The intelligence unit was sitting around in the bullpen waiting for a case when jay stormed in and went straight to the locker room, ignoring the concerned eyes following him. The team knew it was a tough day for him, even if they didn't know why. He had been like this every time this day came around each year for the last 4 years, and the year before he hadn't even shown up to work. Mouse had had to track his phone and find out why he hadn't shown up, so he is the only other person that knows about it. With Jays PTSD issues, they knew not to push the subject but they were all curious.
Vought came out of his office. "We have a case". Everyone gathered around the board, except Jay, who had still not returned from the locker room. "Firehouse 51 responded to a warehouse fire this morning and found a young girl, maybe 13 years old". Voight stuck an image of the girl on the board. She looked terrible. The photo had obviously been taken at the hospital before they got a chance to clean her up. She was covered in ash, however you could still see the cuts and bruises all over her face, blood was weeping out from somewhere under her hairline and her left eye was puffy. This girl had clearly been through hell.
"61 took her to Med as a Jane Doe", Voight continued, "but I want a name, I want family, and I want to know how long she's been missing, cause I can guarantee someone is looking for her. Mouse, run her through facial, see if you can get a hit. Mouse? MOUSE?" No one had noticed mouse slowly moving towards the board and gently taking down the picture and now staring at it intently, blocking out all the sound around him. He hadn't heard a thing voight had said until he was yelling his name.
"What?" Mouse said without looking up, however it didn't go unnoticed that his voice cracked slightly.
"Run this picture through facial and see if she is in the system".
"She's not" Mouse said, his voice getting close to a whisper.
What do you mean she's not. You haven't even checked yet. There was a long pause as Mouse continued to study the image. "I don't need to" Mouse finally looked up and the team saw why his voice had cracked. He had tears running down his face and the team was shocked. Mouse, the soldier, had never been affected by a case like this before. There had to be something more. As footsteps were heard, the team turned slightly to see jay coming back from the locker room, stopping as he saw the confused faces of intelligence and finally he's eyes rested on mouses tear streamed face.
"Did we get a case? Are you good Mouse?" Mouse shook his head and slowly stretched his arm out to hand jay the picture, who took it hesitantly, with an almost questioning look on his face. The other bodies in the room became unknown to the two as jay looked down at the paper, stared at it for a second, then looked back to mould for confirmation, which he got along with teary eyes and one word.
"Med"
Within 30 seconds jay had grabbed his keys and almost sprinted down the stairs, not even grabbing his jacket for the intense Chicago cold, letting the gate slam shut behind him, and leaving everyone in the bullpen even more confused than from what mouse had said to voight.
"Mouse who is she", Hailey asked tentatively
"His sister"