"What happens now?" Jay asks when they get into the parking lot of the facility.

"Ethan said that Nate told him that he'd wait for us in the training room," Will answers.

"But what happens when we go in?" Jay elaborates.

"You probably talk with Nate about what tasks you want Casper to learn and then he might show us the best way to teach him," Will guesses.

"Do you want to walk around some?" Hailey asks, sensing Jay getting anxious.

"I just want to get this over with," Jay answers her.

"We can go in now," Will tell him. "It might take us a while to find the room."

They get out of the car and walk towards the building. Jay follows Will, holding Casper's leash tightly in his right hand and Hailey is on his left.

Once inside the building, Will starts following the signs to find the right room, used to navigating his way through different hospitals.

After wandering the halls for a few minutes, Will finds the room that they are looking for and opens the door. They see a group of ten, who all have dogs, surrounding two leaders of the group. The three of them and Casper stand against the back wall watching as Nate and the other instructor finish the group session.

Once the two finish their end of session speech most of the veterans leave the door going past the visitors, while a couple stay behind to talk to the instructors. As they pass to leave the room, Jay can see that some of them came home with physical trauma with amputations and prosthetics and others, like Jay, look okay physically but came home with psychological trauma.

When the two who are left leave, Nate walks over to the group. "Sorry about the wait," he apologizes.

"No problem," Will answers. "Thanks for taking the time to meet with my brother."

"Of course, why don't we go to the therapy room?"

"I'm not here for therapy," Jay interjects.

"Jay," Hailey chides.

"It's okay. The therapy room is where we do individual training sessions. It has more privacy and it houses different equipment that we may need. Follow me," Nate tells them.

Nate leads them to a room on the other side of the building. When they enter, the first thing that they notice is that the room is a decent size, about the size of the breakroom in the intelligence bullpen. Inside there is a medium-sized kitchen table, a couch, and a normal-sized refrigerator with a rope attached to the handle.

"So what happens now?" Jay asks as he looks around.

"Let's take a seat," Nate motions to the table. Will and Hailey do as they are told, and Jay reluctantly follows them.

"This looks like therapy to me," Jay states as Casper sits by his feet.

"Jay," this time it is Will to scold him.

"It's okay," Nate tells Will. "This isn't the first place anyone wants to be," Nate answers understandably before continuing, "I'm going to assume you're Jay," he tells him before looking to Will, "and you're the brother, Will?"

Both Halsteads nod.

"I'm sorry," Nate apologizes looking at Hailey, "Ethan didn't mention you. Are you his girlfriend?"

"No," Hailey tells him before introducing herself, "I'm Hailey- Jay's partner at work.

"I'm sorry," he apologizes for his assumption.

Hailey nods in acknowledgment.

"So, I was going to tell you a little about myself before we start. And if you want, you can tell me about yourself and if not we can go straight into what you want to get out of training your dog," Nate starts.

"Casper," Jay tells him, "his name is Casper."

"Okay, what you want to get out of Casper's training," Nate corrects himself. "So, my name is Nate and I was in the Navy. My rank was Lieutenant Commander, I served for ten years before retiring to spend more time with my family. I started volunteering here because I wanted to help vets who were having difficulty adjusting, like how Conrad helped me- to pay it forward in a way," Nate finishes.

"Jay Halstead, Army. 3rd Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment," Jay offers.

"Okay, so I just want to ask a couple of questions before we get started," Nate tells him.

Jay gives him a wearily look but doesn't say anything.

"Are you training Casper by yourself or do you have help?"

"Hailey and Will are helping me."

"Does anyone else know about Casper?"

"Our team knows about him, they just don't know that Jay and I are training his to be a service dog," Hailey answers.

"And you have a support system?"

"He has us," Will answers, wanting his brother to know he means it.

"That's good. Having a support system is always a good thing," Nate comments. "So, Ethan told me that you are owner-training Casper. What tasks are you planning on teaching him and have you started on any of them yet?" he asks.

"Um, waking during nightmares, grounding during a flashback…" Jay looks to Will and Hailey for help.

"Intervention with sensory overload, guiding during a dissociative episode, and getting help if needed. Though the last two are precautionary," Hailey adds helping Jay.

"Hailey and Jay have been working on the waking from nightmares with Casper for about two months now," Will tells Nate.

"Okay. How old was Casper when you started training him?"

"Eight months. The guy I got him from said he was the runt, but healthy and the vet said he was always going to be on the smaller side," Jay answers.

Nate nods his head, "How much progress have you made with the waking from nightmares task?"

"Casper will lay on top of Jay, we just need to work on him putting pressure on Jay, and when he needs to do that task."

"Okay. Do you need any tips for that or do you think you're okay?"

"I think we're okay. I found a good video that broke down how to train that task, step-by-step," Hailey answers.

"Okay. Jay, what happens during a flashback?"

"A flashback is a flashback," Jay tells him.

"The few that I've seen, he gets lost. He doesn't realize where he is or what his surroundings are," Hailey tells Nate. This information surprises Will, but he does his best not to show it.

"Have you ever tried to hurt yourself during a flashback? Maybe clawed at yourself?"

"No," Jay answers. Hailey nods in agreement.

"Okay, so it sounds like you disassociate during a flashback," Nate states receiving a nod in confirmation from the trio. "Then, what you want to train Casper to do is train Casper pull your attention to the present. This would be with grounding and intervention, it can be from licking to nibbling at you. Anything that he can reach, your hand, ear, arm, face, you decide what works best for you."

Nate slows down and waits for Hailey, who has started taking notes. "What about the last two?" Hailey asks when she is finished writing.

"With guiding, normally you want your service dog to heel, but in this case, you want your dog to lead you. It may be home or it may be to somewhere where you are able to get help. This may be anywhere where there are people who are able to help. I would suggest having something attached to Casper, a small pouch, somewhere that you can keep a contact list for your brother and partner. That way there is a way to contact someone to help."

"This is a bit similar to getting help, only in this instance, Jay is most likely going to be unresponsive- unconscious- Casper will leave Jay in order to get help. Go to people until he can get someone to follow him back to Jay."

Hailey is once again taking notes on what to do.

The next few hours are used to physically go over how to work these tasks. When the group is done, Nate walks them out of the facility. The brothers are in front while Nate pulled Hailey back some.

He looks up to see that Jay is distracted before he speaks, "Here is my card. I know that he's not ready to talk now, but if he ever is, give me a call. There's a support group here, all vets are welcomed or even if he wants to talk to someone outside of a support group."

"Thanks," Hailey is surprised by his offer.

Parting ways, Will and Hailey both thank Nate for helping, while Hay gives him a polite nod, still a bit overwhelmed by the day.

On the way back to Jay's apartment, the three talk about what they thought each one voicing that it was beneficial, even Jay who remains pretty quiet.

Arriving at Jay's apartment building, Will receives a phone call. "Sorry guys. I have to go into work," Will apologizes. "They need more hands."

"Go, you're good," Hailey tells him.

"Sorry I kept you all day," Jay apologizes.

"Hey, don't apologize. They just called now," Will looks to Hailey, silently asks that she keep an eye on Jay.

She nods, "We'll be fine," she assures him.

Walking inside of his apartment they go to his couch. "Jay, we need to talk about before," Hailey tells him.

"About what?" He asks, hand lazily scratching Casper's head.

"About what happened when you were sick," Hailey tells him.

"Sorry I got sick," Jay apologizes, thinking she was mad about that.

"Hey, it's not that you got sick. You couldn't help that. It's about something that you said while you were sick."

"Can't we chalk up whatever I said to the fever."

"No, because if I learned anything from being your partner, it's that the truth comes out of you when you're either drunk or running a fever." Jay remains silent so Hailey takes this as permission to continue. "You said you would have been fine on your own, but if the positions were reversed, you would have done the same. Why do you think it is different for us?"

"Because I deserved to get sick. I didn't get the flu shot, it was my own fault. And I ended up being a burden on you and Will- more than what I normally am."

"First thing's first: You are not a burden- ever. Do you understand?"

"I guess."

"The second thing is: Even with the flu shot, you still could have gotten sick, so stop blaming yourself."

"Lastly, why did you forgive me so easily when I made you feel bad about the stupid joke about the flu shot," Hailey asks.

"I didn't want you mad at me- if I didn't say it was okay."

"I wouldn't have been mad. I would have understood. Jay, I made you feel worse because of a bad joke when you were already feeling bad," Hailey pauses, letting that sink into his thick head. "I know I don't know a lot about your childhood, but I know that something happened to make you think of yourself as a burden and that is not true. Will told me that if what happened to you then was happening now, it would be considered emotional abuse."

"What did he tell you?"

"Nothing that I didn't already know, you having a rocky relationship with your dad is an understatement. But, back to my original point, you are not a burden. Not to anyone, especially me and Will. And if someone says you are, then they aren't good enough to be in your life. Will and I will tell you however many times you need to hear it to believe us, but it's the truth, so I don't want to hear you apologize for that ever again."

Jay is silent, trying to figure out what she is trying to say; there has to be something that she is hinting at underneath her speech.

"Jay? Do you understand me? We never want you to feel like that."

Jay nods, finally realizing there is no hidden message, that she is telling the truth. "Yeah."

"Are we good?"

"We're good," he answers.

"What did you think about what Nate showed us?" Hailey asked.

"It was a lot. Do you still think we can do this?"

"I have no doubt," Hailey confirms. "We're a team, the four of us can do it."