Trudy POV

When the entire Intelligence Unit landed themselves in Gaffney Medical Centre, it was a very bad day.

Trudy paced up and down in the waiting room of the Emergency Department, waiting for anybody to tell her that her people were okay.

So maybe she was a bit snappy with the receptionist but, sue her, she was worried.

She looked over to see the doors to the ED open and the ginger Halstead walked through the doors. "Sergeant Platt?"

She swallowed her annoyance, who the hell else did he think she was? "Yes. Yes. What is it? How is everyone?"

He had a goofier smile than his brother, which just grated on her frayed nerves. "Everyone, by all accounts, are fine. Sergeant Voight is dealing with the reports, Jay is in the other waiting room, you can come with me."

Trudy huffed, about time, but her heart rate was finally starting to return to normal for the first time since Voight had rang her.

"Bad call Trudy, the team is at Med."

She followed this Halstead into another room where the other Halstead was waiting, hands clasped together, knee bouncing, nervous energy practically bouncing off of him.

"Jay?" She asked, watching as his head snapped up when he heard her voice.

"Serge." He breathed in relief. He then looked questioningly at his brother. "How is everyone?"

"Overall good. Ruzek and Atwater are being discharged as we speak, Dawson and Upton are going through one more preliminary test…"

"And Kim?" Jay cut across him.

Will blinked in surprise at Jay's curt tone. "She inhaled a lot of smoke, so we're keeping her overnight. Voight is contacting her family now. Everyone will be okay Jay." He clapped his brother on the shoulder.

"What the hell happened?" Trudy asked, nerves still battling through her system.

"I was on sniper, we were going to hem the guy into his mansion, nice and quiet." Jay spoke with such pain in his voice that Trudy sat down with him. "Bloody guy had set the place up, set it alight. Knew he was caught. The flames appeared so fast Serge. This was my case. I just wouldn't let it go and I put the entire unit at risk."

Trudy had been keeping tabs on this particular case, the tarnished millionaire that Kim and Jay had finally managed to find a weak spot with that had broken up the case.

"No. We're all in this together Jay. It's nobody's fault. And everyone will be okay." She looked up at the doctor, "Won't they?" She practically snarled, practically daring him to say that any of the unit wouldn't be okay.

"Yes. Definitely. Completely." Will nodded quickly.

The rest of the day flew past in a blur.

Helping Hank with the reports, checking in on the rest of the unit, helping them with their discharge papers. Thanking her lucky stars that everyone was rather unscathed, she arranged for them all to get home and rest up. But not before each one called in to check up on Burgess who was in a room for a night on oxygen as a precaution.

Trudy maintained it was one of her biggest fears, seeing one of her own hurting.

The firefighters from 51 came by to check in and Voight and Dawson went back to the 21st District to nail the millionaire for his actions, he had been rescued from the fire too. Finally, they would be able to put the case to rest.

At the end of the day, Trudy was the only one left and she went to get herself some food before heading back to Kim's room. The officer's family wouldn't arrive until the next morning and Trudy couldn't bear to have the Kim left on her own.

But when she got back to Kim's room, she wasn't alone.

Jay Halstead was sitting in the chair beside her bed.

Trudy paused, maybe Kim had everyone she needed beside her already.

Jay POV

Jay flipped through a file on his desk, they were so close to catching the criminal, he could almost feel the cold metal of the handcuffs. But they needed bulletproof evidence before they proceeded.

But Jay knew his team, they'd get there.

He sighed and stretched his arms above his head, looking up. Hailey was talking sternly down her phone, Antonio kept rushing up and down to Ruzek who was trawling through video footage and Kevin and Kim were cross-referencing files at her desk.

"Jay?" Voight's voice jarred him from his thoughts. Pulled his attention from where his eyes seemed to now almost constantly roam until they found Kim. "A word?"

Jay hopped up from his desk, "Sure thing Serge."

He thought it was just something pertaining to the case. Until Voight closed the door behind them.

"Have a seat." Voight said.

Jay immediately went on alert, those words never usually led to anything good.

He took his seat nevertheless and watched as his Sergeant do the same and clench and unclench his jaw as if trying to find the right words.

Jay shifted uncomfortably in his seat, not knowing what was wrong, as Voight leaned back in his chair.

"Look Jay." He sighed, rubbing a tired hand over his face. "I try to not give a damn about your personal lives. Makes my life easier. Makes this job, easier. But…"

He paused, looking tired and vaguely annoyed, "Are you sure? Because the two of you, you both know how wrong these types of things can go. You have to be sure as hell."

"Serge?" Jay was grappling with his words, trying to catch up with what on earth Voight was saying.

Voight pinched the bridge of his nose, "I don't care about whatever happens between you all outside as long as it doesn't affect your work. But I need to know about serious relationships, so I know where loyalties lie."

Again, Jay was at a loss, just managing to stare blankly at his Sergeant.

"After everything with Erin…" Voight sounded tired. "And Ruzek..." He practically threw his hands up as if his point was obvious.

Erin.

Ruzek.

Jay nearly choked on his own breath when it clicked into place.

Erin and him. Ruzek and Kim.

Him and Kim. That was the only answer, the only explanation, the only links.

"Serge you've got it all wrong…"

"I don't want to know. I just want to know if I need to know?" Voight said, holding his hand up as if trying to keep Jay at a distance.

"No. No there's nothing going on between me and Burgess Serge, honestly." He even managed a ghost of a laugh.

His Sergeant sent him a look that he reserved only for suspects who were lying.

But he wasn't lying.

Was he?

They weren't together, that much was true. But was there something going on between them?

With Voight staring him down like this, he wasn't sure.

"I…there's…it…I mean…" Jay tried to formulate his words into something comprehensible while his mind was racing.

Sure, he and Kim had become closer lately but that was possibly the best development in his life in a long time.

Sure, he loved spending time with her, hearing her laugh and the way she could brighten his day.

Sure, he had liked waking up to see her face that one morning, liked that she trusted him and liked just being with her.

Sure, the evidence pointed to something. But there was nothing going on.

"Look I've never even thought of Kim like that…" It was uncomfortable, to say the least, discussing his feelings, his personal live, with Voight. Especially when both men knew that Voight's pseudo-daughter had shattered his heart.

So, his statement was a white lie considering he had lately begun to take more notice of Kim. She was beautiful, her the shade of her eyes was quickly becoming his favourite colour and he had started coming up with any excuse to be near her in work.

But that didn't mean he liked her. Right?

"I don't need details." Voight held his hand up and Jay was just grateful that his Sergeant was just as uncomfortable as him in this situation. "I just need you two to be careful. Don't hurt each other."

Jay got the message loud and clear. It wasn't just that Voight didn't want complications or conflicts with work, it was that he cared about them. His people.

"You got it." Jay nodded in a promise.

With no more to discuss, he quickly escaped the small room that felt like it was closing in on him, only to be met with Kim leaving a note at his desk.

"Got another hit." She said cheerfully, gesturing to the file she had left on his desk. She faltered, eyes roaming over his face. "Everything okay?"

Jay shook his head slightly, feeling shaken, "Yeah it's fine."

"Okay." She said, raising her eyebrows. Jay knew she could read him well; he was not fine. But she wasn't going to push him when he didn't want to open up right away. "We'll catch this jerk soon, don't worry." She said, placing a reassuring hand on his arm before retreating to her desk.

The case was the last thing on his mind.

Her hand on his arm. The simple contact sent shockwaves through his reeling mind.

Kim Burgess.

Or more specifically the idea of him and Kim.

As if the case wasn't already a lot to occupy his mind, it was now overcrowded with new thoughts that had nothing to do with work.

It was one of the longest days of his life.

Watching and not being able to do anything but call for backup, firefighters and ambulances.

The smoke. The sirens.

The guilt weighing on him making it difficult for him to breathe, and he hadn't even been near the fire.

He had never left a sniper spot so quickly, feet moving so fast down the stairwell of the building that his mind automatically went back to combat mode. Current stress flinging memories of traumatic events right back into the forefront of his mind.

Hie entire unit was in danger. The backup that had arrived had to hold him back from running right into the smouldering building.

Kim, Antonio and Hailey looked the worst from what he saw in the chaos as the building was evacuated by the firefighters.

But Voight insisted on everyone getting checked through his own coughs.

The only thing Jay could do was make sure that the backup officers kept a hold on the son-of-a-bitch that had not only committed multiple crimes but put his family's lives at risk.

And then he followed the ambulances to the hospital.

The longest drive of his life.

Sometimes Jay hated his brother being a doctor.

He could read him too well. He'd know if Will was trying to placate patient's family and friends, he'd know if they weren't okay even if Will tried to pretend that they were.

But when Will finally came to update him, with Trudy in tow, and gave him the run down, Jay could finally breathe easy.

Except that Kim wasn't entirely out of the woods and no amount of reassurance from anyone could make him forget it or ignore it.

The other annoying fact of having Will as a brother was that his brother could read him too well too.

"You hate hospitals." Will found him in a hallway as night approached.

"Hey bro, gee I'm fine, how are you doing?" Jay threw back at him, leaning against the cold wall behind him.

Will just sent him a well-rehearsed withering look to Jay's sarcastic remarks, "What the hell are you still doing here? Everyone's gone home, aren't they? Come on I'll give you a ride home."

"Not everyone is gone home." Jay said, his voice suddenly hollow.

Therein lay the problem.

Kim was still in the building and he couldn't bear to leave. Not when he could think of no one else but her since his talk with Voight that morning. So, he had spent the day after the rest of the team had left, just wandering the halls of Med.

"Oh yeah Kim Burgess is staying the night, right?" Will asked, shrugging his jacket on to leave. But with no reply from his brother, he let the silence linger before raising his eyebrows, "Kim's still here, so you're still here?"

Jay shifted uncomfortably, he wasn't sure of the answer and that was his problem.

"No. Yeah. I don't know." He offered and his brother just nodded.

"Well she's probably on the second floor if you want to see her." Will just clapped Jay on the back and left him to his thoughts. Will was smart, he knew Jay liked his space with these things.

But he had had space. All day.

And yes, he had always admired Kim as a colleague.

And yes, he had appreciated her as a friend.

And yes, more and more lately he had been thinking far too much about Kim Burgess as something other than a friend or colleague.

But Voight's words echoed around his head. "I just need you two to be careful"

Jay had been hurt before; hell Kim had been hurt just as badly before too. And he wanted to be sure that he wanted something with her before he acted on it.

But he also just wanted to see her right now.

So, with his head full of thoughts and his body tired from the day, Jay made his way to the hospital shop and café to pick up somethings for Kim and went about finding her room.

The nurse on duty at the desk gave him directions after he had told her he was her partner. It wasn't technically a lie, sometimes Voight partnered them up.

But Jay paused outside her door.

The smell of cleaning products and the sterile environment burned his nose. The noise of the various machines burrowed into his eardrums enough to start giving him a headache. He was scared, terrified, that Kim wouldn't be okay when he opened the door.

Swallowing all the fear that stemmed from the time his Mom had spent in hospital, Jay pushed on.

Now he felt like he needed to see for himself that Kim would be okay.

Kim stirred at the sound of his footsteps. Her eyes opened and his heart nearly stopped.

Relief flooded through his body once he got to see her eyes.

"Hey stranger." She whispered through her hoarse throat, the sides of her mouth turning upward in an attempt at a smile.

"Hey Kim." He said in a soft tone.

The sight of her in a hospital bed stopped him in his tracks but he pushed through. "How are you?"

He cursed himself, what a stupid question.

"Oh I'm great, best day ever." She perked up enough to try to laugh, sounding amused.

She could read him.

And right now, he must look like a wide eyed deer terrified and ready to bolt. Will was right, he hated hospitals.

And there Kim was, trying to reassure him.

He smiled softly before holding up the brown paper bag in his hand, "I picked up some things for you." It was filled with the usual things his Dad had used to tell them to bring his Mom, a newspaper for keeping in contact with the outside world, a cheesy magazine for entertainment and sweets to offset the bland hospital food.

"Oh, thank you Jay." She said, her thoat was still hoarse.

"And I got you some iced-decaf-coffee. I checked, you're allowed to drink it, I figured you couldn't go without your coffee fix." He smiled as he placed the bag at the small cabinet beside her bed that already held a bouquet of flowers from the 21st District and took the drink out of the bag and placed it on top.

Her face brightened up, "You got me…" She started coughing, startling Jay, before lying back against her pillows and taking a few deep breaths and trying again. "You got me coffee. That's…thank you."

"No problem." He hesitated, he didn't want to overstep but he didn't want to leave her alone either. "Mind if I sit?" He gestured to the chair beside her bed.

"Oh no, I mean please, yeah sit." Kim whispered, turning her head to be able to look at him. "I'm tired because of the medications so I might not be great company for now. But they I should be fine to go home tomorrow."

His heart calmed down for the first time since the alarms went off.

She would be okay.

Because for a few non-mentionable minutes the thoughts had popped into his head earlier that day. What if she wouldn't be okay? What if he lost her? What if she wouldn't be in his life anymore?

"I'm really glad to hear that Kim." He said, sitting down. "Oh, I don't know if anyone told you, we got the guy, he'll be going to trial."

"Great. I'd high five you but…" She gestured to her hands that had IV's hooked up to them.

Her eyes had already started to droop but he didn't want to talk about work. He wanted to know more about her. What was her favourite childhood memory, what her favourite color was, what made her tick.

He smiled to himself as she mumbled about resting her eyes.

And Jay started to feel the fear creep into his mind again. But not of the hospital.

He felt scared of the fact that Voight was right, that he could very possibly be falling for Kim Burgess.

Author's Notes: Thanks for reading! This chapter got a bit long and winding on me (somehow Fire and Med characters showed up as well so I went with it), but I hope you enjoyed it. :)

Next chapter is the last chapter, so see you then. And with everything going on in the world, stay safe everyone. x