Notes: Please keep in mind the trigger warnings in the notes of chapter 1 before you continue to read!
enjoy the new chapter 3
On the ride to Med, Hailey dipped in and out of consciousness while the paramedic worked on her. She put an oxygen mask over Hailey's face and attached all sorts of wires to monitor her heart rhythm and added an IV of fluids into her arm as well, which made Jay want to puke, but he held her hand the entire time.
"Hey, Hailey, you gotta stay with us, okay?" he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand as he spoke to her.
"You gotta try and stay awake, baby, okay? You might have a concussion so you need to try and stay awake," he told her, watching her eyes fight not to flutter shut.
She looked over at Jay and tried to say something, but he shut her down quickly.
"You don't need to talk, okay? Save your energy and focus on trying to stay awake. Stay with us, baby, okay?"
When the ambulance pulled up in Med's ambulance bay, the back door was immediately opened by Will. Jay jumped out and the paramedic and Will got the stretcher down and rushed Hailey into a trauma room, Jay right on their heels.
Once they reached the trauma room, they were met with Dr Hammer, who had been waiting there as Will went out to meet the ambulance.
"Jay, what the hell happened?" Will asked him as he, Stevie, and a nurse transferred Hailey from the paramedic's stretcher to the hospital bed. Jay flinched as he heard Hailey groan in pain. She had been in and out of consciousness the whole ride to Med. Every time she was conscious, it was made evident by the whimpers and groans of pain that she emitted.
"I- I'm not sure, she was in the river when I got there," Jay informed his older brother, tears forming in his eyes while he thought about what Rivera might have done to hurt Hailey while he wasn't there. "He said she was a fighter and that she hit hard, so there was definitely a physical fight that somehow led to her ending up in the river." Jay's voice broke as he recounted the day's events.
"I really don't know, j-just make sure that she's okay, Will, please." Will's heart broke for his little brother. He could hear Jay's voice crack as he asked him to help his wife.
"We're going to help her, Jay, but look at you. You're soaking wet. You were in the Chicago River in January, you need to get yourself checked out too," Stevie interjected while Will checked Hailey's vitals and got her hooked up to what seemed like to Jay as a hundred different machines.
"No, I'm staying right here, I can't just leave her alone again."
"Jay, I promise you, I've got her, she's safe. I know you won't let yourself get checked out until you know she's one hundred percent but go be with your friends in the waiting rooms," Will told him, sternly.
"But I need-" Jay was cut off by the sound of a machine beeping and Will rushed to start compression on Hailey's chest. He saw Hailey's head fall to the side and her body go limp as her heart stopped.
Jay stood in shock for a minute, just staring into the room and watching his brother trying to get his wife's heart to start beating again. Stevie had to snap him out of his trance, pushing him back from the doorway of the room so they could shut it and treat her without being interrupted.
"Jay, you need to go and wait in the waiting room right now." Stevie said firmly.
"No, no, I can't just leave her, I can't-" Jay said, panicking, fear coming through in earnest now as he watched his brother continue the compressions in Hailey's chest.
"Jay, just leave, trust me on this, you need to leave!" Will told his little brother, tears spilling out of his own eyes as he tried to revive Hailey.
"Stevie, switch with me." She rushed to Hailey's bedside and took over the compressions as Will went to the cart that had the defibrillator. The nurse cut off Hailey's t-shirt so they could shock her heart. Stevie moved out of the way of the door, and it made an opening for Jay to rush into the room to try and be by his wife's side.
From the other side of the ED, Marcel noticed the situation and grabbed Kevin and Adam from the waiting room as well as Dr. Scott. The four of them rushed to get Jay and Will out of the room.
"Jay, I need to shock her, and you need to leave. You don't need to see this," Will told his brother.
"Will, you don't need to do anything, I'm taking over," Marcel informed him with a tone of finality before turning to Jay. "You need to leave."
"No, I'm not leaving," Jay protested. Marcel nodded to Kevin and Adam, who grabbed their friend by his arms and pulled him out the room as he sobbed about not leaving her.
"I can't leave her; she needs me there! I told her that I had her always, I need to be with her!" Jay tried to push Adam and Kevin off of him as Will yelled "clear" and shocked Hailey with the paddles.
"Jay, you need to let the doctors deal with this, and you need to come and get changed and warmed up, it's not going to do anyone any good if you become hypothermic is it?" Dylan reasoned.
"No man, I need to stay for her, I don't care about me," he argued.
"Jay, you need to get warm."
"Dylan, get off my back! I need to be with Hailey," Jay insisted, trying to break free of Adam and Kevin's grip.
"Jay, you should listen to Dr. Scott," Kevin told him.
"I'm staying here with Hailey. I need to, I have to."
Kevin and Adam shared a look with Dr. Scott, and Adam sighed at his friend.
"Jay, she wouldn't want you to get sick!" Adam exclaimed.
"I can't just leave," his voice broke.
"I'll be back in a minute," Dr. Scott told them before walking off, leaving Adam and Kev with Jay. He came running back with some warming blankets a minute later.
"Man, if you're not going to leave, then at least put these over you." Dylan held up the blankets and Jay rolled his eyes.
"I'm not going anywhere, and I don't need some stupid blankets."
"Jay, just put the damn blankets over your shoulders. You're soaking wet and you're going to get ill. It won't be good for you, and it won't be any good for Hailey either," Kev said firmly, and Jay sighed.
"Fine."
Kevin and Adam briefly let him go and helped Dr. Scott put the blankets around his shoulders to keep him warm, and then they watched as Will looked up at the monitor, saw that the paddles hadn't done anything, and yelled for the nurse to charge them again.
Jay saw that nothing had changed, and he tried to run into the room, but they grabbed him again. He attempted to break free from his friends' grips once more, but it was no use. He didn't have the strength anymore. Hailey was in that room dying, and there was nothing he could do about it.
"S-shes my wife, I need to be with her," he pleaded desperately with Kevin and Adam as Dr. Marcel took the paddles from Will and took over treating Hailey with Stevie and shocked her again with no response still.
"W-wife?" Adam stammered out, shocked. None of the unit had known that Hailey and Jay had gotten married.
"She's my wife, and I need to be with her, Ruz, just please let me go. I need to be with her, Kev, man, please," Jay continued to plead, but the two wouldn't budge. They just held him in the hallway since they knew that if they tried to take him out to the waiting room then it would only make things worse. At least this way he was somewhat close to her.
Kevin and Adam suppressed their own tears as they held back their friend. They had to be strong for him. They both had been in similar experiences with the fact that they had both almost lost Kim multiple times.
"Will," Stevie said in a soft voice, now standing next to him. "Will, go be with your brother. He needs you right now, and you're not in the right state of mind to be treating her."
"Stevie-"
"No Will, you've gotta go, we've got it from here. She's in the best hands, go be with your brother." Will looked over to where his brother was in the hall being held back by his friends while screaming for his wife.
Will rushed over to his little brother and put his hands on his shoulders in an attempt to help him calm down, but also to help Kevin and Adam restrain him.
"Jay, you need to look at me." Will tried to keep his attention away from Marcel and Stevie working on Hailey behind him. "Jay, look at me, they're doing everything they can, okay? And I know you're hurting right now, but screaming and shouting and getting in their way isn't going to help her, okay?"
"I- I just need to be with her," Jay whispered, desperately.
"I know, I know, and you can be when they're finished working on her, okay?" Will said softly, his heart shattering for his brother.
"Will, please, I'm begging you, let me go to her," Jay's voice broke on his words, and he tried fighting off the three of them who were holding him back again, but he didn't have enough strength to even loosen their grip. He collapsed to his knees in defeat and exhaustion, his whole world was falling apart, Hailey was dying in that room, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to help her.
He sat on the floor, Kevin, Adam, and Will all by his side, telling him that it would be okay, and that Hailey was going to be okay, pushing away their own worries and doubts for his sake. The four of them were startled a couple of minutes later as the nurses wheeled Hailey's bed out of the room with Dr. Marcel following behind.
"What's going on? What are they doing with her? Where are they taking her?" Jay got out all in one breath, jumping up.
"They're taking her to surgery, one of her lungs got badly damaged from being underwater for so long, and so they have to repair it," Stevie informed him, her voice gentle in consideration of how much pain Jay was in.
"We got her heart beating again and she's stable for now, but that's twice that her heart stopped beating, and since we don't know how long she was under the water and without oxygen for, we want to be very cautious. We do need to prepare for the fact that there might be some possible brain damage due to her lack of oxygen and blood flowing to her brain from when her heart stopped." Stevie finished telling them all the medical stuff.
"B-brain damage?" Jay breathed in utter disbelief.
"We can't be one hundred percent certain, but it is a possible outcome that we all need to be prepared for" Will said, somewhat dejectedly.
"She won't be able to be a detective anymore," Jay's voice quivered.
"Hey, it's not one hundred percent. We can't assess anything more until her lung is fixed, but she's a fighter, and right now she's stable so you've gotta look at the positives," Stevie interjected. "Besides, she's going to have the best doctors and nurses by her side 24/7." She gave Jay a soft and what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
"Now you need to get yourself checked out because you were in that river too." She turned to Will. "And you need to go get your brother whatever spare clean clothes you have in your locker for him to change into." Will gave her a quick nod.
"I'll be back in a minute," he told them before he turned on his heels and made his way to get the clothes for Jay as fast as possible.
"Now you come with me," she said to Jay, leaving no room for argument, and he followed her into one of the smaller patient rooms of the ED with Kevin and Adam following close behind to keep an eye on their friend. Jay sat on the edge of the bed, his mind working at a million miles per minute. He turned his head to face his friends standing in the doorway of the room.
"You guys can go, I'm good, honestly," Jay told them, trying to give them a smile.
"Jay, I don't think…" Kevin trailed off as Stevie gave them a nod telling them that it was okay and that they would be fine
"Are you sure you're good Jay?" Adam asked.
"As good as I can be I guess," he sighed. "I won't go barging into any ORs I promise," he told the pair, and they both nodded and let him know that they would be in the waiting area if he needed anything before leaving.
He turned his head back to Stevie, who was fussing with some medical equipment.
"What's the deal with you and my brother?" Jay spoke into the silence, trying to distract himself and catching her off guard.
"W-what do you mean?"
"He listens to you."
"And that's a bad thing, because?"
"Not a bad thing, a weird thing because he hardly listens to anyone." Stevie laughed at his matter-of-fact statement.
"We listen to each other most of the time, I guess, it's called mutual respect."
"But there's something else?"
"Nothing else. Why do you ask?"
"Because I'm very protective of my big brother and my wife is having a major surgery right now and I don't really want to think about it," Jay admitted.
"Is there anyone we need to call for her? Parents, siblings, any other immediate family that needs to be notified?"
"I, uh, I've never actually met any of her family," Jay confessed.
"You're married and you've never met any of her family?" Stevie queried, though not judgingly.
"Yeah, uh, well, we've only been married just over a month…and she's not that close with them so…."
"That's understandable," Stevie nodded.
"Did you two become best friends while I was gone? Because it sure sounds like it," Will said from the doorway, bag of clothes in one hand and coffee in the other. He handed both to Jay. "Here. So did you two become best friends or…?"
"He didn't spill any crazy embarrassing childhood stories unfortunately, but he is the master at avoiding being poked and prodded by doctors," Stevie told the red-headed Halstead. "So maybe I can leave all the poking and prodding to you as he is your brother and I have other patients to check up on," Stevie said.
"That sounds like my brother. Always hated hospitals and I was always fascinated by them," Will laughed. "You can leave all the poking and prodding to me, that's fine, go check on your patients. Oh, and also, could you check on mine if you have time? I want to stay here."
She nodded. "Of course, I'll just ask Maggie for the charts."
"Yeah, she should have them."
"Okay, great, go check on all the patients that need checking on and then I'll go see if I can get you an update on your wife, how does that sound?"
"It sounds great, thanks" Jay thanked her.
"Thank you," Will gave her a small smile, and with that she was gone.
Will turned back to his brother only to find him smirking slightly and rolled his eyes.
"Change, I'll be waiting outside," Will said, and pulled the curtain between them. A few minutes later Jay pulled the curtain back open and was dressed in a pair of Will's sweatpants and a plain white t-shirt, his dirty wet clothes in the bag that Will had brought the clean clothes in.
"Do you really have to check me out?"
"Let me just check your breathing and your lungs and I won't do anything else. How about that?" Will said, picking up the stethoscope and Jay rolled his eyes and sighed.
"If you really have to."
After a quick check, Will determined that Jay was fine, physically anyways.
"Do you think she'll be okay?" Jay asked his brother.
"Right now, I don't know if she will be or not, but I'm not going to lie to you, she was in pretty rough shape even though they got her stable. But she's strong and she's a fighter and she's a Halstead and we're pretty damn strong and stubborn so I don't think she's giving up any time soon," Will told him and pulled his little brother into a hug.
"I really can't lose her Will, I'd be so lost without her, I wouldn't be able to do it without her." Jay cried into his brother's shoulder and Will just held him, there wasn't really much more that he could do other than just make sure that his brother knew that he had love and was supported.
After a few minutes, Jay pulled away.
"Do you want to wait in here or out in the waiting area with the others?"
"They're still here?"
"And I don't think they're leaving anytime soon."
"l think I'll go and wait with them out there then," Jay told his older brother.
"Stevie or I will come and find you with an update soon hopefully," Will told him as he left the waiting area. He was met with Kim, Adam and Kevin all sitting next to each other, Kim in the middle, her head resting on Adam's shoulder to the left and her hand holding Kevs on the right. All three of them jumped up when they noticed Jay, Kim being the first to go in for a hug, she wrapped her arms around him tightly and Jay hugged her back equally as hard. He could tell they had all been crying and he knew that she needed it because they all loved her almost as much as he did.
"Any news on anything?"
"Did Adam and Kev tell you what we were told by Dr. Hammer?" Jay asked, and Kim nodded.
"That's all we've got. Will said that either he or Dr. Hammer will be out when they can with an update, all we can do now is wait," Jay sighed, and Kim touched his arm affectionately and gestured for him to sit next to her, and so he did. The four of them sat down and they waited, and they waited, and they waited.
They waited for hours and hours, for something solid and something other than the occasional "Surgery is going good, should know more soon" from Stevie or Will. The anticipation was killing the four of them, but all they could do was wait.
Notes: Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
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