Casper waits, hiding in the bush looking for his human. He waits until he ends up falling asleep, scared, and alone.
When he wakes up, it is because the sun is shining in his face. Casper looks up, hoping that his human has found him. The pup looks around to see humans walking around, but the human he s looking for is nowhere in sight.
Casper gets up and comes out of his hiding spot- maybe he can find his human. His human couldn't have forgotten him.
Casper wanders around, his leash dragging behind him.
Casper is walking down the street, trying to find something familiar when a white van turns the corner.
The driver sees the lone dog and stops the vehicle and gets out grabbing a pole with a loop at the end. The driver approaches Casper with the tool. This human is scaring the dog, so he backs up until he is against the wall giving the new human a chance to place the device around Casper's neck before placing a muzzle on him and placing him in a cage in the back of the van.
This scares Casper even more as he doesn't know what is going on or where his human is.
After what feels like forever, the back door to the van is opened and the cage that Casper was placed in is moved.
"Hey, Anna," the dog catcher calls the young volunteer at the front desk of the pound.
"Yeah, Sam?" the volunteer, Anna, answers.
"Got another one," Sam tells her while wheeling the cage in. "Got room?"
"Barely," Anna answers before looking up from the paperwork she was filling out. "It has a leash."
"It probably got loose. There was no one around."
"I'll take care of…there's something on the leash."
"Huh?"
"'Do Not Distract; Service Dog in Training'," she reads.
"Not a very good one."
"You go back to whatever you were doing. I'll handle this," Anna says as she opens the cage.
"Hey, we don't know if it's dangerous."
"You have a muzzle on it and service dogs aren't aggressive," she answers before turning her attention to the dog. "Come here," she calls, holding out her hand for Casper to sniff.
Casper stares at her for a second before determining that she isn't a threat and moving closer to sniff the offered hand.
"Good dog," Anna praises as she reaches for his tags to see if there is any information. "Casper," she reads causing the puppy to wag his tail. "What happened boy?" she asks.
Anna grabs Casper's leash and walks him behind the desk. Looking at his tags, she sees one with a phone number and a name, Jay Halstead.
Anna picks up the phone and dials the number only to receive the voicemail of said person. With the knowledge that Casper is a service dog in training, Anna assumes that this Jay person is the handler. Anna then undoes the wrap from the leash to see if there is anything underneath. To her surprise there is a post-it note with two names.
Anna tries the first number to once again receive the voice mail. She then tries the second number, hoping that someone picks up.
"Hello?" she hears over the phone, relief flooding through her.
"Hello, is this a Will Halstead?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"My name is Anna. I'm a volunteer at Red Door Animal Shelter; one of our dog catchers brought in a yellow lab. It has a blue collar and leash there is also a leash wrap-" she gets cut off.
"Casper's at the pound?!"
"You know the dog?"
"He belongs to my brother! Where did you find him? Is he okay?"
"He's a little dirty but otherwise fine. I don't know where he was found exactly, Sam would have to answer that. Why would your brother leave his dog by himself?"
"That doesn't sound like him. He loves that dog."
"If someone can get here in the next half an hour, I won't put Casper in the system. There are already too many animals here."
"I'll be there as soon as I can."
In the intelligence bullpen, Voight is hanging up the picture of the body of the missing Coast Guard man.
"We're running out of time," Vanessa comments.
"If this pattern continues, how are we going to know who this person will take next? Is there a way to find out who was in specialized units in the Army?" Kim asks.
"We can ask Jay when he gets here; he might have some contact," Adam answers.
"Where is he?" Kevin asks.
The unit looks to Hailey for an answer, "I haven't talked to him since we left yesterday."
"Maybe he's sick?" Kim suggests weakly.
"Adam, can you track his phone? I have a bad feeling," Hailey asks.
"I've got nothing," Adam answers after a moment.
"Casper," Will calls when he enters the Red Door Animal Shelter.
Casper sees the red-head and pulls his way to him.
"Will Halstead?" Anna questions.
"Yes," Will answers while petting Casper. "What's going on?"
"Like I said, Sam, one of our dogcatchers, brought Casper in about ten minutes before I called you. I noticed the leash wrap around his leash so I knew he was a service dog, or at least training to be one. I tried calling the number on his tag, but no one picked up. I then undid the leash wrap to see if there was anything under there that would help, there was a post-it note with two numbers on it," Anna explains while handing Will the post-it note.
Hailey picks up her personal phone when she sees it is Will calling.
Before she can ask about Jay, Will speaks, "I think something happened to Jay."
"What? Will, what happened?" Hailey asks gaining the attention of the rest of the unit.
"I just got Casper from an animal shelter. Jay didn't answer his phone."
"Come here and bring Casper," Hailey tells him.
"What happened with Casper?" Vanessa question.
"Will thinks something happened to Jay. He just got Casper from the pound."
"Maybe Jay realized that having a dog with our hours is too hard," Adam suggests.
"Adam!" everyone yells at him.
"What if this is the work of our suspect?"
"Then we retrace Halstead's steps, turn every stone, and tear the city apart if we have to, but we are going to find him alive," Voight answers.
In an unknown building, Jay regains consciousness where he discovers that he is chained up from the ceiling, feet barely touching the floor.
"Good, you're awake," his captor says before pushing a taser into his side, sending the electric waves through his body.
A/N: Well... the team figured out Jay is missing and Casper is safe, but is Jay? I already know what I want to do for the next two chapters, but is there anything that you all would want to see after that? The next chapter or two may or may not be longer than normal. This is the next story that I'm going to work on editing and getting up on AO3. I think that's all... Stay safe everyone.
Comments & Questions:
Joy. Meathiel- Chapter 27- Hi! I spend the day reading your story! Who could resist Jay with a pup? I love it! If you don't mind me asking, do you have plans for Hailey and Jay being together? If not, will Hailey stop being Jay's PTSD sponsor and live a little? For the last year, she has been there for him, worrying and he's been grateful, but it doesn't seem that he's interested in her life… I just thought that if he changed that much with Casper's help, he would you know, give them a chance, or if he's not into her like that at least with someone else…They are both young, they deserve love… Another thing, what's the problem with Ruzek? Why he's like that with Jay? Anyways…Please update soon, can wait to know what happened with Jay's and Casper.
Response: Okay, I think I answered all these questions are some way or another in my notes from my other story but I will put it here too:
-Platonic versus Romantic Upstead- In the beginning, I did not like Hailey. I was a Lindstead fan, and didn't want Jay and Hailey to get together. I was keeping them platonic to parallel to the show (This shows in my story, "It's Just the Flu"), but with the development this season I was starting to open up to the idea of a romantic relationship (Hints of Vanessa being an Upstead shipper in "Man's Best Friend"). I was hoping that the end of this season I would be able to see what was happening on screen to decide what side of the fence I'm on, but due to current circumstances, the season was cut short by a few episodes, so I'm still up in the air right now. There are some one-shots in my "A to Z" where they are together as a couple.
-Hailey and Jay PTSD sponsor- I don't believe that Hailey is Jay's sponsor in the way that you are implying. You are implying that she is his sponsor like an AA sponsor. That definition would be "An alcoholic who has made some progress in the recovery program and shares the experience on a continuous, individual basis with another alcoholic who is attempting to attain or maintain sobriety through AA." In Jay's case, his sponsor would be someone who also has PTSD, but has made progress with it. I would say that she is a close friend that want to see him get better. Also, I don't feel she would want to start a relationship with him, if he were in a bad place with his PTSD, her first concern as his friend would be his mental health. But to answer the question, this story is about PTSD and how some people with the diagnosis can do well with the help of a service dog. This story is not meant to be about personal lives in a subplot of this story, as I do not feel that I am a good enough writer to create subplots and finish them.
-Ruzek- So the long answer is that I don't feel that I'm a good writer, I see many things that could be improved I just don't know how to. I think my biggest problem is keeping the characters in character, as of right now, I feel like the only characters I have semi-down are Jay and Hailey and I feel like I'm getting close to getting to how to write them. I'm not the biggest fan of Voight, Kim, or Ruzek. So, for these characters I either avoid writing them so that they don't seem out of character, or I make them the bad guy in Ruzek's case. And I feel that Kevin doesn't get a lot of screen time, so I don't want to write him much because I don't want him to be too out of character.
Rosie4334- Chapter 27- Love Jay and Casper together. They are so protective of each other. Hope Casper is found soon because he must be so scared. Wish that upton wasn't so glued to Jay. Maybe she needs her own dog. Worried about Jay and what will happen to him since his team seems to be clueless. Update soon.
Response: Look, if you don't like Upton, then don't read stories that she is tagged in. I understand constructive criticism, but this is not constructive criticism. This is just hating on a character. I understand having a personal opinion, but I feel that this is going beyond that. Call me weird, but I read the reviews that people have left on the stories that I read, and I have seen you attack Hailey in multiple reviews no matter what she did. You have your opinion and authors have theirs and that is fine, but it seems like your reviews at times center around how you hate Upton and how you manage to make her sound like the bad guy, no matter how the author is trying to portray her. In one that I read from you earlier today (7/25) you left a comment (on 7/23) "…This is my own private rant about upton." It is not private when it is in a public page where anyone can see it. It would be your personal opinion, not a private one. This is just one example, I can find at least five more. No one is forcing you to read Upstead stories or stories with Upton. If I lose readers because of this, then fine because to me you just troll Upstead stories and someone needed to say something. You don't like Upton- stick to reading old Lindsay/Lindstead stories. To everyone else, I'm sorry about my rant.