Hailey was focusing so intently on Jay's breathing that she hadn't even noticed the EMT's arrival. Voight crouched down and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Hailey, let them work..."
She startled at their sudden arrival and stood up quickly, wiping her hands on her jeans. Her face fell with tears as she turned to face Voight. No words were needed, she stepped forward and he wrapped his strong arms around her. The emotions they had all been experiencing over the past four weeks had been intense. The highs of finding new information, the lows when it led to nowhere. Voight was struggling to hold it together himself as he held on to Hailey. They were bought out of the moment by a groan coming from the floor. Hailey was the first to spring away.
Sylvie Brett was hovering over Jay who was lying on his back, mask covering his mouth and nose, providing him with the oxygen his body begged for. With Hailey's hoody moved down they had attached various monitoring leads. The machine frantically sung out to the rate of Jay's elevated heartbeat. Gloved hands were taking observations and completing swift examinations looking for immediate injuries, trying to build a picture of what they were dealing with. The best place for Jay at that moment was the hospital, but they had to ensure he was stable enough to be moved.
"Jay, can you hear me?" Hailey asked him, crouched down at his side.
"Hailey?" Jay whispered from under the mask and then proceeded to cough violently. His body shaking with pain and fever.
"Jay, don't talk at the moment ok, save your energy." Sylvie responded. "O2 levels are low..." She said quietly to her partner Violet, then glanced towards Hailey and Voight. She grabbed her stethoscope and listened carefully to his chest and back. "Doesn't sound good, chest infection most likely..." Ripping the stethoscope out of her ears, she flung it around her neck for later. "Let's get a line in, start some fluids, then we'll scoop and run."
Violet jumped into action ripping open more packets of equipment, empty wrappers littering the area around them. She grabbed his arm and quickly tied a tourniquet around his swollen wrist. Jay screamed out, his legs scraping on the ground trying but failing to get him away.
"Stop..." Jay muttered, slowly pulling his arm back towards his body.
"I need to look Jay; you need a line." Violet replied, gently encouraging his arm back. "As soon as it's in we'll get you some pain relief, ok?"
Jay's breathing was becoming faster and more desperate. A tug of war over Jay's sore arm was playing out. He took a big shuddering breath and Hailey realised he was crying, there were just no tears. She couldn't just sit back and watch this without intervening.
"He's crying! Watch his wrists!" She shouted. "They're sore, he was tied up by his wrists when we got here! Don't touch them!" She said, pulling Violet's hands away from Jay.
"Hailey..." Voight stepped in, a gentle hand on her shoulder again. "Let them work..." He tried to console her, there was no way they were going to be able to get Jay out of the warehouse without causing some pain. If she couldn't cope with that, he would need to distract her away.
"Needles, he doesn't like needles!" She added frantically, ignoring Voight's request.
Sylvie reached out and placed a hand on Hailey's arm trying to get her attention, speaking slowly, she acknowledged it was likely Hailey was in shock herself. "Hailey, why don't you stay up next to Jay's head and distract him whilst Violet gets this done, encourage him to breathe slowly, ok?" Hailey nodded, shuffling herself next to Jay's head.
Violet gently removed the tourniquet and moved it up around Jay's upper arm. She decided to leave his wrists alone and aim for the inside of his elbow. His wrists and hands were so swollen, the chances of finding a vein there was unlikely anyway. She held his arm steady and removed the plastic cover with her teeth. She pushed the needle into his vein. Jay jumped, but Hailey continued her stream of calming words, rubbing his hair, trying her best to soothe him.
"It's ok Jay... you're safe now, keep breathing..."
Sylvie stood and motioned to Voight to step away from Jay briefly.
"What have they done to him Voight?" She asked quietly. "How long's he been here?"
Voight rubbed his face with his hand, he had a feeling that a lot was done to Jay in this warehouse, but only Jay would be able to reveal the truth.
"For what I've seen briefly, seems were looking at electricity and water, as well as beatings." Voight whispered back. "He's been here four weeks."
"Ok." She replied, shaking her head in disbelief. "We'll need your help to roll him." She said walking back towards Jay.
With the line in, they administered pain relief and started the first of many bags of fluids that would be given over the next few days. They finished their initial examinations and decided it was time to move him. With the help of both Voight and Hailey, he was rolled onto a back board. Jay's groans lessened with the aid of the drugs. They lifted him carefully onto the stretcher and headed back towards the ambulance, the monitoring still noisily sharing Jay's heart rate. Hailey followed one step behind, she wasn't letting him out of her sight.
CPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPD
Voight watched as the ambulance departed, lights and sirens on. He knew he needed to get to Med but needed to ensure the scene was secure before he left.
Adam was the first to get back, finding Voight staring at the spot that Jay had just vacated.
"Buildings clear, this place is huge, but there's no one here." Adam said breathlessly. "How's he doing?"
Voight turned to face Adam, as Kim and Kevin appeared too.
"He's awake. Sylvie thinks he has a chest infection, his breathing is bad." He rubbed his hand over his face, not wanting to remember Jay's injuries. "He's been badly beaten for some time." He added quietly.
"Ah, this is so shit..." Kevin said, shaking his head.
"Come on, Jay's strong- he's survived this long on his own, he'll be just fine once he's at Med." Kim reassured them all. "If we can keep him there longer than a day!"
"True story!" Adam replied.
They looked up to see senior police management arriving at the warehouse, and the scenes of crime team, ready to process everything. Voight went to move towards them, but Adam pulled him back.
"Hey boss..."
"What is it?" Voight replied gruffly, wanting to speak with Deputy Superintendent Miller.
"I, err... I found Jay's accommodation." Adam said. Voight closed his eyes, not expecting to hear good things. "Seems they kept him in a store cupboard, no windows, no light, just a door, lock on the outside, obviously. Nothing in there but a bucket."
"Christ, four weeks sleeping on the floor?"
"Yeah, seems that way. Nothing else in there. It's pretty rough Sarge, not sure he'd used that bucket in a while." Adam added, his face scrunched up thinking about it again.
Voight shook his head and started to walk away, spotting Trudy arriving at the warehouse.
"You need to go." Trudy said approaching Voight.
"Yeah, I didn't want to leave the scene..." Voight started to answer.
"I'm here now. Go. They'll need you at Med and you know it." Trudy smiled kindly.
"I was gonna speak to Miller…" He replied.
"I got it." She said ushering him to the door.
"Thanks Trudy." Voight walked through the door when Trudy shouted to him again.
"I updated Will!" Voight poked his head back around the door, gave her a nod and then carried on walking back towards his truck. He could hear the clicking of camera shutters, as the scenes crew began taking photos for the evidence gathering. As he climbed up into the cab, he wondered how Will had taken the news. He'd been a mess over the last four weeks, varying from storming into his office shouting, or getting drunk and breaking down in tears. He'd been unable to work since Jay went missing, signed off from work with no date to return. Voight turned the engine over and prepared himself for the stress that was to come at Med, but with a huge sigh of relief that at least Jay was finally there.
CPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPDCPD
Jay's journey to Med involved a worried Hailey constantly reaching across to rub Jay's shoulder, trying to convince her brain that he was actually there, and she wasn't dreaming. Jay spent the whole journey in his own spaced-out world thanks to the heavy dose of drugs he'd been given. A warm blanket now covering his shivering body. Sylvie spent the journey staring between the monitors and Jay, hoping his oxygen levels would hold out until they reached the safety of the hospital. She looked at the low numbers for the hundredth time and bit at her lip nervously wondering if she should have sedated and ventilated him at the scene.
The ambulance stopped with a jolt and the door swung open. Hailey was surprised to see Will stood there, mouth open in shock, bags under his eyes, desperately trying to see his brother. Sylvie began a long introduction of Jay's condition to the awaiting team.
"This is Jay, 35-year-old male, subject to multiple beatings- most urgent complaint seems to be a bad chest infection, observations stayed fairly stable on route, but oxygen levels are low with O2 maxed out. Suspected fractures, ribs, wrists and possibly collar bone. Many contusions and severe dehydration and likely malnutrition."
Will swallowed heavily, reaching out to touch his brother as they wheeled him past. He had a strong feeling there would be more to that list by the time they had finished with him in the ER.
"Take him straight to Baghdad!" Ethan shouted. "And page Marcel!"
They rushed him through the doors and past the commotion of the ER on a busy Friday night. The stretcher came to a holt alongside the awaiting trolley in the trauma bay.
"On my count!" Ethan shouted again. The team took a piece of the mat under Jay and awaited their order. Will stepped forward and picked up his feet. Noticing how cut and bruised they were. "One, two, slide…"
Jay roared out loud, his swollen hands thrashing about trying to stop the movement, but they continued. Hailey sprung forward from her place by the glass door, trying to get close enough for him to hear her.
"Jay, you're ok, I'm here." She said loudly, but the team needed her out of the way. Maggie approached Hailey.
"Come on, let's find somewhere for you to wait…" She said leading her away. She got Hailey as far as the glass door when Jay began shouting again.
"Sto…" Jay managed to get out breathlessly, his left hand made it up as far as his oxygen mask and he tried desperately to get it away from his face, but his swollen fingers wouldn't co-operate.
"Please. Don't make me go, I need to be here. I'll stay put, but please help him!" She begged Maggie, her hands clinging to the glass door edge.
Maggie sighed frustrated. "We don't normally let people stay Hailey; this might not be good to watch…"
"I won't get in your way." Hailey confirmed. Maggie had already had this chat with Will just prior to Jay's arrival. He also promised to stay by the door, but as she looked around, she saw Will pleading with Jay to calm down whilst they tried to get another line into him.
The team worked on Jay moving around like a well-rehearsed dance routine. They tried their best to stabilise Jay. Marcel arrived, rushing into the room, pulling on gloves and requesting an update. He stopped dead when he saw Will frantically trying to calm the patient and as Will had not been at work since his brother went missing, he put two and two together and quickly made four.
"Shit! Is it Jay?" He asked Ethan.
"Yeah." Ethan replied. "And we're gonna have to tube him. I think we have a pulmonary oedema, multiple fractures and possible internal injuries."
"Ok. Let's get him sedated and tubed and get a whole-body CT." Marcel ordered.
"Woah… hang on." Will interrupted, standing up away from Jay. "We're tubing him?" He asked, eyes wide with fear.
"No Will. We are not doing anything; I am doing it." Marcel replied confidently, moving towards Jay's head. "Can I get a rapid sequence sedation?" He asked the nurse.
"But its best to keep him conscious." Will tried to argue that he didn't want him sedated, he knew this would be Jay's worst-case scenario.
"Step back Will. Let me help him." Marcel said sternly, equipment in his hand ready. The machines monitoring Jay stepped up their warning tones as his oxygen levels continued to drop. Jay had stopped shouting and groaning, his oxygen levels dangerously low, he was losing consciousness. Will shook his head in frustration but in his heart, he knew it was the right thing. He bent down and whispered something into Jay's ear and then headed towards the door where Hailey stood watching.