Chapter Two

Jay began to slowly regain consciousness with sounds nestling their way into his confused brain. He could hear a heated discussion taking place with more voices than he was used to hearing. The next sensation to hit him was the fact that he was no longer on the floor, he was upright, suspended from the ceiling by his wrists. The pain of this new position bought him back to earth with speed. He opened his mouth in a silent scream, not wanting to alert anyone to his newfound alertness. The muscles in his arms were burning in agony, he couldn't see his hands but felt that they were swollen and excruciatingly sore. He wondered how long he had been strung up in this way. He could just skim the floor with his big toes. He realised he was shivering; he was absolutely freezing. His clothes had vanished long ago, within the first week. Since then, he'd spent all the time in the same boxer briefs. He sensed they were still on, but how they'd held up all this time was impressive.

Jay's face screwed up in agony, he couldn't do this. Breathing was so hard. His lungs were so sore and he felt unwell, seriously unwell. He let out a weak cough and made the decision to shout out, tell them his was awake. This had to stop. He let out a violent shout, followed by more painful coughing and immediately boots were thundering towards him.

"You back with us?" The man asked.

"Down…" Jay whispered breathlessly.

"No, you listen to me first." The man in the suit stepped forward speaking calmly to Jay. Jay couldn't lift his chin to look at the man, so he kept his eyes closed, chin on his chest. He didn't know this guy, had never heard his voice before, even when he was undercover with the gang. He could tell that he didn't belong with them though, from the way he spoke alone.

"Who…"

"Just listen." The guy repeated, cutting Jay off. "We have an offer for you Jay. How would you like to go home?"

Jay tried again to lift his head to see if he was serious but failed, the pain too much. The man stepped forward, placing a gentle finger under his chin, he pulled Jay's head up and away from his chest. He forced his eyes open and tried his best to look at the man. The confused look he wore on his face must have been an answer enough, the man started talking again. Jay took in the guys smart suit and the smell of his expensive cologne filled his nostrils. If this guy was in the gang, it certainly wasn't at street level. Maybe someone in charge?

"We have a deal on the table, that would mean you avoid death at the hands of these…" he turned away to slowly look towards the four gang members standing anxiously in the warehouse, "These animals."

"What..." Jay tried to reply despondently, stopping to pant for air. Disappointed in himself for even thinking of accepting a deal, a swift "Fuck you!" should have been the perfect response.

The man smiled, he slowly removed his finger and Jay's unsupported head dropped back down. "What do you need to do? Well, it's quite simple Jay. We let you go, you have one week to do a little job for us, and we're even."

"Even..." Jay mumbled, thinking it completely unlikely that would ever be the case. How many times had he told a CI, just one favour and we're even? It always turned into many. Jay didn't even want to think about what the job entailed, the thought of getting back to Hailey was making it impossible to say no to. He became overwhelmed with emotion whenever he let his thoughts wander to Hailey and what she must have been going through over these last few weeks. Her partner in both work and life, kidnapped after a simple undercover operation went so very wrong. He took a sharp deep breath, "What?" He asked.

"There's some evidence, at your district. It's being stored in preparation for a case with which we are linked to. I need to you retrieve the evidence and return it to me. That's it." He said simply.

Jay sighed, he had to agree. Partly because he felt like his lungs needed immediate attention and really, because he knew that Voight would sort it. He sorted everything. He just needed to get back to Hailey.

"Kay." Jay managed to get out quietly, "Down." He ordered, more confidence to his voice knowing that they needed him alive.

The man smiled. "Not as simple as that Jay. We'll be in touch. One week." He turned his back and walked away. Heads were nodded in silent planned messages and they all got up to leave the warehouse, leaving Jay hanging by his wrists. The lights were flicked off and the door slammed shut.

"Hey!" Jay shouted, his voice horse and broken from the water. A strong coughing fit then started that left Jay panting for breath. It was pointless, he had heard the engines start and they'd left.

Jay tried his best to start wriggling, to see if he could loosen the ropes. If anything, it felt like it was making them tighter. There was no point in screaming for help, he had tried that early on and it hadn't made an ounce of difference. This warehouse was derelict, and he was very much alone. He went back to focusing on breathing before passing out again.

CPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPD

Hailey stormed across the bull pen and into Voight's office, she slammed the door shut and made herself comfy on his sofa. This was her new thing, and despite the rudeness of the actions, he hadn't the heart to reprimand her. It was late and another day had passed without any new intel being gathered, they were still no closer to finding Jay.

"Wanna drink?" He offered her gruffly, standing up to pour himself a whiskey.

"No boss. I want Jay back. This is so wrong. How could he be just… gone?" Her words trailed off quietly and she stared to where he was previously sitting.

"We'll find him. Don't lose hope Hailey."

"Find him?! It's been 4 weeks Voight! 29 days and 2 hours exactly." She shouted. "He's probably in a shallow…"

A knock on the door stopped Hailey's words. Their eyes shooting up to the door in unison. Trudy walked in, a serious look on her face.

"What is it?" Voight asked, slowly putting his glass back down.

"It's Jay. A call came in, burner phone- no trace. Gave a us a street name, there's a derelict warehouse there, across the other side of town."

Hailey sprung up; eyes wide. "Holly shit!" She yelled, looking to Voight for confirmation that this was the news they had been waiting for.

"This could be nothing Hailey, you know that right." Voight said, grabbing his jacket. "Trudy, have the team meet us there."

"This is him boss, I know it…" Hailey said squeezing his arm. Voight nodded, he prayed she was right and that they were in time.

Hailey swung up into Voight's truck and they crossed the city at speed, blue light and sirens ensuring the traffic on the road kept well out of their way.

"Do we tell Will?" She asked Voight loudly over the sounds of the siren.

"No, just wait. It could be another dead end. I don't think he can take that right now."

Voight reached down and turned off the blue lights and sirens. They were approaching the location of the warehouse. It was best to arrive silently- if they were heard coming in, they were more than likely to top Jay and run.

Voight swung the truck into the side of the road and killed the engine. "We're going in on foot. Gear up." He instructed.

At that, Adam came across the radio. "Boss, we're 5 minutes out on the location."

"Copy that." He replied. "We're going in silently."

"Err boss..." Adam asked quietly, "Do we think it's him?"

Voight closed his eyes briefly holding in his breath. They couldn't take any more failures. "Just get here Ruzek!" He barked.

Hailey started walking in the direction of the warehouse. Voight paused briefly, debating whether to wait for the others and then followed. Hailey wasn't waiting for anyone, and he couldn't let her breach the place alone.

There were six substantial abandoned buildings in the location, but only one had fresh tyre tracks outside. They located a door and stood primed. Hailey nodded and Voight slipped inside first. This was absolutely no time to announce their arrival. They moved swiftly down a corridor and through a doorway into a large warehouse. It was huge, with abandoned cars and random old engine parts lying around. They were in complete darkness.

"Seems empty. Do we risk a flashlight?" Hailey whispered to Voight.

His had flew up to silence her, he thought he'd heard a noise. They stood completely still, ears straining to hear the noise again. A shuffling sound was made again, and Voight sprinted off in the direction he had heard it.

In the darkness Voight practically ran straight into Jay. He only just stopped when the silhouette of a naked body appeared hanging in front of him and he shouted in surprise.

"Shit Jay!"

Hailey was suddenly glued to the spot behind Voight, her mouth hanging open in shock. She stared at Jay's naked form, hung by his wrists above his head. She could just about make out that he was still wearing the boxer briefs that he'd been wearing when he went missing, but they were ripped and no longer anywhere near white. She had spent all the weeks Jay was missing praying that they hadn't killed him but now in the poor light, she instantly convinced herself they had just located his hanging dead body. She was taken suddenly out of her collapsing world by Voight shouting at her.

"Hailey! He's alive Hailey! Grab my knife!"

Voight was trying to hold Jay up to take the pressure away from his wrists and arms. It was clear they had been holding his body weight up for some time. The discomfort of moving Jay caused him to try and regain consciousness. Hailey reached into Voight's vest and pulled out his pen knife- she grabbed a chair to stand on and began cutting.

"Voight…" Jay whispered.

"Yeah, it's me. I got you Jay."

"Hurts."

"I know kid, we're cutting you down, ok?" Voight instructed, receiving an exhausted groan from Jay. Voight thanked God silently that he was conscious and more importantly- alive.

Adam, Kim and Kevin appeared out of the darkness across the warehouse. Adam instantly jumped forward to help Voight with Jay. Hailey cut through the last piece of rope and they eased Jay down to the stone floor. His body violently shuddering at the contact with the cold. His head had slumped onto Voight's chest on the way down, and it took his breath away to see how weak he looked.

"Right, clear the building. Hailey and I have got this, make sure this building is secure and try to find anything to give us an idea where these guys have gone!" Voight gave his commands and then the team dispersed. He pulled out his radio.

"Trudy, location was correct- get us an ambo now! He's alive."

"Copy. Thank God." Trudy replied, the relief evident in her voice.

Hailey knelt beside Jay, ripping off her vest, she unzipped her hoody and removed it, placing it gently over Jay's freezing body. She became aware that his breathing didn't sound right, he was gasping for breath. Voight struggled to remove the rest of the ropes tying Jay's wrists together. He managed to get the the last bit off and tried to pull Jay's arms down back beside him.

"Stop…" Jay managed to cry out, his face screwed up in agony.

"Jay, I'm just getting your arms down, take it easy kid… you're ok." Voight reassured him. He continued to slowly bring his arms downwards, rubbing his shoulders to ease the discomfort, but it was too much, and Jay passed out.

"Jay, Jay! Can you hear me?!" Hailey yelled in a panic, her eyes welling up. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, the more of his injured body she could make out. "Jay please!" She gently rubbed his shoulders, begging him to respond.

"He's out again Hailey, he's still breathing. Let's get him on his side whilst we wait for the ambo." Voight calmly instructed.

Working together they bent his knee up and rolled him onto his side, keeping Hailey's hoody draped over him for warmth. Hailey stroked his hair and bent down to kiss his forehead.

"We found you Jay, your safe now. It's over. Just hold on." She kept reassuring him, praying he could hear her.