Chapter Eight
It had taken nearly an hour to make sure that they had gotten all the entrances and exits covered. All cameras were checked from faults and to make sure they covered the hallway towards Will's room.
Erin had been working with the hospital security and the police sergeant to make sure that Will was completely covered. Will was everything for Jay, she didn't know what had happened in their family expect the loss of their mother. But when Jay and Will had connected again, the pair had become close. They were brothers again.
She quickly headed to check on each of the officers that had been assigned to the security team before heading to see Jay. As she stood at the window, she looked at her partner. Jay was in pain. It was written all across his face.
Physically he wasn't. But mentally he was. He was blaming himself and the guilt was clear to see. Guilt that he shouldn't be feeling but was written right over his face. He was blaming himself for not protecting his brother like he thought he should have done.
Erin had been with Jay through a lot however this time she didn't know what to say to him. Will was his only family left that he cared about and now he could lose him. She wanted to be with her partner, be there for him to make him see that everything was going to be ok.
However before she had chance to go to the door, she heard footsteps behind her, her hand quickly moved to the grip of her weapon. Quickly she turned to see Voight walking towards her had alone. She had texted him with her updates on the security team and any news she was able to get off Doctor Rhodes on passing.
In the pit of her stomach, Erin knew that Voight wouldn't have come without a reason. She has seen Voight angry, scared and seriously worried. And she saw as soon as they had gotten the news about Will those emotions flash across his face. Will had helped out Voight in the past and as the brother of one of his detectives, he was classed as family.
"How is he?" He asked joining her at the window. His eyes scanned over both Will and Jay in the room. Erin knew that the question was meant for both of the Halstead men. But she only knew how to answer about one of them.
"No change. However no news is good news right?" She said turning to look at her foster father. She knew that he would have wanted a better report however she had no news to give him. She had hunted Doctor Rhodes every chance she got or when he had turned from visiting Will for an update.
She had been so wrapped up with making sure that Mr Walker couldn't get near Will so badly that she had not returned to the room until now. Jay didn't need to worry about his brother's safety. All he needed to worry about was being there for him.
"We got some more intel on Walker." Voight said however didn't continue. His eyes locked on Will. His mind quickly flashed back to seeing his wife in a hospital bed close to death. Before snapping back to the present day.
Erin looked at him waiting for him to carry on with his sentence. Intelligence had the best tech in the whole PD. Even if half of the stuff he did was so illegal that it was funny that he was working with the cops.
She also knew that Mouse would have worked twice as hard for Jay. Those two were like brothers. They had fought together, been through hell together and held a very close bond. When Will had come back into Jay's life, she had been worried that Mouse was going to feel left out. Feel as if he had lost another brother.
But the three of them had become almost like a little family unit. However she couldn't tell who was older and the more responsible of the three and that question became more apparent when they were at Molly's. The two former rangers and the doctor seem to to bounce off each other when one or more of them was having a bad day.
"I need to talk to him." Voight added pointing at Jay, they both needed to hear what he had found out. Even if Jay wasn't going to like it.
Erin had no idea how she was going to get Jay away from Will, she knew that the nurses had tried for him to take a break but with no luck. She had no idea how she was going to get him leave for any length of time. Let alone to hear what Voight had to say.
On the other hand, she knew that Jay wasn't going to sit this one out. Not when it involved family. And not when the risk was high of the person coming back to finish the job.
As much as she wanted to tell him that it was probably for the best to leave Jay out of the case and focus on it without letting him anywhere near it, she knew that it would make the situation worse. But she also knew Voight had made his mind up. And he wasn't going to tell her anything without him there.
She sighed and moved to enter Will's room. However luck was on her side, as she placed her hand on Will's door to open it she was meet by a tired looking Doctor Rhodes. Then an idea popped into her head. Jay may not leave his brother for long but using a medical check up might get him out of the room long enough for Voight to speak to them.
"Hey Doctor Rhodes, I need your help with something." Erin started stopping him in his tracks.
Voight watches as Erin quickly spoke to Doctor Rhodes before the two went inside Will's room. After a few minutes of quiet conversation between his two detectives, he watched as they both exited the room.
Jay looked like crap. The worry and guilt was clear on his face mixed with pure exhaustion of the whole day. Jay was pushing his body and soon enough he was going to crash. Jay however dismissed the look of concern from his Sergeant and spoke to him with a harsh and almost in a snap, not happy about being pulled away from his brother.
"What do you know?" He asked.
Down to business as normal. But Voight knew that he couldn't tell his young detective what he would want to hear and that the person responsible was behind bars or on the way to the morgue.
"Antonio and Alvin went to the Walker home to find it empty. Nothing was taken like they had ran and there was no sign that they had returned after leaving the hospital. They found the boy at his sister's address." Voight started and looked at Erin in that moment.
They had a strong theory that the boy had been there or in the car when Walker attacked Will. And then had drove straight to his sister's address. Erin only hoped that the little boy hadn't witnessed his father stab Will as that image would remain in his head for the rest of his life.
"They spoke to the sister who told them that he had dropped off Alex around about twenty minutes after Will was stabbed. Which would be the time it takes to drive there from here." Voight continued watching Jay as his knuckles started to go white as he clenched his fists.
"He told her that his wife was dead and that he needed to be alone but needed Alex taken care of. She agreed and didn't know that he had attacked Will. She was pretty shocked at his behaviour when he arrived and she doesn't know where he would have gone." Voight finished.
He knew that he was giving Jay the bare minimum of information on what Antonio and Alvin had reported back to him. But Jay didn't need to know the whole thing. He wasn't allowed anywhere near the case nor would he help in this matter. Revenge was clearly written all across his face everytime someone mentioned Walker's name.
"So we are no closer in finding this SOB?" Jay nearly yelled, but he stopped himself not wanting to upset any of the nurses who could have easily thrown him out. There were other people in the ICU, and he knew that Will would have been the first one to tell him off for disturbing other patients.
"No." Voight started. Jay throw his hands in the air, it was that or punch something. And moved away from Voight incase his anger got the better of him.
"But we know how he was able to stab Will without him being able to defend himself." This caught Jay's attention causing him to spin around and look directly at his boss.
" Mr Walker is a ex-Ranger." This news hit Jay like a ton of bricks.
His brother had been attacked by a former ranger. That only made him feel even more sick. It's how he knew the technique. He had used it in the field and now it had been used on his brother. He also knew the damage that it could do if the person survived it. The damage the blame caused as it was pushed upwards past the ribs. And now his brother was going to have to live with those injuries for the rest of his life.
"Mr Walker left five months after Alex was born. That is what he told his wife however he was discharged because he was under investigation for assault and took the way out instead of going to the brig. They didn't have enough evidence to dishonourable discharge him. I talked to his old commanding officer who said that Walker always had a short temper and was disciplined for fighting and causing problems when things didn't go his way." As he finished, he watched for any sign on Jay's face that he was going to go on a personal mission to kill Walker in a fit of anger. Nor would anyone blame him, however it would end with him in prison and Voight knew that he couldn't protect him from that.
Jay's mind was spinning, a ex-soldier and a ex-ranger at that had tried to kill his brother. He knew how a soldier's mind worked and what would happen. When news got to Walker that his brother was still alive, then he would be back. He had unfinished business and that would be his drive. He would come for Will.
It didn't matter how many security guards or uniform officers they put in place, if Walker wanted to get at his brother he could. He would use all the training he had been given to get at Will. And dealing with a soldier was hard and more so when he had his eyes set on killing someone.
Jay sighed and turned away from Voight and Erin and stood right in front of the window into his brother's room. His face was barely touching the glass. He now knew that his place was protecting his brother. He stood a chance against Walker when many others didn't. Not that the others didn't have the right training, it was just he knew that Walker would go through them all to get his hands on Will. He had hurt enough people that he cared about, he wasn't going to hurt anymore.
"...it's better if you stayed here with Will. We all know that he will be back as soon as he hears that he survived the wound." The sound of Voight's voice brought him back to reality. Voight was right. As much as every bone in his body wanted to hunt down the man who had did this to his older brother, his place was here.
"Keep me updated?" Jay asked turning to face Voight, the two looked directly at each other. They both knew that Walker would come back to finish Will off if they didn't catch him soon.
Erin looked shocked that Jay had backed down so easily about not been there for the hunt for Walker. But at the same time she understood her partner. He needed to be there for his brother and protect the family he had left but at the same time it wasn't health him sitting there staring at the still form of his brother.
Voight nodded and as soon as Voight did that, Jay turned and headed back into his brother's room. Where Connor and a nurse that he hadn't noticed enter the room had just finished checking the wound on his brother abdomen.
Erin watched her partner before turning back to Voight. Before she could speak, he cut her off.
"Will is still in danger here Erin. I need his head focused on his brother and not out there hunting the bastard. I will call if we find anything else out." And with that Voight turned and walked away from her.
Standing there alone, she sighed. Why did this have to happen?
Hadn't her partner been through enough? And after everything he had gone through, he had now witnessed his older brother fighting for his life when he couldn't do anything but watch.
Life wasn't fair. But in her eyes, it never was. Good people got hurt everyday when the bad somehow survived.
It just wasn't fair.