Disclaimer: Sadly I own nothing, just borrowing a few of my favourite characters.
Authors Note: Sorry about the long wait for this chapter
writers block really does suck.
I am not a Doctor or in the police force so any mistakes I have made I apologise for.
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and followed this story so far!
Chapter Six
Previously
"Detective Erin Lindsay?" He asked again, something in the tone of his voice causing her to sit up straighter at her desk.
"Yes how can I help you?" Erin asked.
"Oh you can't help me. But I can help you. I believe I have something that belongs to you. Or should I say someone."
"What do you mean you have someone who belongs to me?" Erin questioned, waving her hand to get the attention of the rest of the unit, who quickly stopped talking and gathered around her desk. She quickly replaced the receiver and put the call on speaker so everyone could hear what was being said.
"Now, now Detective Lindsay we don't really have time to play games do we? I'm sure you must be well aware by now that your boyfriend is missing. And if you want to see Detective Halstead alive again you will meet me at the corner of 39th and California in one hour." Erin was told.
"How do I that you have Jay? Or that he is ok?" Erin asked closing her eyes as she said the words.
"You don't. But are you really willing to gamble with your boyfriend's life?"
"You must know that I need some kind of proof that you have Jay, and that he is ok before I can agree to anything." Erin told him as per protocol.
"There is a package waiting down stairs for you that should have all the proof you need."
"What exactly is it that you want out of this?" Erin asked him, trying to get, something, anything they could use.
"Exactly what I just said. You meet me on the corner of 39th and California. Alone. No back-up. No weapons. Except now you have thirty minutes, not sixty." He told her and abruptly ended that phone call.
Ruzek exploded into movement as soon as the call ended, running for the stairs and the package that apparently waited for them below.
"Mouse I need a trace on that phone call." Hank said urgently.
"Already on it." Mouse said sitting down at Nadia's desk, already tapping away at the keyboard.
"Who the hell is this guy?" Kevin asked looking towards the whiteboard that held what little information they had, and a time-line of Jay's movements the night before.
"Well it's safe to assume that they know who we are." Alvin said adjusting the beanie on his head. "And that they were following Jay last night and probably had been for some time."
"Anything on that phone call Mouse?" Voight asked, his gruff tone urgent.
"The call wasn't long enough for me to pinpoint an exact location but I should be able to get a general area, which I'll cross check with the –" He was cut off as Adam burst up the stairs a white package in his gloved hands.
"It's addressed to you Erin." Adam said slightly out of breath as he approached her desk.
Erin took the white padded envelope out of Adam's hands with the gloves someone had passed her, the entire until plus Will gathered around her, as she carefully opened it, tipping the contents out onto her desk.
Erin immediately recognized Jay's black leather wallet, flipping it open left no doubt that the wallet belonged to Jay, all his credit cards, ID and medical insurance card were all still inside, along with fifty dollars in notes and a handful of change. Antonio reached for the wallet, handing it to Atwater to check over more thoroughly.
Erin reached for the next item that had fallen out of the envelope and onto her desk, testing the weight of it in her hands.
"Jay's dog tags." Erin said her voice cracking with emotion. Clenching the metal tags in her bruised and battered hand, the biting pain pulling her back to the here and now rather than the dark thoughts flooding her mind. Erin turned to Will and tried hand them over to him.
Will shook his head and closed her fist gently back around Jay's dogs tags. "Why don't you look after them for him."
After slipping the dog tags around her neck for safe keeping Erin reached for the final item on her desk, a USB stick, promptly handing it to Mouse so he could work his tech magic.
"May I?" Mouse said, indicating to Erin's desk. She nodded and moved out of the way so he could take a seat in her chair and set up his laptop.
After putting the USB stick in the port on his laptop, tapping a couple of keys a video popped up on the screen.
The screen was blank to start with, then a room slowly came into focus and they were finally catch their first glimpse of Jay.
The reaction of the gathered unit members around the the screen as they see Jay strung up by his arms to a pipe hanging from the ceiling in the middle of a stark and dim basement, is one of shock and horror. There doesn't seem to be an inch of him that hasn't been bruised and battered, blood trickled down his almost unrecognizable face.
The video only lasts for just over a minute and ends with Jay being cut down from where they have him strung up by his arms and tossed none too gently on the concrete floor. Then the screen once again goes blank. Although the video is no more than ninety seconds long the vision of their beaten of bloody colleague, friend, brother and lover is one that would stay with them all for a long time to come.
"Oh God." Erin gasped out, her stomach churning and her vision dimming slightly around the edges. Will seeing her swaying beside him, switched into Doctor mode grasped her by the arms and forced her into Antonio's vacant chair and pushed her head down between her knees.
Antonio started pacing while cursing in Spanish, while Alvin shook his head sadly and walked out of the room. Kevin and Adam stood there in shock at what they had seen, and Voight slammed into the filing cabinet next to him, as he tried unsuccessfully to reign in his anger.
Mouse showed no reaction at all he just kept tapping away at his laptop.
After a couple of minutes Erin had herself under control and pushed Will's hands away from her. She stood up abruptly and grabbed her coat off the back of her chair, working out in her head the fastest rout to the corner of 39th and California. If she left now she should be able to make it there in about eight or nine minutes, which gave her about five minutes to spare.
Spying her keys next to Mouse's laptop, Erin picked them up and pocketed them intending to head for the stairs.
"Erin where do you think you're going." Hank asked her stepping in front of her, halting her movements.
"I'm going to get Jay back." Erin told him.
"Erin you know I can't let you do that." Hank told her.
"Hank we don't have time to argue about this I have just over fifteen minutes to get there." Erin told him trying to move around him.
"We have no idea what this guy's agenda is. You'd be walking in blind, and this whole thing could be a trap." Hank warned her.
"Hank you saw that video this might be the only chance we have of getting Jay back alive. I'm going."
"Voight's right Erin. His only demand was that you go alone. The whole thing stinks of a set-up." Antonio agreed.
"You might be willing to gamble with Jay's life. But I am not." Erin told them angrily.
"But you are willing to gamble with your own life?" Hank retorted.
"Yes in a heartbeat. Now move out of my way Hank."
"Erin I need you to think like a cop right now and not Jay's...girlfriend." Hank pleaded with her.
"I am thinking like a cop. One who is willing to do whatever it takes to get her partner back alive."
"And I can't authorize you going off half cocked by yourself on the say so of an obvious sociopath that we know nothing about." Hank told her.
"If that's the case. I don't need you to authorize anything. I quit." Erin said unclipping her badge from her belt and thrusting it towards Hank, and moving around him towards the stairs.
"Erin stop." Hank said half in warning half pleading
"I case you missed it. I just quit. I can do whatever the hell I want." Erin said.
"Erin –" Antonio started, but it was too late she was already gone.
"Atwater, Ruzek do not let her leave the precinct." Hank demanded of the two younger members of the unit.
"But what if it's the only way to get Jay back?" Ruzek asked.
"Then we find another way." Hank told him.
"We're running out of time." Kevin said.
"Then stop standing there wasting time arguing with me and do what I told you to do. And I repeat Erin does not leave the precinct, even if you have to cuff her to Trudy's desk. She does not leave." Hank said and Kevin and Adam took off after Erin.
Will who had been quiet since they had watched the video sat back at Jay's desk, his head in his hands. Alvin walked back into the bullpen and have having a hushed conversation with Antonio, and Hank stood with his hands on his hips, a dark and dangerous look on his face as he stared at the stairs Erin had disappeared down moments before.
"Sarge. I think I have a location on where that phone call originated." Mouse said from his spot at Erin's desk.
"Where?" Hank demanded.
"I was able to narrow the search area where the second car went missing. There is only a two block radius that doesn't have any pods accessible, the phone call originated from the same area. I've done a property search of the area and there are only two possible locations they can be holding Jay at."
"Send me the addresses and specs of both locations." Hank asked walking to his office to grab his jacket.
"Already done." Mouse said.
"Antonio, Al with me. Lets suit up. Mouse get the others to meet us down stairs." Hank instructed.
Erin ran down the stairs and headed for the front entrance of the precinct, ignoring the first Sargent Platt and then Atwater and Ruzek calling her name.
She nearly made it to the front door when Ruzek stepped in front of her.
"Ruzek what the hell?." Erin asked when he wouldn't move out of her way.
"Sorry but I can't let you leave."
"Adam get out of my way." Erin told him through clenched teeth.
"What the hell is going on here?" Sargent Trudy Platt wanted to know. "You want to cause a scene do it upstairs not here."
"Voight told us –"
"Guys you need to head downstairs now to suit up we may have a location on Jay." Mouse told them.
Erin was torn between going to the meet with Jay's abductor or going with the rest of the unit to where they thought Jay was being held.
"Erin are you coming?" Kevin asked when she made no move to follow them downstairs.
Erin reluctantly followed them downstairs where the rest of the unit were getting suited up and going over what information they had on the two locations.
"Sarge?" Mouse said looking up from his ever present laptop.
"What is it Mouse?" Hank wanted to know
"Looking at the blueprints of the two locations I think there is only one that fits the bill on where they could be holding Jay."
"How sure are you about this?" Hank questioned
"Well if it was me the first place is too open with too many possible escape routs." Mouse told him.
"Good enough for me. We hit this one location. It needs to be quick and it needs to be clean."
"Agreed we only have one shot at this." Antonio said from his spot next to Voight.
"I'm guessing you'll be wanting this back?" Hank asked Erin holding up her badge.
"Hank–"
"You and I are going to have a conversation after this is all over and we have Jay back safely." Hank told her handing her her badge.
"What about the meet? It's meant to go down in five minutes." Erin needed to know.
"Roman and Burgess are at that location waiting for them to show up." Hank explained.
"But what if they have Jay with them?" Erin asked
"And what if they don't. They never said they wanted anything in exchange for Jay. They just wanted you to show up at a random location. I'm starting to think they never had any intention of handing Jay over. That their main objective was to get you." Hank explained.
"Alright lets roll out." Antonio said.
"Ah Doc where do you think you're going?" Hank asked when Will Halstead made a move to go with them.
"Jay is injured and we don't know how badly. You need a Doctor and I am a trauma surgeon." Will said holding up his medical bag.
"Will I can't allow you to come with us. If something were to happen to you–"
"Look either you let me come with you, or I follow. Either way I'm going." Will said almost daring someone to stop him.
Hank turned his eyes skyward and let out a long suffering sigh, muttering about no one listening to him. "Atwater get Dr Halstead a vest."
"You do exactly what I say." Hank warned him pointing his finger at him to make his point.
Will agreed to this and they were on their way in a matter of minutes.
A call from Burgess while the team was en route to their location told them that Jay's abductors had been a no show at the meeting spot. News which did little to alleviate Erin's sense of dread.
When the reached the warehouse where they believed Jay was being held, all seemed quiet no cars and no movement.
Voight, Erin and Antonio, followed at a safe distance by Will, were to go in thought the front while Al, Kevin and Adam were to go in though the back.
Once everyone was in position they breached the warehouse moving quickly from one room to the next clearing as they went. So far they had encountered no one. When the first level was all clear they moved to the stairs and down to the basement where they believe Jay was being held.
They knew going in that there were four rooms in the basement, a quick sweep of the first two rooms showed them to be clear. They moved further down the hallway, Hank Antonio and Erin taking the room to the right, and Al, Kevin and Adam the room on the left.
Jay heard movement outside the door and he knew that this was it. This was the end. He willed himself to move, to fight. Anything. He grasped at the only thing he could use as a weapon, the piece of the broken chair that was now sticking out of his side. Jay clenched hand around the wooden shard sticking out of his side, crying out in agony as he pulled it out, just as the door burst open.
He could make out three of them and swung out with every last bit of strength he had left.
He heard voices shouting at him, hands grabbing at him, and groaned in pain as his broken arm was twisted. Then there was silence as everything faded to black once more.
"I told you two to go slow." Alvin said shaking his head at Atwater and Ruzek as he knelt down beside an unconscious Jay.
"What the fuck was that? I think he broke my nose." Ruzek said incredulously.
"He's in here." Al called out into the hallway.
Erin and Will were next into the room quickly followed by Hank and Antonio.
"Jay." Erin called out racing to where Jay was and dropping to her knees beside him grasping his hand in hers. Erin vaguely heard Hank calling for an ambulance, but everything else faded away except Jay.
"He's alive." Al said quietly but the warning glance he shot Will's way said thing were dire. "He was conscious when he got here. He Didn't recognize us, fought those two, then passed out."
"Jay can you hear me?" Will said leaning over his brother, but received no answer in reply.
Will did a cursory check on his brother's injuries, there were many. One look at Jay's right arm told Will it was broken, he had various cuts on his hands and arms, none that required any immediate attention. His torso a covered in scratches and bruises at least four of his ribs broken. Will was concerned about what he couldn't see like internal bleeding and a head injury. But of more immediate concern the fact that Jay had hypothermia.
"How is he?" Voight wanted to know.
"Not great" Will said. "I need get his core temperature up. Someone grab me that thermal blanket out of my bag."
Will was wrapping the blanket around Jay when he noticed a puncture wound on Jay's side and the growing puddle of blood beneath him.
"Shit." Will muttered, pissed that he'd missed it before now.
"What?" Erin asked looking up from Jay to his brother who wore a worried expression.
"How far out is that ambo?" Will asked.
"Five minutes out." Antonio told him. "Why whats wrong?"
"Jay doesn't have five minutes. He has a puncture wound on his right side, it must have hit an artery. I need to stop the bleeding before he bleeds out."
"What do you need?" Antonio asked bringing Will's medical bag closer to where the Doctor knelt beside his brother.
"I need some gauze, a scalpel and a suture kit. Someone support his head, we need to move him slightly so I can get better access to the wound."
Will worked quickly, first using the scalpel to widen the wound, then clamping the severed artery. He managed to stop the bleeding just as the two paramedics walked into the room.
Will gave them a brief handover of Jay's laundry list of injuries and helped them get him onto the backboard.
Erin was forced to drop her hold on Jay's hand as they rolled him out of the warehouse on a stretcher. Will got into the back of the ambulance with Jay the doors close leaving Erin and the rest of the unit standing there as it sped off at full speed towards Chicago Med.
Thanks for reading I hope this chapter was worth the wait.
Please let me know what you think.
Sorry to leave it there, but it had to end somewhere…...