Heads up. I know nothing (and mean nothing) about medical procedure or injuries or surgeries, so I'm sorry if I'm colossally off. I tried my best...I actually googled some stuff to try and make it legit, but then again it's google...

Chapter Twenty One: The Only Sound You'll Hear

(The Hammer's Coming Down – Nickelback)

Brett, Mills and Erin burst into the emergency room, wheeling an unconscious Jay along on his stretcher.

"We need an OR now!" Erin cried out.

Mills and Brett began spewing off terms and phrases that just all meshed together in Erin's ears, preventing coherent thoughts from reaching her mind. A couple nurses and doctors rushed over, each pausing in horror.

"Is that...Is that a bomb?" One nurses stammered.

"You can't just bring an explosive into a hospital!" A doctor protested. "Do you know how many lives you are putting at risk? I'm sorry, but you need to leave. Now."

Erin growled fiercely. "This bomb won't go off, unless I let go, and if he dies...because of your refusal to help him, I will let go. Is that clear?"

The doctor stumbled back a few paces, stuttering incoherently.

"What she means to say," Brett added politely, "Is that the bomb is safe. It won't detonate unless you mess with the vest or she lets go. And I promise you, she won't. As for the vest, his main injuries are on his head and thigh. You won't even have to touch the vest."

"I- I..." The doctor stuttered.

Erin closed her eyes, hanging her head as she did so. "He can't die," she whispered. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked right at the doctor. Her face was a mixture of unbearable sorrow and undeniable rage. "He can't die."

The doctor sighed. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by another doctor rushing foreword. "Damn it Edison!" the new doctor barked. "These two are Intelligence! They're on Voight's guys!"

The doctor named Edison, turned to his coworker. "Of- Of course," he surrendered. "Get us an OR stat."

The second doctor grabbed hold of the stretcher as everyone else rushed about. "I don't like the idea of you going into surgery with us," he pointed out. "You know that right?"

Mills sighed. "You really don't have a choice on the matter, Dr. Rays."

Rays nodded. "Tell me what we've got, Mills."

"Laceration on the front of the skull. There's a lot of blood. Possibility of major head trauma, but it could just mean a minor concussion. He's also got a small fracture on his femur, it pierced the skin. I was put it, more or less, back into place, but the damage was severe. It definitely hit a blood vessel, maybe even the femoral artery, but judging by how long he's being hanging in there, I'd bet against it."

Rays listened intently before speaking up. "Tell me about these bruises all over his body."

Erin spoke up. "He was held captive and severely beaten, we don't know the extent of his injuries just yet."

"Mills?" Rays asked. "You thinking internal bleeding? Ribs? Fractured?"

Mills shrugged hopelessly. "I couldn't check. Not with the vest on."

Rays let out a string of curses. "Well then detective," he said solemnly to Erin. "You better hope your friend's major injuries are limited to the ones on his head on leg."

"And if they're not?"

The doctor sighed. "He might not make it through surgery."

"He will," Erin decided. "He promised me. He's going to wake up."

"I got us an OR!" Dr. Edison called. "Let's go! This way!"

Ruzek and the Dawson siblings burst into the ER shortly after. Gabby and Ruzek went straight to the front desk, bombarding the secretary with countless questions. Meanwhile, Antonio called his boss.

"Dawson," Voight answered. "Jay?"

Antonio smiled at his sergeant's straight-forwardness. "We've got him."

Voight let out a loud sigh of relief. "How is he?"

Antonio chuckled. "He flipped the vehicle he was in. He was pretty banged up when they loaded him into the ambulance. Erin's with him though...and Mills and Brett." He paused, running his hand across his face and letting out a deep breath.

"Please tell me those two thugs who took him are dead."

"Yes sir. Ripper died in the crash. Erin took out Dante herself."

"Good. What do you know about Halstead's condition?"

"Well...Gabby and Ruzek are trying to find out more...Voight. The bomb's still on. It's still live. If there's internal bleeding in his torso- from the beatings..." he trailed off.

"I'll have Jasmine head over to you. Chicago Med?"

Antonio nodded. "Yeah- um. How are things on your end?"

"Valerie's dead," he stated simply. "We're on our way to the hospital ourselves. Atwater got shot, but Al was able to defuse the bomb without further casualties."

"Wait. Shot? Is he okay?"

"One in the vest. One in the upper arm. One in the same shoulder," Voight explained. "Paramedics said he should pull through, but they said permanent nerve damage was a serious possibility."

The younger detective cursed fiercely. "Antonio," Gabby scolded as she and Ruzek approached him. "Watch your mouth."

Antonio rolled his eyes. "Atwater was shot. Twice in one arm. He's looking at serious nerve damage."

"Never mind then," Ruzek quipped. "Curse away. Is everyone else okay though?"

Antonio nodded. "Boss. I'm going to put you on speaker. Gabby. What'd they say?"

"He just went into surgery. They pointed me to the waiting room."

Antonio cursed again. This time, his sister didn't object in the slightest. "didn't they tell you anything else?"

"Aside from the fact that Lindsay threatened to blow them all to hell if they didn't operate?" She asked sarcastically. Voight laughed in response. "No," Gabby summarized. "They know as little as we do, but they said they had Dr. Edison and Dr. Rays on it."

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" Ruzek pondered aloud.

Gabby shook her head. "I know those guys from my years as a paramedic. Edison may be an ass, but he's a good enough surgeon and Rays is one of the best doctors in this whole hospital."

Antonio sighed. "That should comfort me."

Gabby stared sadly at her brother before wrapping her arms tightly around him. "It really should," she whispered. "They are more than qualified. He's in good hands."

"They're not bomb techs," Ruzek pointed out.

Gabby stepped back. "No," she agreed sadly. "They're not."

"Jasmine's on her way," Voight reminded them. "Halstead's going to be fine." As he spoke, he pressed the gas pedal even harder, as if, somehow, him getting to the hospital sooner had some outcome on his detective's health.

"He your partner?" Rays asked Erin as he put on his scrubs.

The detective smiled sadly. "Yeah. Yeah he- um. He..." she trailed off, no longer able to find the words to convey how she felt. Instead, she just looked down at her partner. "Yeah."

"Hey," Rays said comfortingly, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I've done a hundred surgeries. I've dealt with fractured femurs before. I know what I'm doing."

Erin began to sob. The doctor put his hands on top of hers and squeezed tightly. "Don't let go, and he will be just fine." She looked up at him as he removed his hands and began to wash them throughly.

"You know that? You know that sure?"

He shook his head. "No," he confessed. "Not for sure. The end of the day, it's not up to me." He put on his gloves one after another. "It's up to him." He motioned towards the wounded cop with his head. "So, you tell me...Is he going to make it?"

But Dr. Rays didn't wait for a reply, instead he just walked away, getting ready to begin the surgery. Erin looked at her partner, sniffing back tears.

"I don't want to live in a world without you," she whispered. "I can't. I can't live in a world without you. Please. Please don't make me." She squeezed his hand so hard her knuckles went white. "I won't let go. I don't care what happens, I won't let go. That means you can't either. Okay? You hold on...and so will I."

"Alrighty then," Dr. Edison announced, barging into the OR, fully scrubbed. "Let's blow ourselves up," he joked.

Anger raced through Erin and she let go of Jay's hand with one of her hands. She used her know free hand to grab Dr. Edison by the front of his scrubs. Everyone else in the room (except for Dr. Rays) froze in shock.

"This is my partner," Erin hissed. "You. Are not going to let him die. Do that. And you won't blow up. Fail. And you will."

Edison looked around nervously. "Does she have to be here?" he asked uncomfortably.

Rays rolled his eyes. "Yeah," Erin snapped bitterly. "Because, unlike you, I care if he lives."

She let go and the doctor shook as if shaking off her touch. "Okay, okay," he muttered, putting his hands in the air in mock surrender. "I'll behave. Don't blow me up."

"For gods sakes," Rays spat, pushing Edison out of the way. "Get over yourself." He turned to Erin with a half-hearted smile. "He's a crappy human, but he's a hell of a doctor."

Erin shrugged, returning her second hand to the dead man switch. "He better be."

"Kevin?" Burgess asked her partner as he slowly regained consciousness. He had passed out shortly after they'd gotten out of the night club and the two had been loaded into the ambulance. "We're almost at the hospital."

Atwater groaned as he came to. "What?"

"We're almost at the hospital."

"Oh. Right." He tried to sit up, but his old partner held him down.

"You're hurt. Remember?"

He frowned for a moment, then recalled the incident. "Yeah. I was shot. A lot."

Burgess laughed. "Three times, but one doesn't count. It hit your vest."

"Oh are we keeping score now? I think I'm still winning."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't think so. Last time I checked, it was me that saved your sorry ass," she teased. Her smile quickly faded though. She put her hand on top of his (the one on his arm that had been shot). "You really scared me back there. What do you do without me in Intelligence."

Atwater laughed. "Yeah well-" he froze. "Why can't I move my arm?"

"What?"

"My arm. I can't move...I can barely even feel it..."

Burgess looked desperately at the paramedic who had been checked a monitor as they spoke. "I did say that nerve damage was a serious possibility."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Atwater asked in a tone filled with both fear and anger.

"It means," the paramedic explained. "It meas you may never fully regain movement in your arm."

Atwater shook his head. "No man. I- I just got into Intelligence. I just got promoted."

"Kevin. It's okay." Burgess tried.

He shook his head in panic. "I just got in."

"You're not going to lose your job. It's all going to be fine. The doctors at Chicago Med will fix you right up." As she spoke, she shot the paramedic a dangerous look, warning him not to tell Atwater otherwise. She was fully aware of the lack of truth in what she was saying, but that didn't mean she wanted Atwater to start freaking out about it. "It's going to be okay."

"Damn it! Damn it!" Dr. Rays screamed.

"What? What's happening?" Erin asked in panic.

"His heart's rhythm. It's gone out of sync," Edison explained. "If we can't get a defibrillator on his chest to reset the rhythm-"

"We need this vest off now," Rays summarized.

Erin began to panic. "Um- Go outside- To the waiting room. Get Antonio Dawson and Adam Ruzek. Get them to call Jasmine. They'll know what who I'm talking about. Maybe she can walk them through how to defuse this vest over the phone."

"What are you waiting for?" Rays screamed at a nearby nurse. "Go!" The nurse nodded and scurried off, whiles the doctor turned back to Jay.

"How long?" Erin asked frantically. "How long before brain damage?"

"Maybe a couple minutes, and that's provided we can even get him back," Edison explained.

Erin shook her head. "No. No. He- He'll come back. Ju- Just get Ruzek and Dawson in here now!"

"I've got her in a video call!" Dawson shouted, storming into the OR with Ruzek at his heels. "She's still a few minutes out."

"Show me the vest," Jasmine instructed. "I need to see how it's wired."

Dawson did as told as Ruzek moved to Erin's side. "How are you holding up?" he whispered quietly.

She laughed without happiness. She shook her head softly. "Been better," she confessed.

Ruzek put a hand on her shoulder. "Hold on," he whispered. "Literally," he added with a small chuckle.

"I think you might just be in luck!" Jasmine exclaimed. "I've seen this type of vest before. Now it's not going to be easy and you're going to have to work fast, but I should be able to walk you through it. Who's got the steadiest hands?"

The doctors looked at each other nervously. "No," Dawson stated firmly. "We need you two to make sure he can stay alive once we get him back. I'll do it. Talk to me Jasmine."

"Alright. Now, I need you to follow all of my instructions. To the T."

"I can do that. What's my first step. We're kind of on a clock here."

"Fourth wire from the right. Do you see it?"

"Yeah. Do I cut i-"

"NO!" Jasmine screeched. "Absolutely not. I want you to follow it around to the back of the vest."

"We can't flip him over," Rays pointed out. "He's too unstable."

"Unstable?" Ruzek repeated. "He's dead."

"His heartbeat is out of sync," Rays corrected. "If we move him we could lose the heartbeat altogether. Trust me when I say, it's a lot harder to bring him back if his heart stops."

Jasmine sighed. "Then just lift his back up a bit. Detective Dawson should be able to feel his way around."

"Should?" Dawson noted bitterly. "That's comforting."

"It's the best I've got. Now follow that wire around his back. You should hit a point where another wire is wrapped around the one you're following. Do you feel it?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I think."

"Don't think," Jasmine corrected. "Be sure or you will blow up."

Dawson nodded and, after a moment, spoke up again. "Okay, okay. I'm sure. There's another wire wrapped around it."

"Okay, I need you to do this very carefully. I want you to twist the wires so the one you've been following is wrapped around the other."

"I don't follow."

"The wire that is currently wrapped around the original wire; I need you to straight it by twisting the original."

Dawson fumbled around for a moment. "Okay. I did it. Now what?"

"Now, I'm going to need you to, very carefully, cut the new wire. Now, you can't just cut it anywhere. You have to cut it in the middle of the twist."

"That's awfully specific," Ruzek muttered.

"Yes it is. For a reason. You're going to have to trust me. It's going to be hard working just by feeling but you have to cut it in just the right spot."

Dawson nodded, using a pair of extra surgery scissors to snip the wire. "Alright. Done."

"So I can let g-" Erin began.

"Easy!" Jasmine interrupted. "You're only half way there. This type of vest is made with a failsafe. Now that the back wire is cut, you have to cut the second spot or the wire will still go off."

"Got it. Where am I cutting?"

"It should be on the left shoulder. Right by his clavicle- his collarbone."

"There's no wire."

"There has to be."

"Is it possible that Ripper didn't use a failsafe?" Dr. Edison pondered.

Jasmine sighed. "You want to bet all your lives on that? No. This is identical to every other vest like this I've seen. There's a failsafe."

"Then where is it?" Dawson snapped, growing more and more nervous by the moment.

"Inside the vest," Erin blurted. "It's inside the vest."

"Erin Lindsay," Ruzek exclaimed happily. "I could kiss you right now." The young detective pulled out his knife and gently sawed away the padding of the vest. Sure enough, the wire was buried in between the outside layers of the vest.

"So, I just cut it?"

Jasmine nodded. "Yeah. That's the last step."

With one small snip, Dawson severed the wire. No one hesitated in ripping the vest off Jay's limp body.

For a moment, no one moved. Jay's chest was bare beneath the vest and covered in a deep, purple bruise. Erin let out a ragged breath, afraid of what the deep bruise could mean. She felt Ruzek's arms on her shoulders as Dr. Edison called the defibrillator paddles to be charged.

"Erin," Ruzek insisted. "We need to leave. We have to give the doctors the space to work."

She shook her head as if in a trace. "I have to hold on."

"You did Erin," Dawson said softly, as he gently peeled her hands off of Jay's. "You held on. How it's his turn."

"I can't...I can't lose him...I...I need him...I love him..." she murmured in her daze.

The two detectives began to lead Erin out of the room when the paddles connected with Jay's chest and his back arched violently. Reality slammed back into Erin as she snapped out of her trace. She began screaming uncontrollably all the stress of the recent events hit her like a tsunami. She tried to run back to her partner's side, but Dawson and Ruzek held her back.

They actually had to drag her out of the room, as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Tada! I'm really super happy with this chapter. (it has all the cliff hangers. Haha. Haha. Please don't kill me) It's not quite as long as my recent ones, but I am still super content with it. I hope you all really enjoyed it. (sorry if any of my medical facts or bomb facts where off. I'm not a doctor or a bomb tech.) I'll see you all next Sunday. Please keep the reviews, favs and follows coming. I really am writing this for all of you.

Next Chapter:

Chapter Twenty Two: To Believe The Impossible