"Are you hungry?" Will cooed at his niece. "How about some peaches? You love them." Will turned towards the diaper bag and extracted the jar of crushed peaches. Elizabeth blabbered happily, agreeing with her uncle's choice of food.

"You know, Jay loved peaches when he was a kid. Our mom would always cut them up into little pieces so he could eat them by himself. Ever the independent guy he was." He tied a bib around her neck gently. "But you're still a little bit young and I don't want you making a mess so I'll feed you." He scooped a bite of food into her mouth.

"Grandpa Hank called me and told me about everything that happened with Mommy this morning. Don't worry, she'll be fine once she sees your Dad. I can't believe I'm saying this but even I'm excited to see him. It's been awhile." Elizabeth smiled at Will as if she was giving her opinion on the matter.

After feeding the baby, Will took her into his washroom for a bath. He let her play in the bubbles while he gently washed her body before he pulled her out and dried her.

"Now, I don't really know about your nighttime schedule at home so let's try out a new one. The White Sox are playing the Blue Jays tonight and I think we have a good chance." He quickly put a diaper around her bottom and dressed her in some fleece footy pyjamas. "There, now you're all set."

Towards the second inning of the game, Elizabeth's eyes started to flutter closed. Will gave her a bottle which she drank at her own pace before he rocked her to sleep. He laid her down on the couch next to him so he could keep an eye on her before returning his attention to the game.

During the bottom of the fourth, his cell phone vibrated loudly against the coffee table, waking Elizabeth. He tried to stop her crying as he grabbed his phone simultaneously.

"Hello."

"Will, it's me."

"Hey, Sergeant Voight. What's up?"

"I need you to get to Med. We have Jay."

"The hospital? Why?" Will's heart sunk as he got an ear full of Elizabeth's screaming.

"He was shot."

"What?"

"Will get your ass to Med."

"What do I do with Liz?"

"Bring her with you, just hurry up." Voight's tone of voice made Will's extremities shake. He tried his best to focus on comforting Elizabeth while he grabbed his jacket, wallet and keys. He quickly got Elizabeth ready and packed into her car seat before racing down to Med. Jay always told him that his driving was atrocious and that someday he would get himself into a car accident, so being mindful of the baby in the back, he slowed down to a safer pace.

When he got to the surgical waiting room of Med, he was greeted by the unit. Everyone but Erin. Blood covered Voight's clothing and there was a feeling of unease surrounding them.

Elizabeth saw her Grandpa and immediately wanted to be transferred to him but he didn't want the blood covering him to get transferred. When she fussed, Ruzek stepped in and took her.

"What the hell happened?"

"We barged into the room and he was just slumped over on the floor. There was blood pooling around him and when I turned him over I noticed the gunshot. I only found one on the left side of his chest and tried to stop the bleeding. Rhodes is in there with him now." Voight watched the older Halstead lose some colour in his skin. He was already clammy and it looked like he was going to pass out. "Will, go find something out. Please."

Instead, Will pulled Voight over to the side.

"Where's Erin?"

"I don't know. I called her a few times but she didn't pick up. I'll go check in once you find something for me to tell her." Will nodded before turning towards the doors, restricting access to doctors and medical personnel only.

/

He read the whiteboard outside of the OR as he scrubbed his hands vigorously. He slipped the mask over his face as he walked into the room.

"Connor."

"Will, this is not the time." All Will could focus on was the blood that was splattered across Rhodes' scrubs and face. "WILL! Get outta here."

"Not until you tell me what's going on!"

"Just give me a few minutes and I'll let you know. Just get outta here before I have someone help you out."

Reluctantly, Will agreed, only to pace around directly outside the OR. Rhodes met a furious Will Halstead 20 minutes later.

"You said a few minutes!"

"Will, relax. Why don't we go and sit down?"

"No, just tell me what happened. I got people outside waiting on me to give them an answer that Jay's gonna be alright. Give me something."

"Okay well, Jay lost a lot of blood. The bullet punctured his left lung leading to a pneumothorax when we removed it. He also fractured two of his ribs, likely from when he collapsed. One of them nicked his aorta leading him to bleed into his chest cavity. We repaired the laceration and gave him 2 litres of O neg so far but it doesn't seem like he's improving. We've got him on a ventilator right now and we're just trying to keep him comfortable."

"Comfortable? There's no way in hell, Connor!"

"I'll give you and Erin some time to think about it, but it's my best opinion that we don't keep his body in distress for too long. He's not in pain and I think we should let him go peacefully. I'm sorry, Will."

Will was sure he was going to collapse now. He could feel his legs getting lighter and his head spinning before he felt Rhodes' hand around his arm.

"C'mon we'll do this together."

"Let me see him first."

"Let's let the nurses get him settled. Then we'll go."

/

Voight left angrily before Rhodes could even finish giving Jay's prognosis. All he felt was rage and discomfort. How was he going to tell Erin? She already seemed like she was on the outs and there was no doubt that this would be her last straw.

He saw her fall out when Nadia died and knew that she would never recover from this. She had a daughter to think about now. A daughter he never imagined that would look like the man he tried to ban from dating Erin.

There was too much at risk.

/

He made his way up to their apartment and didn't bother to knock. He pulled his keys out and inserted the one that fit snugly into the lock.

"Erin!"

He searched the apartment before he found her asleep on the bed. She groaned as she heard him calling out her name and opened her eyes to see him towering over her.

"Get dressed. We've got Jay. I'll explain on the way to Med."

"What? Hank. Med?"

"C'mon I don't want to stay here longer than we have to."

/

Hank explained everything to Erin on the way to the hospital. He couldn't bear to see her tears flowing steadily down her face. He reassured her constantly even though he knew it wasn't helping.

When they arrived at Med, Will told them everything in detail before they went in to see Jay. Elizabeth saw Erin from Ruzek's lap and began to cry out for her.

"Mama mama mama."

"Hi, babe. You look so happy! Did you miss mommy?" Erin placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "You should be asleep."

"Here, I'll carry her in as we go." Will offered. Elizabeth fussed as she was transferred out of her mother's embrace but soon settled her head against Will's chest.

Erin was glad Will was holding the baby when she saw Jay. Her heart dropped when she saw his almost lifeless body on the bed. He looked so helpless and weak and all Erin wanted to do was replace him with herself. I deserve it.

"Connor said that they have him comfortable and that he's not in pain right now. He advised that we have everyone say their goodbyes before we take him off the ventilator and let him go on his own."

"No." Her voice was only a weak whisper.

"What?"

"There's no way I'm letting that happen. We keep him on the vent."

"Erin, the likelihood that he-"

"I don't care about statistics, Will. He's stubborn. Even you should know that. We keep him on the vent."

Will knew there was no point in trying to fight Erin on her choice. He placed Elizabeth back in Erin's embrace as she sat down in the reclining chair next to Jay's bed. Both Will and Hank left to give the small family a few moments of privacy.

"Dada." Elizabeth pointed her little finger towards her sleeping father.

"Yeah that's Dada." Erin replied sadly.

"DADA!" Elizabeth wiggled around in Erin's embrace as she reached out for her father.

"Careful Liz, Daddy's hurt." Erin still let her onto the bed, being mindful of Jay's chest. She watched Elizabeth climb timidly into the crook of Jay's right arm before settling her head into his armpit. She fell asleep almost instantly. All Erin could do was smile. She wished she could have Elizabeth's innocence at times like this. She had no idea that Jay was hurt and half-dead. All she cared about was she could finally sleep touching her Dad again.

"You'd hate me if you knew what I did. Come back to us. I can't do this without you." Her voice was strangled as it came out. She stood up and leaned over Jay, kissing his forehead before settling back into the chair, watching him.

/

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