be over. It was as he walked into the ED that the nausea kicked in and the darkening vision began to overcome him. He heard someone ask him something but he couldn't make anything out. The very familiar and scary sensation of a pounding head was the last thing Jay remembered before feeling everything go limp as he gave into the darkness.

…

Will was looking over the x-ray of the perp when he heard a crash and shouting, someone saying something about falling. At first, Will just shrugged it off, chalking it up to a normal day in the ED. However, Maggie sticking her head in the trauma room made his interest spike.

"Will, they need you out here," she calmly spoke, very aware of who Will was working on. Will nodded before asking Maggie to grab another doctor. She nodded before ushering him out. It was amazing to see Will's disposition instantly change. He left the trauma room a little ticked, wondering what was so terrible only he could fix it, but all that vanished as he noticed Hailey holding the hand of a person lying on the ground, the shoes a dead give away as to who had fallen in the ED.

"Jay,?! What happened," he asked?! Hailey was moving away to give Will a spot between Ethan, Natalie, and a nurse.

"I don't know. He said something about being tired and he kept rubbing his temples and next thing I knew, he collapsed."

"His heart rate is strong and his breathing is fine. He just passed out," Ethan interrupted.

"And?!"

"Will," Natalie spoke, getting an earful from Will before she could continue.

"No, there's no simple reason for this. He's six months post-op from two major brain surgeries. He could have an aneurysm or a bleed or swelling. Why isn't he on a monitor, pulse oximeter, oxygen? Page Abrams and get him to a trauma room." Natalie gave Ethan a look before shrugging her shoulders, realizing there wasn't a world where they'd talk Will out of this.

"Fine, clear a trauma room and put him on leads and pulse oximeter." Everyone began to move around Will and a still passed out Jay. Will did a quick scan of his brother, finding it odd he was on the job wearing workout wear. Perhaps it was necessary, but his currently fearful mind told him it was another sign to a brain injury: confusion. At the time, Will concluded the sweaty clothes and stink on his brother as factors of a fever. God bless Will and his worrying.

They had placed Jay on a heart monitor and pulse oximeter when he finally stirred, coughing first before getting a good view of the world above him. Will was grabbing his hand while Ethan was holding a stethoscope on his now bare chest. Natalie was about to wave a penlight in his eye when he blinked.

"Oh, hey Jay. Everything's fine, you just passed out." Will looked up from something on the floor to greet Jay, an overly happy face met Jay's confused one.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Jay ignored them and began to try sitting up, wanting to be anywhere but on the ED floor.

"Where's Hailey?"

"Over here," she replied.

"Everyone's here," she continued, pointing to a place behind her. Jay turned his head to the right to see a group of waving, worried faced people. The redness from embarrassment was blossoming.

"I need to get up." Ethan and Will grabbed an arm and helped Jay upright, Natalie collecting the monitors and walking behind the train of people. Jay stumbled the first couple of times, Will and Ethan right there to catch him. It was incredible to see how quickly one's extremities become weak. Jay was shocked that he was able to run miles hours ago and now couldn't move without assistance. He was guided to trauma room four and sat on the edge of the bed before Intelligence was shooed out and a curtain encased the perimeter of the room. During its' closure, Intelligence chuckled over Will and Jay's comments; Jay saying everything was unnecessary and Will telling him to stop and let people do their jobs. Jay was revealed after a bit, donning a hospital gown, many monitoring leads, an IV delivering fluids, a cannula, and a growing red mark from where his face met the floor. It was an unpleasant throwback to six months ago; a picture they didn't want to see again, especially so soon.

"Sorry guys," Jay embarrassingly spoke while messing with the cannula tube on his ear. They all reassured him everything was fine, but deep down they knew what he really meant: he hated to put them through this again. It was at this point Dr. Abrams sauntered into the room, a little surprised to find out who the patient was.

"Again, seriously Jay? If you like it here so bad, I'm sure there's a job opening here for you." Jay laughed it off, hoping Will got the message that everything was overkill.

"So, what happened," Abrams asked?

"Passed out in the ED a couple minutes ago," Will reported, earning him an annoyed expression.

"I was asking Jay." It was Will's turn to be royally embarrassed.

"Um, just felt sick and had a headache. I walked into the ED and then everything went dark." Abrams nodded as he shone a light in Jay's eyes, asked him to follow his finger, and check reflexes.

"How bad was the headache?"

"Like a normal one, nothing massive." Abrams moved on to asking questions about the year, names, where his nose was, and the last thing he remembered. Jay passed all tests with flying colors.

"From the clothes in the bag, it looks liked you worked out. Did you drink anything afterwards? Stretch or rest?" Jay responded with a eventual 'no.' Will mentally slapped himself.

"You guys called me down here for, most likely, dehydration and exhaustion?" Natalie pointed to Ethan, who raised his hands in surrender.

"Good luck convincing him of that." Everyone looked up at Will now.

"Better to be thorough than let something major slip by."

"Ok, I will send you up to radiology for a CT scan just to be sure, but everything looks normal. I take it you guys can handle the rest," Abrams replied as he handed the tablet over to Ethan. Will yelled a 'thank you,' as Abrams marched towards the elevator, satisfied with his overly brilliant self; a very Gregory House thing to do.

…

"Hey man, welcome back." The room was dark, letting Jay know a large amount of time had passed since he was last conscious. Before being transferred upstairs, Jay requested to be sedated, saying he didn't to get cluster-phobic in the CT machine. This was such an odd request from Jay that Will was concerned, but got Ethan to grant the request. He stayed with Jay till the sedative kicked in. It was a bad flashback to that night not so long ago. Will felt the dread and uncertainty return. Of course, this situation was vastly better than Jay's last hospital stay, but to see him in this place as a patient was never going to be easy. Will and Intelligence waited outside the radiology doors for over an hour, each one trying their best to push away their hatred for being back in that place. The lab tech came out ninety minutes later to announce that Jay was done and sleeping off the sedative in a regular room, a great sign for the results. They all made it to Jay's door before parting ways. Will was touched that they stayed and appreciative for the alone time with Jay. He'd just gotten situated in the awkwardly positioned chair when Jay moved his hands towards his face.

"Is it done?"

"Yeah, Abrams texted a couple minutes ago that everything looks fine." Jay sighed, refusing to make eye contact with Will.

"Sorry, I freaked out. But you get that the last time.."

"-Yes, I do. I didn't ask for this to happen."

"Obviously. But it scared me. You nearly died the last time you were here and that's something I don't want to revisit, or even come close to being in that place again." Jay sat up and faced Will, who was fighting back tears.

"I'm sorry, seriously. It was a slip-up on my part. I'm somewhat aware of what went down that whole month, but I get that I put you guys through a lot and I never want to do that again. But I'm fine now and things are getting back to normal."

"For now," Will mumbled, making Jay smirk.

"Yeah, probably." They both laughed for a moment.

"Love you, Will. And thank you."

"Love you too, and next time, drink something?!"

"Deal."

"And you're staying overnight." Jay eye rolled at that one.

"Fine. You're the boss."

Thanks for reading!