"Okay Mrs. Wheeler, you get some rest and I'll be back to check on you in a little bit." Will Halstead said to his patient as he slipped out of the exam room and placed his tablet in front of Maggie.
"What exactly do you want me to do with this?" She asked, the slightest hint of sass in her voice.
Will smiled. "Whatever you want, but I'm taking lunch. Don't call me unless someone's actually dying."
Maggie gave him a thumbs up and laughed as she watched him walk into the doctors lounge.
As soon as he walked in he heard his phone ringing from his locker. He quickly entered in his passcode and grabbed his phone right as the call ended. His eyes grew wide though when he saw the number of missed calls, and even more so when he realized they were all from the same person.
He immediately hit call back and waited.
"Finally!" The voice said.
"Jay, what's going on? I'm at work and you know I can't answer the phone when I'm working." Will started to lecture his brother, but stopped when he heard something off. "Are you okay? You sound short of breath. Were you at the gym?"
"No." Jay replied. "Home. I think I'm... having a heart... attack." He gasped.
"A heart attack? What's happening?" Will was already swinging his backpack over his shoulder just in case. It seemed highly unlikely that Jay would be having a heart attack in his 30's, but taking into consideration their family history and the stress of his job, Will wasn't comfortable ruling it out automatically. Plus, Jay never asked for help, especially not medical help. So for him to willingly call, it had to really be scaring him.
"My chest feels tight... I'm dizzy. I tried to walk... to the bathroom... but I fell. I can't get... up."
"Are you hurt?"
"No. My legs... feel like jello." He explained.
"Are you having any pain in your arm or jaw?"
"Just my chest."
"Is there aspirin anywhere nearby?"
"No... don't think I have... any." He pauses for a moment to catch his breath before adding, "Will, I need... help."
"I'm on my way right now, buddy. Just hold on, okay? Don't try to get up or move. Just stay where you are and take nice slow breaths. I'll be there as soon as I can." Will assured him, heading out of the lounge and to the medication cabinet. He held the phone with his shoulder as he entered the password and quickly located some nitroglycerin and aspirin, unsure of exactly what his brother would need. He thought for a moment before also grabbing an intubation kit. He really hoped he wouldn't need it.
"You robbing the hospital?" Ethan joked when he saw his friend.
"It's for Jay." He replied quickly.
"For Jay?" Ethan questioned, examining what he'd grabbed. "What's going on?"
"I don't know. I'm gonna go find out. Do me a favor and keep a room clear for him."
"Of course. Call if you need any help!" Ethan yelled after him as he ran out the door.
Will arrived at his brother's apartment in record time, due mostly to the 3 stop signs and 2 red lights he ran that earned him a police trail right at the end. He pulled over and got out of the car without even stopping to consider how that would appear to these officers.
They did yell at him to get in the car and Will held his hands up before they realized they knew each other.
"Burgess, Roman, thank God!"
"Dr. Halstead?" Burgess said.
"Are you aware of the stop signs and lights you just ran?" Roman asked.
"Yes, I am and I'm sorry. Jay called me and said he thought he was having a heart attack and I was just trying to get here as fast as I could and I'll pay whatever fine I just..."
"Wait, Jay's having a heart attack?" Burgess questioned.
"Possibly." Will replies, grabbing his stuff and locking his car.
"Well get your ass up there!" She exclaimed.
"You need help getting in?" Roman offered.
"Actually, probably. Thanks."
The three of them ran upstairs to Jay's apartment and Will first tried to just open it. Of course it was locked though. Jay Halstead would never leave his door unlocked, even if his life depended on it. He nodded to Roman who easily kicked it in and allowed Will to go first while he and Burgess hung back.
"Jay?" Will called out.
"Living room." Jay replied.
Will found his little brother leaning against his couch, pale and sweaty, gripping his chest tightly.
"Hey buddy, let me see." Will said, trying to sound comforting as he grabbed his wrist to check his pulse. Once he found it he glanced at his watch. "Your heart is beating very sporadically. I can feel it skip a beat, then start racing up to 180 bpm. Can you feel that?"
Jay nodded. "Sometimes... it slows after the... skip." He added.
Will nodded as he laid the stethoscope under Jay's shirt.
"Is it... a heart attack?" Jay asked between breaths.
"I can't tell without an EKG, but something is definitely going on with your heart. I'm gonna give you an aspirin for now while we go to Med. Okay?"
Jay just nodded and took the pill, swallowing it dry. Then he stared at his brother.
"What's up?" Will asked, doing his best to maintain his confident doctor persona instead of the worried big brother one that was fighting its way through.
"Am I... dying?"
The question made Will's heart race almost as fast as Jay's had been. "No." Was all he could manage to get out. He pulled him to his feet and helped him walk out his door where Burgess and Roman were both waiting.
"What are... you doing... here?" He asked the officers.
"Well at first we came to give Will a ticket for running every stop sign and light between here and the hospital..." Roman laughed.
"And we stayed to give you a police escort, to help you get back quicker, but this time safely." Burgess added.
Jay smiled. "Thanks."
They nodded and Roman lifted his other arm over his shoulder to help Will get him down the stairs while Burgess followed behind with her hand on his shoulder.
Together they got him in the car and soon enough they were on their way back to Med.
Dr. Choi had filled the rest of the ED in on the small bit of information Will had shared with him before running out, so April was in the parking lot waiting when Will pulled up. They moved Jay into the wheelchair and quickly got him inside and onto the exam table.
"Detective Halstead, how are you feeling?" Dr. Choi asked, while April and Monique worked to attach the heart monitors and everything else to the man's body.
"Great." Jay joked, cracking a smile and managing to get one from his doctor as well.
"Ah, well in that case my job is done. I'll get your discharge papers." Dr. Choi added to the joke, instead laying the cold side of his stethoscope on his chest. "Take a deep breath in and out." He commanded and Jay did his best. They repeated this twice more on the front and three on the back before the doctor asked him to "just breathe normally now."
It was at this point that Will and the two officers got inside. The officers stopped at the door, but Will ran directly onto the exam room.
"Will, you can't be in here." Ethan gently reminded his friend who was clearly looking for something to do.
"I'm not treating him." Will argued.
"April, Monique, get him hooked up to the EKG. Jay, this will only take a couple minutes and then we'll work on getting you more comfortable." He said. Jay nodded, and Dr. Choi grabbed Will's arm, pulling him from the room.
"Will, you have to trust me to do my job. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure Jay is safe, but you can't be getting in the way."
"Ethan!" Will interrupted. "Was I in the way just now?" Ethan was quiet, so Will answered his own question. "No, I wasn't. I was watching out for my little brother. That's it..."
"We always send family out when there's a cardiac event." Ethan reminded him.
"Because they're always panicking and making it worse! But I wasn't panicking. I was keeping him calm. His whole body relaxed when I walked in, but look now. He's all tense again."
Ethan looked through the glass at the man, as all the EKG lines were being attached to him. "Fine, go. But stay out of the way. You're not his doctor."
"Got it." Will replied, opening the glass door and immediately taking his place at Jay's side. "How are you doing, bud?"
Jay gave a crooked smile and shrugged.
Will nodded and ran his fingers through his hair. "Well this will be over quickly and it'll tell us if you're actually having a heart attack or not." He explained, watching as April flipped on the machine and the rhythm began to register. Immediately Will knew what he was seeing, but he'd let Ethan be the doctor.
Thankfully Ethan walked in right then and also took a look at the reading. "So good news, it's not a heart attack."
Jay smiled but then grew concerned. "Then what... is... it? T's not... a pan...ic attack."
April slid an oxygen cannula under Jay's nose and turned it up to help him breathe a bit easier.
"No it's not a panic attack either." The doctor agreed. "This is an Atrial Fibrillation rhythm, otherwise known as AFib. Your heart has 4 chambers - 2 upper and 2 lower. The two upper are supposed to have the same rhythm, but in A-Fib, they're beating in opposite rhythms. That can result in the heart beating too fast, two slow, skipping beats, or a combination of those. The problem with this, is that when the top chambers aren't pumping together, the lower chambers aren't getting an adequate blood supply. And that can be a very serious problem."
"Can... you... fix it?" Jay asked, his eyes wide as he darted between Ethan and Will.
"We have a couple different options for treatment that we normally do, but I am going to page Dr. Rhodes and have him come down here to consult since he knows a lot more about the heart than I do." Ethan replies, looking to Will for verification and receiving a nod.
"Why thank you, Dr. Choi. That's very kind of you to say." Dr. Rhodes said as he snuck in from behind, quickly sanitizing his hands.
"Did you page him already?" Ethan asked Will.
Before Will could answer, Conner did. "No one paged me. I heard Dr. Halstead's brother was coming in with some sort of heart problem and I figured I'd come down and offer my expertise. I guess I was right on time." He chuckled and tore off the EKG paper to look over it. "That's definitely AFib." He began. "So Jay, with AFib we have a few things we like to try to get the heart back in rhythm. The most preferred method is called cardioversion. Now there's chemical cardioversion where we give you some medication to try and change your heart rhythm. The second one is electric cardioversion where we sedate you and then shock your heart back into the proper rhythm. Chemical cardioversion has about a 50% success rate, and electric cardioversion is around 90%. We can do both, which gets us well over 90%. And if all else fails we can do a cardiac ablation where I would go in surgically and basically kill off the pathways that are creating this arrhythmia. Has this ever happened to you before? Ever had AFib or any sort of arrhythmia?"
Jay just shook his head.
"Good." Conner replies. "Then yeah, the chances that you would qualify for ablation are pretty slim. I would fully expect that we could control the arrhythmia with cardioversion."
"What kind?" Jay asked, looking up at Will when he asked.
"It's entirely up to you what you'd like to try first. If one fails, we can always try the other." Conner informed him.
"Can I do the medication?" Jay asked Will.
"Yeah, of course." Will replied, squeezing his hand.
Jay nodded to Conner. "Let's do that."
"Alright, sounds like a plan. April can you bring me 300 mg of Amiodarone and a 2.5 mg tablet of rivaroxaban?" Conner asked the nurse.
"Right away." She replied.
Conner turned back to Jay. "The rivaroxaban is a tablet you can take by mouth to dissolve any possible blood clots that could be near your heart. We give that first just to be safe so we don't accidentally knock one loose while we change the heart rhythm. Because you're young and healthy, it's super uncommon that you'd have a blood clot, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. After you take that I'll inject the amiodarone through your IV..." Conner motioned to Jay's hand and suddenly noticed there was no IV present. "Which you do not have... Monique?"
"Yes, sir." Said the other nurse, taking the doctors spot beside the patient. As she prepped everything, Jay stared intently at Will, as if trying to communicate something with his eyes. Something only the two of them could possibly know. Will seemed to ignore it at first, but when he noticed his brother's heart rate spike to about 200 from his previous 180, he had to intervene. "Actually, I can start the IV." He said, sounding awkward as he said it. "I know I can't treat him or anything, but trust me, it's better if you let me do the IV."
Conner looked at Jay who was still staring wide eyed at Will, and then Monique. "Okay. We'll wait outside the door." He conceded.
"Thanks." Will smiled, taking the kit from Monique and sliding the privacy curtain closed behind them. Once he heard the sliding door latch, he turned to his brother. "You know it's been years since I started an IV right? And Monique does them like 100 times a day..."
"Will." Jay sighed, running his shaking hands through his hair.
"I know. I know. I got you." Will replied, cleansing the inside of Jay's arm with an alcohol swab. "I really thought this needle phobia would go away by the time you became an adult." He commented with a laugh.
"You and me both." Jay replied, his voice beginning to tremble.
"Shh, just take slow breaths. You're okay. Close your eyes and keep breathing." Will reminded him, propping his legs up on a pillow to hopefully prevent him from passing out.
Jay tried, but the fear was intensifying by the second. "Will..." Jay repeated, panic rising.
"Jay, I'm right here. I'm not going to hurt you. I need you to trust me." He continued to assure his 32 year old brother who was acting more like a 5 year old at the moment. The needle phobia thing was no joke though. And Will had to admit he was doing much better today than he ever did at 5. "Okay, sharp stick in 1... 2..." he stuck the needle in before he said 3, and Jay reflexively clenched his hand into a fist.
Will, expecting this response, held it still with his other hand as he withdrew the needle and taped the small plastic catheter in place. "All good." He announced when it was over.
Jay held his arm up and examined the results. It wasn't bad for a doctor that never did IV's anymore.
Will stuck his head out to let the others know they could come back in, and Conner returned with a syringe filled with the medication. "Okay, so this might make you feel sorta funny. Nausea, vomiting, a head rush, changes in your heart rhythm... these are all normal side effects. We'll give it at least 30 minutes to see if it's going to work or not. Then we'll go from there. Any questions?"
Jay just shook his head.
"Alright then here we go." He said as he began to inject the liquid into the bloodstream.
Jay blinked a few times as he felt the wave of dizziness hit him before closing his eyes.
"You okay?" Will asked Jay, eyeing Conner as he continued to inject the meds.
Jay just nodded and focused on controlled breaths.
"Alright, that's it. We'll give it 30 minutes and see where we're..."
Right then Jay covered his mouth before vomiting everywhere.
"at..." Conner finished his sentence.
"I'm sorry." Jay whispered, grabbing wildly at the pink basin Will was holding towards him before losing it again.
Conner shook his head and patted Jay's shoulder before walking to the sink to wash what he could off his hands and scrub pants. Thankfully most of it got on the floor. "Not a problem." he replied. "Can you get someone to clean this?" he whispered to April before turning back to Jay.
April nodded and exited the room.
Will had his hand on Jay's back, rubbing small, light circles to try and comfort him. His heartbeat was sporadic now, dropping because of the medication and rising because of the vomiting.
"Will…" Jay said between dry heaves.
"I'm right here, buddy. You okay?" Will asked.
Jay just shook his head and Will looked up to Conner for help.
"The sudden change in your heart rate can make you feel pretty sick. This is normal. Just give it a second to pass." he assured his patient.
Jay just nodded and leaned back in the bed, holding the basin tightly to his chest. He was pale and sweaty, and Will couldn't remember ever seeing him anywhere near this sick. It was scary, but they forced themselves together to wait the 30 minutes to see what would happen.
Conner left the brothers alone, hoping the lack of audience would help a little. And maybe on an emotional level it did. Both men were noticeably calmer being with just each other. However, the monitor told Will that the medication wasn't working. At least not yet.
Jay followed Will's eyes to the monitor and sighed. "That's not good… Is it?"
Will squeezed his hand tightly. "It's not ideal," he clarified. "but you still have some time…"
Jay glanced at the clock on the wall. "5 minutes."
Will smiled and dropped his head in defeat. "You're not out of it enough for me to handle you."
Jay laughed for the first time since all this started. Then he grew quiet. "What happens if this isn't fixed in the next 5 minutes?"
"Well…" Will began. "I'd prefer we let Conner answer that question."
"Because you don't know? Or because you don't want to be the one to tell me?" Jay asked.
"Because he's your doctor." Will replied.
"But you're my brother."
"Exactly."
"Will…"
Will sighed. "Ugh, okay! Most likely Conner will suggest we try chemical cardioversion one more time, or go right into electrical cardioversion."
"And what should I do?"
"That's your decision."
"But what if it was yours?"
"It's not." Will laughed. "I've gotten in a lot of trouble around here for trying to make people's decisions for them."
"But I'm asking." Jay begged. "What would you do?"
Will hesitated for a moment, wishing Conner had good timing again and would just walk in here and take over the whole conversation like before. But there was still a couple minutes left on the clock. And Jay's heart rate still hadn't stabilized. So he figured he had no other choice but to answer. "If it were me in your position, and I had to choose for myself, I would just let them shock me."
Jay's eyes grew wide. It was clear that wasn't the answer he was looking for. "Shock?"
Will nodded, but Jay shook his head. "Man, I've been tased before, and that was awful. And that thing didn't have nearly as much electricity as those paddles do."
Will smiled, understanding now where the misunderstanding was. "Jay, you'll be sedated, You won't feel the shock when it happens. So if you're worried about pain, you don't need to be."
"Are you sure?" He asked, hesitantly. "Because electric shock hurts... really fucking bad…"
Will pulled his little brother into a hug, something he rarely did now that they were adults, and held him tightly. "I swear."
"Swear what?" Dr. Rhodes asked.
"Sure, now you walk in." Will said sarcastically, causing confusion in the other doctor.
"Anyway…" Conner continued, looking at the monitor. "I'm not seeing much of a drop in your heart rate. Let's get the EKG leads back on you though and check the rhythm."
April quickly attached the wires back to the little stickers they had left all over his chest and legs earlier. It was a much faster process this time. Soon the EKG machine was back doing it's job, picking up the current rhythm of Jay's unusually fast heartbeat. After a couple minutes of watching it, Conner flipped it off and turned back to his patient.
"Unfortunately, you're still in AFib. So we have two options here. We can do another round of amiodarone and hope it'll help a bit more this time, or we can try electric cardioversion where we sedate you and give you a powerful electric shock to get your heart back into the proper rhythm. The choice is still fully up to you."
Jay looked at Will who nodded to him, letting him know that he could make the final call. The shock terrified him, but he was tired of being here and wanted more than anything to rest. So he took a deep breath to steady his voice and (semi)confidently answered, "I'll do the electric one now."
Conner nodded and glanced to Will as if he knew the other doctor had something to do with that decision. It was pretty uncommon that non-medical professional patients chose electric cardioversion over chemical until their doctor specifically told them they were running out of options. "Are you sure?" Conner double checked.
Jay just nodded. "Yeah, Will said he'd hold my hand the whole time. Right, Will?"
Will jerked his hand away quickly. "Uhm, hell no I didn't! I love you, but I'm not gonna die to comfort your unconscious body!"
This instantly lightened the mood and got a laugh out of everyone.
"I will, however, stay as close as is safe." Will added, ruffling Jay's hair.
"Very good. I'll start getting things ready." Conner informed them. "Do you have any questions I can answer for you before I go?"
Jay thought for a moment. "Are you positive I'm not going to feel anything?"
Conner smiled and ran a hand through his own dark hair. "I can't guarantee anything 100%, but what I can tell you is that I've done hundreds of these and never once had a patient report or show any signs of feeling it. There have been occurrences of subcutaneous burns afterwards, but they've never been anything too severe. And the majority of the time we can get the heart back in rhythm with only one shock. I've only gone over two once in my career. If I had any question in my mind that this would pose a serious threat to you, I wouldn't even consider it. We take care of our own around here." Conner said, smiling at Will and then laughing, "I mean we take care of everyone here technically. But you know what I mean."
Jay laughed and nodded. "Thanks man."
"Anytime." he replied. "Anything else?"
"No, I'm okay."
"Alright, that's what I like to hear. You just try to rest a little and I will take it from here." Conner said before walking out to gather what he needed for the procedure.
It didn't take too long before the small room suddenly became quite crowded. Along with Dr. Rhodes, there was also Dr. Choi and a cardiology intern whose name Jay had missed. April and Monique were both there too, and Maggie had joined. Of course Will was still standing in the corner, and Jay could tell it was making him crazy not being able to jump in and help. He wondered if it was more of a personal thing - wanting to take care of his little brother - or just pure boredom of a doctor being forced to sit out of all the fun.
Maggie applied the pads to Jay's chest and laid a hand on his forehead, clearly noticing the uncertainty he thought he was hiding so well. "You doing alright, sweetheart?" she asked.
Jay nodded a little too quickly, and she smiled at him sympathetically. "You know, nurses have this special talent that doctors don't have. It's what makes people like us more." she smiled. "We can tell what you're feeling, even when you try to tell us otherwise. And we can help, if you talk to us."
Jay looked around the room, nervously. Everyone else was busy doing their own job, and not paying any attention to the conversation he was having in the middle of the room. So he forced himself to make eye contact with the nurse just as a single tear slid out his eye and down his cheek, pooling beside his ear. He reached to wipe it away, but Maggie was already on it.
She reached up and lightly brushed it aside before laying a hand on his bare chest, right over the pads that would soon electrocute his heart back into proper rhythm. He felt comfort as long as her hand was there, because it meant that nothing was going to happen. He wasn't sure if she meant it for that purpose, but more than likely she did. She didn't seem like the kind who did anything by accident.
"What's going on in your head?" she asked, soothingly.
"Scared." was all he could manage to get out, instantly feeling embarrassed by the confession. It was too vulnerable, and Jay was not vulnerable. Ever.
"Of what exactly?" the nurse asked, not even phased by the confession, as if it were something she heard a hundred times a day. She probably did, actually.
"Dying." he admitted, another couple tears escaping now.
Again, Maggie stopped them and brushed them away. "Well that's a pretty normal fear to have." she assured him. "But honey, you aren't dying today."
Jay glanced at the monitor that displayed his erratic heart rate that couldn't seem to stabilize.
Maggie noticed, and turned his face back towards her. "That's fixable." she reminded him. "In just a little bit, you're gonna take a short nap, and when you wake up, that'll be normal."
"What if it's not?" Jay asked. "What if it happens again? Can it happen again?"
Maggie shrugged. "I guess it's possible." she replied, "but if it does, we'll fix it again. Dr. Rhodes is the best, and you're in excellent hands." She smiled and cocked her head in Will's direction, "Plus, you see your brother over there? I don't think he's gonna let anyone do anything to hurt you anyway."
This got a partial smile out of Jay. "Thanks." he whispered.
"You're still scared." she said, more as a statement than a question.
Jay nodded, tears now spilling more freely from his eyes as his face turned beet red in embarrassment.
Maggie, not taking her eyes off him, motioned for Will to join them, and he did so immediately.
As soon as he saw his little brother's face, a wave of compassion washed over him. He sat beside him on the bed and held him firmly in his arms, neither of them saying a word.
When the anesthesiologist came over with the propofol to put Jay to sleep, Will nodded to him to do it while he was still holding onto his brother. "This might burn a little, but just hold on to me." he whispered in his ear.
The anesthesiologist did as he was instructed, and Jay pushed his forehead deeper into Will's shoulder when he felt it. Then it faded. When Will felt Jay's body go limp in his arms, he gently laid him back on the bed.
Maggie quickly wiped away any signs of tears before anyone else noticed, and walked back to the corner, her arm around Will now who was trying to hide his wet shoulder.
"Alright, he's out." Conner commented after performing a sternum rub on Jay and getting no response.
"Charge to 200?" Monique asked.
"Let's start at 100 and move up if we need to." Conner decided.
The nurse did as she was told. "Okay charging to 100. Ready. Clear?" She scanned the patient, and when she was sure no one was touching him, she pressed the button.
Jay's body rose from the bed into an arch as the surge of electricity raced through his body. Dr. Rhodes was immediately at his side, fingers on his neck against his pulse, comparing it to what he was reading on the machine.
"It looks better." The intern commented from his place of observation.
Dr. Rhodes shook his head. "It's better, but you see that gap every 3 beats?"
The intern studied the screen for a moment before nodding. "We need to shock him again."
"Yeah." Dr. Rhodes sighed, not wanting to, but turning to Will for any objection. Will looked uncomfortable, but nodded anyway. There was no going back now.
"How's he doing under sedation?" Conner asked the anesthesiologist.
"He's still out. Would you like me to give him another dose?" he asked.
Conner shook his head. "No, not yet. Let's charge to 200 this time, Monique."
"Charging to 200. Ready. Clear?" Again Monique scanned the room and everyone stepped back as she pressed the button and Jay's body again arched off the bed with the power that surged through it.
When he settled back onto the bed, the anesthesiologist noticed his eyelids begin to flutter. He performed another sternum rub and called his name. "Jay? Are you with me, buddy? Can you open your eyes?"
Suddenly Jay's eyes shot open and he grasped wildly around for something - someone - to hold on to.
Will pushed his way past everyone and immediately grabbed his brother's hand. "Jay? It's Will. I'm right here. Are you okay? What's going on?"
"I thought you said he was still out?" Conner yelled at the anesthesiologist.
"He was! I swear!" the man defended himself, checking his equipment and the dose he'd given.
"Jay, talk to me." Will coaxed, trying to calm him enough to get some sort of an explanation as to what was going on. Propofol wore off quickly, but it had only been a few minutes. None of them had ever seen it wear off that quickly. Will's greatest fear was that Jay had felt the pain of the shock, just as he'd been afraid he would. If that was the case, there was no way in hell they'd ever be able to get him to do anything in a hospital ever again. And as a detective in Chicago, it was pretty unlikely that Jay would survive the rest of his life without being in the hospital a few more times.
Finally Jay was breathing normally, and his heart rate was beginning to lower.
"Jay, can you talk to me now?" Will asked gently.
Jay took a deep breath. "I don't know what happened." he admitted. "I was sound asleep, and then I woke up. It was like when you dream you fall in a hole or something."
"So… you didn't wake up because you were in pain?" Will clarified, glancing at Conner who was now on the opposite side of Jay.
Jay shook his head, making everyone let out an audible sigh of relief. "No." he replied. "No, I didn't feel any pain. My chest does kind of hurt now though." he admitted, laying a hand over the pads that were still attached to his bare chest.
"Let me just check your rhythm really quick, and then I'll get those off of you." Conner said, pushing a few buttons on the monitor. "You may have some burns like we talked about before."
Jay looked up at Will, who was wearing a very serious face. "You were worried." he whispered, so only the two of them and Conner could hear.
"Shut up." Will replied, equally as quiet.
"It's sweet." Jay added, squeezing Will's hand tightly.
"How are you feeling?" Will asked, changing the subject.
"Better." Jay replied, giving his big brother the out. Then he looked to Conner. "Is that accurate?"
Conner smiled and nodded at his patient. "Your rhythm looks normal." he confirmed.
"Thank God." Will sighed, rubbing his tired eyes and running his fingers all the way up through his hair.
"So I can get out of here?" Jay asked, eagerly, pulling the pads off his chest himself and hissing in pain as he did so, revealing red and blistered skin beneath them.
"Not so fast." Conner said, taking the pads and tossing them back to their shelf. He lightly pressed around on the burn, causing Jay to flinch more as he recoiled away from the pain. "I'll let you go home tonight, if you can guarantee me you'll have someone there to take care of you."
Jay looked over at Will who pretended to look away for a moment before letting out a loud sigh. "Ugh, fine, I'll babysit." he finally said, jokingly.
"Perfect." Conner laughed. "Then I'll have April get those burns taken care of for you, and get you a room to rest in until Will's off." He turned to Will. "Just page me when you're ready to go and I'll get the discharge paperwork going."
"Sounds good, man. Thanks." Will said, patting his shoulder.
"Not a problem." he turned back to Jay. "Get some rest and I'll see you before you leave. We'll also talk about scheduling a follow up in a couple weeks to be sure this doesn't become a regular occurrence."
Jay nodded. "Oh, hey, Doc. About work…" he asked, hesitantly.
"I'm gonna keep you off for the next two weeks until after we have our follow up. If all is good at that point, I'll sign off for you to return."
"What if I do desk duty for those two weeks?" Jay bargained, really not wanting to have to sit at home for two full weeks.
Conner glanced at Will who shook his head, knowing that Jay would find some way to get himself into the action even on desk duty.
"Sorry, man. Two weeks and we'll decide then." he smiled and excused himself from the room, followed by everyone except Will and April, who was getting her supplies ready to treat his burns.
"You're gonna have to start trusting me at some point." Jay said to Will, annoyed, but only a bit.
Will laughed. "I do trust you with most things. It's just that taking care of your health and wellbeing has never really been your strong point. So I think maybe when it comes to that, you need to trust me."
Jay rolled his eyes, but smiled. He knew Will was right about that. That's why he'd called him in the first place. And if he was being honest, as much as he hated having people taking care of him, it was nice to know they cared. So he laid back in his lumpy hospital bed, closed his eyes, and surrendered to the idea that for the next few hours, he was just going to have to let everyone else be in control.
Authors Notes: Fair warning, I'm not guaranteeing that EVERY chapter is going to be as long as this one was. Because this one is pretty long... But, I do think that one-shots should be longer, considering you're cramming the full story into just one take. Also, there will be one story in here that will be "to be continued" throughout the series (probably 3 parts). It wasn't originally supposed to be, but I realized after about 15 pages of writing and not even being half way done with the story that it was going to have to be split up. So that'll be a thing. ANYWAY, let me know what you think! I have some basic ideas for most of the letters, but if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. They may be better than what I've got! Hahaha