A/N: Warning due to graphic content in this chapter. It was a rough chapter to write but I think it gives a clear understanding of what Christine went through when she was away from Jay and knew she couldn't rely on anyone to help her escape. It also gives a glimpse into the psychological aftermath she is dealing with. I hope you enjoy.
As Hank, Jay and the rest of the Intelligence Unit were trying to find me and trying to keep a leash on my Uncle Paddy, I woke up on a strange bed with my left wrist handcuffed to the bedframe. These two idiots have obviously never kidnapped anyone before. If they had they would have known to handcuff both of my hands and secure my feet together. I slowly opened my eyes, making sure there was no one else in the room who would realize I was awake. Assessing the situation and my surroundings before moving I came to the conclusion I was indeed alone in a bedroom, with the door was closed. There were two windows on the left wall that I was hoping to escape thru. There's no way I was letting that psycho, Little Ricky, touch me again and I definitely wouldn't let him send any part of my body to Jay. I was sure Jay was going out of his mind, somehow convinced this was his fault, which it wasn't. I was the one who left the Ballroom with only Connor as my escort. Oh My God! Connor, I thought to myself as the memories came rushing back. Please God...let him be okay I prayed. I touched the side of my head, where I had been knocked unconscious with the gun, and found a giant lump that was sticky due to the blood that had pooled and dried causing my hair to become matted and nasty. I could also feel swelling on the right side of my face as I looked down at my gown, relieved to see it was still in one piece. That's when I noticed I was no longer wearing my shoes.
First things first, I thought to myself. Oddly enough this isn't the first time I had been kidnapped so I knew, to an extent, what to expect and what I needed to do to get out of here. It had been fourteen years since my last kidnapping by an Italian Mafia family from the North End of Boston, who wanted revenge for something or other that my Uncle Paddy had done. The difference between that one and this kidnapping was no one had threatened to chop me up and kill me before. The last one was strictly a ransom situation. It was kind of comical looking back on it now. It was almost like a mini vacation at a nice hotel. I slept in a king size bed in private bedroom, with a guard posted outside the door, in a very nice house for three days and binge watched the Soprano's while the Consigliere's wife, Rosa, cooked me breakfast and lunch each day. I ate an Italian dinner every night with the family and practiced my flirtation skills on the Consigliere's son, Joseph. On my last day with them, they taught me how to pick a lock and how to escape from handcuffs, if I couldn't pick the lock. Never thought I would have to put those talents to use again, I thought to myself. Thankfully, I still had bobby-pins in my hair which meant I could use one of them to pick the lock on the handcuff and wouldn't have to dislocate my thumb to pull my hand out. I removed a bobby-pin from the back of my hair, and although it took multiple tries, I managed to pick the lock and get free. Quietly slipping off the bed, I made my way over to the windows. "Fuck!" I whispered to myself. I was at least three floors up and there wasn't a fire escape to climb down. Okay, maybe I underestimated my captors and they weren't complete morons. I turned back and looked around the room trying to figure out what I could use to help me escape and as I looked at the dresser, that's when I saw the picture...of Jay, smiling, with his arms wrapped around a beautiful girl with black hair.
What the fuck!? Where the hell am I? I entered the walk-in closet and noticed both women's and men's clothing hanging up. That's when I realized I was in Jay and Mariana's apartment. The apartment he had lived in when he was undercover. The good news was that meant I was still in Chicago. The bad news was if the Chicago PD or the Intelligence Unit had thought to come looking for me here, they would have come and gone by now. Therefore, no one was coming to rescue me and I really was on my own. If Jay had lived here while he was undercover he must have had a "go" bag stashed somewhere. Hopefully it was still here. I mean, I have a "go" bag hidden in my apartment. I don't have any involvement what-so-ever in my Uncle's business but since I had been kidnapped at the age of sixteen he took it upon himself to teach me certain things. Things that would prepare me for situations like this. I quietly tapped the walls of the closet, looking for a compartment in the wall, and other than one small open and empty one, I didn't find anything. I went over to the bed and struggled, trying to lift the heavy queen size mattress off the box spring. Once I shifted it enough, I found what I was looking for. There had been a hole cut into the box spring and that's where Jay's "go" bag remained hidden! I opened the backpack, pouring the contents onto the bed, and found what appeared to be close to $5,000.00 in cash, a loaded gun, a knife, a cell phone and men's clothes. I grabbed the phone and tried turning it on but it was dead. Shit, I thought. I dumped the clothes on the floor and put everything except for the knife back in the bag. I stripped the sheets and blanket off the bed and using the knife cut them in half the long way. After tying the sheets and blankets together I tied one end to the bed and then slowly opened the window. I was going to shimmy down as far as I could and then jump. Looking at my watch I noticed it was almost 5:00am and still there was no noise coming from outside the bedroom door, but I wasn't going to risk opening the door to find out who or what was on the other side of it. I put Jay's backpack on and then lowered the rope, made up of sheets, out the window. Taking a deep breath, I sat on the window sill and grabbing the sheets began the climb down. I knew I wouldn't make it all the way down and I had been right. I had a fifteen foot drop to go. This was going to hurt but it would hurt a lot less than being chopped up. Taking another deep breath I let go of the sheet and was on the ground in a matter of seconds.
I couldn't help but cry out as I landed on the left side of my body. Almost immediately I felt the stitches, on my leg, pop open and blood start gushing out of my wound. I was also pretty sure I may have broken my left wrist and a couple of ribs. I had to stop the bleeding before I did anything else. I took off the backpack and pulled out Jay's knife. I cut two long strips from the bottom of my dress. I took one strip, cut it in half, and stuffed half of it into the open wound to try to stop the bleeding. I then took the long strip, wrapped it around my leg covering the wound, and tightly tied it in a knot around my leg. I put the knife in the bag and took out the gun before putting the backpack on. Crying from the pain, I then slowly stood up and, still not knowing where in Chicago I was, began walking as quickly as I could up the street. Three blocks later I was convinced I was dying. I was in so much pain, and it had started snowing. There was no way the temperature could be above ten degrees with the wind chill probably reducing it to a negative ten. I was freezing due to being barefoot and wearing nothing but a strapless gown. I kept trying to focus on Jay and getting back to him. Looking at my watch it was close to 7:00am when I made it to the river and realized I was only two miles from Chicago Med at that point. I had to make it that far. The hospital meant safety. I just had to keep going. I couldn't let Little Ricky find me, I told myself deliriously, as I tried to move one foot in front of the other. As I made my way along the river flashbacks of the night before started happening. Flashbacks of what happened after Little Ricky had taken me from the hotel...
FLASHBACK:
Before I was knocked unconscious my last thought was of Jay and not being able to kiss him at midnight. Now, as I woke up, surrounded by complete darkness, thanks to the blindfold over my eyes, my thoughts were focused on survival and escaping. I knew I was in the back of an SUV. I could feel the bumps as we drove and could hear Brianna and Little Ricky talking. My hands and feet were both bound by ropes and there was a blanket covering my entire body. I wasn't sure how long I had been out for but I was determined to put an end to this now before things escalated any further. "Hey!" I yelled. "Shit! She's already awake. I knew you didn't hit her hard enough Carlo. Now we're going to have to listen to her the rest of the way. Why the fuck didn't you gag her as well?" I heard Brianna say. "We're almost there so don't worry about it. I'll take care of here when we get inside and you won't hear another sound from her." he replied.
A few minutes later the car stopped an I heard both doors open and close as Brianna and Little Ricky got out of the SUV. As soon as they opened the back and removed the blanket covering me, I started screaming for help. At least I did until Little Ricky punched me in the mouth. "Shut up, puta, or I'll cut your tongue out." he told me as I tasted blood from where his fist had made contact with the corner of my mouth. I spit the blood out of my mouth in the direction of his voice, hoping I had hit one of them with it before grinning and saying "You hit like a girl. By the way, you have no idea what a mistake you've made. Forget about Jay kicking your ass, my Uncle is going to torture you both, tear you limb from limb and then he will charter a boat and feed you to the sharks off the coast of the Florida Keys." I said laughing. "You're delusional. Probably have a concussion from where I hit you with my gun. Now keep your mouth shut." Little Ricky said again, covering me with the blanket before tossing me over his shoulder and carrying me up multiple flights of stairs.
I heard a door open and I was seated on what felt like a kitchen chair. They didn't take my blindfold off and I'll admit it I was scared. Scared but pissed off. And pissed off enough to continue to taunt and antagonize my two captors in hopes they would rip the blindfold off so I could find a way to fight them. After hitting me two more times, both times to my midsection that caused my ribs to hurt instantly, Little Ricky sent Briana to the 24-hour market at the corner of the street for tequila and beer. After she left, he grabbed me, dragging me into what I was guessing was another room. As he tossed me onto what felt like a bed he told me he was "ready to have a good time now that we are alone." "Get away from me!" I screamed at him. He laughed, a very eerily sounded laugh. As his hands began moving their way under my dress and up my legs, I tried to move away. My feet and hands were still bound together at that point so it was difficult for me to move. He laughed and said the more I fought him the more he was turned on. "I want to see your beautiful ocean blue eyes when I fuck you. You won't remember Halstead after you have a real man inside of you." he said pulling the blindfold off. "You fucking sicko. You are going to regret this." I said, my voice shaking as tears rolled down my face. He was going to rape me. Please God...no. His hands made their way to my black and silver sheer lace panties and he pulled them off. "Nice. Real nice. It's a shame Brianna doesn't wear anything like this. They're hot and look, they're making me hard." He said. As he began to unzip his jeans, I pulled my legs back and as hard as I could, I shot my legs out. He was caught off guard by the minor contact, and as he lunged at me I kicked out again and managed to make contact with his face. My stiletto cut his left cheek. "You bitch!" He roared as he hit me in the face over and over again. I heard Brianna, calling out from the other room, she was back and ready to party but that didn't stop him. After the fourth blow everything went dark as I lost consciousness.
PRESENT DAY:
"Hey lady! Are you okay?" someone yelled from a car as they slowed down, bringing me back to reality. I held Jay's gun behind my back, with the safety off, just in case. "Call 9-1-1...please." I begged my teeth chattering. "What do you want us to say? Did you have a little too much fun celebrating New Year's Eve?" his passenger asked. Even in the state I was in, I could tell that they had been partying a little too much and I wasn't much safer with them than I had been with Little Ricky. I pulled Jay's gun from behind my back and pointed it in their direction as they started to get out of their car. "Ambulence...Chicago Med...gunshot...kidnapped." I said as I fell to the ground. "Holy shit!" Stay awake...yeah I need you to send an ambulance and the cops..." was all I heard as I started to pass out. I came to as I heard sirens approaching, noticing I was alone with Jay's gun still in my hand. Did I imagine the guys in the car, I wondered as the sirens continued and got louder. "There she is!" I heard a familiar voice yell. That voice belonged to Brianna. "We have to get her out of here before those sirens get here. God Carlo! You're such a fucking idiot. You should have just left her tied up instead of only handcuffing only one of her hands to the bed. El Gato is going to be pissed at you for this one." she said sounding closer. When she and Little Ricky came into view and were only ten feet away I held up the gun, and with shaky hands, but eyes wide open, I fired one...two...three...four...five...six...seven times until the clip was empty. Not knowing if I had actually hit them or not, I slowly stood and saw they were both on the ground bleeding...alive but bleeding. I turned, falling back to the ground, as I saw an ambulance, fire truck and two police cars come barreling down the street.
"Christine!" Kelly Severide yelled, jumping out of the turck before it came to a complete stop as he raced to my side. "Help me Kelly. Don't let them hurt me anymore. They were going to kill me." I said as the tears started flowing. Kelly lifted me into his arms, handed the gun to the cop and announced he was taking me to Med. "Kelly, we have the gurney. Just set her down here." Gabby said. "No!" I screamed. "Please don't let leave me Kelly." I begged, knowing fully well I was having some sort of breakdown. "Kelly, get in one of the cop cars. You can still hold her as you get in the back and they'll bring you to Med. We'll notify them you're on your way and meet you there." Sylvie said, concern apparent in both her voice and in the look she gave me as she covered me with blankets. "Lieutenant Severide! Over here! We'll take you." an officer yelled. As Kelly carried me past Squad Three's truck I saw the looks of disbelief and anger on their faces. Cruz said he would follow us in the truck to Med. Kelly, true to his word, held me in the back of the cop car, as we raced towards Med. "It's going to be okay. You're safe now." he told me not fulling understanding what had happened, his voice filled with worry as I stared at him with a blank look in my eyes. We pulled up to the doors of the E.D., within minutes, where Maggie, April, Nat and Will were waiting. "Oh My God! What happened?" Maggie asked directing us to one of the treatment rooms. "I'm not 100% sure. She's been in and out of consciousness since we got to her ten minutes ago. She wouldn't let go of me so a squad car bought us here. You're going to want to call in reinforcements Maggie, because you're about to have two people with gunshot wounds arriving. Call Connor. You know he won't want to have anyone else operate on her leg." Kelly said as he placed me on the bed in the room Maggie escorted us to.
"Christine..." Will Halstead began, his voice soft. "We're going to need Kelly to give us the room so we can work on you." "No!" I screamed again crying. "They're coming here. Kelly don't leave me please. I know you won't let him get me again. He's going to try because I shot him. I shot both of them. Don't go!" I begged. "Will, don't make him go." I turned, to Will, giving him a look of fear. It became apparent to everyone in the room I was on the verge of full blown hysteria. "Okay. Christine, we need to know what happened, what hurts and get you changed. If you want Kelly to stay that's fine for now, but I am going to give you something to help you relax a little. Is there anyone I can call for you?" Will asked concern written all over his face as Nat and April walked back into the room. I gave him a two word answer, as Nat handed Will his phone, changing the look of concern to one of shock when I said "Your brother." before my world went dark.