AN: thanks for the feedback on the last chapter. Here's more angst.
Hailey kept her phone on vibration even if they were just about to raid a stash house. Will had messaged her earlier telling her Jay had a fever, and that he was bringing him to med so that he could be checked out.
Jay had been home for only a few days, still pretty sore and out of it, not really improving like they'd hope when they'd let him leave Med early.
She'd talked to Will the night before after Jay had complained about feeling sick and almost fainting as he'd stood up from the couch. Will hadn't really sounded worried, but there was something in his voice that told Hailey he was concerned as Jay wasn't doing as well as they'd expected.
Jay had been asleep in bed when Hailey visited him during her lunch break earlier in the day. She hadn't wanted to disturb him, so she's just looked in on him, made sure he was breathing, and that he had what he needed before she left him alone again.
Now she couldn't stop thinking about if there had been something she's overlooked. Something she should have noticed was wrong.
"Hailey! Hey, are you listening?" Hank Voight's gravelly voice cut through Hailey's thoughts making her look at up at her boss' worried expression.
"Sorry, yeah, I'm listening,"
"Something wrong? Do I need to bench you, I don't need someone getting hurt because you're distracted Hailey." Voight's expression was soft even if his words sounded harsh. But he was right, Hailey's thoughts were elsewhere.
Hailey pulled Hank away from the rest as she started to explain to her boss. Hank told her to leave and find her partner as soon as he heard Jay was back at Med.
She didn't know what to expect when she arrived at the ED, looking for Jay. Will hadn't been very specific in his message, just that Jay had a fever and that he'd brought him in. What she found was Will standing at the nurses' desk, talking to Choi.
"Hey, Hailey," Will had discovered her, "he's okay," he knew her worst fears, and that he'd scared her with his text.
"What happened?" Hailey asked as she gave Will a hug, he'd seen her cry, waiting for word on Jay, so she didn't really feel awkward hugging him.
"He was sleeping when I got home from work, and when I woke him up, he felt really warm." Will looked over at Ethan, "I managed to convince him to come with me, just so that Ethan could have a look at him, just to make me happy." Will smiled at her, pleased with himself.
Hailey felt herself start to calm down, if Will was this relaxed, she could too.
"What's wrong with him then, why does he have a fever" Hailey asked, as fever's usually meant infections and that was something Jay didn't need.
"We're just keeping him for observation at the moment, he has a low-grade fever, might just be the trauma from the gunshot wound and surgery. At least that's what we're hoping for right now." Will sounded hopeful.
"You managed to convince him to stay?" Hailey asked, knowing Jay's hatred of hospitals and needles.
"Well, he protested at first, but he was so tired that he fell asleep after we gave him a nudge with a small dose of morphine. We found him a quiet room he can spend the night in". Will pulled Hailey along, moving towards what she assumed was Jay's room in the Emergency department for the night.
The sight that greeted her felt like déjà vu. Jay was sleeping, an IV-line snaking under the blanket, monitor leads coming out of the top of the hospital gown, leading to the monitor beside the bed, displaying his vitals. Jay looked pale but the flush on his cheeks told her he was still feverish.
"Are you sure he's okay?" Hailey asked as they stood in the doorway looking in on Jay.
"I think so, but if I wasn't worried, I'd take him home, so…I hope this is nothing, but it might be something." Will put a comforting hand on Hailey's shoulder.
"Yeah, let's hope so. I'll stay with him; you should go home and get some sleep."
Hailey knew Will was working early the next day, and since Hank had let her leave, she guessed he'd be okay with her staying the night, taking care of her partner.
"Alright but call me if anything happens." Will turned and started walking away from her, "he was feeling queasy last night, so he hasn't really eaten anything in a while, probably the concussion, so get him to eat something if you can." He said as he turned around and waved goodbye.
"Sure," Hailey whispered, knowing Jay was pretty stubborn, and that she would have her work cut out for her getting him to eat something if he was feeling sick, and now running a fever.
Jay was floating. He knew he was at Med and that Will had dragged him there because of a fever he'd developed during the day. Jay had protested, he hated hospitals, sure he could go there and do his job when he had to, as a cop, but being a patient in one was something else entirely. Ethan had slipped Jay some morphine, as his head and chest had ached pretty bad and it was obvious that Jay would not be able to relax at all.
The floaty and faraway feeling was nice at first, but Jay didn't feel like he was in control of his environment when he was like this.
Opiates had never agreed with him, he'd reacted badly before and he was afraid of hallucinating. He'd had a really bad trip when the medic had given him the standard dose in the field once during his deployment in Afghanistan. Who knew he was so sensitive to drugs? Vivid nightmares he could handle most nights, hallucination was something he didn't want to experience ever again.
The floaty feeling was a sign of the drug still coursing around in his system, muddling his senses and thoughts. Jay tried moving to see if his body was still in his control. Everything felt heavy and his feet barely shifted under the blanket that felt too heavy to move.
"Jay? You awake?" he recognized the voice as Hailey's but that couldn't be right, it was Will who was with him when he was forced to sleep?
Jay felt his heart speed up, this was the drugs messing with him, thinking Hailey was there, was just wishful thinking, what was his brain going to come up with next?
"Jay, you're okay, open your eyes for a second, It's me, Hailey." Someone was holding his hand, the one not confined in the sling.
Opening his eyes Jay found Hailey there, a blurry figure, but he was sure it was Hailey, real or not. "You're…you're really here?"
"Yeah, I'm really here Jay. How do you feel?" She was smiling at him, standing beside his bed, leaning over the bedrail, he could swear her hand was holding his, but it could still be his brain playing tricks on him.
"Weird, everything's weird," Jay didn't know how to describe the unreal feeling he had, that this was just his imagination and soon he'd be seeing his nightmares played out in front of him with every detail he wanted to forget. He was starting to feel sick in anticipation of the horrors his brain was going to show him.
"Yeah? What's weird Jay?" Hailey was concerned. Jay seemed altered, maybe it was the concussion and fever making him confused.
"Sick, think I'm gonna puke," Jay was suddenly struggling to sit up.
The queasiness had turned into full blown nausea, he was going to throw up, no doubt.
Hailey hit the call button, alerting the nurses that Jay needed help. Helping Jay sit up it was just in time for him to throw up the meager contents of his stomach on his gown. He was dry heaving mostly as he hadn't really eaten much the last 24 hours when one of the nurses finally got there to help Hailey.
When the heaving was done, and more medication was pushed into his IV he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. Sleep and exhaustion claiming him. The last thing he saw was Hailey's concerned expression.
Tbc, but don't know when. The latest ep gave me some inspiration though!