Chapter Three

Retribution

At first Jay Halstead thought his brother was pulling his leg, going on about some human pile of bodies in an elevator at Med, but Will was deadly serious.

"Look, I don't know what you've been working on lately but whoever you've crossed paths with isn't happy," Will said. "Look Jay – ah – there is no easy way to tell you this so I am just going to-,"

Jay pursed his lips into a thin line of displeasure as he rolled up outside Med and glanced over at the passenger seat to Hailey. "Will," he called sharply, impatiently waiting for his brother to tell him what was on his mind.

"Voight is-," Will began but was cut off quickly.

"-is he there?" Jay asked, lengthening his strides toward the hospital with Hailey following closely behind. "How is he?"

Will frowned as he threw a quick glance in the direction of the trauma bay where the sergeant was currently being examined. "He's alive, that's all I can tell you at the moment."

Jay and Hailey shared a worried look as they walked into the emergency department. Hailey reached for her phone and called Burgess. "Kim. It's Hailey. We're at Med, Will just called. They've found Voight."

"We're coming!" Kim assured her.

OOOOOO

Jay and Hailey rushed in, only to stop at the nurse's station, looking at Maggie, concern written all over their faces.

The charge nurse gestured towards one of the rooms to her left. "Trauma three," she said quickly. They didn't need to say anything; she knew who they were looking for.

As Jay pulled away the curtain, his brother's head whipped around at the commotion and quickly relaxed a little when he saw who it was.

"Sarge?" Hailey called as she walked up to his bedside.

Hank Voight lay motionless. He had his clothes on but his shirt was unbuttoned and electrodes had been attached to his chest. An oximeter had been clipped to his finger and an IV sneaked into his left arm. The blonde nurse, Monique, sat next to the bed opposite Hailey and was gently cleaning up what looked like a pretty nasty gash across his left temple.

Jay looked from his boss' still form to his brother's concerned face. "Will," he said sharply. "Is he going to be okay?"

Doctor Halstead took one last look at Voight, to make sure he appeared to be stable, before he motioned for his brother and his partner to walk out of the room.

"Talk to me, man," Jay demanded impatiently.

Without a word, Will ushered the two detectives across the corridor and into the doctors' lounge and closed the door.

"Will, I asked you a question," Jay pushed.

"There is an unknown substance in Voight's blood," he began darkly. "All the victims have this agent in their bloodstream. We don't know what it is or what it does."

"Are you telling us someone poisoned them?" Hailey asked skeptically.

"We believe he or she used some sort of mixed cocktail which contained a tranquilizer. They all have puncture marks on their necks and they all have residues of a tranquilizing substance in their blood."

Jay opened his mouth to ask a question as Kim walked through the door.

"Adam and Kevin went straight to the elevator to see what they can work with," she said. "They only needed one quick look at sarge."

Jay nodded as Kim turned to Will.

"It's kind of unsettling to see Voight this way. Tell me his condition isn't life-threatening," she begged him.

"He's stable at the moment but we're keeping him under close observation," Will replied cautiously. "He's got a pretty nasty headwound and we haven't been able to rouse him so I can't tell you much at the moment."

"Wait a minute-," Jay argued, "-you said they used a tranquilizing agent on all of their victims. Why would they try to bash his skull?"

"You haven't seen the others, have you?" Will replied coldly. "There are twisted limbs, broken arms and legs. One of the women deep within that grizzly human heap - which our janitor and Doctor Charles found - had third degree burns across forty percent of her body."

The present members of the intelligence team exchanged dark looks.

"And, that guy, who served as a foundation of the stack, or heap, or whatever you want to call it. Looks like he drowned in his own blood," Will shook his head in frustration, clearly upset. "Tell me;

what kind of sick and twisted maniac would do this to other people?"

When the tightly knitted team from intelligence remained silent, Will continued. "When did Voight disappear? Because you have been looking for him for some time, haven't you?"

"Two days ago," Kim relented dejectedly. "We've turned Chicago upside down to try and find him."

Will ran a hand over his face in frustration.

"We don't know what this is. What the motive is," Jay offered. "Look, we really need to talk to our boss. Can't you wake him up?"

Will shook his head. "It's not that simple Jay," he replied seriously. "Whatever they have been given effects everyone differently and with the addition of the head trauma, I don't want to add more stress to his body. It's not safe to bring him out of-,"

"Why?" Hailey wanted to know. "You said he was stable?"

"Hey!" Maggie said as she popped her head into the room. "Trauma three."

Will rushed out of the room, the three members of the intelligence unit following closely behind.

Hank Voight was glaring at Doctor Choi from his flat position on the bed and he didn't look pleased. The doctor had a hand planted firmly on the older man's half-naked chest, preventing him from getting up.

Kim looked aghast. This was the first time she'd seen him since they summarized their latest case two days ago. His skin looked clammy, his face was creased with lines of pain and his eyes seemed clouded. His left temple was covered in gauze and vivid purple color spread out from every direction. She laid eyes upon the faint glistening of his exposed skin through the open shirt and couldn't help but to notice the toned muscles on his stomach and marveled at it, considering his age. She also saw a ten-centimeter-long scar after a surgical incision that had long since healed and realized there was still a lot of things that she didn't know about him.

Hank started to pull off the electrodes as Choi let go of him, setting off an alarm on the monitor next to him. He then quickly covered up his chest by fastening a button at the middle of his shirt.

"Sergeant Voight," Choi said seriously, hands now on his hips. "I would appreciate if you could lay back and relax. You are not fit to leave."

Hank's dark brown eyes fixed the doctor with a resolute glare. It was a look the members of the intelligence knew all too well. It was a defying look, which called upon the doctor to back down, or there would be hell to pay.

Jay and Hailey looked at each other, something unspoken passing between them as they both walked up to their boss and gently aided him, helping him off the bed.

"Thanks," Voight said with appreciation.

Jay was reluctant to let go of him, not really sure if he would be able to stand on his own. Quite frankly, he didn't look well. However, Hank straightened stubbornly, steely dark brown eyes leveling with Jay's blue ones. The younger detective understood. Voight absolutely loathed to be exposed and vulnerable to his team – to anyone. The younger kids on the beat used to call him Invincible Voight, with good reason. Perhaps that was why seeing him struggle right now made the team's worry worse.

"Sarge," Kim began softly as she watched him closely. "What happened? Where have you been?"

"First things first," Hailey cautioned as she looked from Voight to the two doctors in the room. "Is he going to be all right?"

"He is all right," Voight replied somewhat cockily, annoyance seeping into his raspy voice.

Choi wasn't impressed by the show. He fixed the older man with a glare. "There is currently an unknown substance in your bloodstream. I don't recommend that you go anywhere. You shouldn't even be standing."

The curtain swayed, then Daniel and Sharon walked into the small cubicle.

"Hank," Doctor Charles began softly. "You look a bit livelier now. I could have mistaken you for a dead man earlier."

"Would somebody care to fill me in?" Voight commanded, not the least amused to be missing out on information.

Kim reached for her phone as it buzzed in her pocket. "Yeah," she answered.

"There are some interesting security footages here," Adam said as he called from the security department at the hospital. "Kev is retrieving them now. We're taking them with us back to the precinct. How's sarge doing?"

"All things considered, he seems okay," she answered cryptically.

Voight turned slightly to look at her, narrowing his eyes. "Ruzek?" he guessed.

Kim nodded.

"What do you mean?" Adam asked quizzically. "Is that? I thought I heard his voice."

Kim resigned and pushed the speaker button.

"Adam, what have you found?" Hank rasped.

"Sarge, are you okay?"

"We can save that for later," he quipped.

"It's good to hear your voice, boss," Kevin spoke up at the other end. "Security footages gives us a pretty good picture of a white middle-aged man with thinning brown hair and grey eyes. He appears at the refurbishing site with a few others but he seems to the only one who's been messing with the elevator."

"Any idea who he is?" Voight pressed as he pinched the bridge of his nose and briefly closed his eyes.

"Maybe you should lay down?" Sharon suggested carefully. It was obvious to her that Voight was far from fine.

"Kevin?" Hank called, ignoring Goodwin's suggestion.

"No, nothing yet, sarge," he replied.

"Okay, get back to the office. We'll meet you there," he commanded.

Kim took it as a que to end the call and stuff her phone in her pocket.

"Jay, Hailey. I want the two of you to start taking notes. See how many of the others you can identify and interview. We need to draw up a picture of how everything is connected."

Kim nodded at Jay and Hailey. "You go. I'll help out here," she said diplomatically.

Hank swayed a little but remained upright, keeping his balance on his own. "What do I need to sign to get out of here?" he asked sourly.

Choi just shook his head.

Goodwin, however, knew that when Voight had set his mind on something he wasn't easily swayed. "I tell you what," she began softly. "I'll get them for you – if – you promise me that you have someone at your side all the time."

"I can do that," he replied.

"Good," Sharon said with a smile and turned to address the others. "You just call any of us whenever you need."

Hank huffed. "Sharon, I think I am a little too old for a babysitter," he said.

"Really?" she replied. "I haven't noticed."

"Are you sure you shouldn't stay?" Kim tried. "We can swing by regularly to update you."

She was rewarded by the famous Voight glare.

OOOOOO

To be continued