SHOUT OUTS/ANSWERS

Guest: Thanks, I'm glad you're into it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE/DISCLAIMER

Belongs to Dick Wolf and NBC. I only own the plot. This is going to be slow burn since it wouldn't make sense for Jay and Erin to just dive into a relationship and I hope you'll stick with me.

As soon as the male started to drop, Erin instantly moved to his side, catching him before he hit the ground. Damn, how long has he been here? she wondered, mentally assessing the scars and other gashes she saw on his body.

"Shit, man. What'd they do to you?" she murmured as Hailey put a call in for an ambulance. He was human, that much she could smell. But at the same time, there was a hint of vampirism in his scent, meaning that someone in his family was a vampire. Hailey bit into her wrist and then went to put it over the man's mouse. "Hailey! I get what you're doing, but he's been a vampire's prisoner for who knows how long? I don't think he'll be appreciative of us forcing blood down his throat," Erin reminded.

"Right. I wasn't thinking," the woman stated. Can't believe I did that. What was I thinking? she wondered. Right. She hadn't been thinking. She had just been focused on getting the guy healed.

"It's okay. I get it. You're a protector. You were acting on instinct," the other detective stated. As she was perusing his body, her eyes saw something peeking through the torn sleeves covering his right shoulder and she pushed them aside, inhaling sharply as she saw the numbers. "Hey Mouse?" she asked, activating her radio again.

"Yeah?" he queried.

"Need you or Jin to run a number for me," she responded.

"What's it on?" she heard Jin ask.

"One of the vics," she responded. At the precinct, Jin and Mouse looked at one another. That's not good, Mouse thought to himself.

"Uh, Erin, if a vic has a number that means-" Jin started to say.

"He used to be a slave. I know; I'm not an idiot, Jin! I need to know who last owned him so we can piece together what happened," Erin snapped. Hate when he tries to point out the obvious, she thought to herself.

"What's the number?" Jin queried with a sigh. Hate when I upset her, he thought to himself. He hadn't meant to. But then again, cases like this always put everyone on edge.

"08238763914F," Erin read off and the two looked it up.

"The number came back to a Dr. Will Halstead," Mouse reported. F. That means the kid was freed at some point. Probably after the law got passed a couple of years ago, he mused. So plus side, they didn't have to report this to anyone in particular and there was no need to worry about a war starting.

"He works at Med, right?" Erin queried.

"Yeah," Jin confirmed. Erin was about to say more when sirens reached her ears. The ambo. Finally, she mused. The guy was in bad shape and he needed to be checked out. As one, the medics walked up to them.

"Is he conscious?" Shay queried.

"Nope," replied Erin.

"Was he fed any blood?" Gabby asked.

"He's been in a factory. Don't think they were too concerned with that sort of thing and I didn't think it was prudent to take away his choice," Erin responded.

"Fair enough," Gabby and Shay chorused and then loaded Jay onto the stretcher.

"There's a number here," Shay noted, staring at the shoulder.

"I had our techs look it up. It belongs to a Dr. Will Halstead," Erin reported.

"He works at Med. We'll take him there," Shay declared and with that, she and Gabby loaded the man into the ambulance and took off as Erin followed them in her squad car. Hold on, man. You're going to be okay, the blonde paramedic thought to herself. She wasn't going to let anything happen to him. At Chicago Med, Will was coming out surgery. Damn…that was a close one. Glad we were able to save him, he thought to himself. And he hadn't even had to slip the guy any of his blood. Contrary what to what humans read in some stories, a vampire's blood didn't always turn a person, and there was a specific amount that a vampire could use to heal someone's injuries or ailments if they so desired.

"Incoming!" he heard Maggie call and he rushed over to the gurney, his eyes widening when he saw who it was.

"Jay? Oh my gosh," he breathed. Shit, what happened to him? he wondered. "What happened?" he demanded as he caught sight of the multiple bite marks and gashes adorning his body. Gonna kill whoever did this, he thought to himself. No one touched his little brother. No one. Been looking for him for two weeks and haven't found a trace of him, he thought to himself. How had he been hidden from him? Erin hung back, not wanting to get in the way of the doctors.

"CPD busted up a factory. He was one of the vics," Shay replied. Oh shit. Why didn't it occur to me that he'd be in a factory? he wondered. Oh right. Because he hadn't wanted to even think about that happening as no one was usually stupid enough to snatch up a vampire's relative. Okay, he had to focus.

"Hold on, Jay. Gonna make sure you're okay," he murmured, smoothing back his younger brother's hair. At this Jay's eyes flew open and he started to move away. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Easy, easy," he soothed and immediately, Jay relaxed, letting out a relieved sigh as he recognized the voice.

"Will," he murmured. Safe. I'm safe, he thought to himself. Unless…maybe Montague was playing another trick on him. He had done it before. Made him think that Will or his father had come for him. "You real?" he queried.

"Yeah, I'm real. We're gonna fix you up and.." Will trailed off. Should they hold off on the exam? There was no telling what had been done to him and the last thing he wanted to do was traumatize his younger brother further.

"I need an exam, don't I?" Jay realized. Shit, I don't want to, he thought to himself.

"Yeah," Will confirmed. "But we can hold off on it for a bit if you prefer," he quickly assured him. Then, seeing Erin, "Who are you?"

"I'm Detective Lindsay. I was one of the officers on scene. After the examination-if he's up for it-I'm going to need to get a statement," she responded.

"It's up to Jay. All of it," Will declared. He wasn't about to take his little brother's choice away after everything he had been through. Jay was silent as he listened. An out. Will was giving him an out. He could take it. He should take it. No…better to get it over with. Besides, it wasn't like he would trust anyone else with this.

"No. No let's do it. I uh-don't care who does the physical part but…I want you to do the mental part."

"Yeah, of course." Will I be able to control myself if I see something I don't like? he wondered. He would have to. Jay was putting a lot of faith in him and he wouldn't want to scare him.

"Take him to Exam One," Maggie instructed and this was done, Connor following Will.

"Um, I'm gonna have to-" Connor began to say.

"Do what you need to," Jay interrupted and Connor began checking on the wounds, Will grabbed Jay's wrist and bit down, only wincing slightly as the images flooded his mind. Jay was thrown to the ground and he grunted. Then he was on his feet, lunging at him. With lightning speed the man grabbed Jay's neck and squeezed. Will's eyes flashed. The nerve of this guy! "Who…?" Jay managed to get out.

"My name is Montague. But you will call me Master," came the response and Jay kicked him. Will's eyes flickered. Least they had a name for this arrogant piece of…Okay, he had to keep it calm. Jay would be able to pick up on his emotions while they were connected and would get agitated and he didn't want that. Once more, he let the images wash over him. Jay groaned with effort as he fought to keep Montague away. However, the vampire tightened his grip on the man's wrists even as he undid Jay's jeans, shoving them off of his body. Then, he quickly divested himself of his own clothing and slammed into the human, smirking at the cries of pain even as Jay started to fight against him, though the struggle was to no avail. Jay let out a small whimper which turned into a scream as the man tore into flesh with his fangs. Will growled as his eyes flashed angrily and his features turned monstrous. Gonna kill this guy! he thought to himself. He was going to kill him!

"WILL!" Connor's shout broke through Will's haze and he slowly removed his fangs from his brother's wrist. Gonna find this guy and make it slow, he thought to himself.

"Will?" Hearing the hesitancy in his younger brother's voice, the doctor looked at him to see his eyes wide and his heartbeat quickening like it did whenever he was scared. He then let out an unneeded breath and forced his features back to normal.

"I'm sorry, Jay. I didn't mean to scare you," he apologized. Hate that I scared him, but damn, seeing that crap…his thoughts trailed off and he frowned in concentration. He had to find out who had done this.

"It's okay," Jay responded. No one I trust more than him, he mused to himself.

"I'm done here," Connor reported.

"So I can go?" Jay asked hopefully.

"Cops are going to want a statement," Will reminded him and he nodded.

"Right," he said. "You'll be there with me?" he checked.

"You want me there?" the older man asked in surprise.

"Yeah. I don't-I don't think I can-" his words trailed off and his breathing became labored.

"Of course I'll be there with you. Whatever you need, little brother," the other man quickly assured. Out in the hall, Erin waited. Damn, I can't even imagine what this poor guy's gone through, she thought to herself and then straightened up when Connor came out.

"Doctor Rhodes, how is he?" she queried.

"He's got various scars and gashes, which indicate torture and…" Connor's voice trailed off.

"And?" she prompted.

"Sexual assault," he responded.

"Oh shit," she said. "Are you sure about that?"

"Will saw it."

"Mental exam."

"Yeah. Along with physical evidence. Poor guy's been put through hell." Erin nodded at this, took out her phone, went to her contacts, found Voight's number, and pressed dial. Meanwhile, at the Twenty-First, Hank was talking with Commander Crowley.

"It's not good, Sergeant. People are starting to talk," she stated.

"People? Or other vampires?" Hank questioned pointedly.

"Sergeant Voight-" the woman started to say.

"Commander Crowley, we just busted up a factory that from what I can tell had been in operation for a very long time," the man interrupted. "To me, that says someone in this city isn't happy about the old law-which stated that humans aren't to be anything but a vampire's pet-being abolished," he continued. He was about to say more when his phone rang. Raising his finger in the classic "Just a minute" sign, he answered it as the African-American woman sighed. Unfortunately, what the police sergeant had stated was right. I had no idea that a factory had even been in this city, she thought to herself. For that matter, neither had the brass; and they weren't happy about it. And now she was trying to do damage control, even though Voight didn't necessarily want to play ball with her. And she had to admit, she wasn't happy about that. But what could she do? It wouldn't do for her to go up against the man after what had just happened. Her eyes flickered as he hung up.

"What is it?" she wondered.

"That was Erin. One of the vics in the factory-they were tortured and sexually assaulted," came the response. At this, the woman blew out a breath.

"Damn," she said. "This is what I'm talking about. We need to get on top of this. We need to address both communities and-" she began to instruct.

"Aah-aah. That's you and the brass' problem: you separate vampires and humans even when talking. What I'm going to do is go to Med and see if the vic Erin talked to would be willing to come down and make a statement," he interrupted and then walked out to the garage, got into his car, started it, and then headed out. Back at Med, another doctor walked into Jay's hospital room and Will's features changed instantly as he stepped in front of his brother and let out a warning growl.

"Take it easy, Dr. Halstead. I heard there was a human here and wanted to make sure things didn't get loused up," the doctor-a female-stated.

"Will, who is she?" Jay asked.

"New doctor, Ava Bekker," Will responded. "We're doing just fine, D. Bekker," he continued. She ignored him and went to Jay, grabbing his wrist and started to bare down. With a snarl, Will shoved her away. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

"A real examination since you most likely skipped that part," she responded.

"Dr. Rhodes and I both examined him and we're waiting on a member of the CPD to arrive to give them our findings," came the heated retort.

"He's sitting real pretty isn't he? I know he's your brother and everything, but really, Will, just get what you need like you would with any other meal," Dr. Bekker sneered. With a growl, Will shoved her against a wall. Hearing this, Erin rushed in.

"Get the hell out, Dr. Bekker," he growled. The woman snarled and went to strike him and-she was yanked back. Everyone turned to stare at the man and woman in police uniforms.

"Okay, here's a stupid question: is there a problem here?" Will didn't answer the question. He couldn't. All he could think was that he had screwed up and Jay's assault was about to be swept under the rug…