Welcome back to another chapter everyone. I hope all of you are doing well and staying healthy.
I hope you are still enjoying my story, my aim is to provide you with content that all of you enjoy so I hope that I've been able to achieve that up to this point.
Thank you once again to all of you that read the last chapter and to those of you who left a review. I really appreciate every single one of who that reads my story.
I will warn you that there is some strong language and mention of violence in this chapter. There is nothing gruesome or anything like that but I thought I'd let you now prior to you reading this.
"It's Jay Hailey, he's been... he's been kidnapped." Vanessa spluttered out, her voice trembling as she struggled to tell Hailey the news. The intensity of Hailey's crying increased as she listened to what Rojas had just dropped on her, her whole body was shaking in fear as she stumbled backwards until her back hit the wall, her trembling legs almost giving way as she slide down the wall into a ball on the floor.
Hailey was immediately engulfed in Vanessa's arms as she joined Hailey on the floor, pulling her best friend into her body, Hailey's head finding its place on Vanessa's shoulder. Rojas found herself tearing up as she listened to Hailey crying on her shoulder, every sob that left Hailey's lips breaking her heart a little more each time. Every second that passed by it was hurting Rojas more and more to see Hailey crying her eyes out, the sounds of pain and fear falling from Hailey's lips felt like a punch to the gut for Vanessa, each punch hurting more and more.
"This can't be happening again. I can't lose him Vanessa, I can't raise this little girl without him." Hailey cried out against Vanessa's shoulder, her voice shaky as she sounded broken.
"We're going to find him Hailey, we're going to bring him back to you and your little girl. No one is going to stop until he get him back to you Hailey." Vanessa replied, her voice soft and quiet as she attempted to try and calm down Hailey. Vanessa's hand started slowly running circles over Hailey's back as she rested her head against Hailey's.
The next few minutes were spent in exactly the same position, Vanessa attempting anything she could to try and calm down Hailey, her efforts seeming to work slightly as she felt Hailey's trembling tense body start to soften and relax into her embrace. "Come on Hailey, let's move somewhere a little more comfortable." Vanessa whispered against the top of Hailey's head, Hailey nodding her head slightly in response as she lifted her head off Vanessa's shoulder for the first time.
Vanessa carefully helped Hailey up off the floor and wrapped her arms around the trembling body of her best friend, slowly making their way to the couch as Vanessa led the way. After helping Hailey onto the couch Vanessa finally set her eyes on her best friend for the first time since arriving and her heart continued to break for Hailey. Hailey's eyes were red and puffy, tears were still slowly trickling down her cheeks and the look in her eyes screamed fear and how scared she was.
"Vanessa, will you stay with me? I don't think I will be able to cope by myself." Hailey whispered as Vanessa started to move away from the couch towards the kitchen. Vanessa's heart continued to shatter hearing Hailey's tone of voice, Hailey struggled to get her words out as she sounded so scared and nervous.
"Of course I will Hailey, I wasn't going to leave you on your own anyway. I would be a bad friend if I left you on your own in this situation." Vanessa replied as she started to boil some water to make a cup of tea for the two of them.
"Thank you Vanessa." Hailey replied, her lips curving into the smallest of smiles as she looked towards Vanessa. Hailey leaned back into the softness of her couch, her hand automatically moved down to her bump and sat protectively over the top of her little girl. "Your daddy is going to need all of our love and support right now Soph, he's going to need you to protect and give him a little extra love that your daddy always tells you to give to me. Your daddy is going to be back with us very soon little one." Hailey whispered, quiet enough so Vanessa couldn't hear her from the kitchen.
Vanessa returned to Hailey with a hot cup of tea for her a few minutes later and joined Hailey on the couch. The two of them sat in silence for a little while, Hailey felt like she was about to burst into tears at any moment, but she managed to stay strong, not only for herself but for little Sophia and Jay. After a little while Hailey slowly dozed off into a much needed sleep, she was already shattered before hearing the news that Jay had been kidnapped but the crying and the constant scared feeling in her body had taken its toll on Hailey's tired aching body.
While Vanessa had split off and gone to be with Hailey, the team had returned to the district after losing the getaway vehicle that contained Jay and Shawn in it. All of them team were absolutely raging that the sequence of events that had gone down at the buy, but Voight was absolutely boiling. None of them had ever seen Voight this angry before, not even Platt, they were scared to even approach him in fear of what might happen if they did. There was one person that all of Voight's anger was being aimed at and that was the sergeant from homicide who tried to hijack the case previously.
"You better give me a good explanation to why your team was at our undercover buy. Choose you next words wisely." Voight threatened as he yelled at Sergeant Phillips, Voight was right up in his face. The rest of the unit was standing in the background of the two sergeants, all of them giving dirty looks to the homicide sergeant.
"We got intel from an informant that the same guns used in the homicides we've been investigating were being sold to a buyer. We had to move quickly on the Intel we were given." Phillips explained, the explanation obviously not sitting well with Voight who was just getting angrier and angrier then more time that he spent with the homicide sergeant.
"Why the fuck would you not inform us that you were moving in? Crawford ordered you to drop the investigation into Williams and leave it to us. But now because of you and the stupid bunch of fucking clowns that you work with, one of my detectives and his CI's lives are now in danger. Now get the fuck out of my district!" Voight fired back, getting closer to the sergeant, his fists clenching up ready to knock Phillips on his ass.
"I've heard a lot about you Voight, people have said you were a son of a bitch, and now I see why people..." Phillips was cut off a Voight's right fist connected with his nose, the crunching sound of Phillips's nose breaking filling the room as he stumbled backwards and slammed against the floor of the district garage.
Within a matter of seconds Phillips could feel the cool feeling of a metal barrel being placed against his forehead, Voight's figure blocking out some of the artificial light in the room as he towered over Phillips. "You better pray to god that Halstead and his CI are found alive. Halstead is like a son to me and a brother to everyone in this room, he also has a fiancée who is pregnant with his daughter. So if we find him with more than a scratch on him, me and you will be taking a drive and I can assure you that it won't be a nice drive for you." Voight threatened, driving the barrel of his gun harder into the forehead of Phillips.
After a few moments Voight removed the gun from Phillips head and made his way to the stairs, not looking back at Phillips who was trying to get himself up off the floor. Once reaching his office, Voight pulled out his phone and called someone who he knew would help them find Halstead and Damien Williams. "I need your help, we've got a problem here. Bring a couple of others with you, only people you trust and don't mind getting their hands dirty, I don't want amateurs on this." Voight explained to the person on the end of the line before hanging up abruptly.
It was getting close to midnight when Rixton and a couple of others from his gang task force unit showed up to the bullpen, Voight took them into his office and explained the situation to them, the four of them reappearing into the bullpen fifteen minutes later. Atwater, Burgess and Ruzek looking a little shocked to see Rixton back in intelligence again.
"Right, Rixton and some of his task force are coming to help us find Jay and his CI, they have knowledge that is going to be invaluable to helping find Jay. Before we go any further, we are going to find Jay one way or another. We're going to be going dark until we find Jay and going to find any lengths to get him back. If your head isn't in the game then don't be a part of this, put all of your feelings to the back of your minds as they don't matter right now. There are two people that we are going this for, and those two are Hailey and their daughter. So you're 100% in or out, now's the time to make that choice." Voight bellowed out as he stood arms crossed just in front of the door to his voice. Atwater, Burgess and Ruzek all taking it in turns to confirm they were 100% in.
Voight then let Rixton take centre stage as he explained everything him and his unit had gathered on Williams and his crew. "As you know Williams has been a slippery bastard in the past but recently him and his crew have made a few slips ups with have given us an angle to move in on them. One of his goons, Terry Coates has a weak spot which we need to pounce on, that is his girlfriend Sara Jones, Coates lives with her and does everything for her so if there is one weak spot that is it." Rixton explained, placing surveillance photos of Coates and his girlfriend onto the case board.
"Is this Terry Coates close enough to Williams to know where he would be hiding Jay and his CI?" Ruzek questioned from his desk.
"Coates is pretty close to Williams, Williams uses Coates as a bodyguard during buys and other deals that Williams is involved with. So I have a pretty good bet that he was involved in some capacity tonight. Even if he wasn't there tonight, he will likely have the knowledge to where Williams is most likely to take Halstead and the CI. If we find Coates with his girlfriend he's done for because he's going to protect her over anything." Rixton explained once again.
"Let's get ready and move out everyone. Atwater and Burgess cover the back of the house and the rest of us will go through the front door." Voight ordered as everyone vested up and raced off to the address that Rixton had provided.
It took just over ten minutes for the team to arrive at the location of Terry Coates and his girlfriend's house. Atwater and Burgess carefully made their way from the long grass of the front yard and headed for the back while the others staged at the front porch of the rundown house, awaiting the signal from Atwater that they were in position before making entry.
"Me and Burgess are in position at the rear. All lights are off at the rear of the property except for the room at the back left of the house." Atwater's voice sounded over the radio, Voight giving Ruzek and green light to kick the front door down."
"Chicago PD!" Ruzek yelled as the front door swung open, there were immediately met by a staircase with a long hallway leading off to the right of the stairs. Voight signalled for the two detectives that Rixton had brought with him to search the downstairs while himself, Ruzek and Rixton cleared the upstairs. The three of them swiftly moved upstairs, Adam leading the way. Once upstairs they could see a dim source of light peaking around the outside of one of the closed doors, Adam kicked in the closed door and was meant by Coates's girlfriend, the brunette woman looking absolutely terrified as Ruzek pointed his gun at her.
"Where's Coates Sara?" Ruzek questioned aggressively as he placed her in handcuffs, Ruzek caught onto the direction where Sara was looking, her gaze had landed on the door to the en-suite bathroom, and Adam pointed out to Voight and Rixton behind him that Coates was in the bathroom.
Voight and Rixton staged at the en-suite door and Rixton booted the door in, finding Coates hiding in the bath, himself looking scared to death as his eyes landed on Rixton and Voight. Voight grabbed hold of one of Coates's arms and yanked him out of the bath and moved him into the bedroom, which had been empty after Ruzek moved Sara away. "You've got one opportunity to tell me where Williams and my detective are." Voight threatened as he pressed his gun in between the eyes of Coates.
"I have no idea what you're on about. I've been here all day, I haven't seen Williams for weeks, and I'm not involved in that stuff anymore." Coates attempted to plead his innocence.
"How stupid do you think we are Coates? Your car is still warm and there is a muddy trail of footprints leading to where your soaking wet muddy boots are. So I'll give you one more opportunity to tell me where Williams and my detective are." Voight fired back, taking in gun away from Coates head for a moment as he landed two powerful punches on Coates's nose and jaw, a steady stream of blood started flowing from his nose.
"I don't know anything, I don't know anything about a detective and I certainly don't know where Williams is." Coates once again lied.
Voight was absolutely boiling inside, he didn't like getting messed around by anyone, let anyone by someone who had kidnapped one of his detectives a couple of hours ago. Voight had reached his limit, he moved his gun down and shot Coates in the kneecap, Coates immediately screamed out in pain along with a mixture of curse words as his leg gave way and he collapsed onto the floor, his hands moving down to try and apply pressure to the wound.
"Last chance to tell me where my detective is Coates. You lie to me one more time and you won't see sunrise." Voight snapped, his voice nasty and harsh as he pressed his gun against the underside of Coates's chin.
"Ok Ok. After Williams shoved the two men in the car we sped off and headed one of Williams's property's that he uses to conduct his business, it's not far from here, about ten minutes south from here. I didn't see where Williams moved the two men to, I was told to ditch the car that they used and then head home. Williams didn't know that the two men were police, it wasn't until all of those cops came in all guns blazing that he suspected that they might be police. I'm just a bodyguard, I didn't do anything to hurt those cops." Coates explained, wincing in pain throughout the whole of his explanation, at the end of his words Coates looked like he was about to burst into tears from a mixture of pain from his gunshot wound and fear that Voight might kill him right here for the part he played in Jay's kidnapping.
"I'm going to need more details Coates." Voight pushed, his voice still harsh and nasty even after moving his gun away from Coates's chin.
"The property is some sort of old factory, it's not very big, it's easy to spot as there's always two vans parked out front to try and blend in. When I left with the car there was only Williams and another person there. The only way in is through the front, the back door is bolted shut." Coates replied as he sat up to apply pressure to his wound.
"Rixton get this scumbag out of here, I'll sort out what I want to do with him after." Voight ordered, following Rixton out of the room with Coates who was stumbling his way through the house.
It was just after one in the morning, Hailey was still fast asleep on the opposite couch to Vanessa, it probably was quite uncomfortable for Hailey to be sleeping on the couch but she was that tired that she would be able to sleep anywhere. Vanessa had just received a message from burgess updating her on their progress. Vanessa was left debating whether to or not wake Hailey up to update her. Vanessa decided that she needed let Hailey know about the developments, even though Hailey was putting on a brave face at the moment, Rojas knew how much she was hurting at the moment.
Rojas slowly made her way over to Hailey, kneeling down at the end of the couch where Hailey's head was. Vanessa gently started shaking Hailey's arm while shaking her name in a soft quiet voice, it took a few moments but eventually Hailey's eyes fluttered open. Hailey's eyes settled on Rojas after a few seconds of gathering her bearings, Hailey immediately feared the worse as her eyes started to water and tears started rolling down her cheeks. "Hey it's just me Hailey, don't get upset. I've got an update from the team." Vanessa spoke, her voice still soft and quiet as she placed one of her hands on Hailey's shoulder.
Hailey quickly repositioned herself so she was now sitting upright on the couch, eagerly looking back at Rojas for the update on Jay. "Please tell me they have found him." Hailey replied, pleading with Vanessa to give her some good news and tell her that Jay was coming back to her and Sophia.
"They haven't found him yet but they're close, they know where he is being held and their moving in on the location shortly." Rojas explained, still kneeling down where Hailey's head was a moment ago.
Hailey had been on the verge of tears ever since she had broken down for the first time when Vanessa arrived, hearing that Jay was still missing pushed her over the edge. Hailey buried her head into her hands as she started crying, the muffled sound of her sobs sending shivers throughout Vanessa's body as her heart broke again at the sight of Hailey crying. Vanessa quickly moved up onto the couch and pulled Hailey into her body, her arm stretching around Hailey's shoulders as she engulfed Hailey in a big hug.
As the seconds passed by, Hailey's crying only got louder and more intense. The same feeling Vanessa's body returned from earlier, each cry of pain and fear from Hailey broke her heart more and more. Vanessa was finding it so hard to watch Hailey crumble and break down right in front of her, this image of Hailey was a complete contrast to the Hailey she had known for close to a year now. It hurt Vanessa so much to see the woman that she looked up to and regarded as one of, if not the strongest person she had met, to shrink and break down over the love of her life.
After what felt like the longest ten minutes in both of their lives, Hailey finally pulled away from Vanessa, her eyes once again red and puffy and enduring another breakdown. "I know you probably don't feel like talking Hailey, but why don't you talk to me about your little girl. It might help take your mind off Jay for a moment." Vanessa broke the silence in the room. Hailey let out a tiny smile at Vanessa's words, not only at the mention of her baby girl but at the fact that Vanessa was trying her best to comfort Hailey and make her feel better.
Hailey took a few moments to get her emotions in check and compose herself before speaking. "I told Jay a few weeks ago that I wanted him to name our daughter, I thought it would mean an awful lot to him if he could have the opportunity to give his daughter the name he had always dreamed of. Before he left he decided on the name he wanted to give her, so our little girl's name is Sophia Christina Halstead." Hailey forced out a small weak smile as she thought back to a few hours ago, when everything was perfect.
"Aw, that's such a lovely name Hailey, I love it." Vanessa replied, a small smile forming on her face after hearing the name of her goddaughter.
"I love it to. Jay had always been set on the names Sophie or Sophia but he wasn't sure which he liked more. I always preferred Sophia that little bit more so I'm really happy with her name. Jay's been calling her Soph when he talks to her, hearing him call her that is so adorable and just makes me so excited for when he can meet her for the first time. I know for a fact that he's going to be such an amazing father to her, he's going to treat her like a princess for the whole of her life and I can't wait to witness that." Hailey replied, her small weak smile starting to slowly growing wider as she started to feel a little bit happier.
"You better let me take little Sophia on days out, I'm going to need some time with my goddaughter." Vanessa smiled back at Hailey, continuing her efforts to try and make Hailey feel better in what had been a difficult few hours for her best friend.
"Of course you can take her out Vanessa, I'm sure Soph will love spending time with her godmother. It might take some persuading for Jay to let Sophia out of his sight, I don't think he's going to let her out of his sight for the first few months after she is born." Hailey replied, letting out a small chuckle at the end.
"Why don't you go upstairs and get some more sleep Hailey. I'm sure that the couch can't be every comfortable for you and I promise you I'll let you know any updates I get." Rojas spoke after a few moments of silence. Hailey agreed and with the help of Vanessa, she carefully made her way up to her bedroom, she was asleep within seconds of pulling her covers over her tired body.
Jay was blinded by the light as his eyes opened and he was taken away from the darkness, his head was heavy, pounding like someone was hitting him in the head over and over again. Jay sucked in a deep breath and immediately winced in pain, the pain coming from both sides of his body. He could feel the sticky feeling of dried blood in his hair and down the left side on his way and a warm flow of liquid trickling down his cheeks on the right side of his face. Jay lifted his head slightly to look around the room, through his blurred vision he could see a black outline of someone next to him, the body seemingly lifeless as it showed no signs of movement.
After a few moments, once Jay gathered his bearings a little more his mind cast back to what had happened before. His memory was a little blurry but he could remember some sort of commotion happening before everything went black. His mind continued replaying the events as he pictured the face of a man and could feel the repetitive feeling of being punched and then once again everything went black. The next thing he could remember was using a sharp piece of metal that he found in the floor of this dirty basement to try and cut the rope tied around his wrists.
Jay's eyes started furiously darting around the area close to him for the sharp piece of metal, finding it just to the left of him. Jay started to use his feet to try and reach the piece of metal, his head constantly on a swivel to make sure he wasn't missing a possible threat. Jay managed to push the metal close enough that he could reach it with his hands, even though they were tied up. Jay started work on cutting through the ropes, progress was slow and tedious, the limited movements that he could achieve with his hands making it tough to cut through the rope.
After what felt like an entirely, Jay was slowly making progress, each thread of the rope that Jay cut was giving him more and more room to work with. Jay's head was still constantly looking for threats, he could hear muffled sounds from above him and the occasional bang and thud.
Jay continued hacking away at the rope that was halting any progress of an escape, his eyes kept darting over to the body next to him with he identified as Shawn. Shawn hadn't moved once since Jay had regained consciousness but Jay could see his chest rising and falling and no blood was visible from what Jay could see. Jay finally managed to cut through a section of the rope and tie his hands, his attention quickly turned to the rope which was around his feet, progress was going to be quicker but it was still a slow and tedious process.
Just as Jay managed to cut from the rope of his feet, he picked up the sounds of voices, getting closer and closer each second that passed. As the voices got closer Jay managed to understand some of what they were saying. 'Check outside, someone's out there.' A deep voice sounded as the sound of the voices seemed to drift away.
Just as Jay thought the coast was clear, the metal door of the basement flung open with a loud crash against the concrete wall and a tall figure in all black clothing entered the basement. Luckily for Jay he hadn't taken away the rope from around his feet, so he didn't look like he would be able to move to the tall figure.
As the tall figure made his way over to Jay, Jay jumped up and used the element of surprise to gain the upper hand on the tall male. Jay sunk the sharp metal piece into the abdomen of the tall figure, twisting the metal in the wound before pulling it out and stabbing him again in the abdomen. The tall figure went down screaming in pain as his hands attempted to clutch at the deep wounds in his abdomen, after a few seconds the male was unconscious, his body going limp as his hands dropped from the wound.
Jay started to move in the direction of Shawn, the metal piece in his hand at the ready if he needed it. Jay's progress was halted as two familiar sounds echoed throughout the basement and the whole of the building. Two loud pops...
The metal piece immediately dropped from his hands as Jay's hands moved down to the source of the new burning sensation on the left side of his body. His legs gave way as he collapsed on the floor, his hands attempted to cover the burning sensation, he could feel a warm thick liquid coat his hands as more and more continued seeping out. Every second that passed he found himself grasping from air, becoming more difficult and painful as his need for air increased. He could hear himself struggling for breathe as the pain in his lower abdomen was becoming more unbearable.
The light was replaced by darkness and a cold feeling washing over his body. As the shape of the shadow changed and he feared the worst, that same sound from moments earlier sounded again. Two loud pops...
But instead of another burning sensation igniting in his body, there was a loud thud to the side of him. A new feeling washed throughout his body, a feeling which he couldn't identify. Was it relief? Or fear? As his mind worked in overdrive another shadow covered his body in darkness, this time the shadow was closer and he felt a pressure on his lower abdomen that wasn't there before. There was voices around him, but his sole focus was his attempts to grasp for air, which was becoming more of an effort every single second that passed.
"Stay with me Jay, we've got you." A familiar voice rung through his ears. Jay managed to tilt his side to the side where the source of the voice came from. It was blurry but he managed to pick out the figure of Ruzek, his hands applying pressure to the two gunshot wounds on Jay's left side.
"Adam..." Jay managed to splutter out as his breathing became more raged and his need for air was only increasing.
"Don't speak Jay, save your air and just keep your eyes open and stay with me Jay. Help is on its way, just stay awake with me Jay." Ruzek demanded, his eyes darting back and forth to someone out of Jay's line of sight.
Somehow Jay managed to muster up a small amount of strength to lift his arm and start clawing away at Adam's arm. "Adam... tell Hailey... I love... her and... Sophia." Jay spluttered out, struggling in between words as each word that left his mouth caused his struggles to breathe to increase.
Just as Adam was about to open his mouth, Jay's hand fell from his arm and his eyes closed...
I'm sorry everyone, I'm sorry. The only teaser I will give you is that Jay will not die but other than that, you will have to wait until the next chapter to find out. :)
I know Voight would ever reach out to Rixton on the show but I thought it would be nice to bring back an old face in my story. I really liked Rixton for the short time he was on the show so I wanted to bring him back for at least one chapter.
I'll be back with another two uploads next week, I'm not sure what those uploads will be yet but there will definitely be at least one update to this story.
Stay safe and healthy out there everyone. :)