He was a goddamn idiot, he would do a facepalm if his hands weren't tied up at the moment. For god's sake in his long career, this was by far the stupidest mistake Hank had ever made. Hank and Jay together were like two lions in a mini cage and they'd managed to get themselves kidnapped.
It was a simple undercover operation, getting close enough with the drug lords to find enough evidence to bust them. They were going in for another talk for a deal when someone had apparently ratted them out, their covers blown. Unknowingly back at the warehouse, Jay and Hank had been tased simultaneously. Both of them not even making a sound as they instantaneously got knocked unconscious.
Hank woke up gagged and blindfolded in what felt like to be a minivan. He could feel Jay next to him, but he wasn't moving, still knocked out he supposed. He nudged him with his shoulder, getting a deep groan from his detective. A dull pain throbbed at the back of Jay's head, and an itch tickled his neck where he had been tased.
The vehicle suddenly stopped and the sliding doors opened. Two bulky arms hauled Voight out of the car. Unlike Voight, Jay resisted and was served a hard punch to his gut. He doubled over letting out a muffled cough as they dragged him inside.
They were sat in chairs facing each other about fifteen feet away and chained to it at their feet and ankles. From behind, someone pulled off their blindfolds revealing a dimly lit, humid warehouse. Jay looked over at Hank who was unfazed at the sight that greeted them and sternly stared back at them. Hank gave him a reassuring nod as the men around them slowly started to gather around them weapons in their hands. Blunt metal bats, and razor sharp knives were in the hands of six foot grimy handed men that made even Jay shudder.
A voice echoed through the room. A powerful and threatening voice, that somehow also sounded like a rat.
"Well, Oh I'm so excited! My guests are finally here!" A giddy voice rang out as a short yet very well built man appeared out of the shadows. He held himself straight, a posture of a well trained soldier.
They had been trying to get to this man to talk to him, figure things out, find things to hold him against, of course it wasn't in this way they were expecting. Hopefully if the team found them soon enough they would be able to bust them for sure, holding two cops hostage that was a definite sentence.
"So, what are you guys? Huh- you guys come in here unafraid of what goes on in here. Honestly it was me who was so stupid enough to trust two men out of nowhere. Oh well, I guess it's me who gets to have some fun today-" The nasty rat boss blabbered getting into Jay's face, only stopped when he spit in his face.
Wiping a hand across where Jay had spit him, he laughed and immediately punched him in the ribs frowning as he pulled away.
"Well boys, I'm going to get to some business and while I'm gone treat our guest well!" His giddy personality coming back again he mentioned his pawns to come closer.
"Well then have fun!" and with that the boss left, his smirk catching on to his men.
It was then when the torture started, the punches came in every direction possible, mostly at the ribs. Jay felt at least four ribs crack and a couple of fractures before they stopped and turned to Voight. Voight looked relatively okay, his right eye was red probably from a punch to face, it looked like it would hurt in the morning. He had a split lip and from what Jay could tell no broken ribs, judging from the way he still managed to sit upright.
A painful cough ripped through Jay's marred ribs and it took effort to draw in a breath without causing so much pain. The men noticed as Jay's discomfort seemed to affect Hank more than his physical injuries as his forehead creased and had to look away.
"Hey old man, you better look at your friend, this might be the last time you see him this pretty." One of the men with an ugly beard and yellow teeth said.
He made his way towards Hank and turned his head to face Jays, his lip twitching scared of what was going to happen to his detective. Another man, yanked back Jay's hair revealing his neck towards the ceiling. He then took a small pocket knife blade and drew a one inch line across the side of his neck, not deep though, not enough to puncture his carotid artery but enough that in ten to twelve hours it would lead to a slow and painful death.
The blood drew slowly and crept it's way down the side of Jay's neck as he gasped at the sting left behind from the knife. Voight couldn't do anything but to grimace and attempt to turn his head away, which was stopped by the nasty man's hands.
Voight's lips shuddered and eyes brimmed with wetness as he watched Jay struggling to be calm and breathe through the pain. Jay didn't make any sounds except for an occasional cough or moan as he moved his head, trying to shake away the pain. It hurt him to watch Jay in such pain just for the pleasure of hurting those who betrayed them.
"Now for stage two" The man next to Jay said.
The cut on Jay's neck had started to flow more freely and his eyes were getting droopier as time went by. He could see his boss struggling on the other side of the room, he looked concerned, and it even seemed like he was crying? He'd never seen Voight cry like that before and why was he crying now anyway.
Suddenly a white hot pain ripped through his mid thigh, making a scream rip out of his lungs. It must have nicked something cause everything in Jay's vision was going fuzzy. He heard another scream this time and he was sure it wasn't him, his voice wouldn't be as gruff as that even in this scenario.
He coughed and another pain went through his ribs, reminding him that his ribs were broken, which he had almost forgotten about after he was stabbed in the leg. It was getting really dark know, the lights of the dim warehouse were the only thing he could see and the screams were drowning. He felt the the back of the chair on his neck as his head slumped and the sticky stream of blood that ran down and soaked the collar of his short.
Jay tried to slap himself awake only to remember that his wrists were chained down. Giving up he slumped in the chair and allowed the darkness to wash over him.
The next time Jay woke up he was in the ambulance, an oxygen mask over his face, a thick bandage on his neck and thigh, and the usual thin blue blanket. His slit eyes traveled over to his hands which were held by someone. A mass of graying hair was bowed near his hand, he could tell it was Voight, but it didn't seem like him, he wasn't the one to hold someone's hand with both hands.
They came to a stop and Jay couldn't help but groan and tilted his head, squeezing his eyes shut, as the paramedics pulled him out of the ambo. He heard the bustling of the busy ER and through the many voices, he heard his brother's distinctive voice.
"JAY- WHat HAPPENED?!"
He heard Will shouting and turned his head to see his brother push nurses and doctors out of the way to get to him. Voight who was still next to him seemed to bow his head in shame as Will caught up to them and was trying to get Jay's eyes to focus on him.
Jay felt a hand go through his hair and his tired eyes locked with Will's. They looked really worried and Jay didn't know why, he didn't feel too bad. Now both of his hands were covered in warmth, his left held by Voight and his right hand held by his brother.
He heards Rhodes' voice behind him and assumed that it was him pushing the stretcher. They pushed him into a room and unloaded him off the stretcher, his ribs being jostled again. Voight as quickly taken out by Maggie and ushered into another treatment room.
Jay groaned the pain was overwhelming, he coughed through the mask as if that would help. A tear slipped from the corner of his eye as he tried to breathe through the pain. This seemed to alert Will and he ordered Rhodes to give Jay painkillers, but was stopped short when Natalie found Will's arm and was dragged out of the room.
From outside the room, Will watched through the glass doors as Connor peeled back Jay's shirt to reveal massive bruises all cross Jay's chest. He winced as COnnor tapped each one to make sure they hadn't shifted and was at a risk of puncturing his lung and other organs. After Rhodes made sure they were still in place just badly cracked and bruised he cut away the tightly wrapped bandage to reveal the layers of gauze that packed his leg wound.
Immediately after cutting away the bandage, blood seemed to spurt everywhere.
"His BP's dropping" One of the nurses shouted.
"He's bleeding out, alright we need to get him into the OR"
With that Rhodes raised the railings of the bed and pushed it straight to the ER as one of the nurses kept pressure on Jay's leg. Will moved out of the way as he saw his brother pushed around the corner. He felt his legs go weak, it was almost too late this time, again. The thought of the team being seconds late, and Jay bleeding out made Will nauseous. He swayed a bit but was caught by Natalie who directed him to take a seat.
Will buried his face into his hands as Natalie patted his back, soon he felt someone's presence in the seat next to him. Will listened as someone cleared their throat but didn't look up from his hands.
"I'm, I'm sorry Will, It's all my fault."
He heard Voight whisper next to him. For a split second, it angered Will, the fact that Hank had gotten away with a couple of ice packs and a few butterfly bandages and that Jay was up in surgery for a possibly nicked femoral artery. Everything felt so unfair, why did it always have to be his brother.
"It's fine, It's not your fault, but please I don't think I can see you right now." Will huffed.
And with that, Will stood up picking up his wobbly feet and dragging them into the staff lounge. Maggie had told him to take the few days off, a doctor in his state was as useful as someone who hadn't even graduated from med school.
Will's elbow rested on his knees as he buried his face into his palm of his hands once again. Tears sprung in his eyes, the image of Jay's pale face that was mostly covered by the oxygen mask, and eyes that darted restlessly back and forth would haunt his mind forever. He shuddered at the thought, the thought that his brother could have died, he knew he was safe in Connor's hands, but the thought just wouldn't leave him.
It had felt like a day had passed when Rhodes finally stepped in the lounge around five hours later and closed the door behind him. Will looked up waiting to hear how the surgery went.
"He's fine Will, We repaired Jay's femoral artery and stitched up the cut on his neck. His leg muscles might take some time recovering but in the long term he will recover fully. His ribs are fine and are wrapped tightly so that he won't shift them while they heal. We're keeping him in the ICU, just a precaution for his leg wound that might develop an infection and we've also started a drip of antibiotics. You can go visit him now" Connor said as he put a hand on Will's shoulder.
"Thanks, Thanks so much Rhodes." Will sighed and walked out of the room.
Later Will found himself sitting next to Jay's bed and sat patiently holding his hand. A nasal cannula snaked under Jay's nose and over Jay's ears, he wasn't lacking oxygen but it would be painful for his lungs to breath through his broken ribs. He peeked under his gown checking the bandages that wound around his broken ribs. A bandage patch covered his neck, where he hoped that underneath were even stitches that wouldn't scar. Lastly, he carefully moved some of the blanket out of the way finding the heavily packed stab wound.
Will noticed Hank at the window but as soon as their eyes met, Hank had walked away. That was when Jay came to, a slight twitch in his fingers prompted Will to excitedly ask "Jay?"
"Come on let me see those eyes of yours baby brotha." Will said as he gently ruffled his hand through Jay's hair.
Jay's pale face was met with a little bit of color as his eyes cracked open just enough to see his baby blue eyes.
"Will-" Jay breathed out.
"Hey, welcome back." Will said with a smile as he rubbed his thumb against Jay's cheek.
Jay just stared back at Will and blinked away his sleepiness, he felt loopy, ah they've given him painkillers. Will breathed out a sigh of relief and sank into the seat, the exhaustion and stress finally taking a toll on his body.
"What about Voight?" Jay asked, wincing as he regained the feeling of pain in his body.
"He's fine, now, you mister need to worry about yourself and getting better." Will huffed amused how Jay was worrying about others in his condition.
"Are you okay?" He asked Will. Cause frankly Will did not look okay, with dark circles under his eyes and sunken cheekbones that he'd never seen on his brother.
"Am I okay? I'M fine Jay, I'm not the one that got stabbed in the leg and repeatedly punched in the gut multiple times." Will laughed, his brother never the one to be worried about himself first.
Will noticed as Jay started to get sleepier, the normal talkative Jay would have probably kept asking if Will was fine. Jay blinked more frequently and his gaze was slowly becoming unfocused.
"Go to sleep Jay, I'll be here when you wake up." Will said scooting the chair closer to the bed.
Jay then gave a slight nod and let the drugs and his exhaustion carry him into darkness. Will watched as his brother slept, his once again pale complexion reminding Will of what could of happened IF they had been to late. The thought was unnerving, but the steady beat of the heart monitor got him to snap out of it.
It was nice seeing his brother's expressionless slumber and soon he felt himself drift off into sleep his head resting against the armrest.
Natalie later came by, smiling as she saw her fiance cramped up awkwardly in the plastic chair. She wrapped a spare blanket around him and left, giving the two Halsteads their well deserved rest.
Wow, I don't know how I managed it but I was able to write another story. This was sitting in my files for about a year with only a page written and I guess the fact that people still read this fic motivated me to continue it. I'm sorry if this seems all over the place, frankly I have been getting lost in this story myself. This is definitely not my best and I hope to write better stories in the future! Thanks for the readers who continue to read and hopefully I will be able to get to some of the prompts you guys have suggested. :))