Timeline: Late season 6

Completed: Jan. 2, 2020

"Jay, are you okay?" Hailey asks as her partner struggles to catch his breath through a coughing fit.

"Yeah, fine," he answers her, still coughing. When the fit finally ends, Jay rests his head in his hands.

Seeing her partner look defeated, Hailey forgets about the football game that they were watching. "Hey, how are you feeling? Really?" she asks while rubbing his back

"Okay," he tells Hailey, looking up to her. "Really, I think I'm just getting a cold," he explains when he sees that she is giving him a look.

"You feel a little warm," Hailey informed him, as she placed the back of her hand to his cheek.

"It's probably because I was coughing so much," Jay weakly defends.

"Mmm-hmm, I still want to check," Hailey tells him as she gets up to grab the thermometer. Hailey returns a moment later with a thermometer and two different bottles, "Here," she hands him the device expectantly. Jay takes it and sticks it under his tongue, closing his mouth.

Hailey watches him closely, not trusting Jay to not mess with the reading. When the device beeps, Hailey takes it before Jay has a chance to look, "101.3, here," Hailey hands him two pills from the first bottle and then measures out the dosage of the liquid medicine. "The pills are Tylenol for the fever and this is for the cough. It's grape and it doesn't taste that bad," she tells Jay at his questioning look.

"Thanks," he coughs taking the medication.

"Do you need me to drive you home?" Hailey asks looking at the time.

"No, are you trying to get rid of me?" he jokes.

"No, but it's getting late and you should probably go to bed."

"Yeah, good idea," Jay concedes. "I'll see you tomorrow," he says as Hailey walks him out.

"Feel better and text me when you get home," Hailey tells him.

"I will," he promises.

After what feels like forever, Jay gets home and crashes as soon as he is in his bed. Jay wakes up a half-hour later to the sound of his phone going off. "Hel-" he breaks off into another coughing fit. Stuck in this fit, Jay forces himself to sit up; he feels the mucus coming up his throat, not having anything to spit it into, he spits into his hand. Feeling like he has gained control, he tries answering again, "Hello?"

"Jay? Are you okay?" Hailey asks over the phone, worried when she hears her partner struggling over the phone.

"Yeah, fine," he answers, brain cloudy from waking up before realizing why she called, "Shit! I didn't text you, I'm sorry. I fell asleep as soon as I got home," Jay tells her in a panic.

Hailey can tell that Jay is working himself up so she intervenes before he gets caught in another fit, "Jay, listen to my voice," she tells him calmly. "It's okay, I didn't mean to wake you. I just wanted to make sure you got home okay."

"Okay," he whispers.

"Go back to sleep," she tells him before hanging up the phone, not giving him a chance to respond to her.

Jay gets up to wash off his hand before going back to bed, bringing a roll of paper towels with him. He manages to fall back into a fairly restful sleep until his alarm wakes him the next morning.

Jay wakes up to the sound of his alarm, forcing himself awake, Jay gets out of bed, knowing if he hits the snooze button, he will fall back asleep and be late for work.

Jay searches his medicine cabinet looking for anything that can give him relief from the symptoms that he is feeling. Not finding anything, Jay decides to leave for work early so he can stop at the pharmacy on his way in.

Getting ready for the day, Jay leaves making a detour to CVS to pick up some DayQuil capsules. Swallowing the pills with some water he left in his car the other day, Jay heads into the district, hoping it's going to be a slow day.

Arriving at the district, Jay finds he is the first one in, having misjudged the time it would take to stop at CVS. Jay puts his belongings at his desk before he goes into the breakroom to lay on the couch for a little bit before the others arrive.

This is where Hailey finds him when she comes in thirty minutes later. Not wanting to cause him a coughing fit like he had last night, Hailey is careful when waking him. She gently rubs his back, feeling the heat through his shirt, "Jay, wake up." Not getting a response, she puts a little more pressure on his back.

"Wha's da matter?" Jay mumbles as he starts to wake up.

"Nothing, but you need to wake up. It's almost the start of the day," she tells him. "How are you feeling?"

"Not great, but I just took something."

"Okay, we can give that a chance to work, but if you need a ride home, let me know. I brought you some tea with honey. Do you think you can drink that for me instead of having coffee today?"

"Sure," Jay tells her as he gets up.

Jay's wish comes true as they stay in the bullpen working on updating CI files. By lunch, Jay is forcing himself to stay awake. Noticing the state that his detective is in, Voight calls Hailey into his office, "Upton, take him home and stay with him. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Voight doesn't need to say a name for either of them to know who he is referring to, as Jay looks physically worn down along with the hacking cough.

Easier said than done, Hailey thinks to herself, while answering Voight, "Okay."

"Jay," Hailey places a hand on his shoulder grabbing his attention, "Come on, Voight wants me to take you home."

"I don't-" Jay starts.

"Jay," Hailey interrupts, "You sound terrible. Go home, sleep off the worst of this, and come back in a few days."

Feeling like shit, Jay reluctantly agrees following Hailey out to her car. The drive is quiet sans Jay's coughing. Hailey periodically looks over to him on the drive, wanting to make sure that he is still okay.

Getting Jay into his apartment, Hailey settles him onto his couch in a position where he is partly sitting up, claiming he should be flat on his back. "When was the last time you took your temperature?" she questions him.

"At your place," he answers, trying not to cough.

"Jay," she states disapprovingly, "You need to keep an eye on that. Do you have a thermometer?" she questions. Jay only shrugs his shoulders, not knowing since it was always someone else who took care of things like that. "Okay, I'm going to check." Hailey walks off to his bathroom to look for the device.

"Found one," Hailey shows him the device as she walks out of the bathroom. Sticking it into his ear, she reads the reading out loud, "101.8, it went up since then. Can you have something for it yet?" She asks, not knowing when the last time he took medication was.

"No, not for a couple more hours," he answers after a minute.

"Okay, just try to relax until then. Maybe try to sleep some."

Listening to his partner, Jay turns on to his side and tries to get some sleep. Eventually, Jay is able to fall into an uncomfortable slumber. Not being able to do anything for the case from Jay's apartment, Hailey picks up a Stephen King book laying on Jay's coffee table to read to pass time, keeping an eye on Jay when she notices that he is wheezing in his sleep and he is waking up enough to go through a couple of coughing fits before going falling back into his slumber.

Getting lost in the book, Hailey doesn't realize how much time has passed until she hears her phone going off with a text from Adam, Are you going to meet us at Molly's?

Hailey looks over to Jay, before answering, No, I'm going to stay with Jay.

How's he doing?

He's been asleep almost the whole time.

Then take a break. He won't notice you're gone.

I can't. I don't like the way his breathing sounds.

He'll be fine.

Hailey doesn't bother answering Adam's last text. Looking over at Jay, Hailey is torn between waking him to give him more medicine and letting him sleep. Hailey decides the best way to make her decision is to check his temperature, if his fever went up she will wake him, if not she will let him sleep.

Sticking the device in his ear, she is concerned when it doesn't wake him, as he is a light sleeper. Seeing the reading of 102.4, Hailey knows that she has to wake him up, "Jay," she shakes his shoulder gently. "Wake up." Jay answers her with a moan. "Jay, you need to take more medicine to get your fever down."

Jay goes to take in a breath, triggering a coughing fit. Not able to force air into his lungs, Jay tries to stand up, panicked. Seeing her partner in such a state, Hailey's concern heightens, grabbing his arm, she starts talking to him, "Jay, it's okay. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth," she coaxes. Jay tries doing as he is told, only to gag himself. Hailey, knowing what is about to happen grabs a cup that is sitting on the table and places it under his chin. Jay throws up the little that was in his system.

Jay, who finally seemed to catch his breath, bends down to rest his head on Hailey's shoulder. Hailey maneuvers the two of them so they are back to sitting on the couch. "Jay, is that the first time you've coughed so hard you've thrown up?" Hailey asks him, noticing there was a bit of blue to his lips. Jay, not trusting his lungs just shakes his head. "When did it happen before?"

"Las-" Jay coughs.

"Last night?" Hailey clarifies.

Jay nods, focused on his breathing.

"After you left my house?" Jay nods again. "Okay, I think we should go to Med." Jay shakes his head, not wanting to go to the hospital.

"Jay, I really think we should go. Something not right, you shouldn't be coughing so hard that you're throwing up and your lips were tinted blue just now," Hailey then plays her last card to get him to go, "Your brother will kill me if something happened to you because I didn't bring you in."

Jay gives in, whispering a soft, "Okay."

The ride to Med was quiet, other than Jay's wheezy breathing. Arriving to the ED, Hailey gets Jay signed in where he is forced to wear a mask because of his cough and fever.

"How soon can he be seen?" Hailey asks the admitting nurse Leah.

"As soon as we can, but we're swamped right now," she answers apologetically.

"Okay, well is Will Halstead here? Can you let him know Jay is here?" Hailey asks.

"His shift ended an hour ago. He already left." She apologizes again.

Hailey thanks her before going back to Jay. Sitting next to him, Jay leans his head on her, "I know," Hailey comforts as she rubs his back.

They stay in that position for over two hours, Jay drifting in and out of consciousness when Hailey sees a familiar doctor.

"Natalie," she calls, causing the doctor to walk over to them.

"Hey, what brings you guys here?" she asks, trying not to feel awkward around her ex-fiancé's brother and his partner.

"Jay's not feeling great. Do you think you can get him seen faster? He has this bad cough where he can't catch his breath. We came because he was coughing so hard he threw up some and his lips turned a little blue," Hailey asks.

"Yeah," she tells Hailey before turning to Jay, "Do you think you can walk, or do you need a wheelchair?"

"I can wal-" Jay starts.

Hearing the sound of his cough, Natalie makes it her priority to get him out of the waiting room. She quickly brings him a wheelchair and the two get Jay into it before going to a treatment room.

"How long has he had that cough?" Natalie asked Hailey, noticing Jay can't really talk in full sentences.

"I noticed it last night when we were watching the game, but you know how he is; he could have had it for longer and did a good job hiding it. Why? What do you think it is?" Hailey asks.

"I need to take a swab and possibly blood test to confirm it, but it sounds like pertussis," Natalie tells the blonde detective.

"Pertussis? Isn't that whooping cough? I thought there was a vaccine for that," Hailey exclaims.

"There is," Natalie confirms, "And with Jay being in the military at some point, he would have gotten it. This means the dose he got wasn't effective, or the vaccine became less effective over time."

"So what does this mean?"

"We'll get him on antibiotics —you and the rest of the unit should probably take precautionary antibiotics-"

"Is Jay okay?" Will asks as he rushes into the room.

"How did you know he was here?" Natalie asks confused.

"Maggie texted me," Will answers going to his brother's head.

"I need to test to confirm it, but I'm pretty sure it's pertussis," Natalie repeats to the worried brother, as she is looking up his medical file on her iPad. "Hey, it says he never had the vaccine or the boosters," she notices. "Does he realized that he's putting other people in danger by not getting it? How was he in the military without it? What if Jay was around Owen before he was protected?"

"Natalie," Will starts, "He had the first one and it almost killed him, our parents thought he was dead and rushed him to the hospital. He had a severe allergic reaction to it and was medically exempted," he explains, hoping she won't think that Jay is an anti-vaxer.

"Sorry, but what happens now?" Hailey asks, wanting to know what is going on with her partner.

"It sounds like he's in stage two. So the coughing is normal, this stage normally lasts one to six weeks, but can last up to ten weeks. The coughing will subside significantly when he's in stage three."

"What about work?"

"He's going to be out at least until he finishes the antibiotics, but he probably won't feel up to being at work for a few weeks at least. He should probably contact your HR department."

"When can he go home?"

"I want to admit him unless someone can stay with him because he's not vaccinated, he is in a high-risk category for complications."

"I can stay with him at night, Nat," Will tells her.

"Okay, I'm going to send in a resident to get the swab and draw blood."

Two hours later, with an official diagnosis of pertussis, Will and Hailey leave with Jay, "Are you coming back to Jay's?" Will asks as he helps Jay into his car.

"No, I'm going to head into the district for a little bit," Hailey answers. At Will's confused look, she elaborates, "I took Jay home around lunch, so I haven't gotten much done today."

"Okay, I'll have him text you later," Will tells her before getting into his car.

The ride to Jay's apartment was quiet, mostly because Jay was drowsy from the first round of antibiotics he received before leaving Med.

Arriving at Jay's apartment, Will more or less supported all of Jay's weigh. Getting Jay into his room and settled for bed, Will leaves the door cracked so he can hear him as whooping cough is worse at night.

The next day, Hailey arrives to the district early, wanting to talk to Voight about Jay. "Sarge, do you have a second?" Hailey asks knocking on his office door.

"What do you need Upton?"

"I just wanted to let you know that Jay's going to be out for a while. He's going to call HR when he wakes up, but he has whooping cough."

"Do you have an idea of how long?"

"At least until he finishes antibiotics, but Dr. Manning said he's probably not going to feel up to working for several weeks."

"Okay, we'll rotate partners around some until he comes back," Voight tells her, ending the conversation.

Hailey goes back to her desk and sends Jay a text, reminding him to call HR when he wakes up.

"Hey, how's Jay?" Kim asks.

"Pretty sick. How did you know?" she asks in return.

"One, he looked terrible before Voight sent him home yesterday and two, Adam was complaining how you were staying with Jay instead of meeting at Molly's last night," she answers while rolling her eyes at the second reason. "So do you know what he has? It's too early for flu season," Kim wonders.

"Yeah, I ended up taking him to Med. He has whooping cough,' Hailey answers.

"Isn't there a vaccine for that?"

"Will said that Jay had a medical exemption from that one."

"Isn't whooping cough dangerous?"

"More so in young children than adults, but Will's staying with Jay to keep an eye on him."

"And Adam was making fun of him last night."

"He's a child."

Eight weeks later, Hailey is on the phone with Jay, "Are you sure you're ready to come back?" she questions.

"Hailey, it's been eight weeks. I'll go out of my mind if I have to stay cooped up in my apartment any longer," he coughs.

"You're still coughing," she counters.

"It's not as bad. Will said that I'm in the third stage now; the cough will still be there but it's not as often. Besides, desk duty is better than nothing."

"There's no changing your mind?"

"No."

"Okay. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow," he echoes.

Walking into the bullpen the next day, Jay finds a large bottle of hand sanitizer, along with gloves and hospital masks on his desk as a joke. Jay moves the items out of the way with a laugh, having missed the antics of his team.

A/N: Hey all, I wanted to address something that I've been seeing lately that is apparent. Plagiarism is not cool, now I like to give people the benefit of the doubt as it is hard to come up with an idea that is 100% original, but copying word for word is different. That should never happen, recently I've noticed a couple of accounts that I'm 98% sure that is the same person pulling the same crap of plagiarising another author's work and claiming it as their own, or that the other author was going to delete said stories.

I've only become more sure as I've read some of the comments that you've (other readers) left in these stories.

With my stories, I know I read another story where there was a three or four-chapter story of an asthmatic Jay, but I believe that my story was different enough that I was able to make it my own. With "Man's Best Friend," I believe that I was the first to have a PTSD service dog storyline with Jay. I have seen another one pop up since then, that was very similar but had enough difference that I can't prove anything: and that author later commented on my story, criticizing the length of my chapters and telling me that I'm not paying attention to the details that I write, nor the length of time it would take to train a service dog.

So, please report these people for plagiarism, it is not far to the authors affected. The accounts that I am almost certain that are from the same person are Chicagopd . svu, Onechicagofamily. suv, PdUpstead, and most recently Shanyah Cole. I believe that this same person is also pulling the same stunt on AO3. ***Take away the spaces with the first two.

With that being said, I only post here. I do not have an account on any other website, so if my stories end up there– that is NOT me. Also, as of right now, my stories are only posted in English, since like most people from the US, I am unfortunately only fluent in English. If they are translated into another language, I did not give the "Okay" for someone to translate.

Sorry for my ranting, but on a different note, did anyone guess right? Stay safe and healthy.

Conversions:

101.3= 38.5

101.8= 38.8

102.4= 39.1

Can someone who uses Celsius tell me if these conversions are right? I mean, if the conversion is 101.8=38.78, should it be with two decimals (38.78)or do I use one and just cut off the last digit (38.7) or cut off the last digit and round (38.8)?

I am also working on adding conversions to other chapters and stories where needed.

Questions & Comments:

JONI & nonna99- Chapter 14- Both mentioned how they don't like Elsa.

Response: Same I never liked Elsa either. She just seemed, so, robotic to be in a helping profession.

Guest- Chapter 15- Loved this would you write more asthma Jay? Maybe even a new series with him coping with asthma while on the job?

Response: At the moment, no. We'll see what happens when this story wraps up on August 22 (Hopefully). I do have more Jay whump stories though ("Rock Bottom"- In-progress/hiatus; "Man's Best Friend"- in-progress/ will hopefully get back to by the end of the month. "Silence is a Strange Sound" Deaf fic- working title/unpublished/in-progress. "Just Keep Swimming"- working title/unpublished/in-progress. "It's Not Just a Pink Thing"- working title/unpublished/in-progress. And an untitled whump prompt from floopdeedoopdee- unpublished/in-progress.

Ghostwriter- Chapter 15- This is really cool. I love it all. Question, why would Jay have needed to switch to a mouthpiece rather than a mask for the treatment? Keep up the great work.

Response: I didn't see this in the comments, but I did get an e-mail with the comment. So, from what I understand, there are two ways to receive a nebulizer treatment. One is by using an oxygen mask that has a compartment for the nebulizer medication. The other way is a mouthpiece, which looks like a tube(?) that connects to a hose which leads to the machine. The mask is generally for young children as more medicine can be absorbed through the mouthpiece, but not everybody likes the mouthpiece over the mask or are able to use it easily.