One hour. Two hours. Three hours. Four hours. Five hours. Another forty-three to go. With Voight always by his side, he patiently waited to be with his brother again. Especially now that Jay almost got murdered. He looked at the ceiling more than once, there was never anything interesting up there until now. Pictures of childhood appeared to his vision, him and the detective playing food fights, them annoying the neighbor, him treating his brother when he was first injured. All these were erased from the white color of the ceiling when someone cracked the glass door of his room opened. It was a nurse, an unknown nurse in the ED who made Will suspicious. She was holding a needle with a transparent liquid inside. "I am not sure I need meds right now." He insisted when she tried to insert the medicine into his IV.
"Your doctor believes it will help you sleep."
"I don't need it, thank you."
"I have to do my job, Mr…" He looked at his chart in order to check his name, an action that made him even more suspicious than before. "Halstead."
"I'll talk to my doctor personally."
"But…"
"No buts… I said I'll talk about it with my doctor."
She left without saying another word. The older man raised his head and stared at the patient. He searched through his jacket pocket for his phone. "Upton take Dawson and come here now, we might have a lead on our offender."
The woman's face was etched in Will's mind. Her blonde hair combined with her brown eyes and the thin tone of her voice made her special among the hospital staff. He described every single detail about her to the police, an action that Voight also did as he was a witness at the scene. They had organized a small operation inside the young man's temporary room so no one would ever figure out their plans. Every detective from the 21st district was there, each one of them on a different duty. Ruzek and Upton were trying to locate the nurse, to find out if she was still in the hospital, Atwater kept an eye on Jay in case an unknown person inserted his room, Burgess made all the phone calls and Antonio scanned the whole building alongside Goodwin.
"We will make sure that you arrest the lady who poisoned your detective." She told him in a comforting way.
Antonio's eyes were swollen, the bags underneath them more visible than ever before.
"He is gonna be alright, he is a fighter and you know that."
He didn't speak just followed the hallway to the elevator. Reaching his friend's room, he was met with the worried expression of Kevin who paced back and forth.
"What's up?"
"The monitor went off again for the third time in an hour. I am not really sure."
Before he managed to reply, Choi exited the room.
"What happened doc?"
"Some substances that were inserted in his system earlier, caused an abnormality in his vitals. He has to fight on his own if he wants to survive, there´s nothing else we can do, I am sorry."
Antonio nodded, no words coming out.
The room was full of superficial light at the time. It must have been around three or four in the morning, no one cared though. The Intensive Care Unit was the busiest department in the hospital which meant no one would ever stop working. The small light above Jay's head indicated a form of life on the bed. He hated, he detested it, the whole situation. He wished he would turn back time and assisted his best friend in action rather than staying back at the office with the offender's father. Also he could have stopped him from getting himself shot. "Don't you dare to leave us, Halstead, you hear me? Don't you dare to leave from this world earlier that you are supposed to. We need you, man. I need you. You are my brother, I brought you into this unit so I could keep an eye on you and that's how you repay me? By getting shot and poisoned? Please, fight. Do it for me…" He burst into tears, tears he didn't know he had.
"Voight he needs you downstairs." Somebody called from the hallway.
He didn't want to face the person; he was ashamed of crying in public especially when he was on duty. "I am coming in a minute."
The woman approached him taking slow steps. Burgess, his newest partner. Always there for him when needed. "It's okay to cry sometimes. He is your buddy Antonio, I get it. It sucks to see him in this condition and not being able to help."
Antonio remained quiet while sobbing.
Eight hours. Nine hours. Ten hours. Still thirty hours to go. The soft mattress hurt his body and he could not lay on it anymore. Without drawing much attention from his brother's Sergeant, he decided to leave the room. By the moment his legs touched the ground, Voight was by his side.
"Going somewhere young Halstead?"
He cursed. "Bathroom." He simply replied.
"May I come with you? In case you feel dizzy."
"No, I feel fine to use it by myself."
Will took a step closer to the glass door but was blocked by the figure of the older man.
"Do you think I am stupid? I am aware of the fact that you want to visit him."
"Just for a minute. I need to check his vitals, to hold his hand on mine, to make sure he's still breathing."
Voight's sigh was the only noise in the room for some seconds.
"You want me here, Serge?" Antonio broke the silence. "How are you, doc?" He inquired politely.
"Did you find anything on the woman?" Voight didn't leave Will to speak.
"According to a CI of mine, her name is Grace Halen. She was arrested twice for drug possession but she was released hours later. She used to have a partner, a boyfriend named Daniel Sealls.
Daniel. What a coincidence. Jay was brought here because of a man with the same name. Will thought to himself, however remained silent.
"We couldn't find anything else, I am sorry." Burgess took a peak at the anxious man on the bed.
"We have two names. Find them and bring them to me." Hank's voice sounded different, it sounded broken.
Suddenly, the glass door was opened again. "Excuse me, can you all go out, I have to run a few tests to my patient."
Will knew it was a lame excuse in order to shove everyone out so he sat up a little and waited for the real news to escape Rhodes mouth.
"Tell me, did he die?" His heart broke in two as he asked but he had to.
Connor lowered his head. "He did… For two minutes." He handed him a cellphone that brought out of his pocket. "I don't know how religious you are but you should take this call."
Before tears started forming in his eyes, he grabbed it and placed it near his ear.
"I heard you passed out, are you alright?" A hoarse voice talked through the phone. That voice, his brother's voice.
"Jay…"
"Are you okay?"
"Better than you, I guess."
"My head is feels a little funny. My voice is weird. And my throat, it hurts Will, I can't take the pain, I need you here. "
Will looked at Connor curiously feeling his heart shattered by the innocence in Jay's voice. More memories of their childhood bumped into his head, like that one when Jay's first tooth went out and he cried for three hours after or that one in their bedroom when Jay had nightmares and he calmed him down by narrating stories of their future. He was snapped back to reality in an instant though when he heard Connor talking again.
"As soon as he woke up, we removed the vent and inserted analgesics for the pain, therefore it's reasonable for him to have this reaction."
"I'll be with you in some hours, okay?" He spoke though the phone again. He felt relieved that his brother was still alive. A new adventure had just began and this time he was positive they would get out of it healthy.
He wasn't sure how he ended up in a coma again. The last thing he remembered was a nurse injecting him with something and then there was a blank in his mind. He moved his body a little higher on the bed despite all the pain and looked outside. His friend, Kevin Atwater was standing in front of the door talking to a doctor. From what it looked like, their conversation wasn't friendly, something that preoccupied him. He attempted to push his body further to find out more as his detective instincts kicked in but he let out a cry. "Shit."
"Detective, glad to see you fully awake."
"Why does it feel like I got hit by a trunk?"
"There were some complications regarding your incisions so we had to reconnect the vent and put you in repression. I am sorry about that."
He nodded.
Connor cracked a smile and pulled his stethoscope out of his pocket, approaching Jay. "Take a deep breath for me." He placed the edge on Jay's chest and listened to his heartbeat himself completely ignoring the monitor's stats. A minute later, he placed it on his back so he could examine his lungs properly. "Alright lungs are clear, heartbeat steady."
"That's good right?"
"Very good. We will have to increase the IV meds though."
He rolled his eyes sitting up only a little receiving his doctor's help.
"How is Will?" Even though he felt horrible, he was still responsible for his older brother.
"Fine. Voight finally managed to put him to sleep."
"Nice, thanks doc. Thanks for taking care of him."
Soon Jay was left alone inside his spacious intensive care room looking at the sky. Chicago never looked so bright, the rays of the sun blinded his eyes. "Where is everybody?" He wondered staring at Kevin who was still outside but not looking at him. The first time that woke up, his Sergeant was there, then Will. What was the matter now? He looked at the night table next to him and noticed that his mobile was there so he grabbed it and dialed the only person he wanted to be with right now but she didn't pick it up as always. He threw the phone on the ground when he heard footsteps coming closer.
"Whoa, kid, you're gonna hurt somebody."
"Sorry." Crossing his arms, Jay buried his head on the pillow.
The screech on the floor caused by the crawl of the chair created a feeling of goosebumps in his body. He flinched a little getting all the attention from Voight.
"Everything's alright?"
"I don't know, you'll tell me. Why are there uniforms out of my room? Why only Rhodes is coming in? I had at least four different doctors and nurses checking me every hour. What are you not telling me?"
This kid was so smart that he figured it out quickly.
"I think the drugs they give you, create scenarios in your mind."
Jay rolled his eyes but didn't say anything else. If something happened indeed, he was going to find out the truth on his own.
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Yes… Stay with me, please dad."
Hey! This chapter was supposed to be longer, however, I had this idea of Jay calling Voight dad in a moment of weakness so the next one will begin with Voight's reaction to that. I hope you like this one, thank you all for your interactions in my story, I love you guys.
Also, Jesse liked my tweet and I couldn't be more excited!
~The Fourth Bionic~