"April, can you get a CBC from Mr. O'Neil?" Will asked as he tossed his soiled gloves and exited a treatment room.

"Sure thing." April agreed.

"Thanks. And watch out for his hands. He's kind of grabby..." Will shuttered at the thought and April laughed.

"Welcome to nurse life, Dr. Halstead. All the old men are."

Will smiled as he walked to Maggie at the workstation.

"How are you doing, honey?" She asked him, rubbing his arm.

Will shrugged. "I'm okay. Have you heard anything about Jay?"

"No," Maggie replied. "We're you expecting someone to call?"

"Not really. I was just... hoping." He admitted.

"Hoping for what?" Natalie asked as she came up behind him, running her fingers across his lower back as she did so.

"To hear something about Jay." Will told her, pulling her close to his chest.

"Honey, I'm sure Dr. Charles is taking good care of him. He'll talk to you whenever he has something to talk to you about."

Will nodded. "I know you're right. I'm just not used to going this long without talking to him."

"It's only been like 12 hours." Maggie pointed out.

"12?" Will asked, shocked. "I thought we were only at 8. Damn, yeah 12 is way too long."

Natalie gave him a tight squeeze and giggled. "You can do this."

Will smiled at her and kissed the top of her head.

"Everything okay?" Conner asked, joining the group.

"Yeah, all good." Will said to his friend.

"Jay's good?" Conner elaborated.

Will glanced between the two women and then nodded. "I guess so."

"Okay. Good." Conner replied, patting Will on the back.

"Yeah..." Will cleared his throat, "So I paged you. I have a woman in treatment 4 with what looks like a cardiac contusion. I was hoping you could take a look at it and let me know what you think we need to do moving forward."

"Sure thing." Conner agreed. "Lead the way."

"He's gonna get through this." Natalie said to Maggie as she watched the two doctors walk away.

"Oh yeah." Maggie agreed. "It's just a few days and then he'll be able to talk to his little brother as much as he wants."

Natalie smiled. "I should probably get back to work."

Maggie handed her a chart and pointed to room 3. "15-year-old passed out during PE and won't talk to anyone. Good luck."

Just then the phone rang. "ED, this is Nurse Lockwood."

"Hey Maggie, it's Jamie in psych. Dr. Charles asked me to page Dr. Halstead, but he isn't answering."

"He's working with a pretty sick patient right now. He probably hasn't had a chance to check his page yet. Do you want me to give him a message?" Maggie asked.

"Uhm... yeah. Just let him know that Dr. Charles wants to speak with him as soon as he's available."

"Is this about his brother?"

"Yeah." She answered. "He's okay. I think something came up in his session this morning. I'm not really sure."

"Okay, I'll let Dr. Halstead know. Thanks, hon." Maggie said before hanging up the phone and turning her eyes to the room where Will and Conner were working.

She waited until she caught Will's eye and motioned for him to join her.

"You got this?" She heard him ask Conner before joining her.

"Yeah, I'm gonna take her up to CT." Conner replied.

"Okay, page me when you get the results."

"Will do."

He walked over to Maggie and leaned on the desk. "What's up?"

"I just got a call from Psych. I guess they've been trying to page you..."

Maggie didn't even get all her words out before Will turned to start running to the psych ward.

"Will!" She called behind him, stopping him in his tracks. "He's okay. Dr. Charles just has some questions he needs to ask you."

Will rubbed his face and sighed. "They said he was okay?"

"Yes." Maggie nodded. "Take a breath and take your time. He's not in any danger."

Will nodded and turned again, though this time more slowly, and headed towards his brother.

The walk to the psych ward took forever, but finally Will came to the large glass doors he had just watched Jay go through yesterday.

"Can I help you?" The receptionist asked.

"Oh, yeah, Dr. Halstead from ED. Dr. Charles paged me." He replied to the lady he didn't remember ever meeting before.

"Okay, I'll let him know you're here. Take a seat."

Will looked perplexed but did as he was told. Things sure worked differently here than in the ED. Anytime they paged someone, they'd come running. The only thing Maggie would need to tell them is which room to go to. There was no calling to check in or anything like that. But things were different here, Will reminded himself.

"Dr. Halstead."

Will stood at the familiar voice.

"Hey, what's going on?" He asked quickly.

"Why don't we go to my office and have a quick chat." He said, motioning for Will to follow him, which he did.

"Is Jay okay?" He asked as they were walking down the halls.

"He is." Dr. Charles replied, clearly not wanting to say too much until they were safely behind closed doors.

Once they entered the office, Dr. Charles shut the door behind them and took a seat in his chair, letting Will have the couch. "So Jay and I had a very good session this morning. He was able to open up about his time in the military and the event leading up to his medical discharge."

"Wow, that's great!" Will exclaimed. "I haven't even gotten him to tell me that whole story. I didn't think he remembered it all."

"There are some blank spots, but I got a pretty good idea of why the event with the car backfiring may have triggered him. There was one thing though that I'm not sure about, and I'm hoping you can provide a little clarity for me."

"Sure..." Will agreed. "But did Jay say it was okay for you to talk to me?" He asked hesitantly, not wanting to stop the flow of information but also not wanting to risk messing up his brothers progress at all.

Dr. Charles handed Will the release form with Jay's signature granting the two of them permission to speak freely about his case.

"Okay, good." Will smiled, honored that Jay had actually signed the document - knowing how private he liked to be. "So what's up?"

"Well towards the end of the session, I think he went into flashback. We were talking about his injuries, and he was telling me about the pain he was in. He wasn't really talking much but would shout out in pain whenever I'd touch him. Eventually he settled down and he started talking about a mouse...?"

Will laughed. "Mouse is a nickname for his best friend, Greg. They were the only survivors after the accident and the two really got each other through when they got back home. I don't even want to imagine where Jay would be if not for Greg."

Dr. Charles smiled. "Ah, okay that makes a lot more sense. There was one other thing though that I'm a little confused about." The doctor paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully. "Will, when did your mother die? Or, more specifically, was Jay home when she died?"

Will's face grew solemn as he thought. "I'm pretty sure Jay got home right before she died..." he said almost more to himself. "Yeah, he was being transferred to a hospital in the UK for treatment, but when they called my dad, he asked that they get him back here as soon as possible because mom didn't have much time left. If I'm remembering correctly, he was technically still in the hospital when she died."

The older doctor just watched him, and Will dropped his head.

"I know that sounds bad, but honestly the whole thing was such a blur. I was in residency in New York when my dad called and said Jay was hurt and coming home, and mom wasn't doing well either, and that I needed to get my ass home. But you know how residency is. You can't just take off whenever you want. I managed to get home right as my mom took her last breath, and then almost as quickly I had to be back. I came out maybe one or two more times after that, but otherwise I really didn't see anyone in my family until maybe a year before I decided to move back here."

Dr. Charles nodded. "That doesn't sound terrible, Will. It sounds like you did the best you could in an impossibly difficult situation. It may not have been ideal, but you made it work. And you're here now, which is what counts."

Will just smiled. "Wait... why did you ask? Did Jay bring that up?"

Dr. Charles sighed. "Not exactly. He just started calling for your mom and crying. He was reaching out like he could touch her..."

Will's eyes grew wide. "Is he hallucinating?"

"That's what I was worried about, but now that I know there was a point where he was home and your mom was still alive, it could have very well just been part of the flashback. It was just strange because I couldn't get him out of it. It seemed like he vividly saw her with him. I ended up giving him a small dose of Haldol to bring him out of it."

"You had to drug him?"

"Just 2 milligrams." He assured him. "He's resting now, but I'm planning to check in with him again in a few hours."

Will nodded. "Can I see him?" He asked.

Dr. Charles seemed to hesitate as he considered. "Will, it's still so early on. We made a little progress, and then had to stop. I don't want him to associate shutting down with getting a visit from you."

"He won't." Will interrupted. "Just, let me say hi. It'll be no more than ten minutes. I swear."

Dr. Charles sighed and stood. "Fine." He said. "But you get 5 minutes. And I need to supervise."

Will rolled his eyes.

"I'll give you your space. It's just for both of your safety. You know how hospital protocol works. I don't need to explain it to you." Then he paused and thought back over the 5 years he'd worked with Will and all the rules he broke. He laughed and added in "or maybe I do."

Again, Will rolled his eyes, but this time he laughed too.

They walked together to Jay's room and Dr. Charles knocked before letting Will walk ahead.

Jay was sleeping but woke as soon as he heard the knock. His eyes grew wide when he saw his big brothers wild red hair and exhausted eyes. Immediately he stood and wrapped his arms around his neck.

"Will." He whispered.

"Hey, buddy." Will replied, holding him tightly to his chest.

"Will..." Jay repeated, only this time his voice cracked, and Will felt the warm tears soak through his scrub top.

"You're okay, Jay. You're doing so good. I know it's hard, but you got to just keep talking to Dr. Charles. Let him help you. You'll get through this in no time. Trust me." He whispered in his ear.

Jay's body shook with sobs as he nodded his head to show he had heard.

Will couldn't remember a time seeing his little brother this broken. It was difficult, but it also felt hopeful. Like maybe he'd finally be able to get past some of the stuff that had been haunting him for years.

"You're doing great, man. I love you and I am so proud of you. You're gonna be okay."

Author's Note: I'm starting a new job Monday, so that will either make me better or worse at making and sticking to a writing schedule. I'm thinking that once the shows start back up again though, I'll probably be more inspired to write. So there's that! Let me know what you think. Your reviews also make me more excited to update!