I hope you like this chapter- Jess and Adam's story isn't over yet, but it took me awhile to decide where to go. As always, feel free to share your requests or ideas!

Chapter 33

Jess hurried down the hallway. She had gone home this morning and showered. Adam had tried to convince her to stay home, stay in her own bed and get some sleep, but she couldn't. She needed to be near him, to see that he really was awake and breathing on his own.

She paused long enough at the glass door to his ICU room to take in the situation. Adam was awake. It was enough to let her breathe out fully for the first time since she had left his side this morning. A humorless doctor stood at the foot of the bed.

Jess tapped lightly on the door frame and Adam looked over to her, a smile spreading across his face. "Come on in, darlin'. Dr. Abrams is just about to look me over and give me the go ahead to get out of here."

The doctor frowned at Adam, disapproval clear. "I'm here to examine you. If you're progressing satisfactorily, you'll be moved out of the Intensive Care Unit."

Adam shrugged. "You say potato…"

The doctor pulled a penlight from his pocket. He checked Adam's pupils, had him recite a series of words back to him, and squeeze his hands.

Adam looked at Jess over the doctor's shoulder. "See, ready to go home."

Jess couldn't hold back a grin at Adam's cocky words.

Another knock on the door and Voight came in, followed by Will.

"Sam," Will greeted the neurologist. Jess saw the easy greeting die on her brother's lips. She followed his eyes to Dr. Abrams who seemed to only have one setting- serious. She couldn't see what had changed. Dr. Abrams checked the reflexes in Adam's knees again and then exchanged a look with Will.

"So I'm good to go, Doc?" Adam asked. He pulled his covers the rest of the way off and moved his legs to the edge of the bed.

"You shouldn't—" the neurologist started. Then Adam swung his legs over the side of the bed and pushed to stand.

His legs didn't hold him. There was a clatter as he took the tray table down with him and Will lunged forward to try to stop the fall. Dr. Abrams got one arm, but it wasn't enough to stop Adam.

The noise and the sudden movement was enough to pull a strangled scream from Jess and she watched in horror as Adam went down. She felt a strong arm holding her back from rushing to him. Voight kept an arm on her.

"What the hell?" Adam yelled. He reached for the bed to pull himself up and managed to only fall back down. "What did you do to me?" he shouted at the doctor. Dr. Abrams got too close and Adam swung out at him.

Jess broke free from Voight's hold and shoved past the man in the white coat. Adam was still fighting, whether to try to stand or to get the doctors away from him, Jess couldn't tell. She reached out to him and his swinging arm caught her on the jaw, sending her backwards. Jess hit the chair behind her and crashed to the ground.

The room froze. Jess blinked, trying to make sense of what had just happened. There was no sound from anyone in the room. Reaching a hand up, Jess felt the tender spot on her jaw and met Adam's horrified eyes.

"Jess," he said, shaking his head. "Jess, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—" He tried again to stand. This time Dr. Abrams got an arm under him and Voight got on the other side and they lifted Adam to the edge of the bed.

Will knelt down next to Jess and tried to look at her jaw. He pressed his fingers lightly to the back of her head.

Jess sucked in a breath when he found the spot where her head had hit the chair, but pushed him away, not taking her eyes off Adam.

"What's wrong?" she asked Dr. Abrams. "What's going on."

The doctor looked at Adam, weighing his reaction before he spoke. "There seems to be some residual swelling. Either in the brain or the spinal cord. It's affecting the use of his legs."

"Yeah, I could tell that," Adam said. "When does it go away?"

Dr. Abrams paused long enough for Jess to close her eyes and will him not to say what he said next.

"We'll see if it does."

#

"He hit her?"

Will turned from where he was standing at the window of Adam's ICU room. "Does the nurse know you're out of your room?" he asked.

Jay, stooped from pain, shuffled toward him, wheeling his IV, the collection unit for his chest tube hooked over the pole, another drain for his abdomen pinned to his hospital gown.

"He hit her?" Jay asked again, more anger in his voice than in his wounded body.

"He was panicking," Will explained. "Jess was trying to help. He didn't mean to."

Jay let out a snort. "Yeah, no one ever means to hit their girlfriend."

Will heaved a sigh, then moved to help Jay wheel his IV pole over to the window.

Jay looked in.

Adam was back in bed, his jaw clenched. Jess was on the bed with him. She said something to him and Adam just shook his head. She laid a hand against his cheek, saying something more. Adam closed his eyes. Even from the distance, Will could see the shudder that went through Adam's frame. Jess's lips trembled, but she didn't say anything more, just laid her head on his shoulder.

Will stepped away from the window, pulling Jay's IV pole so he had no choice but to follow.

"He can't walk, Jay."

Jay slowed then stopped. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, he can't walk. He's going to need rehab and even then there's no guarantee. We won't know until the swelling goes down."

"Get my chest tube out," Jay said. "Get all these tubes out of me. I don't need to be here. Not when Jess is going to need all the support she can get."

Will shook his head. "She doesn't need a boyfriend trying to walk and a brother collapsed on the floor at home because he was too bullheaded to stay in the hospital."

"I mean it, Will," Jay said. "Get these tubes out or I'll take them out myself."

"You'll do what?"

Jay's lips thinned at the sound of Erin's voice. She came up to them, Mouse with her, and looked at Jay, silently daring him to repeat himself.

"I'm not staying here," Jay said.

"You're not leaving," Erin said. "I'm not letting you bleed out all over my apartment. And I'm not moving into your place to watch you do it there."

"Mouse," Jay said.

Mouse shook his head. "No way. I've watched you destroy yourself enough times when we got back from over there. I'm not doing that again."

"This isn't the same thing!" Jay's yell echoed through the muffled quiet of the ICU.

Will met Jay's challenging glare, then called to a doctor across the hall. "Dr. Reese."

The pretty blond tucked her hands in her white coat pockets and crossed to them.

"I need a consult," Will said when she reached them.

"Sure, I have some time now if that works for you." She smiled at Erin and Mouse.

Mouse shuffled his feet and nodded to her, one side of his mouth lifting in a smile. He looked away and rubbed the back of his neck, then glanced back at her.

"It's for my brother. Jay, this is Dr. Reese. In your room. Now."

Jay's mutinous glare drilled into Will until Erin poked his side. "Come on, Halstead."
Mouse stayed with Will, watching Sarah Reese follow Jay and Erin to his room.

"What's Dr. Reese's specialty?" Mouse asked.

Will smiled at his brother's friend. "Psychiatry."

#