I'm not sure how much I like this chapter, but I wanted to get something up for guys before the weekend and I hope you guys enjoy it!

As always, I apologize for any spelling or grammar issues that I may have missed, this was a very quick edit done, very late at night.

Happy reading!


Erin

"What do you mean he's been shot?" I ask, now in full fledged panic mode. "Hannah what the hell happened?"

"I'll explain when you get here, just get here okay?" She says, holding back tears within her voice.

"Okay," I say before quickly hanging up the call and screech out of the parking lot. I don't think I've ever driven that fast or that recklessly, all while trying not to have a total panic attack. I can feel the tears and the terror bashing at the floodgate, trying with all their might to break through the locks.

I do a half assed job of parking the Compass, probably pissing off the person who'll have to park next to me. But at this point, I couldn't care less. I just have to get to him. That's all that matters. I don't care that I look like crap or that I'm so tired I could fall over or that I'm soaking wet and there's water dripping off the ends of my hair. None of it matters anymore.

I burst through the sliding doors of the Chicago Med emergency room, the rubber of my shoes squeaking against the linoleum floors, refusing to move as fast as I want them to.

"Hannah!" I exclaim, her face being the first that I see. She looks terrified, pacing up and down a hallway just past the exit of the ER.

"Erin," She says gratefully, stopping on her heels as she looks straight at me, those big hazel eyes filled with fear and worry.

"Where is he?" I demand as we speed walk beside each other, I hope towards Jay. Suddenly, I can't feel the tears anymore, stopped completely by pure adrenaline.

"He's in surgery," She tells me, "the rest of the unit is the waiting room, I came down her to wait for you,"

"Thank you," I tell her gratefully.

"Don't thank me, please don't thank me," She says under her breath. I know she didn't want me to hear that, but my days of hearing six year olds talk under their breath has tuned me. I can't imagine why that just came out of her mouth, but it's not the time to ask.

The two of us rush to the waiting room, the entire unit waiting there, Voight standing over everyone in the corner, Olinsky tucked in a chair opposite of him and Atwater and Ruzek both sitting next to each other with their heads hanging low, Kim sitting across from them and tapping her foot impatiently.

"Erin," Hank says as he notices me.

"Hi," I say, my voice breaking slightly. Seeing him here,with that look on his face, it only terrifies me more. Hank Voight doesn't get scared, nothing fazes him. But the look on his face right now, I've only seen it a handful of times.

"What do you know?"

"Nothing," I answer simply.

"C'mon kid," He says, placing a hand at the top of my back and leading towards a an inlet in the hallway.

"What the hell happened?" I ask tearfully, starting to feel the tears finally start to pool in the corners of my eyes.

"It was a UC buy in the doorway, Hannah and Jay. We've done it a million times, but the guy got spooked and he pulled a gun, two shots to the chest and a bullet in his forearm,"

"How is it looking for him?" I ask, trying not to imagine him lying lifeless and pale on that operating room table, blood flowing from those three bullet holes. He doesn't say anything, his eyes drifting to the floor. "Hank I swear to God if you don't tell me the tru-,"

"Erin it's not looking good," He says. That's all it takes. I collapse into a puddle of tears, my read propped on his shoulder as my tears soak through that leather jacket I've seen so many times.

"How bad?" I ask, once I've gotten as close to normal as we're going to get, still wiping tears from my eyes.

"How honest do you want me to be?" He asks. That means it's bad, really, really bad, because Hank Voight doesn't ask if you want him to be honest, he just is.

"Talk to me like I'm not your daughter and his girlfriend," I tell him. I know I'm probably going to regret it when I do know, but I can't be in the dark.

On a scale of one to ten, he's at a nine. It's bad Erin. But they put their best guys on it. And he's a fighter. He's been through two tours as a Ranger in Afghanistan and lived to tell the tale, he can make it through this."

"He's going to make it," I say, still unsure of my words.

"He's going to make it,"


"Family for Jay Halstead?"

"Right here," Al says, rising from his place next to Hannah as some doctor walks into the door. I read his coat, Dr. Connor Rhodes. It's been hours since we've gotten here and the minutes have been ticking by like hours, feeling like time was never going to pass. My had dried in awkward waves around my face and any traces of makeup are long gone, today's field trip in the rain seems like it's several worlds away, but I still don't feel anything. I'm numb.

"There was a lot of a blood loss and we lost him on the table, twice." I feel my heart drop in my chest, hoping that he'l elaborate, that that's not the end of it. "But we got him back. The next 24 hours are critical, but if we can keep him alive, he'll be out of the woods."

"So it's a waiting game?" Hannah asks.

"Yes, all we can do is monitor him and make sure that his stats continue to be stable until he wakes up,"

"Okay," Hannah says, looking dejected.

"Can we visit him?" Hank asks.

"He's not going to be awake for hours and visiting hours are over, so we can only have family in the ICU,"

"I'm his wife," I say abruptly, surprising myself even as I instinctively go to cover my left hand. I get a couple of surprised glances, but I know no one is going to say anything. The last thing anyone wants is for him to be alone when he wakes up and if that requires me lying about my marital status, that's what it takes.

"Okay, I'll take you back. But for the rest of you, go home and get some rest. You can come back in the morning," Hank nods at him as the unit begins to reluctantly shuffle out of the hospital waiting area.

"You going to be okay kid?" Hank asks.

"Yeah I'm good, go home," I tell him as I grab my bag off one of the chairs, glad that they're finally letting me see him, even if it required lying.

"You sure?" He asks, making sure.

"It's not like you can lie too, I'll be okay," I assure him in a whisper, making sure that Dr. Rhodes can't hear me.

"Call me if you need anything, I'll be back in the morning okay?"

"Okay," I say as he lays a kiss on the top of my head.

"You ready?" Dr. Rhodes asks me.

"Yeah,"

"Let's go,"


"What are you still doing here?" I ask. It's been maybe four hours since Jay came out of surgery and I haven't left his bedside. But I knew I was about to crash, I needed to flood my system with caffeine if I wanted to stay awake. Will's dropped in a few times, but he's on shift so for the majority of the time it's just been me, waiting for a word or a blink, something to tell me that he's alive, anything.

So as I made my way to the cart, you can imagine my surprise as I see none other than Hannah Davis.

"I knew that I couldn't go back there, but he's my partner. We don't leave, I have his back and he has mine,"

"Until the wheels come off," We both say in unison. Hank always said it to me, but I didn't know he used it with anyone else, though it does make sense. Hank met Hannah when she was 20, it was her first year on patrol and they needed her for a UC operation. They pulled her up and ever since then, he's kept her under his wing, going so far as pulling her up into Intelligence when he was given the go ahead to hire his own unit.

"You want coffee?" I ask, cutting into the small moment that we shared.

"Yeah," She tells me, "I haven't slept in like 22 hours,"

"Let's go," I say, guiding her sleep deprived body towards the coffee cart. I know that I'm panicking as I wait for him to wake up, but I can't imagine what she's going through right now. She was the one that was there when it happened. She's running through every scenario in her head a million times over, wondering if there was anything she could have done to change the outcome, why they picked him and not her. I couldn't deal with that.

"I'm glad he has you," I tell her, in an attempt to maybe calm her nerves, even just a little bit.

"What?" She asks, looking up at me as the hot, dark thin liquid flows into the Styrofoam cups.

"I'm glad that he has you with him everyday. That someone who has his back is someone that he trusts, that I trust, and that Hank trusts. So thank you, I don't know what I would do if I had to know that he was out there every day with a stranger," She nods sheepishly and smiles at me, she's not going to accept it, I know that because I know her.

But I was thinking about this while he was in surgery. This is what I would have felt like everyday that I knew he was overseas. I would never know if he was okay and if something like this happened, it wouldn't be a twenty minute drive in the rain. I wouldn't even be able to see him.

"Well he's a good partner, the best one I've had in awhile and I guess I kind of owe it to you that he's here, so thank you,"

"Come back with me,"

"What?" She ask.

"The chairs are more comfortable in there and if it's two of us in there, we can tag team and maybe get some sleep," I offer, knowing very well that I won't be falling asleep but having some company might be nice.

"I think you know pretty well that neither of us are going to sleep," She adds with sheepish smile. "Besides, they said only family,"

"And so if anyone asks, you're his half sister, Hannah Davis," I tell her as we make our way back to the double doors.

"Then are you my sister-in-law?" She teases, making fun of my stories.

"Sure," I tell her, grateful for her ability to lighten the mood in this tense, tense mood even for few seconds.


"I didn't have his back," Hannah says, out of absolutely nowhere.

"What?" I ask, sitting up from my curled up position on the chair. It's been another maybe two hours since she came back with me and neither of us have really said anything, it's just been me curled up in a chair by the side of his bed and Hannah in a couch in the corner of the room. I can almost feel the dark bags forming under my eyes, but I can't go to sleep, not yet.

"That's why I can't leave, I didn't have his back. He had mine," She says, not able to look me in the eyes.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, getting up to join her on the couch.

"Those bullets, they weren't meant for him, they were meant for me. He saw the gun and he knew they were going to shoot, he jumped in front of me" She says as tears begin to run down her face.

"Hannah," I say as I reach over to hug her. I haven't been able to allow my emotions to come to bay, this is about her and Jay, not me.

"No," She says as she pushes me away, "If he doesn't make it through this, I don't know what I'm going to do,"

"No, you can't think like that," I assure her, placing a hand on shoulder, not waiting for her permission this time. "He's going to be okay,"

"Erin I'm not like, I can't think like that. I'm not hopelessly optimistic like you are, I don't run around with little kids all day and puts posters with rainbows and smiley faces on my classroom walls,"

"You really don't know me do you?"

"What?"

"You know that Hank and his wife adopted me, but they adopted me when I was 16. I didn't grow up with the smiley faces and the rainbows, I grew up with a heroin addicted mother and baby brother who I took care of everyday of his life. The only reason that I'm a teacher is that I knew if I could help even one kid, make their day a little bit better, that's what I was going to do. That's why I have the smiley faces and the rainbows and I'm not hopelessly optimistic, I just have some very tall and very strong walls built up. That just happens to be one of them,"

"I'm so sorry, I had no idea," She says.

"How could you? I don't talk about it, Hank doesn't talk about it," I tell her.

"Does he know?"

"Hannah, he knows everything about me, the good, the bad, the ugly. Jay knows it all," I tell her, "and that's why he has to be okay. He's going to be okay,"

"I want him to be okay. I want him to be okay so bad. But I saw it happen and it wasn't good, it could have been me. He took a bullet for me, no one has ever taken a bullet for me," She tells me, her eyes teary and voice breaking.

"I know, but you're his partner. He'd take a bullet for you a million times over if it meant that you'd be okay, that's just how he is,"

"I know, I'm lucky to have him," She says. I can almost feel the lump in her throat and I know that she's about to loose it.

"We both are," I tell her as I grab her hand.

"So what do we do now?" She asks. I'd been doing a countdown. Dr. Rhodes said we needed to keep him alive for the next 24 hours. It's been five. We still have 19 to go. 19 hours until he's out of the woods. 19 hours until he's okay.

"We wait,"


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-Addie