Thank you for the reviews and follows! I wanted to get this chapter out quickly to thank you for the kind reviews, and those of you who stuck with this story during the hiatus. So thanks again!
Adam slipped his phone out of his pocket and checked the screen. Across from him, he saw Jay do the same thing.
"Am I keeping you from something?" Voight asked, looking at the cell phone Adam tucked back in his pocket.
"Sorry, Boss," Adam said.
"OK, then. You and Halstead get your head in the game. We have three bodies and no leads. Go start knocking on doors."
Adam nodded and ducked under the crime scene tape that cordoned off the small neighborhood park. He hadn't seen Jay answer a call or text, so Jess hadn't checked in with her brother either.
"She'll be OK," Kevin assured him as they crossed the street. "No news is good news and all that."
Adam wished he believed that.
#
Jess and Brett lifted the stretcher into the back of the ambulance, then Jess climbed in after it. Brett shut the doors on them and jogged around front to the driver's seat.
The patient was unconscious so Jess didn't bother with small talk, or trying to calm the young man. She checked another set of vitals. His blood pressure was low, so she quickly opened an overhead cabinet and pulled out a vasopressor.
Brett starting the siren jolted Jess. Jess closed her eyes briefly as her own heart rate spiked. She blew out a breath and opened her eyes, reminding herself the siren didn't mean anything. It didn't have to take her back to Afghanistan.
Grabbing a syringe, she quickly drew up the dose of the vasopressor and administered it into their patient's IV port.
"Brett, he's going into shock," Jess called to the front. She adjusted the clamp on the bag of IV fluids to allow them to run in quickly. "I'm pushing fluids, but can't get his pressure up." Her voice was calm, measured. This was something she had done, something she had said, hundreds of times before she reminded herself. She knew what she was doing, she just had to remember where she was doing it now. Ambo 61, not in a helicopter or a tent in the desert.
Jess felt the ambulance pick up speed. "We're two minutes out from Med," Brett reassured her.
Jess looked at the bandage on their patient's abdomen. It was soaked through with blood. Grabbing another abdominal pad, she ripped it open and spread it on top of the saturated one. She quickly taped it in place, then pressed her hands down over it to add pressure.
"Sylvie, he's bleeding out," Jess said, urgency raising the pitch of her voice.
Jess managed to keep from falling onto the patient as the ambulance took a corner at high speed. Steadying herself and holding on the bandage, she felt a wave of relief when the ambulance abruptly stop and she heard Brett jump down from the front seat.
The back door swung open and Brett quickly took in the situation.
"Hey, we need a hand here!" Brett called to a security guard by the hospital door.
While Jess held pressure on the dressing, Brett and the guard lifted the stretcher down. Jess ran alongside, not taking her gloved hands off the young man's stomach wound.
"What do you have?" a nurse in teal scrubs asked, taking the place of the security guard and rushing with Brett and Jess through the automatic doors into the Emergency Department.
Jess saw maroon scrubs heading their way. A dark haired doctor fell into step with them and Jess filled him and the nurse in.
"Stabbing victim," Jess said. "We found four stab wounds, three are superficial, the one in his abdomen is still bleeding out. He was given 1 mg of epinephrine. And—" Jess faltered.
Will was pulling on gloves and listening intently.
Shaking herself mentally, Jess ignored Will and continued. "We bolused normal saline. He's had 800 ml in." And it hadn't done anything. Was Will going to blame her for that? Think she had hesitated in the field and it would cost this man his life? Her voice was tight when she relayed his last set of vitals. "GSC 6. His girlfriend is on her way," she finished.
The dark haired doctor took the lead when they got into the treatment room. "On three," he said.
Jess kept her hands on the pressure dressing while the others lifted the sheet under the patient to slide him from the stretcher to the hospital gurney. A nurse pressed in alongside Jess and Jess moved her hands for the nurse to take over applying pressure.
Jess stepped back and let the ED staff edge her looked down at her gloves for the first time. They were coated in blood. She quickly stripped them off and dropped them in a garbage can on her way out of the treatment room.
Brett met her in the hallway. "Good job, Halstead. That was a good first run together."
Jess tried to nod. Her hands started shaking. She pressed her lips together.
"You OK?" Brett asked.
Jess tried to answer. She was fine. She just needed a minute. But she couldn't get the words to come.
Brett quickly glanced around the ED. She put a gentle hand on Jess and guided her firmly toward the staff lounge.
When the door shut out the chaos and noise behind them, Jess felt her pulse slow. She finally was able to suck in a breath.
"You held it together on the call, Jess," Brett said. "This is just the adrenaline letdown."
Jess shook her head, frustrated with herself. She wasn't some brand new medic who had never seen blood before.
"Hey, I've seen it before tons of times. I bet you have, too," Brett's words were compassionate.
The noise from the ED intruded on them when the door opened. Jess glanced over to see her big brother come into the lounge. She quickly turned away, trying to grab at her composure.
"You OK, Jess?" Will asked.
She wished she could find her voice.
"She's fine," Brett stepped in to reassure him. "It was an intense call and we just both needed a minute before we restock the supplies on our rig."
Jess flashed a look of gratitude to Brett.
Will didn't look convinced. Jess saw him take in her shaking hands. She quickly stuffed them in the pockets of her uniform jacket.
"Totally fine," she finally managed to get out.
Will didn't look convinced. "Jess, if this is too much for you, no one will think anything—"
It was enough to snap Jess back. She shook her head fiercely. "Don't. Don't start, Will. You saw us bring that man in. You saw me doing my job."
"And doing it well," Brett chimed in. She didn't back down when Will frowned at her.
"We better get back in service," Jess said. She ignored her brother and followed Brett out to get their stretcher.
"Jess," Will called after them.
Jess tensed, but kept walking, Brett matching her when she picked up the pace.
They got back to the ambulance and loaded their stretcher, Jess swung the back door on her side shut and Brett shut hers. Before they rounded to the front of the rig, Jess paused.
"Brett, I'm sorry. I won't let that happen again."
Brett gave her a sympathetic smile. "You wouldn't think twice about it if you saw a rookie go through the adrenaline let down. You did awesome on the call. There's nothing to apologize for."
Jess felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment as she thought of what Will said to her. "Thanks for…" she bit her lip against the embarrassment. "For…"
Brett shrugged it off. "We're partners, Halstead. We have each other's back."
It was the first time in a long time Jess had a partner who trusted her. She hurried to get in the ambulance Brett was already in and starting. She wasn't going to let Brett down. Her partner. Jess tried to hide her smile.
#
Jay answered his phone before the first buzz finished.
"Jess came in today," Will said without any preamble.
"How was she?" Jay asked. He saw Ruzek look across the bull pen at him, but didn't offer Ruzek any information.
"She's a good medic, Jay."
"But?" Jay heard something Will wasn't saying.
"She sort of lost control afterwards."
Jay pushed his chair back and stood, as if he was going to go find Jess. "Is she OK?"
That had Ruzek pushing to stand, too.
"She pulled it back together," Will said. "And her partner has her back."
"Thanks, Will," Jay said. He tapped the screen to end the call.
Ruzek was crossing to his desk. "Is Jess alright?"
Jay took the time to set his phone on his desk. His movements too deliberate. He looked up at Ruzek, not clocking the worry on his face.
"No, Ruzek. She's not. She's doing a job she has no business doing. One she can't handle. One that you apparently supported her in taking."
"So it's my fault she's not OK?" Ruzek took a step closer.
Jay closed the gap between them so they were at a stand off. "You said it, not me."
Ruzek lunged forward, but Atwater was faster and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Hey, you need to dial it back, brother."
Erin had moved to Jay and was leading him to the break room.
"Jay, there's nothing you can do. Jess took the job. It's up to Boden to check on her. Not you," she said firmly.
"She's my—"
"Yes, she's your sister," Erin agreed. "But she's Boden's medic. You can see her when she gets off shift tomorrow. And that's all you can do. You and Ruzek both," she said, glancing out the doorway where Ruzek was being talked down by Atwater.
Jay steeled his jaw. The second his sister was off shift, he would be there. And Ruzek better not be.
#